It's been 3 years at least since I've spoken to the Feast of Tabernacles here in Big Sandy. I used to attend the entire festival here when it housed the only festival we had from the beginning first over in the building that is now the library building for the college it was then an air-conditioned auditorium, but we call it a Tabernacle. It was very well air-conditioned because we had not built the side yet. We only have the roof over it the first feast.
It was all open all the way around. And I remember the time that I conducted the first service in that building, it was the Spring Passover season and I was conducting the most solemn ceremony of the year, the Passover and all of a sudden, one of these big Texas beetles had begun climbing up my pants leg and I tried to keep solemn and serious and I was trying to scratch it and get it out. And now everybody laughs at me, but it wasn't a laughing matter for me at the moment. I don't know how I got rid of it. I don't remember that now, I just remember the embarrassment that I suffered at the moment. So that goes, that's one of the memories going back to this campus.
Brethren, we're here again as we have been every year since 1953 I believe it was and enjoying a foretaste of the coming 1000 years reign of the Kingdom of God. Now, the Kingdom of God is not the government of God. I think sometimes we get a little confused and call it the government of God. It is not the government of God. In one sense, it is the family of God. God is the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a family into which we may be born. But it is the ruling family. You heard this morning how it all began with God and the Word, the Word spoke, the power of the Holy Spirit answered, and it was done. The Word spoke only as God has said, God, who later became his Father when he was the only begotten of the Father and born of human virgin Mary.
But I want to ask you this afternoon, what are you going to be doing ten years from now? From now, 50 years, 100 years from now, I can tell you this. Not any of you in all probability are going to still be here in flesh and blood as you are now 100 years from now. I don't expect to be. Some people have said they expect me to live until Christ comes. I have never said that. I do not expect that at all. I will say that all things are possible with God, but that would be a most unlikely miracle. Perhaps it could happen. I don't know of any reason to believe that it will. And yet I see that some of our people seem to believe that it will. I just want to warn you brethren against wishful thinking just because you would like to have a thing work out a certain way, doesn't mean it's going to work out that way at all.
And let me just tell you right now, it's been quoted, but it's been misquoted. I have never said I expect to live on until the second coming of Christ. Over 55 years ago, I gave my life into the hands of Jesus Christ. I'm trying to leave it there and I've been trying to leave it there. I haven't done the best job with that, but I've been trying and I still am and he has been using it in spite of the fact that I haven't left it there 100% perhaps, but he has used it and all glory goes to him not to me. And if whatever he will, and Christ said it's what God, the Father wills. And that also is the will of Christ. But you and I only have a temporary chemical existence.
And I wonder if we realize that our existence is one preparatory to prepare us for the very thing we're here, looking forward to, a 1000 years reign with Christ. Now, that's only the first 1000 years, as a matter of fact, the kingdom of God into which we hope to be born will continue on after that 1000 years for all eternity. Never ending. Now, your mind can't conceive of that. It just go on and on and on and on and never ending. And if you want to know what we'll be doing, you must read the book, The Human Potential. We don't charge for that. Like other books that are advertised, Jesus Christ had to qualify to become the King of that Kingdom and to come back as the King of kings and the Lord of lords as he will. But he said to us in his church.
That if we overcome, even as he did, we had to overcome. If we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we endeavor unto the end, then we shall sit with him in his throne, even as he now sits with God, the Father on the throne of the whole universe in God's throne in heaven. That is God's heaven there, three heavens mentioned in the Bible.
But right now, brethren, we're living in a very troublesome world. It was just a week ago last Tuesday that in the space of about 50 minutes, less than 50 seconds, I should say less than one minute, the entire course of history was changed with the death of Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
Now, I had an appointment set up for another meeting with President Anwar Sadat this next month. And unfortunately now of course, that cannot take place but arrangements have already been made for a meeting with his successor, the new president. And that will be next month. I shall be leaving and just some two or three weeks.
I also expect to have another meeting with Prime Minister Begin of Israel. And this time also a meeting with King Hussein of Jordan, possibly with the king of Saudi Arabia. I'm especially anxious to have this meeting with the king of Jordan because we had a program arranged with the Kingdom of Jordan which an assistant of mine without my knowledge canceled out and they did not know why it was canceled. Neither did I, and they also know now that I did not know of it and they're anxious to have it renewed. And so am I, I'll give you one hint. The king of Jordan is in control of Petra which we call often Petra, but over there they call it Petra.
Now, I don't know that this church is ever going to go to Petra. Jesus Christ will reveal to us in due time if we are to go there, we don't know now, we don't, don't take it for granted yet. People take it for granted. Well, Mr. Armstrong were going to Petra. Oh no, I didn't say that I will say though that if the Bible reveals that we are to go to some literal place of that kind, that is the place it reveals, but it doesn't necessarily reveal that at all. There are just certain reasons why it could indicate that, but we don't know, just don't jump at such conclusions. Don't take such things for granted. A lot of people took it for granted. I said the second coming of Christ was going to happen by 1974. I have never said that I have never set a date and yet some people take it for granted and plan to arrive around it. Brethren, don't be fooled, don't take for granted things of that sort.
I remember the time when I was a young man 20 years ago, 20 years of age, and I was just turn around. I'd already had one year in the advertising profession, but I was getting my first real experience in advertising at that time and I remember that my boss then who, my boss because I chose him because he was the best man to teach me. I knew of that existed anywhere in the United States. So, I just hired myself a job so I could work under him because I wanted the instruction.
But he said to me, Herbert, you're always taking things for granted. Don't take things for granted. And I've learned that lesson. That was a long, long time ago when I was 20 years old. But, I learned that. I also learned how to write advertising in those days and I will never forget the first ad that I wrote and turned over to him. He looked at it. He said, no, Herbert. He said that's a pretty good ad. Yes, sir. That's a pretty good ad. He said no, of course, that border you got around, it's all wrong. That has to go. That headline is no good at all. We have to do a new headline and you've got subheads there. They won't do. Now, the first paragraph of your main text matter now that won't do at all. No.
You see, you've got to attract attention. You've got to arouse interest. You've got to create suspense just in the pleading glance. You've got about a fraction of a second to do all of that. If you're going to, you're competing with all the reading matter in the newspaper or in the magazine. And, uh, uh, you have to grab their attention in advertising and it's not like the professor in a college classroom. He has a captive audience, they don't dare get up and walk out. He can talk on any old subject dry as it may be and they'll stay there and listen.
But he said, when you write advertising, you, you don't have a captive audience, you've got an audience that wants to read the regular reading matter or they want to read maybe some other ad and you're competing with them, you've got to arouse and you got to make them want to read this. So, he said now all the rest of that he says, which is it? It's just no good. It won't do. Matter of fact, there wasn't anything about it that was any good. But he said outside of all that's pretty good ad. Well, I learned the lesson but I did learn to write ads, I had to learn it pretty much by myself however, but we're living in a very modern world.
Now. I told President Anwar Sadat about 11 months ago, those of you who were here last night saw me talking with him and heard what I said and saw him smoking his pipe and nodding, yes and agreeing with everything I said. I told him about the law of God. And one thing that didn't get into that televised portion, I was telling him about the coming kingdom of God and how God is going to intervene and how he himself had risked his life for peace. But he was not going to be able to bring us peace. But I assured him that peace would come, that the one that we call God and that he calls Allah would bring that peace.
But I told him how much I admired and respected him for trying to bring peace rather than declaring war. He declared peace on Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel came back with it. Well, I hope to see the Prime Minister of Israel again next month and the new president of Egypt, but we're living in a terrible world, a world in turmoil, a world full of violence, a world that is absolutely degenerate. That is immoral. Family life is breaking down. That is the bulwark of any society. It is degenerating as fast as the civil civilization could degenerate and brethren, we still like to be a part of this world.
I just have to mention, now, I was here, I think it was the night before last we call it a talent show. We used to call it a fun show and we were getting to have the worldly kind of fun and I put a stop to it. That was several years ago. But I feel there's a tendency to want to get back to it. We want to get into every kind of degenerate entertainment that this world has. We want to put on a hee haw entertainment or a Grand Ole Opry. We want to be as degenerate as we can, as illiterate as uneducated as backwoods as degenerated and a kind of fun that the world like some of it but is lacking in intelligence, good manners and a whole lot of things we are here to enjoy some of the millennium that will be ruled by the kingdom of God.
We're here to learn the way to get into the Kingdom of God and to come out of this world and yet we like to still be in this world and all of you liked it the other night because it was of this world. Now, there were some acts by little children that were, that did show some real talent were quit nice, but there were some acts of adults that ought to have known better. Now, pardon me for being blunt. But the time comes when I have to be blunt, you are my children in the Lord directly or indirectly one way or the other. And I have to teach you, we've been brought up to the want country music, hillbilly music. We want the most degenerate we can get in music. We want the most backwards and the most. Oh boy, why can't we want to be uplifted? Why can't we look for better things, for better knowledge, for better manners, for a better way of living and a better kind of performance? Instead of wanting to be part of this world, we still seem to want to be a part of this world.
The Apostle John in a vision, saw a whole lot of things that were to take place in our time and just ahead of us and speaking at this time right now. And this message as you heard in the message this morning is for the church, the Book of Revelation. And he said in the Revelation, the 18th chapter and verse four (Revelation 18:4), and this is to the church, this is to you and to me, and I heard, he was speaking about Babylon. Babylon is the Christian education or the Christian religion of our time. And of our day, he started out with the Roman Catholic church and it's mentioned over here in the 17th chapter in verse five, upon her forehead, this Babylon was the name written, Mystery Babylon the Great the mother of Harlots. She's a mama church. Her daughters came out of her in protest and called themselves Protestants and brethren some of this Protestantism has rubbed off on us. So, we believe a lot of the things we were brought up to believe as children and we seem to want to go back to it and going back to it is like a dog returning to his own vomit. Let's not go back to it, brethren.
Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. That's the way it stinks in the nostrils of God. Do you love that kind of a world over here is the message to us verse four, the 18 chapter. And I heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her, my people. That's you people, God's people, the church that's not talking to the world, come out of Babylon. That's this world and this world religion, this worldly ways, come out of her my people, be not partakers of her sins, but to be not, that you receive not of her plagues. Because the plagues of God is going to be poured out very soon now, on the day of the Lord, and that is a very stern warning for us. Now, how did the world ever get that way? How did that religion ever happen to be? How did the world come to be the way it is, full of strife and warfare and all of that sort of thing, brethren, we have come out of it.
I'd like to have you notice next in Ephesians, the second chapter and I believe this was read too this morning. And you hath he quickened, that Ephesians second chapter beginning with verse one (Ephesians 2:1), speaking now to the people of the church. This was Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, but it applies to the church of Philadelphia in our time and age now that is today.
You hath he quickened, that is put within you his holy spirit to put within you the presence of eternal life, the beget of eternal life, enlivened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Do you realize what that means that we were dead? I said a while ago, you came out of the ground. You only have a temporary existence. God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man from the dust of the ground became a soul, a soul came out of the ground.
A soul is made of matter. A soul is not material. A soul is not immortal, and the soul that sinneth it shall die and through that soul Adam, God said you disobey and take of the knowledge to yourself instead of reveal knowledge from me, you shall surely die. So, Adam did die and it's been appointed to all men to die ever since.
Now, we were dead. We only had temporary existence. We did not have life. You heard this morning about God and the Word and the Word was with God and the Word also was God, but in him was life, life, life. That life was the light of men. But men loved darkness rather than the light. So at another time Jesus said, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world. But men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. And they didn't want to admit that they wouldn't acknowledge that they were evil.
So, we were dead. We didn't have life. We had a temporary existence where in in time pass, you lived according to the course of this world. And some of us still want to live that way. Some of us were living that way night before last and it was being lived right up here on this platform and some of you were enjoying it and whistling, and having a day, fine old time, you were enjoying this world right before us, right here. We're supposed to be enjoying the way of God and the Feast of Tabernacles that's coming.
Excuse me brethren, if I'm a little firm, if I speak out boldly someone has to tell you as you saw me saying those of you who were here last night over in the Philippines to a large public audience over there. Don't say later on. Oh God, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you warn me and say I did warn you by my servant Herbert Armstrong. You didn't listen. Are you listening brethren? To him that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall. Said Jesus, should of said Paul (I Corinthians 10:12), but Christ who really said it.
When in time past you walk according to the course of this world or are we still walking in the brethren? How about it? How about it? According to the power of the air to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit that works in the children of disobedience, (Ephesians 2:2). That is the power of the devil. He is the power of the air and he was working in you and in me, he was working in every one of us.
He began working in us when we were one day old, when we were one month old, when we were two or three months old. By the time we were eight or nine months old, he already had selfishness into our minds. You put two little babies nine months old down on the floor and one toy and watch them fight over it and see how selfish they are already.
You know, parents neglect teaching their children, they think they don't need to teach them at that age. Wait while you're old enough to be a little bit naughty and then we'll spank them. Spanking. Doesn't do any good. If you don't do the teaching first, teaching is instructing, giving them instructions. You say, well, that's not old enough for school yet. I'll wait till they're six years old and let the teacher teach them in school and then they go to a public school and you think this world, public schools teach them the way of God never.
So, you neglect your children when they're two or three months old. Five or six months old. Listen, brethren, Satan is not neglecting your children. I told our ministers that yesterday afternoon at the luncheon, tell all of your congregations that, they are neglecting their children. It's your responsibility to teach them when they're just a few months old, teach them lessons, instruct them.
Now, you may have to do a little punishing later on and you need to make that hurt just so you don't really injure. But that does no good without teaching. Sometimes the teaching does do any good without a little discipline too.
Anyway, we were dead, but we are supposed to come out of all of that. And God says come out of this Babylon and come out of this world, we're to come out of this world and we're here to enjoy a little foretaste of the World Tomorrow. Then let's enjoy it, my brethren, let's enjoy the things that are coming.
Well, now it all started back in the beginning and you heard the real beginning this morning in John, one verses 1 to 3 (John 1:1-3). But in a sense as far as man is concerned, the beginning is in Genesis one verse one (Genesis 1:1). In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the word there, God Moses wrote in the Hebrew language and he wrote the word in Hebrew, Elohim. He didn't speak English. There wasn't any English language yet at that time.
And Elohim is a uni-plural is like the word family. It's like the word church. More than one person in a family can be two persons, a husband and a wife can be three persons with one child, four persons with two children, some 14 persons with 12 children or the church. And you can have 100 people. You can have many, many thousands or even a million people in the church. But it's only one church composed of many people. And God is like that, God is one God but composed of more than one personage.
And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. Now, God had first made plant life and then he made bird life and fish life. And then he made animal life. He made cattle after the cattle kind each after its own kind, dogs after the dog kind, elephants after the elephant kind. And then God said, let us not me, let us more than one person, God is more than one person, but one God.
And that one God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. In other words, let us make man after the God kind, we were made after the God kind, we were made to become God. We were made because God was now starting to reproduce himself and to make Gods out of us. And he formed us out of the dust of the ground.
And God is so almighty and so great that he can take the dust of the ground and make human beings, then he can work with human beings. But he has to work with our minds. And we have to make decisions because above all, God is creating character and yet he can't create that character alone automatically by fear.
It takes our assent. We have to use our minds with our minds we have to come to see the right from the wrong. We have to make the decision to go the right instead of the wrong. Then we have to use the will even against our own desire to stop proposing to go the way of the right and resist the wrong. Resist the devil says the Bible and he will flee from you. Resist temptation. That is the way of character.
And the God's law tells us the way to go. The law of God is the basis of the government of God. Now, God is the supreme ruler over his creation. He first created angels. He created the earth. He put the angels on the earth before man, he put a throne on this earth. He put a super archangel Lucifer there.
That super archangel was named Lucifer greater than ordinary angels. Only two other angels are mentioned as great as Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel, they are much more powerful, much greater minds than ordinary angels and angels have greater minds than we do as humans. But this super archangel rebelled against the government of God.
He was put on a throne on this earth to rule, to reign, but he abolished that government refused to continue to operate it or to administer it and it became inoperative and the government of God was no longer in operation on the earth and then God created man after his own image, God is now reproducing himself.
And the first man here I am going back now to the first chapter of Genesis again. I heard yesterday the question, well, when is Mr. Armstrong going to get rid of that going back to Genesis one? I said, never, you don't want to hear any more of it. Get up and walk out. There are lots of exits here. You can get out if you don't want to hear it. I'm going to have a lot more to say about it.
I'm going to start a whole new series of sermons on the tree of life. If Adam had taken the tree of life, what would have happened brethren? We haven't touched the surface of that yet. He would have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is open to you and me, the tree of life. But we don't even know what is the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit? How many of us know how many of you have the Holy Spirit?
How many of you are being led by the Holy Spirit? How many of you understand what the Holy Spirit is? And I dare say not many.
Well, I think I should say shame on me, not on you, but I should have taught you that. I'm going to begin teaching you a whole lot about the Holy Spirit from now on. What is the Holy Spirit? Oh, we're just beginning. If you're tired of hearing Genesis one, you're tired of hearing the gospel. You're tired of hearing the message of Christ, get up and walk out, leave the church, go the way of Satan and you'll finally burn up and be ashes under the soles of the feet of the rest of us. That's as far as you will go.
I made just a few notes here last, yesterday afternoon. I believe it was about the Holy Spirit. Just a few things that came to mind. What is the Holy Spirit? First of all, it is the impregnation of the very life of God within you and me. Now you don't have the life of God. You only have a temporary existence. But in Christ is life, he has that life and he has life to give and that life comes from God, the Father.
I have a light bulb here and it's so hot I don't want to touch it. But there, there is a light bulb in there and before that light bulb was put in there and connected with the current. It had no light. It was just a bulb. But here in this cord are two wires, two wires in that cord, one of them goes in the other comes right back out and the current is coming from the generator someplace that generates the electricity for this area. And when that light bulb gets onto that current, something happens to that light bulb. The Holy Spirit coming into use the same way. It's the power of God. It's the life of God coming into you. Something happens to you when the Holy Spirit comes into you, very few people seem to know what it is. Some people think it's something to loosen your tongue and get up, get you to get up and say glory hallelujah, praise the Lord, bless you Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. Well, we have a song that we sing it once in a while but it's a lot more than just an emotion and going on an emotional jag is that we were drunk. It's a whole lot more than that.
The Holy Spirit coming into you is the impregnation of the life of God. Now, you're not born yet. How are you born? You know that every one of you that includes me too were once an ovum and the ovary of your mother. You know that at that time you had a life less than 28 days limited to that long. It only had a temporary existence. That's all. And it wouldn't even have had any human life, didn't even have human life yet and wouldn't have had any life until a sperm cell in the very body of your father came to that ovum punched its way through and into that ovum and it was only 1/50 as large as the ovum. And he imparted the life to that ovum that ovum was the same as dead until that impregnation came from your father, your human father. And then you became an embryo.
You know, you were dead in trespasses and sins that I just read to you in Ephesians two until the Holy Spirit came into you. If indeed the Holy Spirit did come into you, you need to ask that question. Are you sure the Holy Spirit has come within you? How do you know whether the Holy Spirit is in you? Not, whether you speak in some foreign language or in tongues or you can blab around and blabber, blabber. But by their fruits you know, the Holy Spirit in, you will produce fruits of righteousness according to the law and the government and the way of God, the electricity coming to that light bulb does something to that light. It produces fruit, the fruit is light, it lights it up, it energizes it.
Now, there's something else, there are two wires coming in. That current comes in and it goes right on back to the generator again. And God's Holy Spirit comes in to you from God, the Father and it's invisible. You can't see it. It's compared to air in the Bible. It's compared to water that can be poured, but it is not water and it is not air because they are both matter. They are material substance. One in the gasses form the other in the liquid form. But the Holy Spirit is even more real and the Holy Spirit is on a return circuit just like the electric current in that light bulb it comes into you and it flows right back to the dog that gave it. But some of it also flows out to your neighbor and loving your neighbor as yourself. And in having a concern for your neighbor's welfare, for his good and for everything that is right and good for your neighbors. The same is for yourself. It's not all just selfishness anymore. Now, you love others as well as yourself, but you love God above all even more than yourself. If the Holy Spirit is in you. Now, the Holy Spirit in you then is an attitude.
Now, before that, what did Satan began? He began to work on every one of you when you were a day or two old. And by the time you were about nine months old, you already were selfish. He had an attitude of selfishness in that little baby mind about nine months old. And that's all the larger you were and that attitude grew. And you became more and more selfish and you had less and less love for others. And you probably came to want to know less and less about God to many people when they grow up. They say, well, I don't want to know anything about God. What's God want to interfere in my life for? What's he trying to get for me? I want God to keep out of my life. They think God is someone. Well, there's the wrong kind of fear for God. We had a sermonette on fear this morning, fearing God is not trembling because we think God is a monster. But the fear to disobey God. God is a way of life. His law is a way of life.
So, the Holy Spirit coming into you changes your attitude. It is an attitude of love toward God and love toward neighbors. Jesus compared it to rivers of living water. On the last day of the feast when he was on earth, he said if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Now, he meant the Holy Spirit is that this faith, he is a spirit that's John 7:37-38 and 39. This state, he is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, which had not yet at that time been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. But the Holy Spirit came after Jesus went to heaven and was glorified on the day of Pentecost.
And the Holy Spirit just like the electric current coming into this light bulb, lift them up and it lift them up to understand the knowledge of the way of God and the way of living and the way of kindness and love and cooperation toward others and the way of worship to God and obedience to God, reverence toward God, it changed their whole life and instead of selfishness, now, they became cooperating and obedient instead of hostile against government over them. Now, they became submissive to that government, and they came to love that government. It was an attitude of love because the law of God is love, it's not pouring love, it's love to God love toward neighbors. That's what it is, its obedience to God and to the authority of God. It is faith, which means reliance on God. And even that faith is a gift of God. He gives you that faith through the Holy Spirit. It means kindness, gentleness, unswerving, steadfastness, it means firmness and not compromising with God's law or God's truth in any way, not compromising.
Now, secondly, it is an invisible power from God that opens the mind to comprehend or to understand spiritual knowledge. Now, the basics, the basis of all spiritual knowledge is the law of God and that is love in action. Love is in action flowing out from you to God and out to neighbors. As Jesus said, like rivers of living water flowing out from among you spiritual knowledge and truth. When you hear it read or you hear it spoken as it emanates from or is inspired or revealed by Christ, the Word Christ is the Word of God. And as you heard this morning, he and the father are exactly one in understanding and knowledge, perfect agreement, perfect cooperation. Christ doesn't disagree with his Father in any way whatsoever. So, then it is the invisible means by which your mind can come to understand spiritual knowledge, the Holy Spirit [tape flipped here at 45 minutes] or the human mind, the human eye has not seen, the human ear has not heard spiritual knowledge or the truth of God. You can't understand the truth of God just through the eye or through the ear.
But the next verse says I Corinthians two and let's see this to be about verse 10 (I Corinthians 2:10). But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, the Spirit of God in us just like the electric current going into the bulb. The spirit of God opens your mind. When you hear it, when you see with your eye in the Bible, the truth of God. Now you can begin to understand and comprehend it. And before the Spirit of God was there, you read it, but you didn't get it, you didn't understand it. You didn't comprehend it. The Holy Spirit of God will open your mind to really understand if God has used me brethren as your leader. He used me by first opening my mind to comprehend what he says. Now, Jesus Christ is the Word of God in person. The Bible is the same word of God. No difference at all. But it's in writing in print today. The early apostles got the truth from Christ in person. God's apostles today got it from Jesus Christ in writing, same word, same word exactly, Christ is the Word, same identical word. But I had to come to see how wrong I was. I had to repent. I had to surrender to God and to God's way to God's mind and God's law, I had to give myself to him. I had to be conquered by him. Then I had to believe and believe what he says as well as believing in him. And then he gave me his Holy Spirit and through his Holy Spirit, he opened my mind when I read these words to understand.
Now, I can tell you the names of a lot of very famous men that you read and you hear of on television, Falwell, Billy Graham and a lot of others, they just do not seem to understand the Bible. It came to me second-handed, but I understand Billy Graham said, well, Herbert Armstrong does understand the Bible. Well, I'm thankful that he recognized that and said that because I didn't understand it by my own power. It took the spirit of God to reopen my mind and the channel through which it could enter my physical brain, which is only made up so much matter and just like an animal brain. But I have a human spirit within me to give me physical and material knowledge.
Then when God gave me his Holy Spirit that opens up that same mind not to comprehend spiritual knowledge, which I could not understand before. And until I was 34 years of age, I could not understand spiritual knowledge. I never did understand a bit of it, but it took surrender to God and to God's law. It meant turning around to go the other way. So, the Holy Spirit is that revealing power that opens up the mind and that's the physical brain to really comprehend spiritual knowledge, but it has to have the Holy Spirit accompanying it to understand that knowledge.
Now, let me tell you something else. The Holy Spirit is the depository of memory of spiritual knowledge. Where do you think your memory is stored in the gray matter of the brain. That's what you've always heard. And that's what the professors will tell you in the universities. That's what psychologists seem to believe and they are wrong. Maybe the gray matter of your brain stores up a little bit of knowledge just about the same amount that an animal brains stores up.
Now, I'll tell you, you, you, you really viciously harm an elephant and do it purposely. And an elephant has enough knowledge to know that you get it viciously and purposely. And if you don't see that elephant for 10 years and you don't even quite look for things you did 10 years before that elephant will recognize you and it will remember, it will go after you. It can remember certain things. But the amount of knowledge that an elephant can remember is very, very limited that's stored up in the brain. It doesn't have a spirit like man, man has a human spirit in him from the day we're born.
And that sprit is the depository of memory and it acts as a computer and it is when you see things through the eye or you hear knowledge through the ear or knowledge comes through smell or taste or feel it's programmed into that computer. And that computer gives you instant recall which you use in the process we call thinking and reasoning and then your brain, then with the thinking and reasoning power has also the power through the spirit and you to make decisions and come to conclusions. And you can even think creatively and plan and plan new ideas and new things. But you better be careful how you think.
Well, the Holy Spirit of God then is also a depository of spiritual knowledge. Now, you never heard that said before. It stores up into the memory, spiritual knowledge. And you know, Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will call to your remembrance, all things whatsoever I have said to you, the Holy Spirit brought it right back. It was stored through the Holy Spirit.
Now, the Holy Spirit, as I said, is compared to water which flows, but it isn't water. That's always something physical that gives us some kind of an idea and the Holy Spirit can be poured. God said the time would come and he would pour out his spirit on all flesh. It can be compared also to air. And the word pneuma in the New Testament means in the Greek language means the same as air or wind or breath. And let's see the word in the Old Testament. And I want to think sheol, and that's the word for grave or hell.
And all right now, for the minute, the word doesn't come to me, which I know perfectly well. But nevertheless, we don't need to bother about Hebrew for a minute. It's the same word in Hebrew as the air and wind. And is often compared to that.
All right. Now, then Adam had to make a choice. The one tree represented the knowledge that he had with the one spirit that is in him, which was materialistic knowledge only. And when he took that tree, he took to himself the production of the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. If he had taken of the tree of life, he would have received just what we received the way God gives us life today through his Holy Spirit. He would have received the Holy Spirit that would have opened up his mind to comprehend spiritual knowledge for reveal to him the law of God, the way of life of God, a way of living, a way of action of how to live.
Now again, it would have revealed the word of God so he could have understood it and the word of God is a lamp under our feet. Brethren, do you understand that? Picture yourself walked out in thick woods. You're living in a place right now that was very thick wood years ago. If Roy Hammer had not come in here and then with others helping him and just cut those trees down, you couldn't see, well, not anywhere near for me to the first roll at that time and on a dark night with no moon, you get stuck in these woods, you wouldn't have known your way out. But suppose you're stuck in woods where it two or three miles out in any direction. And you don't know which direction you can get out and several miles out in any other direction.
But here comes a lamp or a lantern and it starts going on the way to lead you. It's a lamp under your feet to show you the way to go and you start to follow it, it leads you right out. But if you don't follow that life and you go off to one side, the lamp keeps going on pretty soon it's going on and you can't find it anymore because all the rest of the trees are between you and that light. Now, you're lost and you don't know the way out. God's word is a lamp under our feet. But you read in the parable of the 10 virgins just before Christ comes. And that is the parable of the people of this church or the Laodicean church which the next generation that will follow us.
And I don't, don't think, I think it will all be in this generation. I don't really mean another generation in time either, but it will be, it will be a church after the great tribulation starts and it will come out of the great tribulation. Five of them were foolish and five had oil in their lamps. Now, the lamp that is a light to our feet is the Bible or the word of God. But the oil in the lamp is the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit is compared to oil, we anoint with oil because olive oil is the type of the holy spirit. The olive trees will live and live and live almost forever.
An upper trunk will fall off, but part of the root will come a new trunk and some olive trees are thousands of years old over in the Holy Land. And olive oil is the type of the Holy Spirit. And the oil has gone on out of their lamps, meaning the Holy Spirit they had had and had left them and now they didn't understand the word of God and they weren't following it because they didn't even know what it was. They didn't understand it. And the second coming of Christ came and the Kingdom of God was at hand, and they came and the door was slammed shut in their face. That's half of the church. Brethren, God's church will have made herself ready.
But that doesn't mean everyone in the church. Does it mean you or doesn't it? You may or may not be ready? Praise God. This church will be ready. [Tape flipped] But I don't know that everyone in it is going to be ready. Some of you are going the wrong way right now. Many have gone that aren't with us any longer. And my heart aches when I look back over Envoy of Ambassador College of 10 years ago, 20, 30 years ago. And I see the pictures of so many who are students. And I said, well, what happened to this one? Oh, they've going the wrong way and that. But here's one, oh he came through, he's one of our best members today. Here's one she's a fine, she's the wife of one of our best members.
But there are so many that have dropped off and gone the wrong way. We find that an alarming percent of those that are baptized into this church drop out within 2, 3, 5 years or so. They don't endure read Jesus parable of the sower and the seed. Some of them just don't endure very long. But it is he that endure unto the end, the same shall be saved and not others. But Adam made the wrong choice and then God closed up the tree of life. He shut off the Holy Spirit from the world from Adam's world.
He gave you heard this morning. He gave the law to his people, ancient Israel, but he didn't give them his spirit. They had the lamp but they had no light in it. No oil in the lamp. Do you have oil in your lamp? The spirit will open your mind to understand the Bible. The spiritual phases of the Bible. Part of it is spiritual and part of it is materialistic and physical and a natural carnal mind can understand the physical materialistic part of the Bible. But he even gets that twist as usual, but he cannot understand the spiritual phases of it.
It takes the spirit to remind God reveals that by and through his Holy Spirit.
Now, God closed up the tree of life. I want you to get that until Christ the second Adam. Why did he do that? Supposing he had tried to open up a test to Cain and Abel and Seath, the children of Adam. Well, Satan had gotten to them before they were a year old. Satan was still there on the throne and they had already sinned and the penalty was death and they were under the death penalty. He couldn't give them life when they were under the death penalty until that they had to pay that penalty unless someone could come and pay it for them and they couldn't pay it for themselves until Christ, the second Adam came, nobody could get out from under that penalty. Everybody before they ever, ever reached maturity had sinned, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All do sin before they even reach what we call an age of accountability. And so it was appointed for men once to die. But after this, the judgment.
Now in Revelation 13 and verse eight (Revelation 13:8), you will read that Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. From the time that Adam made the wrong choice. It was already sat that Christ would come be born of a human, of a human mother that because he would have the Holy Spirit from birth, not only the natural human spirit, but also the Holy Spirit of God. And God would give him parents that would teach him when he was a day old and a month old. Or as soon as he was, the mind could comprehend any teaching, whatever and could, could teach him faster than Satan could. And with the Holy Spirit, Jesus never sinned and no other human being ever was like that.
Now, when Jesus grew up, it was possible now for God to begin to do something but those that had sinned and brought on that death penalty on themselves. So in Hebrews 9:27 you will read, I won't take time to read from the script. You should know them brother. It is appointed unto men once to die. But after this, the judgment, we're going to hear about the judgment next Tuesday, all are going to sit come before the judgment of Christ and be held accountable for the deeds that they have done in this life.
The thing is that normally is not understood. They will then have a chance, they will be found guilty all right, by the judge on the bench, then will be Jesus Christ. He's the judge and he will say I find you guilty and the penalty is death, I sentence you to death, that's what's gonna happen to every one of them and everyone, whoever lived. In I Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 22 (I Corinthians 15:22). You read as in Adam all die, because of Adam sin, we all die, so in Christ, that same hour be made alive. Seath will be made alive. Cain and Abel are going to be made alive. All of those people who drowned in the flood in the days of Noah are going to be made alive. Ancient Israel is going to be made alive. You read that in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones, they're going to come back alive and be in the judgment and they're going to be sentenced to death, and then if I've got time, then they're going to say, well, if I just could live my life over, I live in a different way.
Your honor. I, I, I, I, I don't know what to do. I throw myself on the mercy of the court and Jesus is the court and he will say, well. Now it happens that you throw yourself on the mercy of the court whose mercy is as great toward you as the heavens are high above the earth and One who took your death sentence and paid it in your place. I had never seen, I never brought the death penalty on myself, but I was your maker and your creator and I took it and I died for you and your death penalty has been paid. Now, do you think you would begin to live the right way if you had a chance? Well, I think a lot of them will say yes.
So, they will get a little foretaste of the Holy Spirit, the down payment of it. And if they will go ahead and live that way, there won't be any Satan there to tempt them. They won't have Satan's world to put them that way. They'll have God's world to help pull them the right way. I don't know. What do you think? I think most of them are going to be saved but some are not. We know that the Bible says so, but all are going to be made alive, all the, the mercy of God. How wonderful is the truth in the way of God when we really can understand it?
Now, Jesus said, when he came, he said, "I will build my church." And then there was a prophecy back here in Joel, the second chapter of Joel. Let me see if I could just turn to that. And I think that probably, I had a marker in here and something has happened to it, the second chapter of Joel and verse twenty-eight (Joel 2:28). And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. The spirit is something can be poured. The Holy Spirit is not a person, not a ghost, it can be poured like water, it's like air. And on the day of Pentecost, Peter said, this is what Joel prophesized and they received the Holy Spirit, but not all just those who had repented and were converted.
And Jesus said in um Jesus said in John 6:44 see if I put a marker here. I think I intended to read that in John 6:44. "No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him." No man could come to Christ except the Father which had sent him draws him. Now, God is not calling very many today and God has never called very many as yet. The church are merely the firstfruits. It's one out of here. And then he goes over and over here out of several 1000 he picks one more and out of a good many hundreds of 1000 over here, he picks one. And you were one of those picked out of many thousands, every one of you. Or, you wouldn't be here. God called you, you were specially chosen by predestination.
Now, you read something of that in the first chapter of the book of Ephesians. Let me see, Ephesians again. The first chapter I was in chapter two a minute ago, Ephesians one. And, let me see, it beginning with verse 11 and 12 (Ephesians 1:11-12). Speaking of Christ, "in whom also, we in the church, have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things and for the council of his will. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first put our trust in Christ, we are the firstfruit, the day of Pentecost. We, we, we were here to get that lesson to remind us that God isn't trying to save everybody. The Holy Spirit is still closed up for most people. Most people cannot have the Holy Spirit. It's closed up from them yet.
And Satan is on the throne of the world and these governments in the world are all ruled invisibly by Satan, although they don't realize it. And the Kings and the Prime Ministers and the Presidents and the Emperors who rule them don't know that Satan is ruling them. Satan is invisible. They don't see him and they are deceived. They don't know it if they knew it, they wouldn't even be deceived, but they are deceived. And that means that they may be as honest and censor as you and I, they just don't know, they don't understand and God's time hasn't come. Now, God is responsible for that and being responsible, God will take care of it. Anwar Sadat had never had his mind open to the Holy Spirit. I sat there and told him some things and he puffed on his pipe and I said, "yes, yes." And he agreed.
Well, I tell you, I hope the day will come more than 1000 years from now, which will seem like the next fraction of a second in his consciousness. He will come forth and I hope I will have the privilege of meeting him again in his resurrection in the judge and instructing him, he will have to come before the judgment seat of Christ and he will be condemned to death. But maybe Christ then when he throws himself on the mercy of the court, maybe Christ will let me teach him a little bit. And I don't think you'd be popping a pipe this time because I don't believe anybody be doing it then.
But there was some, you know, there is some good, even in a carnal-minded man, Anwar Sadat had good intentions when he went over to Israel and the making for peace. I was sincere when I told him and you saw it on the screen, you heard me telling him that from the very heart I respected and admired him. That's true. I'm meant it, it isn't his fault that God had never opened up the whole truth to him. I opened up some of it to him. But I don't think God opened his mind to accept it and receive it yet.
But he will in the great whites own judgment, many other heads of state that I have known are now dead. Some have been assassinated. Others have just died, natural death. I think Emperor Selassie of Ethiopia, I believe he was assassinated. We don't know, they claim that he just died in captivity. They didn't reveal the truth and they wouldn't, whatever happens anyway. We are predestinated and we are the firstfruit. God is not trying to save the world now.
We are those called out, but brethren the judgment of God is on us, now, our judgment day is already come here. You and I are being judged right now today by what we do.
Now, I told you some things that happened here night before, like we shouldn't do that again. What are you gonna do? Disagree with me? Go ahead and do it anyway. Well, maybe I won't be here to see if you do it. I won't stop you, but God will know and you're being judged now, you won't be judged then. And you've already had it, the Holy Spirit open to you and it won't be opened again. You would only come up in the second resurrection and the resurrection to the lake of fire.
You better fear to disobey God that doesn't mean standing in terror of God's love as if he were a monster, he is not, because he is a God of love who gives. Now, I want you to notice in Romans the eighth chapter, I thought I had all these markers in just the right place and they're not, because I'm trying to use the same, the same outline that I used two or three days ago over in Saint Petersburg. And I think they got mixed up a little bit since I was over there in the Roman 8 beginning with verse 14 (Romans 8:14), For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Now, the Holy Spirit will not push you and shove you. It will not compel you. The Holy Spirit will not get a hold of you and follow you on and drag you against your will. But the Holy Spirit is a lamp under your feet, the holy and the lamp is going right on ahead of you and you have to follow it and be led by it. But you have to do that on your own power. And when you make your own decision, as many as are led by the Holy Spirit, once the Holy Spirit is in you, they are the sons of God, but you're not yet born.
Notice the next verse, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, that is to be frightened, but ye have received the Spirit of a, well, it should be sonship, it says adoption but that's the wrong translation in the King James. Some of the other translations have it correct. A sonship because we become sons of God, whereby we say Abba Father and call him Father because we're already begotten sons. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
See, I, I wanted to read something in Ephesians two. I haven't come to that yet. But we're only heirs now, not yet inheritors. That's what I wanted to read to you, there, now let's see. In II Peter 3:18, you read that we must grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord in Jesus Christ.
Now we receive the Holy Spirit and we're on file. If we get into the Kingdom of God and into the, the time of the millennial reign with Christ, the Holy Spirit will lead us, the Holy Spirit will merely lead us. Peter says, we must grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that is in spiritual knowledge.
Now, you have to continually read the Bible. If you think all the it's all settled, once you've been baptized, hands have been laid on you and you think you received the Holy Spirit and you may have received such a little tiny particle of the Holy Spirit. It is noticeable, but you must grow in grace and knowledge and that comes by, well, primarily by three things.
One is much Bible study and Bible reading. And another is by prayer by talking to God. When you read the Bible, God is talking to you. When you pray, you're talking to him, and you get to know anyone by talking back and forth, conversation. A husband and wife should know one another more than they know other people because they have companionship and they talk back and forth continually and you get to know one another that way.
And if God talks to you through the Bible and you talk to him in prayer, you get to know him. Now, the third way is fellowship with him and with people.
Now, that reminds me when you come to church in any church service, we're coming into the fellowship with God and with Christ. I'm going to turned to that, and read it, I hadn't intended to. But I want to, to I Peter, the first chapter, I mean I John, the first chapter, first John chapter it says beginning verse three (I John 1:3), that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship.
Now we have fellowship with one another, but truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. When we come together, we're to have fellowship and in the church services, we're coming into the presence of God and into the presence of Jesus Christ. He's here and brethren, I don't want to say something right here and now and I want to talk some of you, open your ears and listen. You're being judged right now. Your judgment isn't going to come 1000 years from now. It's coming right now. What are you going to do with it?
Some of you feel you can come with any old kind of saucy clothes when you come to the service of God, any old patched up old overalls, any old kind of dresses or pants or anything that women want to wear? I was in Jerusalem once it was December the 1st 1968. I was to have a meeting with the president of Israel, president, well, I know his name, is on my mind and, and Cesar President Cesar of Israel and I was in the doctor, the office of Doctor Avira, one of the officials of the Hebrew University, one of the chief officials, we've been talking in his office ahead of time. The time had come that we had to get up and go. So we started down the hallway out of his office. He said, wait a minute, wait a minute, I gotta go back. I got to get a jacket on. You know, they don't dress up much in Israel and he just had an open shirt, open, wasn't even the top button wasn't button no necktie, he said, I need to put on jacket, we're going into the presence of the president.
So, I can't go in a dress like this even though he didn't bother to put on a necktie or anything. Do you know that Jesus said that in one of the parables, he talked about a wedding supper and one came to this wedding without a wedding garment. He was not properly dressed to come into the presence of God and the master of the place said to him depart into the flames of Ganna fire. You wicked, he was cast out and because he came with improper clothing on, he was cast out of the Kingdom of God.
And some of you think it doesn't make any difference how you're dressed. When you come here, you're coming into the presence of Jesus Christ. You're coming into the presence of God Almighty the Father. You come with the best you have. Now, you don't have to go out and buy more expensive clothes. Just use the best you have, but dress up as best you can. I talked to that before but to get, and you get to let him down, my brethren.
I want to get you into the Kingdom of God and you won't get into the kingdom that way. I didn't come here to amuse you or entertain you. I came here to instruct you and to help you get you into the Kingdom of God. And I'm the only one of the ministers that can talk to you like that. And I mean business and I speak by the authority of Jesus Christ and he means business.
You know, Moses was walking along one time. He was out in kind of an open country, but there was a little bush there and the bush was burning, it was on fire. Moses walked close to it and he walked up to it and he walked on past it and the fire kept on burning, burning and burning. It was just a little bush. It wasn't, it wouldn't take long to burn up, but it didn't seem to burn up.
Well, after he passed it, he stopped and looked back. He, he was curious what kept that burning all the time. Why did it burn so long? And a voice cried to him out of that bush and said Moses Moses, he said, yes, here I am. Well, Moses take your shoes off the ground were on you stand is holy ground, treat it with respect. God and the person of Christ, Yahweh was there. His presence was there and Moses had to treat that ground with respect.
And God tells us to quit trampling on His Holy Sabbath day, take our feet off of it and put trampling all over you. Or like Moses had to take his shoes off Jesus presence there. And it was the one who became Jesus later. His presence there, made that whole ground holy His presence here, makes this place holy while he's here. And you think you can come dressed any old sloven sloppy way here.
Well brthren, I'm a minster and I'm telling you to let it sink in. I'm not telling you gently. I'm telling you so you'll come dressed with the best you have when you come to church after this. And don't let me have to tell you again if you know someone who wouldn't hear and didn't hear that. You tell them for me, please. I want to get you into the Kingdom of God. I tell you that in love. I'd rather be that a little bit harsh and tell you now and get you into the Kingdom of God where we can put our arms around one another in a bear hug in love, then be gentle and kind now.
And I wonder why you're not in the Kingdom with me. Can you understand that? I hope you do. I hope you do. Now. Matthew 24:13, Jesus himself said he that endures unto the end, the same shall be saved. Now, we've had so many that have not endured to the end. There've been so many that come into the church and they didn't endure very long.
They just didn't. I want you to remember, Satan is still on the throne of this world and he's still trying to tempt you and mislead you and he's leading the world and some of us want to get back into the world a little bit. Some of you women, still want to paint, pluck your eyebrows, do things like that. You want to follow the world in the latest hairdo, men to now new hairdos for men and men have got to follow the trend of the of the world.
You wanna be like the world. God says come out from among that world and be separate. Sayeth the Lord that ye be not partakers of her sins and that you receive none of her plague. Now, in the third chapter of Isaiah, it talks about women painting their eyes and their faces and they tried to tell me when we had some liberals in the church, about four years ago that some of them had research that the original Hebrew didn't say what I thought it did. And so it was all right for women. Why can't we just fudge a little bit and let the women wear a little makeup? And I actually yielded to that and I'm ashamed of it. I apologize before you now that I did.
And I wrote in the Good News or some magazine going to our people, we changed the magazine two of the years at different times. To the brethren, anyway, that if you would use it modestly that you women could use a little bit of makeup. I'm sorry that I did that. I repent of it. God is not in that and God was not speaking to me when I said that. Now I correct it. Can you imagine Jesus Christ plucking his eyebrows when he was here? Can you imagine him painting his lips?
Can you imagine him doing the things and wearing the kind of hairdos that men do today? I can't. Now, maybe that's not important to you. Maybe you want to go along with this world. Come out of the world says God and be different. Have you come out from among them? I've heard every excuse. I think every possible excuse of women why they want to use makeup.
Well, I work for a boss and he insisted that I wear makeup or I'll lose my job. Alright, lose the job. Tell your boss you're not gonna do it anymore. He probably won't. If your work is good, he's gonna keep you anyway. Believe you me, that's just a weak kneed excuse. All you can make excuses. Jesus said, come follow me one time or I guess it was a parable inviting people to come to the marriage supper, banquet and one made excuse and he said, well, he said, I've got a brother he's die and I got to go bury him, and Jesus said let the dead bury the dead. You come follow me. Another said, well, I've married a wife and I can't go, I've got to spend time with my wife. That's more important. Another had another excuse. What's your excuse? You don't want to get into the kingdom of God come out from among the world brethren we have to live differently from the world. Are you ashamed too? I have done it. And I, I find the world respects me. I never go along with the latest fad one way or the other, whether in clothes or in neckties or hairdos or anything. I try to set an example and actually thousands of you have written me, thanking you for the example that I've set, I try to God helping me. I do try to.
Now the scripture I wanted to read to you a while ago and I got another one in the third chapter of Ephesians really? And in the beginning of verse eight. I do want to read this because it's so often misread by so many, Ephesians three and beginning in verse two, it would be Ephesians two it is. No, this is the one I had in the wrong place and I stumbled over this down the other day.
Anyway, it is by grace are you saved through faith? And that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God. Even that faith. I'll just quote it from memory since I don't find it immediately. I haven't here in Ephesians 3:8. Is it 2, 8? Oh, yes, it's 2, 8 (Ephesians 2:8). But my graces are your saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works if any man should boast. On the average preacher, the Protestant preacher will stop right there. Not of works if any man should boast. God law has been done away. He said, oh, is that so I remember the first time I heard it. You remember Dr Fuller of many, many years ago? He's been dead many years now that he had the old-fashioned revival hours on Sunday on radio.
Well, long before the days of television and he was reading that one time and I said, go on Dr. Fuller read that next verse, I dare you. I shouted into the radio set, of course he didn't hear me. He didn't read it. No, not a word. "Lest any man should boast." Pray. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them. We should walk in good works. We are his workmanship. We are clay made out of the ground. He is the master potter. He is molding and shaping our lives by and according to his law, through his Holy Spirit, opening our minds to that law. His Holy Spirit is the love of God set above in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to fulfill that law, going out from us to our neighbors and going back to God in love and obedience. We are his what he said. He is remodeling us and retaking our lives. Let's let him do it. It isn't God that puts makeup on your face, women. I'm gonna write something and I hope that my executive assistant, Mr. Fay, will remind me of that. So, I'll get that done right away on makeup.
Now to help us grow, Jesus is our High Priest and in the sixth chapter of Hebrews, he tells us, well, let's see. Let me just turn to that, the sixth chapter of Hebrews, beginning with verse one (Hebrews 6:1). "Therefore, leaving Jesus as our High Priest is talking. Now, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. We have to grow in grace and knowledge, we have to do that now, if we're going to enjoy the kingdom that we're here to celebrate at this feast, not having, not laying again the foundation of the, the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God of the doctrines of baptism and laying on of hands and so on. But go on to deeper knowledge and greater knowledge and greater performance.
You know, I noticed that some Pentecostal people, some Protestant people, some Evangelical Christians as they call themselves, it's just the one thing they worship a human called Jesus. A Jesus that was a smart elk young man who knew more than his Father tend to do away with his Father's law and said, just believe in me. Now, Jesus said many would come in his name saying that Jesus is the Christ and yet receiving the many, he said, in vain, they worship me teaching for doctrines, their own traditions, making the law of God with no effect by your traditions and they do that in vain. We must not worship him in vain. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say," they wouldn't do the things that he said, but they still call him Lord or glory, hallelujah.
Now that isn't going to get them into the kingdom of God. That's nonsense. God has a lot of sense in what he does. It's a way of life, a way of helping one another, a way of cooperation, a way of peace. So we do have peace and so we're all together and believe in the same thing as God, the Fathers believe, which is the same thing Christ believes, which is the same thing I believe. And any time I don't, you come to me and tell me I just want to get back on the track if I'm wrong. So, we've been trying to get the church back on the track here lately. You see, I had something on that.
Well, that means getting us back into God's way and the way of God's law. Now, what is going to happen in the kingdom? And where will you be a few years from now?
Well, in closing, I just want to say this, you'll find in Ezekiel 37 beginning of verse 21 (Ezekiel 37:21), David is going to be the king over the nations that come out of the original twelve tribes of Israel. Now there will be twelve different nations there and over each of those nations will be one of the twelve original apostles you read about in Luke 22 beginning with verse 28. That's Luke 22 beginning with verse 28 (Luke 22:28), we know what they'll be doing in the millennium. I don't know what you will be doing or what I will be doing. But I can give you a couple of examples in the parable of the pound in Luke 19, Luke 19 and beginning with verse 11 (Luke 19:11).
And as the disciples heard these things, Jesus said and spake a parable because they were needed to and because they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear. Now, they thought it would appear right then in that time, it hasn't appeared yet, but it will appear in our time. That's all we know. We don't know just how soon.
He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to get for himself, kingdom and to return, he pictured there himself as a nobleman going to heaven where God, the Father would confer the throne of this earth on him so he could come down. He's qualified now to take it away from Satan. Satan is still on that throne and it's all a matter of government. The prophecy in Isaiah nine was that Jesus would come as a Ruler and as a King and to sit on that throne and he overcame Satan and he qualified and we're qualifying to sit with him on that throne and rule over the nations under him.
Now, then Jesus called his ten servants. And this is really a type of the ten tribe and he delivered to each one of them a pound. And he said, occupy till I come. Now he went to the kingdom and then finally led us to heaven. And finally, when he returns, he calls them to an account. What have you done? That's calling us to account. What have we done in this church age?
Well, the one who had the pound, each one of them had a pound and that's worth a pound of money worth about a dollar and 85 cents today, an English pound and it represents so much of God's Holy Spirit. You just get a certain amount of the Holy Spirit to start. But you can grow in the spirit of God if you, if you say the right thing, and if you, if you, if you live according to God's law, and if you are close to God in prayer and Bible study and all of that.
And anyway, the first man came and said, well, I've multiplied what you gave me ten times over. I've grown in grace and knowledge ten times. Well, the Lord says, well done, good and faithful servant. You be ruler over ten cities. Well, the next one came and said, the Lord, I haven't done quite that good, but I didn't multiply it up five times. Well, he said, you can reign over five cities. That wasn't quite so good. But he said you can reign over five cities. Now, they both started out with the same amount, but to turn to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and beginning with verse 14 (Matthew 25:14).
Now there they were each given a talent. That's a piece of money too ancient money. They used their talents in ancient Israel, it is a type of money. I don't know what it would be worth in today's money. Anyway, you'll notice here beginning with verse 14 for the Kingdom of Heaven. He calls the Kingdom of Heaven doesn't mean in Heaven. Kingdom on earth. But, the kingdom owned by Heaven. And from God who is in heaven, is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his good under the one, he gave five talents to another two and to another one to every man according to his several abilities.
Now, God gives you the amount of the Holy Spirit at the beginning, according to your own natural ability, some of you will get more, some less. Now, then the one who had the, then he that had received the five talents went and traded to the same and made with him other five talents. And likewise the one, the two, he gained two more. The one who had, the one said, well, I don't think I need to grow in grace and knowledge. I don't need to improve. I don't need to grow spiritually. I just, I've received Christ. That's all I have to do. What happened when the Lord comes, the one who gained five more and had five to start, he will rule over five cities. Well, it doesn't say 5 cities here. But anyway, he, he is going to rule over much. And the one who gained twice, he didn't gain as much, but he didn't start as much. But according to what he was given, he did as well and he's given the same reward. You see, one was handicapped more than the other. And God took that all into consideration. But the one who didn't grow was cast out altogether.
He said, "Well, salvation is not by works, it's by faith or it's by grace and I received it by grace, but he didn't do anything with it, what you receive it by grace. But you have to keep it, you have to grow in that grace and you have to keep growing and growing and you have to endure under the end or it will be taken away from you. Don't think you can just stand still and get into the kingdom and, and we have to go on and on and on. This work is going on. It's going on to bigger things to greater things and a greater knowledge. We're growing in knowledge and in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now we have been trying to get the work back on the tracks and I say Christ has been getting us back onto the tracks. I don't think we're all together back here yet, but we are beginning to please Christ and he's beginning to bless this work now, as he's not blessed in the last 12 or 15 years, I tell you things were in a terrible mess about three years ago in Pasadena. One is going one way and another, another way, Jesus Christ is getting us back on the track all to speak the same thing he does if you believe that we would be sure and get it to me. Don't take it to anyone else and you can get to me there was a time when maybe some of them kept them from getting to me they are gone. They are no longer members of this church. Not at all. You don't hear about them anymore. They're just not, because their hearts were not right. I know if I'm wrong I want to get right. And I want to have the whole church get right. And we all want to be speaking the same thing and all together.
Now brethren, we have the promise of God. You read of that in the 19th chapter of Revelation, Revelation 19. And I heard is it the voice of the great multitude? Beginning with verse six (Revelation 19:6), the voice of a great multitude and the voice of many waters. And as the voice of the mighty thundering saying, hallelujah, for the Lord God, omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife has made it. I not dollars where we can sit with him and his throne as we begin that wonderful 1000 years and putting Satan would be put away and we'll be ruling the whole earth for 1000 years in peace and in God's way. But we have to come out of the world and live that way now let's come out, let's live God's way from this moment on.
Now. Some of you missed that film last night Behind the Works. I hope those that did miss it be here tonight and see it. I think it is important and I didn't have anything to do with it. So, you don't need to give me any credit. But we have many, wonderful, assistance. Well maybe wonderful was the wrong word, only God is wonderful anyway, they're efficient and they're doing the best they know how and in the television department it's quite, quite a department. Good many people employed in it and they're doing a very fine job and they've gotten this together. That should be on television, but you'll see it on a big screen tonight.
And I do hope that you will come and see it and see how the work is so different than it was in the days of Peter and Paul and the early Apostles. It's a different world that we're living in. We've got a much bigger job to do now than they had been and God has given us the facilities for doing it. You've been having a wonderful festival here and I'm glad I've been able to spend the past couple of days with you and God willing, I hope to spend one more here with you and then back to Pasadena and I'll be speaking to you next Tuesday, almost the screen here, but I'll be live just to be in Pasadena and speaking to you the same at the same time and it won't be a dead film I'll be speak live as I am here.
And in the meantime, God bless every one of you and help you to come out of the world be separate and so that we all go together into that wonderful, glorious Kingdom of God.