Time and the Eternity of God

Mr. Richard Pinelli
Sermon Transcript
April 17, 1999
Time and the Eternity of God
My subject today is a four-letter word. Rather than say it, I thought I'd give you some clues so that hopefully by the time we finish the introduction, you'll know where I'm going to go. This particular topic is the name of a national news magazine. We're also told that "a stitch in it saves nine." Nine of what, I don't know. I've also been told it heals all wounds. I've also been told that it wounds all heels as well! Dickens wrote his novels in the best of them and the worst of them. Yet it had its honored traditions. My subject has some distinctive properties. You can get it on your hands. Kids always seem to have it on their hands. Adults never have enough of it. It must be round because we're commanded to let the good ones roll! It flies, it goes by, it has zones and it has a father - only on pagan holidays of course. Don't tell its secrets because it will tell. You should get to church in it and you should be in your seat on it. Basketball players call it out and the refs call it in. In every game you have it at half and in tie games you go over it. You can spend it wisely or you can waste it. Criminals do it. Flirts make it. Most stories are told once upon it and some people say frankly that it is money you know. It comes in different varieties, there's daylight saving, eastern standard, Greenwich Mean. There's winter, spring, summer, but curiously no fall. You can have it war, you can have it peace, you can have it play and pardon me, you can also have it Howdy Doody! Don't get behind it or people will laugh at you. Teens think parents spend all their lives behind it. Occasionally you will have a whale of it and at most parties, a good one is had by all. In the workplace it comes in full, part or flex. In music it comes in march, three-quarters and cut. Most days are made up of breakfast, lunch, dinner and Miller. You can have it rag, record, double or if you own a computer, real. It marches on and you have to prove that you can stand the test of it. Race car drivers have trials of it, politicians want it equal, seminars tell you how to manage it, most of us just run out of it and if you come to my house and don't have a good one, don't leave and give me a hard one.
If you haven't figured out what my subject is about, it's a four-letter word called time. I'd like to speak to you on that topic today because I think it's very, very important. Time, according to dictionaries is described this way: It is the measured or measurable period during which an action, process or condition exists or continues. Now that doesn't make very much sense, but that's what the dictionary says. It's also: an appointed, fixed or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin or end. And after the theory of relativity had begun to find more and more understanding, it is also described in the dictionary as: finite duration as distinguished from infinity. Earthly duration as opposed to eternity.
In the Church years ago, we used to say that time was described as the passage of physical bodies through space. Time really, for all of us in the Church of God, needs to be understood because it is a spiritual subject. The bible has much to say about it, God views time differently than we do. Our approach to life, I believe, will change as we grasp and understand time. The introduction to the sermon today, the use of the words that concern time, show how many different proverbs, phrases, idiomatic expressions are found in our English language. The word time and it's derivatives is ingrained in our speech and at the forefront of our consciousness, as you well know.
So what I would like to do today is I would like to show you what the bible says about God and His relationship with time and I want to take you through four basic steps in this seminar style sermon that I will give today. I want to show you the value of time as God looks at time and then what the value of time is to man. I want to show you how God actually views time so that you will understand it in your particular life. I want to show you the natural properties of time and then I want to show you how God uses them. I hope that it will be helpful as we begin to perhaps see a little different look at the concept of time. I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Romans 1:20 because when we look at this particular scripture in Romans 1:20, we will begin to see something that we need to grasp as we look at the creation that God has placed out there for our understanding.
Rom. 1:20 - For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…so we are beginning to recognize then that God is giving us the record somehow of what God is like and God's relationship with us in the area of time because He tells us…the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…and we want to look at that today in understanding time…even His eternal power and God-head, so that they are without excuse.
If we look at the creation of God perhaps we can better understand how God looks at time. Perhaps we can understand these things as a testimony to His eternity, because you note what it says here in the middle part of the verse: even His eternal power and God-head. So I would like to begin by looking at something physical to understand time in relationship to God. I would like to examine one such creation first of all in the sermon and that is the creation of the Grand Canyon. I would like you to examine with me for a moment because many of you have seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, some of you have visited it and I think it is probably what I would consider one of the seven wonders of the world. One cannot visit the Grand Canyon without being absolutely overwhelmed by it's grandeur, it's majesty, it's sheer size. As you stand there, you are dwarfed by standing there looking over this big ditch as I describe it sometimes. It is an awesome thing to look at. It's one mile deep, you can see ten to twelve miles across, man is really literally dwarfed into insignificance as he stands on the rim of the Grand Canyon looking down. The Canyon is a multi-colored spectacle, it's hues and it's moods change with the angling of the sun or the passing of a cloud. It is interesting to go there in the early part of the day and come back a half hour later and see the changes and the shadows that begin to occur as you watch the movement of the sun and as you watch the movement sometimes of clouds.
What you see brethren is a work of art, a beautiful work of art. It was not created by the Noachian flood, it could not have done that. It was not created by the Satanic rebellion because it is teeming with life, some of which was designed to live there. But it is a work of art from the mind of the great Creator God in beauty, variety, color and inspiration. You see the Canyon is a testimony to the age or the eternity of God. Let's ask the question, how was the Canyon formed? I think we simply can say the Grand Canyon is the result of a number of massive geological factors that were set loose over a period of time. Now I know some people believe that when God created everything, everything was created in fiat and in a sense created just like that (snap of the finger). But what you will find is that within that creation of those things that were created by fiat, at the snap of a finger, when God said, Let there be light and there was light, there were other aspects of that creation that over a period of time, you see them develop through the handiwork of God and the Canyon, we believe is simply that type of thing.
Now the Canyon has mile high plateaus and buttes that are way up at the top, then you have sheer drops of hundreds of feet going straight down into the Canyon, then it levels off down on a plane about three quarters of a mile down. Then there was another thousand foot sheer drop into the Colorado River below. When you begin to look at it you begin to see, it's a beautifully handi-crafted large piece of the creation of God. There is almost no scientific question and I don't think we in the Church of God disagree with this, that it took millions of years to form. The process by which it was done seems to be that volcanic upheaval occurred on the plateau area and then part of the areas were dropped down or they ended up dropping down and ancient seas covered the Canyon and it eroded away the shoreline over a period of time. The fossils of marine life found at various shore line levels seem to indicate that very factor. The waters gradually finding their way all the way down, out of this particular beautiful Canyon, forming the Colorado River. We see the water even down at the bottom today eroding the chasm walls that we see and it's a beautiful sight if you have a chance to go down from the top to the bottom to see this very thing occurring.
What is the point? God created a work of art, it wasn't created with paint and a paint brush, with an easel or with a chisel and a hammer. What God did was He sculpted this magnificent monument using a tool that only He has mastered and that is time and He's used this time to do that. Nothing that man produces can equal the beauty, the majesty of God's creation. Man can't duplicate it because he doesn't have the time. God only has the time. We will see in a moment that's how we can come to understand His eternal God-head as a Creator and as a Ruler of this entire universe. Man can't duplicate what is seen, he doesn't have the time. God has all time, God owns all time and in one sense of the word, time is meaningless to God because He has it all. It's not the same as you and me, it just isn't. Understanding God doesn't care how long it takes to create. Let's draw an analogy for you to understand this thing of the Grand Canyon. Let's talk about the possibility of how we as human beings can understand it. Let me draw an analogy for you between the Grand Canyon and time and an insect. It's a poor analogy, but let me try to show you how to basically understand what has happened.
Now imagine for just a moment an insect living near a field. The insect only has a life span of three days. It is given a sense of intelligence so that it can reason, but remember it will be born, it will mature, it will marry, it will have children and it will grow old and die in three days. It will have an entire life experience in three days. Now it lives near this field out there, there's a great big field that we see, a grassy field, a flat field out there and therefore we must recognize that something is about to happen in this particular grassy field. We're going to build or have built a shopping center and so the plans have all gone in and so the insect that is there next to this open field begins to live with a process that is going to occur in the building of this particular shopping center.
Now this shopping center will take approximately nine months to build and we will go through the process as the insects live and die and as the progress of this particular shopping center occurs. Now this insect lives near this field where the shopping center is being constructed. The first thing that the insect sees is an open field, that's the first thing he sees, then you see a few stakes that are pounded into the ground by men as they begin to set out in their blueprint what they want to do with the shopping center. Then you begin to see that the grass is stripped away by the tractors that will begin to remove the grass and begin to develop the need to put a foundation in. The fourth thing you see is mounds of dirt as holes are being dug for this particular foundation. Last of all you see some foundation laid, and on and on it goes through the generations of these insects until the shopping center is finished. Now what has happened? In nine months or 270 days you have gone through approximately ninety generations of insects because if they lived for three days and then you figure out what has happened in 270 days you realize that ninety generations of these insects have been born, they've lived and they've died and they've gone on to wherever they've gone on to and all you have left now is another insect coming on for three days and what does he do? The first one sees an open field and then gradually you see them coming to see a few stakes in the ground and then grass removed, mounds of dirt being piled up and finally some foundation that is built. On and on through these generations until the shopping center has been finished.
Now how did these insects view the creation of the shopping center? First of all, not one generation could possibly know the end result from the beginning because they only live for three days. Secondly, it happened so slowly that no generation could even really see and really understand the changes. They might see a small portion of it in their three days, but they saw very little of it. Thirdly the present generation would not understand the past forces that brought what they see presently going on. They wouldn't have seen the grassy field if they lived at the time when the foundation had been laid. But the point was that they didn't see it all and fourthly, the last generation, seeing the completed center would marvel how it got there, or maybe they would not even think of it until someone came along and explained to them like I'm trying to do today in a very basic way, the Eternal God-head and time. The length of their lifetimes is limited to what they could conceive and build, the insects could only build structures that took less than three days and when they saw the magnificent structure of the shopping center that took generations to build, they were awestruck.
Well, same thing with our God, God built the mountains that we see, He built the Grand Canyon, the sun, the moon, the stars, some things by instant fiat, others by time, but it all attests brethren to the very Eternal God-head and to the eternity of this particular God that we worship and we serve. You see the analogy simply tells us that you and I are like the insects in God's master plan. We simply buzz in and we buzz out and we don't get to see the whole plan. That's just the way it is, we don't get to see the whole thing, we cannot envision all of this because of time, but we're trying to get our minds wrapped around the concept just a little bit today. Now let's go over to II Peter 3 for another scripture to again, my purpose of my sermon today is to just kind of stretch your minds a little bit in understanding this thing about time. Let's notice how God looks at time.
II Pet. 3:8 - But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with God is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. Now he doesn't say, I live one day and therefore a thousand years have passed, he's simply trying to give us an analogy of how time does not affect Him and where He is not controlled by time. It simply tells us that one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.
Verse 9 - And the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness…
We use another word, impatience, in human beings and this is true. It says about the saints when they're under the altar, it says that the souls of the saints are there and they're saying, How long O Lord, faithful and true will you not avenge our blood upon those that have done this to us? And this is true, you and I as human beings are impatient, we want things now, we've lived in an instant society. We started years ago with instant coffee then we went to instant potatoes and instant onions and instant everything, it's amazing what we have done and you know it doesn't take any time now, things that took hours take minutes, things that take minutes take seconds today. But that's the way we are and therefore God said He…is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness.
You notice how God views time, to God millions of years of the Grand Canyon are like watching a shopping center being built, He understands the process, He controls the process, our whole lifetime is spent in only a few hours of the life of the Grand Canyon, it's changes are imperceptible to us. I saw the Grand Canyon in 1959, I went to the Feast of Tabernacles and came home. My wife and I saw the Grand Canyon two years ago and you know what? The only thing that I saw that was different was the fact that there were more stores and more restaurants and more things that I could perceive in that way. But you know, I don't know how much deeper the Colorado River has dropped since 1959, but the point was that you see it's not conceivable to me as to what those changes were because it's only been a period of somewhere about 8 or 9 years and you can't appreciate the forces that have been playing upon the Grand Canyon at this particular time in our lives because you don't see the move or the changes as great as the Eternal God who has created it. Let's go over to Isaiah 57. There's an interesting scripture here that I would like to zero in on for just a moment because it's a very difficult scripture to understand. I'm not asking everyone to understand everything that I'm going to say because I don't even understand some of the things I'm saying! How does that sound for an admission? But it's true.
Isa. 57:15 - For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and a humble spirit."
But notice what he said in the early part of the verse: For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity. God not only has eternal life, but He inhabits eternity. To God, eternity is a dwelling place. Now let's stop for just a moment here and evaluate something. Man basically inhabits a three dimension way of life. If you look at the three dimensions employing the vectors of length and width and depth, you realize that by definition all physical things are basically three dimensional. God does not live in the same dimension that we live in, God lives in the dimension of spirit. Now He uses the vector of time because that is a part of what He is doing to develop His overall plan, but time does not affect God in the same way that it affects us. To a spirit being time is really of no consequence, time has no intrinsic value in that sense of the word because it doesn't change God's eternity. But does time change us? Oh yes! Look in the mirror.
About four or five years ago I went racing into the bathroom for something and I wheeled around the corner and I came face to face with my face and I looked in the mirror and I said, Oh no! And my wife is hollering, What's the matter? I said, I just saw my father! And then the worst thing of all is here in Ohio they take that lousy picture that makes you look so bad that I am sure it must be at your ugliest best or your best ugliest, I don't know, but I took one look at it and I handed it to my wife and said, "My dad." And I saw it all over again. But the realization from the time that you're a very young person as you begin to see things change you realize how time has an affect upon the human body, but to a spirit being it does not because a spirit is immersed in eternity and he has it all, he's surrounded by it. He is all that there is to have in that sense of the word, living in eternity and therefore we live in a totally different dimension, we live in time and space, we live in width and depth and breadth, that type of thing, that's where we are as human beings.
Now if you'll go with me to Exodus 3:14, I'd like to show you a word that is used for God here that again, describes a little bit of what we're talking about, about God dwelling in eternity. Again, the word is found in the King James in it's basic definition, but I think there's even a greater definition as the Hebrew scholars bring out of this particular statement in verse 14.
Ex. 3:14 - And God said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM. Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you."
Now when you go over to chapter 6:3-4 you see that the name that comes out of that is YHVH or JHVH, but when you look at this particular verse and you read what the commentary says, it says that it is described this way: I am or I will be what I will be. This is what the words literally signify. I will be what I will be and I shall be (in the future) He who I am now. You and I can't say that. What we're going to realize is that one of these days we're going to shed this particular dimension that we live in and what we see happening in this particular dimension that we live in is decay as a result of the second law of thermodynamics. Now I'm not going to get into that because it's technical and I don't even know what I'm talking about! So I want you to understand, I'm explaining to you the basic principles as I understand them and that's where I want to stay, trying to make it as simple as I can. So He's called the Eternal or the self-existent one. This can only be said because He dwells in eternity, because it is a condition or a place where time has no effect upon Him. That's why Jesus Christ is described as Melchizedek, being without father, without mother, without descendant. That's why when you see in the book of Daniel names of God called The Ancient of days and the Everlasting One. Because He doesn't dwell in the same dimension that you and I live in. The dimension that you and I live in decays as a result of the fact that we are this physical creation.
So what we recognize is that this God that we serve as the one who has seen all days that have ever been, He has never been young, He will never grow old, He will never age even though He is looked upon as the one who is the wise man as Daniel 7 points out, as the Ancient of days. Everlasting has another meaning, it means out of sight, it means out of mind. The human mind only measured by the finite, everlasting and eternal are words that are infinite as we would say. It's like this building - look at this wall over here to your right, look at the wall to your left. You and I live in this particular building right now, we see things in this building, we understand things in this particular building. If I take you outside and ask you to look to the east, you probably can see two, maybe three and if you're on a high enough plateau, maybe four or five miles that way. If you walk out to the west and you look out this way, you can see that way for maybe four or five miles, but the point is that standing and looking toward the west or toward the east, you are incapable of getting beyond that as a finite human being. You and I are incapable of doing that, of measuring beyond the finite, we can only see a small distance. That's why when we think of words like being twenty years, fifty years, maybe a hundred years, maybe a thousand years, we can still grasp that, but when you start saying that God created billions of years ago, you say you don't understand that. He doesn't want you to need to understand billions of years, you and I will all understand that when He gets the movie projector out and starts showing us the whole show, later on when we're all made part of the kingdom or family of God.
But the point is that age for you and I is the product of the three dimensions of man, length, breadth and depth, plus the forces of energy, matter and motion. And of course the unseen laws and time which play upon the physical earth and the extensions to the universe and therefore what we see is, we describe it simply as energy, matter and motion in movement. Energy, matter and motion in movement equals time. And this is what we must understand. Time moves on and we simply, through this particular law that is at work in the universe in the physical dimensions that we live in play upon our human bodies. Now God being spirit is not affected by that. I want to show you a scripture that I never saw before until about three or four years ago, I think it's the most inspiring scripture about God's eternity. I want you to turn with me to Job 38. I hope I can show it to you the way it seems to come across in the writings of the book of Job. I find this most inspiring because it shows the past eternity of God and the finiteness of men.
Now if you remember very simply, here was Job and he had done all of these things and Job was touting his righteousness in many many ways, the right way, because Job was a man that lived an upright life and that no one could find anything wrong with him and even God challenged Satan to try and find something wrong with him and Satan couldn't find it. Now when you come down to the realization between what God is and what man is, this is when He began to deal with Job in chapter 38, it is a priceless example of the God that we serve who inhabits eternity explaining to us how He does and what He has done and then He began to show Job that Job, you're nothing but this piece of flesh that is degenerating and you haven't been around long enough to know what I know, you haven't been around long enough to do what I have done, you haven't been around long enough to see what I have seen. Now Job, you tell Me here in verse 31:
Job 38:31 - "Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Now He goes out and He says, Look in the universe Job for just a moment and take a look at Pleiades. Now what you begin to realize is that Pleiades in time, as we understand time, is moving together or is being bound together. He says that there is a movement going on Job where Pleiades is moving together, where it is being fastened together in this particular constellation. He is saying to him, Can you do that Job? See I've been around all this time when Pleiades was out here and now it's moving together to be fastened and I've watched that Job, it's gone on for a long time, where have you been fellow during this time? See this is what God is saying to him. Then He says…or loose the bands of Orion?
Now the bands of Orion literally mean that there is a chain apparently, that is seemingly holding this particular constellation together and over a period of time, speaking humanly, it is being broken apart and the chains are broken and it is moving apart from what it was before. So He's saying to Job, O.K., Job, I was there when this particular constellation had this particular chain around it and it was bound and now it is breaking loose, can you do that, can you loose the bands? How long have you been around fellow, I've been around a whole lot longer than you and I've watched this going on. You know it doesn't say here how many years God might have said this to Job. But notice what He says:
Verse 32 - Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
Now that's the constellation which is called the Twelve Signs and what it means is that there is some kind of movement over thousands and millions and billions of years of time in which you see that there are seasons of this particular constellation as it moves and turns. Now Job, how many of these have you seen? And Job would say, One. And He would say, Which one? Job - The present one, that's all I've seen. Now this is what God is saying and then He says:
Verse 32 - Can you guide Arcturus with his cubs?
God sees Arcturus moving among his cubs, this is what you see going on. And this two verses, it tells you that there is a movement in the universe and the God who set up the forces that hold the very constellations together, the forces that move the stars, He has watched them move and you human beings, you Job, haven't been around long enough. So what in the world are you trying to tell me anything? You see when you look into the heavens, you are looking into the eternity of God, you are witnessing the Ancient of days. Let's understand for a moment. Light travels at one hundred eighty six thousand miles per second. It would take eight minutes to know if the sun turned blue. It would take eight minutes for you and I to know that. The nearest star as you and I know is Alpha Centauri, it is four light years away. We cannot measure miles, we have to figure it in light years. It's impossible because you just could not calculate that, so therefore we say, Alpha Centauri is four light years away.
Reader's Digest had an interesting article some time ago. I want to read to you from it, just a couple of paragraphs, it's profound. He said: The universe is a very simple time machine. It doesn't involve any strange or complicated machinery, only in immense distances. When we gaze into the depths of space we are looking into the endless depths of time. Even traveling at a 186,000 miles per second, starlight takes years to reach earth. This is profound, this is the one that I think you'll enjoy. Astronomers are cosmic archeologists, digging through the ruins of a previous universe. We see the star Alpha Centauri just as it was over four years ago, we see the Andromeda Galaxy as it was more than two million years ago, by the time it reaches us, it takes two millions years to get to us. Our days reside in the midst o llion yesterdays. Can you understand it? I can't. I hear what he's saying, but it doesn't register. Now maybe it's because I'm Italian, I don't know! But the point is that it just doesn't register. I can figure a certain amount of things, I can figure how long it takes me to get from here to there but when you start getting 186,000 miles per second I begin to realize, I'm outta here. I just can't figure it all out.
Space and distance becoming meaningless when you inhabit eternity with time. You see this is what we're faced with, this is what we need to understand about the God that we serve. Now what in the world is the value of time then? To a spirit being in this sense, it's the value, because they have it all. To a human being it is incredibly valuable, it is incredibly precious. About a dozen or two of you, with me, would like it to stop for awhile because I don't like what it's doing to me and some of you probably say the same thing because when you're a teenager it seems to go so slow and the older you get it goes faster and faster and faster and when you reach a certain age you say, Slow down, you go too fast, I got to make the morning last. Remember the old song? It's true isn't it? So to a human being time is a very valuable commodity, we have so little. Men search for the fountain of youth, we only have a finite amount. Notice Psalm 90, let's go there for just a moment. I believe this is a prayer of Moses in this particular case, the only psalm in the entirety of the Psalms that is a psalm of Moses, the man of God, as it says.
Psa. 90:1 - Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations…because God has been eternal, because God can be everywhere in all of their generations…before the mountains were brought forth, or even you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
That is a mouthful! It has to do with what I just talked about, God has existed for eternity, He is eternal.
Verse 3 - You turn man to dust and You say, "Return you children of men." For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night.
Verse 10 - The days of our years are three score years and ten and if by reason of strength they be four score, yet is there strength, labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away.
God has dwelt in all generations because He's the Ancient of days. He started the process of great works of art. The great enemy of man is death. You know what death is? It simply means you're out of time, that's it, no more time, that's exactly what it means. When you begin to look at the statement made in Hebrews, it says, it is appointed unto men to die once. We recognized that God learned from Lucifer's experience, never again could God allow eternal misery to occur in the universe. So what He did to man is He gave him so much time, because it is appointed unto man to die once and on top of that, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So we begin to realize that the wages of sin is simply death. It is appointed unto men to run out of time, whether you're a sinner or not, you're appointed to run out of time because God has left you in this particular dimension for a great overall purpose. Time is the friend of the spirit being, it is the enemy of a physical being. I Corinthians tells us this, that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. The gift of God is time, God is promising to give you all of time, that's what it means when you look at the gift of God which is eternal life. He promises to give you all of time.
What is it that God asks of you and me? What will give you the opportunity to be a part of the kingdom of God? Time. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for people is keeping God's Sabbath and His holy days. God says that in this seventy year period, give Me ten years and I will give you life. Give me ten years out of the seventy and I will give you eternity in return. It's a difficult task for man to acknowledge that God has the power to hallow time, that God can make certain time holy. Recently a lot of people played with this, they thought that was really funny that God could somehow hallow time. How can you hallow time? Well read what the bible says dummy! That's what I said to a few people! Either you believe what the bible says or you don't. God said that He hallowed time. Giving God time is the first and the most difficult step in conversion. Romans 8:7 says: The carnal mind is hostile toward God and His law and it can't be subject to His law, neither indeed can he be. Once man surrenders time to God, God can open man's mind to His plan.
Take a look at the autobiography. What did the man say? He kept the days first then God revealed His plan - right? So in order to understand time as God does, we first of all have to understand the fundamental property of time. Chemicals have certain properties, so does time. In the physical realm, time is destructive, that is the ultimate property, it ages, it decays, it breaks down and ultimately destroys. God made a physical universe and all matter is in a constant state of decay. I want you to turn with me to Psalm 102:25 for a moment, we're not too far away. Here we see the second law of thermodynamics. Now it's my understanding in my basic study of it that it is called the law of entropy increase. Given enough time, the universe would die. Now is that true? Well let's go look at it, verses 25-27.
Psa. 102:25-27 - Of old You have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hand. They shall perish but You shall endure. What does it say? The universe that God has created is under the law of entropy increase, that is, given enough time the universe will decay because it is in that particular dimension that you and I understand as the physical dimension. But God is spirit, God is eternal and therefore it says of Him…You shall endure. Yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture you shall change them and they shall be changed but You are the same and Your years have no end. Because time has no effect upon this great being.
You and I were subject to vanity, it means we live in this particular dimension of something that is not lasting, it means decay and corruption. Now why is it important to live in that? Because we recognize eternity is God's gift. Apparently no physical, three-dimensional things can have or will have eternity according to what we perceive by what the bible says in the Old and the New Testament.
In the physical realm, time has some positive properties however as well. For instance, it is a curative, wine and leather are made better by time. We find that certain things increase in value, things that last a long time in value such as antiques and coins seem to pick up a certain sense of human value in them. Time is therefore a creative ingredient. Some things simply cannot be made without time apparently. Good wine, good cheese, the Grand Canyon, diamonds, certain hand-crafted goods. I think we all recognize that things stamped out cheaply and quickly rarely have lasting value, I think most of us would agree with that.
But there's one thing that cannot be built without time. Godly character. As Mr. Armstrong said over and over again, God could not create character by divine fiat. Why? He hasn't told us, we don't completely understand. We can speculate a little bit but it seems to be that God could not create character by divine fiat. Therefore before God gives all time, He demands the proof of faith over a little time. That's basically what He is saying to us. All the positive traits of Godly character; faith, spiritual maturity, wisdom, love, patience, endurance, are developed and cured and set by time. I think we all recognize that. The ordination of elders, it says you should never ordain an elder who is a novice because pride and vanity will become his number one enemy.
In the Work over the years we found that there were many flashes in the pan, flash in the pan Christians as we called them. Obedience for awhile, then they were offended and they left. The great lies of Christianity are - just accept Jesus Christ, just say the name of the Lord and you're saved. God is only impressed with Christian maturity over time. It says in the Book…he that endures unto the end…it says that we all are in a race and we must run and we must run until we reach the finish line, as the apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 9. Count the cost, to see whether or not you're going to finish the race. Once we grasp this, we will realize that God did not create the Grand Canyon without time and God cannot build your holy character without time. And all things that occur in your lifetime according to the book of Romans, all things work together for good. When you go back and look at that scripture it doesn't mean they worked together for good, it means they worked together for a good end, that is the meaning of the scripture, they worked together for a good end.
God is testing through time to see if you will patiently endure trial and graciously handle the blessings that He has given. I'd like to conclude with a scripture found in Ecclesiates 3. I find this particular section profound because he boils it all down to, in this particular case, what is found here. He tells us:
Ecc. 3:1 - To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. Or to put it another way, life is composed of just so much time. Then he begins to talk about to be born and to die, to kill and to heal, he goes through all the divergence of what time does as you go through. Then in verse 10, this section is profound because I think it tells us what God has been doing.
Verse 10 - I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exorcised in it. In what? In time.
The travail - life is composed of a certain amount of travail, it is just simply the way that it is. It says that in this life we will have trials, in this life we will have human set-backs, we have human difficulties, it's just simply that way, that's the way God made it.
Verse 11 - He has made everything beautiful in his time. Now another translation of that is found this way: He has made everything appropriate in its time. He also has set eternity in their heart…now that's actually the translation from the Hebrew.
You and I have a sense of craving, human beings have a sense of craving, of wanting to know beyond the realm that we're living in. We want to know what's going to happen out there. We like to know what is the reason for this and you begin to want to reach beyond the realm where we are only allowed to work, we're in this box and you bang against the top and the sides and you can't get out of it. But there is a craving within man to understand eternity because he cannot see beyond the physical and God said:
Verse 11 - …He has set eternity in their heart, but no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.
Why? Because we're like the insect, we've only got three days that we're alive and we're born, we live, we grow up, we get married, we have children and then we die. And one generation comes and one generation goes. And he goes on to say:
Verse 12 - But I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. And going on he tells us that what we should do is learn to enjoy this physical life and use it in the way that God has intended.
What we begin to realize brethren is that God looks at time in a very special way, He uses it in the physical creation of you and me. I hope that you will begin to look at time as God sees it. I hope you will be inspired by this particular set of concepts that I tried to deliver in their most basic way. I can't get beyond very much above what I just said to you today, but I tried to give you a little bit of understanding within that box that we have to dwell in and I hope you will be filled with hope because of what the Word of God does say about God's eternity and our realization that we are out of time humanly speaking when we die and we're going to go beyond that particular realm. I hope it will mature you, I hope that through it you will gain a maturity and that you will be made valuable by the understanding of this time. And speaking of time…I think I'm out of it!
© 2000 United Church of God, an International Association

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THECOMMANDMENTS, STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS?

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Mission Of The Philadelphia Church Era

Sermon - Mr Herbert Armstrong - 17 December 1983 (NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
Mission Of The Philadelphia Church Era
By Herbert W Armstrong
17 December 1983
(PLAY FROM START)
Greetings everybody! This afternoon I want to speak on the mission of the Philadelphia era of the Church (this Church today) in comparison to the first Church, or the first era of the Church (the Ephesus era of the Church). It has been seeming more and more to me, as the years go by, that the Bible was written primarily for the Philadelphia era of the Church. It has not been understood previously to now. The Bible was not all written yet during the beginning of the Church (during the Ephesian era, the first era of the Church)
Until close to the end of the First Century, the Bible was not complete. There was no printing. Every copy had to be written carefully, slowly, one copy at a time; by hand and by copyists. There were not very many of them. The average person never saw one. Much of the Bible had not been revealed yet, especially the book of Revelation; and I, II, III John; and the Book of Jude. And most of the early Church never saw those books. They had been getting away from the Truth as they had received it from the apostles. And, by the time Jude wrote, he urged the people to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered, because they were getting away from it.
Most prophecy in the Bible refers to our time now, and is concerned with our time—not with the time back in the First Century, not in the Middle Ages. How many times do you find in the Bible “in that day”? Such-and-such will happen “in that day.” “In that day” again and again, especially in the Old Testament prophesies. And it is referring to the time now and leading on into the Second Coming of Christ—the Coming of Christ the Messiah, and these events and these days just preceding—when there is the greatest mission of the Church. And that is the mission that has devolved down on us. Today’s mission of the Church you will find in Matthew 24 and in verse 14:
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom [that is the same gospel that Jesus preached] shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.
Now, the early apostles had been asking Jesus about this time. They knew… They were somewhat familiar with the prophecies: especially prophesies like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel; and then the so-called “minor prophets.” Hosea, Amos, Micah, Daniel, all of those prophets; and how many times they said “in that day.” Jesus had said to them, He said “If I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself.” He had taught them about the Kingdom of God. And He had taught them in a parable that He would have to go to heaven to receive the kingdom and then to return; and that we had to occupy, or continue on the job that He had given us, until then.
CONSIDER MATTHEW 24 (PLAY FROM 4:33)
And so we read, beginning with the third verse in Matthew 24. And, incidentally, Matthew 24 I think might be called the principle book of prophecy so far as Jesus Christ is concerned, of what Jesus Himself said. Of course, the book of Revelation is the book of prophecy of all of the New Testament. And Matthew 24 is recording, essentially, the same thing that Mark 13 and Luke 21 is also recording; but Matthew 24 goes into more detail and gives us a better summary of the entire thing.
Now, Jesus had been with the disciples at the Temple and just outside of it. He was showing them the buildings of the Temple; and then as He sat on the Mount of Olivet (or the Mount of Olives) a little later, His disciples had come unto Him privately. There were about three or four of them that came to Him privately, saying:
Matthew 24:3 Tell us, when shall these things be?”
Now, what things did they refer to? In the first verse, you will see that He was showing them the buildings of the Temple and telling them that a time of trouble was coming and that all those buildings were going to be destroyed. There wouldn’t be one stone left upon another of the buildings of the Temple. Now, they supposed that that destruction was going to come at the time of the end—the end of this world, and the Second Coming of Christ and the time of His return. They knew that such a time was coming—the end of this world and the beginning of the Kingdom of God, or the World Tomorrow. But they thought that that was going to occur at the same time, and they thought it was going to occur in their lifetime. And so they asked Him, “When shall these things be?” that He was talking about, the destruction of the Temple. But since they thought that was the same time as His Second Coming, they added this question:
Matthew 24:3 …and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
Because they thought that His Coming would end this world. He had talked to them about another world, the Kingdom of God. So they asked Him about that.
LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU (PLAY FROM 7:21)
The first question that they asked was what He had just been talking about, the destruction of the Temple; and that did happen in their lifetime. He’d been talking to them along about 30 or 31 AD. And the Church was finally established in 31 after Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and had ascended to heaven. So Jesus answered first their first question, and said unto them:
Matthew 24:4 Take heed that no man deceive YOU.”
Deceive who? He didn’t say “deceive people at the end of the world, at the end time.” He was talking to His disciples, and He said even His disciples could be deceived. “Let no man deceive you.” I tell you, brethren, it is very necessary that we understand one thing, especially in reading the New Testament. Where it says “you,” you need to know who He’s talking to. In most cases, He’s talking to the Church or to the apostles. The apostle Paul says “you;” and he’s talking, very often, to one of the Churches. Jesus was talking to His apostles.
When the expression “they” is used, it usually refers to the outside world. When the expression “we” is used, it’ll refer either to Christians or, in some cases, the apostle Paul might just be referring to the Jewish people (as a nation, or religion, or race, or whichever you might call them). But Jesus said, “For many shall come in My Name. Now be sure that nobody deceives YOU—you apostles in the First Century—because many are going to be coming in My Name, saying that I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Now, we need to understand that.
WARS & RUMOURS OF WARS (PLAY FROM 9:32)
After the Church had started, Christ had gone to heaven. One thing: where did the early Church get its teaching? Where did it get its doctrines, its beliefs; and its practices, its customs? The early Church received all this from the apostles. And where did the apostles receive it? They received it primarily from Jesus, who had taught them for three and a half years. They also were familiar, more or less, with the prophecies of the Old Testament because many of them had seen it or had had a copy. Usually a book like Isaiah would be just in a book all by itself. They didn’t have the whole Old Testament. Or they would have the five books of Moses all together. But usually and many times, especially in the prophecies, it’d just be one book of prophecy.
So He said “Many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” And then He went on talking to them.
Matthew 24:6-7 And ye [That is, you apostles.] you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars [Now He had told them there would be wars at the end time, and they knew that. He said, “Now you will hear of that.”], see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [In other words, He was telling them plainly the end was not coming in their time; and, when they heard of wars, that wouldn’t mean the time of the end.] (7) For [He said] nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes…
He could have been referring to the end, when that happened; but He said that the end wouldn’t come when they heard of wars and rumours of wars in their time. Now He said:
Matthew 24:8-9 All these things are the beginning of sorrows.” [He was undoubtedly referring there to the time that we’re in now.] (9) Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted.”
Now He was talking to them again, and talking of the trouble that did occur at the time of 69 and 70 AD when the Roman armies entered and destroyed the Temple at Jerusalem. And it was a terrible time of trouble then, such as had never happened to any nation up till that time. They were even, for lack of food, killing their own children and eating them. It was a terrible time then; but it was local, and it was just in that one locale in and around Jerusalem.
THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S COMING (PLAY FROM 13:00)
Then shall they deliver you up. Now He was talking to His apostles, and many of them were martyred. In fact, some people think that all (except possibly John) of the apostles were martyred.
Matthew 24:9-11 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and you shall be hated of all nations [or in all nations] for my name’s sake. (10) And then shall many be offended, and [they] shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. (11) And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many.
Now, they did. He said, “Take heed that you be not deceived (now, at the very beginning). For many will come in My name, saying that I am Christ, and deceiving . . .” Here He says, and He’s speaking to them, “Many false prophets shall arise, and deceive many.” Well, they did! And they did come in Jesus’ name, saying that they were His ministers!
Matthew 24:13-14 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (14) And this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM [That’s the gospel He was preaching to them—the Kingdom of God.] shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and THEN shall the end come.
The end of the world, and the Second Coming of Christ! That was the only sign He gave of His Second Coming.
You know, Jesus was asked by the Pharisees for a sign that He was the Messiah; and He said only one sign would be given; and that was the sign of the prophet Jonah—that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish’s belly, so Jesus would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, or the tomb, which was hewn out of rock in the heart of the earth.
ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION (PLAY FROM 15:27)
Now He continued:
Matthew 24:15 When you therefore…
I have great difficulty reading it, even with a magnifying glass, though this is very large type; and it takes three books of this size to contain the Bible in the size I have to read now. But you’ll have to bear with me in this little handicap. The Work gets done, just the same. “But I say unto you that you shall not see Me henceforth, until you shall say ‘Blessed is He that cometh in . . .’” Wait a minute. No, I’m back a page. I skipped a page.
Matthew 24:15 “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand).
And you find in Luke 24 and verse 20 that that refers to the same thing, and “the abomination of desolation” there spoken of was Jerusalem being surrounded by armies. Now that applied to 70 AD. It is going to apply again, because so many things happen in a dual manner. Sort of a one-two punch, as I sometimes call it. And Jerusalem will again be surrounded by armies. In fact, it is to a great extent right now.
Matthew 24:16 Then let them which be in Judea [Of course, He was speaking locally there.] flee to the mountains…”
And so on. Then He comes down to that terrible time that happened in 70 AD as a type of what is going to happen at the latter time—the Great Tribulation (verse 21).
Matthew 24:21-22 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to [that same] time, no, nor ever shall be. (22) And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [King James says “saved.” The Moffatt translation says, “saved alive;” and that’s what it means.]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
So it shows “for the elect’s sake” those days will be shortened. And it doesn’t mean for the elect’s sake they’ll be shortened so that some can be converted, but it’s speaking about being saved alive.
GREAT TRIBULATION (PLAY FROM 18:16)
Now it continues on. He talked about the Great Tribulation, how terrible it’ll be. And now “except those days be shortened.” And now He definitely… That’s referring primarily, anti-typically, to this time yet coming, just ahead of us now, that there would not one person be saved alive. The number one problem before the world today is that of human survival or human extinction. It’s one or the other. That’s a question that I’ll be going into on television tomorrow morning: Will humanity even survive a nuclear war? Will there be a day after? And in this program, I’ll be referring to the movie that created such a sensation just about three or four weeks ago, on “The Day After” about nuclear war. And primarily I’m going to be somewhat concerned with the conference or dialogue that happened, between some of the most important people politically in the United States, that followed the movie. Now most people tuned out, and didn’t even listen to that; and that was the most important part of the whole thing to my mind. And I’m commenting on their comments. And I hope that you’ll all be viewing it tomorrow. Now in verse 29:
Matthew 24:29-30 Immediately after the tribulation of those days [Just to give you the dating of it, and the time it’s referring to. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…”] shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. (30) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall SEE the Son of man [Christ] coming in the clouds of heaven with POWER and great glory.”
Coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, to rule all nations. So definitely that is talking about the time just ahead of us now.
Now He said—the mission of this Church, then—that “this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and THEN shall the end (the end of this world) come” and the Second Coming of Christ to introduce the World Tomorrow, another world altogether.
JEWISH OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL (PLAY FROM 21:24)
Now I want you to contrast verses four and five {1}, where He said: “Let no man deceive you. Many will come in My name, saying that I am Christ.” Immediately after the Church started, there was great opposition. And the first opposition, for the first several years (first few years) at least, was Jewish opposition—an opposition of denying that Jesus was the Christ. Most of the preaching of the Twelve apostles at first was proving that Jesus was the Christ.
That is the reason that Jesus chose twelve in number. It’s the same reason that they have twelve on a jury today to decide a case, because twelve is supposed to… A unanimous decision by twelve is supposed to be accurate and convincing. And the Twelve disciples had all been with Jesus for three and a half years, while He was here on the Earth as just an ordinary human being; and then they had been forty days with Him after His resurrection—to PROVE that He had been dead, that He had resurrected, that He WAS the Christ (because the resurrection is the proof).
Now, a little later, that had become established. Of course, the Church at first was Jewish; and many of the Jews would not accept that Jesus was the Christ. Those who did came in and that started the Church. The Church at the beginning was entirely Jewish—of those who HAD accepted the truth that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Many expected Him to come, as He will the second time, with great power and authority to rule all nations; but He didn’t come that way the first time. He came to qualify for the office, but not to set up the nation or the kingdom. He came to proclaim the Kingdom; He came to announce the Kingdom—that it would come. But He didn’t come to initiate the Kingdom at that time.
GENTILE OPPOSITION TO THE LAW OF GOD (PLAY FROM 24:02)
After a short time, you notice even the apostle Paul went to the Jews first; and a certain number accepted the truth. And then the Jews began to universally just turn away. They would not accept that Jesus was the Christ. And then Paul says, “Lo, I turn to the Gentiles.” And then he began going to Gentiles, and the gospel then was primarily sent to Gentiles after a certain number of years. Now when it went to the Gentiles, there was no question about WHO the Christ was. They accepted Jesus as the Christ. But the Gentiles didn’t like to accept the law of God as a way of life. And then many Jews, who had accepted Christ, still wanted to inject the Law of Moses.
I hope that I will feel up to it; and I would like to take the Bible Study, if I do, on next Friday night. Yesterday I had had a deposition session, and I was very tired; and I just felt I wasn’t in any shape to speak to you last night, and so I didn’t. But I hope that next Friday night I may, because I want to speak on this very thing and the difference between the law of Moses and the law of God: two separate laws altogether. One is physical, has to do with physical labour; the other is spiritual, has to do with the relationship—our first relationship to God and secondly human relationships with other humans. And this is entirely misunderstood in all the churches that call themselves “Christian” today. That is still the greatest difficulty in “Christianity” today, and it became that.
So they were against the law of God. And many Jews were wanting to bring in circumcision and the law of Moses, which was a law of rituals (of physical duties to do morning, noon and night): various eating and drinking and things of that sort, just physical labour. It had nothing do with human relationships or man’s relationship to God. Now about that time… And it was prior still to 70 AD, the time that Paul turned to the Gentiles; and they began preaching about the law. The Jews who had accepted Christ and come into the Church did that; and, of course, Paul and the apostles had to refute that.
CONTROVERSY OVER THE GOSPEL (PLAY FROM 27:06)
But, from that time, there was a great controversy on what the true gospel should be. And we find evidence now in history, and the history is almost missing on this point… There was a great lapse of history for a hundred years—from around, oh, from 30 or 50 AD up to 150 AD—practically no history of what was going on in the early Church that had just come up, of Christianity. This much we do know: that at the beginning of that time there was a great controversy (in which was a life and death matter to many, and there were many martyred) as to whether the gospel should be a gospel about Christ. Because, you see, the early apostles had to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus was the Christ; and many thought that was the whole gospel. And the controversy came up: Was the gospel about Christ, just proving that Jesus is the Christ? Or is the gospel “the gospel OF Christ,” which means the gospel Christ preached?
Now Jesus came as a Messenger bearing a message, and the message He brought was the Kingdom of God. That was the gospel! You read in Mark 1, “The beginning of.” Verse 1:
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
I don’t need to turn to it in the Bible again. It speaks about John the Baptist coming, preparing the way before His First Coming. And then it speaks of Jesus’ baptism and His (just one verse of His) temptation before Satan the devil, and His qualification to rule in the Kingdom of God. And then, after that, we find that Jesus came into Galilee preaching THE GOSPEL. But what gospel? The gospel of THE KINGDOM OF GOD! That is the FAMILY of God as a governing Family GOVERNING THE ENTIRE WORLD. A world government by the Family of God, into which those of the true Church may be born. So we have quite a contrast there, at that time.
TURNING TO A GOSPEL ABOUT CHRIST (PLAY FROM 29:57)
Now in Galatians 1, verses 6 and 7. I believe I’d better not take the time to read that. You read where the apostle Paul… And this was about 53 AD, only about 22 years after the Church started. Paul found that already they were turning to another gospel. They were beginning to turn to a gospel about Christ instead of the gospel of Christ. But at that time, many of the Jews, they accepted that Jesus was the Christ; but they were coming in now saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law. (And I hope that on next Friday night we can go through the book of Galatians a little bit and get that all straightened out, because some people are terribly mixed up on that point; yet it should be very clear.)
II Corinthians 11, you find that Paul mentions how there would be false prophets coming in the name of Jesus, saying that Jesus was the Christ; but they would be preaching another Jesus. And that is precisely what they did! They preached a Jesus who was a smart aleck young man, who knew more than His Father, and did away with His Father’s law and commandments. They preached a Jesus that nailed the law to the cross. They preached a Jesus that was in opposition to God the Father.
And that is what has come on down through Protestantism! And you will notice that TODAY THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TALK ABOUT JESUS (Although the Catholic Church probably talks more about Mary than they do about Jesus even.); but they talk about CHRIST, ABOUT JESUS—BUT THEY LEAVE GOD THE FATHER OUT OF IT. THEY WON’T HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH GOD THE FATHER. THEY TALK ABOUT CHRIST, BUT THEY WANT TO DO AWAY WITH THE LAW.
GOD THE FATHER IS THE LAWGIVER (PLAY FROM 32:03)
Now let me make this straight. The law came from God the Father. You know, it’s a great deal like the government of the United States. The Congress is the law-making body; the President is the executive of the administration to administer the government; and then we have the Supreme Court to do the judging. Now, spiritually in the government of God, God the Father is the Congress (or the Parliament). He is the Lawgiver. He makes the law. And when you break the law, you have put yourself clear outside of God the Father. It is God the Father you need to be reconciled to, not Christ. You accept Christ not because that saves you. The receiving of Christ does not save you. And yet they say that you’re already born again if you say “I receive Christ.” And the churches are saying that thing all over, and they are in gross ERROR!
And it is simply, as it says in II Corinthians the eleventh chapter, beginning along, let me see, a little farther along—they are the ministers of Satan the devil, but they pose as the ministers of Christ. They say He was Christ, but they don’t speak much about any connection with God; and they don’t want anything to do with God’s law. And they think the blood of Christ saves you.
Now in Romans 5, and about verse 5, you will read that by the blood of Christ we are RECONCILED TO GOD THE FATHER; but we are SAVED through Christ by His life—the resurrection. And God is the one who resurrected Christ, and who will resurrect you and me. And of course, Christ now is “of God” and “is God.” And He says He has the power to raise us up at the Last Day also. And those things, no wonder they call it “a mystery” today; and they are so confused in the world today.
MESSENGER TO PREPARE THE WAY (PLAY FROM 34:32)
But now I would like to go back to the Old Testament and show you what was prophesied to happen. They got turned away to another gospel; and in the book of Malachi, the third chapter and beginning with verse 1, here is a prophecy for our day:
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant [That was Jesus Christ. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant; Jesus came as the Messenger of the New Covenant. Jesus came proclaiming the New Covenant.], whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
But now in Mark (or in, well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John) you will read of how John the Baptist apparently was the messenger who was to come. John the Baptist was a type of the one it’s speaking of here. This is speaking of one coming to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ. Now John the Baptist was a messenger crying out—a voice that cried out in the physical wilderness of the Jordan river—preparing the way for a human, physical Jesus, who was to come to a physical, material, temple (made of stone and wood and other metals, and materials), coming to His physical people, Judah, (who rejected Him), and coming only to ANNOUNCE that there WOULD come the Kingdom of God and the government. But He came as a Lamb, the Lamb of God. He didn’t come to enforce things. He merely came… Well, He allowed them to spit in His face; to put a crown of thorns on Him; to lash Him; to whip Him; beat Him within an inch of His life; and then go out; hang Him up in the most disgraceful kind of a death on a cross; stab Him with a spear till He bled to death; and they finally did kill Him.
So now notice who it’s talking about here. It’s NOT talking about John the Baptist.
Malachi 1:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.
Now, a refiner’s fire heats. When you find gold or silver, it is mixed up with a lot of other metals and worthless material. And the way you get it, you melt it; and the gold or the silver will dissolve and melt out from the other. And that way you can divide the one from the other, and come out with pure gold or pure silver instead of a motley mixture with a lot of worthless other metals. And He was talking about burning out the sin of other people here. “Who may abide the day of his coming? For he is like a refiner’s fire, or fullers’ soap” which washes the dirt off. And He would get rid of the sins. Jesus didn’t get rid of the sins when He came. He merely talked about it.
Malachi 3:3-5 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the [Eternal] an offering in righteousness. (4) Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD [When He came the first time, they didn’t offer any offering that was pleasant to Him. They rejected Him, spit in His face, and killed Him; or had Him killed. So this is talking about the Second Coming], as in the days of old, and as the former years. [And He says:] (5) I will come near unto you to JUDGMENT [He didn’t come to judgment. Then He talks here about the Levites and the priests and others. They rejected Him. “I will come near to you to judgment…”];and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widows, and the fatherless…
And so on. So it’s talking there about the Second Coming of Christ. Now it continues speaking about Him in the fourth chapter, where it says (the last two verses of the entire book of Malachi, the last two verses in the Old Testament):
Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the [Eternal] [or, the Day of the LORD]; (6) and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, LEST I come and smite the earth with a curse.
And the Hebrew word there means and is translated in Zechariah and other where as “a total destruction.” Smite the Earth, in other words, unless there is no flesh saved alive—talking about the Great Tribulation and that same time.
ELIJAH TO COME (PLAY FROM 41:07)
Now, later on, during the time of—that is, during Jesus’ Gospel—He came and said, “I will build my church.”
And I want to get into that, again, a little later. But I’d like to turn now to Matthew the seventeenth chapter and beginning with verse 1:
Matthew 17:1-2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, (2) and was transfigured before them.
In other words, showing them Himself in the Kingdom of God. And with Him were Moses and Elijah [verse 3], giving them a glimpse of the Kingdom. Now, prior to that, He had said there’d be some standing among “you” that will not die until they have seen Christ coming in the Kingdom of God. Well, this is where they did—in this vision of the transfiguration. When they came down, He said “Don’t tell any man about it until after I’ve ascended to heaven.” And then in verse 9:
Matthew 17:9 As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them saying, Tell… no man, until [I have] risen again from the dead [it was]. (10) And his disciples asked him, saying, “[Well,] why then say the scribes that Elijah MUST COME FIRST?”
Now, at this time, Elijah had already come. I quoted a while ago Matthew. I don’t mean Matthew, but Mark the first chapter and verse 14:
Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee.
And that was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn’t BEGIN His gospel until after the mission of John the Baptist was completed. And John the Baptist was probably beheaded by the time that is being referred to here. So why does it say that John the Baptist…or that Elijah, I mean, must first come?
Matthew 17:11-12 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly SHALL FIRST COME, and [Get this.]restore all things. (12) But [He continued.] I say unto you, That Elias is come already [Referring now to John the Baptist, who came in the power and spirit of Elijah, as he said specifically in another place.], and they knew him not, and have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
Well, they put him to death; and he had been beheaded, his head chopped off. They didn’t recognize him.
Now it is speaking about a second—just as a Second Coming of Christ, a second coming of a messenger to prepare the way before Him. As John the Baptist was the physical messenger in the physical wilderness of Jordan, so there would be a messenger with a message—with a VOICE CRYING OUT in the SPIRITUAL WILDERNESS of the modern Twentieth Century, and the last half of the Twentieth Century—PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE GREAT SPIRITUAL JESUS TO COME TO HIS SPIRITUAL TEMPLE. AND YOU ARE THAT TEMPLE! A SPIRITUAL TEMPLE! You will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, after the dead in Christ rise first; and rise with them to meet Christ in the air as He comes. HE’S COMING TO HIS SPIRITUAL TEMPLE; AND WE ARE THAT TEMPLE, as you read in the last few verses of the second chapter of Ephesians. To a spiritual temple, and THIS TIME TO SET UP the Kingdom of God and to rule.
So He said, “Elijah truly shall come;” but He said “and restore . . . things”. Now John the Baptist didn’t restore anything. They already knew about the law, and he called them to repentance; but he didn’t have to give them sermons about what all the law is. They knew that. He just called them to repent and turn to another way, and baptized them. He was John “the Baptist.” But this is speaking of one Jesus said (after John the Baptist had completed his mission), “Elijah truly SHALL come and restore all things”.
Now next, he’s coming to prepare the way before Christ. I want you to notice: Christ is coming to restore all things. So in the third chapter {2} of the book of Acts This is a day or two after the Church had started. Peter and John were in the Temple. Peter had healed that cripple; and the crowd came around, and Peter preached to them for some little time. And this is Peter talking to them at that time.
WHAT CHRIST WILL RESTORE (PLAY FROM 46:28)
Verse 19, the third chapter of Acts, Peter said:
Acts 3:19-22 Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, WHEN the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; (20) AND HE SHALL SEND [the time when He shall send] Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: (21) Whom the heavens must receive [Now, He’d ascended up to heaven; and the heavens would receive Him UNTIL a certain time.] until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his holy prophets since the world began.
Now “restitution.” Look that word up in the dictionary. Restitution means “restoring to a former condition, a former state or condition;” “restoring what had been taken away.” Restoring what had been taken away.” So now I ask you, “What is Christ coming to restore that had been taken away?” What had been taken away was THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. The Government of God! And, if you know the whole Bible, that’s the whole story of the Bible. That’s the whole purpose. Everything!
LUCIFER’S REBELLION (PLAY FROM 48:00)
You read, back in Isaiah 14 verses 12-14 (and I’ve gone over it so many times, I’m not going to turn back to it now); but you read there first about the king of Babylon. And then he is a type of the one whom he served and who really ruled over him, who was Satan the devil. And then the type lifts up to the one that he represented, Satan the devil. And it spoke to him then (beginning with verse 12 in Isaiah 14), calling him “Lucifer.” Lucifer was the name of a super archangel, a cherub; and this cherub’s wings had spread out over the very Throne of God. But he was on a throne, and it was on Earth; and he said:
Isaiah 14:13 I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt MY THRONE above the stars [or, the angels] of God.
Now he had a throne, and he said he would rise above the clouds. So he was under the clouds, and he was on Earth; and there was a throne on the Earth.
Now in Ezekiel 28, also beginning verse 12. Verse 1, or in the earlier part of the chapter, it began speaking of “the prince of Tyre.” Now as Babylon was the political capital of the ancient world at that time and the capital of the first great world empire, Tyre was also the commercial capital, where all the ships went by that were transferring freight and merchandise and that sort of thing. It was the New York, you might say, or the London, of the ancient world. Not the political capital, but the merchandising capital. There it speaks first of “the prince of Tyre” who was the human ruler. Then the type (the same way) lifts up to the one it represented, Satan the devil; and he’s called “the king of Tyre.”
And there it says [in Ezekiel 28] that he sealed up the sum total of wisdom, perfection and beauty; that he had been CREATED; and he was perfect from the day he was created until iniquity was found in him. And he was made so beautiful that he became jealous, and full of envy, and also full of vanity. And vanity means he exalted himself above everything. Above God! Above everything! It means he wanted to be served, and not to serve. He wanted everything to come to him. He wanted to receive; he wanted to get; he wanted to take. (God is the great Giver! Just the opposite.)
Now, prior to this, God had had a law. But this Lucifer ruled on this Earth. He was put on the Earth and the throne of the Earth. He ruled over the whole Earth. And the Earth at that time was occupied by angels. You find something of them in the thirty-eighth chapter of Job, at the time that Christ created the Earth; and the angels were there shouting for joy, because they were going to inhabit this Earth at the time of its creation. But in II Peter 2 and verse 4 you read of “the angels that sinned.” And, in the next verse, you read of the sins between {3} Adam and the time of the Flood. And after that you read of the time, later, of the great destruction that came to Sodom and Gomorrah. So there’s a time sequence there; and it shows the sin of the angels was prior to the creation of the first man, Adam. Now, as a result of the angels being turned against God, the Earth came to a state of decay.
HOW GOD AND THE WORD WORKED (PLAY FROM 52:27)
But I need to explain a little something here about the government of God. You read in John the first chapter in the New Testament, John 1 and verses 1 to 4 or 5:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now, who’s the Word? Verse 14 says:
John 1:14 The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
And became Jesus Christ: the Word is the one who was made Jesus Christ. In other words, the Word was Jesus Christ before His human birth and before He became Jesus Christ. And He was also God. And in the third chapter and the ninth verse of Ephesians, I believe it is, “God created all things by Jesus Christ”. Jesus obeyed His Father.
Now, They were together. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, the Word; but God made it by Him, and Jesus did only what His Father said. He was the Word, the Spokesman, He said “I’ve spoken only what My Father commanded and told Me to speak.” And so He is the one who created man.
Now we turn back to Genesis the first chapter. Well, first I want to explain about the government of God. Two can’t walk together except they be agreed. So They were in absolute harmony. And everywhere in the Bible it shows that Jesus and God the Father were completely as one—of one mind; of one belief; of one agreement; no discord; no disagreement of any kind whatsoever. Also two cannot walk together except one is the leader. You must have leadership, and we had a sermonette on that. You must have leadership! And God was the Leader. Jesus obeyed His Father. He said “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” And He also said He’d set us an example. We should also keep them.
Now, law is merely a way of life. Their way of life was love: cooperation; mutual love and affection. God ruled over Jesus, but it was loving authority. Loving authority. And Jesus obeyed, in love. And They loved one another, and there was no conflict whatsoever. It was total cooperation, but God was the Head. And you will find where Christ is the Head of the Church, but God is the Head of Christ; and we must never forget that. So that is the basis of government.
Now a LAW has to be the basis of ANY GOVERNMENT. You can’t have government without a law. The basis of the United States is the Constitution, which is a law; and all laws must be according to that basic law, the Constitution. That’s the foundational law of all the United States’ government. But the basic law of the whole universe is love (L-O-V-E), which is outgoing concern. Outgoing concern toward others: first toward God and then toward our fellow creatures.
Now God and the Word worked. They lived. It said, “in them was life.” If They had life, They lived. If They lived, how did They live? They had to DO something to live! What did They do? They created. Now, They had a way of creation. How did They create? Well, God created all things by Jesus Christ. God told Him what to do and what to say. He spoke; the Holy Spirit responded; and it was done. Now God said, in Genesis the first chapter, it says there:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning [God] [Elohim, which is a plural word, meaning “Gods”] created the heavens and the earth.
Now the word “God” should be pluralized, or “Gods.” And the word “created the heaven” as it is in the King James, also is translated in every other translation, as far as I know, “heavens [It’s plural.] and the earth.” And they were all created at the same time, you read in the second chapter of Genesis also. And in verse 26 of Genesis 1:
Genesis 1:26 God said [And this must have been God saying it to the Word.], Let Us make man in our image.
And so God told the Word to do it, and the Word formed man. And in the second chapter, Yahweh is mentioned, and always speaks of the Word who became Christ.
Genesis 2:7 [And the LORD God] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [dust of the ground] became [a soul] a living soul [Not an immortal soul!].
So the dust of the ground became a living soul. And God said, “If you disobey, you will surely die.”
TWO TREES: TEST OF CHARACTER (PLAY FROM 58:13)
Now the Two Trees were merely a test of character. The Tree of Life simply meant obeying God; letting God reveal knowledge to you; letting God reveal His law. The law is merely the Way of LIVING. And, if Adam had taken the Tree of Life, God would have revealed His Way of Living—His LAW—to Adam. Now I have never put it quite that way before. Get that firmly in your mind. But what he did, he took to himself the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, he took to himself the way of life. HE MADE HIS OWN LAW of how he would live, but he was influenced by Satan and Satan’s way.
Well, what did Satan say to Eve when she came? He didn’t say, “Worship me.” He didn’t say, “Disobey God.” Even. He said, “Just go do your own thing! Do your own way, use your own head, use your own mind, do what you think is right!” And that is the way that Adam took as the law of his life: the way that seemed right to him. Now God’s Word, the Bible, says:
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You see, it is the law of God that tells us which is the right way. That was in the Tree of Life, which Adam rejected. Now God’s purpose was to reproduce Himself: to reproduce Himself. But God is, first of all, perfect, spiritual, righteous character. And man could not be made God until the very CHARACTER of God had been implanted within him. And it wouldn’t be character unless the man himself made the choice to receive it, and unless it came with the man’s not only consent but by his own will even. And yet it had to come from God, and God would give it to him; but a man had to make the decision, and want it. And that same thing faces all of us today. You see, all of us have found that the Tree of Life has been opened to us.
Now Adam rejected the Tree of Life and took the Tree of the Knowledge—self-knowledge of what is right and wrong. In other words, of law or the way of life. And then God closed up the Tree of Life until Christ, the second Adam, should come. Now that meant the Holy Spirit, because human eyes have not seen, human ears have never heard what God has in store for us that love Him. That is in I Corinthians the second chapter and verse 9.
And verse 10 says but God reveals to us what He has (spiritual things ahead for us) by His Spirit that dwells in us. Now the Spirit doesn’t do the revealing. God reveals it, but He reveals by His Spirit that is in us. Not by His Spirit that He has that He sends to reveal. The Spirit is already in us. His Word says it. Here’s the Word. I read it, and the Spirit lets me understand it. You know the world can’t understand this Book, the Bible. It’s just a lot of foolishness to them. They don’t understand it at all. They don’t regard it as the most important Book ever written.
I was talking to some lawyers yesterday, there were three lawyers in the room. I mentioned something about the Bible. One of them said, well, he respected the Bible. I said, “The Bible is a book of law. It talks about law from the beginning to the end.” Beginning the second chapter, the first book in the Bible, Genesis—it talks about God’s law and obedience; and clear up to the last chapter in Revelation, it’s talking about law (a way of life). Law regulates conduct. It regulates human performance, or angelic performance if you please, or what ever.
Now Adam made the decision for all of his family that were born from him. Even Eve came out of Adam. And all of us have come, then, from Adam. And he made that decision for all of his family. And the Spirit of God, the revelation of SPIRITUAL knowledge and of God’s SPIRITUAL law, was hidden from people until they couldn’t understand it.
Now it takes love to fulfill that law; but human love won’t fulfill it. It takes “the love of God . . . shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (And that’s Romans 5 and verse 5.) And you can’t really fulfill God’s law, even if you know what it is, UNTIL you have received the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God in you will fulfill it, and very few have that; but that has been opened, through Christ, to the Church.
GOVERNMENT OF GOD IN THE CHURCH (PLAY FROM 1:03:47)
Now then, Adam chose his own self way. The Holy Spirit was closed until Christ came. Jesus came; and He said, in Matthew 16:18, “I will build MY Church.” He’s called the second Adam. He came, and He already had the Holy Spirit. He had what Adam, the first Adam, rejected. He called disciples; and He opened to them the Tree of Life, which had been closed ever since Adam. And He called The Twelve; and He called them out from the world (which had only a human kind of love, and didn’t have divine love of the Spirit of God)—to live separately from the world and live according to God’s law, according to God’s government. And God’s law is the foundation of God’s government. And it’s a matter of government.
Jesus started the Church. Now I’ve already quoted to you from Mark 1 and verses 14 and 15, which simply shows that God put government in the Church. Jesus came to restore the government of God. In Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7, you read that He was to be born as a Child; and THE GOVERNMENT would be on His shoulder. He’s going to take over the government and sit on the throne, where Satan is now sitting, and to rule over the whole world. Well, when He came, He called a SMALL nucleus (the small embryo) to begin the Church—starting, as He explained, small as a grain of mustard seed; but to grow till it fills the whole Earth ultimately. Ultimately the whole Earth is going to be filled with the people of God. Did you know that? Now it’s almost filled with the people of Satan. But it is “for the elect’s sake” that this world is going to be spared.
Now in Revelation 2:26 and 27 and Revelation 3:21 you read that, if we that are called into the Church (to whom the Tree of Life is opened; and we have accepted the Tree of Life and the Spirit of God), if we overcome and we grow in grace and knowledge, and we overcome and endure—we shall be given… We’ll rule with Christ on His throne when He comes to TAKE that throne of the Earth away from Satan. We will be given power over the nations, and we shall RULE them with a rod of iron. And it is only the called who can come. All through the New Testament you read Jesus called His disciples. It is those that are called, and they’re called out of this world. On the day of Pentecost Peter said, when they wanted to know what to do, he said
Acts 2:38 Repent, and be baptized [into] Jesus Christ [every one of you], for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the Holy Spirit. (39) For the promise [of the Spirit of God] is unto you, and to your children…as many as the Lord our God shallcall.”
God has to call us. Jesus said, in John 6:44 “No man CAN come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” God chooses the one He’s going to call. JUDGMENT IS ON US NOW! When Christ comes, He’s coming to JUDGMENT! Then judgment will be on all that are still living on earth. Judgment now is only on those that are called, in the Church. And we need to understand that. But we’re being called to become teachers; and we’re going to rule, and we’re going to judge.
Now I explained about the government of the United States a while ago. God is the Lawgiver; but Jesus is in the office of President, or the executive. But Jesus also is given the Judgeship. And even in the United States government, the President appoints the Supreme Court Justices; so there’s quite a similarity there. But it is only “the called” that can receive the Spirit of God NOW. That’s just a question of when. And we are the firstfruits! The rest of the world will be called later. In Ephesians 1 verses 9 to 12 you learn we’re the firstfruits. Also it’s explained, and predestination is explained, in Romans the eighth chapter.
Now the Gospel was suppressed; and, as I say, they turned to a gospel ABOUT Christ. But they have not talked of His message! And His message talked about God as being the Supreme Ruler. And His message had to do with the Government of God; and God is the Lawgiver. And when you sin, the sin is the transgression of the law; and that has cut you off from GOD THE FATHER. BUT WHAT ARE THE PROTESTANT PREACHERS PREACHING? “JUST RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AND YOU’RE ALREADY BORN AGAIN.” POPPYCOCK! THEY ARE WRONG! THEY ARE IN ERROR. THAT IS THE TEACHING THAT SATAN THE DEVIL HAS GIVEN THEM. That alone is not enough! That’s a start, but it’s not enough. It takes far more. The world has lost the purpose of God. They have lost all knowledge of the gospel of Christ, which is the Kingdom of God. They have lost all of these things.
RESTORED TRUTHS LISTED (PLAY FROM 1:10:07)
Now then, coming back to what I was saying in the beginning. Oh yes, I was showing the Church is persecuted, Revelation 12 verses 5 and 6, and so on; and they’ve had a false gospel. Elijah was to come and restore things. (Jesus is going to come and restore the government and, through the government, everything.) But WHAT was Elijah to restore? And, brethren, HAS it happened yet? HAS it been restored? And what was restored?
1. THE TRUE GOSPEL (PLAY FROM 1:10:55)
The world had lost the gospel. They didn’t know what the gospel was. I came among the true Church of God of the Sardis era. They didn’t know what the gospel was. They thought it was what they called a “third angel’s message.” They didn’t know what the gospel really was. They called it a “third angel’s message.” God revealed it to me, and through me to the Church, that the gospel is theKingdom of God. That is the gospel Jesus preached. That’s the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles. That’s the gospel that Peter and John preached. And you’ll find when Jesus sent them out, and sent out a seventy, He said: “Preach the Kingdom of God.” That is the only gospel! It is the gospel OF Jesus Christ. The world has a gospel about Christ. Now the first thing to be restored to the Church is the true gospel.
2. PURPOSE OF GOD (PLAY FROM 1:11:57)
The second thing to be restored is the purpose of God. And the gospel has to do with that: that God is reproducing us, and that MAN CAN BECOME GOD. No other Church on Earth believes that, brethren. And now let me tell you, I’m going to reveal to you now things that have been restored in this Church. And, let me tell you, these are all things that some of those who have been MINISTERS IN THIS CHURCH, IN HIGH OFFICE, HAVE GONE OUT AND NOW ARE SAYING, and saying publicly, that we are departing from the faith and that we are going farther and farther into error—because they will NOT receive the truths that God has been restoring into the Church. God’s purpose is that He is reproducing Himself, and that we ultimately become God.
3. GOD’S PLAN THROUGH THE HOLY DAYS (PLAY FROM 1:12:54)
Now another thing that has been restored is, through the Holy Days, God’s Plan—His master plan for accomplishing that purpose, and the annual Holy Days. And no other church has had those Holy Days and understands them.
All right, what’s the next thing restored? I’m saying, I don’t think these are in any special order. But the next one I have listed anyway, if I can even read my own writing. Well, the true Church has kept the commandments of God and the true name; and the Sardis era did have that. And many of them had tithing, but they didn’t all even believe in tithing. But I think you could say the Church did, and God’s true Church has believed those three things through most of the time. But many of these other things had to be restored to the Church, which had been lost.
That the end time was coming after World War I: Malachi 3:1-5, well I just read that to you. But to go on with the things that have been restored. Let’s see. The gospel, and the true gospel was first preached to the world precisely 100 time cycles after it was lost in 53 AD. It went out to the world on Radio Luxembourg in Europe for the first time. It had gone coast to coast in the United States and Canada, and then it went to all of Europe 1900 years after Paul wrote in Galatians 1 that they had turned to another gospel: a century of time cycles.
4. GOVERNMENT (PLAY FROM 1:14:48)
The government of God has been restored to the Church. And the government of God has been placed in the Church! You read that in Ephesians 4 and I Corinthians 12. Christ is the Head of the Church; and under Christ in the administration of the government are an apostle or apostles; then evangelists; then pastors. Then all are called elders, all ministers, all the way up and clear down to the lowest. So then there are teachers and elders (both speaking elders and preaching elders), deacons and deaconesses. And the Church is restored in that form of government. Sardis Church, even, didn’t have the right form of government.
The purpose of God—that we can be born into the Kingdom of God and the Family of God and become God—that knowledge has been restored to the Church.
5. WHO AND WHAT IS GOD? (PLAY FROM 1:15:46)
Who and what God IS. NO RELIGION ON EARTH KNOWS WHO AND WHAT GOD IS. No religion on Earth! Billy Graham doesn’t know it. Jerry Falwell doesn’t know it. Roman Catholics don’t know. God is NOT a Trinity! God is NOT a single person. God IS a FAMILY of persons—and THE FAMILY began with God and the Word. You read of that in John 1 verses 1 to 5. You read of it in Genesis 1 beginning with verse 1. You should learn about God first; and it begins first both in the New Testament and the Old, because many experts feel (That is so-called experts, let me add.) that the book of John should be placed first in the New Testament, although it was not written first. God is A FAMILY, and it began with the Two; and WE can be born into that Family.
6. WHAT AND WHY IS MAN? (PLAY FROM 1:17:04)
Now the next thing that’s restored to the Church: What and why man is. WHAT IS MAN? Why did we come to be on Earth? The Sardis Church didn’t know. They didn’t know in the Middle Ages. Man was made from the dust of the ground. Man was made with one spirit, and he needs another Spirit—the Spirit of God, which unites him with God and is the impregnation of God-life in him; and he will be born of God.
7. SPIRIT IN MAN (PLAY FROM 1:17:35)
Next the human spirit IN man. No other church knows about that. That has been REVEALED to the Church. That is knowledge that has been RESTORED to the Church of God, and this Church has that knowledge.
8. FIRSTFRUITS (PLAY FROM 1:17:51)
Another, the next piece of knowledge, that has been RESTORED to this Church that the rest don’t know and no other church knows it: That this Church is the FIRSTFRUITS. That God is NOT trying to save the whole world now. He’s calling us out NOW, and He’ll use us as teachers to help save the others IN THEIR TURN. And they, in turn, from the Millennium will help save all the rest in the Great White Throne Judgment. And ultimately God is going to go after the saving of everybody who ever lived! But no church understands that: That we are the firstfruits. We are the embryo of the Kingdom of God.
The fact that we have to be CALLED BY GOD and that salvation is not open to just anyone “whosoever will.” The whosoever will may come is found in the last chapter of the Bible, and does not pertain to this time at all. And no other church seems to know that. That knowledge has been restored to this Church.
9. KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THE MILLENNIUM IS (PLAY FROM 1:19:00)
The knowledge of the Millennium and what it is. Now the Sardis people knew that Christ would rule a thousand years. They knew it would be a Millennium. They had NO IDEA IN THE WORLD about what would happen in the Millennium. They had NO IDEA what is the purpose of the Millennium. We know. And we assemble for the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s what we’re celebrating. And we know what’s going to happen in the Millennium, and that salvation will be opened then to all that are still alive; but it is not open to all now. No other church knows that. These are things that YOU, brethren, ARE PRIVILEGED TO KNOW. You! God has BLESSED YOU with this knowledge—has RESTORED THIS KNOWLEDGE to you.
10. TRUTH ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT (PLAY FROM 1:19:48)
Now, truth regarding the Holy Spirit.
11. BEGOTTEN NOW (PLAY FROM 1:19:54)
And the fact that we are BEGOTTEN NOW. You’re NOT born yet, only begotten.
12. BORN AGAIN AT RESURRECTION (PLAY FROM 1:19:59)
That we will become born at the time of the Second Coming of Christ, when this mortal puts on immortality [I Corinthians 15:54], when we won’t be human any longer. We’ll be divine. The knowledge that he that his “born of the flesh IS flesh,” mortal. And that’s what we are! That is, that when you are BORN of the Spirit, you will BE SPIRIT. (Someone please go tell Jerry Falwell that, so he’ll know he’s not yet “born again”.)
13. IDENTITY OF ISRAEL (PLAY FROM 1:20:27)
Another thing restored to us is our roots, our identity, WHO WE ARE. We [in the USA] are the tribe of Manasseh of the lost Ten Tribes of Israel; and no other church on Earth knows it. That knowledge has been RESTORED into this Church. And God restored that to me 53 years ago:
14. IDENTITY OPENS UP UNDERSTANDING OF BIBLE PROPHECY (PLAY FROM 1:20:51)
Our identity! And that opens all the doors of ONE THIRD OF THE WHOLE BIBLE—PROPHECY you can’t understand without that knowledge. That opened up a whole third of the Bible, which is prophecy. That’s a third of the Bible. And so, a third of the Bible and the understanding of prophecy has been opened to THIS Church, that has been restored to this Church.
Has God sent someone TO RESTORE KNOWLEDGE to this Church, brethren? I’m not tooting any horns. I’m just telling you what has actually HAPPENED, and you know it’s happened!
The fact of the annual Festivals, that they represent God’s plan.
15. SECOND AND THIRD TITHE (PLAY FROM 1:21:41)
The second and third tithe (What other church knows about that?) that was restored by this Church! That knowledge, restored by this Church.
16. IDENTITY OF BABYLON AND HER DAUGHTERS (PLAY FROM 1:21:50)
Then the great deception, the counterfeit of Revelation 17:5: “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”—her daughter churches, and who they are.
17. SATAN IS THE GUILTY PARTY (PLAY FROM 1:22:08)
And the fact that Satan the devil has deceived the whole world. Brethren, Satan is the one who is guilty. Those people in the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches have been deceived. And I think they really believe. God just hasn’t opened any more truth to them. We don’t sit in judgment of them. We’re not judging them yet. We’re going to do it. And, when we judge them, then all truth will be open; and God will take away the blindness from their eyes so they can understand, if they’re willing. Today they couldn’t understand it, even if they’re willing. I don’t think they’re willing either, far as that goes.
18. WE ARE TO BE SEPARATE (PLAY FROM 1:22:53)
And how, in Revelation 18:4, that God has called us OUT from among them TO be separate.
GOD HAS RESTORED TRUTH (PLAY FROM 1:23:04)
Well, brethren, ALL THOSE THINGS have been restored; and there is a mission for this Church that never applied and has never been done by any other Church: “This gospel of the kingdom” has been restored and “shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations.” [Matthew 24:14] Has that been done? Has that been restored? Is that gospel going out to the world? You listen on television tomorrow.
Or do you have something more important to do? You might think about that. Maybe the telecast of the Truth of God is not important. Maybe you have something more important to do. And maybe, when you do something else, you’d better think “Was it more important, or should I have been listening to the program?” I’m afraid a lot of you don’t listen. Well, I hope it’s not a lot of you either. Maybe it’s only a few. But I know that some are bound to be a little bit careless.
But thanks and praise to God, He HAS restored knowledge. That is all God’s doing. None of us can be anything more than human instruments. If I have been willing to do anything, it is only because God Himself brought about circumstances to compel me and make me willing, whether I wanted to be or not; and even then I can take no credit whatsoever. It was all the doing of God, through Jesus Christ.
But remember this: the Protestant churches, they just have Christ. We have to come to Godby way of Christ. And Jesus taught us: When you pray, pray “Our Father which art in heaven.” And we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. He said whatsoever we ask the Father in His name (the name of Christ), God will do—if we ask in faith, believing. We must ask what God has promised to do. Remember that faith is simply believing that God will not lie; and that, what God has promised, He will perform. So let’s be thankful. Let’s praise God for it. Let’s give all thanks to God Almighty, the Father.
{1} Editorial note: Mr. Armstrong inadvertently gave the wrong scripture reference.
The original says, “I want you to contrast verse 3.”
{2} Editorial note: Mr. Armstrong inadvertently gave the wrong chapter.
The original says, “In the 19th chapter of Acts.”
{3} Editorial note: Referring to II Peter 2:5 and the old world, Mr. Armstrong inadvertently said “Moses” when he meant “Adam.” That is, the sins from Adam to the Flood, not from Moses to the Flood.