Truth of the Good News – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

July 30, 2011

We have begun to focus more fully on truth that God has granted and blessed His Church to be able to see in order to be sanctified.  We are sanctified through the truth, that’s what God made very clear to us, Jesus Christ stated that; that we’re sanctified through the truth.  We’re set apart by God for holy use and purpose through His truth, because it’s a matter of receiving it and our ability to grow in it once we are drawn by God’s spirit or impregnated with God’s spirit. It is that process after that then that sets us apart from the world, because of God’s truth and our reaction, our response to it.  If we respond properly we grow, we mature.  It’s an awesome process that we go through.

And so we’ve been looking at the marvel of how God has organized the revelation of these truths to the Church, how that there were three of those very basic ones that were left at the end of Sardis, and of course last Sabbath we looked closely at a process here of two other truths that were given, the very first two given to Mr. Armstrong by God.  And so again here, just as a reminder, important to understand some of the order here because this is how God works in our life, it’s through this process that God works with us and our response to how God works with us that determines our growth and whether we’re going to grow or whether we’re going to fall by the wayside.  Jesus Christ gave examples of the seed that fell on good ground, seed that fell amongst the thorns, seed that fell on area where it was rocky soil.  All those things that are given there have to do with the process of God calling His people and our response then to God; because when God calls us, when He draws us, He draws us, He calls us to succeed!  He gives us opportunity to be able to go through the entire process but we have choice, we have free choice as to how we’re going to respond to what He gives to us.

So again, at the end of Sardis there were those three foundational, necessary truths remaining, necessary in order to begin spiritual growth.  And that’s how God draws us, basically it’s these as a matter of a calling that we respond to, those things that test us or that try us and determine whether or now we’re going to be fed properly and how we respond.

So first in order of all the truth that’s been given is the seventh day Sabbath.  Always begins there...always begins there in our lives.  We have to make a determination as to whether we’re going to obey this day, whether we recognize it as a matter of obedience to God, whether we’re going to sanctify it, set it apart for holy use and purpose; that’s why we come together on the Sabbath.  We set it apart, we determine we’re not going to work on that day that God says, ‘Don’t work on the Sabbath day,’ beginning at Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.  And so again, our response to it as to whether we’re going to grow. Because if we don’t set it aside we are not going to grow, if we don’t obey God we’re not going to grow, we’re not going to overcome, we’re not going to be able to continue in a calling that He’s given to us to succeed.

And then second, of course, the name of the Church; if we begin to recognize the Sabbath, the need to obey it, then we recognize the need or begin to be drawn to the location, the place where God is going to teach us, where we’re going to be able to grow on the Sabbath day.

And lastly of course is that which also tries and tests people as to whether or not they’re going to be able to continue in the process of growth, is that matter of tithing that we discussed, and our response to it.

So big decisions have to be made in the beginning, Sabbath and tithing, they try us, they test us, they put us to the test. Are we going to obey God? Are we going to quit working on the Sabbath?   Are we going to quit?  If it jeopardizes our job are we going to step out in faith and obey God and do as He says?  Because if we don’t do it we can’t grow.

So again, awesome how those truths were left; God left them there for us, left them there for Mr. Armstrong as He began to give strength and power and truth to the Church once again so we could go beyond that because that isn’t enough to hold on, to grow, and to mature, but it is the beginning of a process.

So the next step that’s necessary for the success of one’s continuing growth and proper response to God... it’s a matter of a response to God.  Just like the Sabbath tries us, are we going to respond, obey God, recognize God’s authority in the Sabbath, and recognize that God alone can tell mankind, His creation, “This is the day you worship Me”?  Not some other day, not the day of your choice.  It’s His choice!  That which He set aside as an appointed time for us!  And so we have to decide if we recognize God’s authority in our lives.  You think, “Well, that’s the last thing surely man would reject, God and God’s authority.”  But man readily does it, because it doesn’t agree with him and what he believes and what he’s been taught.   And so again, our response.

We started the process last Sabbath of talking about the restoration of truth and what God gave through Mr. Armstrong and the awesomeness of.  There is an awesomeness in the order or at least (as you’ll see today) in the organization of what God has given to us, and the truths that God has given to us.  And so the very first one that God gave through Mr. Armstrong is a matter of government, the government of God; it’s basic to the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is about God’s government, it’s about His Family – Family and how it functions is about government.  Responding to the 10 Commandments is a matter of government, it’s a matter of recognizing, again, the authority of God Almighty in His Kingdom, in His creation, to govern, to let man know what governs right relationships.  You step outside those laws and your relationships are not governed according to the laws of God, they don’t work, they’ll fall apart, you’ll have problems, you’ll have sorrow, you’ll have misery in your life if you don’t obey what God gives.

And so again, all that God gives to us is a matter of unity and oneness with God and the reality is it has to do with government, but it’s based on love.  Not like man’s government when people know what’s best for us, just like this past week, you see a government divided, a government that doesn’t work, a government that can’t work because it’s political, it has to do with politics, it has to do with the way man works.  And when they talk about a need to compromise...?!  Compromise!  It’s about compromise!  Politics is about compromise in order to work together.  Compromise on what when you get into the condition we are in?

Heard a woman this morning on the news being interviewed; people talking about a need to raise the ceiling again.  Well, the ceiling has been raised 74 times, the debt ceiling – 74 times in our history!  What’s one more time?  And so people are upset out here!  Raise it!  Print more money!  Basically her comment was, “Let’s get on with this! Let’s get this passed!  Let’s raise the debt ceiling!  Let’s get on with the American way of life!!”  I thought... that says it all!  She didn’t even know what she said, “...the American way of life.”  What we broadcast to the rest of the world, that you can live like this.  What a thing to teach society!  What a thing to teach families that are being governed.  Charge as much as you can to the rest of the world!  Live high on the hog as long as you can...and when your credit runs out just work with the bank to get more somehow.  But the things that are being taught are just wrong principles, they are not right principles.  With God it’s a matter of love.  It’s a matter of love because He alone knows the right way of life to be lived that gives blessings.  It’s an awesome thing, the government of God.

So He teaches us in many ways about government and He teaches that within the Church as well, how to function, how to work, and it’s all based on love.  And if we respond to it properly then it’s a matter of love that we have toward others and why we respond to God in the way that we do.

Of course the other is the gospel of the Kingdom of God that we talked about last Sabbath as well.  They go hand in hand – government, and God revealed, as He gave to Mr. Armstrong, the authority to preach, to teach the good news, the true and only true good news.  The world talks about a gospel.  The religious world talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they have no idea what it is.  They don’t know what the good news is.  Their good news is Good Friday.  What’s good about it?  It’s the wrong day even!  And if they understood that it was Wednesday, what would it be, Good Wednesday?  The world is so messed up, and Satan sits back there and laughs and mocks at God. Mocks God! Mocks God’s purpose and plan and how he’s deceived mankind into believing the things they believe.  Mocks!  Makes fun of!  The big ole fat man from the north in his big red suit and a big black belt and a big white beard, jolly - ho, ho, ho - Satan making fun of God.  “You better not shout, you better not cry...” Children taught from the very beginning about how they’re being judged and whether you’re good or not, whether you’re going to get gifts or not.  Crazy!  Really amazing!

So the five truths we have covered reveal so very much about the process God uses to lead us into Elohim, because that’s what it’s all about.  From the very beginning of time, before time, before anything existed, except God - before He made anything, before He made a spirit world and anything in it He had a purpose and a plan, to reproduce Himself, to have children, to bring children into His Family, the God Family.  Incredible the revelations He’s given and the understanding He’s given.

And so again here, those five truths that we’ve covered reveal so very much about the process God uses to lead us into Elohim, to make possible that we grow in embryo, in a begotten state before we’re actually born, because there can be miscarriages.  Miscarriages; that which doesn’t come to full term.  Once we’ve received the impregnation of God’s spirit we have choices to make in our life as to how we’re going to respond to God through time and whether we’re going to grow as we should grow, whether it be now or later on in the hundred year period.  And so there is that which God has made possible, that we can grow in embryo, and if we don’t yield, if we don’t respond properly to God, then that life ceases. In other words, once you’re begotten there’s no guarantee you’re going to be born, because of free choice.  As far as God is concerned you have it made, you have everything in front of you.  Everything is made possible for us but we have to make those choices as to whether or not we’re going to respond the way God wants us to.  It’s an awesome thing to understand.

And yet God has also made it possible that we can receive that begettal stage and never be born into His Family that becomes spirit.  Because once we’re spirit, once we’re in His Family, that’s for eternity on into age-everlasting, no end in His Family.  But He’s not going to allow that for anyone who doesn’t grow to full term, to where He can say, “Now I know you,” like He did to Abraham. “Now I know you.”  To where they’ve come to a point where He knows what they’re going to do when they have been given spirit life, that they have made those decisions over and over again that God is first, and then He gives the power to continue on into everlasting life.  It’s an awesome thing to understand the power of God to do this.

And so we have this process we go through and being able to be born into His Family...and after these basic truths are firmly established in our minds, the first five that we’ve talked about here, these are deeply embedded within us, in a maturing perfection as we’ve talked about in a recent sermon series that we went through – which means a continuing revelation of (and I guess the further establishment of...) truth, if you will, because that’s the whole thing about Sardis.  God had to give more truth to Mr. Armstrong and his response to it, and then people began to be drawn into the Church once again, and a growth began to take place through time and it was a receiving of these things in the mind whereby God continued to give more and more and more – truly – in our mind, in our being.

Today’s sermon, if you like titles, is entitled Truth of the Good News – Part 1.  Now last Sabbath, number two given to Mr. Armstrong, number five in order, total order, is the authority to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God in the Church through the ministry that God has given.  And so this is a continuation of that in respect about the good news, about the gospel that God has given.  And again, government, authority and the power to preach.  The world can’t preach it.  The world does nothing but teach deception and lies because they’re not from God, they’re not sent by God, they don’t have that authority in their life.  And so it’s an awesome thing to understand that process that God has given in the Church.

Last Sabbath it was mentioned that along with the establishment of God’s government in His Church was the authority He gave to preach the gospel, the good news of His Kingdom, of His government, and that good news encompasses all the truths that would follow.  It’s all good news!  Every truth that God has given is good news.  You want to look at any truth in time, it’s good news.  We’re given more understanding, more of an ability to grasp and comprehend what God is doing in our lives, and it becomes more exciting, more fulfilling the more you grow and the more you have.

This sermon is about the truths that constitute that very strong message of the good news concerning God’s kingdom, concerning the very purpose of His government and the focal point of that good news concerning God’s Kingdom is what God gave in the next eight truths that were established in the Church through Herbert W. Armstrong.  It’s an exciting thing to understand when you start seeing how things are put together.  Again, that’s what is different about this series going through some of the truths that God has given recognizing the order.  There is an order.  Not in number, but in the organization, overall organization.

These eight truths, as we’re going to talk about today, are not a matter of something specifically in order as to importance or as to why they’re given at a specific time, because they all work together, it all functions together, but they’re very powerful truths of and by themselves that God gave through Mr. Armstrong.  And again, it goes in order here with a matter of the good news, of a foundation of the good news so the Church could really begin to blossom, to grow, to mature – all these things that were needed that God gave in the age of Philadelphia through Mr. Armstrong.

And so that next one, number 3 that was given through Mr. Armstrong – again, now not a matter of specific order, but a matter of organization.  These eight truths that we’re going through now in this series are powerful in the sense of how and why God gave them to us.

So again here, number 6 over all, number 3 in order through Mr. Armstrong is....

6 (3) God’s purpose for mankind. God is reproducing Himself and no other church knows or preaches this truth. We are to be born of God and become God—in the God Family: Elohim.

And so now, in a very powerful way, God begins to help us move forward far more so, especially in Philadelphia at that particular time when God began to give these truths to Mr. Armstrong, establish them within the Church, and from the beginning to the end. By the time Mr. Armstrong got to the end and wrote the book that he did, ‘Mystery of the Ages’, all that that had come together over fifty years to reveal what we’re going through in this series of sermons. Powerful indeed!  Incredible indeed when you begin to recognize the awesome way in which God moulds and fashions us.

Going back to Genesis 1, as I mentioned, God’s purpose for mankind, that we be born into a Family.  Who teaches that?  What’s taught about going to heaven or going to hell?  What kind of a life do people have?  “Old Joe is up there fishing in heaven... he loved to fish and I can just see him up there fishing in heaven.”  You think, “Give me a break!” and what is he going to catch?  What kind of a life is that?  ...or to look upon a face for all eternity, that that’s what people do, they drift around in these clouds....  Who wants that?!  What kind of a life would that be for the rest of your life just floating around and looking on a face or fishing?  You’d get tired of fishing!  What else is there to life?  It’s about Family, it’s about sharing!

I remember giving a sermon a long time ago talking about the awesome universe that God has created and the amount of time it would take if you were to all these different galaxies out there (and man still doesn’t know how many are out there), and if there are, as an example, a hundred solar systems, a hundred thousand solar systems or more... What is it?  It’s more than that; it’s a hundred billion, isn’t it?  ....hundred billion solar systems just within the Milky Way galaxy!  I can’t comprehend that!  And then when you look at all the planets that are in each solar system.... they’re still trying to figure that one out.  Are they there?  Yes, they’re there.  You can look at ours and you know what the rest is built like - God, the consistency, the order of what God has done.

Anyway, also talked about considering the number of people through time that will become a part of the God Family and considering the billions upon billions and billions.... Do you know how long it would take to get to know everyone in that Family if you looked at it in a matter of a clock time?  And how much time does it take to get to know someone, spend time and share with them?  Hundred years?  Thousand years?  ...to get to know someone well, to spend time with them, to have that experience in life?  Millions of years?  It’s awesome!

Just to visit all the galaxies out there that God has created, if you did it one every second it could take trillions of years...trillions of years.  We can’t comprehend things like that, and yet from the very beginning of time God has had a purpose for mankind to become a part of His Family – all of those that God intends to bring into His Family in time.  It’s an awesome thing...a desire to reproduce Himself.

And so going back to this thing about the world and what they teach: What do they have to look forward to?  If I thought I had to fish for eternity I wouldn’t be a happy camper.  What kind of a life is that?  What would you want to do for eternity?  I love what we do now, getting to know God’s people, spending time, things you get to do together, things that draw you closer together, the things of sharing that come together with life, things you do together, the things you’ve built.  What do you do in a family?  It’s the building you do together in a family.  We get to experience that on a very small plane as human beings in a family; children, parents, extended family in the sense of others, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts.  And we see in the world this isn’t really what we want, because I’ve experienced it primarily through my wife and my own family in times past, we’ve experienced what it’s like when you really come into a family.  Because a family isn’t really a kind of family that is what God desires human beings have until we’re in the Church, and then you can begin to grow in family and have a desire for something you can see into eternity, when it’s done right, when people treat each other right, when people love each other and want to share with each other.  That’s the kind of family we desire to have; when people are loved by everyone in the family and they know it.

A lot of hang-up’s people have in life are because they crave the love they never really received in life, of something they long for and still long for.  I know of people out here within the Church and I’m sure sitting in this room, that have a desire, they wish they had a closer family relationship, they wish and desire to be able to share...and what is it you want to share that’s the richness of everything in life?  God’s way of life.  But you can’t!  You can’t share that!  But with those whom you can share it, within the Family that God gives, is an exciting thing, to share in what God purposes in life.  It’s inspiring, but only when God’s in the picture.

I look forward to eternity.  I look forward to a continuation and a growth and a closeness with God and with one another and getting through this physical life, because here’s where we have the trials and the hardships and the sorrow and the pain.  It’s only in this physical life. Even within the Church we’ve had a lot of because it’s been a struggle to get to where we’re going, when you talk about the apostasy and the things that have been done wrong and improperly.  And it helps us to yearn for and desire in a greater way then what is right in God’s Family, when those things that hurt are gone.  Just having the Church isn’t enough, but it’s the means, it’s the vehicle that takes us into God’s Family that helps us to grow so we can be a part of that Family.

Genesis 1:26 – And God said, interesting how it’s written, And Elohim said… At one time we believed that maybe there were two in Elohim.  We came to find out, no, from the very beginning there was only one, so when Elohim spoke we know who it is!  It’s not a mystery!  And when you try to translate something out of Hebrew into English, or even to understand Hebrew sometimes, because no matter what you’re thinking is it’s going to be based upon your understanding of what you think God is like.  And so man has not done well in that area because he hasn’t understood the truth.

When this particular version of the Bible, the King James version was written, the ‘thee’s’ and ‘thou’s’ and all this and the way they spoke, their concept wasn’t based on the truth.  They didn’t know the plan of God!  They believed in heaven and hell!  They believed in what the Catholic church has believed in, because they had the same beliefs – Easter, not Passover.  And so how do you translate things when you don’t understand the plan?  Well, God helped us to have enough of a flow to grasp and understand, only with His spirit.  That’s the only thing that unlocks it totally and completely.

And so here, Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, and so we take it as meaning, “Oh, He’s having a conversation with others. He’s having a conversation with others who are...”...well, people may know it’s Elohim because it says God here.  And so how could the God Family be having a conversation with others in a God Family...? Of course that’s where some of the other belief came in, perhaps maybe only two may be talking.  But that’s not what this is about.  This is not a proper translation in any manner, in any fashion.  It’s a revelation.  It’s prophetic.  It’s what God is showing from the very beginning, the purpose of Elohim.

Let man be made in, that’s all He’s saying, that’s what He’s talking about.  It’s like expressing it in that manner. A better way of translating it, the intent and purpose of what God is revealing:  And God said, in essence, Let man be made in... how do you relate back a word to ‘our’?  Well, only prophetically because it’s not a reality yet.  Elohim is a uniplural word and so words that go with that in English are like ‘we, our,’ more than one because it’s a uniplural word, family.  Family by its definition, as a whole, in the English language means more than one.

But in the beginning there wasn’t anyone else in it, just Yahweh, the Self-Existing One from eternity.  Had a desire for something that we cannot.... He had a desire beyond desires, as far as the human mind.  We can’t comprehend what it’s like to be alone totally!  Totally alone!  We can’t comprehend Yahweh.  We can’t comprehend the being, the power, to create what He created, to create a spirit world of things that can be seen only in a spirit world with spirit essence?  I can’t comprehend that.  I’ve never been there, I’ve never seen it, but I believe it because He says it, in essence, over and over again in different ways.  And then creating angelic beings in it, made of spirit, nothing physical yet, of things they see, of things they do, interaction of thousands and millions of spirit beings in the angelic realm called the sons of God?  Not to become God, but His sons...and now sharing in the plan and the purpose that he was going to give to the angelic realm to share with Him in bringing many sons to glory, it says.  God’s sons of a different sort, because of what they would inherit, because of what they would receive, which has to do with some other truths that are all connected together here.

These eight truths are all connected together, you can’t separate them.   Powerful revelation that God gave.  And so God said, in essence, Let us make, and this word here has to do with ‘form like, fashion’, it’s not the word ‘create’ yet, and so it has to do with a purpose that God is revealing about Elohim.  They’re going to be fashioned like Him, spirit; His Family in His Family, after that likeness.  In other words, there was a plan of what Elohim was to be.  Could never be exactly like God, but after that fashion.  After a fashion, after a sort of something He had purposed and determined, a Family, into how they could become a part of that Family and what that would mean. Everything was designed and determined, planned, before anything was ever created; before the angelic realm, before the spirit world, before a physical world, obviously.  And so it’s a revelation of His purpose.

That’s why Genesis is written the way it is.  God show’s mankind what His purpose is from the beginning but you can’t know it unless God’s spirit is there, unless He opens up your mind to see it.  It’s like the Sabbath, it’s like the name of the Church, The Church of God – you don’t know where it is until God shows you that His Church bears His name.  You don’t recognize that the seventh day, Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is His Sabbath and His Sabbath only, and to be obeyed, save all the rest of the things God gives about Himself.  It can’t be understood unless God’s spirit is there, so you can see it.  You can understand things about a seventh day Sabbath as millions have, without God, because of what the Bible says and you understand that it’s a day that God singles out, but to grasp the purpose of it, to grasp what it’s all about, to see it in the big picture of why God gave it to us…  You can’t unless God gives it to you.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the way that man was to be made, revealing a purpose for us, why we’re on this earth.  It’s an ongoing question that people have in the world.  They don’t know why they’re here.  Hindu’s? Buddhists? You look at the different religions – what are they going to do later on?  Why are they here?  Stamp out every other religion in the world and if they don’t, destroy them, kill them?  Whatever it takes is right and it’s fine to do until the whole world believes in what you believe?  ...that it’s God’s way to just destroy and kill and whatever you have to do?  That’s the basis of a religion out there, though some even in their own minds know that they can’t do that, they can’t go that far.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth; power, dominion, rule; and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth. There’s a lot more to the story here we’re going to read later on that God gave.

So God created mankind in His image, again, it’s a revelation for a purpose.  We’re physical human beings. Is that what it’s about?  In the body, in the form that has weakness, is that all that it’s about?  Obviously not.  To be in God’s image goes a lot farther, a lot...lot farther...so this is all still prophetic about Elohim and how God is going to bring about Elohim, the purpose of man, why man’s on the earth.  This is just a step, a beginning step, a necessary step to live in a body that’s filled with ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’ that we all have, ‘made subject to vanity’ as it says.  Subject to vanity!  Necessary! , Paul says.   Subject to vanity!  That’s what you are – subject to vanity!  I’m subject to vanity!  We all have plenty of vanity as far as human life is concerned.  We seek to take care of and love and nurture self.  We’re very inward as human beings – all necessary.  Why?  I hope you’re growing in understanding why so you can come to understand the necessity of what you have to go through in making choices to reject everything about this human life, about lust, about desire, about wrong things that work against what God says is right and just, to recognize how wrong it is to be selfish and inward, to hate and loathe it to the core of your being?  Because only in seeing it can you conquer it!  Only in seeing it can you fight against it!  Only in seeing it can you ask God for forgiveness, to change so your mind changes.

That’s what God wants so He put us in a physical body with physical matter up here, with a small portion of spirit that gives us the ability to think and reason, and when it comes in contact with His spirit something that can begin to work with the mind to make a different mind.  Can’t do that with a spirit being, couldn’t be done in the angelic realm – that’s why we’re made physical.  That’s an awesome thing to understand!

So God created mankind in His image, in the image of God; we’re a long way from that when we’re first put into a physical body, a long way.  This is about God’s purpose for mankind.  ...in the image of God He created them; it’s His purpose, His plan; and so it says, adds to that – as male and female He created them. Shows the very beginning, male and female, human beings in the physical form, that’s where it begins, in the literal physical creation of male and female.

So it’s taken us through the entire process here without even knowing it as a whole, of God revealing Himself, Elohim, “I am a Family,” and how we’re to be made, what our purpose is, is to become  a part of that Family...but hidden from the world.  The world doesn’t grasp it.  And yet God gave this awesome, marvellous, beautiful truth to Mr. Armstrong and he built upon it for over 50 years.  He came to understand it, he grew in this truth and built upon it for more than 50 years.  He grew in understanding of what it was about and what this one truth meant in a more powerful way so that we could have it with ease, because when we’re called, when those of you who are new especially are called and you go and you read something like that it’s just in your mind, you can see it because God gives you the ability immediately.  He had to grow in it through time to have it revealed to him.  A lot of suffering to get there, a lot of suffering.

In Genesis it begins to reveal the potential and the purpose of the creation of male and female, not the immediate reality of that purpose.  It’s a long process. It’s a process that’s going to take 7,000 years... 6,000 for some, 7,000 through time, 7,100 through all the time to accomplish.

Ephesians 2:4 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, We talked about that.  I marvel the more we grow, the more we grasp.  I marvel what God has given to us recently in the spring Holy Days about sacrifice; that God has been sacrificing from the beginning!  God determined in the beginning He was going to have to sacrifice. He was going to have to sacrifice peace by creating the angelic realm.  He knew it!  It’s a sacrifice to create beings that you know are going to turn against you, that you know whose purpose and intent is going to be to fight against you, to create chaos in the angelic realm.  And that’s exactly what Lucifer did.  God knew that before He ever created the angelic beings, what would happen in time.  God sacrificed from the very beginning of time, before anything, before the angelic realm was created, to know that He was going to have the Son born of mankind, His Son – not as we are sons, but a Son directly from Him, from His mind, from His Word, from His being, into a woman, that would begin to grow through time more and more in His mind in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend, that saw and knew the mind of God because His Father was God.  One to fulfill that, who would have to suffer and die, be beaten, skin ripped off of His flesh and off of His face to where you couldn’t even recognise who it was, except you knew it when He began.  And then finally...lived a perfect life without sin, had to become our Passover.  God sacrificed in the beginning.  It was always taking place from the moment He decided it, and then when it did happen – sacrifice.  It hurts!  God has had a lot of suffering through life, through time, seeing what His creation has done.  It’s not a pleasant thing, just as much as when we experience things in our lives of suffering in family, in life, in relationships.

And so again here, rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, He has loved His Family – only one is in that Family so far, but He loves us because He sees what we can become.  When you’re called and you start changing, you start responding and you begin to have a different attitude...  It’s something I see.  I see people that change.  I see the growth that begins to take place. I see people who resist in the beginning who make contact and after a while that mind that becomes more humble through time...it’s a beautiful thing.  When a person is of a humble spirit it’s a beautiful thing, it truly is – when it doesn’t fight against God, when it surrenders and yields to God.  How do you think God feels about that?  ...when finally a process through time is being worked out, knowing what we are like...

By nature we resist Him, we refuse Him.  That’s why the world is like it is, the whole world refuses God, the truth of God.  But then when He starts drawing us and starts giving us some of His truth, His mind, an ability to see things of His, it’s an awesome thing, brings great joy to His being because He knows what we are to become, can become if we make the right choices.  And so He moulds and fashions us to help us to come to that, to make the right choices.  He doesn’t want anyone to not succeed, to not come through it all.  But there are going to be many who can’t, who won’t, just like in the spirit world, because of free choice.

...even when we were dead in sins, the purpose of mankind.  I think about all these truths we’re going to go through in this series just in these eight sermons, and they’re all tied together, they all work together.  It’s all about the good news.  What incredible good news to give to mankind, that you don’t have to fish for all eternity if you liked fishing!  You’re not going to be up there for eternity drifting around on some kind of cloud, either fishing or looking upon God’s face for all eternity.  You think God wants that?  I think of the world that put that before man, that that’s what God desires and you just look upon His countenance for all eternity?  What does that mean? I think of watching a TV program.  What kind of a life is it going to be if you have to watch the same thing over and over and over again for the rest of your life and you don’t do anything else?  What is that?  I have a hard time watching something twice unless... well, I’m getting to the point now though after about a year I forgot what it was all about and I can go back and watch it like it was brand new, but hey...

...even when we were dead in sins, that’s an awesome thing to understand.  Oh that we could become like that toward each other.  When someone has sinned, when someone is imperfect, that you could love them, that you could look beyond that, that you could say, “I know why God’s called them, and they have opportunity for growth. I have my faults, I have my weaknesses and so does everybody else in the Body.”  Surprise, surprise.  And so when someone else slips, falls, stumbles, does something wrong, do I tear them down, do I look down upon them?  No, I look forward to the time or the ability they’re going to have in conquering and overcoming it and repenting of it so they can become better and do better.  That’s what we should desire for each other.  That’s what God desires for us, because He knows we can.  He knows we can come to repentance.  He is excited about that when we come to repentance.  Every time you say, “Father forgive me...”  ...and how many times in a day?  Sad if you don’t day by day.  If you see what you are and you repent of certain things you’re acknowledging that God is right and His way is right and you’re wrong.  It’s a beautiful thing; God rejoices in that.

...even when we were dead in sins, what does that mean, ‘dead in sins’? Hmm, that’ll come out more as we go along, another truth.  ...has quickened us together with Christ, made us alive, because the reality is because of sin there’s a penalty over our head, and yet God loves His creation...not what they’re doing.  You know, you can love, in this case here, that phase of His Family and look forward to the time that they’re going to be brought to humility, brought to repentance, the vast majority in the Great White Throne because that’s His plan, that they’re going to be able to finally have a right mind to receive Him.  He looks forward to that time, we look forward to that time, so that this can take place ...has quickened/made alive, it’s a word that has to do with making alive, giving life beyond just physical existence, but because of what is given in the mind, has quickened us together with Christ, in other words to share in things with Christ (by grace are you saved;)

Verse 10 - For we are His workmanship, so again here, God’s workmanship and the purpose for mankind; that God’s going to work with us to make us something different if we’ll respond.  ...created in Christ Jesus unto good works; God’s purpose that we be created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not the wrong works, not the wrong kind of life we have lived before, which God ordained before that we should walk in them. Before what?  Before anything was ever created this is the plan God had for us so that we could become something different, His workmanship, that He would work with our minds and mould and fashion us in Jesus Christ, because there’s no other way.  Because we have to be forgiven of sin and then Christ can live in us and we can dwell in Christ and in the Father.  It’s a spiritual life that we’re able to have then with God, a relationship with God, so that we can walk in a right way of life.

Ephesians 4:22 – again, a desire that God has toward mankind, things that mankind has to go through as a part of God reproducing Himself - That you put off concerning the former conversation, it’s a word that means conduct, the way you live, the way you acted before, before you were called, the old man, we’re to become a new person, a new man or woman, it’s a word that is all encompassing, both men and women, that you put off concerning the former conduct, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; tells us like it is, we’re filled with deceit, we deceive ourselves, lusts which are deceiving.  It’s so easy to justify our actions because we want something that God says isn’t right.  So we can want something so much we can justify our actions of why it’s okay to disobey God.  The world does it all the time.

Verse 23 - And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; something different, a new life, a new thinking in your mind and in your being, and that you put on the new man... So again here, God’s purpose for mankind, showing there’s a process here we can go through, that we’re not to remain the way we are.  We’re made physical, we have physical lusts, physical selfishness, ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’ that’s just a normal part of life, and God says we can become something different, a new man, the purpose that God has for us.  We can think differently, we don’t have to live selfishly.

Whenever you’re selfish you’re going to hurt others and yourself.  Whenever you live selfishly, whenever you’re motivated by and yield to selfish thought you will always hurt yourself, your own mind, and someone else.

And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And this is more correctly stated and translated; which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.  So again, God’s purpose for mankind, to become a part of Elohim and the process we go through in order for that to become a reality in our lives.  And so again, that which is created after God, after His likeness, after His being, after His mind, His thinking, everything about God.  It’s not about a physical body; it’s about the mind and what you’ll carry into another body into the future for eternity.

Romans 8:16 - I think about these verses we go through, some people can read them in Protestant churches and in the world around us; they don’t know what these things mean.  They’re shallow, they have no depth, they have no great purpose of what God is doing on the earth, why He’s doing it and bringing this great picture together.

Romans 8:16 - The spirit itself, it’s God’s spirit that it’s referring to here.  God’s spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: What an awesome thing!  Something that takes place in human life, a purpose for mankind to become a part of the God Family and it begins with the mind and a spirit that we are able to receive, God’s spirit that changes us.

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God: So the angelic realm, though they be called the sons of God are not referred to as His children in this light.  Children are different.  Children grow up to adulthood if you will, to maturity – in our case and what’s revealed in scripture over and over again, that God gave to Mr. Armstrong very clearly so that we love and embrace and see the truth that there is a process we begin when we’re children and a process begins to grow in us until a time when we can become matured and a part in that Family.

It says here, if children, then heirs; Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; in other words we’re going to inherit/receive something right along with Jesus Christ, not with the angelic beings but with Jesus Christ.  What did He inherit?  What did He receive?  Elohim, eternal life in the God Family.

...if so be that we suffer with Him, scriptures that talk about ‘entering into the sufferings of Christ’, that process we have to go through in life to change, to respond, to yield ourselves to Christ living in us, to being obedient, to recognizing that He’s our Passover, to that desire of fighting against sin, repenting of sin, striving to conquer and overcome it as Jesus Christ said, “...you can overcome, you can conquer, I have.  You can too...” paraphrasing what He’s told us.

...and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Think, how sad that the world doesn’t grasp what that means - to be glorified together with Christ is to be like Christ, to be Christ-like.  What’s He like?  He’s a spirit being but of God, Elohim, in the God Family far above the angelic realm in the Kingdom of God.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. A glory that we’re to receive, the glory of God, the glory of Christ that God Almighty gave to Jesus Christ.  This is clear to us, we see it – what about the world around us?  If we’re not careful after a while you begin to take these things for granted...an awesome truth that God has given to us that we see clearly.  I feel sorry for people when they don’t grasp what happens at death.  They don’t know what’s going to happen next.  What happens next?  ...they don’t know.  I think of the freedom we have and the fullness we have because we know what happens.

For the earnest expectation of the... it says ‘creature’ here, but it’s the same word ‘creation’.  For the earnest expectation of the creation waits: What creation?  Everything that God has ever brought into being from the beginning.  From the beginning of that which is created that is spirit, spiritual realm, or that which is created later in a physical realm in a physical universe and mankind eventually then put on this earth and that process and that long waiting that’s been taking place – millions, billions of years!  We can’t comprehend that, the patience, the timing of God, the purpose of God to bring us into His Family. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. This reveals what it’s all about – Elohim.  Goes back to Genesis – the manifestation of the sons of God - the God Family.

Verse 20 - For the creature, as it is here, the creation, and when it talks about this it’s always about, and the purpose is about mankind to become Elohim – always, always, always when you see this word expressed this way by Paul this is what he’s talking about.  For the creation was made subject to vanity, us, human beings, because it’s about mankind and the purpose of mankind to become a part of the God Family, the Kingdom of God.

...not willingly, but by reason of Him/of God who has subjected the same in hope.  ...of becoming Elohim, of a change that can take place, of something that can happen in no other way except you live in this physical body first.  Awesome, awesome, awesome... I am in awe of that, I hope you are.  And the more you learn, the more you grow in this, the more you become in awe of why we’re physical, of how God can mould and fashion the mind to become a part of His Family that will never turn against Him, that will never sin into eternity; one that is totally at one in unity and agreement with Him.  That’s an awesome thing!  And it can happen in no other form of creation except the exact way that God did it. That’s awesome!

For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, that’s about mankind!  There’s a bondage out there!  That’s why it talks about God freeing us out of Egypt, delivering us out of Egypt.  The first time it was primarily about a physical Egypt and the children of Israel being taken out of it.  The purpose of God is to take all mankind out of spiritual Egypt into His Kingdom, to deliver us from that bondage.  Because it is a bondage to the people who are imprisoned to... this world is imprisoned to what it’s in.  Only when God comes along and begins to draw someone and begins to reveal His truth can someone begin to be freed from it.  Before that everyone is imprisoned to their own carnal selfish human nature and everything that comes from that – in bondage to it.  Every government, every religion, every system out here is in bondage to what they brought into being, they truly are.  This country is in bondage in a big way today; to a great debt it can’t pay, just physically because of the way human beings are.  And now the world’s getting a little tired of it.  We lived fat and sassy for far too long and they’re emerging and they’re beginning to experience a better life themselves and they’re struggling to accomplish things that they see they’re helping us to have and they’re beginning to realize they’re the ones who’ve sustained us.

Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and the glorious liberty of the children of God.  Children. For we know that the whole creation groans and labours in pain together until now.  It’s the way it is, it’s the way it’s always been.  Mankind in the midst of all this for 6,000 years, the turmoil, the anguish of human beings in the wars, the ugliness of life...of Somalia today, hundreds of thousands of people, children, dying in one country alone!  And the world just goes on and ignores it country after country after country because that’s the way we are, because that’s too big for us to handle because we can’t take care of ourselves, we’ve got bigger things to deal with right now, we’ve got bigger things to worry about – Medicare, Medicaid... oh yeah, and the debt...that’s, you know, whatever.  Sick!  We’re sick!  This world is sick!  ...truly is.  There’s no news about what is going on over there as a whole.  They barely make a report of what’s taking place, the suffering that’s going on in this world.  It’s not God’s world.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labours in pain together until now. Because we’re in bondage, the world is in bondage, and we also suffer and labour in pain, but for the right purposes when God begins to draw us out of it and calls us out of it; we begin to change and to respond to Him.  All this about this truth – God’s purpose for mankind - why we’re made the way we are!  And we have built upon that much more!  God has blessed us to build upon that much more than what we had back in 1986...but what an awesome truth to have!  That we couldn’t have what we have today in the last couple of years that we’ve built upon this, to see it in a better way, in a greater way, except God had given it back then, the gospel, the good news, of the purpose for us to become a part of Elohim and how that’s accomplished.  We’re just blessed to grow in it more and more and more as we go forward.

And not only that, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, speaking of the Church.  Because you see, today this is not fully true in the same light, because there’s a different thing taking place today in God’s Church that goes beyond the firstfruits now.  During Philadelphia there weren’t those being called who were going to live on into a new age, who weren’t intended to become a part of the first great resurrection.  Anyone called in the last several years, they’re not a part of this.

But we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, there’s more now than the firstfruits if you understand about the Church, the purpose of the Church, the purpose of the first 6,000 years – the continuation of God’s spirit being given to mankind is going to continue on in the Millennium and on into the Great White Throne. But the purpose of the firstfruits and those who are the first to be able to receive that into their lives is about those who are going to become a part, or are a part of the government of God that returns with Jesus Christ. That’s an awesome thing to understand.  We’ve actually gone beyond these verses in this time period we live in because of what God’s doing in the Church.  He’s calling people now to live on into the Millennium for a continuation of His Church.

And not even they, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the spirit, so this is primarily speaking, especially at that time, to the Church who had the firstfruits of the spirit.  ...even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, awesome word here in what it really means in the Greek language.  It has more to do with ‘the appointment as sons’; an appointment that God has given, to be appointed as sons, waiting for the adoption, not a real good English word to explain what it’s saying here.  It’s better to understand what God’s purpose is – an appointment of sons – literal – in the God Family, in Elohim, waiting for that and the redemption of our body. When that takes place, when a change comes, when we’re no longer mortal.

Verse 29 - For whom He did foreknow, He also did predetermine, the word has to do with predetermined. It’s not a matter of predestination as some people in the Protestant world think of predestination.  It’s a word in the Greek that means ‘predetermined’; For whom He did foreknow, He did predetermine to be conformed to the image of His Son, whom did He foreknow?  His Family!  All of mankind that would be created, that would come into being, that would be born of family, generation after generation for several thousand years.  That’s what it’s talking about here, His purpose for Elohim.  And so He determined those that were foreordained as well, to be conformed to the image of His Son, image?  ...how are they going to be made?  ‘...in the image of God’.  The purpose in Genesis, Elohim, to become a part of that image; that Jesus Christ is there and we’re to be conformed to that image.  That’s what we’re going to inherit, what He’s inherited, because it’s a matter of literally being God’s sons in His Family; that we might be the firstborn among many brethren. So again here, still referring back to the firstfruits, but it doesn’t stop there, it continues on in time to all who become a part.

Hebrews 2 – awesome scriptures here in what it has to say, missed by the world, has been missed by many in God’s Church to comprehend, to grasp what is being said here.  It starts out in chapter 1 talking about Jesus Christ, things that God was going to do in and through Him, and it talks about the angelic realm as well, and it magnifies Jesus Christ showing that nothing like that has ever been said about the angelic world, and setting Jesus Christ apart in a very powerful way as the Son of God.  And then finally in Hebrews 2:5 – it says exactly that - For unto the angels has He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.  And so talking about the future into time, talking about the earth, talking about 7,100 years of time as you go forward and farther beyond that.  It says in essence here that God didn’t put the angelic realm... it wasn’t made subject to them.  On the contrary, it tells previously what they are there accomplishing and doing as a part of God’s plan.

Hebrews 1:14 – it makes it clear, let’s just jump up to read this verse - to which of the angels did He say at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool? Speaking of Jesus Christ.  And then it says, Are they not ministering spirits, speaking of the angelic realm, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? They have been working, those who remained faithful to God Almighty. For the past 6,000 years God has given them part to share with Him during that period of time to help and bring about His plan in a very unique hands-on way in different things that God has given them through time, things that are not even seen.  I think of different encounters when God does reveal at times when He’s had contact with, or worked with different ones at different moments of time.  I think of Daniel and the war that was taking place and Daniel praying to God and two great angelic beings referred to over and over again...and here was a war taking place and an apology given to Daniel, “I’d have been here sooner but...” basically they were fighting Lucifer, they were fighting Satan.  God has let them be engaged in, be involved in things that are awesome and difficult sometimes for us to comprehend.  But again, they were there working with, doing things with, things that God has not even revealed all that they’ve done; and it’s all been a part of God sharing with them of life and things that God has planned for them into the future that they don’t even know about yet...into the future.  Excitement in the God Family, the excitement that they have that they’re going to be a part of and share in in the God Family – their life becoming more meaningful, more exciting, more inspiring, just as we go forward and our life becomes more meaningful and more exciting, more inspiring as time goes forward.  All sharing together.

God is showing a purpose here that wasn’t for them, it wasn’t given to them, that wasn’t their purpose.  Their purpose is a part of sharing in God’s plan and purpose, yes, but about the God Family, helping to bring it to fruition.  Awesome!

Hebrews 2:5 - For unto the angels has He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that You are mindful of him? David, the prophet David, king David.  It was given to David in the Psalms.  I think it was Psalm 8 where this is quoted from, and David looked up in the heavens talking to God, praying to God, “What is man...” seeing all that’s there, and think of the knowledge he had back then, not much compared to what we have today concerning the universe.

Says, But one in a certain place testified, What is man that You’re mindful of him? or the son of man, that You visit him? And so this has more to do than with the question, it has to do with where it leads.  It was a prophecy.  It’s prophetic of what God inspired David to give, to say, to speak.  ...and the son of man, that You visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels; has to do with a little while lower because of God’s plan, it’s a matter of the timing involved here as well, and also has to do with, obviously, the power, the purpose.  They are spirit beings, we are physical, dust of the earth, weak...they’re not.

You crowned him with glory and honour, and did set him over the works of Your hands: from the very beginning.  That’s what it says back in Genesis we read earlier.  God’s showing a purpose, dominion over everything, over all the earth...and that’s dominion over everything.  It goes beyond the earth as other scriptures show and as this talks about as well.  And so it shows here a great purpose that God has, that He’s given through mankind or in mankind, but not right away.

So it says, You made him little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honour,  You have put all things in subjection under his feet, makes it clear here, all things under subjection under his feet, under mankind’s, but not in his form as mankind, that’s the point. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. Nothing!  Everything that God has is to be given to His Family; ‘inherit all things,’ sharing in all things that God has brought into being, in time. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. It hasn’t happened yet, hasn’t taken place, it’s prophetic, it’s for the future what He was saying here back in the Psalms, what David was saying.  All prophetic that’s showing a greater purpose.  Psalms is revealing a greater purpose of what it said back in Genesis.  It’s magnifying the scriptures that God revealed about Elohim back in Genesis.  Psalm 8 is a magnification of that, that all things.

Going on in what it’s giving here in Hebrews.  But it says, what do we see?  We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, made a human being, for the suffering of death, our Passover, crowned with glory and honour; made immortal, made a part of the God Family, became a part of the God Family, no longer a physical human being, resurrected from the dead, given eternal life. ...that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. So again, showing God’s purpose. For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, He is the first and it shows a purpose here then of many sons that are going to be brought into glory.  That’s God’s purpose, God’s plan, of putting all things into subjection to His Family... to make the captain of their salvation perfect, again talking about Jesus Christ, through sufferings.

It says what’s going to be given to mankind, but right now all we see to this point in time is just one that this has happened to, Jesus Christ, and yet others are going to be able to receive the same glory and the same power and the same life.  Not the same position - that’s government - that is totally another matter of how the Family functions. How it works together in unity and harmony is another matter by itself.

So the next truth, number seven in total and number four through Mr. Armstrong if you will....

7 (4) Who and what is God.

It states under this....

God is a Family into which we may be born.

So again, you can’t separate these truths from each other – the purpose of mankind – it goes with this great truth.  It’s not a matter of order, it’s a matter of them all fitting together as the gospel, the good news, because it’s not just a part of the good news, it’s a complete package that God gave to Mr. Armstrong.  This excitement... it’s hard to talk about one part...and I have a hard time even going through some of the scriptures we did without talking about some of these others because they’re all contained there.  All these truths, in a powerful way, stated by themselves are awesome indeed, but they all work together.  That’s what’s unique about this sermon series in talking about these eight truths that we’re going through right now that follow the first two, that give them great power, power to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.  And all these things are a part of it.

So again, it’s a part of God revealing Himself, who He is, what He is, what He’s been doing, what His purpose is – all this is a part of it.

God is a Family into which we may be born. God’s spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are begotten children of God.

Turn over to Romans 8 and we’ll just read some of this.  The grouping of these truths in this sermon and in this sermon series is not a matter of order when we’re talking about these eight truths that we’re going through.  It’s not a matter of order of revelation but it’s a matter of being all inclusive of this entire section of these eight truths as is...again, even as we read ‘Who and what is God’ back in Romans 8 earlier.  We’ll pick it up in the verses just before it now with verse 16 but, again, I had a hard time reading that without talking more about this one here, this truth ‘Who and what is God’.

Romans 8:14 - For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Tells it very powerfully – if you’re led by God’s spirit that’s the beginning.  You’re led by it, you’re drawn by it...God’s involved in it; you’re His sons.  It can happen in no other way because there’s a process He’s given to you.  So, as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the spirit of the appointment of sons, to become a part of God’s Family.  This is revealing things about God, who God is, what God is, the power of God to change us, to make us something different, that He is God, that He is the Creator of all; whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  He reveals Himself as our Father.  What an awesome relationship – God the Father.  ...we cry, Abba, Father.

Verse 16 – the spirit itself, in other words, God’s spirit witnessing with our spirit.  God revealing Himself, ‘Who and what is God’.  He is a Family!  That’s His purpose, that’s His being, that’s what He’s been doing from the very beginning – creating a Family.

Number eight...number eight in full order, five 5 as far as that which was revealed through Mr. Armstrong....

8 (5) What is man?

This focuses on a different portion here.  Not talking specifically about number 3 when we talked about God’s purpose for mankind – it’s to understand man and things about mankind that the world doesn’t understand, especially in the Protestant world.  And even different religions, because people have these different ideas, “Oh, when you die you come back as...” might be a cricket!  You might be a cow!  I don’t want to think that way, I don’t even want to think too much about it!  And yet the world’s confused and you think, “Where do these crazy, weird ideas come from?”  Well, we know where they came from, but it’s incredulous that human beings would actually believe such things, that they could believe some of the things that they do, and yet that’s what they’re in bondage to.  They start out as a child being taught these things, and to them that’s their world.

So again here....

8 (5) What is man?

And states here as a part of this truth, what it’s focusing upon....

Man does not have an immortal soul.

I am dumbfounded at times when I think about this, of how Satan has wanted man to believe that he does.  That lie that he’s foisted upon the religious world, not just those that call themselves Christian, also in Judaism, also in things of so many religions that people continue on.  Some way or another there is this immortality, that there is a purpose of things mysteriously, weirdly so, being worked out in the universe – whatever.  And so with this truth it states....

Man does not have an immortal soul. Man is a temporary living, mortal being that returns to the elements of the earth at death and does not go to heaven or hell. Only God can give mankind immortality in His Family.

Good news?  Again it’s about Elohim and God’s purpose for mankind.  But here it focuses in on a very powerful truth that the world is ignorant of.  It is a powerful truth!  You try to talk to someone in the world; how do you encourage someone at a funeral?  ...that someone has died and they want to believe that they’re up in heaven and they don’t want to believe, because they know some things about them, that they might be down there hurting...little beings going around with these little hot pitchforks ramming them in their behind, poking them in their rear-end.  And you think if they’re immortal beings how does that hurt anybody?  Human beings... so thin in thinking, shallow, don’t want to think that hard.

What an incredible thing to understand that when you die you just go back to the dust of the earth.  Why can’t people accept that?  Because they don’t know God, they don’t know the purpose of God, they don’t know the purpose of why mankind is on this earth, and so they willingly hold onto and believe something that gives them some hope in the midst of sin, chaos, confusion. Its religious ignorance, a willingness to believe things that just don’t really make sense but it’s better to believe in this mystery.  “Leave it to the priests. Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about those verses. Don’t read the Bible.”  That’s what all the Catholics are told, “Don’t bother yourself worrying, it’s a mystery, we’ll tell you.  That’s what our job is.”  Well, what does that mean? “It’s a mystery!”  You feel sorry for the world really, because they can’t see what you see.

Do we grasp the richness of what we have?  Really?  To grasp why human beings are on the earth...?  ...where we’re going?  All inclusive good news, gospel message that God has given, that He restored to the Church through Mr. Armstrong?  Powerful!  It truly is!

People don’t have an immortal soul, and when a minister gets up and preaches at these funerals and he reads certain scriptures about a resurrection and then in the next breath he’s talking about how he’s up there in heaven with God.... Well, whoa, what took place?  What’s the purpose...Why’d you talk about a resurrection for?  They don’t go together; and they don’t even see that they’re contradicting themselves.  What a sad thing!  The world is so blinded because of what Satan has done, man willingly believing it.

So again, this truth cannot be separated from the previous two truths, they all tie together as part of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  This truth drives home the greater reality of what we are without God and shows how God’s purpose can only become a reality with His immortal purpose in us.

Let’s go over to Romans 2.  You know, God makes it clear in scripture but people don’t want to hear it ‘...the soul that sins will die.’  ‘...the soul/the life that sins...’ but people have this concept of a ‘soul’.  See, Satan has done a number out there.  The ‘soul’; I remember one time when I was a freshman in high school and we had this class.  I don’t even know how we got involved in it but somehow one of the girls asked a question of the teacher and this discussion started off.  The soul, what is a soul?  Boy, there were some weird things going on that day, I have it stuck in my mind, and talking about this thing and what a soul is; it’s something you have in you, it’s like it’s alive and when you die this is what goes off to heaven, this soul thing you have that has life, and yet it’s in you.  Anyway, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense then and still doesn’t now, obviously.  All the word means is ‘life’.  The soul, ‘the life that sins’, you are a living soul.  It talks about the creatures... and this really gives the Protestant world a hard time when you go back to Genesis and you realize there are certain things that talk about animals have a soul.  It says they’re a soul, they’re a living soul.  It just means a living, breathing being.  It’s life.  It just is a life, that’s all it is talking about.   But for mankind, “Oh no, man’s the only one that has a soul.”  They don’t understand, no, it’s just about the same thing, it’s just talking about you have life, you’re living.  Incredible!

So again here, God makes it clear that ‘the soul that sins it will die’; Jesus Christ later makes it clear that everyone has sinned.  New Testament talks about it over and over again, everyone has sinned.  Paul talks about it, everyone has sinned.  So every human being has sinned.  The Bible makes it very clear that there is only one who has never sinned.  Jesus Christ.  He’s the only one without sin, so ‘every soul will die’, every life, every person’s going to die – yet people don’t want to believe that.  “No, as soon as they die you’re going to live.  You’re going up there or you’re going down there, but you’re going to still be alive.”  Sad the world is so blinded to beautiful truths here.

When you’re dead you’re dead, and that’s why you don’t have to fear death.  That’s why you don’t have to fear what happens to people.  You don’t have to fear what happens in the next year, less than a year now.  You don’t have to fear about what happens to different ones that you know in this world around you and relatives you know.  People don’t know when they’re dead, and the body is just a physical thing that decomposes, and that spirit essence that’s there returns to God, nothing in it, no life – like the computer when it’s shut down.  There’s nothing in it until it has juice running through it and you turn it on.  And God has that power to take that and keep it and one day to give us another physical body that looked like the other one except healthier, better, and younger (if you’re older), mid-life with a great healthy healed body, pure body, healthy, not worn out with a bunch of chemicals we’ve been eating and junk we’ve been eating out here because man has raped the land, the earth, and put chemicals in it and all the additives and stuff that you have running through your system that has totally screwed up your life and your body and made you what you are, your weaknesses and so forth.  No, God resurrects you back into a pure, healthy...healthy, healthy, healthy body – grade A – and He puts that mind back into it.  And so at the Great White Throne, people are resurrected...it’s just a matter of time, it’s a passing of time.

We see someone leave, they go to another part of the country, another part of the world and they’re gone.  A week, two weeks, a month, a year?  ...and you don’t see them except for Skype or telephone.  But what if you didn’t have that?  They’re just away from you for a time.  And it’s hard for us as human beings to grasp a thousand years - that amount of time.  That’s why I don’t worry about or fear for people who live on into the Millennium, when you die – because you’re going to get old and you’re going to die, just like people in the past 6,000 years have. It’s just a part of life and you learn from that.  And your children and your great-grandchildren are going to learn from that process of death and they’re going to realize, they’re going to understand they have something to look forward to in God’s plan and God’s purpose when you’re going to be together again as Family.  And they’re going to learn from that, they’re going to be sobered by it to realize man can die, human beings can die, and not only that but they’re...when it comes to death you better think about it, what kind of a life do you want to live then, where do you want to be?  Sure don’t want to live in a body again in that last hundred years because I fought and resisted God the whole time I was in it the first time when I had the opportunity.  Hope you appreciate that one.  Death and the realization of life and death of animals is a good thing.  ...of human beings? ...it’s a good thing for human beings to understand that.

And if you don’t grasp that you need to think about it and pray about it, that God give you understanding of why that is a good process for human beings to go through. Because there are things in your life you must answer and think about before God in the choices and decisions you make that have to do with eternal life in the future and your relationship with God in the here and now – whenever that now is. And those things have a tremendous impact on your life to make things a greater reality for you in this human body that is selfish by nature.  A lot said there. That was a whole sermon if we can see it and receive it.

Romans 2:7 - To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek...SEEK for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: Man doesn’t have it.  Why would Paul write this? And yet in the Protestant world people can read this but they don’t get it, they can’t receive it, they can’t see it, but you’re blessed to see it!  What an awesome thing that we can understand things about mankind that the world can’t grasp!  That man doesn’t have an immortal soul, but it’s something he must seek after and God will show you how to have immortal life, eternal life as it says here.  It’s something you have to seek!  Because there’s only one way to receive it, that’s the bottom line - God’s way!  And that’s what parts of Romans and other places are about.  People don’t have it.  When you die you die and you’re dead all over.  There’s nothing in that grave. That’s why I don’t like an open casket at a funeral - THEY’RE NOT THERE!! They’re not there - it’s a BODY!  It’s what they had before, yes, but they’re not there!

Where are they?  That spirit essence that God has given to every human being, like a computer chip except spirit, it’s with God to be saved for the day of the resurrection, to be given power again, to be plugged into life again.  And God has the power to do that and you just have to wait to be reunited.  And it’s a beautiful, awesome, mind-boggling process, and the difficult part is our selfishness.  It’s hard to see in our impatience, in our lack of grasping and comprehending and understanding things about God who has waited a whole lot longer, in ways you can’t even begin to comprehend to bring about what He’s bringing about, especially the firstfruits, as an example.  6,000 years!

I Corinthians 15 - Things that you can read and see; things that are read at a funeral out here.  This is so often read and the world doesn’t see it, they can’t grasp it – things about mankind, truth that God gave to Mr. Armstrong that other religions do not have!  They do not see this!

I Corinthians 15:50 -  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God;  and yet the Protestant world will tell you that they can, that you can inherit the Kingdom of God, that you can have it in your heart! “The Kingdom of God is in your heart.”  Give me a break!  They are so blind and they read other things into these verses.  ...cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and neither does corruption inherit incorruption. So the acknowledgement we have to make as human beings, an acknowledgement that the Protestant world, in time, and the Catholic world, in time, and all who call themselves Christian, in time, will have to acknowledge and understand and accept a truth – that we’re corrupt by nature!  Our nature is corrupt, it’s selfish, it’s inward, and it has to inherit – you don’t automatically have it.

Verse 50 - ...and neither does corruption inherit incorruption, that which comes from God is a matter of something that has to be inherited, like we read earlier, things that you can inherit in the Kingdom of God, as the sons of God.

Behold, I show you a mystery; It’s a mystery to the world because the world can’t see it until God gives you the ability to see it, spiritually.  Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp what we have!  Sometimes you get discouraged, sometimes you wonder, sometimes you think about the time we’re in and maybe have doubts...that’s why these truths that God has given are so powerful!  They should remove all doubt!  Why do you know the things you know and are able to hold onto them?  Because I can tell you that so much of the scattered Church has lost some of the basic things in the 18 truths!  Truly!  They’re not seen anymore, they’re not grasped anymore – they’re losing it because it can’t stay there without God’s spirit.  Proof!  Evidence! Witness!  You. Have. God’s. Spirit!  What does that mean to you?  For one thing it means you’re in the Church of God, it means you’re in the right place, part of the government of God, the organization and structure that God has given.  It should give you greater confidence and boldness to know the things you know and to understand why you understand the things you do.

Behold I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, everyone’s going to be changed.  ‘Sleep’ is used here as a matter of death. People can understand that one.  It’s a matter of dying, and yet Paul is talking to the Church, not the world and he said, (in essence), we are not going to remain asleep but we are going to be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump: so again, we know what that means in the Church.  We know when the last Trump is.  We know when it is and when that’s going to take place and what this is about.  It’s the resurrection of the 144,000, those with whom God has worked with in the last 6,000 years.  It’s very specific here.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, quickly, as soon as that Trumpet blast is there and Jesus Christ begins His return, it’s started and there’s a meeting that takes place; those that are resurrected join with Jesus Christ.  Awesome! In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump; for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, they were corruptible, they were dead, there has to be a resurrection.  Everyone, the firstfruits, has to be resurrected and they have to be changed, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. We don’t have it!  How on earth can a Protestant world read this with a straight face?  But they can and they don’t see at all what you see.  They still think that someone, as soon as they die, has gone someplace.  Incredible! Because they don’t understand these basic truths about the good news that go together hand in hand, all eight of them.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, when this takes place, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Finally, finally, finally there’s no more death, just eternal life. It’s a beautiful picture, truly is.  Now, we know the rest of the story.  This was written in Paul’s time, the Church was focused upon it at that time because that was the message for them, all the way through Philadelphia that was their message, and into Laodicea for those who died before the apostasy especially, and maybe for some afterward.  It’s in God’s hands to know what people have and what they didn’t have in the mind and in the spirit in the sense of the scattering that took place.  And as time has gone on we have entered a period of time where God has begun to call and draw people past the time a sealing has already taken place, and individuals that have an opportunity to live on into a new age, but now in God’s world, in God’s time.  What an awesome thing to understand!  That you have the opportunity to live in and to die in, but be resurrected at the end of a moment in time, at the end of a thousand years.  A desire you have – that’s your goal, that’s your desire.  Back then, Paul’s desire and those whom he preached to, their focus was the time of the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on this earth, finally.  Your focus goes beyond that.  What an awesome thing – God’s plan just continues on through time.

I Timothy 6 – In scripture after scripture after scripture, things that if you’re not careful you can begin to take for granted, not understanding how much different the world is from you, from what you see and what you understand.  Don’t take God’s Word for granted, don’t take these truths for granted! Understand the only way you see them with the power and the ability you do is because God has given you that calling and ability to do so through the power of His holy spirit.  It’s the only way you see it.

I Timothy 6:13 - I give you charge in the sight of God, who quickens, in other words, gives life or makes alive (as it means in the Greek), all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good... it’s not a ‘confession’ as we think of confession like the Catholic church – that’s not what it means.  It has to do with ‘profession’ if you will, or ‘He professed, acknowledged’ in other words, an acknowledgement, a witness of God’s way of life, of the truth of God, of standing right before Him, of being the Passover. He professed, if you will, in a very powerful way in how He responded and how He didn’t respond, He’s our Passover lamb.  He went meekly before those who were going to kill Him, to be killed.  Professed a great profession, if you will, acknowledgement, the example, the truth of what He revealed, of what was given through how He responded.  That’s what it’s talking about.

That you keep His commandments without spot, unrebukeable, so again here, that encouragement here of looking to Christ, of what He did in the face of death, whatever you do.  You have never faced what He faced.  You have never been tortured like He was tortured.  You have never been treated like He’s been treated.  Sometimes we think we’ve been treated badly by the world around us.  Yes, we have. Yes, we will be.  Yes, you will be by family.  But nothing like what He went through and suffered.  He’s the example.  You follow that and you do what is right before God regardless of what happens in life.  It’s a part of God’s purpose. Thank God, and  He’ll bless you.

That you keep His commandments without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who in His times He shall show, who is the blessed, awkward how this is translated into English here, but it’s a beautiful verse, what it’s talking about.  Who in His time, in Christ’s time.  When is that?  The next thousand, one hundred years, what He’s going to be doing on the earth – administering the government of His Father, and then when that’s all done it says He gives it all over to His Father.  When He’s brought everything into subjection under His feet, then the plan of God the Father is finished, Jerusalem for eternity is a reality.  Awesome!

Who in His time shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, I don’t like that word, the way it’s used in the world, but it means ‘the only ruler’.  Who is the only ruler above all?  God Almighty, that’s what Jesus Christ is going to show and make clear during the Millennium and the Great White Throne, with great power and might administering the government of His Father, of our Father, the ruler of all, Almighty God, the Ever-living God, it’s about God!  ...the King of Kings... remember when we had the sermon series going through the Old Testament showing that it’s very clear when it talks about Yahweh, He is the King of Kings, but He’s given that title to His Son over the administration of that which takes place on the earth.  But God Almighty is above all, but He gives some of His titles and that which is to be administered to His Son... and Lord of Lords; indeed, God the Father, God Almighty is the Lord of all Lords, including His Son, and that’s what the Old Testament makes very clear.

Who only has immortality, eternal life.  It comes from God the Father, He gave it to His Son.  He’s going to give it to all who become a part of Elohim.  Who only  has immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, you know, some people... in the Old Testament talk about, “Well Moses saw the back of God, they saw different things at different times.”  They never!  Human beings have never seen God!  The only thing God has given is some manifestation like a burning bush or whatever it is, He’s given some manifestation of a brightness or a glory like He did to Moses on Moses’ face – that was from God, it wasn’t from Moses.  Or those when God manifested some things that human beings could see, it was something that they could see on a physical plane, not something spiritual.  Only spirit can see spirit!  That’s why it says, ‘...no man has seen God.’

Whom no man has seen, nor can see: Because God is spirit!  You can’t see spirit!  Now, some people have seen a manifestation in the world, even in a spirit world, of things that are physical, or things that have to do with the games they play sometimes as human beings.  They can make certain things in a physical limited way.  You have to remember, going back in time, they had a power to totally destroy life on this earth.  They had power over that which was physical.  They had power to have those pock marks put on the moon and the asteroid belt and things that are out there when God said, “This far and no farther...” because Satan’s plan and purpose was to destroy it all.  He wanted to destroy God’s creation!  And from that moment forward God took power away from him, left him on the earth but took power away from him – but not completely.  They still have certain powers.  That’s why it’s a dangerous thing to yield your mind to those beings.  That’s why it’s a dangerous thing, the drug culture, alcoholism, things that can lead themselves to a loss of control of your mind and not being totally in control in ability to do things... anyway, don’t want to go there; but things not to be feared for the Church of God, for God’s people, but things that happen in the world around us.

But no man has ever seen God because you can’t see spirit.  You can’t see spirit beings. You can only see something that’s physically manifested for you.  Jesus Christ, when He came in amongst the disciples, it scared them up a little bit, they thought it was a ‘ghost’.  The door is shut and all of a sudden someone’s standing there in the middle of you that wasn’t standing there before?  And there wasn’t this twinkling light like in Star Trek, He was just there, and it scared them.  That was their response.  That would be your response if someone appeared right here in front of you.  I can guarantee you, no matter how much you know and believe, at first you’re going to be startled.  And that’s what happened to them, they were startled.  But it was a physical manifestation, it wasn’t Jesus Christ in His glory as a spirit being only.  It was something physically manifested so they could see, so He could talk to them. That which all 144,000 and Jesus Christ can do in the Millennium.  When you see them you’ll see them in a physical body just like right now.

So that’s why it says here, no man has ever seen God, nor can see Him to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.  So again, a beautiful scripture here but misread.  This has been misread by the Church for a long time in the past, until God has brought us to a point to see it. We’re always building.  God is always blessing us to build; that’s what’s exciting about these truths.  You see the ways that God began to build and work with Mr. Armstrong, and a Church that was dead and dying out, the truths that had disappeared, all but disappeared except those three.  And then to get the power back into the Church, first and foremost, by the government of God, His authority, His power that was going to work in His Church through Mr. Armstrong, through the power of the holy spirit.

We’re going to get into some scriptures next week that magnify that in an awesome way!  And then the purpose of it all!  God’s purpose for raising up Mr. Armstrong at the end of an age, so that the gospel would go into all the world and then the end would come!  And that’s number two, the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  Powerful!  And now these eight we’re going through and the picture that they give and all of it working together is awesome!  And sometimes we don’t know how blessed we are.  You can begin to take these for granted, and you do, it’s human, to begin to take for granted the truth that God has given to you.  That’s why it’s easy sometimes to begin letting that first love slip through your fingers, because you begin to go through the trials of life, you get baptized and some of your trials all of a sudden are harder.  You finally start seeing your human nature in a way you couldn’t see it before and you realize this is work, this is hard, this is difficult.  God lets you see things you couldn’t see before for the sake of conquering and overcoming it.

One more set of scriptures here... II Timothy 1 – things about mankind, that man doesn’t have an immortal soul.  We look to God for immortality, eternal life God’s way.  II Timothy 1:9 – Who, and this is speaking of God, Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, holy!  God begins to set us apart, sanctify us for a holy purpose, not according to our works, something that some people I’ve seen come along who forgot, or never learned this.  It’s so important to learn this.  We’re never called because of how good we do anything!  Not because of how good we were in the Protestant church, all our ‘good works’.  All the good works that a human being can do are selfish and not a part of God’s purpose until God calls us and it can become then a part of God’s purpose when it’s done for the right reasons because God is in it, because it’s coming from God.

...not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, the grace He gives to us, to mankind when He begins to draw us and call us, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Beautiful, awesome, awesome, awesome!  See, in earlier times we didn’t understand what this was all about.  Thought that when Adam and Eve came to a point where they sinned that it was like God slapping Himself in the forehead and saying, “Now what am I going to do?!  ...they sinned!!  ...got to change everything!”  It’s like God’s doing all of this as He’s going along.  It’s like you’re starting to build a house and all of a sudden things are just not working out like you thought they might...what are you going to do next?  You’re not going to go buy a blueprint and buy a plan.  Now, some people do that, but anyway... not good when you’re building something.  God’s building something, powerful, mighty, and He doesn’t do it this way.

He knew exactly what Adam and Eve were going to do!  He knew what Lucifer was going to do by making him the way He did.  God knew it!  Incredible!  And so before God ever began anything, He determined for his Family that the only way to have a Family was that you be made physical human beings so that His spirit could one day work with your mind to change the way you think, and that could only be done because you’re going to be sinning because of that, because of the kind of person you have to be made in order to make choices and decisions to choose God, and to reject what Satan did, what he chose.  To be able to be forgiven of sin you had to have a Passover.

...given in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now, or and has now, as it means here, been made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, because all human beings die because of sin – they don’t have an immortal soul, and has brought life and immortality to light through the good news: Beautiful, if you see the picture of what God gave to Mr. Armstrong.

~~~end

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