Herbert W. Armstrong, Pt. 5

Ron Weinland

July 9, 2016

Well, the list is getting shorter. You're out here and you have to go miles and miles and miles to bring a group together; that's good, but it takes a lot of work on your part. Just thought I'd mention everybody, that we have some Canadians here today, eh? That's bad. British Columbia and Alberta. So, long way to go to get down to here. And obviously, we're in Washington state today so we have some from there, Oregon, and Idaho. And we're not going to count ourselves. And I didn't miss anybody, right? Because somebody else took the list today and got it accurate, so that's good.

Well, it's great to be back in Spokane. It's been quite a while! I don't know how long – probably at least 4½, 4 years at least, 4½, something like that. A long while. But again, great to be back here and to, again, I can't help but be reminded when I see everyone to see people who have stayed the course because a lot of people have gone by the wayside. It's always been that way; it just continues on. And there's a process we're going through that I'll speak on in the sermon today as we've been going through this particular series.

So, without anymore wasting of time here in chattering I'll just get into the sermon. Today we are now into Part 5 of the current sermon series, Herbert W. Armstrong. And as usual we are going to repeat a little bit of what was covered in the last part in the last sermon. And again, a reminder here that in this Bible study Mr. Armstrong was covering he is covering some things concerning what he was beginning to share with the Church concerning the Temple. And that was just being revealed to him.

And I still find this an awesome thing because if you think about that period of time and going back to 1978, June or July, whatever it was (I forgot the month now), but that was when the Church was first finding out about the Temple being the Church, and it wasn't about a physical Temple when you talk about those things in prophecy. And that's an incredible thing to understand and to realize that before that – because we've known it for so long. In this group, most of you, that's all you've known. Other who have been a part in the past of Worldwide and came through the Apostasy, it's good to be reminded of that, nevertheless. Because it's unique. When a truth comes along, you're in the present truth and God gives something new and then we understand and see things that we couldn't see before. Because God has to give the understanding!

So again, Mr. Armstrong had quoted Haggai 2:4 and we're going to pick it up there. He said, "You now be strong, oh Zerubbabel, says the Eternal; and be strong, oh Joshua...and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Eternal, and WORK; for I am with you." So again, this is about the Temple. This is about those things that God is doing. And if we understand (and we do, I know, but good repeating it here) but it's about the Church of God, it's about His Church, and especially these prophetic things that are covered in the latter part of scripture there in the Old Testament. They're about this period of time. They're about the things that were going to happen in the end of an age and the coming of God's Kingdom, the establishment of a spiritual temple that God was building. And this admonition here can't be repeated often enough – work! God says we are to work! That means work at our spiritual lives and changing the things that God has called us to because we've been given an awesome calling. And when He gives us that calling it isn't something we're to take in a lackadaisical way or as the world takes it when they think that they have accepted and received certain things out of Traditional Christianity and the ideas that go with that and a belief that once a week you can go and somewhat appease your conscience and go through a routine of things. And they don't understand. They can't help what they can't see. And neither could we until we were called, until our minds were opened up – unless you have the opportunity of growing up in the Church, which is another matter.

But again, there is a work to be done. And we understand that. We understand that we have a lot of work to do, but it's a lifelong process. It's not something that happens in a week, in a month, or a year or two years or five years. When you're called you have to work all your life to fight against your nature. It is what it is; that is what it is. It's a fight! It's a battle! Because our human nature fights against God. It resists God. And that's because our nature is selfish by nature. That's just the way we are. Starts out as a very young, when we're born and we begin to learn things. It doesn't take long till a baby learns how to get the attention of parents. And when it's uncomfortable it lets you know it's uncomfortable. And through time then, as we grow older, that just becomes more entrenched within us. We pamper self. We love self. And that's hard for people to grasp. That's a difficult one, sometimes, for people to grasp. But that isn't the way God's family is. God's family is not inward. It isn't selfish. God is not selfish. It's about giving. And so much so that God has shown us that it takes sacrifice to live His kind of love. And that's something we can't even do without the help of His holy spirit. We have to have His help to even do it, for it to be true in our minds.

So again, we have work to do from the moment we're called to the moment we're changed, resurrected, whatever the process is. Because for a few there will be a change – for a very few – that will only happen to a handful or so that have an opportunity to never have to experience death. And that will be unique in all time, in all history, for the past 6,000 years. Because everyone else, obviously, that's going to become a part of 144,000, they're going to be resurrected into spirit life. They've been dead for whatever, you know, 1,000 years, 2,000 years, 3,000 years, 4,000 years, 5,000 years plus. But for a few at the very end, they just experience a change from mortal to immortal. That will be an experience. But until that time comes, until we're actually in God's Family, when we're in this physical body, we have a lot of work to do. And a lot of people give up on it, especially in this age, or in the last 6,000 years – better yet, I should say, the last 2,000 years. Because the first 4,000 years were rather unique in how God worked with people and molded and fashioned people and spent more personal time, in one respect, with a lot of individuals, until the Church was established. And then Jesus Christ and God the Father began to work in a different manner through a ministry that was established to lead, guide, and direct the Church through the apostles and so forth. And that was a unique change in time that's been going on for the past 2,000 years. And still, to understand an incredible work that God has given to the Church through the Church, and most of that has been unique, then. Like I said, the first 4,000 years unique in how God worked with people, and unique how we've been worked with in the last 2,000 years through the structure of the Church. But a lot of work. And the Temple is about that Church that God is molding and fashioning.

And so again here, "The Eternal said, And work, for I am with you." So He said not only to do that, but to be strong. And so a lot of people that have been called in the last 2,000 years, as I was saying, a lot of people, far more that have been called who have turned their back on God's calling, who, because of whatever reasons, because of family, because of pulls in the world, because of job situations and things that God tells us we have to change when we're called. We have to learn to become faithful in tithing. We have to change our whole focus. And especially in this modern age, the way society is, "buy now, pay later," type of thing, people live from paycheque to paycheque. There is no savings, as a whole, and that's a horrible statistic that's here in the United States. People are right on the edge. That's the way we've been taught to live in the western world, in the United States, as an example, and a lot of other places as well. And so because of that there's this mentality that when we're called then out of the world, especially in this age, there are abrupt changes that people have to make, and people find themselves in financial turmoil in a big way, because they have to make a choice about God's Sabbath and about never working on that day again. That's a big step for people when you have family, when you have children, when you have debts, to decide you're never going to work on the Sabbath day again, and then, above and beyond that that you're going to begin saving 10% for yourself in order to obey God, to attend Holy Days. And then above and beyond that, that 10% goes to the work that God is doing in and through the Church. Because that's how He sustains it. That's how God sustained the work that He did in a physical nation of Israel. And when they were called out and began through Moses and Aaron, and God establishing a priesthood and through the priesthood they finally set up a Levitical system. And through that God gave to the Levites that 10% to be used to keep before Israel those things having to do with the law, the sacrifices, and so forth. And God has done the same thing obviously, then, with the Church and it's a different thing totally than what happened in the Old Testament because that was just about a physical people that could never have forgiveness, that never really had the spirit of God within them. But when the Church began, the same thing, that tithe as it talks about in Hebrews that God gave for a work to be done.

And so He said, "Be strong and work!" Be strong and work – not just on ourselves but to understand what we've been called to. And that's what Mr. Armstrong is going through in a very powerful way in this Bible study. And he went through this, not just in Bible studies but in sermon after sermon after sermon that he gave, telling people about a work and a commission that God had given to him, that the gospel was to go into all the world. That, in essence, that he was to fulfill Matthew 24:14. I was just reading about that this morning in Chapter 3 of the new book, going back through and giving it a final edit. Going through it one more time after being away from it for a time, now going back to it and making sure that everything is tweaked and making sure, and as much as I can.... There'll always be some kinds of mistakes when you write and people edit. I don't care how much you go through it, there is always going to be a little something somewhere. But as a whole, I'm looking more at the content of what's being said and how it's being said and the message that's coming across more than anything else.

And going through and being reminded of that very thing, about Mr. Armstrong, again, and some of the things we're talking about here today and the fact that there's a work to be done: Matthew 24:14. That he understood by the power of God's spirit that he had a job to do. It was just in his mind. He knew. God communicated to him through the power of His holy spirit to His spirit in him that he had a commission, and that was "Matthew 24:24—And this gospel of the Kingdom should go unto all the world, and then shall the end come." And it didn't come, the end and a countdown for the end-time, those things didn't begin until that work was finished, until he died.

And then we went through a period of time with no apostle in God's Church, but one who became the "man of sin," the "son of perdition," who did what it talked about in 2 Thessalonians and the prophecy about an Apostasy and one who would become known as a "son of perdition," "the man of sin," doing far worse than what Judas did, and will be known for doing far worse than what Judas did because it was to God's Church and a betrayal to Jesus Christ and to God Almighty of the truths that he had in his possession at one time, the ability to know and to see the truths, the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and to say to God's people they are no longer commanded, they're no longer needed.

What an awesome thing we've experienced. What an awesome thing that after he gave that sermon – I don't care how often I mention it, I marvel at it, because it shows the power of God Almighty to intervene and perform His justice, His judgment upon that individual – 40 Sabbaths later after giving that sermon that, "You don't have to keep God's Sabbath," to the very hour he died. A matter of judgment: 280 days. Incredible. Is that right? 280? Anyway, 40 X 7, it's still 280. Okay.

Some of these figures sometimes, all the numbers we have out there, it's hard to keep it up. Chapter 7, if you can keep that all in your mind you're doing good – all the dates, all the times, everything else. But it is a marvel what God does. He does everything so precisely, so accurately, that the timing is so awesome in how things are done.

And so again, Mr. Armstrong knew he had a work to do. And I know that I'm repeating some of these things. And I know that Mr. Armstrong repeated things over and over and over again, because it is God's way in our minds. Every Holy Day we're reminded of what that Holy Day means because we need to understand what God Almighty is doing! Because we need to understand the marvels of what we have lived through and what we have experienced as His people, to understand how big this is, to understand how big the work of God is. To be called out of the world, to be given opportunity – many are called and very few are chosen – and I marvel today at how many people keep going by the wayside! Of individuals who will not save tithes to go to the Feast of Tabernacles! What am I supposed to do when I know that? "Oh, I'm having a hard time financially." "I'm having 'this' difficulty and 'that' difficulty." Well, woe is me, you know. I don't have any mercy upon that! And you think God Almighty does? That you disobey God Almighty? Do you think that maybe your job situations and your job problems are because you're disobeying God Almighty? Because we know that's the reason. You’re CURSED with a curse because you rob God! Those are simple scriptures and yet these things are still going on to this day.

I marvel that we could live at this time and we still have people going by the wayside. One individual that sent in a letter last week, pulled by things in the world, pulled by family, and basically stating, I guess, bad feelings for the fact of how he feels toward not having that fellowship anymore, knowing exactly what it means, that he won't have that fellowship anymore at the Feast of Tabernacles with God's people and whatever, but he's going to do it. And if that means death for eternity, basically, not being in the Great White Throne – was that how it was stated, basically summing it up – he's going to accept it. To be in God's Church, to understand truths like we do, and to make that kind of a choice is mindboggling. But we all have choices to make. And it's up to each one of us if we're going to keep working.

That's why I'm excited when I go from area to area, to see the faces I see, to see people who are still fighting the fight. Because it's not easy. We weren't called to something easy. It's work! WORK! And it's work on ourselves. And it's work to support what God has called us to share in. He doesn't just put it all out there for us and give it to us. That wouldn't be healthy for us. He says work, be a part of it, share in it, reap the blessings and the excitement of what He's doing. That's what He's letting us do, to share in the excitement. Just like He did the angelic realm in the reaction of this vast universe. They shared in the work that was being done. And look what betrayals took place there, a third of the angelic realm and Lucifer who changed, became known as Satan the devil, turned against God. That's nothing new. People turning their back on God – many are called and few are chosen.

This Church is being cleaned up right now, and those who are lagging behind still circling around out in the courtyard are being gotten rid of because it can't be in this Church at the end of this age. We have to desire this with all of our being, be committed to it with all of our being, and ready to fight the fight. Why should God give blessings and favor to enter into a new age, a millennial age that people have been looking forward to, God's Kingdom, the prophets of old and all those in the Church from the time it began in 31 A.D., who their entire focus and their entire battle, and so many of them to the point of great suffering and death that they're going to have great opportunity, and those at the end of an age, the Kingdom that they looked forward to governing this world and now people that are actually living in that age that have the opportunity to live into that age? Because everybody else in the past 6,000 years is going to be dead for another thousand years before they have a chance to be awakened again. And those who live at the end of an age have an opportunity to continue on – and not just continue on, but continue on in God's Church. Do we grasp what we've been given? Do we grasp what God Almighty is sharing with us? Because there are too many that don't, and your time is up. Your time is up. You're past. You're past the period of measuring the Temple, and if you're still wandering around in the courtyard and you've not repented of the sins in your life and not fighting those battles... We all have sin and we have battles, but that's part of the work, fighting against the pulls and the things that are out there in life and our carnal human nature and fighting against that and continuing to go before God and say, "Father, forgive me. Help me to conquer this and overcome this." But some don't even bother battling that anymore. They don't even see the seriousness of the sin in their life, to where they've justified it in their minds, that it's okay to do it. "It's okay to do it, because God understands, doesn't He? God understands if I'm having financial difficulties, if I'm having financial problems, and have had for several years because I'm not paying my tithes because I'm having financial problems. Therefore, I'm not paying my tithes. So God understands; God's merciful." No, God says, "You're robbing Me." That's what it says in Malachi.

Matter of fact, Mr. Armstrong covers that in a little while in his sermon here, or his Bible study. "You're robbing Me." To rob God? I can't imagine it! It's so foreign to thinking, but it happens. How much do you want this way of life? How much do you want to have opportunity for yourself, for children, whatever, to live into a new age? To have the opportunity to live into a time when Jesus Christ is the Messiah, is in power as a Lion to take control of the governments of this world, this sick, sick, backward, messed up, distorted, perverted world and start turning it right side up under one government, one Church. No longer confusion in the world like there is today.

Think of Rio. Going to have the Olympics down there. Millions of people. I think of the stories and some of the things that come out of there: the crime, the young people who grow up, children who don't have any homes. They have no parents. Orphans. Thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands, and they grow up survival of the fittest. What a horrible world we live in! What a sick, polluted world we live in! Do we want to see it changed? Do we, far more than what even Lot did, vex our soul from day to day because of what we see and it hurts as we look at the things that are out there and how people are treated and how people treat one another, and the confusion, the chaos, the murder, the killings? I think of this country here and cities in this country. Crime. Drugs. So rampant, to easily to obtain, easy to obtain. It's so sick. And it could be changed. It could be dealt with, but failure to do so.

I hurt inside when I see these things taking place, see how people treat one another, see what's taking place in the news. How much do you want what God is offering? Healing. Healing of people's minds? We live at a time where it's difficult now, a time where because of foods we eat and things we do and so much that sin that's taken, that's accumulated to this point in time where the battles are horrible in people's lives. Sickness. Battles in the mind that shouldn't be there because inability, because of things that happen chemically in peoples bodies and minds. Satan has done a number. He truly has done a number. And God's getting ready to clean it up. But you know what? God allowed it to get to this point so we could see it and be sickened like this, so we could look at it and realize man can't govern himself.

That's what God is showing the world – look at your technology, look at all your power, look at what you have, and look at how you're using it, and look at what you've done to people. Look at what you're doing to your fellow man. Greed! You think people care about the kinds of things in foods that they're giving or the kinds of things that cause cancer or the kinds of things that cause problems in the mind because of chemicals and things that take place? You think a lot of these companies and different ones don't know about certain statistics and things that they have? And some of the drugs that are out there anymore and drugs that people take? And you hear on the TV the advertisement and about half of it is all the bad things that can happen to you if you're on it. Some of those things I wouldn't take if I'm at the point of – I've been there. I've been at the door. It doesn't matter. But there are some things out there you hear so many things that are taking place if people are taking it.

And we have people in God's Church that get addicted to drugs because of the pharmaceutical companies, and can't get off of it, can't shake it, and can't even admit it! Addicted! Shouldn't be that way, not in control of their lives. Satan doesn't want you to be in control of your life in the sense of fighting the battle and working.

Sorry to go through so much of this, in one respect, but in another respect, obviously I'm not, because it's what we need to hear. We need to be awakened. We need to wake up in God's Church! Because for three years we have begun to languish and we have done exactly what Laodicea did because there wasn't an apostle there to continue to warn and tell the pulse of the Church and tell you what you needed to be doing and give the kind of guidance and direction it needed. And God let that happen for a purpose, so that we can learn from this. And God has given that at different ages. God gave that during the time of Mr. Armstrong. As a matter of fact, this Bible study we're going through is the exact same thing that happened in God's Church! That's why this Bible study is so important. Because he was about to die – well, he basically did, but God wasn't through. And this Bible study is when he's coming back from it and working.... What does he say over and over again from this point forward? He is working to put the Church back on the right track because what happened? Because he was getting old and he was getting weaker and he wasn't able to travel like he was and he got to the point of death.

And so people began to do what people do – let down. "What's going to happen?" Well, people didn't even think, didn't even realize what happened to us within the Church in 1978, 1977, 1976, and in through there. Well, it's happened again on a spiritual plane. And God isn't going to allow Laodicea to come into this Church. This is not a time for Laodicea, a Laodicean spirit. We're past that period of time, please understand, but that spirit and that warning is just as much there today as any other period in time for God's people in the last 2,000 years. That warning has always been there in scripture since John wrote it. It's always been there for people not to let down. And when you're blessed spiritually not to take it to self and begin to think that, well, we have it all. We'll never have it all.

And the more God gives the more we should learn, there is so much we don't know. The more we learn the more we should be convicted of the fact we're pretty small and we don't even get all of what we've been given. We can't. You can't contain it all.

So, it's time, high time to wake, to awaken and get control of our lives, because we have a work right in front of us right now that is this work, that Mr. Armstrong, the Church believed they were getting ready to head into at that time. Because that's what he was working toward, the same thing we are, except now we're there.

So, be strong. Be strong. Be convicted. And that comes from God. You can't do it on your own. You've got to cry out to God, "Father, help me to be strong, courageous, to move forward, to fight against the battles that are in front of me, to stand up against this world.” That's what being strong is about – to stand up against the pulls that are out there, to fight against them, to be convicted that you're not going to allow those things to pull you down or steer you away or get a hold of you to where you're distracted from the Church. We've got too many distractions out there! Truly! Too many distractions in people's lives. Like I've been calling it here over and over again: Drama! Drama! Drama! There's too much drama in people's lives! Get rid of the drama! That doesn't rule your life but too many people are allowing drama to rule their life – what somebody is doing, what blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, and all the turmoil and living this... It's like "As the World Churns." It's like a soap opera. And people get wrapped up in people's lives and then they get wrapped up in things in the world. That's not the way for God's Church.

We are to fight and we are to go forward. We have a work in front of us. Do you know what that is right now? What are your prayers about? Are they about this book? Do you understand, do you grasp that this is where we're headed? That this is the message that's now going to go out? This is the one that's going to be advertized? This is the one that's going to hit the fan, so to speak, as things continue to happen in this world? Are you moved by seeing the kind of terrorism that's escalated? Do you recognize the Thunders that are going on out there that all of a sudden are getting stronger and stronger? Many places around the world and people are fearful. What was it? I think they were telling about Canada. Some in the news up there is basically, "Why go into the United States, you're going to get shot, killed," whatever, "be in a terrorist attack," and there's this kind of fear. God said that would be there! That there would be that which is very small that would make many flee, that would make many fear in terror. Almost like being afraid of your own shadow – unbalanced, unsound! What they ought to be afraid of is driving into parts of Chicago, parts of Detroit, or wherever! Incredible! Crazy world we live in!

I thought it was interesting one of the elders, one of the elders reports came in and talking about how that when they went to services they were disappointed in one respect at some who didn't even know what was happening with the Brexit. I hope everybody knows what the Brexit is by now. I hope you've been able to at least grasp that from TV! Are you watching the news? Are you keeping abreast of what's happening in the world? Because that's your job! That's a part of what you're responsible for doing. And to have come to services and not even know what's going on in the world and not to understand the significance of it?! Shame on you! Shame on you! And yet people went to services after the Brexit and didn't even know what had happened. Something Mr. Armstrong said a long, long time ago, when it comes down to the end Great Britain will not be a part of the European Union! You think that's important? Prophetic? He knew; he understood that as a matter of prophecy. Great Britain is not going to be a part of the European Union. It's not going to be a part of what happens with Germany, because Germany is at the center of this. And now some are recognizing, even more so, that Germany is very much at the center of all this and it's the rise of Germany. Duh! Duh.

Headlines, "European SUPERSTATE," big letters, just like Mr. Armstrong would be writing it himself, "to Be Unveiled." It didn't just happen. Do we get it? They've been planning this. They've been planning this. They know exactly what's coming to pass. They were planning on Great Britain eventually being out of the European Union because they don't mix! And there are those who wanted them out, and desperately wanted them out! And I wonder what being wanted them out more than any other, preventing him from doing what he wants to do one more time. The Seventh Revival of the Roman Empire, of Europe, if you will, the seventh revival, of a world war in this case. Other wars that have happened through time in the revivals, but this one, a world war.

Anyway, "European SUPERSTATE to be Unveiled: European nations 'to be morphed into one' post-Brexit." Headlines, British newspaper, "European Political Chiefs are to take advantage of Brexit by unveiling their long-held plan to morph the continent’s countries into one GIANT SUPERSTATE, it has emerged." Incredible! That was Tuesday the 28th. Says, "The Foreign Ministers of France and Germany are due to reveal a blueprint..." We've known this all along! They're going to unveil a blueprint? We already knew what the blueprint was. "France and Germany are due to unveil a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states." Oh, that's a shock. That's a shock, isn't it? We've known it all along. What do we know? Ten are going to come together. There won't be 27. There won't be 26. There won't be 25. There won't be 24 or 23, 21, 20, all the way down. There will be ten when it's all said and done! Amazing...and not so amazing, because we know it.

So again, "The Foreign Ministers of France and Germany are due to unveil a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states in what is being described as an ultimatum." It's been coming for quite a while. And they've talked about it in different ways. They knew it was coming. "Under the radical proposals EU countries will lose the right to have their own army." Well, isn't that another shocker? That just shocks the tar out of me! We already have known this. Mr. Armstrong knew it from the very beginning. He said Europe's going to... That's why he sent, had editors, individuals go over to Europe (I believe it was 1950) when the Common Market was established, because he knew it was prophetic, that it was the beginning of something – that later became known as the European Union. But it started out as the Common Market. And he said they will have a common army, they will have a common currency, and people laughed him to scorn; laughed at him, mocked him, made fun of him. ...and one government over ten nations. Incredible.

So when the Euro came along around 2000 and different countries decided to use it there were some who weren't as keen on doing it, Great Britain being one of them. And they didn't fully become a part of the system as others did. Others want it, desire it, are moved by a power greater than any human being on earth to do it. And they don't understand that power. It's Satan. He has great power to communicate to the human mind. He has great power to deceive. He has great power, especially if God allows him to do it (and He's allowing him to do it one last time), to work with human beings, to work with leaders in such a manner to help bring about one more revival. Work with their minds to deceive, to inspire in a perverted and distorted way, to unite as a people with a common desire. And those ten, when they come together, they're going to have that same desire, but just for a little while, because it's not going to hold together this time like the others have in times past. But by the time they do it it's going to be too late to back out of it. It's going to be too late to change. But this is what they're headed for. We've known this from the beginning because what God gave to Mr. Armstrong back in around 1950, a common market will become one single union in time.

So again here, "Under the radical proposals EU countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system, or central bank, with all those powers being transferred to Brussels." Amazing what's taking place! Prophecy! And does it stir us up? Does it sober us? Does it help us to grasp we are getting so close! And I don't care if it doesn't happen in 2019 (which I believe with all my being it's going to); nevertheless, it's coming faster right now, much faster. And it should sober us! It should shock us to the core of our being because we're just barely beginning to see the door opened up right now.

Anyway, another one, headline, "EU Army on the Way?" "EU cannot rely on NATO and needs new defence policy, says Brussels chief." Another surprise, surprise. Wonder how long that's been coming. Do you suppose he just conjured that one up all of a sudden? They've been planning this stuff for a long time. There are people who are planning these things! This blueprint? They didn't get together after the Brexit and say, "Okay, it's panic time. What are we going to do?" No, they already knew what they were going to do. It's already been in the planning. They've talked about it – talked about it over and over and over again amongst themselves exactly what they're going to do.

Going on, "The European Union cannot rely on NATO to protect its member states from external threats and must develop a policy of collective defence that allows it to "act autonomously if and when necessary." "According to a new foreign policy document from the Brussels-based institution to be handed to EU leaders next week..." You don't just hand out something that hasn't been in the works for a long time. It says, "...a 'credible European defence' is also essential to preserve good relations with the US." Yeah, okay.

Another one, "EU Officials To Unveil 'Ultimatum' Blueprint As Final Solution For European Super-state." Do you understand the language they're using? "The final solution?" Nazi Germany? They're using words for a purpose. Words have power and they have great meaning to the Europeans even if we're dumb over here in the United States, which we are as a people, as a continent, or as a... Not a continent, but we think we're the continent sometimes. Anyway, but as a nation. Sad, what's coming. Sad, what's coming. Going to be powerful to help humble a people because we have so much pride, this nation – Ephraim and Manasseh; Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland. Kind of interesting what they're telling Scotland too. Scotland, some of them are panicking and they want to separate. They want to be a part of the Union and Europe; you know what Europe is telling them? "No, no, no, no, no. We're not going to talk to you." Because they don't want Scotland either, because they know they'll drag them behind, drag them down. And they don't want to be drug down right now. They want a superstate and they want it now. They want to move it forward quickly. And they just see Scotland as getting in the way. That's what France told them. Amazing!

Awesome things that are happening, brethren, awesome things that are happening. And if we're not careful, we're asleep. If we're not careful we come to Sabbath services and we don't even know what happened last week major in the world, that should stir up our prayers, that should stir up our conviction, that should stir us up to realize we are at the door! That's where we are right now.

Again, "EU Officials To Unveil 'Ultimatum' Blueprint As Final Solution For European Super-state." "It appears the Brits may have dodged more than a bullet in their decision to leave the EU. The foreign minister of France and Germany are reportedly due to reveal a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states in what is being described as an 'ultimatum.'" Now they have the window to do it. Now they're going to... that's what they're going to say, "You do this or bye-bye, auf wiedersehen, dos vedanya," course that's Russian. Anyway, I'm not sure what the French is. What is that? Au revoir. I'm butchering it. I can't speak France. I can't speak German either, but anyway, I do know auf wiedersehen. I think that's what that is. I may even be wrong about that. But, anyway, described as an ultimatum. Goes on to say, "As The Express reports, the shockingly predictable final solution to Europe's Brexit-driven [existential crisis]..." I can't even pronounce the word here; I'm going to skip it. Anyway, it's a bad crisis "... is an apparently long-held plan to morph the continent’s countries into one giant superstate. The radical proposals mean EU countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system or central bank, with all of those powers being transferred to Brussels." So again, they're just repeating the reports there that are going out, different newspapers, different things that are coming out right now.

Another one here, "European Union Leaders Meet Without Britain for First Time after Brexit Vote." They don't care that it's going to take two years... and it's not going to probably take two years – but for them, they don't care and they don't want to see Britain at the door. They don't want to see anybody representing anything, even if it takes two years to exit, it's done as far as they're concerned.

"Brussels:" it says, "European Union leaders met Wednesday for the first time without the UK in more than four decades." Over forty years of this has been going on and finally we're there. We're finally at the very pinnacle of the things that we have been talking about, that Mr. Armstrong started talking about so long ago, saying what was going to come to pass, and now we're there. You want to fight for this way of life, especially in this short battle in front of you? I don't care if it's a long battle. And that's my whole point of regardless of the year. When you're called this is a way of life to live! And we don't turn our back on what God is doing if we want to share in a purpose and a work that He is involved in and doing at the end of an age. What else is there? What else would we want? What else would we want to do, except to share with Almighty God what He is doing and what He's focusing upon? Incredible! Because God's bringing it to pass. God's bringing it all to pass! God's in control! Lucifer is not in control but He allows him to do certain things (Satan). He's allowing him to do certain things one more time for a great purpose. You know what that purpose is? It's GOD'S purpose! It's not Satan's purpose, it's God's!

It was God's purpose to allow Satan to use Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ so the Jews would kill him, so Rome would kill him, basically, is what it came down to. Pilate and his decision. It was God's purpose that Jesus Christ fulfill the role of Passover on that very day in 31 A.D. Not on the 13th, and not on the 15th, and not at some other time, but exactly on that day in that year. God's in control, but He allows many things to happen so that we can learn lessons from it, so we can learn what mankind is capable of doing when the door is open for him to let him do it, just like the doors being opened up for Satan to do something one more time. And then the door's going to be slammed shut on that being, finally, and he's going to be put away for a thousand years. And then when he's released after the period of time that he's going to be released, well, it's not a picnic for him then. Finally, after so many of hundreds of thousands, of whatever it is, millions? We don't know how long in time earth years it's been for the creation of the universe and all the things the angelic realm has been involved in. Finally!

And how long it's been since that being rebelled and destroyed the earth and all life on it – that God allowed because that wasn't the kind of life that was going to be allowed to live when mankind was created in the first place. We've got things to learn there as well that we don't fully know yet, have not been taught yet, about what God allowed during a period of time on this earth, and then the rebellion that took place and Satan nearly destroying it. God allowed him to continue on because of the power that being had to do those kinds of things that the angelic realm has had in helping in part in participating in the creation of the universe, in work that was to be done. They had great power. Things we don't understand yet. But he's been stripped of those powers and he's constantly being stripped more and more and more. And he doesn't have a whole lot left – enough to deceive, enough to do what he's going to do in Europe, enough to cause the Church headaches at times, but all for a purpose. Nothing happens to us without a purpose...without a purpose. Last three years happened by purpose. What's happened through time to those whom God has called has always happened for a great purpose.

But anyway, that being's going to finally have his end. I so look forward to that time. Before there can be peace in the universe that being cannot exist. And we haven't fully understood that in God's Church until the last decade or so here, last decade, a little less, whatever it is. What year was that? It was after 2005. About Satan. We started to understand about God and God Almighty being eternally existing, but as far as what was going to happen to Satan. Again, still, awesome the understanding we've been given. Sometimes we don't grasp how richly blessed we are.

Another one here, "European Union Leaders Meet without Britain..." Okay, I read that. I don't know if I read this part. I want to read it again, even if I did. "Brussels – European Union leaders met Wednesday..." Yes, I read that, "for the first time without the UK in more than four decades." That's where I stopped, "declaring afterward their determination to stay united by showing no appetite for a grand gesure to tie the remaining 27 nations closer together." Incredible.

Another one, "Brexit – Spain and France Oppose Scotland in EU Talks." So Spain was involved as well. "The French president and Spanish Prime Minister have both said they are opposed to the EU negotiating potential membership for Scotland." Oh, surprise, surprise. You know, amazing! I'm saying these things sarcastically. It's not a surprise at all! It's prophecy. It's all falling into place. How fast? I believe things are going to fall fast, except for one thing. You know, there's one thing holding it back. Do you know what it is? That's why I've been saying it over and over again. That's why I have the kind of confidence and boldness I do. It's about the book. And until that book comes out there are certain things that are not going to happen. Until it's ready to come out, until it's ready to come out in the different languages and be on the internet, certain things aren't going to happen. They're going to be held back. Not only that, but there has to be a period of time, too, in it being disseminated and it being put out there and it being able for people to get their hands on it, okay, before internet or anything else can crash, or anything else can happen in this world. There are certain things that have to still exist for it to have a period of time.

And that's why I've spoken in the context that we may have another Feast of Tabernacles beyond this year's Feast of Tabernacles, beyond 2016. Would to God. What a blessing if we could have one more Feast of Tabernacles together. But we can't have much more time together because at some point things have to break loose, powerfully so in the world. And the longer that world war stays behind and doesn't have to exist, the better off it's going to be for God's Church. Because we're going to suffer. You're going to go through things that are not going to be pleasant and you will see death – a lot of it – and it's not a pleasant thing. We just happen to live in that age. Not like the flood when everybody died, except those who were in a ship, an ark. They were the only ones meant to live. Thankfully, we know more right now and God's desire to save many more right now if people will listen. "If you will listen," what an incredible thing to say, "God will listen." Most aren't going to listen and they're going to die because of it. What an incredible thing that we live in such an age. Well, they didn't listen to Noah, did they? And the world hasn't listened to Mr. Armstrong, and they're still not listening. What do people have to go through? What do people have to be shaken to for pride to be taken away? A lot. It's going to take a nuclear war. Sad, sad, sad how stubborn, how filled with pride mankind is.

And much of that calling itself "Christian" will be some of the main ones that fight against it. And yet he's the one who's coming, Jesus Christ, to rule this earth. Isn't that a sad thing? People think that you're going to die and you're going to go up there to heaven. No, he's coming here. God's purpose has always been that he comes here, that there's a thousand years. And yet they don't even try to explain those verses in Revelation about a thousand year rule, about a thousand year reign, and about him coming as King of kings, and Lord of lords. That's such a simple thing. It is and it isn't.

So I hope we're getting the message, brethren. This is a long series, because I haven't even caught up to where we were in the last sermon. Because there's a big message, a lot of messages in here, and one big one is about us and what we need to do. We need to get hold of our life and please, please, please do what God says – put Him first in your life. Put Him first in your life. And that has a lot to do with the Church and fellowship and being with God's people where you can, when you can, fighting against the pulls of this world, working to do what we can to do a work, to support a work. And God's blessed us mightily in that. Because there hasn't been any book to push in the last three years we have a good reserve, if we're able to use it to do something quickly and powerfully for a short period of time.

So again, "Be strong and work." Mr. Armstrong said, "And, GET BACK OF THIS THING!" He said that in 1978 about a work and a commission that God had given him to do, "Get behind this thing!" What's he talking about? The Temple, the Church. He was seeing things in a light that he'd never seen them before. It was getting much bigger. He was seeing the prophecies in the Bible about a Temple and that it was about the Church. And his focus became stronger, stronger, more powerful. Awesome! A bigger picture in front of him, with a greater zeal than ever before in his life at his old age to push forward to do a work, to get it accomplished. For the gospel to go into all the world, and then after it's been accomplished, then the end will come. We're there.

"Haggai 2:4—For I am with you, say's the Eternal of hosts.” God is with us. If we'll be with Him, He'll be with us! If we want Him, if we desire Him, He's already called us to be with us. He's already given us the opportunity of the sacrifice of His Son so that we can be with Him. Jesus Christ did that almost 2,000 years ago. He died for that very purpose, so he and the Father can dwell in us and we in Him. And so when He called us to that opportunity, what an awesome thing that God Almighty, who created the vastness of this universe and created us on it, and He has a plan to bring us into His Family. How many know that we're called to be god? Not God Almighty. Not as He is. But in the God Family as gods, not angels, but as it says in Hebrews higher than the angels. And we only see Jesus Christ there right now, as it says in Hebrews. Those are awesome verses when you go back there and read that. What do we see now? I think Johnny just referred to that in his sermon here recently. What do we see now? Incredible! We see Jesus Christ who has attained that, that has achieved that – higher than the angels in the God Family, Elohim.

And yet we get more worked up about drama! "As the World Churns," day by day. Get wrapped up in people's lives and our little, stinking, measly, meaningless battles of life. Welcome to the world. Welcome to the Church! That's just a common thing! We have battles day in and day out. We fight them, to change and conquer and overcome, and we stick with it. We don't give up. We don't get pulled by family out of the Church of God. We don't get pulled by a job out of the Church. We don't get pulled by finances or health or lack of it or whatever it is and lose hope. On the contrary! We look at what's taking place and what God is giving us spiritually. We desire that.

We see what's happening in the world. We see things speeding up all of a sudden here, but being held back. I hope you see that. Speeding up but being held back. We, we're living what Mr. Armstrong was looking for. We're living it. We're living what he was talking about, because it wasn't yet, but he had a job to finish, he had a job to complete and he only had about seven more years to get it done. And God blessed him to get it done to the degree that God wanted it done, through The Plain Truth magazine, the telecast The World Tomorrow, all the things that were taking place, to that degree and all the world leaders that had to be contacted and dealt with and so forth and receive this.

I was reading that this morning. I marvel. I think about all those Japanese – what were they, part of the Diet, they call it, like our Senate, or whatever it is? And eight (I believe there were eight) of those who were a part of that Diet that became Prime Ministers all considered him a friend. There were those that looked to him, in Japan of all places, and they looked to him as a father figure and they referred to themselves as his sons. What kind of honor was given, and the kind of medallion that was given, the highest that could be given to a non-Japanese given to Mr. Armstrong in honor for what he was doing. Yet, what's written there? But not a one of them accepted the message of the coming Kingdom of God. Not a one of them! But they were drawn to him. They were drawn to what he said. They embraced him. No such honor was given out of Israel, speaking of Ephraim and Manasseh and the Western Europe. None of those nations showed him that kind of honor. There was one king, king Leopold, showed him great honor. Crazy, crazy world. Things we've gone through.

"For I am with you, says the Eternal of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of [sin] Egypt." Who called us out of Egypt? God Almighty has called us out of Egypt. What is this about? It's about our calling! It's about us! It's about the Temple. It's about what God is doing with us when He calls us out of bondage, out of spiritual bondage that's in this world. Just as I talked about a moment ago, people who think they're going off to heaven when Jesus Christ is coming here to rule. They're going to wait until their resurrected. When they die they're dead and they're in a hole in the ground, just like God said, the grave. Not hell. Not that word that's used, a word that means "a hole in the ground" in Greek and in Hebrew. It's so disgusting what the world has taught. It came from Simon Magus and paganism and a church that became great in the world, calling their leader, "Papa. Father," against everything Jesus Christ said to do: "Don't ever call anyone on this earth as your religious leader." And yet they do it. Shows who they are. But who pays attention? So glad these things are about to come to an end. And the world isn't going to like hearing it in a stronger way either, are they? Going to be a mixed bag. People are going to repent and people are going to fight like mad against God, against what God is doing. Because they don't want to give it up. They don't want to give it up. They don't want to give up what they have.

"For I am with you, says the Eternal of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt." Did God covenant something with us when we went under the water and when we had the hands layed upon us? Do we understand and grasp the covenant relationship we entered into with God at that time? "I am Yours. I want Your way of life. I desire to be in Your Family." But how many just keep going by the wayside, giving up for whatever reason, because it's just too hard. It's just too hard. You haven't seen anything yet, those of you who have given up, those who of you who are giving up and listening to me today. There are some out there listening today who are giving up! What a horrible thing! You think you've got it bad now? You turn your back on Almighty God and turn your back on what He's offered you and you've counted it? You don't know what you've done to the sacrifice of Christ by doing that even and how God looks upon that. He's not going to bless you. He's not going to bless you and help you to live into a new age. Because you've been given an opportunity. Less than 1 in 14 million people have been given per capita – what is it? – when we look at the numbers of people in the Church. Think of billions of people on this earth who have never been given such an opportunity. And if we turn our back on God...

"...according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt so my spirit remained among you: fear you not." And God's spirit will not just remain among us. For us it will be in us as long as we continue to fight this fight, stick to that covenant agreement with great desire. Not because it's hard, but because we desire it and know that it's hard as far as the human mind is concerned. I don't care what I've gone through, what I have to go through. I've said it over and over again – everything you go through with God's spirit can make you a stronger, better being that God will use more strongly in the future if we yield to the process of what is being molded and fashioned in our mind. Because that's what's being saved. It's what's up here. It's not this body. At some point the body goes. But He'll give you a new one. We've been given so much.

He went on to say, "Brethren, is God's spirit still within this Church? We're getting a little spiritless, and we need to REVIVE with the energy and vitality of the spirit of the Living God!" Well, we do too, more. We need to realize where we are. We need to pick up the pace in our lives. We need to work harder. We need to put more into it in conviction and purpose – not less, not backing away, not letting the drama pull us away.

"Verse 6—For thus says the Eternal of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land." We are almost there. God's getting ready to shake this earth in a way that it's not been shaken since a great rebellion took place. It's going to shake. Some places are going to experience nuclear winter, and you have no idea, truly, what that's like, because you've never lived it. Not a pleasant thing. Not a pleasant thing. So he went on to say, "NOW, WHEN IS THAT? He hasn't done that yet!" It's coming now, though, isn't it? "Now he begins to talk about US today! That's the point I want you to see! That all of this (about Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, building that temple) was about the building of the REAL Temple today to which Christ is going to come."

"Now, let's listen." How many were here, 1978? One, two, three, four, five, six... six in here. Awesome. We're still here. We're still of that generation that Mr. Armstrong was speaking to. Awesome. "Verse 7—I will shake all nations…" God is going to shake the nations powerfully, brethren, going to be shaken to the foundations, truly, powerfully so. "...and the desire of all nations shall come," as he says here, "meaning Christ, in that case. Now, they don't really desire him." It's what's prophesied. It's what's going to come to pass. It's what God is doing. It's the need, the desire, whether mankind grasps it or not, it's what's needed. "…and I will fill THIS house with glory, says the Eternal of hosts." He went on to say, "Now, I don't think that He ever did, in that sense that it is intended here, fill that second temple with glory. But now He's talking about a DIFFERENT temple. That was only a "TYPE" of it, TYPICAL of it, A FORERUNNER of it."

“Now he carries on and says..." I still marvel as I read through this and thinking they were just now, he was just now starting to grasp the awesomeness of those prophecies about a temple, another temple, a different temple. And he understands as he goes through here and reads (we'll read some of this)... well, I'll just read it here. He went on to say here... well, he quoted, first of all, "Haggai 2:8-9—The silver is mine, the gold is mine, says the Eternal of hosts. The glory of this LATTER house shall be greater than the FORMER." Now, previous to this it was always believed that this was something about the two temples, the one that was destroyed and then Zerubbabel and, you know, they came back at different times and began to rebuild and build on the walls and so forth, to build on the temple and so forth, the things that were taking place. And that's not what it was about. So Mr. Armstrong went on to say here about this, "The glory of that second temple NEVER remotely compared to the glory of Solomon's temple. And yet, he's talking about a Temple that will be FAR GREATER in glory than Solomon's temple." So just by some things in history God is letting him see what had happened and that this other temple that was rebuilt was nothing like Solomon's temple when it was built in all of its glory. So where's this glory? He's starting to see it. His mind is being opened up to it's about the Church, it's about the power of God's spirit that lives in it, that dwells in it. So he went on to say, "He's talking about the Temple to which Christ is coming—now in our time, in our living generation." That's why I asked, "Who was there?" Still that living generation. Still alive. Has to be alive in the time of Christ's coming. We're getting older, a lot more white hair, but we're still here.

"Now, keep your ears and your mind open, brethren. You're going to hear something here," as he went on to say, "Verse 9—And in THIS place will I give PEACE." What a beautiful scripture when you see it, when you know it and we recognize that there is a peace that is given when people enter into God's Family. Powerful! For all time it'll always be there, a unity, a oneness. Incredible. "And in this place will I give peace, says the Eternal of hosts." He went on to say, "There's no peace on earth yet! You see, it's coming when this happens! Verse 10—In the four, and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Eternal by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the Eternal of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bare holy flesh in the skirt of a garment, and with his skirt does touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, says the Eternal..." That's for our time. This is about us. This is about this country. This is about Israel. This is about what happened at the end of an age. Mr. Armstrong went on to say, "He's talking about our nation today." And how much worse is it today than in 1978? So he says, "He's talking about our nation today. And He's talking about our Church today. And I'm going to prove it to you," speaking of the Temple.

He went on to say in verse 14, reading verse 14 then, "…and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean." It's unclean. And he said, "And we better take heed." And we better too. This isn't a time to slack off. What a horrible time to get so wrapped up in your own personal affairs and your own life, to get so distracted from God that you're all consumed with your own drama and your drama is so great in your mind that you can't deal with reality anymore. We have people that can't deal with reality of this way of life and their calling anymore, to grasp and understand the importance of God's spirit that's able to dwell within us, but instead gets consumed about what they don't have, or what they no longer have, or what they want to have and how things aren't going so well for them and problems are so great. I'm playing a violin right now, okay? You can't hear it, but that's what I was doing. You think, "Boo hoo!" I don't get it! You want to get wrapped up in your drama? What a horrible thing! You have more pleasure out of your drama than you do living this way of life and fighting the fight and you just feel sorry for yourself? Boo hoo! "I'm so sad. Things aren't going well. I've got to do 'this,' and I've got to do 'this,' to feel a little bit better." And "I'm not being treated right and God's not giving me mercy! God hasn't shown me mercy and favor." That one really blew my mind, but you know, that's what people who aren't doing what they need to be doing right now, that's what they're saying to God, what this individual that I quoted last week (or two weeks ago) said in a letter. "God isn't blessing me. God hasn't shown me mercy." I would not want to be in those shoes. That's disgusting! Sick!

So do you feel sorry for yourself out there, anybody? You think this is too hard? This isn't for you, then. Go cry in your corner. I'm sorry. There is no mercy there! God gave you great mercy to call you out of this world and into this Church and this way of life. Do you want to grab a hold of what God is offering, the Great God of the universe and fight for it with all of your being? Be strong and fight for it? Because there's nothing richer in life that you can be given! Or do you want to have a "boo hoo fest" and want people to feel sorry for you and want to listen to your drama and what's not going right in your life and show you some, "I feel so bad. Yeah, I understand. I feel so bad for you." I don't! Get a hold of your life!

Do we love this way of life? Do we grasp what the riches of what we've been given? I don't care if everything is stripped away, I've been AWESOMELY blessed, and so have you to have the Great God's spirit dwell in your mind and your being and help you to be transformed, to become something different, to grab hold of His Family? That's why I was created. Do we grasp that's why "I," speaking of you, your name, why "I" was created, to become a part of that Family and then when God offers it. We say, "Oh, God, it's just too hard. I want it here and now. I want things better for my life here and now." And then we start giving all the drama of what is going on in our life and what's consuming us out here in the world, on our job, in our relationship with family, and everything else that's going on and things not going well, and finances and job and it's just a tough, tough thing. Well, this isn't for you then. And the Millennium isn't for you then. Something else is, but it's not that.

You want to be there? It isn't owed to you. But God is offering you the greatest thing that God can offer a being, to be in His Family for all eternity, for all time, age-lasting life in a world of peace, in an environment of peace, in an environment of power, in an environment of excitement and enjoyment and fullness that we can't even begin to grasp as human beings because we've never experienced something of that magnitude. We only experience a little bit at different times in our life when we have that closeness with God that's a little closer, like at the Feast of Tabernacles sometimes that you experience, something that is unique to you, that is different, that you can't have any other time of the year, but you can have it then, with more of God's people in an environment of peace away from your job, away from the drama. And yet some people like to bring the drama to the Feast. "Let's bring some drama to the Feast." Don't bring drama to the Feast this year, please. Leave it at home. And if that means you stay at home, then so be it, stay at home. This isn't for you. This is for God's people who want God's way of life who love God, who love the coming of Jesus Christ. And of all people that have ever lived, we get to see it. We get to be there. We get to be a part of it. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! How richly blessed we are. And yet people sometimes they get so distracted by the drama and by the things in their life they forget, they can't "see" anymore what God's offering, how great it is, how awesome it is, and the mercy, incredible mercy that God has given to us. A lot of repentance that needs to take place here in some people's lives, because I'll tell you, this cleaning up is not finished.

By the time this sermon series is over there are going to be a lot less people in God's Church. Not a lot, large numbers, but a lot less than what we have right now. God's seeing to it. I'm seeing it happen already. It causes fear in me. I hope it does in you, a healthy fear, that you better not be playing games with God. You better see and pray to God that you are able to see what He's giving you and offering you and you want it with all of your being and you love God. You're able to say, "I love You, Holy Father, and Jesus Christ. I love what You've placed before me. I love Your people." Do you have anything against any of God's people? Because if you do, you're screwed up in your mind and you're sinning before the Great God and finding fault with God if you find fault with His people and tear them apart. God'll take care of His own.

This is not a time to play your little violins. You better build a bonfire and just toss it in there and dance around it and say, "I'm so thankful all my drama's gone! It's GONE! Let somebody else deal with the drama. I don't need it! I don't want it!" And you know what? As God's apostle I don't want to even hear it! You're not going to get any sympathy, empathy from me, period. You've got to fight for this way of life. What are you willing to sacrifice to have this way of life? What are you willing to do? Are you willing to die for it? Because that's what you told Jesus Christ when you were baptized. That's what you told God Almighty, "Whatever it takes to become a part of Your Family, that's what I cherish, that's what I want, and whatever I have to go through to be there, so be it, because this life does not hold it. This isn't what I want." And yet some want it so bad. They say, "Okay, if it's something beyond the Great White Throne and I'm resurrected at whatever or I have to be judged in a different manner…” I don't even get that? “So be it; I'll take the here and now because I prefer the drama."

How do you think God looks at that after everything He's given to us, after all the sacrifices that have gone before us? Do we grasp what Jesus Christ went through to give us what we have? Do we grasp what the early Church and what the Church for the past 2,000 years has suffered through and gone through to give us what we have today? Do we grasp what Mr. Armstrong went through and lived through? Because, you know what? The older I get and the more I go through it, the more I realize what he went through. When I have come to a point when I realize that every evangelist that served under him turned against him, I realize I didn't grasp what he was going through by any measure, the sacrifices he made and the desire he had in his heart to keep pushing forward for God's people, for God's Church, regardless of who turned against him. His battle was in the ministry. His battle wasn't with congregations out here. His battle was with the ministry that he taught, who weren't even there at this Bible study like they should have been. Shame on them! And not a one of them will be in the Millennium. Not a one of them is going to be offered the opportunity to live on into the Millennium because of what they chose – to turn their back on the one who taught them, that God worked through to teach them His powerful truths. Awesome! You think that's fair? You think that's just from an Almighty God? You think that's merciful from an Almighty God? Because I do. I think that's love. That's love, if we understand it. God's love. God's mercy. And God's kindness. And God's justice.

Well, I lost my place, and I'm not reading what he wrote, because he said that here somewhere I think. Verse 14? Thank you very much. I finished there? Okay. Reading it again. So I didn't read 15? All right, we're getting ready. Hold on. And so it went on in verse 14 saying here, "And so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer there is unclean." And then he said, "We'd better take heed." So I read that.

"Verse 15—And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone, in the Temple of the Eternal. Or, the beginning of today's," as he says here, "Church of God in the Philadelphian Era of the Church today." But it wasn't over with yet. There was a Laodicean period that had to come and had to be done, what needed to be accomplished there, and still some more building on the Temple.

"Verse 16—Since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the press fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in the labours of your hands; yet you don't turn to Me, says the Eternal." Mr. Armstrong said, "He's speaking of us today, my brethren." Or speaking of us, yes, of us today, my brethren. So he said this is to the Church as well.

And so again, there are times of things we go through and things that happen in the country, in this country and around the world. But again, people haven't listened to God; people haven't turned to God. And God has corrected, God has punished at different times, but people still don't turn. And just like what happened with the Brexit. And it's so sick... it's exactly... this shows the awesome pride, incredible sick pride that's in this nation today. The Brexit takes place and the stock market goes down a ways and.... They know what they're doing. They're playing games. They make money on the way down and they make money on the way back up. Now, most people, common people that are involved in the thing that don't know what's going on in the stock market and how it works, of ordinary people in the world, they don't.... they don't... they just suffer. But there are some who don't suffer. There are some who just make a lot of money because they don't care about anybody else but themselves, and they use things like this. They use things like this – people's fear – to become wealthier. Making money off of others. What a sick world we live in. You think God's going to have to punish in a very powerful way? Things are going to have to happen to really make it really crash to where those who make money on the way down one day are going to grasp, oh, it's gone farther, it's out of control. They can't... It almost did that in 2008, 2009. They almost lost control and they were afraid. They don't know fear yet, because a greater fear is coming, far greater than what they experienced then.

"Verse 18—Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it." Now, he says here, "Now, I've marked here in my Bible: Is the glory of the second Temple greater than Solomon's? No. This is speaking of the day of God, and the Temple yet to be built—which is THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD. And it's pretty well built already." Now, he's referring here to the Philadelphian era and what was being constructed then, feeling that we were getting very close to the end, feeling that indeed he was getting very close to the end of his work and of accomplishing and the commission that God had given to him, Matthew 24:14. He only had about seven years left, little over. Didn't know exactly how much, but he knew he had a job to accomplish and fulfil to the degree that God was going to accomplish it.

And then he went on reading "Haggai 2:19—Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, has not brought forth: from this day, I will bless you." And he went on to say, "And God has blessed this Church. But we are getting very lazy in returning His blessing, and being appreciative."

"Verse 20," he went on to read, "And again the word of the Eternal came unto Haggai..." And we can't afford to get lazy. That's what Laodicea does. It causes people to get lazy, to let down, to not press forward, to not throw ourselves into our prayers and crying out to God for help to change and to grow and to be stirred up in spirit, that we be able to be strong and of good courage in the way God says we need to be. You have to ask for that, because it doesn't come from within you. When God says be strong, He's not saying dig it up and pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, because you can't do that. He's the source of the strength and the power and you cry out to Him for help to be strong in spirit, to be focused on His way of life, to love Him, to love Jesus Christ, to love the Church, to love what He's laid before us, a hope of something that's very close now after 6,000 years.

"And again the word of the Eternal came unto Haggai, in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying (verse 21), Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, 'I will..." And then he says here, "Now he doesn't mention Joshua, the high priest now. But "speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah." He was the one who was sent to build this Temple." And there are "types" of things that happen, and Mr. Armstrong recognized something here that was a "type" of something for him to do in a particular era of time. And this is what was being accomplished.

"Verse 21—I will shake the heavens and the earth; I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen." That's this time. That's where we are. It's about to take place on the earth. He went on to say, "You know, that has been occurring in the last four to five years..." So he saw things that were happening already and we always have, "Are we there? Are we just about there?" I'll tell you what, to look at what's happening now just with the Brexit alone it screams volumes of where we are and of what's taking place. Anyway, he said, "You know this has been occurring in the last four to five years at the rate of one a month. The kingdoms haven't been completely overthrown. It was THE THRONE of the kingdom being overthrown—a military," he went on to say here, "a military coup, turning it into a military government. That happened in Greece..." So he's talking about different countries here, of things that happened to them. And he said, "That happened in Greece. And then, about a year or more ago, the military government decided to turn it back to civilians. And it's just a change in the government, just like we have a change when we elect a new president. It's talking about a time when He (talking about God) would overthrow the throne of kingdoms, or governments, all around the earth; and that never happened until now. It's speaking of today.” So Mr. Armstrong was given to understand we live at the end of the age, it's just that he wasn't going to see the very end of that age because there was another era that had to come up first – Laodicea, an Apostasy – and Mr. Armstrong didn't have to be a part of that, nor see what was going to take place to what he'd labored so much on to what was going to continue on till the end.

"Haggai 2:22—And I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. In that day, says the Eternal of hosts, I will take you O Zerubbabel, my servant... And it's talking about today," Mr. Armstrong said, "and not that day. Zerubbabel was only, as I say, a ‘type.’” And then he went on, quoting the scriptures here "...says the Eternal, and will make you as a SIGNET; for I have chosen you, says the Eternal of hosts." So again, it's talking about something that would take place here at the end and Mr. Armstrong recognizing, being shown that there were certain things that God was going to do in and through Him as a "type" and possibly a total fulfillment, because didn't fully know where we were and what was yet to be accomplished.

So he went on to say, "Now this is the entire book of Haggai, which consist of only two chapters. Now, I'd like to turn to the third chapter, or the fourth chapter, rather, of Zechariah." Zechariah 4. He saw things as they were getting closer to the end. He knew we were in the end of an age. He saw things taking place as far as even what was happening in Europe and the European system and the world getting so much worse with technology that was coming along – not understanding it all fully, where we were exactly, but the way we've always been. Like I've made comment, ever since that time, and before that time, and afterwards of what we've ever thought, every car we've ever purchased is the last one. That's, basically, that's what we thought. "This is probably the last one." We've had several. You keep going forward with God's truth, with God's way of life when He keeps leading us, showing us what we need to learn, what we need to see. And one day it all comes together.

"Zechariah 4:1-2 And the angel that talked with me," And he said here, "Now, this is the Zechariah the prophet's book. 'And the angel that talked with me…'" And he went on to say here, "And the angel that talked with me came again, and awoke me, as a man that was awakened out of sleep." Incredible what's being said here. I think of what happened after the Apostasy and every person who's been called – or I shouldn't say, not called, but here today that was a part of the Church before the Apostasy had to be awakened out of sleep, out of a spiritual sleep. Awesome! Again, "...and awoke me, as a man that awakened out of his sleep. And said to me," And he said here, Mr. Armstrong said, "And we need to wake up, brethren. He "said to me…" So he went on to say here, "What do you see?" in scripture here, "And I said, behold,  I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereof, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof." And he went on to say, "Now a candlestick, you'll find in Revelation the first chapter, is symbolically referring to the Church." And that's why I think of things that happened in the end, things that happened to the Church. The Church is a part of everything that takes place in the end, part of a great witness of things that God is doing. And what you believe and what you hold and what you live screams out very powerfully, and it is a powerful witness of what God's doing at the end of an age.

"Verse 3—And the two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left thereof. So I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Do you know what these are? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the Eternal unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT, says the Eternal of hosts."

We're going to stop there today. We'll start there next week. Good place to end. Good place to start next week, or whenever I start again. Might be a couple weeks from now.

Little shorter sermon, but packed full, brethren. We need to realize where we are. We need to fight this fight. We need to get on with what God has placed before us. And it's exciting what's coming.

I'll just tell you right now, just add a little bit to the end of the sermon here, that there's a lot of work going into the book as far as some things that maybe we think shouldn't take very long, are not hard to do. But they are. Just the cover right now is taking a lot of work. But the cover has been decided what it's going to be. To me, that's exciting! Because I was thinking along the lines of using the earth. We used it in the other previous books. It's about where God's focus is; it's upon this earth and the things taking place. And yet we're going to use something different by design, something I've never seen done before that Jeremy is working with and has come up with and working with me on. And it's going to be exciting when you see it. And I'm not going to tell you what it is until we get a little farther down the line. But it's exciting because it says very powerfully in many ways just by the cover what the book is about. And it'll keep you wondering for a little while.

But we'll stop there today. Please be praying about it. There is a tonne of work that's going into it. And what I'm dumbfounded by this time around, excited about too, is that all the languages that have been done now aren't going to happen a year or two or three years down the road, translations. Everything is pretty much done as far as the translations are concerned. So I think of even the additional ones, by the end of the summer the Russian may be done. I'm not sure about the Swedish, if it's done, but it's probably pretty close if it's not completed. German, I think, is pretty well taken care of. And all the others, the Italian, the Spanish, the Dutch... What am I leaving out here? Portuguese. I think there's some work to be done on that one there yet. Did I say Spanish? Anyway, we have, I think, three different languages now that are being done there.

To me it's exciting. But what's exciting is the timing of things and how things work out. Those things are never by accident in God's Church. When you understand that the big things that are taking place are by design and that there's a purpose and a plan to how God does things.... That's why I talk about this Feast and then the following Feast. Because there is a lot of work to be done here. There is a lot to do as far as reaching out, for a time at least, before things begin happening, and then an acceleration of those events. And so God's giving us a window there and you can tell a lot that's going on just by seeing what God does in the Church. And to me that's exciting because He's taught us a lot about what takes place just by recognizing what He's doing in the Church at any moment in time.

And that's why it's so important right now that we get our lives in order here, because we've... You know, if we've gone all this distance, all this distance to come to this point in time, can you begin to grasp how awesome this is to God, how exciting this is to God and Jesus Christ, that everything that has been planned before mankind was ever put on this earth, before the angelic realm was created, that God is almost to the point of bringing the firstfruits of His Family... He has one of the firstfruits, but bringing the firstfruits of His Family to fruition after 6,000 years? God's excited, brethren! And He wants to share that with us.

After 6,000 years we're almost to the point in time where that government that has been spoken of throughout time is almost here. And we get caught up in drama? We get caught up in what our lives, what we're going through in our lives and how hard it is, how tough it is, and this is just too much? And we don't realize how blessed we are, that you can walk into a room and flip on a switch and you have electricity, that you don't have to worry about... you know, in summertime you have air conditioning, in winter time you have heat, you know. We're so... We have so much sometimes that it can make us lazy and begin to turn more inward and want to be pampered more and expect to be pampered and expect things that are owed to us in life.

I think of 200 years ago and before that, and mankind for the last 5,800 years, how they had to live. You don't have to worry about going out and gathering in food and so forth. You just walk down to the supermarket and get... You have to find a parking spot! You have to find a parking spot and walk a half a block, maybe, maybe a quarter of a block to get inside. But if you can get one real close to the door, that's awesome, you know? And we get caught up in things like that. How far do we have to park away and then we have to walk through the store and fill our basket full of things and go through and check out. And you don't spend your whole day preparing meals. The things that people went through in the past just to eat? We don't grasp! You don't have to worry about grinding your flour and making your own bread. You know, it's done for you...with lots of preservatives.

We get spoiled. We get spoiled. And we get our eyes off the big picture. We have it so easy in life and we don't grasp how easy we have it. And we get to a point where we turn inward and we feel sorry for ourselves because we have so much sometimes (even though we may be busy) lingering time, and we get caught up in things we shouldn't get caught up in and we feel sorry for ourselves and for our battles and what we're going through. Not in God's Church.

Thankfulness. Gratitude. Being able to see what we have, to know what we have, there is no sorrow in... Brethren, there is no sorrow in that but joy and fullness of life, excitement, excitement for where we are and what we see taking place in the world. Not because we want to see it do what it's doing, but to realize it has to happen. And it's not too long now and God's going to straighten it up, powerfully so. But we have to get through this.

Just as much as Noah and his children had to get the finishing touches put on that ark and to shut the door and to put the pitch on and then the rains began to fall. It had to happen. It had to take place to preserve life. And we're at a point in time of preserving life again. And God has given people and nations an opportunity for a lot more life to be preserved than what would have happened in 2012. How thankful are we for that? And sometimes people turn inward and say, "Well, that was so hard to go through." And a lot of people gave up because it was just too hard and, "What you said didn't happen. So you can't be who you say you are." Well, yes, I am. It's just the way it is. And things are going to come to pass exactly like God says – in His time. Not my time and not your time, but in His time.

Brethren, fight for it. Quit the drama. Anybody feeling sorry out here, quit feeling sorry for yourself, because we have too many of those out... I'm just telling you, brethren, we have too many people out here feeling sorry for themselves, that they have to go through certain things. Sad. You don't grasp your blessings.

How much are you thanking God for everything you have? Start a list. Start writing down the things that God has given to you. Think about them. Meditate about them. Pray about them. Because you are richly, awesomely, powerfully blessed – candidly, more than any other people in the last nearly 6,000 years. You know more about God's plan, more about God's purpose than the twelve disciples, twelve apostles of God. How blessed are you?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1