Herbert W. Armstrong, Pt. 6

Ron Weinland

July 23, 2016

I have a few announcements that I wanted to make here today, first of all, 2T acceptance letters or denials have already gone out, so if you haven’t received one you need to let the senior minister in your area know about it so that they can check up on it and they’ll get you an answer back. But again, that’s the second tithe assistance forms or the response to those have gone out.

I also want to make comment before I begin here; well, I have several I wanted to make. Today, I’ll just say that we’re going to continue with the sermon series entitled, Herbert W. Armstrong, and this is Part 6. Before we pick up from where we left off in the last part, there are some things that I wanted to mention here. First of all before I even get into this, there are a couple of things that I referred to that some have asked questions about.

One was an area where I was talking about taking medications. I take medications. My point was in what I was talking about, some people can take too much, you can get too involved in medications to a point sometimes that it can become addictive; they can be harmful to you. I sometimes marvel when I watch some of the adds on TV anymore. There are some things I just flat would not take. I mean, the risk involved in some of the things out there are so dangerous that it’s hardly worth the risk of taking them. So again, you have to use wisdom, but I’ve been mentioning some of these things because there are some situations in God’s Church where people have become too dependent upon those things. And so you have to use wisdom and ask God for guidance and direction and soundness of mind and wisdom in what we do. So again, hopefully that clarifies some of that. Some things you need to take, otherwise your body is going to quit on you.

God let’s us experience things on a physical plane in things we’re able to do nowadays that we’re able to learn from. That’s the way it has been for a long time. I remember a long time ago because… I mention this because the Church has gone through a lot in the 60’s, 70’s on up through time there of ideas about faith and the fact that some felt that it would be wrong to go to a doctor. Some felt it would be wrong to take medications. Some people wouldn’t take them. Some people to this day in some of the scattered groups have difficulty with that because of the past, thinking that it’s not a matter of faith if you go to a doctor. Mr. Armstrong used doctors all the time. He had to go to doctors, he had care, and so why we didn’t pick up from that in the Church I don’t fully understand why people or ministers didn’t grasp the balance there, but they didn’t. And anyway some have had some battles with some of those things. I remember one time when I first got in the ministry an individual came up to me and told me, asked me if it was okay when he was going to the dentist if he took… What was that? Novocain. And I said, “Well it’s either that, or bite the bullet.” Because basically there was show out at that time, a Western, about “biting the bullet.” Anyway, I don’t know if he thought that was funny or not, but I thought, “Hey, it’s one of the two.” You can do it the tough way, the hard way, let him do it without anything. Me? I want Novocain.

Another one, comments about “drama, drama, drama”, and I referred to “As the World Churns… Turns.” I am not telling people you can’t watch TV and if you like “As the World Turns,” that’s your business. I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about our personal lives, that sometimes we can get too much drama in our life, and our life begins to revolve around the drama that’s going on and not being focused like we need to be on God’s plan and what God is doing in our life and those things can take you away. There are situations in the Church today where people get so involved, have gotten so involved in things having to do with their family and those not apart of the Body as well obviously and so many cases and they get pulled away from the Church.

We have people still leaving God’s Church or being put out of God’s Church for various reasons right now and I’ve also made comments how that there’s a reason why we’re going through this series right now and a lot of it has to do with what we’ve done with the last three years. And as a whole, God’s Church has let down. Because, and I’ve made comment about it, this has nothing to do with the sermons we have received from the evangelists. Some people have asked about that, made comments about it. We were given great sermons throughout that period of time. God inspired and blessed us to be fed. But I know also, that because guidance in the sense of correction of situations that are taking place wasn’t there because it wasn’t their place to do so, as a whole, it’s for God’s apostle to do. And because that wasn’t being given, the tendency, the human nature is, and because of the situation in the Church in that respect, was to begin to be doing a little bit of coasting. Too much coasting, and candidly, a spirit of Laodicea. I’ve been there; I’ve done that. I know exactly what that spirit is. And it has gone through the Church way too much and we need to get refocused right now because of where we are because of the book coming out and the work that’s going into it right now. Hopefully it’ll be out by the Feast. That’s the plan, that we be able to have it. You’ve already read it. But, again, to have a book in hand, to be able to have it online now and do some of the things that we are going to do with it. I’ll bring those things up as we go along a little bit later.

But again, we need to be deeply focused because this is candidly about where we are. The book is about what’s going on in God’s Church right now. The book is about what’s going on in the world right now. And I hope we grasp even as we go through some more of what Mr. Armstrong says, that we grasp a little more fully where we are in the world and what’s taking place in the world. Things are heating up out there, in a very big way. They’re changing, things that are taking place, changing the minds, or reinforcing certain things in the minds of various people in government, who make decisions and choices about where the world is heading and what they’re doing. Those things are very much at play right now, in a very powerful way. There are things going on with Australia. I don’t know about Canada as much. I haven’t kept up with some of the things up there, but in the U.S. and Great Britain right now that are very important as far as prophetic things are concerned and choices that they’re going to be making and what’s going to be happen to them as time goes along. Plus, other nations as well, obviously, that’s falling into place.

So we need to be very much alert, stirred up in spirit, and to fight against what it says back there… This is not a Laodicean period, but that spirit is still a fight no matter when people lived in God’s Church, no matter what period of time they lived in, there’s instruction on those seven eras of things that are powerful and beneficial. But our human nature especially in this modern age of technology, it’s very easy to have that spirit slip in and it’s not something that you can afford to do. You have got to fight for this way of life. If you want it, you have got to fight for it, and we have people out here who are not fighting for it. And we need sometimes to be shaken up. Some people have had some shaking up and I have been very pleased with their response. Received strong correction personally from me and they’ve responded in repentance and are striving to make those changes in their life right now and that’s needed. We want everybody to make it through this. We want everybody to be strong in God’s spirit. But you have to decide, “What do you want?” How much do you want this way of life and what God is offering you? Because if you want it you really have got to fight for it. There is nothing else, there is nothing else that comes close in comparison to what God has placed before us and how blessed we really are. So again, you have to fight for it and not get pulled away, not get your focus on something else or just get to a point where we let down and think we are going to coast in the Millennium. No one who is called is going to coast into the Millennium. That’s Laodicean. That’s a wrong lukewarm spirit. You’ve got to make changes. You’ve got to fight for it with all of your being, truly.

So, we’re going to get into the flow of this weeks sermon. In the beginning of the last sermon we looked at some very specific area of scripture, and it was at the very beginning and I want to go back and just touch upon something that was covered at the beginning of the last sermon in Part 5. It’s Haggai 2:4, it says, “Yet now be strong, oh Zerubbabel,” says the Eternal; “and be strong, oh Joshua…and be strong, all you people of the land.” Now the meaning of these words and things that are stated here have a great deal of meaning because candidly this wasn’t written as a whole for their period of time. It was written to them. There were things they were told, but there were things that were also are repeated prophetically through time. Things that applied to some of the apostles and different ones in the beginning that applied to Mr. Armstrong, that apply to me now. There are different things that take place through time where there is a focus that God gives to us as His people. Anyway, I just want to read the rest of this.

Again, verse 4, “Be strong, oh Zerubbabel, says the Eternal; and be strong, oh Joshua… and be strong, ALL YOU PEOPLE of the land.” Now this is talking to the Church! This is talking to God’s Church, that we are to be strong. How can we be strong? It’s not talking about something you do physically, as a whole. It’s not talking about going out here and working in the gym. Although that’s good for us if we keep up on our exercise and so forth. But it’s about something that is spiritual in your life. It’s about something that you can do that God offers to you, but you can’t do it on your own! You can’t work it up. It comes from God Almighty and that’s the whole point of this. The strength, the power, the life we need, comes from God and we have to go to God to receive it. We have to go to God to ask for it. We have to focus our minds and our thinking, our prayers and so forth and our habits in life, everything that we do toward this. Toward becoming stronger spiritually in our life, becoming more focused, like right now, we need to be very deeply focused on where we are and where we are going in God’s Church and what’s in front of us. And if you don’t see it in time, you will.

I’m going to say it over, and over, and over again, it is about the book! It is about the message in the book! Because that’s what’s going to go out into the world. That’s what is going to go out as a final, if you will, words that are spoken to mankind. Are you going to listen to God? Because you haven’t for 6,000 years. Now is your opportunity. Because now comes judgment upon this earth. Now we’re at the end of 6,000 years. Do you want to live into a new age? Do you want to come through what the world is going to begin to experience? We really in God’s Church can’t grasp and understand the magnitude of what’s in front of us.

You can’t understand the magnitude of what’s going to be when semis quit going up and down the highways out here. Because right now there are a lot of semis that travel up and down the highways. And when the petroleum isn’t there, when certain things aren’t there and you can’t get the things that you rely upon that you can go down to your grocery store, or wherever, and pick up on a regular basis and it’s not there, your life is going to make some changes. And you’re going to learn to live by a kind of faith, if you will, that we haven’t had to apply in the same way. Now we’ve had to live by faith. We live by faith from the time we’re called. But this is going to be something unique in the sense of that which is very physical in our lives. When you can’t go over and flip on the switch and the electricity comes on. When you can’t go over and turn on the fire and the gas comes out, in other words, wherever, if that’s the main source of heat you have. There are going to be cases brethren where that stuff’s just going to flat stop and it’s not going to flow anymore. And we’re very dependent upon it today. We really are. So just to know what we’re getting ready to go through physically, we can’t grasp, as a whole. And so, that’s not even counting what’s going to follow. And the cause of some of those things that bring some of those things to pass and there’s going to be a reliance upon God Almighty, a desire toward God Almighty, to intervene in our lives, and He will, if we’re doing our part, if we’re fighting for this way of life now.

It’s not a last minute repentance type thing either. Thinking, “Oh, I should have been doing this. I should have been doing…” Now is our time, now is our opportunity to press forward and become strong and stronger. It’s not something that can happen at the last minute. And whether God will intervene in those situations… that’s… candidly there is still a refining taking place within the Body. And either we shape up or we’re shipping out. That’s what we’re going through. It’s a continuation. The measuring of the temple has not stopped. Just because we went through that primary period, there are still things going on and we need to take it seriously and understand we’re in judgment, we’re being judged, God’s people. We’re to be a strong Body when Christ returns. A strong Church, spiritually. Strong. Be strong.

So, “Be strong, all you people of the land,” says the Eternal, “and WORK.” Work! Yes it’s spiritual, but even sometimes just the fact of physical things in life we need to be doing certain things. We need to be active in our life. We need to be focused in our life. Because without that, if we’re not doing, if we’re not producing in our lives, whatever that means, whatever that might mean, then the tendency of being Laodicean, or drifting, or being lukewarm, becomes very strong, very powerful indeed.

So it says, “…and work; for I am with you.” Then Mr. Armstrong, I’m repeating what was said in the beginning of that last sermon, he went on to say, as he was repeating the words there, “Be strong and work and GET BACK OF THIS THING!” Now that was in 1978, and he was saying, telling the Church then, “Get back of this thing.” What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the Church. He’s talking about he work. He’s talking about what God had given him to do at that particular time and the fact that he was at a point in his life where death was at the door and he was being revived and strengthened and pushing forward in a work and one of the primary messages at that time was, in essence, one of putting the Church back on the right track, because we went through a period of time, especially ‘75, ‘76, ‘77, in through there where the Church became atrociously weak. Three to four years, a period of time when people began to become far more liberal in their thinking and letting down and not obeying God’s law like they should and begin to take in the world and the ways of this world. I can tell story after story after story of things that started happening in ‘75 and I’ve mentioned some of those, let alone ’76 at Ambassador College and what it went through and then having to be closed and then reopen and the things that were taking place there because of the ministry and because of the teachers that were there, the instructors and people letting down and they weren’t pressing forward and they weren’t behind the work. They lost track of what the work was about. The work was about what Mr. Armstrong was doing and what he was preaching to the world and telling the world at that time. That’s what the work was about. It was about a message that was to go into all the world and then the end would come and the primary message was going through him. That’s just the way it was. Just the way it is. There is a way that God works and He gives us opportunity to be apart of it. And that’s so important to understand.

I think of times past when people used to make fun of, not make fun of, but almost belittle, or play down the role of our lives within the Body and the Church, and minimize the importance of tithes and offerings. And it is the primary means that God is always taking care of His people. The primary means by which God is taking care of His people. So in the very beginning, even the establishment of the Levitical system was the means whereby God worked to keep the people focused on Him, through a Levitical system. It was for the nations of Israel so that they could be focused upon things about God. Now they didn’t get it. They didn’t understand it. They didn’t understand the purpose of the offerings, of tithing, of let alone of the offerings that were brought in, and the sacrifices. They didn’t… they weren’t given that. But on a physical plane it was still something that was unique to the nations of Israel as compared to all the other people around and different nations that had all these screwy, weird, convoluted ideas about a God, or a God family. I think of Egypt and all their ideas and things that they had, let alone some of the other ones around that region… Baal and… anyway.

So God established something from the very beginning on a very physical plane that was to teach something very spiritual. And then God made it very clear in the book of Hebrews that those things now are passed along within His Church in essence. That’s what it’s talking about. And primarily the ability to sustain a ministry to do whatever, whatever it is that God is focusing on at any specific time. And what was he focusing upon back in Mr. Armstrong’s time? Building up a church worldwide, making the Church larger than it had ever been since it began in 31 A.D. Far, far larger at any one moment in time than it had ever been to teach one of the most powerful lessons that God’s people in the future could ever look back on and learn from. And it’s one that we need to know well, because it’s going to be taught over and over and over again in the future. Why it happened exactly the way it did. That with a man like Mr. Armstrong, with the kind of conviction and power that he served God, and his ability at writing, his ability at speaking, the blessing of giving the telecast, the broadcast and everything else, and all the things that happened, and raising up three colleges, so that people could be taught and trained to go back out and work in these church areas, that in time, they would not remain faithful.

There was no way to govern their faithfulness. There was no way to guarantee that individuals baptized into God’s Church, having gone through instruction for four years were put into the ministry, would go back out into the ministry and teach faithfully what they had been taught. Because you see, the evidence shows they didn’t. In time, they began to teach their own little ideas. That’s a human trait, that people can begin to teach their ideas of what they think they’re seeing, and not understanding you don’t teach or say one thing that you have not been taught by God. If it comes through God, if came through Mr. Armstrong to the Church, that’s great! Build upon that. Repeat it. Make it stronger, whatever. But don’t come up with some concoction of something that we have never heard before because it doesn’t come through you. And that’s been an ongoing thing that has existed in God’s Church, it’s happened through time. One of the biggest lessons we’ve got to learn: How God works.

And so we’ve had different ones, different teachers, instructors… Dr. Hoeh… that had these students. Mr. Armstrong couldn’t be in every class and go through every class with the students and see if those instructors were being faithful. And I know that he believed for a long, long time that they were faithful. How would you think that the very ones you taught who became evangelists in God’s Church, that they would begin to teach things that weren’t true and weren’t correct that Mr. Armstrong didn’t teach? And in the reports that were coming in, he wasn’t given true reports all the time. He was given what people thought he wanted to hear, instead of telling the truth of what was really going on all the time, that’s what happened.

I get a little worked up when I talk about these things because this has been something that has been going on in God’s Church and it’s something that we have to learn so deeply in our mind: God’s Government. Do you know that there’s a way that God’s spirit works in your life? And we have to learn that. Everything comes through God the Father and Jesus Christ. And from then where does it go? Right here (pointing to himself). A few years ago I couldn’t have said that, but I have no qualms about saying that because that’s true, and that’s the way it is. When Mr. Armstrong was alive, it was through Mr. Armstrong. And no truth came into God’s Church save through that man. That’s the only way it came into God’s church. And yet ministers started teaching something different. Because you can’t guarantee faithfulness in someone who is begotten of God’s spirit and still in this human body. That’s a marvel. That’s the very reason that God’s Government has to govern in the world, and in the Church, and in the future, because they have the same mind. They are at one with God. Spirit. The same spirit. God always dwelling in them, and them always dwelling in God on a spiritual plane. Now that is an awesome thing to understand. Because human beings, under various kinds of circumstances and God allowed that to take place and gave those freedoms and with those freedoms after time, freedoms of Mr. Armstrong not being around, freedom of responsibility, and after a time people took to themselves things they shouldn’t have taken to themselves—began to teach things that were wrong.

I started to say Dr. Hoeh started teaching a 14th/15th at Ambassador College. And all, not all of them necessarily, but there were smear of ministers who were taught by him that went back out believing 14th/15th Passover. They’d go on into the 15th. Not a bit of Passover goes in the 15th and that was a sick, perverted, disgusting thing that took place—to change part of God’s Truth and Law, of something Mr. Armstrong made very, very clear even in the book about “(Pagan) Holidays - or God’s Holy Days - Which?” He made it very clear, and there was heading in there that says something to the effect of “14th/15th ?”, and there are three scriptures he quotes, three basic scriptures. But it wasn’t good enough for them, and they started changing it. And so a lot of those ministers when out… I think of the group that I was with when I first came out after the Apostasy, and it came out that something like half of all that ministry believed in a 14th/15th Passover, and others didn’t. I think, “How can you build bridges? How can you have unity and oneness? How can you have God’s blessing in your life, or in a Body, or in a group of people, when something so far off the wall is being taught?”

So again, what an incredible thing that God allowed to be taught, allowed to take place, a Church that became large, to teach one of the most powerful lessons ever. And I wish I could remember Mr. Armstrong’s exact words on that, but it was basically to the effect that the only one that can truly be trusted is God Almighty. Through time, only God Almighty is pure, true, all the time, all the time—faithful, all the time to one way, to His Word. It’s just the way He is. And those who become apart of that same Body will become the same way. And so they are going to go out and teach, because it can’t be left to human beings. The Church of God—The Worldwide Church of God proved that truth, very powerfully so. So we have such great lessons in things we’ve gone through in God’s Church that we can know today that people in times past, or people who are scattered, still haven’t learned yet. And one day they are going to come to learn it in a very powerful way, the importance of what God is doing in bringing about His Kingdom.

And so we’re a very small group, but it’s still about what is being done through a work—a work that God is doing. God is doing a work. Like Jesus Christ said, he said, “I work, and my Father works.” To this day, I work and my Father works. There are things He’s doing to fulfill His purpose and His plan and will be from here on through time. There are always going to be things to be accomplished, to be done. It’s beautiful. Awesome. And he lets us share in it. He lets us experience that with Him. And so in the Church, we share in that. That’s why I love the verse the way it says, “Be strong.” Not just Zerubbabel. Not just Joshua. And “all you people of the land.” And for us, it’s all the people in God’s Church. His desire for us to be strong, to be at one, to be of unity of mind, to think the same things, to be in agreement with all the truths we’ve been given. That’s why I talk about 57 Truths. If we don’t believe every one of them, if we’re not in unity with all of them, something is wrong in our mind spiritually. Because, well, there’s a oneness and then there’s that which is not one. And if it’s not one, it’s divisive, hurts the Body.

So Mr. Armstrong said very powerfully, “Get back of this thing.” And so I mention it again, this book that’s going out… Will people listen? I don’t hold out a lot of hope that they will. And yet I do hold out hope that they will. I hope you understand what I’m saying. Knowing human nature, knowing the way people are, unless they are brought so low, unless they are humbled so powerfully, so mightily, that they begin to listen. That’s the hope. It won’t be like Nineveh, where Jonah came in and because of some of the discoloration of his skin and because of the message he was carrying, and because of the matter of the fish and everything else and their beliefs at that particular time, for them to listen and to be stirred like they were, I believe with all my being God brought that to pass as well. God is so powerful, so all mighty, far beyond our thinking comprehension. But to prepare them. That’s why… that’s the hope I do have. That the only way that peoples and nations are going to listen and any case is because God’s working now and how He is working right now with them, and individuals, that when the message comes along, that when certain events come along, that there will be hope for them. But they still have to make the choice don’t they? And that’s where it’s kind of frustrating because you see the pride especially in Israel, and their history. I hope that people will change. I hope there will be some nations that change and they’re certainly being given the opportunity. But we’ll have to wait and see as to what takes place.

But this is your life. This is your life. This is what you support. This is what you’re behind. It’s not just about our conquering and overcoming, that’s going to be given to all people at a certain time in life. All people are going to be given that opportunity in time, as a whole, not everyone we understand that because of the mind being set. But as whole in the Great White Throne, think of all the people and that during the Millennium the opportunities are there, but especially in the Great White Throne, all the people. But we weren’t called to become a part in the Great White Throne. We weren’t called, well some of us have been called, to live on into the Millennium. But that’s unique for us, to be able to do that, others in times past, all those before us, and up to this point in time, the calling was about a work, and the first phase of God’s work, to bring us up to this point in time. So that’s awesome to be apart of it. What is that? What is that work? Well, Mr. Armstrong made it very clear what it was then. It was to back him up. It was to support. It was to be behind. It was to help do whatever he was focused upon that God gave him to focus upon.

And so that is what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the church and the growth of the church, and he’s talking about a message to go out into the world and so forth. And so again Haggai 2:4, For I am with you, says the Eternal of Host. And going on here, I guess I didn’t read the last part of that. “Yet now be strong Zurabbabel,” says the Eternal. “And be strong Joshua, and be strong, all you people of the land,” says the Eternal, “and work. For I am with you,” and then, yes it says, says the Eternal of host. “According,” verse 5, “According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. So my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” So, again, we don’t have to fear if we’re responding to God. Be strong. In other words, that’s what God desires. And for him to tell us that, you know what that means? He means he wants to pour out more of his power, his life in us. He wants us to become stronger. He wants to give us the help to become stronger. But we have to want it. We have to desire it. We have to cry out for it. We have to work for it too. And not just spiritual. Physical too. To be focused properly. And so again, powerful scriptures and I think what it says here about coming out of Egypt and, as it says here, “according to the word.” When God began to draw us and work with us, whenever that point was when we came to a point of baptism, and that agreement that we made with God that is so, so important to understand what we said and the word we gave God: “I am yours. I want what you placed before me. This is not about my will, wanting my way. It’s about whatever it takes to yield to serving you and what you have planned in your purpose for me and within the Body.”

So again, we’re reviewing this because more really needs to be said about this, about what this is talking about. And at this point, it needs to be far better understood in some of God’s church because we’re either making changes in our life right now and realizing there’s been some coasting in our lives and acknowledge that, admit that, and recognize that has to change and it can’t be that way any longer and we have to throw ourselves into what God has placed before us. And whatever changes we need to make, whatever we need to apply ourselves to more so, we need to be doing it. We need to be doing it. Because we need to be preparing for what’s in front of us. God’s giving us some time to do that. I believe we have a good, strong year to accomplish those things. But again, not a time to coast. This is a time to use this year wisely that God has given to us.

So again, it is essential to grasp the importance of the fact that we work. Now this is going to vary because of age or because of health and so forth and everyone’s different, but I feel a strong need of talking about some of these matters. But in too many cases there are situations where some need to work more or work harder, to be focused in your life more. And whatever that means, to produce, to be active, and if it means as well about the church and about what we have opportunity for. Again, there are age factors. There are schooling factors. There are health factors. I understand all that. But I also understand there are situations in people’s lives where we can do more or we can apply ourselves more fully.

I’m just going to talk about work alone. I think about what God gave us in the very beginning. He began to remold and refashion the earth so it would sustain life again. He did it for 6 days, created man upon it, mankind. And the 7th day, it says, he rested from all of His work. And he set an example there that He wants us to learn from as human beings because he made us as human beings and he knows what is good for us even as far as the health of our minds and our thinking by how we apply ourselves in life. And it doesn’t necessarily specifically mean a job per se, which in many cases it is a matter of work in that area, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a full 6 days, but we’re productive. We’re, whether it be in our homes, or whatever it might be, or whatever we have to take care of to dress and keep as the scriptures talk about that we’ve talked about, made comment about, and that means to cultivate, whatever it means to cultivate something in our life. And to keep it up and to keep what God has given to us. So there are all kinds of things in our life that we can do to be better focused, and you know what, that has to do with the spirit and how you think. It has to do with your mind. It has to with how you think about things around you and what God has made available to us in the world. And that has a spiritual spin off, if you will, to it, of how we think about the physical things around us because we live in a physical world. That’s our life, very physical. God wants to know how we’re gong to use it.

So again, I think of someone that I respect highly, and I mention this thing about tithing and so forth and offerings, and some of the most enjoyable things that I’ve ever read are when people send to me about their work and about their striving at their job and seeking to do better at a job, perhaps in time if able to do better or to get a promotion or whatever it might be, that there focus is so they can tithe more. I respect that highly. I respect that mightily because I’ve known of others that that’s been there focus. It’s about God’s work. It’s about our participation if we’re able to participate in that fashion that we participate in it that way because that’s what God has given us opportunity to do. And so to throw ourselves into that, what an awesome opportunity to be part of God’s work, and we can’t minimize that part of it. And we tend to do that. It’s like, “You mean we’ve just been called to give tithes and offerings?” Because I’ve heard of things like that in time’s past. “You mean that’s your part?” That’s a part of it, yes. Call it what it is. Part of it is your response and how you grow spiritually and how you are applying certain things to your life as far as the work you’re putting into it in your life, your desire for God’s way. But just to be candid about it, a lot of it is about what we do. What we do. And again, I understand there are periods in time when we come to retirement, that’s great. People have things they’ve set up for retirement and that’s great we’re able to receive it and the like and that’s fine.

But I just want to mention something, and I know someone that I know who I really respect that’s up in her 80’s. She’s holding down 2 jobs. She works 25 hours a week at a quick stop, if you will. 25 hours and I know that kind of job, that you’re on your feet a lot. If she’s not on them all the time, I’d be shocked. 25 hours a week. Now does everybody in there 70’s, 80’s, have to do that? No. But she wants to and I respect her highly for it, but that’s not enough. She has another job, too. Cleaning. House cleaning. I think it’s 3 hours a day. I think it’s 3 hours a day, five days a week. I may have that wrong, but I think that’s what it is. And how can you not respect that and admire that? You know? I think of a woman I saw on TV a while back over in Japan, I think it was Japan, and she’s in her hundreds, she was quite a ways up in her hundreds if I remember correctly, and she’s up in a tree, picking fruit, wedged up in a tree picking fruit, climbing in a tree, you know. Man! Another ten years on me and I’m not sure I can climb a tree. But to drive yourself, to be filled with that kind of life and that kind of a focus just in a physical way, to me, it’s a beautiful thing. Some were talking here earlier here about certain ones that individuals out of Cambodia or whatever have some farms around here and they grow various things, I guess, a garden, gardens and so forth, and out there, working hard, you know, in these gardens. If you’ve ever had a garden, you know what it’s like to keep the weeds out and to keep things hoed, and everything else, and the harvest that goes into it, and you’re doing it all by hand.

I respect things like that mightily. Whatever it might be in life that people apply themselves to and there’s a fullness and a reward that God gives us in that as well that’s a part of life, to be enjoyed. He’s sharing things with us and that’s a part of this thing of cultivating and keeping, and sometimes it’s the literal cultivating out here in the soil. You know, it might be cultivating with our family, our children sometimes, or whatever it is you’re doing in your life, whatever it is you’re cultivating in your life to make your life better and then keeping it up and taking care of it once it’s there. So again, so many things have to do with how we think and why we think the way we do.

And I’m talking about a work right now that God is doing and not to minimize the things that we’re part of. Do we need more? We’ve been awesomely blessed. We have more now than we’ve ever had in any point in time and it’s for the book. I know what it’s for. And when we start, we’re going to be able to hit it hard for a period of time. I remember as we came up to 2012, all the way to the end, we started dumping everything, hundreds of thousands of dollars into advertising, and the more we dumped in, the more that came in. And it was like, we’ve got to do this quicker. And we upped the advertising more and it just kept coming in. Incredible, how God’s blessed us. And now with 3 years with… relatively calm for a while, there’s some reserves there if we’re blessed to use it and if not, God will do it some other way. God has a plan. God has a purpose. He’s going to accomplish what He’s going to accomplish. But right now it looks very good, and that to me is exciting because I know what’s there and I know what it’s for. So again, but we all have a part in this. We all have a part to share as a whole.

And I want to mention this because I think of something that Paul wrote, because I’ve had to write some individuals at times and tell them about this and remind them of what it says in 1 Tim 5:8: But if anyone does not provide, and the word basically means “to plan ahead” which has to do, it is about planning ahead, it is about thinking, but it’s a very part of our physical life and what we do and how we do it, but if anyone does not provide for his own, whether it be for an individual for themselves or for a family that they’re a part of, and especially of those of his household, he is denied the faith, the purpose of his calling, or her calling, and is worse than an unbeliever. Why does it say it so strong like that? Or as it says in the King James, is worse than an infidel. Why does it say it like that? Because look at what God has given to us. Our minds have been opened up with the truth to understand God’s way of life. We have been awesomely blessed and so if we don’t use all that, even in the most basic, physical things of our life, what are we doing with what God has given to us? So are we just on the getting side of things? Because sometimes I’ve known salvation has been like that. People talk about salvation, it’s like, God owes us certain things as soon as we’re baptized. Used to be the concept in God’s church, that if you’re baptized and you die, you’re going to be in the resurrection when Jesus Christ returns. And what? Didn’t make sense. I’ve mentioned this before. I think of a young guy, 19, got baptized, 2 weeks later was killed in an automobile accident, and I know the kind of life he was living before he was baptized and it wasn’t good. Anyway, it’s like because you went through the motions, got baptized, had hands laid upon you, received God’s holy spirit, that somehow it is owed to you that if you die early, or whatever it might be, that you’re going to be in that 1st resurrection. Hardly, hardly, hardy, hardly.

You know God taught something very powerfully in that respect, that it all depends on our spiritual growth and spiritual growth doesn’t take place in 2 weeks time. Transformation cannot take place in the human mind in 2 weeks time. Let alone 2 years time. It takes a long time for this mind to be transformed on a spiritual plane to where one day God can say, “You’re there. Now I know you. Now I know you.” And if we die, we’ll be in a resurrection, a specific resurrection. And so that’s our desire, all who live on into the millennium, your desire is to live this way of life with all of you’re being and to change, to be transformed so that at the end of the 1,000 years you’re going to be resurrected in an awesome resurrection. And to be able to help people, the billions that are going to be resurrected to live into the Great White Throne. I marvel at that at God’s planning and how He’s doing all this. I think of what’s getting ready to take place right now with the 144,000 in a world that may have 1 billion, maybe, I don’t know, 2 billion people. Can’t be a whole lot more, sadly. 2 ½. 3. And 144,000 reigning, ruling, scattered all over the world. That’s incredible! 144,000 ruling in the God family, teaching as far as the church is concerned, governing as far as government’s concerned and there are those who are going to be working then, under them in this human life. Awesome! Incredibly awesome! And so again, our desire. What we’re able to be a part of right now is incredible.

I won’t even get back to where we were in the sermon last week if I don’t hurry up here. But anyway. Then there’s this part of that verse that needs to be seen for, in the light that it is. Again here, about this thing about, “according to when you cam out of Egypt.” I have in my notes here and I am just reading what I have here again. And I really pretty much covered this but... Again, this is a matter of obedience to God and His way of life. We learn how to make sound and productive changes in our life. A lot of those have to do with physical things we do. And one of the big things about this involves… I’m not going to go through that part, maybe save it for another sermon. I’m going to kick on in the next sermon here. I’ve said enough about this right now.

I hope we’re getting the message here, I hope in God’s church, because once I came back out and I began to have pulse, more of a direct pulse of what was happening in God’s church, God began to show me some things. And over a period of time of visiting and so forth and getting feedback from things taking place all around the world it became very clear. We’re not doing… we haven’t been doing the things we need to be doing the last three years, in responding and stirred up in spirit like we need to be. And now is the time to do that. God is giving us some correction because He loves us and wants us to be a part to the end. That’s what I want, that’s what so many of us want in one another. We want to see each other come through this successfully and to be blessed in our lives.

Let’s move ahead to where we left off in the last sermon. “Zechariah 4:1: And the angel that talked with me,” and he said here, Mr. Armstrong said, “Now this is Zechariah the prophet’s book and the angel that talked with him.” So Mr. Armstrong’s comment in the middle of the verse here. And so again, “And the angel talked with me, came again, and awoke me. As a man that is awakened out of his sleep.” Now to me that is profound for this period of time because that fits. That fits me and that fits a lot of other people that have been called at the end of this age. When we were asleep. This is a spiritual…this is something here that’s given through the things that are being discussed here that are leading to the end time and things on a spiritual plane that are being discussed here. And I think of the entirety of the church, fell asleep spiritually, and that’s why…that’s what happened when we were vomited out of God’s mouth and what it talked about in Laodicea. He wasn’t going to keep us in the Body, because you can’t be lukewarm and be in the Body. It doesn’t fit. They don’t work together. We have to work, we have to be active, we have to be in the Body, we have to be doing things, and to be lukewarm is kind of like taking it easy and coasting and that isn’t God’s way. We have to apply ourselves physically and spiritually. They both go together, powerfully so.

“And so he said to me,” and Mr. Armstrong added in the middle of this, and he says, “And we need to wake up brethren. And he said to me, what do you see?” So again here, I think of what God has done to us in the Church and what took place after the apostasy. When He began to wake different ones up. I think of a point in time when I was shaken and awakened as soon as things began to happen and God began to lead in a certain direction. And God began to show certain things of why, why an apostasy took place, how an apostasy took place, what our true condition was… spiritually. Began to see those things. Incredible. And then the growth that God has blessed us with since that time.

But going on and it says, “And I said, I have looked and behold a candlestick all of gold and with a bowl upon the top of it. And his seven lamps thereon. Seven pipes and the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof.” And Mr. Armstrong then said, “Now a candlestick, you’ll find in Revelation the first chapter, is symbolically referring to the church.” The church. All a part of God’s work and what God does all the way to the end, all the way to Christ’s coming. And then the church doesn’t stop then, it just continues on, but, and set up differently, obviously, than what it is now because Jesus Christ will be here. The 144,000 will be here and it’s going to take on a different framework if you will.

“Zechariah 4:3: 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 not know what these are? And I said, no my lord. And then he answered and spoke unto me saying, this is the word of the Eternal unto Zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Eternal of Hosts.”

And Mr. Armstrong repeating that, those verses, phrasing that at different times, making it very clear that everything that God does is by His power and by His might. His work is done that way and we can be a part of that. We can be a part of that. His might, His power. When He says, be strong, that strength comes from Him. You can’t work that up. God is directly involved but He gives us the opportunity to share with Him. That’s awesome! That’s exciting! He gives us an opportunity to share in what He’s doing, and not many on the earth have been given that have they? Incredible.

So God is letting us know that it is not by might, or by power, but by His spirit. And I think of the Word Wide Church of God and how big it was…it was too big. It was too big for things that had to take place at the end of the age for God to fulfill this in the manner in which He is going to fulfill it. Instead God had a different purpose for what was to take place and it was God’s purpose to allow the church to become as large as it was. He blessed it to become that large. It was His purpose to allow the ministry to be taught and trained as they were and to go out and do what they did for one last mighty awesome lesson to be taught to mankind before God sent Jesus Christ, His son, to be King of Kings over all the earth, to establish His government on the earth. And it was this matter of what I’ve just gone through and talked about. That only God can be fully trusted…mankind can’t be. And so the size revealed that and what took place through time revealed that. So you can’t guarantee that people are going to remain faithful; human beings aren’t that way. Only God can insure that and God has insured that with every apostle in His church and every prophet of His through time because of what He has done, because of His power and His might and His molding and fashioning and working with those situations and circumstances in their lives… all of them.

And so again here, verse 3, I’m going to pick it up again here. “Zechariah 4:3: 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 not know what these are? And I said, no my lord. And then he answered and spoke unto me saying, this is the word of the Eternal unto Zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Eternal of Hosts.”

And so again, we are small, and whatever takes place now… no one can take credit to themselves. That’s why the very thing that was given to Philadelphia and what took place then in the era that followed it. There was a spirit that entered into God’s Church of people beginning to be lifted up with all that they thought they knew and understood and began to rely upon self rather than God and that’s why Laodicea came to being like it was.

So again here, Mr. Armstrong said, made the comment here, “This building is being built by the spirit of God. Not by might and power, not by brick mortar and wood and plaster and other physically materials, but by the spirit of God.” And so it’s always been that way, but especially towards the end here and things we’ve gone through and things we’ve learned and what we can be a part of in this age. “Verse 7,” it goes on to say, “And who are you, O great mountain before Zerubbabel? You shall become a plain. And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, saying, grace, grace unto it.” And Mr. Armstrong said, “Which is Christ of course, speaking of Christ’s coming and bringing forth Christ in our generation.” So I’ve referred to this, talking about, we are that generation. That which is left is a part of, from World Wide and went through parts of Philadelphia and lived through Laodicea and on into this particular age. So, much of what’s taking place right now is, it is a remnant of that period of time, and then those that God has blessed to become a part, to share in that work that God is doing at this particular stage, and age, if you will.

And so again here, Mr. Armstrong addressing some of those things, but Mr. Armstrong felt that this was happening, was going to happen in their time. It’s kind of like… God has allowed people to believe and see certain things in order to be able to maintain a certain focus and yet it is about living His way of life and what we do with it. But I think of the early apostles and the early church, Paul included, and basically you can tell very easily by things that they wrote and said, that they believed that Jesus Christ was going to return in their lifetime. They were allowed to believe that for a purpose, for reasons. And then as time went along they began to realize, different ones began to die, be killed and so forth, and they began to realize, God began to show them it’s for later on. And certain things have to happen within the church first.

So generation after generation in God’s Church have done the same thing that prophets of old have always done: look for the coming of the Messiah. When is he going to come? When is he going to establish God’s Kingdom on earth? And so Mr. Armstrong was given to understand we live at the end of an age. He was given to understand that 1950, it was important to send people to Europe because the European Union at that time, or the European Common Market, was being formed and he knew what it meant. God gave him the knowing that this is the beginning of a final stage of something that’s to erupt at the end time. To lead into the time that Jesus Christ returns. So he sent some of the writers over there to be a part of that, to write about it in the Plain Truth magazine. Awesome! 1950. And believing it’s getting close and then a booklet written, “1975 in Prophecy,” and then coming to understand it’s not yet. And maybe it was brethren. Because of things that have happened now, I wonder. And so Mr. Armstrong talks about things that were taking place at that particular time and he goes on to address things a little bit later in this Bible study that really apply to now. It’s for our time. Awesome to understand where we are and that we’re so close.

Verse 7. “Who are you, O great mountain before Zurabbabel. You shall become a plain and he shall bring forth a headstone,” again as he talks about here. It says he realized that that was talking about Christ and happening in our generation as I mentioned. Now going on in verse 8, “Moreover the word of the eternal came unto me saying, the hands of the Zurabbabel have laid the foundations of this house,” and what is the house he’s talking about? The one to whom Christ is coming. “His hand shall also finish it and you should know that the Eternal of Host has sent me unto you.” Awesome. Some of the things being stated there of things we’ll still learn about as time goes along. But Mr. Armstrong took great courage in it at that particular time because of the type of things that were taking place then, and as a matter of fact, that’s what he says next. He says, “I have taken great courage in reading that more than once. Maybe you can understand why.” Because he believed at that moment in time that something that God had given to him as a commission as far as restoring truth to the church, that what he was given to that point in time was that he was going to be a part of that all the way to the end, but it wasn’t meant to be so. There were other things that this was going to apply to later on that God was going to accomplish and fulfill, but again, that gave him strength at his age in his 70’s, upper 70’s to boot, to continue to press forward and do a work and finish a work that God had given him to do. Awesome.

Verse 10. “Who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and you shall see the plummet in the days of Zurabbabel with those seven.” What seven? It’s talking about going from the beginning to the end as far as the Church is concerned, talking about all the eras that have led up to this particular point in time and what’s finally going to take place at the very end and God bringing it all to a head, and finally after all that point in time and even the 4,000 years preceding that and all those prepared that are going to be part of a 144,000, awesome. It says that, “they are the eyes of the Eternal which run to and fro over the whole earth.” He went on to say, “Now, I’d like to go back…” No… let me make sure this isn’t my notes. Yeah, it’s Mr. Armstrong, “Now I’d like to go back to Malachi again. And let me just say that…” I usually put my notes here. I can’t even tell if this is mine or Mr. Armstrong, but I think Mr. Armstrong is saying this. It gets pretty bad when you can’t tell what you have there. Anyway, he’s talking about going back to Malachi again, “And let me just say in the New Testament you will find that the Church is built into a Holy Temple unto the Eternal and it talks about every joint and every part of it is built by Christ and is built perfectly. Now some are going to be cast out, but those who really are in the Temple of God, in the Church, are going to be here for the coming of Christ.” So again here, he is very focused in what he’s talking about, realizing here again, that the Temple is talking about the Church and that is what he is revealing in this particular Bible study that so many ministers should have been there and weren’t there and it’s just kind of a type of what was going to follow that they’d be the same ones who would deny that when finally one stone was cast down from another and the things that happened to the Church at the end of an age.

So I want to pause here for a moment. This is where it does get into my notes now, finally. I knew I was writing something here somewhere, but anyway, he quoted Zechariah 4:10. Again, this is something that’s been quoted over and over again, because even 144,000 wasn’t large, or I’m sorry, a 100,000 in the Church wasn’t large… I think it was 96,000 by the time we got to the point of the apostasy. I’m trying to think of what size the Church was by the time Mr. Armstrong died. Anybody… some of you who have been around longer, remember? It was a little over a 100,000 at that particular time. 120, maybe, something of that nature. Whatever it was at the time of Mr. Armstrong’s death. Maybe it wasn’t even that large, but it was getting close to that. We were heading toward 144,000. That’s why people felt the Church had to continue on until there were that many adults in the Church because the idea was the 144,00 had to be in the Church before Christ was going to return, who had to be baptized. We learned later on, that’s not what that’s about. It’s about through time, 6,000 years of what God’s been doing and preparing that number.

But again, the verse referred to here in Zechariah 4:10, For who has despised the day of small things? And so, when we at that particular time in Worldwide would look at other religions in the world, really a very small church, and felt that that applies at that time. But it didn’t. Look at our size right now. Who has looked down upon, who has been ashamed by, because that’s what some of these words have to do with. “A day of small things.” The mockery. “Oh, your God’s Church? How many are in the Church?” Not very many. Not very many. A few hundred who are baptized. It’s not very many. And so again, takes a lot of conviction to recognize and a lot of strength and belief and confidence and belief, and that comes from God, to grasp that God’s working with a very small Body of people at this time and has been for some time. And, in essence, revealing very powerfully so that what he does, he doesn’t need a large Body. He doesn’t need a large Body, but he’s going to bring a remnant, a very small portion of that entire amount, whatever it was, 96,000, whatever it was that was baptized at the time of the apostasy, and how many baptized now? Not that many, in comparison. Puny, puny, puny. Small, small, small. And that’s because God is going to show He is the one that does this work till the end and leads us to accomplish something awesome on the earth in a very small Body of people.

And so again here, incredible what Mr. Armstrong was showing, but I want to go on here. Mr. Armstrong didn’t continue on here in this particular Bible study in Zechariah 4, but he stopped there. Instead, this is right here at verse 10 and that’s where it concluded as far as Zechariah is concerned. But I want us to continue on a little bit more today. Verse 11, Then I answered and said unto him. What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? You know I marvel at this as much as I marvel about Mr. Armstrong understanding his commission in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom should go unto all the world and then shall the end come.” And what’s the next verse say? Talks about what’s going to happen at the end, talks about what takes place, something that Mr. Armstrong was not a part of, and those things that would follow afterwards. Doesn’t hurt if we turned over there and just read it. Matthew 24:14. I want to read it for exactly what it states here. But again, he didn’t continue on so often because the rest of it didn’t apply to him, but it does apply to us. It’s what we’ve been living: Therefore when you shall see the abomination of desolation… Mr. Armstrong was never to see that; he was never to witness that. And I’m thankful he didn’t have to. Can you imagine? All the time, his entire life, and his wife, Loma, and what they put into the work and into the Church and the sacrificing and the hardships and the betrayals that took place in his life, that he didn’t have to see what took place later on in 1994 when someone got up and said the law, basically, has been done away, went right back to traditional Christianity.

Therefore when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. And I still marvel to this day, those that were scattered, if they just would have just accepted and understood what Mr. Armstrong taught in this Bible study that the Temple is the Church and the abomination of desolation, like Mr. Armstrong… I think about what Mr. Armstrong said later on when he went out to the entire Church when he made it very clear that the Jews can’t build a temple. The Levites don’t exist. The Jews can’t carry on the service of a temple, anyway. It was given to the Levites. They don’t even know who the Levites are, so how can they have a priesthood? Who is the high priest? Mr. Armstrong made it very clear that isn’t what it’s about. It isn’t about establishing something for a physical temple and that there is gong to be an abomination like Antiochus Epiphanes where they bring in and slaughter a pig upon the alter again. And yet there is an evangelist out there to this day who says to those in his group that all they have to have, they don’t have to build up the walls again, they don’t have to build the temple again, but they do have to have an alter so that this can take place again. You think… it’s all physical. The spirit left a long time ago because of going asleep. I look forward to the time they’re going to have the opportunity to be awakened from that.

“Therefore when you shall see the abomination of desolation…” Well, we saw it. A lot of us, some of us here today, that saw some of those things in different church areas here, that came at a different time, that were called in a period of Philadelphia, if you will, as a whole, or during the period of Laodicea, came up to a period of time when we saw the abomination of desolation. What a hideous, sick thing. Far worse than taking a pig upon a physical alter and desecrating a physical temple, you know, which was sick for that particular temple, but nothing compared to people who have God’s spirit and then turn against God or turn their back on the things they’ve been taught, because of being asleep spiritually and not having the strength to fight and resist what came, and as a result, every stone of the temple was, you know. So again, you talk about an abomination of desolation; that was it. We lived it. Incredible. A great falling away, an apostasy.

Anyway, going back to the verses here. Read it again. Verse 11, Then I answered and said unto him, what are these two olive trees that are upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof. And I answered again and said unto him, what are these two olive braches that which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth. Awesome. And so I marvel at these verses as much as I marvel at Matthew 24, verse 14. Mr. Armstrong stopped there. He stopped at verse 10 here in Zechariah because the rest was about another time and for a different purpose and for different people.

Let’s turn over to Revelation 11 while were looking at that, when it talks about the two anointed ones. Because this is something the Church has speculated on ever since I’ve been in God’s Church. Ever since I’ve been in God’s Church, there’s always been speculation about who might fulfill that role. Revelation 11, verse 3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. And so people get in their minds what they think that means. And most always what we think something means, when it gets into our mind, isn’t what we think is there. And so they think there are things being said in that entire period of time and they’re doing certain things for that entire period of time and it does not say that. They will do it in that time and there are things that are being accomplished in that time and there are things that are already out there and I think of the book that’s already out there, and has been for some time, and started to be out there as it was. That’s what it’s about. Verse 4. Because that’s the message at the end time, brethren. Who is going to listen? Will anyone listen as in the days of Noah? Except this time, they can come through it if they will but listen to God and repent.

Verse 4. These are the two olive trees, tells exactly what it is, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. So again, churches, yes. There are two church eras that God has called a remnant out of and it’s within those two church eras that God is doing what he says here. Awesome, if you understand.  So anyway, I think of times, do you realize there was a time, well, I may not need to get into some of that, but I think of there was a time that Garner Ted was expected to be one of the two witnesses with his father because we believed we were at the end time. And then when Garner Ted was put out then speculation began, some began to wonder, is it “this” evangelist or “that” evangelist and so forth. Such speculation was never good. Speculation like that is never healthy. The best thing, God will show it in His time. No one has to speculate about things like that. That kind of thing is not healthy spiritually. As a matter of fact, sometimes it can be very, very, very unhealthy. You know why? Until it comes through God’s apostle, it should not be delved into. It’s not truth. Until something comes from God, what advantage is there of going into certain things? And some became quite adamant of what they believed and they believed it was going to be that way, or whatever. Not a healthy thing. As a matter of fact, again, as I said, it is very unhealthy to do things like that. So, we’ve learned that in God’s Church. There’s no one that gets up and preaches about anything that isn’t in unity and harmony with everything being taught by God’s Church and God has given us the ability to have that. That’s an awesome thing because that didn’t exist in Philadelphia. That didn’t exist at all in Laodicea when there’s all kinds of idea swirling around out there that ministers were preaching in different church areas that weren’t in unity with what Gad gave through Mr. Armstrong.

Do you understand how horrible it is for someone to come along and begin to teach their ideas of what they believe a Strong’s word might mean that conflicts with something that God has given? Whether they are right or wrong is immaterial. And the vast majority of time, they’ve been wrong, but sometimes God has allowed some to be right about a portion of something, just enough to let them have enough rope to do to themselves what they’re bent on doing. We are to be a Body that’s in unity and harmony and have the same truth, the same beliefs, always, always, always, with whatever God gives us in the present truth, wherever we are. And I can’t stress that enough.

Anyway, let’s go back and continue in the flow with what Mr. Armstrong covers in the Bible study. This particular case, he talks about going back to Malachi. Yeah, I guess it was earlier he said, “Now, I’d like to go back to Malachi.” So here we are again. He says, “Now on over to Malachi again. I’d like to go right on from where I was. Now he talked about a messenger coming to prepare the way before Christ. And as I say, you will find it in a number of places, in Mark, in Matthew, and so on, that the one that prepared the way before Christ’s first coming was John the Baptist, but I’m going to prove to you now that this is talking about, not just the first coming but a second. Let’s go on reading the second part of the verse which I didn’t read before. It says that,” so he’s quoting now Malachi 3, verse 1, “The Eternal shall suddenly come to His Temple,” which he adds here, “Which is the Church.”

Isn’t that awesome? 1978, and it wasn’t known before that. But now, very powerfully so, he knows it’s about the Church and he’s teaching the Church. And this went out to the entire Church even though they weren’t there in the front row or anywhere, some of those evangelists and different ones that should have been there, weren’t there listening, they had the opportunity to listen to it again, later on when it went out, because this was sent out. “The Eternal shall suddenly come to His Temple,” as Mr. Armstrong said, “Which is the Church and the Church by the power of God and with the holy spirit in it, it will be made immortal and it’s glory will be greater than the glory of Solomon’s Temple. But no human, physical temple ever was or will be.” So he was seeing things and understanding things. This isn’t talking about the glory of a physical temple. It’s talking about a spiritual one. And so he went on to quote here in the verse here, “Even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in, behold he shall come, says the Eternal of Host.” And so he said here, “That is speaking of Christ. He is the messenger of the New Covenant. Now the Old Covenant set up the children of Israel as one of the nations of this world, but Moses was the mediator of that covenant. It was a material, physical covenant of material, physical people with only physical and national and material promises. No promise of the holy spirit whatsoever was given to ancient Israel. Only some of the prophets. It’s good to know and understand what he’s saying here. Moses will be in the Kingdom of God and some of the prophets, of course, but not the people as a whole.”

It wasn’t for the physical nations of Israel. He went on to say, “Now then, let’s go right on. Verse 2. Malachi 3, verse 2. But who may abide the day of his coming,” as he said here, “the coming of Christ and who should stand when he appears?” Well, for us, that’s a little different. There’s going to be some that are already counted as part of the 144,000. They’ll obviously be, but my question today and because of the series we’re going through right now is, will all of us, all the rest, who have been given opportunity to live into a new age in the millennium, will we sand? And I’ve mentioned this in time’s past, and I’ve mentioned this at some Feast sights in time’s past. I believe it was 2011 maybe, 2010 even, and asking some of the same kind of question here. Who’s going to be standing? And it depends on were we stand now; it depends on how we stand now, as to whether we’re going to be standing then. So important to understand. It depends on how we’re applying ourselves and whether we’re focusing upon the work and what God is doing as we need to be.

He went on to say, “I don’t know whether we’ve had that yet on this particular stage up here or not.” So he’s talking about the music that was sung… don’t know exactly when it was. “But we have had it here. We did have it over in the Civic Auditorium and we brought people all the way over from England for it, The Messiah, speaking of that which was being sung. And you’ve heard this being sung in The Messiah: ‘Who shall abide in the day of his coming and stand when he appears?’” So again, the part of the music there that he’s referring back to that was done there in the auditorium and I don’t know how many of you have ever heard that. Do you know what I’m referring to? The songs, the music. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome. Some of Mr. Armstrong’s favorite, and so I remember hearing it at Bricketwood. As a matter of fact I think he worked with the London Philharmonic at one point in time. In Ambassador College, they got together and the choir was able to be with them. At the same time, this whole stage was filled with the London Philharmonic doing this music and the Ambassador choir there as well with them at the same time. That was awesome, very inspiring and kind of puts chills up and down your spine.

But, anyway, Malachi 3, verse 2, it goes on to say, “For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.” You know, we go through things. You think that what we… we need to go through various things in our life to be purified, to be cleansed, and to clean up our lives and to get our lives focused and to stay focused. And it’s not just a matter of… we tend to do this, we tend to focus more at one time, especially when we are first called, we get very focused and then human nature sets in and we begin at some point…it’s just a part of the process… to do some coasting… it happens. And then we get fired up again or at different times in various sermons or various things happen in our life that God uses to help fire us up again. And this is one of those occasions where God is blessing us and helping us to get fired up again because we don’t have much distance to go and this is the time to make sure that we are throwing ourselves into this. That, as Mr. Armstrong said, “Get behind this thing.” This is the last part of getting behind it and being deeply focused. Physically, it is physical and it is spiritual. They go hand in hand; you can’t separate the two.

So again here, “For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.” Beautiful verses here.

I think of things we talk… I think of trials we go through in life and how some of us, it was being discussed here just before services, we go through various kinds of trials. But in the world, you know, in the world everybody goes through trials in life. Everybody goes through different kinds of hardships at some point in their life. Physical life. You can’t live physical life without it. But in the church, it’s unique. God uses those occasions to teach us, to mold and fashion on a spiritual plane something in our minds that otherwise we wouldn’t have. People in the world don’t have that kind of opportunity, but we do. There are things we can grow in, in depth and understanding about God’s plan and purpose that others can’t have. But we have that opportunity. That’s why, in time, I hope we come to the point where we genuinely begin to understand and appreciate the hardships of life, some of the struggles of life. It wasn’t meant to be easy because it’s through the hardships and the fire and the trials that you can grow more. That you can draw closer to God.

He said here, “Now Jesus didn’t do any of these things when he came the first time. Not a one of these things. And he shall purify the sons of Levi.” So again here, it’s talking about him coming and things that are going to take place. But before he comes, throughout the last 6,000 years everyone who has gone through the process has had to go through this, has had to be purified and strengthened. But, only in the last couple of thousand years Jesus Christ worked directly with that, with the Church, in a larger way than what was done before. And it’s just going to continue to increase. Going into the Millennium, all the people are going to have opportunity to begin being refined.

“And he shall purify the sons of Levi.” Now he went on to say here that, “He didn’t do that when he came before. It wasn’t about the physical tribe. And purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Eternal an offering in righteousness.” And so that’s really been the work for the last couple of thousand years. Jesus Christ has been doing in the church and what he’s given to the church.

“Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Eternal as in the days of old. And as in the former days.” And he said here, “that didn’t happen when he came before. The Jews rejected him. Judah and Jerusalem was not a pleasant offering that was so happy and peaceful and joyous in all of that.”

So he’s making it very clear here this is about the church, what God is doing with the church. It was talking about those things that would lead up to his coming and then what would happen beyond that.

Verse 5, “And I will come near to you in judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the idolaters.” So again, we are living in an age when things are going to be brought to a head. And, brethren, it’s an exciting time for God’s church, to be a part of something as we approach some of the things that are taking place in the world. Things are speeding up out there. They are being stirred up more and more, but they are being held back too. I hope you understand that. They are being held back too. Because they can’t proceed too fast. There’s enough that individuals and people are being worked with in a way to prepare them for something that’s coming or things that are coming. But just enough to keep us focused, enough to work with different people, different leaders, for things they are going to be doing later on. I think of all the mess we are going through in this country… politics. And what we are going through right now is not by chance. There are things coming to the surface that people are having to contend with. There are things coming to the surface that people are beginning to have to deal with that in time’s past they haven’t had to think about in the same way. And just wait. You’ve seen nothing yet. You’ve seen nothing yet… for what’s coming.

But, I just want to say, I think of some of the things Mr. Armstrong is going to say that will be in the next sermon here. He’s talking about what’s happening in the world in their particular time, and things that have happened in some of the different nations. And again, they felt that there were certain things coming together then. But I think of some of the newscasters last night talking about what was happening in Turkey and their president, Erdogan. He says their under control now and they may well be. But it shook some people up because they realize how strategic that part of the world is. Turkey is. And just to let you know, Turkey is in prophecy in a very powerful way at the end time. There are some things that still have to take place there that are going to take place that have to do with Israel and betrayal that will come out in time. But they are already in the works. It’s just a matter of time before they come to a head. And so I was wondering last night, is this going to be the beginning of that or is this a part of that, that is taking place? Because there are things we don’t understand until they’ve happened and then we can see them clearly. But God hasn’t given us to know exactly what it is that’s going to transpire in some of those things. But they’re powerful brethren. And some of the things that continue on, as soon as what happened in Nice France, and as soon as that happened, you know, then what’s the next thing here…Turkey. And that becomes something that’s not even talked about in the same way. Now, it is today again a little bit. But, you know, what an atrocious, sick world we live in. But it’s nothing compared to what’s taking place and what’s being stirred up out there.

And I hope you can see why things are happening, but why things are being held back. There is just a right mixture over the next year. Because this is the time we have to get the book out and to get a beginning of a message out and then our work is done, as far as the Body is concerned. Not on ourselves, but as far as what we’re supporting and what we are a part of. That’s why it’s so important, this is the time we have right now in front of us. To get done what we need to get done right now because we are not going to be doing it for three years. We are not going to be doing this, all of us together for three years. There are things that are going to come to a screeching halt at some point in time and what we are able to accomplish just in this country alone. But God’s work continues, and some of the things God’s going to do through certain ones is going to continue all the way to the end.

So we live in awesome times and the message again brethren… apply yourself. If you’ve been coasting, quit coasting, because I’m tired of writing letters to people and telling them you’re separated from the Body right now. You’re suspended from Sabbath; you’re suspended from fellowship. Still doing it. Or you are fully cut off from God’s church. You are no longer a part of God’s church. And that’s why it talks about when it talks about not fearing. We should have nothing to fear if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, if few are applying ourselves, if we’re repenting, if we’re seeking to grow, if we’re seeking to be of the same mind, if we’re seeking to be stirred up in spirit to be behind this thing as Mr. Armstrong said. That message is for today, more than it was back then. To be behind this thing that God is doing and to have the vision that God wants us to have. This is the last stage of the run in front of us. The finish line is right ahead of us; we can see it. Lets throw ourselves into it, brethren.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1