(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
Sermon given May 1981
Speaking in Sydney
by Herbert W Armstrong
(PLAY FROM START)
Well thank you everybody, and let me say, not only greetings to you here in this beautiful auditorium, but also to the several hundred over in Perth who are listening in to this just now and are with us. And let us understand that we are having fellowship right now, not only among ourselves, not only with our brethren over in Perth; but with Jesus Christ and with God the Father as well, because they are here in presence in their Spirit. They are here with us and in a way this is a very important occasion.
I want to say to our brethren over in Perth, if I may, that just shortly before I came to this service, Mr Morton and Mr Fahey presented to me the scroll that came from our brethren over in Perth. A very beautiful scroll and with the signatures of all of the brethren over there. And we are now preparing a special exhibit in the Hall of Administration, at the Headquarters of both the Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College in Pasadena, and that scroll will be placed there for everyone to see, who comes into the Headquarters building there. And I am very, very grateful for everything of the kind. I have had some kind of a message like that, with the signatures of all of the Church members, from Churches all over the world. And they are all going to be in this exhibit. Also from students at Ambassador College.
The Missing Dimension in Knowledge (PLAY FROM 02:36)
Now today, I have for you a very important message. I am going to speak on some truths that have not been known by the world. Have not been known by any religion. Have not been known by those in the professing christian religion in all these many, many years. They have simply not understood.
There has been a gigantic missing dimension in knowledge! I have sometimes said that the most ignorant people in the world are the ones who have the highest letters after their names, who have done graduate work in the universities of this world, and have the highest degrees. Because knowledge that is taught in this world is solely materialistic. It is concerned only with matter and the physical universe.
The spiritual world they know nothing about. And spiritual knowledge is much more important and there is much more to be known. Much more knowledge that should be known and understood, and will some day - that is spiritual knowledge, not materialistic knowledge. And all they have in this world is physical and material knowledge. The human mind can receive the only knowledge that can come through the eye, the brain sees through the eye, the brain hears through the ears, or through the sense of smell or taste or touch.
Now you can't see spirit, or spiritual principles, or spiritual things. You can't see that way the things that God has prepared for mankind. You can't hear it, you can't taste, smell or touch spiritual things. And so the natural mind of man can know nothing about it, and does not know anything about it. In other words; they are just ignorant of the things that are the most important things to know.
I am going to bring you some things this afternoon, that I think you have never seen, known or understood, at least by putting it together in a way that I will this afternoon. I think we have taken for granted so much of the things that this world believes; more than we ourselves can comprehend or understand. We don't realize it. We have been born in this world, we have grown up in the schools of this world. We have been taught the materialistic knowledge of this world.
And when we come to the things that God Almighty reveals, it is a mystery to the average mind and no mind can comprehend these things unless that mind, by having been drawn by God, chosen by God, having repented, surrendered to God, and having received the Spirit of God; you cannot understand. The natural mind of man cannot comprehend or understand. The real truths are foolishness to the average human mind.
Now in this world man has done some very marvellous things. He has built many wonderful things, and most of the so-called advances in the world, have come in this 20th century. They began coming only two or three centuries ago, and very little at that time, a little more in the 19th century. But I would say that fully seventy or eighty percent of all of the advances of mankind have come in this 20th century. I have lived to see it all, because I was born eight years before this century began.
I have seen the wonderful progress. When I was a boy transportation was by horse and buggy. We had a few little dinky street-cars in the city. They had just replaced the old horse-drawn cars by electric trolley-cars. There were no automobiles yet. No-one ever heard of any thing like motion pictures. There were very few telephones, and they were on a sort of family line. You would ring a little bell on the wall, or a little crank on the wall, and it would ring everyone on your line. There would be a central line which would give you the right number. Everyone would tune in and listen to everything you were saying.
No one ever heard of things like movies. No one every heard of radio or television. There were no such things. No one ever heard about an airplane or flying. We used to use the expression; "I could no more do that than I could fly." Well, I had to fly in order to come here to see you. God has now blessed me with my own - well, of course, it is owned by the Church, but I am the one that uses it, airplane. And we fly at the same height, or even higher, and the same rate of speed, as a 747 and a little bit faster than a 707.
Today we have the automobiles. Today we fly to the moon and back. Today we send unmanned fitted spacecraft, that are designed and produced in Pasadena, just a walk, you might say, from Ambassador College, and the headquarters of the Church of God in Pasadena; to land on the surface of Mars. We send back photographs, taken close up, right on the surface of Mars. They fly way on beyond and send us close up photographs of Jupiter and Saturn, and later perhaps other planets. The marvellous printing press, the marvellous machines that have been made; the typewriter, and then we come to the computer. Machines that would stagger the imagination of the great men who died in the 19th century. They would be amazed if they saw what has happened today, and yet people - men - fly to the moon and back....they lost their wives, they broke up their homes and families and have troubles, and can't solve their own troubles.
We've had a materialistic progress, but we have not had peace! We have nothing but war, we have strife, we have contention, we have unhappiness. We don't have the good things in the world, we really don't. And people don't know why. They simply don't understand. They have materialistic knowledge. We have produced things materialistically, mechanically, but our problems are spiritual, and we don't understand that. And we don't know how to live with one another at peace and in happiness, and mutually helping one another to produce more. To have more, to be happier, to be at peace one with another. That we have never known.
Man Does Not Have Life (PLAY FROM 11:58)
All right, let us go a little further. We don't even know what we are. We don't know why we are. We don't know why we are here on this earth. How did we come? How did we get here? Now, there is a God, a lot of people in the world don't know that. But who and what is God? Do you realize that no religion on this earth knows who or what is God! They don't know. They don't know about God. Is God one person? Is God a trinity? Or is God just something inside of you? And they don't really know what is inside of man. They think it is an immortal soul. Or that man is an immortal soul, or that he has one. One or the other. They don't know even what a man is.
Now I am going to tell you some of those things this afternoon. It is very, very, very important. First let me tell you something they don't know. Man does not have life. Humanity does not have life. Humanity has only a physical, mechanical, chemical existence. We only live by a process of the breathing of air, the circulation of blood by the beating of the heart, and re-fuelling ourselves constantly, usually three times a day with food and water. And we have to have not only a feeding system and a digestive system, an eliminative system and we have to have all of these systems built into us. And we don't have life, we have a physical, chemical existence. And we are like an alarm clock, wound up and running down. And if you don't keep rewinding it when it runs down - it's dead. It stops and doesn't run any more. We keep winding ourselves up with food and water, and we have to replete with sleep every night. And that is not life.
Now everything comes from God. But people don't know who and what God is. They don't know what God's purpose is. Why God put man on the earth, where we are going, what lies ahead. We don't know. I want to explain that to you this afternoon, so open up your ears and your minds and listen, dear brethren, because this is the most important knowledge that can possibly come to your mind.
If you want to know where to find out about God, and what is the beginning of the Bible and about God, you don't begin at Genesis 1 verse 1. You begin in the New Testament of John 1 verse 1 and there you first begin to learn a little something about God. So now in John 1:1:
"In the beginning was the Word [the Word is simply a divine, immortal Personage, a great Personage, a Being, who has always existed; your mind can't quite conceive of the fact that there wasn't a time when His life began, but always existed], and the Word was with [well, let's read it here]...The same was in the beginning with God." (John 1:1-2)
Now God is another person. First there is one great personage called the Word, there is another one called God; "...and the Word [also] was God." (John 1:1). The Word is God and God is God. There are two personages and they collectively form God. Now before I leave this I want to go to verse - the third verse now:
"All things were made by him [that is the Word, which you might call a second Personage of God; all things were made by him]; and without him was not any thing made that was made. [Now verse 4] In him was life..." (John 1:3-4)
He had life! Man doesn't have life, but this Word had life and God has life. The Word and God, neither one of those two great personages had to breathe air to live, in fact they exist in God, in God's heaven. There are three heavens mentioned in the Bible, and one is the throne of God. The other is the heaven that we know as the air where birds fly and where we fly in airplanes. A third heaven is outer space, up where Saturn and Jupiter are, and the sun. And not only that going clear out of our galaxy into other galaxies which are further away, other suns and other galaxies altogether.
Now in God was life and in the Word was life, and He was a light of men. He had something to do now with humans. And now we come to verse 14:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory [thats the], the glory...of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
The one who was the Word, ultimately - and that was now about 1900 years ago almost - He became mortal flesh. But originally He was not mortal flesh He was God, composed of Spirit. Not composed of matter. Now there was no matter, there was only God. There was no matter. God didn't have to live on a planet with gravity drawing Him down to it. I tell you, you go from here, say to Rome, Italy, it is almost on the other side of the earth. If this is up for us, for them up is down, it is the other way. But gravity pulls us down to the earth. God doesn't have to be on a planet of some kind pulling Him down to earth. I don't know whether the heaven of God's throne is any solid surface, with gravity pulling God down. He doesn't have to have anything like that. Perhaps you have never stopped to think about that before.
But God had life, self-existence, life inherent within Himself. He doesn't have to breathe air. He doesn't have the circulation of blood, He doesn't have to eat food or drink water to live. He just has immortal life. That is life. That is life that can never be extinguished. It will never run down. It will never stop. It will never die; it is immortal. All life comes from God. Life cannot come from the not living, it can come only from other life.
God Created Angels Before Matter (PLAY FROM 20:44)
Now then, let's go to Genesis 1:1:
"In the beginning God created the [heavens]..." (Genesis 1:1)
And it should be plural, it should be 'heavens', and almost every translation but the King James, has it that way. The original was written by Moses in the Hebrew language, and the word that Moses used for heaven was in the plural – 'heavens', not just one heaven.
"In the beginning God..." (Genesis 1:1)
The word for God in the original Hebrew language in which Moses wrote, was the Hebrew word 'Elohim' [Strong's 433]. Now Elohim is a uni-plural noun. It is a word like the word family. More than one person, but altogether then as one family. Not two families, not five families or six - there may be six people in the family but it is one family. Like the word church, there maybe five hundred, there maybe ten thousand or a million people in a church, but it is only one church.
Now there is one God, and I have already shown you there were two people, the two great divine Personages that originally formed God. And God created the heavens and the earth, and actually the way it was done - the Word is the one who made all things, but in Ephesians chapter three, verse nine, you will read that:
"...God...created all things by Jesus Christ:" (Ephesians 3:9)
Now the Word is the one who later was born as Jesus Christ. In one of the Psalms you will read that Christ is the Word; "...he spake, and it was done..." (Psalm 33:9). He is the Spokesman. The word comes from the Greek word 'logos' [Strong's 3056] and it means Spokesman or Word. He is the one who speaks. When He was on earth in the form of Jesus Christ He said:
"He had spoken nothing of Himself but what the Father in heaven told him what to speak." (John 8:27-28 paraphrased)
He was in complete harmony with His Father; "Two cannot walk together, except they be agreed." (Amos 3:3 paraphrased). They had been in one-hundred percent perfect agreement always. Always had been, always will be because their knowledge is perfect, their way is perfect; and neither will digress away from it.
Now Genesis 1:1, God, the name of Elohim, means more than one person. And in the beginning it was the two persons of God and the Word. And they created matter. Now in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 2:4 you read:
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created [the heavens and the earth], in the day that the [Eternal] God made the earth and the heavens," (Genesis 2:4)
He made the earth and the heavens the same day. Now that may have been millions, billions, trillions of years ago. The Bible doesn't say. Scientists think it was maybe a few million years ago or something like that, they don't know anything about it, but it could have been. We don't know. Anyway, they originally created matter, matter was created. But now the first thing that they created were angels before matter, and angels are spirit beings. God created angels and it was the Word that created them as God told Him to do. He created angels before matter was created. After the angels had been created Elohim, the uni-plural God, created the heavens and the earth. In other words, the material universe composed of matter. Matter had never been created yet and God had a great purpose in creating matter.
Now if we turn over to Job, the thirty-eighth chapter, and verse one. Now here was a very great man, he had built a very great building. As a matter of fact, the building he built was the great pyramid of Giza. I have been in it. I have been all around it. It was amazing even yet today - the greatest building on earth. It was the tallest building on earth, until the Woolworth tower in New York was built. I think you may have a higher building right here in Sydney today, but it was there was no such building until recent years in this 20th century.
Here was the Eternal God speaking to Job, who had built this wonderful building. Now Job was very satisfied with himself. Job was a very righteous man. He was so good that even Satan couldn't find anything wrong with him. But he was self-righteous. He was righteous in his own eyes. And that is one of the worse things you can be, but Job didn't know it. And so, finally God talked to Job and whittled him down to size. And here in the thirty-eighth chapter of the book of Job, you read:
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and [He] said [to Job, verse 4], Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?...[Then in verse 6] Whereupon are the foundations thereof..." (Job 38:1,4,6)
That's the earth, where are they fastened? God laid the foundations of the earth, and the God speaking to him was called the YHVH in the Hebrew language as the one that was the Word. The one who did the making. The one who became God the Son, not the one who then became God the Father.
"Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof [that is on the earth]; When the morning stars [or the angels] sang together, and all the sons of God [and the only sons of God because of being created were angels at that time] shouted for joy?" (Job 38:6-7)
Why did they shout for joy? Because the earth was to be their habitation and their home. Now this is all long, long before man was created. I don't know how long, you don't know how long. It might have been billions of years, maybe it is, I don't know, or maybe it is only fifty or a hundred years. We just don't know. That we don't know.
But God put the angels on this earth. And they were bound here and gravity held them down to the earth. Now on this earth, God wanted them to live a certain way. I read you that in God and the Word was life. He wanted them to have life. Life is something to live, and you have to live it in a way to be happy with one another.
God, who later became the Father, after Jesus was born, of the virgin Mary, and the Word had always existed together, but they were in perfect harmony. They didn't fight one another. They didn't disagree. They weren't in disharmony. They weren't selfish, each trying to take away from the other, what he had. They weren't angry, one trying to harm the other, or destroy the other. They were mutually trying to help and love one another. And they had always existed.
Now God knew a way of life. God is love. And God's way of life is out-flowing love from you towards others. That is God's way of life. That is the way He lives. Life flowing out from Him, love flowing out from Him toward others.
He wanted those angels to live that way. He wanted them to build character, which is simply the knowing of the way to live. Deciding to live that way, rejecting any other way and using self-discipline and coming to the help of God also, to help you to live that way. And that is God's way. It is the way God lives. It is why God and the Word were so happy together. That is the way a husband and wife can be happy together. That is the way a family can all be happy together, if the children remember the fifth commandment, {1} the first commandment with promise; honour thy father and thy mother. And if it is all based on love one for the other, instead of wanting to hurt one another.
Lucifer Given Rulership of the Earth (PLAY FROM 31:17)
Now God set a government over them to rule the way they would live. And you can't have a government without a basic constitution on which it is based, or a law. And that law is always a way of life. If you are going to have life there must be a way to live that life. If you live it the wrong way your life is going to destroy you. It is going to make you unhappy. It is going to bring sorrow and suffering and frustration of every kind.
So God set a government over the angels on the earth and it was the government of God. And God's way is based on out-flowing love towards others. First toward God in obedience and love to God, but second love to your own fellows. The angels had to love one another, instead of wanting to hate one another, and fight against one another and take from one another. So God set a government on the earth. Now He set a man on a throne on this earth of whom the king of Babylon was only an earthly type.
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" (Isaiah 14:12)
Now the name Lucifer; God names people or things whatever they are and Lucifer means, shining star of the dawn. It means one who brings light. Light means truth in God's way, the right way instead of the wrong way. So he was named that. I am going to show you later that God, as God created him he was absolutely perfect in all of his ways. And he had wonderful power above ordinary angels. The greatest being God could create. But it says of this Lucifer:
"...thou [Lucifer, thou] hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven [so he was under heaven, he was on the earth], I will exalt my throne [there was a throne on the earth and he was put on the earth to rule the whole earth!] I will exalt my throne above the stars [or angels] of God. "The stars" is a symbol of angels in the Bible where it speaks symbolically]: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:" (Isaiah 14:13)
That is the only place in the Bible where it gives us a hint as of the location of God's heaven, in the far, far north. And he said, he was going to go up there and take over and take the throne away from God and rule the whole universe. He wasn't satisfied with just a throne on this one little earth, where God had the whole universe. He said; "That's not fair, God holding everything for himself. I want it all for me."
So he started that way, that all human beings are ruled by. All human beings and human nature; it is simply "I love me". I don't care a thing about you. You know we had a song back in the year of 1924: 'Oh I love me, I love myself, I am wild about myself, I put my arms around myself and give myself ... (Off came this, - Mr Armstrong knocks his microphone off - I guess I have it back on, I will try to be more careful, please pardon that). It goes on and says; 'I love myself to death till I am all out of breath, I love me, I will marry me some day, I just love myself.'
And that song was so true to human nature, that is the way people are. They don't seem to care about anybody else. God's way of peace is to love others as well as yourself. That's the law that He set over the angels that He placed here on the earth. Now let's see, he said:
"...I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [so he was under clouds, he was on the earth, that was where his throne was]; I will be like the most High." (Isaiah 14:13-14)
He was going to be the most high himself, and become God and take the throne away from God. Now there was competition, there was rivalry, there was rebellion against God and God's government, that God had set him here to administer on the earth over the angels. And he rebelled. And he led his angels with him. And they ascended and they just swooped on up to heaven. But they lost in that battle, and they were cast back down to earth.
The government of God was instituted to regulate our relationships one with another so we can be peaceful and happy. And so we can enjoy life and let others and help others to enjoy a life also. So that we can be mutually more productive, and accomplish more, and help one another to accomplish, so that there is very much more done.
Well Lucifer led his angels into sin and rebellion. Now we find a little more of that in Ezekiel 28 and beginning again with verse 12 I believe - no, I am going to begin over here in verse 14, where it says of Lucifer:
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth..." (Ezekiel 28:14)
Now that shows that he had been one of the cherubs. One of the super archangels whose wings covered the very throne of God. He had been at the headquarters of the throne of the universe. He was instructed in the government of God.
It is just like, and I think of an analogy; at Ambassador College in Pasadena and while it lasted for seven or eight very profitable years, Ambassador College in Bricket Wood, England and Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas. And we are re-establishing that again this autumn. We have graduated people and taught them in the ways of the Government of God, and the ways of God's Church. And they have seen the Government of God and they have been at its headquarters. And we sent them as we say; "Out into the field." And that is an expression we have come to use that means, in other cities somewhere around the world, or other towns over local Churches.
Well some of them got jealous, they thought; "Well, I am just out here ruling this little flock, I want to rule something bigger. I want to be bigger." So some of them have gotten rebellious and they are not in the ministry any longer. Some of them just finding whatever they can find to do to earn a living with their hands. They are gone. We have had others that have ascended to fairly high positions in the work at Pasadena. It went to their heads. They wanted a higher position for themselves. Selfishness set in, instead of God's way of love toward others, it was GET instead of GIVE.
God's way is GIVE, Satan's way is GET. Some of them wanted to take over the whole work, and rule it. They wanted to kick me aside. Well, they are the ones who went aside. I am still here talking to you today, because this is the work of the Living God. God chose me and God prepared me for the ministry before He called me, before I was converted. And He has used me and revealed His truth to me and you have received that truth through me. And it is a wonderful truth - it's just a wonderful truth. Now going on in Ezekiel 28:14:
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth [he had been on the throne of God]; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the mountain of God... [and so on – verse 15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created [he was not a born human being, he was a created super archangel, he was created], till iniquity was found in thee." (Ezekiel 28:14-15)
One of God's purposes of creating angels, His purpose in creating man is to develop holy, righteous, spiritual character within us. [Mr Armstrong coughs] You will have to pardon me, I have had a very sore throat for about five weeks. I have had a temperature, I have had, what I call, the Asian flu, quite a head cold and a sore throat. I thought I wasn't going to be able to even speak, even in a whisper, today. But I think you can hear me because God always brings it out by the time I have to speak and He makes it possible and He has made it possible this afternoon. I'll just try to speak a little lower and not strain my voice again.
The angels followed this Lucifer and his name became changed to Satan. And we read over in II Peter the second chapter and the fourth verse:
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned [you see those angels sinned; now that is only a third of the angels, as you read in the twelfth chapter of Revelation] but he spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to tartaros (Strongs 5020) [it says hell here but it is the only place where the word 'tartaros' was used and I don't know why they put the English word hell there], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" (II Peter 2:4)
God Recreates the Earth for Man (PLAY FROM 43:40)
Judgement is something that mankind has not understood, our Church has not understood it, none of the churches in the world, none of the religions have understood it. Anyway, darkness came upon the earth as result of that sin. The angels were supposed to complete this earth by putting more beauty on it: developing it. They didn't do it. It went down to decay under them. Now we go back to Genesis the first chapter once again and in verse 2:
"And the earth was [or became, and that same Hebrew word, (Strong's 1961) is translated 'became' in other places, even here in the first chapter of Genesis]... and darkness was upon the face of the [earth]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the...the waters." (Genesis 1:2)
Now the earth was without or became to be without form and void. Without form and void are English words, and a rather bad translation. They are translated from the Hebrew words, 'tohu' (Strong's 8414) and 'bohu' (Strong's 922). Now tohu and bohu mean chaotic, in confusion, waste and empty, or decayed. Now decayed for example, is not a created condition, it is something that results from something that had been created new and had become decayed. So that shows that the earth is not the way God created it there. That is the way it came to be after the angels had been on it for some time. {2}
"Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth." (Psalm 104:30)
How does God then create? Jesus Christ is the Word, He speaks, He speaks as God the Father told Him and they are in perfect harmony. The Spirit of God that proceeds out from both God and from the Word, is the power that does the creating. Now; "...thou renewest the face of the earth." (Psalm 104:30). The earth's face needed to be renewed. It was all in the same condition that I knew we would find the moon to be in. I knew Mars would be and now that we have photographs right off the surface, it is that way. Because God's word reveals it, I knew it from the Word of God. I knew that before they ever got those photographs back. So now come back to the first chapter of Genesis again, there was:
"...darkness upon the face of the deep [so the whole earth's surface now was ocean, there was no land, and it was all dark and it was chaotic and confusion and decay]. And [now] the Spirit of God moved upon the waters." (Genesis 1:2)
I read to you how God creates, He sends forth His Spirit and then He speaks and it is done. Now notice how that happens right here, exactly the way God does:
"...the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters [and God saw - no, wait a minute]. And God said, Let there be light: [it is the Word who did the speaking. He said; 'Let there be light', the Spirit of God was there and the Spirit of God brought light out of darkness, Satan brought darkness; the one who became Christ is the Word of God who brought the light, and there was light]. And God saw the light, that it was good..." (Genesis 1:2-4)
Now in six days God remade the surface of the earth for man. Now God was going to create man. And now the great purpose of God was about to begin! The greatest purpose of God. God is the Creator, that is God's business, that is God's occupation; He is Creator. What does He create? He creates holy, righteous character first of all. He had created the angels, a third of them went wrong, they didn't create the right kind of character.
Now God is going to create, He is going to reproduce Himself by creating human beings out of matter. And in due time, in a process, the mightiest, greatest feat that God ever set out to do - He is going to reproduce Himself. He is going to take matter and out of that matter He is going to form and shape a man and a woman. And He is going to form and shape them so they can reproduce themselves until there are millions and millions, as a matter of fact right now, there are four billion on earth of human beings that have come from that first matter that God formed and shaped.
So you read, after the sixth day, on the sixth day, when God was reforming and shaping the earth for man, that He was going to recreate Himself. He is going to make gods out of man and He made man out of matter. How can He take some matter and finally make gods like He is Himself out of that? That is what God is doing for us. The world doesn't know that. I wonder if we have known it in this Church? Now God formed animals each after its kind, and cattle after the cattle kind, and so on as you read in verse 25. And then verse 26:
"And God said, Let us make man [after] OUR image, after OUR likeness..." (Genesis 1:26)
He didn't say let 'Me' because you see God was... a uniplural - more than one person. God said; "...Let us make man after our image..." (Genesis 1:26). Man was made in the form and shape of God. He was made to become God, but he was not made out of spirit like God. He was made a little different. Now we come to the second chapter of Genesis and you read here:
"[And] the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God [Elohim] ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day...[and so on, and then] These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the [Eternal] God..." (Genesis 2:1-4)
Adam and Eve Offered Life (PLAY FROM 51:14)
Now LORD God here. The word LORD in the King James translation you will notice is in lower capital letters, it is translated from the Hebrew word YHWH. That is a new name and that name applies to the One who had been the Word of God. The One by whom, and through whom, God created everything. The One who was the Word and He is the Spokesman, the Eternal or the LORD God. And I like the word Eternal better than LORD; but LORD means boss, and that is a pretty good word. Now verse 7:
"And the Lord God [and the LORD God is the one who became Christ, that is the YHWH Elohim in the Hebrew, He] formed a man of the dust of the ground [man wasn't formed out of spirit, man didn't have life inherent within himself, he just is made out of matter and he is given a chemical, temporary existence], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [made out of the dust of the ground] became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)
Not an immortal soul. What became a soul is what came out of the ground - matter. So the soul is made out of matter, it is not made out of spirit. The soul is matter. Now in other places in the Bible we find God did put a spirit in man and that spirit gives the power of intellect to a physical brain. But I simply won't have time to speak about that today. I think you all have heard about that. I think it has been preached by our ministers and we have had it in much of our literature. So:
"...the [Eternal] God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the [Eternal] God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life [L-I-F-E, life] also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Gernesis 2:8-9)
Now the tree of life symbolized the gift of the Holy Spirit of God which would impart God-life, real life to us. That is self-existent life, life inherent within oneself. Not a chemical existence but spirit life. The Holy Spirit of God, actually, is what it symbolized. And it was freely offered to Adam and Eve, freely offered to them; because Adam and Eve at that time had not committed any sin. They had just been created and this is all before Satan got to Eve. Now notice again beginning with verse 15:
"And the [Eternal] God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the [Eternal] God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat [including life – he could have had life, God didn't create him with life, He created him with a chemical existence but life was offered to him]: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it [because if you eat of that, He said] thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17)
Now he was made so he would run down and die. He was given a temporary existence. He would live a certain number of years and die unless he received life through that tree of life, which is of course, a symbolic tree, a symbolic tree. But Adam did not have life in himself, it was offered but Adam now had to make a choice. Satan had gone the wrong way. Now Satan was there in the form of a serpent, but God had not let Satan get to Adam until God talked to him, a long time. It was on the first Sabbath day that God talked to him. Satan didn't come to him until the first day of the week; on Sunday, that's Satan's day, and Satan came on that day, of course. And I want to keep myself on the track, otherwise I will wander all over here.
Adam rejected life. He had to make a choice. Satan got to Eve, his wife. The tree of knowledge of good and evil looked very beautiful to her. Satan said it would make you intellectually wise, and it appealed to her intellectual vanity. It was good for food and when God said you will die, she didn't believe it. Satan said; "Oh you are not going to die, you are an immortal soul." And she believed it, and you know most human beings have been believing that ever since; that they are immortal souls. Your Bible says:
"...the soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4,20)
And then I just read to you what was made out of matter became a soul, a living soul, not an immortal soul. Adam then took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That means they took to themselves the knowledge of good and evil. Now God was telling them the way of life. God's law that He had given them - the Government of God to Lucifer and to the angels to regulate their relationships with one another, that they could be mutually happy and help one another, to accomplish big things that God wanted accomplished. And to produce happiness and every joy and every happiness and everything good.
But instead of believing God, Adam did not believe God. Eve believed Satan and Adam went right along with Eve and believed Satan also. And they took to themselves the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, what is sin and what is righteousness, when they took of that tree. If they had taken of the tree of life, the Holy Spirit through God would have revealed to them what God says is the right way to live.
Now let's understand at this point. If they had taken the Holy Spirit, that would have given them life. The Holy Spirit gives to us the life of God, impregnates it within us and begets us with eternal life. But the Holy Spirit also opens our mind to understand spiritual knowledge. I have said the human mind doesn't understand spiritual knowledge.
Our troubles are spiritual and we can't solve them because we don't understand spiritual principles. We only understand mechanical and physical things. So we make great progress in mechanical and physical and material things, but we make no progress in spiritual things and we have troubles and wars and destructions of every kind in human life. We don't know how to live. We don't know how to live to be happy. We don't know how to live with one another. Families break up. Nations fight one another at war. That is the way the human race is going.
Adam chose that way. Adam chose that way and in so doing he rejected the government of God, he rejected the law of God, he rejected the Spirit of God, he rejected God revealing to him the right way to live, and instead he would decide for himself the right way to live. And man has always decided the right way to live is, I love me and I don't love you. Everything is selfish, everything is for vanity to puff up the self. How big I am, I want to climb up higher. I want to be bigger than other people. I want to get what other people have. I want to take it away from them. That is the way humans have been living. And in contention against one another instead of in love towards one another. So Adam rejected life. He rejected God's government.
God's Spirit Shut Off Until Christ (PLAY FROM 1:00:32)
Now what happened? In the third chapter you read and the [Eternal] God took the man - no I am on the wrong page:
"And the [Eternal] God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil [he took the wrong thing]: and now, lest he put forth his hand, [also and take] of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:" (Genesis 3:22)
He didn't have life. But lest he gain life and live for ever, how? The way he was starting to live. He was starting to live the wrong way. And God was not going to let him live the way that was going to make him unhappy and bring sorrow and suffering and anguish and every evil upon him, and finally death. And God made him so he would die. Now if he had life he never could die. He would have lived for ever in that kind of unhappiness and misery and suffering.
So the devil has people thinking that God's punishment is to live for ever in a burning hell, where you are tortured and tormented and screaming with pain for ever and ever and ever and never burn up. Where God says, there will be a lake of fire that will burn them up and they will become ashes under the soles of the feet of those that do receive God's life. And those that are burned up will be as if they had never been. That is God's way. God is not going to let anyone live for ever in unhappiness, in wretchedness, in pain and terrible suffering. He just is not going to do it.
Adam had a chance to live the way that would be the way of God that would let him be happy, and God would have given him life! But he decided to live another way. He rejected the way of God, which is the law of God, which is the law that is the foundation of the Government of God. He rejected God's Government and jurisdiction over him.
Now then, I am taking a little more time than I have been doing today. I am afraid this is going to be a little longer message if you don't mind waiting, but you don't hear me very often, I don't get way down here very often. And I want to make this very, very plain. So God then:
"Therefore the [Eternal] God sent him forth from the garden of Eden...and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:23-24)
Now God shut off the Spirit of God. God shut off life from humanity. And that meant from Adam and all of Adam's children and the whole world. The world today does not have life. And God shut off the Holy Spirit. God did not shut off Himself from man. But man going the way of Satan and not believing God, man has shut himself off from God. So that we find in Romans 8:7:
"...the carnal mind is [hostile] enmity [or hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the law [that is the way of life] of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7)
That is why the things of God are just foolishness to the average man. So now he is sent out, away and cannot have life.
Now then, where do we go from there. God's system of duality. Now I want to explain; in almost everything in God's creation is done in a one-two manner. A sort of duality in the manner in which God performs it. There was the first Adam; that was the physical creation. Then there is the second Adam; Jesus Christ which begins the spiritual creation. Now God started the physical creation and He made man out of matter. But God is going to make God beings out of us, children of God in the God family. We are to be God ourselves. But Adam rejected all of that and God shut it off and sealed up His Holy Spirit from man.
Life comes from the Holy Spirit and it was shut up until Christ, the second Adam should come. And until Christ had paid the death penalty for us, because God will not let you live for ever in unhappiness and wretchedness, and torture and suffering. So God made it, like I say, like a wound up clock running down. You will run down and when you do, you will die and that is the end of you. And so: "...the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23)
Now the penalty that man brought on himself is death and God will not give him life until he will be willing to live it God's way and the way of God's law and the way that will make him happy and to help in making others happy too along with him.
So until Christ, the second Adam, could come and pay that death penalty in our stead, by not committing any sin. Adam had the chance to overcome Satan and restore the Government of God, but he let Satan overcome him. And Satan was still on the throne and Satan is still on that throne to this very day.
Now, God shut up life from humanity until it could be revealed and could come through Christ and until Christ could pay the penalty in our stead. Now I want you to turn to I Corinthians 15, I Corinthians 15 and I think it is verse 22, yes:
"For as in Adam all die [Adam brought death on all of us and all die, all are going to run down, they don't have real life, they have a temporary existence and all have to die in Adam; but], so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:22)
God arranged that there would be a resurrection by which all who die in Adam - because Christ would come, and Christ was resurrected from the dead, Christ made that possible that a resurrection could happen for all men to be resurrected back to life. Even though they had sinned, they have lived, they have sinned, they have brought sorrow and suffering on themselves and on others. But they are going to be resurrected when they will have a better chance, and when Satan won't be here. Because Satan has been here all these 6000 years so far, deceiving, misleading men. Deceiving them, blinding them to God's truth, until they just don't know the truth of God.
Now notice Hebrews 9:27: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die...after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27)
Now God arranged that even though death had to come as a result of Adam, and the result of man's own sins on himself, God will not let him live for ever in unhappiness. "...as in Adam all die...so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:22) "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27).
Now I have to explain something about that judgment to you. Adam and universal sin cut humans off from the Holy Spirit, that is off from life. They didn't have life, but remember in the Word, which became Christ, was life! He is life, He is the light and the life of men. But God cut them off from the Holy Spirit until the judgment. They die in this life but after that the judgment. But that has to come through Christ and judgment was only open after Christ came. Man had no chance, and no one was ever given the Spirit of God until Christ came. What about the Old Testament? God didn't shut Himself off from man, but men had closed their minds from God. But God called ancient Israel, but they didn't have the Holy Spirit.
Now through Christ judgment was open to the Church. And it has been opened to you and me brethren. Now let's understand this, because the world doesn't understand it at all. Through Adam the world was cut off from the Spirit of life. In other words, the world was cut off from having eternal life. And it does not have life. What does the world think? The world thinks we do have life. The world thinks we are immortal souls. The world thinks that we live, if we just get the password and say; "I accept Christ." That when you die you are going to go to heaven. God doesn't promise heaven. Where is heaven, and what is it? What would you do when you went there? Otherwise the world thinks you are going to be tortured for ever and ever in an immortal hell. Never get any release from that terrible torture and burning is perhaps the greatest suffering there can be.
Well, the world has certainly got it all mixed up. Adam and his world were cut off from God, but through Christ judgment was opened to the Church.
Eternal Life Possible to All in God's Plan (PLAY FROM 1:12:07)
Now there is another prophecy I would like to have you notice. In Joel, the second chapter, and verse 28, where Joel says:
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh..." (Joel 2:28)
Now God sealed up the Holy Spirit after Adam sinned, but there is coming a time when He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and that could not happen until Christ came to tell us about the Kingdom of God, which is the family of God into which we may be born. To overcome Satan and disqualify Satan and to qualify to restore the Government of God, to die for us and pay the penalty of our sins and by His resurrection to make eternal life possible for us.
So God called the Church out of the world. But before that God had called the Old Testament Church in the days of Moses. But they had no life. Life couldn't come until Christ came. Moses couldn't give life. Moses gave them a lot of the sacrifices and rituals and ceremonies and things of that sort, but there was no immortal life in it.
Now get this; physical existence, the temporary, chemical existence began with Adam. But life begins with Christ, the second Adam. And life was shut off from humanity. Life begins with Christ. Ancient Israel had a lot of God's knowledge, but they didn't understand it. They didn't have God's Spirit to help them comprehend it and understand it. They didn't obey God. They had a type, because of the duality of God's plan - that was their Church of the Old Testament. We are the Church of the New Testament.
Now God gave them seven annual Festivals or Feasts, with seven annual Holy Days, which picture the master plan of God, of accomplishing His purpose, to make out of common clay, just out of the ground, beings that will become God beings. Now I am showing you how this process works; the spiritual creation begins with Christ just as the physical creation began with Adam. The Old Testament Church had a picture of it. They had these annual festivals. They didn't understand the meaning. They didn't understand it because they didn't have the Holy Spirit. They were not given life. They would live and die, but after that the judgment. You read in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel how all Israel, in the valley of dry bones, are going to come up in a resurrection and that is what we celebrate every day on the Last Great Day after the Feast of Tabernacles, that Great Judgment Day. The world talks about a judgment day but it doesn't understand it.
So in the Festivals that God gave the Old Testament Church forever and Christ made the meaning plain for us so that we can understand the meaning:
First is the Passover, celebrating the death of Christ to pay the penalty of our sins so that we, while we have brought death on ourselves and cut ourselves off from God, Christ's death restores us, the blood of Christ restores us to Christ - I mean to God the Father, reconciles us to God the Father. The death of Christ does not save us. The blood of Christ does not save us. The blood of Christ only reconciles us to God. It pays our sins in our stead. But we are reconciled to God. Now we are to be saved by His life in the resurrection.
The second annual Festival is the Festival of Unleavened Bread; which we had just, what was is, one or two weeks ago. And that pictures putting sin out of our life. If we come to repentance - some of those that God has called in the New Testament time - then we immediately have to quit sinning and begin to live according to God's law, God's way which will be the law of the World Tomorrow in the Kingdom of God.
Then the third festival, that will come now in about five more weeks, will be the Feast of Firstfruits, which shows the coming of life to us. Now in the New Testament we got to calling the Feast of Firstfruits by the name of Pentecost. In John 6:44 Jesus said:
"No man CAN come to me, except the Father which...sent me draw him..." (John 6:44)
No man can come to Christ except the Father which sent Him draws him. And I think the world doesn't understand that. The world says; "Whosoever will may come." Yes, that's in the Bible alright. Do you know where that is in the Bible? In the very last chapter, after the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment. But that is not true for the world today. No man can come to God except through Christ and Jesus said no man could come to Him, to Christ, except God the Father draws him. And you cannot come unless God draws you and that gets into predestination. You read of it in the first chapter of Ephesians. It is mentioned only in two places in the Bible.
Now then, in Revelation 2:26, I want to show you something. Those of us who accept and repent now and through Christ it is made possible that we can repent, if God the Father calls us and no man can come except God the Father calls him, and he is only calling a few. And on most of them judgment has not come to them. Judgment as Peter writes in, let me see, that is II Peter, is it? I forget. Judgment must begin at the Church of God, judgement is on us. We are being judged now, so that we make judgment in God's judgment -it's the time of trial and test to see what decision we will make. And if we will prove it by our performance and we make the right decision to go God's way, which Adam did not make.
Now then, those of us that are called now, for example in Revelation 3:21, which we might read first:
"To him that overcometh [Jesus said] will I grant to sit with me on my throne, as he did overcome, and is now set down with His Father on God's throne up in heaven." (Revelation 3:21 paraphrased)
And then in Revelation 2:26-27:
"And he that overcometh [that is only those in the Church age now, to the few that are called; he that overcometh, that's for you and me], and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron..." (Revelation 2:26-27)
When Christ comes to set up the throne and rule all the world. At that time Satan will be gone.
Now the fourth of these Festivals comes in the fall, on the seventh month of God's Holy calendar, a sacred calendar, the Feast of Trumpets.
The fifth Festival is the Day of Atonement, the putting away... The Feast of Trumpets pictures the second coming of Christ to restore the Kingdom of God; restore the law of God, and set up the Kingdom of God, I should say. Then the fifth festival {3} is the Day of Atonement and as I see that, the main feature in that, making us 'at-one' with God; is putting Satan away where he cannot harm the world any longer or cannot deceive the world.
And then the sixth Festival is the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall, for seven days, which pictures the Millennium, a thousand years reign with Christ, when we which are called now, in the Church age - we have to fight Satan. Then all who are still alive when Christ comes will live right on into the Millennium and live their lives out, but we will then be immortal Gods. We will be children of God. We will be made like God. And we will rule over them. And we will judge them and judgment will then come to them and the opportunity for them to repent and turn to God. And there won't be any Satan around at that time at all in the Millennium.
Then the final last festival, that Last Great Day is the day of judgment when all - beginning with Cain and Seth and the children of Adam - will all be resurrected back to mortal life; not immortal. And judgment will be on them and they will have a chance then. The books will be opened. The books of God in heaven some way are going to record all of the things they have done. They are going to be called to account for what they have done, and for all the evil they have done in this world. But they will have a chance to turn away from that way of life. They will be given a period of life in the Great White Throne Judgment, where they can prove by their performance that they want to live God's way now. They will no longer be under the deception of Satan. They will then have a chance. Everyone is going to have a chance before the end.
Understanding Given to the Firstfruits (PLAY FROM 1:24:09)
Now in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27, I think I have got a marker for that, Hebrews 9:27: I read that a little while ago, didn't I? Maybe I can't read my own writing here; anyway:
"...as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27)
Those who did not know, they were cut off from the Holy Spirit, they were cut off from life, they were not offered life. They only had a temporary existence. They died, after that will come the judgment.
Now then, we are called now. I would like to read to you from Ephesians the second chapter:
"And you hath he quickened, [which] were dead in trespasses and sins;" (Ephesians 2:1)
Very few people understand that. The world is dead. In other words, they don't have life, they have a chemical existence and that means that you are dying - in the process of dying - every day you live. You are in a process of dying every breath you take. Every day you live, you are running down, as I say, like a wound-up clock running down. And I don't mean a clock that will keep running automatically. I mean the kind we used to have, that you wind up and they run down. That is all that we have really in life, except through Christ. So He said; they were dead, in the process of dying:
"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this [life] world, according to the prince of the power of the air..." (Ephesians 2:2)
The way Satan was leading the world. But now let's go back to the first chapter of Ephesians, beginning with verse 11:
"In whom also [that's in Christ] we have obtained an inheritance..." (Ephesians 1:11)
We have the spirit of God and now the Spirit of God was opened on the Day of Pentecost. Joel had prophesied that the days would come when God would pour out His Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost Peter preached a sermon saying this is what Joel prophesied - God is beginning to pour out His Spirit, but it is only on the Firstfruits, the Church, which is the first of God's salvation. And it is only the few that are called now. And the world in general unless God the Father calls them, they cannot come to Christ. But:
"...we have in Christ obtained an inheritance [we are only heirs now however], being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of...glory, who first trusted in Christ." (Ephesians 1:11-12)
We are the Firstfruits. And the Day of Pentecost is the picture of the Firstfruits, just the first to be called. Only a few, only a few. We are a small Church, but we are the only Church in the world that God has opened up to reveal these truths to. And the world doesn't understand these things that I have given you this afternoon.
We shall rule under Christ in the Millennium. We will then be God beings. No longer human beings. Others in the Millennium who live on into that time will then be under judgment, they will have a chance to make their choice and Satan won't be around. We will be there to teach them and to rule over them. Christ will be on the throne, Satan will be gone from that throne.
The children that will be born during the Millennium until it becomes millions and millions upon billions of people really, before that thousand years is over - they will all have a chance. We will help them then. We will be ruling over them with the Government of God, according to the law of God, which is the way of life to make people happy. So that you cooperate with others and have love toward others, instead of the other way. And at the end of the Millennium then there will come the Great White Throne Judgment. The resurrection of all who lived prior to the Millennium and they will be resurrected at that time.
Well brethren, this is a wonderful truth and the world doesn't understand it. God has revealed it to us. I have been writing, I started writing here in Sydney yesterday, a letter that is going to be put in a booklet. I think we will publish it first in the 'Good News' or the Worldwide News and it will be given then in a booklet form to every new convert at the time of his conversion. Explaining some of these things, and explaining how the world does not have life, they think they do, they are dying every day they live. They are in the process of dying. It is not life, it is a temporary existence, but life can only come through Christ. It was never available until Christ came, conquered Satan, laid down His life and paid the penalty we have incurred because since we paid that penalty, God is not going to give us life until we get that penalty wiped out.
It is for the New Testament Church. Let me explain one thing; the prophets of the Old Testament, however, are part of the New Testament Church. In Ephesians 2, towards the last part of second chapter of Ephesians you will read that; "The Church is based on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone." (Ephesians 2:19-20 paraphrased). Now the only prophets that were any part of the foundation of the New Testament Church are the Old Testament prophets. Only about four prophets are mentioned in the New Testament and not one of them had anything to do with founding the Church or being a foundation of the Church, supplying its knowledge and its teaching, that the prophets of the Old Testament did. And they did have the Holy Spirit for the purpose of writing the Bible. And no-one had the Holy Spirit whoever lived except the prophets until Christ, the second Adam came.
So all of God's spiritual process of making matter into God beings, children of God, reproducing Himself, begetting us as His children comes through Christ. That is the spiritual process and that began with Christ. It is just a physical being that began with Adam. I wanted to make that plain and clear. It's a truth the world doesn't know. Now the people in the world are not now called. This knowledge is foolishness to them. They cannot understand it, unless God Himself chooses and calls them. They just cannot understand it.
You know the first thing that most of us have wanted to do when we were first converted was try to get everyone else converted, and we just found we couldn't do that, didn't we? We can't do it because to them they can't see it. It is called a mystery in the Bible; the truth of God and the Church of God. It is called a mystery and it is a mystery. It is mysterious to people and they don't understand it. They can't. You have to have spiritual understanding and comprehension. You can't understand it until you receive the Holy Spirit of God.
Well brethren, God has called some of you here in Australia. Now I am speaking to quite a group of you here today. I understand there are about 1500 of you supposed to be here today. I expect to speak tomorrow to about 1500, up in - oh if I can think of the names of the cities here, you know, up north. I am going to have a meeting with the ministers from all over Australia and I have to go and see our offices here, talk to the ministers. And Thursday night or Friday we will fly down to Melbourne, or do you call it up to Melbourne? Whichever way you call it here. And next Sabbath I will be speaking to a large group in Melbourne. And after that, after that meeting, the same evening we will fly on over to New Zealand. And we will have a meeting then with brethren in Auckland in New Zealand. And after that we will have to be flying back on back home.
We have to get back because many things are happening, many things all over the world. Satan is busy trying to attack this Church in every way. God is delivering us from everything that Satan does however, step by step and He will continue to do that. We certainly do need your prayers. You need ours and you have my prayers every day, let me tell you, and I need yours. And I hope you will continue to pray for me, pray for the work at headquarters in Pasadena or if headquarters are over in Tuscon, Arizona, which is really my official home now. But I am having to spend a good deal of time once again in Pasadena and I probably will continue to do so.
Now I haven't been able to be here for a good many years and I hope that I will be able to come again sooner than I did this last time. This is my, let me see, one, two, this is my fourth trip to Australia, so I have been here before and I am so happy to be here and to see so many of you here. I don't see you so well. My eyes are getting dimmer. I am getting on. I couldn't realize - you know I never knew if I ever passed middle age, I didn't know it! And now they tell me I am getting on in life, and I look at the calendar and I find that in less than three months I will be in my ninetieth year. But I have to keep going. I have had a head cold, I have had temperature, I have had sore throats for the last, I think it is about five weeks now. But I have had to keep going just the same.
And I have preached in a number of places, New York, Chicago, Denver Colorado, a number of places in recent weeks. And all through the Passover service, the Passover season and I will continue to go, and so with one little sip of water, I am going to leave you now. And thank you very, very much. I hope that I have made this a little plainer that you have understood it before.