Sermon given by Herbert W. Armstrong "Building The Temple" - 14 Feb 1981
(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)

Building The Temple

By Herbert W. Armstrong

14 February 1981

(PLAY FROM START)

What a wonderful crowd we have today. I couldn't see all of you before, till I got up here on the platform. But this is a very fine, nice large, auditorium; and it looks like we're packed. I understand we will seat 2500; and it looks like we have that many here.

I would like to make just an announcement or two before I begin what I believe is a very important sermon. We expect now, and I would say it's 99% sure, the Feast of Tabernacles will be held once again this fall at Squaw Valley. I think that a certain number of you here will want to go down there. I don't know how many of you will go over to Spokane, how many will go down there. But most of you will divide between the two different places, unless you go to some special Feast site of your own choice that you wish to go to.

Now, we're going back at Jekyll Island this year for the first time in two years or more. And the reason for that is the St. Petersburg new building construction is taking off a lot of the parking spaces; and we can only park about 8,500 cars down there this year, or 8,000 (something like that), where we've been having over 12,000 people down there. And so the overflow, about 3,500, will go to Jekyll Island. Now, in Jekyll there is a new facility; so we won't have to have a tent. And they have a new building there that will seat about 3,500 or 4,000. That's a little larger than this place here, and so I think that a lot of people from the east coast and the southeast will enjoy that.

And then this year we also expect to go back to Mount Pocono. You know, the snow came and broke down the roof of Mount Pocono a year or two ago. We haven't been there now for, I don't remember, is it two years or one year? I guess it's two years. But it broke down really one end of it. We find we can repair it and without restoring the whole thing. It used to seat over 12,000; and now it will seat a good 8,000. And so we will have at least 8,000 there this autumn. I thought you might be glad to know that.

THE WORK OF GOD (PLAY FROM 2:50)

And, incidentally, the Work is now lunging forward in the biggest lunge forward we have ever made. I'm expecting to go out, and I hope God will give me the strength to get out, about every two weeks on a combined Sabbath service, just like this one here. (Perhaps Chicago one time; perhaps Detroit; and perhaps Atlanta, Georgia; and different centers around the country.) And I'm hoping to do that.

I am now setting a schedule to try to do four television programs a week and four radio programs a week. Now, when you take that all of that -- in addition to the oversight and management of all of the Churches all over the world; and in addition to the writing of books and booklets; and articles every month in The Plain Truth, every month in the Good News, every other week in The Worldwide News, almost every week in the Pastor General's Report -- well, it's a little bigger job than I was able to do when I was thirty years old, and forty years old, and fifty years old. I'm getting along a little bit; but God is helping me, like wine, to improve with age. I seem to grow a little younger every year. And although I will reach my ninetieth year in less than six months now this year, I hope that God will give me the strength to continue on harder than ever for years yet to come; and I believe He will.

I have a message for you that I could not have delivered some years ago. Sometimes we wonder about things; and we don't know just how to size up, or judge, certain things and how to know. Jesus told us one way we may know. He said by the fruits you may know. Until the fruits had proven certain things, and the fulfillment of certain Scriptures, I could certainly never have had said some of the things I'm going to say to you here today. But the fruits now have made certain things very evident -- very, very, plain indeed. But the time has come now that we need a new, clear, concise explanation. An updated explanation: Just what is, and why is, the Worldwide Church of God? Why this particular Church? And why the Work that we call the Work of God? And what is the Work? A lot of people still don't know what is the Work, and I hope to be able to explain that this afternoon.

Now, that's why it's going to take a little time. I want to begin at the very beginning. I'm going to have to give you a capsule report, a very brief synopsis. I hope I can go right along, stay with the subject, and cover a great deal of ground; and I expect to speak a little more than an hour, if you'll stand with me. If I think you're getting too tired, I'll give you at least a two or three minute intermission to stand and stretch and turn around, and stretch your arms up and one thing or another, and get a little bit of rest.

THE CHURCH OF GOD (PLAY FROM 7:07)

Jesus said, in Matthew 16:18:

Matthew 16:18 I will build my church, and the gates of hell [which should be translated "the gates of the grave." That's what He meant. And the word "hell" there is Hades, which simply means the grave. It doesn't mean the kind of hell that Dante thought it meant.] shall not prevail against it.

Satan has done everything he could to destroy this Church. He tried to destroy it before it got started, by destroying the Christ-child right after Jesus was born. He tried to kill the very Founder of the Church again, when Christ reached the age of thirty, just before He began His mission. As a matter of fact, He had to qualify before He could begin to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God; and Satan's attack is the very thing that qualified Jesus Christ. You'll read of that in Matthew 4, beginning with the first verse -- the great temptation, when Jesus was tempted as no man on the face of this earth ever has been in all history.

The Church has been persecuted. This Church has been persecuted the last two years, since just a little over two years ago, by the State of California; but the gates of the grave have not prevailed against it. The Church has been drawn closer together. We have gotten back on the track, on God's track. We are closer together in unity and harmony than ever before. Satan, of course, will continue to try. I have been persecuted ever since I gave myself to God.

You know, most people receive Christ. They get. They want to take. They want to receive. They want to get. There are the two ways of life and only the two ways, broadly speaking. One I call "give." The other is "get."

I had... I brought it along with me; but I thought I wouldn't bring it up here, because there wasn't going to be any time for it. Someone in Pasadena just discovered a recording that I have talked about that was popular in 1924, when we had arrived out in Oregon in a Flivver, a model T Ford, after an 18-day trip from Iowa -- my wife and I and our only two children at that time (because our two sons were all born in Portland, Oregon later). But this song was being played, and it is so reminiscent of the very condition that does exist all over the world -- selfishness, self-centeredness; and the song is, "I Love me." 'Oh, I love me. I'm wild about myself. I put my arms around myself, and give myself a squeeze.'

Well, someone dug up a record of that, and had it put on a cassette, and sent it over to me. I could have brought it here, but I thought you wouldn't be ready to just put it on. I didn't want to take the time anyway today. Maybe we'll use it on the program some of these times. It was done before electronic recording. They didn't have microphones when this was recorded. And you don't realize how recent many of these things are. Our electronic recordings all come since the year of 1924, when I first reached Oregon and the state of Washington as far as Vancouver, Washington.

GROWTH OF THE WORK (PLAY FROM 11:10)

I hadn't gotten up this far then, but I visited Seattle a great many times. And I just want to say before I start with the sermon that in the early thirties I used to come up here every week, when I started broadcasting on radio KRSC down near the Boeing works. I used to be on the air there 8:30 every morning. Not every morning, every Sunday morning I should say; and that was the start of the Work up here. That is the start of this Church. And later, of course, we were on the air in other places, over at Spokane and other places all around.

But the Work has grown. It started on radio in Eugene, Oregon. It branched out to Portland. Then it came up here, to Seattle. After that, we went on down in Hollywood. Then we went on in Des Moines, Iowa on a 50,000-watt station that brought mail from every state in the union. Then we were on the great super-power Mexican stations, until the proliferation of radio stations in the United States finally brought us to a condition where there were so many stations in the United States that they just cut out the Mexican stations; and they didn't reach the whole country any longer. So then we went on the major 50,000-watt stations all over the United States daily. And that is what built this Work -- followed up, of course, by The Plain Truth, by the booklets, by the other literature; and mostly, if I may say so, by the things that I myself wrote. But I want to come to some of that a little bit later.

WHAT IS THE CHURCH? (PLAY FROM 12:54)

Jesus said that He would build His Church and that it could never be destroyed. Now, why did He build it? For what purpose? Why should there be a Church?

You know that most people just take the ideas of churches for granted. You find churches everywhere. For most people a church means a building with a sloping roof, a steeple on top pointing up to heaven, and a cross on the front facade. Well, that's NOT the Bible definition of the Church.

The Church is a group of people. The people, or the Church, goes to the building; but people today seem to think that the people go to the church. Instead of that, it's the Church that goes to the building. It's just the other way around. If I want to begin to show you why the Church -- why are we today, and what is the Work, how it is conducted, all about it -- we need to start at the very, very beginning.

As I become older, I have to suffer a few physical handicaps. I have to read pretty largely through fairly high-powered magnifying glasses. My hearing is somewhat impaired; but, thank God, my mind is not. My voice is not. And though I can stand and preach at a pulpit for, oh, 30, 40, 45 minutes; and I've done it many times. But I'm going to speak a little longer than that today. So I wanted to be seated, if you don't mind.

GOD: TWO PERSONS (PLAY FROM 14:39)

And so now I want to begin at the beginning. I want to begin back BEFORE God had created anything -- before God even started creating; and you read of it not in Genesis 1:1. That's not even the first event in time sequence begins. But, if you want to know the first historic record in the Bible, in time sequence it is not Genesis 1:1. It is John 1:1, in the New Testament. So in John the first chapter, and verse one... In fact, we'll read the first two or three verses.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word...

Now, there is a person who is called the Word. The Greek word that is translated into the English word "Word" there; and it means Word. It means Spokesman. It means Revelatory Thought. There was a person called the Word, who was the Spokesman.

John 1:1 ...and the Word was with God.

Now God is another person. There are two persons. And the Word is a person who was with another person, who is God.

John 1:1 ...and the Word was God.

The Word also is God. So They were both God, and there are two persons there.

Now the common idea about God is that God is a Trinity. Let me tell you that there is not a religion on the face of this earth that knows who and what God is. What do you think of that? They don't know what the Church is. They don't know why the Church is. They don't know what man is. What is man? Why is man? Why was man ever created and put on this earth? What is the purpose? Are we here for a purpose; and, if so, what is it? The world doesn't know those things. I've been shouting it for a long time. And I hope God will give me the breath to keep on shouting it a long time longer, at least until the end of this world. Then a far better World is coming. But:

John 1:2-3 The same was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made by him [by the Word. All things were made by the Word.]; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Now we find if you turn over to verse 14:

John 1:14 The Word was made flesh [In other words, became a human being; was born as a human being. Why? I'm going to read you that at little later, why He was born a human being.], and [He] dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Now there we find that God started out with Two -- not three persons, not a Trinity. When you go back to Genesis 1:1 you read:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

But there the word for God is Elohim, which is a uniplural meaning more than one person. Church is a uniplural word. It takes more than one person to make a Church. Family is a uniplural word. It means more than one person. One person is not a family. I suppose two persons can form a family, a husband and a wife. Three persons can form a family. Sometimes there are 12. I know of one young lady here who has I believe 12 or 14 children in the family. So sometimes we have families that are quite large. Sometimes they're quite small. But a family is a number of people that are one unit. The unit is a family, though there's more than one person.

HOW GOD CREATES (PLAY FROM 18:51)

In Ephesians, let's see, I think it's the third chapter. I won't turn to that now.

Ephesians 3:9 [God] created all things by Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Word. Jesus, when He was on earth said, "I haven't spoken anything except what the Father told Me to speak." Everything He did is what God the Father told Him to do. God created all things; but Jesus, the Word, is the one He used to do it.

You know, back in 1914 in January (That's before most of you were born.), I was sent by a national magazine that I represented at the time and for which I was writing. I was writing articles for a national magazine at that time, 1914 in January and just a few days after January 1st. I was sent to the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit. At that time the plant was out on Highland Avenue. They're out on Bull Run now, and maybe some other places besides. They've expanded so much. But I was sent there to see Henry Ford.

Now I saw Henry Ford; and he was dressed in a business suit, like I am and like most of you men are. I saw him in a breezeway between the office building and the main great factory. He is the maker of the Ford car, but he wasn't making any cars. He made the cars by workmen I saw across the breezeway in the factory. And they were wearing overalls, and work shirts, and work clothes. But they were using the power of machinery and electricity as the power by which they did it. So that's the way Henry Ford made the Ford car.

Well, it's the same way that God created everything. Jesus Christ is the Workman that He used to do the work. Well, what was the work of Jesus? He is the Word. He spoke. So there is a psalm that says:

Psalm 33:9 He spake, and it was done.

Jesus just speaks. Now there is a POWER. That's not a third person; but it's a power that emanates from God the Father, and it emanates also from Jesus Christ -- the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Word. He does what the Father tells Him. The Father says, "Do this." He speaks. The Holy Spirit is the power that does it. Just like Henry Ford built cars: The workmen did the work, but they used the power of electricity and machinery. That's the way God has created all things.

CREATING GODLY CHARACTER (PLAY FROM 21:36)

Now, let's go the next step. What was God's purpose as the Creator? God is Creator. That's His business. Well, what does He create and why? God is the Creator of spiritual, righteous, holy character. Now, get that. A lot of people don't know that. God is the Creator of holy, righteous, spiritual character. God is the perfect, holy, righteous, spiritual character Himself.

Now, through human beings, He's reproducing Himself; but His first creation was not man. He was not creating Himself through angels, but His first creation was angels. Everything that God does, or nearly... I won't say everything, but pretty much the way God works is in a plan of duality -- a first and a last. For example: There's the first Adam, about 6,000 years ago. About 2,000 years ago {1} the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came. There was the Old Covenant made at Mount Sinai. Christ is going to make the New Covenant, and came to announce it 1900 and some years ago. You're going to see a lot about dualities as I go through this sermon now. All right, the first thing that God created was angels; and there was duality even there.

There's one thing God cannot create automatically, just by Himself by fiat; and that is holy, spiritual, righteous character. That is something that must be created with the assent, with the desire, with the decision and with the effort, if you please, of the separate entity that God has created. He could create angels, but He Himself would not just automatically instill character within them. They had to have their part in receiving that character, and having that character created in them. They had to make a decision.

Now God put either all of the angels or a third of them on the earth. The Bible doesn't say which. But one-third of them went wrong. If He put them all on the earth, two-thirds stayed right and one-third went wrong; but I believe He only put a third on the earth. Anyway, the other two-thirds are holy, righteous angels. But the angels He put on the earth we find (in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, the 28th chapter of Ezekiel) that they were led by one God put on a throne on the earth. Now we come back to Genesis 1:1, for it says:

Genesis 1:1 God [Elohim, which is uniplural, meaning more than one person.] created the heavens and the earth.

Now let's stop right there, because a lot of other things go in before you get to verse two. He put angels on this earth before He put man on this earth. But He put one angel, a super archangel, of a higher status; higher in the way he was created than the other angels. He was a cherub. His name was Lucifer, meaning shining star of the dawn, or a bringer of light -- light and truth, and everything good. He was set on a throne of this earth, and it was a throne over the whole earth. And, incidentally, he is still on that throne right now. And he's there trying to get to you and to me, and to destroy us if he can, because now he has become Satan.

He was there to administer the government of God. Now, every government is based on a constitution or a basic law. We've had a constitutional fight to preserve this Church alive in the last two years because the State of California was breaking the Constitution of the United States. Finally, they gave up the battle for the time being. We hope it's permanent. Nevertheless, every government is based on a basic law. And the government that God put on this earth and He set Lucifer here to administer, it was based on the law of God. That law is love: Out-flowing love, away from yourself -- not incoming lust, or coveting, or desire, or selfishness.

TWO WAYS OF LIFE (PLAY FROM 26:37)

Now there are the two basic ways of life, and the law of God is the spiritual law. It is inexorable, as the law of gravity. I raise something; I let loose of it; and something drew it down. I didn't push it down. The law of gravity is there, and it works. I didn't have to have someone make it work. It just automatically works. The law of God has a penalty. If you break it, it'll break you. You don't need a policeman around to arrest you, and you don't need a trial judge sitting on a bench.

Well, this Lucifer decided he didn't like just ruling over this one little earth down here, where God had the whole universe. He became a rebel. He decided that "give" was not the best way, that "get" is the best way.

I received a letter day before yesterday from the president of a large corporation, a financial corporation, objecting to one of my Wall Street Journal full-page ads. He believes in capitalism; and he got the idea that, because I say the law of God is "give," that I don't believe in it. Oh, he's going to be surprised! He's going to get a letter from me; and he's going to find out that he gave me the headlines and the subject matter for seven more Wall Street Journal full-page ads. And he's going to agree with every one of them because, you see, the law of God for humans says to us, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." It includes a little bit of self-love, and capitalism doesn't violate that. When I explain... That's a point he didn't get, but he wants to love self only and not love his neighbor. We've got to love both.

God gave you yourself. That's a human body and a human mind to protect and to take care of and to use. By loving it, you take care of it. That song that I was telling you about: 'Oh, I love me. I'm wild about myself.' It says, 'I'm going to marry me someday' even. 'I love myself to death, I love me till I'm all out of breath.' That's the way people are. That's the way people are. They just love themselves. They don't love anybody else. That is, most people.

ANGELS THAT SINNED (PLAY FROM 29:16)

Well, now then we turn to II Peter, in the second chapter beginning with verse four.

II Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned...

They did not keep the law of out-flowing love. They violated it by Satan's way of incoming coveting and lust. They started a different way of life. God's law is a way of life! It's a way of life that will bring us all peace and happiness, if we would only live that way.

II Peter 2:4 If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to [tartaroo]...

The "hell" here is "tartaroo" and it's the only place in the Bible that it's used in the Greek language, and it just applied to angels only. It's a place of holding angels until their judgment.

II Peter 2:4-6 ...and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment: [Then it goes on, he...] (5) spared not the old world, but saved Noah [in the time of the Flood. And then, after the next verse.] (6) turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them [for their sins].

In other words, it shows that God punishes sin. Well, this Lucifer who sat on the throne, you read of him. I won't take the time. I want to hurry. As I say, I'm going to give you this in a brief form this afternoon. In the twelfth chapter, or in Isaiah 14 I mean; and it is through from verse 11 or 12 to verse 18. And also in Ezekiel 28 you will find him described; and he started just the opposite way. He refused to enforce or to administer the law or the government of God. So the government of God was taken away; and, as a result of that, the sin was physical to the earth.

Now, they were spiritual beings; and they were on a physical earth. When they disobeyed God, they had not built the character that God had put them here to build. And so Lucifer became Satan, and he is now Satan the Devil; and all of his angels became demons. They are immortal. They live forever. They always will. They are the most unhappy creatures in all of the wide, wide universe that God has created.

GOD RENEWED THE EARTH (PLAY FROM 31:55)

Now, in Psalm 104:30. I don't know if I need to turn to that. Well, I might. I've got it marked here.

Psm 104:29-30 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. (30) Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

God sends forth His Spirit, and then renews the face of the earth. Now then, you go back to Genesis, the first chapter in verse two.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void.

"Without form, and void." The Hebrew words are "tohu" and "bohu." And it means it was all desolate, and waste, and empty; and had become, well, decayed -- in a state of decay, because of the sin of the angels. And light had been turned to darkness. Then Christ, the Word, begins to speak.

Genesis 1:3 And [He] said, Let there be light.

He spake, and it was done; and the light came. In six days, He renewed the face of the earth. That is not the original creation, as nearly everyone thinks. That was only a renewing of the earth after the angels had sinned.

Now, the government of God was the big thing. It was given to develop that kind of spiritual character. But the angels didn't do it. At least those angels didn't. Apparently two-thirds of the angels did, but they probably weren't even on the earth at that time. The Bible doesn't say whether they were or not.

Going back to Genesis the first chapter again, it was the uniplural God who created the heavens. It should be plural and not one heaven, but "heavens and the earth;" and every other translation has it "heavens."

Genesis 1:2 The earth was [tohu] and [bohu, or decayed condition]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [or the ocean face]. And the spirit of God moved upon...the waters.

Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit...thou renewest the face of the earth.

Remember I read you that. All right, here's the Spirit He sends forth; and here is the Word speaking.

Genesis 1:3 And God said [The One of God that said it was the One who became Christ later. The Word said:], Let there be light: and there was light.

And light came. The Holy Spirit caused it to come. But it was Christ, before He was ever born as Christ. He was then just the Word. And He said:

Genesis 1:3 Let there be light: and there was light.

GOD'S PURPOSE THROUGH MAN (PLAY FROM 35:02)

In six days He renewed the face of the earth for man. Why was God going to create man? He had created angels. He had set His government over them. His government was gone. Now, God's purpose through man is to recreate Himself, to REPRODUCE HIMSELF! That is the most wonderful, the most great, thing that even God can possibly imagine and undertake to do. And, I want to tell you; God has His hands full trying to do that -- trying to make God-persons out of us -- because we simply want to go the way of "get" and not the way of cooperate, and give, and help, and love.

We get our feelings hurt. We have feelings, and we have misunderstandings. We just let our little feelings rule us, and run us, all the time. What we need is a little more of the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, and the understanding of God; and then we'd be happier.

Now then, in Genesis, He recreated the earth. And He created then the vegetation, and then the sea life, and then the animal life, and the bird life. And, in verse 25:

Genesis 1:25-26 God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind [Cows after the cow-kind, dogs after the dog-kind, elephants after the elephant-kind; and so it goes. And then:] (26) God said, Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness.

In other words, "Let's make man after the God-kind." And it didn't say, "Let me." It's more than one person because the word for "God" there is Elohim; and Elohim is a uniplural, meaning more than one person. That Elohim (more than one person) said, "Let us (not "let me") make man after OUR kind, in OUR likeness." Man was formed and shaped like God. So coming over to the 2nd chapter now, in verse 7:

Genesis 2:7 And the [ETERNALl] God...

Now the word "LORD God" comes in, and the word LORD is translated from the Hebrew word Yahweh; and that means Christ, or the One that was the Word. Wherever you see LORD in the Old Testament in capital letters, it nearly always refers to the One who was later born as Christ -- or who was the Word that was with God from eternity. There never was a time when They did not exist. Now, the Eternal God or the LORD God...

Genesis 2:7 ...formed man [Out of what? What did He form man out of? Out...] of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Now, a living soul... Man became a living soul. Man was made of the dust of the ground. The dust of the ground became a soul. A soul then is physical. It is not a spirit. That says so right there, in very plain language; and yet the whole world has been deceived, thinking a soul is spirit. The soul is physical.

THE TWO TREES (PLAY FROM 38:37)

Now, the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden. There were two trees there. I'm going to skim over that very, very rapidly because it is very important; but I don't want to take up too much time, or I won't get through with this if I'd preach to three o'clock tomorrow. There were two trees in the garden. They were symbolic trees. They represented something very, very important. One was the Tree of Life. That represented the Holy Spirit of God, which imparts divine immortal life. Adam did not have immortal life. He was made of the dust of the ground. The other tree was the Knowledge of Good and Evil. To take of that was to take to themselves the creation of the knowledge, the manufacture of the knowledge, the producing of the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong -- what is good and what is evil. They had to decide.

Now here's duality again entering in right here. The first man was made physical. But man is to be made separate later, spiritual. There's the duality again. He starts physical, and then later he is to be spiritual. The Old Covenant was physical, national, and material. The New Covenant is spiritual. There is a principal of duality that goes through the Bible.

So God told Adam and Eve they could have everything in the garden, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God is the One who reveals the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. That is SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. I say there is a Law, which is give, cooperate, help, serve, love your neighbor as yourself. That's God's law. But the first part of that Law is "thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and strength" -- even more than yourself, or your neighbor. They usually leave that out too; but that's out-going, not in-coming.

A HUMAN SPIRIT IN MAN (PLAY FROM 40:48)

God made man to have a mind. Over in... I want to see. I'm not going to turn to it; but in I Corinthians, the second chapter and verse 11:

I Corinthians 2:11 What man could know the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?

There is a spirit in man; but man is made of the dust of the ground, and that man IS a soul. The soul is not a spirit, but there is a spirit IN that soul.

In man is a brain. That human brain is exactly like the brain of an animal, exactly. The brain of an elephant, the brain of a whale, the brain of a dolphin, is larger than the brain of a man. The brain of a chimpanzee is a little smaller. But they are exactly the same, and they are just as good. They're made of matter; and yet physical brute animals can't have the mental, intellectual, output of a human at all. They can't do what a human can. They can't think constructively, and they can't think creatively.

What is the difference? Why is man so far superior? There is a spirit in man. And man couldn't have the knowledge that even a man has, except that spirit in him. But I have called it, for lack of a better term... The Bible doesn't say this. It's just my term, for lack of a better one. I call it a human spirit.

Now, it is a spirit that is in humans; but it is not matter. It's spirit, but it imparts to the physical brain of a human the power of intellect. An animal doesn't have that spirit, and there's no power of intellect in his mind. Animals have a brain of a kind. They have a certain knowledge. They know certain things. You can train an animal by repeated tricks, and repeated performance, to do certain things. But an animal can't think. An animal can't think constructively and creatively like a human can.

ANOTHER SPIRIT (PLAY FROM 43:16)

A human is made in the image of God, and man was made with that spirit; but he was made to need another Spirit -- the Spirit of God -- to go with it. Now get this. This is very important. I'm giving you a good many sermons in one, here this afternoon; so listen carefully. The birth of a human being is an exact type. God is recreating Himself. He is reproducing Himself. Humans are the material He's using to reproduce Himself.

All right, in human reproduction, every one of us was born from a mother. In that mother was an ovum, or you might call it an egg; but it's a little tiny egg no bigger than a pinpoint. But that egg had no life except a very temporary life in itself. That life might have been two or three days. It might have been, I think that there is some latitude for saying it could have been up to 28 days. Doctors disagree about that. I don't know how they know anyway. But unless that egg is fertilized, and life is imparted to it, and it is energized or given life to by a male sperm cell from a father -- it is going to die in a matter of days. It has a temporary life. But it won't go on living longer, unless there is a male sperm added to it. That's the way every one of us was born.

Now then, that is an exact physical type (There again is your duality, the physical type of the spiritual.) where God is creating Himself. Each one of us is an egg. And the little egg is -- as small as the period at the end of a sentence in your Bible, or in your newspaper -- very small. And the male sperm cell is only one-fiftieth. It would take fifty of them to be the size of that egg. It's the smallest cell in the human body. And that had to have life added to it, or it was going to die.

It immediately joins itself to that ovum, or to that nucleus. The nucleus in the human being, which is an egg cell so to speak, is the brain; and the Spirit comes. The Spirit of God is joined with our spirit in the brain, and then gives us spiritual knowledge.

Now then, I quoted a minute ago from I Corinthians the second chapter and verse 11. No man could know or have the knowledge of man except by the spirit of man, which is in him. It's in every man, every woman. We have that. Animals do not.

I Corinthians 2:11 Even so [The same sentence, verse 11: In the same manner, or likewise.] no one knows the things of God except [by] the Spirit of God.

He has to receive the Spirit of God to come and join with his spirit, to impregnate him with divine Life; or he can't know spiritual knowledge. He can't know spiritual things. That's why the great commentators have tried to explain every verse in the Bible in their commentaries; and they don't understand it, because they didn't have the Spirit of God. You can only get the Spirit of God if God has called you, and then by absolute surrender to God; by repentance; and then by receiving the Spirit of God; by your belief in Christ and in God; and in believing what He says as well as believing who and what He is. That's what it is. Now, that's just how important. Adam was made to need the Spirit of God; and, without it, he couldn't understand spiritual knowledge.

WHAT MAN CAN DO (PLAY FROM 48:01)

Now, the law of God that will give you happiness and peace is a spiritual law. What's all the trouble in the world for? Why do we have it? What's the cause of all of the troubles we have in this world? Just one thing! Look at the things that man can do. Look at the things that have happened in my lifetime, in this twentieth century.

I was born before the twentieth century, back in 1892. I've seen these things come, and they're mighty things. They're mind-boggling! They're awesome! We send men to the moon and back. We send unmanned spacecraft, that are made right there in Pasadena almost just a short walk from Ambassador College, up to land on Mars. Close up photographs, we send unmanned spacecraft to get close up photographs of Jupiter and of Saturn. And the astronomers say it is mind-boggling.

It's awesome, the things we can do. Look at the wonderful machines man has made. Look at the conveniences we have that man has been able to think out, and invent, and the things that man can do. But every one of those things is physical and material. Man cannot do spiritual things. Man goes to the moon and back safely; and then divorces his wife, or she divorces him. The family is broken up. Why? We do wonderful things. But the wonderful things that man has accomplished are all physical and material. But, when you get into his troubles, he is full of troubles; and he can't solve his troubles. Why? His troubles are spiritual in nature.

Now I'm saying that in Wall Street Journal adds every week, and I'm reaching the top strata of the heads of great corporations and banks all over the United States in those ads. Right now, we're not in... They have three editions: the east coast, the west coast, and a central edition. We're not in the central edition. But we will be in a few months; and these same ads are going to run there that have already run in the east coast and the west coast. That is, the eastern third of the country and the western third of the country. Now we're going to reach the middle third of the country just a little later, in the Wall Street Journal ads.

And believe you me, they are reading those ads. I don't know whether you get them up here or not. But God has helped me in writing them. It is getting prestige, and they believe whoever-is-writing-those-ads knows something about what he is talking about. And it is making many of the great men, heads of great institutions, begin to think for the first time in their lives about some of these spiritual things. It's about time they begin to think! God has wanted them all reached, and now we're going to reach that audience. I've been reaching kings. We've been reaching prime ministers, and presidents of nations all over the world. Now we've got to reach the so-called 'great and mighty' of the United States, and we're doing it.

MAN'S WRONG CHOICE (PLAY FROM 51:29)

All right, now then, Adam and Eve could have taken of the Tree of Life; and they would have received the Holy Spirit of God, and then they would have had spiritual knowledge. They would have understood God's spiritual law. They would have lived that way, and they would have had peace and prosperity. They would have all been wealthy.

God is not against wealth. He's not against money. I'm going to have an ad in the Wall Street Journal: "Money Is Not The Root Of All Evil." It's the love of money that is the root of all evil. Not money. The love of it. How you use it. Money is a commodity. It can be used for good. It can be used for evil, depending on how you use it.

Now then, Genesis 3:24, Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. They decided they would take what little knowledge they had, and decide for themselves what is right and wrong. They refused to take of the Holy Spirit that would reveal the spiritual knowledge, of the spiritual law, to them. And so man has not known the way to peace, the way to happiness, the way to prosperity, the way to success. He has never known it. Now over just a page or two here in Genesis, we turn over into Genesis 3 and beginning with verse 22.

Genesis 3:22 And the [ETERNAL] God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. [He took of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.] Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: [He would have gained eternal life; and God didn't want him to have eternal life living in unhappiness, and misery, and pain, and suffering, and sorrow. So then God said:] (23) Therefore, the [ETERNAL] God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (24) So he drove out the man; 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 [lest they go back, and gain this, and have spiritual knowledge].

Man was cut off from spiritual knowledge, and that's why he can't solve his problems. That is why, right there. He can do wonderful things that are physical and material. But he can't solve his problems, because they're spiritual; and it's a spiritual nature, and a spiritual law.

Now, this all has something to do with the government of God. Adam had a chance to overcome Satan, to resist Satan, and take God's way, and obey God's law. Satan had rejected the law of God that was the constitution of the government. And now Adam rejected it. Adam could have had it and he could have ruled the world; and all of his own progeny, which is the world, all born from Adam and Eve.

Now, where does that leave us? That leaves us that humanity now was cut off from the Holy Spirit. Satan, through Adam, shut man off from God. Now get that. Man wasn't shut off from God. Man was only shut off from the Holy Spirit. But God didn't shut man off from God. He shut him off from receiving the Holy Spirit so he could have Spirit-knowledge. But Satan has been shutting man off from God for 6,000 years; and he's done a very fine job of that, and he probably pats himself on the back. But God shut man off from the Holy Spirit. God did NOT shut man off from Him. Man shut himself off from God. But God shut man off from the Holy Spirit for a long, long time.

And most men are still shut off from the Holy Spirit. All right, I'm coming to that. Now, just keep that in mind right there. Man could seek God. But, as you read in John 6:44, God would not draw him unless God chose him; and he had to be one of those who are predestinated. But, I won't go into that today. That's another subject. That's a whole sermon or two in itself. But in John 6:44, Jesus is quoted as saying:

John 6:44 No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him.

Now get that! God has to draw you. By the Holy Spirit, He just draws you to Him. But He isn't drawing people to Him, and He hasn't been since Adam. Man could have sought God. But God is not going to go after and seek man.

GOD WORKS WITH SOME MEN (PLAY FROM 56:44)

All right, we come now to the time of the Flood. On the way, Enoch is the only one mentioned who walked with God. Two can't walk together except they be agreed. So Enoch did agree with God, and he apparently sought after God; and God walked with him. Now, Noah was found also to be righteous in the eyes of God. Noah did not seek God. Now get this! Noah did not seek God, but God sought Noah. And God found that Noah already was righteous, and he was "perfect in his generations." That is, his physical heredity. But he wasn't perfect spiritually. No man has been, but Jesus Christ.

Now there came the Flood. And Noah, and Noah only, was saved because God found he was willing to go God's way. It doesn't say whether Noah had the Holy Spirit or not. But God did use him to keep humanity alive -- his wife, their four sons (three sons, rather), and their wives -- eight souls altogether.

All right, we don't find much more of anyone seeking God, one way or another, after the Flood. You'd have thought they would have learned their lesson. But they didn't, and they didn't seek God. And God wasn't calling them, and He was not drawing them.

So then we come on to the time of Abraham, in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. God CALLED Abraham. God sought him. He didn't seek God. Now get the difference. Noah had not sought God. God sought him. And Abraham didn't seek God. But God called him and said, "Abraham, I want you to move from where you are, and go to a land I'm going to send you to."

The thing is: Abraham obeyed right away. So Abraham got all of the promises -- that are spiritual promises, as well as physical promises -- that God made. All of the promises that we get from God come through the promises He made to Abraham. God called Abraham. Abraham obeyed. So did Isaac. So did Jacob. So did Joseph. And God blessed them all, and they were very wealthy men. They weren't just poor. They were men who accomplished something. They did something, and they became wealthy; and God blessed everything they did.

Now then, we don't find anyone that God called until the time of Moses, 430 years after Abraham. Again, Moses wasn't looking for God. Moses didn't seek God. But God picked out Moses through the burning bush experience. He said, "Moses, take you shoes off your feet. The ground where you are standing is holy ground," because the presence of God was there. That's what made the ground holy.

Moses didn't especially want to lead the children of Israel out of slavery. He protested. He said, "God, I can't do it. I, I, I stutter. You know, I got an impediment of speech." God said, "I'm going to give you your brother, Aaron, to speak for you. I'll take care of that. You're going to do what I tell you to do." And Moses did do it. God worked through Moses, and Aaron was his helper; and they took the children of Israel to the Promised Land. They didn't take them into it, but they took them to it.

On the way, at Mount Sinai, God made them the proposition of becoming His government under the Old Covenant. But that was only a national government; and the only promises God gave them were physical, material, national promises. He did not promise them salvation, or the Holy Spirit, or eternal life. He didn't promise them that they'd have the Holy Spirit, or that they would understand spiritual equations (or principles) so that they could be happy.

But He would give them His law. And without the Holy Spirit, you can't keep the law of God. But they said, "Oh, we will obey everything You say." They were anxious to do it. So they made the deal with God at Mount Sinai, but they did not obey. There God established a government on this earth, but He did not give... He gave them His spiritual law, but He didn't give them the Holy Spirit; and, without the Holy Spirit, they were not able to keep it. They disobeyed God.

God told them in Leviticus 26, if they would obey him, He gave them material promises. "Your land will yield its increase the year around -- not just in season, but the year around. You will be the wealthiest nation on earth. You'll be the leading nation. You'll take one hundred. One hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight." That's a very powerful nation that can do that.

That's what God promised, but they didn't obey. That was all conditioned on their obedience, and they did not obey. God said, "If you don't do it, I will delay the promises for 2520 years." But God had already made the material promises to Abraham, and God had to keep it. But He said, "I won't keep it in you. I'll keep it in your children, 2520 years later." And that's exactly what God has done. God has done just that.

ONE MAN AT A TIME (PLAY FROM 1:02:37)

God called or DREW TO HIM, had the power of drawing them to Him and using, one man at a time. He drew Abraham. He drew Moses to Him. After Moses, He drew Joshua to Him; and He used Joshua alone to lead Israel into the Promised Land, or across the Jordan River. After that, they didn't have any real leader. So every man did what was right in his own sight, or eyes. You read in the book of Judges next how, because of their sins, they would become a vassal nation. Some neighboring nation would capture them and come in and rule them.

Then they would cry out to God, and God would listen; and God would send a judge, or a hero, or some leader -- one man at a time. God only deals through one man at a time. GOD DOES NOT WORK THROUGH COMMITTEES. God works through ONE MAN AT A TIME. I want you to notice it as we go along now. Let's understand the way of God. The world has not understood it. So God worked through one judge at a time.

Then we come to the prophet, Samuel; and God was ruling Israel through Samuel. In the eighth chapter of Samuel you'll find the people wanted a king, like other nations. They didn't want God to rule them. God says, "They haven't rejected you, Samuel. They've rejected Me; that I shouldn't rule them, because I was really ruling them through you." Samuel was the man God was using, but it was God's rule. God said, "They rejected Me that I should not rule them." Go back and read it, in the eighth chapter of Samuel.

Then came David, and God drew him and worked with him. He had a lot of trouble with David. David did a lot of wrong things. He disobeyed God once or twice, or three times -- and pretty badly too, as bad as any of us ever did. But he repented, and God's mercy was good. David was a man after God's own heart.

Then the prophets; and only the prophets of the Old Testament had the Spirit of God, but God did draw them. God did not draw the rest of the world. The rest of the world could have sought God; but it didn't, because Satan... Well, you read of it in... Let's see, it's II Corinthians. Is it third chapter fourth verse, or fourth chapter? Somewhere there: how Satan has blinded the world that they can't see these things, and they don't look to God.

WHY THE SECOND ADAM? (PLAY FROM 1:05:38)

All right, now we come to one man again -- the second Adam, or Jesus Christ. Now we're coming right along in God's Plan for human beings, to reproduce Himself. God shut humans off for a time and let them be ruled by Satan to learn that that way doesn't pay! For 6000 years, men have been living Satan's way instead of the way of God's law. And look at the unhappiness, and look at the misery, and the suffering in this world. That's what has happened.

Now, why the second Adam? All right, I won't take time to read it; but, in Isaiah 7:14, it says that to the children of Israel (that nation, which didn't have the Holy Spirit) that from them would be born a Son and the government would be on His shoulders. He would come and rule the government; and of His Kingdom there would be no end, and He would bring peace. His Kingdom and peace, there would be no end. That's Isaiah 7. No, that's Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7. I beg your pardon.

You find that God said there that He was going to send Christ; and that Christ would be born as a human being, as a baby. That He was coming as a RULER to rule the government, and it's all about government. It all is a matter that Lucifer rejected the government of God, and bolted; and the government of God was taken away from the earth. Now, here's the government of God again. God is going to send Jesus; and He is going to have the government, and rule, and bring peace because it's the way of God's law.

Now, in Isaiah 7:14, a virgin was to conceive, and bear a Son; and His name to be called Immanuel. In Matthew 1, you read how the angel said to Joseph that his engaged fiancé/wife was to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit of God, and not from a man. But God would be the Father of the Son that would be born. Mary would be His mother. So He would be human through Mary; but He would be also divine and be God, through God, because God sired Him. God sired, fathered, Him. No human man ever did.

Now those are prophecies for the coming of Christ. Why did Christ come? In Matthew, which is quoting from Isaiah 7:14, it says that He would be a Savior and save His people from their sins. Christ was coming for two main reasons: one, to restore the government of God in the Kingdom of God; and, the other reason, to be a Savior and save people from their sins and give people immortal life. Those are the two reasons. There's duality again, two reasons why Christ was to come.

POURING OUT OF GOD'S SPIRIT (PLAY FROM 1:09:09)

All right, now there's another prophecy for the people. Not referring to what would happen to Christ, but to the people. That's in Joel 2:28. I think I just better just read that one, Joel 2:28.

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

Now remember: God had closed His Spirit from human reach, ability I should say. In other words, humans could not reach the Holy Spirit of God. God shut the Holy Spirit off from people. He didn't shut Himself off, but He shut off the Holy Spirit. Now, Joel prophesied that the time would come later that God would pour out his Holy Spirit upon all flesh.

Joel 2:28-29 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: (29) And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

So there is a time coming when God will start pouring out His spirit on human beings.

Back in Genesis, in the third chapter (the last three verses, or four verses), I showed you how God closed up the Holy Spirit so man couldn't get to it. Now there's a prophecy of a time coming that God will open up the Holy Spirit. Notice this prophecy.

Joel 2:30-31 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. (31) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Now that is referring to the Day of the Lord, and that comes after the Great Tribulation. That's all ahead of us yet. That hasn't happened yet. But there is a duality in that even, the pouring out of His Spirit on all flesh. All right, now just keep that as we go along up to the next point -- on the Day of Pentecost.

GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM (PLAY FROM 1:11:34)

Jesus came and preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus didn't say, "Please accept Me as your Savior." He didn't come on a soul-saving crusade. Maybe Billy Graham thinks He did, but He didn't. He came announcing the coming Kingdom of God; and He came saying, "Repent." John the Baptist prepared the way before Him. And John the Baptist said, "Repent, and obey the law of God." to establish the law which is the basis of the government of God. All goes back to the government of God again.

People don't want anything to do with the government of God. They say, "Oh, the law is done away." All the Protestant churches and the Catholic Church all teach that. YOUR BIBLE DOES NOT TEACH THAT. God does not say that. But people don't believe God. They believe man -- man organized into the Catholic Church; man organized into the Methodist Church; man organized into the Baptist churches, and so on.

Men believe other men. They don't believe God. I show people what God says; and they say, "Oh well, I'm STILL going to believe what I've been brought up to believe." They don't want to believe God. Adam and Eve didn't believe God. God talked to them in person. They didn't believe Him. Jesus came and preached to many, many thousands. Twice there were 5,000 men; and that didn't count the women, and children that were there. How many thousands heard Him? (Probably two or three hundred thousand, all together, in the three and a half years.) How many believed what He said? One hundred and twenty, Acts one verse fifteen. One hundred twenty -- all that believed the very Creator Himself, the One by whom God created all things. They didn't believe what He said. That was the voice of God speaking. They didn't believe Him.

They wouldn't believe Him today. I represent Him, and I speak for Him. They don't believe it. Oh no, they want to believe whatever men have been teaching; and that's the world we live in. That's why this world is so sick today.

Well, Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom. Now, while Jesus was here, He said only those drawn could come to Him. He said:

John 6:44 No man can come to me [No man can!], except the Father which hath sent me draw him.

And, you see, very few did. They didn't believe Him. Many believed on Him, but they tried to kill him because they didn't believe what He said. You read that in John the eighth chapter, beginning with verse 30, John 8 beginning with verse 30. You'll have to read about the next 15 verses, and you'll see that they didn't believe what He said; and they wanted to kill Him. But they believed ON Him. Oh yes, many believe ON Christ today; but they're no more saved than a rat, or a guinea pig, or anything else.

Now, Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Turn now to Mark the first chapter, verse one:

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel OF Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Then it talks about John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way before him -- before His first coming. Then in verse 14:

Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel...

But, what gospel? What gospel do they preach today? They preach a gospel that Jesus is the Christ. That's all! But He came as a messenger, sent from God with a message. They don't preach that message! I do, but they don't. Notice now:

Mark 1:15 And saying, The time...

Now, wait a minute.

Mark 1:14-15 Preaching the gospel [What gospel? The gospel...] of the kingdom of God, (15) and saying, The time is fulfilled...

It is fulfilled because He had just conquered Satan. Satan is the one who sat on the throne of the world. Satan was ruling. Adam hadn't conquered Satan. Every other man obeyed Satan, except the few that God had called and drawn to Him.

Christ was tempted terribly of Satan, but Christ withstood him. And Christ obeyed God and rejected Satan's way of "get" and obeyed God's way of "love." He qualified now to reestablish the government of God, which had been taken away. So He came preaching the gospel of the government -- the Kingdom of God, the Family of God that will rule the government of God and re-establish the government that God set on this earth under Lucifer. Now:

Mark 1:15 ...saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: REPENT ye, AND BELIEVE the gospel.

THE DAY OF PENTECOST (PLAY FROM 1:16:56)

He called on them to repent. They didn't; but a few, one hundred twenty, did. But now then, I read to you something in Joel. Remember? All right, on the Day of Pentecost, that 120 were there; and the Holy Spirit came and filled them with the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, (after Jesus had been preaching and bodily ascended up to heaven)... Now we're going right along in the time sequence here; and others came rushing in, and they said, "What a wonderful thing has happened!" You see they saw the Holy Spirit, like flames of fire, sitting on each one. They heard a roaring sound, like many waters. They heard the Holy Spirit.

Pentecostal people don't do anything like that. Pentecost happened only once. It's not happening again. And the Pentecostal people don't want to obey the government and the law of God. They just want to have a good time. They like to shout, and say, "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus" and all that kind of thing. And there are times when we ought to say that, and maybe we ought to do a little more of that. But they just do it because they go on a spiritual drunk, so to speak.

All right, let's go right on now. He came preaching the Kingdom, or the government, of God. That is the government that Lucifer was set here for; that Adam refused to take; and now Christ had qualified to take it, and came preaching about it. The government of God is based on the law of God, the way of God. And He called people to repent, and turn to the WAY OF THE LAW OF GOD. That's what Jesus did.

All right then, the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled on that Day of Pentecost. Thousands of people came running in. They were all curious because they were speaking in various languages. It wasn't the kind of "tongues" people speak in today. Every man heard them (the 120) speak his language. The Greek heard them speaking Greek. The Parthian heard them speaking the Parthian language. And so it went. It was in the hearing more than it was in the speaking actually. There is no "tongues speaking" like that going on today. Never has been since, never.

So those in the first century now were drawn. On that Day of Pentecost, 3000 were baptized. Peter preached a sermon. They were pricked in their hearts. God began to draw them. God was now... Remember He said, "I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh." All right, there's a duality of that. Now He's doing it to a certain number, beginning on the Day of Pentecost. He will do it to ALL FLESH when the Devil is taken away, after Christ comes and the Millennium begins.

But, He didn't do it for everybody then. It was just certain ones that were really sincere Jewish people that came there at that time, and there were 3000 of them baptized that day because Peter said, "Repent." They said, "Men...what shall we do?"when Peter preached his sermon. Peter says, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."

But being baptized, you're baptized into the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Going down into the water is going down into the grave; being buried is into the grave; coming up, the resurrection. It's a type of believing in Christ, and His crucifixion, and His shed blood for the payment of our sins. So Peter said in effect then, "Repent and believe." Repentance and belief are the two conditions. There again twin conditions, two, for receiving the Holy Spirit.

Now the Holy Spirit came on them. A day or so later, there were 2000 more converted when Peter had healed the cripple at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and so on. That is only a type of what is going to happen in the Millennium. But God began now to call certain people into His Church. Jesus has said, "I will build my church."' And He did. Now those in the first century were DRAWN. Many called, but few were chosen and actually drawn.

APOSTLES PREACH THE GOSPEL (PLAY FROM 1:21:53)

All right, back to the apostles. Why did God choose twelve apostles? Because they were witnesses, eye witnesses, of the resurrection of Jesus. They had been with Him 3 ½ years, and then they were with him 40 days after the resurrection. The apostles went out; and, while they preached the gospel of the Kingdom, they put emphasis on preaching that Jesus was the Christ. Why? Because the Jews at that time would not accept that Jesus was the Christ. That was the opposition. The opposition was against Jesus being the divine Christ, and so the apostles preached that primarily.

Now after a little while you don't hear anymore of Peter, and John, and James, and the original twelve apostles; but everything is the apostle Paul as you go through the book of Acts, and you get over a few chapters. Why is that? There are two places where you find that Jesus said He was only sent to 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (and they were over in Western Europe and in Britain at that time). He sent and He said to the twelve, "Don't go to anybody but the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and they were not there. It was only Jews who were there; and 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel' were not Jews, believe it or not. Now, you need to read our book on The United States And Britain In Prophecy, if you want to understand that. I can't go into all that, naturally, this afternoon.

Well now, the apostles were witnesses of the resurrection; but they did also preach the gospel of the Kingdom. And it was... Let me see. It was Phillip that went up to Samaria, a Gentile community; and he preached. When they preached the things concerning the Kingdom of God, they all believed and they were baptized, and so on.

THE TRUE GOSPEL SUPPRESSED (PLAY FROM 1:24:14)

Now then, I'd like to have you turn next to Galatians, Galatians the first chapter. I thought I had it all marked out there. Here we are, the first chapter. In 53 AD Paul was writing to the Churches up in Galatia, a number of Churches up there. That is Turkey today. He said:

Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. [They were suppressing the gospel. They were preaching a different gospel, but the gospel they preached was not really a gospel. He said:] (7) which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

So the gospel was being perverted and counterfeited, and they were preaching a different gospel; and the true gospel of Jesus Christ was being subverted at that time.

Now then, in II Corinthians, the eleventh chapter; and you will notice here beginning with verse three, where Paul said to the Church of Corinth:

II Corinthians 11:3-4 I fear [Now this is along in the middle of the first century. Several, oh 20 years or more after the Church began. "I fear...], lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (4) For if he that comes [Now, a preacher is coming. Paul had some opposition. "If he that cometh...] preacheth another Jesus [They did. They preached a Jesus that came and did away with His Father's law, where Jesus said, "I have kept My Father's law" and so commanded us to do the same thing.] whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel [You see, there was a different gospel being preached. The main gospel of Christ was being suppressed.], which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with it.

Then he goes on talking about these false apostles that were preaching a different gospel and suppressing the true gospel. Then we notice here, coming into verse thirteen:

II Corinthians 11:13-15 For such are false apostles [that were preaching these other gospels], deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. (14) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his [Satan's] ministers [the ministers of Satan, professing to be the ministers of Christ]...

That's what's going on today, my brethren! People are so blinded, and so deceived. They don't know it, and they don't want to know it. They want to go on believing it.

II Corinthians 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers [Satan's ministers]also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

So you see there, they were going on with a false gospel.

JESUS' PROPHECY IN MATTHEW 24 (PLAY FROM 1:28:21)

Now Jesus' prophecy begins to show what they were doing. And Jesus' prophecy we find now in Matthew 24. Matthew 24, you'll find it also in Mark 13 and Luke 21; but I'll take Matthew 24, which we always have used. It's a bit more explicit. (I had it, and I'm trying to find somewhere else.) All right, let's begin at the first. I want you to get the several verses of this.

Matthew 24:1-2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. [Now notice what they were talking about, the buildings of the temple.] (2) And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

The temple is going to be destroyed, and its stones all thrown down. It was built out of great massive stones. Now later:

Matthew 24:3 As he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be?

What? He'd been talking about the temple that they'd shown Him, and He said it would be destroyed. Actually that happened in 70 AD, which was several years later than they were taking there.

Matthew 24:3 Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

Or, the end of this world. The end of this age, this time. It doesn't mean the end of the earth. It doesn't say the end of the earth.

Now, they asked Him two things. When will the buildings of the temple be thrown down? And when will You be coming back to earth again to rule? Those things would actually be happening 1900 years and some apart. So notice how Jesus began to answer. They first asked Him about things in their lifetime, and He begins answering about things in their lifetime. "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples." No, I read that.

Matthew 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. [That was them right there, at that time. The disciples He was talking to.] (5) For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Many would come preaching JESUS was the Christ. He didn't say many would come saying they are Christ. Jesus said, "Many would come saying I, Jesus, am the Christ. But they would be deceiving the world, because they will say that I have done away with the Father's law. They won't preach the gospel of the Kingdom. They'll say the Kingdom is the Church." Some say the Kingdom of God is the British Empire. Well, that's all gone now; and they were all wrong about that.

Now, just a few verses on down:

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom [The gospel of the Kingdom of God, which they were doing away with. "This gospel of the kingdom"] shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come [the end of this world].

That's the time of Christ coming, when the gospel of the Kingdom is preached. I call you to witness, my friends, my brethren up here in Seattle: The gospel of the Kingdom you never heard until you heard it from me. Until this Church began preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, it was not preached; and no one else is preaching it today! And you can't gainsay that because that happens to be an actual fact; and here are the very words of Jesus Christ. But people don't believe Christ, do they? It's about time that we do.

After that, what's going to follow? The Great Tribulation, and then the Day of the Lord, and those things. Now, that's coming right up. The gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached JUST BEFORE the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord is going to come. If you read on through that chapter, you'll find those things are described next. The Great Tribulation, verses 21 and 22. I want you to get one point here.

Matthew 24:21-22 For then [a little later than now] shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [A time of trouble, greater trouble than ever happened since the beginning of the world or ever shall happen again.] (22) And except those days should be shortened [And cut short by God is what he's talking about.], there should no flesh be saved [And he means not spiritually saved, but physically saved. "No flesh should be saved ALIVE" another translation has it. No human being, no human flesh, should be saved alive.]: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

It's down at the first... The first time, brethren, ever in the history of the world now, the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION exist that can wipe out ALL HUMANITY. And there won't be a man, woman, or child left alive on the face of the earth. What's it talking about? What is the time? Are we at that time or aren't we? Was that possible 100 years ago? That wasn't possible when I was a young man. That wasn't possible when I began preaching, but it is possible today. You bet it's possible.

"I WILL SEND MY MESSENGER" (PLAY FROM 1:34:55)

Now there are a few prophecies about the gospel of the Kingdom being preached now at this time. I wonder if I have time? I haven't got to the main things I want to talk to you about yet. Oh boy, our time's almost up. Can we go on a little longer, Mr. Luker? We don't have to get out or vacate the auditorium? You want a two-minute rest? Would you like it, before we go on? I've got a lot more. I'm coming to the main thing that I want you to get. Would you all like to rise, and just stretch just a little bit? I think I'll rest you a little. In fact, I'd like a little myself. (Oh, yes. Thank you, Denny.)

I really have quite a little more. I'm really trying to get about three sermons in today here. But I don't get up here very often. This is the first time in years. I see all kinds of new downtown buildings that weren't here last time I was here. All right now, let's go right along.

There are prophecies regarding the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom at this time; and then there is to be a bride ready to meet Him when He comes, because He's going to marry the Church. That Church has to be raised up. All right, I'd like for you to turn back. This is something I would never have preached to you even two years ago. I certainly couldn't have preached it to you 20 or 30 years ago, and many of you have heard me preach a lot longer than that. Let's go back now to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, in the third chapter of Malachi verse one, Malachi 3.

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me [Now the Word is speaking there, and that is the One who became Christ later. Well, he was to prepare the way before Christ, and he did prepare the way before Christ's first coming.]: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple...

He's coming TO HIS TEMPLE. I want you to get that. Jesus Christ came to the temple that was built by... Oh, why can't I think of his name? I'm going to read it to you in a few minutes in Haggai. Anyway, it's a name I know so well. It just sticks when I want to say it. Zerubbabel, I mean. Zerubbabel built the temple to which Jesus came. The temple of Solomon was destroyed. Zerubbabel's temple followed that, but it was destroyed in 70 AD. Now then:

Malachi 3:1 ...[He] shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant [Christ is the Messenger of the New Covenant.], whom ye delight in: behold he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Now then: You read in the New Testament in a few places where it indicates that John the Baptist was the messenger that prepared the way before Christ, don't you? Some one asked John the Baptist... Well, that's about Elijah. I'm coming to that later. Let's just leave that. But, look here, John the Baptist prepared the way before His coming. But if we read on, notice what it's talking about; and that's the next verse. Just keep right on now.

Malachi 3:2-3 But who may abide the day of his coming? [WHAT COMING is it talking about here? Read on; don't stop at that first verse, read on. "Who may abide the day of His coming?"] And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. (3) And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi.

That's sitting on a throne. That's RULING. He didn't rule the first time He came. He didn't do these things when He came. This is talking about His Second Coming. This is talking about what He's going to do when He comes again. He shall sit, as He's going to sit on a throne:

Malachi 3:3-4 ...sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the [ETERNAL] an offering in righteousness. (4) Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD.

That didn't happen when He came the first time. That is talking about someone coming to prepare the way for THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

All right, now listen, here's duality once again. There was the first, physical; the second, spiritual. John the Baptist was in the physical wilderness of the Jordan River, preparing the way for the coming of the physical human Jesus coming to His physical temple made of stone. And He came for what purpose? He came to His physical people, Judah; and He came to proclaim that some day He would set up the Kingdom of God. But He didn't set it up. That was A TYPE of the spiritual, of the Second Coming of Christ, when His work would be not in the physical wilderness of the Jordan River but the spiritual wilderness of the whole world -- a world that is in a spiritual Babylon. And preparing the way for a glorified spiritual Christ -- coming with many crowns, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, with His face shining like the very sun in full strength; and coming to His spiritual temple (not to a physical temple made of stone).

THE TEMPLE CHRIST WILL RETURN TO (PLAY FROM 1:42:00)

Everybody's wondering what temple is Christ coming to? Are the Jews going to build another temple over there? Oh, poppycock! I'll show you the temple He's coming to! YOU, BRETHREN, ARE THAT TEMPLE; and all the rest of us. I had a crowd, just about this size, over in the Philippines just about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I had a crowd about this size in London about (When was that?) maybe two months now. I don't know. Time flies so fast. We're all over the world. But I'm going to show you that. Now, let's go on a little bit further. Well, let's turn over to the next chapter now; of Malachi, the fourth chapter, beginning with verse five.

Malachi 4:5 Behold, [He's talking about the time at the very end of the whole world, and the time at the end of the Millennium even; and they're all part of the fourth chapter. But the fourth chapter, verse five: "Behold,"] I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Now, here again, just before the Day of the Lord -- when the gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached to the world. And it hasn't been preached for 1950 years. In fact, it was one century of time cycles (or 1900 years) when it began. Exactly, if that means anything to you; and if it not, well, Mr.... What'd you call him? I can't think of names when I want to. Uh...

Malachi 4:5-6 ...before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (6) And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

The word "curse" is used in the Hebrew language; otherwise translated as total destruction, utter total destruction. It's just before lest He does that, and the earth would be in total destruction if Christ didn't come.

Now then, John the Baptist was asked, "Are you the Elijah that was to come?" He said, "No, I am not." I have been asked, "Are you Elijah?" And I have said, "No, I am not." Jesus Christ said one time, "But if you will bear it, the Elijah has already come." Then they questioned Him a little further. And then Jesus Christ said Elijah in person, the same Elijah, didn't come. But John the Baptist came in the power and spirit of Elijah. That prophecy meant and referred to John the Baptist coming, but that was only the First Coming.

The prophecy is someone to prepare the way for the Second Coming. The first was physical -- the physical Jesus coming to the physical temple, to a physical people. Someone to prepare the way for the Second Coming is preparing the way for THE SPIRITUAL CHRIST to come to HIS SPIRITUAL TEMPLE for the marriage of the Lamb (of Christ) with the Church; and the Church is that temple!

Now just a minute, I want to turn back over... I was going to show you that, in Ephesians the second chapter. Give me just a second here to get to it. I ran out of markers to mark it, to turn me right to what I want right away; but here we are. Now, let me read this in Ephesians the second chapter, near the end of it.

Ephesians 2:19-21 Now therefore you [You people up at Ephesus, who were born Gentiles. You...] are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. [Now they are citizens. That is like a country. But they are in a household. That is, a family. Notice, they are a family.] (20) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone [They're the Church.]; (21) in whom all the building fitly framed together [The Church is a building fitly framed together.] groweth unto A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD.

"Grows into a holy temple in the Lord." THE CHURCH IS THAT TEMPLE. The Church is to meet Christ in the air. The Church will be changed from human to divine. We won't be human beings. We'll be God-beings. We'll be God-persons, just like God is. GOD IS REPRODUCING HIMSELF. Now that temple has to be built for Christ's coming.

ZERUBBABEL AS A TYPE (PLAY FROM 1:47:28)

Now let me show you another prophecy about building that temple. Let's go back now for just a moment in the Old Testament, to Haggai; Haggai the second chapter beginning with verse three. Now, I want you to notice the time he's talking about. This is a prophecy; and duality is here again (a first and a latter; a first and a second). Notice it now.

Haggai 2:3 Who is left among you...

This is not a history, but it's talking about the time when they were building the temple to which Christ came the first time. Zerubbabel was a governor of the colony, and he was sent there to build that temple.

Haggai 2:3-9 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? [It's talking about Solomon's temple that was so glorious as a physical temple.] And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? (4) Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel [The second temple was like nothing compared to Solomon's. It was bigger, but it was not as fine. Now "Be strong, O Zerubbabel"], saith the [ETERNAL]; and be strong, O Joshua, son of [Well, his father; and so on.] ...and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD [That is, work in building the temple.]... (5) According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. (6) For thus saith the LORD of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I WILL shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; (7) and I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come [Meaning, peace which will come with Christ.]; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. (8). The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. (9) THE GLORY OF THIS LATTER HOUSE SHALL BE GREATER THAN OF THE FORMER...

The glory of the house he was building was NOT ANYWHERE NEAR as glorious as the former temple of Solomon. But he's talking about a time when the thrones of nations will be destroyed; when God is going to shake the earth, and shake nations. He's talking about our time, now. He's talking about the Second Coming of Christ. Can you see that? He's not... It's a prophecy. It's not a history.

Malachi 2:9 ...and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

He hasn't given that yet; but He will, at the time He's talking about. Now, He's talking of a time of building the temple for Christ to come to. That temple is a spiritual temple. Zerubbabel was a TYPE. He built the physical temple to which Christ came the first time. Someone has got to be, not in the physical wilderness of the Jordan River, but amidst the spiritual wilderness and Babylon of religious confusion of our twentieth century, who is paving the way for the Second Coming of Christ to HIS GLORIOUS TEMPLE, a spiritual temple; and not to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God, but TO SET UP THE KINGDOM OF GOD and to rule it right then and there.

Brethren, I would never have preached that to you even one year ago. But how do we know whether anything is true or not? Jesus says by their fruits you know! What are the fruits? HAS ALL OF THIS BEEN DONE? IF IT HAS BEEN DONE, YOU KNOW! YOU ARE THAT TEMPLE. GOD HAS BEEN USING ME TO BUILD THIS TEMPLE. I've said I hope that I am the one of which Zerubbabel was a type, because it says that this the word unto Zerubbabel (in Zechariah):

Zechariah 4:6 Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the[ETERNAL].

And, anyway, it says that... It really indicates that anyway, if I can keep fulfilling that, then I'll go on living until it has happened. I don't know anyone who is doing the kind of job that I am at my age. I don't know of that.

And I tell you, brethren; and I'm just going to pause right here and say one thing. There is one thing I fear. There is one thing. The Attorney General of California made a mistake. If instead of accusing us of stealing millions of dollars of Church money, which he couldn't prove and which never happened; and, when they got in, they found the best accounting system they've ever found. We simply hired the biggest, most responsible, firm of C.P.A.s in the United States (and the one that has...the biggest in the United States) to go over our records and our books; and they found that everything was perfect. They had nothing. They couldn't prove a thing because it hadn't happened. But if they had said BECAUSE OF MY AGE that I am senile and not fit to go on with this Work, and tried to put me in prison or to put me in some institution, THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT. And I have to FEAR THAT VERY THING right now. Does that make sense to you?

Who is doing a job like this? Who's writing, and turning out the amount of writing that I am, at this age? I don't know anyone, and I don't think you do. BUT THIS IS THE WORK OF THE LIVING ALMIGHTY GOD! IT'S NOT MY WORK! It isn't anything I wanted. It isn't something I chose and put myself in for. I tried to run the other way, and I want to get to that.

CALLED AND PREPARED (PLAY FROM 1:55:21)

I want to tell you how God brought me in here. I would like to tell you now. I don't know that I should take the time; but I want to... I'll try to cut this very short. Back in 1926, I was challenged. The wife of my youth and I had only been married nine years at that time. If she'd lived, we would have been married 50 years. Our marriage was cut short by death, the only way I believe in a marriage being cut short. (That was now almost fourteen years ago.) But she had come to see in the Bible that she ought to keep the Sabbath. To me that was fanaticism taught by the Seventh Day Adventists, who were a way out fanatical group anyway. I didn't know anything about them at that time. [**Unclear at 1:56:25.] Well, I thought a lot of things I don't think any more, as far as that is concerned, too.

However, I was not able to talk her out of it; and the only way I could do... I said, "The Bible says 'You shall keep Sunday.'" Well, she says, "If it does, show me; and I'll go back and keep Sunday again." Well, I said, "I don't know. I've never studied the Bible." And, well, she said, "If it's there, you go and find it. Maybe that's the only way you're going to get me back to it." Finally, I loved my wife and she loved me; and I was challenged to study the Bible.

I was challenged on evolution. I researched all the works of Darwin, Huxley, Haekel, all of those people, Lamarck, and others before Darwin even; then the great evolutionists since then, Donald Chamberlin, and others of that time. Of course, that's going back to 1926 now. Their arguments are so good that, the first thing I knew, my head was swimming. I said, "Well, I don't even know whether there is a God. If evolution is true, there isn't any God. You can't believe in evolution and believe in God at the same time." And that's true, you can't; not unless you want to trust the purists, you can't do it. I had to admit that I had always believed in God, but I had never proved it. I went into a deep research, in-depth research, day and night. Often at one thirty in the morning, my wife would call and say, "Aren't you coming to bed?" Well, I had the most intense research for that six months I've ever had in my life.

Now, I want to show you God had prepared me before. When I was a young man, aged 28, I was making what in today's dollar value would be $200,000 a year. How many men at 28 are making $200,000 a year today? I was doing pretty well. But I was kind of cocky and pretty well stuck on myself. I had to get over that, and I hope I did. I had to be humbled, and God really humbled me. Let me tell you, He did. But I had to learn to write. I had been writing advertising. I had been writing articles in national magazines, and I was prepared as a writer; and I was prepared as a speaker, and I had spoken before businessmen's groups. And I was the one who founded and started the idea of surveys of public opinion as the Gallup poll, the Harris poll, and all those polls. (Excuse me.) Those polls are used today. I made the first one in 1915 in Richmond, Kentucky -- a survey published in a national magazine. Advertising agencies caught on to it, and then magazines even; and they began taking polls in election campaigns, but they don't know how to do it properly. I could tell them how, because I originated it.

Now, God called me. I was questioned and challenged on a point of the law of God, the foundation of the government of God. Do you get the point now? Let's go a little further. I began to read the Bible. I proved that God exists. I proved that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it is infallible in its original writings. And one thing that proved it to me was I found the promises God made to Abraham; and I found that the United States is Manasseh, one of the lost ten tribes. That is one of the most amazing things! And you get it in our booklet. Our booklet was written about 50 years ago. You can get it yet. Many of you have read it. The last is updated. I had a few little mistakes in it originally, just the little ones that didn't make much difference. We've corrected those. I think it's pretty well puncture-proof today.

Well anyway. I was challenged on a point of the law of God, the very foundation of the government of God. Now Jesus says the way of the Kingdom of God is to repent. I did. But I learned about the holy days. I not only learned about the Sabbath, but I found if we keep the weekly Sabbath the way... [**Gap at 2:01:59.] ...and we did it, because I saw that the last thing...

I really didn't want to keep the Sabbath. And I found something, a booklet, an ex-Seventh Day Adventist had written against the Sabbath; and he claimed that Colossians 2:16 was not the Sabbath. Well, I found that it talks about the annual holy days. Then I proved that it doesn't do away with any of the days whatsoever. Don't let anyone judge you in respect to what we do on those days. That's all it's talking about. I went to the original Greek words, and got the original meaning. I saw that we had to keep the annual holy days if we keep the Sabbath. Who else does that? No other church on earth does that!

Now, the book of Revelation; I went into that. I went back into Daniel 2:45, or 2:44, about the Kingdom of God that would be set up. Then in Daniel 7, and where the saints are going to inherit the Kingdom of God. I learned about the Kingdom and the government of God, before I was even baptized, while I was studying whether I was even going to keep the Sabbath or not. I saw from II Peter 2:4, which I read to you earlier, that the angels had sinned. I looked into that, and I found out all about the angels that I've told you today. I found that before I was even baptized. And I got to prove about the government of God, the law of God. I got the things that count that God wanted proclaimed today about the Kingdom of God. Then about Lucifer, who became Satan (in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28). All of this during my conversion, you might say. In six months, my studies had led to it; and learning about Christ's Coming.

[**Tape garbled at 2:04:06.]

I saw, in John the third chapter, where no man is ever going to heaven; and no man ever did. Jesus said so; and I got the proof of that, and the proof of the Millennium and the Kingdom of God on earth. Now even the Church of God at that time didn't know those things. God prepared me and gave me these things. Revelation 2:26, Revelation 5:10, we're going to reign on the earth. The Adventists say we're going to reign up in heaven. Revelation 20:1-4, how we'll be ruling on the earth. All of those things God taught me in those early days.

I took a whole sermon to show how and what I was taught, and what I came to see. Not by what men taught me. I gave up what men had taught me. I found it IN THIS BOOK, and I know of no one else who believes it. It is in plain language; and I said, 'I believe what God said.' Adam and Eve didn't believe what God said. The people didn't believe what Christ said when they heard Him. I proved this is what God said, and I did begin to believe it. I began to tremble at this Word. Now, I'm no better than anybody else. I've been a sinner, saved by grace. And any of you that say you're not, you're just lying because we all are. Everybody who ever lived has sinned, except Jesus Christ. But I know where my heart is, and God knows; and He has called me, and has used me.

WHAT IS "THE WORK"? (PLAY FROM 2:06:09)

Now, what is the Work? The Work started out once I was converted. [**Unclear at 2:06:14.] Then I started with little booklets. They weren't ordinary little tracts, but they were booklets that amounted to something. And the Work came on. It goes out on the air, and it goes out in print. You all know, many people tell me they can hardly keep up reading it. How do I find time to write it? I don't know myself; but I do, because it's not my Work. It's not a human Work! IT'S THE WORK OF ALMIGHTY GOD! HE IS THE ONE THAT EMPOWERS ME!

I felt I wasn't able even to come and talk to you today. But God has given me the strength to talk to you, and He always does. THIS IS THE WORK OF THE LIVING GOD. IT'S A SPIRITUAL WORK. Now, the Work is getting the gospel to the world. Who's getting the gospel to the world? Who's proclaiming? Who does the television program today? Who does the radio program? I did two more television programs this week. I haven't recovered yet from the jet lag of our last trip over to the Philippines, or I would have done four television programs this week. I really did three; but one I thought wasn't very up to standard, and we're going to throw it away. I expect to do four next week, if you will all pray for me that I get my sleep so I can have the strength to do it. That's what it's going to take. But it's that, and it's the writing; and that is what is doing the Work.

God adds to the Church such as He wants saved. I don't bring you in. I didn't ask any of you to come into the Church. You came to us. I didn't come to you. I didn't try to talk you into it. God set you into the Work. God called you. God drew you! I didn't. It isn't a case of some human being doing it. It's divine, and it's God drawing. God drew you. But I have the responsibility of seeing that you are fed; and I have been used by God in establishing Ambassador College, to train the ministers that do feed you. I trained Denny Luker down there. I remember the time when he had never led a song service yet. One day I didn't see anyone, and when it was time to begin, I said "Denny, you get up here and lead the songs." You remember that, Denny? He had never done it before. But I trained these young men that are the ministers of the Church.

Now, in a Work like this, we feed the flock. We've got all these publications. There's The Plain Truth. I write in it every issue. The Good News for the Church, I write in it every issue. There are books, and there are booklets. I've got books in the bookstores now. If you want to buy one, they're handsomely bound and so on. Or we give them free, if you take it in a little cheaper kind of a cover. We don't solicit the public for money. This is the Work of God. We don't go around soliciting the public.

But, in a Work like that, we have to employ certain services; and sometimes we have to go to the world and to people that are not spiritual people to do it. We have to have people. I had an advertising agent. He went with me, and he opened the door; but I had to sell the program to the radio stations all over the country. We had to have an accounting system. We have to have a legal department. We have to have things like that. But, that is not the Work! That is only something assisting and helping in THE WORK!

Now, let's get straight: What is "the Work"? And whom is God using to do it? Because that's going to come up for you to make a decision on some of these days very soon, believe me. Can you remember what I said, when it does? Is there any work like this on the face of the earth? You don't know of any. Tell me, if you know of any. I don't. I'd like to be informed, because I just don't know. I just don't. Am I tooting my own horn up here today? I don't mean it that way. I'm trying to tell you WHAT GOD IS DOING. God has always worked through one man at a time, not through a group! But that one man has to have a group backing him and supporting him. Look how many supported Moses. Look how many supported the men of God. But there was one man that God was using. I can't help it. I have noticed that. I wouldn't have said this before. But the time has come for you to know, because you are going to have to judge who you are going to follow pretty soon. Are you going to follow Christ, as I follow Christ?

Well that's it, brethren. I've said things today you have never heard before. I've said many things today you have heard many times before; but I've also said some things today you haven't heard before, and even our ministers have not heard before. And it's time that we do have these things. I'm writing a long article for The Good News on this very type of subject. And so you'll get it in print in the next month, or two, or three, just as fast as I get to it. It's already on my typewriter. It' already started. So I won't hold you longer. I've held you a long time.

And thank you, brethren. I love you all for coming and for the patience that you've had this afternoon. I don't get to come up very often though. And so I've taken the time to say as much as I could while I'm here, because this is an important message that no one else could bring it.

So, Denny, if you'll come up and take charge and close it. I'm very tired now, and I think I'd better get in the car and go. I want to see my own brother, who I haven't seen for years, who is here. I'm not sure he will come up and I'll get to have a little talk with him. Otherwise, I'd like to shake hands with all of you; but I can't shake hands with so many. I just don't have the physical strength. So will you please excuse me? And I love you just the same. And everything we do is based on love anyway, because God Himself is love.

So I hope I'll talk to you again, at the Feast of Tabernacles time. That's what, six months or more off now? But I hope that... I understand we're going to be hooked up so that I will speak live on the television, on the big screen that you will see, that everybody in the auditorium can see in all of the Feast sites, even more so than we did last year. That was just the start of it last year, and this year we hope to have it a little better reception. So I'll say good afternoon, good-bye for now, to everybody; and I hope to see you again as soon as I can. I'm going to try to get around about every two weeks for a big meeting like this, and keep it going.

Thank you, brethren, very much.

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