The World Tomorrow

The Seventh Day

by Herbert W Armstrong

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Well greetings friends. This is Herbert W Armstrong with the Good News of the World Tomorrow.

You've heard about a Battle of Armageddon. You've heard about the Second Coming of Christ. You've heard about the world coming to an end. Well is there anything to it? Anything to all of these things that we hear about? They come from Biblical prophecy. Are these prophesied events real? They're very real my friends, and it's a lot later than you think.

Of course most of these things - Battle of Armageddon, Second Coming of Christ, the end of the world - are not understood. Very, very few people understand what the Bible does say about it. They're all mixed up, they've had it all garbled, twisted, mutilated, until very few people have the picture straight.

But there is a purpose being worked out here below. This earth didn't just happen. We didn't just happen to be here, we were put here for a purpose. God Almighty is working out a purpose here below and that purpose is working out right on schedule. And right now we are in the time of the climax at the close of this present time, this present age approaching the very grand smash climax of 6,000 years that have been allotted to mankind on this earth.

God Gives Man Two Choices (PLAY FROM 01:44)

Now in fulfilling that purpose, God revealed the way of life to our first parents. They rejected that way. God made man a free moral agent. God is the supreme Ruler. God has determined all of these things. Everything goes according to His purpose and His plan.

God has said "I set before you life and good, on the one hand, death and evil on the other. God said "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing." (Deuteronomy 30:19)

We can choose life and we have the blessings. We can choose death and we can enjoy the cursings, if you think you'd enjoy it in the meantime. And that's exactly what the world has. Now God said "choose" but He said; "...choose life..." (Deuteronomy 30:19) However, the very fact that He said 'choose' means God made man a free moral agent. God is allowing man to make his own decisions.

God has set two ways of life before us. Why did we need a Savior? Why, is there anything to this thing called salvation? Why did Jesus Christ come to this earth nineteen hundred years ago? Because my friends, our first parents chose the wrong way, they chose the way of the cursings. And as a result of what they did there was a curse put upon the ground:

"Thorns and thistles [said God] shall it bring forth..." (Genesis 3:18)

There are many curses on us and we bring continually more and more curses on ourselves because of the way that we choose, the way we live. We bring these things on ourselves.

Now God also set before us the way of blessings. And it isn't only just the way that mankind as a whole is going, you, my friends, choose your way. You choose right now whether you're going to go the way of all these cursings, or whether you want to enjoy blessings. And you can choose the right way, although you are going to have to suffer from the cursings that mankind as a whole is bringing by the ways of society, and the fact that civilization as a whole is traveling the way that seems right to a man. Yes, it's a way that seems right. You know God's word says in two different places:

"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, ...the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25)

You'll find the way of salvation in the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah:

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts..." (Isaiah 55:7)

Because our thoughts and our ways are not God's, and they're the ways of the cursings that land us finally into death. Now before us also is the way of life and we have to choose, we have to make the decision. Well the fact that the world as a whole is going one way, you may suffer some from what others are doing even though you choose the right way, but you can still have the way of blessings. Right now in this life it's a very practical way but it doesn't seem right to men. No, God's ways seem wrong, and the wrong way seems right and it's been seeming that way to you. You're no different from everybody else.

Now God Almighty has allotted a period, a duration of 6,000 years, for man to learn lessons by the cruel teacher of experience. We were put here for a purpose. God is reproducing Himself. We were born in the physical image of God; but physical, where God is composed of Spirit. But man is matter. Man is mortal, "...dust thou art..." (Genesis 3:19) said God to the first man. And you read in I Corinthians 15 that we have borne the image of the earthy:

"The first man is of the earth, earthy...And...we have borne the image of the earthy, [but] we [and he is there speaking of Christians who have chosen the other way, who have made the decision to turn away from the way they've been going, to repent of that way and to go the other way, we then, if we do that] shall...bear the image of the heavenly." (I Corinthians 15:47,49)

But we don't bear the heavenly image yet, only a physical image, the same form, same shape that's true, but we don't have the same character. We were put here to develop character. The only reason we need a Savior is because mankind has chosen the wrong way and the Savior came, my friends, to pay the penalty in our stead of our having gone the wrong way. The Savior came to reveal the right way. The Savior came to reveal the truth about the Kingdom of God that is coming at the end of this six thousand years.

At the end, if you please, of this world and the beginning of the world tomorrow. And to show us the better way, the way of love, and the way of peace, the way of happiness and joy, the way of ridding our mind of fears and worries, and heartaches, and headaches. And the way of a full, abundant life that'll make life really worth living. You can have that way if you want it.

Well that's going to take a six thousand year period that God has allotted for man to choose and God allows man, during this time, to go his own way without any interference from God one way or the other. God will not cram His religion down your throat. God has set before mankind the right way. God has made us free moral agents. God has decreed that we must choose and He will not choose for you. And God has set laws in motion that prohibit any other power, force or person from choosing for you. Satan the devil doesn't have any power to force you to go the wrong way.

No human being can cram his religion down your throat. They've tried it. Millions of Christians have been martyred by people trying to force them to give up their religion, but they only gave up their life, not their religion. And; "...as in Adam all die...so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:22) and those martyrs knew they would be resurrected, and they will be. That day is not too far off now either. Well that 6,000 years, my friends, it is just about up. But, nevertheless, the first, very first generation, our first parents, rebelled against God. They went the way of lust, and the way of greed, the way of vanity, the way of human nature. And all generations have continued on that way ever since.

Warning of to Hold Fast (PLAY FROM 08:44)

Now let's just carry right on from where we were in the third chapter [of Hebrews {1}] and beginning with the seventh verse:

"Wherefore (as the Holy Spirit saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation..." (Hebrews 3:7-8).

Now you can read right over that, most people don't get any meaning out of it, but it's there. There's powerful meaning in every bit of this, all through this book of Hebrews. Now after the word "wherefore" you'll find a bracket there in your Bible and the thought from hereon is thrown in referring back to the ninety-fifth Psalm, verses seven to eleven. And from there on down to the end of verse eleven, it's all a parenthetical expression. It's all thrown in quoting from the ninety-fifth Psalm and verses seven to eleven, just quoted here. Then it continues with verse twelve. So actually the meaning is this:

"Wherefore [as you read in verse 7, and then verse 12] ...Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief..." (Hebrews 3:7,12)

But you wouldn't understand that if you don't read what goes in before. Now let's see, and let's see the connection with what I've been telling you:

"Wherefore [then he says] (as the Holy Spirit saith [then he quotes from the ninety-fifth Psalm], To day if you will hear his voice," (Hebrews 3:7)

Well there it is. Now that's quoted from David and David lived, my friends, a good many generations after Moses. So, wherefore, seeing that we are the house of God; "...if we hold fast [our] confidence..." (Hebrews 3:6) As you've been reading just ahead here, there is a 'Wherefore' at the beginning of this third chapter:

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus...For this man [Jesus] was counted worthy of more glory than Moses [now he's speaking about Moses], inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house." (Hebrews 3:1,3)

Because all things were made by Jesus Christ. God created all things by Jesus Christ and so He was Moses' Maker. If Moses is a house, Christ was the builder of the house. He was the Creator of Moses. He's the Creator of all humanity. Now the next verse says;

"...every house is builded by some man; [someone, some being] but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a Son [now Christ was a Son of God by the virgin birth of the virgin Mary, Christ as a Son] over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3:4-6)

Now you are His house if you hold fast until the end. I remarked before; that doesn't sound as if the minute you said you've made your decision for Christ that you were automatically saved and that's all there was to it, there's nothing more to do. Oh no! We are His house:

"...if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3:6)

There's a time, and you have to hold fast unto the end, then you are His house. Then you shall have salvation. "...he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:13 paraphrased) That's what Jesus Christ said, Matthew twenty-four.

Examples Through History for Us Today (PLAY FROM 12:44)

Now then:

"Wherefore [again here] (as the Holy Spirit [said, back in David's time and through David, because the Holy Spirit said it] To day if [you] will hear his voice..." (Hebrews 3:7)

Now that was said to the people in the days of David, and that was several generations after the time of Moses. Now this several generations after Moses in the time of David, the Holy Spirit said to the people of Israel there:

"...To day if you will hear his voice [if they of David's time would hear His voice], Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation..." (Hebrews 3:7-8)

The time of provocation was the time back in Moses' day when Moses was leading them out of Egyptian bondage, the children of Israel of that day. Now they hardened their hearts.

"Harden not your hearts [in the day of David], as in the provocation [as in the day of Moses], in the day of temptation in the wilderness [they were forty years in that wilderness going over to Palestine]: When your fathers tempted me [God says], proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore [God says] I was grieved with that generation [that's Moses' generation], and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known [What? they have not known] my ways." (Hebrews 3:8-10)

God set two ways before us. One is the way of blessings and it leads to life everlasting through Christ Jesus. The other is the way that seems right to a man but it's the way of curses. It's the way of unhappiness. It's the way of empty lives. It's the way of headaches and heartaches. It's the way of suffering and death. That's the way man has chosen.

Some people will say today that Christianity is not a way of life, it's just a matter of professing or confessing or making a decision for Christ or something like that, of exalting Christ. Why Christ Himself said of these people that go further than that, that actually worship Him, but that's all they do. And they don't obey Him and they don't keep any commandments. He said:

"...in vain do they worship me, ...making the law of God of no effect by your traditions. Full well [He said] you reject the commandments of God that you make keep your human tradition." (Mark 7:7,9 paraphrased)

My friends, that 's that picture of this day in which we live in the twentieth century. Now here we're seeing a number of days. There was one day back in Moses' time. Then there was the day back in David's time.

Christ Our Shepherd and Guide (PLAY FROM 15:26)

Now let's go back here to the ninety-fifth Psalm and notice what David wrote. Let's get it directly from this ninety-fifth Psalm:

"Oh come [verse six], let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the [Eternal] our maker [and the LORD, or the Eternal here is the one that was made flesh and dwelt among us, the very same person, He is the one that was there with Israel, He was a personal God of Israel]. For he is our God [verse seven]; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand..." (Psalm 95:6-7)

Now He's considered there as a Shepherd, and Christ is our Shepherd. The twenty-third Psalm:

"[The Eternal] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psalm 23:1)

Christ is the Shepherd. My friends, He's your Shepherd today as your High Priest and in Hebrews we're reading the Shepherd book, the High Priest book, the book of the Priesthood of Christ. The job that Jesus is on now and has been for nineteen hundred years. He's on the job night and day for you as your High Priest. Now, in other words, your Shepherd, you're a sheep. He's the Shepherd to lead, to guide you.

But what are we doing? We're like even the professing Christians mostly, they're like a lot of dumb; and I mean mentally dumb, ignorant. I don't mean dumb of speech, I mean dumb of comprehension. The way we use the word in perhaps a slang expression today, stupid. That's a fact. Let's look down into our own minds and hearts and recognize it my friends, it's true. We don't know the true values.

We set great store on things that are of no use and no value whatsoever. We waste our time on nonsensical, non-essential things that only bring us headaches and heartaches and the true values we spurn. We don't seem to know the right way. We're like a lot of dumb, stupid, lost sheep that have lost their way, and Christ is on the job day and night. But He says that we have to:

"...come boldly to that throne of grace to find the help, in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16 paraphrased)

That we need, and the grace that we need. And most of you are not going there and you're not getting that help. You reject it, and the main thing we need is guidance. The main thing we need is wisdom. The main thing we need is someone to show us the way. We're like lost sheep, we've lost our way, but we won't come and get it. Now I say, it's been that way every generation from Adam on, and we're still the same way now. Now here are three generations brought to light here in this third chapter of Hebrews, the one in Moses' day, the one back in David's day several generations later, and the one now in our day now. Now then, back in David's day the Holy Spirit (or God Himself) inspired this through David:

"Oh come, let us worship...let us kneel before the [Eternal] our maker. For He is our God...we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand..." (Psalm 95:6-7)

He is the one to lead us, so we should forsake our way, going our direction like a lot of dumb, stupid lost sheep and go the way of God. That's repentance; turn around and go the other way, let Christ lead you.

"...To day [now then here it is, 'Today' in David's day, 'Today'] if you will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation [as they did that is, back in Moses' day, now this was what was written in David's day, as], in the day of [the provocation or] temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers [that's the fathers of those of David's day, those back in Moses' day, God says] tempted me, proved me, and saw my works..." (Hebrews 3:7-9)

You see God was on the job, they saw God's work, He hadn't gone way off. He did something for them there, He parted the waters of the Red Sea. He showed them the way, He guided them the way they ought to go and He delivered them from their enemy. Now you have a lot of enemies that are making you unhappy and miserable. And there is a God who will guide you if you will let Him but you'll have to; "...stand still, and see the salvation of the [Eternal]..." (Exodus 14:13)

Now He worked then and God is working today, and Christ is at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest on the job. But there again you won't get His help unless you go after it. He is not going to force it on you, He'll give you no help at all until you come for it. But there's the invitation.

Ancient Israel Grieved God (PLAY FROM 20:11)

Now:

"When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works [God says] forty years [long] was I grieved with this generation, and I said, It is a people that do err in their heart; and have not know my ways." (Hebrews 3:9-10 paraphrased)

What was wrong? How did they err? How did they sin? What is sin? They went their way and not God's way. That's the whole thing, they went the way of cursings and not the way of blessings.

"[Unto whom] I swear in my wrath [God said, that] They [should] not enter into my rest.)" (Hebrews 3:11)

Into the land of Canaan. Now the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine, my friends, is a type. And these things of old, written in the Old Testament were "...written for our [learning for our] admonition, [in these days of grace] upon whom the ends of the world have come." (I Corinthians 10:11) as you read in the New Testament. And that is an example for us today. Now there's type and anti-type and Palestine was the type of the Kingdom of God and salvation. And they were going to have rest when they got out of the wilderness and got into Palestine and they could build their own homes and everything there, not just live in pitched tents all the time. But God said:

"[Unto whom] I swear in my wrath, They [should] not enter into my rest.)" (Hebrews 3:11)

And so that whole generation died in the wilderness. It was their children that went on into Palestine. Now I want you to notice back here, Exodus 16 verses four and five. Lets go back and get some of this:

"Then said the [Eternal] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." (Exodus 16:4)

Now that's a law that most people will tell you, in fact I think a great many today, will tell you that that law did not exist at this time. That that law did not exist until the law of Moses was given. Now this is before the law of Moses. This is two weeks before they came to Mount Sinai. This is two weeks before God proposed the Old Covenant, and told them He would make the Old Covenant with them. This has nothing to do with the Old Covenant, it's prior to the Old Covenant, it's prior to the law of Moses. It's prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments even there, and here God's talking about a law. Now that law must have existed. He isn't just creating one here. He says; "...whether they will walk in my law, or no." (Exodus 16:4) That certainly indicates a law that is already in existence. Notice verse five:

"And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that [that] they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." (Exodus 16:5)

And then on the seventh day He said they were not to find any, they shouldn't go out and do any work. Well, drop down to verse twenty-two:

"...it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses." (Exodus 16:22)

So a double portion of the manna fell from heaven on that day. This is speaking of the manna that fell in the wilderness to the people of Israel way back there in the wilderness in the time of Moses. Now verse twenty-three:

"And he said unto them, This is that which the [Eternal] hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the [Eternal]..." (Exodus 16:23)

Now they didn't use the names that - really pagan names, that are applied to the days of the week that the whole world is using now. We use them because it is merely a matter of designating the days. But this is the day that today we would call Friday. And on that day, they didn't call it Friday then, but shall I just call it by that name? You understand I'm only using it so that you'll understand what day I mean. On this Friday a double portion of manna fell, and they gathered twice as much. On this day then Moses said:

"...This is that [that] the LORD [or the Eternal] hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the [Eternal]: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe [or boil] that [which] ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein." (Exodus 16:23-24)

Now every other day prior to this time, they were told to go out and gather it every day because the commandment is; "Six days shalt thou labour..." (Exodus 20:9) although that commandment had not been expressed from the lips of God to them as yet. That came two weeks later on Mount Sinai and this is prior to that time. This is when; "They [had taken] their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin..." (Exodus 16:1) S-i-n, not apparently referring to sin as the transgression of God's law, but that was the name of the place, and it's between Elim and Sinai and that's where they were, it was the fifteenth day of the second month. And they came to Sinai in the third month. So here's the middle of the second month.

So they had to go out and gather every day's bread that day. God gave them today's bread today, every day, until Friday came. And all these other days, if on Monday, for instance, they tried to gather enough for Tuesday and they tried to save it over, it would breed worms and stink by the next morning. God told them not to do it. But Friday, twice as much bread came, or manna, and they gathered twice as much, and laid it up. And on this day, it did not breed worms and didn't stink.

You know a lot of people say, "Well I think time got all mixed up. How do we know that those Israelites kept the same Sabbath day that God blessed at creation, the same day that God rested on?" Well if you look at all the miracles that were happening here to show them which day it was you couldn't think there was any mistake. Now God was sending these miracles from heaven. Every day the manna came except on Friday twice as much came. Every day it would breed worms and stink until they came to Friday; and when they kept it up on that day it did not breed worms and stink, it saved up until the next day, and the day that was the Sabbath.

"[So] they laid it up till the morning [and it did not breed worms]. And [now we've come down to this Sabbath day and so on this day] Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is [the] sabbath unto the [Eternal]: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none." (Exodus 16:24-26)

Well people don't believe in God's ways:

"And [so] it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the [Eternal] said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" (Exodus 16:27-28)

This is before the Ten Commandments had been given. This is before the law of Moses. This is before the Old Covenant and God said to those people:

"...How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the [Eternal] hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. [And] So the people rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 16:28-30)

What a stern rebuke. Now, my friends, oh I wish I'd just gotten started. I wanted to show you how they went their way, and what way is being spoken of more than any other way over here in Hebrews in your New Testament. And we'll have to pick it up and continue. You're going to see that it has something to say about the same thing for us today, and you're going to be dumbfounded, you're going to be amazed at what you're going to see.

Footnote:

{1} Mr Armstrong is referring to Hebrews.