The World Tomorrow

Christ's Flesh

by Herbert W Armstrong

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

And now in the preceding program, my friends, we were saying a few rather strange things, that are not generally understood today, and certainly not taught in the churches today. Why is it that we do not today, hear the same message that Jesus Christ preached - the Gospel of Jesus Christ - but rather a different gospel today? A message about His person certainly, but not the message that He preached.

Now Jesus Himself had foretold in His Olivet Prophecy, recorded in Matthew 24, and Mark 13, and Luke 21, that these things would happen. The disciples had asked Him what would be the sign of His Second Coming and the end of the world, the end of this age.

And He had said to them that the first thing that would happen would be false preachers to deceive the whole world. He didn’t say there would be a few, oh, long-haired, wild-eyed fanatics on soap boxes down in the slum district, or on skid row, deceiving a few or over in some public park that would find a few crackpots that would listen. What He said was that the whole world would be deceived. The many false prophets deceiving the many; and as He said that they would deceive even the very elect if it were possible, and certainly all but the very elect.

Now this is what He said; "...many [not a few - many] shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars..." (Matthew 24:5-6)

That followed. Now they would come in His name saying I am Christ. Not that they are the Christ, but that Jesus is the Christ. And my friends they have used that to deceive the people. They have taken the prestige of His name, they have given enough of the truth, to make the people believe they had all of the truth. And so often people will give a part of the truth, and you think they have it all.

And we were just discussing around the radio studio here in Ambassador College, I remember last evening, the subject came up among some of us who were here, of some of these commercials that you’ve heard on certain radio stations. And of how men would come out with something about health, and about what is wrong with you. And you know the story they tell is absolutely true. When they tell you what’s wrong with you it certainly is, and you feel just exactly what they say. And that part of the story is so absolutely true, and you are made to be conscious of everything that’s wrong with you. And then they just tell you, well, write in for their kind of pill.

Now I’ve heard of men say, that of course, the trouble is you’re not getting the vitamins and the minerals in your foods. And then they tell you that it isn’t in the foods anyway because the soil is worn out, and all that sort of thing. And that you need those vitamins, and you should go on this kind of a diet.

But they finally wind up appealing to human nature and they say to you, "Well, of course you don’t want to go on that kind of a diet, you might not enjoy it. Now, you can enjoy the same kind of food you’re eating... (which they’ve just told you is poisoning your body!)...you can enjoy all these things that you want." These starches, these fats and greases and all this white sugar - which they just told you, was a poison and not a food. And which they told you is responsible for your aches and pains, your rheumatism, your arthritis, your diseases that you’ve had. And so they tell you, "Well of course you don’t want to give those things up, so you just go on eating them and get my brand of pills." And people assume that since the first things they said were true that their cure is the true cure.

False Preachers (Play from 03:50)

Now these false preachers went out with the name of Christ, and they began to preach that Christ was the Messiah. And they said that Jesus is the Christ, and that’s true and the people believed it. And so they deified and exalted Him, He’s the Son of God. They told how great He is, and it’s all true. And so people said, "See, now this man, why he’s preaching Christ, he must be a good preacher." And so the people just believed in him and they swallowed hook, line and sinker everything else he said.

But after that my friends, what did the preachers do? They began to say opposite to what Jesus did, diametrically opposite; they preached a different gospel, a different doctrine. And they said to the people; "Now you don’t have to obey God." All the way through His ministry Jesus sounded one note - obedience - and it was because of the disobedience of the many that Jesus had to go to the cross, and die for us.

You know, I am reminded of the time when I was preaching in a country school house in the very early days of my ministry. And I had a good attendance in that little one room school house, I think we had about forty people and there were only thirty six seats, and there were four or five standing. This particular night there were probably ten standing and we probably had forty four, forty five people. And there was a visitor, and he was a young graduate from a Bible or ministerial college on a certain denomination and was a newly ordained young preacher. And he came out to try to upset everything that I was preaching. And he knew that I was going to preach something that night about obedience to God. And so it was customary in those days to ask a visiting minister to lead prayer. And in those days I guess I followed custom. You know it’s just human nature to conform and perhaps I was doing it. Perhaps in those days I hadn’t come far enough in having my eyes opened to the truth to realize what it means where we read in the Bible;

"...be ye not conformed to this world: but be ye [renewed]..." (Romans 12:2)

Completely renewed in the spirit of your mind. We’re to be changed, renewed, not to conform. The whole idea in this nation is to conform. The main thing that most students want, and the main idea among most college students today is to conform. Whatever is the custom, whatever other people decided to be, we must be sheep, we must go along. We mustn’t think, we mustn’t use our minds to think, "Is it right? Should we do it?" No, if others do it we must conform, we must go right along.

Let me tell you my friends, Ambassador College is a college that does not conform. This college is unique, we investigate and see, "Should we do this thing? Should we have this policy? Is it right or is it wrong"? And if it’s wrong, we don’t do it. I don’t care how many other colleges do.

"...be ye not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Romans 12:2)

And through the Holy Spirit of God. And until this world wakes up and comes to that philosophy and that way of living, we’re always going to have our troubles, that’s all. My friends, if we would listen to the gospel Jesus Christ preached we would find the way out of our troubles. But why do men today preach exactly the opposite and lead us into more of these troubles, why?

Now we were seeing that here the crowds that followed Jesus wherever He went, He was trying to get away from them, but they followed Him. And here it was on the Sabbath day. It was the day after, the day before, in the evening before, Jesus had fed all these people. There were 5,000 men beside the women and children, and they followed Him. They came after Him and He said that they had come after Him because He fed them, and not because they wanted any truth. And when He began to tell them some of the truth they began to reject it, just like men ever have, and like they’re rejecting it today. And preaching exactly the opposite. Yes, they began to bite the hand that fed them. That’s exactly what they began to do.

Man Is Not Immortal Yet (Play from 07:59)

Now let me see, let’s just pick up a little of what we were covering in the preceding broadcast. Jesus had said;

"...I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life; ...I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:38-40 American Standard Version)

He’s speaking of a resurrection in eternal life. He isn't saying that you already have eternal life. Jesus did not preach what they preach today. Here again is just exactly the opposite of what you hear preached today, here is just the opposite of what they believe today. They didn’t believe Jesus’ gospel then, they don’t believe it today. Today they say, "Why you are immortal, you are an immortal soul, and you’re just in a body of flesh". Today they say, "You can’t die, your body would die." Jesus talked about people dying, He talked about you will die, you will perish, and one thing and another. But the people don’t believe that today, they think it’s only the body that dies. They don’t think now, they say that the ‘you’ is the conscious person, and that it’s the actual consciousness, the conscious person that dies, and He said;

"..this is the will of my Father that, every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life..." (John 6:40 ASV)

He doesn’t have it now, but he can get it. Today they teach you that you already have it. And by the way, I’m in John the sixth chapter, the sixth chapter of John, and now the fortieth, forty-first verse. Jesus said that he should have eternal life - he doesn’t have it now.

"...I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40) Always Jesus spoke of the resurrection. Eternal life comes by a resurrection, you are not born with it, you do not have it, it is the gift of God.

Now the Bible says; "...the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23)

The Bible says its death, not eternal life in hell-fire. And if your soul is immortal it wouldn’t burn anyhow. That’s just a plain statement, and a fact of chemistry, because burning, if you, you get that in high school chemistry. And burning is merely combustion, it’s the uniting of oxygen with the other elements of, material elements, going through a rapid fire chemical change, that we call combustion. And it creates heat and causes gases, and it, part of it, is converted into gas, part into smoke, and the rest of it is left in ash, that’s all. And you can’t burn spirit, and whatever is burned is burned up - if it burns long enough - or else it goes out. The fire goes out, or else it is burned up, one or, until it’s reduced to ash and gas as I said, and smoke.

Now, continue on here; "It is written in the prophets [Jesus said], And they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that hath heard, from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me." (John 6:45 ASV) But how many have heard from the Father and learned? Not very many, my friends, not in this world, they don’t learn of God.

"Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he [which] is from God, [and] he hath seen the Father." (John 6:46 ASV)

Oh I missed a part of it here that I wanted to read, where He said here in verse 44; "No man can come to me, except the Father [which] sent me draw him..." (John 6:44 ASV)

Today they will try to teach you that any man can come to Christ. All you have to do is, just well, just get up from your seat, and come down to the altar, and have an evangelistic meeting or whatever it is. But Jesus didn’t teach that, He taught exactly the opposite. He said that; "No man can come to me, except the Father [which] sent me draw him..."(John 6:44 ASV)

And in another place He said that the Spirit of the Father draw him. {1} Now it is the Spirit of God that will convict us. That will make us realize just how rotten, and filthy, and sinful, and wicked we really are. Until we want to get rid of it, and turn around and go the right way.

But Jesus said; "No man can come to me, except the Father [which] sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day." (John 6:44 ASV)

Now let’s see, here we are down to verse 47; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life." (John 6:47 ASV) But he’s not immortal, He hath eternal life, it’s abiding in him, in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, but he is still mortal with eternal life through the Spirit of God abiding in him.

Now Jesus said; "I am the bread of life." (John 6:48 ASV)

Well before I leave that I want to read something else to you, it’s over here in I John, I John 3:15; "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer..." (I John 3:15)

Now I tell you, every soldier is taught to hate, if he follows instructions, and learns what he is taught. He’s taught to hate and to kill, because you can’t want to go out and kill, even a human enemy unless you hate him. So they teach that in, in military service.

And; "Whosoever hateth [a] brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." (I John 3:15)

Now that’s just anyone that hates another, and I tell you that includes most of humanity today. There’s so little love today. There’s a lot of hate and that includes anyone that just hates another. In other words it applies to all sinners then. And the sinner has no eternal life abiding in him, or no sinner, or murderer, hath eternal life abiding in him.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life." (John 6:47 ASV) But a murderer has no eternal life in him.

Jesus is the Bread of Life (Play from 13:54)

Jesus came "...that we might have life, and...have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) But we don’t have it until we receive it from Him. That was His teaching. Why don’t you hear more of that kind of teaching today?

He said; "I am [the] bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and [died]. This is the bread..." (John 6:48-50)

Of course that was material bread. That’s what He’s speaking of, that bread that was made out of matter. But He’s speaking of the kind of bread, the kind of food that is spiritual, and He is the bread of life.

Now again He is the Word, the Logos, the Word; "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..." (John 1:14) And He spoke the Word with His mouth. But also His Word was recorded in writing, and the Bible is the Word recorded in writing. And so the Bible is the written Word of God, written down on paper, and that is the food, the bread that we are to eat spiritually.

And man, Jesus said shall not live by just physical bread.."...but by every word...of God." (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4) By every word of God.

Now; "I am [Jesus said the] bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, [just material manna, they died]." (John 6:48-49)

Of course a lot of people would say "Why they didn’t die, that’s a lie, they didn’t die, they were immortal souls. Just the body died, they didn’t." That’s what people believe today. But I’m telling you what the Bible says, and it says that they died. It didn’t say their bodies died, they died. Whatever the 'they' is, if the 'they' is something inside of the body it died - they died.

"This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.” (John 6:50 ASV)

He’s speaking of Himself, and He is the Word of God. That Word is profitable to correct us, and reprove us (II Timothy 3:16). It’s like a sharp two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). It punishes, but it corrects. Because we’ve been wrong, and we’ve been unhappy, and it’s the way to remove this unhappiness from us. You know, if you want to have all of your aches, and pains, and your suffering, and your unhappiness removed from you, you have to have it cut out. And it’s like cutting out a cancer, or something else. It may hurt a little bit, you don’t like to have it cut out do you? In other words it’s cut out by your being corrected and admitting you’ve been wrong, and straightening up, and changing, and turning around to go the other way. And now go the right way. But people don’t like to do it.

The hardest thing in the world for anyone to do, I really believe, is to admit that he is wrong, and to change, and go the other way. The average human being just can’t admit; "I am wrong, I’ve been wrong. I’ve made a mistake. I believed wrong. I have sinned, I’m willing to admit it, and turn around and go the other way." I tell you, I don’t know very many human beings on this earth, that I have ever known, that I have had evidence, is willing to do that thing. People just won’t do it. They just, you can tell them, you can look right at a person and say; "You won’t admit you’re wrong, I’ve never known you to admit it!" Well, they’ll try to rise, ride right over it. They look right at you but they won’t admit they’re wrong. See how many people you know that ever really came out, and admitted that they were wrong.

Well my friends you have to begin by doing that, that’s the first beginning, and you can’t have any salvation until you’ve done that. And a very few people have done it. I’ll tell you, they’re very few that have any salvation, because no one has any salvation that hasn’t come to the place he’s really repented, and admitted how wrong he has been! Nobody, and if you haven’t admitted you’re wrong you have no salvation, I don’t care how many try to deceive you into believing that you are saved. I tell you by authority of Jesus Christ you are on dangerous ground, you are not saved, you have been deceived! Again I tell you, you had better wake up, blow the dust off your Bible and begin to look at it and see where is the truth.

Now Jesus said; "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat this bread [and it is reduced to writing, you can read it in the Bible, if any man eat this bread], he shall live forever...” (John 6:51)

But that bread is going to break you, and you’re going to have to admit you’ve been wrong. And you’re going to have to live according to the Bible, according to the law, and the will, and the way of God. And you’ll have to keep His commandments.

Now; "...if any man eat this bread [which was the Word, Jesus Christ Himself, but not eating the flesh - the body that was Jesus - that isn’t what He means: His character, His Word, He is the Word of God], he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I...give [you] is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood [you], have no life in yourselves."(John 6: 51-53 ASV)

Christ is the Lamb of God (Play from 19:11)

Now He was symbolically there referring to the Passover. And Jesus always took the Passover. Now let me tell you something, my friends, the rituals back under the book of the law, the law of Moses, the rituals, and the animal sacrifices were merely substitutes. The animal sacrifices were a substitute for the sacrifice that Jesus made. And when they shed the blood of those animals it was only the type of Jesus shedding His blood on the cross for us. And the rituals that they did, the meat and drink offerings, the carnal ordinances that they had to perform morning, noon and night continually, and a round of duties that kept the Levitical Priesthood going from Moses until Christ, was merely to institute in them, or to instill within the Israelites, the habit of obedience. To teach them obedience, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

You cannot find one place where Jesus ever participated in a one of those things. He was taught obedience because He had the Spirit of God. He was taught obedience too by the things that He suffered. So it is recorded in your Bible (Hebrews 5:8). But, He was the Lamb of God to take away our sins (John 1:29). And He never sinned, and didn’t need to make an animal sacrifice for sin.

Now the Passover is a different thing altogether. That was not a sacrifice for sins committed, but was a typical thing that was a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God, being sacrificed for us, looking forward to it, and it had always been taken. The Passover was taken every year on the anniversary before it happened, if you can speak of that as an anniversary, I don’t know, we might have a different word for that. But anyway, it was on the same exact day of the year, on which Jesus was slain. He was the antitypical Passover Lamb. And He was slain on the same fourteenth day, of the first month, that the lambs had always been killed at the Passover time.

Now, Jesus did take the Passover, that was instituted forever. Jesus did keep His Father’s commandments. Jesus did preach on the Sabbath day, and this is a Sabbath day sermon He is giving right here now in the synagogue, that I am reading to you.

They would spit all over the Sabbath day of God today, they haven’t any use for it. They’ve got days of their own, of man’s making. Today they want to observe Christmas, New Year’s, Halloween, April Fool’s day. They have no use for the annual Holy Days that God made holy, and commanded His people to keep forever, and that Jesus observed , and that the apostles observed and that the Gentile converts under the preaching of Paul observed! And that the Gentile as well as the Jewish Christians continued to observe century after century, and have observed every century down to the present time. Even though they’ve been persecuted for it. What do you think of that?

Now that’s very unpopular. I imagine some of you are about ready to tune out right now. Alright, if you would rather go along with man. If you care more of what man says, and what men think of you. And this way of man that’s brought all the unhappiness and all the misery and all of the death and everything else on this human race. You my friends are welcome to it, go along that way. I say if Baal be god go and serve him, but if God be God open up your Bible, read what He says, and serve Him! And repent and surrender to Him and begin to serve God.

Let’s find out whether we serve God, or whether we serve Baal, because when it comes down to that personally, I give no quarter. I won’t argue and I won’t debate with any man. But I do proclaim the truth of God, and you can take it or leave it, God gives you that privilege. But may God bless these words and bless you enough to help you to see it, and to repent and to turn to the true way of God, for your own good. God always said, even to the children of Israel, and everything that He said to do in His commandments, that it might be well with them (Deuteronomy 5:29). God wants it to be well with us, my friends, it isn’t. Things are not well with us in this world and there’s a reason.

Now He was referring here really to the Passover. And at the last Passover He changed the killing of the Passover lamb, and roasting its body and eating its roasted body, to the bread and the wine. And today people call it Lord’s Supper, or Communion, or Eucharist, or something of that sort. But in the Bible it’s called Passover, just plain Passover.

And He said; "...Except [you] eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, [you] have [no] life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:53-54 ASV)

The resurrection of the dead. Well, wherever we read in the words of Jesus we find something that is not being preached or believed today. It isn’t popular. They persecuted Him for it, they crucified Him for preaching. Men don’t seem to love it any better today. Well God help us to accept it.

Well I see that clock’s gotten clear around again. And I have very little time to tell you my friends; there are many of you listening, you’ve thought about writing in for the Plain Truth magazine, you’ve never done it. There is no magazine like the Plain Truth, you’ve never seen anything like it. And it brings out the truth and makes it plain, so you can open your own Bible and see it, and have it proved with your own eyes. There is no subscription price to the Plain Truth. If you tell me the name of the station to which you’re listening, now that’s mighty important. Very important articles coming in every number of the Plain Truth. Be sure and get your name on the mailing list immediately.

So until tomorrow, and every day, goodbye friends.

{1} "the Spirit of the Father draws him" is implied within passages like the following: