Herbert W Armstrong

   After he had preached 3 1/2 years to many thousands of people, and he was very God in the human flesh. One of his names was Emmanuel, which means God with us. He was God in the human flesh. And yet only 120 believed what he said. He was preaching about the world tomorrow. He was preaching a message of the Kingdom of God. He sent his apostles out to preach the same message. Several of them were crucified. Christ was crucified for preaching that gospel. The world didn't like it. It was a gospel of world government. It was a gospel of world peace. It was a gospel of right ways of living—the way of love, the way of outgoing concern, the way of giving. It's outgoing toward God in reverence and worship and obedience and knowing that God is the great giver and reliance on Him because he wants to do everything good for us and has the power to do it. And also, it is love toward neighbor, and that is outflowing, not incoming.

   Now, what was that message that Christ brought? What did he proclaim? What was his gospel? We turn back to Mark in the first chapter of the book of Mark is a good place to start because the first words are (Mark 1:1), the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now, this is the very beginning of his message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then it goes into a few verses about John the Baptist.

   Now there was a prophecy in Malachi, the third chapter and the first verse (Malachi 3:1), that said there would be a messenger to prepare the way before Christ and that Christ was coming as a messenger, the messenger of the covenant. He would come with a message from God. And that message is about a covenant. And of course, it was the message of the new covenant, which is going to set up the Kingdom of God. Now, the one who prepared the way before his first coming was John the Baptist.

   And so now I'm beginning with verse two (Malachi 3:2). It begins to talk about the ministry of John, the Baptist preparing the way before Christ and dropping down, said about verse nine (Malachi 3:9). And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John, John, the Baptist in Jordan in the river Jordan, and straightway coming up out of the water, he must have been down in it to come up out of it. Wouldn't you think? He saw the heavens opened and a spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, "Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And that voice was the voice of God almighty, God the Father, and he is the Father of the God family. And God is not one person. God is a whole family. God is only one person in the sense of, God the father, who is the Father of that family.

   That is a family, as Christ taught and as part of this message of the Kingdom of God that we could be born into that family. Why don't we just turn right back here in John, the third chapter of John, this is early in the life of Jesus. While during his ministry back along probably late 27 and 28 A.D., there was a man of the Pharisees, and the Pharisees were a ruling class in Judea at that time, over 1900 years ago, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And the same came to Jesus by night. Now he sneaked in there because he didn't want anyone to see him come. The Pharisees were opposed to Jesus because he came preaching a Kingdom of God, and they thought he meant that he was going to overthrow the Roman government and that they would be accused and maybe put to death for sedition. And they had government positions under Caesar, the Roman Empire at that time. And so, they were not going to fall in line with Jesus. But this man was one of the rulers of the Pharisees. And he said unto Jesus (John 3:2-13), "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. We, we Pharisees know, now they already knew that, they knew he was the Messiah that he came from God."

   I want you to notice that point as we go along, for no man can do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him. Well, Jesus just took it right out of his mouth right there and got directly to the thing that this man needed to know. He didn't need to know so much about the government. He thought Christ is going to overcome the government right there. What he needed to know was about why we were born and how we can be born again and what that means.

   So, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Now notice this, the Kingdom of God is something that can be seen with your eyes, but it can't be seen until after you have been born again. And those who have not been born again can't even see it.

   All right, let's continue. And Nicodemus said unto him, he couldn't quite get that being born again. You know, he knew he'd been born from his own mother. So, he said, well, now how can, how can that be? How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time in his mother's womb and be born? He knew what being born meant. It didn't mean, as I said a while ago, that people think the Kingdom God is just an ethereal nothing set up in your mind and heart, that means nothing. And that's what people think being born again means. It just means if you, it reminds me of this young man I have mentioned before that said to me over 40 years ago, he said, "Mr. Armstrong, I gave my heart to the Lord last night," and I said, "Was the Lord there?" And he said, "No." Well, I said, "Was the surgeon there?" No. Well, there wasn't any surgeons who sort of cut you open and let you reach in, take your heart out and have it. Uh, no. Uh, well, well, I said, "What do you mean that you gave your heart to the Lord then?" Well, he said, "I just guess, I don't know," he didn't know what, what did happen to him. And in other words, it's all nothing. Now, this is concrete, this is definite, and something that's real. That's what I want you to get.

   How can a man be born when he's old? Well, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So, you not only can see the kingdom, it's something you can enter into, but you have to be born first, born of God. Now, we were born of man, being born again, is not born of man again, but born of God.

   Now that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Nicodemus was flesh. I am flesh. You are flesh, that's what we are. We were born of the flesh. We are flesh. And he says that which is born of the spirit is spirit, is not flesh any longer. It is not matter, it is composed of spirit. Those that say they have been born again and they are sincere, they believe it, but they ought to study the word of God and God's own explanation and that of Christ a little further. And maybe they would see that they have been deceived, and a deceived man. It's not a disgrace to be deceived, and deceived man can be just as ever so sincere and so honest, and he believes he's right. So, I'm not condemning them, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And you have to become spirit before you can see the Kingdom of God, you have to become spirit before you can enter into the Kingdom of God.

   Now notice it's something you can enter into and you can see. Now he said, "Marvel not that I say unto you that you shall be born again. For the wind blows where it listeth."

   Now, the spirit is often compared to wind or air in the Bible. And he's using that comparison here, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell whether it cometh or where, whether it goeth where it's coming from, where it's going to. So, is everyone that is born of the spirit. Well, now, the people who think they've been born again in this world are not like that at all, and they are not spirit, they are still flesh.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return right after this message.

   Human life comes from a single pinpoint-sized egg cell beginning at conception that cell grows, divides, and gradually develops into a small human being. The process by which the baby is delivered into the world is called birth. In speaking to a leading religious figure of his day, Christ referred to this process of human birth as an analogy to explain spiritual rebirth into God's family, saying, "You must be born again." Nicodemus wondered what Christ meant by the term born again. Today's religious experience actually being reborn physically or what? This publication, "What do you mean... Born Again?" brings you the Bible answer to this intriguing question. Request your free copy of "What do you mean... Born Again?" Send your request to Herbert W Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California, 91123. That's Herbert W Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California, 91123.

   Well, Nicodemus didn't exactly understand it, and a little later, something else that people don't understand. Jesus said, "No man has ascended up to heaven" in verse 13, and not many believe that. So, they don't believe what Christ said. People say, "I believe in God all right". But you don't believe what he says. Here's what he says. I came to believe that, now maybe I'm a little foolish, also if I am, I'll be foolish, but I believe not only in God, I believe God, and I found that very few Adam and Eve didn't believe God. They believed Satan, and the whole world has been believing Satan ever since.

   Now, let's turn over to I Corinthians next, in I Corinthians is the resurrection chapter of the Bible. I might as well tell you that right now, and I can't take the whole chapter, I won't have time. But certain portions of it here we can go through beginning back here in the third verse (I Corinthians 15:3) where Paul writing to the Church of Corinth, now they had been Gentiles. Now we're converted. For I delivered unto you. First of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. Now, according to the scriptures means as Jesus said, the only sign he gave, he would be three days and three nights in the tomb after he was killed before his resurrection. If you can figure three days and three nights out of being buried Friday evening and crucified on Friday and resurrected early Sunday morning, then again, I'd like to give you about $1000, and I don't think I'll have to give it because you can't figure that.

   And that he was seen of Cephas and which is Simon Peter and of the 12. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained under the present when Paul was writing this letter, but some have fallen asleep. Now, isn't that funny? The Bible talks about dying, being falling asleep, today they say he passed away. Is that the way you speak of anyone who died? You're afraid to say he died and he's dead. The Bible says, when you die, you're dead. And it's like that dog Rover. When he died, he died all over. And that's the way we do brethren, whether we and it's appointed in the Bible once it's appointed to all men, once to die. And as in Adam, and I'll come to that right here in this chapter, all die. It doesn't say all pass away. The pass away comes from the immortal soul. I am twice. The Bible says the soul of sin. It shall die, not live forever, it shall die.

   Now, after that, he was seen of James and then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me as one born out of due time. He said, "I am out of the place. Have I not seen Christ?" Well, he didn't see him before his resurrection or before his death. So apparently when Paul speaks of having been for three years down in Arabia, that's where Christ appeared to him supernaturally after Christ had ascended to heaven and taught Paul separately for he said, "I am the least of the apostles," but most people today think he's the greatest and he wasn't. You don't hear as much about Peter as you do Paul for the simple reason that Christ sent his 12 apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and people don't know where they were, they were in Western Europe and England at that time. And that's where Peter went. Peter didn't die in Rome. Then his bones have not been found in Rome because he didn't die there. He died in England, and I still in a sense, own, at least I am the president and chairman of the corporation that owns quite a little plot right near the oldest city in all England. And Peter might have been buried there for all I know. I know I buried about four or five people there, and we have a little plot where people have been buried. Well, anyway, now he continues in verse 12.

   Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, I'll say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead. It doesn't teach going to heaven when you die. It teaches that the dead do not know anything in the Bible in Ecclesiastes. And also it says there will be a resurrection and in the resurrection, it will be like the next 1000th or millionth of a second in your consciousness from the time you died. Anyone who commits suicide doesn't realize that just bang like that. The first prop is when the bullet goes through his brain, and he loses consciousness. And the second clap is when he wakes up in the Kingdom of God, and he still has all of these problems and trouble before him. And now he's got a murder, a self-murder of having killed himself on his hands beside.

   And you know, one of our ministers told me how he has explained that to a few people who were going to commit suicide. And he said after he explained that, they didn't do it, because death does not end all. There is a life after this life. You can't get away from it. John may have tried to run away from God in the ship and others try to run away from God by putting a bullet through their brain or some other means of suicide. But that doesn't do it. You don't get away from God like that.

   But he says there, "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and our faith is also in vain." And verse 17 (I Corinthians 15:17), "If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, you are yet in your sins." In other words, the only hope of life after death is a resurrection. And it's appointed to all men once to die, but it's also appointed to all people to be resurrected from that death. And everyone who has ever died is going to be brought back to life in a resurrection.

   Now, then, let's come on a little later, verse 22 (I Corinthians 15:22). As in Adam, all die. You see, the penalty of sin is not this first death. We all die this first death because of Adam's sin, not because of our own sin. The penalty. That is the penalty for our sin when we commit sin. And we all have, every one of us is the second death. After this death, there will be a resurrection, then there will be a second death in a lake of fire. And there won't be any resurrection at all from that death. And those in that, the Bible says will be ashes under the soles of our feet, of those of us who go on into immortal life, they will be as though they had not been. And it says that is will be a fire that will burn them, not keep burning and burning and burning. If you haven't shown me anything that will keep burning forever and ever burn out, I'll pay you a million dollars for it because I can make several million out of that. If I can find some kind of combustion that will keep burning, burning, burning fuel, that you don't have to keep keeping more fuel on more oil, more wood, more coal, more something.

   But as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Everyone who dies, suicides everybody but every man in his own order to be an order of resurrection, not to everybody in the same resurrection. Christ, the first fruits. And that was over 1900 years ago now and then afterward they, that are Christ, that is coming and then will come the end when he, Christ, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God. And even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power for He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. And that, speaking of the resurrection. Now, let's come a little farther in this chapter, verse 35 (I Corinthians 15:35).

   But some men will say, how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? Now listen to this, you wonder what kind of a body you're going to have in the resurrection. Well, I can tell you that other scriptures say that you'll look just like you do now, you'll have the same fingerprints and all the knowledge you have in your mind you'll have and remember and whatever personality you have, you will be there and whatever you have done in the way of building character, either good or bad, it will be there. All will be there. But now listen to this, some will say, how are the dead raised up with? What body do they come? Thou fool that which thou sowest that what you sow or plant in the ground, in other words, the burial in the ground is not quickened or brought back to life except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest, not the body that shall be but bare grain. It may be of wheat. But what comes up is not the same grain of wheat. It's another grain that looks just like that grain of wheat. You see, and it uses that comparison here.

   But God gives it a body as it has pleased Him and to every seed his own body. Now you'll have to know something about the spirit in man if you want to know what is going to preserve and bring you back because that is the mold like a sculptor's mold. And God puts another body in it and it comes back with your same fingerprint, your same memory, your same knowledge, your same character, everything. If you commit suicide, it's just bang, bang the next bang, you're still alive again, and now you're in a judgment being held accountable. So, I just advise you don't do it that way. That's not the way out.

   Now, beginning with verse 45 (I Corinthians 15:45). And so, it is written the first man, Adam was made a living soul. Now doesn't say an immortal soul, a living soul and from all souls that's appointed to all men wants to die. The first man made a living soul. The last Adam, which is Christ, was made a quickening spirit and is a life-giving spirit. However, that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural. Adam was natural. Christ came afterward. He is spiritual, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy. He now gets this in comparison to what I read you about Nicodemus. The second man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy? Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

   You know, I spoke of the magazine, the Plain Truth. The purpose of that magazine is to make the truth plain. And Jesus said thy word, this Bible is truth, and the purpose of the Plain Truth is to make this Bible plain. And it's going to do that a lot more in the future issues than it has in the past. I'm very glad to tell you. Now, as is the earthy, such are they that are earthy, and as the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly.

   And as we have born the image of the earthy and we are born of the flesh, we are flesh. We shall also bear the image of the heavenly, and we shall be, if we have God's Holy Spirit. He said, we; you've got to get this that where it says they, it means unconverted people outside where it says we, speaking of the church and people that have God's Holy Spirit. So, he says, we have borne the image of the earthy. We in the church shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

   Now this I say brethren, you see, he says, brethren, he's speaking to those in the church that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Then flesh and blood has not been born again. Now, the Kingdom of God is something you can see. The Kingdom of God is something you can enter into. The Kingdom of God is something you can inherit. And Paul writes here that flesh and blood while you're still made of flesh and blood and a heart beating and you can feel your pulse. It's very hard to feel your own personal pulse. But as long as you can, you can't enter into or inherit the Kingdom of God. Neither is corruption inherit in corruption.

   Behold, I show you a mystery. We not all sleep, that does not all remain dead, but we in the church shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trump for the trumpet shall sound. We read the trumpet plagues back in the book of Revelation and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall all be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. See, we're not immortal now, we put on immortality. We are mortal souls, not immortal souls. So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

   Then he concludes by saying, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave. Where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that's a good place to close right there. And let me say that here, I have once again this booklet, What do you mean... Born Again? I've spoken somewhat on that today and I think you'd like to see it in print and also the booklet on, Just what do you mean... The Kingdom of God? That was the gospel of Jesus preach the Kingdom of God. Let me tell you the Kingdom of God is the family of God into which we can be born. But it also is the ruling, governing family, restoring the government of God. It is a kingdom, a government, a nation, a ruling nation and not just some ethereal, nothing stirred up in men's hearts.

   So now remember these things that we have offered no charge whatsoever. We just do not put a charge on things like that. And I'm glad to send it to you if you will write in for it. So, until next time, this is Herbert W Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have heard the World Tomorrow with Herbert W Armstrong sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God. Literature on this. Send your requests along with the call letters of this station. Herbert W Armstrong, Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California, 91123, Herbert W Armstrong, Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California 91123.