Herbert W Armstrong

   And Lord, don't punish Israel for my sins. Help Your people and protect Jerusalem. And when my heart is right, then You will rejoice in the good that I do, and in the bulls I bring to sacrifice upon Your altar.

   Is that Psalm of repentance ever dealt longly with you in the past? Did that attitude prevail before you were baptized? Has that attitude been constant from time to time with you since you were baptized? In a sense, this Psalm of David pictures a man right before God is going to take away his human nature and replace it with sonship — the spiritual power of God Himself. As he said plainly, when God would take away his nature, then he would teach sinners God's way. We all look forward to that time in the millennium when we'll be able to do this.

   How long has it been since you felt this way? Does something major have to happen in your life for you to feel this way? I felt very small a couple of weeks ago. I sat in Tucson and heard Mr. Armstrong talking about how he appreciated God's patience with him and long-suffering and mercy, and how he was upset at himself even when he took time to watch a part of a ball game on TV. And he was upset with himself when he would be tempted to watch other sports activities, and afterward he'd feel like he should have spent his time better. And here I sat with someone who felt that strongly about that small a matter. And yet, what does it take to come on us to make us have this attitude — the realization of how far we fall short of God's glory, and what a miracle it is to make a human being into the Son of God?

   How long has it been since you were afraid that God might toss you aside? How long has it been since you cried out to God, "Don't sentence me to death! Don't take Your Holy Spirit from me! Don't toss me aside, banished forever from Your presence!"

   Why would David say to God, "Don't keep looking at my sin," when the same God plainly says He removes our sins as far from us as the east is from the west, as far as the heaven is above the earth? And surely God meant what He said. And yet David said God kept looking at his sins instead of erasing them from his sight.

   It's quite obvious David hadn't repented totally as God meant for him to. God can't forget sin until it's repented of strongly enough that we would be unlikely to do it again. If God healed us immediately, always, what lessons would we learn? If God forgave us immediately, what lessons would we learn?

   Well, maybe we, as David, until we get serious enough about overcoming, about changing, about becoming the new man, we'll have to say with a guilty conscience, "Don't keep looking at my sins. Erase them from Your sight," which God will and has to do when we've reached total repentance over them. So the key is in our attitude of whether we've really totally repented from these things or not.

   And yet the attitude here of David — that God would wash him and cleanse him from this guilt — he wanted to be pure again. He admitted his shameful deed. It haunted him day and night. But God allowed that to go on until he realized how horrible sin is, how terrible our natures are. David recognized God saw it all. David said it was against God only he had sinned. David wanted to be clean. "Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Sprinkle me with cleansing blood; I'll be clean again." David recognized he needed punishment. "After You've punished me, give me back my joy."

   I'm afraid some people perhaps have never experienced Psalm 51. One of the subjects Mr. Armstrong has been dwelling on quite a bit lately is how much converted people really are, as he looked back over the last ten years, last couple of years, as he, in a responsible position, considers what's happened to membership in God's church. When back in '74 and '75, we lost some 2 to 3,000 when we lost 35 to 40 ministers. Again, in the last couple of years, almost identical statistics. What was wrong? Why was this that way? How can we prevent that from happening in the future?

   How many of us have really examined deeply, thoroughly with fasting and prayers, whether we've really been converted? Have you ever wondered whether you're really converted?

   One occasion, a few ministers were sitting around discussing how they've re-examined their past, looked deeply into their backgrounds, examined their experience, their initial contact with the truth, their years in the church, discussing conversion, repentance, whether they've ever wondered about their repentance and conversion. Only one man in the crowd had never done any such thing. As it turns out, he never was converted. He's not in God's church today. He never was in God's church, really.

   What if a minister found it his responsibility to tell you he had reason to question your conversion? What would be your reaction? What's it like to be in the church and to try to fight a spiritual battle without really being converted?

   I felt sorry for one man in one church area I served in, because it was my responsibility that he'd been dunked. Before I left the area, I felt it would be a service to him to have a brother-to-brother talk with him and let him know that he didn't need to worry about losing his eternity in this day because at least up till that time he'd never been converted. I thought that would be a big relief to him, but somehow he didn't take it that way.

   I sat in Mr. Armstrong's office within the last few months. After talking for quite a while with one of the ministers, he said, "You know, you've never really been called to the ministry." He said, "What's more, you've never been converted." And that just sent a chill up and down my back, made the hair on the back of my neck kind of quiver, and I thought, "Boy, what if he were looking my way when he said that? What if he said, 'Well, you know, Dean, I have reasons to question whether you've ever been converted'?"

   I think after getting over the shock, I'd have probably shed some tears, and I'd have probably said, "Well, I certainly want to be. I know I need to be. I'd like to be. I hope God will let me."

   I'd have said, "How about having a little time off to do some fasting, to get away for a 36-hour cure where you fast and then you pray for an hour and study for an hour and meditate for an hour, and pray for an hour and meditate for an hour and study for an hour, and you do that all the waking hours while you're fasting for 36 hours?" I'd want to grab all the basic literature and go back and check it back out of the Bible and ask God to allow me to see it deeply and grant me repentance.

   Because I know from Mr. Armstrong's teaching from the past that repentance isn't a doctrine you prove out scripturally and then accept it like other truths. Repentance isn't something you can take a booklet on and check it out in scriptures and say, "Oh, I see. Before you can be baptized you have to repent. Oh, okay, I repent." Can't do that. Repentance is the work of God's Spirit from the time God's Spirit begins to intervene in your life.

   We talk about conversion. What do you mean conversion? What are you being converted to? What are you being converted from? Simply converted from physical to spiritual, converted from the human family to the God family. It begins when God's Spirit begins to intervene in your life, begins to cause you to start to think about life and about truth, about eternity. And God's Spirit does the work of bringing you through the experience of repentance.

   Especially today I'd like to address young people. Seemingly because of religious influence about us, we think God's way of life is something to come to when you have to, as late as you can. Have all the fun, get out and live all you can, run from God as long as you can, and then right before tribulation comes or right before a flight to a place of final training or whatever, then get converted right quick.

   I preached a sermon on prophecy. One of the young people afterward was chatting with me about it, and he said, "Well, you think maybe one of the current religious leaders in the world might be the one the Bible's been foretelling?" And I said, "Well, it certainly seems he's doing everything the Bible said that man would do." And he said, "Well, I'll tell you what — if it looks like he might be the man, I might better talk about baptism."

   Well, there's a parallel with that in the scripture we're gonna read about here a little later too.

   What about young people? One of the great blessings of truth we've learned this past year — God showed Mr. Armstrong in I Corinthians 7 that when young people have a believing parent, they're not unclean, they're holy. They're not cut off from the knowledge of God. Now it doesn't mean you can teach them and train them and convert them. Education is not conversion.

   One minister that used to be in the church came up with that great point of wisdom, he thought: education is conversion. That isn't true. You can educatedly prove and accept a lot of proof without ever being converted as an individual. Too many times people are converted to doctrine. People are converted to the Sabbath. People are converted to tithing. People are converted to divine healing. People are converted to this, that and the other. But that's just not full conversion.

   A lot of times the young people in Big Sandy, in counseling about baptism, I'd say, "What makes you think you need to be baptized? Why do you want to be baptized? What are you gonna get by being baptized? What do you have to give up in order to be baptized?"

   Well, you know, in different cases young people would say, "Well, you know, I haven't been a saint. I've got a lot of skeletons in my closet. I've got a lot of bad things in my past. I'd just like to bury all my mistakes." And I'd say, "Well, bring a laundry bag full of old dirty clothes and we'll sew those in the tank, and that'll fix your baptizing your mistakes."

   Of course, that's not what it's all about. You know, you don't just bury your mistakes. You don't just get a clean start. Apparently a lot of people do that though — they bury the sins and bury the mistakes, and yet they don't bury the old man that made the mistakes and committed the sin. So after they're baptized, you wouldn't know a whole lot of difference later when they go right back out pursuing their fleshly desires, pursuing the things of the human world about them.

   Were you aware of burying the old man when you were baptized? You know, in the last few years we've had group baptisms, we've had baptisms without counseling. And that's sad, very unfortunate. It's very unfair to the people that are dunked, because you can't fight a spiritual warfare without spiritual weapons. And that's a mighty frustrating thing to be trying to live a spiritual life, to try to keep the law in the spirit, to try to be converted to spirit when you've never had the begettal of God's Spirit, and you're trying it on your own power.

   We have some people like Jesus who are baptized to fulfill all righteousness. They hear the program and they get the literature and they check it out in their Bible and they say, "Well, look at that — man doesn't have an immortal soul! Well, what do you know!" When they flip the gears up here, now they don't believe in an immortal soul; they used to. They're just like one of these signs on the front of a bus — they just flipped over one night.

   Then they get another booklet and they read about hell and they say, "Well, look at that — there isn’t any ever-burning hell! What do you know?" They flip it over a notch up there, so they're changing their mind. And really the word repent is connected with changing your mind, but it's more than just changing your mind knowledge-wise, doctrinally.

   So people get various bits of literature and they change their mind. They come to the knowledge of the Sabbath day. "Well, you know, I've always done what I was shown was right, so now I'll keep the Sabbath. You know, I've always been good enough to do everything that I was shown was right."

   I remember one lady in a church area I was in. Each minister that came through took his session with this lady, tried to get through to her that she'd never been converted, that she'd just been dunked. When I came into the area, I took my session with her. I tried to get across to her that, you know, "You've transgressed God's Sabbath day 52 times a year all of your life. Fifty-two times a year, you took holy time that belonged to God and trampled it underfoot, used it for carnal, physical, worldly, human purposes."

   She said, "Well, yes, but I didn't know any better."

   I said, "Well, that's why God's willing to forgive you for it. If you'd sinned willfully, knowingly... The fact that you didn't know about it doesn't excuse it, doesn't justify you for having done it. That's why God's willing to forgive you for it."

   Well, I think I dunked her again too because I'm sure she never was converted.

   How would you react if the minister of the church you attend, because of a few years' observation and experience with you, sat down face to face, eye to eye, brother to brother and said, "I just don't believe you've ever been converted"? Your reaction would tell a lot. If you got indignant and got upset and angry, it's pretty obvious he hit a spot right on the head. If you began to resent the individual and say, "Well, he just doesn't know me that well, you know. What's he doing telling me that? He doesn't know me. We've got a personality conflict. I'll just go to another church nearby," which we have people doing...

   If you really have been converted and someone began to question your conversion, you'd be willing to look into it. You'd be willing to think about it, study about it. You'd be willing to listen to them about it. Because the Bible says if you're really converted, you're easy to be entreated.

   I wonder how many ministers run into people who are easy to be entreated. Well, I've remembered areas I've worked in where I ran into people that were just the opposite. They weren't easy to be entreated.

   We have people who come into the church — they followed the mate. They've recognized the wisdom of unity in the home. They've said marriages shouldn't be unequally yoked together with different religions, so "I'll just be a part of the church and we can have unity in the home, and that way we'll have a better home atmosphere and better atmosphere for our children." And so we have mates follow their mate into the church. It's not conversion. Sooner or later you'll break into that. Sooner or later you'll fall out. You may go all the way till the time of the marriage supper and have Christ have to say to you, "How'd you get in here without a wedding garment on?" That's gonna be the most frightening day of all.

   Any of us who've never been converted, we need to find out as soon as we can so we can ask God to allow us to become converted. God grants repentance. That's spoken several times in the Bible. Repentance isn't something you study out and accept. Repentance isn't something you can take to yourself and do. God grants repentance. That's stated several times in the Bible.

   We have young people who've grown up in the church. About three-fourths of all the young people I counseled for baptism in Big Sandy had been in the church over ten years. For all of their knowledgeable years they've been going God's way. So if you start counseling young people and say, "Well, look, you've got to repent. You've gotta turn around and go the other direction." No, no, no, we don't want them to turn around and go the other direction. Now in one sense we do, in the sense that they've been going that way physically; now we want them to turn around and go that way spiritually. That's true, they do go the other direction. But in the sense of one of us who's grown up in a different belief in the past, it means a little differently.

   So how are you going to talk with young people who spent ten years of their life in the church? You know, the biggest danger there? They've never known any other way. This is the only way they've ever known. So they grow up, and the thing to do when you get up your last few years is to go to Ambassador College, and then when you're there, you get this influence of peer pressure and Bible classes and the atmosphere. And all of a sudden you find young people going along with the church, going along with the doctrines, pleasing their parents, pleasing their brother or older sister, following them. Then you get in your last year and the thing to do is to be a ministerial trainee and have your wife and your fleet car and go out into the church area and... That's the next thing to the kingdom, you know — live happily ever after.

   We've had some shockers in the last years. We never imagined a person could go through a formula like that and end up never having been converted. But we find out that's true. We've had young people brought up in the family and the church of God, come to Ambassador College, go through the Bible classes, graduate, go out into the ministry, no more converted than the jackrabbit. That's really sad. We need to avoid that if there's any way we can.

   So how can we really know whether we've been converted or not? You might notice back in Matthew 22. This is talking about the marriage supper. For the sake of time, we'll skip on over to verse 9 (Matthew 22:9-14).

   He says, Jesus says, "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." So those servants went out into the highways, gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good. Of course this is speaking about the time of the millennium when all peoples on earth are going to be forced to come to know God's way, as the word "bid" literally means "order." Order them to the marriage.

   So those servants went out into the highways, gathered together, both bad and good. The wedding was furnished with guests. The king came in to see the guests. He saw there a man that had not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him, "Friend, how came you in here not having a wedding garment?" And he was speechless. Nothing to say. Apparently he thought he'd been converted. Apparently he really believed he'd been converted. Apparently he thought he belonged there. He certainly wouldn't have come there naked knowingly.

   Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And then notice the context of this statement in verse 14: "For many are called, but few are chosen."

   I think one trend in the church in the 28 years I've been in God's church — we used to be under the pressure of not believing, you know, that just everybody was going to make it into God's kingdom. We'd read about Paul and how he'd bruised his body and bring it into subjection. He ran in the race as if only one would win the race. We read scriptures about the straight gate and the narrow way that leads to life and few there be that find it. But you know, as time went on it got to be more of the idea that, "Well, just hang in there. We'll all make it. You know, all you have to do is just hang in there and endure to the end and we'll all make it."

   And yet as I look back over 28 years in the church — you know, we just had an excellent ministerial refresher group of about 33 men in for three weeks, a bunch of brothers spending eight hours a day together studying together with great enthusiasm and brotherly love. We got out all the old Envoys and old books and things that they wanted to browse through in one of our evening activities. And it can't help but strike you: many are called, but few are chosen.

   How many people have become aware of the way of God, have actually taken the literature, checked it out biblically, come doctrinally to understand certain doctrines, and yet for some reason, they didn't qualify on down the line?

   Now you might notice back in Revelation 19, the chapter of Christ's second coming. Very plainly earmarks certain people that are with Him. Verse 7 (Revelation 19:7): "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

   "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." These are the true sayings of God. "I fell at his feet to worship. And he said unto me, 'See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus.'"

   Heaven was opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written, that no man knew. Clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. The Word of God. The armies followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword — the Bible — that with his judgments or proclamations, he's going to send his judgments on the nations, rule them with a rod of iron. And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.

   I guess I skipped over the verse anyway. The ones that are with him are called and chosen. But when you read people that are there in conjunction with Christ's advent, ruling with Christ, those that are with him are called and chosen.

   Revelation 17:14 is the verse I was looking for. Somehow in my mind I associated that with the coming on the white horse. Revelation 17: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."

   They didn't give up. They didn't get weary in well doing. They didn't quit. They were faithful. They were called and they were chosen. And of course when you're called, God's Spirit enlightens you and opens your mind and allows you to understand truth. But you have to overcome and grow and change. You have to learn before you may be qualified to be chosen.

   You might notice back in Matthew 13. Matthew 13:18, the parable of the sower. "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom" — and if that's not the word they heard then they don't even make the parable, so that has to be the message, the gospel — "So when anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not" — so rather than allow it to sit there in their mind and gradually it'll dawn on them and they'll wake up and it'll take root, many cases you may have seen, Satan will come and cast away that seed that's sown. And those are the ones that are fallen by the wayside.

   But what about the ones who receive the seed into stony places? Who are these people? Are these maybe you or me? Did we receive the seed into stony places? Well, let's take a look and see. That’s the one that hears the word and immediately with joy receives it."

   Well, is that bad? Well, not necessarily. You read back in the book of Acts that the people that gladly received his word were baptized with reference to Philip's preaching, so that in itself isn't a bad point. But what about these people? They hear the word and immediately with joy receive it, but it's always a surface thing. It's always a shallow thing. They've never really grounded themselves in it. They've never really proved all things. They've never really gone back through as Mr. Armstrong did and proved there is a God, that God is God, that this Bible is God's word, that it means what it says, that God built the church and that church is the mother of all of us.

   Sometimes people rejoice to hear the word from the beginning, but they don't really know what it involves in their future. They never get the seriousness of it. They never recognize the trial and test that might come on them later because of it.

   One time we were over, Mr. Armstrong’s was talking about some people who haven't been converted, and he said, "You know, their attitude was, they were people who were always looking for the truth. They were always eager and anxious to learn truth." Now he said, "I wasn't that way. In fact," he said, "I got angry when my wife confronted me with truth." So he said, "At least in my case, in many cases when people are first confronted with truth, they have the attitude Paul described in Romans that we'll read shortly — they have an enmity against God. They don't want to be subject to God's law. They don't want God's way to be right. They don't want to keep Saturday. They don't want to keep holy days that are recognized or thought of in the world as Jewish. They don't want to go against the majority and give up days that are pagan."

   How about it when you first heard the truth? Were you kind of hoping it wasn't so and kind of wishing you could disprove it and kind of wishing you could get away from it and you could get around it and wishing that, you know, you're not gonna have to pay that tithe and you're not gonna have to keep those holy days and that Saturday?

   Well, there is one group that immediately when they hear the word, they don't recognize the seriousness of it, the future trouble that it might bring on them, the hardship of overcoming and growing and changing. And these people are surface Christians. It's just the lighter part of the truth that ever sinks into their life. They don't have root in themselves. They never really did know and know that they know all these truths.

   I remember one elder back in the Midwest that went out, and later on somebody was talking to him and he said, "Well, you know, I always did have some questions about that tithing anyway." Well, he was one that is described here in verse 20: "Hears the word immediately with joy receives it, yet he never did really know and know that he knows truth of God. Know the truth enough to lay down your life for it. Be that absolutely positive about God's way and God's truth.

   Well, he didn't have root in himself. He only endured for a while, but then when it's a little difficult or costs you anything or a little persecution because of this way of life, and they get offended. It's happened to a lot of people in the last ten years.

   Well, there's another group mentioned here though. "He also that received seed among the thorns." Is that one of us? Maybe that's you or me. These are people who are called but they're not chosen. They fall out. They drop out by the wayside.

   Okay, here's one that receives seed among the thorns. They hear the word. The care of this world — pleasures, materialism, whatever the distractions and divisions of this world are, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, having a new home, having that great job, making an idol out of something — the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.

   When you look back over your years in God's church and you remember how you hungered and thirsted after righteousness to begin with and you couldn't wait to get that literature and you devoured those booklets and you devoured that Correspondence Course and that magazine, and now you say, "Well, we just have so much to read. I just can't keep up with all of it." And here's the world choking the word.

   A few years ago back in Kansas City we had a district conference and I asked all the men to bow their heads and I asked, "How many of you have been praying at least half an hour a day?" And I said, "Well, how many of you have been studying at least half an hour a day?" Twice as many had been praying as had been studying. Well, to me that means people like to talk to God; they just don't like for Him to talk to them as much. You know, you ought to have two mouths and one ear if that's accurate. But that isn't the way God made us, you know. God gave you two ears and one mouth. It's obvious you ought to listen twice as much as you talk. But why would it be if people would pray twice as much as they would study?

   What chokes the word? You know, I've been surprised since I've been here in Pasadena what some people call keeping the Sabbath day. I've got a few questions to ask you a little later so you can kind of evaluate how much you're really converted.

   What's your attitude about the Sabbath? If you're spiritual and you're growing spiritually and you're really trying to overcome and change, you really look forward to the Sabbath. You hate to see it end. You love to go to Bible study and you love to go to church and you're really anxious for the Sabbath to come every week. But if you're fleshly and carnal and not very spiritual, it's just the opposite, you know. You hate to see the Sabbath roll around and you want to know what all you can do on the Sabbath. "Well, is it alright to fish on the Sabbath? Is it alright to go hunting on the Sabbath? Is it alright to do this and that and..."

   You don't have time to do any of those. You've got so few Sabbaths left before your whole trial's over with. You don't have time to worry about whether you can do those on the Sabbath or not. I guarantee you can't do all those on the Sabbath. You better get your nose in the Bible and start studying and praying. You're gonna be a king and a priest judging five cities within a few years. You don't have time to be fishing on Sabbath day.

   What do your Sabbaths consist of? Lying around, whiling away the Sabbath? It's a long day that you just kind of pass away as easily, as quickly as you can? You kind of wish God might intercede and give you two Sabbaths every week? Well, I wish we had two Sabbaths every week. I could use them. I'd enjoy them.

   Well, the dead giveaway on this seed that's called but not chosen — the care of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word. They have been people who have been fruitful, so they were really converted, but now they become unfruitful. And that seed gets choked out by thorns. So they fall by the wayside. They're not chosen either.

   But then there's the one that receives the seed into the good ground. He hears the word, understands it, bears fruit, brings forth — a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty.

   Well, you know, in the New Testament, several times, not just once, it says many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 20:16 reminds you of that all over again. If you've been in the church very long, all you have to do is think back. You know that's accurate. Many have been called. How many are still in the process of perhaps being chosen? None of us are chosen yet. And God said to Paul he was a chosen vessel in Matthew 9, or Acts 9 excuse me. Apparently there are some individuals that God knows they're going to make it, therefore He says they are chosen already.

   I'd like to read a few sections out of the autobiography of Mr. Herbert Armstrong. So let me say right here something about conversion that most people do not understand. The repentance required as God's condition to being truly converted by receiving God's Holy Spirit is something far different than most people suppose. It is infinitely more than merely seeing God's truth, or some of it, and being good enough to accept and embrace it. Is that what happened to you? You saw points of truth and you were good enough to accept and embrace it? You know that's not conversion.

   Turn back to the book of Job. And in a sense, I think God put the book of Job in the Bible as a warning to second-generation Christians or people who have grown up in the truth and they've known God by the hearing of the ear. They've heard Him preached Sabbath after Sabbath and Bible study after Bible study. And yet they've never been converted because until God's Spirit begins to make God real to you, until God's Spirit begins to convict you and reprove you for not going the way you know in your head is right, until God's Spirit begins its process of converting you, all the head knowledge in the world doesn't convert you.

   Job 42. You think back over the book of Job. His religion offended his neighbors. Is that what God's truth is supposed to do to you? They might not like your Sabbath, and they might not like the fact you don't have your Christmas tree out and you don't have your Easter egg hunts. They might not like the fact that, you know, you go off to holy days. But your religion shouldn't offend your neighbors, you know. You should be a good neighbor. God's way should make you the best neighbor in the neighborhood.

   But Job's religion offended his neighbors because Job was overmuch righteous. Of course there's a warning back in one of Solomon's writings about don't be overmuch righteous, which he certainly didn't have to worry about. But a lot of people do, you know. They can't be righteous without being over-righteous, self-righteous, without being aloof from others, holier than others. You know, it says there's a generation, "how lofty are their eyes," and they say, "Don't come near me, I'm more righteous than you." And when you're around somebody that's self-righteous, you feel ill at ease, you feel inferior. And yet God's religion — God says let each esteem others better than themselves.

   So there's something wrong with somebody's religion when it makes everybody around them ill at ease and when it causes them to have to go through what Job went through. There's really something bad with your religion. But there are people who've been through a religion in their earlier years that built this righteousness into their nature.

   I know as a Baptist, having gone to the Baptist churches every Sunday, every Sunday, every Sunday, and my name is on the record books for attendance — Baptist Training Union, Vacation Bible School, whatever they had, I was in it. Every time I'd go to Sunday school and church in the afternoon, you know, my halo would just get a little brighter. I'd just be a little bit more holier than everybody else. I was always thankful I wasn't like everybody else, you know. I was a righteous, holy Baptist. We were better than the Methodists, and better than the Church of Christ, and better than a lot of the others.

   Well, Satan's religions are made to build that into you, to make you feel holy and righteous. And if you've grown up in a Protestant background, more than likely that's been built into you.

   Well, you know, God inspired the young man Elihu to come and tell Job the way he was. "Hey Job, something's wrong in your religion. It isn’t loving your neighbors. Look how they feel about you."

   God had to bring Job down to size. And Job admitted that he had known about God in a sense as a power, that He could do everything, that He knew everything. But now he begins to see himself and he says, "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me," things way beyond my puny brain to grasp. "But boy, I sure had a big mouth. I mean, I have just challenged and I was going to justify and I was going to talk straight out to anybody. Here I am, uttering what I didn't understand, things way beyond my brain."

   "So God, I just beseech You to hear me and I'll just speak one last thing. One last thing, God: I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear." And that's what happens to young people growing up in the church for years and years and years. They've heard of God by the hearing of the ear. They've gained the knowledge about the true God, the doctrines of God, the way of life of God, the purpose of God. All the young people could say that. They've heard of God by the hearing of the ear.

   But sooner or later God's Spirit has to do its work on you to bring you through the experience of conversion. And then Job said, "But now, since You've revealed Yourself through all these great things of Your creation and Your works and Your might, but now mine eye sees You."

   "So God, when my eye really sees You, instead of just hearing of You by the ears, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." That's a real converted man right there. He really finally came to see God totally, and then he saw puny man totally. So then he just asked God to forgive him and help him to be different. So he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes.

   And Mr. Armstrong mentions in the Autobiography how God brought him down that way. "It's infinitely more than merely seeing God's truth or some of it and being good enough to accept and embrace it. It's something altogether different from merely agreeing with certain doctrines. How many who profess to be spiritually converted and have come into God's church have had that kind of conversion? You saw the truth, you accepted it with some elation or joy, maybe immediately you received it with gladness, but you're not truly changed. You don't endure to bring forth fruit. Conversion is much more than that."

   "Whoever you are, you might have or you have had an idol. Now how do you know what your idol has been? Maybe when you look at the Ten Commandments, you think that's one area that you certainly don't have to repent of because you certainly haven't had any idols. Well, let's just take a look and see. You had another god before the true living God. It might be your hobby or your pleasure. It might be your favorite sport. Whatever is choking the word, you know, is an idol above conversion. Whatever has filled your interest and your time. Whatever pastime it is, it might even be your wife, your husband, your children."

   I've known people who were called, and when their children came of age to live their own life or be converted and they decided they wanted to see what life was about for themselves for a while before God converted them, and parents were so disappointed and discouraged that they quit — deacons, elders. So it ends up being proven that their children were an idol.

   "It could be your job. If it was first in your thoughts and affections and interests, it might be your own vanity, personal appearance, maybe business or profession. Maybe your main goal in life. Maybe your opinion of your family or your group or club or social or business associates and what they think of you. Whatever it is, that idol must be crushed, smashed, literally torn out of your mind, even though it hurts more than having all your teeth pulled out and perhaps the jawbone too."

   How about your conversion, if that's what it really was? And then he mentions what his associates thought of him and wanting to be successful, wanting to be somebody among those who thought they were somebody. So he mentioned how God began to bring him down and he was like King Midas in reverse. Everything he touched turned to nothing. "The old thing, the bigger they come, the harder they fall" happened. All of these companies that he had these contracts with came smashing down.

   "But just like God whittled self-righteous Job down to size, what about God? God drove strutting King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon out to eat grass with wild beasts. God struck down arrogant, persecuting Saul with blindness so He could open his eyes, convert him and change his name to the apostle Paul. And He did the same thing with Mr. Armstrong, and for 28 long years he ended up in poverty and humiliation and hunger."

   And yet God wanted to be sure he was deeply converted, totally converted. God didn't just let him have that for a year or two because of the position He was going to put him in. What if God had just allowed that to happen a year or two and then started building up this great work with all the quality and beauty and wealth, and then all of a sudden the old man came back with Mr. Armstrong instead of him staying buried? Imagine what would happen. God wanted to be sure that that was all the way crushed.

   "He knew He could never entrust me to handle millions of dollars of His money as long as my heart remained set on personal status or self-importance." And of course then he goes on to explain it's not wrong to have nice things, but it's wrong if it's an idol and it's what your life's ambition is. God gave Job back twice as much as he had before he started.

   And then he talks about the way you receive God's Spirit in portions, probably a very small portion at first, like a grain of mustard seed of God's Holy Spirit upon real repentance, faith and baptism. "Repentance is far more than remorse. I know a man who could shed almost buckets of tears and remorse, but always tomorrow is another day, and he hadn't really changed at all."

   "As I said, God kept me in poverty not only a day or a year. I might have reverted right back to the same old ways. Repent means to turn from, change. Doesn't mean to shed tears. Doesn't mean just to be sorry in your heart. It means to produce fruit showing that you've changed and repented."

   You might notice in Matthew chapter 3, one of the scriptures I've mentioned. And I know there are people like this that — these aren't just in Jesus' day where people weren't really converted. There are a lot of examples in the Bible of false conversions, and they are there for a lesson because we have a lot of them today.

   You look back at the time Israel came out of Egypt. A mixed multitude came out with them, and that mixed multitude was always influencing them and leading them astray. And Satan follows the same system by implanting unconverted people in God's church today, by planting people that have had spirit problems in the past in the church, by implanting self-righteous people, by implanting Pentecostal spirit, emotional-type spirit. Satan infiltrates the church in many ways to try to lead off people, upset the work. That mixed multitude coming out with the Israelites.

   Now notice here in Matthew chapter 3: "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, 'O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meat'" — suitable evidence, proof — "for repentance."

   It isn't an emotional, temporary sorrow. It isn't just an on-the-spot emotional sorrow. "Bring forth therefore fruits." Show by evidence God requires you to turn and go the other direction for a while. So these people spontaneously wanted to come out for baptism, and yet they were only wanting to escape the trouble ahead. And there are people that are baptized in the church today for that reason.

   I remember a man in one of the church areas. A man at work kept preaching at him about prophecy, kept telling him about what's going to happen in the world, kept unloading on him prophecies out of our literature. Finally this man decided by the way things were going, this man really knew what he was talking about. So, "Well, let's see. What do I have to do to escape all this trouble? Well, alright, I guess I can keep that Sabbath. Well, I guess I'll keep those holy days."

   But you know, later it should have been obvious he wasn't converted because he bellyached about what all he had to give up in order to keep the Sabbath, how high he could have gone in that company had it not been for the Sabbath, what all he could have done in business if it hadn't been for holy days, and how much money he'd have if it hadn't been for tithing. "But boy, considering what's all ahead, it's worth it though still."

   Well, I guess we have people today that have been baptized to flee from the wrath to come. It's not real conversion. Not at all.

   You might notice back in Romans. Of course, when you discuss baptism with anyone, there are several chapters here that are really outstanding chapters about conversion. In Romans 6, we'll scan a few verses here. "How shall we, that are dead to sin" — verse 2 — (Romans 6:2-16) "live any longer therein?" See, you quit the life that you've had in the past of going the way of people or the world or the flesh. You don't live anymore the way everybody else lives. You turn to live by every word of God, led by God's Spirit.

   Why it says, "We are buried with him by baptism in the dead. So baptism is a picture of a burial. It's a funeral. You're so sick and tired and fed up with the old way of living by the flesh and by the crowd and by habit of people about you that you bury that old man. You want to live the way God says, by every word of God, by God's Spirit, by Sabbath-keeping and tithe-paying and holy day-keeping and overcoming the nature and putting on Christ.

   "We're buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so" — when you come up out of that watery grave, that's the promise of your future resurrection if you keep burying the old man — "but you should walk in newness of life."

   After you are baptized, you can't just be the same old person except now you are a waterlogged Christian or waterlogged sinner. "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." So baptism is like digging a hole in the ground and planting something.

   "Our old man has been crucified." We don't want to live by the flesh. We don't want to live by human, physical, material, temporary desires. That old man of the flesh is crucified. The body of sin is to be buried, a symbol of wanting to destroy it, "that henceforth we should not serve sin." So if you're dead in a watery grave, you're freed from sin, just like a man that's dead can't be tempted by sin anymore. So if we be dead with Christ, then we're going to live with Him.

   So he says in verse 12, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." So you still have the nature there. You're still the same habits and personality and physical human, but it's up to you by God's Spirit to not let sin rule you and lead you, not let it be the power to influence your life. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body. "Don’t obey it in the lusts thereof. Don’t yield your members" — rule your members by God's Spirit, make them go the right way — "instruments of unrighteousness, don’t yield them that way for sim. Yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. For sin wouldn’t have dominion over you" if you are really living by God's Spirit and staying out from under the penalty of the law.

   Why? Verse 16: "Don’t you know to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, what servants do you obey?" What your eyes want to see, where your legs want to go, what your nature wants to do? Or do you obey God's word and God's Spirit? "Why to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are."

   Now you might kid yourself you are God's servant, but you're not if you yield your members as servants to your flesh, to the world about you and to Satan. Then you're not servants of God. Ye yield your servants of sin that’s unto death." Now we were servants of sin in the past, but then we've been converted supposedly, and now we're led by God's Spirit and living God's law, God's way.

   Now in chapter 7, Paul shows this overcoming battle. And Paul doesn't say here, "I used to be carnal, but now that I've been baptized and I've been in the church a long time, now I'm, you know, not carnal anymore." Here's some 25 years after he's converted, and he says verse 14, "I am carnal,” doesn’t say was, I am sold under sin."

   That doesn't excuse people just knowingly and weakly and willingly going right on with their flesh. So, some people use this chapter that way though, and that's not what it's here for. It's here to show you that even though a Christian sins and has to fight the battle of ruling his nature, it's not an excuse to just willingly go the way of sin.

   Now in chapter 8, he says in verse 5 (Romans 8:5-13), "How do you know whether you're after the spirit? How do you know whether God's Spirit is in you and you're converted?" Well, he says, "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." So if your mind is always on the things of the flesh and you're always wanting to do the things of the flesh and always having to fight yourself hours, days, weeks, months, on and on and on, you're trying to fight a spiritual battle without spiritual weaponry.

   "They that are after the flesh, their minds are always on the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit, their minds are always on the things of the Spirit." What about on the Sabbath? What about a Feast day? What’s so great about the Feast? "You get to go to a resort area and stay in a nice motel and have great meals and meet a lot of other young guys or young girls and date and everything." Well, that's not the spiritual part of the Feast. That's after the flesh. Now those things are fine as long as they don't take precedence over the spiritual things about the Feast.

   They that are after the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit. The sermons and the fellowship with Christian brethren are the main things for them at the Feast. The Sabbath day, studying and praying and going to Bible study and church, those are the main things for them.

   Then he goes on to say verse 6: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." So somewhere down the line you have to change because if you go on with that fleshly pursuit, then the flesh dies and that's the end of it. So the carnal mind is death. "But to be spiritually minded..."

   Notice, if you really have been living by God's Spirit, you should have peace. You should have a more abundant life than you ever did when you were physical-minded. To be spiritually minded isn't penance. It's not "give up, do without." To be spiritually minded is life, real living, abundant life, and peace without all the plagues and curses and sufferings and penalties.

   "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God." Now you have to understand what he's saying there because many cases, the carnal mind thinks it's worshiping God. It has respect for God, it praises God in song and talks great platitudes about God, and yet in God's sight it's still enmity against God. So where's the giveaway? How do you know where the carnal mind is enmity against God?

   Well, just enter a little authority and government into the picture and you'll find out. As long as the carnal mind is allowed to worship God as it pleases, it will do it. But if the carnal mind is told how to worship God, it's not gonna do it. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy"? No, it ain't gonna do it. Keep God's holy days? No, they're gonna keep Christmas and Easter and Halloween and all that. Pay a tithe? Oh, no.

   So a carnal mind doesn't show necessarily in its outward expression about God, but the carnal mind is a dead giveaway by its attitude towards God's law. Read the rest of the verse: "The carnal mind is hostile, enmity against God: because it’s not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

   So one of the dead giveaways of a converted mind is how it's subject to the law of God. The carnal mind, even though it might take Christ's name and worship the way it pleases and call itself Christian, if it's not subject to the law of God, if it can't be, then it's a dead giveaway it's carnal.

   So he says in verse 8: "So then they that are in the flesh..." Now Israel back in the Old Testament, when they tried to live God's way in the flesh, they couldn't please God. Young people as they grow up in God's church today trying to live God's way in the flesh — you know, as long as you’re in the flesh, you can't please God totally, perfectly, because the flesh is contrary. It's human. It's soaked up Satan's nature. And that's why Jesus said, you know, when a man came to Him and said, "Good Master, what good thing must I do?" and He said, "Well, don't call me good." In other words, as long as He was in the flesh with that human nature, you couldn't call it good.

   How about any of us before we were baptized? You realize that? It doesn't make any difference how bad you were, how evil and how wicked you were. Do you realize as long as you were in the flesh you couldn't please God? You realize there was the potential in your flesh to do the same thing other people have done in the flesh?

   And when you bury that old fleshly man, in a sense you were saying, "Well God, I may not have lived long enough to get involved in all these things the flesh does, but boy, I believe when You say these are the works of the flesh, I believe it. I don't have to experience it. If You say the flesh works adultery, fornication, covetousness, I believe You, God. I see other people who haven't had the restraint of the church and the family and the truth, and I see what the flesh works, and it'll do it in my flesh. So I don't want to live by the flesh, God. I want to live by the Spirit, by Your word."

   And you bury that old man in a watery grave. "For they that are in the flesh cannot please God." That ought to be a scripture that strikes anybody that's not baptized. As long as you're in the flesh, try as you will, try as hard as you can, do all you can with your self-will, but as long as you're in the flesh, you can't please God the way you ought to.

   See, when your converted and begotten you’re not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwell in you. But, if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he’s none of his. And if Christ be in you," then you can keep your body from sinning. "The body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is alive because you’re living the way of righteousness."

   Now notice in verse 13 he says you've got to use that Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body if you're going to live forever.

   Now one of the ways that you can test somebody's carnal mind or their attitude or whether they're really converted or not is their attitude towards the church. You might notice back in Matthew 18. A lot of people have this independent Christian attitude that, "Well, you know, it's just God, me and the Bible. You know, I have a mind and I have understanding so I can take God's word, and you know, God, me and the Bible, and that's all we need."

   Well, Christ built the church, and He says the church is the mother of all of us, and He says God chose by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. So a lot of people's lack of conversion is more easily shown when they come to their attitude to the church.

   Matthew 18:15: "Moreover if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone." So this is God's way of settling trespasses, and that's the key word — trespass. This is a trespass of one brother against another, unfairness in a deal or offense by comment or gossip or whatever. Brother trespasses against another brother. Then the way to solve it is just the two of them to get together alone and iron it out. "And if that brother hears you." That's great. You’re both responding to love and God's Spirit and the mother, the church, and brotherhood, and you gain your brother.

   But maybe the brother's not so sure that the accusation is accurate, so he won't hear you — "well then take two or thee other brothers that have been trespassed against or that are aware of the trespass, and then God's law of two or three witnesses establishing every word is in effect. "And then what if he won’t hear brothers coming to him? Will then if he neglects to hear them, then you tell it to the church."

   Now what if someone's attitude is independent, antagonistic, kind of rebellious toward the church? Well, look what He says: "If he neglect to hear the church, let him be to you as an heathen man and a publican."

   If the man didn't recognize the part the church plays in salvation, if he doesn't realize the church is a mother and we're little babes inside a mother, depending on this mother for nourishment and protection, for feeding — what all does a little baby in a mother depend on that mother for? But you know, some of us act toward the church like we're hard-headed, independent, rebellious people on up in teen years, up into the 20s and 30s and 40s, and we're spiritual rebels against the mother.

   You know, it's the church's job to correct, to keep the unity of the faith. You remember back in Ephesians, it's their job to maintain the unity of the faith, to bring everybody to the stature of the fullness of Christ. But you know, a lot of people later on after they're converted, they forget and they think they're put in the church to judge the church, to run the church.

   So we have people who are supposedly converted and they say, "Well, you know, I don't think Mr. Armstrong ought to be spending all that money traveling overseas," or "I don't think we ought to have this magazine," or "I don't think we ought to be spending money here or there." And that's been that way for 28 years that I know of.

   We just forget that we're a little begotten babe inside a mother. And how much does the little begotten babe inside the mother tell the mother what to do? Tell her what to feed it? Tell her where to go? You know, that'd be ridiculous. And yet that's what we all are. We're begotten babes inside a mother, just like little babies in the mothers. And we're not put in the church to sit in judgment of the church, find fault with the church, try to run the church.

   The one way a person can tell whether somebody is really converted or not is their attitude towards the church. Anybody that comes to the place in their Christian life where they won't hear the church, then Jesus just plainly said, "Let him be to you like any tax collector, like any Gentile." Not treat him like an enemy, but just treat him like anybody else that's unconverted, because he is too.

   Now you might note back in II Thessalonians chapter 3. And I think when you get right down to it, if you read Mr. Armstrong's Autobiography, you're gonna find out the theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is government. And I remember him saying on a broadcast up in Portland 28 years ago, "God will not save a single soul He doesn't govern."

   And you find more about government in the New Testament in the Bible than you do anything else. But how many people are really conquered by God? That have really learned the lesson of government. They're really under authority. They're pliable and yielded and humble.

   You know, one of the strongest churches in Paul's ministry was the Philippian church, and in chapter 4 he makes a statement about them that's hidden away in the King James translation, and he says, "Let your yieldedness be known unto all men." That's why they were such an outstanding church. They were very much in cooperation with the apostle, very much yielded to his leadership. He wanted them to be an example to all the other churches because of their pliability, their yieldedness. They were clay that hadn't gotten stiff and unpliable.

   But that happens to a lot of us. The longer we're in the church, then we get the feeling like God has used us a great deal, and then we are in danger of doing like Miriam and Aaron and saying, "Moses, you take too much on you. The whole congregation is holy. You think God has only use you?" And then God can't use us. We've become puffed up and proud, and we're not little in our own eyes like God said to Saul.

   Notice here in II Thessalonians chapter 3 (II Thessalonians 3:6). Here Paul says, "If any man doesn’t obey our word by this epistle" — so Paul is going to show the Thessalonian church how they should recognize people among them that are just not really converted — "if a man wouldn’t obey our word by this epistle, note that man" — and that's the Greek word to put a sign on. That's where the Puritans got that idea of having sinners carry signs around their neck years ago. If you were a liar, they had a sign you carried around your neck: "Liar." If you were an adulterer or an adulteress or a thief, they just made you carry a sign around with that. They thought they got it from this scripture here.

   But God says if anybody supposedly in the Thessalonian church wouldn't obey the word by the epistle from the apostle, then put a note on that person, put a sign on that person, "and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." He ought to be ashamed. He's rebelling against his mother. He's spiritually cursing his mother and smiting his mother and disrespecting his mother. Put a note on any man like that. Avoid them. It will rub off on you. It can affect you. You're still fleshly and it can make you become that way. And the purpose is so he can learn his lesson and be ashamed. "Yet not counting him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."

   Back in Luke 19. Here's another example. Here's the parable of the pounds, and the one was given... Well, one increased fivefold and one tenfold. And notice the key of the story though down in verse 27. Luke 19:27: "Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me."

   So the key of Christ's enemies compared to ones that produce fruit once again was a matter of authority. These were independent Christians. They weren't going to have God reign over them by His church, by His ministers, by His laws or any other way. So those are Christ's enemies. They won't have the authority and the rule over them.

   Now you might want to jot down and notice the contrast of the Ethiopian eunuch riding along in the chariot, and one of God's ministers goes up to him and says, "Well, do you understand what you read?" And he's reading Isaiah 53, and he's been up to Jerusalem to worship and he's on his way back home. He's got the right book and the right chapter, reading about the right person. When he's asked, "Do you understand what you read?" he says, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" He recognized God's system of leadership in the church through an individual. And we know that's true in Ephesians. God has set in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, all for the perfecting of the saints.

   You might notice back in Luke 13, and we'll end with this account here. Luke 13. "Then one said to him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" Is it really a true proverb that, you know, "just hang in there, we'll all make it"? Don't worry about whether that old man's been buried and whether you're really overcoming. You know, God doesn't promise consolation prizes for those who tried to overcome. You don't find any statement in the Bible that "he had a good attitude and tried" will inherit this or that. It's always "he that made it," "that did it," "he that overcame."

   So the question is asked of Jesus, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" And you look back over the years you've been in the church and see how many have been called and how few there are left to be chosen from among those who have been called. "Are there few that be saved?"

   Jesus said to them — not "just hang in there, you'll all make it." Well, He didn't say that. Jesus said, "Strive" — the Greek word is "agonize." You do that. Remember the old scripture about "the kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force"? What you're saying — the dead fish won't float in. It's going to take effort. It's going to take the power of God's Spirit. It's going to take someone that's deeply converted. It's going to take someone that lives Psalm 51 in attitude regularly and not just occasionally when a major thing overtakes them or a major battle they have with themselves.

   Jesus says, agonize to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." We've seen that happen in the years we've been in the church. There have been many who've been called, who've been trying to seek to enter in, and they haven't made it.

   "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; and he’ll answer and say, well, I never did know you. Your name never was written in the book of life. You never were converted. You just went along with truth like you always were willing to do. You're always good enough to do what you knew was right. You just followed your mate into the church. You just followed your brother. You were just baptized to escape the wrath to come. You were ignorant of God's righteousness, so you went about to establish your own righteousness, and therefore you didn't submit yourself to God's righteousness. You never did learn the lesson of Job."

   So there are gonna be people when that time comes — they're going to be without a wedding garment. He's gonna answer and say, "I don't know who are you? Where have you been? I've never known you."

   "Then you will begin to say, will Lord, we have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you taught in our streets. But he’ll say, I don’t know from where you have ever come; depart from me; everybody that turns from the flesh and the way of man and the way of the world and forsakes the truth and the law of God.

   So it isn't an easy way, and it's not going to be easy ahead. You know, if you think how many people have failed and fallen who've been called but haven't stayed in so they could be chosen, in the easy way it's been in the last years, what do you think it's going to be like in the next few years? The time is gonna really test you. If you're on rocky soil, you're gonna really find out in the next few years. If you're letting the thorns choke the word, you're gonna really show that in the next few years. If you're not really using God's Spirit and really living that Psalm 51 attitude regularly, you know, you may be there without a wedding garment, highly embarrassed, speechless.

   So I hope all of us can examine ourselves and look back over our conversion experience and get back in and read the Autobiography and read some of the things coming out in the new Beginning and Growth of the Worldwide Church of God history Mr. Armstrong's writing. Because now is the time to really be building the foundation for the troubles ahead.

   If you have questions about whether you've ever been converted or not, we have plenty of elders and ministers, and you need to be counseling with someone to be sure.