Herbert W Armstrong

   I have some very good news. I will not tell any jokes from the Denver Road Memorial joke book, so I know that'll all make you happy. I will not have any jokes for that today. Please be praying for Mrs. Dai. It's very interesting that we have people that are having difficulties in the church and occasionally don't hear about some of the problems and some of the things that do happen. We have one of the young babies just born into the congregation. That they were afraid the child has some real major difficulties. And so we prayed over and anointed the child and went back to the doctor within two weeks. Evidentially there is no problem whatsoever, whatever the problems they suspected is not there. There are other instances of dealings going on in the congregation. So we need to continue to pray and understand that even though you may not hear each week the healings that are taking place, there are many healings taking place and God is intervening and he is guiding and directing his church.

   You know, we are a nation of wimps. To give up and quit is an acceptable alternative in this life today in the United States of America. To be wishy washy is an acceptable character trait today in this country. You know, Vietnam showed the world that when the going gets really tough and then we have to commit ourselves that the United States of America will quit rather than fulfill a commitment to the end. The Korean War, which was the very first war that this country has ever lost since it was founded as a nation, was the start of the collapse of our national resolve to keep our commitments.

   One of the signs of the end time. I suppose you all know that Gibraltar is on its way to being negotiated over to Spain, as I mentioned a few weeks ago. And just this last week, Mrs. Thatcher signed over Hong Kong to the Chinese government so it’s going through a process now to being turned over to the Chinese government. We some years ago signed over the Panama Canal, and it's all culminating at this time that this happening right around the end of this century in the late 1990s. This country has lost its resolve to keep its commitments.

   President Truman fired General MacArthur in the '50s because MacArthur wanted to stand firm and finish the job. No, we can't do that, he fired him. President Eisenhower had to institute a creed in the military after the Korean War because so many Americans gave up and actually aided the enemy, that a creed of the American fighting men had to be made up to tell them that they weren't supposed to surrender. We are a nation of quitters. From the government down to the very lowest in the United States of America.

   It's a far cry from Patrick Henry's statement that he made before the Revolutionary Convention in Virginia in 1775 in the resolution to establish a state of defense in Virginia against Great Britain. This is what he said: "I know not what course others may take. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death." And he stood firm in that resolve. One of the founding fathers of our country, if he could see what was happening today in this country, would turn over in his grave if he could. To look at the country he founded with the principles, the philosophy based on the salvation of God, and then to see what is happening today and how much we have degenerated in just 200, a little over 200 years.

   It's a nation that actually called the presidential candidate, Mr. Mondale openly. A whip I believe that no president could ever win an election if the vice presidential candidate has a deeper voice than he does when the vice presidential candidate is a woman. And I'm not saying that to be funny cause I never am funny anyhow. But it is so true. It was, you know, they would play on the radio the excerpts of the speech from President Reagan and then they play one for Mondale. President Reagan would get up and he would talk and he would say what he had to say. Then they would play Mondale. OK, for this nation, and that's awful. And it's like, you know, as the, as you know this, maybe during the elections, his voice got deeper and deeper because he was taking voice lessons so his voice could be more resonant. They would be able to speak to people because he knew and he understood that the news media said that he was a wimp. And that's the presidential candidate they were calling that, someone who was to be selected maybe to be the leader of this country.

   They were saying that they put Mrs. what's her name, Ferraro on the ticket, so they would have someone with strength on the ticket. They insulted him. They tore him down. And he never said one word. Our nation is being trained today to be quitters. Our nation will not, would not, and cannot stay a course unto the end. We give up. That's the way of our nation.

   Take a look at the examples of divorces in the U.S. of A. Very, very high rate over 50%. Because if a marriage doesn't work out as it was 100 years ago, you would say to the end I was talking to someone from Armenia yesterday, Syria, that area, Armenians. That they would not divorce, no matter what the situation in the family, they would not divorce. Divorce was not a part of their society. That the Armenians who moved to the United States of America, however, changed that because see divorce is quitting. It's just giving up. Say, I don't like it this way. I'm gonna try it again and it's not uncommon in the United States of America to have 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 marriages. Go for a year or two and then quit and move on to something else.

   That's exactly what it is. The habit of quitting. Whether you understand it or not is integral in your part of life, in your life here in the United States of America. It's built into you. Satan stirs it up in you. Satan wants you to learn that way. Satan strives to make you a quitter. Satan wants you to quit in anything that you commit yourself to, no matter what it is. And if we learn to quit in this world, and these physical things that we do day by day, then there's a chance it's what Satan is hoping for. That when the real spiritual trials come, we will quit. That's what he's trying to inculcate into it. That's the thought that he wants to put into it. He wants us to lack commitment in the physical areas so that we will lack commitment in the spiritual areas.

   Satan hopes that if you get in the habit of every time something happens, every time something comes up in your life, you say I can't, I won't, I, I just can't do it. I quit. It's just too much for me, it's too much of a burden, it's too much this, it's too much that, and you can start reasoning in your mind that it is best to quit and you can reason yourself to that. You can bring yourself to that. You can convince yourself of that, that that is the best way. Then hopefully that will carry over into your spiritual life, but you have a spiritual problem, I just, I just can't, I can't do that and I I just can't overcome this sin or I can't change it this way. I can't do this, I can't do that. Satan wants you to feel that way. Satan is looking for you to change so that you will become like him, the great quitter.

   He was part of the government of God at one time. His throne was right there with God. God set his throne up on this earth so that Satan could come here and rule over the earth. Have rule over the physical. And he quit. He tried to take over the throne of God because he didn't like his throne. He wanted to quit and become better than God. Come up over God and do God's job.

   God has called us to a life of commitment. You know, that's why you're called. You're committed to something. That was a part of your baptismal counseling. You committed to live God's way. You committed to do what God wanted you to do. You committed to live by His laws and by his way of life. You have committed yourself to God Almighty. You have committed yourself to follow Him through all eternity. Not just until you die, but to all eternity.

   Part of your baptismal counseling should have been the scripture in Luke 9, and if you'll turn there, please, Luke 9. This is a scripture which should have been read to you, or you should have been asked to read. And explain to you what you are committing yourself to. Why you are committing yourself. And the fact that there is a commitment in Luke 9 in verse 57.

   Jesus Christ speaking here. When a certain man came up to him, says in Luke 9:57, came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Christ, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the year have nests, and the Son of Man has not where to lay his head. Now we see from other scriptures that Christ did have a home. He did own at least one home and maybe more. But that's not what it's talking about. This is a statement to tell him it's not easy. You say you want to follow me, but look, it's, it's gonna be tough. It's not an easy life that you're committing to that you want to do.

   And then somebody else that doesn't say what happened to them, whether he followed him or what happened. But another walked up to him in verse 59 and says, follow me, no, excuse me, he said unto another, follow me, but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and to bury my father. And Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, not meaning that you're supposed to leave a dead body lay rotting in the street. No, that's not what he's saying. They don't worry about that. That's over and done and passed. That's the past. Don't worry about that. But go, he says, go you and preach the kingdom of God. And that's what we're doing here today. That's why we're in the body of Christ so that the gospel can be preached and all the world at the end time for a witness, and then the end can come. And that's what you're committed to.

   Then to another, he also said in verse 61, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell, which are at my home and my house. He said, no, Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. And the day that you were baptized, you put your hand to the plow. You put your hand on a path and you committed yourself to a path that you can never ever turn around and look back. You can never take that hand away. Once you have started down that path, once you have started in the direction that God has called you to follow in doing the work of God, preaching the kingdom of God, you can never turn back. Because the turn back is eternal death.

   There's only one direction that you can go from this point on in your life, and that's forward into eternal life. Miss Pearson, where else can we go? There is no place else to go. You have committed yourself to a life of following the eternal God into eternity. That is what's lacking in the world today, commitment, maybe in some of us in the Church of God.

   Today I'd like to talk about commitment. How you can help yourself and work on yourself. And beat yourself into the fact that you must commit yourself all the way to the end. You cannot stop one day short. You can't stop one hour short. You have to go all the way to the very end. Until the time you're born into the kingdom of God.

   It's kind of interesting in Hebrew, the word commitment means to roll the stone. It's like you take this big boulder, this stone up on the top of a mountain, and then you push it off. And no one is going to get under it to stop it because it's committed to go all the way to the bottom. And it's a giant boulder coming down, crashing down a mountainside, knocking away everything in its path. Have you ever seen an avalanche? Have you ever seen, I'm sure that you've seen him on television in the movies and so forth and you see it coming down. Only Superman can get out here and stop an avalanche. But of course there is no Superman. And if you stepped out and tried to stop an avalanche, what would happen to you? Those rocks rolling down the hill. The commitment of that avalanche is so great it would just carry you away. Those rocks and the boulders would just carry you away.

   And that is, it should be your commitment to God, that you should be like an avalanche, like boulders rolling down a hill, that anything that gets in your way will be crushed and pushed out of the way and you would continue on until you get to the bottom and come to rest. And that's what you're looking for in the kingdom of God. The rest, that 1000 year rest.

   Someone called me the other day, a friend of mine, a minister and said, when are you gonna take some time off and just rest? I said, look, I said, I got a great job. All I gotta do is work all the time now, and then when I'm changed, I get 1000 years off. And we have a work to do. Just like that boulder, that's commitment. That's the way it is. Once it started, nothing stops it. That's what your commitment should be. You're committed to God now once you're committed, nothing should stop you all the way to the end and of course the end for us is the kingdom.

   We must commit ourselves to God and we must recommit ourselves to God every day. You know one thing about what I call the old timers syndrome. Sometimes after you've been around for a while, you start to get a little bit weary in well doing. You've been carrying the load for so many years. And you just say, well, you know, I've done this before. I've done this 1000 times before. The widows been around for a long time and just kind of kick back and say, you know, I got it made. You know, I know I'm gonna make it into the kingdom. I've just been doing it for so long and you know I don't have to go to the Bible studies and everybody's serving me just the way I'd like it. It's just good. And of course the day that you say I've got it made is the day that you'll probably fall flat, the day that rock will stop rolling.

   The server's entire and serving. Those who commit themselves to clubs and go to one or two clubs and then all of a sudden you don’t see them for the remainder of the year. It happens every year. Spokesman's club starts off with something like 30, 32 people by the end of the year it's usually down into the high 20s and mid 20s. Because the person said yeah at the beginning of the year, middle of the year said nay, their yeah was not yeah. Their yeah was a nay. They committed, but they couldn't carry it through to the end. Something always seems to come up.

   It's very interesting with the Graduate Club. And it selected individuals who do come to the Graduate Club that the attendance at the end of the year is almost identical as it is at the beginning of the year. Sometimes you have maybe one individual who has some major commitment in life, something else that comes up on the rides it can't make it. But usually there’s only a difference of one person from the start of the year to the. Which says something about those who are in the graduate of the leaders in the congregation. That they are committed. They’re committed all the way to the end.

   So kind of a funny thing. It seems like those people who are just recently converted are normally the ones who attend the Bible study. And there are some of the people who have been around for quite some time and do attend the Bible studies quite regularly. But unless a trial comes upon an individual you usually don't see them at the Bible study. Why is that? Is it because you've heard it all before, you know it all, and the commitment is kind of not as fervent in your mind as it was some years ago. You know that person has that first love, every place you turn, you have someone who every place you turn, every activity you see, there they are. They're always there. They never miss anything because they have that first love and they're really committed. They want to get everything they possibly can.

   So one of the most dangerous of things for those individuals who've been in the church for any length of time is the fact that you kind of get complacent the commitment sort of dies out. Oh, what, you know, what's the Bible? Who's speaking? Oh yeah, I've heard him do that before. I, I know that. I understand that. I really don't need that, uh, sin. Well, I don't have any sins. I have just this one little small one I'm working on. I think I'll just stay home tonight and work on it. That's dangerous because you can go all the way up to the end and them lose it all.

   One of the great warnings that Ezekiel had to give to the people was the fact that you can fail. Mr. Neff about three years ago wrote an article talking about that very thing where you could go all the way into the place of safety. You can be in the place of safety. And you can fail. You can be that far from the kingdom of God, and you can fail. You can go all the way up to the end through the shaking at the end time. You can go into a place of safety and because of a problem you may have never wanted to address before. And when you're brought in close contact with God's people, you may not make it.

   So you talk about many times I mentioned the individual who shows up for services and then just as the song leader gets up and says, good morning, and then or good afternoon, and they sneak in, they slide in, they come in, they sit down. Then as soon as the service is over, as soon as the amen out the door and they're gone, and you never see them again for another week. Now that person may make it into a place of safety. There may be some problems, some reason why they don't interact with the congregation. Maybe they're shy, maybe they're backwards, maybe they're just, you know, they just don't, don't feel comfortable in the congregation. What are they going to do in a place of safety? Are you gonna sneak in at the beginning of the 3 1/2 years and then sneak out at the end of the 3 1/2 years? It doesn't work that way. If you're not actively involved in the congregation, there are things that are going on, if you're not actively putting your Christianity on the line every time you're with the brethren. Then at a time that we go into the place of safety. It’s goin to be extremely difficult. Because if you're not practicing those things now, you will not be able to fulfill them in the place of safety. You certainly will not be able to fulfill that in the kingdom of God. And do you know what that means? You can't fulfill them in the kingdom of God you won’t be there and that's a very dangerous position.

   Ezekiel 33, let's start there first. Ezekiel 33, 33. Ezekiel was commissioned, and it's the commission of the church today. You can attend many churches. And the minister can sit and watch you sin. Do things wrong and we'll probably not say anything to you. Especially if it's might mean his job. That maybe the congregation pays him and if they don't like him they just vote him out and vote someone else in. Would never talk to anybody about sin, would not bring out the fact that they are sinning. But Ezekiel 33 verse 13. Ezekiel 33:13. When I shall say to the righteous. OK, we're talking now to the righteous, who are the righteous today? Well it's not the world. It's certainly not us other than. As the spirit of God makes us righteous and God's sacrifice cleanses us. For from our own righteousness. So when I say to the righteous that he shall surely live. If he trusts in his own righteousness. Now here's a man who is called converted and does have the righteousness of God, but if he trusts to his own righteousness and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered. But for his iniquity that he is committed, he shall die for it.

   So that you can be righteous for many years until you get to the point where you say, hey, you know, I'm near perfect now. You know, I can just sort of kick back and I know the Bible and uh you know I can just take it easy. And I, you know, I've been doing these things for so many years and I had been so righteous for so long, you know, and God must really recognize how great I am. Then the sin comes into your life because self righteousness is a sin. Everything that ever happened in your life as far as the righteousness is forgiven, forgotten and this is the unpardonable sin we're talking about here because it's not repented of. Of course a person can do this and right near the unrepent of that turn away from that. But God is talking about the individual here who goes for years and years and is very righteous and then all of a sudden at the very end he sort of drops off, he loses his commitment to God.

   In the verse 18 (Ezekiel 33:18). When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall even die thereby. Whenever you turn from your righteousness to commit iniquity, you'll die in death, talking about the second death.

   Ezekiel 3:20. The basic commission to Ezekiel, Ezekiel 3. Ezekiel 3 verse 20. Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity. This righteous man, he turns from his righteousness, he does commit iniquity. I'll lay a stumbling block before him. He shall die. And because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin. And his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but, but his blood will I require your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned. Also you have delivered your own soul. You have delivered your life and yourself.

   Because if you are sinning and something is happening in the congregation, I have to say, look, we need to look at this, we need to look at that, we need to change in this area of our lives. We need to work on this and sometimes we have to come to you as the sermon has pointed out, to say, you know, here's something that's happening in your life. You really need to take a look at something that you need to work on. Something that personally applies to you. And if I've done that and I've come to you or any of the ministers of God and brought that to you and you don't do anything about it. We pray for you, but we have fulfilled the requirement that God has placed on us. We have told you we may hurt because we see you leaving or committing your sin or doing whatever it is, but we have fulfilled our requirement before God.

   And you can go for years. You can go for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. And of course if you turn, if you just sort of kick back, if you lose that commitment to God. Then you may be in very dire troubles. For those who have fought the fight. For many, many years they are sometimes the hardest. To bring something to them or something to their attention that they need to work on. It's so sad if we can come that close to the end and then not make it then break the commitment, then quit when victory is in sight.

   I say just looking around seeing what's happening in the world, the prophecies that are being fulfilled. That we are coming much closer, much, much closer to the end. As you see the signs of Mr. Armstrong mentioned in his booklet. The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy about what would happen. To the gates, the sea gates of our enemy at the end time. We would possess them and then after a period time we would lose them, and we are presently losing those sea gates right now. There's only one more left to go, I believe, and that's Gibraltar, and that's on its way. What happens after that? How close to the end are we? We're getting there very, very rapidly.

   I see the signs. I can discern in the congregation the seeds of lack of commitment. I can see it's there. The people sign up for club and then they quit. They volunteer for service, then they quit. They say they'll help in certain areas the Y.E.S. and the Y.O.U., and the choirs, clubs, and clean up, and then they quit. They break the commitment. It is so bad that individuals have come to me recently, in fact, Mr. Moss was mentioning the fact about the choir. The commitment seems to be dying out at one time, I guess it's rekindled now. But he could see it, and I think others in the congregation see it.

   You know, if you have a common enemy to fight. You know, in one way. The attack on the Church of God in 1979 by the State of California. It was a very fine thing to happen to us. Because it solidified us as a body, as a group, those who were not committed, those who had one foot on one side of the fence and one on the other side of the fence has since left and gone, and those who are truly committed are here now working. But what happens as the time progresses and you don't have that common enemy to fight, you kind of, you know, you kind of relax and kick back a little bit.

   If I took you and put you on sentry duty out in an area where the battle was going on within 20 or 30 feet of the front lines where you could hear the shooting and the fighting and the killing going on, you would be a very alert guard, wouldn't you? If I took you and I put you back someplace in the United States here and said, OK, you're gonna guard this PX or something like that, you'd walk around and you really wouldn't be that alert. You wouldn't think that the enemy any minute is gonna come running up over the hill. Because you would sort of, you know, the battles so far away and it's, you know, hey, it's really nice. The stars are really nice tonight. I'll just lay down in this grass for just a few minutes. Huh? Doesn't work that way.

   Did you ever hear the joke about the guy who was on sentry duty? Well, you are now. He falls asleep. His head hanging down. He goes to sleep, he wakes up and he sees, he looks down and he sees the lieutenant's brown shoes here. He says uh-oh he knows he's in trouble. He goes, Amen. Oh yes, sir. I'm sorry. That's the best joke I had for today.

   You see that's what happens when we're not really engaged in the battle actively. Really not up on the front lines. There's a tendency to go to sleep you know it's just not real to us. The battle is just not real. So let's say like if someone is not coming to Bible studies for years and years and years, they have a problem all of a sudden there's a great trial in their life. All of a sudden they start showing up in Bible study. They're involved in the church again. They're trying to get themselves back to God. And you have this syndrome, and I think this is uh one of our human nature traits that as long as things are going good we don’t need God. But, when it goes bad, then we have to have God. We know, oh, why have you deserted me? And he hasn't. We've deserted him.

   God had to warn all mankind and that's part of the Ezekiel commision. Because we all have that proclivity from Satan to be quitters. He even had to talk to Timothy, the evangelist about that. If you go the I Timothy one, he mentions this to Timothy. In mention and held on for us to the day because we need it just as much as Timothy, just as much as those in the New Testament time. I Timothy one. In verse 18. I Timothy 1:18. Discharge I committed to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before you, that you by them, these prophecies might war a good warfare. So he says, I charge you, I commit you. Timothy to do these things verse 19 holding faith. And a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith has made shipwrecks. Of whom is Hyenius and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Individuals who had left, who had turned away from Paul, who had turned away from God, God's way. Because they could not hold on to the faith, they could not hold on to a good conscience. They quit and they turned away from the faith.

   God especially had to warn the Corinthian church at I Corinthians 16. He told them to quit acting like wimps. Of course I'll put it in biblical terms here in I Corinthians 16, but basically that's what he was saying. I Corinthians 16:13 he says, don't be a whip. He says, watch you stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, be strong. Because they weren't strong, they were not acting like men, and I think the sense here is the fact that acting like someone who is solid and strong and determined and committed. He says watch around you. Take a look at what's happening around you. Maintain the faith, behave like men. Be strong, not wishy-washy. Did you say I follow God's way and that's it, and I won't be deterred from it.

   It's interesting this term quit you like men. It is from the Greek At the Androzonome Androzonome it means to make a man of yourself. To make a man of yourself. And that's what we are to do. We are to be strong. We are to be powerful in the work of God. We have to be committed and to stand and to know that we stand and stand till the end. Because you can be committed for 20 years and if Christ returns in the 21st year, you have not made it into the kingdom of God. If it is 20 more years until Christ returns, you must remain strong for 20 more years. Unless you would die before then. You have to remain strong in the faith and Satan works in two basic ways here to seduce you to break your commitment because virtually no one comes up and says, well, that's it. I quit. I quit because I know I'm wrong, you know, I'm sinning and I just quit.

   You know what they do is they convince themselves. They're quitting for many, many other reasons. They can come up with all kinds of reasons why they're quitting. They can come up with all kinds of reasons to show why they have broken the commitment. It's his fault or it's her fault or it's this fault or it's that fault. It's everything except what it is because if the human mind would really look at itself and say it's my fault. I did it, then they would have a mind that would not allow them to quit, you see, because the carnal mind blames everyone else. But the mind of God says it's me, it's me. I'm the one, and you can look at yourself and see that.

   But the trials and the cares of this world as shown in Matthew 13 are the two major ways. Matthew 13 that Satan uses to pull us out of the church of God, to seduce us from the way of God and the way that we should be living. In Matthew 13, Christ is talking about in the parable of the sword. In the first chapter, first part of Matthew 13, he talks about. The different areas that seed is sown. Then the disciples asked him in verse 10, well, why do you speak in parables? He says, because for you it's to know, but to no one else. Then he goes on and he explains that to his disciples what this parable means.

   He talks about it in verse 19. The one that hears the words and doesn't do anything about it. The wicked one comes and snatches it away. That's the unconverted. They never converted. So that means that there are people in the world with the Plain Truth, the Good News, and all the things that are going out to them to hear it, but snatched away and they're never converted. But then there's others in verses 20 and 21. He that received the seed in the stony place, the same as he that hears the word and anon or right away with joy receives it. That's great first love, boy, this is just wonderful then. He has no root in himself, but he endures for a while, and when tribulation or trials or persecutions arise because of the word. Because of the word of God, he is offended.

   Because all of a sudden he hears from the pulpit that he has to do something that is a personal sin that he is committing it says wait a minute, I didn't know I had to do that. I didn't know I had to give that up. We'll go out and we'll counsel with individuals. We have many, many individuals calling in and wanting to talk. We'll go out, we'll sit down with them and then we'll go over something, and then as soon as we get the sin that they're doing, we usually know it. You know, you can usually see it in the change of their manner and their face sometimes that you can just see it turn completely off at that point. Because they have to give up their boyfriend that they're living with or their girlfriend they’re living with and then all of a sudden that that's it you just don’t see them anymore because, you know, oh, you mean I have to do something to come to your church? You know, I have to change to be a part of the Church of God. I have to change to be part of the body of Christ. And they can't do it. And they get offended.

   Oh, that's not the way I read in the Bible. I, you know, it's fine in here to have as many wives as you want. And then they find out the reason why they don't have to find the, uh, you know, to follow the Bible, that they can do it their way and that you're wrong because your church must be wrong, you see, because the way I see it is that I can live in my sin and I don't have to give it up, you see. Then you never see him again. And it says here that they do receive the word with joy. They endure for a while, but as soon as a trial comes along, I quit. Soon as troubles come along, I quit. It's too tough for me.

   And the solution at that point is when that happens, really what you should do when you do go through those trials, when you do go through the problems and difficulties of everyday life being a Christian in the body of Christ, is that you recommit yourself. You have faith in God and you recommit yourself to God. And you say, I know that there is a God, no matter what else is happening around me, I'm gonna do what God says and he'll take care of those things. I don't have to worry about it.

   I Peter 4. I Peter 4. Starting off in verse 18, I Peter 4, starting off in verse 18. I Peter 4:18 and if the righteous scarcely be saved. If the righteous scarcely be saved, now that doesn't sound like the righteous are gonna go in with a high hand, guaranteed their salvation doesn't. Scarcely means by the skin of your teeth. Scarcely means that maybe we'll barely make it. Because of the very difficult times at the time of the end, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear. Wherefore let them that suffer. At pros and afflictions, problems and difficulties, according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls, their lives in well doing as unto a faithful Creator.

   So that whenever you do have the trials and you're suffering afflictions and things are going wrong, you commit yourself to do well, to do good, it says you commit yourself to the faithful God, to the Creator God and doing His will and what he wants for you and in doing that. He sees you he understands you, he knows what you're trying to do, and he will aid you and he will help you and he will keep you until the trial is over because he knows you're committed to him because normally and I would say in 98, 99% of our trial we have a sin in a certain area. And then when that sin is to a certain point, it causes us a problem. And so when God allows that problem to come back upon us, then we have an affliction or a trial or a problem or some kind of a trouble and then when it comes on us we say wait a minute, we're doing something wrong here we counsel with the ministry. The problem is brought out and then the person addresses the problem because they commit themselves in well doing in getting rid of that problem and, you know, taking care of that problem so that they can get back to their God because God has not moved. He's faithful. He hasn't moved an inch for you. You have moved from Him. That your sin separates you from God.

   So that when you have trials and you commit yourself to God, you commit yourself to finding out what have I done wrong, where can I change, how can I get back close to God, then those problems will fade into insignificance. Because once you're back close to God, usually that trial doesn't make any difference anyhow. Usually that slight physical problem does not mean anything anyhow. And those 2% of the time or whatever the small percentage is that you are righteous and being persecuted for righteousness' sake. Good to get back to God anyhow, isn't it? You must always assume those trials and those problems come upon you. Well, that's the first assumption because if you assume off the bat, well, it's I'm perfect, so it must be I'm being tried for righteousness' sake. Then you have difficulty because then maybe you're committing a sin right off the top there. Because all of us, I think in this room has sin. Some more than others, but we all have sins. What's the difference between one sin and a million sins? I don’t know 99,999, but not as God looks at it because that one sin maybe one of the most major sins. Of that's the way Christ did it.

   When there was a trial and a problem, a difficulty, something happened to him, and he was attacked for righteousness sake because he didn’t have sin. He learned and he suffered by, he learned by the sufferings that he had, but when he suffered, what did he do? Did he depend on himself? He committed himself to God. He had faith in God because God is the only one that can save us. We can't do it in and of by ourselves, I Peter 2. I Peter 2:23. This is talking about when Christ suffered. Starting off in verse 21. He left us an example in the suffering, the things that we would suffer, we know that we were suffering. He had no sin.

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   He turned the other cheek. When they hit him he would turn and allow them to hit him again. He could have called down leagues of angels. [inaudible] But he committed himself to Him, to God the Father. He committed himself to God the Father that judges righteously. And that's what he did. He said, Father, this is your will that I suffer. It is your will because if I don't suffer, if I don't take the beatings, if I don't have these my flesh ripped open. If I don't take the pain and the suffering now, then your people will not be able to be healed at the end time, he could have stopped that. He could have stood up and he said, no, you're not going to beat me. You know, if he had done that, then you would not be able to be healed at the end time. He loved you so very much that he shut his mouth. He allowed himself to be beaten. He allowed himself to take pain, his flesh ripped open maybe all the way to the bone so that you can have a hangnail taken care of today.

   It's kind of awesome that your brother was able to commit himself to God enough that even though he did not sin, he suffered for you. That's why you're able to call the ministry today for healing. And God says, if you don't understand that. Then maybe you don't understand healing and maybe that's why many are sick. It's suffering amongst you because you don't understand the sacrifice of Christ. God had His Son committed to him so much. That Jesus Christ allowed himself to be beaten. Be crucified to die so that you could have pleasure in this day and age so that you could do the work of God. How's that for commitment? Was Christ committed to God? He committed himself even to his own life and to death. And you know, another thing, he committed himself and his eternal life to God the Father. Because Jesus Christ died for three days and three nights, he was buried, and he had to trust. He had to have the faith in God the Father. He had to be committed to God enough to know that God would raise him after three days. He did. Because he knew the Father and he could trust him, he gave him and laid his very eternal life in God's hands. That's how much he was committed to God the Father.

   The second way that we're pulled out of the Church of God and lack that commitment is in Matthew 13 again, Matthew 13. In verse 22. Matthew 13 and verse 22. There was another one who received seed among the thorns. Matthew 13:22. The cares of this world is another method that Satan uses. They received the seed among the thorns, says he. This is the individual that hears the word. The cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word. And he becomes unfruitful. Individual who have come into the body of Christ, been baptized, has the spirit of God. Maybe God would bless them until they had more money than they knew what to do with. Things were very, very good for them. And then after they got to a position where. I think someone mentioned in the last year the individual who he became a millionaire. He became a millionaire in the Church of God. He turned from God and then went out and did his own thing. Maybe that's why none of us have the money that we should have or we think we should have because God knows if he gives it to us. He says, we will squander it, waste it, maybe leave the body of Christ because money is more important to us then God. Many times that's why blessings don’t come in that area. Because we don’t know how to handle money. We're not able to handle money. We with draw and turn our head away from God.

   The cares of this world. This is the thing I've been pounding on over the past year, physical versus spiritual. The spiritual first, all else is second. Are you committed to the kingdom? That's what it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God. Once you seek that, then all the physical will be added to you. You don't have to seek the physical. Anybody who seek to gain his life will lose. If you seek to lose your life, you'll gain it. It's almost like it works in reverse. An unusual thing, but that's the way God is. If you seek to cling to your life and you want your life and that's the most important thing to you. Then you will lose it. But if you seek to lose your life and giving up your life of work, to the work of God in doing those things that have to be done at the end time to preach the gospel. Then you will gain life, you'll gain eternal life. Give up everything for the kingdom of God. Do you really feel that way? Now that's the commitment you made when you were baptized. You said, I'm going to give up everything. With the three individuals we talked about in Matthew, I mean Luke 10. That they had to give up everything because the first thing that came first in their lives that had to come first in their lives when they put their hands to that plow was that it had to be the kingdom of God.

   Do you really feel you committed yourself that deep? Is that the way you are? The very most important thing in your life is the kingdom of God, or is it your car or your wife or your husband or your kids or your new home or the place you're going to move to or the place you moved out of, the money that you have. Or whatever it is, seeking a wife or seeking a husband, is that the first thing in your life? The kingdom of God, it has to be because that's what you said that you committed to. You told God at your baptism, everything else is secondary to you. Everything else in this universe is secondary to the kingdom of God and to God and Jesus Christ. That's what you committed to. An awesome commitment, isn’t it? They did think at that time it was impossible to think of the depth of the commitment. That's why you must recommit yourself every day, day in and day out. You have to think about that as you grow more spiritually and start to understand the significance of what you have done.

   Do you understand the commitment to God? Do you truly understand what you have committed to do? You have committed to give up your life. Every bit of your life, every part of your life. In the service of God that's what it means to be in the body of Christ. It says that Christ set an example for us that as he suffered, we would suffer. Many of the apostles did that. That were crucified, one upside down if you believe. One sawed asunder, the prophet. How many of you would like to walk in to Russian uh stay in the Moscow, or if you had a commission by God to go into Moscow and preach the gospel to Fernenkov or whoever is the Prime Minister now. It is him? Someone died, I guess in Russia, but how would you like to walk in here and kick open his door and say, hey, I got a message for you, fellow, huh? Would you like to do that? Because what would happen? We're getting Pentecostal here now. What would happen is they would lop off your head. But yet many of the prophets did that, had to do that. They were sent out to do that.

   You are called maybe not in that frontline position, but to give up your life in the same way. Why many people cannot be baptized into the body of Christ because they cannot give up that very, very important thing to them, whatever it is, one person may be one thing to somebody else something else. But, they're so wrapped up in it. It's so much a part of them they can't give that one thing up to the kingdom of God.

   Matthew 13:44. Again, the kingdom of heaven. His life is a treasure hid in the field. For which when a man has found he hides it for joy. He thereof goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. The kingdom of heaven is like finding something so precious that this individual would give up everything he has, sell everything he has to buy the field that has that particular possession in it. The kingdom of heaven again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, the greatest pearl ever that had existed. He went and he sold all that he had and he bought it. Is that the way you feel about the kingdom of God? Is that your commitment to the kingdom of God? Have you even thought about your kingdom, uh, your commitment to the kingdom of God recently? Have you sat down and thought about your baptism, about what you are committing to? Have you thought about the job you've been called to do at this end time? Have you thought about what you have said that you would do?

   Remember Lot’s wife, Genesis 19. Just real quick, let's go back here. I hadn't intended to include this. Let's go back to Genesis 19. And take a look at righteous Lot. Lot was a righteous man. Genesis 19, starting off in verse 17 (Genesis 19:17). Well, let's start off in verse 15 (Genesis 19:15). When the morning arose and the angels hastened, Lot, saying, arise, take your wife and your two daughters, which are here, least you be consumed in the iniquity of the city. Lot was one of the elders of the city. He used to sit in the gate. He was one of the top ranking individuals in the city of Sodom. While he lingered. The man laid hold upon his hand upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters. He was for a kick back and say, oh yeah, OK, we've got plenty of time to go. No, let's go now. And he said, well, wait a minute now. I got to get my electric razor and I gotta get my toothbrush and my toothpaste. They said, no, let's go now. We have to get out of here. The Lord being merciful unto him, unto Lot, they brought him forth and they sent him out of the city. In other words, they had to drag him out. They had to carry him and his family out to get him out of the city.

   Came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad that he said, scape for your life. Don't look behind you, neither stay you and all the plain escape to the mountains lest you be consumed. So I said to them, oh, not so, my lord. You may climb that high mountain. You know, that's a lot of work to get up there. He says, can I go over to the city over here? Behold, now your servant in verse 19 has found grace in your sight. You have magnified your mercy, which you have shown unto me by saving my life. I cannot escape to the mountain least some evil will take me, and I die. Behold, now, this city is near to flee unto. It's a little one. Let me escape thither. Is it not a little one? And then my soul shall live, he said unto him. See, I have accepted ye concerning these things, that I will not overthrow the city for which you have spoken. Haste you escape thither, for I cannot do anything till you have come thither. Therefore, the name of the city was called Zoar.

   The angel had been told, look, go and destroy these cities down here, but make sure you get a Lot of his family out first. He says, come on, come on, I got to destroy this place. You're, you know, you're not gonna help me get the job done. Let's get out of here so I can get this place destroyed, you know, we're on a schedule here. And so he takes them over. He takes him to the little city. Verse 23, the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar, and the Eternal rained upon Sodom upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Eternal out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and all the plain, all the inhabitants of the city which had grown upon the ground, but his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

   The analogy here is, you know, you don't look back, you know, they were told to escape. Get out of here. Get out of these cities so I can destroy them because they're garbage pits. Don't look back. And she did. She lost that commitment, whatever it was to go to wherever it was they were to go after they made excuse after excuse of not doing what God wanted them to do, to go up into the mountain, he went to the city anyhow. And she still looked back. And no man putting his hands to the plow can look back, and it tells us over and over and over again in Matthew and Mark and Luke at the end time, as the end comes, it says, remember Lot's wife. Why do you think he tells us that? Because at the end time people will want to look back. They'll want to take their hand from the plow. They'll want to quit. They'll want to give up on their commitment. They'll want to turn around and say this world is not that bad. Because it's really good. Look at all the good things that we have today, how wonderful everything is. We even have plastic hearts. I like the old fashioned kind of baboon hearts.

   And it's so sad, but people think that that's salvation. They are hoping that within the next 20 or 30 years they'll be able to replace parts in your body so that you can live forever. Because that's the way this world is, but we know that it cannot go on that way. It's a matter of priorities. Commitment is a matter of priority. What's the number one priority in your life? What is first in your life? Who is first in your life? How many excuses do you have? Not to keep God and his Kingdom number one in your life.

   A good example of that is Luke 10. Luke 10 verse 38. Luke 10:38. Christ and his entourage were passing through. Village to village. Luke 10 verse 38, they came, came to pass as they went that he, Christ Jesus entered into a certain village. A certain woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his words. Martha was cumbered about with much serving. He was covered about with much serving, and she came to him and she said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her, therefore, that she helped me. Here's the thing. Christ is here teaching and preaching, and Mary is sitting at his feet. Martha's out doing the dishes, cooking up the, you know, the beef sausage or whatever it is. And so she comes in and she says, look, she says, here's my sister sitting down here, you know, at your feet, doing nothing, and I'm out here working all the time. Now Christ didn't say here, well, look, you're not supposed to have a clean house, you’re not supposed to cook, you’re not supposed to do the physical thing. He didn't say that to her.

   Jesus answered and said in verse 41, Martha, Martha, you are anxious. You are careful. You're so anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. And you know this is what happens so many of us. We sit down to study the Bible or to pray. And we have so many things that have to be done that we can't concentrate on what we are doing. And I know that happens to most of you. You're so anxious about all these things that have to be done. You get down on your knees and you start to pray, and the next thing you know you're thinking about, well, now I got to clean up the house here and I've got to do this and I've got to do that, and you're a double-minded person and you completely, you're sitting there talking to God, tell them what you're going to do during the day and the things that you have to do. Isn't that true? That that happens to us so much or you're studying and you see something there and your mind starts to drift on what you have to do.

   And right now I'm sure that during the sermon at sometime during the sermon, maybe even right now, that you're thinking about what's being said in the sermon and all of a sudden your mind is caught up in something that you're going to do after services, something you have to do tomorrow, something you'll have to do Monday, or something you'll have to do next week. And you've forgotten, you've lost track of where I am, and you probably missed the one part of the sermon you needed or you probably missed one part of your Bible study that you really needed because that's the way the carnal mind works. That's the way Satan steps in there and just draws your mind up to something else. Because you're not committed to the things that are really important. You haven't got your priorities straight.

   One of the most important things that a man can do is concentrate, concentrate, and concentrate on the very most important things in his life, and that's the Bible, sermons, Plain Truth, really concentrate on that. There are individuals in the Church of God that I've had the opportunity to work with that their mind, once a sermon starts, their mind goes to that particular thing, and it won't come off of it until the sermon is over. Because they have forced themselves to pay attention to every word that is said, to everything, so how does this apply to me. And that's one of the things that's a training that you have to train yourself to do that. You have to work on that constantly. You have to have your mind attuned. It takes work to listen to a sermon. It takes work to study. It takes work to pray. It takes work. It takes work, not you see you have to work on whatever you're doing.

   And is this your priority, hearing the word of God, putting your life on the line. Doing those things that are first in your life first and everything else second. You can only remain committed by the strength of God. You can set your mind to something, and then God gives you the power to do it. He provides the strength by the Holy Spirit that’s in you. You can't do it on your own. You take a look at the Romans, the Holy Spirit chapter in Romans 8. Let's go there very quickly. Romans 8. You'll see that in Romans 7, Paul was talking about, look, I try to do this and this happens, and I want to do this and this happens, and I don't want to sin and I sin. I try to do good and I do bad. How am I going to overcome this? Then it goes right into Romans 8, which of course there was no chapter break when he wrote this letter, this epistle, and so it says that you do it by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

   In Romans 8:31, it says, what shall we then say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And in verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress. Or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Then he says in verse 37, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. That you are a conqueror of the problems, the difficulties, your whole life, everything, whether it's the separation that Satan is trying to place between you and God, whether it's overcoming a problem, a sin, a trial, you can do it by the power of God that's in you because you are a conqueror by Him who loves you because he gives you the power of His Holy Spirit.

   Your commitment to God will be a witness to the world. How strong you are in the faith will be a witness to the world at some time in your daily activity and much more so as we approach the end. If you are not firmly committed people will test you, if you don't have God's spirit working in you strongly to keep you strong and to be an example to other people, people will test you.

   Your strong commitment will be a silencing effect to them. Being wishy-washy at work, at home, about Christmas, about the Sabbath will cause people to test you. I have an individual who comes to me and says, no, I never hear anything about any of the problems in the church. No one ever comes to me and tells me about the problems. No one ever tells me this, that, and the other thing. That's because people know that this individual is strong. They know where he stands. They'll never come to him to gossip because they'll come, shut up. I don't want to hear that garbage, you see. Because they know where he stands. They know his commitment. They know where he stands in the Church of God, so they won't say anything to him. But they'll go to that individual that they perceive as being week. They'll saddle up with that individual and say, did you hear the latest gossip about this person? Just like a wolf attacking the sheep. He doesn’t do it in the middle of the flock. Hitting one of the strong rams in the middle. He picks one of the weekly ones on the outside edge. You know, people are coming to you and gossiping about these things. You know what that says? They look at you, they look at you as someone that does not have the sprit, the spirit of God. They look at you as someone that is not committed because if you’re firmly committed, they would be afraid to tell you anything. But because your not firmly committed they tell you these things hoping you would [inaudible].

   The example of the wife, with an unconverted mate, I Peter 3, says something to all of us. Let's take a look at that. I Peter 3, starting off the first one (I Peter 3:1). What it's talking about here? Is a strongly converted women and if you are not as strongly converted individual, you cannot convict or convince anyone. Say likewise you wise be in subjection to your own husbands that, if any obeyed not the word. They also may without the word be won by the conduct. The wife. While they behold your chaste conduct coupled with fear that chaste means the word that means, a Greek word that means consecrated. We’re committed or firmly entrenched into doing something. Like a stone rolling down a mountain. When a husband sees in his wife an obedient subjective wife obeying the laws of God. And doing the things that they're supposed to do. And doing it in fear. He cannot help. But know that there is something there in that religion that you belong to.

   But it says in verse 6, even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement or terror, for means don't be afraid or don't be in terror, God will make it right. Because many women will excuse themselves by saying, wait a minute now, my husband's not in the church. Now if I obey him. If I obey him, he's gonna do all these awful things to me. He's gonna beat me. He's gonna holler at me. He's gonna take away my Wards charge card. He's gonna hurt me. But God says, no, you do that, you do that, you conduct yourself like a good wife and then don't be afraid because God is going to take care of it. Don't be fearful. Don't worry about it, because if you do it right, God will make sure it comes out right. Even to the bringing down of your husband, even to the showing him that he has to live a certain way with you. That's all it says.

   And that applies to any one of us, any one of us, because if you go out and you sit down and you show people there's a weakness in you the areas you're not committed, they will test you in that area. And if you're firm and if you're strong, and if they know and they know that you won't change and they know that you won't bend, they will not test you in that area. If you're working in a company. When it comes time for the Sabbath to come on about 4:45. If they ask you to work past sunset, just this one Friday, just this one Friday. And you do it, you know what will happen? Got it. Because they will come back next Friday and say how about walking working past sunset? I can't do it. Well, you did it last week. Why can you do it this week, huh? Were you a hypocrite? You can break the Sabbath one week, but the next week you can't break it. Then if they can get you to work then, then they say, look, if you come in this Saturday. Hey, you broke, you know, you broke the Sabbath for 15, 20 minutes, can't you do it for a full day? See, because as long as they know there's a weak spot, as long as they know there's not a commitment right there, they'll dig at that, they'll dig at that and dig at that until your whole structure will fall. What do you do then? What are you to do as a member of the body of Christ?

   Because I doubt if any of us really sat down and thought the depth of the commitment that we had that Jesus Christ at the time of our baptism. We thought about it, when you look back now, it seems kind of shallow, doesn’t it? Seems like, well, I, I really wasn't that converted at that time. You're right, you weren't. But if you can look back now and see. Say you know what I committed myself. Do I really understand what I committed myself to?

   Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16 when you commit yourself to God. He will fulfill everything in your life. Because that's the key to a good Christian life. Proverbs 16:3. It says commit your works unto the Eternal. The King James Version says your thought shall be established, but is better translated, your plans will succeed. You commit your works, everything you do, your whole mind and your heart, your body, and your hand. To the Eternal, and your plans will succeed. Commit yourself to God, and the desires of your heart will be given to you.

   Psalm 37, Psalm 37. In verses 4 and 5. Psalm 37:4-5. It says delight yourself also in the Eternal. And he shall give you the desires of your heart. So if you delight yourself in doing the work of God, if you delight yourself in obeying God's law. He will give you the desires of your heart, but there's one other thing that goes with that. In verse 5 it says commit your ways unto the Eternal. Trust also in Him, and he shall bring it the desires of your heart to pass. Because anything that happens in your life, if you are committed to God. If you delight in the way of God. You have the trust and the faith. He will bring everything that is good for you to pass. Everything that is good for you will happen. What happens to you is good for you. It may not seem that way now, but as you look back in the future, you'll say yes that was the best thing for me, some of you can do that now. Look back at your life and see the things that did happen to you in the past and say that was the best thing that could have happened to me. At the time it seems awful.

   You must be as committed to God as He is to you. II Timothy 1. II Timothy 1. II Timothy 1:9, who has saved us? This is God who has saved us. He's called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 11, whereinto I am appointed a preacher, Paul speaking, an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffered these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. For who he is trusted in, he is trusted in God and am persuaded that he, God is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And everything you have committed to God, everything your commitment to God, you know that he will be able to keep you in that commitment until the day that his Son returns. Again that day, that day is talking about the time of the return of Jesus Christ.

   Hold fast the form of sound words which you have heard of me in the faith and the love which is in Christ Jesus. The good things which was committed unto you keep. By the Holy Spirit which dwells in you. The Holy Spirit, which dwells in you, keeps you committed until that day. You have known that all they which are in Asia have turned away from me. All the same. Everyone there with him in Asia had turned away from him. But you hang tough, stand up, behave ye like men. Be like a man and stand firm and stand strong. And in chapter 2 it says, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus in chapter 2 and verse 1 (II Timothy 2:1). Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard of me all among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men. Who shall be able to teach others also.

   These words were passed from God to Paul. Paul wrote those to Timothy to teach to the people of God so that those people of God would be committed so that they could stand strong and they could do the work of God. You must be strong. You must make yourself a man in that way in talking about the strength to stay committed to God. You must never give up strive to the end. You must be involved in every facet of God's work, God's church. Your total being has to be committed to God. Because someday that day you will be like God. And as that man who has been changed into God, you'll be able to teach men. To be committed to other men. So that someday they can become just like the Eternal faithful Creator God. That the purpose you recall to be committed to the end.

   And then with that commitment you can turn around and commit other people and teach other people but by your example now that someday in the world tomorrow in the millennium you'll be teaching thousands and thousands and maybe millions of people how to be committed to God. That's the purpose for which you recall, and you must stay, you must stay the course all the way to the end. One day. One hour, one minute short of the end is not enough. It must be all the way to the end.