Herbert W Armstrong

   You find a rather bold or brazen or strong statement back in Romans chapter 8. And I especially mean this sermon today for the young people as well, especially the YOU age young people that sooner or later you're gonna have to grow up and begin to face responsibility of what they're gonna do with their lives. You know, sooner or later you can't just let life keep happening and let life keep floating along and let life just keep occurring day after day, week after week. You know, sooner or later you have to face up to reality and say, "Now what am I gonna do with my life anyway? It's about time I get a hold of my life and start approaching it with purpose, with determination, and start doing something about this that I hear all the time."

   I want to show you a young man in the Bible that didn't pay any attention to what his dad said, because his dad was the king. And he turned out supposedly being a preacher, and yet himself didn't even believe what he taught, which makes you wonder about the men in our day.

   Romans 8:7 says, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God." Now, is that really true? You know, the young people who aren't converted, they don't have God's spirit, they haven't come to repentance. They haven't been granted repentance. They don't have God's spirit. They're carnal minded, their mind is a physical mind. The mind doesn't have a spiritual element in it. Is their carnal mind enmity against God? When you quote scripture to young people, how do they take it? When you quote scripture to unconverted people, how do they take it?

   According to Romans 8:7, the carnal mind, you know, we talk about chili con carne. Well, that word carne is the word for meat in Greek. In other words, the meat head, the carnal mind. I mean, just see what that's what that says. The meat head is enmity against God. The carnal mind, the mind is just flesh, a mind that's just physical and has no spirit element in it at all, is enmity against God.

   I'm gonna prove to you that that's true. I'm gonna prove that to you that that's true with young people, that's true with children, that's true with adults who aren't really converted, and it's true with a lot of us who are converted because we're about 99 and 44% not pure but carnal. And that's bad news, I'll tell you.

   Now we used to wonder about man when he's converted. You know, if you are in the church and you have God's spirit and you're studying and you're praying and you're in the church 10 years, then are you 50% carnal and 50% spiritual? Or when do you become 75% spiritual and only 25% carnal? You know, when are you about 75% carnal and only about 25% spiritual? Does that depend on how much you use God's spirit? Well, you know, that's what that parable of the pounds really says, the parable of the talents, you know, some have 10, some have 5, some have 2, and so people grow in differing degrees in the spirit of God.

   Now let me show you another scripture that proves what Romans 8:7 says. I John, chapter 5. Corse this was the beloved disciple, the youngest disciple, the one Jesus loved because of the attitude he had. And he says I John 5:3, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."

   Yet I read in the Pasadena paper this past Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, an interview with an ex-preacher of this church. And he said this church overemphasizes doctrine, that we overemphasize doctrine at the cost of love. "The commandments are alright, but we've got to always be sure of that key word love."

   Now, the love of God is keeping his commandments. You can talk all you want about love apart from commandments. Carnal minds talk about love all the time. Carnal preachers can just wax eloquent about love. They'll never tell you it's keeping God's commandments. They'll never tell you you've got to get your nose in that Bible and live by every word of that Bible. They'll never tell you. You can say you have love, but if you don't keep his commandments, you're a liar. That's what John says over and over and over. And you know, apparently that was the big issue of John's day, people trying to come in and say they had love and yet apart from the commandments, outside of the commandments.

   But notice what it goes on to say here in I John 5:3: "This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and his commandments are not grievous." And you know your conversion, you can weigh it right there. Are God's commandments grievous? Are God's commandments love?

   Now I don't mean just, you can't pick and choose. You can't say, "Well, these are love, but those are grievous." I mean it's love not to kill, it's love not to steal, it's love not to commit adultery, but boy I'll tell you, it didn't love to pay a tithe and keep the Sabbath and go to holy days and... You can't pick and choose. The love of God is keeping his commandments, all of them, every one of them, living by every word of God, striving to be perfect.

   And you know, some people get that attitude of wanting to do everything in the Bible. They want to follow every little jot and tittle, every little bitty law about wearing mixed garments or about, you know, trivia, sowing fields where they cross pollinate and weaken a crop, mixed breeding of animals. And you know some people have that attitude that they want to live by every word of God. They just wish they could know the whole Bible so they could be living by every bit of it.

   There are other people who say, "Look, now don't get carried away. Don't get down into trivia, don't major in the minors." That was the famous clause back in '74 and '75. A man that used to be over the PAD, CAD or whatever they call it at the time. That was his clause he used all over the United States. I heard him use that in Big Sandy, in Cincinnati, everywhere. "Let's not major in the minors. Let's just get on the main things, you know, love and, and don't be like those Jews, you know, those pious men and scribes coming and left undone the weightier matters."

   But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus said you ought to tithe, you ought to do these, tithe of mint and anise and cummin, but you shouldn't leave undone the weightier matters of the law. It's all those matters of the law too.

   Now let me prove to you that young people's minds until God begins to deal with them are carnal. OK, I Corinthians 11.

   And I know back when I was carnal minded, more carnal minded than I am now, and I didn't have any of God's spirit. My granddad came out one time and he had the switch and he was going to whip us good. He said, "You boys, you've been picking those fruit off those trees again." He said, "No, we didn't either. When I came out this morning, those trees were loaded with plums and apricots and peaches and you guys have been picking them and eating them before they were ready." And we didn't take any fruit off any trees. We just shook the trees and picked it off the ground. You know that's the way you can tell a carnal mind, boy, it finds loopholes. It gets around everything. It won't face up to reality.

   I corralled one of my young girl's daughters one time and I said, "Rhonda, are you chasing Bonnie running around, around, around, around, around the table?" "Oh no, sir, I wasn't chasing her, she was chasing her." You know, who's chasing who when they're both going around the table all the time?

   But now let me read this and show you what happened. OK, I Corinthians 11. Let's just jump down and jump into the middle of the story, verse 14 (I Corinthians 11:14). We'll come back and explain this a little later, but notice what it says. "Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her."

   Now what happened? What happens when you read that to YOU group? What happens when you read that to your kids, most of you that have teenagers? You know what happens. "Well, now wait a minute, that says doesn't even nature itself teach you, see God doesn't say so, it's just nature itself that teach. And doesn't even nature itself teach you if a man, see, not a, not a teenager, not a kid, a man. Why nature teaches you that a man has long hair, or what is long? What is long hair, you know, who has that right and authority to decide what is long hair?"

   Now while the guy is doing all this answering back and justifying and arguing, it's good to kind of take a note of his features because, you know, he's not gonna be crew cut, not gonna be a ducktail, he's not gonna be a short-haired guy. The guy that's gonna answer back to all this is the guy that's got the long hair.

   "Now it doesn't say it's a sin, it just says it's a shame." So there you did away with the scriptures, see. God said, but you say. That's just like the Jews were. Jesus showed the difference between converted people and unconverted people. Jesus said, "In the old days God said, but you say. In the old days God said, but you say." See how you make God's word of no effect. Boy, that's what a carnal mind does.

   Now, not to leave the guys on the hook and leave the girls off the hook. Notice I Timothy chapter 2 (I Timothy 2:9). "In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearl or costly array."

   So right away then when you bring up the scripture like that, the women with a lot of vanity or young girls with a lot of carnality. What happened? Well, they say, "That women adorn themselves, doesn’t say girls says women. Women adorn themselves." Now, if you are converted, you want to know what the word women is there. You know, you want to say, "Hey, I wonder if that means all females. If that means all females, boy, that means me if I'm 10 or 15 or no matter. If that word women there isn't a word that just means adults, if that word just means the female sex, boy that does mean me."

   But you know a carnal mind didn't want to know. A carnal mind wouldn't like to find that out. It likes to just say, "Well, it says that women adorn themselves. I'm not a woman, I'm just a kid. I'm just a teenager, I'm just a girl. That women adorn themselves and modest. Now who says what's modest? Why if I were a Muslim girl in Jordan, I'd have to look like a nun. And if I were an American woman in Jordan, I better not wear what I wear over here, that sure wouldn't be modest to them. But if I, does that mean I got to dress like Pentecostal girls in America then? Does this mean you can't cut your hair like Pentecostal girls don't do? What if women adorning themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety?"

   Well, not to pick on the young people, we can come back to all of us who are growing up. Notice back in Proverbs chapter 6. You can tell how carnal you are. All you got to do is see how you react to scriptures, and you can just take about any scripture you want. The Bible is a sharp two-edged sword. If you're converted when it cuts you, you know it's going to be for your good. But the more carnal you are, the more you resent the cut and the more you bellyache and gripe and complain and justify and worm your way around the cut.

   OK, notice Proverbs 6. Now this isn't the Worldwide Church of God speaking, this isn't Blackwell speaking, this isn't Armstrongism. This is the holy word of the great creator God. So notice what this is. And right away, you know, unless you're God conscious, you don't fear what God says. If you're a young person and you haven't come to feel a need for God and religion and Christianity and truth and a savior yet, then you'd rather not know what God says. That's what a lot of grownups have, that's the way they react to a lot of God's word. They'd rather not know what it says.

   Well, notice what it says here, Proverbs 6:16. "These six things doth the Eternal hate." Imagine that. The living God up there in the third heaven who made all the beauty of creation, all the animals, all the streams and lakes and the blue skies and clouds and everything that's beautiful in creation, these six things that Creator God hates. Not only does he hate these six, boy, these seven are an abomination to his soul. They make God sick to his stomach. They make God's soul sick as the Hebrew word really is there, his soul, they are an abomination in his soul.

   All right, notice what the first one is: haughty eyes, proud, vain, cocky, banty rooster, conceited, big shot. That just sickens God to his stomach, anybody like that. Why? But what's that gonna do to you? What's that gonna cause your life to be like? What's that gonna bring on you? God hates haughty eyes. They're an abomination to God's soul.

   A lying tongue. Look at this. To lie isn't minor. To lie isn't trivial. The lie isn't just a little pink thing or a little white thing. The lie, a lying tongue, God hates. Now you need to realize that, you need to remember that. It doesn't make any difference how people reason about lying tongue. You know, people at school are taught reasoning, they are taught situation ethics, they're taught, "Well, you know, there may be cases where it's better to lie than tell the truth, you're gonna hurt people." That's a bunch of garbage. It's always worse to lie. What do you do to your character if you lie? How does anybody know when they can believe you about anything? Why do you get resentful when someone can't believe you? Because they tried to believe you and found out you lied a couple of times. You see, God hates a lying tongue. That is an abomination that makes God sick in his stomach for someone to lie.

   Hands that shed innocent blood. The heart that devises wicked imaginations. Someone just thinking about crookedness, thinking in their heart about evil and wickedness and injury to other people. The heart that devises wicked imaginations, that is an abomination to God. God hates that. Feet that be swift in running to mischief. God hates that. That's an abomination to God, a false witness. And someone who sows discord among brethren, boy, I wonder why he says that is the sixth one, yeah, that's the seventh.

   You know, in a sense, the one he lists last has a double emphasis. What does God think about someone that in their conversation sows discord, divides people, turns people against other people, turns people against God's servants and God's leaders? God hates. God, it's an abomination to God for someone to sow discord among brethren. It's lumped right in there with lying. It's lumped right in there with pride and vanity. It's lumped right in there with violence, shedding innocent blood. It's lumped together with a heart that just always devising bribes, crookedness, cheating, getting the advantage, downing somebody else, feet that are swift at running to mischief.

   Now how do you take that when you read that? You say, "Well, if God hates that, if those are an abomination to God's soul, I'm not gonna do that anymore." Doesn't have anything to do with any church, doesn't have anything to do with any preacher, doesn't have anything to do with Armstrongism. That's what God says. But there again, you know, if you aren't God conscious, what do you care what God says? "So what if God does say that? You know, I just wish I didn't know what God said so I wouldn't feel guilty when I do it."

   That's the way some people, that's the way their attitude is. You know, one of the most shocking statements to me that I've heard in the last year, not shocking in the wrong sense, when Mr. Herbert Armstrong said, "You want to know what a liberal is? You want to know who the Laodicean liberals are among us? People that are always wanting to do wrong, always wanting to sin, always wanting to do wrong, and yet they just fight themselves and don't let themselves and make themselves do right, or they just wish they could do wrong and they like to do wrong. Oh, if they could just be free to do wrong and not get the punishment that comes from it, and it's a frustration."

   You want to read about a guy that was that way? Let's read one of the scripture first and then we will. The very last prophet in the Bible, the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 2. Notice what this last prophet says. Malachi chapter 2. Let's begin with verse 11 because it picks up the paragraph here.

   Malachi 2:11: "Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness of the Eternal which he loved and has married the daughter of a strange god. The Eternal will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers an offering unto the Eternal of hosts. This have you done again, covering the altar of the Eternal with tears, with weeping, with crying out."

   Notice the attitude of these people, or how they wanted to do what God wouldn't let them do, or they just wept and cried because they couldn't do what they wanted to do because it wasn't fit, it wasn't right. God said don't. They fill God's altar with tears and weeping and crying out. You know they're Christians, Christian? Well, maybe they are, maybe they aren't. There are people who are converted, maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Boy, they just wish they could have Christmas. Or they just wish they could let their kids exchange gifts and hide Easter eggs and oh they just wish they could be like everybody else and not have to be different. And even some few ministers let down and they wanted to do that too.

   They've done just what Malachi said here and this is the last prophet of God and it applies more to our day than it did any other time. And notice the attitude: filling the altar of God with tears, weeping, crying out. "Insomuch that he doesn't regard the offering anymore." God won't even receive it with goodwill at your hands.

   Now why won't he? You mean to tell me if someone comes and does what God says to and doesn't do what he says not to do, God's still not gonna receive the offering? Yeah, that's right. Right, God loves a cheerful giver. You know God tells you not to give grudgingly or not to give by constraint, but that's the way some people live their whole life in the truth. They give up their Sabbath time grudgingly by constraint. They fill God's altar with tears and weeping every Sabbath. They'd like to be out at ball games, be out in the world, be out partying and doing what everybody else is doing, and yet they know what God says, so they keep coming to God's altar and filling God's altar with tears and weeping and crying out, and all their life they want to do what they know they shouldn't do, and they go right on doing what they have to do, but they never do it willingly and gladly or, they're not cheerful givers.

   You know, when God used that scripture, it doesn't just apply to your tithes. You give God your Sabbath time cheerfully or grudgingly and by constraint. You know, you give God your tithe, you give God your holy day time. You give God the study time and prayer time grudgingly by constraint, or willingly and cheerfully?

   This whole book is filled with the same thing over and over about how they say it's just hard to serve God. And notice going on here in Malachi 2:13: "You cover the altar of God with tears, with weeping, with crying out, so God doesn't even regard your offering anymore. God doesn't receive it with goodwill at your hands."

   "Yet you say, 'Why, how come?' What's the matter with you, God? Why aren't you accepting? We're doing what you told us."

   "Because the Eternal has been witness between you and the wife of your youth against whom you have dealt treacherously, yet is she your companion and the wife of your covenant. And did not he make one?" You know that's too simple for people to believe that God's solution for total happiness in marriage and avoiding all the troubles is one woman for one man and that's that. "Didn't God make two one?" Why yes he did.

   But notice, "That he might seek a godly seed." So this is speaking spiritually about Israel being married to God and the church being married to Christ as much as it is literally. "Therefore, take heed to your spirit." Rule your mind, guard your thoughts, take heed to your spirit. "Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth," against that church that you were a part of that's married to God, either Israel or the New Testament church.

   "For the Eternal, the God of Israel says that he hates putting away." God, the God of Israel says that he hates putting away. Causing children to be no longer with a father and a mother, no longer together in a home. God hates putting away. And that's another one of the things in the Bible God hates.

   But notice the attitude these people have. They want so much to do what they're not supposed to do. Come back to the book of Ecclesiastes because really, when you get down to it, this is the whole story of a Christian kid who knew what he ought to do, didn't want to do it, knew what he wanted to do, but was battling himself because he knew his dad and God said you shouldn't do it. So if there ever was a picture of a battle going on between someone who knew what they ought to do and yet with their nature wanted to do what they shouldn't, here's the man right here.

   "The words of the preacher," Notice verse 12, (Ecclesiastes 1:12). "I the preacher, I was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail God has given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith."

   What is he talking about? "I don't see any sore travail that God has given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. Why the Christian life is an abundant life. Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. What, what is he talking about anyway? This preacher, this king over Israel in Jerusalem. What's the matter with him that he looks on life in this negative way that he does?"

   All of his days he wouldn't let himself do what he always wanted to do and kept himself from doing what he always wanted to do and made himself do what he never really did want to do but knew that he ought to do. Boy, no wonder that guy was frustrated. You know, it's really great to want to do what you ought to do. That's the real solution right there. Once you know it's best for you to do what you ought to do, that's a real abundant life. Just do what God tells you to. Don't have to learn by experience. Don't have to wait until you learn the lumps of going the wrong way.

   But you talk about a turned off negative character, and no wonder some church people get turned off. No wonder some young people get turned off because all they are is duplicates to this preacher, this king here. They just all their lives know what they ought to do, yet they don't want to do it and they know what they want to do and yet they are afraid to do it. Boy, that is real frustration. You talk about negativism.

   So here old Solomon says, "This sore travail, God given to the sons of man. If I could just do what I want to do, if I could just do what I want to do and get the blessings that come from doing what I ought to do, or if I could just do everything I want to do and not pay the penalty that God said you are gonna pay if you do those things when they are wrong."

   So notice this negative attitude, he says. "I've seen all the works that are done under the sun, behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit." What in the world is wrong with this guy anyway? "All is vexation of spirit. That which is crooked can't be made straight. That which is wanting can't be numbered." All he ever sees is negative, negative, negative.

   "I communed with my own heart saying, 'Well, I'm come to great estate, and I've got more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem.' Yeah, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived all this is vexation of spirit." Woe is me, wretched misery, woe is me. "So, you know, I just gave myself all this madness and that didn't satisfy. It didn't, wouldn't turn out what it looked like it would be. I gave my heart to know all this folly and boy what a vexation of spirit. In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow."

   Boy, you know, I've never realized until last year that the difference between someone who's totally conquered of God, who's really totally led by God's spirit is a person who doesn't just go around day after day after day... How would I feel every day if I just had to battle myself every time I walk down the street because I see women not dressed, and how would you feel if you just battled yourself everyday or you just want to get that ham sandwich when you go through the cafeteria line and every Christmas, or you just want to have a tree and you want to hunt those Easter eggs and you know, what if your life went that way every week, every month, every year. No wonder Solomon said what he said.

   You know that's what happened. We had some guys that got out of high school, went to Ambassador College and got out of Ambassador College and the next step is go right into the ministry, get your wife and your lease car and go out to your area and with all their being, they wanted to be like everybody. They didn't want their kids to be different in school. They didn't want them taking unleavened bread sandwiches. Boy, that stuck in the craw.

   One student I remember in Big Sandy. He talked about what it was like to go to school during Unleavened Bread and with his unleavened bread sandwich. Not everybody around him was trying to talk him out of it. Nobody wanted it. You know, he had a chip on the shoulder. So many people, it just sounded like Solomon here.

   Now notice Solomon going on. "I said in my heart, 'Come on now, I'm gonna prove you with mirth.' So let's just boy just laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, enjoy pleasure, just do nothing but mirth, laugh." Boy, you talk about monotonous, that gets boring in a hurry, you know. You can only stand so much of that. So what do you say? "Boy, I tried it out, boy, that's a bunch of vanity. Behold this also is vanity." So I said of laughter, "Boy that's nutty, isn't it?" And finally I said of mirth, "What good does that do you?"

   "So though I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom," boy, the headache afterwards is worse than the wine when you forget everything and what you tried to forget at last when you get over it is still there and you got complications go along with it. You spent your money and you got a headache and what good did it do you?

   "Oh boy, I laid hold on folly. That's what I did till I could see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life." You know this is just exactly what young people go through, what church members go through until they really are converted.

   "So I made me great works and I built me houses and I planted me vineyards and I made me gardens and orchards and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits and I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that brings forth trees and I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house and I had great possessions of great and small cattle above everybody in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts" and run, run, run from God, but sooner or later he catches up with you and you face him anyway. So you can try to run all you want and you never can run from what you know, you know.

   The only way to be happy with what you know, you remember what Jesus said back in John. About Passover and foot washing, he said, "If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." But what if you know them and don't do them? We talk about unhappy. You're going to be another Solomon. Run, run, run, trying to run from what you know.

   "So I was great and I increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and whatever mine eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold anything from my heart, from any joy when my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor."

   "And then I looked on all over. I looked back over all that time I'd spent doing all those things that I wanted to do that seemed that would fill in. You know, make my life satisfied and but look what happened. I looked on all the works my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labored to do and behold, woe is me. Boy, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. There wasn't any profit under the sun."

   "So I turned myself to the old wisdom. I said maybe, maybe the life isn't how many things you have and all these gardens and all these, boy, you know, maybe it's head over body, maybe that's it. I've been emphasizing body now I'm gonna go to the head and emphasize head."

   "OK, I turned myself to behold wisdom. I studied people that were mad and people that were wrapped up in folly, and what can the man do that comes after the king, even that which has been already done? Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as far as light excels darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness," even though he's got eyes there. He didn't ever see, he learns the hard way, gets vexed and hit and hurt and...

   "I myself perceived also that one event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, 'As it happens to the fool, it happens even to me, and why am I any more wise than a fool?' Then I said in my heart, boy, more vanity." Everywhere he went, all he ran into is emptiness, vacuum, not satisfied, not rewarded, not feeling accomplishment.

   "There's no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever. Seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. How dies the wise man? As the fool."

   "Therefore, I hated life." So like anybody you've known that used to come to church and sit in church and they were just making themselves do what they knew and year after year grudgingly obeying God, out of constraint obeying God, filling God's altar with weeping and tears and sorrow and, they never really doing what they wanted to do and just knowing they better not and making themselves do what they knew they should do and...

   "Well, I hated life because the work that's wrought under the sun is grievous to me. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yeah, I hated all my labor, which I'd taken under the sun because all I'm gonna do is just gonna pass on to the next guy, can't take it with you. So what do you got? Who knows whether he'll be a wise man or a fool, the guy you pass on everything you store up for. Yet he'll have rule over all my labor wherein I've labored and where I've showed myself wise under the sun, that's what emptiness. What a bunch of vanity."

   "So I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor I took under the sun. While there's a man whose labor is in wisdom and knowledge and in equity, yet to a man that has not labored therein, shall he leave it for his portion. What a bunch of vanity, what a great evil. What has man of all his labor and of the vexation of his heart wherein he's labored under the sun? All his days are sorrows, his travail grief, yet his heart takes not rest in the night. This is also vanity."

   "Though I guess there's nothing better for a man than he just eat and drink, live each day at a time and have your meals and enjoy your meals and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Enjoy work. Be sure you enjoy your work and just enjoy your meals. This I also saw it was from the hand of God, for who can eat or who else can hasten hereunto more than I?"

   "God gives to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that's good before God. Boy, what a bunch of vanity and vexation of spirit."

   You talk about a negative guy. That guy was really negative. What a bad picture. You know, I've seen Christians that way. I've seen preachers that way. I've seen men who tried to be ministers who didn't like to preach. I've seen men who tried to be ministers because they felt somehow they had to be, because they felt somehow that God required it of them. I've seen people that supposedly were converted who just wanted to get out of their marriage and as soon as the church came to a little different understanding, boy, look what happened.

   Well now you have a man sitting in a church with somebody else while his wife sits in the church with somebody else and boy that's confusion in Israel. You know, God doesn't look down on that with pleasure. God hates putting away. Some people have decided that life's gonna be more satisfying if they can just get married. So they decide they're not really bound and they can go ahead and get married. And that's kind of silly. Can you marry yourself? You know, you go down to the court somewhere and say, "Hey, we're married. I married myself." They're gonna look at you like, "Hey, you can't do that. You're not licensed to marry yourself." All adults aren't licensed to marry themselves. You got to have somebody that's in a position to marry. And sure enough, the one who can bind you is also the one who can loose you. You can't bind yourself and loose yourself. That's just so much putting emphasis on marriage ahead of obeying God and pleasing God.

   And let me show you a couple of scriptures here, Proverbs 29. Now this is mentioned many times in the scriptures. Verse 18 (Proverbs 29:18): "Where there's no vision the people perish, but he that keeps the law, happy is he." Happy is he that keeps the law. The love of God is keeping his commandments. His commandments aren't grievous.

   If God says thou shalt not commit adultery, that’s not grievous. That's where everybody's concerned. If everybody had obeyed that, we wouldn't have broken homes. We wouldn't have one-third of all marriages without both partners there. I read in Christianity Today, they have almost a whole magazine this issue is devoted to destruction of marriage and what is happening in marriages. It gives a poll of people's attitudes towards sex too. And whether they think that it's good for your marriage to cheat and it's good for your future marriage to experiment and fool around with each other and boy I mean it stands your hair on end how much people's attitudes have changed in the last five years.

   "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." My yoke of bondage. That’s not a yoke of bondage. Now maybe it is the young people who would rather be out at the ball game on Friday night and they'd rather be out with everybody else on Friday night because they are carnal minded. Their minds aren't in tune to God. Now that doesn't excuse it, doesn't justify it. You're never gonna be happy that way. How can you be happy doing what you know God says not to do?

   "He that keeps the law, happy is he." But you know, I've known people that kept the law for years, preachers included, they weren't happy. Oh they just wish they could be free from their mate, oh they just wish they could be able to participate in paganism, oh they just wish they could... No, that's not total conversion. Those people aren't conquered by God. Those people aren't men like David. Those aren't McGrady’s. Those people aren't Tkach’s, you know those aren’t deacons, those people aren't the real converted pillars in God's church. No, no.

   How do you react to God's law? Is God's law grievous? The more carnal you are, the more it is. Is God's law spiritual? Is God's law love? Is God's law good? If you're converted, it is. "He that keeps the law, happy is he." And how many times does Jesus repeat that over and over?

   Matter of fact, when you think about David, and you think about the longest chapter in all the Bible. What's it all about? "Oh, how I love thy law." We had church members who never would have said that. That didn't like God's law, that God's law was grievous. God's law was hard. Now that's always been the case. You go way back. Maybe we should turn back there instead of just referring to it, but back here in Samuel where they were going to get away from God's holy days, that was the very argument they used back there. They said, "Why it's too hard for you." Boy, you know, God's law is grievous. God's law is vexation. It's difficult. I mean it isn't easy.

   I don't think I will have time to turn there, but how many examples in the Bible can you think of where people have that reaction to God's law or God's way? Now let's turn to Ezekiel. I want to read this. I have to skip over some of these, but notice in Ezekiel chapter 2 (Ezekiel 2:1).

   So God says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I'll speak to you." And the spirit entered into Ezekiel when God spoke to him and Ezekiel was set up on his feet that he heard him speak to him. When he’d been face down in the sand because he faced God, and God said to Ezekiel, "Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, a rebellious nation." That's the way they are, rebellious nations, because they weren't converted. They didn't have God's spirit. They were carnal minded. They weren't people who had any spiritual element in their minds, they didn't have any interest in God. This God had called them out and kind of imposed himself on them and they are rebellious nations. "They rebelled against me." Well, so what if God said? "I don't care what God said." "They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day."

   Now notice other descriptions of them. "They are impudent children." Boy, that's what you run into when you try to talk to people that bombed out of the church here in the last six, seven years. They are hard of face. That's what the Hebrew says there. You can't get through, they won't listen. Their minds are locked out. They are closed in their minds. They are impudent children. They are stiff-hearted. Boy, that's a carnal mind. That's an unconverted mind. That's a non-Christian mind.

   Now, how many times do you get that way? Something God says and you rebel against it. Something you read in the scripture and you transgress it. Something you read in the Bible and you're hard faced toward it, you are impudent to it. You just get angry about it, you're stiff necked toward it.

   Boy, I can look back and I can see some preachers that had that attitude towards feast tithe. I know some preachers that had that attitude toward all of God's holy days, having to keep eight days of the feast, and you know, not working seven days during Unleavened Bread in the old days and you look back and you can see people that weren't any more converted than jackrabbits. Sad in God's church and it was a dead giveaway when you read these attitudes.

   II Corinthians chapter 10. There's a real key scripture here that's loused up in the King James Version. Because when you translate it right, it shows you this carnal mind. You can't pin the carnal mind down. It won't be pinned down. You know, I remember Mr. Armstrong warning us about trying to pin down a carnal mind. He said, "You better always leave a man a way out, boy, don't back somebody into the corner. You get yourself whipped. You're gonna find out you're gonna get scarred if you back somebody in the corner. You know, the man's always got to be left an out." So that's the way a carnal mind, boy, it fights, it's enmity against God.

   Now II Corinthians 10 kind of describes what happens to the mind. Verse one (II Corinthians 10:1): "I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." Now when I am present, you say I am not very impressive. "I am base among you." Ruddy little old freckle face, small, weak-eyed character, but you better not judge the man of God by his physical appearance. So I am present and base among you, but boy, he can really write bold letters when he is not here.

   Now he said, “I beseech you that I won't have to be bold when I am present with that same confidence. Wherewith I think to be bold against some who are judging people by outward appearance, who are judging ministers by stature, by freckles and weak eyes, they think of us as just in the physical walking." Why we may, we still walk in the flesh, but our war isn't after the flesh. Why the weapons we use in our warfare, they are not fleshly, they are weapons of God, spiritual weapons. They're gonna pull down strongholds with these weapons of God.

   And notice how it happens then. "Casting down imaginations," the King James says, that isn't what it is. "Casting down reasonings." Now my Bible shows that in the margin. Casting down reasonings.

   Now what happens when God says something and you reason? Well, God said to Abraham and Sarah, "You're gonna have a son. He's gonna be your heir and he's gonna be blessed of God." And so what did Sarah do? Ten years went by and they didn't have any kids, so Sarah said, "Hey, Abraham, you know, we've been kind of dumb. Why don't we use our heads? I mean, God gave us brains to use. God means for us to have children by concubines or handmaidens or something. Why, of all things here we wasted ten years, we could have had a bunch of sons by now," so she got her brain in gear and boy she reasoned.

   So you can read the scripture that says long hair is a shame. And what happens? The mind says, "Well, yeah, but what's long hair and it says nature teaches you that, and it says for a man to have long hair, it says it's a shame, doesn't say it's a sin." There goes the brain, reason, reason, reason, reason, reason, but the converted mind says, "Hey, I want to know what God says. That's best for me, you know, what does he really say there?"

   "Women adorn themselves in modest apparel." Well, that says women, that doesn't say young people, and you know who is to decide what is modest. And after all, it doesn't say it's a sin. And you know, here we go reasoning.

   "Well, you know, God knows I can't make it into the kingdom unless I can be free to marry, you know, unless I can be free of this wife that I've been with and get me some new wife" and boy here goes this carnal mind reasoning, reasoning. Now you know what God says. But that's the bad part right there.

   Now Paul says casting down reasoning. Stop that. Don't let your brain do that. Rule your mind. Don't let your mind do that to you. Casting down reasoning. Now notice what he says reasonings do. "And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." See, that's what reasoning does. It tries to exalt itself against the knowledge of God.

   God says thou shalt not kill. The Baptist say, well yeah their trying to run over our country and be a dictator and rule us and those Germans were not gonna..." "Well, I know God says thou shalt not kill, but..." "Well, now, now it says remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." "Well, yeah, I would like to and I want to and boy I just wish I could, but you know" and here goes this carnal reasoning.

   Paul said, cast down reasoning and all these high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Do you know that's what Abraham did? Abraham said, "Now wait a minute, I don't care if I'm 100 and she's 99 and she's passed the change of life, and I'm not vigorous anymore either and I don't care. Casting down reasonings, don't go by what you think and what you feel and how you lean and what you believe, what does God say? That's all that counts, what does God say. God said, don't do it, don't do it. God said eat poison berries every morning of your life. Boy, you just eat poison berries every morning of your life. You'll find out later how much good it did you."

   You don’t have to know why. One of these preachers that quit was out trying to destroy God's church now, he says, "Just because God said that isn't good enough for me, I've got to know why." Well, I feel sorry for somebody that's that independent, that's not under authority more than that because Paul said you got to cast down reasoning, you've got to cast down all these high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Isn't the knowledge of God the supreme thing? Is that the main thing? Isn't that all that counts really? Then why do you let anything exalt itself against the knowledge of God?

   If God says circumcise your kids on the eighth day? Boy, just go ahead and do it. He said don't eat the blood, just go ahead. He said, don't mingle your seed of diverse kinds, go ahead and do it. He said don't let your animals interbreed, just go ahead and do that. I mean that's the guy that's really going to stay in God's church for good, you know, those guys aren't gonna come and go.

   I've heard people say, "Well, you know, let's not be bold because any of us could fall, and you know it could happen to anybody" and not really, depends on whether you let it or not, you know. Anybody can keep it from happening to them. It is as if we're all playing Russian roulette and we don't have much to say about it and it might get any of us. That's ridiculous, that’s fatalism. This is the very passage that says yours to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Bringing every thought into captivity.

   In other words, when your mind starts to try to get you around what God says, you say, "Wait a minute now, look, God said." You know that's why it says if you hide God's word in your heart, you won't sin against God. That's why if you tremble before God's word, you won't reason with it. You won't say, "Yeah, but," you won't make God's word of none effect like those Jews in Jesus' day did.

   Now you know, you won't find this translated properly. Notice back in Romans the first chapter. Here again, the word ought to be reasoning and look what it did to these Romans. It was really the main difficulty with these Romans.

   Romans 1:21. I'll tell you a good example back in the Old Testament, a real simple verse that said, "You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together." But what does a man do? Off goes this great brain, reasoning. "OK, now let's see, don't plow with an ox and ass together. Well, that ought to be obvious. Look how little that ass is. Look how big that ox is. That ox is gonna take big steps and that ass takes little steps, and an ass is a creature for mountain climbing for surefootedness. He's not a beast for some giant heavy loads like an ox. Boy, no wonder God said don't plow with an ox and ass together. That poor little ass would be killed if you tried to yoke an ox and an ass unequally together."

   You got it all figured out, don't you? It's all sense and reasoning. That's all wrong. None of that's true at all. But boy your reasoning sounds good, doesn't it? I mean, that's real brainy.

   That's like our reasoning back in Chicago about the day of Atonement, you know, your stomach is empty for four hours after you eat. So if you run out and eat right before the day of atonement, you haven't afflicted your soul until down. I mean, your soul's afflicted when it's empty, so we always quit eating four hours before sundown. See, we were four hours more righteous than everybody else. That's great reasoning. It makes sense except it just isn't scriptural. That's all that's wrong with it. Just isn’t what God's word says. What does God's word say? Well, as plain as day God's word says, from evening to evening, you celebrate your day of Atonement. That's just God's word for it.

   So along comes reasoning and isn't that really man's problem all along. God said to Adam and Eve, "Hey, help yourself, boy, you got a paradise here, just help yourself to all of it, except that one right there." What did man do? Did man just say, "Well, you know, God's word is good enough for me"? You know, no, man said, "Hey, I wonder why God said not that one. Boy, that's a beautiful one. Look at that. Boy, those are pretty, man, those sure smell good." And you know, here goes this brain, just on and on and on.

   Now you go by God's word or you go by reasoning. You know what happens when you plow with an ox and an ass together? The ass is an unclean animal. It eats everything. It'll eat any stinking weed. An ox can't stand an ass. It'll turn the other way, and here they're pulling and the ox pulls with one shoulder because it can't stand that stinking ass and it kills the ox. That's right, the great big critter, the big creature, that's the one that dies, not the little ass. He just goes right on living, killing oxen right and left when you try to plow with them together. Who'd ever think that? Man, your brain just wouldn't figure that out that way, would it? That's why you better not go by reasoning, you know, just go by what God says.

   You know, you take man's reasoning. The man said, "Well, the reason they couldn't eat unclean meats back there is because they didn't have refrigeration. And not only that, they fed those animals... Look at what those wild pigs ate, dead things. Look what a pig eats. Oh horror, look what a pig eats. Well, if we feed it good old cottonseed meal oil and milk and, you know, kill it right and refrigerate it, man, there is nothing wrong with pigs in our day. Why just that old world that they shouldn't eat pigs." No, that's all wrong again, you know. A man with his great reasoning, what does God say? "Well, that God is outdated, you know, that Old Testament is. Why so much past tense that's outdated."

   Is Romans chapter one. What it says here. Verse 19 (Romans 1:19): "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. God has shown it unto them, for the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen." Boy, that's something, invisible things clearly seen. You gotta be kidding. Invisible means you can't see them, and yet he says the invisible things of God are clearly seen "being understood by the things that are made."

   Look at creation, look at the way God made things and what he made. Why God's eternal power, that's clearly seen by the things he made. God's divinity, God's supreme, all I've seen in the things God made, so they are without excuse. All these people down through time, they don't really have any excuse. How did they get away then? How did they miss the boat?

   "Because when they knew God, they didn't glorify him as God." You ever know any people like that in the church that knew God and yet they didn't glorify him as God? Well, I know a lot of people that way. I know all kinds of people that say, "Oh yes, that God of the Bible, I mean that God of the New Testament and the God of Israel, you know, that's my God" and do they glorify him as God? You can show them something that God said and they say, "Well, yeah, I know, but..." You say, "Well, well, it seems to say that, but now let me, here's the way I look at that and now..."

   "Well, maybe it does say it's a shame for a man to have long hair, but... Maybe it does say women should be adorned in modest apparel, but... Now I know it says God hates putting away, and I know it says God hates lying lips, but now here's the way I look at that. If I tell a lie and I don't hurt someone and I tell the truth and hurt someone, why it's better to tell a lie."

   You're not glorifying God as God when you reason what God says. And when God says it, God says it and if God's God, then God's God. Whatever God says, it's bound to be right. It's gonna turn out right. Haven't you learned that yet? Every time God said thou shalt not, and you go on and do it, you're always sorry. Later you wish you hadn't. And you found that every time God said do this and you do it, boy, sure enough, look what blessings there are.

   Well, if you're not in that boat, you won't be in the church when things come to an end. You'll join other people that used to be in the church, but they didn't glorify God as God, they reasoned. Their god was upstairs in their brain up here. Their human nature always wanting to do what they knew they shouldn't. That's ridiculous.

   I've never thought about that, you know, I know I can be tempted to do what I shouldn't do, but I don't go around every day wanting to do it, just fighting myself to keep from doing it, just battling myself everyday because I want to do everything God said not to do. Why check, I question your conversion if you have that attitude. If that's your day to day, week by week Christian life, man, you aren't even converted.

   So you notice this when they knew God they didn't glorify him as God. Neither were thankful, but look what happened. If you don't glorify God as God, look what happens. You're gonna become vain in your reasoning. And your foolish heart's gonna get darkened by your great reasoning. And even though God said it, you've become vain in your reasonings. And your foolish heart's darkened. So you don't do what God says and you reason and second guess and doubt God and boy, no wonder you don't stay in the church. No wonder you don’t, your life isn't abundant and happy and full. No wonder you're a Solomon wandering around all the time, battling yourself in your mind because your nature wants to do what it shouldn't. Yet you want to do it.

   That's not the same as Paul, you know, and I don't think what I'm saying here is the same battle Paul had. That isn't the same battle Paul had. Paul said with his mind, he served the law of God. But he said he found a law in his members that he'd better watch out because when he thought he stood, that's when he'd fall. But Paul wasn't saying he had to battle himself every day to keep from committing adultery and boy he just wanted to steal and lie and kill and eat ham and all that and just had to battle himself all the time to keep from doing it, no. That's not what Paul said.

   How could Paul have said that and yet in another scripture said concerning the righteousness of the law, blameless? You get right down to the law. He said he was blameless. So don't kid me, Paul was out committing adultery and lusting and coveting and wanting to do all the things that were wrong and that isn't true. Mr. Armstrong really put his finger on that this past year.

   Now just for young people's sake, let me show you what those verses do say. I Corinthians 11 (I Corinthians 11:14). "If a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him." All right, you take the word shame and look it up in other places and you're gonna find out what's a shame. That's an abomination. Same word translated abomination in other places.

   Now I'd rather see a young person keep the Sabbath if his hair was too long. I mean, having hair too long, to me, I'd rather see a young person praying and studying and keeping the Sabbath and paying his tithes and, you know, as he grows and learns to please God and to want to have God look down on him with favor, then he'll get his hair in line, but that's no excuse then. What is long hair? You can't get away with saying that's up to everybody to decide or who's... No. This verse tells you what's long hair.

   Read the next verse. "If a woman have long hair," now you can't have double standards here. Long hair is long hair, the same word, you know, so whatever is long hair for a woman is long hair for a man. So if a man's hair is long enough that it's as long as a woman's hair, then he has long hair. So what's long hair for a woman is long hair for a man, but that isn't the only answer. Wait a minute. "It's a glory to her." Long hair is the glory to the woman, and that's just God's opinion. If all you ladies don't like to agree with that, you'll learn the hard way. That's what God says. Long hair is the glory for a woman.

   Now that doesn't mean don't cut it and let it drag out your tracks like hippies do. It doesn't mean let it come down to the middle of your back and you're more righteous than anybody else. All long hair has to do, read it. "Her hair is given her for a covering." There's the key. Her, the woman's hair is given her. It should be long enough for her to be a covering. But if it's long enough for a man to be a covering, then it's wrong because a man shouldn't be covered as it says on up in verse 7. "A man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he's in the image and glory of God. But the woman ought to cover her head because she's the glory of the man."

   Now the key is the word covering. And you know what it is in the Greek? Circle about, frame. Her hair's given her for a frame. Her hair's given her for circling about. Greek word root is PERI like perimeter. You know what a perimeter is. That's what goes around it. So if your hair is long enough to cover your, to be a frame for your face, to cover your face, you know it violates the scripture.

   Heavy hair, the Bible doesn't say a word about heavy hair, you know, men who have short hair like our, my standard of my age, when I went to Ambassador College, I had a crew cut. Boy, I looked weird. I look at that picture now and it embarrasses me. I wish I hadn't had it that way. Looked like a buck private right out of the army where they skinned your head or something. Now that isn't good for you, get your head baked in the sun and you know, all it does is save money. You don't have to go to the barber very often.

   But you know God, in Jesus' day, you can see statues and they had heavy hair. They didn't have short hair, but they didn't have long hair. You know, anytime it starts to get where you have a hard time by the hair telling the difference between a man and a woman, you're all wrong.

   Alright, the scripture about the girls, it's a shame. Well, back to I Timothy 2:9. Talking about females there, it's not talking about adults or teenagers or young, it's talking about females. "In like manner that females adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety." The word sobriety is the word for sound mindness, moderate. The word shamefacedness is translated humility and meekness. So the woman's apparel ought to be humility and meekness. It ought to be moderation and sound-minded sobriety. It shouldn't be costly array, putting strands of silver in with your hair. Gold or pearls, who can tell the difference between the real ones and the costume jewelry anyway, and if your vanity is just showing off what you have, what you see around here more than about any place I've ever been to, all these rich women in Midland. But what ought women to be becoming? Good works. That's what people ought to notice first about you as a woman, as a female, the good works.

   Now, you might come back to Acts 13. Here's the example of David, a man who was trying to be like God was every way he could. And his attitude was he trembled before God's word. You know, if God said it, that was it.

   Now notice what it says here, verse 22 (Acts 13:22): "When God had removed Saul, God raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also God gave witness." God said, now you know how would you like for God to say this about you? How would you like for God to give witness and say about you? "I have found Bill, I found Tom or Joe, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will."

   Now what he is really saying there is this man David wanted to do everything God said. He wanted to do every law of God. He wanted to keep the jots and tittles. He wanted to keep every minuet law. He wanted to do everything, whatever God ever said, no matter how big or little. And you know Jesus says, if you only keep the big things in the kingdom of God, you're going to be called the least. But if you keep every big and little thing, if you've got that attitude of just wanting to know everything God says and do everything God says. That's the way David was. He wanted to fulfill everything in the will of God, every law of God. He wanted to do anything that was in God's will.

   And you might get a great picture of that attitude back here in Psalm 119 because after all, for the longest chapter in the Bible, to be, a description of an attitude of a man toward God's word. That's what it is, and we won't read except just a sampling of this.

   Psalm 119. Here's a man that didn't reason with God's word, didn't get carried away with his vanities. And notice what he says (Psalm 119:1-5). "Blessed are the undefiled." The word in the margin means more the sincere, the strivers for perfection. Blessed are those who are striving for perfection, those who are sincere and want to do everything God says. That's their attitude in the way. "They walk in the law of the Eternal," not reasoning, trying to get around it, justifying, excusing. "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek Him with a whole heart."

   Notice verse 5. David says, "Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes." God, I just wish that I didn't even have to have to learn them and then have to change and then have to make myself do them. Oh God, I just wish you know that we'd been made where we did your ways automatically forever. And you ever feel that way, that you just wish God had made us without human nature and let us be born in the world that we'd been infiltrated with Satan's attitude. Don't you wish sometimes you were a robot where you just automatically did everything God said do? That's what David said here.

   "Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes, then I wouldn't have to be ashamed when I fail, when I slip, when I don't do it, when I overlook some smaller points of your law, then, then I wouldn't have to be ashamed. If I just had respect unto all your commandments all the time, I wouldn't have to learn the hard way and be ashamed. So I'm going to praise you with uprightness of heart when I have learned your righteous judgments. I'm gonna keep your statutes, so don't forsake me, just help me to do it."

   "Now wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" Well, all you got to do is take heed to God's word. That's where you can keep your life happy and abundant and clean. Just take heed to God's word.

   You ever notice how much of this, the book of Proverbs is directed to young people, where he says, "My son, my son, my son" over and over and over and over and over all the way through Proverbs. Because Solomon didn't learn, he didn't listen to his dad, so God made him write that book showing how he wished he'd hearkened, he wished he'd had the wisdom and the nature to hearken to his dad in God's ways, but he didn't do it. That's the way a young man can cleanse his way.

   And then David says, "With my whole heart, I have sought you. Boy God, I just want to be like you and do whatever you say and live by every word of yours. Oh, don't let me wander from your commandments, God. I don't want to. I mean, I know that way of your commandments is best. I've hid your word in my heart, that way I can remember it and it'll keep me from sinning against you."

   You know, you want to read a man who will be in the kingdom of God and the Church of God forever, you just read the Psalm 119. Because that's not an attitude a lot of people have had that bombed out of God's church. They just have not had that attitude. They've had an independent attitude, they've had a reasoning attitude, they've had an attitude that God's law is rough and hard and whereas the beloved disciple said God's laws are not grievous. David said, "Oh how I love thy law," and other people say, "Boy, God's law sure is tough, sure is hard. It's too much to go down, keep those feasts, too much to keep that feast tithe, it's too hard." But those aren't the men who are guaranteed to be in God's kingdom.

   So I hope above everything else you can look in your Bible and maybe if I have the chance I might do it later to take all the passages in the New Testament where I've marked government in my Bible. And I think a lot of people, if they'd done that, they'd still be in God's church today.

   You know, it's a kind of a tricky thing, and the next sermon I give, I'm going to give it on this. How many people in the Bible reject God whereas they always think they're just rejecting some person. You know, when they rejected Samuel, they didn't think they were rejecting God. Why that Samuel had those rebellious sons and Samuel was a human and he made mistakes and God said, "Samuel, they haven't rejected you, they rejected me." And yet there are people in our day who reject God's servant, but they don't think they do. All the time they say they don't speak against him, they're not rejecting him, and yet what are they doing? They're rejecting ones he's using, they're rejecting people that are working with him. They're rejecting people he keeps in positions and jobs. How many times do you think about that?

   What about in Moses' time? Moses thought they would have understood how God had chosen him to deliver them, but what did they say? "Moses, who do you think you are anyway? You think you're the only one? I mean..." And they rejected God. Well, they just thought they were rejecting Moses. No, they were rejecting God.

   Well how about when Jeremiah came along and tried to tell them? Well, they rejected God. They thought they were just not listening to Jeremiah, but they were rejecting God. And how about Eli, you know, when Eli's sons began to go contrary to the way they rejected God. They didn't just reject Eli. Eli was someone God was using. He was someone that was God's servant. And how about, well, there are more and more and more often. But it's surprising to me when you start thinking about how many examples in the Bible where they literally according to scripture, rejected God and yet in their judgment, they were just not listening to a man. Putting aside a man and taking another man like Jeroboam and Rehoboam's case. Here it happens in our day and how many of us even see the parallel.

   But I'll guarantee you the theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation's government. And if you're gonna stay in God's church till Christ comes back, you know, how can you be a part of God's government if your attitude isn't like David's towards government. If you think God's law, if you can't follow God's law cheerfully. You know, a lot of times I'll always say around the house when something comes up and we're talking about doing something. And someone's going to do something for you, and I say, "Well, now God loves a cheerful giver." You know, I don't like for somebody to do something for me if they're going to do it grudgingly, if they're going to do it by constraint. You know, if someone's going to do something for you, you like for them to do it willingly, gladly, eagerly. They're going to do it cheerfully.

   I don't, you know that's the way God is. You can't fill God's Sabbath all full of tears and weeping and expect God to be happy that you're worshiping Him and that you're obeying Him and you know, pleasing him with the Sabbath.

   Well I hope we can all get straight this attitude of being conquered by God, and being yielded to God, being subject to God because you heard Mr. Armstrong say and I can look back and analyze it clearly that people in the last 10 years who bombed out of God's church every time it's been in government. It's always when you get right down to the bottom rung, government. They don't like theocracy in the church. They don't like the aristocratic way of governing. They don't like one ruler. They don't like one older man in a position where he's running everything. And it gets right down to government.

   And you know, really, a lot of the marriage problems are that way too. A lot of the home problems with young people is that way too. I hope we can get that straight, and we may just do that, go through the Bible one of these times and mark all these places where government is because I think that will do more to keep you in God's church from now till Christ comes back than anything you can ever learn.

   Now if you want to do that on your own, you can take the word obey, you can take the word submit, you can take the word yield, you can take key words like that and look them up in a Concordance and mark them. But you're gonna be surprised there are more chapters that you will mark government than any other subject in the whole New Testament. And that's the real key lesson we really need to learn.