Herbert W Armstrong

   I want to help you in the sermon for us to be able to get our minds onto the big picture. I'd like to ask another question. How many of you have at some stage during your life seen a film about space, a space film, whether it be a fiction or a documentary or visiting, visiting a planetarium, some kind of film where you saw that the various stars and galaxies and whatnot? How many of us have seen that kind of film at some stage in our life, and this includes the children. All right, just about everybody.

   Now if we own this theater and all the equipment and we have the manpower and so on, at this particular point in time I would have these screens pulled open and I'd put up a little reel about space to help us get into the mood for the message. But as that isn't possible, I'm going to ask you to use the best movie screen that's ever been invented, your own imagination. And I want you to use your mind to picture yourself taking a journey through space. I want you to be able to picture yourself with the planets and the asteroids and the comets hurtling past you. For the next minute or two, I want you to use your imagination and to imagine yourself riding along through a galaxy far, far away.

   I could listen to that all day actually, but the sermon's probably already gone over time, so I thought we'd better switch it off at that point. I hope whilst we were playing that you were able to picture yourself traveling through space, and the title of the sermon is "Could God Trust you to rule a galaxy," supposing your Creator wanted you to control a vast chunk of space and all that was in it. Could he trust you to rule it according to his law or in the title words of a recent movie, would your quote unquote empire strike back?

   The sky at night over the Arizona desert is truly astonishing. I've seen the stars from Europe and I've seen them from Africa. But I've never witnessed such an incredible panorama as I viewed one night when out camping on the church member's ranch in Tucson or near Tucson. The starry light was just pouring unhindered through the clear, smogless desert air.

   Now normally I'm not a stargazer. Most of the time I go around serenely indifferent to the vastness of time and of space, but there was something about that night which made it different. Perhaps it was because it was right in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles. That's what I was there for. Perhaps it was that that turned my attention to the stars above. I was sleeping out in the open outside the tent in my sleeping bag at the wake at about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. I said to think and my mind reached up, therefore the sky as it was. I was looking up there at all those various stars. It seemed like the sky was just packed with them. And right then back in 1979, that particular feast, right then in the middle of that night, I fixed my longest range goal. I want to rule a galaxy.

   Now I don't expect to be ruling one tomorrow or next week or next month or the year after that, but my longest range goal is to rule a galaxy. I want to become a member of what I sometimes call the galactic Club, which will consist of a fellow and exclusive group of fellow rulers of galaxies. I make no apology for that high ambition.

   Let's take a look at I Corinthians 9:24. I Corinthians 9:24. But the apostle Paul said, "No, you're not, that they which run in the race run all but one receives the prize in the physical race is only one winner. But we should run," he says, "so run that you may obtain." We are supposed to run so that we can obtain a position in God's kingdom. We won't turn there, but we are told in Matthew 6:33 to seek God's kingdom above all else. So it's not wrong to want a position in God's kingdom, provided that we want that position so that we can rule others, so that we can serve others.

   I don't want to rule a galaxy so that I can go around trampling and stomping on others as the kings of this world do. What I'm talking about is being able to help many other billions of people to be able to help and serve them to learn how to lead the right kind of life. But even so, my galactic goal may still sound incredibly ambitious. I know it would be somebody who wasn't in the church. Perhaps it sounds egotistical. Perhaps it sounds like a pipe dream. But is it really an unrealistic objective to have? Let's examine a few facts.

   I've been doing some research and I'll go through a few facts. For those of you who work in NASA, it won't do you any harm to to hear some of these repeated, which you probably already know about.

   Galaxies are huge collections of stars coming in assorted shapes and sizes. Our galaxy, the flowing sea of stars in which we live, is called the Milky Way. It is shaped like a spiral pinwheel, and it contains approximately 500 billion stars, give or take a few billion. It is almost 100,000 light years across. You probably all know that the light year is the distance a beam of light travels in one year. That's approximately 6 trillion miles. So if you're mathematically inclined, multiply 6 trillion miles by 100,000 in your brain quickly, and that gives roughly the size of our galaxy in miles.

   But our galaxy is not alone. Our galaxy is lost, as it were, in the total population of space. If you were off somewhere and you didn't have supernatural power through God and you just looked out at all the various galaxies, you wouldn't be able to find ours. It would be lost in the total population of space.

   Astronomers tell us, astronomers tell us that there are billions of galaxies out there. They set no limit on the number. Our galaxy would be like one tiny speck of dust floating around in this room. Other galaxies are dotted throughout the universe. Far beyond our galaxy are additional thousands of millions of galaxies, each of them containing billions of stars.

   There are amazing things out there in space. There are places where a spoonful of the matter or the stuff or whatever you would like to call it would weigh more than 200 million elephants. There are suns out there which are so large and so powerful in comparison with ours that our sun placed against it would be just like a pinprick on this wall behind me. There are black holes out there where all light and radio and various anything going near there is just sucked into it.

   There are some amazing things out there and I haven't even mentioned super galaxies. Super galaxies are clusters of tens of thousands of individual galaxies. Super galaxies are gigantic systems of galaxies. In fact, who knows whether or not all we see with our telescopes may be just a small part of one giant super galaxy. Who knows what lies behind the frontiers of our probing instruments? Who knows how big the universe really is, as was said in the book of Job, we won't turn there. Just look how high the stars are.

   Measuring that universe is no easy task as man develops better instruments for probing space, so he finds it is far bigger than the largest previous estimates. Each time they develop newer and better telescopes and what have you, they find it's much, much bigger out there than they previously thought it might be. Man's grasp of the size of his surroundings has increased enormously in the last few generations. People used to think in terms of their city or their country, and now at the scientists, you know how to learn to think in terms of the world, and now people have to get used to the idea that we live in this vast environment of space.

   At each new stage of scientific discovery. The size of the universe which they're investigating exceeds by far the most optimistic estimates of the past. At the moment, according to what I was reading, our best telescopes can see just over 10 billion light years away. Multiplying 10 billion by 6 billion for those of you in mathematics, mathematically inclined, you have the number of miles we can see. But to be frank with you, my peanut sized brain, which measures in inches, cannot grasp a real appreciation of distances that great. The size of the known universe can scarcely be encompassed by human understanding. It's just so large and so vast. It's enough to say that we live in an enormous void of interstellar immensity. Our tiny galaxy of 500 billion stars is but a flag of dust in the universe which God has created incredibly vast and unknowable to the physical human mind.

   It's no wonder that David said over in Psalm 19 that that the heavens declare the glory of God. There are incredible numbers of galaxies out there. There's no way I can describe to you in words the size of space and the number of galaxies there are out there. There are so many, so many, sorry, there are so many galaxies, not scientists. We don't get as many scientists as we do galaxies. There are so many galaxies that scientists have already counted 10 times as many galaxies as there are people on Earth at this present time. That's in the distance which they can see out, they can see 10 times as many galaxies, not stars, galaxies as there are people on Earth.

   And yet with all with all that incredible number of galaxies. Equally as incredible as it may 1st seem, space is in actual fact almost empty. That's right. Space is almost empty. The universe is almost empty, and that's because there are gigantic distances between the stars in each galaxy, and there are vast reaches of empty space between the galaxies.

   Let's take a look at Job 26:7. Job chapter 26:7. Job 26:7, "He that is God, stretched out the north over the empty place." It's just empty up there towards the north and hangs the earth upon nothing. The earth is suspended out here in space, hanging upon a whole lot of nothing. It's basically how God puts it.

   Scientists tell us that space is so incredibly empty that if two galaxies pass through each other, the chances are exceedingly remote that any planets or stars will actually collide. There's as much chance of that happening, to make an analogy as they would be of two gnats flying around the Grand Canyon accidentally crashing into each other. There is so much room between the stars and the planets in each galaxy, never mind the distances between the galaxies, but there's so much room between the stars and the planets that if any two galaxies pass through each other, they will almost certainly pass through without any major collisions. Only the vast clouds of space dust are likely to impact with each other.

   Space is so empty that if you average out the size of the known universe, for those of you who take physics, perhaps some of your teenagers, if you average out the size of the universe and you work out the average density of the universe, taking into account, you know, the whole space that you've got there with what's in it, and if you work out the average density, the average density of the known universe. It is about the same as just one drop of water spread throughout 40 trillion cubic miles of vacuum. That's the average density of the universe. In other words, the distances and the spaces are so gigantic that it's fair to say that the universe to all intents and purposes, is pretty well empty, even with all these vast numbers of galaxies.

   This is all mind boggling, isn't it? And I've probably lost a few of you. The stellar magnificence is beyond our comprehension. Ever since the first circumnavigation of the earth. Which itself was once too big for the human mind to be able to grasp. Man's understanding has had to grapple with ever bigger distances. Man is now to continually expand his vision to grasp the size of his known surroundings, and perhaps he hasn't even yet begun to scratch the surface of understanding of the true size of the universe.

   And in any case, there's a very interesting scripture in Isaiah 40. Let's turn there. Isaiah 40:21. Let's read verse 22. Let's just cut down to verse 22. Talking about God. "It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." Listen to this bit. "It is he, it is God that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in." Imagine the universe being spread out like a curtain. And that's exactly what is happening. Scientists picture the universe as expanding. All the galaxies are flying away from each other. The universe is actually expanding now if you don't understand that, don't worry about it because neither do I. But that's, you know, what scientists say, and that's what God says in the Bible. It's been spread out like a like a curtain. In fact, modern theories picture space expanding outwards like a giant rubber balloon being continually inflated.

   So coming back to my goal. What I'm saying is that there are enough galaxies out there for every one of us to be given one. And also there is more than enough space for God to make a lot more galaxies, and of course God can always create more space as well. That's my objective of ruling a galaxy is not really an unrealistic one. I'm going to stick tight with that goal until God or unless God shows me otherwise, in which case I will change the goal, but until then, I will stick with that goal.

   Let's take a look at Hebrews 11:6. Hebrews 11:6. "But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." God is going to reward those that go after him. I want to follow his way of life. Who knows? Perhaps one day I will be ruling in the galaxy next to yours.

   Right now, all we see out there contains the evidence of vast intergalactic warfare, Star Wars. I personally do not want to run a galaxy that has been smashed by battles, and presently the planets are pockmarked and broken. I'm not going to talk about how the universe was thrown off the track. It's not the subject of this sermon, but the universe we see has been thrown off track. And I have a dream of ruling a universe or a galaxy rather, which has been put in, which has been put back on the tracks.

   We won't turn there because there isn't time. But over in Revelation chapter 21, God talks about creating a new heavens and a new world, putting the galaxies, as it were, back on the tracks and all these various bodies which are all smashed and broken and put together, it's gonna be even more beautiful than it is now. And by waving the side, I kind of wonder if the black holes that some of you know about, I wonder if the black holes will be left there as places perhaps to put the devil and the demons in so they can wander around in that darkness and that blackness. But the galaxy is going to be put back on the track. God has a plan of restoration.

   First, God is putting His church back on track. That's you and me. We should be looking at our lives, getting them sorted out, making sure that our lives individually are back on the track. Then when we've done that, God will put planet Earth back on the track in the world tomorrow. And then after that, the galaxies will be put back on the tracks.

   So I have a dream. I'll share it with you. I pictured this that night when I was camping under the stars during the Feast of Tabernacle, just lying awake, meditating and thinking about it. I have a dream of no more war. I once lived in a place where there was the scourge of civil warfare. At one time, more than 200 people died each week in that insanity. That was in Rhodesia in the office in which I worked, for example, the girl sitting across from me, her boyfriend was killed when he stepped on the landmine, was killed by it. The man who worked next to me, his wife and his daughter were killed by a bomb explosion at that particular time I was around the other side, on the other side of the block where the bomb went off, and that killed his wife and his child. The man I worked for had a back injury where he had been hurt in a bomb explosion. The man just next door to me, my close friend at work, his mother and his father were killed by terrorists, and the man next door to that had shrapnel in his brain. I worked through the various accident reports, the various injury reports, the various amputations that took place because of that war.

   So I now dream of living in places without killings. Let's try to get the big picture. Imagine worlds where people are not taught to hurt. And hate others. Picture planets, whole planets in peace and prosperity. Think of places devoid of pain, sufferings, and crippling’s. Reflect on systems where the arts of war are not known. Just think about billions of people trained to do good to each other. Why can't it be possible? And of course it is possible, and it will take place.

   I have a dream of serving worlds just filled with happy, joyful people. Imagine being used to help and serve others to teach billions God's laws. Think of being a ruler, not interested in grabbing but only in giving. Reflect on serving vast multitudes and helping them to lead productive and useful lives. Just think about spreading joy right out there to the final frontiers of the universe.

   I have a dream of building magnificent structures and edifices. So far I've never so much as built a small shed, but imagine planning magnificent buildings, meditating on the quality constructions you'd like to erect to the glory of the great God. Think about the buildings you design, homes for other people to live in, places for them to meet.

   I have a dream of traveling through space. Think back to the latest science space movie that you might have seen. Imagine taking a journey through a galaxy. One could travel at the speed of thought, of course, but it would be much more fun to travel just a little slower and enjoy the scenes on the way. In the frantic pace of life that we live at today, we sometimes forget that much of the fun in going from place A to place B is to appreciate the route that's much of the fun.

   Let's take a look at Psalm 68:4. Psalm 68:4. Which says, I won't read the whole verse, but "sing unto God, sing praises to his name. Extol him that rides upon the heavens." Sometimes we think that when we become God, that's the end of fun. I know sometimes, especially young people tend to think that, but God has fun. This, this verse pictures God just riding along through the heavens and the galaxies when he wants to, so God can go out there and take a trip, a tour around the galaxies, having fun just looking at everything which he's made.

   We won't turn there, but over in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10, it shows that God has a portable throne to travel on. It describes the angels and the wheels that are that are attached to this throne. Now if God always traveled at the speed of thought, there'd be no need for a portable throne because you'd be here, and then when God wanted to be there, you'd be there and that would be it. And of course God can do that, but when God wants to, God uses a portable throne and rides around, rides along through the galaxies. It's kind of some kind in a sense it's like some kind of spacecraft made up of spiritual things and and angels not that God has to use that to travel around either in it or on it. I don't know exactly, you know, how he uses it, but when he wants to, he can, he can use that.

   Imagine some of the galactic journeys you'd like to make. I have a dream of the great God being welcome to visit my galaxy at any time. I imagined and I would hope that the great God would be able to come to me and say, "Well done, you good and faithful servant." Just you pause for a moment and think about what life would be like as a wise and a humble servant faithfully administering God's ways to just vast reaches of the universe.

   Let's lift our minds above the little humdrum things of our own lives today and look at that big picture. I have just shared my dream with you, my long term, my longest range goal, but is that all it is? Is all this just a pipe dream of a starry eyed young idealist, or could there be some substance to it? If so, can my dream become a reality for you and for others as well as for me? Could it really be true that God may give us galaxies to control? And if so, how will God decide whether or not a person qualifies for such a great opportunity?

   Let's take a look at an intriguing passage of holy scripture. The apostle Paul was inspired to take a look into the future, and he wrote over in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 6. Let's turn there. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 6 (Hebrews 2:6). Paul wrote. "One in a certain place testified, and this in fact was David, testified saying, What is man that you are mindful of him. Or the son of man that you visited him. You made him a little or for a little time lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and did set him over the work of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet, this man's feet, for in that he that's God, for in that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him, but we see not yet all things put under him."

   Did you catch the incredible significance of those words of God? Eventually, when we have qualified, God intends for us to rule over everything he has created. Well, that clearly means that God intends for us to rule over far flung galaxies that are speeding away into infinity. My dream is not a pipe dream. We are heir to all things, and as is shown in Matthew 19, and we won't turn over there. We will be given eternal life to go along with this, and there's even more. Not only are we going to have all of the galaxies, not only are we going to have eternal life, but we are going to be raised up to the level of the God family itself. All this, the vastness of God's purpose for us just fills me with astonishment. Does it you?

   But let's come back down to earth for some down to earth talk. All this business about eternal life and rulership of space is for the universe tomorrow. And what about today? What about now? What difference should all this, all that I've been talking about, make about our lives today? Well, to answer these questions. Let's come all the way back to planet Earth.

   Today we live on what is comparatively a small bowl of rock, only 3,986 miles across. In other words, if you started, if you dug a hole through this room and just kept going unit you came out the other side of the earth, you'd have to go about 4000 miles before you came out the other side. That is really very small in comparison to other things in the universe. We live on that small ball of rock with only a thin film of soil, water, and air coating the outer surface, and we live within that thin film. It is like living within the thin film of a bubble that would be floating in this room. We also live within a hairline band of the immense temperature spectrum of the universe which ranges through millions of degrees. Space itself is a hostile, a devastating environment of the life we just take for granted here on Earth. Only within the tiny temperature spectrum that we have on Earth can water so necessary to life exist in its liquid form, and that reminds me I'm going to have a drink whilst I'm talking. Make use of it.

   This planet, the one in which we live, is uniquely lavished with an abundance of water. But water is not the only unusual feature of this place. The list of unusual features about this planet has almost no end. We live in a very exceptional place. For example, the Earth has an unusual rotation rate, just right for us. Also this tiny dot of a planet is just the necessary distance from the sun for our needs. When one thinks of this world as being a tiny dot of matter whirling in the vastness of space, one wonders just what is man that God should be mindful of him. By comparison, even our great nations are just like a single drop of water in a bucket. And a whole generation of men is like a field of grass that is cut down and gone in a moment.

   It is hard to believe when you really stop and think about it, and the rest of the world doesn't believe it. It's hard to believe it's something which has to be revealed by God, but it is our incredible and our undeserved privilege that the earth is the central focus of God's interest. The Creator has an awesome purpose for this little spaceship suspended out here in space.

   It is sure that God is raising a family to rule the universe with Him. Let's put it very simply, or let's rather look at the Bible, which does put it very simply. Matthew 6:9. Matthew 6:9. "After this manner, pray you, our Father which are in heaven." Putting it very simply, God is our Father. And those few words that God is our Father are tremendously significant when you stop to think about it. It means that we are not cosmic orphans adrift in a vast ocean of meaningless time and space. We are not floating through a vast abyss of purposelessness. God is our Father, and God the Father has an immense interest in each of us. He is so concerned with us, as it's shown over in Matthew 10, and we won't turn there, that even the hairs on our head are numbered. Just imagine that God knows the number of hairs on our heads in this room at the moment. The sum total of all of them added up together. I guess for some people it takes longer to count than it does with others, but God, God, God knows that information and when you think about it, there's no reason why God needs to know that. I mean, what good is it to God to know that, you know, great significance whether we got, you know, X number of million hairs or got 1 more than that. But God is so intensely interested in each of us. That he wants to know even information like that just because of his intense interest in us, so shall we one day rule galaxies.

   The criteria is not whether there are sufficient galaxies for us all to be given one. We have seen from astronomy that there are far more than sufficient. The criteria is not whether God desires to give each of us a galaxy. We have seen that our loving Father wants us to rule all things with Him, and if there aren't enough galaxies out there, God can always create more. We've seen that the universe is virtually empty. The criteria is whether God could trust us to rule galaxies, which comes back to the title of the sermon. Could God trust you to rule a galaxy?

   We can be sure of this. I was listening to somebody on the radio last Sunday. He was the head of an organization, a paramilitary organization, which is quite strong here in Texas, and he was talking about the time when this country collapses economically, which he believes is going to happen, and how his group is going to appear on the scene as he put it armed to the teeth, and the people of the same race as that group will have to follow their leadership. He mentioned how they would go after the liberals, how they would go after two or three other races that he mentioned. He said if it wasn't for these other races, and he named a couple of races, he says right now we'd be on the moon building colonies on the moon. My race will be doing that because my race is superior.

   Well, God will not permit mankind to transport decaying rebellious attitudes throughout the universe. God is not going to allow his galaxies to be polluted with every vile, filthy practice and abomination. He will not allow vanity, lust, greed, and unspeakable evils of all sorts to be spread throughout his space. God was only going to give, excuse me, God is only going to give eternal life, membership of the God family, and eventually space-wide responsibilities to those who qualify for such opportunity.

   How does God then decide whether we qualify? Let's take a look in Luke chapter 16 verse 10. Luke 16:10. God's way of life is very simple. It's a simplicity that is in Christ and God makes things very plain and very simple. That's why we have the Plain Truth magazine, not the hidden truth or the hard to find or the impossible to understand truth, but the plain truth when your mind is open to it. Luke 16:10. "He that is faithful in that which is least. is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

   He who's faithful in little will be faithful in much. A man who can loyally perform the pin prick responsibilities that God has given him on planet Earth is a man who can be trusted later on to rule a galaxy. Conversely, a man who does not perform his duty sure and now in the way that he should, cannot be trusted later on to rule the galaxy.

   Down through human history, God has had a work going on Earth. And he has given to people various duties to perform, to support it, and the stories of how they did those tasks, their successes and their failures are recorded in the Bible so that we can learn from their examples, and we'll take a look at just one example. The example of an ordinary person, the widow woman of Zarephath. We won't turn that because I don't want to go over time. So I'll give you the setting to do with the heroine or Zarephath.

   Israel was in a bad way. You might, you might think what's unusual about that, but I mean even worse than usual. She had fallen into a dreadful state of apostasy. Pagan tables had been set up for the brutal and degrading worship of false gods, and the prophets of Jehovah, together with the priests of God, were being hunted over the hills of Samaria like wild animals. Then suddenly Elijah the Tishbite comes onto the stage like a clap of thunder. He stands before the wicked King Ahab and his evil consort Jezebel, and he fiercely proclaims that Israel the beautiful has become Israel the condemned.

   For those words of warning, Elijah was persecuted. And God brought the past the famine which Elijah foretold. Elijah, the servant of God, protected by God, is now sent not to the high and mighty of this world for support, but to an ordinary widow woman. God likes to give ordinary people the chance to get in on the act, and you can't, we won't turn there, but you can write it down. Perhaps look at that later. It's in I Kings chapter 17.

   This widow woman was down to her last handful of grain and her last few drops of cooking oil in the midst of this famine. When Elijah comes onto the scene, she was able to recognize him as a servant of the true God, and that's brought out in verse 12. She knew who he was. Elijah, specifically carrying out the instructions which God had given him in the previous chapter, told the woman. To give her last bit of food to himself. And then God will see to it that she would have enough to feed herself and her son during the famine. It kind of reminds one of the tithing principle, doesn't it?

   This widow woman, although she was close to death through starvation, she did as God commanded, and she made a cake for the prophet. She did what she could, what she was called to do to help God's work at that time. And in doing that, she made it possible for Elijah to carry on with his job of keeping aloft the torch of freedom. Consequently, God performed a miracle for that woman. And during the time of that famine, there was always just a little drop of oil in the bowl, whatever it was, and just a few grains of food, and whenever she would pour them out, there'd be there'd still be some more in there. So God performed a miracle for her. She couldn't outgive God and in supporting Elijah, that woman was really giving God his dues. She did that first, she was faithful in little, she kept her priorities straight. And then God made sure she had enough for herself and her family.

   That little woman in being willing to make that sacrifice, she had an attitude if that attitude is nurtured and is developed, that attitude will result in her one day ruling a galaxy. Her small steps of faith may eventually lead to long leaps into space. In this generation, coming back to this time, God has given this church a vitally important work to do. Details of that directive, which we will now look at are in Matthew 24:14. Which says, "and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."

   So God will use His church, which he's doing now, to proclaim this gospel of God's soon coming kingdom to the world. Our commission is to proclaim the gospel of God's kingdom to a decaying society. Mr. Armstrong is the one primarily responsible for doing that, and he of course is responsible to God for it. He's answerable to God and not to us. But Mr. Armstrong hasn't been left to carry on the job alone. God has called others into the work to help him finish the task, and that's how we qualify for rulership in space. A man who is faithful in little, a man who can faithfully carry out his part in backing God's work today is a man who can be trusted to rule in the world tomorrow and then in the universe tomorrow. Conversely, a man who is not backing God's work today but has been called to do so cannot rule in the world tomorrow or the universe tomorrow unless and until he changes his attitude.

   Satan is not tickled about the fact that Jesus Christ will be returning soon. Satan knows his time is getting short. Let's take a look at that scripture in Revelation 12:12. These are basic scriptures you know most of them. And just perhaps tying them together in a way that you haven't heard before. Just the last part of the verse, "the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath because he knows that he has but a short time," so near to the close of the age, Satan is going to be cast down to the earth, and he knows he has a very short time. So let's be realistic. As we move closer to the end, Satan will be in a frenzy of activity to attempt to destroy us.

   There are many prophecies in the Bible showing that big persecution is prophesized for our time. We will not have smooth sailing into God's kingdom. You and I are not called for fair weather sailing. We're not called for life of ease. We're not called to live on easy street. On the contrary, as compared to fair weather sailing, troubled, dark, and stormy waters lie ahead. As we look around at the world and what's taking place in the world, we can expect at any moment to be powerfully bombarded from the air, to be attacked spiritually by Satan, and shelled from the shore. The big guns of persecution are being swung towards us. It's no wonder that Christ's chosen apostle is now sounding battle stations, and Christ's rallying call is rolling across land like the boom of thunder, going across the diverse peoples in different nations, getting them all ready for action.

   Don't any of you miss out on the action. Don't think that because there isn't an immediate strong persecution on the church, that we can now sit back and do nothing. Now is the time for you to nail your flag firmly to the mast, as it were, and prepare to make your stand for freedom. Brethren, we don't have any time to waste. Run up your war colors and make ready your spiritual guns as it were. Throw overboard excess cargo. If you're breaking one of God's 10 commandments, if you're working on the Sabbath or whatever. Clear your decks of sins. Just jettison them overboard and prepare for battle. Don't let it be later said of you that when the men of God of God looked about, you were nowhere to be found because you'd fled from the scene of conflict.

   We are now about to begin to fight. All that has gone by feverishly has by comparison be a skirmish. Satan is going to be stirring things up so there'll be yet bigger battles. As you know in I Peter 4, we won't turn there, but God now expects every man to be ready to do his duty. As we look around at Poland, the Middle East, and various other things in the world, we can see that we're heading up towards the final battles which the Church will have to undertake. And as we sail forth, as we prepare to sail forth into these final battles, we should remember that the eyes of history are upon us.

   Let's take a look at Hebrews 12:1. Hebrews 12:1. "Wherefore, singing we also accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us." There are in effect a great cloud of witnesses watching us. The eyes of history are upon us. Books are going to be written about what we're going to do over the next few years. Centuries from now, men and angels are going to talk in deepest respect, and awe of these are exploits.

   Generations yet to come, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, our great, great grandchildren will talk in awe of what God is about to do through His servants. Mr. Armstrong has been recently proclaiming with great power that we are very close to the end of this age and the return of Christ. We can't say how long there is left, but as we look around at the signs in the world, obviously it isn't that far off. There isn't a whole lot of time. We're now sailing forward to the final victory, and we know that God will give us that victory.

   And so, in Romans 8:31, we're guaranteed victory, but we won't turn there now. But on the way to victory. Oftentimes, there is a moment of truth. The moment of truth is that time when shells are whistling overhead, spiritually speaking, and the sound of battle is fierce. But the pulverizing isn't just taking place on the outside. The moment of truth is that time when everything inside a man feels bruised and broken and smashed. Everything which he was trying to build is there as perhaps a broken heap at his feet, so to speak, and the only thing that is left is the will that says, hold on. Those of you who have seen physical battle know what I mean of talking to men who've experienced that in physical battle.

   Some of you in a congregation this large may be currently facing your moment of spiritual truth. Some of you may be squaring up to that supreme test. If so, we should hold on, for we will be more than conquerors. We should right now be asking God, you should be asking God to help you gather your spiritual resources for the final onslaught to victory. It will not be easy. We will have to fight the devil for every yard of the way, but let Satan do his worst, and it's a chance for us to do our best.

   Then at the end of the day, and this is what this sermon is about, then at the end of the day we humankind will become God-kind. Those people who qualify by supporting the work, doing the little things that they're supposed to do to support the work at this time. We'll be given rulership in the world tomorrow. Like Christ, we will be changed into mighty powerful spirit beings. Our flesh and blood, this flesh and blood can be changed into spirit. We can have spirit bodies and not dependent on food and on water. We will be perfectly equipped to eventually move across space eternally expanding God's government.

   Let's take a look at Isaiah 9:7. Isaiah 9:7. Isaiah 9:7 "of the increase of his government, God's government, and of peace, there shall be no end" of the increase, the enlarging of his government. There's going to be no end. We'll just go carry on going on and on and on and out doing whatever it is that God has planned for us to do. And surely those galaxies out there haven't been created in vain. There's a purpose why they are sitting out there waiting for something.

   But before we can rule space, we must rule ourselves. That's what it hinges on. We have to learn to fight on and no matter what sledgehammer blows, we might be doubtless in our personal lives. We must carry on enduring the blasts of battle, as it were, until the very end. I want us to get our minds on the big picture, so understand this, those of you who are presently going through trials. God has some good news for you. God is offering you a chance to be his son and to rule space with him.

   The great Creator God says to you, and we won't turn there, but he says to you over in Revelation 21 verse 5. "Behold, I make all things new." In other words, the universe is going to be put back on the track. "He that overcomes. shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and He shall be my Son." Yes, once we are ready to rule space, God will restore the battle-scarred galaxies to their original glory and give them to us, his sons.

   But if the time twister in there actually I realized that. Let's get life in perspective. In the meantime, we're right here today, aren't we? This is the here and now for us. In the meantime, we must fulfill our responsibilities here on earth. And let's not be that naive. There may be times when we feel disheartened. Let's turn forward to Isaiah 53 verse 3. He's talking about Christ. Isaiah 53:3, it's a prophecy about his first coming. "He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." I doubt whether any of us in this room are a stranger to sorrows. When we look around in which the world in which we live, I can't help but think all of us of sorrows either in our own life or just watching other people's lives.

   Perhaps there have been times when you've been pulverized yourself from all directions, as it were, with the blows of life. Perhaps there have been times in your life when everything of value to you was seemingly collapsing around you. In a time of distress. We should remember to measure our earthly existence against that broad backdrop of eternity. We're just here for a very short period of time. Only a tiny proportion of our total existence will be spent as human beings.

   If we drew a line across this room, mathematical line, if you like. Which represented our eternal life. Now, in fact, if we started from our birth, which would be that side, the line would just go out and out and out and out on that side forever and ever, representing our eternal life. If we took the section of the line, which was in proportion the amount of time that we spent as a human being. We couldn't, we couldn't even measure it. It would be so small. It would be so small, really, brethren, it's a very short period of time that we are here on Earth, and a few decades, just a few decades of trial, is a small price to pay for eternal happiness and for the chance to give other people, billions of other people on our planets. Eternal happiness and joy.

   Billions of years into the future, we will look back on this life, and our perspective will be different from what we have now. We will recall that God was doing a work here, and we had the honor, the undeserved honor to be a part of that work. We had a slice of that action, a slice in what God was doing. We helped Mr. Armstrong hold aloft the torch of liberty. Everything else, just everything else, our personal lot in life will seem of no significance by comparison. And if we choose, we could even completely forget the heartbreaks and the sufferings.

   Let's turn forward to Isaiah 65:17. Isaiah 65:17. And God says, "for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." The galaxy is being put back on the tracks, "and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind."

   You know, if you have a perfect memory when you think about it, it also means you have perfect forgetfulness. If there's something which you want to forget, you'll just be able to put that out of your mind so it will never come back into your mind again. It's not that you can't recall it, but you'll decide not to recall it and you won't recall it. We will be able to put aside from our memory those times we perhaps stuck our nose into something or somewhere and got a bloody nose.

   I want you to imagine what it'd be like living as a ruler of a galaxy. Don't just think of all the stars, perhaps you 500 billion stars and planets or more. Imagine yourself just visiting one of them as the ruler, as the leader, helping and serving others, showing them how to have the right kind of life. And here on this planet are billions of people happy, and why can people be happy? Imagine them out there building their homes, designing their own homes, building them with their own hands, a place where it's safe for women and for children. Imagine beautiful parklands. Imagine ranches which people own their own land, their own ranches, and think about traveling around a peaceful world, just one peaceful world of that of that nature. I want you to do that during the next minute or two and to help us picture it, here is some music.

   It's a beautiful piece of peaceful music. In the times yet future in places not yet known. When they ask you how you qualified to be amongst the firstfruits, the very top galaxy ruling gods. They won't want an exhaustive commentary on your personal history. Frankly, they won't be asking for the nitty gritty of every feature of your life. It will not matter to them how big or how small was your bank account on planet Earth. Nor will it matter how many cars you owned and drove. It will not matter then whether you lived amongst abundance or were relatively poor. Whether you lived in an enormous mansion. Or when a modest caravan would be of no importance. It will not matter then what position you filled at work or how many men you directed. It will not matter then whether you ever gave the opening and closing prayers at services, led songs, gave sermonettes, gave sermons or whatever. It will not matter then whether you ever ordained as a deacon or whatever, nor will it even matter then whether you were an athlete in your human life. Or were incapacitated with some physical infirmity.

   Brethren, remember this. In the ages to come when they ask how you qualified to rule a galaxy, it will be enough and more than enough to turn to them with your head held high and simply say, I served with Herbert W. Armstrong. I did whatever I could to help Christ's chosen apostle finish his great commission.