Herbert W Armstrong

   Police gave no details of the arrest except to say, acting on a tip, they picked this man up at the home of a former wife. The 15-year-old victim, identified only as Mary, had assisted Modesto Police from her hospital bed, submitting to hypnosis and working with a police artist to form a sketch of her attacker. She had said the man who chopped off her arms was named Larry.

   This 15-year-old girl, a Las Vegas, Nevada runaway, was known as Maria Vargas in Sausalito, California, where she lived with her boyfriend in his car. Her real name has not been released because of her age and the nature of the crime. Investigators say they believe she was attacked after accepting a ride at or near Richmond, California.

   The next day a couple who had stopped to rest at the site of Interstate 5 west of Modesto found the girl wandering nude, in shock, with her arms hacked off below the elbows. Her assailant had apparently left her for dead. Doctors said the girl didn't bleed to death because the ax blows had effectively sealed her truncated blood vessels.

   Her arms were never found. Well, I'm sure we're all aware that things like that happen quite often in this world. But you know, there's a common practice people have of blaming God for this world.

   They say, Boy, if this is any kind of a picture of God, if there is a God, why doesn't a God intervene? Why does God allow man to suffer? Why does God allow people, young children, to be killed and mutilated and butchered and tortured and abused? Well, one of the great truths that I've come to know is that you can't blame any of that on God. This is not God's world. This is not God’s world. When you see a world where one out of every six or seven people thinks cows are holy, thinks that the best way for them to make atonement, you know, if you were a Hindu today and this was your Hindu Day of Atonement, the best thing you could do is go out and get some cow urine and just bathe yourself in it.

   That would atone for all of your bad sins. Or just take some of the cow dung and fling it up over your head and sit there under this cloud of cow dung falling down all over you. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine one out of six or one out of seven humans alive today, right here on the face of this earth, believe that if you kill a cow, you're going to burn in hell for the number of years as there are hairs on that cow's back you killed? That's hard to believe.

   But that's 1978 world. That's on this globe. No, this is not God's world.

   I'll guarantee you this is not God's world. And this Day of Atonement pictures that to you. You look back, this world has been cut off from God.

   God isn't the author of Hinduism, Buddhism, the Muslim religion. God isn't the author of all of man's laws and all of man's religion. You can't blame these on God.

   As a matter of fact, if you look back in history, one of the most striking sermons I ever heard, Mr. Armstrong gave on how many people of God has this world really ever known? You go way, way back at the beginning. God created Adam and then later saw that he needed a mate and created Eve. They chose to find out for themselves what was good and bad and right and wrong.

   They didn't want to take God's word for it. They didn't want to believe God. So God said, since you want to find out for yourselves and go your own way and live your own life, OK, I'm not going to force you to go my way.

   So God took hands off and let man go his own way. That's what happened. That's why they had sons that one would kill the other.

   Then after that, God gave them a son and they trained him apparently better than they'd done one of their others, at least. So all the way down to the time of the flood, how many people of God were there, really? Well, we know that Noah was a man of God, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. But how about back before Noah? Well, Abel is named after God and listed in the Bible as one of God's people.

   Seth, apparently, was one of God's people that decided he wanted to go God's way. But what about all the others? You know, at the most, down to the flood, which was several thousand years, you can't even count two handfuls. You couldn't even count ten people who decided they'd go God's way.

   They wanted to be at one with God. They wanted God. They wanted to live God's way.

   They wanted God's laws. You can't even get ten people, all the way from creation down to the time of the flood. So what about all those millions that lived back there before the flood? I mean, many of them have been named right in your Bible, but not even ten of them people of God.

   Well, then, from the time of the flood, God began to deal with a family, so he started aiming toward this family of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and then the twelve patriarchs and then on down to David's time. But you know, when you look back over the whole history of the earth, there hadn't been very many people of God, people who didn't want to go their own way, that didn't want to live by the dictates of all about them, that didn't want to invent their own gods. There hadn't been very many people of God down through history.

   Then what about all those other people who have lived and died and obviously weren't people of God? Well, you know, this day pictures a time when a world that's been cut off from God all these years is going to be brought back to one again. Now this day has a great meaning. It isn't the Jewish meaning.

   You know, it's kind of striking to me that the Jews start their year, instead of back to the way God said back in Exodus when God ordained the Passover and he said, This month shall be to you the beginning of months, it isn't any more to the Jews. They had their New Year's a week ago last Monday when we were celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. They had their Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year.

   And today here we are celebrating a Day of Atonement and the Jews, including a guy in Midland who runs a restaurant named Luigi, and that doesn't sound too Jewish to me, but he shut his restaurant down on the day because this is Yom Kippur. Of course, the word Yom is the Hebrew word for day, and the word Kippur is why you're sitting here. That's the word atonement, Kippurim, K-I-P-P-U-R-I-M, Kippurim.

   Now that Hebrew word, interestingly enough, the Hebrew word Kippur or Kippurim means covering. So this day pictures the covering, the covering for your sins, the covering for your death penalty, the covering for all of the errors, regardless of what type of law you broke and what kind of sin it was. It's kind of interesting that in the Old Testament this Hebrew word is nearly always translated atonement.

   But when you get into the New Testament, you don't find the word atonement but once. So if you were thinking the Day of Atonement, well, where is it in the New Testament? One place is the translated atonement, but it's not just listed one place. You know, some people think the Day of Atonement is a rarity in the New Testament.

   In fact, I think a lot of us have memorized that Acts 27:9, is the only place in the New Testament the day of atonement is mentioned. Acts 27:9. Now when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished. So here you find the fast.

   You talked about sailing dangerous, so it's obvious it was a hurricane season in the fall. And in the margin of my National Bible it says the fast was on the tenth day of the seventh month, Leviticus 23:27, Number 29:7. And I was reading in a New Bible commentary yesterday, and it just gave a lot of plain belief that we know about the Day of Atonement. It said this is the most solemn holy day of the year to the Jews, it's the only holy day in the year when fasting is commanded, it pictures such and so, and it was surprising how much this New Bible commentary went right down the line about the meaning of the Day of Atonement.

   But here it is, right in your King James Bible. The tenth day of the seventh month was this fast that was the Day of Atonement that they couldn't eat. Now a man asked me up in Chicago when we were there on trumpets, he said, you know, I've been in the Church a lot of years, in fact he's an elder, and he said, what would you say the main reason is that we fast on the Day of Atonement? Why is the Day of Atonement a day that you don't eat? Did God just say, well, let's see, I've given them six days to really fill up on, now I'm going to give them one they don't get to eat anything on.

   Just for variety, did God just toss one in there to kind of make it different and on that day you don't eat? No, I don't think so. Why do you fast on the Day of Atonement? Well, because it pictures a time when you're going to be at one with God so you'll be spirit and won't have to eat. Why celebrate that by not eating? To me that is something you'd want to celebrate, but you wouldn't want to celebrate it by not eating.

   Why do you fast on the Day of Atonement? You know, are we sitting here empty, afflicting our souls, and yet we're commanded to rejoice on the holy days, to have joy and happiness and celebration, and yet here we are going without fasting on the Day of Atonement. Well it says here, let's come back to Isaiah 58, and I think most of us are aware that here's one section of scriptures that show you, maybe it's the main chapter in the Bible, on fasting. Isaiah 58 (Isaiah 58:1-6), and here God says, "...cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin." So apparently one of the transgressions and one of the sins of the house of Jacob is connected with fasting.

   Now, is it because we don't fast enough, is it because we don't fast the right way, we don't have the right understanding on what today means? Why would God say to the prophet Isaiah, "...cry aloud, don't spare, and lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin, and turn right around and talk about fasting?" That's why he says, "...yet they seek me daily, and they delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that were going to just go on and do what they saw and heard, that did righteousness and hadn't forsaken the judgment of their God. They ask of me the ordinances and judgments of justice, they take delight in approaching to God." So when God sees the attitude, it's an eager seeking daily to know God's ways, asking of God the judgments of justice, taking delight in approaching to God, so that sounds like a great attitude. Why cry aloud and spare not and condemn that? Why is that a transgression or a sin? Well there must be something else on beyond that.

   Ok then in verse 3, they say, well now God looky here "...wherefore have we fasted, and you see not?" So apparently their motive for fasting and their attitude, well their attitude as far as verse 2 can't be faulted, seeking God daily, asking the judgments of justice, taking delight in approaching to God, delighting to know God's ways. Nothing wrong with their attitude, but it was hypocritical, it was a false front. It wasn't genuine.

   It wasn't down deep inside of them what it really should be, because that's the way a nation should be that did righteousness. That's the way a nation ought to be that didn't forsake the judgments of their God. But here these people were having this attitude, and yet along with this outward impressive veneer or whitewash attitude, deep inside they weren't doing righteousness and they had forsaken the judgment, and yet they still put on this outward air.

   So they take God to task, and they say, well, what's the matter with you up there, God? Why don't you wake up? Here we are fasting down here, and you're not looking. And here we are afflicting our soul, so notice fasting and afflicting your soul are the same thing. "...why fore have we fasted, why we have afflicted our soul? And ye don't see, and ye don't take knowledge." And then God puts the finger on the problem, why he said, how is the day of your fasting any different from yesterday? What good does it do to go without food today? Well, it's good for you health-wise, it might help you get over some poisons out of your system, but that might be all good it does you.

   Because if in the day of your fast you go right on like yesterday and the day before and on trumpet, you find pleasure, you go right on doing all your work, exacting all your labors, you can't do that. Behold, you fast, and at the same time you're fasting, it causes you to be a scrooge. You want to strive and debate, and you're in a bad attitude, and you're in a bad humor, and fasting gripes you and agitates you and puts you on edge and makes you nervous, and you get to coffee jiggers and you know maybe a smoking jag or something.

   Well, God says that kind of fast isn't going to get you anywhere. Your fasting shouldn't cause you to strive and debate and smite with a fist of wickedness. You’ll not fast as you do this day.

   Now, notice the reason for fasting. Is this the reason you fast on the Day of Atonement, to make your voice to be heard on high? Now, let's say you're living your normal Christian life and you just don't really feel like you're very close to God and that God is paying much attention to you. So you want to show God you're really serious, you really mean it, so you go fasting.

   Now, if you're fasting properly, it does make your voice be heard on high. God will listen, God will pay attention, God will take into account the fact that it means enough to you that you're fasting, to make your voice to be heard on high. Now, is that the reason you fast on the Day of Atonement? Or let's just stop and think a little bit.

   The Day of Atonement, you take the word at-one-meant and look what it means if you take the breakdown of the word at-one-meant. Well, maybe it's telling you it's going to take a lot of fasting before you're going to be at-one-meant with God. You can't fast once a year and become at-one-meant with God.

   You can't fast maybe even once a month and become at-one-meant with God. So maybe the Day of Atonement is a day to kind of look back and say, well, you know, I didn't fast very much this past year. Here I am striving to be in the family of God, striving to be a king and a priest and ready for Christ's return to help set up God's kingdom.

   Trying to be at-one-meant with God, it's sure going to take a lot of fasting to do that. Is that why you fast on the Day of Atonement? Why do we sit here on the Day of Atonement, a feast day, a holy day, an annual Sabbath? In every other way it's like every other day, you take up an offering, you have a holy convocation, except you can't do any work on this day because you can't fix anything to eat anyway. So why do you fast like this on the Day of Atonement? Is it to make your voice be heard on high? Well, once a year? Fasting on this day once a year to make your voice be heard on high? No, I don't think so.

   No I don't think so. That surely isn't why you fast on the Day of Atonement. Is it just to remind you that when you get to be a spirit being, you won't have to eat and drink? Is that why you fast on the Day of Atonement? Or do you fast on the Day of Atonement to make you realize it's going to take a lot of days of atonement through the year to get you at one minute with God? Can you imagine how much fasting it's going to take to reconcile you to God, to get you to be at one minute with God? You can't do it by fasting one day a year.

   Anybody knows that. That's absolutely impossible. Well, look what he's saying.

   Their outward attitude was good in verse 2. Their attitude wasn't right in verse 3, though, because they had an attitude of, What's wrong with God? Wherefore have we fasted, and what's wrong with you, God? Then God shows that fault was with them because of what they did on their fast day. If you're not any different on a fast day than you are any other day, in fact you're worse off because you're grouchy, you're on edge, you're kind of a scrooge, then what good is a fast day to you? God said, That's not the fast to make your voice be heard on high. Then he goes on in verse 5, Is it such a fast that I have chosen? Is that the kind of a fast God's chosen for the Day of Atonement, a day for a man to afflict his soul? There again, showing they're one and the same.

   To bow down his head as a bulrush, is that why God wants you to fast, to kind of knock you down where you're kind of humble, because when you don't have food in you and you run out of energy and you feel kind of weak as the day goes on, and by sundown you're real humble, you know. You're really meek and humble and weak. You feel weak.

   Is that it? To bow down your head like a bulrush, to spread sackcloth and ashes around you and sit there like Job? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Eternal? So now he's going to tell you about the way a fast ought to be in verse 6. How about this fast is the one I've chosen, God says, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burden, to let the oppressed go free, that you break every yoke. And you know, really, that's what we're going to be doing in the kingdom of God. In the millennium, as we've been reading in the past in some of the Psalms, you're going to loose the bands of wickedness.

   You're going to undo heavy burden. You're going to let the oppressed go free. You're going to break every yoke.

   So in a sense, the fast God chose is looking ahead to the future when you're a spirit being, and what all you're going to be able to do when you're a spirit being, and making you just disgusted with having to be a mortal, physical, temporary human being caught up in pleasures, caught up in essentials like eating and drinking. And how much a little old thing like eating and drinking, your very life hinges on it. Your very existence hinges on it.

   Well, thank God, when you're at one with God, when you're at one with God you have life in yourself. You have life you can give to others, even. You don't have to have food and water to keep your life moving and existing.

   So the very first statement God makes about the fast he has chosen in verse 6, looks into the future of when you're a son of God and a spirit being, when you are at one with God. Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do this on the earth today, too, but primarily you don't have much chance on earth today to loose the bands of wickedness or to let the oppressed go free or to break every yoke. Not very often you get to do that.

   But you should when you can in a fast on this earth. But he's talking primarily there about looking into the future when you're at one with God, what you're going to be able to do. Now when you do fast, it's a good idea, he says, to take what you'd have eaten on that day and deal that bread to the hungry.

   Skip a day to give it to somebody else. Bring the poor that are cast out, let them eat that day that you would eat. Don't you eat that day.

   You just go without and let them eat that day. When you see the naked, cover him. Take the money you might have used to eat meals for a day and buy clothing for someone that's naked.

   And don't hide yourself from your kinfolks, from your own children, your own parents, your own aunts and uncles and relatives. Don't hide yourself from your own relatives, even if you have to fast in order to help them, to care for them, to provide them some food or clothing or drink or whatever. Now when you read those different purposes for fasting, which ones of those are why you're fasting today? To make your voice be heard on high, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Or number three, to deal your bread to the hungry and bring the poor cast out to your house and cover the naked and don't hide yourself from your own flesh? Those are Bible reasons for fasting.

   I think above every other reason, the one in verse 6 is primarily why you fast on the Day of Atonement, to point ahead to the future when you're a son of God, when you're not bound to food and drink, when you're not just a mortal. When you're reconciled to God, when you've accomplished God's purpose for your existence, when you're at one with God. Now what's the matter with this world? It's not God's world.

   Well we might come back to Revelation 12. This is a verse that you need to dwell on and think on and let it expand in your mind because the more you read it, the more you realize it's absolutely true. You know, if you study world conditions, if you watch and see what's going on around the world, then this verse rings true to you.

   Revelation 12:9, the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world. China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel, Germany, you know, is that the whole world he's talking about here? John, you remember, was carried into the future, into a time of the time of Mussolini when he saw this revelation. He was there when five heads were fallen and one was, and the other was yet to come.

   So what was the world at that time? Well, the great dragon, the old serpent, Satan the devil, has deceived the whole world. It doesn't say he's deceived a few so-called Christians named Armstrongites over there in California or out there in the United States and a few of them scattered here and there. That doesn't say that at all.

   It says the devil, Satan, has deceived the whole world. Hinduism is just one of his deceptions. Buddhism, that's just another one of his deceptions.

   The Muslim religion, the Shintoism, you know, all those are just parts of Satan's deception. He's deceived the whole world. But the day is coming when that dragon is going to be cast out.

   He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. So you notice the devil isn’t alone in his world, the devil, you know, Jesus even said if Satan's kingdom is divided against itself, he admitted Satan has a kingdom. And this says the angels that are with the devil.

   So he's the deceiver of the whole world. So not only that, you might notice II Corinthians chapter 4 (II Corinthians 4:4), this is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible for people to believe. People read this verse and they don't even believe it.

   It's in English, it's a little bitty two and three letter words, but you just cannot believe it. You just cannot believe it. Paul says, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the mind of them which believe not.

   Now, according to that, my Bible has God in little letters, not catalyzed, it's not Jesus Christ, it's not El Shaddai, God Almighty, the God of this world. You mean the God of Hinduism, the God of Buddhism, the God of Muslim religion, the God of this world? I mean, really, God isn't the God of this world? You mean this really isn't God's world? Well by creation it's God's world. In what way is it not God's world? Well, what about all the systems on the earth? They can't be from one God, look at all the variety, look at all the difference, look at all the conflict and the contrast, and some say God's a trinity, and some say there are millions of gods, and some say there's only one God, Allah, and others, you know, how can that all be of God? God is not the God of this world.

   Now God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but what about all the other people in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? They were cut off from God, God wasn't their God, they never really knew God, they never really became acquainted with the true God. You know, even in the disciples' day, Christ preached, look at the life of Christ, for thirty years he walked this earth, preached for three and a half years, didn't get but 120 disciples, 120 disciples, that's all that Jesus got out of all his years of preaching. Well, you go back and look at the time of Noah, Noah preached and preached and preached and preached, and only eight people got on that boat, and they weren't all saved either, they weren't all God's people.

   So it's kind of obvious this isn't God's world, and God isn't trying to save the world. If our gospel be hid, anybody that can't understand the gospel, anybody that doesn't see, their eyes aren't open, their ears aren't open, that's why Jesus said, he that has eyes to hear, let him hear. He that has eyes to see, let him see, and ears to hear, let him hear.

   Because most people's eyes didn't see and most people's ears didn't hear. Jesus explained to the disciples why they could understand, but to the world he spoke in parables. So seeing they wouldn't see, and hearing they wouldn't hear, neither would they understand.

   But to say that God isn't the God of this world, how many people do you think are going to ever believe that? I'll tell you, if you want to get yourself in trouble, you just go around on your job telling everybody around that God is not the God of this world. You go around telling people that Satan is the God of this world. Boy, you're going to get yourself in more hornet’s nests than you'll ever get out of.

   You cannot tell anybody that Satan is the God of this world, they're not going to believe it. Now maybe Baptists will believe that Satan is the God of the Hindu world, and the Hindus will believe Satan is the God of the Christian world, and each one will put the other one down and think God is with them but not with anybody else. But read that again.

   Anybody that the gospel is hid to, they're lost, blinded, they're not called, they're not of God in that day. In whom the god of this world has blinded the mind to them which believe not, that's why they can't believe. That's why it's hid from them, that's why they're being lost, because Satan the devil, the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those that don't believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine to them.

   Now you might come back to the gospel of John, and notice a couple of things. It's back here in John, we might start out with chapter 12. John 12, here are the red letters of Christ, Christ is speaking and saying, verse 31 (John 12:31), "...now is the judgment of this world." So in one way, the judgment of the world happened in Jesus' day, when he condemned sin in the flesh by coming and living flawlessly, when he wiped out any excuses any human might have by taking on himself human nature, coming down and living, being tempted in every point like as we are, and yet dying without sin.

   So in one sense, Jesus says, "...now is the judgment of this world." Now the world of his day included Italy and Greece and Turkey and India and, you know, we just had them by different names, but they're all the same. "...now is the judgment of this world," Jesus said, "...now shall the prince of this world be cast out." So Christ qualified to displace the devil during his lifetime. He faced the devil head-on in a great battle, and one real key there was fasting, you know.

   When Jesus knew he was going to face the devil in that battle, how did he get ready for it? Well, he fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He didn't eat anything, didn't drink anything, just spent that whole time building himself up spiritually, getting closer to God, drawing near to at-one-ment with God, being reconciled to God, just getting closer and closer back into God's power and away from the world and the human nature that he's had. And he met the devil head-on, but he fasted to get ready for it.

   So, you know, maybe really Christ set us an example, too, by fasting and getting ready for putting away Satan, which is what's going to be done on this Day of Atonement. The prince of this world is going to be put away on this day. He's going to be dealt with.

   His judgment only began back there in the sense that Christ qualified to put him away. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Now notice on over in chapter 14, John 14 (John 14:30), "...hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world comes." So right before Jesus' crucifixion, right after he took the Passover, during these very sober, solemn words, when the devil was about to betray Christ by Judas, Jesus says, I've just about finished what I've got to say with you, "...hereafter I'm not going to talk much more with you, because the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me." He just totally cut off an opposite from God.

   He has nothing in Christ or God. Now a little later in chapter 16, Jesus says, "...when the Holy Spirit come, which I'm going to send to you when I go away, it's going to do these things." Verse 8 (John 16:8), "...when the Holy Spirit come, it's going to reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." It's going to reprove the world of sin, because they hadn't believed on the Son of God that came and lived flawlessly and died. It's going to condemn the world of righteousness, because Christ is resurrected and went back up to his Father, and they didn't see him anymore.

   The Holy Spirit was going to reprove the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. His fate is already sealed, his judgment has already been pronounced. That's why when you read in Paul's writings, he says the spirits are reserved for darkness, under the darkness of that day, that age.

   So Satan the devil has already been judged, this Day of Atonement shows his judgment has already been made. God has already decided what's going to be done with the devil. He's not going to be obliterated, he's not going to be destroyed, he's not going to be killed, because he's a spirit being that cannot be killed.

   He's a being that has eternal life, but it's not going to be eternal life with God. He said, he has nothing with me, he has nothing in me. But the judgment's already occurred, and the Holy Spirit, as a part of conversion, is to reprove you of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

   In other words, as a part of that shows you, the devil is the god of this world, and he's the author of sin, and he's the power that's kept you in a world of sin, he's the power that's made you sin in the past. You know, the Jews on the Day of Atonement, it isn't actually this day, it's the ten days between Trumpets and Atonement, the Jews have attached the meaning to, they didn't get it out of the Bible. They just, because they knew these days were commanded, and they didn't really understand what the days pictured, what the days meant, they created meaning.

   And you know, literally in the fall season, the Jews do on the days what we do in the spring. Passover pictures Christ's death and you putting sin out of your life, but do you know, to the Jews Trumpets and Atonement picture that? They examine themselves on these ten days, since Trumpets, and they wail and groan and moan over their sin, and it's interesting, they take a ten day period, which is the number of judgment, ten, but during these ten days, all the Jews are soul searching, like you do during Unleavened Bread, and discovering what all they've got to be put out so they can be back at-one-ment with God. But the very meaningful spring holy days, that's what they get out of the fall holy days.

   And they miss the whole meaning of Trumpets and Atonement, and yet they go through a ritual which we have to read back in Leviticus, but they don't even get it. They don't even really get the emphasis of that back there. Now you might notice back here in Matthew chapter 13, Matthew 13, this again shows you the meaning of this Day of Atonement.

   Another parable Jesus put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens, and it is in the plural there, in most cases it is, you know, it's not talking about the kingdom of heaven. You know, only Matthew ever calls it the kingdom of heaven, Mark, Luke and John never do call it that. So why would Matthew call it that and not Mark, Luke and John? Certainly not because he believed in going to heaven and the other three didn't.

   Matthew primarily is written to get the truth across to the Jewish audience. In a lot of cases the oldest records of Matthew are in Hebrew. And in many places you find Matthew a lot more accurate about Hebrew Judaism than you do Mark, Luke and John.

   So the Jews had the term kingdom of the heavens. You know, you can read that in a Jewish encyclopedia. They always talk about the kingdom of the heavens, but they never believed they were going there.

   They just showed they meant that that kingdom to come was governed from the heavens, that the rules and the powers that were going to rule it were coming down out of the heavens. So the Jews were the ones that called it the kingdom of the heavens. It's not some Protestant verification for going to heaven doctrine.

   But anyway, here Jesus says (Matthew 13:24), "...the kingdom of the heavens is likened to a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tears among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tears also.

   So the servants of the householder came and said to him, Sir, did not you sow good seed in your field? From whence then has it tears? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said to him, Will you then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest haply you gather up the tears, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I'll say to the reapers, Gather you together first the tears." Isn't it interesting that the world tends to have an idea that God, in the end, when the world is so bad, all this wicked seed of tears is abundant, that you're going to rapture off the wheat and leave the tears there? And what it says is just the opposite.

   Look what the Bible says. Be surprised. Lo and behold, look what the Bible says.

   Let the wheat and tears grow together. That's not the church, though. Don't say, Oh, well, I see, we're supposed to let wheat and tears grow together in the church.

   Now watch out. Don't interpret. You'd better wait and let it tell you.

   You know you can read a lot into a parable that isn't there. You'd better let it tell you what it's trying to get across to you. Okay, he said, Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I'll say to the reapers, Gather you together first the tears.

   Bind them in bundles to burn them. Now, you know, if I were going to picture wicked people burning forever in hell, I wouldn't picture them as tears, at least rocks, you know, gather up the rocks and throw them in the fire because anybody knows it takes a lot longer to melt rocks and burn up rocks. They'll burn forever, wouldn't they? If you were going to liken the evil to somebody burning forever in hell, you sure wouldn't use tears, would you? That's about the fastest thing in the world to burn.

   You just flip a match out of the car and whoosh! Tears go up in flame like anything. Why would God liken the wicked to tears if you burn forever in ever-burning hell? It'd be ridiculous. Well gather up the first tears, bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

   That's the end of the parable. Well, verse 36 (Matthew 13:36), Jesus sent the multitude away and then he went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, declaring to us the parable of the tears of the field. So they didn't even really get it.

   You know it shows you don't jump to conclusions, don't get hasty and start interpreting a parable because you can make it say about anything you want to there. So here he interprets it. He that sows the good seed is the son of man.

   So now look back on that. You realize God's plan in the beginning? Verse 24 (Matthew 13:24-25), the kingdom of the heaven, not the church, the kingdom of the heaven is likened to a man, the son of man, which sowed good seed in his field. That's the way God wanted it, that's the way God meant for it to be.

   Can't blame this world on God. The good seed in his field? Blame that on God. Go right ahead, that's God's part.

   The son of man sowed good seed in his field. Who's to blame? Verse 25, while man slept, his enemy came. Sure enough, that's just what happened.

   God created Adam and Eve, God instructed them on the Sabbath day while Adam slept. Along comes the devil and starts feeding him all this lie on Sunday and told him all kinds of things wrong. Contrary to what God said, he said, now, has God fed such and such? That can't be.

   The field is not the church. You don't let wheat and tares grow together in the church until the harvest, and then God's going to gather all the tares out of the church and burn them up and then leave the wheat. No, no.

   The field is the world. The good seed, look at this now, boy, this is going to be offensive, the good seed are the children of the kingdom. But the tares are the children of the wicked, of that wicked one.

   The tares are the sons of the devil. I mean, I'm sorry, but that's what it says, that's what it says, the tares are the children of the devil. This world isn't God's world, Satan's the god of this world.

   God sowed good seed in his field. Man went to sleep, man slept, and the devil sowed the tares, and the tares are the sons of the devil. The enemy that sowed them is the devil.

   The harvest is the end of the age, aeon in Greek, not cosmos, it doesn't mean the globe or the system, but the age. The reapers, they're the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned with fire, and it doesn't say in the fire, in the Greek there it says with, they're not burning forever in fire, they're burnt with fire, like tares burnt up, so shall it be in the end of this world.

   The son of man is going to send forth his angels, they're going to gather out of his kingdom all things that offend. See, that's how this world is going to be brought to back at one with God. The devil that sowed the tares is going to be dealt with, and then the world will be back at one with God.

   The devil is the one that turned it against God. The devil is the one who came while man slept and sowed the tares. The son of man is going to send his angels and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and that do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire.

   You know, a furnace is used for specific purposes, it doesn't burn forever, you only light up a furnace when you're going to use it for an occasion. So there again he doesn't liken the punishment of the wicked to eternal burning. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.

   Now you might notice back in I John 3, that wasn't something that just kind of slipped in there in Matthew and nobody else realized, I John 3:8, he that commits sin is of the devil. Now there again the word commit is misleading, because it doesn't mean if some guy is trying to live a Christian life and he's studying and he's praying and he's going to church and he gets overtaken in a time of weakness and slips up and swears or steals or lies or commits adultery or something, that all of a sudden he's turned back to the devil. The word says, he that practices, he that lives as a way of life, he that habitually sins.

   So don't jump to conclusions there, it's true, sinners, Christians are forgiven. You can sin and still be a Christian, but you're not living that way as a way of life, you're not practicing it, you're not just willingly, knowingly, deliberately doing it. He that practices sin is of the devil.

   In other words, you haven't even come out of the world, you haven't even come out of living by flesh and by the world around you. If you practice sin, you haven't been enlightened, you haven't been converted, you're not living by God's Spirit. He that practices sin is still in the devil's world, he's still one of the children of the devil, he's of this world, Satan's world, because the devil sins from the beginning.

   For this purpose, the Son of Man was manifested. Now notice this, for this purpose, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. That's the main purpose that the Son of God came and died, so he could destroy the works of the devil, so he could take all of the world's system that's of the devil and do away with it, get rid of it, change it.

   For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, to destroy the works of the devil. That's what this day pictures. Now you might come back to Leviticus 16, the Jews read this on this day, and everybody knows it's the ceremony of the Day of Atonement.

   Leviticus 16, and we'll just scan over this quickly, and most of us, I think, have read it a number of times. Verse 3 (Leviticus 16:3), Aaron is to come into the holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He puts on the holy linen coat, which is a token of being clean and having no sin, and he'll have the linen breeches upon his flesh.

   He's girded with a linen girdle, the linen miter, you know, wool or something like that would cause sweat, and it's a token of human frailty or failing or stink or error. So when the priests wore linen, it was more the symbol of purity and sinlessness. He takes of the congregation, verse 5, of the children of Israel, two kids of the goats for a sin offering, one ram for a burnt offering.

   Aaron offers his bullock to the sin offering for himself, makes an atonement for himself and for his house. So one meaning of the Day of Atonement is that we're all human, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, deaconesses, lay members, kids, everybody. Everybody is the same.

   We all need atonement. We all need reconciliation. We all sin.

   We all make mistakes. It's a shame we didn't really know that and emphasize that all the years in the past, because for years we've kind of had the attitude that, you know, if you're in the church long enough, then you can get up there where you're perfect, like Mr. Armstrong and Garner Ted and Dr. Hoeh and Rod Meredith, and boy, you know, those guys, they've been in the church so long, they're sinless. Uh huh, No way.

   Maybe that's another reason this Day of Atonement makes you go without food, to make you realize you're still human. Oh, yeah, I'm a human, all of us are humans, we're all faced with the same temptations. So maybe that's the first thing you need to realize on the Day of Atonement.

   The high priest first had to atone for himself and his house. Then he would take two goats and present them before the Eternal at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron cast lots on these two goats, one lot for the Eternal, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And really, you know, the Moffat translation says, "'A' is as hell, the demon.'" He's pretty blunt, but that's really true.

   That's what he's talking about. The word here literally means escape, or goat that was going to be driven out, the goat that would have to be cast out. That's why it uses the term in the New Testament, cast out.

   The same word is here, the cast-out goat, the going-out goat, the demon goat, the Azazel. So one of these typified the Son of God that was going to atone for man's sins, the other typified the devil that caused all of man's sins. And Aaron brings the goat on which the Eternal's lot fell and offers him a sin offering.

   So that was what Christ was, he was a sin offering. He was a sacrifice. He died on the cross as a sacrifice, a sin offering, to atone for all of our sins.

   But what about this other goat? Well, the goat on which the lot fell to be the Azazel, the scapegoat, was presented alive before the Eternal to make an atonement with him. Now how in the world, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin? Without shedding blood, there can't be any atonement. How can you take a goat and present him alive and make an atonement with him? Well, you really can't, until you've already made an atonement with the previous goat that died.

   Then you can. So the first goat was slain as a sacrifice, a sin offering. But then the next goat was presented alive to make an atonement.

   But look what happened to him after he was presented alive, to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. The same word as abyss. This is the same goat that went into the abyss, the bottomless pit.

   This is the same goat that is indestructible because he's a spirit being. Let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. So one of them obviously, clearly pictured Christ, the sacrifice, the sin offering, but the other pictured the devil.

   Now, you might come back to Revelation 19 and notice how even the very last book in the Bible very, very vigorously emphasizes the Holy Day, because a big part of the whole outline of this book is the seven trumpets. You know, how much of the book is actually summarized by the seven trumpets? Well, all but the first seven chapters. That's right.

   Only the first seven chapters aren't a part of the seven trumpet outline, because what all is included in the seventh trumpet is all the rest. They're all a summary under the seventh trumpet. So as you notice, the outline of Revelation, Revelation 19, pictures the return of Christ.

   He heard a great voice of much people in heaven celebrating Trumpets, hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God. Thank you, God, you've intervened and you've started to rule and you've started to deal with the nations of man. As you remember back in Revelation 11:15, the Feast of Trumpets pictures, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

   And the celebration in heaven goes on, salvation, glory, honor, power to God. True and righteous are his judgments, because now he's judged that great false system that corrupted the earth, has avenged the blood of his servants. They say hallelujah.

   The twenty-four elders worship God and say amen, hallelujah. The voice comes out of the throne, hallelujah, all you servants, you that fear God, small and great. The voice of a great multitude, the voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thunderings, hallelujah, because the Lord God, omnipotent reigns.

   So all of that's the Feast of Trumpets and the celebration up in heaven at the time of the seventh trumpet. Let's be glad and rejoice and give honor to him because the marriage of the Lamb has come. His wife made herself ready (Revelation 19:9), verse 9, blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper.

   You notice the ones in the marriage supper at this time are the ones who are called. Well, he sees this person coming on the white horse, verse 13, clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, the blood of atonement, the blood of sacrifice, the blood of the sin offering. His name is Logos, the word of God.

   Armies in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword. He's going to put an end to humans' misruling and carnal nations.

   He's going to rule them with a rod of iron and tread the winepress, the seven last plagues of the wrath of Almighty God. He has on his vesture king of kings and Lord of lords. So here is the return of Christ, but look what he's going to do.

   Verse 20 (Revelation 19:20), the beast was taken and the false prophet. They were both cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. Now chapter 20, after Christ returns on the Feast of Trumpets and puts a stop to human fighting and killing and rule, puts an end to the beast and the false prophet, I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the wilderness, the abyss, the bottomless pit, all one in the same place and a great chain in his hand.

   And he laid hold on the god of this world. He laid hold on the one who sowed the tares. He laid hold on the god who cut this world off from God, or the devil, the god that cut man off from the true God.

   But he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, the devil and Satan. Notice he uses exactly the same titles we read back there in Revelation 12, the same being that deceives the whole world, the dragon, the old serpent, the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. So after this Day of Atonement, when Satan is dealt with, he's going to be bound a thousand years.

   So there must be another holy day that pictures a thousand years after the day that pictures Satan being laid hold on and bound in this abyss, this bottomless pit. And sure enough, there is. So he lays hold on the devil and casts him into the abyss and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nation no more.

   So it's the same being who had been deceiving the world. It was his world. He's the god of this world, and that's why this world is cut off from God.

   But now this devil is going to be shut up and sealed in the abyss, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. After that thousand years, Satan is going to be loose a little season. So there you have a picture of what this day pictures, when the devil is going to be bound a thousand years, and then verse 7 of this same chapter says (Revelation 20:7), when the thousand years are expired, Satan is going to be loosed out of his prison.

   So that wasn't his final fate at all. So this Day of Atonement pictures all the sin being put back on the head of Satan. He's the one that caused it.

   He's the god of the world that people lived in in sin. So after that thousand years are expired, Satan is going to be loosed out of his prison. So even after a thousand years of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Millennium, the Utopia of God, the Twelve Apostles ruling over the Twelve Tribes, for a thousand years after this earth is at one with God, the devil is still going to do trouble.

   He's going out to deceive the nations. So if it's hard to imagine, even with Christ back and the Twelve Apostles back and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Job, Noah and all back, there can still be nations that can still be deceived after a thousand years. It must make us realize how hard sin is to get rid of and how bad the world is and how hard it's going to be to change them.

   It's going to take a lot of work. It isn't going to be. You know, I think most of us kind of think once we're changed to spirit beings, we can just kind of wave our magic wand and zap and just, boy, just work all kinds of instantaneous miracles.

   Well, why else are there nations who can be deceived after a thousand years? But there are. When the thousand years that the Sabbath day pictures, that the Feast of Tabernacles pictures, when the thousand years are expired, Satan's going to be loosed out of his prison and he's going to go out to deceive nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, gather them together to battle, the number of whom is the sand of the sea. They went on the breadth of the earth and confused the camp of the saints about and the beloved city.

   And then fire is going to come down from God out of heaven and devour them. Who's the them? Satan or the nations? Well, the next verse tells you, and the devil that deceived them. See, he wasn't devoured.

   If he could be devoured, then why didn't it just include him in the pronoun them and just leave it that way? Satan is a spirit being. He can't be devoured. If God can devour Satan, how do you know he won't change his mind on you later? You say, well, I guess I kind of slipped up on old Bill Smith down there and let him become a son of God.

   I think I'll zap him. You know, if God can do that with Satan, he can do that with you, too, later if he changes his mind on you. You don't believe that Satan can be destroyed, not if you believe in the Bible.

   I don't care what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe and I don't care what the Adventists believe. I want to believe what the Bible says. So the Bible says the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.

   But why wasn't he just devoured with them, back up in verse 9? Why is he mentioned independently especially? The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Where are the beast and the false prophet? You notice what the little word “are” is italicized there? You notice that is added by translators? That isn't what it says. There isn't any verb there in the Greek, then what should the verb be? Well, you know what an understood verb is.

   What if you say, She is taller than I? You know, that's a complete sentence. She is taller than I. What's the verb you understand at the end there? She is taller than I was? Uh-uh. She is taller than I will be? Uh-uh.

   You know what, it's got to be the same verb as an understood verb. She is taller than I is. Now that might not be singular and plural, it won't work out right.

   But you know, as far as tense, that's right. She is taller, she's taller right now than I am tall right now. That's the only way it can be if it's an understood verb.

   So that's what it says here. The devil was cast where the beast and the false prophet was cast. Yeah, that's how it has to be.

   The beast and the false prophet aren't still there burning and burning and burning and burning and burning. That isn't true at all. You know, how can people believe the devil is destroyed and people burn forever when the devil is cast into the same lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were cast? So really what that verse says, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were cast, which we read of earlier, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

   So that shows you what's going to happen to the devil. He's going to be locked up in an abyss for a thousand years, then he's going to be loose for a little season, and then he's going to be put in the lake of fire and brimstone and tormented day and night forever and ever. Alright, let's back up to Leviticus 16, and you know that second goat that's the Azazel back here, he didn't get killed as a sin offering.

   He didn't get slain as the atonement offering, the atonement blood, the goat, only in the sense that all the blame and the cause and the origin of sin is put back on him. That's another way of atonement. So he was brought alive.

   Now notice in verse 16 (Leviticus 16:16-28), he makes an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel. There will be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make an atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made an atonement for himself and for his household and for all the congregation. He goes out to the altar, hallowed it, verse 20, he's made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle, then Aaron lays both his hands on the head of the live goat.

   Now notice, this is the devil we read of in Revelation 20. Aaron lays both hands, that's the way people confessed their sin when they went in and got an atonement. They put their hands on the altar, they put their hands on their animal sacrifice, so Aaron lays both his hands on the head of the live goat, confesses over the live goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat.

   See, Satan is the cause of this world being cut off from God. This is Satan's world, it's not God's world. Only when Christ comes back and takes over the human government and puts away Satan, that's when you'll have at-one-ment, atonement.

   That's when it will be at one. So when Satan has all the sins of all of mankind confessed over him, putting them on the head of the goat, verse 21, send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. So that same thing Revelation said, he's going to be taken by a key to the abyss and locked in there and sealed.

   And the goat shall bear on him all their origins, the causes, the beginnings of iniquities, and he's going to go out to a land not inhabited. In other words, he's locked into this abyss for a thousand years. And that goat was let go into the wilderness.

   And the very person that took this Satan and put him in this abyss, even by having that job, was unclean. Look at verse 26. He that let go the goat, for the scapegoat, has to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward comes into the camp.

   He has to burn his clothes, and even the burning of those, the one that burns them, is unclean, verse 28. So what a filthy being this is being pictured. The very one that puts him in the abyss becomes unclean.

   The very one that burns the clothes of the one who puts them in the abyss is unclean. Verse 28. He that burnt them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water.

   This shall be a statute forever. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your soul and do no work at all. So in a way you are afflicting your soul because you realize it is your human nature that has caused you to be misled by Satan.

   It is your old physical, fleshly body that you want to afflict, that you want to get rid of, that you want to escape, that you want to have no part of. That is why you are fasting on the Day of Atonement. You are saying to God, wretched man that I am, I don't like this human nature.

   I am sick and tired and fed up with this human nature. I don't want to live forever as Bill Smith in this earth. I don't want to live forever in this world.

   This world is cut off from God. I want to get rid of the part of me that keeps me from being God. As long as I am mortal, I can't be God.

   As long as you have flesh and blood, you can't inherit the kingdom of God. Until you no longer need to eat and drink, you can't be in the God family. Really, that’s why you fast on this day, to let God know that you realize in the flesh you can't please God.

   The flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God. As long as you live by your flesh, you are going to always end up in death. Only by God's Spirit are you going to have life.

   So you don't just fast on this day to make your voice heard on high. You don't just fast on this day to loose the bonds of iniquity and to give your bread to the hungry and clothe the naked and give to drink. You fast on this day above everything else to show God you realize you have been a part of this world, cut off from God, that as long as man is in the flesh, he can't please God.

   As long as you are flesh and blood, you can't inherit the kingdom of God. By fasting, you want to get rid of your human nature. I'll guarantee you, if you really see the picture of that, you are going to fast more than just on the Day of Atonement.

   So in a sense, the lesson of the Day of Atonement is how many days ought you to have during the year to fast if you want to be at one with God. If you want to be like God, if you want to be in the God family, if you want to be a son of God, if you want to get rid of the flesh and blood, martyred human weakness, if you want to really be reconciled totally, completely, forever to God, it's going to take a lot more fasting than we've been doing. It's going to take a lot more fasting.

   I really think all of us ought to kind of decide we're going to set ourselves to fast a lot more often, whether it's once a month. I'd think that's your minimum in a way. I've told some people that have a real battle with their human nature, where maybe they're living in adultery or they're breaking the Sabbath or they're not keeping the holy days.

   I've said, well, if I were in your shoes, I'd fast once a week until I got a hold of that, until I got rid of that. I've told people that had to be disfellowshipped from the Church because of practicing sin, I've said, I'll tell you one thing, if I were you, I'd fast until I got back in the Church. But it's something we all need to do a lot more often than we just do on the Day of Atonement.

   Well, I hope your soul isn't afflicted too bad today. Don't forget, if you are going to the Sabbath services, there will be there in Midland at three, but none in Abilene this week, so be careful on your way to the feast. I do hope all of us appreciate, and I want to be sure and thank all the young people for fasting today.

   You know, we used to look back and we thought, well, when should you have your kids start fasting? Well, let them fast when they want to. Well, I'm afraid that doesn't work. If you let your kids fast when they want to, you're going to be looking up to them when they're 32 years old.

   They're not going to want to fast. How many kids want to fast? With our kids, we thought, well, it says back there that Levites had their children serving in the temple from four years old and up. I'm going to have mine fasting from four years old and up.

   Maybe that's not drawing a good parallel, and maybe you shouldn't have them fast when they're four years old. But we did, all four of ours, they fasted from the Day of Atonement when they were four years old and up. They fasted.

   I remember the first day I fasted, my mom thought I was going to drop dead. She kind of walked around just expecting me to fall out on the floor any time. She said, You cannot go a whole day without eating and drinking.

   I didn't even believe that. Here she was way up in her years and had been a staunch religionist and didn't even believe you could go without food and water a whole day. Well I really do appreciate the young people that fast, so I don't think we don't know it and don't appreciate it.

   So if your stomach has been groaning and growling and rolling there, then it teaches you a lot and it's good for you. You're at one with us if you're fasting today, too, so that kind of makes you a part of the day. I might just mention that if any of you run into any financial binds at the Feast, we've had some fundraising activities in the past to raise money for helping people that might need a little help at the Feast.

   So if you're in Tucson, look up Dave Hammond, and he's got the extra we have from over there. And if you're in Big Sandy, look up Leo Daniels, because he has some of the funds from there. So if you get in a bind or get in a squeeze, or you know, I mentioned to Leo, I said, hey, if you see somebody that just, they wouldn't even think about going and asking the Church for money.

   But they're just scraping by, they're just not really having as good a Feast, give them some of it. Just pass it on. I said, that's going to be fun, just kind of, if you see somebody that's really just barely making it, pass some of it on to them, give it out to them.

   I think that will help out. Well, we'll see you at the Feast. We'll be in Big Sandy for the first two or three days, and then going up to the Ozarks, and then on up to Wisconsin Dells.

   So have a safe Feast, be careful, and we'll see you when you get back.