Herbert W Armstrong

   Now you may have been told that really didn't happen, or somebody lied to you because that did happen. The Associated Press knows that happened. State agents raid a church and confiscate records. Now they were stealing records by the tacks. And these Associated Press writers came to find that out. And all the smokescreen about us stealing records. Ridiculous. State agents raid a church, confiscate records with the explanation that they are looking for evidence of possible crime. Months pass without charges being filed or the church property being returned.

   These aren't developments from behind the Iron Curtain. They all happened within the past year, right here in California. Many religion and legal observers see this trend toward more government involvement in religion as a backlash, the three highly publicized factors. Number 1, the People's Temple mass murder-suicide, that prompted the public outcry for vigilant government examination of violence-prone religious cults. Anybody around knows we're not such.

   The marshal in Los Angeles hunted up Mr. Helge on one of these shows of support. He said, "I just felt like I had to find you and let you know, for the hundreds of people you have around here with signs in the small area they are in. We've never found such cooperative, friendly, happy, unique kind of a people," said "you really got some kind of people there."

   On one other Friday when we were over there with signs, the one I marched around with said, "State Attorney General has no power in religious beliefs." The police car pulled up across the street. Two big policemen walked across the street, said, "Who's in charge here?" So people pass the buck. Well, the buck stops with Mr. Tkach on that case. The big buck sergeant walked up and said, "Are you uh with all these people marching around here?" He said yes. "Well, you know, for almost 1000 people in this limited area, showing their support and their loyalty and their appreciation for their leadership. This is some kind of people. We never had this bigger group without troubles. So peaceful and happy and cooperative. Just wanted to let you know what kind of people you have there."

   The second reason for this kickback, the reported brainwashing of young people by some cults and counter-deprogramming efforts. The third reason, the apparently huge sums of money collected by charismatic preachers who use mass media.

   And that article covers the whole inside page. I'll leave it on the stage up here if you want to read it afterwards, a couple of more parts of it. Last summer, the state Attorney General demanded that the Faith Center Church in Glendale, headed by flamboyant television preacher Eugene Scott, turn over its records for an investigation of misuse of funds. Last spring, agents for the Attorney General's office raided the Morning Land Church in Long Beach, seized records, and arrested church members for interfering with the raid. The agents were seeking information on a possible bribe, the former lieutenant governor, no bribery charges have been filed and the records have not been returned.

   Church versus state controversies are developing at the local level too. Grace Community Church, claiming the largest Sunday attendance of a Protestant church in Los Angeles County, was told it could not conduct Bible studies in a church-owned house in suburban Sun Valley without a special zoning variant. However, city officials said the house could be used for a beer party because that wouldn't be church related.

   Well, we read every day in the paper out there about the judicial system in California. You can't imagine the corruption going on. You maybe did hear over the news the judge's wife that was concerned about being burglarized. So she asked the police to come out and they found marijuana growing all over the house.

   Well, here is another daily paper that comes out. "Judges urged to put a gag order on themselves." Another Los Angeles Times, dated August 30th. "Legal morass and court probe grows deeper." September 21st, "Constitution forbids public probe of state high court." Then on the front page of the LA Times right before I left September 28th, "Judge cuts off Supreme Court justices' pay." The state Supreme Court already buffeted by an unprecedented investigation of its internal affairs, took a new blow Thursday when a Sacramento judge ordered that the justice's salaries be cut off.

   Boy, I mean that's, that's serious, you know, when that happens. In effect, the judge decided the court has been evading a century-old provision in the state constitution aimed at preventing undue delays in handing down decisions. So if they're not gonna work, they're not gonna eat, so he cuts off their salaries.

   Well, we read that in the paper every day. Federal judges said his payment of church tax. That same article I read, same paper. We asked the judicial investigating team in California to investigate certain judges. Come to find out the ones on the investigating team or some of the judges we wanted to investigate. So somehow that seemed a little bit... unrealistic.

   Here's the Christian Science Monitor article, "Church and State Clash in California." Some people try to have you believe that is really what's going on. That the state of California is doing all the church members a favor and the catch crooks. Well somebody's been lied to and people are lying very easily in our day.

   You know, I have heard people say Mr. Herbert Armstrong died. That's a lie. Heard people say Mr. Herbert Armstrong was senile, that's another lie. I've seen, I saw him two weeks ago on Wednesday and I'll be seeing him a few days later this week. And I don't go around talking to dead people or senile people.

   The bitter legal battle between the state of California and the Worldwide Church of God holds serious implications for separation of church and state as mandated by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It's a messy confrontation raising a number of troublesome questions. Just how separate are the institutions of religion and government in the US? Is any secular oversight of a church justified? Now you can read that if you want. I'll leave it up here afterwards.

   Time Magazine had an article. "Have the Judges Done Too Much?" They have forgotten what their job is. In a pitilessly consistent democracy, judges would not be making law at all, said Judge Learned Hand. Why then he wondered, do people not resent it when they do? That was 35 years ago when judges were for the most part more restrained about making new law than they are now. Today, many Americans do resent an ever more activist judiciary. Beware, warns a vocal group of scholars, the imperial presidency may have faded, but now an imperial judiciary has the republic in its clutches.

   The fear, as constitutional scholar Alexander Bickel once expressed it, is that too many federal judges view themselves as holding roving commissions as problem solvers charged with a duty to act when majoritarian institutions do not. Given license by a vague constitution and malleable laws, armed with their own rigorous sense of right and wrong, judges have been roving all over the lot in the school desegregation, voting rights, sex, mental health, the environment, the list goes on and on.

   Judges do not just judge anymore, they legislate, make policy, even administer. Indeed, says US Court of Appeals Judge Irving Kaufman, sometimes it seems that business, psychology and sociology degrees, in addition to a law degree, should be prerequisites for the federal bench.

   When Boston's newly elected school committee refused to bus school children, the local federal judge did it himself right down to approving the bus routes. A federal judge in Alabama ruled that inadequate mental health care is unconstitutional. So what is adequate? His answer was a list of 84 minimal standards reaching down to a supply of hot water at 110°F. Result, in 1971, Alabama spent 14 million on its mental institutions. In '73, after the court order, it spent 58 million.

   Courts are not a budgeting agency, says Harvard Law School professor Emeritus Friend. They see problems through a keyhole. What they ordained in the way of expenditures is not correlated with expenditures for other needs. To clean up state prisons, judges in Alabama, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Louisiana have decreed elaborate instructions on food handling, hospital operations, recreation facilities, sanitation, laundry, painting, and plumbing, including the number of inmates per toilet.

   Well, he goes on and on and on with the way the judge has stepped way beyond what he was ever intended to do. It kind of reminds me of a couple of scriptures back in the book of Job. I won't turn and read them, but Job 9:24 says, the earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges thereof. Job 12:17 says, God leads counselors away spoiled, and God makes the judges fools.

   Now you can disbelieve those scriptures if you want. That we're finding out why God wants us to replace the governments that we find about us all over today. Of course this last great day of this Feast of Tabernacles, really the eighth great day, pictures a time that nobody else understands. Nobody else believes in.

   Church of God's 7th Day. Do they believe in a day of salvation at the end of the millennium? Is that something God only revealed to Mr. Armstrong? How many of the truths that you know did God reveal to Mr. Armstrong? And where do you, where do you know what you know? I think most of us would do ourselves a favor. We ask ourselves where we would be today if we hadn't been in God's church. Where would you be today, except for God's church? Dead from high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries.

   The average old person that comes into God's church lives two years longer than they would have. Because they find out what God's laws are. Oh, I ate squirrel like crazy when I was a young person growing up. Eels and gars and imagine that squirrels in the rat family, might as well have been eating big rats or little mice. Good old mouse pie, you know, and rat roast or something.

   Well where would you be without the church today? Happily married or divorced? Where would you be today without the church? Hippie children, no pads for children. Where would you be today without the church?

   Well, I look back when I first heard Mr. Herbert Armstrong in '52. He was talking about the mark of the beast, and God knows what you need to hear the first time. That scared me to no end. I was a Baptist and been a Baptist all my life. I thought, well, you know, you can hear anything out of California. I thought you know I am in trouble if that man is right. I was afraid not to check it out. I said, well, alright, I will send in. So I wrote out and said send me everything you have.

   And I couldn't wait to get the mail every day. Whipped open this manila folder and ripped out a booklet. "How Often Should You Take the Lord's Supper?" That was the smallest one, that's why I read it first. How, how often should you take the Lord's supper? I already knew that, we Baptists did it four times a year. It didn't have to make sense. Whoever heard of breakfast in the morning or supper in the morning. Anybody eats supper in the morning? Nobody ever ate supper in the morning.

   You know, you talk about the Lord's supper, you can't eat anybody else's supper. I was dumbfounded to find out it says when you come together in the one place you can eat the Lord's supper. I thought, oh yeah, I've been doing it for 20 years. And I really hadn't been. If I had ever invited anybody over for supper and give them a little piece of cracker and a little jigger of grape juice, they would have railroaded you out of town. That's not supper.

   But here I was eating supper in the morning at the memorial four times a year with grape juice, it's leaven and crackers, and God says it's to be with unleavened bread and with wine. I didn't have anything right about it. At first I got mad at myself. Why you dummy, how could you have been so dumb? You don't have memorials four times a year. You don't have supper in the morning.

   Well, I've been called a simpleton among a lot of other things, but you know, I'm still in the church. I'm thankful for a lot of things. When Thanksgiving rolls around, when Mother's Day rolls around, I go down to the Hallmark card gift store. I start rummaging through the cards, looking for cards to send to my mom and my wife's mom and my wife's mom's mom. There are a lot of those cards I couldn't send to a human. They make too much out of you to be a human, you know. So I just send those to Pasadena to Mr. Armstrong. Cause I believe and I know the church is my mother.

   And I'm thankful to my mother, the church. Because I could be alive for my physical mother. I could be an American. The best country on earth. But if I weren't in God's church. And where would I be? I don't kid myself. Some people say, well, I know a lot of truth before I ever heard Armstrong. Next time somebody says that I'm gonna take out my pad and my pen and say, OK, would you mind just rattling off all those truths you know before you've heard of Armstrong, both of them?

   I was dumb and ignorant before I ever heard of Mr. Armstrong, blinded, deceived. Totally in error. Pagan. Heathen. But thankful to the truth, you know, God's brought me out of all that. And no credit to me over it.

   Somehow we seem to forget. I gave a sermon in Big Sandy one time, I thought it was a dumb question. I said, is the church essential for salvation? At that day, a bunch of people were wanting to know whether each doctrine was a salvational doctrine or not. What difference that makes when you live by every word of God. Why nitpick about which ones are salvation doctrines. You live by every word of God.

   Well, I was shocked because one faculty member sitting down close in the auditorium was in total disagreement. He just shake his head like that. The church wasn't essential for salvation. I don't need to tell you he is not in the church, do I? If the church isn't essential for salvation, I wonder why God went to so much trouble to preserve it.

   You know Christ said back in Matthew. You might turn back there and notice. Matthew 16 (Matthew 16:13). Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, who do men say that I the Son of man am? Well, notice who they were expecting. John the Baptist, he had already been there and gone, and they were still looking for him. You figure that out. Somebody says we're doing the work of John the Baptist preparing the way before Christ's second coming. It's dead obvious after he's already come and gone, they were still looking for John the Baptist. Herod thought he had been raised from the dead to harass him about adultery.

   But some people said Jesus was John the Baptist, some said he was Elijah to come. Well, I thought that's what John the Baptist was. That's what Jesus said, and yet here in their day they still looked on Jesus as maybe the Elijah to come. Well, others thought he might be Jeremiah. I wonder why Jeremiah, no record of his death. Last you read about him, he disappeared with the king's daughters out of Egypt into England. So they thought maybe the one coming might be a Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

   Well, Jesus said, what about you 12 apostles? Are you 12? Who do you say that I am? Now Simon Peter did not answer because he was the quickest lip in the west. You know, he didn't answer because he was impetuous Peter, because he was spontaneous Peter, because he was forward bold Peter. That isn’t why he answered. Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said, "You have been blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood hadn't revealed that to you. You didn't figure that out. It's not your own judgment, not your own observation or knowledge, my Father which is in the heavens, has revealed this to you."

   Now if you want to answer why God picked Peter out of the 12 to be the one to speak up and to reveal who the Christ was. There's a reason that, you know, we've overreacted to the Catholic doctrine about the pope and so we've overreacted to that. To my surprise, there is some likelihood that even back in Galatians, where it lists the leaders of the church, James, Cephas, and John. Those have been juggled in order to get around this papal doctrine by Protestants.

   And sure enough, Mr. Herbert Armstrong has been guided to bring out the fact that Peter was the chief apostle. You can't really doubt that, can you? You know, I have heard people vigorously give their view on that hurriedly before Mr. Armstrong has even had the opportunity to put down all the proofs of it and to let you see the evidence for it.

   You know, when I first heard that, I was down in Big Sandy and when I first heard that I hadn't heard that before. And I said, well, you know, I'm gonna have to check that out. So first thing I did is whip out my Concordance. Looked up the name James. All 10 places. Looked up the name Peter, all 180 and some places. That did something for me right there.

   The fact that it's the Acts of the Apostles. And yet it didn't either. Only two were ever really covered in that Acts of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. You know, one of the big 3 got martyred and then he just got 1 verse. You ever notice that, James. One of the big 3 was martyred and he got 1 verse. That whole Acts of the Apostles is written about Peter and Paul.

   Do you ever notice in the Gospel of John, how when he first introduces the story about Peter, it always says, Simon Peter. Because by the time John wrote, there was another Peter. A guy named Peter Magus. That had founded another church called it Christian. So in the Gospel of John, you'll always notice him introducing Simon Peter, not just Peter or not Peter Magus but Simon Peter, so you know specifically which Peter he's talking about.

   And I think anybody that isn't prejudiced, that will take a Concordance, look up the name Peter and look all the way through the New Testament. You wouldn't go off half cocked and hasty and say, well I guess that Armstrong is going to make himself a pope. That's ridiculous. I for I don't remember how many years it took us to persuade him that he was an apostle. In fact, I remember Dr. Hoeh getting fired three times in one day because he had written an article for the Good News suggesting that Mr. Armstrong was the Elijah to come and an apostle, and you know, after being fired three times in one day, he didn't write that anymore, didn't put that down for the Good News.

   But isn't it odd that for years we tried to get Mr. Armstrong to realize he's an apostle. And then finally God makes him realize he is, then everybody says dig that. The guy thinks he is an apostle. You know, I've been around all those years we tried to make him realize he was.

   Now let me ask you this. A man that raises up the end time work before the end of the world, before Christ returns, that gets to work restoring the truth, restores the holy days, restores the knowledge of prophecy, restores the laws of God, turns the hearts of fathers back to children and children back to fathers. A man who does that anybody ought to know ought to just be a local elder, shouldn't he? Well, everybody vote for him to be a preaching elder. How about a pastor? Well, maybe, maybe you could even be an evangelist. Well, don't kid anybody, you know. God has put him in the office of an apostle.

   And I feel sorry for people that don't know that. Because they won't believe the church is essential for salvation either. They read scriptures that says there is one church and they say, well yeah but. That's not the way to do scripture. When you read scripture, you don't say yeah but. You know that's not the right wordage to use after you read the scripture.

   Now people will turn and read the same passage that says there is one faith. That's right. There is one body of beliefs. There's one faith and contrary to some people that say doctrine is not the test of a believer. They certainly are. The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. The Sabbath plural are a sign between God and His people. The spirit of prophecy is one of the evidences of a converted Christian.

   Well, notice here in Matthew 16. God Almighty inspired, picked out of the 12 Peter as he did many times. Now I'm sure most of us know there was always the big three. You know, if I thought all 12 apostles were equal, I know myself well enough to know when I, if I'd have been back there. And all of a sudden one great event in Jesus' life comes along and he says, OK, let's see. Peter, James and John, you guys come with me this time and this great event occurs. Well, the next time a great event is going to occur, he said, now let's see, last time we had Peter, James and John, this time we'll take Matthew and Thaddeus and Lebaeus and then that's what you read there you say, OK, Peter, James and John.

   One of the third major events in his life took place, transfiguration and he said, Peter, James, and John. And finally when he goes into Gethsemane right before he dies, he takes Thaddeus, Matthew and Lebaeus. No, Peter, James and John. Anybody ought to know there was the big 3 among the 12. And you never find them, James and John and Peter. And John and James and Peter, and Peter and John and James and Peter and James and John, they never listed equally that way.

   You know it always struck me if all 12 were equal. They sure hadn't been told that because they are always striving, which is the greatest. I don't you remember that? Even before the crucifixion, they were striving as to who was the greatest. Well God Almighty, revealed through Peter. I would suggest before you sit in judgment of God's apostle in new truth he reveals, you give him time to put out the proof on it.

   I know some men back in '74 when we changed the doctrine on divorce and remarriage. They caught me right after the meeting. They said, well, what do you think about that? So well, I don't really know. I just heard it. Well, surely you've been thinking about it. I said, well yeah, but it kind of caught me unexpected because I was thinking about it one day and it came in the back door and I hadn't had a chance to figure that out, think that out yet. But I know that I know where God's church is. So I know when I have time to study it and prove it, I don't know it.

   Well you know, I took the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Protestant, looked up Peter. Reluctantly they admitted he was the chief apostle, leading apostle, the prince of the apostles, whatever name you want to use. I looked up the 11th edition of the Britannica. Collier's Encyclopedia, World Book Encyclopedia. I looked up the New International Bible Encyclopedia. All about Peter. And Mr. Armstrong's right. As he has always been, not on everything.

   I know Mr. Armstrong will admit it when he is wrong. Because I know Raymond McNair is the one that went to them and proved to him that we were wrong about the day of Pentecost. And I remember a lady calling him up one time. I wasn't there, but I been acquainted with the episode, a lady called him up and said, is this Herbert Armstrong? Yes it is. Well, I've been wanting to speak to you. I want you to know how much I respect your program and your work, and I really get a lot of good out of it. But she said, you know, you're ignorant about 1/3 of the Bible.

   Boy, oh boy, coming from a lady from Florida on the phone. What did this line of Judas say? Roar back at her, who do you think you are telling me something? That's not the way Mr. Armstrong is. You know, I've told him things and most of the times, if you're wrong or you know, you're not gonna get shouted and yelled at and fired. The only time I've been fired is I passed him the Queen of spades one time in a heart game down in East Texas and but uh. At least that I know of. The only time I've been fired.

   Ah, you know what he did when this lady called, he said, well, I'll tell you, I don't want to be ignorant about any of the Bible. So if you know something I don't know, just send it. I'll read it. I'll admit it when I'm wrong. Because she let us know about prophecy. 1/3 of your Bible is prophecy. If you don't know about Israel, the key of prophecy, you are ignorant about 1/3 of the Bible. And so we dug in and Mr. Armstrong dug in and the truth we get handed to us on silver platters, he had to dig for and search for.

   Anyway, in Matthew 16 (Matthew 16:18), notice what Christ said. You've been blessed Simon, because God has allowed you to be the one to reveal this, but I say to you, you are not any big rock, you are just a little pebble on this massive Gibraltar, I'm gonna build my church. Why would he do that if it isn't essential? Why would he do that if you can make it without the church? Why would he do that if it's just you, God and the Bible? As so many independent Christians think. God said, I will build my church and the gates of hell, the Hades, the grave won't prevail against it.

   Notice back in I Timothy chapter 3. I Timothy 3. Verse 15. Now I've got all these verses marked church. So if you're a Bible marker, just write the word church in coloring pencils or felt tip marker across there and you know what you're talking about. When you get all the verses together about the church. I Timothy 3:15 says, if I tarry long, you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

   Look what God calls the church, the pillar and ground undergirding, stay. The church is the undergirding of the truth, the church is the foundational pillar, the church is the stay of the truth. Well you read back in Matthew 28. Where Christ said he'd be after he left. Last thing he said before he left, Matthew 28, you've heard a part of this read. All power is given to me, you go and make disciples among the nations, you baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son, then you teach those you baptize to observe all the things I have taught you to observe and lo, I'm with you, church, I'll be there with you.

   The church of God, it's the body of Christ. He was the Logos and the church is the body of Christ. Christ is in his church till the end of the day. You have to find God's church to find God in an age when God has allowed the world to go its own way. God is in his church till the end of the day. Now, if you think that isn't true, the best example I can think of is back here in Acts 9. Notice the apostle Paul.

   I was taught 20 years that he founded Gentile Christianity. Get away from that Jewish connection. To have something totally separate for Chris for Gentile Christians. A Gentile headquarters out of Antioch and Pauline theology and a Gentile gospel of the uncircumcision which is mistranslated, the gospel to the uncircumcision. There isn't any gospel of the uncircumcision. The one gospel, same gospel to everybody, Abraham and me and you and Gentiles and Israel and everybody.

   I notice in Acts 9 what happened (Acts 9:1). Saul's breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He goes to the high priest, desires letters to Damascus. If he finds any of this way, whether men or women, he will bring them bound to Jerusalem. So his journey comes near Damascus, the first time in his life, God directly reveals himself to Saul. Suddenly they are shining round about Saul a light from heaven. And God said, OK, Saul, you and me in the Bible, bring your Bible there and let's get off to Arabia. And just you and me in the Bible, we are not gonna get any connection that Jewish, Jerusalem, those previous people in the church. We're gonna start something new off here independent on our own. You're gonna be an independent apostle with your own headquarters out of Antioch.

   They didn't even found Antioch. Antioch was founded by people who were persecuted over Stephen's death who went there, if you read. I didn't know that for 20 years as a blinded Baptist, I believe that. That isn’t true.

   What happened to Saul? He met God on the road to Damascus, fell to the earth. Gets up, he's blind, he can't see. He goes three days and three nights without sight. There was a certain disciple at Damascus. You mean God is gonna bring Saul to the church? You gotta be kidding, boy, what a disappointment for any Protestant. You mean to tell me the apostle Paul went up five times to Jerusalem in his work. You mean to tell me God had Saul go up by revelation one time because he might have gotten off in the gospel he was preaching. And those that Jerusalem might have added to him, might have compelled him to have Timothy circumcised Titus rather. Yeah, he worked out of Jerusalem, out of headquarters. He wasn't an independent apostle.

   Look what God did with Saul. Soon as God makes himself known to Saul, he said verse 6 eyes, go into the city of Damascus, it will be told you what you must do. Who is going to tell Saul what he must do? Well, an elder in God's church. It isn't just anybody, a certain disciple Ananias. You ought to read about that guy in the Bible dictionary.

   God Almighty says to the Ananias, the Lord in a vision, Ananias, yes sir, arise, go into the street, call straight, inquire in the house of Judas. For one called Saul of Tarsus, behold he prays. He is seen in a vision you by name, a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.

   Then Ananias tried to tell him what he didn't know about him. Can you beat that? You surely don't believe. Humans are always trying to tell God what he doesn't know about somebody. Boy, I can't imagine anybody doing that, can you? And Ananias said, say, Lord, let me tell you what you don't know about Saul. I know he's got a document in his hand right now coming here to trick all of us and get our names and we'll all be martyred. God said, I'm one jump ahead of you Ananias, I've already changed his heart. Let me tell you what you don't know Ananias. And so God knew better. God just said go on and do what I told you.

   Notice verse 15. He is a chosen vessel to me to bear my name before the Gentiles. That was his first job. After he finished that, he went before kings with the name of Christ, and then he went to England for the children of Israel. That's listed last. He didn't do that first. When you put things in an order in the Greek, it's important.

   Well, he goes on to say Ananias verse 17 went his way, entered into the house, put his hands on him, and now all of a sudden he looked at the attitude of Ananias. He says, Brother Saul. So instead of fear and skepticism, now it's brother. Well Jesus that appeared to you has sent me, you notice that? God Almighty, who made himself known to Saul, didn't rapture him off to Arabia, just God, him and his Bible. God brought Saul to Ananias, and this previous member of God's church laid hands on him and he was healed. He baptized him.

   And you read the rest of Acts. After Saul had gone to Arabia and was taught by Christ those three years. Verse 6:26 says, Saul came to Jerusalem and said to join himself to the disciples. That's what God told him after he trained him those three years in Arabia, you gotta go up and work as a team in the headquarters system. So Saul went to Jerusalem to join himself to the disciples. Barnabas took him verse 27, brought him to the apostles, verse 28, he was with them coming in and going out to Jerusalem.

   Well, that wipes out all that independent God me in the Bible, you know, people are always saying, what if you are out on an island and a Bible comes floating by in a basket and you reach in there and take it. Now if you try that on me before you get through, I'm gonna say wait a minute. What's the guy's name that you did this, would you mind telling me who, who this guy is? Oh well, I don't know that it really happened. Well then I don't have time for fiction, you know. I mean we dealing with facts and truth? Are we making up speculations and hypothesis? Well, that's not what the truth is based on.

   Notice back in Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3:7, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God. You know, you don't volunteer to be a minister, God drafts you. And when God drafts you, you don't resign. When God drafts you, that's it. Paul said, woe will be if I don't preach the gospel. Well, Paul said I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power unto me, whom less than the least of all saints.

   Boy, that's a golden attitude. That's the apostle Paul's attitude. Would that God all ministers have that attitude. Less than the least of all saints. Not because of our great training and talent and ability and skill, God has made us ministers by grace, by the gift of the grace of God. Many of us are less than the least of all saints. It's gonna be an embarrassment in the kingdom when God passes out the reward and the widows are given 10 cities and preachers are given 5 cities. You know I never have read where God rewards every man according as his rank. You find that scripture anywhere? I'd like to see that. No, Paul said in the least of all saints.

   This grace has been given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable. You know what that is? The unsearchable riches of Christ. Only by grace can God give you the enlightenment to understand the truth of God. They are unsearchable riches. You can't figure them out. You can't search them out. Mr. Armstrong didn't come to them by his own great mentality, by effort, by hard work, by God's spirit, by enlightenment, by years of effort.

   You know, Mr. Armstrong wasn't the kind of a man that I know on one occasion saw a bumper sticker that said uh, "If God said it, that's good enough for me." I don't believe that, he said. I want to know why. I mean until God shows me why I'm not gonna do something. Mr. Armstrong kept the feasts 7 years and didn't know why. He just knew God commanded them. He knew they were in the New Testament. He didn't know what they pictured. He didn't know what they meant, and he probably never would have if he had had that attitude. My God, I'm not gonna do anything unless you tell me why.

   Well, if God said it, that's good enough for me. You know, if God said circumcise babies on the 8th day, that's good enough for me. You know what they found out? Read the Mothers encyclopedia on circumcision. They said undoubtedly the Jews found out by trial and error as we have. That the clot factor in the blood doesn't reach its maximum until the 8th day. So if you circumcise earlier, it's more risky. If you wait later it's just more painful and trouble. You know, God is your guessed well, didn't he? He just guessed on the 8th day.

   Well, don't kid yourself. If God said it, that's good enough for me. And if God said don't eat squirrels, I don't say my God, how come it tastes good. There are lots of them, they are easy to kill and boy they are free. What do you mean don't eat squirrel God? If God said don't eat squirrel, I don't eat squirrel. If God said it, it ought to be good enough for anybody. God said keep the feasts, Mr. Armstrong said, yes sir. And then finally after 7 years, he told him why. Boy, that's the kind of man I, I like. That's the kind of a man I find in the Bible.

   Notice what it goes on to say, by grace, the unsearchable riches, to make all men see what's the fellowship of the mystery. Which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. The mystery from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. To the intent, verse 10 that now the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. It's the only way you're gonna ever know it. By the church. The mysteries kept hid since the foundation of the world. The unsearchable riches. By the church are manifest.

   Now you might notice back here in Galatians 4:22, it is written that Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, the one by the bond maid, Hagar, Ishmael, the other Isaac by a free woman, Sarah. Now he who was the bond woman, Ishmael was born after the flesh because of the lack of faith, but he, Isaac of the free woman, was by a promise God made to Abraham when he was 100 years old. These things are an allegory because these represent the two covenants. The covenant of God's spirit in the New Testament church, the covenant of the letter in Old Testament Israel, the national church.

   The one was from the Mount Sinai, but the people didn't have God's spirit, so they couldn't keep it, so it engendered a bondage. Hagar. That's Hagar, Mount Sinai in Arabia, but in Jesus' day in Paul's day, Jerusalem of that day was that representation. The letter of the law and physical bondage. With her children. But the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, the church. The the New Testament church, the spirit of the law, the new covenant is free. Which is the mother of us all.

   My church is my mother. The church is your mother. And all that I've been taught and know, the protection, the nourishment, all the joy of life, the church, the mother has given to us. But I wonder how many of us appreciate it and respect it?

   [Tape Flipped]

   Go out into the desert from Pasadena to get closer to God. Get closer to God. God's everywhere. That's God's headquarters. That's where God's college is. That's where God's people are. That's where God's holy days and Sabbath and Bible study and get closer to God out there in the desert by yourself, just you and God in the Bible. Well, the students I've seen try that for a length of time. Disappeared. Sure, all of us have to get away occasionally to really devour the Bible and fast and pray and study and.

   Come back to Exodus 24. Exodus 24 (Exodus 24:1). God said to Moses, come to the Eternal, you, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders, and you worship the far off. And Moses alone shall come near the Eternal, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him. Somehow second fiddle players object to God choosing someone alone. To God having one alone.

   A lot of people will say, well, now wait a minute, didn't God have 12 apostles in the New Testament? Well, that's the number 12 that was a parallel with the heavenly pattern, the 24 elders, and you had 12 patriarchs in the Old Testament. So you had to have 12 apostles as a foundational number beginning the New Testament. They couldn't have 13, they couldn't go on with 11, they couldn't choose between the two. They flipped up a board with two names on it and the one that showed up was Matthias, and he became the 12th. Well, one of those got killed in Acts 12, James became an apostle, probably in the same chapter. Then another died, then it built back up to 15, but then what did God do? Before the New Testament age was over, they all got martyred. Jesus himself said it would come down to 1. John who would die of a natural death, and what did John do? He trained one Polycarp. What did Polycarp do? He trained ones Polycrates. Has God worked through one man, one leader? Look at that. God called the 70 elders of Israel up. God called Aaron and Nadab and Abihu up, but God said Moses alone shall come near the Eternal.

   Notice back in I Chronicles 29. I Chronicles 29 (I Chronicles 29:1). This verse really struck me when I first read it. Furthermore, David the king said to all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen. He's young and tender and the work is great. Solomon alone God has chosen.

   Notice II Chronicles chapter 8. God has dealt with Abraham alone and Isaac alone and Jacob alone. And then in order to make a nation and have 12, he made Jacob's name change to Israel, and he dealt with the nation. Now notice in David's day. Solomon, preparing the service for the tabernacle, it says in verse 14 (II Chronicles 8:14), he appointed according to the order of David, his father, the courses of the priests to their service, the Levites to their charges, the praise and ministry before the priest, as the duty of everyday required, the porters also by their courses at every gate, for so had David, the man of God.

   That used to strike me when they talked about Stan the Man, baseball player with the Cardinals. No, it's Jesus the man. David, the man of God. You know, on one occasion in the New Testament. I forget whether it was an angel, but they came along and said, behold the man. About Christ. About Jesus.

   Now back in Numbers 12, some people really took exception to this way of God, just like we've had happen in our day many a time. The 28 years I've been in the church. Numbers 12 has been accomplished again and again and again and it will be again and again. But we never learned the lesson (Numbers 12:1). Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses.

   You remember back when you first came into the church and you thought everybody was perfect. Boy, what a shocker it was when you found out they weren't. People gossip about you. Somebody lied or stole or something. Remember what a jolt that was? Well, you know, everybody is human. We all battle human nature. I know Mr. Armstrong at a couple of times really encouraging to me, you know, he said, you guys think you have troubles with your nature. Boy, I will tell you, I have more troubles with myself than any of you guys ever do. I didn't believe it. I just couldn't believe that. But in some ways when you get older, you do have more troubles with yourself. To get up and go. And whatever else, you know.

   Well, I remember Mr. Armstrong one time saying, I'll tell you, there are things in my nature I've been fighting for 28 years. Boy, that's encouraging to me, you know. I've got things in my nature. I've been fighting 28 years. And they are not what I wish they were or what they, they ought to be. So everybody makes mistakes. Is it alright for you to sit in judgment of God's servant when they make a mistake? Well, just be sure they really made the mistake and then it's OK. Oh no I didn't. That's the mistake you make. Was Moses wrong? Did he make a mistake? Yes. Was it their job to deal with it? No, it's not their job, that's God's job. That's the one that picked him and put him in the job. He's he's God's job. Boy, it would be God, a lot of people learn that lesson. Too many people want to take things in their own hands and they figure out God is gonna use them to deal with somebody else's mistakes. That's a lack of faith. I mean, can't God run his church? If this is the church of God, don't you think God can run it and take care of it?

   But look at Moses, Miriam and Aaron. They speak against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. And you notice what God goes on to admit. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. God admitted that he made the mistake. They said, has the Eternal indeed spoken only by Moses? You ever heard anybody say that in your lifetime in the church? All gobs of time I don't know how many people I have heard say that. Why, you know, God used all of us.

   I remember one man who was a real close friend of mine. I talked with him one time last November, and he said, you know, we need to dehumanize this church. I, you know, I didn't get that. I just sat there and I dehumanized the church. You know I just went over my head. I didn't get that. We got to dehumanize the church. So dumbly I said, well, what are you talking about? They said, well, you know, this is the church of God. This is the work of God, not the work of men, it's not the church of men. This is not the Armstrong Church of God, this is God's church. Well yeah, but hadn't God always used a man to do the work through? Hadn't God always headed up the work by a man? Dehumanize the man. That was just a tricky way of saying we need to get rid of the leader. Well that was tried and failed and it will fail anytime it is tried.

   But you notice the attitude of other people. I've heard people say, why I gave the best years of my life to that church. Uh, you got it upside down and backwards. The church gave the best years of your life to you. I mean, that ain't that true? Did you got things upside down and backwards? People start saying why gave the most useful vigorous active, helpful years of my life to that church. No, God gave those years to you. The church gave those to you.

   People say boy here I worked all those years in that church and not even getting severance and annuity. Well, you know what's that? Pay people for doing nothing. People say, well, you know this is paying them for the good years. Well, our ministers are well paid for the good years. We don't pay people for doing nothing. Mr. Armstrong, when he heard about severance and annuity, he kind of scratched his head and said, wait a minute, what's all that? But the Bible says, you don't pay people for doing nothing. I will tell you, I would not take money from the church. Just because I have a contract doing nothing. I don't have a contract, so talking about in case if you are in a position where you did.

   But anyway, notice these people's attitudes. They wanted to say well wait a minute, who does he think he is? And God also used all of us. Now come back to I Samuel 16. And we won't finish, we'll just quit here. I Samuel 16. One great lesson to me. The spirit of the Eternal departs from Saul verse 14 (I Samuel 16:14). A melancholy spirit. Since God no longer shelters him, it said it is from the Eternal, but it wasn't really. God just didn't protect him from it anymore. So now because of Saul's nature and problems and carnality, a melancholy spirit troubled him.

   Well, people in that day it was common, they knew how to deal with it. They said, well, it's just a melancholy spirit troubling him and what we need to do is get someone that can play happy music on an instrument and melancholy spirits can't stand happiness, they will leave. So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and they found David verse 19. Verse 21, David came to Saul and stood before him and loved him greatly. Verse 23, when this melancholy spirit, anybody can get if they are moody and despondent and dejected and downcast all their lives and it's a dangerous uh human character weakness, you need to get rid of it. But when this evil spirit was on Saul, David would take a harp and just play happy, inspiring, uplifting music, and that evil spirit would leave. It couldn't stand to be around happiness.

   Why can you imagine that being David and knowing the king of Israel had demon influence. Boy, what would that allow you to do? Man, oh man, you are already anointed to be the next king. Who wants to have their leaders nutty off upstairs. Boy, let's get rid of that. Paul, after all, he's uh got a melancholy spirit troubling. For anybody to parallel that with Mr. Armstrong is a lie. They don't know what they're talking about.

   Chapter 24, I Samuel 24, Saul was returning. Decided it's time to get rid of David. He took 3000 chosen men, verse 2 (I Samuel 24:2-4), and out of all the caves in the whole valley, what does he do? Go in to use the bathroom in the cave where David is with his men. And look what the men of David say verse 4. Why it is the obvious answer, David, behold the day of which the Eternal said to you, behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as it shall seem good to you.

   Well David was moved by his men, he arises, cuts off the skirts of Saul's robe secretly. And for no more than that, just to mar the garb of the king of Israel, crushed him, broke his heart, smote him deeply because David above every man who ever lived, respected the office of the king of Israel. What a great thing to be king of God's people of Israel. Boy, what a supreme honor, David's heart smote him just because he cut off the corner of the king of Israel's garments. The Eternal forbid that I should do this thing to my master. The Eternal's anointed.

   You know, ministers are the Eternal's anointed. Especially the chief minister, God chooses. To stretch forth my hand against him, seeing that he is the anointed of the Eternal. David stayed his servants with these words and didn't suffer for them to rise against Saul. Then David runs out to the cave after Saul and David stooped verse 8 with his face to the earth and bowed himself to a man in a position he so greatly respected.

   Wherefore, hear you men's words, behold David seeks your hurt. Behold this day your eyes have seen how that the Eternal has delivered you today into mine hand in the cave. Some bade me kill you, my eyes spared you. I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Eternal's anointed. Now if you don't know that about Mr. Armstrong or about your minister. Then you need to prove that, you need to come to know that. I know that. And to put forth your hand against God's anointed, would you call him your master, your Lord, in one sense you can but not in a wrong sense.

   Verse 12, the Eternal judge between me and you, the Eternal avenge me of you, not my job, you are God's job. God is the one that put you in that office, it's God's nation. I'm not about to take things into my hands. The Eternal judge between me and you and the Eternal avenge me of you, but my hand shall not be upon you, as the proverb of the ancients says, wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon you.

   After whom is the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue after a dead dog? Boy, in comparison to the position of king of Israel. A young shepherd boy, freckle-faced musician, thought of himself as a dead dog, a flea in comparison to the great position of king of Israel. Saul said to David verse 17, you are more righteous than I, you have rewarded me good. I rewarded you evil.

   What do we reward Mr. Armstrong, you know, all the yieldedness and dedication and hard work, all the years of holes in his shoes and one suit for every day of the week. What do we reward him for all the hours of study. How come his eyes aren't real sharp and bright now? Because he's read all his life. You get a lot of truth that we all are privileged to come to know and have handed this on a platter. We want to judge somebody because they have difficulty with their eyes seeing. Where they use them up? What did they use them up doing?

   Well, I know that the church is my mother. And every year when Thanksgiving rolls around and Mother's Day rolls around, and you know when I saw the movie MacArthur, which I'll see again every time it comes where I can see it. Because to me, it reminds me of the work in the church. When MacArthur ended his speech and he was talking to those students at West Point. He talked about his life, the highlights, the sorrows, the work. He said every time, every day, everywhere I go. I always think about. And then you know, instead of what he said, the corps and the corps and the corps.

   When I think about life or Thanksgiving or Mother's Day, I think about where I would be without the church. I think about Mr. Armstrong, a man 88 years old, but a man who writes for 2 or 3 in the morning, a man who spent himself, who dedicated himself to God, who yielded himself to God. God has anointed that I will never lift up my hand against, and you should be as persuaded as David was, when I think of life and blessing and abundant life. Instead of saying the corps, I think of the church and the church and the church.