Herbert W Armstrong

   Let's just quickly review in our mind's eye what we went through and then continue on from there, because I strongly feel that while what we have covered is important, what we have yet to cover is far more important, so we can begin to understand some of the situations that we face in our daily lives.

   We talked about how that in the very beginning, going all the way back to the time when the one that we now call God the Father and the one we now call Jesus Christ or God the Son were the only beings in existence, that they had existed from eternity in perfect peace because of the way that they chose to live. And yet they wanted that way to expand, to share that way with many others, because of course, where God's way is concerned, the more it is shared, the more wonderful it is. And therefore they wanted to share it with many, many more.

   They created spirit beings who had tremendous opportunity and yet who did not have the perfect righteous character of God set within them. And we talked about how those spirit beings had to make a choice, that two-thirds made the right choice and one-third did not, so that there are many who rebelled against God and are now Satan and his demon spirits, as well as the majority of the angels who did go the right direction and made the right choice.

   But then that God saw we cannot use spirit beings who do not have godly character. We brought out the point that once a spirit being's character is set, it is set for eternity. But God wanted creatures or beings to come into existence who would have the ability to develop the character of God over a period of time, make mistakes if necessary, wrong choices, still repent and get straightened out and get the attitudes turned around and make the right choices. So we made physical beings, human beings, brought them into existence and gave them many of those same choices that had to be made.

   We moved on to the second sermon and we talked about how that in bringing those into existence, that God had placed a spirit in man there, a power to give the human brain the ability to think and reason, to bring intellect into existence and the ability to reason things out and make choices and to begin to develop character. We talked about primarily dealing with that spirit in man last time, dealing with how that spirit works and at the same time drawing the analogy toward the end of last time about the birth process, the conception and birth process in the human being and how that is a perfect picture of God reproducing Himself.

   Now, I want to pick it up at that point today, continuing on, dealing with perhaps a slightly different aspect today. And that is to realize that that spirit, we touched upon it last time, that spirit in man is incomplete, that we as human beings are not complete. As Mr. Armstrong has said before, we're not all there. You probably, at least some of you have been around the feast a good while. You remember the statement being made at the Feast of Tabernacles: We're all here because we're not all there. And the statement is certainly true to recognize that we as human beings need another spirit and are susceptible to an influence from outside the human experience and an influence which cannot be seen or measured by science, and therefore science and education today reject the concept completely that there is any other spirit that might affect us. But as we will go on to show today, there certainly is another spirit, in fact, more than one, which can affect us and influence the way in which we think and what kind of character we begin to develop.

   Now as we looked last time, we dealt with God dealing directly with Adam and Eve and the choices which they made, wrong choices which produced a penalty. Again reminding you, as we were concluding, we're bringing out the point that God's spirit was available to Adam and Eve prior to their sinning. The tree of life was right there, and that tree symbolized the taking of the spirit of God. They could have taken it had they chosen to take of it. They did not choose to, but they said, or at least they knew that it was available to them. The other tree, the knowledge of good and evil, was the only one that God forbade them to take anything from, so they could have had the Spirit of God, which would have made them able to resist Satan. But they ignored that and cut themselves off from that spirit, and they cut their offspring off from that spirit by making the choice they made. They sinned and God drove them out of the garden and said, "Now you cannot have access to the tree of life." And he put the angels there with the flaming swords to keep everyone away from it, except for a very few to whom God would make His spirit available down through the ages. They enthroned Satan as the one who would be their ruler. They thought they were choosing for themselves, but in reality they were making Satan their ruler.

   Notice back in Romans chapter 6. I don't believe we covered the scripture last time. Romans chapter 6. In verse 16, it's a very important chapter and we go through a great deal of it, and we're giving baptismal counseling. Romans 6:16: "Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness." So there is no middle ground involved. There is no such thing as remaining neutral.

   When Adam and Eve were created, they were neutral. When a child is born today, that child is neutral. It has not chosen what way it's going to go. Now, every child that has come into existence from the time of Adam and Eve, with the one exception of Jesus Christ, has chosen the wrong way. And doesn't that seem a little strange? Doesn't it seem that the odds ought to be kind of like flipping a coin, that half of them would choose the right and half of them the wrong, or at least somewhere in that area, but it has been 100%, less one individual, that have chosen the wrong way.

   That should begin to prove to us that though we come into this world neutral, somehow there is some kind of an influence pulling us in the wrong direction, making us go in a direction or at least letting us tend to go in a direction of making the wrong choice. No matter how careful a parent may be, and many of you, I'm sure are very cautious and careful as parents, doing the best job you can. Some of you have newborn children, some have some in the oven on the way, and will be coming along soon. Some may have some on the way and they don't even know it yet. But what happens when that child is born? You can be the best parent you can possibly be, and that child will still choose the wrong way. Why? Why is that?

   It is because there is another influence on the human mind pulling us in that wrong direction, and he says you will not remain neutral. You will be either the servant of sin producing death, which means the servant of Satan, or you will be the servant of God which will produce life. No middle ground is involved there, one or the other. So they enthroned Satan as their ruler.

   We've all read back in II Corinthians chapter 4. In verse 4, it tells us about this world. It says in verse 3 of II Corinthians 4 (II Corinthians 4:3-4), "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are perishing," that are in the process of perishing, "in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who's the image of God should shine unto them."

   So this tells us not only what we have just been talking about, that there is an influence, but it tells us who's behind it. And it tells us that the God of this world has the ability to affect the human mind. Now science doesn't recognize that. Science doesn't recognize any God, and certainly they don't recognize an evil god of this world. And the word world there is more the concept of society. You know, we call it the world, but it's basically the society, the way people live, the spirit of the attitudes and thoughts and ways that people think about things in this world. And he is the God who rules over that, and he has the ability to blind the human mind, so that it cannot clearly seem to make the right choice, but instead its perceptions are altered and it makes wrong choices.

   Now, Adam and Eve enthroned Satan as their ruler, and by their choice, in fact, allowed him to continue as the ruler of this world. God had placed him in that office, but he had rebelled and he had to be cast out of that office, but he could not be replaced, even though he disqualified himself, he could not be replaced until someone else came along qualified to take that position. Adam had that opportunity. Adam failed.

   Now God knew that was a possibility. God was not sitting on his throne, you know, clenching his teeth and saying, "Oh no, I wonder what's going to happen." God knew the possibility. God allowed Satan to get to Eve. God knew what was going on. God knew when they took of that forbidden fruit, and he let them do it, because they had to make the choice freely on their own. God knew the possibility was there, so he had worked into his plan an alternative.

   Revelation chapter 13. Now, this is breaking into the middle of the thought, but I just want to pull out one concept here in Revelation 13. Here it’s talking about this beast with 7 heads and 10 horns and so on. And just breaking in in the middle of that in verse 8 (Revelation 13:8), "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of," and then the phrase I want to pick up, "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

   Now we know that's talking about Jesus Christ. So many scriptures we could turn to to show that it refers to Jesus Christ as this lamb, and it says he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, not the foundation of the geological ball that we call the earth, but from the foundation of society, what we call the world today. From the foundation of society, his death became necessary. It was a foregone conclusion that it would come to pass from the very foundation of society.

   What is the foundation of society? The choice made by Adam and Eve when they chose to sin. That sin made the death of Jesus Christ necessary, so that was the foundation stone of all of society: I will do what is right in my eyes. I will do it my way, and God won't tell me what to do. Isn't that the foundation of society today? I don't want God telling me what I can do and what I can't. Therefore, from that point, it was already placed into the plan of God that Jesus Christ would have to come as a physical being, live a perfect life, and be slain. From the time of the foundation of man's society, that was a part of God's plan. Someone had to come to qualify to replace Satan as the ruler.

   Now let's notice a couple of things about that when Christ did come on the scene in Matthew chapter 4. This is just after Jesus Christ was baptized, as you begin in chapter 4 (Matthew 4:1). "Then was Jesus led up," verse one, "of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," of Satan. Now, again, remember Jesus Christ was born with the Spirit of God. There was another spirit influencing his mind from birth, so it put him in a different category. "When he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward an hungered." I think that's one of the greatest understatements of the Bible. 40 days and 40 nights and it says he was hungry. Well, yes, I imagine he was.

   "And when the tempter came to him," now you know this is an interesting point. People have mentioned to me, "Well, I fasted about this problem, and after I finished fasting, it seemed like things got worse." Well, surprise. Christ fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and when he had completed all of that, what happened? The greatest test that had ever come upon a human being. That's when Satan wanted to strike him. If Satan could get to him then, there was no hope. There was nothing else he could ever do to overcome Satan.

   So when the tempter came to him, he said, "If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." You see, there's automatically the sense of accusation: "If you're really the Son of God." Satan knew who he was. There was no question in Satan's mind who this was, but he had the hope of making him doubt. If he can just plant the seed of doubt where he could begin to think, "Well, I've always thought I was the son of God, but, you know, Satan doesn't know that I am. Maybe I'm just deluding myself."

   Do you ever have a thought come into your mind of, "Well, now, what makes me think that I'm a part of the only true church of God? That I'm really called special by God Himself. Oh, come on." You ever have that thought? Who do you think it comes from? "If you be the Son of God," Satan knew he was, and Satan knows you are called and chosen by God, but he wants you to doubt it. "Then do this simple thing, make it into bread."

   When you're hungry, if you ever walk into it now, I'm a fan of whole grains. I really love whole grain products. I don't like this, you know, Wonderbread and this stuff that you can, you know, wad into a ball and play tennis with it. I just don't like those things. I really like the whole grain products and my wife tries to use those mainly. Have you ever walk into a house, you know, you've been out and maybe in the cold and you're kind of hungry, and you walk into a house and it is filled with the aroma of fresh baked homemade bread, is there anything that smells quite that good at a time like that?

   So he'd been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, and Satan says, "Wouldn’t some fresh, hot bread? Maybe the butter is melting all over it and running. Wouldn't that be really good?" But he answered and said, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

   Now you see, would there have been something wrong with Christ making the rocks into bread? Oh yeah, there sure would have. What would have been wrong is he would have been obeying Satan. He would have been letting Satan tell him what to do. "I won't do it. I don't care how hungry I am. I will not do it."

   So then the devil, again remember the term devil means the false accuser, the slanderer, takes him up into the holy city, sets him on the pinnacle of the temple. Now the pinnacle of the temple, we normally think of the big temple building, but that's not the pinnacle of the temple. The pinnacle of the temple is the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount wall. And at that time, that wall alone was something like 270 feet high, and then it dropped off into the Kidron Valley, which was probably another couple hundred feet on down. So it's probably a drop of maybe 3 or 400 feet from the edge of that all the way down into the bottom of that valley.

   He took him up to the pinnacle of the temple, and he said unto him, "If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down, for it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands, they shall bear you up lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone.'" That's an important principle, but I'll come back to it later. Jesus said unto him, "It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God." So again he said, "No, that's not the right thing to do. I know that the scripture says that in this case, but I also know it isn't the only thing the scripture says. The other things that it says too."

   Again, the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said unto him, "All these things will I give you if you will fall down and worship me." And again, there is no question that they were his to give. He is the God of the world and he rules those kingdoms. They belong to Him. He can give them if he chooses. Christ could have thought of all kinds of reasons. He could have justified his mind and said, "Well, if I just had, if Satan would give them all to me, then all these people could be converted right now." But he knew that that was wrong in God's sight to fall down and worship Satan.

   Then said Jesus unto him, "Get you hence, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." And the devil leaves him. Behold, the angels came and ministered unto him.

   So you see, he said, "I will not obey. You get out of here." And suddenly the one who had been the God of this world, there was no being on the face of this earth that he had to obey. Suddenly, he had to obey, because Christ had just qualified to rule over him. "You will not tell me what to do. I will serve God no matter what the justification I might come up with in my own mind or anything else. I will obey God no matter what." And Satan had to then obey him and commanded him to leave, and he left.

   Now you'll note there if you go on in verse 17, "From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" He could now preach that message because he had qualified as the ruler of that kingdom. Up until that time, he really couldn't preach that in the same way. Now he can because he has qualified as the king. He is now qualified to cast Satan off of his throne and become the new God of this world.

   Matthew 25, and that's chapter 25. It tells us the timing of this. It is not something to occur instantly at that point. But in Matthew 25:31 it says, "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of His glory." So that's when he's to take over and to rule. That's when he's to sit on the throne, not until that point. But at that point he is to take over and to rule. So Satan is left on the throne, still is the God ruling this world, left on that throne for a period of time until Christ comes in power to cast him off.

   Now, how did Christ overcome Satan? By the spirit of God which was in him. We'll talk more about that later. That spirit would enable us to overcome Satan as well. In fact, we must overcome Satan. We must conquer over Satan just as Jesus Christ did. We must enthrone God as our ruler and say, "I will not obey what Satan wants, no matter how subtle, no matter how justifiable. I will not do what Satan says. I will obey God no matter what the cost." God's spirit is the only way that we can build that kind of character. That's why Jesus Christ had that character. That's how we come to have it. But as I said, we'll talk about that later.

   I want to emphasize a different aspect today that we need to recognize: that still, all throughout his life, Satan was determined to try to destroy him. Even though he knew he had qualified to rule, he was still determined to destroy him. There was a prophecy given, and I won't go back to it now. I covered it in Bible study, Genesis 3:15, that prophesied the fact that Jesus Christ would come and that Satan as a serpent would be able to, in essence, it says there, grab his heel. Well, if you're walking along and someone grabs your heel, what happens? Well, you stumble, but you get out, you're not destroyed. And then it says, "And he shall bruise your head." What happens when you bruise the head of the snake? Well, I came home from Spokesman's Club the other night and found a snake on my front step, and I bruised his head. And one of the local cats had him for dinner. I mean, you know, when you bruise his head, he's done. And that's it. He's gone.

   Now, Satan isn't going to be destroyed in the same sense, but at the same time, his power is gone. He is not able to do anything any further to cause damage. So that prophecy said it was going to happen, and he knew of that prophecy. Christ had come and qualified as the ruler, and he was going to fulfill that. But Satan says, "I'm going to keep trying to destroy him. I'm going to try to destroy those he's working with. I'm going to try to destroy anything good I can." It seems to be Satan's basic approach.

   Notice in I Peter chapter 5. I Peter 5:8. He says, "Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world," or worldwide. Everyone has to face this problem. Satan is constantly out there like a roaring lion.

   Now I was talking with Dr. Meredith about this a year and a half or so ago. He came up to the churches where we were and stayed with my wife and I for a few days, and I was talking with him about this particular thing. Because he mentioned that one time early on, after graduating from Ambassador College, he was sent, along with, I believe, Mr. Raymond McNair over to Southern Africa to conduct a baptizing tour there. I don't believe we even had an office at the time. And one of the places that they had to go was really out in the bush in good ways and they had to go out and camp overnight and then go on the next day to do some of the visiting that they had. They were out there with a guide and so on, and they weren't thinking too much about things, you know, it was an interesting experience for them. They went to bed at night, and the fire began to die down a little bit. And he said, just outside of the circle of light that that fire was showing, a lion roared. And he said from that point forward, his perspective of a roaring lion has greatly changed. It's not just some figure of a lion behind bars somewhere. It's a creature that is roaring and ready to leap to destroy its prey, a creature that's just a few feet away that has the ability to leap on you and snuff out your life that fast. That's the kind of creature Satan is. He is as this roaring lion ready to leap upon any of us at the slightest opportunity. That's what he wants to do. He wants to destroy us.

   You find even, I won't go back to it today, but if you read through Revelation 12, the prophecy is talking about God's church and God's church going to a place of safety. You find that Satan is constantly trying to destroy any way he possibly can. And if he cannot destroy those who go to the place of safety, the last verse of that chapter tells us he comes back and he tries to destroy the remnant that's left behind. So he wants to destroy anything that is good, that is God's way, and most of all, he wants to destroy God's character in us. That's what he wants to destroy more than anything else, because our key to being able to go into the family of God is having the character and mind of God. And if Satan can destroy godly character in us, then he's accomplished his purpose.

   Now how does he go about trying to do that? Go back to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, picking up in verse one (Ephesians 2:1). "And you," church members, "has he quickened," or made alive, "who were dead in trespasses and sins." Now we know that in the way that we live, the way of trespass and sin, we were worthy of a death penalty. We had a death penalty over our heads, and until we come under the sacrifice of Christ, we are doomed to die. "You has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the way this world lives, according to the way this world thinks."

   Now the phrase there is hard to define, but the word there, the word for world means the whole way of thinking of society. One of my commentaries mentions that in German they have another word for it, zeitgeist, which means the spirit of the time. So it's saying you're walking, you did walk according to the way of the people all around you, the same attitudes, the same basic approach, the same basic direction. You walk in that way, but then he goes on to say it was not just the way people think. There's more to it than that. "According to the prince of the power of the air." So in other words, the way the world thinks is really the way Satan thinks. And you and I walked that way. We conducted our lives in direct accordance with what Satan thinks. The closer we were to the world, the more we were like Satan.

   He calls him "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." Now some even commentaries misunderstand what this is saying. It thinks, many commentaries think that the word "the spirit" is a reference to Satan as a spirit being. That is not true. The Greek is two separate forms of words, one accusative, one genitive, and they are not directly related in that way. More accurately, it is they walk according to the prince, which is the ruler, the authority, the one in charge. Now he's not the king because God's the king, but he is the supreme ruler here. There is no one on earth that has more authority and power than Satan of himself. That prince of the power of the air, the prince or the ruler, the authority over the spirit, which now works in the children of disobedience. That's literally the way it is in the Greek. He is the one in charge of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, those who live in the way of disobedience.

   So in other words, it tells us that Satan has a counterfeit spirit. Now, it is a counterfeit of the spirit of God. It doesn't do what God's spirit can do. It doesn't have the ability to do the things that God can do in us. It is a very horrible counterfeit of the Spirit of God, but a broadcasting in a spiritual power that Satan does, differently than the way God does it. Satan broadcasts that spirit and influences human minds subject to that spiritual influence. He said science can't see it, but the Bible shows us that we as human beings are subject to that outside influence. And Satan is the one who is ruler, broadcasting in essence through the air, his thoughts, his attitudes, his moods. And those begin to come into and affect our minds much more subtly, much more powerfully than we realize.

   Now he goes on to say, "Among whom," among the children of disobedience, those who were living Satan's way, "we all had our conduct, our way of living in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others." And then he goes on and talks about how that God has changed us around by his spirit. But you see, that spirit that Satan uses is constantly being pumped out and broadcast out, and our minds can be affected by it.

   As I said, it's a counterfeit. Satan counterfeits a lot of things. We have the Feast of Tabernacles and Satan counterfeits that by giving false holy days, holidays, the pagan days that are kept. They're all a counterfeit of what God is doing. You listen to false religion, and it is a counterfeit of what God is doing.

   Another scripture I didn't write down, but I think I can find it quickly back and I believe it's II Timothy. Let's try I Timothy chapter one. Let's try I Timothy chapter 4. We'll get there. OK, chapter 4, verse 1 (I Timothy 4:1). "Now the Spirit speaks expressly," God's spirit speaks expressly or helps us to understand concerning these things, "that in the latter times some shall depart," that means to stand off from, to fall away from. "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons," and then it goes on and talks about some of the wrong concepts that would come along. But the thing I want you to notice there is that here Paul in writing to Timothy says, where does false religion come from? Where do false religious ideas come from? They come from Satan and his demons. They are not just things that are thought up in somebody's mind. They are broadcast as ideas, concepts, and thoughts directly from Satan. And he is responsible for those false ideas.

   So when we see something, let's say like Christmas. What do you think of when you think Christmas? You think of, "Well, you know, the music is nice if you could just change the words. And all the pretty lights and, you know, the smell of the trees and all this kind of thing. And, you know, it was kind of nice to be able to get together with the family and, you know, give gifts back and forth, but, you know, I realized it's pagan, so we shouldn't do it." Is that the attitude we ought to have? We ought to look at that and say, "You know what that is? That is directly inspired by the mind of Satan. Every bit of it." That feeling of closeness with families together, what is it? It's a counterfeit of the family togetherness that you and I have just experienced at the Feast of Tabernacles. Is there a comparison between what we have and what you have at Christmas or New Year's with a bunch of drunks getting together around the eggnog bowl? That is Satan's counterfeit of what God wants you to have. And we ought to see it with hatred. God says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time to hate. Not the people, they're deceived. They don't know any better. But we ought to hate Christmas, because it is a satanic lie. It is a counterfeit of what God wants people to have. We shouldn't sit around and think, "Oh well, it's not bad. I really wish we, you know, we could have some of those things." You know, it's not that way at all. We should hate it, and we should have a righteous anger about that type of thing. We can go on with a lot of other examples as well. But Paul is showing that those false religious ideas come from Satan and his demons. They're not humanly devised. They come from Satan.

   Now if Satan affects man's mind with false religious ideas and values, is it not logical that he also broadcasts thoughts and concepts and values in other areas of life which are just as evil, just as wrong, just as diametrically opposed to God's way, and just as much a counterfeit of God's way of thinking?

   Notice back in I Corinthians chapter 2 again. And I hope next time we can go through all of this chapter. I Corinthians chapter 2. I just want to point out one thing. We read through verse 11 where it talks about you can't know the things of God except God gives His Spirit to you. Notice verse 12 (I Corinthians 2:11). "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." You see, there is a spirit in this world, a broadcasting that Satan puts out, a counterfeit spirit which cannot give life as God's spirit does, but a counterfeit spirit that is a part of this world and affects the human mind.

   We've all seen a pie graph. You know, where you see a circle with a wedge taken out of it. We call that a pie graph. If you can imagine in your mind, your mind is totally subject to or susceptible to another spirit reaching you. Now if you imagine the human mind as 100% of this pie graph, when God's spirit comes in, let's say God's spirit takes 25% out of this pie graph. What's in the other 75%? Still under the influence of Satan. Now we're fighting against that. And it's not something that we're trying to yield ourselves to. We're trying to yield to that 25%, but it doesn't happen all at once. Of course, when God's spirit comes in, it doesn't take up 25%. It takes a little thin sliver, a little sliver out of the pie and all the rest of it is still subject to that influence of Satan. And the more God's spirit grows, the bigger percentage of that pie it takes up, the less is left for Satan to influence. But every part of the human mind that is not filled with the spirit of God can still be influenced by that spirit of Satan, still subject to the wrong ideas, the wrong concepts, the wrong values. And that's true for every one of us.

   That's one reason why we recognize that in Christianity, it is a growth process that people talk about, you know, in false religions today, they talk about being saved. And we know we're not saved. We're not going to be saved until we become spirit beings. And when we're spirit beings, what is that mind? It is 100% God's spirit. Then it's completely full and until that time, we'll never fill it all up completely. It won't be 100% until that time.

   But people talk about, "Well, when you're saved." You came down, you know, how many people have been dunked back here? And are their minds any different? Well, as a matter of fact, they're not. And that changed a bit when you receive God's spirit. Did you become perfect? If so, I'll meet with you before I meet with the fellows from grad club. I want to meet somebody like that. I didn't become perfect. I don't know anybody who ever did. And of course we all recognize we're not perfect yet. But we do see the growth process taking place. We see ourselves growing, at least we hope we can, and we see others growing. You come to a Spokesman's Club and you see the changes that take place in the fellows there as they go through their speeches and the first time they stand up and you can literally hear their knees knocking together. And before long, they began to feel a little bit more accustomed to it and you see growth and development. So by the time a man's put forth the effort, you go through that, you see a lot of change there, and you know it's God's spirit working. You can see that.

   You come into this church and you see people who are different than anywhere else. You know that. You know that the people who are sitting in this auditorium are different than the people you'll meet anywhere else. You go bring one of your relatives in. I'm not saying do that. It's a rhetorical statement. If you were to go out and bring one of your relatives in and let them meet the people of this church, what would they say about them? "Oh, those are nice people. I like the people down the Methodist Church." And you'd say, "No, they're not like the people down at the Methodist Church at all. They're totally different than that." But that unconverted relative without God's spirit can't see it. He doesn't know God's spirit. He doesn't recognize God's spirit in the people here, but you see it, you know it, you know the spirit you feel at the Feast of Tabernacles in the opening service. You know there's a different spirit in God's people. And that's a process of God's spirit of us growing and more and more of that pie graph being filled up with the Spirit of God and Satan being wedged out further and further.

   But we need to recognize that any time our minds are not filled with the spirit of God, and we're still subject to that influence of Satan. He will constantly be there to fill in, to try to make us think his way, to alter our perceptions so that even when we're in the Church of God, and we're really striving to do things the right way, we'll still hang on to some wrong values for a while until we're slowly educated out of them.

   If you were brought up and you have never in your life kept Christmas, eaten pork or shrimp, or any of the other things that the rest of us did, you lived in this world. And you had many of the same values this world had, and they are Satan's values and Satan's way of thinking.

   Now, when we begin to come out of that, God gives us some important instructions. Sometimes I don't think we really see the importance of it. Back in Hebrews chapter 10. I mentioned this to you once before, but I want to just put it together with what I have given you up to this point. In Hebrews 10:24. He says, "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works." And as I said before, sometimes we stop with the word provoke, "consider how to provoke one another." But that isn't really what it's supposed to be. It is, let us consider how can I provoke love and good works in God's people? How can I produce those good things in others? How can I live in such a way so that God's people are able to show more love and good works and produce good things? And that's the attitude there.

   And then he says, "Not forsaking," letting down, abandoning, "the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching." And I applied that to the Bible studies, and it certainly does apply there, and it is an important concept as far as that's concerned. But you notice it says what you need to do is be with God's people. You need to be with them every opportunity you can. Because you see, when you're somewhere else, you're around people, deceived people, people who will be in the family of God. I'm not talking about judging them, but you're around people who are not led by the spirit of God in any fraction of their minds. They're going the way of the world. And if you spend your time with the people of the world, what values are you going to have?

   If you want to think like God thinks, then spend time with those people who are striving to think like God thinks. Spend time with those where the spirit of God is at least leading in a portion of that human mind. Not run off somewhere else, not be with the world, not sit in the privacy of your home and bring the world electronically into it through your television or whatever it may be.

   You know, when it comes to these church activities, we could use Bible study as an example, we can use our picnic tomorrow as an example. You will be where you want to be, essentially. I realize there may be a few with say ladies with unconverted mates who really can't control certain things. I know that happens. But for the rest of us, you will be where you want to be tomorrow. If you want to be with God's people, you'll be there. If you want to be with God's people at Bible study, you'll be there. If it's that important to you, you'll be there. And if it's not, you won't. It's that simple.

   But he tells you if you want to be where people are thinking God's way, if you want to learn to think more God's way, be with God's people. So he tells us, don't forsake being together, and as the day approaches, you ought to be more and more with God's people. That's for two reasons. One is because you need it that much more and you have that sense of urgency and desire that "I've really got to be making changes and I can't do that out there on my own. I need God's people." That's why God placed me in the body of Christ and didn't just leave me as an independent Christian out here. I need that desperately, but the other reason is because the closer you get to the end, the closer Satan realizes his rulership is coming to an end, and he is going to be striving that much more to twist and distort and destroy the character and thinking of God in you. So as the end approaches, there's that much more of a need to be with God's people.

   Now let's look at a couple other scriptures that tie in with this in II Corinthians chapter 6. II Corinthians chapter 6. It says here in verse 14 (II Corinthians 6:14), "Be ye not," and again it's present progressive, "don't become unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord has Christ with Belial," a Hebrew name for Satan? "Or what part has he that believes with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you all," that's the word, ye, that's what it means. Ye means you plural, you all, "are the temple of the living God. As God has said, 'I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.' Wherefore, come out from among them and be you separate, says the Lord." You get that? Be separate. "And touch not the unclean." It doesn't say unclean thing. "Touch not the unclean."

   Now just to stop in the middle of the thought there, this is the same Paul who writing to the church in Corinth in I Corinthians 7, says that your children, were it not for the fact that one member of that family is converted, else would your children be unclean. Paul is talking about people who are spiritually at this point, defiled and unclean. What does Paul say here? "Come out from among them, be separate, and touch not the unclean," those who don't know God's way, those who aren't striving to live God's way. And it doesn't mean, you know, never again speak to your unconverted Grandmother. Obviously, that's not what we're saying, but where are your primary associations? "And I will receive you and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

   I was checking with Mr. Waterhouse on a story that I had heard he had told, just to make sure it was true, and I found out it was. I need to give you a little background on this. Since Mr. Armstrong has returned to Pasadena, he likes to go to services as much as he possibly can. They are right in Pasadena, he's not traveling somewhere else. But on Friday nights, he very rarely goes to a Bible study. And some might think, "Well, you know, he's not really aware of what's going on," but that is not true. They have TV cameras in the back of the auditorium, and he has a direct circuit from the auditorium to his home where he has a large screen TV so he can see it better, a large screen TV where he is aware of every word that's said.

   Now Mr. Armstrong is a dynamic kind of person. And when he's not sitting there in services, if he's watching it on the television and he's not disturbing anybody else, he talks to the TV sometimes. And this particular incident involved one of the ministers out in Pasadena and a very fine minister, nothing wrong there, but he was talking about friendships and so on, and he made the statement in the course of his Bible study. He said, "You know, as I've been around God's church, I find that I don't have very many friends out in this world anymore." And Mr. Waterhouse happened to be sitting there with Mr. Armstrong watching this. Mr. Armstrong got up out of his chair and he pointed his finger at the TV and he said, "You shouldn't have any friends in this world."

   Now, I think that kind of shocked some people. "Oh, but what about all my friends out there in the world?" How can you have really close friendships with people who aren't headed the same direction, who don't have the same values, who aren't living the same way, who don't really care that much about serving God? They may be fine people in many different ways, but how can you have a close friendship with someone who doesn't even share the most important thing in your life? And that's why Mr. Armstrong said, "You really shouldn't have any friends out there in the world."

   Now, I know, I've heard him make the statement, you know, "my good friend, King Leopold" or something like that, but essentially when he makes that statement, he's dealing more in the sense of acquaintance or somebody I like or whatever, but that's not the person that he associates with all the time. When he has the choice of association, it is with God's people always. And that's the way ours should be too. And if you find that your friends are outside of the church of God, then you should question very seriously your values. Because God says, what fellowship do we have with those who don't live that way? Those who are 100% influenced by the spirit and broadcasting of Satan. That's not a condemnation of them, they're going to have their opportunity. But what fellowship should we have now with those?

   This kind of ties in another point that I think is important to understand. And I'll direct it toward our young unmarried people at this point, because we have a policy in the Church of God that no converted person should marry outside of the church of God, should not marry an unconverted person. Now there are many scriptural references for that. The last verse of I Corinthians 7 says that the woman who is free to marry is free to marry whom she will only in the Lord. And there are very strong references to that.

   Now, of course, obviously, if a person's already married when they come into God's way, we'll certainly keep the marriage together. But if a person is not married, they are not to marry somebody outside of God's church, and anyone who would, would be asked not to come back until they get their values straightened out. Therefore, we have extended that to say any baptized person, since dating leads to marriage, any baptized person should not ever date outside of God's church. And that is a policy that we follow strongly for converted baptized people.

   Now, we don't say the same thing for let's say unbaptized people, teenagers, YOU age, or young singles who aren't yet baptized. We don't say the same thing there. Why? Is it because it's OK for them to date outside of God's church? No. Simply because they're not baptized, we don't particularly have the authority there. The parent has that authority. And the parent is the one who should determine, "My children are not going to date outside of God's way."

   "Well, I know all the justifications come along. A lot of guys in the church are worse than the ones out in the world." Sometimes you're right. Sometimes they are. But if that's true, your daughter shouldn't be dating them either, should she? Does that excuse going outside?

   Now I'm telling you young people something that you may, some of you may understand very well and some of you may not just yet, but you will. There is coming a time in your life when this way of life, this religion, this system of belief will be more important to you than anything else in the world. It'll be more important to you than marriage, than family, than children, or anything else. There will come that time when it will have that importance to you. And if you are then in a situation where you are trying to share your life with another individual who does not have that same value, another individual who doesn't have this as the most important thing in their life, then there you are trying to have a marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, and you are not able to share the most important thing in your whole life. You're asking for a lot of problems.

   If you don't think so, talk to some of the people around who have unconverted mates. It's not a question of whether they love their mate. That's not even the vaguest question. Sure, they love their unconverted mate, or perhaps we should use the term unbelieving mate. Sure they love them. That's not even a question. But if you can't share the most important thing in your whole life, then you are losing out on the depth of relationship and closeness that God wants you to have, God would offer for you. You need to consider that very strongly.

   You parents and teenagers, don't you dare sit back and say, "Well, you know, she's 16, I gotta let them make up their own mind." That isn't what I read in God's word. I read while they're in your home, you are responsible, and you are being judged. Now, that's what God shows in His word is what the value should be.

   Let's go to just a couple more quick scriptures in James chapter 4. James chapter 4, and verse 4 (James 4:4). He says, "You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." In other words, when you take on the values of the world, and you say, "Oh, what I want is the music of the world, the entertainment of the world, the movies, the standards, the styles, the dress styles, the hairstyles, the whole thing. When I want that as my guidance, if that's the way I'm going to live," and God says that is enmity, that is directly opposite in opposition in frontal rebellion to God. There's no such thing as being the friend of the world and having the world's standards. It's Satan's world. And at the same time, maintaining a relationship with God.

   In I John chapter 2. I John 2:15. "Love not the world," and again, that means the society, the way things are done in the world. Certainly we're concerned about the people out there. "But love not the society, the way of this world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father," which comes from God's spirit, Romans 5:5, "is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." God says, you want that as a value, it will fail. That's not God's way.

   This Satan, who is the God of this world, wants you to be just like the world. He wants you to think in that way and act in that way. Satan broadcasts in thoughts in moods and attitudes. It's important for us to understand that the negative moods and attitudes originate with Satan and are very, very dangerous because when you allow yourself to be in a negative wrong attitude or mood, then what you're really doing is giving Satan the right to lead your life. You are yielding to that broadcasting and sway of the spirit of Satan. And you're putting yourself in very dangerous grounds.

   We need to understand what those moods and attitudes are, so that we can see them, we can recognize them when they come on the scene, and we can avoid them. And one of the very best places to find those moods and attitudes shown is the very first time Satan comes on the scene with Adam and Eve. But we're out of time. So we have to pick that up next week and continue on with that particular concept and recognize what Satan is doing and how he's trying to affect us.

   But in the meantime, think very deeply about what we have covered. Recognize what it means when we read that Satan is the God of this world, this society, and that Satan wants you to think in that same way.