Herbert W Armstrong

   It angered religious leaders because it was utterly different from their teaching in that day. So, they had Jesus Christ put to death. My friend, why haven't you heard what it was that he said that they hated? What it was that he said that caused him to be put to death. He died for you. Why haven't you heard what it was that Jesus said that caused him to die and to give his life for you? Are you going to hate those same things as they hated them? They hated the things he said so much that they put him to death.

   Jesus Christ came preaching the government of God. Now, my friends, the government of God is the rule of God. But his message was all-encompassing. The kingdom of God is more than merely the principle or the idea of the rule of God. It's that, and it's so much more. The Kingdom of God means the family of God into which you and I can be born and must be born if you're ever going to have any salvation because there is no salvation any other way. Jesus came preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. And when you mention that, it is good news because the word Gospel, the very word Gospel, means good news. And that, my friends, is the good news of the time when the Kingdom of God is going to be established and rule over all nations on this earth. It is going to be the great family of God grown great into a nation, a kingdom. And that kingdom is a ruling kingdom that will be the world-ruling kingdom. And when it is set up, it's going to rule over every nations on this earth. It's going to bring an end to war. It's going to bring an end to suffering and anguish and heartache in the way that we see it now all over the world. This universal trouble and perplexity over the world is going to bring world peace to this world.

   Why do men hate that message? Why is it that men hate that which is going to bring us world peace, world prosperity, happiness, and joy to everybody? Well, let me tell you why. People want world peace, of course they do. I really think, now this may astonish you, but I really think that the men in the Kremlin want world peace. But listen, they want it their way. They don't want the kind of world peace you and I want. They want the kind of world peace that they will have when they're our masters and when they can lord it over us, when they can take our freedom away from us. Oh yes, they want that kind of world peace. They want it their way. They don't want it the way that would make everybody happy. They certainly don't want it God's way.

   Now, men everywhere, my friends, want prosperity. Men everywhere want happiness. They want peace of mind. You want those things. But, my friends, the trouble is that people want these things their own way. They want to get the result, but they don't want to get it the only way they can have it, which is God's way. They don't want it by the law of God. They want it by the way of human reasoning. They want it by the way of human passion, human sway, human traditions. They want it by the ways that have been set up on this earth. Now, the only thing that's wrong in this world is the way that we are living. And when Jesus Christ came with a message, men hated that message. Why? Because even though they want the result that he proclaimed, they don't want it that way. They want it their way. And Jesus proclaimed a different way, a way that would bring them peace and happiness.

   Now, men continued their own way, and 1900 years later today, we don't have world peace. We don't have universal happiness. We don't have any universal prosperity. Oh, we have a few multimillionaires in the world that have more than they need, but we have millions, yes, even you might say billions on earth that don't have as much as they need. Some people that are poverty-stricken, some people actually starving to death. We have sickness, we have disease, and we're just reeking in pain and sorrow and suffering. Our ways have brought that on us. Now, men don't like to change their way. They want to get the result, and they want it their own way. And if you teach them a different way, it angers them.

   My friends, is it going to anger you? I hope not. I hope not because I'm going to show you the only way there is that can make you happy. I know that every one of you has your troubles, and you think you have more troubles and more problems than anybody else. And you know, everybody else thinks the same thing. We all have them. It's natural, and I presume it's normal under the state of things in this world, but it shouldn't be normal. It isn't the way things should be.

   Now, there's one way out of it. You know, God Almighty will deliver us out of every trouble if we only know the truth and if we find a way. But Jesus said, "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world." He was that light. His message too was that light. But he said, "Men love the darkness rather than the light." That is their way. Now then, when you turn through the New Testament and after Jesus had gone to heaven and after his message was being preached everywhere, it was called "this way" or "that way." The message of Jesus was a way of life. Yes, it was a way.

   I'm just turning through the book of Acts here. I'm trying to see if I can find it for you. Here is one place here in Acts 14 where Paul had to come through Lystra and other places. Here, let me see. Derbe (Acts 14:20-22). Paul and Barnabas, with Barnabas they departed to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, what gospel did they preach? Well, listen a minute. And they had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. What faith? Listen, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Why, Paul preached the Kingdom of God. It's something we must enter into and through much tribulation.

   And everywhere, if you can notice through the book of Acts, the Christian religion was called a way or this way. I've got it marked here, and I just didn't remember. In Acts 18, Acts the 18th chapter, and in the 25th verse (Acts 18:25), I just want to show you a few. That it's a way of life, and that's what men hated. They want their own way.

   How are you going to ever be saved, my friends? How are you going to come to salvation? Isaiah told us, and you know, the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah when the Holy Spirit sent Philip to join him, and he got up into the chariot, and the eunuch was reading the book of Isaiah. And Philip took that same scripture. It happened to be the 53rd chapter he was reading, and from that same scripture, Philip preached unto him Jesus, and the man was converted and baptized as a result from the book of Isaiah. Now, in Isaiah, it tells you how to be saved. Because the New Testament Church, the new Covenant church, is based on the very foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And Isaiah is one of those prophets. Now, Isaiah said (Isaiah 55:7-8), here's a way to be saved. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return to God, because God's ways are not ours, nor God's thoughts ours. It's a matter of a change of way, a change, of course.

   Of course, salvation comes by grace. Of course, it comes through faith. And even that faith, God has to give you. Now, you have to supply a little faith to begin with, your faith in Christ. Of course, that isn't going to save you. However, that's only a prior condition. I've explained that so many times. Then if you have really repented, if you have forsaken your way, if you have turned to God's way, Jesus explained it to the young man that came and said, how can I be saved? How can I inherit eternal life? Is there anything I have to do? Jesus didn't say, no, there's nothing for you to do. Jesus didn't say, just believe but don't do anything. A dead faith won't save anybody. It's got to be a living faith backed up by your work. And Jesus said to him, if you will enter into eternal life, keep the commandments. And he went on and showed him that he meant the Ten. Keep the commandments. That means forsake your way because your way is not the way of the Ten Commandments.

   Now, the way of the Ten Commandments, my friends, that's a way that for some reason people don't want today. It's the way that people don't want. Well, here we are. Acts 18, verse 25 (Acts 18:25-26). This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. Yeah, that sounded like Apollos to me. It was. Here it is, a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. There were a lot of things, however, about Christ and the Kingdom of God that he didn't know. And so, he was a very eloquent orator and he began to speak. But Aquila and Priscilla, when they heard it, in the next verse, you will notice here, verse 26, that they took him apart and they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Now, you'll notice it was a way.

   All right, the very next chapter now, chapter 19 of the Book of Acts (Acts 19:9). But when diverse or different were hardened and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude. He is speaking here of the Apostle Paul. Paul departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school. And disputing is not the real correct English translation there, my friends. It's a very old English. Well, back in the year of 1611, way over 300 years ago, and explaining would be a better word there. It wasn't disputing in the case of contentious argument and fighting at all. But this Tyrannus had a school there and Paul taught in that school for a long time and he taught the way or that way. That's what he taught. Now, in verse 20 down here (Acts 19:20), you find, "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." And then coming to verse 23 (Acts 19:23), "And that same time there arose no small stir about that way." Always it is that way. That's what the gospel is called through the Book of Acts. Now, there are about, I think about five different places that I just read to you there, and you can find them in your own Bible. And I'd suggest you take the time to read through the entire book of Acts again, and you will see it.

   Turn over here to chapter 24 in the book of Acts. Paul is answering for his very life for the doctrine that he preached. Now, what doctrine did he preach? Paul says (Acts 24:11-14), "Because that thou mayest understand," verse 11, "that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship." He is defending himself here. He's on trial for his very life. And he said, verse 12, Acts 24, "And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogue, nor in the city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way," there it is again, "after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." He was worshiping God according to a way. His religion, his Christianity, was a way of life.

   And yet, my friends, there was a big article in one of the big national magazines in the United States explaining what Christianity, as people believe, Christianity today is what most of you believe, what we've all been brought up to believe in this day and age. And that article said that, first of all, let's understand what Christianity is not. It is not a way of life. It's merely a faith. And he went on to show it was a faith without any doing, without any obedience to God whatsoever. My friends, that's the brand of Christianity most of you would believe, and it did not come out of your Bible. And it is exactly contrary, the very antithesis of what you find in your Bible. It is not the way that Jesus taught. It isn't the Christianity of Jesus. It isn't the Christianity of the Apostle Paul who taught it to the Gentiles. A lot of people think, well, we can't believe what Jesus said. He was talking to Israelites, and they think we're Gentiles. Of course, we're not. We're wrong all the way along. But that's what people think, and that's what they argue, and they say we must believe only what the Apostle Paul taught to the Gentiles. Well, I'm showing you now what Paul taught the Gentiles. He taught the kingdom of God, he taught this way.

   Now, here you find it in the 24th chapter of Acts again. And verse 22 here (Acts 24:22), Felix came into the thing, and what Paul had been talking just ahead of this about the resurrection of the dead. He said, "Except it be for this one voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question by you this day." Why don't we hear more preaching of that kind today? Why don't more of you people believe in the resurrection instead of the way you do believe things are going to happen when you die? The resurrection of the dead is the only hope given between the covers of your Bible that you can ever live after you die. Now, a lot of you don't believe that, but I challenge you, my friends, to blow the dust off your Bible and read your own Bible in your own home. Now, don't believe what I tell you. You believe what your eyes tell you in your Bible. You believe what God tells you. He'll tell you right in his own words. I'm just trying to get you to read and study your own Bibles a little more.

   Now then, when Felix heard these things, this is the next verse, verse 22 in Acts chapter 24. "And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way," in other words, more perfect knowledge of Christianity. It's called again that way. There are two more places where the gospel as Paul preached, it is called that way. Now then, we turn over here in chapter 26 of the book of Acts where I have to begin, you know, most of these verses begin in the middle of a sentence. You should begin at the very beginning. And I have the time if I want to get over to you, what I'm trying to say right now, to begin at the first and go through, I just want to pick this point, and I assure you we're not getting anything out of its context in so doing just now. But you will, if you don't take the whole chapter and sometimes even the whole book, very often, you must be careful about that.

   But here's Paul before Agrippa now, still fighting for his life. He says, verse 19, chapter 26 (Acts 26:19), "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." He had to be obedient. Paul taught obedience. Of course, salvation comes by grace through faith. Of course, God gives it. You can't lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can't save yourself, but God will not save a single soul he does not govern. If God hasn't gotten your heart, if you're not surrendered to him, if you're not obedient to him, he will not save you. Your obedience isn't going to save you. You can't save yourself. God must do it. It's free by grace, but God will only save those whom he governs. Those who first repented. Those who have first believed on Jesus Christ and who have believed this gospel is good news. And to believe it in the way you have to, to be saved, to take hold in your life. You prove your faith by your works, then God will put you under his grace. Then you're no longer under the law because the law has no claim on your life. Jesus' blood paid the penalty for you in your stead, and you're freed from it. You're out from under the law, but you are then free to obey the law. It's a way of life. It's God's way. It's the way of the Kingdom of God. And that's what he preached.

   Now, he said, "O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," talking about the vision at the time he was converted, of course, "but showed first unto them of Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should," what? "Not just believe in empty faith without any works, but that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." That, my friends, is the Apostle Paul's teaching, explaining what he taught when he was on trial for his very life. Why is it we don't believe that kind of teaching today? I ask you in the name of Jesus Christ, why is it, my friends, we don't believe that kind of teaching today? That's what Paul was teaching the Gentiles. This is what Paul said he was being taught when he was on trial for his very life. Yes, it was the Kingdom of God. And I tell you, my friends, that's what we need to believe.

   Now, salvation is really entering into the Kingdom of God. What is your reward? What do you get for being saved? You get to be one of the Kingdom of God, to be born into it, to enter into it. And flesh and blood can't enter it. No. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit, when you're born again, is spirit. You won't be flesh and blood. There'll be no blood in your veins. When you're in the Kingdom of God, you won't be material Christ. You will be composed wholly of spirit, just as God is. We shall be like Christ. We'll see him as he is. He is the firstborn of many brethren. And he is the Son of God by a birth from a resurrection. He is glorified as very God, and he's the firstborn of many brethren. We shall be born like he was. We shall be like he is.

   When he comes in all his glory and all his great power, when Jesus comes again, he's not going to be like he was before. He's not going to be just like an ordinary man. Well, even after his resurrection, when they saw him, he didn't look different from any other man. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon after the resurrection, they saw him. He just appeared. He could appear and disappear, of course, after the resurrection, and he did. And he just suddenly appeared with those men. But they thought he was another man. They said, "Well, haven't you heard what's happened these last few days?" They didn't know who he was, and then he revealed himself to them. But listen, he was glorified after he ascended to heaven. And he's as Christ, who as glorified, you know what he looks like now? He doesn't look like he did then. You find it over here in the very first chapter of the book of Revelation. That mysterious Great Prophecy, the Book of Revelation that almost nobody understands. I read it to you not too long ago. I remember in this series.

   Now here it is. I want to read it again very quickly. He's pictured in the midst of seven candlesticks, and they are the churches, and he's in the midst of his church. This is his church. He's right in the midst of it. He said (Matthew 18:20), "If even two or three are gathered together in my name, here am I in the midst of them." Yes, he's in the midst of his church. And here was one like the Son of man right in the midst. That's Christ. Now, verse 14, 1st chapter of Revelation (Revelation 1:14-15), "His head and his hairs were white as wool, white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, and his voice as the sound of many waters." Yes, like thunder too. "And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." When the sun is shining full strength and you turn up and look at it, can you do it without a darkened glass in front of you or something? Can your eyes behold that sun, my friends? If you behold the face of Jesus Christ when he comes, that's what you're going to behold. And every eye shall see him when he comes. It's in this very same chapter. This very chapter says, "Behold," in verse 7 (Revelation 1:7), "he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." You're going to see him, my friends. And when you see him, you're going to see his face shining like the very sun, and we shall be like him.

   Oh, my friends, you think God is going to take dirty, filthy, sinning people that are sunken down lower than any animal, because animals don't sin incidentally, and that without washing and cleaning us up, without purifying us, unless we repent of our way, unless our way is changed so that God can put his spirit in us and make us his way and like him? He said that we're to be like him. Is he going to change us and make our faces shine like the very strength of the sun? Do you believe you can ever be made like that? That's what you'll be if you're ever saved, my friends. That's what you're going to be when you're glorified in the kingdom of God.

   Let me tell you, my friends, you don't have the slightest conception about what salvation means. You don't have the slightest conception of God's great purpose and why he had you born. Why were you born? You were born to enter the kingdom of God. You were born to get lifted clear out of this animal kingdom in which you are now, to be changed, to be converted into a different kingdom. The very kingdom of God. That was the message of Jesus, the Kingdom of God. Yes. When will we wake up? When will we realize we're in an age of darkness, and that we haven't known, we haven't seen the truth? When are we going to blow the dust off our Bibles and look? When will you enroll in this Bible Correspondence Course, the Ambassador College Correspondence Course, and really study your Bible a half hour every day? You can hear this program a half hour every day. Listen, how can you enter that glorious kingdom? Oh, how glorious it is.

   Now, Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and he came saying, "Repent, and believe the gospel." You have to believe the gospel, you have to repent, you have to change your way. That's why they crucified Christ. He preached changing their way, and they didn't want to change it. They said, "he's preaching something different." And the religious leaders said, "Well, it's gonna throw us out of our job." So, they wanted to kill Christ, and they crucified him. Well, it's just the two things you do, and you have to do those things first before God will save you by his grace. As I say, you can't lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. Christ can lift you up. But there are conditions, and he won't do it till you do these two things first. You must repent of your way. Turn from your way to God's way, the way of the laws of God's kingdom. The Ten Commandments is the very basis of that. It's the foundation, the foundational spiritual principles of God's government.

   Now, to believe means to believe the gospel. And that also means believing on Jesus Christ, the king of the coming kingdom of God. He's the coming King of kings over all the families of the earth. And it means believing in him as personal savior. He's now your High Priest, he's alive. He isn't on a cross, he's not dead. He's not in his tomb. He rose. He's been glorified. His face shines like the sun, his eyes like flames of fire shining right up through his eyes. He's now your High Priest, and he's your coming King. But to repent is to completely change the mind in respect to sin, and sin is the transgression of the law, the law of God by which God rules his kingdom as you find in I John 3:4. Now, it means a total complete change of mind and of life, a change of your way of life to God's way. It means to repent of transgressing the rule, the will, the laws of God.

   What did Jesus say to the young man that asked him how to enter into eternal life, how to be saved? Matthew 19:17, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments," said Jesus. He went on to show him he meant the Ten, which is God's spiritual law, summing up in principle, the whole duty of righteous living. The Ten Commandments are not a physical law. The physical laws and rituals and ceremonies of ancient Israel under Moses, they were only a temporary substitute that were fulfilled by the spirit of God in the coming of Christ and his shed blood on the cross. But, my friends, that spiritual law is eternal. They stand fast, all of those commandments, forever and ever. The 111th Psalm. Why don't you read it? It's in your Bible. It is a way of life, and it's a way contrary to human nature. It's contrary to the customs of this world. It's a way of life. It's the basic spiritual law, the way of life in the kingdom of God.

   And listen, it's the way to peace of mind. It's the way to world peace. It's the way to happiness. It's the way to real prosperity. God doesn't want you to be poor. He wants you to have plenty, but he wants you to know how to use it. He wants you to know the secret of happiness which is spiritual and not monetary or financial. Then you can have it. It's the way to prosperity and joy, the way to eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Yes, Jesus proclaimed and he taught the gospel of the Kingdom of God. But listen, did he command his ministers in building his church to preach that same gospel? I don't know whether I have time, maybe for just one or two. I want you to notice Luke 9 verses 1 and 2, the ninth chapter of Luke (Luke 9:1-2). Then called he his 12 disciples together and he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God. Now, Luke 10 verse 9 (Luke 10:9), after these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself should come. Therefore, he said unto them, "Heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." Yes, and heal the sick. You don't hear much of that today either, do you? Why? In Jesus' prayer so commonly called the Lord's Prayer, he said, "Thy kingdom come," and he taught us to pray after that manner. It wasn't here yet then, was it? If he said, "Thy kingdom come," and if we're to pray that way today, is it already here? "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's the way he taught us to pray.

   Well, I'll have to break off there. I haven't time to go on. I'll try in the next program to show you how Jesus sent his apostles out to preach that gospel. They did preach that gospel. The Apostle Paul preached that gospel to the Gentiles. That's for you. It's for me today. That, my friends, the will of God to change your way is the way into the kingdom of God, your faith in Christ, and he'll give you then the faith of Christ and save you by his grace.

   Now listen, if you are ready to really repent of your disobedience to God, to his spiritual law, if you're now ready to surrender your will to God, and you want to become one of his children, if you are now ready to accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior in real living faith and a life of obedience, then by all means, you should write immediately, right now before you do another thing, for our special booklet on, Water Baptism, because the next step that God commands you to take is baptism. But here again the many are all mixed up, confused, deceived. Now, this booklet on Water Baptism will make it all clear. You can check with your own Bible and it will become clear. Now, to delay again, this booklet might mean your eternity. It's the most important thing in your life right now. And listen, you better also ask for the booklet on Faith For Salvation. That's another booklet, Faith For Salvation. Now, just for your own peace of mind, I advise you to send in and get this book and read it, and then read your own Bible. This book will open your eyes, this little booklet. What kind of faith? There's no charge for it. Now, I hope you've already gotten paper and an envelope, if not, get it right now and a pen. First, write down the call letters of the station to which you are listening and then request the booklet on Water Baptism and the booklet on Faith For Salvation. And send your request to Herbert W. Armstrong, Post Office Box 111 in Pasadena, California. So, until next time, this is Herbert W. Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have heard the World Tomorrow with Herbert W. Armstrong sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God. For literature offered on this program send your request along with the call letters of this station to Herbert W. Armstrong Box 111 Pasadena, California 91123. That's Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California 91123.