Herbert W Armstrong

   My friends, why is it that in this world today, so filled with what we call Christianity in our Western world, we have still to hear the real gospel of Jesus Christ? Why is it that men accepted Christ, the person of Christ, that they began to formulate their own gospel about his person, that they accepted the prestige of his name, but they didn't believe him? They taught people to believe on him, but they wouldn't believe him. They wouldn't believe his message, his message of the government of God, and the fact that God is not only a creator who created once in a long ago, but is the supreme ruler over us, our thoughts, our everyday actions, and that which we do every day here and now.

   Why is it that the whole idea has been to emancipate people from the kingdom or the government of God? Jesus Christ came preaching the Kingdom of God. They accepted Christ after they crucified him. They saw that persecuting the real Christians wasn't really stamping out Christianity because the more of them they killed, the more they seemed to be. And so, the pagans came in as fifth columnists into Christianity, got control of it, got into the key positions, then injected their paganism dressed up under the false cloak of Christianity labeled Christianity. But it's poison inside the bottle. It's not true to its label, I can tell you that.

   Well, we've been going through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see what Jesus Christ did teach and what he did preach, exactly opposite of what most people suppose today. Yes, it's astounding, the most astonishing thing. Open your Bible. Luke, the 11th chapter, the 37th verse (Luke 11:37). See this with your own eyes.

   Now, Jesus became the guest of a Pharisee at dinner. Let's see what happened. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and Jesus went in. He sat down to it. It says meat in the King James. It's to the meal or the food. The meat does not necessarily mean animal flesh. In the King James translation, it merely means food.

   And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Now, they had a custom, and it was a sort of a religious custom, that they had to wash their hands before they could sit down to eat. Whether their hands were soiled or not didn't seem to make any difference. It was merely a religious custom. Now, let me read you something else about that in Mark, the seventh chapter. Jesus had been called to account there, recorded in the seventh chapter of Mark, about the same thing. He sat down to eat without washing his hands. And, well, the Pharisees in this case, Mark, the seventh chapter (Mark 7:2). It is when they saw that Jesus' disciples eat bread with defile, that is to say, unwashed hands, that they found fault.

   And what did Jesus say of them then? This was one of the traditions that they had introduced, which became the religion of the time, which was Judaism. Now, Judaism was not the religion that God had given the ancient Israel by Moses. Judaism was the religion that had gradually evolved after the days of Ezra and Nehemiah because the children of Israel, first the kingdom of Israel, rebelled against God, and they were driven out by Assyria, the Assyrian army, into captivity. And later, the kingdom of Judah, because the children of Israel were divided into the two nations. Later, the house of Judah was driven out into Babylon's captivity. And then, 70 years later, under Ezra and Nehemiah, part of the Jews came back to Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple and reestablished the worship there. And they were found breaking God's Sabbath and doing everything they pleased on the Sabbath day. And so, the prophet really called them down for that very, very severely and said, don't you know that it's because you were doing those things as Nehemiah told them? He said, he contended with the nobles of Judah. And he said to them, what evil thing is this that you do to profane the Sabbath Day? Did not your fathers thus? Did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city?

   Well, then they began to keep the Sabbath very strictly, and they added some 60 or 65 rules of their own, of dos and don'ts, to make the Sabbath a strict straight-laced yoke of bondage until no man could keep it with anything but, well, a sort of servitude or a slavery. Now, Jesus swept that all aside. He said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. God is love, and God's purpose, everything God has given man is for man's good. But these were things that men had added that were for man's harm. Now, from there, they went on with all sorts of regulations and rules of their own. God had never given them these rules to them. They had not come through Moses. It was no part of the law of Moses, no part of the ancient ritual system, and certainly no part of the Ten Commandments, God's great spiritual law whatsoever.

   And one of the regulations they had made a religious regulation of it, that they had to wash their hands before they sat down, just a regular religious form or a formality. Now, Jesus said here, he answered and said to them, well, has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Many people today acknowledge Jesus Christ with their lips, but their heart is far from him. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments or the traditions of men. Now, here were people that actually acknowledged Christ. They confessed him the Savior, they confessed he was the Messiah. They not only that, but they worshipped him, and it was all in vain.

   Today, people would think, well, you couldn't do that. Why, if you acknowledge Christ with your lips and if you even worship Him, of course, you're saved when you do that. Oh no, you're not, my friends. Jesus said, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, laying aside the commandment of God. You hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups. Yes, and the washing of your hands and such like things you do. And he said to them, for well, you reject the commandment of God, just as people are doing today, rejecting the great spiritual law of God, that you may keep your own tradition. They're keeping their own traditions today. The day on which they hold their services. The Christmas is a pagan festival. New Year's is a pagan festival. Easter is a pagan festival. You know why it's been custom to go out and have your little May baskets and the May pole and the picking flowers on May Day and all that sort of thing. Well, if you knew the pagan source of it and the pagan origin of all that sort of thing and how it was a form of worship to the heathen gods, and people still do it.

   And what we have today is people going through the forms of the ancient idol worship while they really believe that they're worshiping Christ. They don't. They're not even conscious of worshiping idols, but they're going through all of the same old motions and call it worshiping Christ. They're doing things that Christ never instituted. They're doing things you can't find in your Bible. They're doing things today that the apostles and the church never did under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They're doing the things that have become the traditions of men and the things that God Almighty in His word condemns. I tell you, my friends, it's about time we began to realize some of those things.

   Well, now Jesus had come into this Pharisee's home, and he sat down to dinner. And when the Pharisee saw that he had sat down without washing his hands, he marveled. Then the Lord said to him, now, do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter? Now notice, the things that show for men on the outside, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. They make such a pretense on the outside. You know, there are a lot of people like that in the world today. You know that most business is conducted that way today, and that's why we're heading for the greatest crash that has ever happened to any people that were so wealthy and prosperous as the American people. Business is not honest any longer. You buy an automobile, and you're going to have trouble with it and have it in the shop half the time. The first six months, as a matter of fact, usually about the first week that you have it because the demand has been greater than the supply, and the automobile manufacturers, and it doesn't make any difference what make you buy. They're all the same way today. You buy a make of a car, and you think, well, that's not a good make anymore. You buy another one, it goes to pieces the same way because the workmanship is not honest. There is no integrity anymore. It's business. Give as little as you can, get as much as you can, take advantage of the other fellow if you can. Contracts don't mean anything anymore. We find that out every day. You can't trust anybody in business anymore.

   You fool, said Jesus. Did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you Pharisees, for you tithe TITHE tithe. That is, pay your first tenth and rue, you tithe mint and rue. That is, little mint leaves and little tiny things of that sort and all manner of herbs. They were careful. Every little herb they would pick to get every tenth one and lay it aside as an honest tithe. Oh, they were so strict.

   You know, I knew a man, a minister that I had to work with one time. I don't know what's become of him. I don't know whether he's listening to me now or whatever has become of that man, but he was like that. He was so punctual. If there was ever an appointment, he was so neat and so meticulous and so clean and everything about his person. Say, he wouldn't sit down and eat without washing his hands. Well, later I found he's one of the biggest hypocrites and the biggest liars and one of the most dishonest men that I had ever known. He was living in adultery. His mind was full of lust, and I know that from things that he told me. And he was thoroughly dishonest, and he was only interested in feeding himself and not the flock. In other words, getting money he could get. And he didn't care how he deceived people. He lied. He did everything dishonest. But my, how sanctimonious he was. What wonderful spiritual phraseology. Oh, how wonderful he could say, praise the Lord, brother, and all that kind of spiritual talk. He was so sanctimonious that we thought he was really almost spiritual, if perfect. Well, the Pharisees were a lot like that.

   So, Jesus said, you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and you pass over judgment and the love of God. Now, these, the tithing of even these little things, he said, ought you to have done. It wasn't wrong. You ought to have done that and not to leave the other undone. But sometimes we get little things first and leave the big things out. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. In other words, you like to be considered important. You want the chief seats. You're full of vanity. You're full of hypocrisy and deceit. You go around flattering one another, and you love to be flattered, and you want people to think well of you. And you never stop to consider what God is thinking of you because He reads your mind, and He knows what's going on down deep inside, and you're not concerned with that. It's all the outward appearance, just to fool and to deceive people.

   Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. In other words, graves, they're buried in the ground, and you walk right over them because they're covered with grass now, and you don't even know that there's a dead body buried under there. And they're just like the dead, rotten bones and the rotten flesh underneath that you can't see, and you can't see the rottenness inside of a person like that. They cloak it. They cover it up with their sanctimonious pretending exterior. Oh, I tell you, my friends, the world is full of such people today. You don't have to go far to meet one of them.

   Then answered one of the lawyers who said to him, Master, thus saying, thou reproaches us also. Oh, how terrible. Jesus was reproaching these people. Well, now they were just too high and mighty to be reproached, and they wanted him to understand that why no one reproached them. They were accustomed to being flattered. And he said, well unto you also, lawyers. You know, Jesus didn't mince words with these people. Not at all. He said, woe unto you also, you lawyers, for you lay men with burdens grievous to be borne. You yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

   You know, in God's government, my friends, the servant and the one that serves others and waits on others and tries to do good to others is the one that God gives the authority to rule over the others. And in God's government, the ruler and the one that bears the authority is the one who does the serving, the helping, and the waiting on others. Now, in this world, it isn't like that. You see how we turn God's way upside down in this world today. And I think this is endorsed by a good many of the worldly churches. They certainly go along with this principle. The one in authority, the one who is the high and the mighty. He sits up in his dignity and lets other people wait on him. He gives orders to the servants that wait on him. And he is the one who gives the orders. He doesn't do anything. He's waited on. Now, in God's way of looking at it, the one who does the most and who can serve the most is the best. You know, the Rotary Club has a very fine slogan. I don't know how many of the men who are members of it live up to it, but he profits most who serves best. That's really true. And I hope a lot of Rotarians live up to it. I know some of them are listening to me, and that slogan is all right. If they live up to it, God help them to listen to it and to live up to it instead of having an empty phraseology and a nice motto hanging on their walls. That means nothing that they don't observe.

   Well, here it is. They would lay grievous burdens on others that waited on them. They themselves wouldn't touch a thing. They were the high and the mighty sitting in the seats, giving the orders. Woe unto you, Jesus continued, for you build the sepulchers of the prophets and your fathers killed them. And in another place, they said, why, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we never would have killed them. And yet they killed Christ, the very Son of God, the Messiah. Of course, I think you'd say today, if we had lived in the day of these people back there, 1900 years ago, we would never have crucified Christ. Do you think you would have crucified Christ if you had lived back there? Why do you say, why, Mr. Armstrong? How could you say such a thing? Of course, I wouldn't crucify Christ. And yet, my friends, many of you are doing it right now. You're crucifying him afresh by your very actions, by rejecting what he said and wanting to believe in Christ and on Christ, but not believing Christ or obeying Christ. He came to preach the message of obedience, of obedience to the kingdom, the government of God Almighty.

   Truly, he said, you bear witness that you allow the deeds of your father. You allow the deeds of your father who killed the prophets, for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchers. Therefore, also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will slay and persecute. Now, the prophets and the apostles, my friends, are the foundation of the church, the New Testament Church, because you read in Ephesians that the New Testament Church is founded on the apostles and the prophets. My friends, the prophets include Moses and Daniel and David and Solomon and Zechariah and Zephaniah and Nahum and Ezekiel and Jeremiah. And you know, my friends, that most of the writings that you find in the prophets in your Old Testament, as we call it in the Bible, are merely prophetic writings for us in this time and in this day. And that a very large part of the prophecies are the so-called prophets written in the New Testament were written after the captivity of both Judah and Israel and were not part of the religious setup of that time. And the people of that time didn't ever hear the message, never received the message. It was merely committed to writing for the church of today. And yet they try to tell you that Old Testament stuff, you mustn't listen to it. And yet the New Testament Church, according to Paul's letters to the Gentiles at Ephesus, the Ephesians, is based on those prophets as well as on the apostles and Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone.

   You know, we need to wake up. We've certainly gotten way off the track when we think we're Christians. These people were very religious that Jesus was talking to. A lot of people today are very religious. They think they're on the right track. They say, well, I am saved, praise God, and nobody was ever farther from being saved. I tell you, my friends, these are the days that Jesus said, when the false prophets would come, saying that Jesus is the Christ, but deceiving the many such force and power of deception that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. Thank God that is impossible. But the elect is a little flock. You know, Jesus said, narrow is the gate and straight. That is hard, rugged, difficult is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it. But wide is the gate and broad is the way, the highway that leads to destruction and the many are going in there, and that is the way that the majority are going. That's the way of your popular churches, your popular religions, your world with pleasure, your business, your social customs, the ways of the carnality of this world.

   Now, therefore, also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they'll slay and persecute, the very foundation of God's New Testament Church. And yet they slay and persecute them. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel, unto the blood of Zechariah, which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Jesus said to those Pharisees and those lawyers, woe unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You have entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in, you hindered. The key of knowledge, the way to the kingdom of God, the way into immortality and eternal life, the way into salvation.

   Will you know this? Matthew 16 verse 19 (Matthew 16:19), where the same thing was mentioned. Jesus had said here to Peter, thou art Peter and upon this rock. Now, Peter means Petros a little stone, a small stone, but on this rock, which is a great rock, meaning Christ, I will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. That's the grave because of the resurrection. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charging his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

   Now again, if you notice now the 23rd chapter of Matthew and the 13th verse (Matthew 23:13), but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. For you neither go in yourself. You don't go into any real salvation. You're a hypocrite. You're pretending. What gets into the minds of men that they can imagine they're all right when they're going on to their doom to the most horrible, terrifying doom that could possibly befall any living mortal? And yet they deceive themselves and seem to think they're all right. How about you though? Most of you are doing the same thing today, and you don't seem to know it. All my friends, wake up. Jesus said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. You neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You devour widows' houses, and for a pretense, you make a long prayer. Therefore, you shall receive a greater damnation. And that's back in the 23rd chapter of Matthew.

   Well, now here he is in Luke's account at this dinner, speaking to these people. They take away the key of knowledge. Now, that knowledge is saving knowledge, the key, and the Kingdom of God. And it's knowledge. It takes knowledge, and you have to act on that knowledge. You know, my friends, that salvation is a matter of mind rather than of the emotion. It's that faculty of mind we call the heart, that's true. But you have to come to saving knowledge. You have to come to know that you have sinned. You have to come to know what sin is, the transgression of God's law, and repent of it before you can ever be saved. And what is repentance but a change of mind in regard to disobedience against the way, the law of God. And then you must believe first on Jesus Christ. But how do you do that? You don't do that with your big toe or your left finger. You do that, my friends, in your mind. You don't do it with your emotions. Why can't we get things straight?

   Now listen, your repentance and your turning to obey God is not going to save you, and neither is your faith going to save you. But as we find Paul explained here in the second chapter of his letter to the Galatians (Galatians 2:16), we even, we have believed on Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. Now, then you repent and you believe on Christ with your own mind and with all your heart, and God has promised to give you the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit coming into you, my friends, is the love of God shed abroad in your heart. That's the love of God. That's the love that fulfills God's law and that comes from God. And then you are righteous. You're keeping God's law, but God must give you the love that does it. And it is the spirit that will open your mind to understand the Bible so you can live by every word of God, which is a magnification of the law of God. And then, my friends, God will give you the faith of Christ. That is God's gift, and that's the very faith that Jesus had. And that's the kind of faith that saves you. Now, you find that in the second chapter of Galatians and the 16th verse. That's where you find it.

   And then you read here in Ephesians, in the second chapter of Ephesians (Ephesians 2:8-9), For by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves. If this faith that saves you is the gift of God, it's the faith of Christ, the same faith that was in Jesus, the same faith with which he walked on the water, calmed the storm, turned the water into wine, healed the sick, raised the dead, the faith that Jesus had by which he performed all of these miracles, by which He lived a righteous life. God will impart that faith to you as a gift, provided you first repent and want to keep God's law and hunger and thirst for His righteousness and really want it and desire it and are willing to crucify the flesh and turn away from these other things and provided that you believe in Jesus with all your heart and soul and are baptized into Him for the remission of sins. And then God promises to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit, and one of the gifts of the Spirit is faith and one is God's righteousness. Now, you can't go around boasting when you have that because God gives you the righteousness. God gives you the faith that saves you. If you can work up the faith that will save you, you're saving yourself by your own works, your own works of faith. But by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves? Ephesians 2:8, for it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, not of your works.

   Now, that doesn't mean you're not to do good works because listen, the very next verse says, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before us ordained that we should walk in them. But it is the love of God in your heart that fulfills God's law and gives you God's righteousness. It is the faith of Christ that saves you, and you see, Christ does it all. You don't do anything but yield and surrender and permit him to.

   Well, here they kept the key of knowledge, saving knowledge of the right way. And then, that were entering in, you hindered. As he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him because they wanted to crucify him. And they were the very ones that said, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would never have done what they did and crucified or killed, rather, the prophets of old.

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