Herbert W Armstrong

   Well, greetings, friends. This is Herbert W. Armstrong with the good news of the World Tomorrow.

   My friends, why is it that today we hear a different gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ preached, and that today the gospel that is preached as the gospel of Jesus Christ is not the gospel he preached, but exactly the opposite? As a matter of fact, the customs that are supposed to be Christian customs today were all old with antiquity in the time of Christ and were condemned by Christ and the apostles are condemned in the Bible as pagan and heathen, believe it or not.

   Now, as we've been going through the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see exactly what Jesus Christ did preach, what he did teach, what were his doctrines and beliefs, what did he teach and what customs did he follow, setting us an example that we should follow his steps, we are now in the 12th chapter of Luke. And I think we have come up to the 41st verse (Luke 12:41).

   So, Peter said to him, here beginning the 41st verse, "Lord, speak as thou this parable unto us or even unto all," in other words, do you mean that for us that are your called and chosen disciples? Now, a disciple is not a modern English word. You only read it, I guess in the Bible; we don't use the word very much anymore. But in plain English, it means a student or a learner. They were his students and he was their teacher. Now, if you can just understand it in that way, you will understand a lot better. But they have been called as students to become his ministers to become his top ministers in the office of apostle.

   Now, Jesus Christ had said, "I will build my church," and he did build his church and his church is called the body of Christ. And there is only one church that is the real church of God, of which Jesus Christ is the head; that church is founded on the very foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The prophets, that means Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Ezekiel and Hosea and Amos and Joel, Zephaniah and Malachi. The New Testament Church is founded on those prophets as well as on the apostles. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and don't forget incidentally that Moses was a prophet also.

   Now, Jesus said he would found he would build his church, which is that church and where is it now, wherever it is, my friends, Christ is ahead of it. And Jesus Christ does nothing of his own will. He said of myself, I can do nothing. The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the words. He said again, I and my Father are one. He said, the Father that sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and speak and that he had spoken only as his Father had commanded him. He said, I have kept my Father's commandments and he said there is one law giver now in the government of God.

   And you must remember, my friends, that God is not just a creator who created static matter, dead matter once and a long, long ago and then went off and forgot all about it. God is not dead. God is ever living. God is the source of all life. God is the source of all powers and energy and force and everything that there is. And God not only created just as I say, dead matter, but God also created force and energy and all the laws that exist and these laws operate, they are moving, you can't set them aside, you can argue all you wish that there is no law of gravity or that you have done away with it by your thinking that Jesus Christ came and did away with the law of gravity, but I assure you it's still operating.

   And as I've said so many times, if you go to a high precipice or jump off a cliff or something or go to New York City and jump off the observation tower. If you can get away with it without the guard catching you of the Empire State Building, that gravity is going to draw you down. And then inertia, another one of the laws that God thought out and designed and set in motion as Elbert Hubbard might have said, will wallop you when you hit bottom and is still in force and effect just the same as it was a year ago or 10 million years ago or whenever God started it.

   Now, God is the great ruler. God is the overall supreme ruler of the universe. Why is it then that God isn't really ruling this world? Why is it that the world thinks God has gone way off and isn't concerned about us? Why is it that the world says the day of miracles is past? In other words of operation by supernatural, direct intervention by God Almighty?

   Why does the world say that? I'll tell you why. Because God, who is the supreme ruler himself, decided and made the decision and ruled himself that mankind for 6000 years on this earth should be a free moral agent, that man should decide for himself, that man should be given the choice, the free choice and make his own decision and for a purpose, whether he would submit to the rule and the reign, the government of God and obey it submissively and humbly or whether he would be arrogant and defy God and set up a wall between him and God and govern himself.

   Now, what have we had on this earth for 6000 years? Man has rebelled against God. Man has rejected the government of God and the laws of God and man has ruled himself. It seems that men are willing to be ruled by other men but not by God or else the few are egotistical. They are ambitious. They want to rule and lorded over others, the majority in the world, however, are followers. They're perfectly content to drift along, but they would much rather be ruled over by men than by God. And they are perfectly willing to exalt and to flatter men. And the followers usually polish the apple as we say, the boss or whoever is over them because they think they can get special favors by doing it. And that is the course that humanity has pursued.

   But why? Because there is a purpose being worked out here below and God's purpose stands and God has a reason for his purpose and what he is doing in and through humanity. And the only way that that purpose could be worked out is that we learn lessons and that we make our own decisions. And so, God himself has ruled that man shall do that and that man shall decide whether he will come under the law of God, the government of God and be ruled by God and then enjoy the overwhelming blessings of that rule. You know what those blessings would include peace of mind, happiness, a full, abundant life, just filled chock full every minute, almost of interest. And something that is so interesting that you just feel it is so good to be alive and good health. And also prosperity and happiness and joy, which is happiness, brimful and running over and then the gift of eternal life. So you can go on living in that state of happiness and joy, which means usefulness and productivity and an interesting thrilling life forever and ever. Now, that's what we can have if we will turn to God and be ruled by him with which we must voluntarily decide to do ourselves, or we can reject that and God allows us to do that. And then we rule ourselves and then we come under the penalty of that rule which is empty lives, bored lives, unhappy lives, all kinds of mental fears and worries, a mind that is perturbed and disturbed and everything else, unhappiness. And then the things that laziness brings on and the greed and vanity and all of the system that we have, which will result and which has resulted in poverty and in hunger and want and in injustice and being injured at the hands of other men continually in fear and worry and in every kind of sickness and sorrow and anguish and suffering and staring nothing in the face but death that my friends is what stupid humanity has chosen to do.

   Because the natural mind of man is antagonistic toward God. It's enmity as the New Testament, King James language words it against God. It just sort of thinks that God is wrong. It wants the result that God's way promises and will bring, but it wants to get it. But traveling directly away from it. Now, there's only one thing, only one destination I know of. You can reach for going away from it. And that isn't a trip around the world, I suppose it's a long way around. But you may get there and but you won't ever find happiness by going away from it because the farther away from it, you travel, the farther away from it you are. And that's just plain common sense and that's the way we humans have been going.

   Now, God is the supreme ruler and God has government in his church and his church is simply composed of those who have voluntarily come to repent of their ways and of the rule of man. How do you come to God? How do you get down that middle wall of partition that has stood between you and God? Let me tell you something, my friends, we, the human race has set up an iron curtain against God. It's much easier to get into Russia than it is to gain access to God Almighty. Unless you come to God by the one door that goes through that iron curtain that we have set up. And of course, it's very easy to go through that way except I don't know whether it's easy or not either because you have to do something that doesn't seem to be so easy for human beings. I don't know why it is the most difficult thing for a human being to do is to admit he's been wrong to confess how wrong he has been and to change his course.

   Well, that's what you'll have to do because Isaiah gave it to us. And Isaiah is one of the prophets on which the New Testament Church of God is founded and built when he said, "Seek ye the Eternal while he may be found." And then how, "Let the wicked forsake his way?" That's in Isaiah 55. "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts," is verses six and seven (Isaiah 55:6-7), "and let him return unto the Eternal and he'll have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon? For God says, 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways,' saith the Eternal. No man's ways are not God's ways, but man seems to think that his ways are all right and God's ways are altogether wrong."

   Now, the first thing then is to repent and to surrender to the government of God. Then do I accept Jesus Christ as personal savior? Because Christ is the one who paid the penalty of your transgressions, of your rebellion against God, of your transgressions of his law of his government. God is the supreme governor ruler. He is the one who runs this universe and God is running it by having set apart a 6000 year period which is now almost up for mankind to be able to defy God and well, he gets away with it in the sense that he is able to do it. But he doesn't get away with it simply because he has brought nothing but suffering and misery and unhappiness of every kind upon himself.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return in a moment. But first, this offer concerning literature of related interest. Our crowded courts represent a legal system feeling the crush of its own weight. This system cannot prevent the breaking of laws since order in society begins in the mind of the individual broken laws are symptomatic of broken character. Self-discipline needs to be learned in the home and maintained throughout life. The late J. Edgar Hoover once said that a child who has been taught to respect the laws of God will have little difficulty respecting the laws of man. God's law is founded on 10 basic principles. The 10 commandments, simple, direct and effective, the way to true justice. For a clear explanation of these principles request, The Ten Commandments. This free booklet shows how all ten of these time-tested principles can benefit you. Be sure to request, The Ten Commandments. Your copy is free of charge. Send your request to Herbert W. Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California 91123. That's Herbert W. Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California 91123.

   Now, once your past has been erased, because Christ paid the penalty in your stead, you are reconciled to God. And God promises to put his spirit in you, which is God's nature. And that is the very mind of God. And when you receive that my friends, then you are begotten as a child of God, ultimately to be born into the family of God.

   And God is not one person. God is a number of persons, Jesus Christ is God, but he's a different person altogether than the Father to whom he prayed and talked while he was on earth. The Father that sent him here, the Father whom he obeyed. The Father is God and he's a different person. And we can be one of the persons of the family of the Kingdom of God.

   Now, the church of God will be changed into the Kingdom of God at the coming of Christ. But the Kingdom of God is a government and it is a family and it is a family governed by its head, the Father and it's a family relationship, but there is government in it and you find that in the church. And so it is that we find back here in Ephesians in the New Testament, the very idea of God's government and how it comes on down from God, the Father to us.

   There is one lawgiver that is God. Jesus is going to do the judging. Jesus is in the executive department of God's government, but God is the legislative department, shall we say. He makes the laws and he even gives all the orders to Christ. Now in the United States government, we don't have a set up exactly like that because Congress doesn't always give all the orders to the president. But it's just exactly as if they did and, and Christ is both the executive and the judge.

   But you know, all of us are going to do the judging of the world under Christ too. Now, here it is in Ephesians, the fourth chapter and the 11th verse (Ephesians 4:11), for the church. It says that he gave some, we don't elect them, we don't choose them. Christ is the one who set it this way. God Almighty is the one who has laid it out and planned it all. He gave some in the church.

   Apostles. Now apostles are at the head of the church and some Prophets next come Prophets and then Evangelists and then Pastors who are the chief Elders of local churches or the chief Ministers. Or whatever word you want to use for them and then Teachers. Now, some of the Elders are merely Teachers. They are not actually Preachers and some of them are Preachers, but the presiding Minister, shall we say a church would be the Pastor then?

   And Evangelists in God's government in the church of God, in the one true church that is the body of Christ. Evangelists are those who are over all of the Pastors, all of the churches, wherever they are sent. Now, they may be assigned to a certain district temporarily or permanently according to the Apostle who is over them and who is under Christ and Christ is the ruler.

   Now Jesus Christ had called his disciples and they were being trained to the apostles in the chief seats of authority in his church. And we do find that they in turn took young men and trained them just as they had been trained by the Apostle Paul, for instance, trained Timothy, Titus, Silas and other young men by lemon. And he trained them as Jesus had trained the disciples.

   Now, actually, the Apostle Paul was not one of the original 12 Apostles, but he had been with Christ. He had seen Christ, he had been taught direct by Christ, although he doesn't explain exactly how I think he does give us a pretty good hint as to where it was over in Arabia. Many people haven't seen it, but you will find it in the first chapter of the book of Galatians.

   And it is explained there if you'll carry it along with the story thread, the case history, you might say of the Apostle Paul and his conversion and his life as you find it in the Book of Acts. And consequently, Christ had called his disciples and they were to become apostles. Now, an apostle is really an ambassador. He is one who it represents a government in a foreign land.

   Now, the government that the apostles represent is the government of God. And they're in a strange foreign land down here on this earth because Jesus was born to be a King. But he said my Kingdom is not of this world at this time, this age. You see, God has let men take over this world.

   Now, there is a devil who has influenced it all and man doesn't see the devil and some men don't believe there is one, but they're obeying him. They're following his philosophies and his rebellion against the government of God. And that is the chief idea of the devil is to rebel against the government of God. He is not obedient to God. And that's what made him a devil. And he's trying to run this whole world and build his kingdom on this earth. God has his kingdom divided. That's why it isn't going to stand. God divided it for him and God isn't going to let him get it together.

   The devil is trying to get it all together. He's trying through communism. One thing that the communists are trying to do is to get all the nations back as one. So, there will be one race and one nation on the earth again. God divided all of this thing at the tower of Babel and that's where he divided Satan's kingdom for him. And through communism, the devil is, is trying to get us all back into one race and one people again.

   Well, now, then I've given you a lot of background on this thing and explained a lot of things. Let's get down to this. Peter was one that was being called to be one of the ambassadors with authority representing the kingdom of God here on this earth. And he said, "Lord, are you speaking this parable to us or to all? In other words, all of the people are to us who are to be really your main officers in carrying out your government in the church and, and carrying out your mission, which is to just preach the gospel as a witness, which is Jesus' message.

   The gospel is the message that Christ brought from heaven to man, which man has rejected, they accepted the person of Christ. They go along with all the prestige of the name of Christ and call themselves the ministers of Christ while they preach a different gospel altogether.

   Now, and he said, the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season. I wonder if you get that. You read right over that in your Bible. You don't get any meaning out of it. You say, I just can't understand the Bible. All right. It's so simple. It's so plain. Listen, let's get it.

   The Lord. Now, the word Lord means ruler. He is the one who is the Master and the leader, the ruler and carries the authority. Now, the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward? Now a steward is one that the boss has taken, as shall we say a superintendent or a department manager. In other words, he is one that he has entrusted a certain responsibility to, and he is probably over other people.

   Now, who is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord who has mastered over him shall make ruler over his household. You see, the steward has made a ruler over whatever his master sets him over. And his master is one who probably runs a big business or has a big household or something of that sort.

   Now, here, Jesus takes the idea of one who probably has quite a large estate, a big household, probably a farm. And the steward is the one who has sat over as the manager, but he's under the owner. And the Lord here is the owner and the chief master. Now he sets the steward over his household.

   Now, what for? He's made him a ruler and he set him over the household, what for to lord it over the people and to see how cruel he can be to them, how many orders he can give out while they wait on him and he does nothing. Oh, no. He's made him ruler over his household for what purpose to give them their portion of food, meat or food. And in the King James language, that word meat merely means food to eat in due season.

   Now, actually, what he's speaking of here is that g he is the Lord and Peter and the apostles or rather the disciples as they were then, were being caused to be the stewards on this earth over God's heritage here on the earth and to feed the people with the spiritual food of God and they are servants.

   Now, here's the thing in man's government. The way man runs this world, the top man and the boss generally as a man who tries to get to the place where he doesn't have very much work to do anymore. And anyhow, the master is the one who is served and the servant is the one who does the serving and the master is the ruler and he rules over those who serve him.

   Now, actually in most businesses, the boss works harder than any of the men under him. And I don't think, I don't know that I happen to be in that position and I find I have to work a little bit harder than most anyone under me around here. Or things might fall apart and most anyone that has been at the head of any kind of an institution has learned that. But the common idea is to get into some sort of retirement. You know, I think most men have the ambition of getting enough ahead so they can retire and do nothing but just be waited on the rest of their lives. That's not God's idea.

   Now, God makes the one to whom he gives authority, the one who serves others and the one who is the servant and does the most serving is the one God gives the authority to, to be the ruler over those whom he serves. That isn't quite this world's idea, is it? Well, that's the way it's going to be all over this earth pretty soon when Jesus Christ comes and sets up the government of God, a world government to rule this whole earth according to God's way and God's ideas, it isn't just an idea. It is the way it ought to be and it's the way God has set laws in motion to work it out and it will work out that way.

   Now, verse 43 (Matthew 24:46). Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. The Lord has been away, and he see as Christ has gone to heaven and he has left his household and that is the, the interest of God on this earth to the stewardship of those that he has called in meaning. Of course, in this case, if you can understand his language here those that were to be his apostles and his rulers in the church.

   But, and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delay his coming. Well, he's away and he isn't going to see what I'm doing. And I uh I'll either steal or cheat or I'll lay down on the job or something of that sort. And he shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidens to eat and to drink and to be drunken, he goes out on a drunken debauch and he lords over them instead of serving them and feeding them.

   The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him. He's speaking of the second coming of Christ and what his ministers have done. The ministers of the churches in this world. My friends have fed themselves as Ezekiel says in the 34th chapter of his prophecy, they have fed themselves instead of feeding the flock, they have fattened themselves and they have given the people whatever they want to hear. So, the people will pay the money for their salaries. They've said, well, our Lord's way off. He doesn't know what we're doing.

   The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, at an hour, when he is not aware and will cut him in thunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. In other words, he won't even get into the kingdom of God. He isn't as he is to use the language they often use. He isn't saved. He is lost.

   And that servant which knew his Lord will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will. Today, they don't believe you have to do according to the will of God. They say God's will. God's law is done away. You get saved by grace while you do nothing but do just what the church says and what your own conscience guides you to believe in. Do the way of the carnal mind of man. All my friends there is going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. God helped you to wake up when the blind lead the blind, they all fall in the ditch, be sure you're not being led to the blind.

   And now once again, I've been harping on this one thing for months. It's the most important thing for you to know. World catastrophes are destined to rock this world. You're going to live through these times. Yes. World catastrophes are going to shake this world and it's all written in advance in Bible prophecy.

   Because of the importance of this subject and other related topics. We are pleased to offer the following free literature. History shows there have always been wars, disease and famine threats to local populations but never before has the possibility of total annihilation of the human race existed until this age of the arms race, nuclear stockpiles overkill and the hydrogen bombs. An entire generation has learned to live under the shadow of the mushroom cloud. We've heard talk not of if World War III comes. But when, ours is indeed a unique moment in history, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. States a 1900 year old warning by the prophet Jesus Christ, Are We Living In the Last Days? You need to know request this important booklet for a full understanding. Your copy is free. There's no charge or follow up request, Are We Living In the Last Days?

   Send your request to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California 91123. 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.