Herbert W Armstrong

   Now, God could, he could let sheets down, you know, like he did to Peter. That was an emergency. He had to do it in a quick manner there. But if God could let sheets down, the arms don't go up there and read it, and Ted would be right there reading it with him. God would say, "Here is exactly what I want you two men to do. No questions. You don't even have to think. In fact, I'll, I'll, I'll remove the responsibility of even thinking. I will put strings on you and I'll use, use automatons and you will dance as I pull." Now, he could do that. But he's working through those that are going to become his family, that have to show the responsibilities and make decisions.

   So if he were to either reveal it by way of a sheet or by way of inspiring so much, the man had nothing to do with it, we wouldn't be any more value to him and his family. He'd still had to pull the strings, so he makes these decisions. It's amazing how God does it, but he gets our mind on one thing, that leads to another, and that leads to another, at least another.

   You got Mr. Ted Armstrong's mind on the real Jesus, and they began to see we need to focus in more on God and Jesus Christ, the true Jesus, and begin to expose them to the world more and to do so. The next step, move the college to Big Sandy — good. That's, uh, that got them to thinking. Then Mr. Armstrong gets this report on the finances, and they began to bounce it around and say, "Well, that's not really what God wants to do. He wants us to keep the college out here, but reduce it down where the profile is not very big. It'll save more money for the work. It'll still make God and Christ more visible because the college won't be so predominant and will save a lot of money that otherwise."

   Can you imagine it? It's costly. I mean, just to transfer personnel from Pasadena to Big Sandy. And I think the transfer bonus is very reasonable. It's 5% of your annual salary. For some, it's a little bit more than they need. For others, it's not as much because you have to buy new curtains and a lot of other things. You know, the costs that are experienced when you're moving from one area to the other. And you just take 5% of all the salaries of those that would be transferred — that's one big hunk of money right there. So there are many, many calls.

   So then God got their minds on the cost. Then as they wait, "Well, now that's not just what God wants to do. He wants us to keep the college here, reduce it down, and God and Christ are still going to be profiled through their headquarters, and we'll still have enough of a college here to back up the ministry and the church." You see, God could have written it out and said, "Now what I want to do is reduce the college down to 250," but he doesn't do it that way. He lets us learn by step that he is always leading, he always knows where he's going. After a step is taken, he knows where he'll get you next.

   That's a beautiful thing. That's why you have to keep your mind on the fact God, who has all power, is in charge, and he works down through Jesus Christ, to whom he's committed all power and authority. If you look below that, you begin to say, "Well, what are they doing? Why are people making these decisions?" Well, they're doing the best they can with the understanding they have with the facts available. And if God didn't let us go through that, we wouldn't learn enough. So that finally we'll be able to assume greater and greater responsibility to make greater and greater decisions, more like God would. But we're still doing it.

   So they're in charge, very much so. I entitled the sermon I preached this during Unleaved Bread — I'm just gonna leave portions out. I think it will fit very appropriately. I entitled it, "Let us catch the vision of what God and Christ are doing." And if we keep our eyes on them, we don't get caught up and say, "Well, what are people doing?" Well, people are only tools. It's God who is doing — we're his servants and he's using us as tools.

   If you didn't know anything about carpentry and you were looking at a carpenter and he picked up this tool and that tool, said, "What in the world are you about to do?" Then he begins to hammer. Well, that's why he picked up a hammer. He's about to hammer. Maybe you don't see the job as he does. He has to grab the tools that are required at the time. And then you begin to see what the carpenter is building as he uses different tools in various ways. And he performs a certain act and these things begin to shape up, and you begin to see the building shape up.

   That's the way it is with God. He uses his tools, his servants. And a lot of times you get, "Why is he picking this hammer up?" or "Why is he getting this plane or this level?" Then you begin to see it shape up. Well, that was why he had this type building in mind. He had the blueprint, he had the tools, and no one without that overall understanding and overall vision and understanding how the tools could be used could have ever seen the end result toward which he was going until you just kept watching him build. And then as the building shapes up and the beautiful building is there, they said, "Well, that's what he had in mind all the time."

   So if a person falls short of seeing who is in charge and knowing he has an end result — that end result is not all that visible, but as we near it, it becomes more visible — you look back and say, "Well, that's why he was doing it this way." That's the beauty of it because every time God leads to take these other steps, you can begin to see. Well, that is a good decision. The decision to go to Big Sandy was very good. But the decision to keep the college out there and reduce it down is still so God can reveal himself in Christ through headquarters much more prominent and yet have a sufficient number to back up the work in the church and yet not go through all the expense. And it's not just the expense of living — the expense of what the college at a certain level continues to drain from the first commission, the Great Commission over the years.

   So it's a long-range thing where more and more of the income is channeling the Great Commission. Don't say first, but the Great Commission of getting the gospel out to the entire world — that's God's concern. That's why he stirs Mr. Armstrong. I mean, he knows how he's emphasizing more and more in the past few months the Great Commission. God called him to the Great Commission of preaching the gospel of the world as a witness before the end comes.

   It's easy, unless one sees God and Christ behind the work, to discount what they're going to do, to discount that what they're going to do is phenomenal and far beyond what you could envision yourself. That's why he said, "Just hang on and you'll begin to see and marvel at what I am doing."

   Now, I'll give you a little example. If you and I had been in Eugene, Oregon back in the late twenties and early thirties, and we'd seen this kind of a dignified-looking, little rotund type individual, short in stature but a little bit on the hefty side, going around and inviting people and said, "Would you come out here? I'm going to conduct a series of meetings in this little schoolhouse out here outside of Eugene, the Willamette Valley. And would you like to come and hear me?"

   Well, I'm glad I wasn't back there. I probably said, "Who does this man think he is? I don't think he has anything to say that's worthwhile." As the old man finally told Mr. Armstrong, you know about that time, he said, "Herbert Armstrong, you won't get very far. You preach the truth and people won't accept it." His response was, "I will preach the truth and I will trust God to supply the need." That man died. His bones have rotted away. He's a part of the terra firma. Mr. Armstrong is a powerhouse in the hands of Almighty God, 40-something years later.

   You see, I wouldn't have wanted to been back there without some vision because I'd have said this man won't get very far, but he's a powerhouse in the hands of God. He's 85 years of age. See, that's a lesson I always try to keep in mind: Don't open your mouth and get your foot in it. That's called a foot and mouth disease. That's a terrible disease, especially on your trip. You start rolling and someone comes out and say, "What in the world are you trying to do? Then you have lunch today? Are you that hungry?"

   So, we don't want to put our foot in our mouth. That's why be very cautious and trust the living God and know he has a purpose in what he's doing. What if you had been a member of that first meeting of the Philadelphian era of God's church in August of 1933, when there were 19 people present? Could you have envisioned as a result of that, God was gonna build a worldwide church and have churches all around the face of this earth? You couldn't in the greatest stretch of the imagination. That's where a vision God says, "Without vision the people perish." You could very easily have said this won't get very far. I don't see any great bands playing. I don't see any great numbers of people.

   I remember when I was preaching in London, England first International Church, I took that church over. We had about 16 people, including children. I used to pound away and tell the people there, "This is the work that God has raised up. It's going to have to do with changing the course of the whole world." I never had anyone come to me and say, "You didn't have to tell us that it was obvious there were already 16 of us in here and only 10 million outside. It would have been obvious to anyone that this was the work that was going to change the world."

   So I had to pound away week after week after week. And then finally someone began, "You know, I think Mr. Waterhouse knows something about what he's saying. I really believe that there is a purpose of this work is going to be far-reaching." But I had to keep at it week after week after week in Bible studies and Sabbath Services until others began to catch the vision, they could lead others and stimulate others and help them along with out vision, the people perish.

   What if you'd been in Pasadena, California in 1947? And somehow you'd gotten wind of this man down from Eugene Oregon and he was down there to start a college and you began to check into it and maybe you made contact with him and you said, "Mr. Herbert Armstrong, I hear you're down here to start a college." He said, "Yes, that's right." Well, I'd like to ask you a few questions. "Who are your backers? How much financial backing do you have committed? Who are your supporters? You have great endowments or what? How are you gonna start a college if you don't have money backing it?" "In fact, I didn't have enough money today to ride the city bus. That takes 10 cents. So I walked." "Well, how are you gonna build a college? You don't have money to ride the city bus."

   So you couldn't — you wouldn't have — if he'd said "because God's gonna do it through me," you'd go over there, "Ha ha ha. Where is this trumpet? This white robe? Where is this plaque? Next time he'll be walking down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena with his plaque. 'Flee the wrath to come. I'm God's spokesman.'" And then you said, "Well, now, wait a minute, Mr. Armstrong. Have you got any other college?" "No." "Have you ever gone to college?" "No." "Do you have a degree?" "No." "And you're going to start a college?" "That's right."

   "You don't have any money. You have no degrees. You have no backers." You say, well that you could see, he could have said, "Well, I'm a servant of the greatest educator in the whole universe. He gives my degrees that the world would not recognize. He's going to back me up." You see, without a little vision, you would have discounted that. There's no way you could have believed what Mr. Armstrong was up to. That is God through him.

   And Mr. Armstrong heard from so many in the initial stages of the college. He continued to hear the remark, "When this college folds up..." Well, it's grown to worldwide proportion that supplied ministers, personnel. We have learned a lot of lessons about education that we can capitalize on over into the world tomorrow. But when it comes time for the end, God is canceling out education. He's not going to intervene, Christ isn't going to say, "Well, I've been sent by my Father. All you people down here are too smart. I am going to open up the greatest des-smarting program in the whole..." Now, in one sense, that's what he's going to say, you know, but not by doing away with true education. He's gonna do away with false education and introduce and enlarge true education.

   But there comes a time when you have to put first things first, and even though other things are vital, everything has to go into the final job. If you were a prize fighter getting ready for a battle, there may be a lot of things that you'd like to do otherwise, but you better concentrate right on that fight. You better get your mind on preparing for the fight, getting ready for the fight. And when you step in the ring, you better have your mind on the fight and on your opponent and not on something you ought to do back home.

   So, well, get out there and you, "I want to mow the grass tomorrow." You get it. "Well, I just wonder now I ought to trade for another car." That's not the time to go into those things. The time to keep your eyes and your mind on your opponent, on what you ought to be doing.

   So, we're coming to the last stages of this work. We're coming to the crisis at the close of the age and God says, "Now, step into the ring and get to fighting, you've got a job to do." So there are a lot of other things that are significant and important. But when it comes time for the fight, you've got to begin to lay everything else aside, you've got to stand in there and you've got to plug and fight just like Paul said, you know, in Corinthians. Said because of the present distress — I would say this is no reflection. That's all right, Jim. He said because of the present distress, it would be better not to marry.

   You see, there comes a time when even marriage, which is so beneficial and so vital and necessary — you and I wouldn't have been here had not been for procreation down through the ages — but there comes a time even when Paul said to the Corinthians that you have to get battle trim and get in the arena. So we may be nearing that before too long where everything else has to kind of be stripped aside temporarily and get in the ring and finish the job.

   And I think that's why God's raised up this warrior Herbert W. Armstrong to lead us in the fight. That's what his name means: "Bright Warrior with a strong arm." I'd rather be following him than a dark warrior with a weak arm, right? So I don't want to discount what has been done. Look at what God has accomplished through the college. Back when the auditorium, you know, was in the planning stage and being built, a lot of people said, "That's not God's will, that will never be beneficial to work." But it's been a very vital tool.

   What if you had — maybe you did have thoughts about it — you heard Garner Ted is gonna write The Real Jesus book. "Why did he have to write that? I've known Jesus since I was just knee high to a jackrabbit. I've known Jesus since I was shorter than Bill Dad the shoe height" — and he was much shorter. A lot of people used to think, "Oh, Nehemiah was the shortest man in the Bible." And then someone came and said, "No, Nehemiah is not the shortest man. Bill Dad the shoe height is."

   So a lot of people probably said, "You know, I've known him since I was shorter than Bill Dad the shoe height." No, the world has not known the true Jesus. They've known the name, but they had a completely different concept and character in mind when they heard the name. Now, God had a great purpose. Ted has this tremendous imagination, a very creative mind. When he sees something, the imagination just explodes. Most people just barely see it. When he sees it, he sees a lot more. It's just a tremendous imagination.

   He has the type mind that Christ can stir up to begin to savvy things in a way no one else can. Now, God had a lot in mind to get that Real Jesus book out, to get Ted's mind on The Real Jesus. Not that we haven't known him to a degree. But I think we failed to understand the tone, the way, the manner by which he presented himself.

   We haven't captured the feeling, the empathy, the tremendous concern, that being had and not the mushy Protestant. They don't have the right Christ in mind, but we've had the right Christ. But we have made him out more as a hard individual that didn't have the feeling, the empathy, the tremendous concern for humanity that's potentially the family of God.

   So as Ted began to study into this, he began to grasp Christ's feeling, his approach, his manner, his conduct more. And then that begins to spread to the church worldwide. And then as we began to savvy the right approach that Christ had much more accurately than God and Christ. After that step is taken, they began to get ready to reveal themselves to the world.

   It's almost like God and Christ hid behind the college until we could properly represent them. In other words, God did not want himself and Christ to be presented forcefully and powerfully to the world without having their approach, their concern, their attitude, their feeling, their empathy, their concern for humanity.

   And I know most all of us have had this attitude: "Well, I'm gonna give you the witness buddy and if you don't take it, I'm gonna shake the dust off my feet and you've got it, you'll probably end up burning, frying, God will consume." You know, we've had too much of that approach rather than "God really put you here to become a member of his family. He wants you in that family. He desires very deeply that you make that family."

   And we hope as we represent Him that you'll come to see it that way. Now we can't force it down your throat. We wouldn't want to try, but we surely hope for you and we know that hope is going to be realized eventually because we know eventually God will get most all of humanity into his family and we really want to see you in that family.

   So we've sort of, you know, because of our concept, we've sort of represented God and Christ as a couple of great beings that were not all that concerned about saving humanity, about bringing them into his family, that we were raised up more just to preach a warning, you know, more of a warning than a witness and get that warning out. And once we got the warning out, I'm saying that's all God wants us to do.

   But we do. We think, "You're still a carnal minded Pharisee and you people are so much like the Pharisees. You probably — well, a great many of you will perish and perhaps all of you too. You're not good like we are." You know, we can begin to have that kind of attitude and that attitude shows up.

   Just like as I told you, when I was around Ted for a couple of days over there — I haven't been around him all that much for about three years — that attitude came through, that feeling, that warmth, the concern came through and you can't put that on. If it's not down in the heart, it won't come out. Now, I know that was deep down in Ted because it just continued to flow out whether we're in a restaurant, whether he was preaching, singing on the golf course, even after a bad shot, it was there and we need that more.

   It's almost like God realized he's got to get us to be able to present him and Jesus Christ more accurately before they would proliferate their work and begin to blast it before the world. In other words, if we had gotten that wrong — you might say very limited profile of the Father in Christ — out to the world with great power, and people would have been turned off by it. It would have been doubly hard for God to reach the world in a positive manner and save the world.

   Even though the world is going through a time of great trouble, they're going to remember it and they're going to have hope on beyond. And once you turn a mind off, it's doubly hard to reach it. So God has never let us really forcefully affect and influence the world yet. But I think now when he's gotten our direction much more accurately, he is now taking steps to deemphasize the college and emphasize his church and began to profile his church above the college.

   Then people began to see the church. And as they do, we are used to represent the God of that church, the God who owns that church and his Son who is the living head of that church and to be vehicles and vessels through whom they can begin to really show this is our concern for humanity. And if I spank you over here, it's for your good. It's because I love you.

   You know, there's certain children that you couldn't convince at all that their children punished them out of love. And then there are others who have been brought up where they know the concern of their father and their mother, and they know that when they're punished, their parents love them and they're doing it for their good. Get the point. God wants the world to realize that when I punish you, it's out of love so I can save you and bring you to my family.

   I think the approach has been too much. God's up there about to get his club out and he's going to wail away, he's going to rip you apart. And I don't know if any of you are going to survive. And that's not very — you know, that does not promote within humanity an attitude that has enough confidence and is positive enough to see that the punishment is only short lived and temporary, that the result of it, the world are and the family of God is what God is punishing for because he wants them there.

   So we, I don't think we have in the past had enough of that understanding. Excuse me. I have to tell you a little secret. My brother had to take a gold cap off of one of my teeth back here and he's, his lab is repairing the other one and put it on Monday. And what he did, he had to cut this gold cap on the second tooth back here off and he cemented the two parts back just temporarily. And those edges on that gold are so sharp and my tongue has gotten so raw on the left side because of scraping on that, that it's begun to affect my ear and all.

   And so I talk to my mother last night I said, "Do you have any chewing gum? Maybe if I could get some gum in there and kind of cushion that, that it would give some relief to my tongue." So, see, I'm working under double jeopardy. Well, at least the handicap here, I have to make sure that I get this gum back before it comes out on you. You know, so every now and then I have to stick it back in. The cement is kind of broken out and it's left the two pieces of gold are exposed. It's very sharp, it's been irritating my tongue.

   So I feel this, that God is coming to the place now where he has led Ted and through Ted, he's initiated among his people, this approach where we're more accurate, we understand Jesus Christ more and God the Father more and when we begin to represent them in a forceful manner, in the end time, we do it accurately, we do it with a proper understanding of the proper feeling and the proper empathy, the proper desire to see those people in the family of God.

   And when that attitude comes across, they're going to remember it. And in captivity, they're going to recall, they're going to have hope to survive through the tribulation and be ready to follow Christ in the land of Palestine as he intervenes to deliver his people out of captivity. But that attitude must be there. They must have felt it and know it and have confidence in it to be able to respond while they're being punished.

   It won't be all that much of a letdown deep in their mind. Then they'll begin to see. This is why God has done it. He really wants to save us. We have hope on in the world tomorrow. So I'm encouraged by it. I'm encouraged that God has not let us become big and forceful and do damage. It might be sort of irreparable, irreparable in the future because we didn't really have enough understanding so he could use us as tools to get across his feeling and that of Jesus Christ, which are one of course, and to make sure that that last impression that we leave with mankind is a very positive impression, one of concern of feeling.

   So when they come up before us in the world of tomorrow, they're going to say "Now we know God loved you. We're convinced of that." They will not come out and say, "Now, we're still not convinced, we're not at all confessed that God loves you because what came to you? We can never see that that was love, but that was a deficiency in that area that you people there, cold and hard and unconcerned and unrelenting and you're just there to tell us we're gonna be punished and that's what was left in our mind."

   That won't be it. What we leave in their mind is: Yes, God's gonna have to punish, but he's doing it for your good and he indeed wants to save you. He indeed wants above all things that you become members of his family and everything he is going to put you through is done out of love and for your good that you might inherit eternal glory in his family.

   And if you really believe that down deep and it comes across, it's going to be convicting and convincing in the hearers and you can't put that on, that cannot be artificial. So he's had to very deeply move Ted, and Ted has been so deeply moved by what he has come to see in writing this book, "The Real Jesus," plus the book he's working on now, you know, in the Harmony of the Gospels that he has become so deeply moved.

   Now, Mr. Armstrong has been led to see that's where Ted's talents and his ablities ought to be used to really influence in that way, not have him so involved in all these administrative executive responsibilities that begin to destroy some of this keenness, the sharpness, this understanding. Ted has now that must be fed out to the churches that is going to be done via radio, via creative writing and doing creative work for the sake of the church. Beautiful.

   But you see if one only sees the immediate step without knowing God has purposes, knowing what God's overall purpose is in reaching the world but doing it in the right manner, we might come up short and deficient and begin to discount what God is really doing and what he's going to do. You've often heard Mr. Armstrong make the statement that we're just beginning to get ready to start. Well, I don't think he's gonna have to make that statement and I think he can make the statement: We are now underway. We're not just beginning to get ready to start. We have started.

   So I'm sort of glad that, you know, that is in the past. We're beginning to get ready to get started. I think God has really brought us to the place where now we're well underway. We have started and we're ready to finish the job because now we have the approach and the means and the facilities and the way to channel more money into that Great Commission.

   You know, the college, I've seen reports on it. Mr. Flatt brought some back to our last — well, not last meeting, the two meetings ago. Find the college would take about 47% of the income of the work by 1982. Can you imagine by reducing it down where you're maybe taking only 10% you have all those extra millions to go into the Great Commission? So it's a very wise maneuver, but it's not a maneuver in one sense. It's just great professional leadership by the head of this church, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

   We've been called, raised up, to prepare the way for Christ's second coming. Now, how in the world can you possibly prepare for Christ's second coming if you don't really know him? How can you say we're preparing the way for this great being if you don't really understand him? So he's got to open up our understanding so we're really preparing the way for his second coming.

   So when they come, they can say "We've heard about you, we really heard about you. We didn't hear about some fake. We didn't hear a misrepresentation. We really heard about you." And there's only one being — well, there are two beings but one that is the head that has to do with the church directly — that can lead you to understand himself. No one can reveal Jesus Christ except Jesus Christ of Nazareth, right?

   You could look in crystal balls, you could work charts, graphs, draw all kinds of things trying to figure out what Christ is all about. You couldn't do it. You could never come up in a billion years with the proper evaluation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's why he must lead, he must lead us to see what he is.

   Now, I think he stirred Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong to begin to open up a far greater dimension of who he is, of what he's like. We didn't have the depth of understanding of Christ's feeling. We knew the words he stated, but we didn't know how he stated it. You know, two people can state the same thing and one can be moving and the other one won't move a cat. A toad, what do you call them? One of these frogs, toad frog.

   So I think we have read the words that Jesus spoke, but we didn't really savvy the way by which he spoke them. Now, Christ is leading us to see "This is really the way I stated those words. Here's the feeling, here's the empathy, here's the concern that I conveyed when I spoke the words." See, a lot of people have the words Christ spoke, they read it, but there's only one group that can be led to understand how it was really spoken. And that's the church of God.

   Now, for years, I think we understood to a degree — we understood the words Christ spoke, but we didn't savvy the manner by which he spoke them. Now he's leading us to say "Now, that's not really the way I spoke those words. You see, you don't have the feeling, the empathy, the concern for mankind that I had when I spoke the words. Now you're coming to see how I spoke and therefore I can speak through you more like I would speak if I were there myself."

   So in preparing the way for his second coming, he must lead us to see more and more and more exactly who he is, what he's all about and how he conducts himself. And then indeed, we can really be nearing that final stage of preparing the way for the second coming of Christ.

   You've read many a time there in Malachi three where Christ said, "Behold, I will send my messenger before me and he shall prepare the way." Speaking of Christ's second coming, there'll be a messenger, messenger of the covenant. Mr. Armstrong happens to be that man. I've never doubted that for many, many years. And to show you the significance of this work and the messenger that leads it here in Malachi four — well, first, I'll read that, read the verse here in Malachi three verse one (Malachi 3:1-6) where Christ inspired Malachi to say, "Behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come," saith the Eternal of hosts.

   Now John the Baptist came fulfilling that in type preparing the way for Christ's first coming. But now Mr. Armstrong and all of us supporting him have been raised up to prepare the way for Christ's second coming, which is a far greater preparation. John only had to prepare a few to become Christ's disciples and sort of point out the way and say, "Behold the Lamb of God." We've got to prepare not only a whole church, be a part of that preparation, but to prepare all the Israelites so that when Christ intervenes, the people are prepared for him — much greater undertaking.

   Now, in Malachi four coming in verse four says, "Remember you the law of Moses, my servant, which I commend unto him and for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments." Now, why would God have to say, "Remember the law of Moses, God's 10 commandments and the statutes given to Moses on Mount Sinai?" Because he knew the Israelites would have forgotten all about them.

   From the first time I heard Mr. Armstrong speak in 1949, you know what the theme was? You better remember God's Law or you're on the way out. You ought to remember the Sabbath, the annual occasions. You ought to remember God's laws that have to do with marriage, that have to do with child rearing. So who was raised up to tell the Israelites in the world? Remember God's laws — Mr. Herbert Armstrong.

   Now he clarifies it further in verses five and six to show whom he would use to say you ought to remember the law of God. He says you're going to remember God: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Eternal." Anyone that knows something about prophecy knows the day of the Lord stops the tribulation. The tribulation follows our work of preaching the gospel to the whole world as a witness to all nations and then the end shall come. Then you have about two years of tribulation. Then there are the heavenly signs which introduce the day of the Lord.

   So he says, whoever will begin to tell the world you ought to remember the law of Moses will be this group fulfilling the office or sitting in the office of Elijah. And that office would be reactivated and be used leading up to the day of the Lord, which is just in the future. So he said, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Eternal."

   If it's before the day of the Lord, it has to be right now because the next big step is the tribulation and the day of the Lord. And we're coming to a place where God couldn't raise up a whole work to fulfill this commission because the whole of society and the whole of commerce, the whole of the economic profile of the world is ready to collapse.

   I don't think most Americans realize how shaky the dollar is, that we could be bankrupted so quickly by Arabs. But others who have billions of dollars that they're holding — and if they would demand the payment, the gold that they're supposed to cover and began to use their money, they could buy us out. In fact, they're trying to do it now.

   You read about this sheikh that came to Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, paid $2 million for a home, spent about 2.5 million more to refurbish and redo the grounds — $4.5 million. They're buying big areas of land all over the country. Japanese, Arabs, Dutch, Germans and others. We didn't realize, you know, years ago what God really meant when he says, "Behold, the strangers are going to rise up and take over your country."

   They're really doing it because we gas-guzzling Americans would prefer to play than work. We'd prefer to have big engines. "I don't want this 350. I want a 440 barrel supercharged eight cylinder with four in spare with great big tires in the rear so I'm going downhill all the time. And so the Arabs send the oil and say, "OK, we'll have your country before long. Now, whenever we run out of oil, we'll have your country, we'll tell you to move to what's no good, no oil, it's worthless without oil" — unless God intervenes, which he will, to make it right.

   So we're coming to a real bad time. So the work had to be raised up while it was still possible to raise the work up, while the economy would allow it, but we're coming to where the economy would no longer allow it. So he's raised up Mr. Armstrong in this work well in advance so we'd be a powerhouse of a work at the very end just before the collapse of the economies.

   And he said in verse six, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction," as the original Hebrew means. That's why Mr. Ted Armstrong has been so instrumental in the Y.O.U. program, and the Y.O.U. program is not Mr. Ted Armstrong's idea, not at all. It wasn't his, it was Jesus Christ's idea, but he worked through Garner Ted.

   But Ted is not the author of the Bible. Ted didn't write this. He didn't get back there and say, "What can I figure out to do when I become a human" — that he just became a human back in 1930. So he didn't write, he didn't inspire Malachi — Jesus Christ did.

   And Jesus Christ knew at the end, there would be a total breakdown of the family structure. There would be an alienation of the last generation from their parents. And there would be a terrible situation where marriage would be scrapped, respect toward parents would be scrapped and the young people be on dope, marijuana and everything else. And there'd be no way to build a world to come except God raised up a church that began to understand why male and female.

   You know, the average person doesn't understand why we're male and female here. "I don't know how we evolved that way. Women's lib — I think it was a mistake. We've been discriminated against. We ought to be men" and most of them are trying to be men or frustrated. They can't. There's just no way.

   So we're the ones that know why God made us male and female, why he ordained the family structure and that the family structure is the basic building block of society. And without that, there can be no world tomorrow. And unless God had a work that was putting these things back together to pioneer to the world of tomorrow, there would be no way to rebuild mankind.

   So he says, except I have this work, I would have to intervene and smite the earth with utter destruction. I've got to have a work that knows how to plant churches around the world, plant educational programs around the world to direct families, to direct marriage, to direct families, to direct putting the families together and to rebuild the world. He says, if that were not the case, he'd smite the earth with utter destruction.

   So I would say that God is very serious. He's deadly serious about what he's doing because what he's doing has to do with the survival of mankind and the building of the world tomorrow and the family of God. So when I see how serious God is, I don't want to take it lightly. If God is so serious, he says this work is the key, the difference between life and death — death of the world except for it, but because I have it, life for the world.

   And since we have the commission that has to do with the survival of humankind, I think we would have a good reason for being concerned about the way we tell mankind of the hope they have before them. And a feeling our responsibility as a group because the weight of humanity rests on the backs of Mr. Armstrong, Garner Ted, and all of us as a part of the team.

   And there is the area where God is bridging the gap, so to speak, because we didn't have as a whole group, the real feeling and empathy for mankind because we didn't really see Christ's feeling, his manner, his approach, the way he related to mankind like we're coming to see now. And therefore, we could not be the vehicles through which he got the message out with the proper feeling and empathy and seriousness and yet hope for humankind, which we're coming to now.

   Now as you've heard read and I've stated a number of times here, it's not Elijah in person. It's someone coming in the spirit and the power of Elijah like Luke 1:17 says, speaking of John the Baptist who was the type of the end time preparation. And he said he will come in the spirit and the power of Elijah and he will prepare a people for the Lord. So Mr. Armstrong and all of us are filling that office.

   Now coming in the spirit and the power of Elijah to prepare a people for the second coming of Christ, to tell the people about the world tomorrow, about Jesus Christ's soon intervention in world affairs to save humanity alive and that we are those that Christ is developing the means by which we can teach the rest of mankind who survives over in the world tomorrow, the way to live and the way to go and qualify to become members of that great family that is to come.

   Also, he said in — I don't know if I want to get to that right now or not. Let me just check here. Oh yeah, Matthew 17 verse 11, another prophecy of this work. Matthew 17:11. It's not going to be a haphazard — it's going to be a thorough job that God will accomplish through us, not in this life, but partially in this life and over in the world tomorrow.

   Where he said here in Matthew 17 verse 11, after the disciples said, "Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?" Because he had just shown them by way of vision, the Kingdom of God, they wanted it. They knew they couldn't have it because they knew a lot of things had to happen. The second coming, the preparation had to precede the second coming of Christ and they wanted it. But they said, "Why then say the scribes" — in other words, why can't we have the kingdom now? But we know we can't because the scribes say that Elijah must first come.

   Then Jesus went on to answer their question and said, "Elijah truly shall first come" — future tense. Now when he comes, he will restore all things. Now, we have understood that restoring had to do with churches and colleges in the world tomorrow because you can't restore all things. They have to teach them how to worship God and love their neighbor. But also he has to restore the way by which he delivered the message, right?

   Christ is now really restoring our understanding the way by which he brought the gospel, the good news. We have seen the words he spoke, but we haven't seen to the degree we ought the way he spoke them. So the restoration has to do also with his leading us to see: Here's the way I really spoke those words. Here's the feeling that went into the words. Here is the concern conveyed through the words. Here is the positive way I spoke them.

   You could have 100 people read certain statements Christ made and everyone would put maybe a little different inflection, a little different feeling and they'd come across in a different manner. There's only one way that's right. And that's the way Christ spoke the words. So as he leads us, he's restoring, not only by way of churches and educational control, but he's restoring the way by which the gospel, the good news was presented by himself.

   So he in turn can use us to proclaim that same message. And there's no way you can proclaim that same message unless you know the one who delivered it initially. Then he leads you to say, "Now, here's the way I spoke the message. Now, as I lead you, you will come to see how to speak it in the same way." And therefore I will have restored the way by which the gospel is spoken.

   And then Christ, as he gets us in the right configuration with that understanding, you know, he can finally fulfill a prayer he offered up 1900 years ago. I read this almost every Passover. I may have read it here, a year ago at Passover. I was going to read it down in Miami and Mr. Male attorney was assisting me. I thought he understood exactly — and he probably did — but I was gonna have him read from John 13 through 16 and I was gonna take John 17. He just kept reading. I didn't say — I just got up and closed and, you know, so I didn't get to make this comment.

   So, you know what I did? I prepared a sermon after I went out for the Night to be Much Observed. I got in about 11 o'clock and I wrote out three pages here and I had to leave some because it had to do with Unleavened Bread here. But I think it's a timely message and I read and comment on this in the sermon I would have done in the Passover service.

   Now here in John 17, commencing about verse 17 (John 17:17), Christ spoke these very significant words that also had to do with us in this end time. Part of it here, he said, "Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth as you have sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world."

   You see, the original apostles had no problem knowing how Christ spoke because they heard him, right? Peter, James, John, Andrew heard Christ deliver the message, they knew how he said it. So once they got God's Holy Spirit and they began to capture the way, the manner by which Christ spoke, the words he spoke — now, we have never had that kind of contact.

   So God has been pioneering through Mr. Armstrong and all of us and gradually leading us out of the wilderness, so to speak, to where we can finally come to understand how Christ spoke to his disciples and then have the same understanding. It takes time because we don't have Christ here directly speaking and therefore hearing him for 3 1/2 years.

   So we can say, "Here's the way Christ spoke it. Here's the feeling he put into it." He had to correct Peter many times because Peter didn't put the feeling, he didn't have the feeling, the concern that Christ had for other people. You know, Peter, "You want me to cut them up, Lord? I'll call fire out of heaven. We'll get rid of them. Who do they think they are? And who are you anyway? Tell me you're going to perish. We need a group of counselors here and we'll decide how you go." See, they had to learn a lot of lessons that the carnal approach is not the approach.

   But nevertheless, once they received God's Holy Spirit, they didn't have any doubt about how he spoke the words. Now we're being led to finally capture the way they heard Christ speak the words. And Ted has been one through whom God is really initiating the feeling, the manner by which the words were spoke.

   So there's no way I could read or you could read just exactly how Christ put feeling and emotion and concern in the words where we can read them. He said now going into verse 19, "And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth" — that's set apart for a holy purpose. Sanctify means that.

   He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word." That's us. We're believing on Christ through the words. He inspired the apostles to write. We can't believe on him directly by hearing him because we weren't back there. We can only believe on Christ as he's inspired, certain the words he spoke to be recorded through the apostles.

   Now we believe on him through these words. If we didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the writings of The New Testament, we couldn't believe on him. We wouldn't have any basis. So he inspired them to preserve the words that he inspired, he spoke and then inspired the disciples to record. And as a result, we believe on him because of that. And this is speaking directly to us because we'll read all and we'll see why.

   That they all may be one — we've got a long way to go. We're on our way of becoming unified worldwide. I think it was a necessary move. I've often wondered when would Christ lead to unify the churches worldwide under one leader. Necessary because if you have two men administering churches internationally and U.S., you're going to have certain differences in administration, certain differences in approach. But if you have one man, of course, you could say Mr. Ted Armstrong did that, but he had so many other jobs he couldn't devote where one man just with stricter response to the churches could do it and you have to unify the churches.

   So that has to be done that they all may be one as you father art in me and I in you that they also may be one in us. In other words, by God's holy spirit, God and Christ share that power. Now we have it so we can be one in them because we have the same spirit of God and that unifies.

   And he said, now here's a significant statement he's leading up to that has to do with us, "That the world may believe that you have sent me." Get that? There is no way the world could believe Christ sent — God sent Christ in the world by believing in a false Christ that God didn't send. So first of all, you've got to be those that really work for the true Christ that come to understand the Christ that was sent.

   And there's really no way we could have represented the Christ already sent in the true full sense until this new dimension was open to us. We were representing the true Christ, but very limited. I mean, not — I couldn't say very limited, but in a limited manner. We understood what he said, but we could not convey it in a similar vein as he did. And therefore the world could never come to know the same Jesus Christ had led us to see how to present him to the world.

   Now he's doing that, that the world may believe that you have sent me. Mr. Armstrong will finally just have to tell the world and Garner Ted and — he's told them. But I mean, with real power. We are the church of the living God that Jesus Christ founded 1900 years ago on the day of Pentecost. And he has preserved that church to this time and built the Philadelphia era through it in order to get the message out to the world.

   Now, the world could not believe that until the true church spoke and said, "God did indeed send the true Christ into the world." Now, the world believes that Christ sent the world 1900 years ago, but they believe in a false Christ. He didn't say that the world might believe that God sent another Jesus besides me in the world. He said that God really sent me into the world.

   The world has known a false Jesus. We are those that are finally going to convince the world of the true Jesus that he was sent to the world 1900 years ago for a specific purpose. And here is the personality, the approach of that great being. And we're here because he was sent into the world 1900 years ago and built a church that he preserved at this time and has built this work through to convey a message about him and his Father to the entire world and about their plan.

   If you were to go out now, would the world believe that? I mean, you go down to Mexico and they'd say "Sure we believe God sent Jesus in the world." I'm sure you go to Russia and they say, "Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, God sent the world into the Christ of the world 1900 years ago. That's why we're atheists. We believe that." Could you go down to Africa and get people to acknowledge that the true Christ was indeed sent to the world 1900 years ago? They wouldn't even know anything about him.

   All the Mohammedans, all the Buddhists, the Shintoists, plus all the so-called Christian world. Well, at least some of them wouldn't even begin to acknowledge that they knew anything about the true Christ that was sent in the world 1900 years ago. And those who would claim that would be misinformed and they would not know the true Christ.

   But God says though that the world may come to know that you have sent me. "And the glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one even as we are one." That's pretty contrary to the world, isn't it, where everyone wants to do his own thing? It was part of their out voting day because they got party spirit. "I'm for this one. I'm against that one. I'm for John Hill. I'm against Briscoe." You know why I'm for John Hill because he's in the ministry. You could say John Hill, but you have to define who you're talking about. They come up, "Are you — oh boy, I really love — I know I've known John Hill for 25 years. He's honest, dedicated, sincere." They might interpret that to mean that John Hill running for governor.

   So the world has heard the name Jesus Christ, but it brings to mind a false Jesus. So there's no way the world can acknowledge the true Jesus sent in the world until we can convey it to the world to all nations. And then Christ is going to make them admit it eventually. But out of right concern and right approach.

   Verse 23: "I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one." What a phenomenal thing to bring a church around the world to have unity in a world that's going the opposite direction toward division. Takes a miracle. It takes a lot of hope and trust and concern to the leader of this church and deep down conversion before this can ever be a true reality.

   But it's coming. Also, it took this Real Jesus book and God stirring up Garner Ted to even begin to grasp how to present and understand the true Jesus and get him before the world. I'm glad I wasn't back here and had — you know, I guess I would have been called on and probably, well, I don't know if that book's all that important. Maybe Ted ought to concentrate on something that's more according to the gospel. We're not in the book publishing business or something.

   But God has a way of getting it out to reach people that are non-Church of God. You know, where a lot of people picked it up and pretty soon they're getting a witness, they're beginning to get a feeling, they're beginning to see that this being that they were taught about in Sunday school is far different from the one they're reading about in this Real Jesus book.

   Then maybe they would eventually come to see. Well, that one is the false one and this is the true one and the whole world is eventually going to come with an understanding. Now, verse 23 again, "I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me."

   So first of all, we have to grasp the understanding, then we have to have the means to blast the world. Then the world has to come to acknowledge that was right after all. And that won't be a true reality until after two witnesses for 3 1/2 years and after we're in Jerusalem. You know what God's gonna make the nations do before us? Let's read about it here in Revelation three right quick.

   Now, remember over here it said that the world might believe that you love me and that I love them. In Revelation three, I'm just gonna read the one verse, verse nine (Revelation 3:9): "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan which say they're Jews and are not but do lie." Those are the false Jesus. "Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet and to know that I have preached hatred through them, that's not what is says, let's read it again. I will make them to come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you."

   Get that. What did he say in his prayer before he was crucified? "Father, that the world may come to know that you did send me into the world. And I have selected those out of the world that believe on me through their word" — through my apostles — "those in the end time that are going to blast a message to the whole world, going to begin to reveal ourselves through them."

   And finally, the end result is going to be that the world begins to see: Indeed, this is the true God, the true Christ, the true purpose and the true concern of these great beings to build a family and these are their servants to whom they got the message out and they're ready to teach us. Now, we're gonna come up and say "Now we know that God did love you."

   So Christ offered this prayer up in John recorded in John 17, 1900 years ago. He knew eventually he'd get to work, raise it up, bring his servants to see and represent him properly, then bring the world to come to indeed see and accept and believe in that, then come up before and say, "Would you please teach us about this great God? We want to come to know that way ourselves."

   So we've got to come to have the feeling, the concern, the empathy so that when they come up, they are not at all hesitant. They're not gonna come up and say, "We're just not sure yet the way you spoke to us. I'm just not sure that God did love you." But they're going to come up and acknowledge "To know that I have loved you" and they're going to come up and worship before our feet — no reservation.

   What if Christ intervened in 1975, 1972? I'm afraid that God had to force me. "I don't want to get close to those people. They might call fire out of heaven. They might pull a sword out, clip our ears off." So you see, we have to be brought to have the feeling that is conveyed to them and they come to believe it and come up without any reservation, say "Now we know that God did — the true God did send the true Christ into the world 1900 years ago, built his church, raised you up because of that church and proclaimed that message out to us. And now we believe." Beautiful message.

   That's why the gospel was to be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then the end would come. Now over here in Matthew, you know, we've often emphasized which is not wrong, but we overemphasized with the deemphasizing of another part of the commission. So we've said, you know, we ought to preach the gospel to the whole world as a witness. You know, "Well, we got that witness out. Let's just stand back now, watch it. We got under our toadstool and we'll watch Nenava fry. We watch these Americans, these Britain's, these Australians and these South Africans and these others that didn't believe us."

   We say, "See God eat him up, go get him, tear them apart, limb from limb, make them come to respect" — instead of "We want them to come to know you God and the true Jesus Christ, had come to really want your family." Now we've come out of a lot of that, but we did have sort of a hard line approach for years and it's not easy just to convert over to have the balance, not to get overly sentimental or anything like that, but to have the right balance, the true balance of the true Jesus Christ.

   Now here in Matthew 28, Christ said in verses 18 through 20, he says (in Matthew 28:18-20), "Now all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," but he only uses that power to the degree that it's necessary to get the job done the right way. He's got it all, but he only uses it to whatever degree he sees as right and proper and fitting.

   I think sometimes we've kind of represented that he's all powerful — he doesn't have that compassionate, merciful, concerned, empathetic side and approach. So he said now verse 19, "Go, you therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

   Now see we've read those words, but I think we failed to get the meaning, the feeling that Christ put into them. When he spoke to them, anyone could read the words. They could go, "You there in all the world teach all nations baptizing them in the name of Father Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things" and say "You better go out and get all these nations baptizing — have to grab them and tie them and put them under. Just don't drown them. You say you'd better learn this because we're gonna teach you all things. And if you don't respond, we've got the torch over here, the blow torch and we'll give it to you."

   I mean, there are extremes by which you could say this, but you could fail to put into it the way, the manner by which Christ spoke it. So everyone has access to what he said, but only one group has access to know how he said it.

   This has been read by, pulpit after pulpit for 1900 years, especially in this end time of the revival of all this religious comedy and, you know, and so forth on television. I've heard several read this so anyone could read it. But there's only one group who could come to really understand, maybe not to say it just the way Christ said it, but to feel it as he felt it to come to have the feeling that Christ had when he spoke the words.

   He says, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the world." Speaking of this group now, because we're the one that would be used by Christ at the end of the age. So in order to do this, you'd have to restore the way by which you conveyed the message and he's underway in restoring a lot of things that have been restored to a great degree. But I think the manner by which he spoke and delivered the message is well underway of being restored.

   Now, now let's turn to Ephesians quickly. Go through just three or four areas here because I think it's an area that we can pray about and ask God to help us understand more the message as the true messenger presented it 1900 years ago. And to begin to capture that feeling and concern for humankind that Christ himself has.

   Ephesians one, the Apostle Paul prayed this prayer and we can certainly apply it to ourselves. Rather more applicable now and apropos than it was back then. Ephesians one and commencing verse 17 (Ephesians 1:17), he said that he was praying that "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him."

   See, there's a certain wisdom, you can't just be unwise in representing Christ, knowing him and serving him. You have to be wise. It's not an unwise thing and we have to pray for wisdom. So God says, as the Apostle Paul prayed that he can give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That's a revealing and the knowledge of Him.

   I think the way is well underway now by which Christ is revealing a lot of the knowledge and the wisdom to understand that knowledge about his father and himself. So that we began to savvy and understand their attitude and their feeling toward their creation a lot more accurately.

   "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." The world needs to come to feel through us more and more the great hope that God has in store for mankind. And also how much God treasures us because He's gonna inherit great riches as he brings us in his family, we become valuable to him.

   So Paul said, we ought to come to have the hope of his calling. And what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? See as God inherits us, there's great glory in those riches. So man has to come to see his potential and how God views his potential, that God is going to reap great riches, great glory through us as He builds a family from humankind.

   So God benefits and so do we. And rather than saying, "Well, you know, God could care less. He can raise up from these stones, you know, more valuable than stone" — that really builds the person up. "He's got a lake of fire here too. If you don't agree with that, he'll burn you and get a stone." See, we can put this across that mankind is potentially very great. God is going to inherit glory and great riches through his inheritance. He's going to inherit a great family and that's going to be very valuable to him and begin to show mankind here is your potential that God is going to derive great benefit from and that will give them hope to survive through the times of trouble to come because they realize on down there, "I am potentially a member of this royal family and God is concerned about bringing me in because even He benefits from it because he's going to inherit great riches."

   "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us would who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." What hope that should give mankind that here Christ was dead. God resurrected him, changed him into spirit, caught him at his right hand and committed to him all power in heaven and earth so we can have that hope and that great power ourselves and begin to convey that to mankind and say, "It may all look hopeless. But if you keep your eyes on the great God, that has all this power, all things are possible to him."

   And he's the one that raised Christ out of the grave who was a dead individual. Here in a grave was caught up to God and has all this great power and God through Christ is controlling the universe and controlling the activities on this earth and especially his church. So don't lose sight of his great power that he is unable to deliver you from the dungeon from the captivity to come. Don't ever lose hope of His great power because it's there and He will use it to raise you up as surely as he raised up Jesus Christ.

   Even if you go to the point of death, death has no victory over God's people. The grave has no victory there. God will resurrect out of the grave. So you have hope on beyond death. And if people don't see any hope on beyond death and life becomes so important, they'll do most anything to preserve it far above he raised Jesus Christ up and put him "Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name in his name, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" — the world tomorrow — "and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all."

   In other words, have this great hope, pray for this understanding, this wisdom, this revelation of God, don't lose sight of his great power and realize he's put Jesus Christ over the church to head it and he's over all things. That he knows where he's going. He knows how to get there.

   You can read in the first part of Ephesians four here that we must strive for unity. That's our vocation. He says we ought to walk worthy of that vocation with lowliness and meekness. Why would you have to emphasize that? Because we open up this new dimension and it'd be pretty easy — people began to say, "Well, I'm gonna be my own preacher. I'm gonna go out here and do my thing" and we go off and scatter all kinds like a shotgun. I shot a short barrel shotgun and we scattered. We all go out here and begin to preach different things.

   You know, I mean, a tendency so we have to always be wise and humble, you know, otherwise they won't. "This is my chance. I always thought they ought to ordain me 25 years ago. But now I've got my chance. I'm gonna preach, get me a soapbox. Maybe two of them. I'm gonna paint them bright red, paint me a sign and flee from the wrath to come. I'm gonna get my sword. I'm going to preach the sword of the spirit."

   I mean, you know, it's easy. We have to have balance. That's why we need to pray for wisdom that we don't — we have the concern, we have the feeling we have the empathy, but we're also wise and discreet that we don't turn someone off by a wrong approach and we do not go contrary to overall guidelines.

   So there has to be a lot of wisdom and discretion exercised that we mainly let our light shine. But we make sure our words are kept in moderation. He says endeavoring — we have to be long suffering, forbearing one another in love and that means a lot more now because people are going to make mistakes. You get out here, we have to still be even more forbearing, you know, and be willing to forgive and hope everyone learns a lesson.

   We all do it to build up the church to build up the work, not to divide it, you know, not to start our own works. We're all doing it for the sake of the overall work of God. "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and then you all."

   You know how many times God uses "one" in that group? Seven, that's complete. He just shows it ought to be complete, you know, complete yielding to him and dedication toward being one group, toward promoting unity and harmony and peace. Let your light shine, pray for that feeling so that you exude the feeling and the attitude more like Christ himself.

   And that ought to be picked up by others that in turn are attracted by that magnetism that ought to begin to attract as God calls, certain ones I don't care what you do — if Christ were himself glowing with brightness, if the mind were closed, they wouldn't see it, you know. So God still has to call, but we have to be out there available to be vehicles, tools through which He can call others.

   But, we want, our basic attitude should always be whatever I do, I want to do it to promote unity, to promote harmony, to promote growth for the church of God and do nothing that would go contrary to this and promote division or turn people off.

   So it takes great wisdom and in Ephesians four and verse 11 (Ephesians 4:11), that's why he has organization. The church — we have to be organized to be one, we have to be organized and led toward unity. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for what purpose? "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

   Now, I'd like to make a comment along — I've known Mr. Wayne Cole for, of course, 25 years and I've made comments to — I know Mr. Dove and I probably even discussed this to some degree and I've made comments to many — I know of no one that can relate to so many people as Mr. Wayne Cole without rubbing people the wrong way. He has a knack. He has a certain personality that tends to pull you on and lead you on and inspire you rather than turn you off.

   I know he made a comment to me one time up in south of Akron and Canton. I was on a baptizing tour with Mr. Ron Kelly back in about 1959 I guess it was. And Mr. Cole's comment to me was, "You know, I'm always trying to keep people in the church and I'm trying to avoid everyone in the world of putting people out. So I want them in and not out of the church." That's been his approach, you know, that his approach is to save as many as possible to have that attitude.

   I think he's a beautiful example, you might say an outstanding example of one who needs to be right with Mr. Herbert Armstrong and indeed the church because his attitude has always been, "I want to save as many as possible. I want to keep, I don't want to turn anyone off. I don't want to step on any toes. I don't want to promote disunity. I want to promote unity."

   Well, it's just a perfect individual God has raised up to put finally in this last thrust of a person of that caliber. Maybe you don't know him. You know, some of you may not know him at all. But those that do will know that Mr. Cole has a gift from God and just his very makeup of winning people rather than turning them off. Whether it's a minister, people in the church — he just has a way of drawing them out and leading them on and promoting unity.

   Take someone like that — we're not all built that way. Some of us, you know, we're professionals at kind of creating friction. So that's maybe that's why God doesn't have all of us in that job. You only have one of course.

   But going on, he said, "Till we all come in unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." See, we could never come to have the stature of the fullness of Christ until we came to understand that individual a lot better and have his more of his feeling, his understanding, his empathy, his concern for humanity. That's a part of that great being that he's opening up to understanding.

   And we all have a part in this. Coming on down to verses 15 to 16, in closing, he says, "But speaking the truth in love" — I emphasize that. We've often spoken the truth, but have we spoken it in love like we should? He didn't say just speaking the truth, but he says "Speaking the truth in love that we may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ."

   And of course, it's up to Christ to lead us to come to grasp what true love is and encompassed in that true love is his tremendous personality, his tremendous concern and his feeling and approach to mankind. But we're being led now to come to that measure, more and more "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies."

   You might say, "Well, what am I doing here?" When God calls you, it takes a lot of members to make up the body. You know, if you never fell on your knee, never hit your kneecap, you might say, "What's that kneecap doing here?" But hit it and you say, "Well, almighty thankful that protected my joint."

   You might say, "Why do I need that little finger?" until you begin to realize how much you use it. Let it be crippled. Put it in a splint you say, "I didn't realize that little finger was used so much." You never even notice your heart until it begins to act up. You're all concerned, right? You probably don't know where your pancreas is — if you don't, I don't — but you know, it's still needed.

   There are a lot of members you can't even see and you are almost unaware of but are very vital to the proper function of the human body. So likewise, the church of God, there are members that are more outstanding, more visible you might say, and others that are not seen hardly at all. You might be more like Anna, the prophetess who spent a lot of time in prayer. But that may be just exactly your strong calling.

   But whatever it is, all of us are vital to the work of God. Every part and every joint has its particular function. That's what he's going into here. But under proper supervision, under a framework of organization of which Christ is a living head, it says "According to the effectual working of the measure of every part."

   So you might not think you're all that vital, just like maybe a certain member of your body. You couldn't conceive that it's all that vital till maybe you really need it. Or maybe it acts up and you realize, well, that was — but God doesn't need something to alert him to the members of his church. He knows, he knows how vital each one is and he knows how to deal with them, work with them.

   And he knows before we come to perfection, all of these members must be solid, unified and completely in line with and strictly and completely for the programs. Whatever joint supplies "According to the effectual working of the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

   Well, I think now we can begin to see more and more that there's a lot of room for a lot of growth in there and therefore pray as I read in Ephesians one that God will give us that spirit of wisdom and revelation in himself because God is love. And as He does, we come to grasp what true love is more and more. Then as we do, we can speak that love and truth more. Then all of us can grow up every part and every joint, the complete body and reflect the love of God and the love of Jesus Christ to a much greater degree.