Herbert W Armstrong

   You know there are some people, even Christians, who have been deluded into thinking just that, brethren, because they think that all there is to do is just to accept Christ and that's it. And then just go downstream along with everyone else in this world going in the one direction, but we in the Church of God cannot say that, and we cannot believe it, and we cannot fool ourselves along that line.

   This past 7 days which we are finishing this evening, we have been picturing the putting away of sin. Is it, is it going to end this evening at sunset? Are we going to stop overcoming tonight? Having hopefully this week taken a look at ourselves and begun to realize our need to overcome all our problems and our difficulties and our weaknesses, are we going to quit at sunset and then let the rest of the year go by without doing any more working on ourselves?

   But brethren, if we do that, then this entire week has been meaningless to most of us because what God is trying to get over to us this past week is simply a reminder. And the fact that we keep the feast for 7 days, which of course is God's number of completion, is simply showing us that as far as God is concerned, that's it complete. You have to continue and completely put away sin. Totality. Keep on doing it. Keep on working at it. He wants us to continue and to keep up the effort to overcome and hopefully this week we have been gathering momentum, kind of getting ourselves moving along a little bit more.

   Now we must keep up the pace. We have to continue on our sins and overcoming them. We have to continue to work on our overcoming so that indeed we will be overcomers. It's essential that we do. It is absolutely essential, and we must be careful not to be lulled into a false sense of security. Even though the scripture says, or Jesus himself said in one place, which was mentioned this morning that you know he that has the spirit or accepts me has passed from death to life. That is absolutely true that statement, but that same Jesus said that only the overcomers would inherit the kingdom of God.

   How do you reconcile those two things? Well, they go together. That's why, if the person has already passed from death to life having God's spirit, then he will be overcoming. And therefore he will be assured of the position in the kingdom of God. Christ's own words make the meaning very, very clear. Let's read it in Revelation. We know what it is. We've all read it umpteen times before, but let's read it again until it comes out of our ears, as we say.

   Revelation 3. You know this is a verse which I never heard of when I was back in my old religion. I dare say that the vast majority of you, whether Catholic or Protestant before, never heard this verse read from the pulpit or explained or expanded at all, because when I was coming into the Church of God years ago when I, when I finally turned to this strange last book of the Bible with all of its symbolism and all of it's hard to be understood language, when I read this verse, it was for the first time in my life I had even heard the words. I'd never heard it before.

   But he does say in verse 21 and 22 (Revelation 3:21-22), to him that overcomes. And as Jesus' own words, if you had a red letter Bible denoting the words of Christ, personal words, then they would be here. To him that overcomes will I grant sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and I sat down with my Father in his throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the church.

   This is the message. Don't forget to all of the church eras of God's church from 31 A.D. to the second coming of Christ. Therefore, that is the message to us also, and I do not see anybody in this room minus an ear or minus two ears. I think everybody's got 2, and even if you have -1, you've still got 1 other. So this means everybody in this room today, you have ears, therefore let him hear what the spirit of God says, not me, it's the spirit of God saying in here. And what God says that it is the overcomers that I will grant to sit with me in my throne, not to the dead fish swimming down stream along with everyone else.

   So as I said, even as Christ overcame, now the word overcome simply means to become the victor, to prevail, to conquer. That's all. But what are we supposed to conquer? What are we supposed to overcome? What are we what are we supposed to prevail against?

   Well, even Paul, you know, talked about overcoming in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, he talked about overcoming. And here he was an apostle of, of Christ, having been called out of due time, as he said, out of season, and yet we find in chapter 2, 3 rather chapter 3. In verse 12 (Philippians 3:12), he talking of himself, he said, not as though I had already attained. Either were already perfect. He knew he wasn't, you see, that's the point. He knew he was not perfect, but he said, I follow after. In other words, I strive for it. I move towards it. If I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. He was trying to gain hold of the kingdom for which he is suffering, for which he's been apprehended by the authorities around, you see, that's why he says I am apprehended also by this thing or because of that thing.

   He says, Brethren, I can't not myself to have gained it or to have got hold of it or to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth onto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, he's looking at it at himself realistically, and he did not say, well, it's all right. I've got it made. After all, I have I have the highest office of responsibility in the church. I can't go any higher. I'm already an apostle and because of that I've already made it. No, he didn't say that. He said, I do not think I've made it. I don't think I've apprehended it yet because I still have human nature.

   I still have things he said that I have to overcome, but the one thing that he was concerned about was the fact that he had put behind him all of the things that he had, and let's remember Paul had a lot of things to put behind him, the things that we know we don't know his own personal problems, but we do know his life before he became a Christian. And that life was one of killing Christians, one of being zealous for the law, but that zealousness led him to commit a lot of murders, to put to death the very faith which he later embraced.

   And probably when he was thinking of all those things that he had done. He could have probably sat awake all night. Blaming himself, you know, just sort of sitting looking at himself in the spiritual mirror and and saying if only, if only, if only, you know, and just lying awake night after night after night being tortured by the, the pictures in his mind of the people he killed now that he the very for the very faith that he was now embracing. If only I had known, if only I had known I wouldn't have killed those people or or haul them, maybe he didn't personally kill them, but he arrested them and delivered them to the authorities to be killed.

   But he didn't torture himself on those things. He just simply said forgetting what's behind. I pressed forward. So he was talking here about overcoming, and he said in verse 15, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect or would be perfect, be similarly minded, be thus minded. And if anything you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal it this onto you. If you have anything else in mind, God will show it to you. So he's exhorting us to be of the same mind as he is, forgetting what's behind.

   Now we've got to do the same thing. Regardless of what has happened this past year, regardless of the mistakes you've made, put it behind you now that you have reconfirmed your covenant of God with the Passover and to determine that from now on you're going to do better this coming year because you know this is the beginning of God's year. This is the first month, Nissan is the first month of the year. It’s the 21st day of God's first month. And therefore this is to him at the beginning of the year.

   So we start off the year not looking behind as to what has happened, maybe realizing when I say not looking behind I don't mean you don't know of them, but you realize what has happened this past year, but you forget it and you determine this year I'm going to do better. This is my new year resolution time for the Church of God, not January 1. That's not the new year resolution time for God's church. The new year resolution time for God's church is Nissan 14. Passover and of course this particular feast of Unleavened Bread.

   This is when you determine that this year I'm going to lick that problem. That got me down this year. I'm gonna stop drinking so much. This year I'm going to quit smoking or being a slave to that cigarette. This year I'm going to stop necking and petting some of you younger people who are baptized members, and you're doing it. This time I'm gonna quit these things. I'm gonna stay away from them because unless I do, I'm not going to make it into God's kingdom. This is the time now to make your New Year resolutions, brethren. And unless we do overcome, we won't be there. So we've got to overcome these things.

   So does John 16. John 16, and verse 33 (John 16:33). John 16 Christ is talking to the church. He's telling us also what we have to overcome. These things, the very last verse of the chapter, these things I have spoken on to you that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

   Now that's a very important statement. Christ overcame the world. And he said, I know you'll have tribulation, trouble, anxiety, problems, difficulties in the world, but he said, don't worry about it, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Now what does that mean that we don't have to because he did it for us, is that what it means? No, he said, I have overcome the world, but we will read later on that it is Christ in us, and if Christ is in us, we too will overcome the world. Not that he did it for us and we don't have to do it. He overcame the world. That's why he says be cheerful about it because I also in you will overcome the world.

   So the world is something we've got to overcome, not just our own sins, our own weaknesses and our shortcomings, but this society, the world which is outside there, the world with its system, its values or lack of them, it's mores or lack of them, it's weird mores. It's a perversion of everything which God said is right and good. It's topsy-turvy marriages, it's unisex ideas and fashions. It's the blending together of male and female of one conglomeration. It's its way of life. We've got to come out of it and overcome that world.

   John 17, the next chapter in verse 15 (John 17:15). He said, I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil or the evil one, and after all is the is the one who's controlling this entire world. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through your truth that thy word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

   That's right. We can't, we can't be like a 747 and take off to 35,000 ft and live our lives up there out of this world. We've got to be here. We've got to be in the world, and Christ has sent us into the world to be the light, the example, to do the work of God, but we mustn't be a part of it. Now how can we not be a part of it? We have to live with it. We have to work in it. We have to earn our living, as we heard this morning. We have to live next door to neighbors. We have to maybe help when we can to be a Christian life, but we mustn't partake of its system and its values, and this is one of the reasons, brethren, why some of us have a hard time getting away from those because we are influenced too strongly by the wrong values.

   And this is why we have had so much, as I was saying to the Kansas City Church on the Sabbath, so much pickiness over this Sabbath dress business. Because we're all influenced too much by society where we even had one person in a certain church area which will be nameless who felt, at least this person I think, or else he heard somebody else say it, who felt that we in the church and the ministry was being oppressive by these rules about Sabbath dress. Oh oppressive, are we by trying to teach you a little culture and a little bit of how of what is right in the sight of God. You only think that because you're influenced too much by your barcata or by the people outside. That's the only reason you think that.

   My brother and I have, we, we have to come to realize that we are influenced a lot more than we think by what's out there, and this is why I got, I got a little angry a few years ago at Bay of Sydney and I lashed out at modern art and modern music. People didn't like it. Some people, they just thought that was personal preference, and some of you people think that our idea on Sabbath dress is just my personal preference maybe, it is not my personal preference. It is God's way of life, and I think we've got to understand we have to come to realize that and change it.

   And, you know, and come out of the system of the world, regardless of what the whole world does. Then let us be different. Let us show the light in the example of God's way. And, you know, I still say it to this very day, I still say modern art, I don't mean all modern art, but I mean the weird kind of modern art that I've said so many times is not God's idea of art. And the wrong kind of jangling nerve wracking music, if you can call it music, is not God's kind of music. We've got articles on the right kind of music in the Plain Truth years ago. And as we mentioned also recently, and I still say some kind of a painting. You know, what's it's supposed to be a person with an eye up here and an eye down there and a foot up there and a hand down there is not God's idea of a painting.

   And somebody who can sell a painting for 3 or $4000 which is simply a black framed, black with maybe a hole in the middle. That is not God's idea of art that may be the artist's idea. Now of course when you criticize that, that you, you're picked on by saying not only because you're that's just because you're your idea. So you know you need to examine yourself that anything we mentioned either in my member letters or from the pulpit about style, about, about the Sabbath dress, about child rearing or whatever, ask yourself if you get a little upset with some of the things that are said, maybe it's because you are influenced too much by this society. And by the standards of the world and by its morality because that's the thing we've got to overcome and that's why Jesus said that you've got to go in the world, but he said keep them from the evil, verse 15, keep it keep people or God people from the evil. We have to try and avoid contamination of this world. We've got to try and avoid it.

   You know, when the Israelites came out of Egypt they were very happy. They came out it says with a high hand mean very happy doesn't mean they're holding their hands up here. It means they came out with with the real happiness and joy and anticipation. But when you examine their life later on, you'll find that they came out physically, yes, but mentally, emotionally, intellectually they still have their roots in Egypt. Because when things began to go a little wrong, they began to hype you after getting back there. They began to wish they were back there.

   Do you notice the example there and Moses had a real tough time trying to do it because you see God had called them out to be a special people. He said, look, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, that you should go forth and show the example to the rest of the world. Therefore, I want you to come out and I want you to leave behind not only your bodily presence come out of Egypt back there, but I want you to come out of the entire Egyptian system, its ideas, its values, it's ways of life, its theology because they're worshiping Osiris and all of the other pagan gods in Egypt. Now come out of that system and you will be a special people to me.

   So they were happy, they were happy, they decided to come out, but they weren't really out of it. [inaudible] Nevertheless, that they were able to, they had, they had to imbibe of the system. And therefore, when, when God said be special, do not follow other gods and all of those things. What happened? Well, as soon as Moses turned his back, they set up a golden calf. What do you think the golden calf was? It was a symbol of Egypt's gods. You see, they hadn't divested their mind from the gods of Egypt yet. They hadn't, well, they never did. They hadn't really come out of it.

   Now what about us? God calls us out of Egypt, out of spiritual Egypt. The world, the society, that's our Egypt. And God says, you come out of it, you to be a special people for me, for me. And you come right out of it, but the trouble is some of us are out of it in the church spiritually, and of course we're living in it. We're not the analogy is not exactly the same because Israel, yeah, Israel literally walked out and left behind that land. We don't walk out and leave behind your country. You stay in it. But God says spiritually leave it.

   So we come into the church and technically we have left it, but in many other ways we haven't left it. We're still a part of it because we go along with its ways. How do you explain a lot of times the pagan holidays of this world where some of you will go along with them. How come you, you, you know, when you talk about All Saints' Day, some of you go along with it to please your relatives. Remember the sermon this morning. Because you haven't left it behind, you see, totally and completely, as God said we ought to do. That's one of the lessons of these days, brethren, and not just looking at our own personal sins but examining to see whether we really left the world behind, whether we really left the system behind, which has a bad influence on us.

   Let's look at an example of, of luck back in Genesis. Because it's an interesting comparison. Of course sometimes we leave it by degrees. I say by degrees, some leave it more than others, and others are left because it has a bad effect. It has been psychologists have said very clearly that everybody you come in contact with is a bad or has an influence of some kind or other on you, good or bad. And some of you in your everyday lives apart from the Church of God are influenced by those around you, workmates, boss, or whoever it may be, neighbors, relatives. How much are they influencing you through evil rather than you influencing them for good. How much? Now you, you ask yourself that.

   Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah and God had told Lot he was going to get out of there. That's a very interesting fact. Some of you, of course, in the old school, I mean, many of you who have been members for years have heard this before, but we have lots and lots of new people. With us, so I just mentioned in passing that it's possible, no proof, but it is possible that this happened during the Days of Unleavened Bread because we find in verse 3 that when the angels came into Lot's home, he entertained him. He said he made them a feast and he baked unleavened bread. Verse 3 and they did eat.

   Now, I'm not saying that's a proof that it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. I am not saying that that's proof that they kept the feasts. Before Israel came out of Egypt because there's no indication directly that they did keep the feasts of God before the time of the Israelites. Before God revealed them on God's mind, he had them there, but they may not. But it's interesting that Lot baked unleavened bread. Of course you could say, well, the answer to that's just simply because it was a hasty meal very quickly put together maybe, but maybe God also included that as a little bit of a clue or maybe just as a little lesson to us to show that the example that during these Days of Unleavened Bread when we are coming out of Egypt, here was, here was lot who was told to come out of a bad area as well interesting comparison.

   So we find the up in verse. 15 when the morning arose, the angels hastened lot, saying, arises take your wife and your two daughters, which are here, and lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, The men laid hold upon his hand and his wife and the two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city. He lingered. He wasn't 100% convinced. He, well, he knew he had to come out, but maybe he was hankering for the, the, the life that he had lived there, even though he lived a righteous one in the middle of all that sin, yet he didn't really want to come out.

   So it came to pass verse 15 when he brought them forth. He said, escape for your life. Don't look behind you. Don't stay in the plane, escape to the mountain lest you be consumed. And he said, not so, my lord. In direct contradiction of what the angel told them, he said, look, look, I just, if I find a favor, just let me go over to this little place because after all I might, I might die in the mountain, something might happen to me up there in the mountains. Well, he asked it and because of mercy, God said, All right, all right, that's what you want, go.

   Lot did not want to leave society behind. He was willing to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah where he lived because that was going to be utterly destroyed, but he said, let me go to this other little city because I like living in the city. I don't want to go to the mountains. I don't want to leave it all behind. I, I've got certainties here. Now, even though Lot was called righteous. And nevertheless he did have certain emotional ties to the cities of the plane, whereas Abraham was living in the hill country.

   Remember when they had a little bit of a quarrel earlier and Abraham said, Well, take what you want. I'll take what's left over. They had they had to decide and Lot took the the planes and, and Abraham went up to the hill. You see, Abraham was more worthy. He did not want to go down and mix himself with the cities. He preferred to be on his own up out of the way. Because he knew the danger of getting involved there. Now you might say, well, it's easy for him. He just, he was there, no influence around him. That's true, but we cannot do that. We have to live still in it. But yet, brethren, we've got to come mentally and emotionally out of it and certainly in our practices we've got to come right out of it.

   Well, of course God destroyed. The trouble was Lot's wife was even more attached than was Lot, and she looked behind her as it says in verse 26, she became a pillar of salt. She looked behind it. It wasn't just a case of seeing how the fire was burning. It wasn't a case of just saying this spectacular destruction from the fire from heaven to see how God is going to do it. Her looking behind was looking behind and longing to go back there. It's obvious because it was just simply looking to see what, how the fire was burning. God would never have destroyed her, but she was told, don't look back, or they were told by the angels, don't go back, escape to the mountains, she said, look not behind you, verse 17 said, just get out and don't look behind you. God doesn't want you to see what's happening, but she looked behind because she was still desiring. I'd be thinking of the friends that she left behind, maybe. The pagan friends, the friends that were influencing her perhaps to do some role and thinking about their destruction and God caused her death right there on the spot and since she turned into a pillar of salt.

   Now you know salt is used in the Bible, brethren, oftentimes as a sign of a covenant, and David made a covenant of salt. I think it was David was somebody I can't recall, but salt was a kind of a sealing, you know, as a preservative. So the use of salt in a covenant was kind of a sealing of the covenant. So here is Lot's wife as an everlasting covenantal sign to all peoples everywhere, especially Christians, not to look back, not to be hankering back for those days when you know, when we were once a part of this system and once a part of this world.

   It's a good lesson for us to, to understand and to take to heart. We've got to come right out of it. Leave Egypt behind. Don't look behind us, and yet how many of us are still tied to this world. Matthew 9, I've been mentioning this in passing recently. But, Matthew 9. Matthew 9:16. Matthew 9:16. No man puts a piece of new cloth on an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runs out and the bottles perish, but they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved.

   God is simply telling us through this analogy in this example that when we are called by God we've got to come right out. We've got to clean out our minds, make our minds new wine skins or wine bottles. For the receiving of the truth of God. Because if it's not clear out of this world's ways and its society and it's ways of doing things and it's philosophies and it's ideas, then the truth of God will not mix with those old ideas and what you get is a mongrel mixture and it'll it'll just burst the skin and it'll be no use.

   Now it's just two verses, but they are very, very important verses and we've got to realize we've got to throw off our old ideas, our old religious beliefs, the things we were brought up with which sometimes are very hard to get rid of, especially if God doesn't call you till you're 65 years old or something or 70, and you've had a lifetime of wrong teaching, a lifetime of, of being a part of a wrong system. It's very, very difficult to throw it all up, but you've got to clean out your mind and receive the truth of God. And it's very hard to do.

   I was received a letter from one of our Scottish brethren recently who keeps writing after all the years. Mentioning one of his recent letters are two people that I visited just before I left Scotland in 1969, and I visited these two working class people in a place called Kilmarnock near Glasgow, and they were interested in the church, and I think they came in. I don't, I do not think I baptize them. I may have, I'm not sure, but the two of them came in together, but there was one problem with them when they came in. They had communistic leanings. Very strong. And some of the Bible didn't gel too well with them, especially about profit making money and you know, having business and this kind of thing.

   And of course the Church of God seemed to be a little that way also because of Mr. Armstrong and the aircraft. I don't think we had the aircraft in those days, but anyway. You know, on the way the, the way the work was done and the money was spent, etc. etc. and I was telling them, both of them, look, you're gonna have to get, you come out of it. Look, I said, look, I was Tory if you like, or conservative in, in my politics before I came into the church. And I said, but I've got to get rid of those ideas. I said whether you're socialist or communist or capitalist or or whatever ist you happen to be, you've got when you come into God's church, you've got to put aside all of those philosophies and ideas because it won't mix with God's truth because every time you read the truth of God and you have your own ideas behind it and your own philosophies behind it, what will happen is that you won't be able to accept it properly. You'll be colored, your ideas will be colored and it will prevent you accepting the truth of God 100%. And I warned them about it.

   Well, they came into the church, they were baptized, maybe 1970 or so. Well, this latest letter I got from one of the other members, they're gone. Both of them are gone and what took them out of the church just a matter of the last year or so. What took them out of the church was their communist leanings. They had never got rid of it. And they still couldn't fathom them and of course with all of the trouble in the California against the church and you know the state of California that got to them they began to say, well maybe there's something in it, maybe they have been siphoning of millions of dollars and all of this garbage that came out of the state of California.

   If they had been true Christians and had been thinking properly they would have seen through it as we all have done, I hope, but no, because the State started to accuse it, they thought maybe they did. Why did they think maybe Mr. Armstrong siphoned millions or maybe there's been misuse of funds? Why did they think that way? Because that's their communist thinking. That's the way they think that anybody who has money or has possessions or property is wrong. They could not stay with the faith. They're now gone.

   And recently one of the ministers who was up there from London visited them to try to help. I don't know whether they asked for a visit. I think they did ask. In fact, the man we're going to see is going to be staying with Paul Suckley. This following couple of weeks' time he went up on a visit to the Glasgow church, and he heard that these two men wanted to see him, so he went along to their homes to see them, but it was no good. He didn't, I don't know what he said but maybe find out when to go there. He probably tried to straighten them out on the whole thing and try to show them where they were wrong. They would not accept it. They could not accept it because when they first came into the church years ago, they put the truth of God in an old wine skin. That was not cleaned out of all of their ideas, all of their philosophies. They could not, they were so brainwashed before by it. They could not divorce themselves from it.

   But what am I saying? What am I getting at? Well, some of us brother are that way. We cannot divorce ourselves or completely get away from a lot of the old ideas we've grown up with. Whether physical ideas or or or or philosophies or whatever, we can't get rid of it or we haven't got another that we can't get rid of it, but we haven't got rid of it and as a result you're still in Egypt some, you're still attached to this world too much and because you're still attached to the world too much. You're not overcoming the way you should.

   If Israel of old had been totally out of Egypt. Mentally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually. I have a feeling that they would never have rebelled time and time again in the wilderness, but that they would have gone over and made it to the promised land. But you see, their past, ideas and beliefs wouldn't permit them. Now I think there's a very important lesson there for us that we could be the same way if we have not really severed our connections with this world. I mean severed our connections, I mean, as you know, it's ideas, it's thinking, it's philosophies, it's ways that are wrong. I don't mean the ways that are right. Obviously there are some, but the things that are wrong, the beliefs, the practices, the ideas, the opinions. If we don't do that, may, we may not also enter into the promised land of the kingdom of God.

   And that's one of the things that this week is all about, not just overcoming personal sins, but asking ourselves, have we come out of Egypt? Or are we still a part of the system in its ways? I think that's one of the reasons why so many apparently of our brethren in the states could not accept the state church conflict who left because they could not see that as Mr. Armstrong has been repeating until it's coming out of his ears. That we were right in resisting. They could not grasp Romans 13:1. They couldn't see it. Because they were siding with the state. Now why would they have sided with the state? Because they were still wrapped up in the state's thinking and ideas. The hearts weren't fully 100% in the work. That's one of the reasons why they did it. But they thought that way. And it's rather tragic that that had to happen. They could not imagine. They could not think that way, that maybe the state was totally and completely wrong.

   We've got to come out of Egypt totally get out of this world, not be a part of it, to avoid contamination and realize who's behind everything. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Now before we go then, let me go to something else that happened in my notes, but I do intend to thinking of it beforehand to bring it in, just to impress before we go on further, to impress the fact of getting out of it coming out of the world, not being a part of its system and its ideas.

   Isaiah 52. We read this to those of you who have been, well I think I've covered in all the churches already, Isaiah 52 verse 11, (Isaiah 52:11), depart you depart, you go out from thence. Touch no unclean thing. Go you out of the midst of her. Be you clean that bear the vessels of the eternal.

   And the great analogy there, the great lesson is more of a spiritual than a physical one. Depart out, don't touch the unclean thing. That doesn't mean, of course become Pharisees, but it's speaking in a mental and emotional way. Don't touch the unclean thing. Be you clean that bear the vessels, you know where that's masoned. If I asked you could you turn to the New Testament and, and show me where that is quoted? I wonder would you be able to turn to it without looking at the margin of your Bible finding the answer because it's in the margin of your Bible if you have a margin. You know, where is it quoted? Yep, you're correct. Some of you.

   II Corinthians chapter 6. It's not Paul's idea. Paul didn't come up with the idea. He quoted Isaiah 52, but what context did he quote it in? Notice, you see, he was using it in its real spiritual intent, and example II Corinthians 6:17, wherefore come out from among them and be your separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

   He had just been talking in verse 15. Maybe we should go back there. I'm leaving out verse 14 because that is obvious. It's been talked about and explained many times, but he says in verse 15, and what concord is Christ with Belial and what part is he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement at the temple of God with idols, for you are the temple of the living God as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God. They shall be my people. Special chosen people. And he said, if you come out and don't touch the unclean thing, that is, don't contaminate yourself with this world and its system and its ways which are wrong, then I will receive you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Eternal.

   So we have to say, to examine ourselves and say this week, have we really come out of here, up here? Have we really come out of the world, not physically, because we're still here, but have we really come out of it? And when there is a conflict. Or shall we say something where the church is teaching something and yet your ideas are seemingly in rebellion against that church's teachings, ask yourself, is it because your ideas are the old wine skins. Your ideas are the ideas of people outside rather than the Church of God where God is working. And oftentimes the answer is yep, that's the reason why I'm kicking against this particular prick. I'm kicking against this particular order or this particular teaching of the Church of God, this particular direction or administration of the Church of God, wherever it may happen to be. It is a very strong influence, brethren.

   You know, when the Babylonians went into captivity after Nebuchadnezzar's temple, or God's temple rather, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And God sent the Jews and the remainder of the Jews there into captivity to Babylon, and he said, 70 years you'll be there. Then Daniel, recall, during the time of the book of Daniel, Cyrus. The king let them go, let them go back, and Ezra and Nehemiah and some of the other ones came out of Babylon went back. You know how many went back? Well, you can read it in Ezra and Nehemiah if you check up the book, you can find out about 45,000. Jews went back. They were probably by that time already 2 to 3 million in Babylon, but only 45,000 went back to Jerusalem. Why? The answer, the answer is obvious. The other million or so liked it in Babylon. It was good life there.

   And perhaps of course not only that, but they've been another generation that come up in the 70 years. They liked it there, so they didn't want to go back. They didn't feel any ties to Jerusalem. They didn't feel any ties in the land of Judea, which maybe the older ones had because they had been taken from their land and moved to Babylon, and they were longing to go back. But some of those even who were taken there probably didn't even go back. But even they were telling their children who were born maybe right there in Babylon. Look, your land is Israel, Jerusalem is the capital, that's God's country. That's God's city, and the temple of God is there. We're going to build it up again. It was destroyed because of our sins. The second generation of Jews and Babylon said, What's that to us? You go back if you want to. I like it here. I like Babylonian. It's good living here in Babylon.

   They liked it And that's why when the fact when he did go back, what happened? Well, even God's calendar took on Babylonian names because Nissan is a Babylonian name. Abib is the first month and really in God's language, Abib, but it got another name, Nissan from Babylon, and one of the other months, I can't remember which one got another name also Tammuz direct Babylonian God because of the influence of Babylon had on the Jews while they were there. So many of them didn't come out. Now we've all been influenced by our society, but God says come out of it, don't touch the unclean thing, separate yourselves from it. And don't get contaminated by it. And this is one reason why we keep this feast to remind us, we've got to get out of the world as well as overcome.

   So you see, not only as a matter of what do we have to overcome ourselves, yes, our problems, our difficulties, our weakness, our weaknesses, but as Christ said, we have to also overcome perhaps the biggest lure of all, and that is the world, the society. That we are all living in and stand up for what is right rather than giving in to relatives and friends who will try to coax you to do wrong or to mix with them in their systems or in their customs and their ways. They will try to get you perhaps to worship or to give prayers for the dead. Carry over from your old religion. Or will insist on you wearing black for a year in mourning. When you shouldn't do that in God's sight. There'll be a few days for, for for the sake of not offending, but to wear black for a whole year. Some of you doing that if if a relative dies, especially the women, are you wearing black for a whole year? Well, if you are, you are just conforming to this system of the Catholicism. Which believes that you should mourn for the dead.

   Nowhere in the Bible does God say mourn for the dead, except in the case of Moses there where the people mourned because of Moses in his position, but they didn't mourn in the wrong way. People mourn today because they mourn because they think the dead are in purgatory or hell or somewhere else. You got to pray the out of there. No, Paul said on the contrary, Christians should not weep or be mournful as others do who have no hope. Now it doesn't mean that the day your husband or wife dies, you have a party. You don't go to the opposite extreme, you know. Otherwise people would get offended. God wouldn't be pleased with that. Naturally you sorrow, as we said this morning, Mr. McRay, naturally it's a natural thing to sorrow over a loved one, so you don't hold a party.

   Oh, the Irish get that part, you know, the Irish have what we call wakes, that is the Catholic Irish. They have wakes. Where all the relatives come to the house with the dead body lies and then they start, you know, mourning over the dead person in the morning and then all the relatives keeping the friends keep arriving all throughout the day and by mid afternoon the whiskey is open and the whiskey gets passed around. By evening time, the fiddlers are playing lively and everybody's drunk and there's a great party going on. Everybody's happy. In the midst of the corpse lying on the table or in the coffin. And it's awake. They call it awake and and they, you know, and then they go home sort of in the early hours of the morning, wee hours of the morning, as we say they go home to sleep off the hangover. So they even their morning becomes a party atmosphere. But God doesn't want us to do that, of course, but on the other hand but you know, just examine yourself, as I was saying that the Kansas City Church about, during the Bible study.

   What, what about all the superstitions and the things that are going around that you've had in your past, you still got them? What about your beliefs? You still got them. You've got people in in Bukino, as I said, who, who are still, who still play around with amulets who still have their lucky charms. Who still believe in them, who maybe have the rabbit's foot in their pocket. Do some of you are some of you still wearing that old thing around your neck? In the shape of a cross where God calls an idolatrous thing. Of course you might not think it brings you luck, but get rid of it. Wear a chain if you want, but why wear a chain with a cross on it? That's the T for Tammuz. It all goes back to Babylon. That's not the cross of Christ, and even if it was the cross of Christ, you think it is, we are not to wear it. In other words, you look at yourself. How, how much are you still steeped in this world? Or have you really come out of it? It's a very difficult thing to do.

   Oops, ghastly, quarter til 4 already. Ephesians 6, fasten your seatbelts. Ephesians chapter 6. And uh let's see who the real author of it all is. Ephesians 6:10, finally my brethren, but it's not finally, I'm not yet finished. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand or to stand against the wilds of the devil. He's the one who's behind it all, you see. We've got to believe who is behind this world's weight, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not your wife unconverted wife or unconverted husband or great aunt so and so or or uh Lola or Lolo you're not wrestling against those people if they are trying to get you to do wrong, who's behind them? Satan. He's the one who's trying to get them to cause you to offend or to stumble.

   We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness or wicked spirits in high places. That's what we're fighting against, what we're really fighting against. We need to believe that that's who it is we're fighting against. The world thinks the devil doesn't exist. It's just a figment of people's imagination. Oh, he exists all right, and he's ruling and he's controlling this world.

   Chapter 2, verse 2 and 3. Chapter 2, verse 2 and 3 (Ephesians 2:2-3). Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world. That's us. We all did in times past. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is working in this children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath even as others. We were the children of the devil, so people don't like you to say that, but John John 8 Christ said, you are of your father the devil, he told the Pharisees, because he's a, he's a liar and the father of it.

   We have a spiritual father before we're in God's church, and that is Satan, the devil. We are all the devil's children. Work, work. Until God makes us his children, and he then becomes our Father. But while we're unconverted, we're the devil's children. Every single person on the outside of the family on the spiritual Israel of God is a child of the devil. Now, I don't, don't go around telling them that. That is not diplomacy. But and spiritually and the way God sees it, they are, but you know, if you tell them that, then you're asking for trouble. But they don't know it, but that's the way they are. They are the children of the devil, spiritually speaking, even though they think they're doing good works. They're nice people by themselves. They're they're good people by themselves and of themselves, but their whole system of belief, idea, and worship is of Satan the devil. Therefore, he's their father. He's the god they worship. No, they don't know it. They don't realize it. They're deceived and blinded, as Mr. Armstrong has said many, many times.

   Now we're different from that. We've got to come out of that. I Peter 4. Let's zoom ahead. I Peter 4:33. And this is why for the time passed of our life may suffice us to have brought the will of the Gentile. When we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatry, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them with the same excess of riot speaking evil of you. Yeah, they think it's strange. How come you can become weird all of a sudden? But that's the way we used to walk, the will of the Gentile and and of course speaking here of spiritual Gentile as well as physical. And Peter was writing to the tribes of Israel, but in our case we're talking about spiritual Gentiles, the people of your connections outside the church.

   That's the way we used to walk. Now are we still walking in it? There was a time a lot of months ago or years ago where one member, I hope it's not there anymore, was going with his Barcata drinking on a Sabbath evening, Friday night, and getting near drunk with his Barcata on a Friday night. Is that the kind of a life a Christian should live? No it isn't. Number 1, he shouldn't be getting drunk. And number 2, especially on the Sabbath of the evening. number 3, especially with the world. His mates or people outside the church. That's not the way a Christians should live. No, well, no, when you start living the right way, they think you're weird. They think it's strange that you don't run to the same riot, speaking excessive riot, speaking evil of you. Speaking evil of, well, that's the way it is. That's the way you've got to be. You have to avoid the subtle intrusion into your mind of this society around us.

   Come out of it. Come out of her, my people, God says that you've been not partakers of her plagues and receive not of her sins or received none of her plagues because of her sins, Revelation 18. It's the same thing. Come out of her, my people, come out of the Babylonian system, which this entire world is. It's not just Catholicism, but every system has its origins in Babylon. We've got to come out of it and not be a part of it, very, very important, and we're surrounded by it.

   So I haven't got time with all the things I was intending to go into, but look at it, ask yourself the questions, are you still in it? Films, books, magazines, the kind of reading material you read, the kind of films you go to see, the kind of things you do, are you still going to the wrong kind of films, the Bomba movies. The ones that are not good, are you still going just to see violence for violent sake? Now I can go and see a movie where there's violence in it, but there's always a lesson or something entertaining in it. But there are some people who will go to the violent type movies just for the sake of violence. It's part of this world, just for the lust after violence that's the way people are. They lust after violence.

   So the more bloody and gory a film is, the more box office returns are. The more shark films they can make from Jaws one, I'm not saying don't go to see Jaws or any of these things. I'm saying that the more they make them, they make them more bloody each time when they try to, because that's human nature to lust after blood. Now you go to that kind of a thing. I, I just this is again my personal preference. I wouldn't say that you shouldn't go see Jaw 1 or Jaws 2 or Jaws 100. I don't care which uh which is there, but you know, if you go to enough of that kind of movie, you see your conscience. I just shudder sometimes I go to a nice movie. While I'm watching the nice movie, they have the coming attractions. The coming attractions would not be a movie I wouldn't go to see, but I see the coming attraction up there and something I shudder. I shudder and I just feel uh shivers and it, I just uh hurts me emotionally because I see that, um, overdone violence on the screen, blood and gore or somebody being torn apart or whatever and it just makes me feel bad. And God says it should do.

   Now you feed on that kind of a thing. Then your mind becomes immune. To people suffering. And then you'll be able to someday to the way people out in the world do when an accident happens, gather on and gaze at the body line there and the blood pouring out of it without feeling anything. That's the way people are. Just, just, just to check it. Any accident in the street, somebody gets knocked down, knocked down, the people the ambulance can't get near for the crowds. The crowds are there to help. No, they're there to gawk. They're there to look, to see blood. And let me be thankful it's not them. That's the what's the way of human nature. That's the way Satan is geared it up.

   So you ask yourself, I couldn't go into this in the detail I wanted to, but ask yourself, are you still in the world when it comes down to movies, the wrong kind and books and film and and uh the ways of this world, things that you would go along to see that you shouldn't see. Ephesians 5. Even people sometimes go along to shows that are not good, restaurants that are of questionable value with floor shows that are anything but correct for a Christian to see. Girly shows, are you still a part of that system? Well, you should not be. You've got to get out of it. That's Egypt. That's Babylon.

   Ephesians 5:18, 5, 8 verse 5 chapter 5 verse 8. For you are sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light. You see, verse, verse 13, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever does make manifest is light. All things that are reproved. Well, as are made manifest by the light. How do you know something is wrong? By the light that shows it up to be wrong, but what is the light that shows it up to be wrong? God's way. God's system.

   So if you say to me, well, how do you say or why do you say going to watch a girly show is wrong in a restaurant. Because the Bible says flee fornication. And anybody who goes to see a girly show, whether it's a striptease act or something, cannot sit there and pretend they're not committing spiritual fornication, or at least in their mind. So it's obvious what is wrong is manifested by what is right. And the word of God tells us what is right. So when we are trying to judge what something's good or not, we judge it by this Bible, by God's word, and that then we don't try to kid ourselves that we're going along to see it because we want to see how bad the world is. So we go to every Bamba movie that comes along just to see how rotten this world is, when you're, you're deceiving yourself. You're deceiving yourself.

   And uh we happen to do that. So it's like a darkened room. You switch on a flashlight in a darkened room, you see, oh, there's a piano over there. There's a suitcase down there and there's a, there's a uh body over there, you know, in a darkened room that's what the flashlight will show up what's in the room, right? Right, this world is a darkened place. And it is the light of God's way that is shining in the darkened world and is showing up what is there. Showing up the wrong things and that God says we've got to get away from our ways are the way of God, brethren is manifested, should be manifested by our life. Our ways should be like an oasis of hope in the desert of despair because that's the way this world is. It's just a place of despair and discouragement. And the ways of God which we are supposed to show should be like an oasis in a desert.

   Our greatest weapon against Satan. Is the word of God, or shall we say God's way. Matthew 4 hurry along here. Matthew 4, you know, Christ's temptation teaches us important lessons, teaches us a lot of important lessons. Matthew 4:3, when the tempter came to him, he said, If you'd be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. If you be the Son of God. See, try to put thoughts of vanity in his mind. Satan appeal to his vanity. He hoping that Christ would say, what do you mean if? Of course I am. He said if you are the Son of God, you uh you make these stones bread.

   But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Notice so his weapon. What was Christ's weapon? Argument, justification, reasoning. Did he try to sit down, now look, Lucifer or Satan, you see, I don't think he got the right idea and began to argue and use Christ's own human reasoning. No, he didn't use his own reasoning, which he could have done because he was a very brilliant person, being God in the flesh. He just simply quoted Bible. Just simply quoted the scriptures back to Satan as a quick, short, absolute answer. You shall not live by bread alone, every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

   Verse 5. So the devil didn't argue back. He just said, well, he'd been beaten there. So we took him up to the pinnacle of the holy city, or the temple rather, and set him on a pinnacle. And said, if you be the Son of God, cast yourself down because it's written that the angel shall they'll protect you. I'm shortening it for time. And uh what did Jesus say? It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So here again, Christ quoted another scripture. You see, to help Satan out to show Satan that he was wrong, he was not going to jump off there because that's not what the scripture meant. But again, he didn't reason. He didn't give in to Satan's reasoning or Satan's temptation. He just simply quoted the scripture back at him, and as a result, well, Satan had to try another attack.

   So in verse 8, he said the devil took him to an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. And the glory of them. Just all of the time passing, all of the kingdoms of the world probably saw the, the uh the different empire, not only the Roman Empires it was at that time, but maybe saw the Mongols later on. Genghis Khan and perhaps the Germans, Empire, maybe Hitler and Mussolini and said all these things I'll give you if you just fall down and worship me. And Jesus said, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. So again, Christ quoted the scripture.

   Now therefore we know that Satan will try to get us at every turn. And what have we got to do in response? We've got to learn how Satan fights. Satan fights by capitalizing on these things, by capitalizing on our human nature as he did to Christ. He tried to get Christ to turn against God through his physical human nature, through his hunger, his what he hoped was ego, through what he hoped was vanity in the person of Christ, but it didn't work. It didn't work at all, and we've got to learn that that's the way he does. He capitalizes on our physical appetites, on our human weaknesses such as our vanity and our ego, and he also gets quotes scripture or misquotes it oftentimes and attempts to get us to worship him.

   And what is our weapon. The greatest weapon we have against him, brethren, who is the God of this world and its society and its ways, the greatest weapon that we have is the word of God. The Bible itself reflects the mind and the character of God, the will of God, and even Paul called it the sword of the spirit. Which is the word of God. That's the sword we use to fight. We don't reason. We don't reason. We just use the Bible to fight. Now unless we know the Bible, unless we know what is in there, then we'll not be able to fight very effectively. Our swords will be a little blunt as such, and we're defenseless without it.

   Remember it was read this morning in a different context, but when the Pharisees or the Sadducees asked about the resurrection, what did Christ say Matthew 22:29, he said, Look, you do error not knowing the scriptures. In other words, he said you're going wrong because you don't know the scriptures. Now we're the same way. Many of us go wrong because we don't know God's will or the scriptures, and in many cases we don't bother to find it in the Bible directly or we don't even bother to find out from God's ministers what the will of God may be in something. We just go ahead and do what we think is right. And then we get in trouble because we're doing wrong.

   We go ahead and do what is right, or if we do ask, then it's only our opinion. We, anytime that I've said this brethren in the pulpit many, many times, any time you ask me about some way of life and whether it's God's way or not, I will always tell you this is my opinion. If it's my opinion, I will say this is the way I see it, or this is my opinion. This is what I feel. I will always preface what I tell you with those remarks, but when it comes down to this is the way of God, I won't do it. I just say, here's what God says, and then you know it's not my opinion in that case. And I think this is the same with all the ministers. If any time it's just a personal opinion or preference, we will tell you so, you know, on something about what you might say, well, should I change my job or not.

   Well now God doesn't God's will, the Bible doesn't tell you whether to change your job or not. But if you give me all the facts about your job, present job, then the facts about the one that's uh you might get next week. And then you want my opinion about it, you would say, Well, do you think I should change or not? Then I might say, well, after what you told me it might be a good idea of course it's your decision, but it might be a good idea to move or might be a good idea to stay where you are because the way I see it or my opinion is you're better off here, but that's my opinion. And you make the decision because that's not in the word of God, but if you say to me, is it right? Or not to uh attend this uh the Catholic Church every Sunday with my parents just to please them. I'll say you bet it's not right, it's wrong because God says don't be mixed up with idol worshiping. And what has Christ got to do with with the belial? And can you eat the cup of the Lord, drink the cup of the Lord and a cup of demons at the same time, Paul said, no, I say no, you shouldn't attend just to please your parents or your wife or husband, as this man was mentioned this morning by Mr. McRay last Sabbath who attended the church of his wife, even though he didn't believe that was the right church, ended up this fellowship. He shouldn't have been attending there. That is not our opinion just to say no, don't do it, or if you tell me well, should I go to see this girly show? I said no. Well, it's only your opinion. No, it's not because God says it's free fornication. No, that's the verse you use to fight against something like that.

   So we're defenseless without the word of God. I John 2:14, not too much longer now, we're near nearly through. Anyway, I was speaking for you to you for 2 1/2 months. I John 2:14, so you won't have to listen to me for 2 1/2 months. It'll be your sabbatical. I have written on to you, fathers, he said, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written on to you, young man, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you. And as a result, I might put there those words as a result, you have overcome the wicked one or you are overcoming the wicked one. Why? Because the word of God abides in you. You know right from wrong because the Bible tells you and the scripture shows you what is right from wrong. You know it. And you've got to understand it. So the strength was in the word of God.

   In chapter 4, verse 4 (I John 4:4), Christ is the key to overcoming. The world, he says, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them because of what? greater is he that is in you than he, Satan, that is in the world. You can overcome the world and overcome Satan's influence in this world because God, Christ in you is greater than Satan. If you will do your part in overcoming the world, it's very easy. As long as Christ is in you, you can overcome what you've got to have faith in Him. And as verse 24 of the previous chapter says. I John 3:24, He that keeps his commandments dwells in him and he in him, and hereby we know that he abides in us by the spirit which he has given to us. That's how we know it, and we know the verse in Galatians 2:20 and he turn there but where Paul said, the life that I now live, you know, I'm crucified with Christ, but the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave Himself for me. Christ, he says, lives in me. And I live that life.

   Now, Christ overcame the world as we know he said he did, and he said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Why did he tell us to be of good cheer? Because as I said, he in you through the Spirit of God will also overcome the world. You won't be uh pulled in by it, but you've got to do your part in resisting the world and saying no when there is a choice to be made as to whether to go along with the world's ways, which are wrong. And whether to go along with God's ways, but you're right. You will have an easy time making a choice because Christ in you will tell you no, it's wrong. It is wrong.

   I John 5:4, Whatsoever is begotten this should be not born, but whatsoever is begotten of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. You've got to have faith in Christ. Christ in you will overcome the world. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God, but not just believes. Has works with his belief, with his faith. And who will be able to overcome the world because he believes Christ is in him. And if he's in him, in you, brethren, by the power of, of the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit of God, then You will overcome the world.

   And whenever things are coming up before you, whenever questions come up or whenever you're tempted to go wrong, what will happen? Christ in you will tell you. Now, what do I mean? I mean, you're going to hear voices? No, that's a dangerous thing, but you will be brought to God will bring or Christ will bring to your mind through the Spirit of God working in you, will bring to your mind the scriptures that will help you to resist as uh as uh Jesus himself did to Satan, the devil. You see, when, when Satan, the devil tried to tempt Christ, what did Christ, what happened in Christ's minds? Christ was listening to the question. In the Christ's mind popped the scripture, I shall not tempt the Lord your God. He knew it was wrong, so he immediately quoted it.

   Now when you're facing something wrong, the spirit of God or Christ in you says to you. I don't want to keep harping on that one, but that simple one of flee fornication should come into your mind, young people, single people when you get into a compromising position where you're tempted. Now if you're a converted person, that will always come into your mind. Flea fornication, of course, if you don't listen to it and you go ahead anyway, then you're resisting the spirit and you're resisting Christ overcoming in you. And depending on your closeness to God, whether or not you will give in or fight and overcome, well, that depends on you, but it is Christ in you that will overcome.

   When your boss said, I want you to work tonight, Friday. Because they have a project needs finished just a couple of hours. I know you keep the Saturday as your Sabbath, but this is only tonight, just 2 hours tonight, Friday. You know, and I'm not asking again. And you think to yourself, what do you think? What comes into your mind if Christ is in you, you're gonna overcome that problem because immediately it will come to your mind. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You shall do no work. It doesn't say you shall do a little work, just two hours' work and say you shall do no work on the Sabbath. And you'll remember that covenant and that scripture and you will say, I'm sorry, boss, but I can't do it. I really can't. I wish I could. I'd like to please you, but I just cannot, not even for two hours, even if you're fired. You will overcome that temptation of Satan to get you to to profane the Sabbath day.

   We need the simple thing, whatever you're tempted to take the cigarette. When the person offers it to you, which has been a problem with you perhaps in the past, you will say no. In your mind, you will say I mustn't touch that because whatever I, you know, I, I use myself serving to obey his servant I am to whom I obey. Romans 6 will come to your mind and you say, no, I can't I'm not gonna be a slave to that thing. No, I'm not gonna take it. No, don't offer it to me, you know, I'll stop smoking you rather than going ahead and taking it. It is Christ in you will not smoke. Christ in you will not become drunk. Christ in you will not fornicate. Christ in you will not commit adultery. Christ in you period will overcome. That's why he says be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world.

   Romans 12:21, the very last verse in the chapter, he says, be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. Now Paul's life was a life of child, but you know he never quit fighting. II Corinthians 4, few verses here before finishing. II Corinthians 4:8. He said we are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair. You ever been perplexed? Perplexed means you just don’t know what to do next. And maybe in some cases this is the way you are and facing trials in the world. But do you get downcast? No, you should not be in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. That's the attitude you should have always varying about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

   Verse 16. For which cause we faint not, for though our outward man perishe, the inward man is renewed day by day, as we heard this morning, we're getting older and this life is vanity and uh you know, no matter how young you are, you're growing older by the minute. It was always hard, you know, the other night when Mrs. Rakano was staying with us, we showed her some of our uh 8 millimeter movies. Some of them taken away back in 1970. At a beach outing we had here, not the guy type, right in the lake shore of the and there I saw myself, I saw a lot of you people here, a lot of you look 10 years younger. Because you were 10 years younger 1970 or 1971 or and everybody looked like a teenager, back there. And you know, Mr. Mayor looked like a teenager then too, no mustache. I don't know if Mr. Mike Reagan was on that. I can't remember, and of course I myself was a lot, a lot younger and I saw a lot of you who are now married and children and have children, all of you looked very young, maybe be one of the. Sometime we we will show them things so you're gonna run with this. I look back, but really showing you all of these all of our people, some no longer with us who were on the movie. Some died, some gone from the church.

   But one thing was true, all, all of those who were on the movie looked a lot younger. Now here we are 10 years hence, and we're a lot older. So we know we are getting older. No outward man does perish. Yet the inward man is renewed day by day, for our life affliction is but for a moment, fighting this world, overcoming, coming out of it is only for a moment compa comparatively speaking, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, we don't look at the world and it's ways and its system and its attractions, but at the things which are not seen. That's the trouble with Israel. They kept looking back to Egypt and the things that were missing instead of looking forward to the promised land that God had promised to them. And we've got to be the same thing. We've got to look not at the things which we see others in the world and it pulls and its draws and it's uh temptations. We have to look at that. What we've got to look at is the promised land, the kingdom of God, the family of God, eternal beings for living forever. That's what we have to look at. But the things which are seen are temporal just like ourselves, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

   So in spite of the circumstances, we press on, we walk by faith. In spite of what has happened, we keep on moving. and Paul himself said in spite of all the troubles, you know, he thought it was worth it. To go through all of those troubles right at the end of his life in II Timothy 4:6, he said, I'm now ready to be award, and the time of my departure is at hand. You know, perhaps it's a good thing that most of us don't know the time of our departure. I'm not talking about leaving home here, I'm talking about death. Because if we knew the time of our departure, we might not be like Paul, you might get into a panic. Most of us would, you know, if you were told today uh by God or some way or some other person, uh. Your time of departure is uh you know uh. This is the 7th. This is Monday already. Well, the time of your departure is Friday. This coming Friday we'll be taken out and shot. You got a few days left. What would we be thinking about? But while we don't know, You'd just be hoping that that whole thing would be like Philippine Airlines delayed again. That needs delayed for another few days or something.

   But uh Paul knew because Paul had been in prison. He was arrested. He'd been at home for 2 years, house arrest, but now he knew that he was about to be executed and word had got to him. He was on death row. But what he, what was he in a panic? No, he said, I am now ready to be offered because he said I have fought a good faith. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. He didn't, he didn't sit down and think, oh all the mistakes I've made and get fearful. He repented of those mistakes as his life went on, and he had overcome. And he said that's why there's a cry of righteousness for me. The Lord will will give me at that day and not to me only but to all them also that loved his appearing.

   So he kept on fighting, he kept on struggling and he kept on overcoming right to the very end, and we have got to do the same thing, brethren. We've got to do the same thing. That's one of the big lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread. So we have to not only to come out of Egypt and leave it behind and realize what we have to overcome and not just yourself but the world, but we've got to keep on overcoming. And as we finish the sunset this evening when the Days of Unleavened Bread is over, never and don't forget the lessons of this week. But rather carry on this year, this new year of God's calendar, this new year of God. Keep on overcoming those sins that you weren't cognizant of this week. Keep on overcoming and keep on fighting, keep on moving ahead, never forgetting that Christ had only the overcomers will be in the kingdom of God.

   Don't let down. Don't sort of close the overcoming with the end of this day and say, well, I've been fighting all this week. Now the Days of Unleavened Bread are over, I can stop fighting. And I give in to my whims and caprices again. I just become the dead fish. For one week I was swimming upstream against the current. Well it's been tough. Now that the week is over, I can start swimming downstream along with all the other dead fish. And what will happen if you do? Well, you just come right back to where you were before, won't you? Because if you start here swimming upstream for a week, then you give up after the week is over and you swim downstream, you'll pass where you were and go on and get worse again. Otherwise, if you do that, then this has been a this has been a physical exercise only and has not done you any spiritual good at all.

   You've got to keep on going. Working on your problems, overcoming them, fighting, struggling, and then as the day happens to come when you're dying, you will be able to say with Paul, I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I've kept overcoming. I've slipped, but I've kept overcoming. I've kept going. You see, brother, God didn't call us to be a loser. He didn't call us to be outside the family. He did not intend us to miss out on the joys of eternal life simply because of spiritual laziness. And you know that's often the case. We're spiritually lazy. We don't want to overcome. It's too difficult to overcome. It's too hard to overcome. Well is anything worth getting without some effort?

   Jesus Christ, he said he fought and he overcame. And it says the same thing and Paul said, look, put aside the sin that easily besets you. And run the race because we haven't yet resisted on the blood. Striving against sin. It's not easy to overcome. Of course it isn’t but with Christ in you, you can do it. It is mental torture sometimes to overcome because it'd be easy just to not overcome, just to give in. When you're fighting a pool of human nature, it is mental agony. If it's not, then you're not overcoming it. Because it's something that you want, the person who's addicted to addict to a cigarette, he has mental agony when he sees somebody else puffing a cigarette or somebody office and when he says no, and he's struggling because the smell of smoke is driving him crazy because he craves that smoke. So he's gone through literally physically and mental agony. But if he does it often enough, finally the smoke cigarette won't have any lu on him at all he'd say, well, it doesn't matter what time I had a real tough time resisting, but not any longer.

   The same with the person who can't stop drinking too much. Well, in most cases, people who get drunk you stop drinking altogether. But whatever it is, the problem is you have, what you would like to do, human nature is pulling you to do, resisting it is hurtful, it is painful. But like I say, uh. You can't grow, and we have growing pains, just like a child's growing pains. It's like a little baby will scream oftentimes at night or during the day because his teeth are coming up. It's teething and it hurts because those teeth are coming up, but you gotta tell the baby doesn't understand. But you're not to be able to tell the baby, yeah, I know it's painful, honey, but unless you have things, you won't be able to enjoy food later on. You can't chew. So, It's tough. But put up with it. The baby and it's oh my, I, I can't stand it. I don't want teeth, but later on when the teeth come up, the baby will say, well, we're tough going, boy, boy, my gums are painful, but now I've got a good set of teeth, now I can enjoy my food. To get the teeth that have to suffer.

   To get to the kingdom of God, we have to suffer the mental agony of resisting. And overcoming and it's mostly mental by saying no to ourselves and our whole body says yes, yes, yes, you gotta say no, no, no, and it's mental toughness of God and you and Christ and you can do it if you make the effort. So the Days of Unleavened Bread brethren remind us again of what we have to do and it does take a lot of effort. We've got to work on overcoming. Because it is Christ who will overcome in you if you let him.

   The final verse then in Philippians 12. Philippians 12. Oops Philippians 12. What am I saying? Philippians 12. I can't even read my own writing. Philippians 2 looks like a 12. of Philippians 12 and the millennium of the moment. Or shall it be the Philippians 12? Filipinos 12. The history of the church here, Philippians 2:12, I should say. Wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. That's a good verse for me to finish on, in my absence for 1 1/2 months. Not only in my presence, but now much more on my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You do it. You work your part, for it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's what God wants.

   And God says, brethren, you will make. If you never forget the lesson that God has been teaching you this week. If you never forget it, and of course if you keep on overcoming it to the end, remember that Jesus said to him that overcomes, not to the dead face that keeps swimming downstream with all the others, but to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne. It gets rid of the sin. On his own life and that comes out of Egypt. So remember those twofold lessons for this week, not only overcoming your personal problems and getting rid of the leaven of the sin out of your life, but overcoming the world, coming out of Egypt, out of this system, out of the world, not being contaminated by it, saying no to its ways, which will only make you a child again of the devil, instead of a child of God. Keep overcoming.