No. 34 - WAKE UP THE BRIDE By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, August 02, 2003 As we know, the Bible was written for the Church. What is the Church? What has the Church been in the past? The term church is ecclesia in the New Testament and ecclesia means “called out ones”, a congregation. It can refer either to a Jewish synagogue or Christian assembly. TWO ECCLESIAS In the New Testament most of the time obviously it means the Christian assembly, God’s chosen people. In the Old Testament, congregation was the nation of Israel itself. That was God’s congregation. Both of these congregations are very closely related because they share the same heritage. They share a common future looking forward to the Messiah. They also share many of the same experiences that are recorded in the Old Testament. The entire Bible is about these two congregations. The Old Testament records show a historical narrative of ancient Israel. Within that historical narrative we see a thread line of prophecy that looks forward to the second ecclesia, that is, prophesies concerning Jesus Christ and the body of Christ which is His Church, His ecclesia. Before proceeding we must say that outside of these two congregations there is the world. The world is not dealt with primarily in the Bible at this time. There is a time order into which people will be called, and essentially right now we are in the era of the firstfruits or the time of the firstfruits. Jesus Christ is a type of those firstfruits. We are not talking specially about the world today. We are talking about God’s two ecclesias, His two congregations. We want to learn from the original congregation (the original ecclesia) lessons that will help us at this time. The first and the second ecclesia are working toward the same goal. As I mentioned, we are both looking forward to the Messiah. We are looking forward to a Millennium. We are looking forward to a beautiful change to take place on the planet earth. But there are some major differences. Even though we have a common heritage and we are looking forward to a common future and we have many similar experiences, as we will see during the rest of the sermon, there are some stark differences between the first congregation of God and the second congregation of God. That is, the first ecclesia and the second. The first congregation was a physical nation, the nation of Israel, with a physical capital at Jerusalem and a physical temple built by Solomon and rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Now in the second ecclesia, the second congregation, we have a spiritual nation. It is also often referred to as Israel or Zion. It has a spiritual capital called Jerusalem and it is made of spiritual people forming a spiritual temple. These people are spiritual in that they receive the Holy Spirit. We are still physical human beings, but we have a dimension added to us. It is a dimension that is a gift from God, that is the Holy Spirit. That changes something. It changes the promises. The original ecclesia (the original congregation) was given physical promises of national greatness because they were just physical. They were promised a place for them and their temple on this earth as a government and a chosen people of God. The spiritual ecclesia, on the other hand, has spiritual promises offered to them. These spiritual promises obviously are much more awesome, much more comprehensive, much more important to God and His plan. But they could not take place until the first physical promises and physical nation were called and went through enough experiences and recorded the Bible and the prophesies in the Old Testament, so that we would have something to base our faith upon. We would have lessons to learn from and understand what our part is in the future and what we are supposed to be doing now. We need these physical lessons so it was very important to have a physical nation to precede us. This also leads to another aspect. FOR OUR ADMONITION When there are good promises that are either physical or spiritual, they are based upon our faith and upon our obedience. When we are in breach of our covenant with God, there are consequences. Obviously with a physical nation with physical promises they would have physical correction and punishment. We, being the spiritual people of God, the spiritual temple, the spiritual Jerusalem, would be facing spiritual correction; but we are still physical human beings. How would that spiritual correction manifest itself? That is what is important for us to look at today. Since we are physical, there must be a physical way of looking at this correction yet it would be very spiritual in nature. It would be something that God would do to correct His begotten children to change their behavior to bear fruit for Him that would be of an eternal nature. We have looked at the fruits of the Holy Spirit in past sermons. We will not go into all of that right now, but we want to realize we are facing spiritual correction today that we can draw lessons from by looking at what happened to ancient Israel in the past and learn from them. The experiences of the first ecclesia are our examples. Their congregation recorded their history of their disobedience as well as when they were obedient and how God handled the two. We are to look to those experiences that they had and learn from them. Let us turn to I Corinthians chapter 10. This is a very, very important subject to understand, because it opens up the whole Bible to be useful to us to learn how to please God. We learn how to even recognize correction, because unfortunately today many in God’s Church do not even recognize correction for what it is when it comes from God because we are too physical in our outlook! Read I Corinthians 10:1 to 6. So those recorded historical records of ancient Israel are examples for us. Continue reading from verse 7 to 15. We are looking at physical examples and a physical escape that ancient Israel should have been able to take advantage of and did not. Most of them perished in the wilderness and were scattered about. The list is three or four things they did wrong. There are actually many more if you were to look in the scriptures, but it lists them as examples. Many of them died because of immorality. Many of them died because of worshipping idols. We can go through those examples and find examples for ourselves. We can look at the historical record, and Paul is saying here that record is for us to not make the same mistakes. If that record is for us to not make the same mistakes, it goes without saying, we can make the same mistakes. We best pay attention so that we do not. It concludes there in the thought that Paul was conveying that there is a way to escape these temptations. You will see as we go through this sermon, it is not a physical escape. We are escaping temptation, brethren. We are escaping the fate of falling spiritually. We are not escaping a physical destroyer. It is an important concept to grasp. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 8:4. “For if He were on earth...” (this is Jesus Christ) “...He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law...” We have looked at the temple and the temple service many times. In the physical temple of Solomon there were physical priests doing a physical job to intercede for a physical people before a spiritual God. Now we have a High Priest who has a spiritual job interceding for people who have the Holy Spirit, and He is interceding for us in a spiritual way. That is the most important way He intercedes for us. Yes, we can go to Him for physical healing, but that is not Christ’s main job. He died for our sins to make His bride and His temple ready for Him to return to. Continuing in verse 5: “...who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” All the things that Moses instructed the people to do and the physical things they ended up building to worship God in were made after a heavenly pattern where Christ is now, back into that heavenly role doing His spiritual job as our High Priest. He is getting a spiritual temple ready. But we have the examples of a physical temple, a physical priesthood and a physical people that we can look to, to understand what Christ is doing for us, what our job is and what He is preparing. It is very, very important and very deep; but we need those physical examples to understand. Continue reading in verse 6 of Hebrews 8. “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” There are two covenants. There is the covenant with physical Israel and the covenant with spiritual Israel, which is God’s Church today. We have better promises. Continue reading Hebrews 8:7 to 13. If those words were true back in Paul’s time, they are much more true now. The old system and the old way is about to vanish totally. The new way exists only in God’s Church. We are the only ones with the High Priest actively involved in a spiritual temple at this time! As soon as this vanishes away, this promise and this new covenant will be given to even those in ancient Israel who did not understand and had to go through the physical life observing physical statutes in a physical temple! What they did was very real and important. When they are resurrected, they will understand. Even just up ahead, those alive who are currently physical Jews will understand! They will grasp this very quickly. When God opens their mind, they will grasp this because they understand the old system. God has not opened their minds yet, let alone the world. The world will soon have their minds opened! We better be ahead of them because we are part of God’s plan to help them. That is the purpose of the temple and spiritual Israel. This is indeed an important lesson for us to learn at this time to prepare to fulfill the jobs and the opportunities that God has in store for those who will believe and obey. THE TWO COVENANTS I want to look at those two covenants briefly. I want to look at the covenant with ancient Israel and the covenant that we have with God today. You will see they are very similar. They are based on similar things but one is spiritual and one is physical. Turn to Exodus chapter 19:4. “‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.’” When Christ, as a Rock, led ancient Israel out of Egypt. Continuing in Exodus 19:5 to 6. “‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” God is telling Moses what to tell the people. Verse 7 to 8: “So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.” The people agreed to this covenant. Then it goes on to talk about the law and the statutes. The law, the eternal law, is the ten commandments listed in Exodus 20. But God made an agreement with the people, and He said if you will keep this agreement, you will be a holy nation to Me, a special people, a kingdom for Me, a kingdom of priests. That is what He told ancient Israel, a physical people. He went and gave them the law. He told them how great their nation would be on the earth and what a shining light they could be to all the people around. He gave them many examples of how He could bless them and protect them in times of war, protect them from famine and bless them in many physical ways. It is very fascinating because within those words there are words for us, a spiritual people. The main thing I want you to note here is that God made an agreement between Himself and Israel, and that agreement made these people special. They were set apart and they were holy. They became God’s first congregation, his first set-apart people, His first ecclesia as it were. Now turn, if you would, to I Peter chapter 2. Starting in verse 4: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also...” (speaking of the Church, this is the New Testament ecclesia) “...as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Drop down to verse 9 of I Peter 2: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light...” Do you see any similarities between these words and what was offered ancient Israel? We too are called a holy people, a separate nation, a special nation. We are also called living stones and a spiritual house. Ancient Israel had physical stones and a physical house in Solomon’s temple. They had a physical way of worshipping God. They had a physical way of getting their sins removed that was the death and the blood of animals: sacrifices. We are called living sacrifices, part of a spiritual entity called the body of Christ. We are called the temple of Christ, His holy nation, His holy people, His special, separate chosen ecclesia or congregation. You see the physical and the spiritual. We saw also in I Corinthians 10 that those physical examples were for us. We can look at what the ancient Israelites went through and gain valuable lessons for ourselves so that we do not make the same mistakes. We could go through and compare dozens and dozens of scriptures, but I just want to look at a couple more right now. Then you can study this subject yourself. It is a broad subject and very fascinating. Go back to I Corinthians chapter 10 just briefly. We are going to read the first two verses and refresh our memories. I Corinthians 10:1 to 2: “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea...” They were all spared from pharaoh’s wrath by going through the sea. “...all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food...” God is saying what they went through with Moses parallels something He is doing with the people today. This is why this is written in the New Testament here. Now, if you would, go to I Corinthians chapter 12 which illustrates this just a little bit more. I Corinthians 12, verse 12: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...” So we all are baptized into the body of Christ. They were baptized with Moses through the sea into the congregation of Israel: the called out special people of God. We are baptized through the Holy Spirit and have received a special calling that puts us into the body of Christ: the second ecclesia, the second congregation. We better pay attention to what happened to the first congregation so that we do not make the same mistakes. For us the eternal consequences are great. There are spiritual consequences. Ancient Israel can look forward to a resurrection, as we saw earlier. They can then be given the promises we are offered. Right now we are living a physical life with spiritual consequences, and we received God’s Holy Spirit in order to do this. UNBELIEF COULD KEEP US OUT OF THE MILLENNIUM Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 3. This is spelled out. We are going to read the whole chapter very carefully. Hebrews 3, starting in verse 1: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus...” So we have our High Priest, Jesus Christ; and we are called out. We are part of the ecclesia. Continuing in verse 2: “...who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.” Moses led the people through a physical sea. They were baptized together. God says now what I am doing is more important than what was done then! Without their example we would not understand what we are involved with here! We look back to ancient Israel and we understand. Continuing with Hebrews 3, verse 4: “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward...” So everything Moses and those people went through is for us to learn as those words are spoken of now. They did not understand and they could not fully comprehend what was happening to them. But they were required to obey because God said it and they agreed. They did not understand the spiritual connotation. They did not understand there would be a second ecclesia but that was not for them to know. It is for us to know today. Continue with reading verse 6: “...but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” We are Christ’s house as long as we agree to obey and continue to do so. We are seeing that if we can learn from their mistakes, maybe we can do this right. Read Hebrews 3, verses 7 to 11. Those people in ancient Israel walked through the sea, they were baptized with Moses and they walked through the wilderness to get to the promised land. They were looking forward to a rest in the promised land. They looked forward to a rest from all the burdens they bore in Egypt and from enemies who had beset them on every side. What happened? None who came through the sea with Moses, except Joshua and Caleb, made it to that rest! That is a sad situation. God said all that they went through was written and recorded for those who would see it afterward. All that those people suffered and went through is for us to learn something. Can you imagine that? When they are resurrected and they understand what they did, isn’t that going to be an awesome thing? We take our calling for granted! Let us continue reading in verses 12 to 19. This is a powerful warning to us that we can make the same mistake of spiritual unbelief that can keep us out of the Millennium (our time of rest). Continuing in Hebrews 4, verses 1 to 4. The seventh day of that creation week portrays what is a foregone conclusion: there will be a Millennium. It is a guarantee. What is not guaranteed is that we are going to be in it. There is no guarantee that we will be in it if we do not believe God and if we do not obey. If we break our covenant with God, we are being warned here that we can undergo the same correction only it is a spiritual correction that could possibly have eternal consequences! We do not want to make this same mistake that ancient Israel made. We want to believe God and have confidence that He will do this. We want to do our part, obey Him and keep our covenant. Continue reading in verses 5 to 7. I am telling all of us today and everyone who hears this tape that I mean “today” because God meant “today”, now! We are alive now. We do not want to be among the first generation who did not make it so God gave it to someone else. We were the first called to these positions, among the first, if you understand the concept of firstfruits. Christ was first of the firstfruits. All of those who followed Him being called and given the Holy Spirit since then should be part of the firstfruits, but by unbelief God may have to give it to someone else. What happened to ancient Israel? He gave it to their children. He let Joshua and Caleb lead a whole generation of people’s children into the promised land. Mr. Herbert Armstrong died in 1986. We have gone seventeen years. We are well down the road, and the Church is a Church of gray hair. We are all getting older. I am saying we are probably following very closely in the footsteps of ancient Israel and making the same mistakes! God wants to help us out of this situation. Today let’s hear His voice and let’s not harden our hearts. Continue reading with Hebrews 4, verses 8 to 10. Are you tired? I am tired. I am tried of struggling. Ancient Israel was tired of walking in the heat of the desert. They complained and they murmured. We read in I Corinthians 10 what happened to them. Those were examples for us. All around the Church we hear complaints. They complained about Moses. We complain about Mr. Armstrong. They had to tithe. People do not like to tithe anymore. They had to obey and follow this system of sacrifices. We do not like to sacrifice anymore. There are people who do not want to drive to Church anymore. There are people who do not want to listen to anybody teaching them anymore. There are people who want to set themselves up as ministers. There is one complaint after another complaint throughout the Churches of God. It has all led to hard hearts. If we have hard unbelieving hearts, we are not going to be in that Millennial rest. We are not going to be there! A MATTER OF THE HEART Continue reading verses 11 to 13. God sees the intents of our hearts. He sees whether we believe or not. It is a matter of the heart. Ancient Israel had a lot of physical things to do to keep their covenant with God. We have a lot of spiritual things, a lot of heart-felt things, a lot of things of the mind that we must do, as well as being righteous spiritually. The physical righteousness, our acts, should reflect what is inside. We cannot disbelieve God and still make it into His rest. We cannot disbelieve God and be obedient in the flesh. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” We need to all look at our lives and see just how much we value our calling and if we are keeping our covenant with God. In this series that we have been going through for the last while, we have studied the temple and the priesthood. We saw that anciently it was abominated and desolated. The spiritual temple we have seen has had the same fate today. Since Mr. Armstrong’s death, we have seen the Church of God (this beautiful place that he had built, this temple, the sanctuary, this congregation) completely torn apart into hundreds and hundreds of pieces. People are disobeying God and disbelieving Him all over the Church. What does that say for us? We are well on the road to making the same mistake that ancient Israel made and our carcasses are lying where they fall. This could be a spiritual carcass if we stop believing and reject God all together, and it can be a physical carcass if time just keeps going on so long that we die. If that is the case, let us hope we die with the Holy Spirit, a least a little bit of the light left. People are going back into idolatry. People are giving up the Sabbath. People are giving up the holy days. People are complaining. They are complaining all over and becoming very hard hearted. Satan is the author of all of this mess. We know that. God understands that too and will be merciful to us if we strive and repent and allow Him to lead our lives. ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION Please turn to Matthew 24. This is a very famous scripture about the abomination of desolation. We have spoken about it before, but we just want to review it. Matthew 24, verse 15: “‘Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand), ‘then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.’” We understand there was a physical enactment of this in 70 A.D., but there is an abomination of desolation at the end time too where the Church flees. Have we not been fleeing every which way since 1986. The brethren have scattered about the wilderness everywhere. It is a mess. The abomination of desolation has taken place and is taking place. The people do not see it, because they are looking for a physical manifestation. They are looking for physical things. We have gone over that before too. But we, the Church of God, the second ecclesia, the temple of God, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, we are the holy place. When you see the holy place abominated and desolated, you see what Daniel was talking about. It is happening and most of us are so asleep we cannot even see it. Turn to II Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come...” This is speaking of Christ’s return. “...unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God, in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” That is what caused the abomination of desolation: Satan setting himself up in the temple of God and scattering us, destroying us and causing us to turn on one another. When you see this scattering take place, the end is almost here! That is what it said in II Thessalonians. Christ will not return until this has happened. THE CHURCH IS SHATTERED AND SCATTERED Go back to Daniel chapter 12, starting in verse 7: “Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered...” Some versions say, “scattered” as well. “...all these things shall be finished.” Verse 8: “Although I heard, I did not understand.” Back then he had the physical Church with a physical temple he was crying for and a physical people held captive that he wanted released. This is what Daniel was praying for and this is the vision he got. He said I do not understand it. I don’t understand this, God. God said I know you don’t, but what you and your nation are going through is for a people in the end times to understand. It is for us to understand today, brethren. Continue reading verses 8 to 10 of Daniel 12. It is time that we ask God for this wisdom so that we can see and understand what is going on all around us. This has become a spiritual fight to the finish. I will unequivocally state right now that the Church of God, the ecclesia at the end time, is losing at this point! We are losing the fight at this point just as ancient Israel did on the way to the promised land. We are not going to enter that rest if we do not change. Let us look at the Old Testament for some help so we can get out of the situation that we are in. Now we have seen what happened to them and we know what happened to us in the last sixteen or seventeen years. Let us look at a few of the warnings that ancient Israel received from God and ignored to their own peril. Let us look at the warnings they received and they ignored. Maybe we can learn from these warnings now before it is too late. While we are looking at them, keep in mind this has become a spiritual fight to the finish. Stop looking at physical wars and a physical Dome of the Rock to collapse so that a physical sandstone temple can get rebuilt. Let’s stop counting wars and rumors of wars and counting earthquakes. Let’s start looking in God’s Church. The spiritual battle is here. It is not in the physical Middle East. Turn, if you would now to Ezekiel chapter 5, starting in verse 1 read to verse 6. Brethren, we are talking about the prophecy of thirds here and the scattering of God’s people. It is the scattering of God’s people of the first ecclesia back when Babylon conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, and the ecclesia in the last days which is conquered by Satan and scattered about. This says we are Jerusalem, and we understand we are spiritual Jerusalem. Washington, D.C. is not Jerusalem. London is not Jerusalem. Canberra is not Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a spiritual place. It is the holy place that has been abominated and desolated. It is where the spiritual temple exists made of living stones who should be living sacrifices for God. Now look at the Church. One third is gone back to captivity, idolatry and false worship. One third dying of the pestilence which is famine of the word. One third is chased by the sword, the word of God. Let us pay attention to what has happened to ourselves. Look with spiritual eyesight. Beg God for help so that we can see and understand. Continue reading Ezekiel 5:7. We are the ones with the covenant with God, brethren. We are the ones with the agreement. So we are more responsible than the nations. Continue reading verses 8 to 9. What God is doing now has never been done before. He has never had a spiritual temple to allow to fall apart before. The physical temple was abominated three times and desolated twice. Ancient Israel right on down to the present time (looking at Judah) has been scattered about the world and has gone through afflictions for a long, long time. This is something new that has never been done before in the last times. Verse 10: “‘Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.’” Brethren, the Church is devouring itself! Spiritually the wolves are devouring the sheep. Sheep are attacking sheep. The Church is destroying itself, which is fathers after their children and children turning on their fathers. This beautiful temple is a mess. If you were to look at the words that I just read to you in Ezekiel 5, you would find that a famine of the word is what is spoken of here. You can read about it in Amos. The sword is the drought of the word of God. If you were to look up the term “pestilence”, you would find it is number 1698, 1696 and 1699. When you put those three definitions together from the Hebrew in your Strong’s Concordance, you will find that this pestilence is destructive words, false teachings and doctrines that ruin the pasture for God’s sheep. We are not talking about national captivity here anymore. You will see why in a moment. We are talking about the captivity and the destruction of God’s Church with false doctrines and teachings. Look them up for yourself in the Strong’s. Don’t believe me. I did not inspire the Hebrew, and I am not twisting these words. God inspired the Hebrew that was written. He inspired His word. Look them up and see for yourself. Let us go to Ezekiel 34, verses 1 to 5. This is exactly what Mr. Herbert Armstrong did not want to happen but it did. Because we did not believe him. We did not believe God. We did not think this could happen to us. We were too physical in our vision. We were not looking spiritually. Continuing in verses 6 to 10 of Ezekiel 34. Then it goes on to show in the last days how Christ will return and gather His flock. If you were to read verse 11 and continue to the end of the chapter, you see that Christ is going to do something amazing. He is not just angry with the shepherds. He is angry with a lot of sheep who have set themselves up as shepherds and teachers and pushed around other sheep. They are those who have messed up the pasture with their feet. Let us read a little bit more of this starting in verse 15 and read to 19. God is talking about doctrines here, brethren. The pasture is good food. We have gone over that before. The food, the doctrines, the teachings have become foolishness in God’s sight. They are harming God’s sheep. This is making it impossible for the Church to get ready if we continue to listen to what is false and foolish. That is how the beautiful temple has been destroyed by Satan, by bringing in all manner of foolish teaching. THE END TIME ELIJAH In Malachi 4:4-6 Mr. Armstrong clearly taught us something. Turn back to Malachi 4. Mr. Armstrong firmly believed in the last seven or eight years of his life that he had done the Elijah work, and he had. We do not believe it very much in the Church of God anymore. Because of that lack of belief, we cannot help ourselves see anything. We need God to once again reveal things to us, because we are blind. In Malachi 4:4 we are taught, “‘Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.’” Striking the earth with a curse is utter destruction. God said Elijah will turn the hearts of the children. That is the children in the Church. We are the children of Christ. We are carrying His seed. We are begotten by Him. We will be called Sons of God one day. We are adopted sons now, but we will be born again. We should know these things. We are the children who needed to be turned back to the “Father” not “fathers”. This is “ab” in the Hebrew. This is singular. The Church did get turned back to Jesus Christ under Mr. Armstrong. The Church got called together as a temple that Christ could return to. It just needed to be cleaned up some more. We have fallen down miserably ever since then. Going back to Malachi 3, starting in verse 1: “‘Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of the His coming?” Christ had Elijah come prior to Him to get the way ready, just as John the Baptist did for Jesus Christ’s first coming. Christ, in a sense, is His own messenger by using His body. Christ uses His body to teach. Mr. Armstrong was used by Him as Elijah to prepare the way for Christ’s second coming. If we can believe that, we can go on to understand what has happened to the temple and what has happened to what we were supposed to remember. We were supposed to remember the Law of Moses. Mr. Armstrong reminded us of the Law of Moses. He brought back to the memory of the Church the holy days. He brought back God’s government. He brought back tremendous knowledge and truths for us. He did not understand it all. None of us understand it all even yet. He died at the end of the Philadelphia Era. There was one whole era to go, but we were in a good position to get ready as the bride of Christ and as a temple when he died. EARTH’S TRAVAIL WAS EXTENDED We have blown it miserably just like the people under Moses blew it just prior to going into the promised land the first time. Here we were staring the rest of the Millennium in the face, and we allowed Satan to come in and destroy the temple. The resulting mess has extended the travail of the earth because it extended Satan’s reign. The earth’s travail continues while the Church fiddles! That is what is happening. The Church bickers and argues amongst itself. People do not clean up their own minds. They go along with the world. Whatever the world watches on television, we will watch. Whatever the world watches in the movies, we will watch. Many of us have gone back to going to church on Sunday or not going to church at all. We do what is palatable to the world, not what is palatable to God. How did we get in this situation and what did it do? We followed others’ advice. We let them scare us to death with horrible visions of the end times and with false signs and wonders. This has resulted in extending Satan’s reign because we do not believe God can save this world anymore. We sell God short. We say His arm is short and that He is going to allow this world to get almost completely destroyed before Christ’s return. We have divided God’s Church with attacking, accusing, falsehoods and slandering one another. The resulting effect has been exactly what Satan wanted and that is to extend his reign and, if possible, even take over God’s Temple. At this point he has, as we have seen in the past by the evidence. How did this get into us personally? How did we get comfortable with this? And I think almost every one of us got comfortable with this at some point or another. Some few are waking up and trying to realize the Church is in a mess and let’s do something. But how did we fall for this mess? II Timothy explains. We will go through and review some of the things here. LIVING SACRIFICE II Timothy 4, reading verses 1 to 8. Those eight verses say a lot, brethren. Timothy was being admonished by Paul to endure suffering. He was told that Paul was ready to be offered as a living sacrifice by dying for the faith. He was told to endure sound doctrine and hang on to sound doctrine because false teachers will come preaching to itching ears. That is exactly how we have been tricked! We have been tricked that we do not have to suffer, that the world is going to go into the tribulation, that we will be in a place of safety. We have been tricked, brethren. We were called to be living sacrifices. We like to read those scriptures, but I don’t know how many of us like to apply them to ourselves. We are called here to suffer for the world. It is not easy being a Christian but God expects it of us. He expects us to bear spiritual fruit. Go back to II Timothy chapter 3, start reading in verse 1 to 5. This is talking about the Church. Have we become lovers of money, lovers of bad forms of entertainment and unforgiving? We do not want to forgive the world. We do not want to forgive the brethren who have offended us. Are we without self-control and brutal? Our harsh judgment on the world is brutal because we condemn people who do not know their right hand from their left to a horrible death in an end time with all manner of false omens and false prophecies. Christ said do not worry about those. I think what happened is as we condemned them we scared ourselves so bad that many of us in the Church want to escape these trials and tribulations at all cost. PREVENTED FROM MARRYING CHRIST Go back, if you would, to I Timothy chapter 4. Perfect love is supposed to cast out all fear. If we are running scared and all we want is self-preservation, we do not have perfect love. They do not go together. Read I Timothy 4:1-3. We looked at this recently in a sermon, and we understand that believing in the doctrines of demons is turning away from the truth, from the good pasture and the good food. It is turning away to false teaching. That false teaching is not forbidding to marry. It prevents us from marrying Jesus Christ because it makes the bride unfit. It does make it so that we turn away from getting good food. If you were to look up these words it is talking about good pasture, good fodder, good doctrines and teachings. What has happened to the Church today is there is a famine of good food. It is preventing us from marrying Jesus Christ. Ancient Israel was deceived. Of course, they were deceived in a physical way. Satan got in there and deceived them with false worship. They let idol worship back into their congregation. They began to break God’s laws, the Sabbath and the holy days. They began defiling the temple with temple prostitutes and what have you. That is what happened to ancient Israel. When that occurred and they would not repent, their holy nation, set apart by God, was taken captive by Babylon. The beautiful city of Jerusalem was destroyed and their temple was destroyed. They were scattered about. That is what has happened to the Church today for very similar reasons. We have let false teachings into the Church. We break laws of God with impunity. We do not keep a good Sabbath in many cases. We do not keep good holy days or any holy days in many cases. We are definitely defiling the temple of God which is in our minds and hearts. For the very same reasons God has allowed spiritual Jerusalem and the spiritual temple to be destroyed. Some of our brethren are perishing. There are the same things going on all over again. How did this happen? Because we do not look to those examples that were recorded for us. We need to look to the examples recorded for us and realize we are the spiritual temple. When Mr. Armstrong died it was virtually in place but not clean yet. Had we kept believing those things, Christ could probably be back by now! But He is not. The bride is now unfit. The temple is not ready. God promises He will get it ready in some fashion. His Son will come suddenly to that temple and take the Church by surprise as a thief in the night. How would anybody be surprised if Christ returned after a nuclear holocaust, after billions of people died in pestilence, after a third of America, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand were taken captive and gone to Germany as slaves? How would we possibly be taken by surprise by Jesus Christ? We wouldn’t. We are talking about a spiritual captivity of a spiritual nation, of a spiritual city and a spiritual temple. That is why it cannot be seen except by the wise. God said in Matthew 24:15 the wise will know what the abomination of desolation is. It is not something you can see with your physical eyes. It is a spiritual abomination and desolation. It is very important that we understand that. We have been seduced by the physical. We have been seduced into a state of selfishness by Satan. Turn to Mark chapter 13. Read verses 14 to 19. There have always been physical wars, brethren. What is taking place now has never happened before. There has been destruction of a spiritual temple that Christ should have been able to come back to by now. What has happened is absolutely horrible! Mark 13, verse 20: “‘And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.’” He says for the elect’s sake they will be shortened, brethren, because we only have one chance. The world has another chance. Verse 21: “‘Then if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Christ!” or, “Look, He is there!” do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.’” There is a lot in these scriptures, brethren. Let us look at a few things. We understand in verse 22 that the false signs and wonders (false prognostications) are the pointing out of omens like earthquakes, disease epidemics, financial problems in the world and the Dome of the Rock coming down. These are all false signs leading God’s people astray and confusing them. We have gone over this before. If you were to look up what it means to be pregnant and nursing, you would understand that Paul said we are babes. He said he had to give milk to babes when he should have been able to give solid food. We understand that we are small children being nursed by our mother which should be the Church. We are also at the same time impregnated with God’s Holy Spirit. We are begotten and will be born in the world tomorrow. This is a warning to the Church. Yes, it was a warning for the people in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. That was physical. Now it is a spiritual battle. We are the spiritual Church. This ecclesia are the ones who should be taking these warnings to heart. Many are trying to attract the brethren to their little group or their little church by saying we are where Christ is working. We are the body of Christ. We are where the work is getting done. That is a parallel of what is being said here. People say look here is Christ. We are the body of Christ. The body of Christ is broken up into many pieces. No single group is the body of Christ right now. It is broken up into many pieces. It is sad to say, but that is the state of the Church right now. For any little group to think they are the ones doing the work by themselves, that is where the body of Christ is and the rest have lost the Holy Spirit or they are going to die in the tribulation or whatever, that is the exact thing that God hates. That is what leads to the special idea that any particular little group in God’s Church is going to the place of safety while the rest of the Church suffers martyrdom. Invariably that is the seduction that Satan uses. That is the carrot. You come with this little group and you will go to that place of safety. It is no different than what he used to trick other religions, false religions, other denominations outside of the true body of Christ. The idea of a place of safety, a rapture or heavenly protection or whatever is all over the earth. The Church should never have fallen for it. What kind of safety are we talking about anyway? We are talking about safety that we want from false doctrines and from false teachings. We want protection from becoming selfish and hard hearted. That is what keeps us out of the Millennium. It has nothing to do with our physical lives. God says if you want to follow Me, bear your cross which means extinguish all selfishness. We have looked at that in a sermon by that title, “Bear Your Cross”. We are supposed to be extinguishing all selfishness and be willing to lay down our lives for people and not running for the place of safety while the rest of the world goes up in smoke. That is a deception. Satan has used it very well to deceive God’s Church. He has made us possibly the most selfish people who have ever existed! Paul did not tell Timothy run for your life and protect yourself. He said endure affliction. He said I am getting ready to be poured out. He said I do not mind; I am a living sacrifice. I know I am getting my reward for this. I have laid down my life ever since I was called by Jesus Christ. Ever since I was knocked off that horse and given some vision, I have laid down my life and fought the good fight. Now you do it. That is what he told Timothy. This generation of Christians thinks we are going to run to some physical place of safety to protect our physical hides. I know Mr. Armstrong often said do not think we are going any place to protect our hides. It is not for that reason. He did not fully understand the place of safety, but he knew it was not for physical protection. It was for spiritual training. That is what we are in, brethren. We are getting spiritual training. Thank God if you can see that we are not running to Petra or some other physical place of safety, and that we are actually pursuing protection from false doctrine so that we can bear spiritual fruit for God. We need to understand we have to get a spiritual temple ready, a spiritual house for Jesus Christ to come to. We need to be a bride without spot and blemish. This is a spiritual war. If Satan keeps us filthy and sinning, keeps us from repenting and makes us extremely selfish and condemnatory of the world and the rest of the Church, he has us right where he wants us. He has been very, very good at it. We have been seduced, brethren, and we have to realize that. God explicitly warns us in the Old Testament. There are dual scriptures for the congregations. Israel was the first ecclesia and they apply to the second ecclesia now. Those warnings are actually far more important for us now, because we are the ones who are living sacrifices supposedly learning to bear our cross. Let us look at a couple of scriptures before we close. Ezekiel chapter 13. We will read verses 10 to 16. We take that vision of peace and we put it on the world. We are looking for newspapers to say there is peace and there is no peace. We are looking for some kind of Middle East peace process to say there is peace when there is no peace. This is talking about Jerusalem and it is dual for ancient Israel (the first ecclesia) and spiritual Jerusalem today (the second ecclesia). Let us not apply this to physical people in the world and physical nations. Let us apply it to God’s holy people, the ones who are set apart. Turn to Isaiah chapter 28, verse 11: “For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,’ and ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear.” This is talking about the Millennium. Verse 13: “But the word of the Lord was to them, ‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,’ that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.” Why? They could not put the scriptures together. God has to help us put these scriptures together, line upon line and precept upon precept, then we can understand what the rest is and how we are to get to it. It is by true doctrines. It is by teaching the world what God is really like by clearing His name, bearing our cross and being living sacrifices. This is how we prepare for the Millennial rest. Verse 14: “Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.’” Too many people think they are going to hide and be protected physically. God says that is a deal with Satan! If you are Mine, you are willing to sacrifice and lay down your life for mankind. Verse 16 of Isaiah 28: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.’” In other words, whoever still believes in this temple that I am building, won’t act too hastily! But if you no longer believe that Elijah came, a Zerubbabel work was done in the end time and a temple rebuilt, you can be deceived and act hastily. Verse 17: “Also I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet; the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled...” This agreement with Satan is going to be destroyed and annulled. That is what God is saying here. “...and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.” God says if what you want is physical safety, you are not going to bear your cross, you are not going to be a living sacrifice, you are acting too hastily and you are not paying attention to My temple, you will not be ready when My Son comes! If you are not ready, woe to you! So God is giving us another chance, brethren. He is giving us another chance to get ready. Beg Him for ears to hear and eyes to see what is going on. Stop being so physical. LEVITICUS 26 IS FOR THE CHURCH Turn back to Leviticus 26. So often we hear Leviticus 26 is a condemnation of the modern physical nations of the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Australia. This is talking about God’s covenant people. Read sometime when you have the chance all of Leviticus 26. Look up the words in your Strong’s Concordance and come to a better understanding. We are going to briefly look at it. After the blessings God would give for obeying His covenant and keeping His sanctuary clean, He says in verse 2 to keep My sanctuary and revere it. He says if you do not revere it, I am going to have to punish you. He starts in Leviticus 26:14. “‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant…’” That covenant is with God’s temple, with the people who are baptized and received the Holy Spirit. Verse 16: “‘...I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.’” God is talking about the seed like the seed and the sower. Christ is the sower. He is talking about the spiritual fruit we should bear. The wasting disease is this pestilence we read about in Ezekiel. It is a wasting disease of false doctrines which will consume our eyes so that we cannot see the truth anymore. It causes great sorrow of heart which is what you see in the Church everywhere. The Church is a sorrowful place. It is a very unhappy place. Continuing in verse 17 of Leviticus 26: “‘I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.’” Has the Church not been defeated, I ask you? “‘Those who hate you shall reign over you…’” Satan is reigning over the Church, but within the Church we have terrorists running the Church. We have wolves and foxes running rampant throughout the vineyard of God. They are false shepherds consuming the sheep. You can continue down through here. The pride of our power being broken for example. Remember what it was like under Mr. Armstrong when we were well recognized throughout the world? The world leaders would line up to talk to Mr. Armstrong. We are despised now! The churches talk about us with a despicable sneer. I do not want to encourage you to go look at what is being talked about concerning the true Church of God, but I can assure you, we are laughed at. I have seen a few things. Any who are still left holding to the Sabbath, holding to the Holy Days and trying to clean up, we are scorned! We are scorned by religious people everywhere. If you were to read this and go right down (few in number and highways desolate), you would see it is talking about the abomination of desolation of God’s Church. The sword that is against us is the famine. Pestilence is false doctrines. The bread in verse 26 is the bread that we should have had. It is the bread of life. Ten women are the ten virgins who are blind and deaf. Study this some time when you have time and you will see that this is a spiritual admonition for God’s Church. It happened physically to ancient Israel. We should have learned from it to prevent it from happening in God’s Church today. So check your doctrines carefully, brethren. Read your Bible. Study for yourself and get a close relationship to God and Jesus Christ. Do not become deluded. Do not become selfish. Do not stay selfish. You do not have to stay in the condition we are in. Do not let a place of safety trick us into giving up the greatest calling and greatest reward we could possibly have. It is the one Paul spoke of: I am getting ready to be poured out, but that is okay. I know my reward is coming. Do not be tricked liked that, brethren. I strongly urge all who hear this sermon to pause. Do not keep going the way you are going until you have checked everything out. Take stock of where you stand, lest you fall! Proceed carefully and not too hastily. Repent and beg God for help. Beg Him for eye salve as it says in Revelation 3. The Laodiceans need eye salve. Beg Him for ears to hear while the spirit is still talking to the Churches.