No. 57 - TREES OF THE FOREST By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, October 30, 2004 The title of today’s sermon is “Trees of the Forest”. The oldest and largest living things on earth are trees. There are many different types of trees, but the largest ones simply dwarf anything else that lives, even the largest whale in the sea! Of the many types, of course, the largest is the sequoia of California. They can be taller than a thirty story building, and they can be thousands of years old. There are also olive trees in the Mediterranean area that were actually small trees at the time of Christ! Of course, there is another tree, a pine tree, in the Western United States called the bristle cone pine tree that some say could be as old as four thousand years. Trees continue to grow as long as they live, with annual rings to record the history of their lives. These tree rings, as they are called, show us when we cut a tree in half how old the tree is according to how many rings. There is one ring per year. Those rings vary in size depending on two factors: the amount of rain that year and the amount of sunlight available to that tree. In other words, a lot of times a tree grows very slowly when it is small if it is shaded in a big forest where sunlight cannot get at it until it becomes big enough to receive more light. Those two factors determine the growth of a tree: the amount of rain water it receives and the amount of sunlight available to it. USES FOR PHYSICAL TREES Trees absorb vast quantities of both. They absorb the sunlight into the leaves and then convert that into the energy they need to grow. They absorb water into the roots to store water there. They store vast amounts of water. That is why trees are so helpful in preventing desertification of the earth. They hold the water there and keep the earth and the topsoil from eroding as well. So trees have many, many uses in nature. We call that conservancy. Also trees have many uses for mankind. Mankind uses trees for building materials, construction lumber for houses, furniture lumber, beams and posts for supporting structures, and also for food. Many trees produce foods for mankind and even foods for wild animals in the form of nuts and fruits. Man gets oranges, grapefruit, bananas, apples, mangoes and many other things from trees. It is also interesting that a tree can record natural history in its rings. You can look back at a 2,000 year old tree and by looking at the rings see when it experienced drought, when it experienced large amounts of water or severe long winters. But we can also record our own thoughts on trees. Trees are the number one source of paper. Mankind uses the Bible, and textbook in schools. Notes that we write on paper use trees to record our own thoughts. There are many, many uses of trees. There are chemical uses we could go into and on and on. If we were to sum up this knowledge here with this discussion, trees teach us natural history, they feed us and provide useful materials, especially building materials for mankind. They do this by converting sunlight and water into the energy to grow and sustain that growth to make us the wood and the wood fiber that we can use for these uses. Trees obviously are a remarkable creation of God. God is the Creator and the Inventor. It was God’s imagination that formed trees. He made them what they are for us. The Bible teaches us that there is a spiritual side to trees. There is a spiritual ramification to trees. Physical trees represent physical things that mankind can do. Spiritual trees represent something spiritual that God wants to do. We cannot see a spiritual tree. We cannot see into God’s imagination and into His thinking and see what He would use a tree for. Therefore, we have physical trees that we can utilize and look at outside and learn from. We have to couple it with the knowledge of God and the Bible to understand all of the ramifications that we can learn from trees. THE TWO TREES Trees were important from the very start for mankind. If you would turn to Genesis chapter 2, there is the story of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. We will read Genesis 2:8-17. From the very start that mankind entered the Garden of Eden, there were two trees. Mankind is inextricably linked with trees in the Bible. We notice in verse 9 that there were many trees in the garden. These were probably the fruit trees that we would eat for physical sustenance. But there were two trees that were very special. One tree was very good. It was the tree of life. One tree was very harmful and would lead to death. These two main trees feed and nurture two different ways of life. They have a spiritual way of dropping fruit that can be absorbed by mankind. These ways form different types of living styles and different ways of getting along together. One of these spiritual trees was the tree of life. It represented all that is good: love, mercy, compassion, giving and sharing. All of the fruits that we would associate with the fruits of the Spirit were associated with the tree of life. The second tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was a mixture of lie and truth. As you know, a mixture of good and evil always destroys. It tears down. You cannot take a glass of good water and mix a bad chemical in it and then say I am just going to drink the good part. It is all inextricably mixed, and it is very deadly to drink water that has been mixed with something adulterated, as you would say. That would be in the form of a bad chemical if it got in that water. Or it could be germs. You can take a glass of clean water and put germs in it. It is no longer good water to drink. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a mixture of lies and truth. Therefore, it had in it distortion, deception, intense competition as its way of life. It had extreme selfishness. It was just the opposite of what the tree of life had for mankind. They were two different ways of life. These two different ways of life build two different types of character in humanity. They are two different types of being, your personality. These two different types form the food that affects us. They are two different world orders, so to speak. There is the good world order based upon God’s tree of life and His government. There is the bad world order based on Satan’s way of competition, hatred and selfishness. This is what has been plaguing mankind now for nearly 6,000 years. A SPIRITUAL ASPECT TO TREES Just like physical trees, the physical light that goes into those leaves and the physical water are what makes that tree grow. It is the food that makes that tree grow. So the spiritual trees need light, which is the truth. Jesus Christ is called the Light of the world. They need the truth, and they need that living water. Christ said He is the fountain of living water. It is the Holy Spirit. So a spiritual tree in order to grow in size and stature and be useful to God and mankind must take in huge quantities of that living water and huge quantities of that sunlight, the truth. It must take in water and sunlight just like the physical tree. Obviously the spiritual tree, if it was to fail or go back, would be imbibing of the bad chemicals. It would be imbibing of the wrong sources of food. In other words imbibing of darkness would bring sin. It would be imbibing of bitter water or salt water. Sometimes bitter water in the Bible is another term for salt water (the sea). The sea, as we have learned, is Satan’s attitudes. This water is sometimes also called wormwood. Wormwood pictures false doctrines or lies. So if a tree is taking in darkness instead of light and it is taking in wormwood and bitter water instead of truth, it bears bad fruit. It becomes poison to anything that comes in contact with it just like the tree in the garden. These are two diametrically opposed ways of life. God is a builder. We have studied that a lot in the last few years. He is a builder and a spiritual farmer. God’s crops come from humanity. He wants humanity to imbibe in the good fruit and bear fruits for Him, fruit worthy of repentance. He wants us to grow in holy righteous character. His biggest and strongest crops would be His trees. It stands to reason. The trees, as we are about to see, in the Bible picture teachers and those who are being prepared to teach. These are God’s trees. We are going to back this up with scriptural evidence so people do not have to accept this as just an idea. This is God’s thinking. This is what God says in His word. Turn, if you would, to Psalms chapter 1. This is a rather short Psalm so we are going to read the whole thing. Read Psalm 1:1-3. God says a blessed man, a righteous person, is like a tree planted by that river, the river being the Holy Spirit. It is like a tree imbibing deeply of that river, whose leaves never fade. If the leaves do not fade and wither, it is taking in constant sunshine and growing. The tree is becoming strong. God contrasts this to the ungodly in verses 4-6. Right away here we are seeing at the very start of Psalms a contrast between a healthy, good tree and a bad tree. In God’s eyes, it is a healthy, righteous, growing person compared to someone who does not believe or is unrighteous seeking after bitter fruit. They are eating bitter fruit. Turn, if you would, now to Isaiah chapter 55. We have read this many times when studying God’s thoughts and how His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But now we want to look at it specifically from the angle of trees and of His farming methods. Isaiah 55, verse 6: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Right away we are told to turn from our sinful ways, and turn to God. He is there with mercy to pardon. He is there to forgive. Continue reading verses 8-11. God says I am the one who sends the rain to the earth, and the rain is My recorded thoughts. It is My words. It is like snow and water. When you look outside and you see a healthy tree, it is getting the water and the sunlight it needs. God says My word is like that. The word, of course, is the Bible. BEARING FRUIT LIKE A TREE Continue in verse 12: “‘For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.’” I have never seen a tree in the woods clap its hands. It is talking about the joy that people have as they bear fruit for God. Continue reading in verse 13: “‘Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.’” When you look outside and you see the healthy myrtle trees like they have in North Carolina or a healthy cypress tree, think of Me. Up here in the north when you see healthy maple trees, oak trees and pine trees, God says think of Me. I am sending the light and the truth. I am sending the rain to make these trees grow. If they obey and seek after My thoughts and get rid of their thoughts, they will be full of joy and clap their hands. Human beings will become teachers, and they will learn God’s way of life. They will clap their hands with joy and praise God for all He does. Without a doubt God is talking about human beings here. He has given us something physical in the world to look at to learn from. You could throw Bibles at trees all day long, and nothing is going to happen. But if you put a Bible into a man or woman’s hands who wants to learn from God’s thinking, all of a sudden big things can happen. That is what God is saying here. A GREEN TREE Christ is the main teacher in the Bible, and He is the tree of life. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 3. There is an interesting little exchange here between Christ and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. John 3, verse 1: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” That means he was a teacher. Pharisees were teachers of their day. John 3, verse 2: “This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” Here a teacher of the Pharisees, a teacher from ancient Israel (a Jew), was telling Jesus Christ we know you are a teacher sent by God! Christ walked around constantly teaching people how to forgive and how to love one another. He was showing them that God’s words heal, by healing the sick. Jesus Christ was known to be a teacher. Turn to Luke 23 where there is an exchange between Jesus Christ and some of the people, specifically the women, who were believers in Him. They were following Him as He was going up to His crucifixion. Read Luke 23:26-31. That term wood there is tree. Some versions of the Bible use the word tree. Here in the New King James we are told wood. Christ said I am the green tree. I am the tree of life. He said if they are going to do this to Me, just imagine that they will do to the trees that have stopped bearing fruit, the dry trees. When you see a tree in the forest and it is dead, it is dry. If you girdle a tree, you cut off the circulation plate destroying the bark all the way around the tree. Go back a few years later, and you will find a dry dead tree that can bear no fruit. Christ said if they are going to do this to a fruitful green tree like Me, imagine what they are going to do to these dry trees that are bringing this about. Christ is obviously a teacher and the tree of life, showing that our main teacher, our preeminent teacher, Jesus Christ, was pictured in the Bible as a tree. Those supposedly learning and teaching His ways, would be His trees, because a tree, as we saw in Genesis, is to bear seed. As we saw in Isaiah 55, seed is to produce more trees. If you take an apple or orange and cut it open, there are seeds inside that can form new trees. A teacher of righteousness following in Jesus Christ’s footsteps would be the tree that follows in His footsteps doing His will and teaching the thoughts of God. Let’s back this up with scriptures. KNOWN BY THEIR FRUITS Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 7. It talks about the difference between good and bad trees. Read Matthew 7:15-20. Christ is once again comparing a good tree to a bad tree. He was showing that good fruit comes from a good tree, and bad fruit comes from a bad tree. We are talking about attitudes and the two different ways of life: love, mercy and compassion versus selfishness, greed, violence and deception. These are different trees showing two different ways of life. God says you will know them by their fruits. He goes on to compare them, just like Isaiah 55, to thorns and briers. A tree that is not producing good fruit is a waste. It is like weeds in your garden, and it is not producing good fruit. Now turn back to Matthew chapter 3. We will see a reference to how John the Baptist handled the Pharisees of that time. Read Matthew 3:1-12. Here John the Baptist very correctly portrayed the Pharisees, the teachers of that time, as trees bearing bad fruit, which means they were teaching people wrong attitudes. They were teaching wrong ways of life. They were following after the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of teaching the ways of the tree of life. Without a doubt, human beings, teachers of God’s way of life, are His trees. They are God’s trees. MEN AS TREES It takes spiritual vision to think of people as trees. We don’t look at people walking by and say, “There goes an interesting tree!” Yet God says listen because if that person is trying to teach, they are in essence a type of a tree. He did a remarkable miracle in Mark. Turn to Mark chapter 8. This miracle actually showed this for anyone with an ear to hear and eyes to see. It showed and portrayed this very principle that we are talking about. Read Mark 8:22-26. Christ performed a miracle here in two stages. In the first stage the man looked up and he said I see men as trees walking around. That would be Pharisees of the day standing there watching this miracle take place. Of course, he would have been looking at Jesus Christ who is the tree of life. This man was seeing trees! Christ said that is fine, there is nothing wrong here. But we are going to make it so you can get along in the world now. In essence, God is trying to show us something here. He was not failing in His first attempt at healing this man. He was giving this man spiritual insight first. Then He went on to his physical eyesight. When He did, the man saw other people standing around clearly, including Jesus Christ. He saw Jesus Christ instead of a tree standing there. Obviously, human beings are God’s servants, and teachers are trees. Jesus Christ, of course, is the preeminent tree, the tree of life. It is the very tree that started in the Garden of Eden as the good food for mankind. It was the bread of life. It was the good food that would bear good seed to bring forth more teachers of righteousness (more trees to follow in His footsteps). TREES IN OUR TIME The purpose of this sermon is to examine the concept of trees and apply it to our time, this day and age. God’s principles are immutable like laws. I am not talking about the laws of the land. They can be changed. I am talking about the laws of the universe that are immutable and never change. They are always the same. The law of gravity does not change from one generation to the next. If you throw a ball in the air, it will always come back to the earth. Gravity pulls it down. Since the earth has been here, this has been a law. It is the law of gravity. There are laws of motion, such as to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you throw the ball, it will go. It is going to fly through the air until it is pulled down by gravity. The direction it goes is the exact opposite from the force your arm puts into it. This is equal and opposite reaction. These are the laws of the universe. God has spiritual laws that are immutable. They never change. If God calls His teachers trees from the Garden of Eden until Jesus Christ, from Jesus Christ forward it is the same. It did not change. That is going to help us as we study God’s word in the latter days. God is working the same way today as He always has with trees as human beings, the teachers. We have studied another subject very extensively that we cannot go back and review right now because it would make this sermon too long, but we have studied God’s temple for a long time. We have looked at the many details of the temple. The temple requires building materials. Just like Solomon’s temple required many building materials to build it, God’s spiritual temple requires many building materials to build it. The materials that form the spiritual temple of God to make a useful building are the result of tree growth. The rings of the tree and the fibers of the wood, so to speak, that form God’s people exhibit tree growth. Those fibers in the wood that give you the strength of character to stand up like a tree, are our character and the knowledge and the truth that feeds it. The truth is the fruit that we take from God, and the knowledge is the things that we learn from God from His thinking, from His Bible. The water that nurtures it is the Holy Spirit that helps it grow on us. These should bear fruit as character. When it is utilized, knowledge and truth bear fruit of character. That is why we talk of strength of character. THE SHADOW OF THE TREE There is a quote from Abraham Lincoln that I will try to remember. He said the shadow of a man is like the shadow of a tree. I am paraphrasing. The tree is the substance of the real thing. The shadow is cast by it. The tree is the substance of the real thing. The shadow from our life from the way with live (honestly, with integrity, treating people with compassion and mercy) is the shadow we cast. But the tree is the substance of the real thing. That is our character in a human being. It is the strength of our character. That is why a lot times we will say that man has backbone or no backbone if he will stand up to do what is right or not. Spine in essence is like your tree trunk. We are talking spiritually. Mr. Herbert Armstrong was used by God for over 50 years to do two aspects of God’s work: the Elijah work and the Zerubbabel work. The Elijah work was the restoration of the truth. The Zerubbabel work was the building of the temple. Both of these must result, if properly done, in tree growth. The truth is the light that comes into the tree. We are to grow. If you were to go look at Ephesians chapter 2:19-22 or go back to I Corinthians 3:9-16, you would see that the character of the individual grows into a holy temple suitable unto the Lord. Character, that comes from our tree is what God uses to get these things done and build the temple. Let’s look at some scriptural evidence that an individual was to come in the last days to do this very thing. ELIJAH AND ZERUBBABEL Turn to Matthew 17 and read verses 1-10. Verse 11: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.’” That term “restore all things” is restore the knowledge, the truth of God. Continuing in verse 12: “‘But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” We see a duality here. The apostles knew that He was speaking of John the Baptist who had already come and died, and another Elijah was to come yet. He would restore all things, yet future. This is one scripture. Turn to Malachi chapter 4. It is the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi 4, verse 4: “‘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.’” It is an interesting set of scriptures because we are told here to remember what I taught My servant Moses. Remember the commandments, the statutes and the judgments that I gave him. Then we are told and “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” That is the day of the Lord at the end time. I will send you someone in the spirit and power of Elijah. He will turn the hearts of the fathers, which is incorrectly rendered here. It should be “Father”. It comes from the Hebrew word ab, which is singular. He will turn the hearts of the Father (God the Father) to His children, and he will turn the hearts of the children to their Father. If this did not happen, the earth would be struck with a curse. But He says, no, I will do this, so it will be accomplished. That phrase “strike the earth with a curse” means strike the earth with complete utter destruction. God says I promise to do this. I will send you an Elijah in the last days. He will restore the truths so that there can be repentance from among the children and turn their hearts to the Father (God the Father) who will turn His heart to them. This will eliminate the destruction of the earth. How does this happen? Back up to chapter 3:1-3. “‘Behold, I send My messenger…’” (this is Elijah) “‘…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 His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Jesus Christ is going to return suddenly to His temple. That is what stops that curse from the earth which is that utter destruction of the earth. The temple is none other than the building material of human beings assembled into a spiritual temple for Jesus Christ to dwell in. When does this happen? It is at the last days, because we are told here Christ will come as King of Kings and as a refiner’s fire. That did not happen at His first coming. Obviously something is about to change dramatically for the world because of a temple built of trees, human beings with character of gold, silver and precious jewels! These will be human beings who have lived and some of which will be alive when Christ returns, who will form this temple. That is the Elijah work. That work restored those truths that we can use to become part of that temple. We become a tree to first learn and then to teach the truth. The Zerubbabel work is the actual assembling and building of the temple. Please turn to Haggai chapter 2. Chapter 2 speaks of this temple. We can see here it talks about the temple Zerubbabel built in the Old Testament. But it speaks of another Zerubbabel at a future time building a far more glorious temple than Solomon ever had. Haggai 2, verse 1: “In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: “Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory?”’” In other words, the temple had been destroyed by Babylon in 586 B.C., and they are working on it now under Zerubbabel. God is saying take a look at this compared to what it was before. Continue reading in Haggai 2:3. “‘And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?’” He says this second temple being built by Zerubbabel is nothing? Continue reading verses 4-9. This is an obvious reference to a far more glorious temple that will bring peace to the earth. It will be a temple full of God’s gold and silver. He is not concerned about physical gold and silver. These are people with character of gold and silver forming a spiritual temple for Christ to return to when He comes. If you would, turn to Zechariah chapter 4 just over another page. Verse 1 mentions this Zerubbabel again and a couple of olive trees. Read Zechariah 4:1-4 He does not answer that question right away. Read verses 5-7. God in His revealed word says here is the first part of the answer to Zerubbabel. It will be by power, but not by his own power. It will come from the Spirit of God to tell a certain mountain, (which we know is the mountain of Satan) that it will be lowered and God’s valley raised up. There will be a temple raised up, the cornerstone and capstone of that temple is Jesus Christ. That is why grace comes from this temple. Read Zechariah 4:8-10. The seven church eras would be thrilled to see the plumb line (the measuring stick) in Zerubbabel’s hands. There is a former and a latter fulfillment here. You have two Zerubbabels working on this temple. One started it back 70 years after the fall of the physical temple of Solomon, and a Zerubbabel at the end. So a Zerubbabel started and finished it. Because each generation of the spiritual temple is formed of living people, you can also say that in each generation that temple is rebuilt. It has to be brought together with people in that time. You can say that with Sardis the Church had gone down, and Mr. Armstrong was used to rebuild the temple just like the original Zerubbabel was rebuilding Solomon’s. In both senses, a Zerubbabel started and finished this temple. Mr. Armstrong said he was helping measure the temple, and God was measuring the temple when Mr. Armstrong was still alive. This is a former and a latter fulfillment that we can see here. This former and latter fulfillment means it has a lot of importance for us today. We are in the latter days. We are at the end of time. We are the ones who witness the second Zerubbabel working. He has died now, but he must have accomplished something tremendous. How did Mr. Armstrong accomplish the Zerubbabel work and the Elijah work? He did it with trees. He was a tree (a teacher) who then turned around and taught others how to teach others. It is the same principle that God has always used. As a tree, he gave us the resources from God’s word to grow. He gave us the restored truth. You cannot keep the Sabbath if you don’t know it. You cannot properly tithe if you have never heard of it. You cannot keep the holy days if you have never been taught about them. God used Mr. Armstrong to restore all of these things so that we could then have a repentance and turn our hearts to the Father and begin to have a spiritual temple functioning in the last days. It is a temple that Jesus Christ can return to. It all goes together perfectly. How did Mr. Armstrong do this? He did it through Ambassador College. Think of it. It was a college to train trees, to train teachers, to disseminate that knowledge throughout the earth, which they did. Ambassador Auditorium was a preeminent building in which to worship God and to show that a building can be dedicated to God and accomplish something. He had on the six or seven acre campus surrounding Ambassador College offices and printing presses, a radio station and everything he needed to take the knowledge God was giving him and disseminate it. He was spreading seed throughout the earth and sent teachers out from there to every continent on the planet. He got that knowledge out to have a repentance and to have a world ready for Christ’s imminent return. There was a former and a latter fulfillment. The original Elijah made schools for the prophets, the prophets being teachers. Prophet means an inspired teacher. Just as the original Elijah made schools for the prophets, so did Mr. Armstrong in the last days. As Solomon built a temple so that people could learn to worship God, Mr. Armstrong was used in the last days to rebuild a temple that had fallen. Mr. Armstrong worked on both of these latter day fulfillments: an Elijah and Zerubbabel work. THE CHURCH TODAY There are some interesting scriptures to cogitate on. In the light of all that has happened to the Church in the last 17 or 18 years, we need to look back on just what was accomplished and how it was accomplished. We are just a shadow of our former self. Just like the people in Zerubbabel’s time got to look at this building and asked isn’t it as nothing as before? They wept. If we were to look at God’s broken temple today, the temple that Mr. Armstrong worked so hard on, we could all weep. We are just a mere shadow where we were once before. What exactly happened here? I would like to turn to a scripture in Isaiah chapter 22. I want to read this because it sheds some light on something a little different. Isaiah chapter 22, starting in verse 1: “The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops…” This can be translated to the top of the altar. You have all gone off. The Valley of Vision is another term for Jerusalem. It is the valley that is down low and will be raised up. It is a valley that should have spiritual vision. These teachers should have spiritual vision. Verse 2: “You who are full of noise, a tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.” The Church of God is still here. We are not killed by the sword, guns, bullets or bombs. Yet we are destroyed. This is a spiritual destruction of God’s Church. Verse 3: “All your rulers have fled together; they are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together; they have fled from afar.” We have fled. Some of us have fled a number of times. The archer is picturing Satan’s false doctrines flung at the Church. Isaiah 2, verse 4: “Therefore I said, ‘Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; do not labor to comfort me because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.’” We know the daughter refers to a church. The Church has been plundered. Verse 5: “For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountain. Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.” If you go into Revelation and look at the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, you cannot see them running around. But Satan has his horsemen out there who are proponents of war and false teaching. They are out there, and they are active. They are attacking God’s Church. The choicest valleys have been smashed and the shield has been uncovered. Continuing in verse 8: “He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest; you also saw the damage to the city of David, that it was great; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses you broke down to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.” THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST There is a reference to the House of the Forest and looking to this House of the Forest for protection instead of to God. They were looking to houses that were getting broken down to repair the wall, instead of looking to God. We know we are each a house of God once we have received the Holy Spirit. What is this House of the Forest? A House of the Forest is a separate thing from the house of the temple of God. You need the forest to build the temple. The forest is not the temple. You must cut the tree down if you are going to build a house. You must cut it up into lumber and build the house. But you have to have a forest first, or there is no other building. There is a House of the Forest mentioned here. This is a direct reference to I Kings chapter 6. I would like to turn to I Kings 6 and we will get a feel for the temple. Then we will go to chapter 7. Read I Kings 6:14-16. This was the most holy place of God at that time. Verse 17: “And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.” All of this was wood inside of this temple. Verse 19: “And he prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there.” The ark was built of wood, as well. Verse 20: “The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple pure gold.” You have to have something strong inside to put the very layer of gold on. Wood is a strong material to be the covering. Continuing in verse 21: “He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.” Continuing reading verses 23-31. The way in was through olive wood. Continue reading I Kings 6:32-35. Evenly on the wood was applied this gold. Read verses 36-38. All of these beautiful woods were brought together and overlaid with gold. That was Solomon’s temple. Now let’s go to chapter 7. I Kings 7, verse 1: “But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house; so he finished all his house.” So after he built the temple, he built himself a house. Verse 2: “He also built the House of the Forest of Lebanon; its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, with four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar beams on the pillars.” This House of the Forest is the house that we read of in Isaiah 22. Verse 3: “And it was paneled with cedar above the beams that were on forty-five pillars, fifteen to a row. There were windows with beveled frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three tiers. And all the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames; and window was opposite window in three tiers.” This House of the Forest of Lebanon is another building he made. That was the name of the building. Verse 6: “He also made the Hall of Pillars: its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits; and in front of them was a portico with pillars, and a canopy was in front of them.” So the building was made of pillars, and you stepped out in front of it like to a porch and there were more pillars. They went around it forming a portico around this particular building called the Hall of Pillars. It was a hall. Verse 7: “Then he made a hall for the throne, the Hall of Judgment, where he might judge; and it was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.” He made these other buildings. Solomon did not just build a temple. He made other buildings in the service of God out of beautiful woods, pillars and windows. A THIRD WORK? Now, if you would, go to I Kings 10:14. We will read about what was kept in these buildings in verses 14-17. So in this house were shields of gold. We read a few minutes ago about shields that God said He had to punish. What is going on here? Is it possible that Mr. Armstrong had another work to accomplish besides the main two, a building of the House of the Forest? Mr. Armstrong built many buildings during his lifetime work for God. He used the physical fruits of the forest and stone and glass of the earth to build these buildings. From these buildings the work was done. I brought a couple of old Envoys, and I just wanted to show you a few things. I want to read to you “Where There is Vision.” This is the Envoy from right after Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1987. “A little more than 40 years ago Herbert Armstrong envisioned a college unlike any other on the educational frontier. With the following letter written in 1946, he unveiled the dream that was to become Ambassador College. “‘Dear Friend and Co-Worker: I have great news for you in regard to the new college. Plans are progressing rapidly. We are now planning on a larger, more thorough basis than I had in mind at first. A thing worth doing is worth doing right, and this is so worth doing. It must be done on the highest and most thorough possible standard. Consequently, it is becoming a bigger undertaking than I had really imagined at first. It is truly a gigantic undertaking. Even though we planned to start it small with perhaps around 40 students, we are planning for bigger things and the foundation must be firm and pure and right. “‘It is not yet finally named, but appears more and more apparent that the name which came to me, almost as if God had put it into my mind, is the name that will be adopted. That name is Ambassador College. Everyone seems to like it. When I first mentioned the name to Mr. Walter E. Dillion, who will probably be its first president, he said he liked the name. It had dignity, it had a pleasing sound, etc. But he felt that we should select a name that carried a definite meaning. I agreed. I had explained the meaning. He thought the name very satisfactory. “‘The meanings of names is important. It is important to God. Do you realize the meaning of the names in the Bible and the meaning and the power of God’s name and the name of Jesus Christ? All Hebrew names had meaning. Well then, here is the meaning. As most colleges today claim to train students for their part in the world to become a part of the world, Ambassador College has to be diametrically opposite to those purposes. It is to teach students to come out of the world and be separate, to live by every word of God. In other words, opposite to the words that are taught in the world, the two different ways of life. One is the tree of life and one the knowledge of good and evil. “‘It is to teach students to come out this world and be separate, to live by every word of God instead of the ways and customs of the world. Yet while not being of this world but rather as strangers and foreigners in it, we shall train them to be in it purely as ambassadors for Christ. We hope, therefore, to train every student to be an ambassador for Christ and His coming kingdom which we represent. The name ambassador, therefore, is in fact the name of every student in the college. Of course, the world in general will not see or comprehend the real meaning of the name, but to those of the world, the name carries distinction, beauty and dignity. There is no college by that name in Southern California. “‘I would appreciate it if you would write and tell me what you think of the name Ambassador College. Already we have received many applications from prospective students and two, I believe, from prospective faculty members. It is now tentatively planned for Mr. Dillion and I to spend the month of June on the grounds in Pasadena making intensive preliminary plans for ordering and installing the new college equipment. All equipment, in keeping with our policy, will be the most modern and efficient obtainable. Then the month of July and the first half of August it is planned for Mr. Dillion to be at Columbia University in New York taking the summer session in Advanced Educational Research making final plans for curriculum, schedules, etc. under the technical guidance of Columbia experts. “‘While Ambassador College will be utterly different in purpose and objectives in its basic concept, etc. yet it will employ the most advanced of established methods of administration adopting these procedures of educational experience of our basic purposes. The standards are to be the highest in every respect. From August 20th until September 20th Mr. Dillion and I will again be on the grounds in Pasadena making final preparations for the college to open up around September 20th. “‘It is planned now in due time to acquire two adjoining estates and a beautiful vacant building site across the street. This will give us a total area of around six acres of the most beautiful grounds. Without exaggeration, I can say flatly no college campus in America will be more beautiful and very few, if any, as lovely as this that God has provided for His college. If and when we are able to acquire the two adjoining estates, we will have two additional very large reinforced concrete houses. One with 22 rooms and one with 14 with space to build later on two or three additional class buildings, a gymnasium and across the street a beautiful chapel and church building. I am assured circumstances are such that we shall be able to acquire this additional property. At every step we see God’s hands in this remarkable undertaking. In Jesus’ name and service, Herbert W. Armstrong’” PHYSICAL BUILDINGS FOR BUILDING THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE The first thing to do with the college was to build character. Now what is the first thing the tree of life is supposed to do? It is to build character. Try to remember the description that I read you in I Kings. In the 1987 Envoy, notice the pillars, the windows and the portico coming out of the water which supports the tree! These are the physical buildings that God used to build the spiritual temple. They were dedicated to God in the building of character. They very closely resemble what I read to you in I Kings. By the way, you will notice the trees coming out of the water like being planted by the water. I believe in the background those are Cedars of Lebanon Mr. Armstrong had brought in. I know there were some at Brickett Wood, too. I have one more Envoy. This shows the sunken gardens with the Hall of Administration. There is water, fountains and trees everywhere. Mr. Armstrong with his founder’s message in the 1983 Envoy writes that the foundation of knowledge is the word of God and that he is building a college to prepare for the world tomorrow. “Ambassador College is pioneering the educational system of the WORLD TOMORROW. A foretaste of that peace, happiness and abundant well-being is radiated by Ambassador students.” There is a photograph of one of the mansions he purchased, and look at the woods in there. Mr. Armstrong loved fine wood. Couldn’t you see this in something you would call a jewel as a craft of carved wood? There is an evening picture of Ambassador Auditorium with the columns and the windows coming up out of the water. Now we can understand, God does not waste people’s tithe. But if you are going to have a building dedicated to assisting the work of building the temple of God, you are not going to build with junk. It makes sense. Many people have criticized Mr. Armstrong for wasting money, but we had to have a college suitable for training trees to go out and grow more trees to build a spiritual temple of God that had to be of the finest character. I want to talk now for just a moment before we close what happened to all this work. Turn to James chapter 3. If you were to have a lot of trees gathered in one place, would you not call it a forest or The House of the Forest of God? Turn to James 3, verse 1: “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” He says not many should strive to become teachers because it is very difficult. DO NOT BURN THE FOREST Verse 3: “Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!” He talks about teachers, the tongue and a little fire and how a great forest can be burned down by a little fire. Continue reading James 3:6. “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body…” (the body of Christ) “…and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Read verses 9-12. We need the fresh water of the Holy Spirit in order to tame our tongues and become teachers and not destroy the forest. You must teach good things from good water to keep the forest growing healthy (the body of Christ growing healthy). Read verses 13-14. It is lying against the truth that can destroy the forest. Continue reading verses 15-18. Those who follow the tree of life and teach with purity the knowledge of God keep the tree (the forest and the body of Christ) healthy. Those who spread division, confusion and false doctrine destroy the forest and kindle the huge forest with a small fire and burn it down. Now, if you would, turn to Isaiah chapter 10 for a few more scriptures. Isaiah 10, verse 1: “‘Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed to rob the needy of justice, and to take what is right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. What will you do in the day of punishment, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain.’” Remember they are not slain with the sword, with guns or bombs. They are slain with the famine of the word. Verse 4 continued: “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” God says who decrees false decrees and denies the world and My people justice, who frightens the world with the preaching of misfortune and robs the fatherless and the widows? The fatherless are the people out in the world who do not know God the Father. The widows are the people in the Church who have lost contact with God the Father and Jesus Christ. God says who are these who are bringing a dire word of God. The word of God is the good news, the gospel of the kingdom and developing holy righteous character. It is the news that the world will be set free soon. GOD WILL TAKE AWAY THE LIES In Isaiah 10:15 God comments on those who take this hope from the people and use falsehood to burn the forest down. Verse 15: “Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood! Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones; and under his glory He will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So the Light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.” God’s fire is going to devour the thorns and the false things that have entered the Church and those who preach them. Verse 18: “And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they will be as when a sick man wastes away. Then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them.” This prophecy has come true! There are so few left standing preaching the truth bringing hope to mankind. Instead the Church brings hopelessness and despair. God does not like it. He is going to punish, but He is also going to repair. Turn, if you would now, for the second to the last scripture in Judges 9. We have chosen the wrong tree. That is what this parable of the trees in Judges 9 talks about. Judges 9, verse 7: “Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: ‘Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you!’” This is a parable of the trees now. “‘The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us!” But the olive tree said to them, “Should I cease giving my oil, with which they honor God and men, and go to sway over trees?” Then the trees said to the fig tree, “You come and reign over us!” But the fig tree said to them, “Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to sway over trees?” Then the trees said to the vine, “You come and reign over us!” But the vine said to them, “Should I cease my new wine, which cheers both God and men, and go to sway over trees?” Then all the trees said to the bramble, “You come and reign over us!” And the bramble said to the trees, “If in truth you anoint me as king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon!”’” It is a parable showing that if we allow false teaching and teachers who are bringing harmful bitter lies into the Church and then turn around and spew them back out into the world taking away their hope, fire will devour the Cedars of Lebanon. That is what has happened to the Church. There is no place left to flee. God needs to fix the situation. But I ask you, did Herbert W. Armstrong have a third job to assemble a forest for gold shields that were to protect the truth in the House of the Forest? Did he not build buildings separate from the spiritual temple of God from which the work went forth throughout the earth? Just like the prophecy shows, have those buildings not come under the jurisdiction (purchase you might say) of false teachers and religion? They have! It is a very sad commentary, but God is going to fix this. We have read the end of the book like Mr. Armstrong said and we win. God wins! I tell with certainty God is determined to win and win big! Turn, if you would for the final scripture, to Ezekiel 47. We are going to see the end result. When God is done, He will have a beautiful forest that will heal this world of the sickness that Satan has spewed all over the earth. Read Ezekiel 47:1-12. This is the forest of God. This is the firstfruit. These are the teachers who will heal the world by teaching the truth of God. For those who should have been drinking of the water and did not take in the waters, God says those marshes and levies off to the side will stay bitter. Some of us will not recover. By and large, God’s plan is going to go forward, and it is going to be a tremendous success with water going to the world and fruit from trees to teach the world the ways of peace. All of this because a temple made of wood, (made from human beings) was able to be a place where Jesus Christ could return suddenly and end the curse that is on the world. He will bring deliverance and redemption and a wonderful Millennium just ahead!