Church of God, Part 2

Some people are on a lifelong quest to find the true Church of God. It's kind of like a drug. It's a thrill. It's an emotional fix, in a way. A temporary high. Kind of reminds me of the old Christian churches, if you go back through time. My wife and I have explored a lot of them through Europe.

And the churches were built in a grander and grander scale. It wasn't just good enough to go to church, but somebody would build a taller abbey in the Anglican Church, or a taller cathedral in the Catholic Church. One that was more ornate. And they got so ornate, like the one in Milan, Italy, that every little piece of stone had something on it, with flying buttresses, flying all over the building, as it were, in Paris and in other places.

The windows were created in various colors, with more and more elaborate pictures, to catch the sun's rays and just blow people away, as it were. But then the height of the room and the chambers involved began to really resonate the sound. And when people sang, music was developed that went along with it, with the echoing. Organs were added, and larger organs, pipe organs, with the big deep base, the strong powerful vase. Then the buildings and the organs got larger and larger. Remember, we visited one, a modern cathedral down in... I mean, it was Guadalajara in Mexico that had just been recently finished, with the largest organ in the world that covered the whole back wall of this thing.

It was just impressive. But you know what happened through all of that? It got bigger, and people kept coming, and there was more until... I mean, you can only get so big and so impressive, and religion died out. There was nothing to sustain it. And so religion largely has died out in the Western Hemisphere today. A resurgence has taken place in modern evangelicalism to have a rebirth.

And once again, this has begun, with the hymns turning inward to the eyes and the me's, and the focus of the messages to me, and the passion, and the emotion, and the experience, and the hurt, and tying it into Jesus, and then working it into praise, and hymns of praise, and then churches that get bigger, and orchestras that get bigger, and then bands that get bigger, and exciting praise, worship, shouting, yelling, jumping, and speaking in tongues things that get bigger.

But how can you sustain that? And you can't. And so currently in the United States now we have 20 million people that have given up on organized religion altogether recently, and are staying home. This is sort of the emotional drug, the exciting high-high of moving and finding the ultimate quest for the true church. It reminds me of what goes on in the church, in our church today, because when these things become the norm, what do you do afterwards?

What do you do afterwards? Similar trends have affected our membership, our membership in the true church since Christ's Day. Very similar things. Itching ears, the Bible speaks about. People wanting, ever learning, never seeking, wondering out with itching ears to find something new. Ever learning. See? Not the true truth of God is not enough, but ever learning. Well, that was exciting.

What's more? It's got to be more. When the emotion reaches the high and then the high fades, well, then there's a scrapping for another plane. Search for something that is new, something exciting. Sometimes that drug is prophecy. Well, we know the truth, but okay, what about let's bring this alive. Let's see what's going on.

Let's get excited about what might be. Nothing wrong with prophecy. Prophecy, though, is intended for a purpose, not an end in itself. It's a tool. But once prophecy gets going, you know what happens next. Well, we know about the prophecies, but when are they going to happen? So now we've got to push it a little. The end is near becomes the message. Oh, good, the end is near. Now we're back on a high. But you can only push that so long. And if the end isn't here, then the high begins to fade. So some groups have pushed the end is near to the end is here.

We find the Laodiceans are finally defined. All right. Wow. So you kind of get some separation then. Well, that's not enough, is it? That's kind of gets to be old news. And then what's next in biblical prophecy? The two witnesses. Well, the two witnesses have been chosen or selected or they've chosen themselves. We've had many two witnesses through the years, but at some point groups will find the two witnesses. Currently, I've, you know, in my lifetime, I've seen the two witnesses come to the headquarters of the church. I've seen the two witnesses declare themselves.

One didn't make it. The other one, I guess, became both witnesses. I'm not sure. One church is teaching that he is training the two witnesses right now. This is exciting stuff, but that can only go on so long. You know, the two witnesses have to get to work, don't they?

Then the Great Tribulation has to begin, doesn't it? The Great Tribulation. Some people have already declared the Great Tribulation has started. Why? You've got to keep it going. Opium for the people. The Great Tribulation has just... can't stay there forever, you know, once the Great Tribulation has started. And it's not really happening. Things like Waco take place. Remember? That's what that was about. You start it yourself. You start it yourself.

Try to. Places of safety is imminent. The whole place of safety has always been imminent, but that's not good enough. You see, for a while it kind of wears thin. Going to place of safety, going to place of safety, going to place of safety, going to place of safety.

Finally, somebody declares, we're going to the place of safety now. That happened in the late sixties. The place of safety was declared in Jerusalem. It's happened, I know a guy who bought the place of safety, and is leasing lots. Serious. Got to have the place of safety. We know people who have sold their homes, been told, sell your houses, we're ready to go. Then they didn't go. Well, that's kind of a bummer, isn't it? So, a little while later, well, sell your houses again, we're ready to go.

I think. Bummer when you don't go, isn't it? So, one guy, he went, moved to Jerusalem. Come on, everybody, we're off. Well, that's been forty-some years ago, and that hasn't worked out to be the place of safety yet. See, what do you do? What do you do with some of these things? You can't stall forever. Then you have the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is coming, pushing that. Jesus Christ is coming anytime, it's coming anytime. But you know, we've been saying that so long, well, you can't just keep that high and not have Him come.

At some point, you either fall off or He comes. And so, some people have had Him come. Report to the airport in Tulsa, it was said, you know, twenty years ago. All the church members go to the airport in Tulsa at a certain time, on a certain day Jesus Christ is coming there with a spaceship, He's going to take us.

Guess He needed the airport. And they went. Jesus Christ is coming. And if He doesn't come, the church drank Kool-Aid laced with poison. Jim Jones grew. One way or the other, you see, you can only sustain it for a while. When you go looking for the true Church of God, that's not what the Church of God is about. It's not about keeping the emotions high, racing the drugs through the system, keeping everybody coming back for new and improved doctrines, new and improved messages, new and more inspiring, new truth, you know?

It's not what it's about. Those who pursue things like that will eventually find ruin. Now, as your pastor and your shepherd, in this local congregation, I want to focus you on one important thing today. It's very, very important. I am placed here to feed you, placed here to teach you. I want you to keep one principle in mind today. One principle. Just one. Keep it in mind at all times. Keep it in mind today, tomorrow, for the rest of your life. It's found in Matthew 22, verse 37. You probably know it by memory. You don't have to turn there.

Jesus said, you shall love, agape love, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments hang the entire Bible, all the law and all the prophets, he says.

This is the purpose of the church, combined with preaching the gospel. That's why on the logo of the church it said, preach the gospel, prepare a people. The preparing of the people is developing the love that comes from God in the human body, in the nature.

This is very important for us to understand and keep as a basis. You know, from Genesis to Revelation, salvation, your salvation, what is important is based solely on developing that love. God first, neighbor second. And developing that love is a character, it's a form of choice that is repeated over and over. It may not be all that thrilling, it may not be all that new, but that is what you are on this earth to do. Develop that love of God in your life.

Develop God's nature. Now, to some, that's not a thrill that they seek. It is to me. I find God's nature breathtaking. I find that every time it makes a change in my life, I am clicking my heels at the growth. I am excited about living forever with God in His family, having that perfect nature and being part of that divine family.

That's a thrill. And every little step up the ladder is a great joy. But not to everyone. Not to everyone. But that's the ultimate thrill to God's children. That's the ultimate thrill for you and for me. Today we're going to look at why Christ governs His church the way He does. And you're saying, what does this have to do with what He's talking about? What has everything to do with what He's talking about? Many people decide for themselves what form of government Christ should have in His church. That's the core of the issue for some people.

But Jesus said, I will build my church. Thank you. Thank you very much. I will build my church. And He has. And He is. And He will continue to do so His way. We're going to take a look today at some of the internal workings of God's church. We're going to see its purpose, its function. We're going to see our roles within the church. We're going to examine the historical, the current, and the future administrations of the church that Christ has used down through time and will use in the future. And in the end, we're going to see there's nothing you can compare to the church of God.

Absolutely nothing. It is an amazing, God-ordained, God-devised structure for a certain particular purpose. But first, a quick check. A quick check. See if we're paying attention. What command, what order, what charge did Jesus Christ give His church?

What was the order, the charge that He gave us? It's found in John 13, 34. A new entole, the Greek word. A new entole, I give you, which means a command, a charge I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. We are to love one another as He has loved us, and that is the command, the primary mission, spiritually, of His church.

The primary message, He said, of the entire Bible. It's what the whole Bible, all the law and all the prophets are all about. That you love one another as He gave us the example. If we go back and think about government, God initially created a spiritual universe. And in that universe, He created a government, and we might call it an angelic realm.

Billions of angels. But within that government, He had a special system set up. Later, He created a physical universe with physics, physical laws, and physical people. The physical universe and its intended purpose was very different from the first universe. He never called angels to be children. He never called them to develop holy righteous character that we know of.

He never gave them the promise of eternal salvation within the family of God. But the difference in the physical universe, He wanted to create character via choice. Character via choice.

Character via choice is the purpose and the work of the church in the spiritual dimension beyond preaching the gospel.

The Bible is a book that advocates right choices. From the very beginning, from Adam and Eve, don't eat that apple or that fruit, you know, eat that fruit. Choice. Don't do this, do that. Choice. Ten commandments. Choice. Choice. God wants to develop character through choices.

And that's His, that's His will, that's His goal for this physical universe. And the Bible supports that, utilizing knowledge, understanding, godly wisdom, utilizing the principles of God's mind, His meekness, His mentality of love, of concern for others, of humility, the inspiration that He gives us through His Holy Spirit.

Human life is all about learning right choices, godly decisions, godly choices, doing God's will versus human will and Satan's will.

We need to understand this. He created His church to assist humans in that process. That's what it's for. That's the mother that grows us into the nature of God.

That's the purpose, the spiritual purpose of the church. Now here's a quick check again. What is the sign that identifies Christ's disciples, the called out ones, the true church? What is the only sign He gave? It's found in John 13.35.

By this, nothing else, by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have agape, agape love, my divine love, developed character in you.

If you have that, that's the sign.

What's the criteria that God uses to judge those in the church? The saints.

Is it knowing when Christ will return? Is it calling yourself by a special name or a special group? Having the right government?

Doing charitable deeds? Having perfect faith? Preaching the gospel? The true gospel?

Warning the world? Telling the world? They're sins? Prophesying? What is it?

Well, in 1 Corinthians 13, verses 2 and 3, we're told, "...though one has a gift of prophecy and understands all mysteries and all knowledge, and has all faith so that I could remove mountains, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, I profit nothing." The purpose of the church is not those things.

The purpose of salvation and the thing that we get graded on, obviously, is not those things.

It's not to discount that those things are unimportant, but giving and serving and prophesying and preaching the true gospel and having great faith is not necessarily equated with love, is it? They are separate events. Right there, he says, all can be done without love.

So those things, of and by themselves, do not qualify a person.

It does not mean a person is on the right track or a group is on the right track, just because they have those particular things. And you know that Christ said on his return, many will have done those things, and he'll say, I do not know you because you've not kept my law. You are lawless.

Agape love is debasing of the self. It's exalting God and exalting our neighbor. It's honoring others. It's focused on others, not on self. That's the difference.

What is God's will for mankind? 2 Peter 3, verse 9. God is not willing that any should perish. There's his will. His will is not that any should perish. Therefore, his will is that none should perish. But that all should repent, all should come to repentance. Repentance from what? Sin, selfishness.

So we're beginning to see here the whole Bible, the mission of the church, the mission of God, the whole purpose for you and for me and what we're being critiqued over, is are we developing holy righteous character, this outgoing character, the choice away from self, and putting God and our fellow man first?

Again, does understanding prophecy produce fruit and character? Does it by itself? If you understood every prophecy exactly and how it would be fulfilled, have you developed love by that? No, you have not. Does the church, having the right government structure, produce fruit? If I tell you over here we have a person or a structure or whatever that you can find in the Bible, does that produce godly fruit? No. Even by itself, it does nothing.

But repentance, obedience, exercising the Holy Spirit, that produces fruit. The fruits are of the Holy Spirit, aren't they? The mind of God, His character.

And that was God's intent for Abraham, for David, for Israel, for the apostles, for you, for me. Now God has, believe it or not, used different governmental structures down through time. Everybody's kind of locked into a mind warp, it seems, that the last one we had has to be the only one.

But consider this. If you go back to the time when there was the spiritual universe, we might call it the angelic period. Was the government then different than now? Well, let's see. You had God the Father, 24 elders, counselors around His throne, Jesus Christ on His right hand, and probably the division of angels into thirds, under the three covering carols, Michael, Gabriel, perhaps, not sure, and the one called Hillel, also known as Lucifer. Does that sound like the government in the church today? No, it doesn't. When you have the government of Jesus Christ and Adam, the only human, what was that like? Jesus Christ, Adam, Adam was over the animals. Remember, put him over the animals? Adam named the animals? That was different than the government later that day when you had Jesus Christ, human family. Human family, husband over wife. Husband, wife over children. In one day, things changed. There were splinters in the angelic realm, remember? First government, splinters. Third of the angels left. Second government, splinters. Adam and Eve departed from God. Their children, etc. You could move on down through time. You had the patriarchal period. Seth, Abraham, Noah, Lot, Jacob. You know, you had that period. Is the government then the same as the government now? Certainly not. And even then, you had splinters, didn't you? Abraham and Lot separated. There was a separation of people. It came down to a time that I will call the time of the bringers. The bringers. I bet you never heard of that. Well, what title would you give Moses and Joshua? You know, I've searched through the Scripture. I've never heard God ordain Moses or Joshua to an office. They are...what would you call them?

He told Moses, he said, I'm going to have you bring them out. And to Joshua, you're going to bring them into the land. I don't know what's to call them. If God didn't use a title for them, I don't know what to...I'm sure some theologians got a title for that period. But all you can call them is the bringers. That's all I can call them, anyway. And their mission was to bring Israel out of Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land. Now, we could go back to that form of governance. Was it different than what we're using now? Anybody want some water? I don't have my stick. I could crack a rock if we had one. Yeah, it's a little different, isn't it? Quite a little different. We don't have the priestly system here. We don't have the tabernacle. We don't have the cloud. We don't have the bringer, leader.

What about after that? You know, they got into the land of...I guess you'd call it Israel. And what happened? Joshua died. The next generation forgot all about God, forgot all about the bringers. They lost it. So God raised up judges. Many different judges. Othniel, E. Hood, Shagmar, Gideon, Abimelech, Deborah, Samson. And a lot more judges. Do we have a government, an administration like the judges? No, we don't at all. And ironically, that all splintered. Then we come to the priest prophets directing kings age.

Can't really say the king is in charge, because remember God didn't want the king system anyway. But you have the king system. We think of David as being God's king. But remember God didn't want a king, but ended up with kings. Then you had a high priest, Samuel, who I seems to have in some ways been above him, between him and God, because the kings would go and solicit the priest.

Have that system today. Not at all. Then you have the prophets. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the major prophets and minor prophets. And what were they? Were they ordained a prophet? And did somebody ordain them? How did they prophesy? Did they lead? Did they rule? No, not really. And were they really over anybody, were they?

The post-exile leaders, Nehemiah, Ezra, temporarily over a construction site and then returning back to the captor land. All of these eventually splintered. You have the post-exile, well, after the post-exile leaders, you have, I guess, what you could call the synagogue system. It's kind of a collaborative group. And within the synagogue system, you had people who would contribute in certain ways during a church service, without anybody really being in charge, more of a master of ceremonies type of thing.

You come down in time, you'll find that Jesus and the disciples attended the synagogues, as did the apostles. For a while, do we have a synagogue system today? You know, that eventually splintered too. But it splintered early. You had, by Christ's time, you had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, you had the scribes.

And following that, you see things moving away into orthodox tradition, or conservative, and reform, which exists down to our day. What about Jesus and the disciples? They were pretty interactive. He was the teacher. They splintered, didn't they? Judas. Some people like to hold out a particular style or type or something, period, and point to that and say, well, that was the perfect government. Nothing ever went wrong with it. Then you have the first century church. It was directed, it was focused, it was collaborative.

Find in Acts the first chapter, Acts the fifteenth chapter, there was discussion among the leaders. They reached consensus. Acts sixth chapter, there was a directive from the leaders to the brethren to pick out certain ones for ordination, which those brethren did, and they were ordained deacons. There's a certain amount of, I mean, is that how things are done today? Should we always do that? Or was it just because the church was a few days old and they didn't know who was doing the serving, but the widows there would have.

You know, things change as time goes on. You know, the splintering of that first century church is shown in Acts 20 verse 29. Paul says, I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

So this is going to come from the outside and from the inside. It's just the way the church is. It's always been that way. It always will be that way. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone. We have the interim church following the Apostolic Age. The apostles eventually died out. What happened after that? Well, we don't see them ordaining any more apostles, do we?

The apostles by nature of what was defined in Acts chapter 1 were those who saw Christ personally and were taught by Him personally. That included the apostle Paul, who fit that description because of the teaching that Christ gave Him personally and miraculously. But down through time things get a little foggy for the next 1800 years. And we come to the 20th century church where a woman named Loma Armstrong understood the church.

And her husband fought her on it and said, no way! I'm going to prove you wrong! And God humbled him and converted him. He had a council of twelve elders. Mr. Armstrong was the first individual, the first man, and therefore began to teach others and was always recognized as the teacher, the leader, the head.

He surrounded himself with a council of twelve elders. Was it Herbert Armstrong an apostle? I think he was. I don't know. I don't know exactly how to know. The Bible doesn't say he was. That's great with me. I'm happy if he's an apostle.

He questioned it at the time. A lot of people assume that, and we all use the title. He didn't witness Jesus Christ being alive, but that's fine. One thing to know, he wasn't ordained to any rank. Herbert Armstrong was simply ordained a minister.

Regarding this council of twelve elders, I'd like to read some quotes from Mr. Armstrong. This comes from the Plain Truth in 1957. Whenever there is doubt in the mind of any about some truth, doctrine, or God's way, in any problem, we ministers meet together in council asking God's guidance and wisdom, seeking His truth.

God's word instructs us that in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. So we meet and counsel together, asking God's true understanding from His word. God is always willing to give it. As long as each man is yielded to God in his heart, there will always be unity. If any one of us comes up with something new, not previously understood, not agreed to, then he does not speak it publicly or write it in any article. Until we ministers can all study independently into it and counsel together regarding it, and all come to the same mind. Then in a great deal more joy, or sorry, there is a great deal more joy in finding God's way, even when contrary to our own previous beliefs or desires than having our own way.

Skipping forward almost 30 years or 25 years, from the worldwide news, 1981, I want an advisory council of elders. I have always done that, as you older ministers know. And you know how far back we used to meet together. It was the way we functioned as God's ministers. Often we went into a session with divergent ideas. Always after an hour or so, sometimes less, sometimes more, we were all united because we only wanted God's truth, and we always came to unanimous idea. Sometimes I did not agree with the others when we went in, and when we came out, I did. Well, you know, in what was called the Worldwide Church of God, there were splinters during the last 20 years of Mr. Armstrong's life, many of them. And there have been in the 20 years since his death. Now we come to the 20th century, United Church of God. Let me ask you this. How many of you miss your mother? I don't mean just miss your mother, but miss you being little with your mother. You know, sometimes people can do that because it was a simpler time. You know, Mom did the thinking, she did the work. Things worked out well. You didn't really have to think about what you were going to do, where you were going to do it, or when. Mom had it all worked out. Food was always there. There was a time when church members were babes. The church did the thinking for us, did the work for us. We were young, we were babes. Mr. Armstrong, especially, told us what to do, what to believe, how to eat, even how to dress. Kind of like Mom, like little children growing up. And then Daddy died. Everybody misses Daddy, his decisions, his directives. But you know, God wants us to use His Holy Spirit. He wants us to be led by His Holy Spirit. He wants us to think, to examine the Word, to compare it.

He wants us to grow and mature, to compare it with traditions, to use the Holy Spirit, to test the spirits, Jesus said, to follow and submit to those who are genuine after they are tested. He gives us the criteria to test by, and to be humble and to be meek, to seek God's will, to achieve consensus, to seek unity and peace, to base everything carefully on God's Word, to be totally united as one, and growing in this spirit of oneness through God's agape love. Be mature, Jesus said, as your Father in Heaven is. Be perfect. Be mature. Be complete. As your Father in Heaven is, perfect and complete. We're not just going to sit back and always be babes, and be lazy and have somebody tell us what to do.

In the 21st century, the United Church of God is still based on a council of 12 elders. That's what has always been in the Church as long as we've known it. There were 12 disciples and there were 12 apostles, and in our lifetime there have been 12 elders that Mr. Armstrong worked with in a council, and we continue to use that 12 elder council still. We get the consensus of all the ministry, and guess what? We still have splinters. Still splinters.

We note in the United Church of God that in the Bible ministers were not ordained to any rank as far as we can see. When were the apostles ordained apostles, for instance? They were disciples of Jesus and they hung around and the Holy Spirit came. Next thing, they're referred to as apostles.

What was the Apostle Paul who laid hands on him and said, You are now the rank of? What was Timothy ordained to? Timothy seemed to be a pastor. Paul tells him also to do the work of an evangelist. Peter said, I am an elder just like all the other elders. All the other elders. What does that mean? Well, it's not that we are shirking tradition. We are comparing it with the Bible and trying to do what God would have us do. So rather than ordained to a rank like apostle or evangelist or pastor, we ordained to minister.

Each person is giving various responsibilities, such as evangelist, pastor, teacher. These things can change over time. Herbert Armstrong ordained minister to ranks. Some of them were not found in Scripture. I've been ordained twice, and neither of my ranks are found in the Bible, not local elder or preaching elder. You see, those ranks back then, they meant different things. An evangelist was a department head in Pasadena. That department head needed to have superior rank to the other ministers that worked in the department.

So he was ordained to an evangelist rank. He was never expected to evangelize, not his job, and he probably wouldn't be allowed to. But that was just a rank. A pastor was actually a supervisor of pastors in the field. A preaching elder was a pastor, a local elder was an assistant pastor, and a local church elder just meant he was not full-time. Now, where do you find that in the Bible? And is that the tradition that we should follow?

Well, we don't find that in the Bible. But we do have today evangelists. We have people who evangelize. At times, I will evangelize. When I'm on television and one of the TV shows, I guess for 30 minutes, I'm an evangelist. Most of the time, I'm a pastor. Sometimes I'm a senior pastor, overseeing pastors, you see, pens. Mr. Gary Anyan was a pastor, but now he's not.

He's a teacher at ABC. Someday in the future, he may be an evangelist. He may be evangelizing. You see, he is a minister during all of those things. And so it's not that we even disallow the ranks. We've never said in the United Church of God that those who are ordained to any rank, that those no longer apply, we don't.

We stress jobs because jobs change. Jobs do change. The Church must follow Christ's lead, not tradition, when the two are not in harmony. And we are tested constantly as to whether we will follow Christ's lead. Other spirits will always be tugging and pulling at the Church. Jesus Christ said, by their fruits, you will know them. The fruits of the Holy Spirit, that love of God, is how we are to determine them.

Now that's a foreign concept to some. It says in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 18, I want you to notice this. You think, well, no, you can't have... Everybody in the Church has got to be in the Church, right? Stay with me on this. 1 Corinthians 11, 18. Paul says, for first of all, when you come together as a Church, I hear that there are divisions among you. Well, how could this be? This must not be the true Church.

That's what some people will say. Well, how can this be the true Church? It's always splintering. It's always people's, you know, contentions. So was there, you know, at the throne of God, when Satan took off with a third of the angels, and every other group that God has ever worked with down through time. This is nothing new. But notice, verse 19, for there must be factions among you. Did you know that? There have to be. It's part of your training. It's part of the testing of the Church.

There are divisions among you, for there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. This is part of the testing of God's Church, the testing of the saints. Jesus Christ wasn't just sort of blowing smoke when He said, there's going to be a lot of false prophets.

That's a test. When Paul said, grievous wolves are coming in, I'm warning you, that's a test. When you look at the various churches that Christ spoke to in Revelation, and warn them and talk to them about those among them who were teaching falsehood, that's a test. When He said that there would be tears among the wheat, and don't pull them out, they're intended to be among us. Divisions and factions, they demonstrate a different spirit, something other than godliness, something other than love.

Something else is being stressed. Somebody's not on the mark as far as why they're here, and what the purpose of the Church is, and what your and my roles are within the Church. Something else gets stressed, you see?

And it's not developing God's love. Something else rises to importance. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5, let's go back to the hallmark, to the actual rock that the Church gets built on. What is God? 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. Now the purpose of the commandments, the Bible, the purpose of the Bible and the commandments is love from a pure heart. That's what this Church, this religion, that's what our being in the body of Christ is about. A gape love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from a sincere faith.

Sincere. Not put on, not, you know, contrived. From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Something different. Rather than loving and developing God's nature, suddenly we have talk going on. Desiring to be teachers of something, teachers of the law. Understanding neither what they say as they talk, nor the things which they affirm.

I'm sure of this, I know this, I'm telling you this is the way it is. Remember one thing. Godliness causes harmony. Godliness causes harmony. Selfishness causes division. If you ever see division, it can only be caused by sin. Nothing else. You can say it masquerades as righteousness. You can excuse it, you can defend it all day long. Godliness causes unity. Sin separates. We are developing godliness and preaching the gospel. That's our calling. Develop godliness, preach the gospel. If you develop godliness, it pulls together. It can only have one effect. Loving and serving and caring and denouncing the self and promoting others can only have one effect, and that is to pull together.

In Matthew 18, verse 7, Jesus Christ said, For offenses must come. It's not that they're odd or weird or strange. Don't think that it's odd or unique when offenses and divisions come. No, there will be divisions. Divisions will come from the members. The divisions will come from the ministry. The divisions will come from your family. Jesus said to watch and to test. They will come from false apostles. There will be a constant test for the flock, and that's the way it's been since the church began.

That's the way it's been since the first humans, when Eve tempted Adam. You know? It came right from within the family. Offences must come, but woe to that man by whom the offenses do come. There is a responsibility, and all of us should be aware of that and not fall into the trap of being part of that testing tool, as it were. This fellowshipment or separation has been used down through time to protect the flock from those wolves who would come in. To mark, to denote, to try to save or inform.

It's a separation to protect the flock, number one, and a wake-up call to the one who is causing the problem. A couple of examples. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 11 will show this principle. There are many scriptures. I'll get into this at another time. Another sermon on white correction. 1 Corinthians 5 and read verse 11. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone who is named a brother.

In other words, within the body, if someone who is named a brother does any of these things or things like them, do not keep company with that person. One who is sexually immoral is one. Or a person who is covetous. Covetous for position, covetous for this, covetous for who knows, just covetous in general. Or an idolater, somebody who is putting something else before God. Or a reviler, someone who is criticizing and reviling other people. Or a drunkard or an extortionator.

Do not even eat with such a person. In 1 Timothy 6 and verse 3, I'll just read one other of the scriptures here. 1 Timothy 6, verse 3 through 5. If anyone teaches otherwise, See, we have another type of teacher. We have something else here besides godliness and character. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who told us to what? Love our neighbor as herself. A new commandment I give you. A new order I give you. Love one another as I've loved you. If he teaches otherwise and doesn't consent to those wholesome words and to the doctrine which accords to godliness.

The doctrine of godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing, obsessed with disputes and arguments over... words... talk. From which come envy and strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Minds who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. I should be able to promote myself here somehow. This should embellish me in some way. From such, withdraw yourself. Now those are personal admonitions. Those aren't the ones that actually state that publicly or mark somebody publicly that we should withdraw ourselves. We should, in other words, be mature enough and savvy enough and wise enough to follow the admonition ourselves and withdraw ourselves.

Without having even been told to do so. Most of the responsibility is on us. If we don't, well then, we are susceptible, aren't we, to falling into the same ditch, same trap. You need to understand that the church experience is a test for the ministry. It's a test for the membership. All of us are imperfect. All of us make mistakes. It's a test. I'm being tested.

You're being tested. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13, Paul says, Now, let's listen real carefully here. It says, Verse 12, It says, Whatever a good job is. Or with silver, it's good, but not quite as good. Or with precious stones. Maybe, I don't know how you'd rate them, but going down, wood. You know, wood is wood. It can be pretty good. Wouldn't really compare it with gold or diamonds. Hay, building with hay. Well, now, you know, they huff and they cleft and they... Or straw.

Wow! There's some issues here because, verse 13, notice where you and I come in. Each one's work will become clear. For the day, the day of the Lord will declare it. Because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work. You and I are called to be tested and tried. And the minister is going to be tried, and the members are going to be tried, and the teachings and everything is going to be tried. It's going to be put to test. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures... Remember what Jesus Christ said? I chose and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. Remain. Yep. Well, if anyone's work endures, remains, it's going to be tested. He will receive a reward. If anyone's work or sheep, you might say, is the work, are burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as though through fire. All are going to get tested. God wants to know if we really, really, really want His character. We really want His will. He's got to know that all the way down. So all are going to get tested. Let's go to the government chapter. Ephesians 4, verse 1. We can call this the government chapter because it talks about government in the Church of God. It says in verse 1, I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. And those sound like a bunch of words that everybody skims right over, but if you just applied verse 1 and 2 in your life, you'd be in the kingdom of God. You know, you'd be there. You really would. So would I. But we move in to verse 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Godliness creates unity. Remember Jesus said that they may be one as we are one. That's where godliness ends up, in a state of oneness. Verse 4, there is one body and one Spirit, just as you are called in one hope of your calling. This godliness is built around one God, one Spirit, one calling to be godly. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Quick check. What summarizes the whole Bible? Love God, love your fellow man. What's the purpose of the church? What's the purpose of church government? Verse 11, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. Now what's the purpose of this government? Just to be a sign of the true church, maybe? Or maybe a government created with a purpose. Actually, it is. Verse 12, it's for the equipping of the saints. That's what church government is for. That's what it's to accomplish. That's its intended purpose. It's not an end in itself. Its purpose is to equip the saints for the work of ministry, service, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come into the unity of the faith, Godliness produces unity. Faith is from God's Holy Spirit. And of the knowledge of the Son of God, what's to know about the Son of God? Except I command you to love one another, as I have loved you. And I command you to love the Father with all your heart, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the knowledge of the Son of God. To a perfect man, Matthew 5, 48.

Be you therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect. And what is God? God is love. Perfect in love. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Who was? Love. That's what we're to become. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine. Something other than love. That's what this government is here. It's to generate the love and to keep other ideas and concepts out.

By the trickery of men, the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Verse 15, But the ministry, speaking the truth, thy word is truth. What is thy word? All the law and the prophets, summed up as, Love God, love your neighbor. Speaking the word in truth. In love, he says, may grow up into all things, into him who is the head, Christ. You know, this chapter on government really makes it clear, doesn't it? About what the church is, what the government is about, what your and my calling is about and purpose is about on this earth.

And it teaches us something profound.

It's not about finding the true church with the right government. It's being the true church because of right government. You ever think about that? It's not finding the true church. That's not your quest in life, to go out and find the true church. Your quest is to be the true church.

Verse 16, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. It's being the church. According to the effective working by which every part does its share. Doing the love causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. It fulfills the objective. It's not finding the church. It's not being in the church. It's being the body.

Some are still on their pilgrimage, still trying to find the Holy Grail or the perfect church. In search for the Philadelphian era of the church. I would say that's the big quest. Where is the Philadelphian era of the church? Because of Revelation 3, you don't want to go through the tribulation. And these don't go through the tribulation. So where is the Philadelphian era? What does Philadelphian mean? It comes from the Greek word philia or Latin, which means brotherly love.

So Philadelphian means the group or the city of brotherly love. What have we been talking about? What's the purpose of the church? What's the government of the church for? What's the objective of the church? You can look all over the world for it, but if you're not the church, if you're not growing and edifying and producing the love and participating in the church, that which should be obvious to everyone will be ignored, and the quest will continue.

The pilgrimage to find that which we are to be. Jesus said all would know who His disciples are because they would have. Philia. They would have brotherly love or they would have agape love. Those who are the church do love. They are the Philadelphians. It's not so much a group as a mindset. It's not somebody who's got a name. It's somebody who's got a mindset. They are the ones. In Revelation 3, I won't turn there, but Jesus said, I know your works. Faith without works is dead. What are the works? They're the works of love.

I know your works. You have kept my word. What is God's word? Love God. Love your neighbor. Pretty much defines what that question is. So the big question for all of us is, am I being a part of the church? Am I being a part of the true church? I'm going to cover this issue more in Part 2 of this series entitled, The Seven Churches of Revelation and You, which we'll get to at some point. But the one unchanging constant in the government of God, the unchanging constant, amid all the changes down through time, there's been one solid constant. Do you know what it is?

It's God. God never changes. Various administrations, the Bible talks about, that are used at various times to create the same effect, godliness. But God Himself and Jesus Christ, the rock, they don't change. In Colossians 1, 18 it says, And He is head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence. And we look to Jesus Christ as our sole leader. Not a single man. We don't look to tradition. We don't look anyway. We look to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ has not appointed a single leader.

Some of them say, well, you don't have the right form of governance. Well, great! You know? What does Christ want us to do? Well, you should have a single leader, okay? And how would we choose Him or her? Depending on what your ideas may be. In the absence of Christ, should we just pick one ourselves? You know? I've talked to Aaron Dean. I've talked to Jim Franks.

I've talked to myself. We'd all love it to have one man. Just one problem. A small problem. I know it's a detail, but Jesus didn't name one. And therefore we don't have one. So we do it His way. If Jesus ever should name a leader, then we will all gladly recognize that appointment.

But a consensus currently among hundreds of ministers in all total agreement is that we confer the human administration onto twelve elders who rotate in their positions on the council. We have consensus among the ministry. It's arrived at by using prayer, the Holy Spirit, the gifts that God has given us, the intelligence, the mind, the wisdom, the experience. We're using those things. We're maturing. We're using judgment. Remember where Paul said, is it such a small thing that you judge? After all, we're going to be judging angels. God wants us to mature. The apostles did, you know?

They used judgment. Let's go to Acts 15, verse 5. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, It is necessary to circumcise them. This is our opinion. It is necessary for these individuals to be circumcised, these Gentiles who are coming into the church. Now the apostles and elders, verse 6 of Acts 15, came together to consider this matter. Ah! The apostles and the ministry had a conference. They all got together to consider this matter. They had to use their brains, didn't they? Jesus wasn't around anymore. Daddy had died. You could use that expression. See? He is now inspiring them with the Spirit. They have to draw on God's Word, on the Spirit within them, and they have to make decisions. Look what it says.

Verse 7, And when there had been much dispute, not everybody saw eye to eye on this, there was a lot of dispute. Then what happened? When there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, This is how I feel. Verse 12, Then all the multitude kept silent, and listened to Barnabas and Paul get up and give their input. Verse 13, After they had become silent, James answered and said, Men and brethren, listen to me. Verse 22, Then it pleased the apostles and the elders and the whole church. Consensus, just like what Herbert Armstrong experienced, just like what the Council of Elders and the General Conference of Elders today experiences.

Put the matters forward, you think them through, you pray over them, you agonize and you reach consensus. It's a beautiful thing. In Acts 1, we find the disciples, they don't have God's Spirit yet, but they're waiting in Jerusalem to be given the Holy Spirit, which came to them on Pentecost. And in verse 15 of Acts 1, In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. How many disciples were there? Can you guess? Anybody say 120? I'll just keep reading, it'll tell you. All together the number of names was about 120, and said, Men and brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled.

This Scripture had to be fulfilled. Who said it had to be fulfilled? Here's Peter standing up in front of 120, maybe plus the other 10, he was the 11th, and said, This Scripture has to be fulfilled. How do you know? What does it say? It doesn't say in the Bible that Scripture has to be fulfilled, does it? But he says it has to be fulfilled. Verse 20, For it's written in the book of Psalms, Let another take his office. What does that refer to? Verse 21, Therefore, Peter said, Of these men, the 120, who have accompanied us, all this time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become, that's his judgment, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.

How did Peter come to that decision? I don't know, it doesn't say. Verse 23, And they agreed, we find, because they proposed two. Now how do you, in a group of 120, propose two? When there's 11 of you. How did that work? They proposed two. They worked down through 120, 11 guys worked down the names of 120 people and came to two.

Why didn't they come to three? Why didn't they come to one? Obviously, they couldn't reach a consensus on one. But they got all the way to two, and that's as far as they could get. And so, one was named Joseph, the other was named Justus, or Matthias. And so they prayed, and they said, Oh Lord, you who knows the hearts of all men, show which of these two you have chosen.

You show which, please. Did God show? How do you know? Diddy or didn't he? Show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry, an apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell that he might go to his own place. The question is, did God show them? How did he show them? They chose, they made a decision. I don't know how they came up with that decision. Maybe they voted what they should do or how God would show them, but they ended up casting lots. It says, and they cast their lots.

There are various types of lots. There are many types of lots, but essentially you're throwing in something to say how you feel about something. There can be that. And the lot fell on Matthias, and so he was numbered with the eleven apostles. It's curious.

Why didn't they replace James nine years later when he was killed? Did they assemble again and gotta have one more, keep the twelve going? You know they didn't. Nor when Peter and Paul were killed, John was finally the only...they never did that again. Why not? They never did that again. We never see them using lots again. We see them in that conference. Rather than just jumping to conclusions, we see that various things are done at various times in the best effort to seek God's will.

The United Church of God ministry uses a tool in reaching consensus today. I'd like to give it a try right now. Let's try using this tool. I have three questions for you. How many of you like 115 degree days with 90% humidity?

One. Second question. How many think it's okay to have a pet pig?

Some of you. How many of you think that it is wrong to work on the Sabbath?

You've all voted three times. How does it feel? You have. You've balloted, you voted, whatever you say. You could do it by writing your name on a piece of paper like I do at the conference and put it in so that it's official and nobody else writes my name on a piece of paper. But that's what we do. When it comes to reaching a consensus or expressing how we feel on a certain matter, that's what we do. We write it on a piece of paper. The apostles used a matter. You've used hands. It seemed to work pretty well. Those who don't think it's right to have a pet pig, why do you have an unclean dog or cat in your house?

Who is to submit to whom? This is a good question. Are we called to submit to God and the Church? Or is God and the Church to submit to us and our ideas and our traditions? Sometimes we're like children. The Church is our mother. We have human nature. The baby is born and we're like, yeah, mommy, do whatever. Feed me, feed me, feed me. But then we go through the terrible twos. We're old enough and strong enough and we can walk now and we say, no. No. I don't want that. I won't eat those vegetables. I want that hamburger. And we're going to fix mama. We're going to recreate the household a little bit here. And that's typical. When humans govern, the tendency is for those who govern to misuse their power and abuse the governed. Jesus tells us that in Matthew 20-25. But when humans are governed, they tend to despise authority. We're told that in 2 Peter 2 and verse 10. Both of those tendencies are in us and both of those tendencies are to be repented of. Jesus tells us that. The apostles tell us that. We are called and invited to be in that one true church, of that one true church. We're called to be that one true church of God. Now, what's our response? Is it yes? Is it no? Or is it, well, okay, if you'll change the church to my liking, then I'll consider it.

I'd like you to read with me James 3 verse 14. This concept of we're critiquing the church, you know. We're the two-year-old now, we're the four-year-old, whatever it is. And therefore, we now know better. Thanks for teaching me. Thanks for training me, God. Thanks for bringing me the truth, you know, the ministry. But now, I am armed and dangerous. And I know more than God.

It says here, in verse 14 of James 3, If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. If you feel somehow self-inflated, you see, and you're envious, kind of like Cora, he wasn't participating enough, or self-seeking, it's more what I want. This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but it's earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. So when I see it in me, or you see it in us, we ought to recognize that. When there's confusion and self-seeking, there's evil there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. It's gentle, it's willing to yield, it's full of mercy and good fruits. There's the character that we're to be building. Without partiality, without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. You know, the word peace from Thayer's lexicon is harmony. Harmony. The fruit of righteousness is sown in harmony by those who make harmony. You know, godliness causes things to unify the body to grow together in oneness.

I'd like to ask you if you would to read the Godly Governance Paper. We've had some set out for the past few weeks. If you haven't picked that up, it will really explain a lot of the issues of God's governance today.

In conclusion, let me say that Jesus is coming to resurrect the saints. And guess what happens then? You know, I think you've got it all figured out, don't you? We've got the perfect government in the church, some feel. A brand new form of government begins when Christ returns. It's never been that way before. Never in the history of time have the saints ruled with Christ on the earth over carnal people. It's going to be brand new. Now, if you think that's great, well, stand by. Because after a thousand years, that government will change again. Because that government is said to only last for one thousand years. And following that will be a hundred year period. We don't know what the government during the hundred year period will be. The Bible simply doesn't say. But hold your hats, because after that, a new government is going to form. Where the Father comes down from heaven with new Jerusalem. And Jesus Christ joins him. And then everybody will be governed by a totally different structure of government. One that we don't even know much about. The Bible vaguely points out some of the things that will happen there.

Here in God's church, we need to decide, will or will I not be governed to love God? To grow in His nature. Will I love my neighbor as myself? Will I develop that character? Will I submit my will to God? Those are the decisions we need to be making. You and me. The church will help you. That's its purpose. The church will encourage you. The church will support you. It will educate you in making right decisions. And in building Godly character. But that character can only be built by you. God is waiting breathlessly for you to build that character.

I'd like to close by reading Hebrews 13, verses 20-21.

I think this really sums it up. Where Paul says, Now may the God of peace, again, peace being harmony, May the God of harmony, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, That great shepherd of the sheep, the head of the church, Through the blood of the everlasting covenant, And that means grace through repentance, Make you complete in every good work, Godly love. To do his will. What's God's will? Love God, love your neighbor. Working in you. What is well pleasing in his sight? What pleases God? Love God, love your neighbor.

Through Jesus Christ, the head of the church, To whom be glory, forever and ever. Amen.