Come out of the World

It's hard to think that we've come to the last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture becoming more like God and less like the devil. If you want to summarize it, to become more like God means that we've got to become less like the world also. We must be coming out of the world. And quite frankly, that's one of the big lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread, that you find Israel coming out of the world, crossing the Red Sea, following a pillar of fire by night, cloud by day. And God led them in a way, in a path, directed them to the Promised Land. So Israel's coming out of Egypt is a type of our journey out of sin, our journey out of this world, out of slavery to the devil, to the society that we've lived in, and to obey God. You might ask yourself the question, why does God not want us to be a part of this world, of the society around us? What's wrong with the world? Is there anything wrong with the world? Why are we told not to love the world? Now, I want you to notice what seems to be, or might appear in the minds of some to be a contradiction. In John 3 16, we read, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. So we find that God loved the world.

Now, the word there for world, and the Greek, is cosmos, and it means the orderly arrangement of things. The word can also include the inhabitants. World, in this case, refers to the inhabitants of the earth. You have to tell by context what it's talking about. So when it says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, he's obviously talking about Christ died for human beings, for our sins. God gave his Son so that the human race would have the opportunity for eternal life. So let's go over to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2, and we'll begin to read here in verse 15. And I want you to notice the exact opposite of it says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. So we're not to love the world. And again, the Greek word is cosmos.

So it says, Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now, he goes ahead and clarifies what he means by the world here. For all that is in the world, when you look at the world and see what's there, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God will abide forever.

So brethren, we find here, we're told we're not to love this world. Now, does that mean that we're not to love the people? Well, obviously not. The Bible clearly teaches the principle that we are to love people, but what are we supposed to hate?

We love people, hate sin. We love others, we don't like the evil that we see around us, or the sin. We hate the evil ways, the evil practice. So what we find is that there is something wrong with the world. There's something wrong with the orderly arrangement of things. That's one of the definitions of cosmos. What is wrong with this cosmos or the world around us?

See, this is where you get the word today cosmopolitan. If somebody is a cosmopolitan person, they're of the world, society, they're sophisticated, and so therefore, they're worldly.

This is an area that we're going to focus on today because if we're not careful, it's so easy to get called up in the world. And yet, the Bible says we're to be coming out of the world. So what is it that we're supposed to come out of and not be involved with? Well, back in Genesis 2, God set two trees in the Garden of Eden. The tree of life, the tree of the knowledge, good and evil. In Genesis 3, we find Eve and Adam partook of the tree of the knowledge, good and evil. That decision that they made to partake of that tree, the wrong tree, has influenced everything that human beings have done ever since.

It's had a tremendous impact on you, on me, and every human being who's trodden this earth.

From the very beginning, we find that society was established on the wrong foundation of the world. Man began to build his society, his culture, his way of life, and it's all built on the wrong foundation. The foundation of today's world's customs, traditions, practices, the way of doing things is based upon Satan's way, not on God's way. But this is Satan's world. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and then we'll go back to Genesis. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and you'll notice beginning here in verse 3, we'll read 3 and 4, it says, but even if our gospel is veiled, and this is talking about being hidden or veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe. So notice, he is called the God of this age, or as King James version translates it, the God of this world. The God of this world is Satan the devil, and Satan the devil has blinded the minds of individuals. Why? Because he does not want people to believe the truth, to believe the right way, to believe and go in the right way. In fact, he is called the ruler of this world that we live in today. Today, we're going to take a look at something that you may not have thought of from this perspective, but we're going to see that there's a parallel track, or I would call it a parallel track, just like a train track, that there are two parallels running side by side in society and around us, and it could be likened to two train tracks. We don't ride that many trains here in the U.S. You go to Europe or go to England, and you find that the hordes get around on trains, and you can be riding in a train and want to pull alongside you. You can be taking the express. Somebody else is taking the local. It stops at every little place. The express goes from this point to that point, so you're traveling along and all the ones...

There's a train that goes by you. We were in Germany. We were on a train that did upwards to 125 miles an hour. That was exciting. They've got trains today that will do over 200 miles an hour, but the point is you can have train tracks that parallel each other, and you can have a train going one direction. You can have a train going the other direction, and even though they're on parallel tracks, one is headed in the opposite direction from the other. And this is what the human race has been faced with from the very beginning. The human race has been faced with choices.

Broadly speaking, two ways of life are two approaches. A man cut off from the Holy Spirit of God in God's way of life has gone in the opposite direction. He's on the express train headed to nowhere. Well, it's headed to death, but man was left after the Garden of Eden to devise his own society, his institutions cut off from God, but swayed and influenced by Satan the Devil. So the present world that we see about us is a product of man's way of thinking. When I say a way of thinking, it is a mixture of right and wrong. It's not all depraved, it's not all good. It's a mixture. That's why the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it's good under the wrong tree. You can only be good in a holy sense, in a righteous sense, and sit under the tree of life because that's where God is and God's Spirit is. So man's way of thinking has been influenced by his corrupt reason and the wrong Spirit influence, which is Satan the Devil. If the foundation is wrong, the superstructure will not stand. Now we've seen this recently in Haiti with the earthquakes that took place there. Why did those buildings collapse? Well, number one, they didn't have the proper foundation. They were just sort of adobe even in the superstructure. So when the earthquake hit, there was nothing to support them. Now there's just recently been a earthquake, I think it was 7.2 or 5 in Baja, California. Its effects were felt over in San Diego, yet there wasn't that much damage done because they built earthquakes. In LA, they build huge buildings on pilings and they've got springs and they've got rubber underneath and these things sway and when the ground moves, they just sort of go up and down and, you know, they don't go this way. They move, they'll sway a little bit, but they're built to take that. But what you find, if the foundation is wrong, the foundation isn't built in the proper way, then the superstructure is going to fall. So what has been the result of the wrong choices that man has made? What is the result of society being built on the wrong foundation and knowledge and swayed by Satan the devil? Well, let's take a look at these two parallel tracks and see the difference. There are two worlds spoken of in the Bible. Let's go over to Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 and verse 4. We read here about Christ who gave himself for our sins. But he might deliver us from this present evil world, or present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. So you find that the world, the society that we live in today, this present age is called evil. It's not called good, it's evil. It includes all of the evils we see in the world around us. This is not God's world today. This is not God's way of life being practiced today in society. When you see wars, you see violence, you see hostilities, envies, murders, contentions, divorces, and you can go on and on. All of the problems and plights that human beings suffer through, that's this present evil age. Now Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5, Hebrews 2,5 talks about that there is coming a future world. It says, "...he has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels." Now the word here for world is a completely different word.

It's oke-ku-men-ay, oke-men-ay, and it means the inhabited earth. That God in the future is not going to put this world that we live on in subjection to angels who will rule over the world at that time. You and I will. God has called us to be the rulers at that time. This is the time that God will take charge and set up His government and His rule. When you read through the Bible, read through the Scriptures, you'll find there are three basic things referred to when we talk about the world, and you have to clearly understand which one it's referring to. First of all, the earth or the globe, the planet we live on. That's called the world. And so we're very thankful we have a beautiful planet that God has given us. This is part of God's creation. Back in Genesis 1.30, God, when He created everything, looked at it and said, it's good. And so God thought that the earth was good. It was beautiful. He created it that way. Then there's a Greek word for world that is aion, a-i-o-n. It refers to an age, a period of time, and it can apply to eternity. When it uses the ages of the age, it refers generally to eternity. Now you can just jot this down. 2 Peter 2 and verse 5 refers to the old or the ancient world, the cosmos. That was the world before the flood. So you could just refer to the cosmos or the orderly arrangement of things. And the ancient world or the old world was as it was organized before the flood. We're living in the present world today. Now when an Adam and Eve chose the wrong tree, they chose to live in the world. They didn't understand this in making the choice. They're like a lot of human beings today, sometimes us. We make choices and we don't realize the implication of those choices. We don't understand the repercussions of those choices, the end result of making certain choices.

So they chose the wrong tree, and they chose as a result of that to live in a world dominated by wrong influence, going in the wrong way, and influence for evil. Let's back up to Genesis 3, Genesis 3, verse 5.

I want you to notice what happened and how Satan the devil lied to them, misled them, deceived them.

In verse 5 here, chapter 3, verse 4, he told them to lie, if you eat of this tree, you won't die, he said. For God knows something, he said, that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God to no good and evil. Now, you see, he told them half truths. Their eyes were open, but open to what? Well, let's go on. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, how did she know that? Observation. God said, don't eat it. So therefore, it wasn't good for her, but she thought, well, it's good for me. And it was pleasant to the eye, so it looked pretty. And a tree desired to make one wise. See, the serpent said, you'll be wise if you do this. She took the fruit and ate, and she gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of them both were open. Now, their eyes were open now to knowledge that they didn't know before and notice. And they knew something.

They knew something they didn't really focus on before, and that was that they were naked.

Now, didn't they know they were naked before? Well, it says here they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Now they became, apparently, something they were ashamed of being naked. They had to cover their nakedness up. They didn't have anybody to hide from. Weren't any children running around. Weren't other human beings out there. So, you know, they didn't have to worry about it. Their eyes were open to wrong knowledge, wrong influence, and it began to affect their minds. It began to affect their reasoning. And later on, when God walked in the garden and He was out, they hid themselves.

Why would they hide themselves? They hadn't hid themselves from God before. All at once, God becomes a problem with them. And they think God is their enemy. They hide themselves. They're guilty now. Uh-oh! Maybe they realize they had done something wrong. You know, we don't know all of the story. And so, God said, where are you? And they said, well, we were naked. And we realized, you know, we were and we hid ourselves. And God said, who told you that you were naked? So, apparently somebody told them. And it wasn't God. So, you know, who told you all of this? And so, from this moment on, you find that society began to be built on the wrong foundation. As we covered Last Sabbath in Revelation 12.9, the Bible says that Satan has deceived the whole world. So, all of mankind has been deceived by Him. The word deceived means to cause again to go astray, to lead astray, to lead aside from the right way. So, man has been led astray from the right way. Man thinks that he's going in the right direction. And he doesn't realize that he's gotten so far astray that he's flipped around. He's going in the exact opposite of what God wants man to do. Again, the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 16, 25, says there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end's there out of the ways of death. So, Satan dissuade the whole world in every facet of the way of life. He is called the God of this world. Let's notice in John 14. John 14 and verse 30. John chapter 14 and verse 30. Christ said, I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming and has nothing in me. Okay, the great word there is cosmos. And as referring to the orderly arrangement of things, he is the God of this world, of its society, its culture, its approach to almost everything. Chapter 16 and verse 11 says the same thing of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Satan is the ruler of the cosmos, the society, the arrangement, all of this around us. You might remember back in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 that the demons are called the rulers of the darkness of this age.

So, Satan and the demons are the rulers of the darkness of this age. They lead men in the darkness. And I thought what Rick Cloud has covered in his sermonette very much applied to what we're talking about here. People who are in darkness and have never seen the light don't know.

And he had a very good analogy there. And it certainly applies with what the Bible talks about. In 1 John chapter 5 and verse 19, we read this. We know that we are of God. You and I should know that we know the truth. We understand the right way that God is called us. We are of God. And the whole world, though, lies under the sway of the wicked one. Cosmos again, the whole world, all of society lies under the sway of the devil. In fact, Christ said in John 7, 7, that the works of this world are evil. He didn't say they were good, but that they were evil. So we find that there are two worlds, and the world that we live in today is called this present evil world. And its works are evil. Its influence, the major influences out there, are the wrong influences. Now, there are also two spirits of good in this world. In 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12, let's notice. Again, remember, we're trying to concentrate on what's wrong with the world. So first of all, we find this is Satan's world. It's an evil world. It's a world dominated by him. And we find that there are two influences out there, two spirits. In 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 12, it says, Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us from God. So first of all, there is a spirit or influence of this world. Most people don't recognize that.

If you were to do an interview, man on the street, go up to someone here in this area and say, I'd like to ask you a question, sir. He said, yes. Are you influenced by the devil?

He would probably slap you, or you would get upset. How many people would you say, you believe your religion is of the devil? You believe your education is of the devil? You believe that everything you believe is of the devil? Well, he would say, you're crazy. And yet, this is what the Bible talks about. Ephesians, hold your place here. We go over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 1, we read this. Ephesians 2, 1.

You, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. So at one point, we were spiritually dead, and he's made us alive, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. So we've all walked according to this world, its course, its way of life, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves. All of us once went that way, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.

So, brethren, all human beings have been influenced and deceived by this great being.

So there is the spirit of this world, and then there is the spirit of God. The spirit of God flows from the tree of life. The spirit of this world flows from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and everything I'm talking to you about here are the parallels. One comes from the wrong tree, the other comes from the right tree, and we need to recognize that. Let's come back to 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2, 9, 1 But as it is written, I has not seen, or ear heard, nor has entered the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them. Now, how does God reveal things to us? Well, it says, Through his Spirit by his power. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the Spirit of man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. And to whomever that Spirit reveals, otherwise, no man knows. And the Bible is very clear on that. So the Bible clearly shows that the Spirit of God is both the essence of God and the power from God. And God places his very essence, his very nature within us, and God also gives us the power. And we're here during the days of Unleavened Bread acknowledging the fact that we don't have the strength of the power on our own. And we can't forgive our sins. That requires our Savior to sacrifice. We don't have the power to come out of Egypt just like Israel. We didn't have the power to escape from Pharaoh, from, you know, the Egyptian army. We don't have the power to walk in the way, as Israel didn't. But yet God guided them, provided them food to eat, water to drink, their clothing, guided and directed them to the Promised Land. And so God promises to be with us. So, brethren, depending on who influences an individual the most, there are two ways our approaches extend in society today. Let's go on again in verse 12, 1 Corinthians 2.12, and let's look at these two approaches. They're described in a different way here. Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches concerning or comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So, brethren, there is a wisdom of this world. It's called man's wisdom. And there's also, the Bible refers to, the wisdom that Satan the devil inspires, which is man's wisdom. Notice the natural man, the unconverted man here. A natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. So, brethren, what we have to extend today is man's wisdom versus Godly wisdom. Man's way versus God's way. The wisdom of God leads us in a certain way, and the world looks on that as being foolish. Do you think people think you and I are the wisest people in the world for taking the day off on Monday and coming to church all day, and you'll obey and keep in your God's commandments? When people sit down in restaurants, and they order shrimp, or they order lobster, or they order whatever they want, you sit there, and you don't, and they go, oh, you have a bite, and you say, no, I don't like that, or I can't eat that. Well, why not? And maybe you try to explain. You know, they think, I mean, he's a little nutty. What's wrong with this person?

Satan certainly is the energizing spirit in this world. He's the energizing power. He's given lost man a wisdom, a certain wisdom. That wisdom inflates his ego, blinds the minds of human beings, has led man away from the simple truths of the Word of God. And when you look at the world today, the great centers of learning today reject the Bible. You send a child off to school today in college, and they go to Harvard or Cornell or Duke, Butler, his name, a few, and you see that these particular schools are not going to teach them God's way.

They're going to be taught a philosophy today that's going to lead man in the exact opposite. They reject the deity of Christ. They reject the need for salvation. Evolution is promulgated in taught. So your actualization, you're just relying on yourself and not on others, you see the keynote.

This type of ignorance led man to crucify Christ, and man, even learned man today, continued to crucify him by their actions and the way they live. So man's wisdom thinks God's wisdom is foolishness. Now, what does God think of man's wisdom? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 20.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 20, says, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputing of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

This world's wisdom is foolishness with God. Wisdom that creates an evil society is not truly wisdom. Wisdom that creates a society that is based and is in result is warfare and misery and suffering and hatred and animosity and rebellion is not a wise society. And yet, that's what we see today. Okay, another one of these parallel tracks that we see trains on is that there are two different kinds of men alive today. And I will include women among men. I'm talking about mankind, human beings, the human race here. There is what is called the natural man in the Bible. The natural man is the unconverted man cut off from God, mainly influenced by the devil.

And then there is what is called the spiritual man. This is a man who lives in the world. This is talking about you and me, hopefully all of us. He lives in the world, but he's led by the Holy Spirit, not cut off from God and has been delivered from Satan's kingdom, from the kingdoms of this world. The Bible uses another analogy. It's called the two atoms. Remember, the Bible talks about two atoms. The first atom was a type of all humanity who was created physical. There was the original atom. We're all descended from Him. We're all like Him. We're all human. We're physical. There is the second atom, which the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15 says is the Lord from heaven. He is a type of what you and I can become through the resurrection of being born into the family of God. You and I have born the image of the first atom. We are in the process of developing the spiritual image of the second atom today. That means His spiritual character.

In the resurrection, we will have the spiritual body of that second atom. We will become a part of the kingdom of God. That leads us to the next point that not only are there two different kinds of human beings, there are the two atoms, but there are two kingdoms that the Bible talks about. In Matthew 4, you might remember, Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan the devil or put to a test. Satan took him up on a mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all their glory, all their power, all of their magnificence, and he said, all you got to do is bow down and worship me. You can have all of this. He was trying to tempt Christ. Christ said, this is mine to give to you. You can have it. Christ didn't rebuke him. He did not rebuke him. He did not rebuke him. Christ didn't rebuke him. He just said, look, you got to worship God, not anybody else. And so he didn't give in to the trickery of Satan the devil. And yet, how many wars have been fought because some general, some ruler, some king had this great grandiose idea about becoming the greatest. You know, he's going to be the head honcho. He's going to rule the earth or whatever. And so he sets out, it doesn't matter how many millions of people he tramples, he's going to set his kingdom up. I've just been reading Jeff Schirard's book on the, or three books, actually, on the Second World War. And when you look at the analysis of Adolf Hitler, man was a madman.

And his generals knew that, but he was the Fuhrer. And whatever they said, he did, even though they knew it was wrong. And you find that there have been a lot of madmen out there. In his case, I think he was directly influenced by the devil and the spirit world. You find the emphasis now in the kingdom of this world is on the self, it's on wealth, it's on power, it's on prestige, it's on vanity, on control. You look at all governments and rulers and you find that man is out to try to control and rule over things. Satan the devil is the king, the god of this age and society, and this age reflects his values. Now in Colossians chapter 1, Colossians the first chapter, and verse 9, verse 9 here, we read, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom. See, that's spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. You and I have an understanding that even the great learned men of this age, there are human beings out there who have IQs of 175-200.

Double our IQs, you know, in some cases. Brilliant men! Speak every language you can almost think of on earth. You know, just absolutely brilliant. Dumb as an ox when it comes to spiritual understanding. And here we are, not the intelligentsia of the world. And maybe our IQs are only 110 or 20 or whatever they might be. And yet, we have knowledge that if these individuals understood, can you imagine what someone like that, if they truly understood the truth, and were able to begin to put everything together, what amazing discoveries they could come up with, but you see, it's all what? It's spiritually revealed. And so it has to be revealed by God's Spirit. And it doesn't depend upon our brilliance. It depends upon God. In verse 11 here, we are strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. What has God done for us? Well, He has delivered us from the power of darkness. You and I have been removed from that power of darkness. And we've been conveyed into the kingdom of His Son, of His love. So what you find, we've all been a part of the kingdom of this world, Satan's kingdom. Now, you and I have been placed in a different kingdom. You and I are part of that kingdom of God now. We are begotten now. In the resurrection, we will be born into that kingdom, into that family. We will have a totally different composition. So, brethren, we are a part of the kingdom of God today, as it says here. He has conveyed that word means we've been transported into the kingdom of the Son, of His love. We're a part of His kingdom. We are begotten children in that kingdom. Now, there's, and we touched on it here, there's another parallel. You find that the Bible talks about, and that is the power of darkness and the power of light.

Light reveals how to walk.

If you turn all the lights off in this room, you would know, you'd have difficulty, you would see, especially if no light got in around the doors. You wouldn't know what way to go unless you saw an exit sign. Well, many of you probably in your lifetime gone to a cave, and one of the things you always like to do in a cave when they get you deep under into the bowels of the earth, shut all your lights off. And you stand there while they give this spooky talk about not moving around, and you can't see a thing. It's just total darkness. Well, that's the way the world is. People think they see, but they're groping in darkness. They might as well be blind. Actually, they are blind. That's what the Bible says. You know, the people, spiritually, have been blinded. So light reveals the way to walk. You've got a light. You're in a cave. You can shine it around. You can see where the trail is. Darkness conceals what's around you. Spiritually, darkness conceals the truth. So what God has done for us, those who are in His kingdom, God has given us a huge, powerful 10,000-watt light. It shines the right way, and we go in that right way. But here's a train going the other direction. The lights are off. It doesn't know where it's going. It's just going down the track, and it's headed for destruction. But you and I can see where we're going. Now, there's another parallel that the Bible talks about. One of these twos that we're talking about that contrasts this world, this society with God's, and it's called a mystery. In Ephesians chapter 3, back up here just a little bit, beginning in verse 8. Ephesians 3, verse 8. We had the mystery of God talked about here. There's a mystery. Everybody loves mystery. I don't know about you. I love to read mystery novels, and Agatha Christie, or some of these type of things. You try to figure out the mystery. Who did it? Well, notice here in verse 8. It says to me, who am less than the least of the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. So I want you to notice that this mystery has been hidden from the very beginning of the ages, the very beginning, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. You see, the angels are able to look down and see. They've got to wonder how God can take bags of dirt, blow some air in us, we walk around, and how we're going to be in His kingdom. We're actually going to join the kingdom of God. I mean, this has got to blow their mind. But, you know, they see this as verse 11 says, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the word mystery in the Greek means hidden.

So when it talks about the mystery of God, it's talking about hidden truths of God, God's eternal purpose. A mystery is a truth that is hidden in the ages.

And as it says here, this has been hidden in the ages in the past. That is now revealed, and it's revealed by the Spirit to those who belong to the family. You and I are part of the family of God. Families have secrets, and you and I have had secrets revealed to us. It's a family secret known only to the initiated, known only to those who are members of the family. So we can say welcome to the family.

All of us have been let in on the secret. Now in many families, there are secrets. You don't want to go anywhere near Uncle Ned, and because Uncle Ned has a problem or whatever, or don't get close to Aunt whoever she might be. So there are those kinds of secrets. But brethren, God has let us in on what He has kept hidden for the ages from human beings, and He has revealed it to us. You see, God's plan, God's will, God's purpose is a mystery to most people. They don't understand it. They don't comprehend it. When you tell them, they get this blank look on their face, and they wonder, what in the world is He talking about?

I think I've mentioned this to you before. When I first learned the truth, one of the things that I was going to do was go down and say, I was going to do was go down and tell my closest buddy that right next door.

So I ran over to his house a couple hundred yards away, started explaining to him Revelation 6, Matthew 24. And I didn't understand it myself, but I was trying to explain it to him. I thought, boy, this is exciting! Well, 50 years later, you know, we come back to this area, and I run into my best friend, and he attended a funeral I attended.

And he still doesn't understand. God hasn't called him. And that doesn't mean that I'm better. It just means that for some reason, two young men in the same grade, he called one, then called the other. That's God's blessing. And the same thing is true of all of us. All of us sitting here will know that you were called, your neighbor wasn't called. Again, that's God's doing. And we have been let in on the secrets of the family of God that we understand, and the world doesn't.

Ephesians 1, if you'll back up to verse 7 here. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7 says, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace, which he is made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will. What is the will of God for human beings? What is his purpose? It says, The mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather together and one all things in Christ, both of which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.

So in the complete dispensation, we're in the first six thousand years of man. There's going to be the millennium. There will be the great white throne judgment when God will give all a chance. And so we find here, verse 11, in him, also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worked all things, according to the counsel of his will, that we, who first trusted in Christ, should be to the praise of his glory.

So we are among those who first trust in him. So, brethren, that's the hidden mystery that God has revealed to us. But do you know that there's another mystery out there? You all know what it is. Let's go over to Revelation 17.5. Revelation chapter 17.5 talks here about a great harlot. It says, Honor Ford was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.

So there is a mystery religion extent in the earth today, the Babylonian mystery system. Originally, only those who were initiated knew the real truth behind that religion. Its customs, its days, its traditions.

Most people had no idea what those days meant. And people today still keep the traditions promulgated by this religion. They color eggs. They think the Easter Bunny brought it. Or they think a fat man brings gifts. Or they have certain customs and traditions. And where did they get those customs and traditions? What do they mean? What is the truth behind it? Well, it's called Mystery Babylon the Great. The devil has perverted the mystery of God, hidden truths of God, and produced a counterfeit system. There is a counterfeit out there.

Those who participate in the system do not know the truth behind the system. Those who originated it originally, Semiramis did. Her son Horace understood. Those who were the high priests of that system understood. Because if you remember, when Nimrod was killed by Shem, his body was cut up into little parts, and his body was dispersed all over the world.

And the idea was, you know, if you knew disobey God, this is what will happen to you. But she had to take her religion underground. And so they came up with quaint customs and traditions that personified what they had always believed. But now it became a counterfeit. And it looked innocent. It looked like just keeping certain customs and traditions. But there were hidden truths. They're hidden. They're not truths. We understand the truth of the system. There were hidden ideas behind it. So those who participate in the system don't know the truth behind it, especially religion. It goes back to the Babylonian mystery religion in Nimrod and Semiramis. In the book of Revelation, when it talks about Babylon, it refers to religions, all the religions of this world, all the governments of this world, all of the economic systems of this world, the philosophies of this world, the education of this world, of this age. It is all referred to as Babylon. It is not of God. It is Babylon. It is confusion. It leads to confusion. It leads to a wrong way. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, you might remember Paul in addressing the false system of religion that was rising up during his day called it by a certain terminology. 2 Thessalonians 2.7. For the mystery, for the hidden new information of lawlessness is already at work. He says, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. So this false system is at work, this lawless system. So, brethren, you find that there are a dual track here. There is mystery religion and there is God's truth. That is, people are blinded too. Now there are also two different natures, overall natures in the universe.

Number one is Satan's nature. John chapter 8, verse 44, describes him.

We normally read this on the Day of Atonement, but notice verse 44 says, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of the lust of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own resources, for he is a liar, and he's the father of it. So there's no truth, he's a liar. That's what Satan the devil is.

So he couldn't tell the truth if he wanted to. He perverts the truth, he lies, he pervertates. And the Bible, when it describes him in the scripture, it describes him as an individual, a being, attempts, possesses, he seeps, takes away, binds, bounds, lies, gets advantage of, is scheming, masquerades, buffets, torments, hinders, destroys, blasphemes, slanders, accuses, leads astray, is lustful, there's no truth in him, maligns, afflicts, sins, devours, murderer, liar, lives in darkness. You know, you can go on and on and on. You just look at what his nature is like. Now what if you had your next-door neighbor with these type of characteristics? Or you lived in the city where everybody had these characteristics? Or you lived in the country where everybody was like this? Well, welcome to the world, because in essence, thankfully, they're not all embodied in one person. But these characteristics, Satan the Devil, has been very, very good at saturating the world with his philosophy, his approach, his nature. Now there's an opposite nature. It's called God's nature. In Romans 1, verse 20, Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, notice, it says, "...since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." Now the word Godhead, if you notice the margin, it says, his divine nature, his deity. So you and I, by looking at the creation, looking at the heavens, you know, looking at what God has made, should be able to understand the power of God and his very nature. What is nature? His life.

God's divine nature is revealed to mankind. It's the nature of love. God is a God of love. He is a God of grace, of mercy, of forgiveness.

You realize that Satan still believes his way will win out. He believes that his way, his plan, his purpose is going to eventually triumph over God and God's way of life. So what has God done? God has given man 6,000 years to try out every approach he can think of, influenced by the devil. So for 6,000 years, he's tried every form of government you can think of. Democracies, Republic, you know, socialism, dictatorship, you know, you can just go on and on. Every form of government has been tried and they have all failed miserably. Every economic system that can be devised, every type of religion you can think of, every philosophy that the minds of men can come up with, man has tried, and man has discovered that none of them work.

Now why has God done it that way? Well, he's done it that way because when man finally has given his chance to salvation and people come up with a great white throne judgment, they see the earth the way it has been after a thousand years of God's government on this earth. And they look at the harmony and the peace and the productivity and the beauty. They say, well, how did this come about? Where did this come from? You say, well, it came because of obeying God's way. You remember how it used to be when you lived and you lived in the mud hut? Or you ate snails? Or you didn't have food to eat and somebody chopped your head off in a war? Or whatever occurred? You know, that way has not been allowed for a thousand years. And man will make, you gotta say, you choose. My way, remember the wrong way. And man will remember how he lived and what all went on, and the vast majority will choose God's way. But you see, would they choose that way unless they've been exposed to the wrong?

You have to be, in one sense, exposed. Now, I know in the millennium people will not be exposed in the way that we have been. But you find that toward the end of the millennium there are going to be those who will rebel against God also. And there's a reason for that.

So, brethren, just as the church reveals to the angels the plan of God, the many-faceted wisdom of God, as we read in Ephesians 3.10, man's experience that man is going through is doing the same. It reinforces for the righteous angels that only God's way works. God's way is the right way. Satanist demons will be exposed to the fact that their way doesn't work.

And so, you find that God is teaching the spirit world a lesson by us, by our example of what we do.

Now, why did Christ die for us? Well, there are many reasons, but one reason is given to us in Galatians 1 and verse 4. Galatians chapter 1 verse 4. And we read this.

Who gave himself for our sins. That's one reason. Christ died for our sins, that he could be forgiven. Why? That he might deliver us from this present evil age. That's why. According to the will of God, of our God and Father. So, you and I are to be delivered from this present evil age or world.

The word deliver means to pluck out, to draw out, to root out, to choose out, to select one person from many, to rescue or to deliver.

Remember, the Bible talks about you and I being saved. And sometimes people get all confused. Because the Bible uses the present tense that we've been saved. But it also uses the future tense that we will be saved. And both occur. God comes along today and he rescues us. That's what this word is talking about. We are like people falling overboard in a boat. We're about to drown. And God comes along, picks us up, and he rescues us. He saved us. He plucks us out of the clutches of Satan the devil, out of this world. And from the harm we've been inflicting on ourselves.

But we're not ultimately saved until the resurrection. And that means that we will be given a spirit body and save you from this world and its influences. So when God draws us out, he rescues us and he influences us in the right way. Now, what I've covered all brings us back to 1 John chapter 2 again in verse 15. 1 John 2.15 where it says, Love not the world nor the things in the world.

Do you understand a little better now why God says, Don't love this world or the things in the world and how we should shun those things?

West's word study of the Bible in talking about the word cosmos for world here quotes Vincent. Vincent is one of the leading Greek experts in saying, This word cosmos means the sum total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from and alienated from and hostile to God, of the earthly things which seduce from God. This is what we're talking about when we talk about the cosmopolitan world around us. Cosmos refers to an ordered system.

Here is the ordered system of which Satan is the head, still quoting from Vincent. His fallen angels and demons are his emissaries, and the unsaved human race are his subjects. Much in this world's system is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual. But it is anti-God and it is anti-Christ. That's his definition of cosmos. Trench defines it in this way. All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maximums, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral or immoral atmosphere at every moment of our lives that we inhale, and again inevitably we exhale. What are they talking about? Everything you see around in this world. So what's wrong with society? Well, let me sort of summarize for you.

It has developed a system of governments over cities and nations, an economic system, a social system, all based upon one word. Remember, Mr. Armstrong used to say, there are two ways. What were they? The way of give and the way of get. This world is based on the way of get, rather than outflowing love, cooperation, harmony, and peace. This world has developed a competitive world based on Satan's law. Every man for himself, every man fulfilling the vanity of his own mind, coveting, strife, you get yours while getting is good, and that type of approach. Human society is based upon the pride of life. Again, if you remember back here in 1 John 2, 16, it says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The pride of life, again, Vincent says, means, originally, empty braggart talk or display, swagger, hints, and the insolent and vain assurance in one's own resources are in the stability of earthly things, which issues, in a contempt for divine laws, the vain glory of life is the vain glory which belongs to the present life. Thayer defines it as an insolent and empty assurance which trusts in its own power and resources and shamefully despises and violates divine law and human rights. What's wrong with the pride of life? It is depending on the self, looking to our own resources and thinking that we can do it. We can solve all of our problems. When God wants us to come and learn that we can't do it, that it takes an extra human source, and that extra human source is God. It takes the spirit of God dwelling in us. It takes that spirit to help us to overcome and to grow.

So, brethren, what you find is society trusting itself, its own power, its own resources, and we think we can solve our own problems. You might remember Romans 12 and verse 2. It says that we are not to conform to this world, but that we are to transform or be transformed. The word conform there means to pattern ourselves after. You and I are not to conform or to be patterned after this world, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Your mind, my mind, has been renewed. There's something new in us. There's a new man, new way of life, new direction. We've gotten off of the wrong tracks going that direction, we've gotten on the right tracks headed in the right direction. We can see.

So, brethren, what you find, as the Bible says, we are to come out of her, my people. We're not to be a part of this world. We're to be a part of a different world. The world's systems are built on the wrong foundation. As I started out by saying, what occurs to a structure that's built on the wrong foundation? I don't have to guess. Neither do you. Matthew 7, verse 24. Notice what Christ said. Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I'll liken him to a wise man that built his house on a rock. Rain's descended, floods came, the wind blew, beat on the house, it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Rain's descended, floods came, winds blew, beat on the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. So, brethren, Jesus, in one sense, is referring also to this present evil world. Satan and his ways are built on the sand, built on vanity, covetousness, envy, jealousy, yet competition in strife, violence, rebellion, contention, unhappiness, misery, suffering, death. This world, as it is configured right now, is doomed to crash. It will implode and explode on itself, and great shall be its fall. And out of the rubble, out of the ashes, will rise a new world. The world to come, the world tomorrow, the millennium, in God's way of life. And even that is a prelude to the world that God wants us to live into. Because, brethren, God wants us to live not only physically, or even in his kingdom, into the millennium, but there is a world that God is creating. It's a time called the new heavens and the new earth. It's a time when God will share eternity with us. On a spirit level, we walk into a different dimension. And then, we will be guided by all of these principles that we're learning today. Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to repair, or to remodel, or to make over this building that we call this world, this society around us. This civilization, its faulty, and its that of Satan the devil. He didn't come to repair it. It's not like having somebody remodel your house. He came to destroy it, and to build something different, completely different.

This world's superstructure, its system of government, its superstructure are the system of government, its legal system of law and justice, its system of faulty and materialistic education, its religion, its social systems and customs. All of the superstructure are faulty, and they produce discontent, unhappiness, contention, competition, strife, leading to violence, destruction, anguish, suffering, poverty, and death. These are the supporting columns and beings of the superstructure of this building. Jesus did not come to just sort of reform what man had started, but to bring a spiritual revival. You and I, as the church today, are the embryo of God's Kingdom. It starts with us, and we look around and we're pitifully small. But this is the group that God has chosen. This is God's doing. This is God's calling. God could call millions if He wanted to today, but He hasn't. He's called a handful, and we're being trained to be an entirely different type of building.

We are called the temple of God, that God is working in and through. We're not trying to remodel the building that Satan has started. We're going to be building a completely different building or society in the world tomorrow. So, brethren, we are forerunners of a new world, for the vanguard, for the first-roots. And as we progress through God's plan, we'll be learning more about that moment, about the first-roots and what God is doing and how God will bring all of this to pass. God's plan begins with the first-roots, and it will spread eventually to all mankind. So, you and I are privileged to be among those that God has called out of this world to be a part of a different world.