Five Great Truths

Thank you so much for that wonderful, special music. I'd never heard kavatina before. What a wonderful repertoire we have with Carol Taylor helping us out. Please remember her and your prayers as well. She's going to have an eye operation this coming Monday, just to keep her in mind.

So I'd like to begin this message with a two-minute video that shows the incredible foresight and planning of God to repopulate the forest with some pine trees that are able to do so. This is from Illustra Media, and I got permission from them to show to the congregation such videos.

We are often captivated by the broad strokes of nature, sprawling landscapes bursting with color, texture, and movement. But sometimes the greatest displays of creative brilliance are discovered in the artwork's smallest details.

Hidden masterpieces like this weathered cone on the limb of a knobcone pine.

These remarkable vessels are unique. For unlike other species of conifers that release their seeds within a year of ripening, the knobcone, sealed tightly by resin, can store and protect its precious contents for decades. Each cone is an impenetrable fortress, strong enough to withstand the blows of a hammer and a forest of seed-hungry predators.

In all of nature, only one force can break their vice-like grip. The searing heat of a forest fire triggers an amazing chain of events. And when the temperature reaches 350 degrees, the resin melts and the cones begin to crack.

By opening only partially and emitting a gaseous vapor, the seeds are insulated from the killing flames.

Later, after the fire has passed and the air cools, the charred cones open fully.

Then they release their seeds and the promise of a new generation.

Think about it. Small packages of life engineered to be airlifted throughout a devastated forest, released from cones designed to open only when exposed to the heat of their greatest threat. It is an extraordinary cycle of regeneration, logical, ingenious, and a true wonder of life on Earth.

Very inspiring, wasn't it? You learn something new every day. I think I have picked up some of those pine cones and they have resin all over them. They're so sticky and they're just as hard as nails.

So now we know the reason behind it so they can repopulate a forest.

When there's a forest fire and burn so many of the trees down, but this is a way to have some of them grow back.

By the way, that is Psalm 145 verse 5.

I will meditate on your wondrous works.

David meditated on God's works, especially in two areas.

He dedicated a psalm to those two sections. Let's go to Psalm 19. The first six verses, David meditates on God's creation. Let's just read it because it is very inspiring. David, as a shepherd, not only looked after the flock, he was also admiring God's creation around him. At night, watching the beautiful stars in the heavens. He starts out in Psalm 19 verse 1. He says, In his handiwork, heaven and firmament are synonyms. They are equal. Remember in Hebrew poetry, you repeat the same thought with different words. Verse 2, Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. So one of God's proofs is evidence through his creation, what we see around us, just like we saw here, that little humble pinecone. And yet it was engineered to go through the toughest fires and survive.

That means there was someone who had foresight and planning ahead of time. And then it says in verse 6, Its rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Talking about the sun, another marvel. God put the earth a little bit closer to the sun, we would not have life on earth, we would have scorched everything. If he put it a bit farther out, temperatures would be such that we'd be freezing, and also life could not survive for long. And then he goes from verses 7 through 14, focusing on the second area.

That is God's revelation. So you have one proof in creation and the other proof in revelation. You can see God's wonders in revelation through the eyes. But revelation is through scripture. So it is through the mind that you can see God's revealed truths, which we are so privileged to understand. Although we are nothing, God has given us the privilege of understanding such great truths that the world's philosophers and professors, the great intellects do not understand. We're going to go into this because this is part of the subject we are covering. Let's go to verse 7 of Psalm 19. It says, So God created his revelation. It is all there. And it is perfect because it comes from God. Going on, it says, So when a person has God's Spirit and is converted, he rejoices in God's laws and statutes and realizes how good they are for us.

Verse 9, So we have a deep respect. That's what fear means. It's something that endures forever. It is lasting and beneficial. Verse 10, So God's revelation should be sought more than any type of food, delicious as it is, or any of the finest minerals like gold.

We should seek God's understanding more than that, any of those things. Verse 11, The truth God has revealed in His word. Who can understand His errors? David says, Others don't see it, but God sees what we need to work on. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let not them have dominion over me. Those sins that are done presumptuously, willingly.

Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. So that encapsulates, it just summarizes, a converted mind before God's word and God's creation. Yes, we stick up for God when people say there is no God, or that creation doesn't need a Creator, or that the Bible is error-prone and that we can't trust it. No, we're going to defend God's ways. So the question is, how much do we study the Bible to better apply it in our lives?

Is it a missing ingredient in our lives that we lack? We in the Church are so blessed. We have an overabundance of truths. And yet many times we take it for granted. We consider them commonplace. The world would love to know what God has revealed, but the world is blinded for the time being.

Notice in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1. Paul says, Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Don't become discouraged. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We are to teach God's truths. Whether people have a good conscience or they resist it, that's up to them. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. And so we see that the world has been blinded, but He has also opened the eyes of people. He has called people to His wonderful truths. In Luke 10, another scripture along this line, Luke 10, verse 21, it says, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight.

God right now is not calling the wise and the prudent and powerful. You see, the church is made out of very ordinary people. We don't have the wealthy and powerful that come to our congregation. Or if they come, they don't stay very long, because their conscience pricks them. They want to hear smooth and soft words and patting on the back. No, God's word is both sweet as honey, but it is also a two-edged sword that cuts through hypocrisy, lies, sins. He goes on to say, All things have been delivered to me by my Father.

So God has delegated the work here on earth to Jesus Christ. God the Father is working through Jesus Christ. All things, not just a few. And no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the Son to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. So it's not something we can do on our own.

It goes through God the Father, Jesus Christ. He knows who to call, who to open the person's mind, who to begin working with them toward the kingdom of God. We are all unworthy. And by the way, it shows here that it is Jesus Christ who came to reveal the Father. Some people think, no, everybody knew the Father back in those days. The Jews knew the Father and all of that.

They didn't. They didn't understand the concept. God the Father and God the Son are both part of that divine family. That's what the terms are. And that they're going to bring many sons and daughters into the glory part of their family. And so the world doesn't believe that. They believe that, well, God is just one being. And that you have three beings inside of them, and yet there's only one will.

And so they get all this confusion because they don't read. The Son and the Father didn't say the Son came to reveal the Holy Spirit as a person. No, it says these are the two. One's a Father. The other one's a Son. Can we understand that? And they're both God. They're both that title of God. But God the Father is on His throne. Jesus Christ is at the right hand. There's nobody on the left hand. That's just something that was dreamed up by Greek philosopher Christians back in the fourth century.

That's not what was taught in the first three centuries. And we have the history of the first three centuries that show that they understood. God the Father and the Son. So we have these wonderful truths, but He also noted in Luke 18, verse 8, Jesus said, I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

So talking about the time when Jesus returns, will people truly believe? And remember, faith has to do with three things. You believe God exists. You believe that His word is true. And to be obeyed, and that God is a rewarder of those who follow Him and love Him. So there's the belief in God, belief in His word, and believe in the reward that will be coming to those who follow Him. Will He find people like that or not? So here's the question. Why is the world so closed? We saw that one of the reasons is because of being blinded, but also the way people are today. They don't want to know the truth.

Not like they did 30 or 40 years ago, that generation went through World War II and went through the Great Depression. They were willing to listen. They were living a life that had been purified through trials, and they were willing to obey and to follow. But today, the generation is not the same. They have everything so easy, so comfortable.

Why should they have to sacrifice to keep the Sabbath or Holy Days or tithes or whatever it is that God says we should do? Notice there are two reasons here. We can see one is in 2 Peter chapter 3. Starting in verse 3, it says, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts.

So God says that in the final days before Jesus comes back, there will be a generation. They will ridicule the idea that Jesus is coming back. A scoffer is somebody that doubts, that sneers, that makes fun of what others say. They ridicule God and those that follow Him. They ridicule the Bible and the prophecies. They're ruled by their own lusts, and there is no break. There's nothing to stop them from going forward.

If you listen to what's going on on TV for 30 minutes, you can evaluate how many people really honor God. Very few. They're all having fun and scoffing and using vulgar language. Basically, it's more of the works of the flesh that you see. Notice the second reason. Not only going to have mockers and doubters. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 describes the society as well. Why Jesus said that if He came back, was He going to find people that are faithful to Him?

Well, it's going to be tough if this is the description of the society when Jesus returns. In verse 1, 2 Timothy 3, it says, But know this, that in the last days, that's the key. It's not talking about those days at that time. He says, Perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, all they want to be seen is good, but denying its power.

And from such, people turn away. So Paul is saying, look, in the end times, it's going to be that way. And if you see people that are acting that way, as they will in the end time, stay away from them.

Because there's always people that have been that way, but it's not a whole generation, a whole world that is acting this way. So we live in an increasingly secular society where humanism, the idea that all that exists, basically are human beings, don't worry about God, and just center on your own self and your interests.

So for the rest of the message, I'd like to share with you five wonderful truths that we can bask in, rejoice, and be so thankful. For brethren, we know the answers to life's biggest questions without really having studied to become a scholar, and yet God has called the babes in Christ those that Christ decided to work with and to reveal the Father.

And I'd like to share those five wonderful truths because we are held accountable for what we believe, what we understand, and we can help as others come along, because scoffers and doubters are going to try to undermine these five wonderful truths that we have. The first truth, we know the reason for our existence on the earth. Wow! Do you remember that first time you read the booklet, Why Were You Born? That was one of the ones that just blew me out of the water. I was only 17 at the time. But I loved science fiction, history. I already had a pretty good-sized bookshelf. And boy, none of the science fiction people ever told me what was the purpose and why was I born. And that just struck right into my heart. It moved me. It shook me. When I understand it, it is right. It was correct. And by the way, that is a question that the great thinkers have had. Also, common people. What is the reason we're placed here on earth? Why are we existing right now? For instance, I was reading last night an article that I cut out years ago by a famous astrophysicist. His name is Paul Davies. He's written over 27 books. A very intelligent man. And he wrote an article, A God in the Universe. And I have it in the Spanish, but I never found it in English. So he contributed to this Spanish science magazine, and he cut out, or I cut out, that article because it was so interesting. And so I went ahead and translated the first paragraph or so, and Paul Davies begins saying this. Some time ago, when man began to transmit through writing his ponderings, his thoughts, he described the common dream of all. Know why we live on this earth? What is the reason for our existence and for the universe? So as soon as man could write out his thoughts, his questions, his biggest questions and doubts, what was it? Well, why am I here? What is the reason for my existence? We're all put on this earth. But guess what? We're not given a whole biography of, well, this is why God has done this and a whole history. So most people just live and follow the current of society until they die. He, as a scientist, is trying to find it through the microscope or the telescope. We, in contrast, have something else—God's revelation—which answers why we're here on earth. Through God's calling and His Holy Spirit, we're able to understand spiritual revelation, not because of our intellect, but because God has called us and opened our minds. Notice in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6, He says, They are going to disappear.

But the plan of God was they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. They would have understood this was part of the prophecy to be fulfilled, and they would have hailed Him and accepted Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. We're able to understand tremendously deep truths that you can't do through taking a course in philosophy or science or something else in the world. For instance, this Paul Davies, who is acclaimed as one of the great thinkers, read his book, I took a course years ago, and one of the textbooks was called The Cosmic Jackpot by Paul Davies. It was a book on astrophysics and all kinds of thoughts of men and the evolution of science and everything else. He has all his opinions, but guess what? He always says, well, it could be this, but it can also be this or that. You never come to any real conclusions. You just come to different options through the whole book. There's nothing that he can say, this is absolutely confirmed. And so we have this revealed through the Spirit of God. Verse 11, For what man knows the things of man except the Spirit of man which is in him, except by the Spirit, it should say. Even so, no one knows the things of God except by the Spirit of God, it should say. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit, and it should say, which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. So that Spirit in us is opening our minds. Just like it opened the minds of these very simple men, fishermen, all kinds of tradesmen that were part of his disciples. He didn't have a scholar among the twelve. They were all tradesmen of one part or another. And yet they could explain the deep things of God through God's Spirit. And then he goes on to say, verse 13, These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So you see, the Bible is in a book that is in a code. That you need God's Spirit to truly understand the truths that are underneath the surface. That you can accommodate all the different scriptures and you see how they all fit together. You accommodate the spiritual with the spiritual. This is the way it works. But the natural man, the person who doesn't have God's Spirit, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. So they're going to mock, they're going to ridicule. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So it depends on God's calling, on receiving God's Spirit. See how God works in these two tracts, works with some that are called through his Spirit to prepare them for the kingdom. And then he works with mankind in general. Yes, with love, with patience. He makes the rainfall on the just and on the unjust. But he's not revealing these wonderful truths. And so people are disoriented. They don't know how to live. They don't know how to apply their proper principles. Verse 15, But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. A person that's not converted can't be judging a person that has God's Spirit. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct them? But we have the mind of Christ. If God is in us, if Christ is living in us, then yes, we're going to have these wonderful truths revealed to us.

So we know the great question, what is our existence about? Why were we placed on the earth? What is the great plan that God has to have placed man on the earth? We go back to Genesis 1.1, the first great revelation in the first verse.

Here, in just one verse, the origin of the universe is explained. Time, the Creator, and the creation, all in one verse. Genesis 1.1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So the first thing God says, yes, there is a beginning. The universe has not always existed. It had time when it was not something. It was brought into being. Secondly, who did it? God. God created the heavens and the earth, which is talking about the universe. What did God create? The heavens and the earth. Everything in it. Everything made of matter and energy. In an interview with Robert Wilson, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics back in the 1970s, this was an interview in 2005. And he says, certainly, going back to the beginning of the universe, he says, if you are religious, I can't think of a better theory of the origin of the universe to match with Genesis. He says, here is a man, studious, one of the great physicists of this generation. And yet he says, I can't find a better theory of the origin of the universe than what I have here in Genesis chapter 1. The science editor who was interviewing him, herein by name, he says, I'm probably a better student of history than I am of science. If you go back into comparative religions, in primitive religions, you find that the Hebrews alone, those Israelites of the Old Testament, they alone had a concept of a creation event, of something beginning from nothing, instead of all the different teachings and histories of people in ancient times, whereas all the other religions seemed to have this amorphous blob that always was this watery mass that everything then came out of.

In other words, all the other religions said, no, there was always something that existed. And out of this blob, those ancient gods came out, the earth, humans, they were all from this formless blob.

So there's a very big difference there. And then Robert Wilson of Bell Laboratories over here in California, he said, there is a big difference there, isn't there? Well, it, talking about what scientists call the Big Bang, certainly fits with that.

What is found in the Bible. Then herein says, at the end of my talk with Robert Wilson, I pointed out what I find to be the most fascinating thing about what he discovered. It fits the ancient Hebrew revelation uniquely. The only one that fits is the narrative in the Bible. Of all the ancient writings about creation, only the ancient Hebrew account got it right. George Smoot, a cosmologist, he quotes, he says, a cause must be separate from its effect, meaning that the cause of our universe must be placed squarely outside of it.

In other words, the universe couldn't come up by creating itself. Something outside created it. This is what the scientists and physicists come to understand, a lot of them. And this is the first thing these discoveries in cosmology suggest about the universe's great mystery. The greatest whodunit of all time. Answer, it was an outside job. So it was somebody from the outside that created what became the universe, which is what Genesis 1.1 is all about.

And then we go on to Genesis, same chapter, verse 26. Genesis 1.26. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Because God gave man a mind, a mind to be able to shape his world, to manufacture whatever technology he needed, which other creatures did not have.

So God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created him. Male and female, he created them. So they're both part of what God said is mankind. And they reflect that dignity and image of God. That's why we are to respect every nationality and race. They all came from Mother Eve.

And so we understand God is creating a spiritual family. Right now, this is just a training center on earth. It is also an obstacle course, especially for those he calls to overcome their weaknesses and to be able to fulfill what the Bible teaches us. Here's the second truth.

God created in us a unique desire to live forever.

In other words, eternity.

Nobody wants to die and lose consciousness.

We'd like to extend our lives, especially if we had bodies that didn't deteriorate.

But we have that desire to go on. In Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, I'm going to read it from the Good News Bible.

Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, It is a beautiful thing how God has done everything at the right time.

He has put a sense of eternity in people's minds.

Yet mortals still can't grasp what God is doing from the beginning to the end of time. They can't do it naturally. It has to be revealed.

But there is that sense of eternity.

We all want to continue extending our lives and our personality and everything in it.

We want to be part of God's kingdom. We want to share in what God is and be part of His family and beautify this earth when Jesus Christ comes back.

In 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul is talking about His coming death.

Verse 1, it says, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, talking about our body and basically our consciousness, which basically goes into an unconscious state, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. So God is preparing that heavenly body for us to one day have our own identity, not in this physical flesh that deteriorates, but one time in a glorious spirit body similar to that of His Son.

It says, verse 2, For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. We want to be changed into a spirit being. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. It would be great if Christ came while we were alive, then you're transformed and you never really see death. You go from just your physical conscious state to this new beautiful state. Your personality is there, but now it's so much better, so much greater. You're not going to have human nature to fight anymore. Anything else. And so we have that unique desire to live forever. God created that because He knows that's what He wants us to have one day, eternal life. And that's the opportunity if we follow Him now. That takes us to the third truth, is that we understand the truth of our own human nature and how to overcome it. One of the reasons communism failed in the Soviet Union was that it was based on a wrong notion of human nature. You can say just to reduce it that communism is based on three pillars. The first one is atheism, that God does not exist. The second one is that the government controls politics and the economy. That means industry, land, properties, it's all under that system. And believe me, this is not just theory because I lived under communism for about a year in Cuba. And the first thing that the teacher, when they substituted our religious teachers with communist teachers in school, I was only in first grade, but I'll never forget that that's the only day I remember. The teacher said, we want you to learn two things today. First, God does not exist. And secondly, you've got to tell us what your parents are doing in the home. So you become a spy and they want us to become an atheist. Boy, that's the first time I've rebelled. No way, Jose, as they say.

But then they have the third pillar of communism is the idea that human nature is malleable. That you can shape it, that it can just change according to its surroundings. So they think, well, if you have this ideal society, then human nature will be ideal too.

It'll become everybody's sharing, loving. There's no longer any lusts. There's no longer any hates. There's not any selfishness. Because you have a nice surrounding, you change that surrounding and you don't have any problems. That reminds me of a joke they have about in China, communist China, back in the day when Mao was in charge.

They invited reporters from around the world because the communists had been able to change what was human nature. And even in animals, they could change animal nature. And so they took them to a zoo, and there they had this cage, and it had a wolf, and it had chickens. And he says, here they are peacefully habitating together, cooperating, you see here. And boy, people are taking photos and all of this, and they were really impressed.

And then one of the reporters was a little more skeptical. He stayed behind, the group left, and then he found the zookeeper. And he said, boy, I'm really impressed with this. How were you able to change the nature of the wolf and not eating the chickens? And the Chinese said, ah, very simple. Every morning, I take out the dead chickens and put you chickens inside.

See, nothing worked. I mean, until the wolf got hungry, of course, he could live with those chickens, but it only lasted for a day. That nature is not going to change, and human nature is not going to change. Notice in Jeremiah 17, verse 9, The Bible is very clear, and this is what it tells us about human nature. It's not something that you can just mold according to the environment. It says in verse 9, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? In other words, who's going to admit it? And God says, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

So God is not fool. He knows exactly what human nature is like. Paul also described it. We can go to Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians chapter 5. And verse 16, It says, But I say to you, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So he says, Walk according to the Holy Spirit guiding you, not according to this lower desires of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, which means condemnation of the law. You're in a different status. When you're fighting and you're following God and you have God's Spirit, then that law is not going to incriminate you, and you're not under that same death sentence. Now, if you separate yourself from following God, that death sentence can appear. But as long as you're there, struggling, fighting, as it says here, going on, verse 19, Now the works of the flesh, and remember, human nature also has a decent side. Not everybody is a criminal and just thinking evil things. But what it's talking about is one part of that human nature is deadly and devilish. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So we see that human nature has to be overcome. It has to be dominated.

And so we understand that's part of why we were put here on the earth to overcome, to not be overcome by sin or our evil nature.

In Hebrews 8, verse 10, how is that ultimately going to change? It's not going to be by an ideal environment like the communists think. It's going to be because God is going to act upon it.

Hebrews 8, verse 10, it says, So God is going to eventually inculcate. And we're going to have interiorized God's laws. But until then, we've got this wicked human nature that we have to overcome.

And so that takes us to the fourth truth, the fourth great truth.

Understand the truth of a reward so great it overcomes pain, suffering, and even the sting of death. The reward is so overwhelmingly great that what we suffer now is just so small in comparison to that great reward.

Romans 8, verse 18. Romans 8, verse 18.

Paul says, He's talking about the children of God. And they're eagerly waiting that moment when that's going to happen. And so, yes, we're going to go through pain, suffering, trials in this life. But we understand the reward is so much greater.

In 1 Peter, chapter 1, Peter says the same thing.

1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3.

He says, To an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. So, yes, it is reserved in heaven now. But when Christ comes back, it's going to be applied here on earth to those that are resurrected at that time, who are kept by the power of God through faith, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, in this great reward. Though now, for a little time, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So, you see, our faith is going to be tested.

And that's why the reward is great. But it's not going to be given as a person that never did anything.

They have to overcome. They have to show the genuineness of a person's faith to see what it's really made of. Because when good times come, oh, it's easy for things to go well. But it's when tough times come, when tough trials come, are we going to stay with God? Are we going to stick to following Him in good as well as in the bad? In health as in sickness, too?

That takes us to the final truth.

Understand the truth of why the world is filled with poverty, sickness, and so many needs.

It's a fallen world.

We know this all came about by sin. But also, God allowed it.

In James 1, verse 26 and 27, here's one of the reasons God allowed it.

You want to know what true religion is all about?

James 1, verse 26 and 27, He says, If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. In other words, if you're offending, if you're lying, if you're using the wrong words, you're denying what kind of real faith you have. And then he describes, verse 27, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So these are two very important things. But, you know, if this was an ideal world and everybody was rich and everything was met, the needs of everybody, we wouldn't have orphans.

We wouldn't have widows. We wouldn't have sick people. So they are there to see what we're going to do about it. Are we just going to say, well, God bless you and go well and I hope you're comforted? Or are we going to take some action to help them in their needs, as it says here, in their trouble? Because they're always having difficulties. And to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

That's the other part. It's not just doing good works. It's also working on yourself. Don't let yourself get corrupted by the world. In Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10, and we're finishing up here. I always like to tell that so people can feel relief. Matthew 10, 25. Did I say 10? I meant Matthew 20, 25.

Sorry about that. Matthew 20 verse 25. But Jesus called them to Himself, talking about His disciples, and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. Christ doesn't want a church where it's just top-down and everything is absolutely commanded and everybody just has to kowtow and do everything. It's a different attitude. It's more of a family atmosphere. He wants here. He says, But whoever desires to become great among you, or a leader, let him be your servant.

And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many, Jesus came to this world not to condemn or demean it, but to love it and serve even to die for it. The only possible way He could do this is in this type of a world where you have sicknesses and you have all kinds of issues. And He wanted to give an example that even in this fallen world, you can apply these godly principles. You can prepare yourself for that coming kingdom.

You have to apply the fruits of God's Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, mercy, kindness, goodness, meekness, and self-control. We all need—but if the world was such that you didn't need to apply it because it's also ideal, then we never show that we're willing to self-sacrifice for it. So let's look at the action steps we can do now.

First, commit ourselves to studying the Bible, asking what lessons have I learned while doing so. What lessons can I learn? Keep your mind active, not passive, not just reading mindlessly, but just analyze how can I apply what I'm reading. There are five sources of Bible study. The first is prayer. When you're praying, have a Bible close to you, because many times there will be scriptures that pop up, and you can go and read them while you're in prayer.

Number two, reading the Bible itself. Many things can come to light that we needed to apply. Number three, reading good books, watching news, good films. Many times those inspire us to look in the Bible. And number four, our own experiences. Well, this happened to me. What does the Bible tell me about this? How can I avoid making this mistake again? Or if it was something positive, well, how can I read the Bible to reinforce this good work?

And then the fifth has to do with church services. I hope this helps for a person to study their Bible, not just take notes and put them all away and never use them and let them gather dust. One of the persons that I always admired was my wife's mother. She lived in that period of time, very tough after World War II.

And she didn't have a chance to really have even a Finnish high school. But you know what? She took notes of those messages, and she had notebooks filled, and she would be there going over time and time again and examining it. That way she gained so much knowledge and wisdom. And then, just remember the second step, put it into action.

Don't just wish to do it, but simply do it. So remember these five great truths that we have the privilege, undeservedly so, to understand the reason for our existence, the reason we have eternity in our minds, the reason for understanding our true human nature, and how to overcome it. The fourth is the grasp, the incredible reward that is so much greater than the trials we will face in this life. It will be well worth it to stick to it. And the fifth, understand why the world is filled with so many needs.

Because God wants us to know, what are we going to do? How can we help our brethren that are in need, those around us, even in our community? Are we conscious? If we're thinking about others, God is going to be placed. So just remember those five wonderful truths God has given to us.