This Generation Will Not Pass

Certainly not the other way. That would be very inappropriate, but someday all of us are going to have the last name of being of God's family. So that's a wonderful thing to look forward to. Well, brethren, throughout the ages, men have doubted God. I'm sure you don't doubt what I just said there. That men have doubted God. We know that in fact, in the Garden of Eden, that Adam himself must have had doubts about God. And I think certainly today, in this generation, it is no different. And so-called scholars have looked at the Bible and they do not see the prophecies of the Bible as coming true. In Genesis 3 and verse 15, you don't need to turn there, but I think it's the earliest prophecy in the Bible about the coming of the Messiah. And it was given to Adam there in the Garden of Eden before he was thrust out. Nearly 4,000 years in advance of the arrival, the first coming of Jesus Christ.

And some other prophecies, by the way, predicted other things, many things with regard to Israel. Some prophecies predicted the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would become a very great people.

And of course, the prophecies about it are talk about Israel growing into vast numbers, in fact, as a number of stars in heaven or as a number of the uncountable grains of sand on the seashore. And many people today don't believe the prophecy about Israel, and many certainly don't believe the prophecy about the Messiah coming.

And of course, we know Jesus Christ did come, and he was that Messiah. And we know that Israel did, in fact, grow to great numbers. But, you know, you think about here Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob receiving these great prophecies and promises from God about what was going to happen to their descendants.

And we see the story in the account of Jacob when he was a very old man. Remember, he was able to bless his two sons of Ephraim and Ben-Asa. And afterwards, not long afterwards, he died. And at that time, there were only 75 descendants, from what we understand, of Israel.

And of course, much time had to go by, and we do not, in fact, see the numbers of Israel increase until they're in Egypt. And then Moses brings them out, and probably the population of Israel by that time had grown maybe to a million and a half or two million or so. And so it wasn't still like the stars of heaven or the sand that is on the seashore, but the promise nonetheless was made. The promise of growth like that, and the promise of entering into the land of Canaan. When Jesus Christ came, he gave also far-off prophecies concerning his kingdom. And he said that there would come a kingdom, and that his disciples would be kings in the future. And we know that other prophecies tell us that Jesus Christ is going to rule the nations of the earth. In fact, going back to the book of Daniel, we find that the saints of God are going to rule with, in fact, the coming Messiah for the future. And, brethren, of course, we do know that since that time, though, there has been 2,000 years almost of this past. And so Christ talked about the kingdom of God coming and about the saints ruling with Jesus Christ. And, of course, we know the millennium as we put the other Scriptures with it. But here we are, 2,000 years later. And it seems like that if we look at the history of the church from the time of Christ, generation after generation of Christians have lived and died without the establishment of the kingdom of God. You know, if a person was inclined to doubt the Bible, God gives us plenty of time, doesn't He, between the fulfillment of prophecy and the actual promise being made. So that it is easy for people to explain away prophecy. It's easy for people to scoff at prophecy and to doubt. And today I think we probably have more doubters of what God says in this world today than any other time. You know, there are so many people that are right and against, in fact, God's Word and even the concept of God. Some of you may remember the book called The God Delusion that was very popular some time ago. And there are other books that are like it where people are scoffing the very idea of their being a God. Let's go over to 2 Peter because that, in fact, itself was prophesied to occur that people would be scoffers, especially in the last day. And it says, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle in both which it says, I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder. We need to be reminded about this from time to time. A member of Mr. Armstrong used to talk about how that we need to be reminding as pastors that we should not doubt. That God's people should not be a group of doubters, of disbelievers. Remember, Jesus Christ could not, in fact, do miracles, certain miracles in places because they did not have faith. It was not an atmosphere of faith. And, of course, they doubted. And so we need to be reminded of this. And it says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this verse, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking after their own lusts, speaking from their own hearts, in other words, and saying, where is the promise of this coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continuous, they were from the beginning of creation. And people do it today. So we live in such a time and in such an atmosphere, brethren, in the world when many people doubt God's promises and doubt the Bible and doubt God Himself, that there can be a danger for us to think, well, these prophecies that are in the Bible, they may be fulfilled, but they're not going to be fulfilled in my lifetime. Not going to happen in my lifetime.

Well, brethren, don't be so sure. Don't be so sure that they won't happen in your lifetime, if you're thinking that or thought that. How near are we to the end of the age? Is the time far off? Can we all sort of kick back and take it easy, maybe in our later years of life?

Are these things that are prophesied going to be realized hundreds of years down the way? Christ talked about the kingdom coming, and it was 2,000 years later when He talked about this prophecy being fulfilled, and it was 400 years later. You sort of kick back and you become relaxed, and that can be a very dangerous thing, brethren. It really can be. So how near are we, brethren, to this age? I hope to answer that question in the message here to you today. You know, we've had things which have happened to the church in the last 16 years, which has shaken the faith of many, and some have fallen to the wayside. Look around. Look around in the congregation. I think we see the handiwork, in fact, where there's an empty seat that once was filled by a person that had been called the handiwork of the devil, who has been very successful in causing people to go to the wayside. And yet, the church survives. Jesus Christ said the gates of the grave would not prevail against it. In 1995, we were rescued, if you remember, with the formation of United Church of God and International Association. And in 1995, with the church being formed, we've been taken care of since that time, because Christ wanted to preserve His church and will preserve His church. Then, around 150 elders gathering in Indianapolis, validated form of government, church governance, and Christ has blessed us during these many years. Almost 16 years now that we've been blessed with the kind of governance we've had within the United Church of God. Now, we recognize in the kind of governance that we have that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He is and He always will be the head of the church. And we remember also, at that time, that the Council of Elders prayed over. And, of course, the men that were going to be a part of that council were prayed over by the General Council of Elders, or the Conference of Elders. And they were selected to be a part of the Council of Elders. And, of course, they, the Council of Elders, became the governing body under Jesus Christ within the church. And they have the responsibility of selecting the President. And, of course, they are to pray in the fast about it, who is selected for such a job as that.

Well, brethren, now there are some who don't want to utilize that model that is the form of church government that Christ blessed us with. 15 years ago. That has taken care of us for 15 years. Now they think that that model for selecting the Council of Elders is not good. Because those who have been in power, unfortunately, are no longer there.

And they now think we need to change the church government. And personally, I do not think that we should. Because Christ has set the Council of Elders, again, in the church. And the current Council of Elders that is seated was selected by over 300 elders within the church. After they had prayed, and some of them, I'm sure, have fasted about it. And selected those men that were going to be on the Council of Elders.

And in turn, the Council of Elders selected Mr. Denny Luker as the President. And so, brethren, that is what God has set in the church. And what caused the split, by the way, back in 1995, was because of doctrine. It was because of doctrine. I don't know about you, but I did not have a problem with government back at that time. I just did not have a problem with government at all. The reason why the problems came is because of doctrine. And now, make no mistake about it, brethren, I want to make it clear, that the issue in the church now is government.

It is government. And the form of government that God has set in the church. That God did that again 15 years ago. And the real question, brethren, is this. Will we let Jesus Christ rule us? And will we back Jesus Christ? And what Christ has set in the church? I think that, brethren, this is something where we all better wake up and we better see. Because this is a great test for every one of us in the church today. That God has put on us. Just in 1995, brethren, the doctrine, whether or not you would stand for the true doctrines of God was a test for us then, brethren.

It is a test for us now whether we're going to back the government that God has put within the United Church of God. In fact, if we cannot back that government, then what do we have? Do we have Jesus Christ ruling over us?

No, we do not. We do not. But let me tell you, brethren, that's the great test right now. Are we going to be loyal to Jesus Christ? And are we going to support the manner of government that He's put within the church?

Now, unfortunately, sadly, I have to talk about that in a sermon like today. Meanwhile, this world is hurtling toward the greatest cataclysm the world has ever known, and we're arguing and talking about different and sundered things within the church of God. And we are, brethren, growing ever closer to the end of the age, and we'd better be woken up to that fact as well. Let's go over to the book of Luke in chapter 21. I would like you to consider these things in the light of what we're going on and is going on in the church.

But in Luke chapter 21 in verse 5, you remember the story and the account of how that it's as then as some spoke of the temple. Here they were on the Temple Mount area and seeing how beautiful these buildings were. And I think, as I've mentioned to you before, you could see the walls of Jerusalem 25 miles away. And this temple was one of the greatest architectural creations that had ever been brought to bear upon the earth in terms of its beauty and the design of it and so forth.

It was a very beautiful temple. And it says, and how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations. And he said, these things which you see, he says, the days will come in which not one stone will be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. And so Christ said, look, the time is going to come when, you know, you see all of these things here on the Temple Mount, they're all going to be demolished. They're going to be gone. So they were enamored with those buildings. And we know that the prophecies that Jesus Christ gave were dual here.

That Jerusalem indeed was going to fall and that the temple was going to be destroyed. The wall was going to be destroyed and brought down and so forth. And we know that things were going to be very hard for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The Bible speaks a lot about that, and it was so when the Romans came in around 69 or 70 A.D.

and demolished that whole Temple Mount area. But we know what Christ said in this prophecy in Luke 21 was not completely fulfilled. There are things that are yet to be fulfilled. We know that a part of the Wailing Wall, in fact, still exists over there. That's going to be brought down with every Sabbath. We know the Jews go there and they pray for the Messiah to come.

They pray, in fact, that Israel could be brought together, at least the Jews, probably in their minds, and that they would have security where they are and where they dwell. Going on down, Christ said these things were going to occur. And so they asked Him, saying, Teacher, but when will these things be? What are they going to be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? What are the signs that are going to be taking place? When will all these things be and when are they really going to happen? When are they really going to take place?

When are they really going to come to fruition? Again, they read prophecies. They read prophecies about how that sometimes there were years before prophecies were fulfilled. They, no doubt, probably were able to reflect upon the rise of empires, like the Babylon Empire and the Greek Empire and other things. They could have known, maybe in a limited way, more limited way than we do now, these things. But they said, when are these things going to be? What are the signs when this is going to occur and when this is going to happen? And then Jesus Christ imparted to them wisdom about when you know that it is near and as the prophecies even say, even at the door.

He gives you these signs that you are to look to. And what is the time going to be like is what Jesus Christ describes. Well, brethren, the time of the end is going to be a time of seduction, a time of seduction. The first thing that Jesus Christ mentions, let's go to verse 8 here, on down to verse 8. And He said, Take heed that you not be deceived.

For many, it says, will come in My name, saying, I am He. And the time has drawn near, therefore do not go after them. And so the first thing that Jesus Christ warned about was seduction. He said, guard your mind that you're not deceived, you're not seduced. And remember here, brethren, He's talking to apostles. Apostles. Guard your mind, He says. They will come in a familiar way.

They're going to come in the name of Christ. To seduce someone to their way of thinking. Seduction, brethren, usually means someone says alluring things which appeal to us. Therefore, Jesus says, don't go after them. Don't go after them. Christ was going to be establishing the church, and the church would never die, as we understand. And He was instructing them to remain in the church. He's saying, remain with the church.

Don't go following someone off, but remain in the church. You know, the Apostle Paul warned the church in that great big church up in Ephesus. Let's go to Acts 20. Acts 20, and on down to verse 28, it says, Therefore, take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood. You know, this church doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to you.

It belongs to Jesus Christ, because He purchased the church with His own blood. And so He's telling the ministers to oversee, again, the flock that has been given into your care, bought with the blood of Christ. For I know this, He says, I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Notice it says in verse 30, And also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after themselves. And so He warned that there were going to be those who were going to rise up.

And He said among those that were there, and He was talking to that very day, to lead them astray. And in verse 31, it says, Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn every one night and day with tears. I'm sure all of those who rebelled were well-intentioned, but wrong. They were wrong. They were men, probably well-known, because people looked up to them. How many people end up following somebody that's unknown? Who follows somebody that's not respected?

You see what I mean? They're going to be somebody who is respected, someone who is well-known. And again, they may be well-intentioned, but they would be wrong. In fact, Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verses 13-14, He says, But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse. And this end of the age that you and I are in is going to get worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

And we learned them from Mr. Armstrong, didn't we? A lot of things that we understand. We may have grown in certain understanding and grasped by those principles that were taught by Mr. Armstrong, but we learned the basics, didn't we, from Mr. Herbert Armstrong? And for them, Paul had taught them. Paul had instructed them. And Paul was, again, seeing people, probably in his day, that were turning away and going to others. In the New Testament church, probably a Paulist could have been one of those kind of people, but he was not from Scriptures. We don't see him rebelling at all. Any number of the people that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians could have been the type of person that people would follow off somewhere.

But, of course, we don't have any listings of anybody that did that. There were people like Diatrophies, who loved to have the preeminence, and others that were that way. But of those that are the great and familiar names, we do not see them again leading people astray. Let's go to 2 Timothy, though. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. In verse 2, here Paul is admonishing Timothy, and he says, preach the Word.

You need to preach the Word. I don't know about you in your life, but I'd like to know what the Bible says. I don't care what human beings say, ultimately, unless they're teaching the truth, but I want to know what the Bible says. I remember Mr. Blackwell telling the young men who were training at Big Sandy, giving us these homiletic classes, he said, now you're going to be sent out of the field.

And he says, you're young. You're green behind the ears, because you couldn't tell a young person that they're young, can't you? They always think that they're wise, you know, and the things that they say and do. But, you know, I did listen to Mr. Blackwell because he said, you know what he said? Hide behind the Scriptures. You know, you're a young guy, hide behind the Scriptures.

He left the Scriptures, talked for you. And, of course, that's what Timothy had to do when he went out. Very good advice. And so he says, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convict or convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. And so he told Timothy to do that. And in verse 3, though, notice, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves, teachers.

For themselves. You know, how do you get a pastor for, say, a church like Oakland? Well, he's set, isn't he? Now, sometimes people don't necessarily like a minister.

Maybe they tolerate him. You know, when he first comes to an area, hopefully they begin to see him as being sincere, And they develop a love for him. But, you know, that's how it happens. You know, we don't have somebody that rises up in the congregation, in other words, and say, I'm going to be the pastor. You know, I've got that job. You know, it's not one of those volunteer-type things. You don't have volunteers for being pastors.

Although, one time I did have a man volunteer in Alabama. You know, he thought he was going to be ordained right away. In fact, when I got to his house, he said, we've got to go. I said, why? And he said, I've got a group of people over here going to listen to us. So, he apparently had organized with some church. You know, I don't even know what it was. Some Protestant church for him and myself. And I'd never met the man in my life, by the way. I didn't even know what he thought or believed. But he wanted me to go and talk to this church. And I said, well, listen, let's you and me first talk, okay? Let's sit down and talk and visit with each other. But he was ready to be ordained at that time. But, you know, here it talks about keeping up for themselves teachers.

In other words, they were personality driven and not Christ oriented. You know, the church in Corinth, would you say that they were personality driven? Or were they Christ oriented? Were they looking to Jesus Christ? I think you'd have to agree that they were personality driven with it. Because they were choosing up which minister they liked. I like Apollos. You know, I like Peter. You know, Cephas is a good speaker. And Paul, not so much. You know, Paul was a good writer, but he wasn't a good speaker. But what he had to say, now if you listen to what he had to say, was profound. You know, and all you have to do to prove that is read the book of Galatians. You know, or some of the other writings of the Apostle Paul. But notice here in verse 3 it says, according to their own desires. If you have a King James version, it says, out of their own lusts. Out of their own lusts. Now why does Paul use such language? Now members don't lust, do they? Of course they do. Of course. And people, again, play those games and choose their favorite teachers within the church. And that, brethren, is foreboding. God forbids us from doing that. So remember this, brethren. Again, we are living in a time. It's a time of seduction. It's a time of seduction. And Satan is much more capable than sometimes I think we realize that he is. Also, brethren, we're living this time now, and the time Christ was talking about is a time of upheaval. It's a time of rebellion. It's a time of rebellion. It's right back in the 60s. It was a time of rebellion back then. You remember how it was? And the church thought that, in fact, Christ could come back in the 70s because everything looked like they were coming up to that crescendo. That because there were students marching in the streets, and they were doing all of these things. And of course that passed. The teenagers of that time grew up. And now in our time, they're running the country. And now it's a time of rebellion again. Let's go on back to Luke 21. Luke 21. In the book of Luke 21, which is the prophecy chapter, of course, it's corollary to Mark 13 and Nancy 24. But I thought we would use Luke 21 this time. But in verse 9 it says, But when you hear of wars, and we've heard of a lot of them, haven't we? In our time, and commotions. You ever notice this word, commotions? That Jesus Christ talked about, commotions here. And it says, Do not be terrified, for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately. It's going to be a time of wars. It's going to be a time of commotions. And it will be a time, in other words, when the subjects of nations, or one nation or another, are going to rise up against the leaders of that nation. It's going to be a climate of people rebelling against authority, established authority. And, you know, we need to remember this, brethren, about rebellion. In 1 Samuel 15, verse 23, just write that down, because I want to just quote the one part of the verse, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And stubbornness is an iniquity and idolatry. And let me tell you, brethren, that God never established anything based on rebellion. He never did. And He could not, in fact, build anything based on rebellion. You know, some people surely are going to say, well, what about 1995? Back in 1995, did we rebel then, brethren?

I don't know about you, but I didn't rebel, you know, myself. You know, I stood still, you might say, and they walked away from us. The church left us back in that time. You know, I did preach the truth. I have to admit that.

Now, if preaching the truth is rebellion, I did that. Yes, I did that. And my attitude with that was, let the chips fall where they may. When you speak the truth, let the chips fall where they may. But I was not of a rebellious attitude. And, of course, the church left us. We did not leave the church. But God never builds anything on rebellion. Let's go back to Numbers 16. In Numbers 16, in verse 1, it says, Now, Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi.

And so, Korah was a pretty important person. You know, because you notice it says, the son of, son of, son of, son of there. It means he was a pretty important person in Israel at the time. And Dathan, in Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pelath, son of Reuben, took men. I was always interested here with this particular thing here, and I heard a sermon by Mr. Stryver, down in Camp Verde, about this. Because it mentions here in this list of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram that there's this On.

And afterwards, it doesn't mention about On. And anyway, he gave an interesting sermon on that particular subject. But if you look, you'll see that On is not included here among those who rebelled afterwards. Maybe he came to his senses because he began to realize what was happening was not of God. It was not what God wanted him to do. And verse 2, going on, and they rose up before Moses. It says, with some of the children of Israel, 250 liters of the congregation, representatives of the congregation's men of renown.

Notice this, brethren. These were the men who were well known. These were the men of renown in a group of a million and a half or two million people. And they were rising up against Moses here in this particular case. And in fact, they basically had gathered just about the whole nation of Israel to be against Moses. There were not everybody that was against Moses. You have men that were loyal through that. But in verse 3, And they gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them.

Why then do you exalt yourselves among the assembly of the Eternal? Why do you do that? You know the story, as it turns out here. But I wanted again to point up here where rebellion came from. In verse 8, let's go on down. Then Moses said to Korah, Here now you sons of Levi. He says, Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel?

To bring you near to Himself? To do the work of the tabernacle of the Eternal? And to stand before the congregation to serve them? You know, to be able to stand before God's people is one of the most prized opportunities. That anyone could be given, in my opinion, in this world today. It's one of the most important jobs that people can have. Now, I'll tell you, I don't feel worthy even to stand up here before you.

But I do understand that. I do understand this is an important place to be in terms of speaking to the congregation. And it is a very prized responsibility. And it says, and He had brought you near to Himself, you and all your brethren. It says, the sons of Levi with you, and are you seeking the priesthood also? Basically, Moses is saying, do you want to take over everything? Is that what you want? Do you want everything? I remember there was a man, you know, back in the 70s, when the man who was doing the broadcast and the telecast in Mr.

Armstrong's place was no longer in the church. Well, there was a pastor that actually went into headquarters, went up to the fourth floor, and went into Mr. Armstrong and said, I'll take over his job. This was a pastor, by the way. You know what Mr. Armstrong said to him? He said, why don't you go back and pastor your church? Go back and take care of your church.

Now, of course, this man didn't want to hear that, because he thought more of himself. So Mr. Armstrong's attitude also was that, brethren, to take care of a congregation is a very important job and responsibility in the church. And, brethren, as far as I'm concerned, I've never been in charge of the church. I sort of joked before that I really am in charge. They just don't ask me anything. I remember when we were having discussions down in Phoenix, Arizona, when in 1995 things were happening.

We were talking about what we needed to do locally, and some of the discussions got pretty heated.

I frankly hate arguments. I hate confrontation, like with a passion. And anyway, I said, wait a minute, men. Wait a minute, men. There were like four or five pastors there, and I said, look, I don't care what you guys organize as long as I'm in charge. And that broke the ice, and all of us laughed, and then we went on and were able to work together.

Not saying that, again, I made it happen, but at least it lightened the moment a bit so that we were able to maybe take a break and not be so serious and realize, again, how important what we were doing was, and I think it was certainly important because it was preserving the church of God. Let's go on down through here. And so here, they basically were told by Moses, are you seeking the priesthood also? In this particular passage, it says, Therefore you, and all your company, are gathered together against the Lord.

You notice there, they weren't gathered against Moses. They were gathered against the Lord. Let's make sure we realize, again, who's in charge of the church. If Jesus Christ is in charge of the church, then these things are not against men. You can see these physical men there. It's like people in Israel saw Moses as a physical being, but they didn't see God behind him.

That God was with them. And so they were against God here. They were against the eternal. And what is Aaron that you complain against him? Moses said. Aaron was this meek guy, and they included even Aaron in this. Maybe he made, in fact, Moses wonder, do you want the priesthood, too? Is that what you want? That's what you desire? And it says, And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, but they said, We will not come up. That's blatant rebellion right there. We will not come up.

You know, when Mr. Armstrong was alive, brethren, all the ministers that I know had a custom of saying, if they were asked to do something, maybe even if they were asked to do something by someone who might have been a subordinate. So, in those times, we had preaching elders, pastors, evangelists, and Mr. Armstrong is an apostle.

Well, sometimes you'd be asked to do something by somebody who maybe had a lesser rank, quote-unquote, than another fellow was. And we had a tradition in the ministry of saying, I am a man under authority. Yes, I will do it. Now, that was the attitude that the ministers had. I'm a man under authority. And saying that, you know what that meant? That they were submissive to the authority of the church. And what was the authority of the church? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the authority of the church. And so, when you heard a minister say, I'm a man under authority, he was submitting to Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ had asked him to do, even if it was through somebody who was a lesser rank, quote-unquote, than he was.

Well, brethren, do we know, do we understand that as much as we understand about government, that is a barometer of how much faith that we have. How much faith that we have. Now, I want you to think about that statement right there. You know, to the degree, brethren, that we really fully understand what God is doing, what everything is about. You know, and certainly to the degree we understand government, that that is a barometer of our faith. Let me tell you why that is so. Remember when Christ was in Capernaum, and a centurion's servant was dying?

Remember, he had sent his servants to go, and he had heard that Christ was there, to ask them to come back and to heal his servant, the elders, in fact, of the synagogue there were also asking him to do that. And so Christ began to go to this centurion, and before Christ ever arrived, you know, the centurion sent out some of his messengers, and what did he say to Jesus Christ? He said, I am not worthy of you, even entering my house.

He said, I'm a man under authority. He said. With soldiers under me, he says, I say to this soldier or that soldier, and it is done. I command it be done, and it is done. And, you know, all you have to do, Jesus, he was telling him through the messengers, is say the word.

All you have to do is just say it. He says, and I know my servant will be healed. And what did Jesus Christ say? You know what he said, don't you? Brethren, he said, I say to you, I have not found such great faith known even in Israel. There was no one that had the kind of faith that this man had, because he understood government. He understood, again, Jesus Christ, here in this case, could heal his servant if he simply said the word, and he knew it would be done.

Brethren, do we have faith in Christ's authority in the church? Do we? That's why I say, brethren, this is a test in the church. A major test. First time, we were tested on doctrine. Now we're being tested on authority. Make no mistake about it, brethren. Make no mistake about it. Let's go over here in this chapter, continuing in chapter 16 of Numbers, down to verse 20.

It says, and the eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. You know, God was so angry because of the rebellion of the people at that time He was going to destroy them. I think we should understand, again, that rebellion is a serious thing as far as God is concerned. And it says, then they fell on their faces. These were humble men. They did not want, again, the congregation of Israel to be destroyed, or a major part of it, at least, because of the attitudes of people. It said, O God, the God of spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and you be angry with all the congregation? And it says, O the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the congregation, saying, get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Get away from them.

This is what the Scriptures say. And then Moses arose and went to Dathan, and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. So they were following right on the heels of Moses here. And it says, and he spoke to the congregation, saying, depart now from the tents of these wicked men. Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins. And so here they were warned not to get caught up in this rebellion, not to be a part of what Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were doing. These were men in rebellion, and everyone joined to them. You can read the rest of what is said here in number 16. But all the joining to these men died. That's how God treated rebellion at that time.

And you know what? God used this time to cull out the rebels out of Israel. That's why it's a test that God has put on, as it was a test that God allowed to happen to Israel at that time. That's why they were not experiencing a problem with doctrine now. Frankly, the arguments against the Sabbath paper and the fasting paper. I read those papers, and I think certainly they could have been written better. The Sabbath paper has been withdrawn for that reason. It is going to go through the doctoral committee. And brethren, I would say about those papers that even though they could have maybe in some cases been written better, that to say that we have doctrine problems within the church, and that that is a reason to split is nothing but a smokescreen.

It just is not, again, reason for saying that the church has doctrinal issues. It's a matter of church government. And will we let Christ rule the church through the governance that He's put within the church?

In the end of the age, the Bible tells us that the beast and the false prophet are going to appear on the scene. And we know that very definitely they're going to be led by Satan the devil. And the Bible says that they're going to be destroyed at His second coming. Over in 2 Thessalonians, let's know this over in 2 Thessalonians over here, brethren. 2 Thessalonians, again, I'm talking about the climate of the end of the age here. In 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 8, talks about a man of sin coming on the scene, occupying the temple as we know, claiming to be God in the first part of chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians. But in verse 8 it says, "...and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming." And so this lawless one is going to be put to death, as it says, and it talks about in Revelation how He's going to be thrown in the lake of fire. But down in verse 9 it says, "...the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan." Satan is going to be working on this lawless one. It says, "...with all power, signs, and lying wonders, with all unrighteousness, deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved or might be saved." And for this reason, this is one verse I want to focus in on, brethren, here. For this reason, God will send them strong delusion, strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, the big lie. You know, when the beast of false prophet come on the scene, brethren, God is going to allow delusion to come along. You know, if you say to somebody that they're deluded, they're delusional. What does that mean?

They're not seeing the reality. They're not seeing the facts. And so, brethren, we're going to be in the end of the age in a time of delusion. That people are not going to see the facts. You can print it, speak to them about it, and give the facts, and they're not going to believe it. They won't accept it. And so, God's going to send this strong delusion such that they will believe the lie.

And so, this is going to be a time of delusion. It's going to be a time of doubt in the world, which will cause some, and make no mistake about it, brethren, that ultimately, whatever Satan does in this world is going to affect us. It's going to cause some of us to falter and to fall. I pray it's not you. I pray it's not me. People are not shaken, by the way, when someone falls who hasn't had a great reputation, though, have they?

If someone has serious problems, someone had a drinking problem, if someone had other serious problems, we're not necessarily even shocked when somebody falls.

Are we? But if someone has a good reputation, now that's a shock, and that shakes us.

So, remember this, brethren. Remember that we're in a time of rebellion. We're in a time when people are going to have delusions, they're not going to see reality, and some are going to fall.

Let's go over to Daniel 11. Daniel 11, in fact, talks about also the coming of the beast power.

In Daniel 11, God gave Daniel this prophecy, and he was told to shut it up, and it would not be understood until the time of the end.

And, brethren, I think we're able, because of the things that Mr. Armstrong taught about how the book of Revelation is the key to the book of Daniel, we can understand the book of Daniel, and we can understand much of what it says in the book of Revelation. And so we're beginning to understand many of these things, but Daniel was told to shut it up, and it would not be understood again until the time of the end. But in Daniel 11, verse 32, let's notice this. Daniel 11, verse 32, Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery.

And it says, But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. Now, this was true for the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, by the way.

168 BC, there were Jews that were corrupted as a result of the beast then, who was a type of the beast, which was Antiochus Epiphanes.

But it says, And those of the people who understand, I think back then, those who were understanding were able to instruct many.

And, of course, these things now, I think in verse 33, it would apply to us.

Certainly, if we compare it to Daniel 12 over there, that definitely applies to the end time.

And those of the people who understand shall instruct many, Yet for many days they shall fall by the sword and flame, by captivity and plundering.

And it says, And now when they fall they shall be aided with a little help, But many shall join with them by intrigue, And some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, And make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time.

So some with understanding will fall.

And so be aware of that. I know through the years, brethren, when we have had trials and difficulties within the Church of God, This has been said that we need to be aware that even those of understanding.

You go back to the time, by the way, the late sixties and seventies, And we had men of great understanding in that time that fell away from the Church.

Some have gone on out in the world and they're doing menial jobs.

I don't know whether they even think about God's Word anymore, but they were high up.

So you remember those people. I won't mention their names.

I don't think it means anything today to say the names of people.

But in the end of the age, brethren, some of high reputation are going to fall.

Also, brethren, this time, as I mentioned earlier, is going to be a time of great upheaval and suffering in the world.

Let's go back to Luke. It's going to be a time of wars and rumors of wars, as it says in Matthew 24.

But in Luke 21, which are corollary scriptures here, prophecy is about the end of the age.

In verse 12 it says, But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you.

In other words, before all the things that occur that He's mentioned prior to this, and persecute you.

This certainly happened to the apostles, didn't it? You know, we read that in the book of Acts. But, brethren, let's not forget it applies to our time now, in this day and the ages now.

They're going to lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and rulers for my namesake.

But it will turn out for you as an occasion, it says, for testimony.

And so it's going to be a time where there's going to be upheaval that will be in the world.

And, you know, it mentions here about how there are going to be earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences.

Fearful sights, it says.

Now, think about this, that in Yellowstone Park is one of the biggest calderas in the United States.

And it's called, in fact, Yellowstone Super Volcano.

And if Yellowstone ever erupted, brethren, the entire United States and our entire economy would be brought down.

When, if that were to erupt, it would probably explode and affect an area that would be 300 miles in radius.

Think about that. We would have ash down here if the wind was blowing right.

There would be ash thrown in the air that would affect the United States for a long time in not only us but other countries, as a matter of fact.

And so that is the kind of time it's going to be, what Christ described there in verse 11.

So it's going to be a time of upheaval, it's going to be a time of suffering, a time of wars, a time of earthquakes, and many frightful sights that are going to occur.

Maybe tsunamis and other things that are going to happen.

But also, brethren, when these things begin to happen, it's going to be a time of testimony.

It's a time to give your testimony about what you understand, as it says here.

It's an occasion for testimony, verse 13.

And let's go on down. Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.

So this is a time of testing, brethren.

It's also a time when we're going to give a testimony through those that lack faith, as it will be in the time of the Tribulation, when we give a testimony of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

And we're going to say it. We're going to have to tell people what the truth is during that time.

And we're going to have to certainly set an example for them as well.

It's going to be a time of persecution at that time for the Church.

Let's notice what it says going on down here, verse 16.

It says, You know, sometimes if our measure of where we're going to be is just friendship, that can be a very unstable kind of reason to be in the Church, if it's just friendship.

I don't know about you, but I've had a lot of friends through the years, and unfortunately many of them have gone out of the Church.

Some still around, some in God's Church, and it's always wonderful to see them, you know, at the feast, to hug them and see them after a lot of years. It's almost like this huge war has been taking place, and everything's bombed out, and you're wandering through this city, and you bump into somebody that you've known a long time ago, and you're just overjoyed that, hey, you survived. You're here today.

So, brethren, we've got to do that.

And so God says the time is going to come where we're going to be betrayed.

And it says, and they will put some of you to death.

It's hard to believe, isn't it? That our families would put us to death?

And it says, you will be hated by all for my name's sake.

But it's interesting what it does say, brethren, in the next verses about that.

You know, the Bible says that Jesus Christ said He did not come to bring peace.

I'm not going to go to it, but Matthew 10, verses 34 through 38.

He talked about how, in a household, there's going to be people against each other, in a household.

And, you know, Satan plays into why this occurs.

Some are going to be duped at that time and deceived at that time, as they can be at any time, and in fact, in the history of the church, and we simply cannot follow them and follow the examples.

We need to be praying earnestly, brethren, for one another that we are not seduced and deceived by Satan the devil.

You know, I talked about how, in the end of the age, it's going to be a time of upheaval, a time of testimony, a time of persecution within and without as well.

But also, brethren, it's going to be a time of faith and patience.

Have to be that.

On down here, verse 18, let's notice what it says here in the book.

But not a hair of your head shall be lost.

And he says, by your patience possess your souls.

You hold your salvation in your own hand, by your patience.

When he says, not a hair of your head shall be lost, obviously, this doesn't mean that we might not suffer death, because he just mentioned that some would be put to death by their own family members.

But what he's saying, basically, is that, you know, you're going to be in the resurrection, and you're not going to be harmed that way.

And when you caught brought up in the resurrection, who knows, maybe God will even give you more hair if you had no hair before.

That would be a good healing one, for us.

I don't know about you, but my hair seems like it's going bye-bye.

The older I get, 36 now, and I'll tell you it's rough.

So it's a time, but the main thing here, brother, let's get back to serious business here.

By your patience, possess your souls.

By your patience, you do.

So it's a matter of faith, brethren, a matter of patience.

You know, do we remember, rather than the story of Egypt, when Pharaoh and his armies were burrowing down on Israel at the Red Sea?

Let's know this quickly over there about that.

You know, what, in fact, occurred and happened. Exodus 14. Exodus 14.

Down to verse 10.

You remember the story? It's like everybody was afraid, you know, because they could probably see the billowing dust of the Pharaoh and his armies with his chariots that were chasing down upon the children of Israel, and they were trapped right there at the Red Sea. Remember Mr. Waterhouse saying that God was going to use the trap that they thought that they were in as the trap for the Egyptians.

So God turned that trap that Israel was in into a trap for Egypt.

But in verse 10, Exodus 14 verse 10.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes and behold the Egyptians marched after them.

So they were very afraid that the children of Israel cried out to the eternal.

And it says, And then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt?

So they were complaining about these things.

And they said, This is what we told you. You should have left us alone. Let us stay with the Egyptians and drag us out here to die in this wilderness.

In verse 12.

Now, why did Moses say to the people, by the way, when they complained to him after they said all of these things?

What did Moses actually say?

He says, Do not be afraid to them.

He says, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

In other words, you stand still and see what God does.

He says, Which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians who you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

And I think that sometimes people imagine that what Moses said was, Be afraid and run for your lives.

You know, no, that's not what he said. He said, Stand still and you wait for God's salvation and what God is going to do.

And your patience, in other words, you possess your souls.

Stand still and see God's salvation.

And I think what that says to me, brethren, when God says, Stand still and see God's salvation, what he's saying, it's not up to you. It's up to me.

Because God is the one that has to do the miracle, isn't he? He's the one that has to do that.

And Moses said, The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.

You don't have to say anything. You don't have to do anything, as it mentions here.

To them, you stand still and you see God's salvation. You just do what you're told to do and you'll be okay.

But in verse 5, the eternal said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

You know, you ever thought what God was thinking at that particular time when Moses was saying this?

We know he said, Why are you crying to me? But God maybe was saying when Moses was crying out, maybe in his mind, he was saying, He says, You got me convinced, Moses.

And I am going to be the one that's going to do the miracle. So why are you crying to me?

You know, so God may have had some of those thoughts in his mind here, but he says, Why are you crying to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

And so they were instructed and obeyed and God, again, protected them.

And it's kind of interesting that as we see here, God told Moses to tell the children to go over.

But he said, But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry land through the midst of the sea.

The interesting thing is that Moses was to say, Okay, go forward. Then he lifted his rod, and then the water is divided.

In other words, it's a matter, brethren, of following God's instructions.

Here, of course, Moses was the government, the physical government, you might say, under God at that time.

And Aaron, of course, would have played into that as well. And they had a responsibility of directing the people.

If people did what God had spoken to Moses to do, well, they were safe.

And they were safe, remember, on the other side of the Red Sea at the end of it.

So, brethren, exercise faith and patience in God.

We're living in a time, brethren, when these things are going to be important to us more than we, I think, realize even now.

And we may have, again, our salvation in our very own hands based on how much faith we have and how much patience we have.

Luke 21, let's go back to Luke 21. I want to hurry through the remainder of this.

But in Luke 21 and verse 20, down here, it says, And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.

You know, so, armies surrounding Jerusalem there are a sign that we need to look for in the end of the age.

And it says, And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations.

So, it's going to be a time of captivity in that day. Remember, Israel will go into captivity.

And that's the modern peoples of Manasseh and Ephraim, the United States and Britain, and other Israelites peoples.

And Jerusalem shall be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are over, are fulfilled.

So, this is a time when, in fact, we see that Gentile armies will have been gathered around Israel as well.

It talks about another prophecy about armies being around Jerusalem at this time.

And so, it will be a time, again, where armies will be gathering around Israel.

And I think that's going to become more and more apparent to us.

It should be apparent to us right now, in fact, that there are armies around Israel today.

But, you know, it's beginning to be, brethren, a time of the Gentiles when the last century was Israel's time of dominance in the world.

You know, Israel at one time, or the United States and Britain at one time, produced two-thirds of the world's wealth.

It had two-thirds of the world's wealth. Remarkable to think about.

Next, as we go down through here, we see the prophecies with regard to the signs of heaven. And then the ultimate return of Jesus Christ.

As I mentioned, Luke 21 is a corollary for Matthew 24.

And Christ Himself said this, "...for then there will be great tribulation, such as not been since the beginning of the world, until this time, known, nor ever shall be.

Unless those days were shortened," Christ said, there would be no flesh saved.

Moffat says, saved alive. There would be no one left or saved alive, if you look at Moffat.

But for the elect's sake, those days are going to be shortened. They're going to be cut off. Christ is going to intervene in the nick of time for that to happen.

Now, in order to destroy all life off the planet, we must have had the capability to do that at that particular time.

That is being described here in Luke 21.

You know, many people, of course, have talked about a doomsday device scenario.

And the doomsday device scenario, by the way, is basically founded on the use of hydrogen bombs.

You can look it up if you want to, and it discusses that in Wikipedia and some of these other places on the Internet.

But it's founded upon the use of nuclear weaponry, of course, in the hydrogen bomb.

And, as we should understand, an atomic bomb ignites a hydrogen bomb.

And what hampers, by the way, destruction and the destructive use of bombs, and we found that to be the case, remember, in World War II with Nagasaki and Hiroshima, with the delivery of the atomic bombs back then, is you have to have a delivery system. Then, of course, these atomic bombs, which were very heavy, were delivered by bombers.

And we do have bombers that are capable of doing that today. In fact, stealth bombers that are capable of delivering today of that.

But more sophisticated delivery systems have been developed in the world since the 60s, even. It wasn't until 1970 that the ICBM was created or made, invented.

In other words, an intercontinental ballistic missile, they were called Min and Min ICBMs, which carried multiple warheads that could actually, you could target multiple sites.

You could take one missile, and you could target, with one missile, multiple cities, if you wanted to, with one missile.

And we have, by the way, many of those in the United States, and Russia has them. I don't know if France does. I think that they do.

There are a number of nations that do have these. I believe, in fact, that France has them as well, and we know China has them.

It has the capability of parking offshore. In fact, who knows, right now we may have Russian subs right offshore with missiles, nuclear-tipped missiles that they could use, which could have multiple targets in the United States.

But, you know, if you were to determine when exactly did we come to the point where we could blot all life off the planet, we'd have enough bombs, rather, in the world.

We have enough bombs to destroy the world fifty times over. But we need the delivery system to do it. And I don't exactly know, again, when that happened.

ICBMs came about in 1970. It happened, I would suspect, probably in the 70s sometime. How long, brethren, is a generation?

Is it 20 years? Is it 40 years? Is it 60 years? I don't know. I don't know. The Bible doesn't really say, does it? It doesn't tell us how long a generation is.

But if we were to add, say, 40 years to 1970, we'd come up with 2010. So I guess that probably that's not the length of generation God's talking about there.

But you could, again, play with that and probably never come to a strict conclusion on it.

Well, let's go on down through here. God is saying that these things are going to be possible in the end of the age.

All life could be blotted off the face of this planet. But in Luke 21 and down in verse 28, He says, Now when these things begin to happen, when you begin to see all of these things, you see this time of commotion in the world, this time of rebelliousness, and when you begin to see, again, many of the other things that we've talked about here in this sermon, now when you see these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws nigh.

It's going to be near, in other words. And in verse 27, He spoke to them, a parable, look at the fig tree and all the trees, and when they're already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is near. It's very near, He's saying here.

And so you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

When these things begin to happen, now think about this also, brethren, in conjunction with hydrogen bomb warfare and development, and the capability of delivering these hydrogen bombs prior to the time that we're living in right now.

I want you to think about this. Because of the oil boom that took place in the world.

What nations, by the way, benefited the most by the oil boom?

Well, I don't even have to tell you, do I? We have a lot of Arab sheikhs over in the Middle East, profited by that.

And their wealth has increased dramatically. They have tremendous resources when it comes to wealth.

And it's kind of interesting that the Arabs now are buying weapons and building armies faster than you can even think, right now.

And I'm talking about all of the Arab countries are doing that.

You know, when the Israelis and the Egyptians had the Six-Day War, it was an Arab war as well there, by the way, not just an Israeli-Egyptian war.

The Six-Day War, as you remember, in 1967. The Egyptian military was a joke at that time.

I heard the joke about the Egyptian pilot that was being trained by the Russians back then.

The Russians were training the Egyptians how to fly these MiGs.

And anyway, the Russians took the Egyptian up to the cockpit of the jet aircraft, the MiG, and he showed him inside.

And there was one big red button on the dash, and it said, take off, you know, on it.

And he says, what you do is when you get in here is you take a hold, you know, of the controls, push that button, and you'll take off.

You know, the Russians told the Egyptians.

And then the Egyptians said, but how do I land it? And the instructor said, you don't have to worry about that. The Israelis will take care of that.

I heard also the story about how, you know, they were joking about the Egyptian army, and it was talking about how the Egyptians were throwing sticks of dynamite across the Suez Canal, and the Israelis were lighting them and throwing them back.

You know, they were joking. There were jokes like that. They were all over. That was before Internet ever came along, by the way.

But, brethren, they are no joke anymore. Hamas, I think, showed that they could defeat Israel.

They, of course, have control, basically, of Lebanon right now. And, of course, they're supplied by the Iranians.

Since 1985, there have been unprecedented buildup of the military in Egypt.

And, like I said, brethren, all of the Arab nations are doing the same thing.

Iran, I don't have to tell you about that, do I? They're working on nuclear weapons.

And so, we see that Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Kingdom of Iran, and many of the other smaller nations, who are intent, and they have been open about of dislodging Israel, and they are building up through a crescendo.

We need to keep an eye on that, because that's in progress right now.

Verse 32. Let's go down to verse 32.

Of this end of the age, what Christ is describing, He says, Assurely I say to you, this generation, by no means, will pass away till all things take place.

This generation.

Yeah, do we get that? That should shout to us. Out of the Scriptures.

In other words, it's not going to be 400 years away. It's not going to be a thousand years away. It's not going to be two thousand years away. It's going to be this generation.

So let's again sit up and take notice about what He is saying here, and He says, Assuredly I say this to you.

And so He doesn't leave this prophecy. You might say open-ended is something that might take place generations later.

He says, Assuredly, and if you look at that word, Christ says, Firmly, I tell you, that generation is not going to pass.

Now, brethren, we can talk about when a generation begins.

But I think now it is possible for man to wipe all life off of this planet, and it is nearer than what Christ is talking about.

Verse 33, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

He said, So God's words are sure and true.

And in the end, brethren, He is always right.

If we doubt Him, you'll be proved wrong. We'll be proved wrong.

For it will come as a snare.

He talks about taking heed to yourselves in verse 34, Lest your hearts be weighted down with carousing.

In other words, you think it's way off.

Drunkenness and cares of this life is caught up with this life.

It says that the day comes on you unexpectedly, and it will come as a snare on all those who dwell upon the face of the whole earth.

And it says, Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things which will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.

And so, we have better watch, brethren.

Watch yourself that you don't get off track spiritually speaking.

Look to Jesus Christ as the head of the church.

Some are going to be ensnared in this world, brethren, because they got distracted.

Christ saved us in 1995.

I mean, if I said otherwise, I would be lying to you.

Christ saved us back then.

And let me tell you, He will save us now.

But what we must do, brethren, is stand still, have faith, have patience, and let God do His work.

In 1995, we were tested on doctrine.

Now we're being tested on government.

Are we going to look to Jesus Christ, who was with us in 1995, brethren, and has not moved?

He is still with us in the church today.

We need to keep alert spiritually, realizing that with all the events taking place in the world, we could be caught off guard.

Have patience, and stand still, and watch for what Christ is going to do.

We're being tested in this confusing world that we're living in.

And realize, brethren, all that's going to come down to the end of this age.

And as Jesus Christ said assuredly, this generation will not pass, till everything is going to be fulfilled.

Let's make sure, brethren, we endure the end so that we can be there when Christ returns, and we can rise to meet Him in the air.

Remember, brethren, this generation shall not pass till all is fulfilled.