Lessons from the Temple

It was interesting in going through all the Church of Schools. I had 12 years in Pearl Schools and 4 years in Bachelor of College and 12 years in Mr. Armstrong and then all the rest of the time in the Church. And on the Council of Elders, both Mr. Armstrong and Uniteds, and knowing all the people and where they are. And most of the groups have asked me to join them. And not because I have so much to offer. I felt like David's last wife, Abishag, you know, because Amnon asked, can I have her as my wife? And Solomon, you know, went through Bathsheba and Solomon said, do you want the throne also?

And they want me as a billboard because I work for Mr. Armstrong. And therefore, if I went with them, they could try to claim credibility for that. God put them there, which He didn't. And I was telling them, hey, prove God put you there. I'll be there. But, you know, you spend these lies and you say these things that aren't true to say that you should be in charge. And I said, that's not how it works. And so I've seen enough miracles and I'm willing to help. I've never asked for a job in the church. I'm one person I know that's had almost every job in the church, but never asked for one and tried to give it away every time I got it because it wasn't fun.

Educational, to say the least, not fun. My first seven years flying, I missed over four years of my wife's marriage. And I pulled up and asked, how do you do this? How do you know? I said, why would you want to do this job? You know, you leave home all the time and you're going to see your wife. You know, you're married. And most of them wanted it. They thought it was prestige and power. I just said, in 1975, the airplane was out of the country, 312 days, plus church visits in the weekends in the US. I went to the logs. And in fact, if I had flown my wife to Paris and had her stay there, you had a senior more than I did.

But so I said, why would you want something like that? But again, people want things that aren't good for them. I mean, I'm always trying to give things away and get out of it. And whatever God, I mean, if God asked me to do something, I'll do it. I've always told people that. Whatever it is. But if He doesn't want me to do it, I don't want it either. So, so far I haven't been let off the hook. But someday we'll find out what He wants.

Okay, getting to my sermon here. Too many things to update with you. I get to tell stories all day, but that would take more than all day.

And so, in 1984, three Orthodox Jews came to Bishtramshah's house on a Sunday.

It was funny because I'm not sure how they knew where his house was on the campus, but they knocked on the door. I was with Bishtramshah, and so I went to the door and saw these these three men. And I could tell they're Orthodox Jews because they had the curls and the black and all this stuff. And it wasn't too hard to figure that out. And I asked them what they wanted. They wanted to see Mr. Armstrong. I said, well, I'll go ask him. And I didn't know what he would say if he wanted to see him or not. And he said, yes. And I went and told him, there's three Orthodox Jews out here that want to talk to you. And he said, okay. So we'd done projects in Israel before and different things. We had the dig, which I'd gone to in 1973 in Jerusalem.

But they had come to see Mr. Armstrong, and they wanted to build a temple. And they wanted Mr. Armstrong to help fund and build this temple. They talked to him for a while. They told him they had a red heifer already. They had bread, you know, the prime, whatever the restrictions were for the red heifer, the pure and unboundless. They had the all the gold and silver utensils already made. This is back in 1984. They'd been ready to build a temple for for several decades.

And Mr. Armstrong listened to him, and he learned a great deal about the preparations they were making for the temple. But, you know, the reason they wanted a temple is because the Messiah has to come back to a temple. If we don't have a temple, the Messiah can't come back. And Jews always want the Messiah to come back, and they don't recognize the first coming. That was my standing bet with all my Jewish friends that when Christ and the Messiah returns, it was the first time, then I buy the beer. It's the second time they buy the beer.

And so, but these Jews wanted to build this temple because they want the Messiah to come, to raise up His covenant people and rule, etc. And, you know, there's always been a fascination with the temple, you know, again, both historically and prophetically. There's a fascination with it.

And turn to Isaiah 56. Why was this fascination? Well, it's all through there. I'll just read a few verses that talk about it. Isaiah 56, in verse 7, it talks about, so even then will I bring to my holy mountain, where's that Jerusalem, the temple, to make a joyful noise in my house of prayer. There burn offerings and there's sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. Oh, they've got to have the temple. We've got to have that for him to come back.

A couple pages over in Isaiah 60, verse 7. Over there, again, he talks about it again. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to me. The rams of Nebaoth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house by glory. In chapter 66, verse 20, they shall bring your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, upon horses and chariots and litters, upon mules and swift beasts, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem. And we've got to have a temple so this can happen. And again, there's all sorts of other scriptures you can read in the prophecies, you know, but the Jews are always wanting all that. And they were concerned in the first century about the temple before Christ came, because they knew he was supposed to come then. And there's been a lot of grand and glorious buildings on this earth, but I don't think any has ever been as glorious and grand as the temple that Solomon built. And we go to 1 Chronicles 22, and the story is in 1 Chronicles 22 and also in 1 Kings. If you want to turn there to chapter 6, we'll kind of go to both of those. Because again, I want to look at the temple today and see if we can learn some lessons about ourselves, about God and how he thinks. It began from the time of Israel's departure out of Egypt, which I heard about in the sermon this morning, and in our remodeling project in the sermonette.

They were building a temple, and that's what they wanted. And again, but they always kept, had they had the Ark of the Covenant, they had the tent and the portable temple, so to speak, for decades, they would obey God for a while, and then they'd rebel and not serve him, and then come back, etc. All those things happened. But David was a man with zeal, and he wanted to build a permanent place for God. And of course, we read that story in 1 Chronicles 22.

Verse 1, it starts, David says, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offerings for Israel. And he wanted to build that. He commanded strangers, verse 2, to be gathered, sent masons to cut squared stones to build the house. And verse 3, iron and abundance for nails, for the gates, couplings, cedar trees without number, from Sidon and Tyre, the Cedars of Lebanon, all in abundance.

And then verse 5, David said, Solomon, my son, is young and tender. The house to be built for the Lord is to be highly magnificent. For a name, and for the beauty of all the lands, I will now prepare for it. And David prepared abundantly before his death. And he knew he couldn't build it, so he called Solomon and commands him to build the house for God. And verse 7, My son, for me, it's my mind to build the house for the name of the Lord my God.

But the word of the Lord came to me and said, You have shed much blood, have made great wars. You shall not build a house to me, for my name, because you shed so much blood. So David wasn't going to be allowed to build this temple because of the shed blood. And that was something that God was doing. I mean, he used David to enlarge the borders, to give the land, the promised land to them.

Verse 9, we're told, Behold, the Son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest. Man of rest. Wouldn't have wars. You can't build anything when there's wars going on. That's why America is great, because it doesn't have a bunch of wars. Look at Europe. You keep tearing things down and trying again and again. He says, I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days.

And he shall build my house for my name. And he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will be established my throne of his kingdom in Israel forever. The promise he gave to David as well. And God has always wanted a relationship with his creation. That's what the Garden of Eden is about.

That's what Adam and Eve, Christ walking in the garden. He wants to be with them. In verse 12, he says, Only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding, and direct you concerning Israel, so you may keep the law of the Lord your God. And you shall prosper if you take heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments God had given by Moses.

And then he starts talking about what he prepared for Solomon to give to him for the temple. And it's fascinating to read this in verse 14. Behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold. Now, a talent is 300 shekels. A shekel is about six to seven pounds, so about 350 tons of gold.

That's a lot of gold. And that's, you know, in today's value, it's probably around 20 billion dollars or more. And along with that, a million talents of silver, which is about 3,500 tons, and a bronze iron without weight, for it is in abundance. I prepared timber also and stone, and you can add to this. That's incredible.

And there are many skilled workers with you, cutters and workers of stone and timber and all kinds of skill for men for every kind of work. This building is going to be incredible. And he goes through and he lays that thing out. David did everything he possibly could for this. And then that was just the things there.

And of course, David out of his own, in chapter 29, verse 4, it talks about David out of his own coffers, gave 20 tons of gold and 45 tons of silver. So David was a very wealthy man in that as well, added to it. And David, chapter 23, he's old and full of days, and Solomon's king. And he puts it together and Solomon, he starts building. And the number of Levites, from the age of 30 upwards, by head 38,000, 24,000 to set the work of the house of Lord, 6,000 officers and judges, 4,000 gatekeepers, 4,000 people that praise the Lord with instruments and with songs, made for praising.

And so, I mean, this is a lot of people to work on this thing.

And it's fascinating to look at that. If you go into 1st Kings, chapter 6, and you flip over there, you'll see this. Because it says, you know, at the end of Chronicles, Solomon passed all the kings of the earth and riches and wisdom, which God gave him. In 1st Kings, chapter 6, it says, it happened the 400th and 80th year after the sons of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt. In the fourth year Solomon's reign. So we know, actually know when the Exodus was based on Solomon's reign. So if you try to back up from about 970s, or back up to the Exodus, now you don't have to worry about all the kings of Egypt and Pharaohs and the number in there because the Bible tells us when it was. And so we know when it started. And he talks about the size of the temple, the porches and the cubits. The cubits was anywhere from 18 inches to 22 inches, depending on the king and how far it was between your forearm and your hand. But if we use the minimum foot and a half, you can look at what they did. Chapter verse 6 of 1st Kings 6. The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle was six cubits broad, third was seven cubits broad. And around the house he made narrow ledges for the house all around, so as not to lay hold of the walls of the house. Again, you're not supposed to touch something holy. Remember Moses, take off your shoes. You know Joshua, take off your shoes. This ground's holy. And the sons of Aaron went in wrong and they got killed. You know, and if you went on the mountain, that's why they put the posts around Mount Sinai. If you went up there, you got, you died. So Solomon put these ledges around the temple proper itself so people could walk without getting crushed in the walls and die. But I think verse 7 is spectacular what he says here. 1st Kings chapter 6 verse 7. It says, When it was being built, the house was built of stone made ready beforehand. And there was not heard in the house a hammer or an axe or any iron tool while it was being built. There wasn't supposed to be any noise around this temple. And the people that were singing and praising during the time it was being built to muffle whatever other noises might be there. And it was very special. I think getting starts this telling the size of the thing and what was going in verse 11. The word of the Lord came to Solomon as to this house which you're building. If you will walk in my statutes, do my judgments, keep my commandments to walk in them. I'll perform my work in you which I spoke to David your father, and I'll live among the sons of Israel. Will not forsake my people Israel. Verse 14, Solomon built the house and finished it.

If is probably the biggest word there every time it comes up is if you do well, if you keep my commandments, my judgments. And Israel, of course, didn't do that. But it starts describing how much effort was put into this temple, how many things they carved. Verse 18, the cedar of the house inside was carved with gourds and open flowers. All the cedar, there was no stone saints. They covered the floor of the stones with wood, so you wouldn't see that. The Holy of Holies inside for the Ark of the Covenant. And verse 20, the Holy of Holies was 20 cubits by 20 cubits in breath, 20 cubits in high, so it was a big box. And overlaid with pure gold and covered the altar of cedar. And Solomon overlaid the house inside with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold, and he overlaid it with gold, the Holy of Holies was. And verse 22, overlaid the whole house with gold till he'd finished it. The altar belonged to the Holy of Holies, overlaid with gold. Two carrops of olive wood, 10 cubits high. So you're looking at, you know, 15 feet high, these carrops with a wingspan across them. The wings of the cubits, five feet. The other wing, five cubits. So you're looking at these large carob and wings over the Holy of Holies. And again, carved out of olive wood and covered in gold. So everything you saw was just fabulous and gold. And the effort that they put in to make this temple what it was, again, all the... verse 29, all carved all the walls of the house. Carved figures of carrops and palm trees, open flowers, the floor of the house, overlay with gold. The entrance, the olive wood car... Have you ever seen olive wood? If you go to Israel, there's a lot there. Olive wood is one of the hardest woods in the world. I mean, trying to carve that is really tough. And yet they carved all these ornate things out of olive wood. And it was all covered with gold. And when it was finished, verse 37, the fourth year and the fourth month, the foundation was laid. And in the 11th year and the eighth month, the house was finished. So it was seven years in building. A dedication to it. Of course, the dedication prayer was wonderful and all the things. And again, everything was delicately crafted off-site, fitted, and put together on-site. How did he know this? It was so fabulous that all the kings of the earth and different people talked about it. They came to see Solomon's temple. The queen of Sheba came. It talks about her visit in 2nd Chronicles 9, how she was so impressed. She didn't believe what they said. That's how much they described it. You know, they outright true. It's not that great. What did she say? It was so much more than I was told.

And it talks about she gave something like six tons of gold to build the temple as well, and jewels and things for the temple. And she was so impressed. And again, you know, a lot of people think of Solomon as Confucius and came there and spouted out wisdom. And he did. But actually, they came to see this whole building. God gave Solomon wisdom and knowledge in all the buildings, trades, everything. In fact, they dug up in Ngedi a few years back, a smeltering thing where they smelted copper. And because the copper, they didn't have that one. I mean, that copper is well not the mouth that they had there. And again, there's copper mines in this country that weren't dug by us. They weren't dug by the Indians. They've proven they were dug around 1000 BC. And there's grave markers on the Mississippi River that are in ancient Hebrew. They called the Indian scholars to try to find out what these things said, and they couldn't figure it out. And finally, this guy that knew some old Hebrew studies, that's Hebrew. And so there are people gathering the stuff, and they came, obviously took it to Ngedi, which is in the Gulf of Aqaba, where it touches down there. But the smelting furnace they dug up from that time, the way it was constructed, the wind that blew there would go through that tunnel. And they said it could reach the temperatures of our smelting, our best smelting furnaces today. So I mean, Solomon had knowledge of how to do all this stuff. And so they came to see, kind of like the early days of America, when they came to see the Empire State Building, and all the roads, and all the things that we built. And that was it. But the temple was the epitome of this building, and all the gold, and all the things there. Well, sadly, someone got destroyed, and they got ransacked several times before them. And, you know, they used it, you know, Rehoboam, King Ramsey's, Teshak came up to take the gold out of the temple. And he ransacked it. Others came to the Syrians. They used, you know, gave away a lot of things for tribute to people. They never really followed God and didn't keep up their part. But it was part of what was happening. But they needed the temple. You know, we got to have a temple for the Messiah to come. And Isaiah 44, we read about the prophecies there of Cyrus. It's fascinating to me that you see how, you know, God lays these things out way ahead of time, because Isaiah was written, you know, before Judah was captive, right after Israel was captive. And Isaiah 44 and verse 28, it relates that prophecy. It says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. He shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid. Now, this had to be an anomaly for Isaiah, because the temple was still there. You know, how are you going to lay a foundation of something that's already got a foundation and a building?

And how do you, even like me saying, well, 200 years from now, somebody's going to come and tear down that building and build this. And his name is Cyrus. I mean, you know, how would he do that? And so obviously, God was involved. And in Ezra chapter 6, again, we see the fulfillment of that, you know, 150, 200 years later, where in Ezra 6 and verse 3, he talks about Darius making a decree of verse 1. Verse 3, in the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God of Jerusalem. Let the house be built, the place where they offered sacrifices, let the foundations thereof be strongly laid, the height thereof, three-score cubits, and the breath, three-score cubits, all the things they do with rows of great stones and timber, etc. When the gold and silver let it be brought, it was taken of Babylon from the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took, verse 5, rebrought to Jerusalem from Babylon and restored. So everyone is in his place. So it's being fulfilled. Hey, the Messiah can come. We're going to have a temple again, rebuilt. Haggai 2 talks about the second temple. We turn to Haggai 2 and verse 3. So as prophesied, the temple was being rebuilt, it was burnt down to the ground by the last siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his army. But this building wasn't as nice as the first one. In verse 3, chapter 2 of Haggai, Who is left among you that saw his house in our first glory?

And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison, that it's nothing?

No, and I think of what it was when I was growing up with the church, the growth we had, and the traveling, the three campuses, the camps, all the things that we had physically, and I look at what we have now, and I feel the same way. Yet we're still doing work.

The income we had at his death worldwide was probably close to 150 to 170 million dollars, and that would be a billion dollars today. Imagine what we could do with that, but it's not about money. That's what God doesn't work with. And that's what God says to Haggai, same thing.

After he's saying, oh, it was so great, and this is just almost nothing compared to it, and God says, be strong, Zerubbul. Be strong, Joshua, the high priest. Be strong, all you people, the Lamb, says the Lord, and work. I'm with you. And he says, verse 5, According to the covenant with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you. Don't fear. Forget about it. Yet once, as little while, I'll make the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, all be shaken. Shake the nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Silver's mine, the gold is mine, says the Lord. Verse 9, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the farmer, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace.

And they're thinking, they're fighting off the enemies trying to stop them from building the temple. It's not nearly as nice as it was, and yet God's telling them it's going to be greater. They've got to be wondering, how is this going to be? At least we'll have a temple, though. The Messiah can come because we have a temple, and that's that was what's important. It's interesting that men take the returns and the rebuilding of the temple. It's what the prophet Isaiah and others were talking about. And so we got to build this temple. We got to get it built and get it done.

And they read the scriptures that we read earlier, and they applied them to that temple, and they wanted it to happen. But that temple also fell in disrepair, and it started falling down and having problems. Josephus, when he's writing about what happened in the four or five hundred years in the history of the Jews and the antiquities, he says that it seemed there could be no hope without a temple. And so the Jews, the Maccabees came, and Tychus and Piphides, if you read history, there came and took the temple and offered swine flesh on the altar and profaned everything there. The Maccabees came up and took over for a while. It seemed like that was going to be a good time, but that didn't last for a long time. And so the Jews were constantly trying to keep the temple up. The general counsel of Rome, Pompeii in 63 BC, came to Jerusalem, and they thought he was going to tear it down and do something to it. And he inspected it, but he didn't take anything, which is unusual, you know, when you come in like that. But then General Krafus, who was fighting the Parthian Empire just before 50 years before Christ was born, he was fighting them. He went to the high priests and high priests negotiated, please don't take everything. And he offered him a gold beam in the temple for it. And so Krafus took it, but then he came back and took everything else too. So now, oh, we got a temple with no gold, no silver, it's barely here. It's, you know, nothing like it should be. It had no treasury. But they knew from the prophecies the Messiah had to come to the temple. And so they kept trying to build it. They were so distraught when this was built.

And so now came the setting for the temple that Jesus as a man was going to come to.

The Messiah, they knew the prophecies, seven different things. They knew it was time for the Messiah to come. And, you know, they expected him to rise up as a conqueror, conquer the Romans, put them in charge, etc. And they wanted a temple there. And it was scared them because this is the time when Herod was there. And Herod was ruthless. He killed some of his own children and things he thought might take over. And he was bloody. And he promised them he'd build a temple. But first, he was going to tear down the old temple. And they were so sure he was going to tear it down and not build it. They were really scared about that. But Herod, because he wanted to win the people over, decided, yeah, I'm going to build this temple. And he did. He started building it. He was in his best interests. And about 20 B.C. began building it. And Josephus says he hired 10,000 skilled workmen,s a thousand priestess masons, and a thousand wagons of auction to haul stones. And Josephus talked about the stones how large they were. He said some of the stones were 40 cubits long, 6 cubits high. So you're looking at about 60 feet by 12 feet by 9 feet. Those are big stones. Those are very huge stones. Not every stone was the same size. The largest in the digs and excavations, the largest complete stone that they found that was still intact is 12 meters, 36 feet by 9 feet by 12 feet. And that's the biggest they found. They were probably bigger ones. If you go to Gerashe in Jordan, which was built out of stones from the temple and from Jerusalem, and Herod, you know the stones because Herod had a four-inch etching around his stones.

And so when Jerusalem was destroyed, other people went and cut the stones off and called them off and built other cities with them. You can go to Gerashe in Jordan and see these stones that happened to be two sides, and the others were cutting things. But these were huge. And Josephus says that they were so specifically cut that the blocks knew no mortar, that he says you couldn't cite a piece of paper between the stones. It's hard to think of these stones, you know, the weight as much as 400 tons could be put that close together, but they were. And he talks about the outer wall of the temple. It was three box thick, and they were thick going up because they had to fill in behind it to level off the temple. So it was a retaining wall. So three blocks thick, each book block more hair is etching, the indention around it. The foundation was 20 meters or 60 meters or 60 feet below ground. And Josephus says the highest point of the wall was 150 meters or about 450 or 450 feet. Iron clamps were put on the inside for the dirt to hold it up and keep it level as retaining walls. So the temple had four courts, each ascending up as she went to the Holy of Holies for the high priest. It's the only one that can go in there. And they had a bit of a caste system. The high priest could go here, the Jews could go here, the court of the Gentiles out here. Everybody had their positions. They were very much status conscious in that. It says the temple proper, the actual part of the on top of the whole complex, was completed in one and a half years.

Josephus says it did not rain during the day, but only at night so the work could be completed.

Obviously, this was for the Jews. This was a highlight. Wow, it only rains at night and we can work all day long. And the Messiah must be coming. Right now, this temple that prophecies, you know, somewhere around now is when the Messiah is going to come. So it had to give him incredible hope to see this temple going up with these great stones and all these things happening. And the Roman Tacitus in his book, he describes the temple as having great riches.

Of course, the Jews only had one God, so you only have one person you have to give it to, rather than the Romans, who had so many gods, you had to divide your coins up to separate them.

So they were wealthy. And Jesus, when he was there, how did he look at the temple?

If you look at what he said, you know, it's all through it. He looked at it with respect and zeal. It was his father's house. That's the way he looked at it. And he was a boy. Where was he when he separated from his parents, age 12? He was in the temple, learning and teaching that when he was tempted by Satan in Matthew 4. Where did Satan take him? Up to the pinnacle of the temple, overlooking. And he was offered that. You know, Satan says, hey, throw yourself down. If you're the son of God, and your angels will take charge over you. Of course, he says you should not tempt the Lord your God and pass the test there. All four of the Gospels record the money changers in the temple. So that is a major thing that happened there. There's this amount of peace, the amount of God, overturning tables and doing all the things with zeal that he had. He drove the oxen and the thing because they were... you could come with your sheep, but they'd look at your sheep. Ah, your sheep's blemish. You can't buy one of our sheep. They were doing all sorts of crazy things to take money from people. And what does he say in John 2, 17? After this all happened like that, the disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house has eaten me up. He was very zealous from that house in that sense. He taught daily in the temple. We read that in the Gospels. When he was there in Jerusalem, he taught. It was a house of learning and place for preaching. And again, the Jews, they wanted a temple for Messiah. They didn't want a Messiah that brought peace, a Messiah that would be crucified. They wanted a Messiah that would make them the chiefs, the leaders. And Christ continually taught in the temple for them. In Luke 21.5, there's an interesting thing about the temple there. This is after the widow's might. She gave it in the treasury. Christ said she's given more than the rest of them. And they said, well, it's only two mites. But she gave her everything she had. And he saw that. But in verse 5, in talking to the disciples, it says, some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts. And Christ said, verse 6, as for these things would you behold, the day will come in which there shall not be left one stone upon another. It shall not be thrown down. Wow! Okay. 400-ton stones, three deep and so high, etc. And they're all going to be thrown down. That didn't make sense to the disciples. It didn't make sense to anybody there. It's interesting. When you look at that, again, this must not be true. How could these massive stones be taken down? Besides, when you attack a city and you take down the walls, you break the wall, and then you break through it. You don't try to spend your time tearing down the walls. But that's what he said was going to happen to them. And, you know, they told them that that can't be.

And so Jesus what for the temples and what it represented several times when he saw what they were doing. You know, they told him when he said it was going to be torn down, that he'd build up in three days. They said it was 40 years in the making. How in the world can you do that in three days? The disciples didn't understand. They didn't have God's Spirit at the time. They heard it.

But when Peter said that you're the Christ, Christ said, well, God told you that because you don't have the Spirit. You have to know these things unless God tells you.

How do the disciples view the temple after Christ died? Luke 24, if you'd go there, in verse 51, they looked at the temple. The temple was the house of God. That was where they wanted to teach and preach like Jesus did. They didn't recognize what was going on.

In Luke 24, 51, it says, they came to pass while he blessed them. He was parted from them and carried up to heaven. Verse 53, and they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. In Acts 2, we also read, where were they? When the miracle of Pentecost. They were teaching daily with one accord at the temple. So they respected the temple too. They didn't really understand. In Acts 5, chapter 12, it says, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord and Solomon's porch, portion of the temple. And the miracles attracted people. Now he said that the first century they had free health care. Join the church. They healed people. Hey, you know, wonderful. They didn't join because they believed everything. They didn't do everything. But, you know, if I walked into the hospital over here and everybody walked out healed, I could fill a football stadium. I guarantee you.

Because that's what attracted him. So the first century the church grew, but how many of them were really called? How many really had God's Spirit? When you look at how quickly they fell away, turn to another gospel, as they write. They didn't have God's Spirit. But God had a great fall church had to start because a small church had a place to hide, in a sense, the true church. But they were in the temple. Again, after Acts 5, it doesn't talk much about going to the temple.

The persecution came. People were scattered and sent, and the gospel got spread because of the persecution. And why does it not talk about it? Because they had a better understanding with God's Spirit after the day of Pentecost. Did the Isaiah prophecies refer to these temples?

Not really. Again, John 2. We talked about it earlier. John 2, verse 19-22.

If we go there, because the disciples, again, they could recall. And God said, the Spirit, when it comes, the Comforter will bring to remembrance all these things. And so they're writing these things well after the fact. And in John 2, verse 19, Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up.

Then said the Jews, 46 years building this temple. Will you build it in three days?

You know, what kind of miracle are you going to do for that? But he spoke of the temple of his body, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and now they believe the scripture. Three days his body was up. That was the temple of his body. Again, they didn't understand these things at the time. But now they remembered Christ's body was a temple where God's Spirit was, and him was the Son of God. And there was no noise in him. There was no noise in the building of the temple because God doesn't like noise. In the spiritual temple, noise is sin. We put noise out of our sin, out of our lives. We eliminate the noise.

And sadly, there's been too much noise in the temple. But the temple is where God's Spirit is.

And so if you have God's Holy Spirit in you, you're part of the temple in that.

We are the temple if God's Spirit is in us. A physical temple is not where you have to worship.

That's where the Jews have it wrong. They thought you had to have this place. You had to have this physical temple. We turn to John 4, over a couple of pages there, in verse 23. It talks about where you worship and how you worship. Verse 23 of John 4, But the hour comes, and now is, For the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. These are who the Father seeks to worship him. God is the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. When you look at the preparation of the temple and all the things Solomon did, all the builders and even the Paris temple, what they did, how much time do we put into building our temple to making our temple spiritual gold, ornately carved with spiritual values?

46 years of building the Paris temple, seven years with Solomon's temple, all the gold and the silver. But God's looking for spiritual gold, spiritual silver. Was God really concerned about the silver and gold of David and Solomon and stuff of the temple? How ornate the carvings were and how spectacular it was to look at? It would be great to look at it. I'd love to see what it looked like.

But he was more concerned with the character in King David, in the obedience of Solomon, which he broke away from much of the time. He was interested in the repentance, in the change of heart, mind, and soul, with worshiping in spirit and truth to become part of God's spiritual temple.

The temple is really about God and Jesus Christ and his family. In the 1 Corinthians 3, if you would, let's look at what he said about building the temple. Because he is building a temple, and there may yet be a physical temple built in Jerusalem. We know that Revelation talks about the sacrifices, so it'll be some kind of altar, but how much a temple? God knows that.

It's about what he's building, not about the physical buildings or things. We often fall into the mindset of physical. We saw the campus of the college, and decades ago we had a beautiful campus, beautiful auditorium, three campuses, camps and things. I remember when the queen came to visit in 1985, and she said, this is so beautiful, it's like heaven. What are you about? Well, look at these beautiful buildings. Look at these beautiful buildings. When we lost all those physical things, when someone said, what is it about? Well, it's about me. When you got to look at yourself and say that you are what the temple is, I always thought, if Christ is going to come when I'm ready, well, he's not going to get here. We all feel that way, but if everybody else does right, then yeah, we'll all go somewhere. It's easy to think that way, but it's not about the physical. It's about you and about me. Verse 16, know you not that you are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

You're not supposed to take the unclean thing. You're not supposed to have noise in the temple. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. It's special. Over in chapter 4, verse 16 and 17, know you're not that you're the temple of God and that the Spirit dwells in you.

Verse 17, if you defile the temple, that's it. You'll suffer.

Chapter 6, verse 19, know you're not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own. You are those carved stones being built off-site, and that's your special property to God. You belong to him. Verse 20, you're bought with a price. Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Every part of the temple was ornate, special as God led the craftsman then to build it as such, and as God leads his spirit to build you the way he wants to. Second Corinthians chapter 6, turn over there and see a few more verses. After 1 Corinthians 6, verse 16, again, we have to be pure. He wants a special.

Verse 16, are you seeking purity in your actions and your character to be part of the temple? It says, in what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Are you the temple of the living God?

You are that. As God has said, I will dwell on them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So come out from among them. Be separate, says the Lord.

Verse 18, I'll be a father to you. You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Same thing he said to Solomon. The physical temple, if you obey, if you purify, if you keep the commandments, we are that as well. Do we respect each other as part of the temple? Do we treat our temple, our own temple? How do we treat it individually, and how do we treat it collectively? Unfortunately, over the decades, there's been a lot of noise in the temple.

A lot of people that were in the temple that probably didn't have God's Spirit, and there was noise. A lot of divisions. People who wanted power or money or a pride got in the way. They left the body. Noise in the temple. Remember, there was no noise in the building of Solomon's Temple. It was special. Do we hear hammering and chiseling in the temple today? Sometimes there's gossip, things that happen. People can't patiently wait, purify themselves, make sure they're cut perfectly, so not a paper of sand can slide between us as stones is replaced in the body.

I've found those who make noise in the temple have an agenda. I've seen it for my whole lifetime in the church, in the college, in the college, different people at different times. I had to tell Mr. Armstrong a lot of things that he wasn't told. He didn't know. He felt so bad about some of the things that I had to tell him. He felt responsible. I said, Mr. Armstrong, you didn't know. I said, people lied to you about things. They told you things that you wanted to hear, and you said things based on that. Well, he was pretty upset with the things. But I said, well, let's just do better now. That's what it's about. We're supposed to be sinless, no noise, and we have access to God through that Spirit to be able to have Him purify our bodies and put us together, as Ephesians said, being fitly framed together. Our stones are to be laid perfectly in the temple, spiritual temple. We all have a place. God knows where we are in Ephesians 2. We go there.

Ephesians 2, verse 19. Again, we have access to God through the Spirit. Verse 19 of Ephesians 2, Therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God put together, built on the foundation of the apostles, the prophets, Christ the chief cornerstone. There's no bigger stone spiritually than Him. He is the biggest stone. He's a lot bigger than Herod's physical stones. He can do all things, and God gives Him authority. And as our intercessor, He makes intercession for us, because sins cut us off from God, and only through Him can we be made pure to be able to reach God.

Through His blood, we have reconciliation with God the Father. Through His resurrection, we have the hope of our resurrection and life eternal. There is no noise.

And again, verse 21, The whole building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also built together for habitation of God through His Spirit.

Now, parts of God's temple were built off-site. The family of God and the church is also built off-site. Not only off-site, because people are here, people are in Myanmar, people in Africa, people in South America, Asia, but also people in a thousand years ago, and 2,000 years ago, and 5,000 years ago. Not only off-site, but off-time. God is putting this temple together through 6,000 years, and we're fit. If we yield to Him, the family of God has been built off-site, and we perfectly fit, or we're not going to be there. This phase to putting sin out is so we fit, so we don't have noise in the temple. 1 Peter 2 talks about our holy priesthood. 1 Peter 2, verse 5. Again, we have to fit as well. We have to be part of God. 1 Peter 2, verse 5, You also, as lively stones, are built up of a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We're not acceptable without Jesus Christ. We can't do it without Him. But with His death and the Holy Spirit, we can.

He's our chief cornerstone. 2 Peter 3, verse 7. 1 Unto you therefore, which believe He is precious, that's us, we believe Christ is precious. 2 To them which disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. 3 The stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient. Out that cornerstone, you're never going to be straight. You're going to have a crooked building. You're not going to have the smooth siding and stuff. 1 Peter 3, verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. You should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. 2 The temple was to show off God.

We are to show what God really stands for, who He is. We are special to God.

Revelation 3 says that to Him who overcomes will be a pillar in the temple of God.

It's special. If we help each other through fellowship, through service, James 5 tells us what happens if we help other people. It's not just about trying to get yourself. People who want something for themselves is selfish motive. Most of the people who have left us over the last six decades have left over. I wish it was six centuries. I know it was a lot.

Not quite that old. But the thing is, they left for selfish reasons. They didn't get what they want. They tried to enter them. In James 5, Brethren, verse 19, If any of you err from the truth, and one converts him, let him know that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save his soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

If you want to hide a multitude of your sins, help somebody else. Serve someone else.

That's what Christ did. He covered all of our sins. He took on our affirmities. He helped every one of us. He didn't have to cover any sins because he didn't have any sins. He took ours. And that's it. Yeah. So we could be part of the temple of God. We're to be like him.

Obviously, we can't take on other sins, but we can help others. We can set an example.

Christ respected the temple as God's house. We are God's house. Physical temple had boundaries. You're the high priest. You go into the Holy Holies once a year. If you were a Jew, you could go into this court. If you were a Gentile, you had to be circumcised. You could go into this court. All these rules that they had. Only the right people could come to the temple. Nothing unclaimed could come into it. And what is unclean today? Sin. Not doing God's law.

And all too often, we think about the big sins of murder, lying, stealing. But the little sins, the little noises, grow into bigger noises. True Christ-like men and women shall respect, they'll show humility. They want to help each other. It's not about greed and selfish gains, it's about service, about humility, about fitting where God places you. It's not about deciding where you want to fit. And all too many people have done great things. A lot of the men who taught me that have left, they were able to parrot back the truth, read the scriptures, and do those things. But they never truly believed it, some of them. And they departed from it.

And it's sad to see that happen. A lot of them, they wanted position in the church.

I have people that left the church with different groups. I saw them in our splits in the past. Well, I went with this man because he was such a great pastor. His fruits were so good. And I said, well, I'm sure they were. But I'll tell you, did he serve you because he wanted to serve you? Or did he serve you because he wanted to rise in ranks? One of the evangelists that was a great teacher, he put in his Bible on graduation day. He found the blank page in the back, and he wrote in there. And he said, I want to be a local elder by this date. Put a date in there. I'm going to be a preaching elder by this date. I want to be a pastor by this date. I want to be an evangelist by this date. When he was ordained an evangelist, he was standing next to another minister. He said, I'm two months ahead of schedule. And the minister, what do you mean? He opened his Bible, says, look at this page. He showed him the page. Now tell me, did he do all the right things so that he could raise and rank? He hadn't been a good elder, a good preacher, a good pastor. He'd never become an evangelist. So yes, I agree. His fruits, the service he did was good. But the motive is more important. And how the good fruits have to be a lifetime. Now all of us want to say, hey, God, I gave us smoking. Now I'm ready. Hey, God, I quit swearing. Okay, let me know. It's a lifetime.

How often do you have to go through this forever? I've always prayed, God, let this be my trial and not my preparation for one. Because they get worse. And I literally have been through it all. I mean, I've had my life threatened. I've jumped motels. I've had all sorts of things happen to be long stories and easy to tell now, very hard to live through at the time. I understand the book of Acts. I understand how people were killed. I understand, you know, Queen Atholiah killing all the king of sons so she could stay queen. I understand people's greed and those things. I understand people acting the part to get what they want. I also understand the people who did things for the right reason. And when they're taken out of position, they say, what do I serve now?

Others say, you can't do this to me. I'm important. They go start their own church so they can be in charge. Noise in the temple. That's not what we're supposed to be. It's supposed to be humble. Temple is supposed to be a place of purity and peace. And God has been separating out people for centuries, especially at the same time. Mr. Armstrong, you said, the next thing is purification of the bride. It made me promise to help do that. And I didn't know how. And I asked him how.

He said, that's what's next. Half the church is going to quit keeping the Sabbath. The income is going to go down. The foundation will close. The college will close. I mean, people will quit keeping those. I said, I want them. This book doesn't change. How does it happen?

You knew it was going to happen. And God did it in such a way to test us off. You've been offered, hey, you can get in the kingdom without keeping the Sabbath. You can get in the kingdom without keeping all the days. You can choose your own leader if you want to. You can stay at home. You can do whatever you want. You've been given that choice. And Christ and God are up there saying, now I know, just like Abraham. He did a lot of things before God finally said, now I know.

He's about to kill his son. He's an old man. God says, now I... He had to say the same thing about you and me. Now I know. And when does he say that? Before the end of your life. We want him to say it every time we overcome. He does. He's glad you are overcoming along the way. But it's the final thing. So the fruits of repentance can be done for the wrong reasons. And I've seen people, it takes 20, 30, 40 years before it comes out. But virtually everyone who's done these things ends up leaving. I don't disagree that they, the fruits look good back then. And when people leave to follow a man, like people in Big Sandy, I was there before Denny Luecker asked me to count for treasure. And I could counterbalance some of the other Malinians that were there saying things that were wrong. And I'd go in and say, wait a minute, that's not what happened. And I kind of evened things out. But when I went to Cincinnati, all of a sudden there was nobody saying things. And I had people that come up to me and say, if you'd only stayed here, we'd have kept all these people in. And I said, well, what's the difference between them following me versus following them? You've got to be here because you're following Christ and you're following God. And you have to sit back and patiently wait. I've waited a decade for some things, praying, God, please change us, please change us. I have more than one boss. I've said they're juggling things, you know, Mr. Armstrong and Ann Reeder and all the things going on and saying, God, this isn't good. You say they can only serve one master, and I've got to serve two or three. And I said, but if that's what you want, I'll keep going it for years. Finally, God changes things. And they're God. And it wasn't necessarily pleasant when they're gone. Like I said, I had my life threatened by just only telling the truth. But when you're telling the truth to someone who isn't telling the truth and wants to take over and has control of the money and control the finances and control of that and doesn't have to worry about telling the truth, I mean, literally, it's hard to take some of the things that my wife and I have lived through.

And to be told by the people there that we know that you're upset with some of the things going on. If you tell Mr. Armstrong, we know what you're going to say. You can tell the truth. We're going to lie. There are six of us in that tree. We're going to say the same thing. What do you want us to hear? It will destroy you, your family, everything you stand for. And they did it.

They did exactly that. I wasn't planning on saying anything. I prayed and I said, God, if you want Mr. Armstrong to know these things, have him ask me these questions.

A lot of people have tried to change things, but they did it more because they wanted to be the hero. Fix the church. I'll be like David, I'll slay Goliath and give the church back to Mr. Armstrong and get rid of these evil people. But their motive wasn't right. I just said, God, I'm not going to say anything. You haven't asked these questions, if he does. It was funny because right after I prayed that two weeks later, I called in by the administrative assistants because the people doing it at the top, the person didn't want to be tied to it. So he had his other people do it. But I got called in and told that. Well, if you say anything, we'll say yes. It's what he wants to hear. We'll destroy you. They took me off the airplane at that time and put another steward on there because they told me Mr. Armstrong wanted me to finish my law degree and counting and stuff. And so it happened. I won't tell the whole story, but he got upset because they took me off the plane and didn't tell him. They thought he got upset because I wrote a letter to him. And the letter just said, I wish you well in your campaign and stuff, but he got mad. And so his wife calls Stan Rader and says, Mr. Armstrong's mad. And they thought I'd said all these things that I knew. And they knew what I was going to say or what I would say had I said anything. So he got bombarded with all these telexes, all this garbage and Armstrong's like, what is all this stuff? And calls me over. Immediately I fly over there. And all this stuff that they said, what are they saying? And I told them and told them what the truth was. He asked the very questions I prayed. I wanted to be Gideon at the time. Let me pray again, God, can you do it twice? You know, that's what you really want me to suffer because they delivered. I got a phone out of the church three times and fired seven times in 31 days. That's got to be a record, I'm sure. And if what they said was true, I deserved it.

And how do you prove what you didn't do? Especially when there's six people, they thought, the Bible says two witnesses, we have six. And I was getting beat up totally. And I wanted to leave.

I didn't ask to fly. And Mr. Armstrong, he told me they were trying to kill him because they were keeping him up at night. So two in the morning telling him how evil I was and how you should get rid of this evil person because I was the only one that knew all the inside stuff. And there were a lot of things happening at the church that very few people know about. And most of the council and evangelists didn't know of the stuff at the time either. I mean, I had worked in the office. I knew that, I mean, most people didn't know that the World Wide Church of God was actually owned by a Colorado corporation, which was owned by a Wyoming corporation, which was owned by a Puerto Rican corporation, which board members were not even church members. Surprised, those are the things I knew which made me very dangerous, kind of like turning on the mafia. Life's not worth a whole lot. But the thing about it is that they just wanted me out of the way. And so I wouldn't be bribed. I got offered a lot of money to shut up, which I wouldn't take. My salvation is worth more than that. And the funny thing is, Mr. Armstrong, he could see my attitude was right, but how come they're saying all this stuff? Well, Mr. Armstrong, they're saying it because they're trying to empower him. Mr. Armstrong said, you know, they're trying to keep me up. They want to tell me because if I die, they'll say who I wanted to be in charge. And so I told him, I said, Mr. Armstrong, they're trying to kill you, send me home. And I said, the only constipulation is I'm telling you the truth. I don't want to go if you think I'm running away from something because I'll tell you the truth. And so he said, no, I want you to stay. So I went through the trip and, like I said, we landed about two or three in the afternoon and put the plane away. He'd already gone home. I drove home and got home 50 minutes after Armstrong calls and says, leave town immediately or life's been threatened. So I did. I left the normal door for my wife who came home and found an oath that said I left town. I didn't tell her I was, you know, people were trying to kill me. That wouldn't be too easy for her. So, and for a month and a half, I jumped up and down motels and stuff because they had the ability to do things, sadly. Again, is there any difference in the first century when the apostles were trying to be destroyed and, you know, and back in the kings and and Satan's always tried to destroy people? But it was funny because I was fine. I didn't pass the fly. I didn't really want to. In that sense, I'd miss enough my marriage. I wanted to have children. And but it wasn't to be. I promised Mr. Armstrong I would not quit.

I said, you let me go. I'm glad they go. Don't worry about me. And my wife had a job off campus. She had worked up there. And thankfully, she'd worked there. She saw a bunch of stuff. She actually quit because of that, which made Mr. Armstrong happy when he found out later. He found out she worked up there for them while she can't fly. And I said, well, she quit because of that. Oh, that's good. So it was okay again back on the good list. But, you know, you go live through these things. You think, why? Why does God do these things? And at that time, her boss offered me a job. And I was going to get a free house and about three or four times what I was making her salary. And you're sitting there thinking, okay, is God giving me this gift or is Satan tempting me? And sure enough, he wouldn't let me go. And so I ended up that's when he set the Council of Elders. Their job was to name a successor if he dies. That's when he told that group trying to take over that they knew they were lost at that point. They couldn't take over the church. There's no reason. So that's when he asked me to come back and made me be his aide, which I turned down three times. Finally, he said, I'm not asking. I'm telling you.

So I did have worse things coming. But again, you know, God puts you in places and lets you experience things and sets you up. And he's building each of our temples in whatever way and for whatever purpose he has in mind. And when Mr. Armstrong died, he began purifying the church again, sorting out people, making the noise out of the temple. Again, it's not wrong to build physical things. Armstrong built the auditorium. It's a house for God. Where is it now? Other people. They have Christmas parties and everything else in that thing. We love the things that we do, things we build for God, but they're temporary. And we start looking at things instead of people.

We have a problem. Because it's about me. It's about you. You know, what are you about? Well, we're here on a Saturday. Days of unleavened bread. We don't eat bread during this week. Well, that's kind of odd. Well, that's what we're about. But instead, we're trying to be like God and Christ and keep these other days. Because that's what Christ kept. That's what God commanded. That's His plan. God and Christ, through us, are building a temple. How much more ornate how much time is God putting into? How much time are you putting into helping God build your temple and where you fit in that temple? It's interesting when we see that preparation and what God does to prepare His bride. If God is not there, though, the temple God has descended that in the cloud that God was there. It was holy when He was there. But if God's not there, it's no longer His temple. God is building that. He's building me off site, just like He's building you. Some of the second-generation Christians come partially hewn already, not quite as many rough edges. He never kept Christmas and he's got all that stuff. I learned from my wife what paganism was. Not that she was a pagan, but that's what she grew up with. She didn't know anything about the church at all. She came to college planning to go on for Christmas. That's how little she knew. Sabbath? Where did everybody go? You didn't know anything, which made it real easy to take advantage of her. And I was the opposite. I knew all the things.

But again, I wish to fit. I wish to fit next to stones, and I don't want to annoy the stones next to me. And I want to be part of where I fit in that temple. I don't want to damage the little ones that God is calling to work with. I don't want to go start my own church and try to get people to follow me. Stupid thing in the world. It's Christ's Church. People have asked me, you got to be a stranger to God. A lot of people, you just started church. I said, no. God's doing something. I wait for Him to show what He wants. And the patience is what God expects.

Many people want to jump ship too early or do something or, again, pride in things, get in the way. I learned years ago as we were traveling. When I was traveling, when you ordered me on the plane, my first step-nod, he says, treat everyone that gets in this plane like a king or a queen because they are future kings and priests. This happened in college, as some of them.

Others have. Whether someone came on the plane as a child, three or four, five, six, eight years old, we had a few children, we'd go to camp places. They would be served on silver in China. They could have wine with their parents and so, but whatever. They were treated like royalty, as they were. Because you have to see people as children of God, what they're going to be.

I look at the people and I see unfinished products. People are still being hewn. People are being made perfect to fit in God's temple. Again, it's impossible to build peace in Satan's world because there's just too much noise all around us. Anger in the world, all the things that are going on. John and I were taught not to see people, not of nationalities, not to see races, not to see poor or rich. We've been in palaces of the rich and we've stayed in grasshuts and mudhuts and some of the poorest people in the world.

They're all future kings and priests. If they choose, if, like he said, a Solomon, that big word.

We see people as the raw gold and silver that David collected and got ready. All the people of this world that haven't been called, they're still raw products ready to be hewn. Either in the millennium if they survive or in the second resurrection when they get a chance to know the truth. Their potential is to be part of the family of God. And us, actually, we're going to help be part of the spiritual carpenters and the maces and stuff that help teach them how to be a stone in the temple of God. The temple was miraculously fitted and built off-site. What are you? Are you the gold leaf? Are you a hinge? Are you a foundation stone? Some of you are so tough, I'm sure you're the foundation to help hold everybody else. Some of you are so beautiful and so delicate and so peaceful and kind and loving that you're probably part of the gold and silver of the ornate stuff.

Some of you are the hinges, the swing open to welcome people in. Those are the parts of the temple that God is building. And God knows where you fit. He knows where I fit. He knows what to put me through for whatever He has for me to do. He knows what to do to you. And He works out these miracles. He doesn't always tell you. I've had so many miracles and I see too many coincidences, quote-unquote. You can't prove miracles. They're not scientific evidence per se because they don't happen because of scientific factors. But I know that there's too many things happen when I flew the Strymstrom that I knew were miracles. I can tell you. A 21-year-old kid, I'm sitting on meetings with world leaders. I don't know how to do that. I don't know the protocol in 60 different countries. I had learned some of it. I learned it on the fly, basically. And I learned smiling and being nice was the best thing you could do. People would forgive you for anything you did.

And I found that some of the staff didn't even know the protocol. That was what's funny. You asked them, they didn't know what to do. Because there are things that happen that don't happen. Ramsham wanted to meet the Queen in Thailand for six or seven years before he met her. And they kept asking the King, well, where's your queen? And the King was kind of looked blankly there. But the protocol is you only meet the King and Queen if it's the present and first lady or another King and Queen. You have to match up. And so if you're meeting the King and you're alone, you don't meet the Queen. And you meet the Queen, you don't meet the King. I mean, and so finally when he met the Queen and then the King came in from meeting another King but the Crown Prince, you met with him, they violated their own protocol rules for him to meet the whole family.

When she came to Ambassador in 1985, she wrote a book about it. I have a copy of it. It's in Thai, but I had a translation. She talked about Mr. Grandpa Armstrong. The medal she gave him, Order of the White Elephant, is only given to members of the Roe family. They considered a member of the family. And I mean, they showed great honor to him in doing that.

But it wasn't about the physical things, about the spiritual things, the potential of everybody special. We have to see him that way. And how do we make it? Well, Hebrews 5.9 tells us he's the author and finisher of our faith and our eternal salvation. He's the one that makes us. Again, we have to yield to it. We have to do our part. You have to work us if you're doing it yourself, knowing that God is the only one through Christ that can do it. And it's tough. And every time you fail, you can look at yourself and say, hey, he says he doesn't tempt me beyond what I'm able.

I screwed up. I could have been stronger. Because he doesn't tempt me beyond what you're able. So, if you... the good news is you work stronger, you just know it. And you gave up. Don't give up.

Hebrews 12.2. It's always a favorite scripture of mine. Again, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the gore, the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame. And he's on the right hand of God. So, we can... he can sit there. Yeah, I know, Aaron. I know, Sean. I know. Put your name in there. We read in several places, three different places. New Testament says we're presented to God unblemished. I was presented... the first royalty I was presented to was King Pungapong and Thailand. When he went in there, I was trying to have me in there, Zayden. And I'm just kind of in the background as much as I can. He said, Aaron, come up here. I'd like to present to you, Aaron Dean. He says, this is a product of what my schools produce. I felt like one of those little ballerinas on the thing, you know, you wind up and you go around, and I thought, man, I don't feel like anything worth looking at. But I think, Christ is going to present us to God that way. Because he knows who you are. He's worked with you, and he's made an intercession for you to God. Now he gives a chance to show you off. And it's a special, special thing. We fit because Jesus Christ is building that inward character and purity in you with your help, instead of that outward physical appearance that people look at all the time. That's what they see in this world. That's what Satan sees. That's what he tries to build up. The mystery is we can't build it. We try with every part of our heart and soul in our being, I hope. But there's hope through Jesus Christ. You see, we have to build our temple, adorned with the firstfruits. Fruits of God's Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, temperance, meekness, joy. All those things that Christ is about. Now, as a kid, Christ said, my joy, I live with you. And I'm thinking he's getting crucified and beat up and marred. I thought, how joyful is that? But it's joyful because you know what's ahead of it. You know why you're doing it. You know what you're going to be part of. And most of all, as we do this, we're being ready to be assembled on site. This is God's spiritual temple, the most beautiful building of all time. And you and I are destined to be part of that. Please purify your temple. We just put out sin this week to get the noise out, keep the noise out. Have the patience and the faith that you need to endure what's ahead because things are going to get worse. We're approaching the end time. And we know there's a lot of things ahead that are going to be very, very difficult to endure. But it's worth it because God is building you into this temple.

Good to be with you. Appreciate coming up and visiting the invitation and meeting with you. It's like I said, Sharmshon loved being with God's people. He said the things he missed most of the others want. He missed reading the Bible because he couldn't see to read it anymore. So I'd read things to him. And he had the Bible on the TV program that was read. There were three volumes of it. It was a huge type. And every time he'd change the scriptures, they'd turn the camera, go back to him, switch the book, and put it there. So nobody knew it wasn't one Bible.

And he said, the second thing is I miss being with people. And I actually sent the feast in Big Sandy in 82. And I figured he could handle about three or four hundred people. So I had him do me a list of people at the feast, which had about 10,000 people. And I had a list. I said, okay, all the people that came in before 1961 or two or whatever it was, it made the right amount of people, you know, a comfortable, special thing. And he sat there, suddenly he sat there for an hour or two. He stayed up till about six, seven o'clock at night. He loved talking to people because he said, I can't shake hands with a thousand people.

And so I set it up and he loved that day. It was big with God's people. And that's what he wanted in the Bible. One day, about two or three months before he died, he said, you know, Christ, you know, said something to someone about something. Can you find that for me?

And I said, well, could you be a little more specific?

And he said, I'm not sure, but just start reading Matthew. I read all of Matthew, all of Mark, and all of Luke, and all of John. Maybe it was the Apostle Paul. I read all the epistles. I end up reading the whole New Testament. I think he just didn't want to ask me to read the whole New Testament to him because we never did come up with what Christ said to somebody about something.

But he loved just hearing the Word of God. And it was special. It's special to you and me.

And, you know, to have that love and to, like I said, he was legally blind. And in the sense that he got a tax break for it. He could see, but he couldn't see very far. He'd always walk up, that's how he fell off the stage in South Africa. He walked off a two or three foot drop and didn't know it was there. So I had to be real careful and make sure I kind of stood in front of him and protected him from those type of things. But he wanted to be up there and just, you know, three people or three thousand. He was the same thing. He'd pound on the lectern. He would say, because everyone was important. He had three French maids lined up hearing about the kingdom of God and they didn't understand what he was saying. I came in to get the luggage and he's preaching to him and I'm kind of, oh, we've got to get, deadlock, got to get out of here and stuff. And so I started trying to interpret in French and tell him kind of what he was saying and stuff. But he was, he was going to get them in the kingdom. And then we finally got out of there. But I mean, it was amazing. You know, he didn't feed off the audience. He fed off a God's spirit. He wanted everyone there. I said, thousand, ten thousand people. You know, the minister is the big audience. They're real excited. It was fall out. So he's kind of, you know, slicked back in. But with him and it was pound the table. What's the value of one spirit being in the image of God and Christ?

You have to see each other as that. No matter what your state and light, you have to see people in that light. It's part of the temple. So again, you haven't got a lot of time left. Let's keep building the temple, purifying the body and keep the noise out.