Salvation Belongs to Those Who Endure to the End

Happy Sabbath, everyone! I'm going to ask you to do something, if you wouldn't mind. I don't ever do this, but could we ask that you all come up forward here? Could you come up here?

Those are in the back. Please come up here, because we've got so many chairs set up. I can barely see you guys back there. You're so small. Yeah, we've got plenty of chairs up here. And by the way, afterwards you'll be able to get a chair, because don't worry about that.

I think we ended up setting up about twice as many chairs as we normally do, so that's why I think we look so spread out. I think if we rented a stadium, there would be somebody who would come and sit about 40 miles from the lecture. But thank you so much for doing this.

That way, I don't have to look down here at Dr. Orth all the time. I don't have to look, in other words, look here and then look down there. I can look more at you because you're closer here. I can pan the audience. Thank you so much for doing that. I don't know. Do we need to do another hymn?

Did I mess something up? I hope I didn't. Well, you know, the world is full of winners. Are you a winner?

Are you a winner? The world is full of winners of one sort or another.

Multiple men and women have won at music, sports, the arts, theater, movies. They've got awards coming out right now, the Academy Awards of who won the best picture. Don't ask me because I don't know who won what. But there are awards for that. And winners, people will win at that. There are winners at literature.

There are winners, people who make money. People are really good at making money. You know, all of us, of course, know Warren Buffett is a big winner when it comes to making money. Bill Gates is very good at making money. And of course, our government is good at losing money. But on the other hand, some people are good at winning money, making money. But I could go through and name you the names of successful people going back, you know, prior to the founding of the United States, of people that the world would consider to be winners. And the list is very long. Perhaps millions of people in the world who have done spectacular things in this world. You know, they've had spectacular performances in most every arena of life. You know, it doesn't really matter whether you're talking about marine biology or astrophysics. No matter what it is, there's somebody that has done something stupendous, something incredible. You know, this past Olympics, I don't know if you tuned in to the Olympics over in Britain, but I know I was watching it. Sometimes I'd get home at night and I'd watch a little bit of it. But I think everybody was probably tuned into the 2012 Olympics at some time along the way. And do you remember the track star Usain Bolt?

You know, what a name for a track star! I mean, does God name them or what? I mean, it's like it's amazing how people fit their names sometimes. It's like somebody that delves into electricity. Their name is Volt, you know, or something like that. But Usain Bolt ran the 100 meter, and I'm not sure what the Olympic record was, but I think it was 9.58 seconds. You know, do you realize how fast that is? You know, you and I probably would run, I would run, now I would run a 100 meter dash full force 25 seconds flat if I was lucky.

And, you know, I wouldn't be breaking any records at all. Maybe, you know, earlier in my life I might have been able to do well. I remember running the 100 yard dash 11 flat when I was in high school, but who knows what the time actually was. That was, you know, back in those days, and whether you use basically a stopwatch, and depends who clicks it and when they click it. But, you know, while Bolt is setting history, you know, by running, you know, the 100 meter dash, you know, scientists have agreed that Usain Bolt is nothing short of a phenomenon in human running ability.

A great article about him, and I don't ever read Esquire magazine, but this article about Usain Bolt says that there was an Esquire profile on Bolt in 2010. It basically called Bolt a mutant, that he was a mutant.

A man far ahead, the article goes and says, of his time in terms of what should be possible. Ethan Siegel, who is a theoretical astrophysicist at Lewis and Clark College, recently charted a graph to demonstrate that judging by incremental progression of the 100 meter world record over the past 100 years. He, you know, did a chart, graphs out a chart. Bolt appears to be operating at a level approximately 30 years beyond that of the expected capabilities of modern man. 30 years. Mathematically, Bolt belonged not in the 2008 Olympics, but the 2040 Olympics in terms of his ability to run.

Michael Johnson, the hero of the 1996 Olympic Games, and he was a very fast runner as well. I think his times though were disqualified for various reasons, but he made the same point in a different way. He said a runner capable of beating Bolt, he says, has not been born yet. Has not been born yet, but I think you would say Bolt is a winner.

Of course, when you see him out there running, what does he always do? Number one, he's number one when he comes over that finishing line. And you know, usually when someone is a big winner, you know what happens to them? There's a big book deal, isn't there? Because everybody wants to read about how they became a winner. Because everyone wants to know how they did it, how they accomplished this, how they were able to do so well, how does a champion train and prepare to be the winner that he or she becomes?

You know, everyone wants to know. But you know, I think we could say safely say that some are born with the ability. That you know, it isn't just training. I'm sure that's a part of it, but some are just simply born with the ability. But Bolt, rather, is just one of the winners in the world. However, I want you to shift gears a little bit in your mind. There's only one on the list that I'm thinking about who is one in this life. Only one. There are many like Bolt, you know, maybe not many that are faster than he is, but many winners, Michael Johnson and others in track and field.

And again, in every other field of experience are many, multiple winners. But on the list I'm thinking of, there's only one that is one in life. And his name is Jesus Christ. And you know what he said? He said, in the world, speaking to his disciples, he said, you will have tribulation. But he said, be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. And no one can say that. There is not one person on the face of the planet for the last 6,000 years who can say, I have overcome the world.

And, brethren, not even we can say that. Only one has overcome the world. All else you and me, included, brethren, from the get-go of our lives have come short of the glory of God.

And yet, with his great sacrifice, we can too overcome the world. And only by his sacrifice, only by the fact that Jesus Christ is willing to die for you and me, and to, as it were, overlook our coming short of the glory of the Lord, and his record and what he's done, can what we have done be forgiven and we can be made white so that we can inherit eternal life in the way that he did. But, you know what Jesus Christ said also? He said, in the world, you're going to have tribulation. You're going to have tribulation. And what he's saying, though, is even though, you know, I've overcome the world and you can have the opportunity to overcome the world through me, it's going to get tough for you. It's going to get worse for you. It's going to get more difficult. But he said, be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. And, of course, if we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, we can too. But this world right now, brethren, is mounting and trouble. And it's getting worse day by day. And I can tell you, brethren, that there are evil men that are plotting and planning right now on this planet, this world that we're living in, big things. And they're talking about real things that are coming. Things are going to impact every one of you here. Because these people are serious and they have power. They have the ability to bring the past, the things that they want to bring the past. And what they want to do is they want to see the reduction of world populations down to around 500 million or so. And these things are real. These are intellectuals. These are people that are in power and responsibilities. And not only are they planning these kinds of things, but they're planning many other things. And again, not that we need to necessarily get into conspiracy theories and things like that, but I think these things are real that are being planned, at least if they have their way.

And of course, what we're seeing is Satan is beginning to stir up problems more and more in the world. We're seeing Satan is angry because he knows he has a short time left. And we're going to see more things like Connecticut take place, where 20 youngsters were shot by a deranged young man, a 20-year-old man, a young man who apparently influenced by a demon, went out and shot 20 kids. And of course, more than that when you include the adults. But we're going to see more and more of this. Things like happening in Connecticut. Things like they're occurring in Colorado, you know, before that. And other things that are going to begin to occur that are going to blow your mind. And you won't believe it when it begins to happen, when it begins to occur. Let's go to Matthew chapter 24, because Jesus Christ warned us of these things that were going to come. And listen, brethren, you're different than every Tom, Dick, or Harry that is walking the streets out here. Unless you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you're going to be like everybody else. You're going to be biding your time, and the happenstance is going to happen to you. You're going to be, you know, at the New York Twin Towers in that type of situation. You're going to be in a situation where your life is going to be cut short. Unless you have, again, a relationship with Jesus Christ. Matthew 24 and verse 8, here Jesus Christ said, He said, All these things are the beginning of sorrows. Here He talked about wars and rumors of wars. There's all these things that are beginning to happen and became to occur. And it says, And then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. It's going to happen, brethren. It's going to occur. And our people are going to be martyred. Some people are going to be martyred, not everybody, obviously. We ought to be praying every day that we be accounted worthy to escape these things. You know, it's Luke 21, 36 tells us, and to stand before Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. And it says, And then many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because walllessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. People will grow colder, more resistant than they are right now to even the ways of God. But notice in verse 13, amidst all this problem, he says, But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

In other words, what you have begun, brethren, in obeying God, unless we endure to the end, we cannot be saved. That means that you've got to go all the way, brethren, you've got to go the gamut. Let's go to 1 Peter 4 again to sort of set the stage for what we're going to talk about in the remainder of this sermon. But, you know, the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4 here in verse 17, notice it says, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. We are being judged right now, brethren. God is holding us accountable. And it says that if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? You know, what if you're like every other Tom, Dick, or Harry that, again, is walking on the streets of the United States or around the world for that matter? What's going to happen to those people? Well, you heard that in the first message, didn't you? Talking about the second resurrection. But the world is oblivious to the truth, doesn't know the truth. But notice in verse 18, because Peter adds this, it says, Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? You know, if you and I, brethren, get by, you might say, by the skin of our teeth. If we slide through and we're righteous, we're holy. That's what that word righteous means, by the way, it means righteous. It means holy. It means also innocent. Are we innocent, brethren, in this world where there's a lack of innocent, where it's hard for people to blush anymore? You hear people tell dirty jokes or whatever. Nobody blushes anymore at it. You see it on TV, don't you?

You know, we see homosexuality popularize, and I'm sure if somebody heard what I just said, they might accuse me of hate crime because of that. But if the righteous, if the holy, if the innocent are scarcely saved, and that word for scarcely in the Greek is moles, by the way, in other words, with difficulty, with difficulty, the righteous are saved, or it also means hardly, hardly, like I say, by the skin of your teeth. It also says you might say in a more urbane manner, with much work, with a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of work for you and me to escape what's going to come. How are we going to make it? How will we make it, brethren? What does it take? What really does it take to endure to the end? Salvation, brethren, belongs to those who endure all the way to the end. You want the prize? You want to receive eternal life? You want to live? You've got to endure to the end. Like a race, a marathon, really, we continue running until the race is over.

Larry Hale, senior, was a winner. He is a winner. Mr. Hale was a faithful servant of God to the end of his life. He did what I hoped to do, except I would like to be alive when Christ returns. I think all of us would like to be there. I'm sure he would have wanted to be if, obviously, his health was in a better state, but I'm sure he would not be against where he is now in terms of his life, because he's resting, he's waiting in the grave until his given time. But he was a faithful servant of God to the end of his life. I spoke to him as a friend and as a minister. Sometimes you talk to people and you speak to them in two ways if you're a minister. As an elder, in other words, they're seeking advice, and as a friend. I will say he was indeed committed to the truth to the very, very end. I'm reminded, when I think about Mr. Hale, of the scripture that says, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. So blessed are those who die in the Lord. Blessed are those who live out their lives and die with dignity and are waiting until their works follow them in the resurrection.

But what does it take, brethren, to be a winner, to endure to the end and receive the prize of eternal life? What does it take? What does it take? Well, I want to give you the keys, brethren, of what it takes. If you want to be a winner, you don't want to be a winner, don't listen to what I'm going to say. If you want to come up empty when you get to the end of your life, don't even pay attention to what I'm going to say. But I'm sure all of us want to be winners.

Number one thing, if you want to be a champion, brethren, I mean you want to be a winner, is we must have faith and trust in the head of God's church.

We have to have faith and we have to trust in the head of God's church.

Now, who is the head of the United Church of God? Is it our Council of Elders?

Is it the Chairman of the Council? How about Mr. Luker? Is he the head of the church?

Okay. No, neither of those are the head of the church.

And let me say that myself included, of course, I don't think you have any, I have any fears you think that I'm the head of the church, but all of those men, including myself, are pawns in the hands of the head of the church, who is Jesus Christ.

And they could do nothing. We could do nothing except it be by Christ's authority. If he did not want it to be done, it could not be done. It would not be done. If God wanted to take me out here in the Oakland area, he could do it. He had a very good opportunity, didn't he? And you know what I'm talking about. He could have done it. And, you know, I could have gone to sleep back in February and never wake up. It could have been what it was. So I suspect that God is not done with me here as yet. You know, I think I got a little more shelf life. Let's go to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1.

Please don't rumor it abroad, by the way, that Jim Tuck said he would always be in Oakland.

Because I don't know where I'm going to be. God alone knows that. But Colossians 1, in verse 18. But here, notice it says, you know, in verse 17, speaking of, He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Everything consists in Jesus Christ. In verse 18, And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Christ comes first.

Christ comes ahead of all things, brethren, and we have to have faith and trust in Him, that He will direct, that He will guide not only His church, brethren, but us individually. That God will guide us through Jesus Christ, and He will. He really will. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4, in verse 11. Notice what Jesus Christ did as the head of the church. In verse 11, And He Himself gave some to the apostles. And we have the early apostles. We have evangelists. We've had, of course, Mr. Armstrong, who was an apostle. He had that role. And, by the way, he resisted that particular title. I remember probably up until about 1972, 1972, after the church had basically gone around the globe with the gospel. And, you know, I think then we had, what, three ambassador campuses. We had eight million plain true subscribers. We had, I think we had a million good news subscribers back then. Remember that little magazine called Tomorrow's World as well? We had Tomorrow's World magazine.

And there was, of course, the Ambassador Foundation. And just the end, the list is endless. And from a standpoint of accomplishment, he was indeed somebody who was once at fourth. And it's quite obvious what he had done by that particular time. But he rebuked Dr. Haye back in the 50s, by the way, when Dr. Haye referred to him as an apostle. Back in 58, I think it was, 1958. Dr. Haye was the first one to ever step and called Mr. Armstrong an apostle. I don't know why I'm taking the time to explain this, but anyway, some of the history you may not be aware of. And I think Mr. Armstrong recognized it only after, again, much time had passed. So there had been apostles, but bewoe to someone claiming to be an apostle without some sort of track record, you know, of raising something up, of doing something. Some prophets, we don't have any prophets, so far as I know, in the church today. A lot of them are claiming to be prophets. By the way, a lot of people claim to be prophets. In fact, we got witnesses coming out of our ears. We got more than two witnesses. In fact, we got a church full of witnesses. We probably got two, three hundred witnesses out there. But you probably heard of about the three witnesses that went to a Pasadena one time claiming to be the two witnesses.

No, I'm just kidding about that. Just kidding, brother. We got to laugh about something. But in verse 4, it says, For the equipping of the saints, so there are prophets, some evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for preparing the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying the body of Jesus Christ. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and we haven't arrived yet, brethren, to a perfect man or a mature man, a complete man.

And I would assume that most of us have to be complete, mature, before this is fulfilled. And that hasn't happened yet. But I think through time, we're having a more mature church, don't you think? I think we have.

But it says that we are not to be like children, tossed to and fro, carried by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of man and the cunning, craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But notice, but speaking, the truth and love may grow up into all things in the hymn, Who is the Head? Christ. So we grow up to the Head, who is Jesus Christ. So the first thing, if you want to be a winner, brethren, is you have to have faith and trust in the Head of the church, holding fast, brethren. Because, remember, God sets us all in the body as it pleases Him. And also, let me add, Christ said, and Paul tells us this in Hebrews 13, verse 5, Christ says, I will never leave you or forsake you. Never leave you or forsake you.

And remember, when Jesus Christ was giving the commission to His disciples, He said, I want you to go to all nations. I want you to go baptizing in every nation and teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And He said, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So Christ is always with us, brethren. And He always has the preeminent. And He's always the head of the church. Do you believe that? To be a winner, you've got to believe that.

Next, brethren, if you want to be a winner, if you want to run the race and cross the finish line and receive salvation, you've got to keep the vision and the commitment that you made when you were baptized. Let's go to Proverbs 29. It expresses it differently in New King James, what says in Proverbs 29 over here. In verse 18, it's essentially the same, but frankly, I like the King James better over the New King James. But it says in verse 18, where there's no revelation. The people cast off restraint, but happy is He who keeps the law.

In the King James, remember, it was where there is no vision, the people perish.

So, brethren, if we expect to be a winner and cross that finish line, we have to keep the vision, or else we're going to perish. It is certainly true if people do not have a vision of what the kingdom of God is going to be like and of pushing towards the kingdom of God in their lives, brethren, they cast off restraint. They began to go back in the world, filter back into the world, to give up on the laws of God. But remember with Abraham, when God called him and began to work with him, He said, I want you to leave your father and mother. And so He had to leave His father and His mother, and He had to journey into a far land. He had to go to the land of Canaan.

Remember what God told him? He must have told them things that we don't see that are revealed later. We don't see them in the Old Testament, but God revealed many things probably to Abraham that are not written down. But Paul says in Hebrews 11 that Abraham looked for the city.

He looked for the city whose builder and maker was God. Now remember, God for us is preparing New Jerusalem. And that's what Abraham was looking clear past, the first resurrection, up to the time of New Jerusalem descending out of heaven after a thousand years.

And like a Jewish father, by tradition, prepared a place for his own son and his new bride, God is preparing a place for us in New Jerusalem and in the kingdom to come. In fact, we will have a place where I'm talking about New Jerusalem, the city whose builder and maker is God.

When God says, in my father's house are many mansions, he really means it. I think that means rooms as well. But I think it means mansions. I think when you look at the New Jerusalem, what God gives us is going to be probably more like a mansion than a room. We're not going to be given just a room there. But we'll be given a house of some sort. So keeping the vision, brethren, means being willing to push forward in spite of what you see, to keep the vision. Remember when you were first called, brethren, and God began to open your mind? It's like for me, it was like I could see a jigsaw puzzle in my mind. And by the time I contacted the church, I had the outside sort of filled in. But there was a part of it in the middle I couldn't work out. You know, it's like you see a jigsaw puzzle in the picture, say it's a picture of a bridge or something. And you see a little bit more of the bridge, the more pieces you put to it. But you can't tell it's a bridge until you get more of the pieces in. But when I began to attend church and I began to listen to what was being said and study more, that picture got filled in in graphic detail. And that's the vision I want to keep until the day I die. I don't want to lose that, the vision of the kingdom of God that is coming. So if you want to be a winner, brethren, you have to do that. You have to have that vision and you have to keep that commitment. And brethren, in order to keep the commitment, you've got to be willing to forgive people, no matter what they may have done to you. You've got to be willing to forgive and move on.

And, you know, we were talking about this, in fact, a couple of Sabbaths ago in Hebrews 12-14, where we're told to follow a peace with all men and holiness. And it says, without which no man will see God. Unless we can dwell in peace with people, why in the world would God want to even be in the kingdom of God? You know, God doesn't need people are going to go to war with each other. Again, that's what he's coming to resolve, to be with people that are going to make peace. And certainly his own children, especially. So if we keep the vision and the commitment, we've got to be willing to forgive, and we need to move on. And if we're not willing to forgive, that will be our undoing.

And I've seen people that have crashed and burned, brethren, because they just couldn't forgive somebody else. Some people have said, well, if that person's going to be in the kingdom of God, I don't want to be there. Well, you know, if you have that wish, you can probably certainly get it.

You know, that person may not be there, nor may we be there if we have that attitude. So it's not ours to decide who is in the kingdom. Anyway, another point, point three, if you're writing the number down. We all need this, brethren. Seek God's strength in your trials.

Seek his strength in your trials. In trials, none of us enjoy them. None of us want to go through trials. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. You know, none of us like to go through difficulties in our lives. Sometimes, though, that's what it takes to shake us up out of our lethargy. Sometimes God will let somebody go through a trial in their life to actually call them.

You know, how people kind of drag their feet about making a decision about going God's way. They can be out there, wait out there for two, three, five, fifty years. Some people, I've known people, have been out, known about the truth for 25, 30 years. Never darken the door of the church. Never move forward. Well, God lets some people go through trials like that to shake them loose, shake them up. I could tell you some trials that shook me up that caused me to begin to make some decisions in my life. But just suffice to say, I like to put it this way. I realize, Liza, if I didn't do something about my calling and the things that I was learning, that God was going to kill me. And I mean that comically, in one sense, but not comically from that side. When I was over on the other side, before I was being called, I thought God was going to kill me if I didn't start responding to what He was telling me. I may have told you the things that happened, so I won't take the time to go through it. But notice in verse 3 of Romans 5, it says, and not only that, that we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. You want to be tough. You've got to go through tough times, tough situations. You want to build character. And remember, character is the only thing that we're going to be taken out of this physical life that we have. And of course, that's a spiritual thing. Character is. But tribulation, trials, produce holy righteous character. It teaches you to persevere. It teaches you when you're running that race, you're running that marathon of your calling, you don't give up just because you stub your toe along the way. You keep going. You keep pushing. You don't let anything get in the way. And verse 4, in perseverance, character, and character, hope. You learn hope, too. You can go through some of the most horrendous trials, brethren. And you wonder, what on earth, God, did I do to deserve this? You know, why me? Why did I go through this?

You know, I could make that argument, and I did. I have. God, what? What did I do?

Why am I in this hospital bed? And by the way, I was in the hospital bed so long, I'll tell you what. I was trying to escape, you know, trying to get out. And every time I would, they'd tackle me. You couldn't get out. But, you know, we become stronger by trials. That's what I learned. I had to learn, and I had to grow in strength. I was weak. Weaker than I needed to be. I don't know what God has ahead for me, but I guess I need the strength to pass whatever it's going to be we're heading into. And maybe there's a perfect storm that's coming. Brother, we can't see right now.

Trials, brethren, make us. They don't break us. They make us. God sends things our way to make us, to make our character, to help us to build, to grow. And we become stronger, and we learn through trials, especially when we see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope. You get hope. You develop a hope. You know, hope is so important, brethren, in your life. Hope gives you a meaningful existence.

You have a reason to get up in the morning and to think about what the future is going to be before you go to bed at night. Hope is so important. And we have the hope of the kingdom of God, hope of the resurrection. We have a hope, brethren, of the world of our own and what it's going to be like then. I spoke to a colonel one time in the military. He had been in the military for a long time, and he had been in Vietnam as an officer, and I know he had seen many horrendous things. He would not go into graphic detail, but just suffice it to say that he was in battles where the dead piled up, and he had to continue to charge forward over the dead. I just put it that way. He did say it more graphically than that, but I'll clean it up a little bit. But he said, you know, he and I used to go visiting together, and we would talk about all kinds of things. But anyway, he said, you know, in the Vietnam time, we had POWs, men who were in the POW camps. He said some of them made it and some did not.

He said some, as soon as they got to the POW camp, you know, these Vietnamese POW camps, and they were Spartan, obviously. And he says what they would do is just sit in the corner or curl up in the corner, and they'd simply die.

But on the other hand, he said that other people, it's like they had a sense of about them, a sense of purpose in their lives, a meaning in their lives that allowed them to, even in those treacherous times of their lives, to move forward and to go forward. And he said they did not know what to call the disease that these people had, that would just simply sit in the corner and die. I don't know if any of you ever saw the, there was a movie many years ago about Hanoi Hilton. How many of you have seen that one? called the Hanoi Hilton? I saw that many. Actually, I think it's sort of a rendition of what John McCain went through when, when, remember he was a POW.

And I'm not recommending the movie, by the way. I, the reason I won't recommend it, because I don't remember what might be bad in it. So please accept that disclaimer. But, but this colonel told me that when people would, would curl up and die in the corner, they, all they could name it was give up-itis. Give up-itis. Well, Brethren, do we have give up-itis? Those he said that, that could have meaning in their lives, you might say, that had hope are the ones that survived, no matter what they went through. How many of you have ever studied about a man called Victor Frankel? Okay, raise your hand so I know who I'm talking to. Okay, just a few here.

I encourage you to go look up Victor Frankel, interesting fellow. He, he developed in psychology what is called local therapy, or what is also referred to as existential analysis. You know, it was, you know, something he developed. You know how he developed it? How it came about? Was he was, in fact, thrown into a concentration camp during World War II?

And, you know, he saw the Jews, of which he, of course, was there too. And he saw exactly, precisely the same thing that happened, you know, in the POW camps of Vietnam War. He saw some people that, that just simply would die, curl up and die, so to speak. And he saw people, some people, that were resilient. And, and the way he put it, and if you go and read about existential analysis, local therapy, you'll find, is that these people solve meaning in life.

When people lose hope, they don't see any meaning in life anymore, any purpose in life. And I'll tell you what, in the world today, when we have another trial, another crisis, there's going to be a whole lot more people this time around who are going to curl up and die when things begin to really happen in the world. They're going to sit in the corner and die because they do not have the hope of the future. Because the values it used to be taught that people had when they were in the period of World War II, and prior to that, brethren, are no longer taught in America. Those values are gone. Imagine what it is going to be like, brethren, when our peoples are subjected to concentration camps in the future. You're going to have people dying like flies.

No wonder the scriptures talk about a third by famine and disease, a third by war, and other things. So many are going to die. You know, in fact, the Bible indicates that only a tenth of Israel will survive. One tenth. And it is going to be very few. Who will make it? Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. I'm going to have to move along here, but 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6. Because, you know, the most important thing, brethren, in our lives is not how many houses you own. It's not how many races you run. And you get a medal for, like Usain Bolt. But, brethren, it is the character that you build in this life, the spiritual character that you build. But here, brethren, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6. Let's notice. It says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Yes, we go through the trials of this life, brethren. We grieve, in fact, through the trials of difficulties that occur to us. And why do we go through these trials that the genuis of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise? You know, God wants to, when we go through a trial, to perfect something in us. And that trial is to test whether or not we truly, truly believe, brethren. And that's more precious than gold, more valuable than platinum, or any precious metal, or diamonds, or whatever someone might consider to be very valuable. And it says those things perish, but of course character cannot. And you can kill someone whose greatest accomplishment is running a race. And you know, you can extinguish them. In fact, they will be extinguished by words and treatment. But those that truly have that gold, that character, are going to last. They're going to last. And in fact, you could take their physical life away. And they're still going to last. They're still going to be around. Larry Hale developed character in his life.

And he had a bag of gold when he died. A big bag of gold. But it wasn't, you know, the gold that men covet. The gold, of course, was the character that he had. So, brethren, let's seek God's strength in our trials. That's what enables us to win the race.

And if we have, brethren, the Holy Spirit, you know, what Christ said when he left, that he wanted God to send them another comforter. In the Greek, the word comforter is paracletus, remember. Paracletus, I should say. And the word, you know, of comforter, by the way, is a Latin word. The word comforter is actually a Latin word. It originates from Latin. You divide the word comfort into two roots. Com, of course, and fort. And the word fort is, it comes from the Latin word fortis. You know what that word fortis means in the Latin?

And why the word comforter was used? It's because the word fortis in the Latin means brave. It means courage. It means powerful and strength. That is what that other comforter was that God was sending, because the Holy Spirit, brethren, strengthens us. And David, brethren, said that the Lord is the strength of my life. And David also said that God gives strength through his people. God gives strength through his saints. So, brethren, let's seek God's strength in our trials. Number four, if you want to win the race and win the prize, is persevere in tough times. I used to have a math teacher, and he's still teaching, I believe, in Roland, Oklahoma, that cultural capital of the world located in northeastern Oklahoma. He still teaches there, but I think it was a sophomore, so I had math class with him. And he used to say all the time, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I had to reword that a little bit, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Vince Lombardi, who was the late coach of the Green Bay Packers, often said to his players, winners never quit, and quitters never win. How true, how true. Winners never quit. And what did Winston Churchill say to the British people in World War II?

He said, never, never, never, never, never, never give in. Never give in. And remember, he says, we will fight them in the trenches.

I can't do his voice, but we'll fight them in the trenches. We'll, you know, whatever. He was willing to... Sorry, I got out of voice. But if you want to run the race, persevere in tough times. It says in the Proverbs, it says in Proverbs 2410, if you think in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

If you give up, your strength is small.

And in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, you could just write this one down.

You know, basically it says that there's no trial that you're going to run across in your life, even though I know a lot of times we think that somehow when things happen to us, we're the only ones that ever happened to. But Paul said there's no trial that is uncommon to man that has taken you and me. In other words, everybody has the same trials in that God will make a way of escape.

In other words, God will make a way out. So, brethren, if we ever cave in a situation, it's because we're weak. It's not because the trial was too much for us, it's because we're weak.

You know, so God doesn't give us a trial that's too heavy for us to carry.

So, you know, if we somehow fail at something, let's not go to God and say, well, God, you gave me a trial that was just too big for me, too difficult for me, but rather go to God and say, God, I made a mistake on this one. Forgive me. Please give me your strength that I don't foul up the next time.

And, you know, I'm not going to go to Hebrews 4 in verse 15 through 16, but it talks about how you can go before the throne of God and get help in a time of need. You know, so God could give you strength. You need strength, brethren, in the time of need. So before you ever, brethren, if you're in a trial or you're in a difficulty, something that just is too much for you, you think that you can't handle it, you better take five and you better go somewhere and pray and say, God, I am tempted to give up, but I'm not going to. I'm going to fight this and do the right thing, and then you will succeed. Give me the strength to fight this. Number five, number five, we're going to hurry here. Number five, be growth-oriented. One of the things I'm sure that Mr. Hale was about, I know Mr. Bossart was about this, Mrs. Martin was about this, some of the patriarchs here of the Oakland congregation. People have gone on.

Those who remain faithful through it all is be growth-oriented, all of your calling. Always be growing. Always be increasing. Always have your Bible out in front of you, reading the Scriptures yourself. Don't depend on what I am saying. I can misread things. You know, here in the Oakland church, though I safely say I've never made a mistake.

No, that's a mistake if I ever made one by saying that. Of course, it's okay to joke about things like that. But I have made many mistakes. I've misread things. I get dates wrong.

If you listen to me sometimes, you'd be here at two in the morning.

I think I've said 2 a.m. for services. So if you listen to what I say, hopefully I'm not wrong about the major stuff, but maybe some things, the minutia, I might be wrong about. But hopefully the things that really count, they're really important. They're right on for you. But be growth oriented. If you're attached to the true vine, John 15, remember? If you're attached to the true vine, what does God do to us as a part of the vine? Anybody? What's the word that comes to mind? He prunes us. You know what that means, don't you? It doesn't mean he feeds us prunes. But I guess if he needed to, he could do that.

No, it means he snips on us a little bit. If there's any rough edges, he will snip them off. He will do whatever it takes. And what is the purpose for pruning? That we bear what? Fruit. No, not just fruit. Much fruit, right? That we bear much fruit. God wants not just a little basket. He wants a bumper crop out of us. And you know, if he can do it with every one of us, imagine the fruit he's going to have. And that increases every year until and on into eternity.

And you know, the Holy Spirit we're told in John 16 verse 13 leads us to all truth.

And we are commanded in the Bible to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the truth. Every year we should be learning more and more. And you know, the most important thing to learn more and more every year is not prophecy, is not maybe specifics. You don't have to be a Greek scholar, you know, to understand doctrine. The most important thing for you and me to grow in every single day and month and year is understanding ourselves and how to overcome our rotten character. Don't major, brethren, in the minors. Major in the majors. And the major thing, brethren, is for you and me to change. We're told to watch, Jesus Christ said, watch world events. And people do that fairly well. They watch world events. But another thing that Jesus Christ said, watch yourself. Watch yourself. But be growth-oriented, brethren, overcome and grow. The Bible says, prove all things and hold that fast, which is good.

And, brethren, the sixth thing is be humble. Be humble. God simply does not like people who are presumptuous. He doesn't like that attitude, I should say. I should say it another way. God simply does not like presumptuousness.

God doesn't dislike any human being in the sense of the person themselves. He dislikes their sin, hates their sin. King David prayed that God would keep him back from presumptuous sins. So again, we have to keep from presumption. Remember what God did with Israel of old? Why did he take them through the wilderness? Why did he sort of beat them off? I mean, they went through, they went without water, they fought the dust. Imagine the grime.

Imagine how it would be to camp out for 40 years.

You know, for me, a bad holiday end is like camping out.

But imagine 40 years of camping out. But why did he take them through that? Does anybody know what one word, what was the reason why he took them through it? What's that? That's a good point, to keep them from complaining. And they kept complaining. You know, the more they complained, the more they wandered in the wilderness. So complaining does not work. What you need to do, if you're going to complain, you should never say that. You should say, I would like to explain.

But what is, what was the reason God took them in the wilderness? I'm listening for one word. To humble them. And also, you can read this later yourself. It's in Deuteronomy 8 and verses 2 and 3.

And to see whether or not they would obey God's law or not. And why does God take us through trials, brethren? To develop character.

To develop character, correct? Well, he wants us to develop character, but he wants us to become humble. And he wants us to prove whether or not we will obey God or not. Or are we going to cave when we face opposition? You know, it says in a couple of verses, and you can just write these down, James 4 verse 10. And in 1 Peter 5 verse 6, it says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

1 Peter 5, 6 says, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. It looks like that little game where you have these heads that poke up. You ever seen that mallet game where you...

Well, if we're proud, like those little... what are they? Are the animals, the heads that you hit down with a mallet?

What's that? If we get our head up too high, God says, and knocks it back down. So, he didn't want us to get boastful and proud. So, be humble and submit to God's will.

And number seven is the final point, is ask for patience in all things.

When we endure, brethren, we must bear with patience to receive the prize. Jesus Christ himself said this, brethren, by your patience, he told his disciples, possess your souls. You want to make it? You're going to have to be patient. You're going to have to wait.

And this generation of people don't like to wait, do they? On anything. You've got to have everything instant. You know, you have instant coffee, instant chocolate milk.

There was a fellow that came in from another country, and he was walking through the supermarket, because in his country it came from, they didn't have a lot of instant stuff.

And he says, you silly Americans. He says, everything you have is instant.

Not only do you have instant coffee, you have instant chocolate, you have instant orange juice with tang, you even have instant babies. You call it baby powder.

But by your patience, possess your souls.

Well, let's go to 2 Thessalonians 3.

2 Thessalonians 3.

You crazy Americans.

We're all crazy, aren't we?

You've got to be a little crazy in this world to live in it.

Now, if I can find the chapters here. This book is not as trained as the one I had as an ambassador.

The problem is with the one I had as an ambassador was old Cambridge.

I would open the Bible and the pages would blow out, so it didn't work very well. 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 1 and 2. It says, finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified as it is with you.

We need to do the same thing today. That the gospel will go out. We're going out, brethren, with greater and greater power. We're hearing from parts of the world now through the gospel that we've never heard from before.

So we're making headways.

The Kingdom of God seminars are very successful that we're doing. I think we have around 100 new people that are attending throughout the world.

Most of them probably in the US from the Kingdom of God seminars alone.

So God, I know, is beginning to call people. Let's hope God will call more. We need to pray that God will call more. And that we may be delivered, Paul said, from unrealistic or unreasonable and wicked men. So there wicked men even back in Paul's day. For not all have faith. But that the Lord is faithful and who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you. Concerning you. Both that you do and will do the things we command. And it says now, may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

You know, the patience of Christ. That, in other words, brethren, we patiently wait for Christ to return to the very end.

We patiently wait for Christ to come to the very end. And, you know, I'm not going to go to Hebrews 3 verse 14. It says there, For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

We hold it until the very end.

Let's go to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 is a final scripture. So if you want to turn to the very last scripture that I turn to, turn to Isaiah 40, it talks about over here where young men are going to be feigning and becoming weary, and how young men will utterly fall. So young men, listen up.

Listen up to what he's about to say. But those who wait on the Lord, those that are patient with God, shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings like eagles. And they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

You know, I hope, brethren, we're going to be like that in our lives, the way that some of our patriarchs have been, who have been a part of the church, who have passed on, who have died, and are waiting in their graves, that they, we know, look to God. They waited, they had patience to God until the very end of their lives.

Brethren, it's important for us to be winners.

Not winners in the world, but winners of the sort that Jesus Christ was a winner. It's important for us not just to be in the church, occupying a space within the church, but we must endure to the end, to the very end, brethren. And our salvation depends entirely on this. So what we've covered today, brethren, will allow us all to do that.

So let's all be winners, because to those that endure the end, the same are going to be saved in half salvation.

Thank you for that message, Mr. Tuck. Let's close today with number 10. Please turn there and rise.

And after this hymn, Mr. Luis D'Andrade will lead us in the closing prayer.

Who shall dwell on thy holy hill? Number 10.

Who shall dwell in the temple of thy grace? Who shall all thy holy hill have a fixed abiding place? He who walks in righteousness, all his actions just and clear. He who has worked the truth expressed, spoken from a heart sincere.

He who never is slandering, the good is not as red as he.

Who will bear his favor from the rest and rest still be he? He who will claim no use or read or with breath spool to his hand. He who thou shalt frame his life shall not forever stand.

Please remain standing. Mr. Luis D'Andrade.

Almighty Creator God in Heaven, our Father, we thank you so very much. First of all, that you have revealed to us your love, your foresight, your foreplanning, and the incredible future that you have destined us for. Obviously, you make no mistakes. And so here we have characteristics of people that in following you must be exhibited, must be cultivated, so that we can in fact win in this great race of life and in the end inherit eternal life. So we thank you, Father, for your instruction, for your guidance. Help us to truly take it seriously and cultivate these character qualities which are essential, so that in the end we may in fact not only please you, but be full members of your family. We thank you and ask you for this, in Jesus' name. Amen.