[Mr. Gary Petty] So, predestination. It is incredibly complex of a concept. And yet it's very, very important because we have in the United Church of God—in most of the Churches of God—we have a rather unique viewpoint of this. Many of our doctrines—whether it's the Sabbath—you can find other churches that keep the Sabbath, or even some other churches that keep the Holy Days, or so many of the beliefs that we have; our viewpoint on predestination is very similar to the Methodists and some other Protestant groups. But then we have something we add to it that's different and it's unique. I have only found some Sabbath-keeping groups back in the 1800s that have the similarities to this. So, we have a unique sort of viewpoint of this that I want you to understand it because it is a complex problem.

Predestination. The most common belief about predestination in Catholicism, Lutheranism, all the Calvinistic churches, the reformed churches, the Puritans… There's a belief about predestination that is the majority actually of Christians that there's another view that evangelicals have and the old Methodists have. But the view that is the most common actually goes clear back to Augustine who lived in the 400s. It is surprising how many doctrines today that's the Catholic Church and in mainline Protestant churches, their doctrines go back to him. I was going to bring... I don't have all his writings at home, I was going to bring the 12 volumes I do have, and they're all the size of an encyclopedia. Okay? No, I have not read all of Augustine. I've read enough to call him Augustin, which is his name in Latin. So, I feel like I can personally call him Augustin. But outside of that, I have not read all 12 volumes. And neither should you, by the way. But if you want to understand certain teachings, Augustine, he developed the concept. He looked at the Bible and he said, "God had a relationship with Israel, now He has a relationship with the church." He went through the places in the scripture where the word “predestination” is used and he formulated some concepts.

One was when Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden. From that point on, every human being at conception is evil and condemned to hell. Everybody's predestined to hell, except God comes along and He pulls a few people out of hell, you know, their predestination to hell, and He gives them eternal life to show God's grace. So, that viewpoint there, although it's been modified by the Catholic Church and modified by others, that's the basis. The basis of predestination is an idea that God has already predestined people to heaven or hell. That's where God is working from, and we're all on one path or the other. Evangelicals say, "Yes, we're all on one path or the other, but God can pull us off the one path and put on the other." So, they look at it, "No, we can still respond. People who are going to hell can still come back.” And, you know, that's why you got to get out and predestined land, this is why you got to get out with missionaries. You can bring people back into line and get them off that path, but there's these two paths. And everybody's making their decision in this lifetime. Everybody makes their decision in this lifetime, and everybody ends up in one place or another.

Do human beings really have free will then? And there's a... They struggle with that. Some true Augustinians say, "No. You really don't have free will." God wakens you up, and your free will says, "Oh, I like God.” From that moment on, you're saved.  And, you know, we're going to talk about free will because there is some elements about free will we have to understand. And we're going to understand salvation, which predestination has to do with salvation. Why did God allow human beings to be exposed to evil? And that was another thing that really just confused people and why it would help develop the common doctrine of predestination. And then one of the big issues in predestination is, can a person resist God's grace? And the answer for those from the Augustinian or Calvin—John Calvin believed the same thing, which he was a Protestant reformer—that no, you can't resist God's grace. This is where we get the concept you hear, "Once saved, always saved." Okay? This all goes back to this: everybody's on a road to either heaven or hell at birth. God… In the pure Augustinian “Eh, you're already determined. You're going one way or the other.” The more evangelical is “Nope, you can get people off the path to hell and bring them over, and it’ll change their destination here.” But the general agreement is once you come into this path, you can't get off of it. Once you're saved, you're saved. That's it. And, you know, you're going to be in heaven.

So, we're going to look at predestination. It's complex. So, I'm going to try and—and there's no way to cover this subject—but try to give you a concept of it by going through, first of all, some very simple things everybody knows. Okay? We're going to start with what we know. In fact, some of the things I'm going go through here at the beginning we've actually covered in the last six months in a number of sermons. So, it's even some things we've talked about. Okay? So, let's start in Isaiah 46 because there is predestination mentioned in the Bible. And we have to figure out, what does that mean? What is God telling us? Isaiah 46:8. God is talking here, and He inspires Isaiah to write:

Isaiah 46:8-10 "Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’"

 Now, some have taken this to the farthest extent that God determines everything. Well, God doesn't determine everything. I mean, does God...like in the sermon I gave a few weeks ago, you know, God even told Hosea at one point, "You tell the Israelites I'm not picking their kings, I'm not picking their princes. They pick their own kings. I wouldn't pick these people." There was a point where God just said, "I'm through picking your kings. You pick your own kings." And, of course, at that time in Israel, it was an absolute mess, and they were in rebellion against God.

So, we do know what God says is He has a plan and He works through history to carry out that plan. Now, if He determines everything, then we have no free will, because we have to define free will here in a minute too. If we really have choices to make, and that's what free will is (the ability to make choices) then God can't make all the decisions for us, or we really don't have choices. So, He makes the choices He needs to make to determine His plan to be carried out. Much of the rest of it is us and what we're doing. We're the source of so many of our problems.

But we also have to go back to Adam and Eve. And I talked about this in a sermon recently, but if we go back to Adam and Eve, and we know the story. Adam and Eve only knew good. Right? They only knew good. Satan came into the picture. The problem is God let him. I mean, you can only come to a couple of conclusions here. He either snuck in and God was like, "Oh, no. I didn't see him," or God let him come into Eden, which means that He was deliberately allowing, He wasn't causing, allowing Satan to present evil to Adam and Eve. He was allowing them to do that. And, of course, we know what happened. Satan came in, deceived Eve, Eve convinced her husband, and they both sinned. And their experience changed. What they were now was a mixture of good and evil. Excuse me. All they'd ever known was good. All they had was good. Now they were a mixture of good and evil.

One thing about predestination (the Augustinian concept of predestination) is all people are so evil, absolutely corrupted, that at conception, they are condemned to hell, and God doesn't care. That's what they deserve. It's only through the mercy of God that a few are saved. That happens right at conception. You're already condemned because He looked at your nature and said, "It's totally, completely corrupted." Now, we know it's corrupt, but we also know when we look at humanity, it's still capable of good. Now, being capable of choosing good sometimes doesn't equal salvation. We're going to have to go through that. But human beings become a mixture of good and evil. They're a mixture of good and evil. So, they're capable of good, but they're also capable of evil, and everybody does both. That's what happened. So, Adam and Eve now are kicked out of Eden, and they have to learn to start making choices. The only conclusion we can really come to is that God allowed Satan to come into the garden to influence Adam and Eve, to present them with a choice because it was His plan to do so. In other words, this is, “Okay, I'm stepping back. You get to now find out what evil is.” which means that it is God's plan for every human being to have to choose between good and evil. Now, you and I have a problem that Adam and Eve didn't have, but it didn't seem to help them. You and I were born into a world of good and evil. They were created in a world with good. So, we're already at a disadvantage.

But there's another problem. And once again, I mentioned this at a sermon recently. And that is when the apostle Paul says that Satan is the god of this age, he's the god of this age, he literally means that. When Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden, Satan became the god of this age. He influences every human being, every human being, you and me, everybody has been influenced by Satan. He's the god of this age. So, what happened is—remember this—they get kicked out, they start having children. It doesn't take long, Cain kills Abel. It doesn't take long until murder takes place. You know, they start producing generations of people, and it becomes a mess. There's all kinds of rebellion against God and there's all kinds of sin. Why? Because every human being is capable of both. And who's the major force of influence in their lives? It's the god of this age. So, you look at that and you think, "We're doomed." Right? We're absolutely doomed because that's what every human being is, but remember God has a plan. And we're going to look at that plan, and we're going to look at how predestination fits into that. So here, a loving, caring God allows human beings to be exposed to evil in order to teach them how to choose. Now, that means you have to have a certain amount of free will. Free will is the ability to choose. Adam and Eve had free will. They could choose. They were shown these two things, and they chose the wrong one. So, human beings have the ability to choose, but human beings are, by nature now, influenced by Satan. We choose back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. One day we choose some good, the next day we choose some bad. Every day, we choose some good and some bad. That's what human beings do. And so, nothing really works.

Let's go to 1 Peter 1 because... No, I tell you what. Before we go there, let's go to someplace else because I want to talk about...I was talking about this idea that human beings are cut off from God. There's something even more profound happening here. Being cut off from God, and you'll see this all through the Bible, it say that human beings live in spiritual darkness. Spiritual darkness. How do you and I come out of darkness? This is what Jesus says in Matthew 13. This is the parable of the sower. We're not going to read the parable of the sower. He gives them an explanation of what it means. He gives them the parable. They're confused to what it means, and then He gives them an explanation. But I want you to really think about what Jesus says here.

Matthew 13:10 "And the disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to men in parables?'" Now, what's interesting is you know by what He says, "These people don't understand anything you're saying." They didn't understand what He was saying either. "Why do you teach them in parables? We get it, they don't." "No, you don't," He said. So, He gives them an explanation. Why would you tell a parable? You know, sometimes I'll tell a parable in a sermon. Why? To help you understand the sermon better or tell a story to help you understand the sermon better. Right?

Well, that's why Jesus was talking parables, to help them understand. Well, let's look at what He says.

Matthew 13:11 "And He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not yet been given.'" To them, it has not been given. I want you to think about that. Jesus said, "I am telling you the truth, and I am deliberately hiding the truth from them." And who was He talking to, by the way? He was talking to Jews who followed the Old Testament, who kept the Sabbath and the Holy Days and didn't eat pork and all kinds of things that we would agree with, who worshipped the true God. And He says, "Now I'm telling those people, I'm telling them parables because I don't want them to know what I'm teaching."

Matthew 13:12-13 "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." And then He gives a prophecy from Isaiah that says the same thing, and then verse 16, here's what He says to His disciples.

Matthew 13:16-17 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." The earth, the world, all human beings live in spiritual darkness. And Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "They live in spiritual darkness because we”—He and God—"had put them in spiritual darkness."

This is real important to understand. Humanity, since they got kicked out of Eden has been ruled over by the god of this age and has lived in spiritual darkness. And God has not shone the light much throughout history. He has, He's shone it, but not much. Why would He do that? Why would He leave us in darkness and then, not even talk to people to let them know they live in darkness? Why is He doing what He's doing? Well, He has a plan to get humanity out of darkness, but remember, we have a premise here. God, in order to have human beings learn what they have to learn to meet their ultimate purpose—which is to the children of God—they have to be exposed to good and evil, and they have to learn to choose between the two. They have to learn to choose between the two. So, the world for thousands of years has lived in darkness and the world for thousands of years has had human beings that keep trying and trying and trying their mixture of good and evil, and nothing really works. 1 Peter. Now, let's go to 1 Peter 1.

So, are you with me so far? Because we're in the part here that we've covered a lot. And you all know, you've been around most of you a long time.

1 Peter 1:17-19 Peter says, "And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;" Your stay here means on earth. "knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." So, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is how God reconciles man back to Him to start to bring him out of the darkness. Notice what he says next.

1 Peter 1:20 "He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

So, he tells the Church, Peter does, that the reason you have hope and faith is because you know from the foundation of the world. In other words, the moment Satan whispered in Eve's ear and the thought entered her mind, the play was put in. It was just started.

From that moment forward, Christ was going to die. He was going to die in a certain time. There was going to have to be an Abraham, there was going to have to be an Israel so that the Messiah could be there. There was going to have to be a Judah. Now, all these things were going to have to happen and there was going to have to be certain things happen for a church to be about. There was going to have to be all kinds of things to happen throughout history so that you and I could be sitting right here on this Saturday afternoon. God put in play… We're going to have to do this here and this here and this here and this here so that we get what we want in this time of darkness. We're not accidents here. You know, either we have received something special, which sounds arrogant, or we truly are arrogant. Now, if we really receive something special, we shouldn't be arrogant, we should be absolutely humble and a little bit afraid. What does it mean to be a recipient of something special from God? This has to do with predestination. So, God put a plan in place. And still, the world has stayed in darkness, except for these little periods of light, little bits and pieces of light that appear all over the place. But basically, the earth is still in darkness. And God is holding back certain things, His intervention. He's actually holding back His intervention. You know, Paul writes in 1 Timothy that God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God desires every human being to be saved. And yet, we know from the Scripture they're not. That tells us something else too.

God could force everybody to be saved by grabbing hold of our mind and making us automotons. That wouldn't be that hard. I mean, God could do that. He doesn't do it. Instead, we are supposed to participate. We're supposed to have some say in whether we do this or not. I'm talking about free will again. But our free will's all messed up. Right? Every day, we just choose good and evil back and forth. Our free will's all messed up. And yet, that free will is supposed to set how we participate with God so that we can receive salvation. But God desires all people be saved, but all people aren't going to be saved. It's what He wants, but He's not going to force that to happen. So, God is going to carry out this plan without intervening with free will. He's not going to stop human free will. And yet, He's going to end up with His outcome. How does He do that? How does He end up with the outcome that He wants without interfering with our free will? Well, in some cases, some people will go to the lake of fire because they will not submit to what He's doing. But it appears that the great majority of human beings eventually will. How does He do that? This comes down to the concept of election. Okay? So, we know where we are, we see what God's doing. Throughout history, in order to carry out this plan, He elects people or groups of people. He chooses them.

Now, the word elect in Greek is not what we think of in English, you know, which is to actually vote on something. Although in Greek, I mean, if you belonged to Athenian democracy, you could elect somebody by voting for them. But it literally just means to choose. To choose. So, God chooses people, places, individuals, all through history to carry out what He's doing to accomplish what He wants to accomplish. So, this concept of election, which is mainly used as a term in the New Testament, you will see all through the Old Testament where God says, "I choose. I choose Abraham. I choose this person. I choose these people." He chose ancient Israel to fulfill part of history, what he wanted done to complete the plan. But there's something very, very important to understand about ancient Israel. We've made this point before. But if you're going to understand predestination, you have to understand this. Ancient Israel was elected by God to carry out His plan. But you think about this. Now, some of you are joining the Wednesday night Bible studies that we're doing on the minor prophets. And every minor prophet so far, except Jonah, every one we've done so far, there's a part in there where God tells ancient Israel, "I am going to punish you. And sometime in the future, I will bring the Messiah and I will save you." You find in Ezekiel, you find in Isaiah, you find in Jeremiah. "I will pour out My Spirit upon you. I will give you a new spirit." In other words, understand they are not promised salvation during the time of the Old Covenant.

Now, there were a handful. I mean, Abraham, Moses. You know, you find people who received salvation. We know it because they received the Holy Spirit. They received the Holy Spirit, so they received salvation. But the great majority of Israelites did not receive eternal salvation. He told them over and over and over again, "There will come a time when I will give this to you." This is the problem now that the Augustinians and Calvinists have a problem with, Augustinians and Calvinists. Wait a minute. What do you mean there'll come a time? They're dead. They're already in hell. So, here's what they did. Replacement theology. All of the promises made to ancient Israel have now been switched over and applied to the church, which makes God a liar because when He says to any of the prophets, "You go to these people and you tell this, I am going someday to bring salvation to you," Ezekiel said, "And there will be a resurrection. And all the bones will come together. The people will come up and breath will come into them, and God will give them His spirit." That's a lie. If that's been switched to the church, what Ezekiel said to them was a lie. I think replacement theology is one of the most terrible heresies there are because it makes God to be a liar.

But we have a problem. Wait a minute, wait a minute, remember, the whole premise of predestination is every person in their lifetime chooses whether to go to heaven or hell, every person. And predestination is where you go one path or the other, and God's already set you down the path anyways. God's already chosen your path, and you're headed down it. How can you have people in the future being saved? So, they changed all that to mean something totally different.

So, what we have is God electing people to do things for Him to carry out His plan. And then we have, in the New Testament, election for salvation. There are people in the Old Testament elected for salvation, but it's not the general thing that's happening. We do have it in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians. I'm sorry, 2 Thessalonians 2. You see why this is important. We're attacking one of the core doctrines of the majority of Christians, well, that know their doctrines. You know, today, we have two types of Christianity. We have cultural Christianity, and we have some semblance, an attempt at Biblical Christianity. The cultural Christianity is the overwhelming number of people in the country. It has nothing to do with the Bible. In fact, for the first time in history, according to Barner Research, a majority of people in the United States don't believe in the Biblical God, a majority. It's over 50%. They believe in something, you know, some spiritual thing out there. Maybe it's the universe. “We worship the universe” or whatever. There may be some god, but they don't believe in the Biblical God. That's unbelievable. That number is unbelievable. And out of the people who do believe in God, an overwhelming number of them believe that Jesus really wasn't divine and He sinned.

So, you know, I listen to the radio and I hear these, you know, old-time preachers talking about repenting and accepting Jesus as the Son of God and all of this, and you realize they're talking to a very small amount of people in the United States. The majority don't accept that anymore.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 Paul says, "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning,"—notice this—"chose you." Okay, election. You're chosen. This is written to the church. From the beginning, God knew you before you knew yourself. Okay? God knew you before you knew God. “For salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth to which He called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

So, your election isn't the same election of ancient Israel. The promises made to ancient Israel were, "You follow me," God says, "and you will have rain in due season. And I'll drive out your enemies. You'll have good crops and lots of strong children. And you won't have any diseases." God hasn't promised any of that to us. What He's promised us is eternal salvation in the family of God. That's what He's promised us.

Remember, ancient Israel was told, "And someday, you'll get salvation." Okay? "You'll get all this physical stuff and then someday you'll get salvation." I'm not saying God doesn't give us physical things because He does. But that's not the core of the gospel of the church. The gospel of the church is, "Repent, be baptized, and become part of the family of God. Receive salvation." And that's why the gospel message of the church broke away from Judaism because it went to the world. It went to everybody. Everybody gets this message. Election today is everybody that God calls and He chooses to come into the understanding of what they're called to do today. And it's not to receive a physical blessing. It is to receive salvation. We're getting closer and closer to understanding predestination.

Now, remember though, God's Spirit has not been made, and it says here by the way, through sanctification. You can only be sanctified in this sense by having the Holy Spirit given to you. So, the overwhelming number of people in the history of humanity have never received God's Spirit, never. It wasn't even offered to them. In fact, they were blinded and God left them in darkness. Jesus said, in fact, the people I'm talking to—Who were the people of God. The elect of God in the sense that they were physically supposed to do something for God on earth—He said, "Yeah. They're not going to get this either, guys. That's why I'm not telling it to them plain." He left the world in darkness. I mean, He had 12 guys, and that was it, and some women. I mean, there were other people that were coming along with Him. But, you know, He didn't have that many people. And He said, "No. I'm showing you the real light." These people are in half-darkness, even the Jews of Jesus' time. All of Israel throughout all their history was at best in half-darkness. And a lot of the time, they were in total darkness. At best, they were in half-darkness. The church is called to come fully and completely into the light, and salvation is being offered to us. So, the question comes up then, okay, God has to get along and give us the light. Yes. You and I don't turn on the light, you and I don't determine the light. We don't know what light is.

Before God comes into our lives, we are at best in a little bit of light. I mean, at seven years old, I began to understand God's way a little bit. But I was just in a little bit of light. I didn't have God's Spirit in me yet. It took a long time to get little bits and pieces of light until one day the light comes on. I said, "Oh, my, there's a lot of darkness out there." In our case, there's a lot of darkness in here because the light sheds inside of us too. So, we are called to come out of the darkness. Israel never came totally out of the darkness because they were only offered future salvation. Oh, man, that just drives predestination people nuts. How do you have a future salvation when everybody's being judged right now? But you and I are not called to a future salvation, our day of salvation is right now. God turned on the light. He called you, He elected you because He chose you. And now, you must participate. Can we resist that? Let's go to Romans 8. We're starting to get an understanding here now of your calling and why your calling is different than... It's similar to Abraham's because Abraham was offered salvation. It's different than the average Israelite throughout history because they weren't called. Well, they were called for future salvation. But the whole world, the whole world has a chance at future salvation.

Romans 8:28-30 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."—We're back to you can't come out of the darkness on your own. Someone's got to turn on the light, someone's got to call you out, someone's got to choose you—"For whom He foreknew." Okay. Remember, you didn't discover God. "Yeah. I was looking for God. I was really searching and searching for God, and I'm so glad I found Him." No, you didn't. He found you. Why do you think you were searching for Him? Why do you think you were searching for Him? He found you. He knew you before you ever knew Him. "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined." Okay. So, what is the destiny of those who God calls and chooses and sanctifies? Remember, to be called and chosen, you have to respond with faith. You have to respond with obedience. So, God calls out of the darkness. You say, "I'm here," and He shows you some light, and you respond to it. So, He chooses you. So remember, He initiates everything. You and I don't bring anything to this table except our response. And we respond and we respond, and He works and He works, and He brings us out into the light. He says, "He also predestines to be"—To be what?—"To be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, who He predestined, these He also called, whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified." You have received a predestination. You were called by God because He knew you before you knew Him. And He called you, and you responded. And because you responded, He says to you, "You now have a destiny."

Now, let's just step back a minute though and realize every human being God wants to give this destiny to. Now, we're going to get into our predestination this is really all about. It's about when God decides to give you your destiny. It's not, "Oh, you're predestined to hell, you're predestined to heaven," it's, "I have a destiny for you, and I will determine when you are called," God says. "And I will determine how you are called and I will determine if you receive it by your response." And when we do respond, He says, "Whom He called, He justified, and whom He justified, He glorified."

When Jesus went to heaven, He said to His disciples, "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come back." You understand what he was telling them. "You have no idea what I got in mind for you. I'll go wait for a while, but when I come back..." Those people there with Him at that point when He said that, it was personal. "I'm going to go prepare a place for you, John, Peter, James. James, I got something for you. You won't even imagine." He had a destiny. When God called you, He had already predetermined, "Here's what I'm going to give you." You know, when Jesus Christ comes back, every one of us has a role to play in His Kingdom and I don't know what it is, I don't know what your role is. I don't even know what my role is. But you're being prepared for that. Every single one of us is being prepared for specific reasons by God so you have a destiny. You are predestined. It's not that you wake up every day and say, "God, do you have any idea what you want to do with me?" And God says, "I don't know. I've been wondering why I called you anyways." That's not what goes on here.

The Almighty God looks at you and says, "I called you, you responded. I chose you. Christ died for you. I sanctified you by giving you My Spirit. And My Spirit is going to work in you and create you until you become My child. And when you become My child, I got things for you to do." That's your destiny. Oh, not me, right? No. That's your destiny. You're predestined. Now, your neighbor has a predestination with God too. It may not be until the Great White Throne Judgment. God doesn't call everybody now, and He sure doesn't choose everybody now. Many are called, few are chosen. Lots of people get the call, few people respond. You know, well, if you don't pick up the phone, okay, I'll call you later, I'll choose this person. God's choosing people and then giving them a destiny. And this destiny, by the way… You know, it's interesting, every place you see the word predestined or predestination in the Bible, it never has to do with going to the lake of fire. It always has to do with becoming a child of God, every place. In other words, “I've got something for you. I'm working it out.” So, here's the problem then. Does that mean you and I can't resist that? And that's where even a Calvinist, much more than the Augustinians, the Calvinists say, "Nope. You can't resist it. You're going to be there, and you're going to be up there laughing while you watch the people in hell suffer because God chose you and not them." What kind of God would do that?

The bottom line is you're predestined because you're already called. Other people haven't reached that stage where they're predestined yet because, you know, predestination has to do when God calls you. It starts you into the plan and gives you your destiny. It has to do when God calls you, puts you into the plan, and gives you your destiny. Can we resist that? Hebrews 10:26. See why I said this gets a little complicated? Now,I’ll tell you what, after services, I'll be up here in case anybody has questions. You know, I've done that. Sometimes, people will come up. Sometimes, as I told some people this morning, I said, "Oh, no. I probably created more questions than I answered." That's the great thing about the Bible. You now have more questions. Right?

Hebrews 10:26-29 "For if we sit willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Now, this is more than just the knowledge of truth. We're going to see that we are sanctified in part of the covenant. Not the Old Covenant, the New Covenant. The New Covenant is for salvation. Our salvation isn't the future, our salvation is now. He says, "But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will be found worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot.”—See, you have accepted Jesus Christ as that sacrifice—"counted the blood of the covenant by which you were sanctified a common thing and insulted the Spirit of grace?"

Remember, everyone is called by an act of grace because you and I can't get out of the darkness. The world is in darkness. And Jesus even said, “And right now we're not even trying to get everybody out of the darkness. It's time for some people, it's not time for others." Now, we are supposed to preach the gospel, by the way, but that doesn't mean we're supposed to shout it from the treetops, and woe one unto us if we don't. But that doesn't mean God's going to call millions and millions and millions of people right now. He's going to call those who He is choosing to this is their predestination time to give them their destiny.

But here we see that you can give up on that destiny. You can give up on that destiny. And this is what the Arminiuns… It was Arminius in the 1600s came out and said, "You know, predestination as taught by all the Catholics and all the Protestants is wrong." And he figured it out, and he was right. He put together a really good explanation on why it was wrong, but he still missed something and that's what I'm going to go through too here today, what he missed. But he understood "No, no, no. You can't look and say God's got everybody on two paths." No. People can change. People can repent. And just because you're on the one path doesn't mean you can leave it. You can leave it and go to the other path. He figured that out. He still was locked into though predestination has to do with your decision today, which puts you in heaven or hell. He couldn't get out of that one.

So, the spiritual blindness is caused by Satan. Only God can open our minds. So, that's an act of grace. A person can lose their destiny by returning to the darkness. So, even though you're predestined, God acts as if it's there because it is there. So, He talks about being erased from the Book of Life. That's a frightening thing. No, no, your name's already there. God says, "Yep, you're there. I've given you everything." Everything you need to be there, God has given to you. Understand that. Everything you need, He's either given to you or He's going to give it to you. He doesn't give us everything all at once. But everything you need to fulfill the destiny He has for you. I mean, you know what excited people about "Star Wars?" "Luke, you have a destiny." Okay. That's what excited everybody. Well, all Christians have a destiny. All Christians have a destiny. And we're predestined for that because we haven't achieved it yet, but we can lose it. We can go back out into the darkness.

Now, here's what's unique about our understanding of this. And it goes back to what I'd already mentioned, the issues of the promises made to Israel about a future salvation. We understand that when Jesus Christ comes back, all those who were predestined to be called during this age and stayed with it, they didn't give it up, they stayed in the light, they will be resurrected to be with Christ, right? Then starts a whole new day of salvation. A whole new day of salvation starts because all the people that are on earth that have gone through the tribulation are now going to have to be taught God's way because their lights come on. Satan's removed. The prince of darkness is gone. Satan's removed, and God turns on the light for the whole world. And so, physical Israel has to be gathered together for wherever they're scattered all over the creation. They have to be gathered together in a... You know, physical Israel goes back to the land. They’re in Isreal, around Jerusalem. Why are they there? Because Christ is there and He says, "Okay. You did nothing but fail. You're now going to go teach people about Me." They have a physical job to do. They're still elected to do that. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But what do we do, the saints that are changed? We've got a world to convert. Understand there's a world to convert because that's their day of predestination. It's their day to choose. And God's not going to say, "You know, you're going to show up in outer Mongolia." And someone's going to say, 'Well, we've decided to remain Buddhist." It doesn't work. The light's on folks. The light's on. You can't do that.

The light will shine in the whole world. And what happens at the end of that? Someone asked me. This is my conjecture, okay? So far, I've stayed pretty much with what the Bible says, but this is my idea. Why does God release Satan at the end of a thousand years? My personal belief is human nature is so sinful it will take that long to get it out of the human race. Every generation will still have a piece of it. I think at the end of the thousand years, they really won't have a choice anymore. Here's what you have to understand about God's judgment. Human beings choose good and evil all the time now, don't they? Every human being out there chooses, and some people become almost totally evil, and yet, some people are really good. But they can't choose salvation. You know why they can't choose salvation? Because at best, they're partially blind, and at worst, they're totally blind. How can you choose something you cannot see? You can't choose something you cannot see. The bottom line is nobody really has total free will until God turns the light on. You can't choose what you don't know.

So, we like to think we have lots of free will, and we do, but in the concept of salvation, you can only have, only have free will when God turns a light on because now you have something to choose. So, we can't get too haughty about ourselves. "Well, you know, I chose God." You didn't even know what to choose, I didn't even know what to choose, except God came along and turned the light on and the darkness went away. He said, "Oh, this is the way I have to choose." Understand that. That is why there's the Great White Throne Judgment. Those people lived in various stages of darkness, most of them in total darkness, their entire lives. So, their free will was remarkably limited. They may choose to be a nice person, but they don't choose salvation because they don't even know what it really means. So, the purpose of the Great White Throne Judgment… This, okay? This is what's missing in all other explanations of predestination. And it's why they have to change all the promises made to ancient Israel because those promises then extend out to everybody.

The purpose of the Great White Throne Judgment is to resurrect all the people who had ever lived and God turned the light on. So, think about it. Satan's released for a little bit there at the end of the millennium. Why? Because those people have to make a choice. Life is getting so easy and good. They're living under Jesus Christ, they don't even have anything to choose anymore. Everybody has to choose. But then Satan's removed. Why? All the people at the Great White Throne Judgment, they know what Satan's like. They all lived under his rule in darkness. For the first time, the light's on, and now they actually, they get to choose.

For the first time, they actually have the awakening of their total free will that says, "I can choose salvation or not salvation," because they never had it. It's a little scary though for you and me though because this is our day of salvation. Our choice now is for eternity. Your neighbor, the guy who's an agnostic and just parties all the time, doesn't care about anything, probably the lights never come on. He's never really had anything to choose. And that I think brings...This opens this up enormously to understand that predestination is the destiny God wants to give for every human being. And predestination has to do when God elects you, when God chooses you to give you that destiny. Let's look at two last scriptures here, Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1:3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation..."—in Him. Remember what He chose to do at the foundation of the earth, or before the foundation of the earth? Sent Jesus Christ. So, from that point on, He was going to choose throughout history. So, we've been chosen. What? To be on a path that we can't come off of? No. We were chosen to have the light come on, we were chosen to be sanctified, we were chosen to be given the opportunity that this is our day of salvation.

Ephesians 1:4-6 He says, “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Just think about this. What is the destiny God's given you? What is it that He says every day, "This is why you get out of bed in the morning," it’s to be His child forever in His family. That's what you're predestined to. Now, we already read you can leave it. I have to keep saying that because I don't want people to think, "Well, I'm predestined. I can't lose it." No. But we don't have to fear all the time that I'm going to lose it because God will make it work as long as we hold onto God. God won't fail. God won't fail us. We have to become bitter, and we have to go back into the darkness, but God won't fail us.

Ephesians 1:7-10 "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him."

Even here, He says, "The salvation is completed when all things are gathered to Christ." Our salvation is completed when? At the resurrection. Our salvation is completed at the resurrection, but that destiny awaits us. It's what God's preparing us for.

Ephesians 1:11-12 He says, "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." And that inheritance is not the land of Israel or rain in due season, or good crops or a quiver of children. That inheritance is the Kingdom of God. That is your destiny. That's what God has called you for.

So, now let's go to Romans, our last scripture we'll look at. Predestination's pretty interesting and it's pretty deep. Yeah. You have been predestined, not in the way Augustine said, not in the way Calvin writes, not in the way the Anglicans believe or the Presbyterians believe or others believe. I can't say, I don't know what the Presbyterians believe on this. Most of what they call the high churches believe in this. In Romans 9, we won't read it, but Paul is saddened because he says, "I'm an Israelite." And he said, "My people aren't the main focus of God's work right now." He said, "The church is the main focus of God's work, and I wish all my people to come into the church, but they're not." So, you know, he's writing to Rome. Most of the people there were Italians, although they were probably people from all over the world lived in Rome. So, I suppose the church would be the same way. And there are some Jews there too. We know that from certain things that are said. And he's saying, "You know what? I wish this place was just full of Jews. Everybody else too." But he says, "I really wish all my people were here, but they're not here." And it bothered him. But he said, "This is part of God's plan. God is doing something. And right now, the focus of what He's doing is not Israel and the physical promises, but the focus is God in the church and Jesus Christ leading the church and salvation. That's the main focus." And so, let's go to Romans 10, and then I want to finish up with just a few verses in Romans 11.

Romans 10:11-13 He says, "For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'"

He does it once again, "Shall receive salvation." Now, what he's saying here is the promises made to the church are greater. The promises made to the church are greater. And he says, "And there's Jews in the church." You know, there are Israelites in the church. There were all kinds of people from all over the world in the Roman Empire in the church. And he says, "I still feel bad because, you know, I wish more of my people were here."

Romans 11:25 Paul says, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

He looked at his people and said, “They're not completely blind but they really live in darkness." His people didn't accept Jesus Christ, for the most part. Some did. He said, "They live in darkness." And why? Because the purpose of the church is not just to be the representatives of God on earth but to receive salvation now, to receive our destiny when Christ returns.

Romans 11:26-27 He says, "And so all Israel will be saved as it is written." Now, this is very interesting. He goes back to the Old Testament and says, "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." You know what? He goes in the Old Testament and says, "Yeah. Here's the promise made to Israel. Their salvation comes in the future. This is a future prophecy." He says, "I look at my people, I wish more would come into the church till I realize their time of salvation is in the future." But see, all peoples anywhere who are called into the church can say the same thing. I mean, if you're Polish, you could say, "Ah, the time of salvation for my people is in the future." Right? If you're from India, you could say, "The time for salvation for my people is in the future. The time of salvation for the church is now. Yet, Paul agonized over this because, you know, he wanted his people, but he realized that wasn't going to happen. It says, "So, all Israel will be saved." I'll make a mention about that. Some people say, "Well, does that mean that by an act of birth, all Israelites are saved?" Well, that's predestination in the extreme. This is why Augustine said, "See, Israel has to be the church. All the church will be saved because God's not going to save all Israel." He just said they're blinded. No. The point made here, and some commentators will tie this into a rabbinical saying of the 1st century. And Paul, of course, had rabbinical teaching. I'm not sure he was doing this. But “all of Israel” was a term they used that just meant, you know, “all the Israelites are going to do this.” It’d be like saying, "Everybody in Tennessee agrees with this." No, they don't. Right?

The point about “all Israel” is... Remember too, if you were an Israelite and you rebelled against God and you became a pagan, you were no longer an Israelite. So, all the Israelites who turned to God, which seems to be the overwhelming majority just like it seems to the overwhelming majority of humanity, the majority are saved. If they're not saved, it's because, well, you're not an Israelite anymore. I mean, it's like saying all Christians will be saved. If you leave Christianity and you go out and become an atheist and hate God, you're not going to be saved. Because why? Well, you're not part of the church anymore. So, all the church will be saved doesn't mean everybody who says they're in the church will be saved. The same way with Israel. But the point he's making here is “Your time is still in the future.” This is a new concept of predestination in terms of how it's taught today. It was obviously Paul because he reads the Old Testament. Yeah. They'll be resurrected, and they'll have an opportunity to receive their destiny. So, their time, they're predestined to be called at that time, They're not predestined to be called or chosen at this time.

Romans 11:28 He goes on, "Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake." He's telling the Gentiles there, the Romans there, you know, they've actually been enemies of God because why? It says because they're blinded. They've got bits and pieces of it. I mean, they have part of it. You know, he's writing at a time when the temple still exists. They're still doing sacrifices. They keep the Sabbath. They keep the Holy Days. And he says, "You know, they got part of this, but they're still partially blind." They may not be totally blind like an absolute pagan out here or the worst barbarians. The Scots and Irish, those are the worst barbarians. They painted themselves blue and fought naked. That's just weird. I mean, for Romans, that was unbelievable. You wore armor, and you marched in, and you were highly trained. And these guys come screaming out of the brush naked and painted blue. Okay. Now, how did I get off on that? Okay. I get a little, you know… The Scot-Irish in me, and I guess I, you know... Every time I hear bagpipes it's like, "Oh, we're going to go to war, eh?" Anyways, let's get back to Paul.

Romans 11:28 He says, "Concerning the gospel, they're enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the Father." He says, "You know, they're still elected by God." Why? Because God loved Abraham, and God promised Abraham some things. See, He's still going to work through those people in the future. Why? Because He promised to Abraham. That's why. That's what He said. So, they were elected still. But their election isn't the same as the church because they haven't received salvation yet.

Romans 11:29 He says, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." He says, "But when God told Abraham, 'I'm going to do this with your descendants,' He meant it." When God tells you, "I have prepared a destiny for you," and you're predestined for that. If you want it, He means it. He's not calling that back. He's not going to change it. He's not going to change His mind. He's not going to decide, "You're not worth it." Only you and I can remove ourselves from that. He will not. That's the God we worship.

Romans 11:30-32 He says, "For as you were once disobedient to God, yet now having attained mercy through their disobedience," the disobedience of the Jews, "Even so, these also now have been disobedient that through the mercy shown you, they may also obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all." God chooses when and how and where to bring about salvation. He's not done with the world yet. He's not done with humanity yet, but understand what has been offered to you. God has a predetermined plan of salvation that involves when He's going to do things and what He's going to do. It involves firstfruits, and it involves people after the tribulation during the millennium, it involves the people in the Great White Throne Judgment.

You and I have been called, and He's not going to interfere with our free will. He's finally actually given us a choice. But you know why? I have come to the conclusion the only way we can love the way God loves is we have to have free will. We have to choose to love. If He takes away our free will, we'll never love, not the way He does. I'm not sure we will ever love the way He does. But you know what I mean? We'll never learn what we have to learn without free will. So, we had it in this limited way making our decisions every day, and then He turned the light on. And now, we're making a choice that's going to determine our destiny. What a privilege. And that's just by the grace of God. That's all that is. That's just by the grace of God. As Christians, you've been called and elected for salvation. You have been predestined to be an eternal child of God. Do you want the destiny? Then that leads us to the question when we understand what's actually happening, there's only one question that matters. Will you follow the destiny God has for you?

 

Are you watching world events and what's going on? Are we aware, brethren, that we are living in the time of the end? {Are we} watching things beginning to develop in the world, things happening right before our very eyes that have been prophesied for a very long time, things Mr. Armstrong spoke about many, many years ago and told us about, warned us about, that would be coming at the end of the age?

Let's take a brief look at what's happening in the Middle East and realize that as we watch the news, we're watching developments in prophecy be fulfilled. Turn with me to a few well-known  scriptures in Daniel, chapter 11, as we begin this sermon, which will be about the warnings. I'm going to focus a little bit on what we're seeing happen, but then we're going to take a look at the warnings that Christ gives to His people, to the church, to all of us individually, that as we see these events happening and coming to pass, how we can be preparing and what we should be doing to make sure we are ready, no matter when the end of this age comes. So here in Daniel 11—we know these verses pretty well, brethren—beginning in verse 40:

Daniel 11:40 – At the time of the end...that term is used in a number of places in Daniel and other end-time prophecies, "the time of the end." And the time of the end, of course, can extend for years. We're in THE time of the end when these end-time events prophesied will be coming to pass. So, at the time of the end, the king of the South shall attack him, and the next part of the verse tells who "him" is. It's the king of the North, and the king of the North shall come against him, the king of the South, like a whirlwind, like a blitzkrieg—and we understand this, in God's church, that the king of the South will be the development of the Islam world, the Arab states. Others have different points of view or perspective; but you've all read our books on prophecy and our pamphlets that kind of put it all together, these prophecies; and we still believe very strongly that the king of the South will be a union of powerful Islamic countries with a strong leader. And the king of the North will be what we're seeing happen in Europe—Europe already rising but growing very powerful and very strong, but, of course, having problems, like many countries are with immigration from the Islamic countries and the different culture clashes that are taking place there.

So God's word is telling us that there's coming a time toward the end of this age when this Islamic power will come to pass. There will be certain unity, a strong leader; and they will become a power in their own right, the king of the South. And they will attack or move against the king of the North, because we all understand that the Islamic goal and belief is that, of course, their religion is the superior one; and their goal is to overtake other countries of the world. I'm not an expert in Islam, but I've read enough and know enough that they're passionate about their belief that theirs is the right religion and they worship the right God and that all nations should come under their law and their belief and their way of life. So here we see this, and it's saying the king of the North will react to the king of the South. Whether it's control of the oil or whatever it is, the king of the North will react like a blitzkrieg with chariots, horsemen, of course, modern tanks and weapons today, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, conquer them, and pass through.

Verse 41 – He shall also, the king of the North, enter the Glorious Land, that means the Holy Land, and many countries shall be overthrown...This is when modern Israel, the Jewish state, will be conquered...but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, which would refer primarily to Turkey today, Moab, Jordan, and the prominent "leaders," it says in the NIV translation, the prominent leaders of Ammon. Of course, that's part of Jordan as well. So we're talking about the Middle East here—a king of the North and a king of the South.

Verse 42 – He, the king of the North, shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. A specific, direct reference to Egypt, and we see what's happening there today. So it does make you believe that the king of the South shall be in Egypt, or maybe that will be the strongest country of the alliance. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver—that seems to indicate that Egypt will be dominant at the end time—and the king of the North shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels, or be subdued, as other translations say.

So the king of the North is moving into that whole area and conquering those nations. As we watch world news, and if you're watching, as commentators are saying, dramatic change is taking place in that part of the world, which is extremely significant. All who understand Bible prophecy realize what is happening; and here, you and I are living, watching it happen, watching it come to pass, Bible prophecy beginning to be fulfilled.

Let's drop down to chapter 12 and read verse 1:

Daniel 12:1 – At that time, that means the time of the end, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people—so it's really good, isn't it, to be reminded that God is in charge and in control and has mighty powerful angels like Michael—and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation...Christ referred to this scripture in Matthew 24, that there is coming a great time of trouble in the future. You and I, depending on your age and your health, could live to see the culmination of all of these events take place. It's very possible. You know, ten years, twenty years, an awful lot of things can happen; and they can happen quicker than that, as well...even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, and this is very important, because it's talking about us, God's people. At that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book.

So, there are a few references of scripture, as you probably know, about this special book. Notice another one of them in Malachi, chapter 3, verse 16. God has a record, whatever that may be, whether it's a spiritual book or on something like what we might call a computer, we don't know for sure; but the Bible calls it a book, and here we read in Malachi, chapter 3, verse 16, another reference to it. It says, in beautiful scriptures that we meditate upon:

Malachi 3:16 – Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, which is what we do, isn't it, brethren? You know, we fear God, {but} we're not afraid of God. I'm beyond that, being afraid or cowering at God; but that fear is an awe and a respect—knowing God determines everything in the world, including my destiny—that kind of reverent awe, fear, or respect of God. And we speak to one another often, and the Lord listened and heard them, so God listens to our conversations. He hears them, and so a book of remembrance was written before Him, here it's called a "book of remembrance," written before Him, for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. In the margin it says this could be translated "those who esteem His name," or "honor His name" or "love His name," who love God. And so, God has a record that He is keeping of those who love Him, fear Him, serve Him, obey Him, and who honor and esteem His name—a book of remembrance. Beautiful scriptures!

Verse 17 –  "They shall be Mine," says the Lord of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels," or the margin says, "My special treasure."So God's people, those who love Him, are called His special treasure, His jewels. "And I will spare them," or "I will have compassion on them," some translations say, "as a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

So these are incredible verses, aren't they, brethren, as we're watching world events take place before our very eyes in our lifetime.

Let's go now to some of the teachings and warnings of Christ who inspired this book, who knew it well and quoted it often. Let's begin in Matthew 24. What we're going to look at now are some of the plain and clear warnings that Christ gave to us, His people, about the time of the end—how to prepare, how to make sure we're ready, how to make sure we're in the right attitude...we heard Mr. Pulliam talking about that so well in his unique way, you know, that we must have the right spirit and heart and the right attitude. Matthew 24, and we know this one, verse 3, quite well.

Matthew 24:3 – Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?" These things of the end of the age, "And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" What do we look for?

And then we're going to pick it up in verse 10. Here are some of the things Christ said: 

Verse 10 – At the time of the end, "...many will be offended," this is the New King James translation, "...many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another."

Do we live in that time? Have you seen any of that in recent days, months, weeks? Looking at attitudes and spirit, things going on? I sure have. Tremendous anger, and, you know, Christ used the word "hate," so I guess He knows what He's talking about, that sometimes people let hurts, resentments, and anger bring about an attitude of hate toward, maybe brothers and sisters, even in Christ. Many will be offended. Now the NIV says, "Many will turn away from the faith." So we're going to see people, because of things that are happening in the world, in the church, in their personal lives, lose faith, turn away from the truth, turn away from God, betray one another, lie about one another, turn against one another, hate one another. Those are real things happening right now, aren't they? In the world and in the church. Not by everybody, but by some.

Verse 11 – "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many."

Many false prophets, ministers, whatever. Brethren, you shouldn't believe anything I say unless it's directly from the word of God, or anything any minister says unless you can look it up and read it and it's from the Bible and that's exactly what it says and you're understanding what it means. I think we all have known over the years that any minister who is a true minister of Jesus Christ would say, "Don't believe me. Believe your Bible." That's what Mr. Armstrong used to say, right Aaron? "Don't believe me. Believe the Bible." Believe God, believe the word of God, because that's the truth. God does not change. His word is always true. We men can fall short or not have a right understanding sometimes; so when you're looking at any minister, you've got to know your Bible. I mean, you've got to be discerning and, "Do I hear and see and sense and feel God's Spirit? Is there a right attitude coming from that minister?" It's very important to ask that question. Or is he an angry minister? Is he a resentful minister? Is he this or that? I don't mean I'm trying to get you all to suspect every minister. I'm just saying what Jesus said. That's what He said and warned us about, in the end time.

Verse 12 – "And because lawlessness will abound," in the world around us, in the church, sure! I've been in the church long enough, there's been a lot of lawlessness, lots of sins; {the church is} composed of human beings. If you've got human beings in the church and they're imperfect, and the devil's there, always influencing people...I think we all have grown up enough to know that we want to put sin out of our lives and out of the church, but Satan is always there attacking. And we're weak, as human beings, and we fall short. So however you want to read this, we know that lawlessness will abound in the world around us, we know that; but sometimes it's when it happens in the church, that's when people really get turned off because, notice what Christ said in the rest of that verse, "because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."

In other translations, like the NIV—and I looked it up again this morning—the New American Standard Bible, which is a very conservative translation, it says, "The love of MOST..." Both the NIV and the New American Standard Bible say that the love of MOST will turn cold, the love of most who knew the truth. The love of most will grow cold. My, when you look at how few there are remaining faithful and steadfast to God, that's true, isn't it, compared to what we were many, many years ago in numbers. The love of most has grown cold. A lot of people have just dropped out and turned off, completely. It's happening. And then Jesus went on to say:

Verse 13 – "But he who endures," again, sometimes other translations...endurance is a good word. But also others translate it, "he who stands firm," stands firm and strong to the very end, "shall be saved."

So there's a lot of enduring to do, there's a lot of standing firm to do in the face of all of the things that Satan throws at the church and God's people. Christ here is telling us ahead of time so that we can be emotionally, spiritually, mentally, in every way prepared for these things and not be thrown and not be misled by anybody. Just say, "Well, Christ said these things were going to happen."

Verses 21-22 – We know these well..."For then there will be great tribulation," that's what we're headed toward, "such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened," there would be nobody saved alive, "but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened."
That's good news, isn't it, brethren? Notice verse 44 of this chapter, Matthew 24, verse 44. Jesus said, "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming," when you all expect Him to come and when you know you'll be prepared. Is that what it says? No. "...be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." And a lot of people are going to be asleep. Let's notice that in chapter 25. A lot of Christians are not going to be ready.

Matthew 25:1-3 -- "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins," or bridesmaids, the New Living translation says, "who took their lamps," and "lamps" represents the word of God, the Bible. Proverbs says in a number of places that the law of God, the commandments of God are a lamp unto our feet. God's word and law show us how to walk. So "lamps" refers to the word of God. "...and went out to meet the bridegroom." So imagine Christians taking their Bible and they're going out to meet the bridegroom. "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps," they got their Bibles, but they "took no oil with them..."

What does oil represent? We all know that. The minister carries anointing oil. Oil represents God's Holy Spirit, so there's a difference between having the Bible and knowing it intellectually and being a person who gets down on their knees, for those who can...I always say that those who have arthritis and can't kneel, can't humble themselves in that way, it's painful, and so it's OK to sit and pray or whatever you can do; but I say that those who take oil with them are those who know the tremendous need for the Spirit of God in order to properly understand the Bible and to be filled up with the love of God and the Spirit of God, the energy, the power of God. So we know there's a difference. Just knowing the truth, having the lamp, but not being a person...let's say you're not a praying person. The way the Spirit of God is renewed within us, when you read the word of God, it teaches, it instructs, it gives understanding, it does many things for us. But I find in my own personal life that just reading the Bible is not enough, that the way I find that God's Spirit is renewed within me is when I humble myself and pray to Him and look to Him and yield to Him and ask for that renewal of His Spirit within me to strengthen me. And so, remember that we need both, the lamps and the oil.

Here Christ is saying in verse 4, "The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." They've got both. They've got the Bible and prayer and yielding to God and being renewed every day in the Spirit of God. The inward man is renewed day by day, Paul wrote.

And then, verse 5, "But while the bridegroom was delayed..."

Human beings have always been expecting Christ to come in their lifetime; and when it doesn't happen, people tend to get slack and lukewarm and slumber and sleep. Well, it isn't happening according to the dates that we said it was going to happen or was expected to happen. That's why we shouldn't set dates, but {we should} do what Jesus said. We'll take a look at more of those prophecies. Jesus told us exactly what to be looking for to know when we are closer. Not to set dates, but He gave us specific events in areas of the world to look at. He did, specifically. We know exactly where we should be looking and what we should be looking for. We'll see that in a little bit. And so, people begin to...as we all know, human nature. I'm a human being and I know my natural human nature is just to let down and get lazy. That's human nature. Without saying, "I can't do that; I can't let that happen," we would all begin to slumber spiritually.

Verse 6 – "At midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!' Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'"

Now, {there is} a very important lesson here. I know we've heard it before. Let's maybe just briefly review again. This is a warning from Christ to all of us, that we cannot grow for anyone else, spiritually. You can pray for others but you can't pray on behalf of others. In other words, if you know somebody you love, let's say you're a praying person but they don't pray, you can't say, "It's OK that you don't pray. I pray for you." It doesn't work. And if a person isn't developing that personal prayer life and personal relationship with God and being filled up with that oil in their lives, you're not going to be able to help them when the day comes because you don't grow in faith in a relationship with God just—phttt!—like that. It's something you learn and develop over a period of time—that yielded attitude, the daily habit of your spiritual life with God. It's something that each individual has to develop personally. Some do and some don't. That's just a fact.

I remember many years ago I handed out a card to people and said, "You don't have to write your name, I don't want you to write your name down, but," I said, "just to give me an idea...be honest, please be honest, just write down about how much time of your life,"—and it isn't so much just the time but the quality of your time with God as well—but I said, "just write down how much of your day or week is spent in this kind of a relationship with God, quality time with God," and it was surprising. Apparently, they were very honest, as some said, "Well, I haven't learned to pray yet." Some said, "Five minutes a day. I'm busy." So what Jesus is telling us here, all of us, me as well as you, He's telling us ahead of time, when that day comes, at the end of the age, if a person hasn't been doing this along the way and filling up with oil and doesn't have the faith and the courage or all those qualities that it's going to take just to say, "God, whatever happens, happens. I trust you," and stand strong and stand firm...it's going to take the Spirit of God and the power of God and the energy of God within each person. Here's what Jesus said:

Verse 8 – "And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil,'"

It's like someone saying, "Boy, I wish I had the faith that you have. Boy, I wish I had the trust in God that you do. Boy, I wish I had the character that you've got." You just can't do it for anybody else. And so, those who haven't been using their time wisely and building a personal relationship with God—and we live in frightening, scary times—and they realize that the end of the age is close by, that America is going down the tubes and serious problems are coming, Jesus says they're going to be running to those that have a relationship with God and saying, "Give me some of your oil. Can you help me? Can you give me some of your oil?"

Continuing verse 8, "But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us...'" It's not that you can give it to others. You can't. I think the lesson is that you just say, "You know, I wish that I could just transfer what God has helped me to learn to you instantly, but it doesn't work that way." "‘...go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'" The lesson here is, you've got to go to God, who gives it. You can't buy it, but the main point here is, go to God for the Holy Spirit.

Verse 10 says: "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came," and I've got this one really underlined in my Bible, "and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding," those who were ready went in, "and the door was shut."

So, that means that they have to go through the great tribulation to make it into God's Kingdom. I would hope that's what it means, not that they're shut out of the Kingdom of God, but possibly that. So that's one of those warnings that is very plain and clear in scripture from Jesus Christ, for His people at the time of the end. One of the most important lessons of all is right here in this scripture, and {that} is, while you have the time, now is the time and every day is the time, as you watch the Middle East, what should I be doing? "I want to understand all the details of prophecy. I want to be a prophecy expert." No! "God, help me to draw closer to You in my personal spiritual life." That's the big lesson.

Let's go on to read in this chapter verses 24-30:

Matthew 25:24 – "Then he who had received the one talent..." This is the parable of the talents. We all have talent, every one of us. Talent means that we have gifts and abilities from God. We're born with them; and God, when He gives us His Spirit, can help us to develop and grow, spiritually, and in our lives and be of greater service. And so, there's an important warning from Jesus right here. (There are many of them in the Bible.) But as we watch world events developing, these are things that we need to be doing. And here was a man who had been given a talent and called by God, and the man said, "‘... I knew you to be a hard man...'" That was his perspective of God. I don't know, everybody has their own perspective of God, right? We kind of think, when we pray to God, maybe everybody else who prays is visualizing or thinking of God in the same way we do, but they don't. I've known people who told me, because of things in their life or abusive people in their life, it was very hard for them to think of God as this loving, kind, gentle being. This man thought of God as a hard person, a hard man, in a wrong way. But Jesus goes on to say, "‘ reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. And look, here it is back. I'm giving you back your talent you gave to me.' But his Lord answered," verse 26, and that's Jesus, for us, "and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.'" So what he was saying, "You knew that what I wanted you to do was bear fruit and grow spiritually. I gave you time, I gave you food, the spiritual food, the motivation, services, I gave you fellowship. I gave you all of these things, other people to help you, encourage you, and the purpose was so that you would bear fruit and grow."

Verse 27 – "‘So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers...you should have taken the talent that I gave you and put it to work...and at my coming I would have received back what I gave you with interest.'"

So what Christ is warning us here is, we'd better grow and bear fruit spiritually, and don't let anything or anybody get in your way, in a wrong way, or talk you out of it. Christ is...that's from Him. And then He adds this:

Verse 29 – "‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.'"

So as we heard in the sermonette, people will have all these excuses and reasons, "Well, I was afraid." I'm afraid, too, folks! I mean, every day I have to deal, just like you, with human emotions and human feelings and human anxieties and human stresses and human pressures; and if I listened to all those human things, I wouldn't get up in the morning and go do what I need to do! And so, I have to let God's Spirit override that; and despite how sometimes we're feeling in dealing with all of our humanness and anxieties or whatever it is, we make the right decision, to do what we know God wants us to do, to have the faith and the courage to do that. What He is saying here is people who do that, the people who just make a lot of excuses and have a lot of excuses, He says, "I'm going to take away from them what they have and give it to somebody who will put it to good use." And then, the scary scripture—and there are a number of them from Christ—verse 30, "‘And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

I don't think any of us want to end up the end of our life, the end of the age, falling into that category of just weeping and weeping and gnashing our teeth, "WHY DIDN'T I DO WHAT I KNEW I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO!" And there are people who know what they're supposed to do, but they're not doing it. The scriptures bring that out, and only God knows how to try to motivate them, which He does. So this is a warning, a loving warning, from Jesus Christ. He's telling us all ahead of time, "When the time of the end comes and it's all over, I want you to have been a profitable servant."

And that's what we want to emphasize now more in the ministry and in the church, in United. It is what we decided and agreed upon, the Council did. It had been called "Christ-centered servant leadership." It was decided to call it "serve as Christ serves." We're going to be emphasizing Jesus Christ and His example. "Christlike service" is actually what we'll be calling the program. Christlike service, and it's for everybody, not just the leaders and the ministry, but it's for every member. We all want to be Christlike servants. That's what Christ emphasized, so we hope to continue to talk about that and model it and do it and help one another. And many of you are—I'm not saying you're not. I'm just saying that as we look at the world and see things happening, like in the Middle East, it's not a time to be letting down. I can't let down—we cannot let down. We actually have to ramp up our efforts in the church and in the work of God, and God is giving us that opportunity to do that, so we want to be profitable servants, like Jesus.

That will be our theme, the culture that we're trying to develop in the church and in the ministry. Our next general conference of elders, which is coming up in May, it's interesting that the theme that had already been decided upon—we have a theme at every general conference of elders and then the seminars and presentations and discussions all revolve around that theme—the theme for the GCE in May is titled "Serve as Christ serves." That had already been decided before we decided on the title for our Christ-centered servant leadership program—Christlike service—so you can see what we're wanting to do in the United Church of God is to emphasize Christ and Christlike service and being like Him in spirit and in attitude and in heart. And these are warnings He gives people. People are not going to be able to say, "Well, nobody told me. Nobody warned me!" It's right here in the word of God, plain and clear, from Jesus Christ.

Let's go to Matthew, chapter 13, and read this parable about the wheat and the tares. I'll begin in verse 24. I think these are familiar parables to most of us.

Matthew 13:24-30 – Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared," like weeds growing, you know, in a good crop. "So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? And now it has these tares, these weeds?' He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up? Do you want us to pull up all the weeds?' But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.'" At times weeds grow right there, right next to it and they're almost part of the root system of the wheat or the crop. "‘Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

Drop down to verse 36, and He explains clearly the meaning of this parable. He said, verse 37, first, He said to them:

Verses 37-43 -- "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one." Sometimes there are those who are called sons of the wicked one. "The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age..." So again, we're talking about the end of this age. "...and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Again, indicating that a lot of people knew better. I can see why they're wailing and gnashing of teeth. They would never listen, never repent, never heed, never change, never grow. Not like you, God's people, you are doing that. And then Jesus said, "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

So many, many warnings. That's why this time of the year, as we approach the Passover, is a good time to really be digging into the gospels and the teaching of Jesus Christ as we prepare for Passover and take heed to these things and continue to help one another.

Let's go to Luke, chapter 21. Remember, earlier I was mentioning that Christ was very plain and clear what we need to be watching at the end time, what events, spelled it out very clearly, VERY clearly that it was at the time of the end, too. Beginning in verse 20:

Luke 21:20-24 – "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near." You and I know that the extreme radical Islamic nations hate Israel. Their main objective and goal is to destroy Israel. If they have to bring down America to do it, Britain to do it, fine. That's part of it. But they hate the Jews, they hate Israel. Satan has put that hate into their hearts. "...when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea," those who happen to be in that country, that area, at that time, let them "flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country," you know, outside, not be going there. "For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." Christ was referring here to the things written in Daniel and other prophecies, that He would quote. "For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." And you and I are living in these days, watching these things happen and develop. The king of the South and the king of the North, you can just see it coming. "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!" Especially in those areas of the world. "For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles," so Christ was plain and clear, watch the Middle East. He said to watch Jerusalem. Watch what's happening over there in Israel. Watch the Gentile nations around them, the non-Israelite nations, because what we're heading toward and seeing happen is the rise of the Gentile nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles, "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

I'm not going to turn back to Revelation 11, but in Revelation 11:2, it says that the Gentiles will trample the city of Jerusalem for forty-two months. Very specific, very clear, three and a half years. It tells exactly how long they will trample and control the holy city and that area, and that's the time that God raises up the two witnesses to do His work. So the encouraging thing to know and to always remember—Aaron and I sit and talk about this as we look at the budget in United and things we're going to have to do to move forward in doing the work of God—we know that doing God's work and doing His will is not about numbers and who's the biggest and who has the most this and that. It isn't about that. It's about God looking for a heart and an attitude, a spirit, a yieldedness to Him, because at the end of the age, the way He finishes the work of God on earth is only through two people. And He can pour out all kinds of power, which He does, upon those two witnesses. Many miracles. And so it's very clear.

Notice verses 27-28. "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen..."

What does God tell us to do, brethren? When these things begin to happen? They're beginning to happen now! They've been beginning to happen now for quite a while, but very clearly these things are beginning to happen, all the things that you and I have known and believed for many years and decades, going on in the world around us, of America beginning to...God's breaking the pride of our power. We know all of those things. We're so broke as a nation. I've been watching the news about what's happening in Wisconsin and they're broke and Ohio and all the states trying to balance their budgets and...we're broke, as a nation and as a people, we're deeply in debt. We exist and are surviving now by the grace of God, and that's the only reason. When God decides it's all over and pulls the rug out, we'll go down so fast, it's going to frighten people to death, and we know that. Jesus says, when these things begin to happen, what are we to do? Get all discouraged and sad and give up and quit? No, He says, in verse 28, "Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

Verse 31 – "So you also, when you see these things happening," and He just spoke about the Middle East and Jerusalem, "when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near." So, you and I, certainly we're not going to set dates and say we know it's going to come in five years or ten or fifteen or twenty. We can't do that and we shouldn't do that; but, my, if we're watching what's going on in the world and even in the Church of God, seeing Satan's wrath and His anger in His attacks on the church, to try to divide the church so that we cannot do a work, all of these are signs of the time of the end, knowing the Kingdom of God is near. What does Christ, in verse 34, again, what are His warnings and admonitions to us:

Verses 34-35 – "But take heed to yourselves," He's talking to God's people, the disciples, "take heed," check yourself. You can't do it for anybody else, but you can take heed to yourself. Don't let your heart "be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life," you know, get side-tracked. Stay focused, sothat day doesn't "come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth."

Most people don't understand and are going to be so busy just involved in life and in their goals and in their desires in life and what's most important to them. They're not focusing on God and what really matters and what really is important, not as they should; and they're going to be caught off guard by all these events. And so, what this well-known verse, verse 36—many wonderful verses in the Bible, this is certainly one of them, brethren, where Jesus told us that we don't have to go through hell in the end time. You know, our main motivation to be in God's church is not to escape with our lives; but, you know, it's not a bad thing if you do, right? It's not wrong.

I like what Jesus said. He told His disciples in verse 36 to, "Watch," that means be alert, be aware of what's going on,"and pray always," so there's that thing of the oil, "pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass..." Why did Jesus say that? Because it is possible, and because many will be protected and blessed and spared the horrors that are going to come to pass in this end-time age, "...that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man."

So that's a very positive and encouraging verse from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But if He chooses someone to be a martyr, like the two witnesses, then that's...He'll pick people that He knows can handle that. The two witnesses, whoever they are, and when He raises them up, they're going to know ahead of time how they're going to die, because it's written in scripture. They know. But He'll choose people who say, "Bring it on." So here's a warning, as we watch world events. "Take heed to yourselves."

Let's close, brethren. I want to summarize these warnings from Jesus Christ with three points on things that we can be doing, so that we heed these warnings. We've read these things before; we know they're there; but let's bring it down to three things that we should be doing. I'm sure many of you, you've been doing these for years, many of you. So my encouragement to you is, don't let up. Let us help one another to keep going. Here's the first one of these three final points:

1. Let's keep our heart in God's church and in His work, no matter what.

Christ emphasized that over and over and over. But let's maintain our zeal and enthusiasm for God and His church and His work. Don't let anyone in a bad attitude turn you off on God or God's church, His people, those who are converted, those who love Him, no matter who they are, where they are, as part of God's people, God's church. The United Church of God, we're part of the Church of God, the people of God. And so, it's very important, God says in scripture, don't let any human being, you know, people can get into wrong attitudes and can just become discouraged, negative, or, "I don't want to be a part of any of these lousy churches...look at these ministers. They're always causing division in the church!" Hey, look beyond us. Look beyond human beings. Look to God! He uses fallible, imperfect human beings, even in the ministry, right? Yes, He does. Look beyond. Look to God and say, "God, what big lessons are you wanting me to learn through all these trials in my life and in the church?"

One of the obvious ones is put your faith where it should be—in God! Trust in Him. Keep your nose in the Bible and you will not let anybody turn you off on being a part of God's church and God's work. And if they're getting all disillusioned—and there are lots of people, I'm fully aware of that, who are out there, independent, and don't want to be a part of anything. "No, I don't want to be a part of any organized thing. Look what happened...blah, blah, blah." I just feel sorry for them. I really do. I just, boy, I hope they'll grow up before it's too late and become an active, dynamic part of the church and the work of God; or they're going to be weeping and gnashing their teeth someday, if they let their anger, resentment, and bitterness cause them to not get in there and become a part of the church and the work of God. They didn't learn and they didn't grow. They just dropped out. And that's one of the things we cannot allow to happen.

Keep your heart in God's church and in His work, and don't let any human being turn you off on God and the church and the work of God. Just keep learning.

The second lesson that we can learn, brethren...there are many lessons to learn. These are just kind of a summary of three key critical and important ones that I think Christ emphasizes. The second one I've got is:

2. Love and serve our brethren in the faith fervently.

Maintain that love for the brethren and a desire to serve one another and love one another and keep growing in that. Christ emphasized that as being so very important. If we don't learn to do it better and love one another, it's a big mistake. Notice 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 8. Peter learned it and God used him to write this.

1 Peter 4:8 – And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

We don't condone sin; we don't approve sin; sin is bad. It's wrong in all of our lives; but the love of God and the love for one another will help you to help somebody, no matter what their problem is, no matter what their addiction may be, no matter what they're struggling with, what sin in their life, you love them. You love them, and you give them help and support and encouragement. Pull one another out of the fire, you know, it says back, I think in Titus or somewhere back there. You know, God can use us if we have enough of the love of God. No matter what a person is struggling with, no matter what attitude he's in, you try to look through it. Even if they're angry and mad at you and attacking you, just don't do back that way. Forgive. Forgiveness is a big one. LeeAnn and I are doing a lot of studying and reading and talking about forgiveness and the importance of forgiveness; and so, loving and serving our brethren in the faith, fervently, is very important, Christ emphasized.

And then, thirdly

3. Grow in God's love for people in this world around us.

Not just the brethren, but let us grow in God's love for people in this world around us and let us give our lives for them. Let us lay down our lives and be living sacrifices in God's church and in God's work, knowing what's coming. Our neighbors, our workmates, people that sometimes maybe we don't like too well or get along too well with, God says to love them and pray for them. You don't have to like them and like what they're doing, but God wants us to grow in love for people.

Let's close with John 3:16, a well-known scripture, but a powerful one. In this point...and I hope that we in United can develop our programs within the church that have to do with helping people who are struggling, that God is calling out of homosexuality. I want us to keep growing and learning how to help people who have addictions of all kinds in their lives because as God calls people out of the world, they're going to have all kinds of problems, as you know. We do. And they're going to have needs. We're going to need to have people who have that love, saying, "Look, we're all sinners, and God calls people out of sin and out of the world, and the church is a place of healing. The church is a place where you come to overcome sin and get support and help and encouragement and you learn God's way and you become motivated and you want to come out of sin, you want to get help with your problems and your addictions." You seek it, you pray about it, and it's available within the church, where ministers and elders and leaders, brethren, who all...we're not self-righteous, but we love God and His way and we want to love the people of this world. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I...you'll hear me talk about, occasionally, homosexuality, because it's an area that I've worked in to try to help people that God is calling. Sometimes I get a little—but I don't let it bother me too much—but people will use that and they'll say, "Oh, yeah, look, they're going to get all liberal. They're going to accept homosexuals in the church and they're going to..." Don't worry about that, brethren. All I know is we'd better be the way Jesus was and the way Paul was when he wrote the Corinthians, "Such were some of you, but now you are sanctified through Jesus Christ."

So God calls people, and I know people in the congregations of the churches of God who have...rarely will you find some who are struggling with certain things like that, unless they come into a group of people with leaders who understand where they're coming from and coming out of certain problems in their life, you would never know. They would never share it with anybody because of the nature of it and the way people look at it. So my point is, when God calls people out of the world into His church, there can be all kinds of, we could say, secret sins and problems, of all kinds imaginable—anything and everything—and Jesus Christ said that part of the gospel message that God has called me to preach is to heal the broken hearted. Our world is filled with a lot of broken-hearted, hurting people. Maybe people trapped by Satan in sinful addictions and sinful lifestyles who need to find a home in the church of God that has the truth of God, teaches the truth of God, but also has the love, mercy, and compassion and understanding that our doors are open to all of God's people, and anyone with any problem who wants support and help, love and encouragement, because that's the way God is. God loves sinners. God LOVES sinners with His whole heart and soul and mind and being and gave His life for sinners, every sinner, all of us, didn't He?

Let's close with John 3:16. So let us grow. Jesus Christ emphasized this, to "follow My example." Let us grow in love for the people of this world around us and let us give our lives for them. So we'll close with John 3:16-17:

John 3:16-17 –  For God so loved the world, loved the people of this world. God so loved the sinners of this world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Every single one of them, any of them. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

So, brethren, keep watching world events, watch the Middle East especially. As Jesus said, keep your eyes on Jerusalem, and let us heed the warnings of Jesus Christ and let us help one another to draw closer to God, to become more zealous for God, to love one another and love the people of this world, and let us keep moving forward in the United Church of God to do the work that God has called us to do.

 

Now today we're going to examine, as closely as we can, what statement that Peter made, probably his last statement that he makes to the church of God that we have. Certainly the one that we have record of, in 2 Peter 3, where he's admonishing the church to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, Peter is writing this, living in Babylon, so far as we know, at the time he had already gone from Jerusalem. This is 65, 66 A.D., just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, and Peter is not going to last much beyond 70 A.D. As a matter of fact, so far as we know, he himself was martyred prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. And so we know these letters are somewhat before then and around the time of the Apostle Paul also, around the end of his life, which we think took place around 66 A.D. because he refers to the Apostle Paul. That's a little bit of the background there. And but what he says finally, after his first letter and his second letter, he says this in...

2 Peter 3:17 ­ You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.

So he wants you to be steadfast. But then he goes on and says...

2 Peter 3:18 ­ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever, amen.

Now, this was said ­­ if you try to understand the context of it ­­ in the context of persecution, in the context of false teachers that were coming amongst the church, because he refers to that in this very letter, unbelievers entering in. In general the world was against them. The world was not a nice place to live in at that time. It's not really now. And we have continuing problems with it, but we can be thankful for what we have now. God has made it possible for us to have stable governments in which we live in the western world, primarily the nations that have been descended from Israel. We don't have to face what the early church faced. We don't have to face persecution from our own government, do we? The early church did. They had to face persecution from their own countrymen, the Jews. Not only in Judea, but wherever Paul went and preached the gospel. One of the first ones to oppose him were the Jewish community. We don't have to face threats and controls placed upon us by an occupying power, which they did. It seems like, from time to time, the Roman government then took up some form of persecution, depends where you were in the empire, and there were various times of persecution. Paul himself was, of course, imprisoned at one point. So we're not in bondage to a foreign government in the way the Israelites were in Egypt.

We live in the land where we individually have rights and we have freedom of worship, so we don't have that. It's not to say it will always be that way. One day Australia itself may be occupied by a foreign power. Prophesy seems to indicate that to where if that were the case we would not be meeting here today. Simply the way it's going to be. And we ­­ it's something that we have to consider. If so, what do you do? How would you act? On top of that, then, we have the particular, let's say, problem that we've always had to deal with. The church has always had to experience this, where it says being led away with the era of the wicked.

So we have a world, an environment in which to live, and how do you deal with all of this? So he says here his last admonishment, "Grow in the grace." That's how it should be understood. "Grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So if you are to grow in his grace, what is it that you have to grow in? What does it mean to grow into the grace of Jesus Christ? That's the question today.

The hard part of living by Christ's commands deals with one primary issue. Now, there are others, so don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But I want to tell you there's one in which that he ­­ that he covers more than perhaps any other issue in His commandments or his teachings, and that is the commands having to do with offenses, sins and enemies. What do you do when that comes against you?

Much of Christ's teachings and His examples, his life had to do with these commands, as we're going to see, and how He, Himself, dealt with people. Let's define this. First of all, growing in grace doesn't only have to do with accepting Jesus so that our offenses and sins can be forgiven. We tend to think, well, if I grow in grace that means I grow in the amount of grace that he extends towards me. I grow in the amount of favor, unmerited, undeserving favor, that he has ­­ that he gives me. I'm not so sure ­­ I don't think that's the case, if you just analyze it, for a moment, how you grow in the amount of grace. You either have grace or you're given grace or you're not. The knowledge of Jesus Christ, many times, is understood ­­ or when we talk about grace and the knowledge of Christ is generally understood about Christ and that is how a person feels when you know someone loves you, how someone forgives you, how someone is in your favor, how ­­ is ­­ as in you are in favor with that person, and the grace and the favor that that person extends towards you.

The hard part, as I said, in the commands of Christ, has to do with following the commands of Christ with respect to sins and offenses, which are committed. So Peter is saying then to grow, in light of all this that's happening to the church, grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Now, to grow in the grace of Jesus Christ as ­­ as we are to grow in the same knowledge of Jesus Christ is to grow in your capacity and ability to show and maintain the same grace that Christ has shown to you and how he has shown it to others. So it ought to be understood in this way and in this particular scripture. That's what this means. It is your capacity then to extend to others the same kind of grace that Jesus has extended to you. So grow ­­ growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ is not growing in the grace you personally receive from Him. That's not what it is, because ­­ just because you're growing in favor with Christ. But how you personally have grace toward others, the same kind of grace that was shown towards you.

Now, we may all do this to some extent. After all, it is the whole basis of our teaching of what Christ was about. We can be gracious to some infractions, but not others, and, you know, in how we feel, depending on our mood, depending on who it is sometimes.

Now, we're going to see that's not how Christ Himself operated. He didn't ­­ He didn't extend grace to people only if he felt generous toward that person. This is the way He was, and we're going to see He was this way towards ­­ towards people. That's ­­ let me just make that as simple in a blanket statement. What kind of grace ­­ what kind of grace was it that Jesus taught and what kind of grace was that He himself lived by that he expects us to show, to exhibit, to ourselves live by and to be a part of our life? How was ­­ let me ­­ let's put it this way. How was Jesus then a person of grace? That's the question we ought to ask. Very instructive, and I can't remember fully examining this before. Today is not a full examination of that, anyway. We would ­­ we would not have the time to do that, I think, as you'll see as we go along.

Turn to John 1:14 to start with. Here in John's prologue to who Jesus was kind of sets the stage for this.

John 1:14­17 ­ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

It says full of grace and truth is how He is characterized then. Full of grace and truth. And it is that the Word being a living being, an entity, capable of choice, capable of making a decision, capable, of course, complying with and agreeing with the Father, but nonetheless, making the choice to become flesh? You consider who He was, consider He was the lawgiver, considering He was the one through whom God created all things through. Here is the one who became flesh. He became a human, and He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, we see grace and truth that God has in the form of a human, flesh, living amongst us.

John explains in 1 John 1. He says we beheld the very word of life. We saw Him in the flesh, our hands handled Him, you know. They put their arms around Him. They lived with Him for three­and­a­half years. They were a part of his life. They saw it all. They were there. And it was ­­ it was a very profound experience to actually be there with him for that period of time.

1 John 1:15 ­ John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"

V. 16 ­ And of His fullness we have all received... we have received this... and grace for grace."

Now, that may be a difficult little phrase to understand, "grace for grace." The meaning probably is simply we have received through Him an abundance of grace or favor. Grace for grace, most probably means much grace. It's a superlative of the favor bestowed upon man in general. This is what He sees. Favor superior to all that had been previous, superior to anything that had been under the law.

Now, the law did have grace, by the way. It certainly did. It had a means by which a person could, if they broke God's law, still have a relationship with him through the atonement of sin. That was a part of the law. This is talking about more than that. So much more than that. He says grace for grace, superior to all other things that God can confer on men. And this type of favor consists of pardon, consists of redemption, protection, blessing, eventually salvation, all of this is a result of this kind of grace. Now, in Verse 17…

V.17 ­ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Doesn't mean no grace came through Moses, as we understand it was ­­ everything was done by grace, by the way. The fact that the law was given was a matter of grace. It's something God chose to give to man for his own good, for his own benefit. That of itself was a matter of grace. And when a person violated the law, they had the capacity even through the law now then to be atoned for. They could continue that relationship with him and continue to be blessed, because God simply understood man would sin. Man is weak. Man ­­ and so God had to make that possible.

Now, we have grace being extended to us personally by the Word, the One who became flesh, and it is done in the form which is quite remarkable. That is the fact that He was a man Himself showing and of giving out, of pouring forth that grace at that time to other people, so they could really get a handle on as to what ­­ what was really happening to them.

I want to turn, first of all, to Mark Chapter 2, starting with Verse 1, and I'm going to recite just a couple of examples from the very life of Christ. Now, the only way you're going to understand grace is to understand, well, what did He do? How did He extend grace? And how ­­ how should we understand what he did? And then we would have to ask the question, then, what do we do?

Mark 2:1 ­ And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.

V.2 ­ Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.

V.3 ­ Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.

V.4 ­ And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

V.5 ­ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic ­­ notice what he said ­­ "Son, your sins are forgiven you."

Well, that's not what he came for. But that's what Jesus said. He had a reason for doing that. Oh, he was going to be healed. But this is what Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven you."

V.6 ­ And some of the scribes were sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts ­­ I suppose the scribes got the seats. Everybody else was standing. Kind of an interesting little observation ­­ and reasoning in their hearts,

V.7 ­ "Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

And, of course, in one sense, that's true. That is in the ultimate sense, that the person's sins are forgiven. But this is what Jesus did.

V.8 ­ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?"

I imagine that was a little bit of a surprise to them that He knew what was in their hearts.

V.9 ­ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and take up your bed and walk'?
V.10 ­ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power ­­ or that is authority, is what the word is, exousia ­­ the authority on earth to forgive sins" ­­ he said to the paralytic,

V.11 ­ Then I say to you, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

V.12 ­ Immediately he arose, took up the bed, went out in the presence of them all, so that they were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw like this!"

This was unheard of. A person's sins being forgiven, right before their very eyes. They never went through the process prescribed by the law.

Now, as I said before, it's not that there wasn't grace. There was. Now, it's coming through Jesus Christ, and it was being shown through the Word in the flesh who was forgiving them. He was with them. He was forgiving them on the spot. And this is quite remarkable, that Jesus would do this.

Now, there may be an immediate question that you have in your mind. How come He didn't follow the prescription? Mr. Nelson referred to repentance, of course, and that is something that a person has to do. Did this person repent? We're going to ask that question as we go along. Did he know what repentance was? Had he repented? Did he simply have faith? Was he the one who had faith or did people who let him down through the roof have faith? It doesn't say.

Mark 7:24, I want to go to this example, and I choose this one because it brings out two points. One similar to what any other incident of healing that we may read about that Christ did would have, which we're going to draw from that. But there's a ­­ yet, another point that he's making with this, and I think with this, I think we can make the point a little bit better.

Mark 7:24 ­ From there he arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.

V.25 ­ For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.

V.26 ­ The woman was a Greek, (meaning a gentile) a Syro­Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter ­­

Now, in Matthew's account, he says the woman asked Him, and He never replied a word to her. He just kept silent. And while that's implied here, it doesn't quite say that. But she keeps asking Him.

V.27 ­ "But then Jesus says to her, "Let the children be filled first, because it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."

Wow. Well, that doesn't sound like grace to me, does it? You mean, she's referred that ­­ there's something he's getting at here. In that, she's assuming something. In Matthew's account, she says ­­ she calls Jesus, You Son of David ­­ as if she had some claim to be, you know ­­ asking Jesus to heal her daughter on the basis that he was the Son of David as if she were, let's say, an Israelite too, and she wasn't. Now, she's assuming something here, or she is putting herself in a position that Jesus knew that was not hers. So he makes the statement, "Let the children be filled first. For it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."

As I said, that doesn't sound like a very generous or an accommodating statement to this woman. But she came back with an answer, which tells us something about this whole episode.

V.28 ­ And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."

Ah, now, we have a little bit of a different attitude here.

V.29 ­ And then He said to her, "For this saying, go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."

V.30 ­ And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, her daughter lying on the bed.

This tells us something here about why Jesus healed. Number one, when Jesus healed people, first of all, they asked. They believed to one extent or another that He could do it and that He would do it. They ­­ they had to believe that. To some extent He required a contriteness and a humility. Well, this woman didn't quite express that to start with. Not just to expect it because, well, He happened to be in town. We're in sort of the same location, and they said, "Might as well ask. Won't do any harm."

That's not why a person ought to go to Christ and ask Him for healing. If you're going to do that, it's ­­ you have to ­­ well, first of all, you have to really desire it. You have to really want it. It's something that you have to show that. But it ought to be done with some contriteness and humility. And you find how people generally approached Him in that way, and He saw that attitude there, and He was ­­ He seemed to be very happy to accommodate their requests by doing that. He did require that of this particular woman. You may not understand why He did that. But this ­­ this is where He was leading her, and He did lead her that way, by the way. He saw this as something she really deeply wanted, but He saw that she wasn't really in the right frame of mind, and He led her in a way where she would see the point, and then she would make her requests in a right and proper way, and He says, okay. Good. I understand. You're right. I will heal her, and so He did.

There's a third observation that you'll see here that you see with the man who was let down through the roof. As you see with any of the incidents where he healed, repentance was not required for Christ to show this kind of grace. Okay. You'll not find that. That's not a part of it. Here are people who had not repented. They were not ready. They were not up to following the prescription that we find that Peter says to repent and to be baptized for the remission of sins, and then you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have a prescription there as to how that ought to take place.

However, this is Christ, then, doing something for a person who requests, who comes in, let's say, a reasonable attitude of contriteness and humility, and they want it, they desire it, they see the plight. He sees the plight at their end, and He is willing then to do this for this particular person.

Now, we find repentance even of the apostles did not come until later, but Mr. Nelson brought that out quite well. Now, we tend to think that grace has to do with salvation. We turn to Paul to define for us grace in terms of salvation. We are saved by grace, Paul says, meaning that we are offered salvation through no goodness of our own, no deservedness of ourselves, or that we were called because of some meritorious act, or that our life was somehow so good and so great God simply called us.

A calling from God, whenever He does call us, it is done by grace that is emanated completely from Him, totally from Him. That's what a calling means. The person who does the calling chooses, and so that's what we find. Many are chosen, as it says. So He chooses from his goodness. He chooses from His compassion towards the person He chooses. So we understand then that that has to do with salvation, and we tend to relegate the whole idea of grace to the idea of salvation as Paul explains it.

I want to show you that Jesus Christ showed grace in a most extraordinary way to simply people in general, and repentance was not a requirement. This helps us to understand grace from a little bit better point of view here.

Verse 31 of Mark 7, here is to continue on with, yet, another particular point.

Mark 7:31 ­ Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.

V.32 ­ Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.

V.33 ­ And He took him aside from the multitude, put his fingers in his ear, and he spat and touched his tongue.

Now, this was a rather strange way of doing this.

V.34 ­ Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, “Be opened."

V.35 ­ Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was losed, and he spoke plainly.

V.36 ­ Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.

It shows that ­­ how much of a regard they had for the immediate instruction that He was giving them. They didn't have any. So you would not think that there's a person who was really clued in, you know, as to what they ought to be doing.

V.37 ­ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. And He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Now, the reason I want to use this example is the same I would use for any of the other examples is that there was no prerequisite to repent. They did not have to follow the formula first to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, then to receive the Holy Spirit. Christ simply extended to them grace. It was His to give, and He gave it. He gave it when they asked. He gave it when they exhibited faith, a certain amount of faith. I don't know to what extent the faith that He extended them.

Now, does He require them to repent? Well, yes, he does, of course, indeed. Does He require them to turn to them in obedience? Well, yes, He does. Everyone has to do that. But God can extend grace to anyone, and He does, without regard to them ever having followed this formula first. As I said, it's His decision. It's His to give. And when He gives it, He does so. He does it in good faith. Saying in one case, "Well, go and sin no more." Does He know that that person's going to sin anymore? He doesn't know that. The person could. In fact, when He gives a person the Holy Spirit and forgives them of their sins, that person could still go and sin some more, and sometimes they do. Many times they do. But He takes them upon their face value, as he meets them, as He talks with them, and what they are asking them for at the time.

This is not saying, if you understand, that's not what a ­­ I mean, a person then is excluded from following that. A person must. We're not talking about that. We're talking about grace. That's it. Grace that is extended to these people.

Now, I want to talk about grace in a little bit different way now. Perhaps one more that ­­ a way which you and I could perhaps understand better.

Luke 7:36­50 ­ Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.

V.37 ­ And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil.

V.38 ­ And stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Now, this is very interesting here. Here this was happening in the Pharisee's home. Not exactly a friend, say, a person who could put on a dinner for himself, His disciples, and invite a lot of other important people from the ­­ from the town. And this woman comes in and begins to anoint his feet, bow down behind him, anointing His feet, and then wiping His feet with her tears, as it says, and with the hair of her head.

Now, what did Christ do? He could have said, "Not now, lady, please. Not now. Don't. Please, you're embarrassing me. It's inappropriate for you to do this here." It's ­­ as a matter of fact, you know, what did He ­­ He never said anything like that. He never embarrassed the lady.

Let me ­­ let's use another term that we could use for grace, and that would be gracious. He was very mindful of where she was coming from. He was very mindful of how she ­­ what she was doing and how she felt about it, and He was certainly not about to embarrass her, not even in Simon's house, in front of all these other people. He wasn't going to do that. He accepted what she really wanted to do out of the purest of reasons, and He was prepared to accept that.

The story doesn't end there. Let's read on. There's another side, another part of this.
V.39 ­ Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."

Now, of course, Christ not only knew that, but he also knew what they were thinking about what she was doing, and what they were thinking about him. Now, that's kind of scary, isn't it? I imagine you wouldn't invite Him to dinner if you knew He would know your thoughts all the time and what you were thinking.

V.40 ­ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, “Teacher, say it."

V.41 ­ There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

V.42 ­ And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?"

V.43 ­ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more."

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged."

Well, what's happening here? Have you ever been with a group of people, maybe at dinner, similar to this, where somebody's made a terrible faux pa. I mean, they've made just a huge mistake, in what they said. They only realized it afterwards. And what would ­­ maybe what somebody in the group might do, they could say, "Ah, I can't believe you said that." You know, they could say that. They might say ­­ well, they might even laugh at the person, you know, and the person, then, is very embarrassed that they said ­­ and, in other words, drew attention to the person ­­ made the person look really bad and silly, and the person was really embarrassed.

Jesus knew this person's thoughts. Jesus knew this person's hostile thoughts. How did he handle Simon? What would you do? You would probably like to nail Simon's you know what to the wall. I mean, you would feel like it, wouldn't you? Of course you would.

What did He do? He tells a story. Does Simon get off light? Probably. What's Jesus trying to do here? He's got grace. He knows how to handle the situation. He does so. He's not going to embarrass His host. He gets his point across. He even draws the man in, gets him to answer.

Is He angry at him? No, doesn't appear to be angry at the person. He's teaching, as He did in so many cases. He says ­­ he saw the crowd ­­ he saw the multitude, and he was moved with compassion, and what? More than one place, what does it say? And He taught them. That's it. Didn't chide them for their ignorance. He didn't chide them for the fact that, "Well, you should know better. I'm surprised, Simon, you're thinking this." He never did that. Very gracious individual in the way He handled Himself, even with Simon, and the woman.

I simply wanted to point that out to you. I don't know that we would be that generous, would we? Sometimes we feel like, well, Simon would have to pay. He needs to understand the offense he's caused. And that's not what Jesus did. Jesus was very mindful then as to how best to go about this. And as I said, He was a person of grace, full of grace and truth. Remember? He knew exactly what the man was thinking. Full of truth. He knew truth. But He was able to extend grace. Matthew 9:9­13, let's notice, yet, something else.

Matthew 9:9­13 ­ And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, "Follow me." So he arose and followed Him.

Now, that raised a few eyebrows of itself, that he would get a despised tax officer of the Roman government, one of their own people who collected taxes from the Jews, to then be a follower of him, an apostle, as it turns out.

Matt. 9:10 ­ "Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

V.11 ­ And when the Pharisees saw it" ­­ apparently they either were not invited or they would not dane to be a part of that group ­­ "the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

So what are you even doing that for?

V.12 ­ And when Jesus heard that, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

Did He recognize where the issues were? Yes, He did. Well, the other people had some problems too, but they weren't ready to listen.

V.13 ­ "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners, to repentance."

He says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Know what He's saying? He says I don't desire that you're going to pay. I'm not requiring anything of you. I desire mercy. That is when mercy is given, it's freely given. That's what Paul tells us. Freely forgiven. Freely given, free redemption, as he says. Matthew ­­ I'm sorry.

Romans 3:25, he says that's the way it is. He says I desire mercy, not payment. I don't want to make you pay. I don't want to make you feel bad. I'm not here to give them a lecture. I'm not here to ridicule them. I'm not here to shame them. I'm not here to make them admit wrong and to grovel or to give me an apology. That's not what I'm here for. He says I want to extend mercy.

Now, would a person repent? Well, he was banking on that. He knew they would in time. He knew they all would in time, except the ones who thought they were righteous. Now, those were the ones He would have a problem with. That's what He desired. That's what He wanted. I want to simply show that simply in what He did here, He was a person of grace, where He gave. He gave to people. You say the person didn't deserve it. That's not for me to judge. Does He say the person deserved it? That's not the point He made. He never made that point with anybody.
He simply ­­ He knew that they had not repented. He knew that they were still in their sins. He knew that later on if He was going to call them that probably they would repent, because of the attitude that they were showing there, an attitude of faith, but that was not a prerequisite. A person of grace. You say, "Why, Christ can't do something like that." He can do whatever he wants to do. He's God. Don't you understand that? He's God.

Now, let's see how far Christ will go as a person of grace. How far do you go? Let's go back to some of his commands.

Matt. 5:38 ­ You have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Is that a valid command? Indeed it is. It's in the Bible, I think, about three times, if I'm not mistaken, from the law. Now, Christ is not taking issue with that as a statement or as a part of the law. As a matter of fact, when some of these other things that were done ­­ or, I'm sorry, that He quoted from the law, He never took issue with them in the context of the law in the way that they were written, in the way that they were meant and intended to be applied. He never took issue with any of that. He took issue with the way they understood it. So what do we mean?

Matt. 5:38 ­ You have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Christ did not take issue with this rule of judgment when it's used by a judge or a magistrate. That was a part of the law. If you've got a law, you've got an institution, you've got a rule for order to take ­­ you know, to have order within the community, within the nation, you had to do this, human nature being what it is. You would have infractions, and you would have to judge in a certain way, and this is the way a magistrate would judge.

But it was being applied to personal relationships here, and people were trying to exact justice for everything done to them. And if you want to live that way ­­ if you want to live that way, then an eye for an eye and a ­­ you do this to me, I do that to you. The bikeys do that. Isn't that the rule? Sure. That's what they say. "You do this to me, I do worse to you. You do good to me, I do better to you. Hell’s Angels, that's their motto. Ask them.

Now, Christ did say if you're going to live by the sword, you will die by the sword. Now, this was being applied to personal relationships. And if you're going to counter everything that's said to you, take offense at everything that's said to you, have your feelings hurt over everything that's done or said to you, how many friends are you going to have? That's a question I ask you to answer for yourself. It doesn't mean that. And I hope that we ­­ we will understand that.

He says, "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." A lot of misunderstanding about this. What's he saying? Not to resist an evil person. Christ did not intend to teach that we are to sit back and see our families attacked, perhaps murdered, violated in some way, murdered ourselves, maybe. Rather than make resistance, what would you do? Any man here wouldn't resist that? I don't see anybody not doing that. I would do it. You going to come to my house? I'm going to resist you. Stay away from my wife. You got to go through me first. That's just the way it is.

Okay. Now, this was not what he's talking about, about a certain reasonable self­defense for people. You can defend yourself, your family, in the situation where you know some harm is going to come to you or to them. These are things of comparatively trivial interest.

And what He's saying is it's a lot better in these situations to take wrong, rather than enter into strife, rather than enter into lawsuits, rather than entering into an extended or, let's say ­­ what's the word I'm looking for ­­ escalated situation that just grows and develops and everything else. Wait a minute. If you're going to do the tit­for­tat thing, where is this going to go? He says, you don't resist this, he says.

This does not prevent ourselves from having something to say about what a person does to us mildly on somehow the injustice of the thing and insisting that justice should be done to us. It's not saying that. Example from, let's say, John 18:23. I can show you that, where Jesus himself was slapped. What did He do? He did have something to say about it. But He understood the situation. He never hauled off and socked the guy who did it to him. Okay. I think we'll see the point here.

John 18:22 ­ And when He had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, "Do You answer the high priest like that?"

V.23 ­ And Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken evil, then bear witness of the evil; but if I have spoken well, why are you striking me?"

He verbally defended himself in that way. And then ­­ well, I think He set a very good example in that way.

Then, of course, there's an evil of the litigious person who just, you know ­­ he goes to law about everything, determined to take all ­­ the entire advantage that the law can give him, following lawsuits that are very bitter at times. Christ says this, rather than contend with a revengeful spirit in a court of law or outside a court of law, even for that matter, on a trifling injury, this is mere ­­ you know, forget about it. Can you do that? Can you really do that? Can you understand that?

A lot of us ­­ let me just reiterate the point again. We lose friends, we make enemies, because we seek justice. We seek retribution for every slight, every offensive, every wrong, real or perceived. And we're just quick, quick off the mark. Why did you say that to me? Huh? How many friends are you going to have? How many people want to talk to you after that? How many people want to say anything, if you're going to be operated like that all the time.

Grace does what? I think you see the point by now, don't you? What does grace do? Overlooks it. Forget about it. Let's move on. Don't resist the evil person. Don't try to bring the person to justice. Don't try to get the person to feel bad about what he's done. I'm going to lecture you. I want you to feel ­­ I want you to feel the full force of my lecture. I want to preach. I want ­­ here it is. You're going to ­­ I want you to know how you made me feel. You know, we ought to ask the question, "Is this about us?" Really. You know, Matthew 18 is very instructive in this regard, and that is it's not about you. It's about the other person.
We have here a situation if your brother sinned against you. Why would you go to the other person? I think if you read on down a bit you see how you have gained your brother. Hmm. It doesn't say anywhere that you have received satisfaction because, "Justice has now been done. I feel so much better about that." If that's what you want, you'll be waiting a long time.

Now, you might be able to get a person to admit they're wrong, you know, from that point of view. But the person may not see that. The person may not go down that route. The person may say, "I believe you did such and such." I say, "Well, I don't believe I did that." The person, "Well, I'm sure you did, therefore, it must be." "I don't think so." Nothing's resolved. You ever been down that road? I have. This is their opinion against yours. We're talking about small stuff, really small stuff here.

Matthew 18 is about a disfellowshipmental offense, because it goes on to the point where you have two witnesses, then it goes on up to the church. It goes on up to the fact where the person could be disfellowshipped. A person disfellowshipped because you slighted somebody? How did it get to that? That's got nothing to do with that. Trifling events in our own personal lives. Matthew 18. You got to work this out yourself. You don't start going up to make it a federal case out of this thing. It just doesn't work that way. You need to be able to handle it.

Now, this is grace. This is what grace is. How many times Christ was slandered. How many times Christ was spoken against. Of course, considering who He was and what He said, He was spoken against quite a bit. How did he handle it? What did He do? How did He deal with it? What example did He show His disciples? Was He a man, a person of grace? And this is what this is.

Matthew 5:40 ­ If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.

It doesn't say he's trying to get your house and property. It doesn't say he's trying to put your wife in jail. The tunic or cloak, that may be a big item to some people; I will say that. But let's say comparative to what could be happening, it's not. All right.

Chapter 5:41 ­ Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

You see, you had to cooperate with the occupying powers. This comes ­­ goes all the way back to the Persian empire, when letters were sent out from the king to the far reaches of the empire. You had stations of horses every so far, the best horses there were. And if the courier from the king had to carry a message to some far flung place, and he pressed you into service to help you out, to help him out, get that message there. He says you don't just go one mile; you go two. Go twice as far as he's asking you. Cooperate with him. What would the Jews do? "I'm not going to cooperate with a filthy Roman. Hmmpf."

You know, let me explain something. And I think I explained it to you before. That if the Jews would have only listened to the commands of Jesus Christ, they wouldn't have been killed by their millions and, first of all, 70 A.D. at the rebellion and where women, children, old people were killed by the hundreds of thousands in 70 A.D., and then 62 years later the Bar Kokhba rebellion, you had another million or two Jews killed, because they're not going to be in submission to the Romans. And the Romans, after that, would even let them get back into Jerusalem.

And they only recently have come back in and formed a nation for themselves. That never had to happen. All they had to do was do what Christ said, and they would all be alive. They would all have continued. They would all be in Jerusalem. They would all have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. They would still have been there. Not going to do that. You didn't even have to believe He was the Messiah. Just do what He says, and you would have been fine. Not going to do that.

Christ came with grace that was such a characteristic of God, and the Jews completely missed it. They missed it, much to their own detriment. And Jesus said, Jerusalem, how come you just didn't listen? You're just not even getting the point. You've seen it all. You've heard me speak. You've seen me heal people. I've been with you. I've fed multitudes, and you're not getting the point. And He says, It's going to be your demise. You're going to go into captivity. He knew it. He just knew the way they were. All you had to do is listen to what Jesus said. He was a person, indeed. The person of grace extraordinaire.

V.42 ­ "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away." Verse 42.

This is a certain application. This is exactly what Christ did. Now, He had plenty more to give than we do, but what we do has to be weighed against our own obligations to our own families, of course, and that's ­­ that's understood.

Now, at the same time what if somebody asks you, what are you going to do? It's your choice. It's yours to give. It's yours not to give. What if he's lying to you? How would you know? You wouldn't. What can you give? Dig in your pocket. I've given to people before. Are they lying to me? They could be. I don't know. I'm not there to prove it. Couldn't tell you. When a person seems like they're in need, their story sounds plausible enough, I reach in my pocket. If I didn't and the person needed it, I would have committed perhaps a pretty bad sin. What's worse than I've given it to him and the guy's taking advantage of me or trying to get some money out of me under false pretenses.

They came to Christ. "I need this. I need healing. My son needs healing. My servant needs healing. Please heal me." What did He do? "Well, I don't know if you deserve it or not? What have you been doing the last 24 hours? How did you get to be this way to start with? What did you do in your childhood all this time, and look at you now. Hmmpf." Did they receive a lecture? Show me one lecture. Show me one.

The only thing He said to the woman caught in adultery, he says, "I don't accuse you. Just don't go sin anymore." A person of grace. That's it. You see, this is quite extraordinary and quite different from somehow other than the way we tend to think of things.

Grace is quite extraordinary when administered and given, freely given by the One who not only had so much to give but who could have held people to account every time. He certainly could have.

We come then in verse 43 to even a greater expression of grace. Now, he's stepping up ­­ he's stepping up the tempo here as to grace, what it really means.

V.43 ­ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

V.44 ­ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
I can't believe he said that. Like I said, the commands of Christ are hard. And he says them ­­ he has got more commands about how we are to deal with people who sin and commit offenses and what we are supposed to do for their good, not for us.

And by the way, this is a little edge on to Matthew 18. John and James understood what that means because He says, "If you see a brother who sins a sin not unto death, he who restores such a one shall save a sinner from a multitude of sins," and you understand what he says there. And that's what he's talking about there.

It's for the other person. It's not so that we ourselves can get satisfaction. Whenever it's about us, we don't do it right. When it's about we feel hurt, remember hurt people hurt people. Okay. Someone just told me that the other day. I said, "That's a good one. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. I'll use it." Hurt people hurt people.

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who..." are some of the most difficult statements in the whole Bible. "Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." We want to put conditions on this. We say, "Well, I don't know if I can quite do that. Look, we wish the person well." You may not approve of his conduct.

You do not have love for the conduct of the person who curses and reviles you. You do not have love for the injury that the person does to you or your property, or you don't have love for the person who violates ­­ I'm sorry, you don't have love for the violation of God's laws, but you still wish well the person. You may pity his madness and his folly. We may speak kindly of him and to him. We may return good for evil. We may even aid him in time of trial. We may seek to do him good here and to promote his eternal welfare. You may do all of that.

You don't have to be best friends, but it does say this. It takes a positive point of view. "Love your enemies." That's great. "Bless those who curse you." You do hope the best. You pray for God's mercy upon them as you, yourself, have experienced His mercy.

Now, here we have then one of the big reasons why we should extend mercy, is because we've received it. I think that was the lesson, was it, with a woman who washes His feet with her tears and with her hair. She understood the kind of a sinner she was and, therefore, she loved much. And so she could be very generous to other people. Very generous to other people, because she understood how generous God was with her.

I ­­ if at anything we get from this hopefully we'll understand how generous God has been to us, and that we will understand the grace of God in that way and be able to extend it towards other people. Because they deserve it? No. Verse 45. Why?

V.45 ­ "That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

As I told the people in Toowoomba this morning, they would relate to this, how, you know, you've got a farmer over here. He is a cheat. He treats his animals badly. He cheats other people. He's cantankerous. He's ornery, and he's very mean. Why is it raining on his property?
Well, here we are. He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain without distinction on the just and the unjust, so his people then should show that they should imitate or resemble God, and they should do so in the very similar way.

You and I would be judging people as to whether they should be healed or not. Disciples, remember, couldn't heal some people. I don't know what they were thinking, but Jesus never had that thought in His mind. He healed the person, casts the demons out, and they didn't. There's something maybe that they needed to understand.

V.46 ­ "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

V.47 ­ If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others do? Do not even the tax collectors do so?"

Even the tax collectors hang together, so you don't do better than them. Well, I think I'll just hang around with these people here. I feel more comfortable. I'm not hanging around with that person. I'm not going to be around that person. You know that person has slighted me. I'll make him pay. Who are you really paying? Who's really paying? You are. Of course you are.

You know, God does deal with us favorably before we make the decision to repent, doesn't he? I would certainly hope he does. That's how I ­­ that's how I came to understand what repentance was. He didn't lecture me. Didn't do bad things to me. I understood it through his goodness, and he understands that. We tend to want to punish people. We tend to want to see everybody sitting upright in the school bus, everybody sitting upright in class. It's got to be perfect. Then I'm happy. I feel good. What are you feeling good about? Yourself? God says, "I desire mercy, and I sacrifice."

You know, the whole thing on forgiveness ­­ you've heard me speak about this before, forgiveness, and I'm going to put it this way ­­ is yours to give. It's yours to give. It's yours not to give. But it's yours to give. You can do that if you want or not do that. That's up to you. And so He doesn't put any prerequisites on it. You might think He does, but He doesn't.

Now, does a person have to repent? Yes, he does. But I'm not the person to judge. Thank goodness for that. Will all sin be judged? All sin will either be judged or forgiven, one of the two. No exceptions. Will every word be held into account? Absolutely it will. Nothing's going to fall by the wayside. That's the way God says it will happen.

Is it up to me? Not up to me. He doesn't say, "Well, you'll be able to judge these people." Aren't you glad He doesn't? I'm glad I'm not judged by anybody, except God, and I know His generosity. I know the way He is. When you forgive, you make a choice. You bear the loss. That's what forgiveness is. They can't pay you back. They can't owe you anything. They can't make it up. They can't even make you feel better about it. You bear the loss. Christ did. And He says, "I want you to consider the grace that was there."

Let me cover a couple of points here in closing. Luke 9:51­56.

Luke 9:51 ­ It came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,

V.52 ­ and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.

V.53 ­ But they did not receive Him, because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

They felt slighted. Huh! What an insult. "And they did not receive Him."

V.54 ­ Then his disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just like Elijah did?"

Well, we always got to be like Elijah, don't we?

V.55 ­ And He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what matter of spirit you are of.

V.45 ­ For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.

It didn't come to destroy them. Understand that. But to save them.

V.46 ­ And they went to another village.

Nothing more said. Nothing more said. Guys, get over it. Let's go to the next village. No more discussion. It's over. Guys, suck it in. That's what He's saying. And they went to another village. It's over. Okay. Now, you could continue on the way to the next village another couple of Ks down the track and running these people down because of what they did. Doesn't say they did that.

I told the Counsel, I said, "In any administration here's the way it's going to have to be, that if anything came to our attention that we have to deal with, we talk about it one time. If it has to be dealt with, we do it. If it's not worthy of being dealt with, we forget about it. It's over. We make the decision then no more discussion, no more talking, no more gossip. No more slandering. It doesn't go out the door. That's where it stays."

How many of us have followed that? Just a thought. I said, "That's how we're going to have to operate if we expect them to operate the same way. That's the way we got to operate." As you can see, I was a little bit direct with what I had to say, but you got to be that way, all the way through, no exceptions, no respecter of persons. It's the same standard all the way through. You know they dealt with it. It's over. Grace.

In Luke 23:34 now, we're going to see just how really serious we are when it comes to grace.

Luke 23:33 ­ When they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
V.34 ­ And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots.
V.35 ­ And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God."

V.36 ­ The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself."

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I'm not going to sit here and argue with anybody as to whether they're forgiven or not forgiven. That's a technical matter, which is no consequence to this point right here. None whatsoever. If they knew what they were doing, Jesus couldn't have said that. We have to assume they didn't know what they were doing.

And there's a lot of grace, a lot of grace here. So much so that it's kind of hard to comprehend how they could say such a thing. I believe Stephen understood that grace. That's why he was able to say a similar thing whenever they were stoning him. They didn't know. We see such a generous approach towards other people, towards sinners, such a generous and merciful approach towards people who didn't know better, such a generous approach to the whole of mankind of which we are a part, in which he decided to even come to this earth to start with and live a life among us. Merciful to us and forgiving us, understanding what it's like to be a human being, and being prepared then to die on our behalf. Now, this is grace.

So when Peter says, "Grow in grace," now, this is what he means.