Back to the Basics:

Greetings, I hope everyone is doing well.

This is a day that we come together, obviously every Sabbath, and think about, talk about, fellowship about, something we probably don’t put on the front of our minds. There are few things in our Christian walk that are as sobering, yet at the same time as electrifying as this single statement, “God has called you.” Those few words, four words, encompass why you are sitting in the chairs that you’re sitting in today. Why you do, believe, walk, think, struggle through all aspects of your Christian walk.

Out of the billions and billions of people who have lived over the last six thousand years, God has called you. And there’s so many elements to why He did it, how He did it, what He does for it, His plan as to why He called you, me, all of us, the truth that it connects us to, the goal that you and I have of entering into and being part of the family of God. Again, those are four very powerful words, and really hard to even wrap our minds around. Some statements in the Bible are easy to say, easy to overall just comprehend at reading comprehension level, but to truly wrap our arms around what it means, it’s almost impossible.

Being part of the family of God, understanding the plan that He set for us. As you hear this message, we are the day before Pentecost. Part of that stepping stone, those steps in God’s plan. But being a member, prospective member, member, sitting, young person, whatever it is, in God’s Church, it’s not a passive exercise. It’s not like it’s, okay, we pay a certain amount per month, so we have a YMCA membership. I could show up or not, I’m going to pay that amount. It’s passive.

You may have Costco membership. Whatever memberships you have in life, many of them are much more passive. You can utilize them or not. If you have a Netflix membership, that month you may watch Netflix or you may not. That’s not God’s Church. Each and every day we have to exercise who we are. And then at a certain point, once you’re invited, growing up in the Church, you reach a moment that you decide, “You know what? I need to be baptized. I’m ready to be baptized. I’m going to commit to this way of life. I want to walk this path for the rest of my life.” And the minister will talk with you and go through counseling, making sure you understand the decision you’re making.

And it comes down to you proving three things. Basically, three questions are asked in that baptismal counseling. One, does God exist? It’s fundamental, basic, but again, huge. If you don’t prove that God exists, you can’t get to the next question. And it’s, is the Bible God’s word or the word of God? Does God exist? Is the Bible the word of God? You prove that book. It’s not the Koran. It’s not any other texts that you can find around the world that narrows you into the Christian God, correct?

You start, is there this all-powerful being, that, basically, most people around the world will say there is a higher power, but then you have to narrow it into the Bible and what it means to prove the Bible. And then from there, the final question that you prove and study when you’re being called or when you’re preparing for baptism is, is The Restored Church of God, God’s one true Church? Three huge questions, each with its scope being huge and smaller, and then again, focused on where you’re going to be.

Over this sermon and the next two that I give, we’re going to examine those three questions. We’re going to take it back to the basics of what it meant when you were proving baptism or you may be doing it now. But we’re going to do it in reverse order. Because when you’re studying to be baptized, you have to build the foundation. Does God exist? Is the Bible His word? And then, is this His Church? So you build up to proving where the true Church is because that’s the organization in which you want to have your baptism take place. You want that minister in God’s true Church to baptize you, not in some other organization, not a Catholic church or a Protestant church or a Splinter group.

So you build up to that. Ironically, that last question is the one people can lose first. People can get confused about where the true Church is or what it is, but we’ll still say the Bible is His word, and God exists. People can walk away from Christianity altogether and may still say there’s a God. But often what happens is we forget what the true Church is first. So in the first of these three sermons, we’ll focus on that element, that question that you have to prove. And by the end of today, I hope you’ll be better equipped to fulfill your calling and understand how crucial God’s Church, The Restored Church of God, is in fulfilling that calling.

Some setup because it’s important to realize how unique and special being able to be here, be called, it’s not focusing on the organization yet, to be called actually is. So let’s go back. Let’s go to the book of John, John chapter six. This isn’t really meant to be just a simple doctrinal sermon. It’s more, hopefully, comprehensive than that, that shows so many elements. I could go much longer than I have time for today on all of the different elements that speak to our calling when we’re baptized and proving where and how we should be fed.

John chapter six, we’ll start in verse forty-three. Some basic verses here, verse forty-three. “Jesus, therefore, answered and said unto them, murmur not amongst yourselves, no man can come to me, no man, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day, as written in the prophets. And they shall be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father comes unto me.” We are drawn. That means to draw inward, to impel, to lead. God the Father drew you, impelled you, led you to Christ.

Just like there are steps to get to prove the true Church, there are steps in your calling that gets you closer and closer to the place where you should be fed. That first step is the Father drawing you toward Christ. That’s personal and it’s powerful. The one of the two beings who created the entirety of the universe chose you. Brethren, make it personal. This is one of those times that, yes, focus on yourself. Chose you. Let’s go to Ephesians four. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter one, excuse me, we’ll start in verse four. So Ephesians chapter one, just back a page.

Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse four, “According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Said that fast, but let’s stop and read that. “He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” So before the universe was created, God chose you. How He did that, I can’t even begin to imagine. To look through generations, through time, space, to determine who you would be here today. “Foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Verse five, “Having predestinated or predetermined us unto the adoption or sonship by Jesus Christ to Him according to the good pleasure of His will.” We are automatically going to receive salvation. No, that’s not what this means. And that’s what predestination typically gets wrong in professing Christianity, that, oh, it’s a fait accompli that we’re going to be in heaven or whatever their particular goal is. No, that’s not what God says. He says, “No, I chose you to be in my Church.” And then what we do with that calling, that’s up to us. We make that decision after it. We walk and grow and develop or we wither and fade and die.

But that calling is personal, it’s deliberate, it’s not accidental, it’s not casual. Brethren, that’s, again, should be sobering and electrifying, that the Father chose you and I to be able to be part of that hundred and forty-four thousand that we see just in front of us. But it wasn’t just a New Testament thing. No, it wasn’t. And so, as we build more on this calling, it wasn’t just the New Testament. Let’s go to Isaiah, Isaiah fifty-five. God has always wanted this. Isaiah fifty-five. It’s always been His purpose.

Verse six. Isaiah fifty-five and verse six. “Seek you the Lord while He may be found. Call you upon Him when He’s near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. And He will have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.” We often read this next verse not understanding that you’re thinking about the context, but abundantly pardon, seek God, He’ll call.

Verse eight, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord.” We don’t really understand how, what, and all the intricacies of the mind of God. Do we learn it over time, get a better understanding? Yes. We get to see God’s will, we see how God works in our lives and with others. But ultimately, His thoughts are not our thoughts. That’s like saying, if we say otherwise, it’s like saying a three-year-old has the same thoughts as a fifty-year-old. They’re so different that that three-year-old couldn’t comprehend all the things going on in the fifty-year-old’s mind.

Brethren, we’re the three-year-olds. We just simply can’t understand what’s God’s... How did He pick us before the foundation of the world? I don’t know. We don’t know. Our thoughts are not His thoughts. But He called you, He called me, He called each of us and has always wanted to have people obey Him. Since the garden, He wanted Adam and Eve to obey Him so they could have joyous, happy, wonderful lives. They could eat from the tree of life and experience all the blessings that come from it and ultimately eternal life. But humans are humans and we’re very good at messing things up.

Okay, let’s go back. Let’s go to Romans. We’re continuing to build on this. When you’re called, you can’t just sit still. The book of Romans chapter twelve. You and I can’t sit still. Romans twelve, start in verse one. Romans twelve, verse one. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” It’s reasonable for us to sacrifice ourselves, our bodies, our lives, our time, because God, again, called us.

“And be you not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” We’re to be changed, transformed, become something we’re not when we were first baptized. When we received God’s spirit, something in us changed. Our stony hearts are broken and inside we now have a fleshly heart. We have the ability to change, and God expects it because, again, you were called with the anticipation, the expectation that you and I will grow in character, building our lives and our outlook, our minds like Christ’s, like God the Father, to be part of their family.

We have to turn from what we used to do. We have to reorient ourselves and say, “Okay, this is the path I lead now. This is how I should walk. This is what I should do.” This is part of the calling. This calling is unique, brethren, but it’s the first step. It’s God’s working with you. I had no idea what the true Church was or that I should be in a church or understand anything or if the Bible was God’s word when I first was being called personally. All I knew was there was a God. I studied DNA. I went into it. I realized it was one of those moments where you think, “Oh, I’m in trouble now because I just accidentally and inadvertently, obviously God guiding it, proved that God exists.”

And there was no way I could get out of it, but I had no concept of what I should do for a next step. That’s why I studied religion. I studied Daoism and Islam, and various other forms of religion, philosophies, Buddhism. I knew there was a God. You couldn’t disprove it, but I didn’t know what the next step was. So your calling is that first step where there is a God and He is pulling me towards something. He’s revealing truth to me. And it could be as simple as proving He exists for me, not understand any other truth of any book, especially the Bible. But over time, you, me, I, all of us, have to transform.

Let’s go to Philippians chapter two. Second chapter of Philippians, chapter two, verse nine. Philippians two, nine. “Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him and give Him a name which is above every name, Christ, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, of things on earth, and things under the earth.” That pretty much summarizes everything. “In heaven, on the earth, and underneath the earth, everywhere, that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, not my presence only, but now much more in my absence.”

So even when the minister’s not around, but you need the minister, that’s key. So not just in my presence, that helps because I’m here and I’m going to correct you on things, but also do the things that you’ve been taught when I’m not around. Because why? The verse continues, “We all have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” You don’t work out your husband’s, wife’s, son’s, father’s, mother’s, brother’s, sister’s, friend’s. You don’t have anything to do with working out their salvation. Can you support them, fellowship, strength? Yes. But every single human being that exists must personally decide to walk this way of life, to choose God, to choose what they’ve decided to do.

I don’t care if you’ve been married for fifteen minutes or fifty years, you too as individual human beings must choose. Inevitably, sadly, when someone walks away from God’s Church, the spouse does, then the husband does, the wife follows, almost every single time. This verse wasn’t real. My wife, I was told this years ago, but my wife and I will sometimes say, “If you leave God’s Church, I’m not going with you. I love you, but I’m not going with you. I have to work out my own salvation.”

And do we tell each other what we need to hear, not what we want to tell each other? Sometimes, yes, sometimes as a husband or wife, you could be the wife or the husband, tells the partner what you need to hear to help them work out their own salvation. But ultimately, we have to do it ourselves. It’s not automatic. There are steps that need to be taken after we are called to have us move in that right direction.

Let’s go to second Peter chapter one. Second Peter chapter one. We’re just setting up. We haven’t really talked about the Body of Christ or anything about proving the true Church yet, have we? Although we’ve kind of dabbled around the edges to see where I’m going, but it’s the calling. It’s what we’ve been given is so crucial that it’s important to understand everything rests what we do on those three questions. Those three questions are the foundation of why you are sitting in the chair you’re sitting in today. And losing, especially this first one, will cause you to walk away from that chair.

Think you found something or understood something or misunderstood something because you lose what you proved at baptism. You’re probably in Second Peter now, Second Peter chapter one. Verse eight of Second Peter chapter one. “For if these things be in you and abound...” all that was described above, “...they make that you shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind, cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he’s purged from his old sins.” He had to change after he was called. Verse ten, “Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

That word, “sure,” is a funny word. First time I think I’ve ever looked it up was as I was preparing for this message. “Give diligence,” makes sense, “make effort.” It’s a very clear word. But “sure” is a simple word. Why did they translate it this way? It means stable. It surprised me, but it makes so much sense. If we give diligence, if we work hard and make our calling and election stable, “For if you do those things, you shall never fail.” Because we aren’t blown about with every wind of doctrine. We’re not thrown around when things change, or grow, or develop. No, because our calling and election, we made it stable.

We’re on a foundation. We answered those three questions and proved them. And then through this message and other study, went back now and again and said, okay, maybe I should try it again. I’ll prove it again. God promises stability, doesn’t promise easiness and success if we’re diligent ourselves. So understanding the urgency, understanding our calling, understanding the work we have to do naturally leads us to finding the place, or the method how, God will work with us.

So at that point in time, so you can kind of picture that you’re on this journey, and that journey starts with you understanding that God exists. And the next step is, okay, the Bible is His word. I need to find how He’s going to teach me. Not necessarily where, how. Because you could reach a conclusion early on and say, well, it’s just me and God. I don’t need anyone else. I know He exists. I know the Bible is His word. I’m just going to study this book, and that’s going to get me salvation. That’s going to... I’ll lead to salvation. I’ll go to heaven; whatever people would think in those instances.

Well, that quickly, quickly falls apart just reading throughout the New Testament. So let’s go to Matthew chapter sixteen, mostly the New Testament when you look at the church, a couple of verses from the Old, but Matthew chapter sixteen. Again, some of these are really, really basic. And a follow-up to this, if you want to keep studying it and help to go deeper, is go read the true church book, or the one true church, or God’s true Church, one organization or many, the true church.

So we’ve got one book to the Splinters, so it has a lot of quotes from Mr. Armstrong in it. We also have our True Church book and the History book that helps prove it in way more detail that I could cover in seventy-five minutes in a sermon. But some of these basics are the markers that got you to where you are today. So it’s important to remember, go back and review those things. Matthew chapter sixteen and verse sixteen. “And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ. Christ said, who am I, Peter? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven. Truth comes from the Father.”

How? Christ, in this case, to Peter. “I say also unto you that you are Peter.” A little rock is what his name means. “And upon this rock, a boulder, Christ, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.” Brethren, that’s almost as profound as understanding that God called us. So God called us, and God said, through Christ said, “I’m going to build, I’m going to start, here comes my church. This is how I’m going to work with people in the New Testament.”

When you read that, if you’re being called, that should be like a bus hit you and think, “I’ve got to find it. I need to understand where it is.” The gates of the grave will never stop that church from existing. And it’s thousands of years have passed since those words were uttered, and the gates of the grave never prevailed against it. Church grew and shrank and struggled through era changes where things were more complicated but then came out on the other side. But my church is the word you’ve heard many times, ekklēsia. It simply means an assembly of called out ones. There are a group of people that were called. That’s why the calling is so important. When you answer your calling, you’re becoming one of those called out ones. That’s why you can be invited as a prospective member in God’s church before you’re baptized. Because even before you’re baptized, you’re called. You’re called out. You’re making changes. You are called out of the world, making changes in your life, ultimately to receive God’s Spirit, because you need that to truly change.

But kids, the same thing, if you’re a teenager or younger, you are “called out ones.” You’re part of the ekklēsia. And the ekklēsia is where things can get kind of messy, can’t it? Because human beings, again, are human beings, for generations, Israel did the dumbest things over and over and over again. They would follow a judge. Everyone would get excited and do things of God. And they’d, “Oh, here we go. We’re going to obey God.” And then something would happen, and then they would stop obeying God. At a certain point, many of them would have scattered, gotten lost in the other nations.

When you are an American or a Canadian, or whatever nationality you are, when I moved to America, did I cease becoming a Canadian? No. If you move from the UK, you don’t cease becoming a UKer, English. I don’t know. I have to ask someone who’s English. A Brit. That’s what we’re going with. I got it. No. Once you’re a Brit, you’re a Brit. Can you, through time or circumstances, give up that citizenship? Oh, completely you can. You can lose that citizenship. You could do things that cause you to have that citizenship removed even.

It’s the same with the ekklēsia. When you are a called-out one, called by God, you are called out. You are ekklēsia. When you have God’s spirit, you have God’s spirit. It doesn’t matter if you moved to a different country or a splinter, in this case. You’re still ekklēsia. Is it what God wants? Does God want all the races mixed together? Does God want everything all connected? Of course not. It doesn’t stop you from being called out.

We’ll see what we’ll build on this because this is where people get confused because that’s what all the Protestant world believed. Catholics said, we are the true Church, and all of the folks who left us are no longer the true church. But that would be good for them because they wanted to be part of the church. So the church, the Body of Christ, we’ll get into later, was now divided. Lutherans and Baptists, and evangelicals, they’re all the church. That’s not what God said. It was the church, the ekklēsia. And people get confused because they think, just because I’m called out, doesn’t mean I have to be in one organization. But that’s not what God wanted or has established over and over again.

Just because people make bad decisions doesn’t make God a moron because that’s what it does. Continuing here, “So the gates of the grave cannot prevail against it.” Let’s go to Jeremiah. We’ll see it. At first, you can think, “But if we’re ekklēsia, isn’t it amorphous?” No, God knows it can be confusing, so He clarifies it. Jeremiah chapter three, because you can imagine throughout church eras, this was a subject that came up again and faded and came up again and faded. Because did anyone in the time of Worldwide when it had reached its zenith, no one ever thought that leaving the Worldwide Church of God was a way towards the kingdom of God. No, you fell away.

Everyone who sat and see, “Oh, that person fell away, that was it,” they’re going into the lake of fire. That was it. It was such a tight doctrine in the Worldwide Church of God, they believed that Laodicea would develop inside the Worldwide Church of God. So even Laodicea wouldn’t have been separated from inside the structure of the organization. As we know, understanding grows and develops. But it was so central that that was the thinking, that the Church of God, the Worldwide Church of God, contained all those who are converted.

So it was at the zenith, and no one would think differently. But again, time, memories fade. You’re probably there, Jeremiah three, verse fourteen. “Turn...” says in verse fourteen, “...O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. And I will take you, one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you pastors according to my heart. I will give you teachers which shall feed, nourish you with knowledge and understanding.”

God’s structure, His government, is to give those children or families and bring them to Zion, to His church, if you will, to the one true church. That’s why we say it that way. We say, the one true church versus the church. The ekklēsia versus the true church, the one Body we’ll get to. But God clearly says, “What I want to do is I want to draw you to my place, in this case, Zion, and give you pastors or teachers over you because we need them.”

Anyone who thinks they can pick up this incredibly complicated book and just figure it out on their own are destined, obviously, to fail. Because that’s why there’s Baptists, and Evangelicals, and Catholics, and every other stripe, flavor, texture, taste under the sun of Christianity. Because someone, at some point, said, I disagree, ultimately, with the true church, if you trace it far enough back, and tried to do it on their own. And that spawned off this, and spawned off that, and spawned off the other, until we get the confusion and chaos that we have today, and the churchianity at large, and also in the splinter groups.

Let’s go back to the New Testament. John twenty-one. John chapter twenty-one, and verse fifteen, we’ll start. John twenty-one, fifteen, “So when they had dined, Jesus said unto Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonahs, love you me more than these?’ And He said unto Him, ‘Lord, you know I love you.’ And Jesus said unto him, ‘Feed my lambs.’” So who would ultimately become the first apostle, Peter, his instruction by Christ as things were winding up, Christ was about to go? Wasn’t, you need to set up this structure, or I need to do this, what was His focus? “Feed my lambs.”

Verse sixteen, “Feed my sheep.” Frustrating Peter. “Yes, Lord, I love you, of course.” And in verse seventeen, “He said it a third time. Peter was grieved because he said unto the Lord... ‘Love you me.’ And he said, ‘Lord, you know all things, you know I love you.’ “And what equals love in Christ’s mind? “Feed my sheep.” Let’s ask a question. If it’s so important to feed sheep, let’s keep the analogy practical. I’m feeding sheep, and there’s, here’s some sheep that I have to feed. And there are two people at the front of the room, two people, leaders, different groups, want to feed those sheep different things. How do you determine if the Body of Christ, if the ekklēsia, is just spread off everywhere?

Who gets to choose their diet? Who gets to choose what is good food? Who gets to obey what Christ told Peter and feed the lambs, feed the sheep, because they need specific food? It takes a structure, God’s government, to determine how the sheep are fed. And ultimately, that structure, as you can see in the Bible, goes back up to one person, one human head, in our case, Mr. Pack, the apostle, who’s alive today, who’s under Christ, who’s under God the Father, who has ministry under there to feed those sheep. It’s the Second Commission of our Great Commission.

The First is go to the world, teach them the truth that we understand. And the second is feeding the flock. It’s that crucial. But without the government of God, you can’t determine the food. Well, I think it should be this. I think it should be that. No, it’s the food, the faithful word as we have been taught by someone. Not in private, not private interpret... by someone. It takes God’s government for that to work.

Go to Hebrews chapter thirteen. People get confused about this. It’s often the case, it’s time, because we don’t reprove it. When we don’t reprove things, human beings are human beings. There’s a reason why the ministry’s job is to bring people in remembrance. You may be sitting in the audience, especially if you’re newly baptized, and think, this is such a simple doctrine, why are you giving a sermon on it? Because you just proved it, so it’s fresh in your mind. But over time, things change. People can get offended, or something happens in their life, or a trial, or they don’t understand this, that, or the other of how God’s work is working, or making decisions. And they stop remembering what they had already proven.

Hebrews chapter thirteen, verse seventeen. Seventeen, “Obey them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves. For they watch for your souls, as they must give account that they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.” How do you submit yourself to someone who has rule over you, if you have the option, this is what happens if the Body’s divided, if it’s just all converted people everywhere, how do you submit yourselves under one authority, one rule, if you can just go to a different authority and a different rule somewhere else? Well, I don’t like to be corrected because no one wants to be corrected.

So I can just go over here where they’re not going to correct me, or I’m going to go over... No, that’s not how God works. But it feels good in the moment because now you can go to somewhere else and you’re a conquering hero. I have left there because I’m standing up for this, that, or the other nonsense, because that’s what it is. When people leave, it’s nonsense. They get wrapped up in something personal, usually some pet doctrine, or sin, and they’ll stand on some public pronunciation, or at least what they’ll tell people around them, but really, it’s they don’t want to obey God. They don’t want to obey His government. They don’t trust God is working through His government.

That’s why it’s grievous. As a minister, greatest joys and some of the greatest losses, watching people obey, grow, change, and develop toward the kingdom of God, and watching people give it up for what seems like such minor things. Because God expects His organization, His Church, His place, His one true Church, His Body to be unified. Let’s go to First Corinthians one. Am I saying that God can’t work with people outside of The Restored Church of God? Of course not. I was outside of The Restored Church of God when God called me. So was every single one of you who were called out of the world.

Every person in the history of time who didn’t grow up in the church, God was working with you before you were in His church, plain and simple. Could God heal someone outside the Body? Yes, of course, He can. God can do whatever God chooses to do, but God works inside the Body. And usually, as I’ve seen in decades now, when He starts working, especially with someone outside the Body, just something dramatic, it’s to pull them toward the Body. It’s to get their attention, make them think, make them think, “Okay, what am I doing?”

Not to validate inactivity or disobedience to truth, it’s to wake them up. That’s why God’s trying to wake up plenty. That’s why we released those two videos to the Splinters, to see if they would see the amazing truth God is giving to His Church. But sadly, only a smattering responded, because that’s what it is in this age. It feels good to not be under authority. It feels good not to have to submit to those over you, to be able to rule, judge, and decide in the Laodicean era.

First Corinthians chapter one and verse eight. First Corinthians one, eight, “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ? God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, our Lord.” We fellowship with Christ. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.” This is Corinth, He said it to. They had all sorts of problems. Did that mean they went out to different places, and they started their own church?

No. They were able to receive correction from Paul because they were in the same place. They received it from their minister, their apostle, because if they could just go somewhere else, “I don’t want to speak the same, I don’t want to hear what Paul says. I don’t like what Paul says, I’m going to go over here.” No, they were in the same place, but Paul said, “No, no, no, it’s not just being in the same place.” The Restored Church of God is not your ticket to the kingdom of God, plain and simple, full stop. You could be here and be a hypocrite, a liar, and just be sitting in your seat, keeping it warm.

But I can say unequivocally that if you leave The Restored Church of God, your path towards the kingdom is not going first. May God have mercy on you for learning all that you’ve learned, and walking away from the place that you learned it. But that’s why we’re trying to prove it, to stop that from happening. So stop it from leaking into the mind, doubt. But we all speak the same things, and there be no divisions among you. But you be perfectly joined together. Perfectly.

In the same mind, and in the same judgment. You can’t have the same judgment across differing, competing organizations. So God says to Corinth, who was a mess, but were all meeting together, so they could receive the correction. Imagine, in Corinth, if the one who was sleeping with his stepmother was put out of the church. So he’s put out of the church. There we go. And he’s upset, because I wanted to sleep with my stepmother. So he and the stepmother go to a splinter group who’s perfectly fine with that.

Well, they can’t be in the same mind and the same judgment, can they? Because they can just get whatever judgment they want. And maybe they go somewhere else, and that group is like, no, sleeping with your stepmother is still something we’re not good on. So they go somewhere else. Oh, no. Okay. Eventually, they’ll find a place that they say, “Okay, we’re fine. You’re tithing, so we’ll let you sleep with your stepmother.” Brethren, that’s the Splinters. Are they all that gone? No, of course not.

That’s what makes it confusing to people, is because they keep the commandments, they tithe, they keep the holy days, they keep the broad umbrella of what is Christianity. But they lose truth. To me, the most simple equation that you can take away when you look at The Restored Church of God versus everything out there is the splinters lose truth. Even people, I know people who are zealous, and they want to do the right thing, they think they’re making the right decisions. They’re sincere, but as Mr. Armstrong used to say, they’re sincerely wrong. But they are disconnected from the vine. We’ll cover some of this.

But as they’re disconnected from the vine, they are losing truth and not even realizing it. Things that they would not have ever done, they’re doing. So, you have the one side losing truth because they’re not connected to the vine. That means God’s spirit is slowly being lost. Spirit of truth versus The Restored Church of God, where we’re gaining truth. Learning so many things. So many things. I can only get ahead of myself. But they had to be under the same gender. Ephesians four. Ephesians chapter four.

Because in a funny way, this is a really easy doctrine. We’ll read three passages here, where one or together or joined makes it impossible to be anything else. And the arguments that you’ll hear out there that say, “Oh, well, it’s just different in this era.” Well, sorry. That’s private interpretation. God is the same forever. He changes not. It’s not different. People are different. Laodiceans who want to judge, rule, and decide are different. But God is not. So, His definition of whatever God defines in the Bible.

So, if God defines clean and unclean meat as X, but we get to twenty-twenty-five, and now they can fabricate pig meat in a machine. So, therefore, you could have bacon, but it’s not really from bacon, but it’s using the cells of bacon. So, you know what, God? It’s a little bit of a... It’s different now. It’s a little different. I know what you said, but pork. But now we can make this semi-fake pig. So, this pig cells that are replicated, it’s a pig, but it’s grown in a lab, and it’s healthy. It’s different in this age. What’s a dumb comparison? Because they’re like, oh, one, you’re thinking lab-grown meat, no. But two, it’s still pig. So, take that.

But God, the church is different. It’s the Laodicean age. I know you defined what it is, but your definition doesn’t apply. I know better than you because, well, you know, I rule, judge, and decide. It’s the same thing. Human beings don’t get to change what God defines, plain and simple. Ephesians four, probably there, Ephesians chapter four and verse four. Why? “Because there is one Body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.”

There is one Body. But people get confused. But I have God’s spirit, so I have the one spirit. Again, you can take the Brit out of Britain. They’re no longer living there. They’re no longer following the laws, the statutes, the ordinances of Britain. They’re now following the ordinances of the country they’re in. And until they lose that citizenship, they lose God’s spirit altogether, they’re still a Brit. They’re just not obeying the government they professed to say they would obey. Let’s go to First Corinthians twelve. This is a longer passage, but it’s crucial. The Body of Christ chapter. First Corinthians twelve.

As we read through this, ask in your mind, are we allowed to define the Body of Christ differently than all of what we’re going to read here? It’s an easy answer in your head, but if we lose things, if we get confused, we get offended, we don’t understand, we go through a trial, whatever it is that causes us to say, “No, but is this really God’s church?” Even though you and I proved it when we were baptized. First Corinthians twelve, and we’ll start in verse twelve.

Verse twelve of First Corinthians twelve, “For as the Body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one Body being many are one Body, so also is Christ.” Christ is unified with the Father, so the Body is unified. “For by one spirit, we’re all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free, or we’ve been all made to drink into one spirit.” You go back in time, people are baptized in the Body of Christ. Very rarely, some can, usually God calls almost exclusively, God calls them to the Body, can be baptized in the splinter, and then they come to God’s church. But conversions just simply don’t happen in the Splinters.

Now and again, yes, because God is God and our thoughts are not His thoughts. But in those cases, when conversions do happen, I work with a couple of people I know who were baptized in a splinter and then came here. But often, those baptized in the splinter who come and leave didn’t evidence the fruit of God’s spirit and proved the statement. Verse fourteen, “For the Body is not one member but many, that the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the Body. Is it, therefore, not of the Body? And if the ear says, if I’m not the eye, I’m not of the Body.” Is it, therefore, does it get to decide?

If your foot, your finger, your hand, your thumb decides, I don’t want to be part of the Body anymore. “If the whole Body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling? But now has God set members, every one of them, in the Body as it pleases Him.” You’re sitting in the Body of Christ in the place where God put you. Can you grow, develop, and become a leader, and be able to do more and serve and help? Yes. And then at which point, and someone’s ordained a deacon or appointed a ministerial assistant or made an elder, then they’re put in a different part of the Body as God chooses.

“And if they were all one member, where would the Body be? But now there are many members, yet one Body. The eye can’t say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay or no, much more that those members of the Body which may seem more feeble are necessary...” Feet don’t look great in general but try not having them. “…and those members of the Body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor, for our comely parts have abundant comeliness.”

There may be people you know in God’s way that aren’t pretty people, but aren’t physically apt and able. They’re older, they’ve lived this way of life, they’ve been weathered, life is showing its signs of time. But they’re some of the deepest vessels that you can tap for knowledge and wisdom. “For our comely parts have no need...” verse twenty-four, “...and God has tempered the Body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacks.” Whatever one part lacks, the other one helps. “And if one member suffer...” excuse me, twenty-five, “...there should be no schism in the Body.”

You want to find a schism? Take a knife... don’t do this. Take a knife, cut your arm. Build a schism. How does that work out? That’s how people kill themselves. They slice their wrist, you bleed out. That’s a schism in the Body. You die. “But that member should have the same care for one another. And if whether one member suffer, all members should suffer. If one member be honored, all members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Christ and members in particular.” Brethren, how does that happen across multiple organizations?

Let’s just keep this simple and practical. If a member in The Restored Church of God gets sick, prayer request goes out, we pray for them, a card goes to them, how do people in Living or United or whatever group know about that member? How do they suffer with that member? And conversely, something happens over there, how do we know? We don’t, because you can’t. You can’t suffer with those outside the Body because you’re not connected. There are schisms. Two can’t walk together unless they be agreed.

You have to be within God’s Body to be able to suffer and triumph with those in the Body. Keep it simple. Don’t complicate what is a simple teaching because it’s so crucial because the Body nourishes the parts because that’s how you and I are fed. If we’re fed garbage, then we die. If you go outside the Body, there’s no one saying, “Eat properly. I’m controlling your diet.” But that happens here. Even among the ministry out there, it’s much more free for all.

Headquarters very much thinks about, okay, it’s that time of year, we ask the ministers, what are you seeing in this congregation? What are you seeing? And we tailor to properly feed God’s church. So you and I, a member just like you are, when I’m sitting in there, not up here, take in that food and grow. I can’t do that if I’m not inside the Body. Continuing on here, let’s go to First Corinthians twelve. First Corinthians chapter twelve, we’re there. So we’ll flip back a page because we’ll start in verse seven this time.

But when the church feeds us, our mother feeds us... We could spend a whole bunch of time talking about the church being our mother and nourishing us. You can look those verses up on your own. But earlier in First Corinthians twelve, remember, this is the Body of Christ chapter. There’s something else that is a telltale sign of the Body. Verse seven of First Corinthians twelve, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” So the spirit helps us profit because we have God’s spirit in us. “For to one is given the spirit, the word of wisdom by the spirit, and to another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit.”

“Gifts can be given to another faith by the same spirit, another, the gift of healing by the same spirit, and to another, a working of miracles…” or dunamis, working of power is what that means, “…to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.” Key in here, the manifestation of the spirit inside the Body of Christ gives gifts. One of those gifts are healings. One of those gifts are miracles. Brethren, never take for granted when God performs a miracle in your life.

That is a protection, that is a deliverance, an intervention, however you want to see it, that happens inside the Body of Christ, that happens in a place that doesn’t happen elsewhere. Again, could individuals of God work? Yes, individually, but not collectively, not organizationally. God works with individuals however He sees fits because all of those folks, those are brothers and sisters that are sitting in the splinter group. You want them to have salvation. How much more does God?

Does God have a plan with each of those people on how He’s going to work with them because they have not come under His government to be able to be fed and taught here? Yes, of course He does. We’ve learned about it. But until they choose to obey Him, they’re wandering in the dark. They think it’s great, love and, oh, happy, joy, it feels good. But the way that seems right to a man is ultimately the end of His death. We think we know what we’re doing. It’s why there are so many organizations out there, not just splinters, but around the world, churchianity, because someone thought they could pick up the word of God and on their own figure it out. That’s simply not how it works.

I was going to read some miracle reports for us today, but you’ve read them. And I started searching them and I thought, there’s one this month, there’s one this month, there’s one this... Over and over, month after month after month of dramatic healings, usually healings. Those are the ones that can be the most dramatic. And those are the ones sent in the headquarters, not the ones you may have been anointed and something changes. Or I remember anointing my wife once, and she felt warmth in her knee and stood up. She said, “It’s gone. The pain has gone in my knee.”

Those only happen in the Body. I’ve listened to people talk, and you’ve probably talked in the splinters, “Oh, I got sick and I was anointed. And right after I was anointed, my sniffles went away. And then a few days later, my cough started to subside. And then a few days after that, I felt totally better. So God healed me.” No, you got over a cold. That’s usually what a “healing” is framed in the splinters. Someone just gets over a cold. They just had the natural progression of your Body getting better, not my wife with, “Oh, feeling warm in my knee, the pain’s gone.”

Or someone was dramatically protected, or cancer went away. That is God intervening. Our bodies can heal themselves. He made them that way. But to intervene, change something that was not going to change, only happens in the Body because you need the authority, you need the government, you need an apostle. That’s the divine intervention that takes place, again, only inside the Body.

Let’s go to Acts chapter three. Let’s look at an example. This is one of those times where I think I’ve done it in messages before. “If you’ve been healed or had a dramatic deliverance or protection, your job,” it says in Timothy, “...is to go through the sacrifice of communication.” You have to communicate that to your minister so it can be submitted to headquarters as a healing or as an intervention or as a deliverance because your experience can not only help you, of course, build your own faith, but you can build the faith of others.

You can build up other people to think, “Wow, that person was healed of it. That person-- You know what? I have faith. I can be healed because I’ve seen this, this, this, and that person healed as well.” So please, if you’ve received God’s healing or His intervention, you have to pass that on. Pass it to your minister. We’ll feature it in announcement bulletins or however we do, because it strengthens the flock, because we suffer together in the Body, and we rejoice together in the Body.

Acts chapter three and verse six. “Then Peter said, silver and gold I have none, but such I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leapt and walked and entered into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.” That isn’t, he just started to feel better, the sniffles went away, oh, I finally lost that headache. No, dramatic change that’s not explainable. Those are real healings, and that’s what they are.

Okay, brethren, let’s go to John chapter fifteen. Again, we can’t cover every single verse today, but we can cover a lot in the time we have to show all of the different elements that are the bigger picture of showing the Body of Christ. First Corinthians twelve alone should pretty much cover it as a proof, but we’re looking at the elements. So you can do your homework, you can read the literature because you will and I will, this is the one that we’ll forget. This is the first one to go because after you lose the true church, you get cut off from the vine. You start to lose God’s spirit.

You know what happens next? You’ll lose this book. This book will fade. And suddenly, the meaning of it, the realism of it, the literal nature of it will become less. It’ll become more metaphorical. It’s an analogy, it’s a principle, it’s old Hebrew literature. And then at a certain point, once you give up the book, now you’ve lost the connection to God. And now, what is God? Who is God? And suddenly, the three things that you and I proved at baptism become unraveled over time, and you’re doing what everyone else in the world does, not thinking about obeying the true God.

John chapter fifteen and verse one. Verse one. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch that is in me,” in the Body of Christ, in the vine, “...that bears not fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it’ll bring forth more fruit,” to cleanse, prune, or purify, that’s what purge means. So if the branch isn’t in him, that’s what happens, take it away, cut away. We had a storm come through here, a lot of straight-line winds, there were a lot of branches that were down everywhere. All those branches were disconnected from whatever tree they were connected on. They were not going to grow.

Verse three. “Now you’re clean through the word which I’ve spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,” it needs the Body, the trunk of the tree, the vine to feed it, the nourishment that comes from the roots, from the ground, the structure, the base, that if we obey and work on our calling is stable, that comes up through that vine, that tree, and “...except you abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me.” We do not grow unless we’re connected to Christ.

And what connected to Christ means has to come from the Bible. It can’t just be what we suppose, what we decide. You and I don’t decide truth. And once we start doing that, now the whole kit and caboodle, if you will, is on the table. Nothing is defined anymore. That’s why I’ve said many times, if you don’t have an apostle, you don’t touch anything. Even things that would... Let’s say you go any time in age where there’s truth, and maybe apostle died at a time God chose, and some truth was half established, creating a half kind of scenario here, and it didn’t quite fully make sense. You know what you don’t actually do? Finish establishing it.

I don’t care who you are, an evangelist or anyone, because once you don’t have an apostle, you don’t touch it, you don’t touch anything that’s been taught. That is the foundation of the truth and the knowledge of the present truth. The present truth at that point is locked until God has another era and raises another apostle. But guess what? We’re at the last era now. That doesn’t happen again. Without an apostle, you don’t touch it because the Bible is written in such a way, without that office, you’ll confuse yourself. I would, too.

Verse five. “And in the same brings...” Start at verse five. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing.” Outside the Body of Christ, you can do nothing. But slowly, “If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch...” And what happens? Verse six. “...and is withered,” dying, losing nutrients, drying out. “...and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Ultimately, being disconnected from the vine leaves people dead. Brethren, you care about people, so do I. So when you pray and hope for people to come, pray and hope for the kingdom of God, because that’s the only thing that’s going to save people from losing God’s spirit if they don’t wake up and obey God and come back to his Body, because they’re just going to keep losing truth, they’re just going to keep losing the spirit. That’s how it goes.

If you’re here, you can be pruned, can’t you? You can bear more fruit, you can develop. That’s why we said you need a ministry, you need teachers. Without those teachers, we can’t bear more fruit because things aren’t pointed out. You can study the Bible and learn about aspects to yourself, but usually what happens is we’re really good at noticing little things in ourselves to change. Tweaks this, tweak there, kind of work.

What you have is when you have a ministry or God inspiring the diet through messages or through counsel with the minister, they help you see the things you don’t see. They bring clarity to things you may not recognize or bring counsel or wisdom from God’s word to help you overcome things you do see. That’s why you need that government of God. But again, if that doesn’t happen under the one rule, one Body, then there is no judgment. There is no one judgment, as Paul said, because there’ll be a multitude of judgments, and you just pick whichever one you want.

It’s a thing that’s been an issue in God’s Church forever. We often call it minister shopping. You go from one minister, you don’t like the answer, so you go to the other minister and get a different answer. Well, the problem is the ministry is unified, so you’re going to get the same answer from the other minister as the one you had. That’s what happens inside the Body of Christ. But if I go from one minister here to a minister out there, you’re going to get a completely different answer, and it won’t come from the Body. You won’t have, again, one judgment.

Let’s go to Hebrews twelve. It’s where God warns about it. Hebrews chapter twelve. Because we’re going to be pruned so we produce fruit. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse eleven. “Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous.” Isn’t that true? If you get in trouble, I don’t care who it is and why it is, or it could be your boss, it could be your parents, whatever, and it could be God. You could be corrected by your minister. Being corrected is never fun. It’s not joyous, but grievous.

“Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” If you’re not exercised thereby, that’s different. “Wherefore, lift up your hands that hang low and feeble knees, and make straight the path for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.” When we are pruned, we have two decisions. We either take it, we grow, develop the peaceable fruit of righteousness, or we let it turn us away. We go find different judgments that make us feel better and tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear.

Let’s go to Galatians five. Galatians five, and verse sixteen. Verse sixteen reads of Galatians five. “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, but not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” And as it comes down, it talks about the fruits of the flesh and the products of it. In verse twenty-two. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there’s no law.” We will bear those kinds of fruits if we remain attached to the vine, if we remain inside the Body, and we can have the one judgment, the one Body, the rule over us that helps us bear more fruit.

That’s what we want because that peaceable fruit of righteousness is what gets us ready to be part of the family of God. That helps us, but that doesn’t work if we’re not inside the Body. And if the Body is scattered and confused and broken apart and divided, that doesn’t work. And the Bible says it’s not. That’s what it comes down to. Anyone could suppose whatever they want to suppose, but what does the word of God say? And the word says the Body of Christ is united. If there are individuals not united, they are not in the Body of Christ. Simple. Don’t let it get more complicated. Either the Bible is true, or someone’s supposition and personal pet doctrine is true.

Go to First Timothy as we come to a close. A couple more passages here. First Timothy chapter three. Because this is what it comes down to. First Timothy chapter three and verse fourteen. Verse fourteen reads. “These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly. But if I tarry long, that you may know that you ought to behave yourself in the house, the house of God, which is the church, the house, singular, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

If you have people who disagree on what truth is true and what truth is untrue, they are not the house of God. They are not the Body of Christ. They can be converted, yes. God can work with people how God chooses to work with people. But the Bible is His word, and it doesn’t change, and you have to be the pillar and ground of the truth to be the Body of Christ.

Brethren, let’s pick one, just a simple one. In the splinters, they don’t understand who the Father is. That is remarkable understanding that God has given this church. And so many more things I could go on and on and on about the truth that has grown here. The pillar and ground of the truth is here. They don’t understand who the Father is, how He fits in the plan of God, how involved He was throughout Israel’s history. That’s a pretty big truth, I say facetiously. And if you don’t believe that versus someone who does, you can’t walk together. And God says that is His Body, the one true church, not just those with God’s spirit.

John seventeen. John chapter seventeen and verse seventeen. John seventeen, seventeen. “Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth.” That’s why we’re here. It’s for the truth, and truth can only be defined through apostles. We had one last century, we have one now. Is the process of understanding and growing and developing in truth complicated? Yes. Is it easy? No. Is being boiled in oil, centuries back, easy? I would take the path that we’re on right now, to be in air conditioning, to be able to enjoy a nice meal, to have suits and dresses on, to be able to experience life in the West when we can be a little bit upset about this, that, or the other, because the process is not up to you or my or whatever liking. No.

The alternative is live a thousand years ago and be dipped in oil and die for the truth. But remember, we are growing in truth, the splinters are losing it. “As you have sent me into the world,” verse eighteen, “...even so I’ve sent them into the world. And for their sake I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified through the truth.” Socials, fellowship, fun, we just had a social here, that doesn’t make up the true church. They’re elements, but it’s through the truth. The truth is what sets us apart. The truth is what makes up the Body of Christ. And the truth is what gives us the government of God, the structure, the understanding, the judgments, the wisdom through the truth that exists here.

Brethren, if you get confused, remember what you know. You will lose it if you disconnect from the vine. People will tell you, you won’t. You will. By the authority of Jesus Christ, you will lose truth. I’ve watched it happen over and over again. Stay connected to the vine. Don’t pick the harder path. Verse nineteen. “For their sake, I sanctify... through the truth.”

Verse twenty. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe through me through their word,” throughout the generations. You could say kind of hope for those, and the splinters will obey and figure it out and be part of the family of God. “That they may be one as you, Father, are in me...” Maybe one. You can’t be one if you’re in two, three, five or competing places. “...and I in you, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me,” by the example of the Body of Christ, the one true church of God, The Restored Church of God.

Brethren, you have been given such a gift, and so have I. God called you out of this world. He picked you before the foundation of the world. You and I get to sit in the seats we have today because we started out proving that God exists. We proved that the Bible was His word, and then you and I proved that this is the one true church, the Body of Christ, the individuals connected to the vine that is Jesus Christ. Leaving it, losing it, or cutting yourself off from it ultimately means death. It’s not instant, but ultimately means death.

So if your mind fades, time goes, and you start to have doubt, come back and prove it like you did at baptism. Prove all of the questions, and we’re only answering one today, and we’ll look at two more in the next two sermons. Remember the Body of Christ doctrine. Remember what you proved at baptism. Remember who feeds you. Remember where the truth comes. Remember why you sit in The Restored Church of God, the Body of Christ, and God’s one true church.