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Living Church of God - Audio Sermon Library
How Firm Is Your Foundation?
01:11:23
Douglas S. Winnail | Recorded April 25, 2026
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Sam, One of the lessons that we learn by observing the Passover in the days of unleavened bread is the importance of self examination. The importance of self examination, of identifying and working to eliminate sin in our lives. Another way of phrasing that is to take time to recognize where we're not following God's instructions. Take time to recognize where we're not following God's instruction, where we're drifting off course. What I'd like to do in the sermon today is to consider another type of self examination that's absolutely vital to your future and to my future, and that is how firm is your foundation. And for you ladies, I'm not talking about makeup, but how firm is your foundation, how solid are your beliefs? How solid are your beliefs, and how well do you know the scriptures to back up those beliefs? Maybe another way of thinking about this is who are you following? Who are you following? Is it Mr. Armstrong? Is it Dr. Meredith? Is it Mr. Weston? Is it a particular minister? A number of years ago when I was teaching out in Big Sandy, we were discussing the changes that were coming down and we were discussing what are we going to do? And one of the young men at the dinner table, he said, I'm going to follow so and so. I'll leave the name out, but I'm going to follow so and so. And wherever he goes, I'm going to go. He didn't go anywhere. He didn't go anywhere. But you need to know who you're following. You're following your family. That's not wrong. You know, if your family is on target. But sometimes mates go different directions, different members of the family go different directions. If you're following a group, if the group breaks up, then where do you go? Some people go one direction and other people go another direction. Where do you go? In many cases, you're left on your own. You're left on your own. Some of you that have been around to church for some time, you may have known different leaders and you could put confidence in some and question marks about others. But I've talked to also people that didn't know anybody at headquarters. And when the church came apart, it was kind of like, what do I do? What do I do? What I'd like to address in the sermon, and I've labeled it, how firm is your foundation? How firm is your foundation? I want to talk about why that's important to you as a young person, why it's important to you as an older person. How do you build a firm foundation? What do you do to prepare for decisions that you may need to make. I'd like you to think about that as, not only as we go through the sermon, but as you go home. As you go home. You know, the days of unleavened bread is a time for self examination. But you don't stop just because the days of unleavened bread are over. You know, you need to keep thinking about things and working on things, making. Making a plan. You know one of our elders down in South Africa, when I'll call him and said, could we arrange something? He said, we'll make a plan. We'll make a plan. We can do it. We'll make a plan. Do you have a plan? Develop a plan for building a firm foundation. Now, why is this subject important? What does the Bible have to say about some of these things? In Matthew 24, I want you to notice something. Matthew 24, You can be turning there in verses three and four. So now Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came unto him, and they said, tell us what's going to be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? How are we going to know we're getting close to the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said, take heed that no one deceives you, that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name saying I'm the Christ, or I'm a Christian, I'm a minister of God. And they will deceive many. That's just mentioned once in verse 3 and 4. But don't drop down to verse 11. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Then drop down to verse 24, for false Christs and false prophets will rise, do wonders, and deceive many, even the elect, if that's possible. I remember I gave a sermon in, I think it was the Dallas area. I was teaching in Big Sandy and I was trying to drop hints about what was coming. There's one gentleman sitting three or four rows back and he was listening very intently. And he came up after the service, says, do you think it's possible for the elect to be deceived? I said, if you're not watching, it would be possible. He said, I'm going to watch Mr. Descotch. Well, Mr. Descotts went way off in a very different direction, but he missed what I was trying to say. But where do you go whenever the group that you're following goes off in a different direction? But here are three warnings in one chapter, talking about at the End of the age. Let me just give you some scriptures. We weren't tuned to all of these things, but in 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians 11. Now Paul is writing the first century church there in Corinth. Chapter 11, 2nd Corinthians, verses 3 and 4. Paul says, I fear I am concerned. He said, talking to the church, I am concerned because some people will come preaching another Jesus, talking about another Jesus that might have long hair. Or he's saying, you know, you might go to heaven after all, but they'll come with a very different Jesus, talking about a different Jesus who did away with the law, who nailed the law to the cross so we don't have to keep it anymore. He said, I'm concerned with you or for you. And they come with a different gospel. A different gospel. It's not about the kingdom. It's about this warm feeling in your heart and being led by a different spirit. I didn't see anybody during song service jumping up and down, waving their arms and shouting, hallelujah. That's a different spirit. But Paul was telling the church then, in the first century, I'm concerned that some will come and you're going to follow them. Turn to First Timothy 4. I just want to illustrate here with about eight or ten scriptures. We'll just do it very quickly. But the New Testament has numerous warnings, numerous warnings about deception. First Timothy 4. 1. Now the Spirit expressly says, in the latter times, in the latter times, at the end of the age, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And then he lists a number of those things. But Paul is writing to Timothy about something that's going to come towards the end of the age. Second Timothy, chapter three. Second Timothy, chapter three. Ms. Armstrong used to mention all the time, he says, when God repeats something, it's important. When God repeats things, it's important. Paul again is talking about the end of the age, actually, chapter three and verse one. Second Timothy, chapter three and verse one. But know this, in the last days, the last day at the end of the age, perilous times will come. Look it up in a bunch of different translations. Dangerous, terrible times will come. Confusing times will come. For men will be lovers or people will be lovers of themselves. I'm number one. I'm number one. I got to watch out for me. Focused on themselves. Lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers. Look up the word. What's it mean? Well, the Bible really doesn't mean that this is What I think it says, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful. You know, we're observing our 250th anniversary in America. Are we thankful for the privilege that we've had growing up in this country? Are we thankful for the blessings that are here? Why have 11 million people wanted to get in here even illegally? Do we thank God for those things? We thank God for our health. But I'm thankful. Talking about, these are signs of, towards the end, having a form of godliness. In America we have our forms of godliness, but it's not according to the scripture. But Paul again here is talking about the end of the age. Things that are coming go to second Peter, chapter two. So Peter is talking about the same thing. The point I want to make here is this is not an unimportant subject. Second Peter, chapter two, verses one to three. Peter writes, but there were also false prophets among the people. Talking about the Old Testament. Even in time, he's living, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them. And he talks about in chapter, in verse two, the truth will be blasphemed. Oh, that's not really the truth. This is what we think the truth is. So we find many warnings in the New Testament, chapter 2 and verse 12 of 2 Peter. But like these natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of things with these false teachers will speak evil of things they do not understand, and they'll speak evil of people they don't really even know. Well, I heard. Well, I heard this and I heard that. These warnings are there for us to heed. Let me give a couple of other scriptures quickly. Ephesians, chapter 5 and verse 6, Paul is writing the church of Ephesus. He says, don't let anybody deceive you with empty words, misleading ideas. Well, I heard this, and I think this, and so on. Rumors. These are things we've got to be careful of. We need to be able to recognize. Colossians 2 and verse 8, it says, Beware lest anybody cheat you. Cheat you out of your reward, cheat you out of being in the coming kingdom of God, reigning with Jesus Christ. Don't let anybody cheat you out of those things. Revelation 3, verse 11. Talking about the Philadelphia era, it says, hold fast that which you have and don't let anybody take your crown. Don't let anybody take your crown. When I got fired for giving a sermon down in Big Sandy, the guy that fired Me was one of my students, And he had a guy there as a witness for this whole thing. As I walked out of the door, I kind of poked the guy at the door with my elbow, just let him know I don't really take this very serious. And what I was thinking in my mind was, you can't have my crown. You can't have my crown. I'm not going to give it to you. But we've got to be able to stand firm when these things happen. First Corinthians, chapter 3 and verse 15. First Corinthians 3, 15. Paul talks about there. Don't deceive yourself. What do you mean, don't deceive yourself? Have you ever deceived yourself? Have you ever rationalized yourself into a decision and then realized later I blew that one. I missed it is possible to deceive ourselves. Turn to Proverbs, Proverbs 14:12, a principle that we just need to keep in mind as we go through life. Proverbs 14:12. And this is mentioned a couple times in Proverbs. He says there's a way that seems right to a man or to a woman, to a person. Well, it seemed right at the time. He said, the end of that way is death. It's possible to deceive ourselves. This is why we need a multitude of counsel. This is what I'm thinking. What does the Bible say about it? Pray about it, as we heard in the. The video that we saw. Talk to God about these things. You know, I've talked to people, said, I prayed about this. I've made this decision, and God is guiding this decision. And I sit there thinking, it's not going to turn out good. It's not going to turn out good. I've heard this numerous times. We can deceive ourselves if we're not careful. We can deceive ourselves if we're not careful. The point I want to make here at the beginning is the Bible warns over and over and over again about deception. We have seen the church split apart into numerous groups, and people in the different groups feel very confident that they're there in the right place. But is God there in all those places? He knows who's there. Why does God allow deceivers to operate on earth? Why does God allow evil? The bottom line is God is in the business of building character, helping us build character. We build character by making decisions. We build character by making decisions. We can learn valuable lessons by making decisions. You know, as your children grow up, you have to let them make decisions. When they're little. They go to do something you know is bad or hurtful. They don't do that. But as they get bigger, they have to make their own decisions. They have to make their own decisions. You can give them advice, but then they have to learn to apply that advice. We build character by making decisions, and that's the bottom line. But we have to have a firm foundation for making those decisions. I want to share just a little story here about a prominent theologian, Bart Ehrman, B A R T E H R M A N. He's a distinguished professor of theology, University of North Carolina. He's written about 30 books. He grew up in a Christian home, went to an outstanding Christian college. He was very much involved with the churches that he was involved with. He got a degree in theology, then went to Princeton University, got a master's and doctor's degree in textual criticism. Just studying the books of the Bible and the various translations and so on. But he lost his faith. He lost his faith because he came in contact, he encountered a situation he couldn't answer. He said, why does God allow suffering in the world? He said, if there's a God of love, why does he allow people to suffer? And he said he gradually lost his faith. He's an agnostic and an atheist. He doesn't believe in God, but he tries to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's interesting. He believes that Jesus existed, but that he was not divine. He doesn't believe that God exists. And his hang up was he couldn't understand why God allows people to suffer, why he allows evil to exist. His foundation was not strong enough to support his theological beliefs, so he just gave them up. We'll come back to this a little bit later. But we've got to have a firm foundation that supports our beliefs, that backs up our beliefs, and we're all going to be tested. You know, Paul talks about in First Corinthians 3, maybe go back and read that. He talks about building with quality materials and we're all going to be tested. We're all going to be tested. Our beliefs are going to be tested. Our loyalty is going to be tested. Our faith is going to be tested. So we need to be building a firm foundation. A couple of examples here about being tested. Psalm 11, Psalm 11. These were things apparently Mr. Urban didn't understand. He's into all sorts of textual criticism, but he doesn't believe what the Bible actually says. Well, you know, you can't trust this, you can't trust that. In Psalm 11, verses 5 through 7. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? In other words, if you don't have a solid foundation, you're up the crick. The Lord in His holy temple. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. What did I do there? Five, seven. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates upon the wicked. He will rain coals, fire and brimstone, and burning wind shall be their portion. But in verse 7, 5, 7, here. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. What's the definition of righteousness? All thy commandments are righteousness. So the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. And his countenance beholds the upright. God notices. God notices when we make wise decisions. And he'll watch over you as we make those wise decisions. He'll be patient with you when you make unwise decisions. Thankfully. But as we grow, we should make less and less unwise decisions. We can look at a number of different examples. Adam and Eve were tested. God said, there are two trees. You can eat of one, don't eat of the other one. But then Satan comes along and says, you know, God's keeping things from you now. They knew God existed because they saw him. They walked with him. But then Satan comes, but they didn't believe him. Apparently Satan comes along and says, hey, baby, try this apple. Looks pretty good. Taste it. Give it to your husband. And they did. But they had walked and talked with God. He said, don't do those things. Then Satan comes along and try it anyways. Had a different gospel, a different message, and it was attractive. But they suffered for that. Solomon, you read his dedication prayer for the temple. He asked God for wisdom. He said, look, I'm just so and so. I'm not that important. I need wisdom to reign over your people. So God gave him wisdom and then he wound up with what, 300 wives and 700 concubines. Not a good decision. It says they turned his heart away from God. He made a decision, bad decision. One other scripture in second Timothy, just to show how this comes down into the New Testament. First Timothy, chapter three, verses eight to eleven. First Timothy 3, 8, 11 just shows how Paul was applying this. These principles talks about the qualities needed to be leaders in God's church. So that a person, if a man, or if a person desires a position of a bishop, a leadership position, he desires good work. Now, if you're after the position, that's wrong. But if you want to serve people, prepare to do that. But you have to have certain qualities. But, but then down in verse eight it says, likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith and pure conscience. But let these first be tested. They give a person job. See how they handle it, they handle it wisely. Then you give them an office or a position. Verse 11. Likewise, their wives must have certain qualities. Now this isn't just for leaders in the church. This is for anybody that wants to be a Christian. We all need to develop these qualities. We should let them first be tested, see how they handle things, and then go from there. Jesus Christ was tested by Satan. If you turn back to Matthew chapter 4 and notice Christ's response whenever he was tested by Satan. And Satan's going to test all of us. He's going to work on all of us. Let's start in verse, start in verse two. Christ went into the wilderness. He fasted for 40 days and nights. Now when the tempter came to him, verse three said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. He had fasted for 40 days and Satan knew that Christ was hungry. But then he said, if you are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made brittle. You can do it. You can do a miracle and then just have something to eat. But notice Jesus response, and this needs to be our response. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What does the Bible say we should do? What is the biblical advice for making decisions, especially when we are stressed out? This is good to remember as we go through the rest of the sermon. We got to get back to the basics, what Christ was saying. Get back to the book, back to the basics. We had a young man in one of the spokesman's clubs that I was advising some years ago. He was a good speaker. He worked in a town or a city where there was a lot of mafia. He had business contacts. And somebody suggested, you know, you ought to run for mayor, you ought to run for mayor, You're a good speaker. And he asked me one time, what do you think? He said, I could really do a lot of good if I was the mayor. I said, you're dreaming, you're dreaming. There are special interests there. People are going to lean on you. You're going to have a real challenge if you take them up on that. I had another situation, a personal one. When I was teaching graduate school, a class of nurses, one afternoon, there was a big dance coming up, and these two girls walked into my office and said, Dr. Whannell, we'd like you to be the MC a master of ceremonies for this big dance. And this one girl, she's very attractive. She said, I want you to be my date. I was in Spokesman's club at the time, and I thought, well, maybe this would be a good experience, to be a light and an example. And the more I thought about it, this is not going to be good. And my response was, I don't think it's a good idea for teachers to date their students. But that was my excuse. I did not want to get into position, but the temptation was there. And the rationale, well, I could be helpful. I could use my speech training and all those things. But we need to recognize situations. But Jesus advice was, we need to live by every word of God. We're to come out of the world, not get back into it. So we're all going to be tested. That's the point I want to make. We're all going to be tested. And we need to prepare for that. We need to prepare for that. How do you build a firm foundation? How do you build a firm foundation so you can avoid being deceived? Now, we need to prepare for that because it'll come, and it'll come one time when we're not suspecting things. But we need to be ready. Christ was ready with an answer. We need to live by every word of God. Let me give you five quick points on how do you build a firm foundation? Point number one, you need to build on a rock. You need to build on things that are solid, which is truth. Matthew 7:24, 27. Matthew 7:24 27 talks about, a wise person builds on a rock and a foolish person builds on sand. When our boys were little, I saw a picture in a Bible bookstore of a rocky hillside with a castle built out of stone. And just down below was a beach where somebody had built a sandcastle. And the waves were coming in and washing out the sand castle. And I put it in their bathroom above the pub. Above the pub, above the tub. Been in England too long, but I wanted them to associate. Every time they got out of the bathtub, they would see this picture of the stone castle built on a rock and the sand castle built that was being washed away because I wanted them to absorb that principle. Absorb that principle. We need to build on a rock. The Bible tells us that in Matthew chapter 7. Also Luke chapter 6. Build on a firm foundation. Go to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 20. Quickly, just to back that up, Ephesians 2:20, Because this defines what the foundation is that's going to be very stable and very firm. Ephesians 2:20. Start in verse 19. Now, therefore, talking about to the Ephesians, writing to them. Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles, the prophets, and Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. This is our foundation. This is the writing of the apostles and the prophets and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We need to make this part of our thinking, part of our thinking, but build on a firm foundation. Notice in second Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, verses 19 and 20. Second Timothy 2, 19, 20 says, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from from iniquity. But God knows who his people are, God's people, striving to live by the laws of God. God knows that, and he will work with you. He'll also allow you to be tried and tested to see how firm your foundation is, because he wants you to build a firm foundation. Want you to build a firm foundation. So point number one, build on a rock. Jesus Christ is that rock. His teachings are that rock. Number two, study God's word. You're here in second Timothy, chapter two and verse 15. No, I jumped it. Yeah. 2nd Timothy 2:15. Maybe start in verse 14. Remind them Paul is writing to Timothy how to deal with congregations. Remind them of these things. Charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Don't get involved in discussions and issues and make big deals out of something we don't know the real answer to. They're interesting to talk about, but be diligent. Various translations say, study. Study diligently to present yourselves approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing, rightly applying the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings that are only increased to more ungodliness. Study the word of God. Read it every day. If we don't, we forget it. And what I'm finding as I get older, I forget it much more quickly. But we have to do that. These are things we have to do. As Mr. Smith mentioned, the Bible is the mind of God in print. Dr. Meredith Houston mentioned that as we're reading this book. The thoughts that go through our minds come from this book which, absorbing the mind of God. Study the word of God. Psalm 119, verse 105. Psalm 119, 105. David said, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It shows me where to go, how to do things. And if we're reading the Bible daily, trying to absorb the mind of God, when situations come up, we're going to be thinking like God as we apply those things. That's number two. Number three, pray daily. Pray every day. There used to be a chapstick commercial that before you go out in the morning, don't go out without it, otherwise your lips will get chapped. The same thing with prayer. Don't go out without it. Don't go out without it. We Read in Psalm 55, verses 16 and 17. David said he prayed morning, noon and evening. He was in constant contact with God. Constant contact with God. Ask for wisdom. Solomon did. Ask for discernment. Ask for discernment. God, help me discern the answer that I'm seeking. Help me see it as I read through the scriptures. When I first came into the church, I started reading through the Bible and I would come across things I didn't understand. But if I just kept reading and praying, a day or two later, run across another verse. Oh, here's the answer. Here's the answer. But God will guide us. If we're seeking guidance from God, it's number three. Number four. Spend just a little bit more time on that. Prove and examine everything that you believe. Prove what you believe. Back it up. Verify it in 1st Thessalonians 5, 21. You know, I never heard this scripture read until I came in contact with the Church of God. But it's there first. Thessalonians 5:21. Test all things. Examine everything and hold fast what is good. Hold fast what you can prove to be true. This is the rock that needs to be part of your foundation. Prove it so that you know that you know that you know that you know what the truth is. And when you know that, nobody's going to be able to blow you away or deceive you if you know what the truth is. Well, here's what we think. Well, think what you want. This is what the book says. This is what the book says. As Christ said, get back to the basics. Prove what it is that you believe. I would encourage you to go through the Official Statement of Beliefs, the Living Church of God. You can download this if you get it from mailing. It'll look nice and blue like this unless you can print it out in color. But go through it and look at each one of the. This might be a nice Bible study to do. Take each section here, look up the scriptures and ask yourself, do I believe this? Do I believe this? Does the Bible support this particular thing? Talks about the Holy Spirit, the gospel, salvation. It talks about the holy days, the law of God, God's Sabbath, first, second, death, born again. God's form of church government. God does have a form of government, even though some people don't believe that. Talks about church history, it talks about church eras, it talks about marriage, it talks about the millennium, the origin of the modern Israelites. But I would encourage you go through this and nail these things down. Is this what I believe? Is this what I believe? Does the Bible support that? Another principle here under proving everything. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 20. And this is a big one. Isaiah 8 and verse 20. It says to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it's because they're no light in them. If somebody's telling you something about the Bible and it doesn't agree with the Bible, say, thank you very much, I've got other things to do. But if they don't teach according to this word, the Bible says they're lost, they're out in left field, they don't know what they're talking about. You don't need to argue with them. You just, thank you very much, but I've got other things to do. But you need to know the Scriptures so that you recognize whenever they're talking in accordance with the Scriptures and when they're saying something that doesn't agree with the Scriptures. Isaiah 8, 20. And finally, Proverbs 15:22. Another principle, Proverbs 15:22. Without counsel, plans go awry. But in a multitude of counselors, they are established. In other words, there's safety. In a multitude of counsel, you run into a situation that's beyond you. Get some good advice from people that you trust. Get some good advice from people that you trust. And also just go to the Scriptures. What does the Bible have to say about this or that? God is giving us advice. God has recorded a whole book full of advice. But get a multitude of counsel, use a number of different sources, verify the teachings of the church. I came across an interesting book, actually, somebody sent it. It's entitled Shocked by the Bible. The most astonishing facts you have never been told. The author is a jo Kovacs, he's a conservative writer. He's got about 20 some chapters in here, but he cites no sources. But he's preaching pretty much the same thing we have been preaching for 50 years. I think he's familiar with what we've written, but he doesn't acknowledge any other sources. But some of the things he's writing in there about that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament, I never heard that in the Protestant churches that I attended. He talks about Christmas and Easter are pagan. Christmas and Easter are pagan. The Bible does not support Christmas trees. Jeremiah 10. He quotes the scripture. He also mentions that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Noah were not Jews, they were Israelites. It's a very interesting confirmation what we've been teaching for 50 years. But he doesn't say where he got those ideas. But it's interesting doing reading. When you do another interesting Bible study, look up, read Genesis 49, the prophecies about the 12 tribes. Read it in your Bible. Then go to some Bible handbooks and see what they have to say. If they have anything to say at all, they just kind of skip over those verses and that these are prophecies of how you can identify the tribes of Israel at the end of the age. It's all there, but most theologians just brush over it. But prove what it is that you believe and then hang on to it. When I first came into the church, I made a list of things that I was proving to myself. I went through the booklet does God Exist? And those are the proofs. Looked around, you checked other different sources, the Bible, fact or fiction. That was one of the things I did coming into the church. I wanted to prove to myself. This is something that Bart Ehrman apparently never did for himself. He read the Bible, he read papers about the Bible, but he came to the conclusion he didn't believe in God. He doesn't believe the Bible is true, but he does believe that he should live like Jesus Christ. That's an interesting conundrum. But he didn't have a foundation for his belief. I was never given a foundation for my beliefs growing up in the Protestant church. It's just, how do you feel in your heart? And if it feels good, then you know it's true. That's emotion. That's emotion. It's not evidence. Okay, that's number four. Number five. Recognize the source of deception. Recognize the source of deception. The Bible tells us that Satan has deceived the whole world, that he's a deceiver. He has devices that he uses. He lies he twists things. The world doesn't understand that Satan is real. God is real, but so is Satan. Let's turn to. First peter. First peter, chapter five. See, a lot of people talk about Jesus, but they don't talk much about Satan. But Satan is real. He wants to disrupt the church of God. And he wants to destroy you if you've been called. He doesn't want you to make it into the kingdom of God. In First Peter, Chapter 5, Beginning in verse six, Peter says there, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Recognize you don't have all the answers. I don't have all the answers. That we need help. We need guidance. That requires humility. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. We get people coming into the church. I want to be a minister. I want to be this, I want to be that. God places us in the body as it pleases him. You're only going to get in trouble if you try and push yourself into a position. It's not going to happen. Well, it's not going to turn out well. But humble yourself and then God will exalt you in due time. Moses spent 40 years being trained to become the next pharaoh of Egypt. He understood he had abilities. He tried to deliver the Israelites too soon and they didn't buy it. Then he spent 40 more years of training herding sheep and goats. Probably prayed a lot, too. What am I doing here? I know what I could be doing, but I'm not doing anything. Joseph spent what, seven years in prison under false charges? But he is being prepared. He's being prepared. God is preparing each one of us, each one of us for positions in his kingdom. He knows why he called us. He knows how he wants to use us. And he's preparing us. We need to have faith in that and exercise that faith. But back to Peter. Humble yourselves. God will exalt you in due time. Verse 8. Be sober and vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan knows our weak points. So does God. Satan will play to those weak points. You know, everybody wants to make a contribution. Everybody wants to do something worthwhile with their life. Like this young man in Spokesman Club. He had a good speaking voice. He thought being the mayor of this city might be a good deal. He had ability. He also had ambition. And Satan was trying to pull the strings. Satan was trying to pull the strings. But he got advice and he came to conclude that that's probably not the Wisest thing to do. But be sober, vigilant. Your adversary walks around like roaring lion. You know, if you watch wildlife films, you know, lions don't just jump out of the grass, beat their chest and grime. The king of the jungle. No, they. They kind of sneak around the herd. They chase them a little bit to see which ones are weak, and then they go after that weak one. We need to be aware that Satan wants our know. He's got our number and he wants us. But it says, resist him. You can't resist him unless you recognize him. You can't resist and let you unless you recognize. So we need to recognize where this deception comes from. As I mentioned about Mr. Ehrman, Dr. Ehrman, he had a foundation that was not on a rock. And whenever he ran into questions, the question was basically suffering in the world. Why does God allow these things? Then he concluded God must not exist because look what the world. What a mess. The world is. A couple of examples of deception by misguided leaders. This is interesting. In Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain. He was up there for 40 days. But put this in a context. Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt. He had done miracles from the Pharaoh. He led them through the Red Sea. Then they get to Sinai and he disappears for 40 days. 40 days, that's over a month. They were used to seeing him in a leadership position. All of a sudden, he disappears. Where's Moses? We're out here in the wilderness. He led us out here to keep. Let us die. They were walking by sight and not by faith. They were walking by sight, not by faith, when he disappeared. Then they got on Aaron. Aaron, you need to make us a God. You need to make us a God. Aaron did. Moses comes down from the mountain just after they get a wild party going. What is all this? Well, Aaron said, well, they asked me. They had me make a God. Apparently, Aaron was not that great of a leader. We'll meet him someday. We'll find out. We'll get his side of the story. But when you put it in context, they were used to seeing Moses making decisions, and all of a sudden, he's gone for 40 days. What did you do when the Church of God came apart? I don't know what to do. You know, one of the reasons for going into this. I forgot to mention this. We have meetings every Tuesday morning, managers meeting, where the different departments give reports. Mr. Ken Frank, who's here, handles personal correspondence. Remember one of the reports he had was questions coming in. People asking these questions. Why are there so many churches of God? Why are there so many? Are they all the same? What's the difference? Does it matter which one we attend? There's not only the questions that came into him. I ran into this. Ran into this. Couple situations out in the field. People were asking, look, we don't like your organization, but we can go someplace else because they're just another church of God. Wouldn't that be all right? So you had decisions to make. You had a decision to make. You need to study into that. But we need to be prepared for decisions to come along like that. It's interesting that when you read through what Paul has to say and others have to say, Paul mentions. And let me give you the Scripture, we don't need to turn to it. Second Timothy 2, 17, he talks about Hymenaeus and Philetus. He said they're troublemakers. Now, notice he mentions their name. He mentions their name. They're troublemakers. They're stirring up problems. In second Timothy four, he talks about a man named Demas has forsaken me. He's just left, going off in a different direction. He talks about Alexander the coppersmith has created big problems. Paul didn't pull any punches. He mentioned names. He mentioned names. Now, if we mention names today, it'll be considered bad taste. But we've got people dividing the church today. We've got people twisting the Scriptures today, getting people off in different directions. Titus, chapter 1, verses 9 to 11, says, There are many deceivers causing disputes and contentions, and they subvert whole households. They subvert whole households. What I've seen over the years, when somebody leaves, they may take members of their family with them and members that are close to them, and they go off in a different direction. But Paul was commenting here about people that subvert whole households. The minister leaves the church, he'll take his family and some others, and we'll have our own little church in our living room. The Bible has some things to say about that. John 3 John, verses 9 and 10 says, Diotrephes wants to be preeminent. He seeks preeminence, and he rails against us. And he's putting people out of the church that don't want to follow him or don't accept his ideas. Again, notice specific names are mentioned here. They're in the Bible. They've been there for almost 2000 years. These people are going to come up in resurrection one day. My name is in the Bible. Yeah. What does it say? Read it. Read it. Let's move on. What about deceptions today? What about deceptions today? Why do we have so many different churches of God? If you go on the Internet, they estimate there are probably two or 300 splinters that came out of the worldwide Church of God. Now, that's one person with a website or one person that sends out emails or something like that. But there's a lot. There's a lot. You know, I meant to mention back in Matthew 24, you don't need to turn there, but Matthew 24 talks about many will come in my name and deceive many. Now, we generally apply that scripture to Protestant and Catholic doctrines and so on, but it appears to apply to the Church of God today. We have many, many splinter groups. They're not all together. They're not all together. They're doing their own thing. So it appears that Scripture applies our situation today. Why would they be writing in these questions? Why are there so many people claiming to be churches of God? Are they all the same? Is it okay to attend wherever. Came across a group just the other day that said, we're not a church, but anybody that wants to keep the Sabbath, let's all just get together. Let's just all get together and we can socialize and have our whatever. But there's no purpose other than to socialize. This is not what we read in the Scriptures. You know, Jesus mentioned in Matthew 16:18 talking about deception today. He said, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell where the grave are not going to prevail against it. It's going to continue to exist. It's going to continue to exist. I would encourage you also to read through John Egwin's book on God's Church through the ages. God's Church through the Ages, because he talks about the different eras of the church. We have lived through one. We're in another era today. But he describes about 2,000 years of church history. And I would encourage you to read it through because we're watching these things and we can also look back on history and learn from that just very quickly. There's been ups and downs in the church for 2,000 years. In the early church at the first three centuries, you had the Quarto Deciman controversy. That basically was an argument over should we keep Passover or keep Easter Sunday. This is pushed by the Roman Catholic Church. It was resisted by the disciples of John, especially in Asia Minor. Sunday was pushed by Constantine. Instead of the Sabbath, infant baptism came into the church. Christmas and Easter came into the church. These were resisted by certain people trying to hold on to the truth. But all this happened in the first three or four centuries of the church moving on a little bit into the future. And the Protestant Reformation, around 1500 or so, this was spawned basically by a couple of things. The Bible translations into common languages was occurring about that time, and people began to realize Luther was one of them, that the Catholic Church was wrong on some of their doctrines because they had a wrong translation. They were using a Latin Vulgate Bible, when you translated from the Greek, came out differently. So people were beginning to realize the translations were wrong. That occurred at the same time as the printing press. So this was bantered all over Europe very quickly. While the Protestant Reformation rejected the Pope, Purgatory, confession, celibacy, idols, indulgences and prayers of the saints. They retained pagan ideas, though. Christmas, Easter, Trinity, the Holy Spirit being a person and not a power. But during the same time, 13, 14, 15, 1600s, there were numerous leaders that were promoting the truth about the Sabbath, about the holy days, about the clean and unclean meats. About one of the things that they were promoting was that the Catholic Church was the harlot of revelation. Now, these were things that were being promoted by people that were associated with what appears to be the true church. The Waldensians, Paulicians, People followed Paul the Cathars. These were in southern France, northern Italy. Another name for Cathars is Puritans. Peter Waldo was one of those individuals. But some of these men that were raised up, they preached for 10 or 15 or maybe 20 years at the most. When they died, things just went back to the way they were. People compromised their beliefs. And this is kind of the story of the church down through those years. When we get to the 20th century, about the 1930s, God called Mr. Armstrong. And it appears, looking back, that this was the Philadelphia era of the Church of God. Because when you look at what happened, he started preaching about the Sabbath, about the holy days, about the identity of Israel, the health laws, tithing. He started out with the plain truth. It was a mimeographed publication that went to about 200 people by 1986. The plane truth was going to well over 10 million people. People, this. This was unheard of in the history of the Church of God. The first feast that he kept for eight days was about 1938, I think they had 42 people. By 1986, we had over 150,000 people at the feast. He had a 50 year ministry, approximately. This was very clearly a different era of the Church. These eras do Happen when he died, what happened? The church began splitting apart. Same thing that happened when Peter Waldo died. Some of these other people died. So there are such things as church eras. Why do I mention this? Because some of the groups today don't believe in church eras. They don't believe in the identity of Israel. They don't believe in a number of things. The difference between the groups today that claim to be Church of God is more than just voting. It's more than just government. It's some of the things that I just mentioned. Mr. Armstrong came to see the identity of Israel was a key to understanding Bible prophecy. I talked with one of the leaders, one of the other organizations a number of years ago. I said, what are you guys going to do with the US And BC in prophecy? This is one of the leaders. He said, we're not sure. We're not sure what to do with it. Mr. Armstrong was sure about it. There's some people that don't believe in church ears. Well, that's not important. Why do we have two chapters in the book of Revelation, chapter two and chapter three, and it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. Mr. Armstrong was involved with the Philadelphia era. There's no other way of explaining it. We never had growth like that in a church before. When he died, things came apart and we're in a different era. But the eras are real. They're real. Go through Mr. Nguyen's booklet. Come up with a better explanation if you can do, share it with us. But we're not all the same. We're not all the same. There are differences. Let's conclude here. How do you deal with different groups? How do we deal with this situation? Number of biblical principles. Number one, Mark, chapter nine, verses 38 to 40. The disciples saw other people, another individual, casting out demons in the name of Jesus Christ. And they come into Jesus. We told them, knock it off, you shouldn't be doing that. Jesus response was, don't forbid them. If they're not against us, they're for us. In other words, don't worry about it. Don't worry about you. Stay focused on your mission was pretty much what Jesus said. And so we don't argue, we don't put down anybody else, but we do need to understand what the facts are. We need to understand what the facts are. You need to understand what the facts are. Number two. First John 2:19. First John 2:19. John says, There they went out from us, but they were not of us. Well, we all keep the Sabbath, we all keep the holy days. We're the same. No, we're not all the same. They went out from us because they were not of us. We had some people leaving another part of the world. They said, look, we're not leaving the church. We're just leaving you guys. We're not leaving the church. We're just leaving you guys. In Paul's comment in First Corinthians 1:10, First Corinthians 1:10, he says, There should not be any divisions among you. You should be of the same mind and the same judgment. You should be all on the same page. If you're all on the same page, then you're going to be together. If you're not on the same page, then you're not going to be together. Matthew, chapter seven. Turn there. Matthew, chapter seven. Turn there. Interesting set of verses. Matthew 7. Let's begin in verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Whoever does the will of my Father, many will say to me in that day, remember we read in Matthew 24, many will come in my name and deceive many. Here he's saying, many will say to me in that day, lord, have we not prophesied in your name, preached sermons, sermonettes in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? In other words, we've been busy in the church, parking cars, passing out hymnals. We've done everything. Then I will declare unto them, I never knew you. You know, we weren't on the same page. We weren't on the same page. You had your agenda, you know, I gave you an agenda. I gave you a mission to preach the gospel to the world. I gave you a mission to warn the world and the Israelite nations especially. I gave you a mission to feed the flock and protect the flock. But you divided the flock. There's going to be. Answers are going to have to be given. We've been given a mission. We need to do that, fulfill that. You need to be asking yourself, if you're looking around, who is doing the work today? Now, a lot of people are publishing magazines and having television broadcasts and so on, but they're not having the impact. They're not having the impact that the church, living Church of God has. You know, we've been conducting TWPs for about 20 years. About 20 years. I think we've conducted about 3,000. We've invited, I think, about 3 million people. We bought. About 40,000 people have come over those 20 years. I don't know who else is doing anything like that. We've had over a million people watch some of our broadcasts. We're reaching a lot of people. But we're told in Matthew 24 that this gospel will be preached 24:14 in all the world. And then the end will come. Somebody's got to be fulfilling that mission. Do we appreciate where we are? Do we value the calling that God has given us? Here we're at time. But I asked the question in the very beginning, how firm is your foundation? How solid are your beliefs? I would encourage you go through the statement of beliefs and you can get online and look up the statement of beliefs of other groups that claim to be churches of God. Notice where they're similar and notice where they're different. Notice where they're different on specific things. The identity of Israel, church eras, government. Notice where they're different. God has called us to be a light and example to the world. But I would encourage you build that firm foundation. I gave you five points. Go back over those. Let me conclude with one or two other scriptures here, because we're all going to be tested. We're all going to be tested. But here's the hope. When you read the Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 25, It says, when the whirlwind passes by, the wicked by, and the wicked are no more. It says, the righteous has an everlasting foundation. The righteous person has an everlasting foundation because they've built on a rock that is solid. Proverbs 12 and verse 3. Proverbs 12 and verse 3 says, A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved. The root, the foundation, the groundwork of the righteous cannot be moved. They can't be unrooted or uprooted. It's very firm. So, brethren, I just wanted to share these things with you this afternoon. A firm foundation is extremely important, and it's something that we have to build. We have to build, and if we do our work well, then we're not going to be deceived. Sa.