II Corinthians 4:5-7
"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
Lesson 32: THE PRACTICAL KINGDOM
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20
"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." Matthew 13:24-30
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:34-36
GREETINGS, friends: this day the beauty of the Lord's face is going to shine into your life – IF you will only let Him! Remember my words....
Some might like to reply to me: WHO would ever try to prevent Him? It seems truly like a sad situation when I must reply: the whole world is preventing Him! The glory of His countenance is patiently waiting for someone to let Him in. Is it not written, "I stand at the door and knock" (Rev. 3:20)? But I know that to most of you that means getting converted, or "saved." You haven't been taught to believe that it means anything more. You have been taught to "limit the Holy One of Israel" (Ps. 78:41). The Prophet of old classified that as "sin."
Maybe it would help to clarify my thought to you if I were to tell you a little story – a true story, that is. It was only a matter of days ago that a family, students of mine for some years, motored in from a considerable distance to fellowship with me. Speaking of our wonderful Savior, the younger mother told how she had a few days previously been doing strenuous work to which she wasn't accustomed. Naturally, arm and chest muscles soon bound up and she was in much pain. Ordinarily it would have called for rest, and several days' time to get back to her estate of normal well-being. But as a student of mine, she knew the wonderful Savior to be that for our here and now. So she simply called out aloud: "Lord Jesus: THIS can't be: YOU take it away!" (Or words to that effect.) Instantly, her every pain was gone – and gone for good! What a Physician!
Another incident I recall, told by the same students, but that dates back a year or so. The same woman, together with her mother-in-law (who is also a student of God's PRESENT good for man), while returning home, found themselves in a torrential downpour. One suddenly recalled that they had planned to stop in at a large supermarket to get supplies and, thinking out aloud, commented, "We haven't even an umbrella along to shield us until we can get in." Suddenly the other answered, "We have the Lord: He will stop the rain so we won't get drenched, and hold it till we get back out." They drove on. At the supermarket they stopped, and so did the downpour – suddenly! They did their shopping, got into the car and started for home. And as they started, so did also the torrential downpour.
You poor, brainwashed Christians: you feel justified to fully believe that the Lord Jesus got roused from His sleep in the back of the boat, and got up to tell a violent tempest to pull in its horns, and suddenly there was a great calm (Mk. 4:37-39), but you are not willing to believe that He will stop a horrible rain for your good here and now! You are prepared to believe that the Lord Jesus opened blind eyes, healed the paralytics and raised the dead, but you are not willing to believe that He will do the slightest for you NOW (you relegate all His work of atonement to lollypops for your soul in the sweet by-and-by). How UNrealistic can you be? The Son of God came to our earth, and wrought a work for our NOW.
The true account I just gave you, involving two of my students, illustrates what I mean by saying that the brightness, the beauty and glory of His face can and will shine into your life TODAY – if you will only let them. THAT is why our churches are emptying, and memberships going to pot. Education is filling our land; material sciences are meteoring, and making their deep impression on both the young and middle-aged. While the "gospel," as it is called, confines itself to a few sweet words of exhortation, plus a harp of gold for a SOUL (you don't even know you possess) in a future world and a hopedfor tomorrow. Just what is there to such a "gospel" to interest the thinking person of today? Nothing!
But I have wonderful news for you! No, it is not the "gospel," and it is no NEW "gospel," for that word means only a pain in the neck to our modern world. But what I have for you is what we find in the Greek, the Euaggelion, which means HAPPY TIDINGS (of good things). Not any promise of lollipops and pink ice cream for your soul AFTER you are dead, but down-to-earth realities of a good and happy nature, for your own earthly self HERE and NOW. That is why our Christendom is falling apart: because we have been brainwashed with promises for the future AFTER we are dead, but doing nothing for our NOW. It is TODAY that we live, nor will we ever be able to get away from our TODAY. GOD is a REALIST: He lives in the now and deals with the moment. Kid not yourself that the Son of God came into this world to suffer horribly to deal with some future tomorrow and a soul which you hope you may have.
Adam and Eve were human beings of flesh in an earthly world. Their sins were committed in the flesh, and in their flesh was the sentence of judgment received. Aside from the various phases of judgment upon them, God said to Adam, "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Observe that no mention was made of a soul. God spoke to the objective consciousness of a human being, and the death He pronounced upon him was upon his physical body.
What happened to the body of Adam? Clearly are we told in the Word of God that a thousand years with man are but as one day with God (Ps. 90:4; II Pet. 3:8). When God spoke to Adam, He spoke as God – not as a man. Therefore, He meant that the body of Adam would commence to deteriorate in the day of his disobedience, and die before a thousand years were up. And THAT, we read, is precisely what happened. Upon their physical bodies came the judgment. Therefore, any work of atonement for their sin, or any work of redemption for their offspring, would of sheer necessity have to apply where judgment set in: that is, deal with the effect of sin upon their own physical bodies, and deal with their fortunes in a material world, for the balance of God's sentence was limited to that. God spoke of sorrow and pain, and of strenuous toil to eke a meager existence from the soil, and the ultimate death of the physical body (Gen. 3:16-19). Exclusively to these matters of the here and now was His sentence confined. And I courteously invite you to show me HOW there can be any redemptive work accomplished, unless or until the matters which were cursed have been dealt with. The matters which were cursed were the bodies of flesh and the labors of man; and PAIN was introduced. ALL these were the results of their sin. Not until thousands of years later was anything said about the "soul" of man.
Now, beloved, since the curse fell upon the physical bodies of Adam and Eve, and upon their earthly fortunes, by what stretch of the imagination can you see any redemptive work for man IF that is but for an intangible soul – AFTER the body has suffered and died?
NO, my friends, there simply is no sense whatever to such teachings! Therefore it bears repeating: THAT is why Christendom is "going to pot," because its teachings do not make sense.
HEAR the words of the Nazarene: "He whom the Son sets free is FREE indeed" (Jn. 8:36)!
Observe, He didn't say anything about setting "souls" free AFTER the body had died, but He was speaking of mortal beings HERE and NOW, to be set FREE in absolute totality. To make His words more clearly understood, He said that whoever sins is the servant of sin, and, that the servant does not abide in the house forever (Jn. 8:34-35). WHAT did He mean? HE was speaking of precisely the same as God did to Adam: that is, God has given to the spirit a "HOUSE" in which to dwell on earth. That house is the human body. But IF the spirit permits that "house" (or, body) to commit sin, then it cannot remain in its "house" forever; for that body will DIE! But IF, said the Christ, the Son sets it FREE, then FREE indeed shall he be! No right whatever have we to interpret this to mean a promise for the "soul," AFTER the person has died. THAT makes no sense!
In my own humble way, I have been setting these UNdeniable truths before the people throughout the past decades, having written and published hundreds of lessons and books in practical Christianity for the HERE and for our NOW. HEAR The Voice of Tomorrow: any "religion" which will not deal with the very present, and be a real help for this moment, isn't worth the hot air behind it.
That is why God called to me on June 22nd, 1965, saying, "Call My people together." The people of God have been fed on the tareseed – that is, the counterfeit teachings – until now the entirety of Christendom is sick and ready to go into a prolonged spasm. This debacle in the night has now gone almost as far as God will allow it to go; therefore, I am calling His people together. TRUTH must be set before His people. His people must be shown that our era has almost run its course, and will soon terminate. His people must be shown how to get prepared; people must be instructed HOW to draw on the power of God for the HERE and for the NOW. And THAT is the good pleasure of our Lord and Savior.
Therefore has He enabled me to put into print the KINGDOM KEYS which are to be used for man's good here and now. Lest portions be missed, or something forgotten, these priceless secrets are available in print – lest you err. And I have a double-barreled, HAPPY news announcement to make: first, they work! Second, they are FREE. They need not cost you more than a postage stamp.
We need a great many helpers from coast to coast to get their friends and neighbors to study The Voice of Tomorrow. The days in which we live are far more serious than you dare to believe. The Christian era is about to come to a sudden close. Society will be panicked. The average Christian of today does not know what specific events to expect. To be sure, lots believe they know, but so do millions of others who believe differently. "BELIEFS" are for the UNinformed and for the simple. This is an age of science; we are expected to KNOW. And I can assure you that our great God is more than abreast of the times.
He has given us ways and means of KNOWING and establishing the Truth, PROVING the case beyond argument.
Therefore has He asked me to "Call His people together" to the end that they may HEAR and SEE the Truth, and have the evidence set before them.
Far too long have we lived in the pitch blackness with Lucifer as our chief headmaster and director of learning. The tareseed he sowed are the false teachings which, to those without experience, appear like the genuine good wheat (that is, the true Word of God). But our Lord warned us that the tares would be permitted to grow together with the good wheat unto maturity (Matt. 13:26-30). The world has eaten of the tares until it is sick: the harvest is at hand. That is why you should clearly understand the details of what is coming, and also come to KNOW that our Lord accomplished a finished work for our present deliverance, and for success and happiness in our world now. That is why I have made available the Keys to the Kingdom – which are for the here and now.
You are accustomed to being afraid; worry has become a habit; the UNcertainty of tomorrow, like a shadow, dogs you. NONE of that is the lot of the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ (Who is "LORD of all lords" and MASTER of this present moment). HEAR The Voice of Tomorrow: Christ our Lord wants you to grow beautiful, even in drab surroundings – like the lilies of the field. On Calvary's cursed Cross He made that possible for all who will receive Him. IF you doubt His Divinity, send in for my free book Lazarus, Come Forth!, which abounds in prophecy and cross-checking proofs. Difficult will you find it to any longer doubt.
God wants you to lift up your face to the beauty of the heavens above, and sing at the top of your voice, even like the birds of the air. All that is beautiful, good and true, happiness and all that we need to eat and wear, He wants us to have, and has already arranged for us to get. But there are a few simple requirements, few and easy to be met. So far as I know, these secrets are not available anywhere else in the world today. Oh to be sure, portions here and fragments there, as well as the occasional link, have been known and have been taught. But any chain with as much as one link missing, is worthless. Or any key with as much as one portion missing, is worthless. The broken chain will not reach and hook; the imperfect key will not function. And greatly will you rejoice when you see for yourself the KINGDOM KEYS, and rejoice beyond words when you see they really work!
OPEN the door – to let His GLORY IN!