Some of the most encouraging and most amazing messages that we find in the Bible were written from prison or from terrible circumstances. This is one of the things that makes these messages so amazing and astounding. It would seem impossible to the human mind that something so wonderful could come from a place so terrible. We see this especially in the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul. In the ministry of the Apostle Paul, some of the most wonderful things, some of the most encouraging things that he wrote, he wrote from prison. Those prisons that he wrote in were not like prisons that we have in the United States. They were damp and cold and it was a place to cause depression to the human spirit. And yet, some of the most wonderful letters, some of the most encouraging letters that the apostle wrote came from the Mamertine Prison, for one, which was one of his last prisons. I have never visited Rome myself, but if you go to Rome you can still visit the Mamertine Prison today. He wrote, for instance, 2 Timothy from prison, one of the most encouraging letters that he wrote. He also wrote the book of Ephesians from prison. The book of Ephesians is an electrifying book. He also wrote the book of Philippians from prison.

If you have your Bibles, I would like to invite you to open them to the book of Philippians. In the first chapter he says in the last two verses, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me." And so Paul was in a situation where he was going through trials, tribulations, and sufferings and in this situation he mentions his chains in the first chapter. In this situation he begins, in chapter two, a new paragraph. He says, "Therefore if there is any consolation [that is comfort] in Christ, . ." (If you are in prison or in trouble, you need some comfort, some consolation.) He says, "If there is any consolation [or comfort in Christ], if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection [that is compassion] and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind."

So when Paul was in suffering, he longed for the fellowship of fellow believers. That is one reason he wrote this letter; he longed for the fellowship of believers. He longed for the comfort that there is in Jesus and he longed for the fellowship of the Spirit. That experience in the love of Christ that would sustain him, he said, "fulfill my joy, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Paul talks here of the need of unity among Christian believers. This was the purpose of Jesus with His disciples. Ellen White says to secure unity of thought, of Spirit, of feeling, and unity of action. Paul says, "being of one accord, of one mind."

It is the devil's purpose to seek to break down this unity, this one accord, this one mind. There are many ways that the devil tries to do this. One way is to introduce all kinds of variant beliefs and get discussions and controversies going about all kinds of beliefs. In the second, third, and fourth centuries, if you study church history, you will find they had some large church councils. These church councils went up into the fifth and sixth centuries and they began to argue. They got very vehement in their arguing. And what did they get in these tremendous arguments about? Now, all these people claimed to believe the Scriptures, and many of them were highly educated and highly trained. It has been very interesting to me to examine what they argued about.

The one accord, the one mind was all broken up. What were they arguing about? Well, they got into arguments about the nature of God. That is what many of the early church councils were about. For instance, the very first one, the very first major world-wide church council which happened after the days of the apostles, (you have a church council in the 15th chapter of Acts, but the first major one after the days of the apostles was in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea) what was the big argument? The big argument was on the nature of Christ; that has to do with the nature of God. They argued about the nature of Christ, the nature of the Father, the nature of the Holy Spirit. There were big councils where they argued about these things.

Now let me ask you a question. Can any human being understand God? Does the Bible have something to say about this? Well, the Bible has something very specific to say about it in Romans 11:33, 34. It says, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?'" So they began arguing and let me tell you, when you start getting into a theological controversy like this, it goes on and on. These theological controversies that they were arguing about have been in the Christian church ever since. They are even in Adventism today. The devil is still using them to divide up everybody that he can divide up. Ellen White said that in the last days as we approach the end old controversies will be revived. Why? To break up the unity and harmony of God's people. Old controversies will be revived, and she says new controversies will be agitated.

The thing that they were arguing about in the Council of Nicea has been revived in Adventism today. I have a whole stack of mail from all over the country on this argument. We call it "Arianism". Arianism is the idea that Christ was not co-existent with the Father throughout all eternity, but that He was a lesser, or a created or begotten God; in some way Christ was not equal with the Father. Now, just so you will be informed on this if you have not studied church history, Arianism was a very common belief among pioneer Seventh-day Adventists, very, very common. Some people are surprised to know that. For instance, J. N. Andrews was an Arian, one of our leading theologians. So was Uriah Smith. I do not know of any absolute evidence that would prove that James White was an Arian, but many people believe that James White was an Arian, too.

I could take the rest of the time going through a Bible study with you; I know the proof texts. I could name to you religions today which are promoting this theory world-wide, but that is not necessary. One thing that is necessary to know is that Arianism was firmly rejected by Ellen White in her writings. It was an interesting thing how this thing developed. God did not send all the light that would crush this controversy in Adventism right away. God takes people one step at a time. I am trying to learn to have that kind of a character, to help people one step at a time and not show them everything; they cannot take everything at one time. We have to learn that when we have children, don't we? We have to teach them one thing at a time. We cannot teach them everything all at once.

In the book Desire of Ages, the Arian doctrine was fully and completely refuted by Ellen White. It is refuted by the Bible if you want to look carefully in the Greek text. And we have a text right here in Philippians 2 which discusses this very subject. We are going to come to that in a few minutes. In Desire of Ages, 530, Ellen White says, "In Christ is life, original. . ." Was His life borrowed from His Father as the Arians teach? No, she says His life was not borrowed; His life was "original". He was original. Then to make it more emphatic she says it was "unborrowed". And then to make it still more emphatic she says it was "underived". She says in Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 395, that "He was equal with God." Was He below the Father? Absolutely not! By the way, there are many statements to that effect. Jesus was not below the Father. He was equal with God. By the way friends, when you start studying the incarnation, this puts everything on a different level.

There was no person in the entire universe that had a higher position than Jesus Christ. He is called the "Majesty of heaven". The One who died on the cross for you, friend, is the One who had the highest position of any, (I cannot say created intelligence because He was not a created intelligence) He had a higher position than any created being. "He was equal," she says, "with God, infinite and omnipotent [that is all powerful]. He is the eternal, self-existent Son upon whom no yoke had come." Evangelism, 615. She also says in the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 1115, "From all eternity Christ was united with the Father. . ." From all eternity He was united. Now the Jews did not understand this. They took a statement from the Old Testament that said that there is one God and said, "That is the Father." Whoever else Jesus Christ is He cannot be God because there is only one God. But Jesus said, "I and My Father are one." John 10:30. By the way, the Jews became so angry when He said that what did they do? They picked up stones to stone Him. In the Review and Herald, January 7, 1890, it says, "The world's Redeemer was equal with God. His authority was as the authority of God. He declared that He had no existence separate from the Father. . . .He assures us that He and the Father are one." And in the Review and Herald, April 5, 1906, she writes, "Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense." And Paul writes about this, he says, "If there is any consolation [comfort] in Christ, . .if any fellowship of the Spirit. . ."

Well, what happened after they argued for about two hundred years about the nature of Christ? By the way, it went back and forth. The "Arian" versus, what came to be known later as, Orthodoxy. They argued about that for about two hundred years or more. They fought some wars over it, killed some people that were heretics over it. We find, later they got to arguing over the nature of the Holy Spirit. That argument has gone until the present time and is in Adventism today. So, there were people that denied the existence of the Holy Spirit. Now, we as Adventists, not only want the fellowship of the Spirit that Paul talks about here, we believe that we are to receive the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. But the existence of the Holy Spirit came to be denied and unfortunately, it is still being denied today even in Adventism. An amazing thing!

People say that the Holy Spirit is simply the spirit of Jesus Christ, but that is not the way Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in John 14, 15 and 16. I want to read to you something that Ellen White says about the Holy Spirit. This is basic enough, friends, that you take a public acknowledgment that you believe in three persons in the Godhead when you are baptized. By the way, there are Christian churches that do not baptize that way. So if you do not believe in three persons in the Godhead, you can join churches that will simply baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ. I can give you some names. There are some right around this city. But we believe in baptizing exactly the way Jesus instructed people to be baptized in Matthew 28:19 and 20. And when Jesus gave us the formula on how people were to be baptized, He said they were to be baptized "in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit."

In Series B, Special Testimonies of Ellen White, she says this about the three members of the Godhead. Notice there are two and then there is some spirit that is the spirit of Christ or the spirit of God, there are three. She says, "The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and is invisible to mortal sight." Ibid. The Bible clearly teaches that in John 1:18. Then she says, "The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested." Ibid. But then she says, "The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead." Ibid. Does the Holy Spirit have all the fullness of the Godhead? Yes! Now notice the next sentence, "There are three living persons of the heavenly trio." Ibid. That is very emphatic speech. There are not just two and then there is the spirit of one or both of those two, that is around the world, there are three. Those three are one because the Bible says there is one God and all three of those are God. There are three, but there is one God. "There are three living persons in the heavenly trio. These powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ." Ibid. By the way, if you have access to a CD-ROM or a way to look up statements, you will find that she refers over and over again to these three great powers in heaven.

Now people have raised all kinds of objections to this. I could spend the rest of the time talking about objections and answering objections, but that is not necessary right now; because we want to read what the Scripture says. Now this Scripture deals with the whole Arian argument. It is one of the most powerful Scriptures that deals with Arianism, however, it is one of the most spiritual passages of Scripture. I have been intrigued and amazed for years how that in the process of revealing to us history in advance through prophecy and giving us instruction on doctrinal subjects, in the Bible this instruction is in a spiritual context. While we want to look at facts and theology and we want to look at doctrine, we do not want to miss the most important thing of all and that is the spiritual message in the Scripture. This Scripture has a very spiritual message. "Just as Christ is one with His Father," as He stated in John 17, "we are to be of one accord and one mind." Philippians 2:2. That does not mean that we will not have separate minds and we do not think, but we are to be in harmony of spirit.

How is this going to happen? Look at verse 3, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." Wherever there is pride there is going to be strife, there is going to be contention. There is not going to be unity or harmony. And so when Paul appeals to the believers to be of one accord and one mind, immediately he says to let everything be done "not with selfish ambition. . .but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself."

We are not only to esteem others better than ourselves we have an obligation, a moral obligation, to look into the affairs of others to see if there is some way that we can help them. Now some people think that this is just simply being nosy. And of course, there are things in other people's lives that are private and we do not want to delve into their private life. But notice what it says here in verse 4, "Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others." Do you know, friends, when we perfectly learn this lesson, as we read here in verses 3 and 4, whether we know very much else or not, if we learn this, we will be very close to being ready to go to the eternal kingdom, to heaven? Because that is a place where everybody is constantly looking out for the happiness and welfare and the good of other people around them. You see, this world is the only world in the universe where people are simply looking out for themselves. This is the only place in the whole universe where that is. The rest of the universe operates on this principle that we read in verses 3 and 4.

And now Paul is going to give us one of the most sublime illustrations of this principle that there is. In fact, there is no other illustration of the principle that is so profound or heart-moving as the illustration he is going to use of the instruction that he has given us in verses 3 and 4. He says in verse 5, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Well what kind of a mind was in Christ Jesus? In verse 6 it says, "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it. . ." then next is a word that is difficult to translate. The King James Bible translates it as robbery. If you look at different translations, you will find that there are many different translations for this word because it is difficult to translate. It could be translated, "He did not consider it something to be grasped." or "He did not consider it something to be held on to." or "He did not consider it something to be fought for to be equal with God."

Was He equal with God? Yes, He was equal with God. You see, He did not consider it something to try to strive to get. He did not need to strive to get it, He already had it. All of that is in this text, but it is a Greek word that we do not have an exact word in English that will put all of that in it. You have to use many different words to try and explain it. He did not consider it was something that He had to hold on to. He had it, but He did not consider that it was something He had to hold on to to be equal with God. So what did He do? The next verse, verse 7, we also have trouble translating. If you have a Bible with marginal readings, you will notice that both verses 6 and 7 have marginal readings. The translators struggled to find the best way to translate these verses. In verse 7 it says, "but made Himself of no reputation. . ." Now if you look at the marginal reading in your Bible, it gives a literal translation of what the Greek said. The literal translation is, "He emptied Himself."

Now I want to ask you this question. Of what did He empty Himself? He emptied Himself, that means He laid something aside. What was it that He laid aside? Let me ask you this question; When Jesus came to this world and was born in Bethlehem and lived in this world, did He come to this world to show you what a God could do or to show you what man could do? What did He come here to show you? He came to show what a man could do that was connected with God.

And so, of what did He empty Himself? Ellen White says that when He was lying in the boat, you remember, he was lying in the boat asleep and that storm came up and He had perfect peace, but she says, He did not have that perfect peace because He was the Master of sea and sky. He did not have the perfect peace for that reason. She says He had laid that aside. He could have picked it up at any time, but if He had picked it up the plan of salvation would have been broken. The devil would have said, "See! Man can't do it." And He laid that aside and during His whole earthly life, He never picked it up, not until after the resurrection did He pick it up. By the way, that was one of the strongest temptations that Jesus had that you and I do not have.

The devil was constantly tempting Him to use His own divine power. He tempted Him that way in the wilderness, didn't he? The very first temptation was a temptation to use His own divine power. He tempted Him with that in Gethsemane. He tempted Him on the cross. He tempted Him before the rabble. Ellen White says that when He was at His trial, that if He had wanted to, with one look all of those people could have been dead or fleeing from Him; they would have all been gone. There would not have been anybody beating Him. With one look, He could have dismissed them all. But if He had, then you could not have been saved. Jesus came to this world, He emptied Himself-- that is, He laid aside His divine power and might.

"Oh," somebody says, "then how did He work miracles?" There are some very interesting statements in Desire of Ages about how His miracles were worked. And in the gospel of John He says over and over again, "I can of My ownself [He was talking about His humanity] do nothing." How were His miracles worked? His miracles were worked through the power and the might of the Holy Spirit, not worked by His own divinity; He laid that aside. He emptied Himself. The regular text says, "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant. . ." (That is the lowest level of a servant.)"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Verse 8

Oh, friend, can we follow Jesus and not be developing this same humility and lowliness of mind that He had? Can we? I tell you, friends, when God's people develop this kind of lowliness of mind, you are going to find out that right away, the strife that we see all around today, will cease. But it will never cease, no matter how much Bible study you do, no matter how many meetings you have, no matter how much you pray. Until you have this humility that it is talking about there, you are going to have strife. Wherever there is strife, that is absolute proof that there is at least one person that does not have this humility in their heart. It only takes one. That is all it took with Jesus' disciples. All the rest of them got stirred up, but Ellen White is very clear that there was one disciple that got the other eleven all stirred up about who was going to be the greatest. Do you know who that was? It was Judas. He got the whole eleven stirred up so that they were fighting. Do you know what happened? Either Judas had to overcome that or the time would come when he would have to be separated from the disciples. And the latter, unfortunately, is what happened. He never did overcome it. And so the time came when he was cut away as a dead branch, he was separated from the rest. Let me tell you, friends, that is going to happen again in our time.

We are going to overcome pride and we are going to have the humility that Jesus had, we are going to develop that in our character that will cause a complete cessation of strife and division. We are either going to have it or the time will come when God will separate us. Everyone that has pride and does not have this humility will be separated from God's true people before the end. Do you believe that? It will happen.

"He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name." Philippians 2:8. Jesus made it very plain, that if we would humble ourselves in this world, the time was coming when we were going to be exalted. But if we exalt ourselves down here, the time is coming when we are going to be humbled. You can read that in Matthew 23 about the 12th verse. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." Ibid. 10-15

Paul says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Do everything without complaining and murmuring. If you have this humility of Christ, it will draw all the believers into an experience of brotherly love. By the way, you are on the next to the highest step on Peter's ladder when you have brotherly love. The highest step is divine love or agape. But the seventh step is brotherly love.

Now I want to ask you this question. I am not asking you this question to get after anybody or to criticize anybody. But I am going to ask it in a rhetorical sense because we need to think about it. Do we have the humility that will result in the brotherly love that we need or do we need some more? How is it in historic Adventism today anyway? Are we really looking after the interests of each other? If somebody comes to worship here that is really hurting, are they going to find that brotherly love? Are they going to find people who are interested more in them than in themselves? Are they going to find that?

Well, friends, if they do not find it, we are not ready to go to heaven yet. We may know a lot of theology, but if we do not have that brotherly love, where we are looking out for the interests of others more than ourselves, that will draw us into a unity and harmony; we are not ready for heaven. Notice how it is all related. Humility, unity and harmony, and brotherly love where we are looking out after the interests of each other; it is all related.

Does God have something for us that is more wonderful than we have even experienced yet? Do you believe that? When Jesus left this world and went back to heaven, Paul wrote to the Hebrews in Hebrews 10, he says in verses 19 - 22, "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter this Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Then he talks about stirring up each other in love and good works and not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. What is the point? Now we are not going to go into a lot of deep theology about the sanctuary service, the heavenly sanctuary service, and what does it mean to draw near, but I want to talk about it, not from a theological point of view, but I want to talk about it from a practical point of view. What does it mean to draw near to Jesus who is ministering for us in the heavenly sanctuary? What does that mean? What is it talking about? What is this experience that we are suppose to have?

Let me read some to you from The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 27. It says, "From the Holy of Holies. . ." Now what is that? That is a biblical expression. That is the second apartment of the sanctuary sometimes called the Holy Place, sometimes called the Most Holy Place. She says that from that place where Jesus is ministering for you, something is happening. "From the Holy of Holies, there goes on the grand work of instruction." Well, what is this grand work of instruction that is going on? Let's get it to practical terms. What is going on? What are we talking about? We are talking about the very same thing that we were looking at in Philippians 2. When I receive this instruction, I am going to find out that there are things about my character, my thinking, my way of living, that are not right and need to be changed because I am not humble enough. I am not looking after the interests of others more than myself like I should. I have not perfectly learned the lesson of humility yet. And as a result, there is strife and contention and we do not have one accord and unity like God wants to give to us. If that is going to happen, it is so easy to look at somebody else, but I have to recognize that if I am receiving instruction, a change has to happen in me.

Now look how she explains this, "From the Holy of Holies, there goes on the grand work of instruction. . . .There must be a purifying of the soul here upon the earth." Ibid. What is the purifying of anything? It is taking out something that is contaminating. And I will tell you, friends, one of the things that is contaminating God's people today is pride. How do we know? Because we see strife, contention, and division; and that is proof that pride exists. Because when pride does not exist people can have differences of opinion, but there is no strife or contention over it. "There must be a purifying of the soul here upon the earth, in harmony with Christ's cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven." Ibid. You see, the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven involves a change in my mind. That is what it involves. Because up there they have a record of every thought. And then she says, "There we shall see more clearly as we are seen. We shall know as we are known." Ibid. Now that is a quotation from 1 Corinthians 13. When we receive this instruction from the heavenly sanctuary, we will see and we will know, we will have an experience of unity, friends, that God's people have not had since the days of the apostles. Would you like to be part of it?

It is a marvel when we read here in Philippians 2 about the self-denial and the humility of Jesus. Especially when we recognize the truth about Who He is. He was not a junior God, He was equal with the Father. He was God in the highest sense. "In Him was life, original, unborrowed, and underived." Evangelism, 616. And that is the person that humbled Himself to become a man and lay all of that aside and to die on the cross. That is Who He was. He was here, the Bible says, He became poor. He was rich, but "He became poor that we, through His poverty, might become rich." Ibid.

Here He was, down here in the world, it says, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him." John 1:10. He came to His own things and His own people did not receive Him. He was not recognized or confessed by those He came to bless and save. And so as He walked throughout the land, He scattered blessings wherever He went. Have you noticed that as you read the story of His life? He scattered blessings wherever He went, but when He scattered these blessings there was no one singing anthems of praise to Him. In fact, the air was often filled with cursing and blasphemy. He was a poor man so that He could save the poorest of men. As He passed to and fro among God's professed people there was scarcely a single voice that was raised to call Him blessed. There was scarcely a solitary hand that was stretched out in friendship to Him. There was scarcely a solitary roof which was offered to Him as a place of refuge from the elements. Are you aware of the fact that when Jesus was here on the earth that very often He slept out of doors because no one had invited Him home?

And yet, when we look at who He is, we see divinity, the eternal Son of God with all the resources of power that could have provided for all His needs in an instant. But He laid all that aside. Friends, as we study about this, and we see the infinity of the One that died for us and we see the self-denial and the self-sacrifice in assuming humanity and as we see that He was willing to die a most ignominious death, the thought comes back to me that if He was like that, I of all people, need to be humble. It is Satan's work to set brethren at variance so that self is interwoven with what we are doing and saying. The Lord's program is to bring us into unity and harmony with His Son and with the Father. Ellen White wrote in The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 29, "We need to make special efforts to answer the prayer of Christ that we may be one as He is one with the Father." What are we going to have to do? We are going to have to make special efforts. That is work. We are going to have to work. Oh, friend, have you experienced His love in your life? Are you experiencing His humility in your life? Are you having an experience of brotherly love in your life? Are we all having it? Or are we just holding these truths intellectually without really bringing them into our lives and experiencing them?

Ellen White wrote about that, too. She said that was one of the great reasons that God could not do for His people what He wanted to do. I will read that to you, Ibid, 30, "The reason that the Lord can do so little for those who are handling weighty truths is that so many hold these truths apart from their life. They hold them in unrighteousness. Their hands are not clean, their hearts are defiled with sin, and should the Lord work for them in the power of His Spirit corresponding with the magnitude of the truth which He has opened to the understanding, it would be as though the Lord sanctioned sin." So He cannot work for many people the way He wants to.

Oh, friend, are you receiving instruction from the Most Holy Place? Is Jesus teaching you about the defects in your character that need to be put away and changed so that you can have the experience that He wants to give you? Ellen White says that this is what it means to be working out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we read in Philippians 2:12. When I am receiving instruction from Jesus, I start to recognize that I have defects that need to be changed.

Oh, friend, is the Holy Spirit teaching you that day by day? Or are you still in an attitude of, "Well, everything is all right with me. What's the matter with you?" Friend, as long as we are in that attitude, we are in the dark. We are blind. We are not working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We do not even know what is wrong with us yet.

"The washing of the robes of character in the blood of the Lamb is a work that we must attend to earnestly while every defect of character is to be put away. Thus are we working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. The Lord is working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. We need Jesus abiding in the heart, a constant, living well-spring; then the streams flowing from the living fountain will be pure, sweet, and heavenly." Ibid, 30

Oh, friend, did you know that God wants to give you a foretaste of heaven? The people that go to heaven when Jesus comes are going to have heaven on the outside. Before you can go to heaven on the outside, you have to have heaven on the inside, so you will not spoil it. Having a foretaste of heaven is when you have this sweet, pure, heavenly thoughts and feelings and fellowship with others that are experiencing the love, the humility, and earnest striving to come into unity and harmony. I want that experience, do you?

In the world, as sin develops to its final holocaust, there is going to be more and more strife and trouble. That is what the prophecies say. Have you seen it? But while all this is developing and things are getting worse and worse in the world, among those who are preparing for heaven, they are going to have an experience of unity and harmony, and fellowship, and brotherly love that has not been seen since the time of the apostles. I want to be part of that, do you?

Oh, friend, if you are going to hold out and be ready for the end, then this experience that we have been talking about, we each have to have it. I cannot have it for you and you cannot have it for me. But if you want it and if you want to tell the Lord that you want it, I want to invite you to kneel down and pray with me right now and let us ask the Lord to give us this experience that we have been studying about.