A Day of Transition

My message last week spoke on the gospel that Jesus Christ proclaimed as He came to the earth. And the message that He cried forth with confidence, with authority, He said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And that was the focus of His ministry and His public proclamation. And His message was one that proclaimed that God's kingdom was real. You know, it wasn't theoretical. It wasn't something that was maybe hidden in prophecy that couldn't be understood. It was actual. It's real, and it's coming. And Christ said, you can have a part to play in it. Repent and believe in the gospel.

Feast of trumpets that we're observing today represents a day of transition. And that is my title for the message, a day of transition. I thought Mr. Wills in the first message touched on a number of important items that I'll go into a little further detail of this afternoon, but this is a day of transition. It's transition whereby the kingdoms of this world will come under the authority of the kingdom of God. You might could say there's a new sheriff in town as this day rolls out. But, brethren, it's a transition that won't take place willingly. It's God's desire that all mankind and that this world would live in compliance with his way. He's given his word. He's given instruction. You know, the Bible, the most printed book, is spread across the face of the globe. A gospel message has gone out literally for centuries and then again proclaimed in our day. It's not a hidden message that nobody could find if they were looking, but the truth is the world is heading in a different direction, in a different mindset, and the day of transition and change is coming. This world doesn't want to change by and large.

Mankind enjoys living under its own authority, under its own decision-making power, and as we heard on the second sermon, this last Sabbath, Satan the devil holds the reigns, essentially, of the kingdoms of men. God, when Jesus Christ came, Satan tempted Christ, he says, all these kingdoms, you know, I have basically under my authority. I'll give them to you if you fall down and worship me. Of course, all those kingdoms were already Jesus Christ. If you remain faithful to his Father to the end, these will be given over into his authority at his return. There's nothing that Satan can offer that could trump the marvelous purpose that God has. But for a time, God has allowed him to hold this world captive under a certain mindset, under certain influence. 1st John 5, 19 tells us, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. So, Satan the devil uses his influence, he uses his power and his limited authority that he has, to hold mankind captive in his ways of thinking, which are contrary to the ways of God.

And as the adversary of God, Satan's not willing to give up his dominion and his authority and the power that he has. He's not giving that up willingly. And therefore, those who have followed along in the system that is his counterfeit system will not be willing to give up their power so willingly either. As a result of these things, God will enter into judgment and contest with this world. And this time of judgment is what is called the day of the Lord. It's what this day, this Feast of Trumpets portrays, it is the day of the Lord.

The end time period that the Bible defines as the day of the Lord is a one-year period, which overlaps in the last year of a three and a half year period prior to Christ's return.

So you have three and a half years you could bracket off. The first two and a half years are labeled as the Great Tribulation. We have Satan's wrath on the earth. We have conflict among the nations. Again, man left to their own devices are ramping up to to their own destruction, essentially. But the last year of that three and a half year period is the year which is called the day of the Lord, the last year prior to Jesus Christ's return. It is a day of judgment. It is a day in which God will gather the nations together and they will see His power. They will understand His authority, but ultimately for the end of them to learn who He is and the real purpose for their life. But it is a day of transition. The book of Zephaniah describes the day of the Lord in some detail. I'd like to begin there today in Zephaniah chapter 1. Zephaniah 1. There's a number of scriptures that we could go to that show that the day is a year. It's the year of recompense. It's the year of God's judgment. We won't go through that today. We've laid that foundation before, but let's just at least get a glimpse into the tone of the day of the Lord. Zephaniah chapter 1 and verse 14. Zephaniah 1 verse 14. It says, The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and it hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter. There the mighty man shall cry out. The day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation. It's a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. Verse 17, God says, I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk like blind men. You know, they're just going to be staggering about through the trauma that will be taking place. It says, I mean, it's a gruesome picture to consider, but just literally like bodies scattered across the ground like garbage. Verse 18, Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land. It's not a very cheery picture that the Bible paints of the day of the Lord. And that's intentional. It's really not a cheery time, not for the peoples of this world. It is a time of darkness, a time of distress, a time of clouds and gloominess, a time of devastation against the whole earth because of the sins of mankind and their unwillingness to yield, unwillingness to repent and submit to God in his ways, in order of lives according to them today.

Many Old Testament and New Testament prophecies create a composite picture of the theme and the time frame of the blowing of trumpets. It's a time when catastrophic and cataclysmic events will take place. There'll be destruction globally on this earth. Catastrophic warfare will take place. It's a time when all nations will be brought together to be judged by God for their actions, for their mindset, for their opposition. That judgment will take place at the return of Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter 8 through 11 describes the blowing of trumpets, seven trumpets which blow in succession one after another with a time span in between and essentially a plague upon the earth that follows the blowing of each trumpet. And their effects take place over the course of this one-year period. We're not going to walk through those today. We've done that in the past, but I just encourage you to look through Revelation chapter 8 through 11. The consequence of the blowing of each trumpet is dramatic. It's not my purpose today to necessarily go through the gruesomeness of the day of the Lord, but just to simply remind us that these things will take place. But also, I'd like to remind us what will take place before the return of Jesus Christ. And because that is the end focus, God the Father sending His Son to establish His kingdom, that is what we look forward to on this day. You know, through the clouds, through the gloom, there is the ray of hope that one day will shine into an age of light. So it is a day of transition from where this world stands today to where it one day will be under the reign of the kingdom of God.

Now, as I've already mentioned, the nations of the earth, again under the influence of Satan the devil and driven by carnal nature, will not willingly submit to God's kingdom. And there will be consequences. And sometimes we can look and wonder, why does God have to be so brutal?

Why so gruesome? Why such mass devastation? You read through the numbers of prophecies and you come to see that, you know what, there's only a small percentage of mankind living on the earth during the day of the Lord that will survive. Small percentage. And the earth will literally be shaken off its foundation and mountains will be leveled and and oceans will die and it will be just a very traumatic time. Why would God do such a thing? You know, why so dramatic?

You know, I was thinking in my mind on the on the way up here, when I was a kid I used to watch Star Wars, you know, an Obi-Wan Kenobi kind of wave his hand and you just plant an idea in the people's heads and they would comply. You know, why wouldn't God just say, you will be at peace with me? And everyone says, we will be at peace with you. And just, you know, go on your way. Why must God intervene in such a manner is this? Well, there is an answer, there's a number of answers, but the one I'd like to focus on today is that God is not undertaking a remodeling project.

With this world, with this system, God is not undertaking a remodeling project.

Over 20 years ago, Darla and I bought a house on a piece of property, nearly 15 acres, and the house was a wreck. You know, old falling down farmhouse hadn't been lived in in about 15 years. The roof was rotted through, the floor was rotted through, you know, the mice were having a nice time inhabiting it, but it really wasn't useful for anybody else at the time. But we loved the property, and honestly, the value was in the property. But we took a year and undertook a remodeling project with this house, and we tore the roof off and rebuilt it. We gutted it, we rewired it, re-insulated it, all new windows, flooring, siding, carpet, all of these things. And we looked to basically remodel an existing structure. And honestly, during the course of that year, there were times when I said to myself, you know what, it would be just easier if we had just knocked this thing down and started again. Because the structure was flawed. The foundation was flawed. Literally, you could go under the house in a root cellar and look at the foundation. For a foundation, it had about a foot of concrete and no footer. The kitchen floor was always sloped. Those who had been in the house would remember, and Ben's nodding his head, you know. The kids used to have fun playing games on our kitchen floor because it sloped, and you could run cars down the kitchen floor. Kids could sit on their toys and ride them down the kitchen floor and run into the cabinets at the other end of the kitchen. But it was what it was. It was our house, and we made it work. The plumbing system, we'd work to upgrade that somewhat over time, but you couldn't do too many loads of laundry before you'd hear the drain start to gurgle. When you say we got to give the drain field a rest here. Again, the foundation had issues with it as well.

Essentially, the house was we were busting out of the seams wherever we turned in. And even in the course of 20 years, I said it might have been easier if we just knocked this down and built something new. Because whenever you had to fix something and you cut into a wall or you went under the house, you found the problem. But it was because there was another problem that created that problem. But it was what it was. It was a house built in 1910, and for us it was home. A few years ago, when the mudslide came through, that solved our problem for us.

And we moved on. New foundation, new house, and another spot on the property. But my point is, brethren, God's not seeking to undertake a remodeling project with the kingdoms of this earth. It's not a salvage operation in that sense, whereby he's looking to revamp an existing system. The system is broken. The foundation is cracked. For 6,000 years, man has built a structure on a foundation that was apart from God, and it's built on sand. And it will not stand. And so if God is going to bring his kingdom and the ways of his kingdom, and mankind is going to understand a way that works, God needs to, in that sense, wipe clean and start again.

Remove that foundation. Remove the ways of man. Establish the kingdom of God. He's not sending Jesus Christ back just to sit down at the bargaining table with the kingdoms of this world and say, well, if you just make a modification here, if you change a little something there, we can get along, and it will be okay. The system is flawed. The world is flawed. It's a result of living under the influence of the God of this age. When we look around and we say, there's good things in this world, and there are, all right? But the tree of knowledge of good and evil, there is good fruit on the tree, but it is still the wrong tree. And God is bringing people to life, not to this experiment that mankind embarked on, on which they said, I can decide for myself what is true.

So if it seems like God's getting a little rough with the world and the prophecies that we see portrayed in the Bible, we need to realize, again, that the structure of man's existence for 6,000 years has been built on a faulty foundation, and it needs to be leveled and rebuilt.

This day of trumpets is a day of transition. We might even call it a painful transition, and it will be painful for the world around us. And even for the people of God, those who are living in the flesh and alive still in that day, it will be likely very painful for us to see. You know, we'll sigh and cry for the world around us and what it is that mankind must go through. But besides the fact that it's a painful transition, brethren, it is a necessary transition. And it will usher in an age where the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And mankind will learn true living, learn the way that truly leads to peace and leads to life, the ways of the kingdom of God. Let's notice a little detail regarding the seventh trumpet blast. Let's go to Revelation chapter 11.

We like to zero in on the seventh trumpet because this is kind of where the ray of hope in that that year of trumpets takes place. Revelation chapter 11 verse 15 says, In the seventh angel sounded the trumpet, sounded the alarm, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. It's a pronouncement of the kingdoms of man being supplanted by the kingdom of God, the rulership of God the Father and Jesus Christ, and it will be truly a change. Christ will come back as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Powers of the kings of the nations of this earth will not stand before him. They'll no longer be the kingdoms of men. Doing things according to the ways of men established on the principles of men, the kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and the kingdom of God will reign supreme on the earth. Again, this isn't a remodeling project.

It isn't the time to just sort of spruce up what already exists. It's going to be wiped clean and built properly from the foundation. Daniel chapter 2, we see King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, God gave him a vision of the end time events in part. Daniel chapter 2, verse 27, and what we'll see from this is that the kingdom of God will come, and frankly, the kingdoms of the world will not stand. God will replace what man has built. Daniel chapter 2, verse 27, you'll recall King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and he says, somebody tell me the interpretation of this dream. And I assumed probably a person or two said, well, I'll tell you. But the point was he wanted to know that the interpretation would be true. So he said, okay, I'm not going to tell you my dream. You tell me my dream, and then you tell me the interpretation. And the response was, well, you ask an impossible thing. So the king, you know, said, well, you guys, I'm just going to start chopping your head off until somebody can come along and tell me what my dream is. Daniel asked his friends to pray, and then Daniel approached the king. Daniel chapter 2 and verse 27.

Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and he said, the secret which the king has demanded, the wise men and the astrologers and the musicians and the soothsayers, cannot declare to the king. He says, but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these. Verse 31, he says, you, O king, were watching, and behold a great image. This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. This image's head was out of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. And you watch while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold, were all crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, so that no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and it filled the whole earth. I thought it was interesting that Mr. Wills went in to describe the chaff and the separation that takes place at the end of the age.

Verse 36, this is the dream, now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. Verse 37, he says, you, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell, or beasts of the field, and the birds of the air of heaven, he has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. We're talking not a small little government here, we're talking a world-ruling superpower. There's a tongue twister. You know what I'm saying. And in Nebuchadnezzar's day, the known world was under his dominion. He was that head of gold.

Verse 39, but after you shall rise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, in a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. It's a succession of kingdoms that would follow one after another. Verse 40, in the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break into pieces and crush all others.

Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay, partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. And as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they shall not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

So Daniel is expressing successive kingdoms that would follow after Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar's rule as well, with the final being these toes and feet. And, you know, you have two feet. What do you have? Ten toes, all right, which would appear to be nations, kingdoms, extant at the end time. And our understanding is it would appear to be ten kingdoms.

If you go to Revelation chapter 17, the ten kings who give their allegiance to the beast, and the beast gives them power for a day, for a season of time. It's the loose, we call it a loose federation of nations that will back the beast power at the return of Jesus Christ and stand in opposition to the establishment of the kingdom of God. Verse 44 says, and in the days of these kings, all right, the ten, the toes, the feet, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.

It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. And as much as you saw the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass after this, the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure. King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and again as interpreted by Daniel, shows that the kingdom of God, when it's established, will crush the power, the authority of the kingdoms of the earth.

Any nation, any kingdom, any group raised up against God in opposition to his kingdom will not stand, and as the dream portrayed, it will become this mountain that will fill the whole earth. The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The kingdom of God will reign supreme. Again, not a remodeling project, not a some sort of, you know, agreement to come in and just kind of can't we work together and work these things out together.

God has given man time. This is a day of transition. The kingdom of God will reign, and it's coming. Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah 2, Mr. Alwine read this on the Sabbath. Isaiah 2, it shows us that nothing proud or lifted up will be able to stand in the day of the Lord.

Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 12, says, For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty. Upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low. Upon the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon the oaks of Bashan, upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up. When the Bible describes mountains and hills, prophetically, many times it's referring to kingdoms and nations. It's saying no kingdom, no nation lifted up will be able to stand before the kingdom of God. God is coming. He is sending His Son. His kingdom is coming, and it will be established. Upon every high mountain, upon all the hills that are lifted up, verse 15, upon every high tower, upon every fortified wall, upon all the ships of the Tarshish, upon the beautiful sloops, the lofting mess of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low.

The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols He shall utterly abolish.

Again, in that day, there's not going to be a person, a group, a government, a kingdom nothing, lifted up, haughty or proud, will stand before the kingdom of God in the judgment that God is bringing on this earth. Everyone and everything will be brought low. The ways of man will be humbled. The system of man, the foundation on which man has built his system, will be brought low. It will be leveled. And the kingdom of God, then, will begin to reign. The Day of Trumpets, with all its gloomy prophecies for this world, with all its darkness, with all the the clouds and the doom and the sounding of the trumpet, brethren, is actually a day of hope for those who look to the kingdom of God as the highest, highest governing authority in their life. If you and I are living our lives today under the reign of the kingdom of God, this day brings hope. It does bring darkness. It does bring gloominess upon this world, and we will have to walk through that as best we can, but we understand that the clouds will part and the sun will shine, and it will be a day of light for the entire earth. If you unite today, this day of trumpets is a day of hope.

The kingdom of God is where the future good of mankind lies. It's not in the kingdoms of men.

You know, we may look around today because we live in a blessed nation and an orderly nation, and we say, hey, things are good. And you know what? Compared to the grand scope of the world, things are good, but again, it's the wrong tree. It's not the system that God would establish. The kingdom is where true freedom and true prosperity will spring from. It's where the true answers to life's problems exist. Under the reign of the kingdom of God, truth will abound, and peace will abound, and the solution to mankind's problems will be right there before them.

God the Father is sending His Son back to the earth to show the way of righteousness and peace, and His reign will not be the same old, same old. His reign will be a whole new way of doing things. We're in the book of Isaiah. Let's go to chapter 9.

Verse 6.

Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. It's a beautiful prophecy concerning the future reign of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6 says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

You've heard it said before, somebody's carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. It means they have a heavy weight of responsibility that they're carrying around. Jesus Christ will have the weight of the government, the kingdom of God, on His shoulders when He comes.

The government will be upon His shoulder. Huge responsibility. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over His kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

So God the Father is sending Jesus Christ back to establish His kingdom.

They're not two different kingdoms, like there's the kingdom of Jesus Christ and there's the kingdom of God the Father. No, this is the kingdom of God which He is sending His Son to establish. And it says that He will order it, verse 7, He will order it and establish it.

Meaning He is coming to set it in place, to set it in order on this earth, to establish its reign on this earth. And He will do so with judgment and with justice.

Judgment and justice. Those would be the hallmarks of His rulership. A completely different system than the world today understands.

Governments of man today oftentimes lead to injustices. They lead to oppression.

This is a kingdom which will bring fulfillment to people's lives. You know, that's why it will be so different. Again, we live in a wonderful country, but I would just ask you, how many governments can you think of down through time, including our own, have ever existed to help you fulfill the potential for which you were created?

They maybe can defend us, give us a clean environment and an opportunity to live a safe and productive life, but what government, apart from the kingdom of God, can actually be in place in its purpose is to help you fulfill the purpose for which you were created. That's the kingdom that Jesus Christ is bringing.

Human governments have not succeeded because in the final analysis, humanity simply doesn't know how to live apart from God.

I thought it was dramatic this last week in the E-News that came out from the home office, the article from Mr. Kubik. He had the picture of the most recent National Geographic magazine, and on the cover you had the woman, a refugee. She was fleeing her homeland, and she was carrying her young child in her arms, and she had just stepped off the boat, and she was wading through water up to her knees to get to land.

We've probably all seen news stories of people climbing mountains or swimming bodies of water, or being loaded up in a boat to the point that it sank in the middle of the water, just desperate to get somewhere just a place that they could have hope. Because back home, there was war, there was disease, there was political unrest, there's trauma of every kind.

In his article, Mr. Kubik quoted from the United Nations, which estimates more than a billion people, one in seven human beings alive today, a billion with a B. All right? Can you wrap your mind around a billion people? That's 999,999,999 plus, right? One in seven people alive today are migrating within their countries or across international borders. They're seeking escape from war, from crime, from violence, from political instability, all kinds of trauma and effects, seeking a better life. You know, I don't know the story of the woman in that picture, but I assume she's motivated on trying to find a future for her son, because where they came from was that desperate. Again, this is taking place right now in the world that we live in, and it is the largest dispersion of people from their homelands in human history. Again, we live in a great place, and if you don't turn the TV on, you don't necessarily have to see it or know about it, but the Bible says the time of Jacob's trouble is coming, and it'll be right here one day at our door, and the only answer will be the kingdom of God. It's a sad world we live in, brethren. Again, human governments fail, and they fail to provide for the people in the way that the people need provided for and directed in a right and proper way, because it's not within man to direct his own steps. In fact, that's what Jeremiah said. Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 23, Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It's not a man who walks to direct his own steps.

Within our own thinking, within our own structure, our own carnal nature, it's not within mankind to go somewhere that leads to peace and truth and happiness and the fulfillment of what God created this whole planet and mankind for. Apart from God, it's not in us to direct our own steps.

King Solomon said something similar in Proverbs 14, 12. He said, there's a way that seems right to a man. Let's do it. It's right. It's good, but its end is the way of death.

It's the way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Death is the consequence of a system built upon the ways of man, and sadly, mankind has proven this to be true generation after generation after generation. And there's a day of transition coming.

Under the direction of mankind, the world has never seen an age apart from war, turmoil, and suffering. And as Matthew 24 tells us, as conditions build to the end of the age, unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. Mankind would implode left to their own devices. But it says, for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. God has a purpose. He has a plan. He's developing a body of firstfruits to help aid in fulfilling that purpose.

Brethren, God the Father and Jesus Christ are not planning to salvage this system, or to plan a salvage operation to revamp a system that's broken. Again, it will be built in a way that truly leads to life. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 21. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21. The ways of God lead to life. The ways of man lead in the opposite direction. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21 says, For since by man came death, okay, that's the decision of the first man Adam, and death has been the consequence since, by man also came the resurrection of the dead, of course, that man being Jesus Christ.

Verse 22. For as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, be each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards those who are Christ that is coming. Verse 24. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power. You notice Christ isn't coming to negotiate with all rule and all authority and all power. He's coming to put an end to it and establish the reign, the authority, and the power of the kingdom of God. Verse 25. For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Death is an enemy of mankind, certainly. But you know, death is also an enemy of God. And we might wonder, well, how can that be? Because God's not subject to death.

Well, death is an enemy of God because the wages of sin is death. And God is opposed to the ways of sin. And Jesus Christ will reign until those wages are completely defeated. He must reign until he puts all enemies under his feet. Last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For he, God the Father, has put all things under his Christ's feet. But when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted. God the Father is not under Jesus Christ. God the Father is Christ Superior. He says he is my God and my Father and your God and your Father.

But God has placed all things under Jesus Christ and Christ submits to his Father. Verse 28. Now when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him that God may be all in all. And so this Feast of Trumpets represents a turning point for all of mankind. A day of transition in which the painful ways of man, and it'll be a painful transition that will take place, but it ultimately comes to serve the good. The good of all mankind that God has purpose at the establishment of his kingdom. So with that in mind, fact that God isn't revamping this world, he's going to do away with the old system, establish a new system. Just who is it that will be there to assist Jesus Christ in the establishment of the kingdom of God? You know, just who will be there? Who will be equipped? Who will be prepared?

Who will have a degree of understanding and know-how about what this world needs?

Who will be there to assist Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, as we've already touched on today, there's another event that happens at the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. We know there will be a group of people who assist Jesus Christ. I want to focus today on what will be the quality of those people, because God is accomplishing something in this world, and those that would assist need to show they have the capability to accomplish the same things in their lives. 1 Thessalonians 4 chapter 4 and verse 13, 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 Paul says, They do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. If you go to 1 Corinthians 15, it says it's at the last trumpet, it's the seventh trumpet, which sounds. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. And he says therefore comfort one another with these words. So at the seventh trumpet, the saints, those group that the Bible calls the firstfruits, and God willing, if we remain faithful to the end, you and I will be a part of that group. They will rise up to meet Christ in the air, resurrected unto eternal life.

Let's notice the responsibility they'll be given following the resurrection. Let's go to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation 20 verse 4.

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, had not received his mark on their forehead or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Verse 5 says, But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. So you have the first resurrection or the firstfruits who come up, and you have the rest of the dead who do not live until completion of the thousand years. Verse 6 says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

So we notice the saints, again those who come up in the first resurrection, will be given responsibility to reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. We will accompany Christ. We will follow the Lamb wherever He goes as we assist Him in the work that the Father has given Him to do, which is to establish the ways of the kingdom over this earth, to order it, to establish it with judgment and justice. That's what Christ will be doing, and that is what we will be doing as we reign alongside Him. We won't turn there, but back in the book of Daniel, chapter 7, verse 27, it says that the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, to the saints of the Most High. So again, I want to take a minute just to consider who is it that will be there? Who is it that will come up in the first resurrection? You know, who is it that will be qualified to serve alongside Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God?

Who will the Father resurrect to serve with His Son? There are certain qualities that need to be in place. The question is, are we going to be among that group? Remember, brethren, the kingdom of God will not be anything like the kingdoms of men. The kingdom of God will be a completely different form of government. It will not blend itself to the ways of man. God is not seeking to revamp the system of man to build on a faulty foundation. God is seeking to do something new. The ways of this world must be dismantled. So just who is qualified to serve alongside Jesus Christ in the ordering and the establishment of the kingdom of God? On the seventh trumpet blows, brethren, God is not—and I'll say not—going to resurrect someone who is just a remodeled version of the carnal man. You know, you live a good life, you did good things, but maybe you're still of the carnal nature, but you put on some window dressing. It looks good. You're a decent person, you did decent things. But again, what is the foundation that we're building our lives on?

With return of Jesus Christ, God is not going to resurrect someone who has built maybe something good on the foundation of the carnal man. God's looking for those who have put to death the old ways of living, have committed themselves to walking in newness of life, because that's what we see described for the kingdom of God. It's putting away the old way of living in a world at large, walking in newness of life. Is that describing us? On this day of trumpets, I think it's a good question to consider. Is it describing you and me? Let's look briefly at a couple passages that show the type of people who will be reigning alongside Jesus Christ. Romans 6. Romans 6 and verse 1. Again, what are the job qualifications, if we could call it that, for assisting in the establishment of the kingdom? Romans chapter 6 and verse 1, the apostle Paul writing, he says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound?

Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. Everybody who came through baptism counseling and went up to be baptized, I hope you understood this, was a process of putting to death the old man, the carnal nature, the old way of doing things. And when you came out of the water, it was symbolic of resurrection unto life, to walk anew with God and Christ in you.

So therefore, again, verse 4, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Newness of life is what God is creating in each and every one of us on an individual basis. But it's also what he's seeking to establish on a global scale when the kingdom of God comes.

So the people who are qualified to serve in that capacity must be people who have already made that transition in their life and understand what this is all about and understand the blessing and the benefits and the value of living under the reign of the kingdom of God today. This is who God will have in his kingdom, those who are walking in newness of life today.

I don't have it in my notes, but Romans 12, I believe, verse 2, says to be transformed, right? Not according to this world, but let's be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It's a complete change, not a building on a faulty foundation. Second Corinthians 5, verse 17, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. Just one verse here.

2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a remodeled old carnal man.

Not what it says, is it? It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Again, this Christian life is not about putting some nice window dressing on the old nature, so that it appears nice, so that it looks good to those from the outside.

You know, you could describe those things as Christ did, white-washed tomb. You know, it looks good on the outside, but on the inside, full of dead men's bones. So this isn't window dressing, sprucing up of the carnal nature to look good. It's not like we're trying to hang on to the ways that we used to live and say, I like that about me. Sometimes those things are hard to get rid of.

It's a transition, it's a process by which we come out of the ways of this world and walk according to the ways of the kingdom of God. It's about being a completely new creation, where old things have passed away and all things have become new. That's the kind of person that God the Father is looking for to reign alongside Jesus Christ for a thousand years, because that's the kind of world that's being built when His kingdom comes. The one where the old ways are forgotten and the men and women of this world will walk in newness of life. Those who have not come out of the ways of this world and put on the ways of the kingdom of God, brethren, will not be there when the resurrection comes at the return of Jesus Christ. And as Mr. Wills mentioned, we have a window of opportunity. We have a limited period of time. I hope we can hear the trumpet.

I hope we can hear it in the church. I hope we can hear the sounding of the alarm in spiritual Zion, because God's kingdom is coming. Today of transition is coming, but for you and me, the day of transition is today. The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

And it begins with us first. If we're faithful and we walk through this with God's help and we are successful, then we will be there to reign in the kingdom of God. Peace of Trumpets is a day of transition for the whole world, but it should also serve as a reminder of the spiritual transition that must be taking place in our lives today. God's not interested in taking on a remodeling project, not in you and me individually, and not in the world at large. He's looking for a new creation where the old things have passed away. All things have become new. Let us prepare today for the kingdom of God. Let us hear the sound of the trumpet in our lives. Let us never slumber. Let us never sleep, because the day of the Lord is coming. It ought not catch us by surprise.

I'm going to conclude in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 1. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 1. Again, the words of the apostle Paul.

Paul says, But concerning times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. He says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night, those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day, that's you and I, brethren, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Verse 11 just simply says, Therefore comfort each other, and edify one another, just as you also are doing. Brethren, the Feast of Trumpets portrays a day of transition, from the world we know today, to a world that will live under the reign of the kingdom of God. But this day also portrays a day of transition that must be taking place in our lives right now, as we come out of the ways of this world, and we live our lives in service to God, allowing His kingdom to reign in our life today. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Christ said to repent and believe in the gospel. And brethren, you and I can have a part of that glorious kingdom if we follow His words and His example.