Feast of Trumpets - The Best of Times & The Worst of Times

Good morning to everyone here and to all of you who are online by means of the camera. Good to see those of you that are here and to know that those who aren't are tuned in for this special Holy Day. Listening very carefully to the words on the special music, those that reflect the meaning of this day. Very enjoyable. Also, this time of year, those who bring in the glory of the fall flowers, it's always something special on the day of trumpets to see. The last of the beautiful foliage before all of that is gone and we transition beyond that season. You know when you've given this particular message, meaning of the day, message for the Feast of Trumpets for many, many years, over time as you prepare, certain things begin to appear over and over and over and over again. And I'd like to pose a question to you in that particular context. As you look at the Feast of Trumpets, and I look at an audience that has also been keeping this for decades in many cases, what single characteristic best describes the day of trumpets? What single characteristic best describes the day of trumpets? I remember the first time that I gave a sermon at, as a young minister, at a combined church service. So there were multiple church areas that were together. And I was assigned a sermonette and I spoke on the Feast. And an evangelist came to me afterwards, and he just very politely and gently said, as an assessment of my sermonette, he said, you need to remember that this is the day of trumpets, not the day of trumpet. Obviously, a lot of years have gone by and I haven't forgotten what he said. This is the day of trumpets. The single characteristic that best describes the day of trumpets is contrast. It is a holy day that pictures the most radical contrasts in all of human experience. When I look at the Feast of Trumpets, I'm reminded of the opening phrase from Charles Dickens, The Tale of Two Cities. For those who have read Dickens, or those familiar with Dickens, there's probably nothing more closely identified to Charles Dickens and his writings than the opening phrase to The Tale of Two Cities. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. These words graphically describe the day of trumpets. Now, Dickens was writing about the city of London and the city of Paris at the time of the French Revolution. And so his comment was focused on the city, two great cities, the city of London and the city of Paris during the time of the French Revolution. But what he said about those two cities in his opening paragraph fits the day of trumpets literally like a tailor-made glove. And I expect in the resurrection there will be conversations, and Dickens, with his greater knowledge, will understand that he better described the day of trumpets than he described London in Paris at the time of the revolution. Probably all of you are familiar with that short opening phrase. But do you know what follows it? Let me read you Charles Dickens' assessment of London and Rome, and it will be the assessment of the day of trumpets. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief. It was the epic of incredulity. It was the season of light, and it was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope in the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us. Dickens just described the day of trumpets. This morning we're going to let Charles Dickens unwittingly walk us through the meaning of the day of trumpets. I'd like you to turn back to Romans chapter 8. Dickens began his famous tale of two cities by saying it was the best of times. Romans chapter 8 makes the following comments.

The apostle Paul said to the church of God in Rome that I consider in verse 18 that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which God shall reveal in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. He goes on in verse 23 to say, And not only they, but we also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Paul told the Romans that the entirety of God's creation is literally sitting on pins and needles waiting for the day when they will see the expectation actually materialize. That happens at the blast of the seventh trumpet. You know, there's a place in Revelation that says, referring to the throne of God, that it was surrounded by 10,000 times 10,000 angels and thousands and thousands. Just that scene alone was over 100 million. How many hundreds of millions of angels there are? I have no way of knowing, nor do you. But they all sit in the same room like the proverbial child on Christmas Eve, eagerly waiting for the next morning when they can run downstairs and open their presents, only this is magnitudes more than that, for the day when they can see we human beings changed into sons of God. And the apostle John said, we don't know what we will appear like at that point in time, but what we do know is that we will appear like him. Well, that's as good as knowing what we will look like. It is the best of times. All of God's plan has been moving along, narrowing toward a point of focus that takes place when the seventh trump sounds and you and I and the twinkling of an eye are changed from flesh and blood to spirit beings. There is no better time.

It is the worst of times.

Matthew 24. I don't even need to turn there because this one you all know so well, and it's been touched on earlier. I'll give you the place, Matthew 24, 21, and 22. When the disciples were asking Jesus Christ, tell us the signs of the end of the age and of your coming. Jesus Christ said to them in Matthew 24, 21, and 22, that the condition of this world is going to come to the place that if it were not for the elect's sake, there would be no flesh saved alive.

If it were not that God has an elect, this world will wind itself down to the place where it will destroy itself. And Christ assures his disciples in Matthew 24, 21, and 22 that I will not let that happen. That is the worst of times. Jesus Christ is going to snatch this world from the brink of jumping off a suicidal cliff of self-destructing, of reaching such a case of chaos and anarchy that man is ready to push the ultimate button that will remove all humanity off this earth. And Christ says, for the elect's sake, I will not let that happen.

That is the worst of times. You know, it can't get any worse. It came real close with Noah, real, real close with Noah. But this is worse. Revelation 11 gives us a window where we can look at the two of them in concert. Revelation 11, verse 15. As we walk through this, brethren, I'll just give you a heads up. I told my wife, I said, you know, this has been one of the easiest sermons I've ever prepared because every single solitary scripture is at the time. I don't have to try to make a scripture fit the time. They're all there. And so we simply get to walk through scriptures, all related specifically on target to the day of trumpets. Verse 15, Then the seventh angel sounded the last of the trumpets, 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. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come at the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great, and shall destroy those who destroy the earth, the best of times, the worst of times. Dickens went on to say it was an age of wisdom and an age of foolishness. The day of trumpets marks the dawning of the day of wisdom. As we have already seen in the previous scripture, all of us, and not just us human beings, but all spirit beings eagerly await the sound of the seventh trumpet and the return of Jesus Christ. But in the context of what we are talking about right now, an age of wisdom and an age of wisdom and an age of foolishness. Let's look at the context. Daniel 12.

As the book of Daniel is closing, wrapping up, there are some summarizations. In Daniel 12 and verse 1, Daniel records the following. At that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since time was, or since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. At the time of the sounding of the seventh trump and the resurrection of the saints, Daniel is allowed to see that many who are wise shall shine like the firmament. As John said, we know that we will appear like him. We know the apostle Paul, as he wrote to the Corinthians, said that the wisdom of God is the foolishness of this world, and to God this world lives in foolishness. At that time, at the revealing of the sons of God, the wisdom of God that Paul talked to the Corinthians about, will begin to shine, and the age of wisdom will begin. Christ will bring his way, the saints will assist, and wisdom will dominate.

Dickens said at that point in time it would also be an age of foolishness, or Dickens said that in contrasting London and Paris, I'm simply saying to you what he said about those two cities fits beautifully the day of trumpets. The wise shall shine as the firmament. What about foolishness? What about trumpets and foolishness? Jeremiah 4. Those who are familiar with the signs of the end of the age, the kind of conditions that there will be, will instantly, as they begin to read the scriptures that I'm turning to right now in Jeremiah chapter 4, see all of those identifiers that are identical with the day of the Lord. Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 23, As you read about the day of the Lord, as you read about the trumpet plagues, and as you read about the seven last plagues, this is what it's describing. So we have a setting. We have a setting where this earth is shaking and trembling, where everything has devolved into total chaos. But in that setting, what was the state of man? Well, the state of man is described in the verse that precedes it. For my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are silly children, or as the margin says, they are foolish children. And they have no understanding. Oh, they are wise to do evil, but to do good. They have no knowledge.

As we move to that point in time, God's assessment of his people are, they're foolish. They are silly children, utterly and totally foolish. Oh, yes, they have become very wise on how to do evil. But how to do what is right? They are clueless.

An age of wisdom. An age of foolishness. Dickens went on to use the term, the epic of belief and the epic of incredulity. Two words, epic much more familiar. Incredulity, not really a part of most people's vocabulary, so a little bit of definition is needed. An epic is a description of a period of time in history that is marked by notable events or is marked by particular characteristics. And so you have a condition and a condition that lasts a certain length of time. And when that becomes a defining element in human history, that block of time, where you can see a consistent characteristic or a notable series of events, would be an epic. Dickens spoke of an epic of belief.

Let's go back to where we were with the sermon at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

It is to the Thessalonians that the Apostle Paul speaks of and gives both encouraging and cautioning words about this time yet ahead of us that we celebrate today as the Feast of Trumpets. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 17 are classic funeral scriptures pointing to the day of trumpets. Trumpets is that time or that epic marked in a particular way. So let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4 beginning in 13. But I 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 Christ died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

And I am sure you will always be with the Lord.

Today is the day that those who believe will receive their reward. All of those who have believed God and have formed their conduct, their way of living, their attitudes, all of those formed because they read in God's word that these are the things that I instruct you to do and the way that I instruct you to live. All of those who have believed. You know, there's believing, which is head nodding, and then there is believing, which is demonstrated by how you live your life. All those who truly believe.

will be transformed at the sound of the seventh trumpet. There is no time like the day of trumpets that could be called the epic of belief. What do we talk about to begin with, that all of creation earnestly waiting in expectation for the revealing of the sons of God? And they will know that those who rise are those who have lived their belief. And that will be its marker.

The epic of incredulity.

Not a common word, is it? Those of you that love words would know what it means. And the majority of us would say, well, it's not good, whatever it is. But I'm not exactly sure what it is. Incredulity is the state of being unwilling or unable to believe something. We live in an age of incredulity. Science and education are working themselves to the bone. Media, along with it, and we can spread it out beyond that, to destroy every single solitary sense of belief in God that there is. It is an epic. I've said to four or five people during the period of COVID, that the thing that has struck me probably as much as anything else is that aside from, because they don't count, the string of religious channels, the 700 Club and all the individual preachers, preachers, put the preachers aside. In the common society, in the common conversation, in the common dialogue, from the very time this pandemic began, I have not personally, personally, you may have, but I have not personally heard anyone place on the table. Could God be involved with what is currently going on? God's not even on the table. You've got headbanging and fighting and name-calling and fist-shaking and every sort of chaos, but God is not in the dialogue.

We live in the epic of incredulity, and I've got bad news for you, brethren. It's only going to get worse. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 is where Paul told the Thessalonians, if you think it is bad now, just hang on, because it's going to get a supernatural assist. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1, Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as from us as though the day of Christ had come.

Let no man deceive you by any means that the day, and that day is this day, the day we're celebrating, that that day will not come unless a falling away comes first, and that the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. What's the highlight? What's the highlight of that time when the son of perdition is revealed? What's his focus? What's the societal response? Verse 8, And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. So he gives the beginning and end in one verse. He's going to be revealed, and oh, by the way, at the end of it all, he's going to be utterly destroyed. But in between, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. So you've got a tailor-made leader for a tailor-made society. His whole mission is deception, and he has a society that is ready to welcome him with open arms because they want absolutely nothing to do with the truth. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they may all be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. It is the epic of incredulity, and it will reach its apex when the man of sin with the power of Satan brings what God refers to through Paul's writing as a strong delusion upon a world that we've already described earlier. It's very wise in doing wrong and very foolish in doing right, and it is all the ingredients for mixing up a batter and baking a cake of an epic of incredulity.

Dickens went on to speak of a season of light and a season of darkness. You know, brethren, we come, we come, and we celebrate this day. And we know there are seven trumpets, and we know that one, two, three, four, and five, six are not trumpets you really even enjoy reading about. I don't enjoy reading about trumpet one, two, three, four, five, six. I can't even wrap my head around how one, two, three, four, five, six can be survived. But as I said regarding the evangelist who walked up to me as a young minister, remember this is the day of trumpets. The season of light subscribed in Isaiah chapter 60.

Isaiah chapter 60, right in the meat of the messianic prophecies, just a whole body toward the end of the book of Isaiah of beautiful second coming of Christ prophecies, and this is one of those. Isaiah chapter 60, the first three verses, arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

This is a phenomenal day, brethren, something that we yearn for and we look forward to, because the light. You know, we have the glory of Christ coming. We have the glorification of the saints, so that they shall shine like the stars of heaven, and they shall be like Christ. But light, as we read here in Isaiah chapter 60, is both literal and metaphorical. This world lives in darkness, and yet I can look outside through the back door, and it's a beautiful, really bright and sunny day that required me to put on my sunglasses to come down from Vancouver. But I'm looking out into a world that is muddling in darkness, because of its rejection of the way of God. Christ's return will not only be a time of literal shining, but it will be a time of shining light in dark places spiritually.

Many in this room have grown up in the church, but for those of you who did not grow up in the church, you can all remember that day and time when you blinked and said, How did I not see this? As God opened your eyes to begin to see the truth, you shook your head and said, How did I not see this? Why have I not been able to see this? I opened my Bible, and there it is. How have I not been able to see it? The beginning years of my ministry was spent the majority of the time visiting new prospective members. This was in Alabama, Mississippi, Southern Georgia, and the Panhandle of Florida, so deep in the Bible belt that everybody was evangelical clear up to here. And we started, they'd start studying and see the Sabbath. And to make it as simple as possible, you'd simply pick up a calendar and hold it up in front of them and say, Which day is the seventh day of the week? Oh, I mean, it's Saturday. It's Saturday. I never thought of that. Now, with God opening their mind, now that the last day on that calendar was Saturday, finally meant something to them.

It was a great delight to do that because I had grown up in the same darkness and was totally convinced, growing up in that darkness, that I was living in the light. And only when God called could my family shake their head and say, How did we not see it?

What an awesome time it will be when trumpet comes and the season of light starts.

The trumpets that are before the seventh trumpet, they're the greatest season of darkness that's ever existed. The greatest season of darkness that ever will exist. Those of you who are good at Bible study, Bible understanding, and Bible memorization, if I ask you, Which is the day of the Lord book in the Bible, you could already start turning because the day of the Lord book in the Bible is the book of Joel.

And so as we turn to the book of Joel, and as Joel describes the earlier portion of the day of trumpets, this is Joel's description. Now, Joel is not unique. We already have plowed this ground two or three times before we even got here. And we could plow it a lot longer than Joel. But Joel, being the day of the Lord book, gives us a stronger focus. And so Joel 2, verse 1, Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain, that all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand.

In the general sense of the word, brethren, the day of trumpets and the day of the Lord are the same. They are the same general period of time. How does he describe it? A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. He goes on in verse 30, and he says, And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass, that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The heavenly signs that are that transition from the first five seals of revelation and set the stage for the day of the Lord, the seventh seal, the blowing of the seven trumpets, from that time of the heavenly signs all the way through the trumpets is truly the greatest season of darkness that has ever been.

We're sharing photographs with somebody here a week ago. We were simply, I was talking to somebody saying, in your part of the west, how are you dealing with smoke issues right now? One of them was saying, well, the wind has been blowing the other direction, so it's not so bad. Another said, let me show you on a cell phone.

And I looked at it and I said, you know, when the fire is blowing, we're burning on the southeast side of Portland, and the winds were just right. I said, our subdivision up in Salmon Creek was darker and gloomier than I have ever seen in the entire time I've been in the northwest. And for two days in a row, I took pictures of the houses and of the subdivision because just from the smoke of that fire, there was a gloom throughout the entirety of the day that was palpable. You could look at the fire, and you could see the fire, that was palpable.

You could literally feel it. And that's child's play compared to what the Day of the Lord is going to be like. It will be a season of light as Christ returns to both visibly be seen and to begin to bring man out of the darkness of his morality into the light of the way of God. And it will be a season of darkness leading up to that.

It will be the spring of hope and the winter of despair. 1 Peter 1. And as again, as I said to you earlier, we don't really have to work with any of these scriptures. They're all planted in the time period that we are celebrating right now. 1 Peter 1. Peter in his salutation to the people to whom he is writing, making a generalized statement, makes a beautiful general statement that covers this time and the fact that it is the spring of hope.

1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. So as he spoke to his congregations, he says through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is reserved to you something that is incorruptible.

It can't change. It is guaranteed. You take all the guarantees that this world can offer, the guarantees of a government for its currency, the guarantee of somebody of goodwill that I will back up my promises. There is nothing on the face of this earth that can pair with God's iron-clad guarantee of our inheritance.

He said it is incorruptible, it is undefiled, and it doesn't fade away. He didn't stop with one description. He said, look, what I've guaranteed you that I will deliver on the day of trumpets is unperishable. That's the marginal rendering of incorruptible. It is undefiled, and it doesn't fade away. You know, every time I buy a tool or an appliance and I look at the guarantee, I look at how it fades away. Not really. It's 100% guaranteed for x period of time, and then the value is determined based on wear. You know, you get a tire with a 60,000 mile guarantee. Read the small print. We will replace the tire for the next week or two. And then as the tread wears, we prorate it. And by a certain place in time, we just smile at you and say, there's not enough tread. The guarantee doesn't work anymore. God says, my guarantee doesn't change. It doesn't alter. It doesn't fade.

You know, brethren, the apostle Peter to the congregation said, this is the spring of our hope. This is when it blossoms. This is when we see the shoots come up. When the blades come up, the beauty of the greenness, the day of trumpets is the spring of our hope. For the world around us, it is the winter of their despair. Revelation 6.

Revelation 6.

We're going to look at the sixth seal of Revelation, which is the heavenly signs that introduce the day of the Lord, that introduce the trumpets. So here's the introduction to trumpets. Revelation 6, beginning in verse 15. The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

It doesn't matter whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whether you own everything, whether you own nothing. The heavenly signs that realize the next step is the appearing of Christ. It says, find a cave and hide. And frankly, hope the rocks fall in on top of you, because it's better than facing the face of him who we are going to have to face. Because the question is, which of us is going to survive the great day of his wrath, and who will still be standing when he appears?

You see, brethren, for you, it is the spring of hope. For the world around us, it is the winter of despair. He went on to say, as he was summing it up, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us. Just as Charles Dickens contrasted London and Paris, so God inspired Daniel in multiple places to contrast the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God.

Daniel, to multiple monarchs, interpreted what God had said. And God gave Daniel a summarization. You see, to every person that Daniel went, what God was revealing was the gentile governments that will exist from the time of Babylon until the time of Jesus Christ's return. And he said, I'm going to give you the whole picture from right now, you Nebuchadnezzar, all the way to the very last one. And then I'm going to tell you how it all ends. And he not only had to say that to Nebuchadnezzar, he had to say it to monarch. It was always the same. The message never changed.

What Daniel had to say, and we will read two instances in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, is if you are a part of those who believe in the coming of Jesus Christ, you sit even right now saying, I've got everything before me.

And if you were a part of this world, and this is what you love, and this is your whole being, you will say, I've lost everything. It's all a matter of who you are. Which side you're on? Which side of that fence you stand on when Christ returns? Daniel 2. This is the first of the summarizations. This is that summarization that took place when Nebuchadnezzar saw the image that was made of multiple metals and asked for an interpretation, and Daniel gave it to him. Starting with you, Nebuchadnezzar, are that head of gold. And then there is silver, and then there's bronze, and there's iron, and then there are ten toes of iron and miry clay. And here's how it all ends. Daniel 2, verse 42. 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. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the day of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. You have all the contrasts sitting right there in those two verses. For the kingdoms of this world and this society, when this day comes, there's nothing to look forward to. From where they see the world, for how they see the world, for how they live their lives, there is nothing to look forward to. For those who are ready to enter the kingdom of God, it's inadequate to say they have everything before them. It doesn't even begin to touch it. You know, that's the front end of the millennium, but the millennium is preschool.

The New Jerusalem comes down at the very end of what we celebrate each year in the fall. God comes down and lives with man. Man continues on for all eternity. We have two little windows. One says, I has not seen nor ear heard what God has in store. And the other is in Hebrews, where it says, What is man, that you are mindful of him? That's probably the best window we had to look through. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. But you have put all things under his feet, and yet not yet.

We're a puny, scrawny, indefensible being in the face of many, many of God's created creatures. Nobody wants to stand and face a tiger, a lion, an elephant, a rhinoceros, to be sat on by hippopotamus, to have to wrestle with a gorilla, or even a chimpanzee, if you know how strong a chimpanzee is. And yet we rule them all. But that's kindergarten. He says, I have placed all things under their feet. Science works with all their might to build a bigger and bigger telescope to find a further and further place in the universe. And every time they find a bigger one, they simply find a farther place out. They don't have the ability to see the end because they don't have an end. And it's yours. All of what it is for all of time.

How better can you describe we have everything before us? Daniel 7. The revelation to another monarch. We've moved from the Babylonian period to the Persian period. The Persians are reminded of the same awesomeness of God's plan.

Daniel 7, verse 15. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, the visions of my head troubled me, and I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this. And so he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. So he speaks of the same thing he spoke to Nebuchadnezzar here in a much more abbreviated form. It's not four kings individual, but four successive kingdoms. And he says, at the end of it all, they will all be deposed, and the saints shall possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. And he goes on to verse 26, But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. There's nothing left before the world. And then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms, under the whole heaven, heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. You know, Charles Dickens addressed a very, very small and limited window, both in time and in geography. With American geography, so to speak, you could throw a rock between London and Paris. You could put both London and Paris in the state of Oregon and have room left over and wonder what to do with it. Dickens described a small piece of geography in a small period of time. And I can't help but wonder and muse what it would be like to sit down with him in the resurrection and say, let me read to you from the Bible about the day of trumpets. You wrote the tale of two cities. You wrote about the wrong time. You see, the day of trumpets will indeed be the best of times and the worst of times. The age of wisdom and the age of incredulity, or the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness. It'll be the epic of belief and the epic of incredulity. It will be the season of light and the season of darkness. For you, brethren, it will literally be the spring of hope and for the world, the winter of despair. And as we begin these fall holy days, we rejoice in the day of trumpets because we have everything before us and we see sadly a world that has nothing before us. Yes, Dickens' statements fit beautifully the celebration that we are celebrating today.