God's Kingdom and the Liberation of Planet Earth

Well, happy holiday, everybody! It's great being here in beautiful Oceanside. Thank you, Mr. Weber. Enjoyed your presentation, your introduction, your enthusiasm. But you need to work on the enthusiasm part, okay?

We love Mr. Weber. We love Mrs. Weber. Yes, we go way back, probably too far in the old days. But so delightful. My wife, Mwadi, and I flew in yesterday from Boise. First thing, we got on the plane and we said, oh, now we can relax for two hours. The pilot got on the PA and said, well, San Diego is having a bad hair day. And we may not be landing in San Diego. We may be landing in Palm Springs. I said, I don't think I want to go to the fees in Palm Springs.

I think I should be in Oceanside, but it all worked. We got here for fine. But I know I've met some of you from Michigan, Indianapolis, all over the Midwest, and even the west here, the Northwest, of course, California. And we do have a few Boiseites from our neighborhood up north. So welcome, everyone. Good to be here. This is God's feast, as we heard already. That's why we're here, by special invitation, is why you're here. We're all called and chosen according to God's will and the future destiny, a common destiny, of God's way of life in action.

Brother, we need this feast. We need this feast. Some of you have been through a good year. Some of you have been through a bad year. And a lot of us have been through another year. You know, we have years. They go up and down in terms of what we go through. But God has invited us to be here, bless this feast, bless your day every day, and for us to really have a good feast together and good fellowship and friendship and the spiritual food that we all need.

You know, God is rewarding all of God's people, brethren, day by day. Sometimes it's hard to see that, but He is. We made it through another year. Good! We're one year closer to God's kingdom, and peace will break out across the world with Jesus Christ as our Savior and our King. You know, one thing, brethren, we may not really focus enough about, and that is the reward of the saints and eternity with God and how much God the Father and Jesus Christ look forward to having you in their kingdom, their family, for eternal life.

So let me get right into the sermon right now, and I'd like us to turn over to Revelation chapter 19 and starting in verse 5, please, chapter 19 and verse 5. Let's get started. And, brother, this talks about the royal family of God and God inviting you to be there. It's a very encouraging way, I think, to start God's feast on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which pictures Jesus Christ rain on this earth. Revelation 19, verse 5, please. Notice it says, A voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God and all you, his servants, and those who fear him, both small and great.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters, the sound of mighty thunders, saying, Alleluia, for the Almighty God, omnipotent reigns. And let us be glad and rejoice and give him honor, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. That's good news. Sometimes we focus on, will I make it? You know, I have this problem.

I have that challenge. Yes, I do get stressed out. I go sometimes way overboard on this or that, and I just don't seem like I'm making any progress. But what does God say about us overall, brethren, as his future saints? He says, you have made yourself ready. You have made yourself ready for that wedding feast, and to be in the very family of God. That's what God envisions about you. Not that you won't make it, but that you will make it. So let's remember that. Let's remind ourselves of that firm promise and that truth.

Notice in verse 8, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is a righteous axe of the saints. So God's people are on track. They have God first in their lives.

Whether this is your feast, first of tabernacles, not feast of first, but your first feast of tabernacles, or whether it's your 55th or 65th, you're on track. If you're putting God first, loving Him, obeying Him, brethren, God says that's what it's about. The clean, righteous garments of God's people, their acts and attitudes, and their understanding and their love of God. And then verse 9, and He said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said to me, These are the true sayings of God. So this is the truth. This is the way it is.

You know, this is what you've dedicated your life to. Some of you, again, many, many decades. It's great to see some of you from way back. I'll tell you one of the most embarrassing things, and it's not really embarrassing, but for all of us, I think, but if someone comes up and says, this is going to be at the feast a lot, do you remember me?

And your mind is going, I hardly know my name right now. Let's see.

You know, you have that happen, right? Do you remember me? And that person is saying, yeah, we had a relationship. We're family. We're brothers and sisters. I know, but I just don't remember your name. Sorry. And they'll, you know, give me a hint. Well, it was 35 years ago. Well, that helps a lot. That's narrowing it down. All right. So you got to forgive us all with our bad memories, but we are a family. We are making it. We're on the way.

You know, Christ is saying here on behalf of the Father, your priorities as a church are in order. You're doing the spiritual work in your life and in preaching the gospel and being an example to the entirety of the world. It's interesting, brethren, if every person you meet in your life is a potential son or daughter of God, every person, including the persnickety ones, you know, especially those that get under our skin a little bit, we have to think that's a future brother or sister there. They're not yet in the calling, but it's in the works, because the Father will draw that person. Every person we ever meet is in that situation that they will be, or at least call to that wonderful family in the future. God is saying here, God wins! You win! You win! God isn't defeated. You're not defeated. Again, unless you give it up. And who's going to blot your name out of the book of life? You know, remember the little gift you got out here as you came in and had an eraser on the head, right? And I saw one family saying, what is that image there? I think it was a lion. Wasn't at least the one we got a lion's head. The only person that can erase your name out of the book of life is you. So I'm going to be the person you just met or the several before, as Mr. Weber was greeting each other, right? That person can't do that. I can't do that. You can't do that for me. It's going to be you, me, individually. God isn't going to erase your name unless you say, God, do that. Well, he doesn't want to do that. You know, on his pencil, there's no eraser.

You've got to give him that eraser. That's what Revelation is talking about, that positiveness. Brother, we've just had the Feast of Trumpets. We've had the Day of Atonement, and now we have the Feast of Tabernacles. What I'd like to do in the sermon today is to go through Luke chapter 4, especially verse 18 with you, and the title of the sermon is God's Kingdom and the Liberation of Planet Earth. God's Kingdom and the Liberation of Planet Earth, based on Luke 4, verse 18.

So, we're going to talk about God's Kingdom, the Liberation of Planet Earth, based on Luke 4, verse 18. These are fundamental truths of Jesus Christ as He is going to clean up the world, heal our world, and project us into the wonderful Kingdom after He returns. Please turn with me to Luke chapter 4, and let's start in verse 17. Luke 4 and verse 17.

So, Luke chapter 4 and verse 17, and these notes are in my notes because I just had cataract surgery a little over a week ago, and my eyes are still kind of adjusting to not having cataracts. Boy, when you have cataracts, the colors start to go, and you know, the big 2020 goes, and finally the world starts to shrink, so that's quite an interesting surgery. And then you sign off.

You know, one of the minor things that can happen in cataract surgery is you can go blind. Sign your name. And then I'm going to pay the doctor to do this, right? Anyway, look for verse 17. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus was, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, verse 18.

This is what I want to focus on. The Spirit of the Lord was upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And as you know, brethren, the word gospel in the Greek means glad tidings or good news. Glad tidings! Now, that's our first point. I've got three points from this verse. Point one is hands-on teaching. Hands-on teaching. Jesus Christ, brethren, is going to be the teacher. He's going to preach the glad tidings, the good news. So my first point, hands-on teaching. Going on to verse 18, he has sent me, Jesus writes here and verbalizes, according from Isaiah chapter 61. And if you have the time, brethren, please go back to that chapter, Isaiah 61, because it's incredible.

And Jesus is quoting from that verse, and He's really illuminating at the beginning of His ministry what His ministry and the kingdom of God is about. How will Jesus Christ take care of this world when He returns?

To me, the solutions are in verse 18. It's not a mystery how Jesus is going to do this. So He says, going on to verse 18, then He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to heal the brokenhearted. And the King James says, bruised. The Greek says, completely crushed or broken in pieces. That's our world when Jesus returns. They're pulverized by Satan, the adversary, and what human nature do. We are going to be a crushed world with only a small percentage, brethren, making it and surviving until Jesus comes and rescues us.

Now these are the emotionally wounded, those completely without hope. My second point is hands-on comfort. Jesus Christ, brethren, is going to give hands-on comfort. He's going to heal the brokenhearted. Let's go on in verse 18 to proclaim liberty to the captives.

Now that's the result. That's the good news. That's the true gospel message. The good news is that there will be liberty to those under spiritual and physical captivity. But notice in verse 18 it goes on, in recovery of sight to the blind. That's my third point, hands-on healing. Jesus Christ is a healer, Yahweh Rofika of the Old Testament. We're anointed by Him and ask for spiritual healing. That's that second aspect of the complete sacrifice of Christ. Hands-on healing is our third point.

Obviously, those in need. I've had a little bit of that because my sight was kind of being diminished. That's just a small sample of what Jesus will do. I encapsulate these three points, brethren, into D-day, deliverance day, deliverance day. Now this doesn't referring to the face of trumpets per se, but from that time forward in the coming Kingdom, particularly, I think, in the early years because our world will be on life support.

D-day, deliverance day, Jesus' return. In verse 19, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that was a jubilee year, a year of release, which makes perfect sense in this story. It is a release of the world under Satan's wrath and our human nature and Jesus Christ at the helm.

In verse 20, then He closed the book, and He gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. I mean, they have never heard a sermon like that. Sometimes we say, well, give me new truth. That was new truth. He says, I'm proclaiming this. No one had ever said that to them. Verse 21, and He began to say to them, today the Scriptures have filled in your hearing.

Now, brethren, that was a partial fulfillment, an awesome start at the beginning of His earthly ministry. And those called and chosen, brethren, understood that as God opened their minds and the church grew, beginning on the day of Pentecost and the church-age since then to the year 2015, up until the return of Jesus Christ. How many years that has left? But, brethren, the ultimate fulfillment will begin at His return.

So, we're going to go through these three points in verse 18 today in the sermon. So, let's start, brethren, with that first point, hands-on teaching. Now, realize, brethren, in, again, many Scriptures, but Ezekiel 5 outlines the toll. Remember, one-third die in disease and pestilence. One-third die in the war. That's modern-day Israel. That's Ezekiel 5. And the third that survive, they go into captivity. That's what it will be like in the end time.

In Isaiah 6, the next chapter indicates that only 10 percent of modern-day Israel will be left when the King of Kings returns, 10 percent. That could be around 10 million survivors. If we understand the numbers, the prophecy, brethren, we have over 300 million today. If we understand this, or I understand this properly, and explaining it properly, we can have less than 10 million percent of modern-day Israel left.

We begin to get the picture of why Christ has to return. It's not, well, you know, one of these days, it's THE day. It's THE day. It's deliverance day for the world, because cosmocyte is there without Him. And then in Revelation, one of the trumpets talks about the death of one-third of the world. One-third of the world. So we can only speculate, but we could have well under half of the world's population left when Jesus survives, because Satan's goal is to take every human life off the face of the earth. And look at the way our world is going today. What master plan does the world have of saving us?

It looks like to me, just reading the world news, that they have no plan, no clue of where we're going. I've been in the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, a little over five years ago, and I can never remember the official name of that museum. I know I have the book, I've read the book, I've got it at home, but generally we call it the Holocaust Museum.

Brother, as you go through that museum, you'll hear in the background the names, and you won't be there long enough, but you'll hear the names of people who were in the Holocaust and died as you go through the museum. That's what it's like. It's tough. Well, Isaiah chapter 2, because this is our first point, hands-on healing, hands-on teaching. Isaiah 2 and verse 1, again, who could be inside that museum long enough to hear every name, but it's very moving. So, hands-on teaching, Isaiah 2 and verse 1, the word of Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah in Jerusalem.

Now, it came to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountain. Such wonderful news. The kingdom to displace, to remove all other kingdoms and nations and governments. A true theocracy, God in charge. And they shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many people will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. And for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And they shall judge between nations, and rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn more anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Well, that obviously shows the good fruit of Jesus Christ teaching. The gospel, the good tidings being taught in all schools, in all homes, to all young people, to our teens and preteens around the world. What great news that is!

But, brother, before teaching can come, what has to begin before that? Well, there's an important element that is found over in Isaiah 25. Let's start in verse 6. Isaiah 25 and verse 6. Because all the teaching in the world is one thing, without this missing dimension, brethren, it won't make any difference. Isaiah 25, please, and over in verse 6. Let's notice in Isaiah 25 and verse 6. And in this mountain, or this kingdom, the kingdom of God, the Lord of hosts, will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of things of well-refined wines on the lees.

So there will be a beautiful abundance and a blessing of agriculture and quality goods. And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. And He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

And verse 9, And it will be said in that day, Behold, this is your God. We have waited for Him. He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Isn't that awe-inspiring? We have waited for Him. We didn't even know Him. We didn't know what that kingdom was about, but the veil of ignorance is removed, kind of like a cataract.

Whoa! The first day after I had the one surgery, I said, It's so bright out there. And then you, sunglasses are your best friend.

You didn't realize how your vision was being lost gradually over months and years.

And you can go blind, literally, by a cataract. And so it's kind of bad analogy to me. It's kind of personal, but He says, All of a sudden your eyes are enlightened. You can see, you can understand. The truth is there. It's wonderful. And then in Ezekiel 48 and verse 35, rather than you know this verse, because it's the last verse of Ezekiel 48, it follows chapters 40 through 48, talking about the Millennial Temple. So the last four words of Ezekiel 48 verse 35, I think, are very instructive. When we talk about hands-on teaching of Jesus Christ, we are talking hands-on here. Jesus Christ is not in the third heaven. He has come to planet earth. He has come to liberate planet earth. Verse 35, all the way around, shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of that new city, it's not Jerusalem, it's the Lord is there. Now, I don't know what that will be in the new language. I don't know what the name of that new city will be in the new language, but the name it means the Lord is there. Ezekiel 48 verse 35. Christ is hands-on. And that's a great, wonderful way to rule. It's not going to be distant. People are going to hear Him, be enlightened by Him. That is fantastic. Notice in Zechariah 8 and verse 20, please, Zechariah 8 and verse 20. Zechariah chapter 8 and verse 20.

And this prophecy from the Old Testament reads in verse 20, thus says the Lord of hosts, again, thus saith, this is what God envisions, what will happen, people shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities. So, it's not just a couple of cities, many, many cities, all of them, the inhabitants of one city will go to another saying, let us continue to go and pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also. Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come and seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Again, the teaching of Jesus Christ has impact. Verse 23, thus says the Lord of hosts, in those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Now, brother, that probably didn't happen. If you flew in here or if you drove in here, that probably didn't happen, did it? Or were you going? Well, we're going to the fixed-trapper act, because, oh, can I come with you? And you didn't have ten people follow you into church this morning, did you? But that's going to happen, the kingdom. Oh, you know, our town is going, a lot of people are going, I want to go, I want to grab ahold of the skirt of you, the robe that you're wearing, because I hear God is with you. That's fantastic. Hands-on teaching is going to work profoundly, beautifully, wonderfully.

Now, there's other scriptures we could use, but we understand again that this is a personal connection by every person with God. It's not mass conversion, it's personal conversion, just like it was one of happening in your life, brethren. People have to connect with God, like we have to connect with God now. We have to Bible study, we have to pray, and we have to connect. It won't be any different in the kingdom, because we have God's Spirit either working with us, if you're not yet baptized, God's Spirit is with you, you young adults, you teens, God's Spirit is working with you, and that's why you're here. Or God's Spirit is in you because you've repented and accept Christ your Savior, and you've had the laying out of hands, and the baptism. So, all you young adults, all you teens, God's Spirit is working with you. God's Spirit is available. He is available. It's your choice. It's up to you. But you have to say, yes, I want that. What don't we like about the kingdom? Have you read a verse that says, oh, that's just, I don't like that one. I don't like, everything, brethren, we read about the coming kingdom is going to be the best of the best.

All it amounts to is are willing to say yes to God and notice help.

Well, notice in Malachi 2 and verse 7. Malachi 2 and verse 7, brother, we're going to pull from the wellspring of our life experiences in the kingdom as future kings and priests. We're going to pull from the wellspring of our life experience. What we're learning today, God will allow us in privilege to apply to others as we teach and help them in the coming kingdom. We're going to be teachers. We're going to be kings. We're going to be priests. Notice in Malachi 2 and verse 7, For the lips of a priest shall keep knowledge, and people shall seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. You're going to be a messenger. You are today, for that matter, but your audience is pretty small. Your audience, brethren, of people in your coming towns and territories is going to be immense. They're all going to connect. You're going to be the teacher, the master teacher under Christ to your towns and your villages. You're going to be hands-on as well. So, this is what Jesus Christ is bringing. He began to do that during His ministry to a very small degree, and then in the kingdom it is going to be massive.

Let's move on to our second point, brethren, from Luke chapter 4, verse 18. Hands on comfort. We saw that because of the terrible emotional pain and suffering and abuse that mankind has suffered during the last three and a half years, tribulation particularly. And this will all apply, brethren, for that matter, in the second resurrection as well, that we'll hear more about in the last day of the feast, the eighth day. Jesus Christ, as those masses are brought up, all of this applies to them. But this, particularly in the message today, I'm going to apply to the beginning of the kingdom of God as these seven days do outline for us.

So, hands on comfort, notice in Isaiah 40 and verse 1. Isaiah chapter 40, please, in verse 1. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 1.

Comfort, yes, comfort, my people, says your God. Well, you can do a quick study, and comfort means to breathe strongly or console.

This is an incredible word picture. What does it mean to breathe strongly? Have you ever had someone come up to you and they're kind of like into your space? We Americans generally like, what, a couple feet, three, four feet, ten feet, whatever it is, between us. But I think if you traveled to other nations, they're more hands on, and they're right up here. And I've had this story told to me, and we've traveled a little bit overseas, but, you know, we Americans, again, I guess because we're a large nation, we like our living space. But other nations, no, they like that interactive right in your face, and you've kind of had people breathing on you. And so, to me, this word picture is a very strong, intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and His people. When He comforts, it's not going to be, you'll get over this, hang in there, don't worry about it, trust me.

Brother, that's going to be, we're in this together, because the Scriptures talk about Him just grabbing people like a flock, like a mother hen would with her chicks. That's the implication here from the Hebrew, breathe strongly or console. I liken this, brethren, to the comforting Christ, the comforting Christ. I think it's a good way of remembering that. Verse 2, speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received from the Lord's hand double for her sins. Yes, brethren, there's been punishment before His return to get people to wake up and to see their sins and how despicable that way of life really is. It doesn't bring happiness. It doesn't bring life. And He's had to do that for people to wake up and to listen. But notice, He says in verse 3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now verse 9, O Zion, you shall bring good tidings and get up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem, who bring good tidings. You know, again, we read that earlier. Lift up your voice with strength, and lift up, lift it up, and be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him, and behold his reward is with him, and his work before him. And he will feed his flock like a shepherd. Well, we read that earlier, and that was our first point. He was feeding, will feed like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those who are young. Now that is a word picture of how Christ, brethren, will lead and serve in the coming kingdom. It's hands-on teaching and hands-on comfort. He's going to be there in Jerusalem, and that'll be the world headquarters. And he will rule with power and love and glory, and people will flow to Mount Zion, where he lives and is and exists to worship him and sing songs to him and praises to him and give obeisance to him. You know, our world, as I said earlier, will sure need a comforting Christ.

I don't want to dwell on this, but you think of the world, brethren, during that tribulation period up to Jesus' return. Christ comes truly in the nick of time. The Father tells him at that point, this is the moment, go! Because the world is about to explode. It's not the 1950s or 60s, it'll be the two-thousandths whenever, and this will be, brethren, the worst the world will ever see. By far, it says. And that's when Jesus comes in the nick of time to comfort and heal and stop the carnage. Then there'll be massive building programs underway around the world for food, food, housing, clothing, clean water, clean air. I mean, if you think we have a problem right now with our environment, think of what Satan will do during those years prior to his return. So Christ is going to be quickly cleaning up everything, as only He could do. And then people will need those houses to live in and clothes and food, and that'll all be given to us by the Comforter, and you'll be there to assist. Again, your life experiences. Brethren, let's learn to be more compassionate. Christ is perfectly compassionate. These people will need that. Again, they're going to be coming out of war zones with no life virtually around them. I said earlier, it's going to be less than half the population of the world will survive, and they're going to need immediate assistance, and there's going to be that team of assistants, the saints of God, brand-newly given your crowns of life and a new name in the coming kingdom, and you'll be busy. Our work will be a work of deliverance, assistance, nurturing, compassion. All that comes from God's Spirit and, of course, the family of God. Notice in Isaiah 27, starting in verse 12. So come with me to Isaiah 27, verse 12. This talks about, brethren, the rescue mission. You know, in Luke 4, we talked about the deliverance. Boy, that is so literal there. But this is in Isaiah 27, verse 12. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will thrash from the channel of the river. That refers evidently to the Euphrates River. Clear over to the brook of Egypt. That massive amount of land, what we call the Middle East, you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. And it shall be in that day that the great trumpet will be blown. All right, I liken that, brethren, to the last trump, Jesus' return. And they will come who are about to perish in the land of Assyria. And they who are outcast in the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. Well, that's not exaggeration. Those are about to perish. I mean, you've seen that with the concentration camps of Eastern Europe after World War II. The liberators came in and those initiated individuals about to perish. That's the scene. That's what Jesus does, hands-on comfort, deliverance. Now, this is a worldwide deliverance, brethren. Turn with me to Isaiah 66. This is not for the Middle East alone. This is not for other nations in that region. This is for the whole world, Isaiah 66 and verse 12.

It's clear not only here but many other Scriptures. Obviously, Jesus comes to save all nations. He loves all people. We're all made in His image. We all have that equal destiny and potential of being in the very family of God for eternity. Isaiah 66 and verse 12, please. For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river. You know, it just flows and flows and flows. And the glory of the Gentiles, like a flowing stream. And then you shall feed on her sides. You shall be carried and be dangled on her knees. Again, a wonderful word picture. For one whom is mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants and His indignation to His enemies. So God says, I'm going to be known to all of those who ought to obey me, and those who don't, then they'll know my indignation. Now, I'm not trying to say, brethren, the kingdom of God is going to be perfect. We could go to Scriptures and say, look, there's a major rebellion at the beginning of the kingdom as well. Remember that one? It's in Ezekiel, I think, chapter 37. So it's not a perfect world, because some nations will just say, we don't want a part of that. They're a little hard-headed, aren't they? You know, what don't you like about near perfection? Oh, we just don't like submitting to God. That's what they really don't like. They don't like saying no to self and yes to God. Big God and little me. They like little, big me and little God. And that can never work. It's big God, little me.

But He says, for the most part, yes, nations will get it, people will get it, they'll submit it. Now verse 18, please. Verse 18, For I know their works and their thoughts, it shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and those among them will escape. Who escape? I will send to the nations to Tarshish and Pull and Ludd, who draw the bow and to Baal and Jabin. Those are various Middle East nations, even over to India, into the Mediterranean, and off the coast, far off, who have not heard my fame, nor of my glory. So even those distant from that Middle East area will understand. They shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, and on horses and in chariots and in litters, mules and on camels to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. Love reaches the unreachable.

Repentance is real and rich. Mercy humbles the haughty. Forgiveness cleanses the dark sins of a repenting family worldwide. Potentially, every person will be reached by God's love and God's mercy. Again, depending on their will. But most we do believe will get it and will themselves to submit to this wonderful system. Now, there's a verse I'd like to conclude this second point with, brethren, over in the book of Obadiah. Obadiah, page 1250, by the way, that'll help. Really is. I've got a Bible up here. It's 1250. But, you know, sometimes we cheat as ministers. You think, I don't want to turn to that small little book. I may forget where it is. So, Obadiah 1, please, and verse 15. That really, really tiny book.

Now, here, brethren, Obadiah likely refers to the Israelites retaking Palestinian territories after the return of Christ, okay? A little bit of background. So, it's only one chapter. Verse 15, For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your reprisal shall return to your own head. So, he says, As you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually. Yes, they shall drink and swallow, and they shall be as though they had never had been. But, in verse 18, but on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance. Well, we talked about D-Day earlier, didn't we? Well, that is a deliverance. That's the result of Christ's return. And there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And now, verse 21, Then Saviors shall come to Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Now, I include that here, brethren, because in the Hebrew, the word, Saviors, means delivers. It means save and get victory. All this applies to Jesus Christ.

It also means rescue. Christ rescues people. It also means to bring about salvation. All of that, in that word, Saviors. And yet, brethren, it says, Saviors, plural.

Now, Jesus is the Savior, but it's referring here to multiple Saviors. It doesn't mean the Savior, Jesus Christ, as we give our lives in perfection, as only Jesus Christ could do. It means, again, in the Hebrew, delivers. There's going to be a family of God, a team of God, who deliver, who save. As the Hebrew says, get victory and rescue people. And that's your job in the kingdom. One of it, anyway, along with being a teacher and a priest who administers and gives the law of God. That's exciting, brethren. Think of the end of World War II, those villages and towns, and the rescuers, the livers, came and freed them. Your towns and villages will be full of people crying for joy. You're there, right? You're there. So, that's the end of that short book of Obadiah. The Savior shall come to Mount Zion.

Well, let's conclude here our third point from Luke 4, hands-on healing. Hands-on healing. We know this, brethren, to be so rife in Scriptures about Jesus the healer, Jesus the one who heals the diseased, the malnourished, the lame, the blind, and yes, the mentally ill. Christ is a complete healer. And I just want to take one Scripture here. It's over in Luke 1, verse 40, please. It's Luke 1 and verse 40. I want to give a little background before we get to the healing of this leper by Jesus Christ. You can turn to Luke 1, verse 40. But in Edersheim's book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim writes, No one was to slew the leper, no less than a distance of six feet must be kept from the leper. Or if the wind came from that direction, a hundred feet was scarcely enough. Now, the human touch, brethren, is almost, well, I wouldn't call it miraculous, but there's something about the human touch. To touch a baby, to touch another individual is like, you know, we touch, we shake hands, don't we?

Ladies do more of the hugging. Men do, but, you know, we alternate. But there's that human touch concept that kind of is a healing thing, something about that. Well, to a leper, people didn't touch them. They were afraid of contracting leprosy. And if you were downwind, they said, you must go maybe a hundred feet. So when you had leprosy in that day and time, brethren, you were literally called the untouchable. When you came around the block into that part of the village, people would literally cry out, leper, get away! And they would not be able to be touched. Now here in Luke 1, verse 40, notice what Jesus did. Now a leper came to him. Well, that is how it worked. People didn't ever come to a leper.

A leper came to Jesus, stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, and said to him, I am willing, excuse me, I'm getting ahead of the story. Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion. Compassion, our second point, or comforting, and yet our third point of healing. And he said, he stretched out his hand, brethren, and touched him, and said to him, I am willing, be cleansed. Now Jesus, brethren, did not necessarily have to touch him, did he? Jesus Christ can heal just by the thought. He reached out and touched what was considered literally an unclean person. And that person could have maybe not had anybody touch that individual for years. What does that mean to him? Well, not only was he healed, he had Christ the compassionate healer physically reach out. Sometimes that's not appreciated in the context, is it? And as soon as he had spoken immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. He was no longer the untouchable. He allowed this man, brethren, to get really close, to come into his space, and he reached out and touched him. Now that's going to be our example in the kingdom. We're going to be very hands-on, very much intimately involved with all of your villagers and your townspeople. You as the teacher, you as the king, priest, the one who is there, hands-on. And that's how you'll heal, that's how you'll teach, and that's how you'll comfort. Well, Isaiah 35 is a well-known series of Scriptures here about the physical healing that Jesus will perform, Isaiah 35. And we won't take the time, brethren, to go through these ten verses. I was going to select the first ten verses, but notice in verse 5, Isaiah 35 and verse 5. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. And then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. And what a remarkable healing is coming to the world through Jesus Christ, brethren. Every time, brethren, you pray a prayer, that's about the coming kingdom. You can talk about yourself, certainly that's not wrong. Christ says your daily needs need to be talked about. We should share those and put those burdens on God, but whenever we pray, we pray about that kingdom, that wonderful good news, the glad tidings to come to this earth. Every time you say, note a self and yes to God, that's about the kingdom. That's about saying yes to God and note a self. You know, character is not built in big walls. Character is built one brick at a time. Every yes to God and note a self is a brick. Every time we serve somebody, that's another brick. Every time we turn the cheek a little bit to one of these untouchable personality types, that's another brick of character, and that's what it's about.

One brick at a time. Well, our conclusion is over in the book of Daniel, a couple of verses here, and in Daniel 7 and verse 22, please. Daniel chapter 7 verse 22. We'll notice here about the saints. There's a lot about the saints in this chapter and in this book, certainly. Daniel chapter 7 and verse 22. Until the ancient days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High. That's awesome. So, brethren, you are the apple of God's eye. Now, God loves the world, but He's focusing on you in a special way. So, the favor was made of the saints to the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Now, that's an amazing inheritance, to possess the kingdom, to say, from God, here it is, sons and daughters. Here's the kingdom. Here's the future. You've got a whole new body, new eyes, new everything. It's not flesh and blood, corporal and basis. It's spirit and basis. In verse 27, in the kingdom and dominion. So, there is going to be authority in your life, rather, in your job, as a perfect son or daughter of God. And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people and the saints of the Most High. And His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. That's the future. That's what these next seven days picture, and that's why we're here. We're here to enjoy and be blessed, rather, and just relish this coming future vision. Well, earlier in the chapter, chapter 9, Daniel writes, I watched till thrones were in place, until the ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and as the hair of his head was like pure wool, and his throne was a fiery flame. It's burning wheels, a burning fire, and a fiery stream issued, and came forth, behold, from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him, talking about these angels, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and the court was sealed, and the books were reopened. And now verse 13, and I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming, with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near, before him. So to his father he was presented, and to him, verse 14, was given dominion and glory in a kingdom, and all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed. And again, brethren, what part of eternity do you not like? We like it all. There's nothing to dislike. So God looks upon his family with great hope, great encouragement, and an awesome optimism as well. And that's a little bit about D-Day, brethren, and deliverance day for the world. It's taken from Luke chapter 4. Well, I'm not much of a poet, but I'm going to try this. I wrote this with a little bit of help from... Actually, it wasn't my wife. She's a poet in the family, but she did proofread it. So it's about the kingdom, and it's about Oceanside.

We have come to God's great feast on these sunny shores of beautiful sand, to capture the vision of the loving God who will bring liberty to our lands, to assemble to worship the eternal King who feeds the sheep of his flock, who in Scripture is referred to... I'll get it out... referred to as the living rock. We have come to see that vision of a coming world without sorrow, with the gospel pointing us to experience a foretaste to the world tomorrow. Let us rejoice and let our spirits soar as we enjoy the good things at God's table. And let us be mindful that with God all things are able. Yes, we rejoice as we come to the feast by God's command to worship the great God on these sunny shores of beautiful sand.