The Harvests of God

By the way, the elders are dispersed abroad. I think Mr. Spears and Mrs. Spears are up in Eureka, went up there with Mr. Crow, and I think Mr. Warren is in San Jose, and Mr. Karamidjian is up in San Rosa. So that's good. Everybody's out and about, and I think everybody's gearing up for the feast of Cabernacles and preparing for that. Of course, we have the Holy Days prior to the beginning of the feast that must be observed as well.

If you've been following some of the things that are going about in the media, you know, of course, about the blood moons, one of which took place at the Passover. And, of course, we've heard a lot about what are called titrads that do not, in fact, occur very much, you know, in the world. And we know that in history that, third, in fact, blood moons in a row is very rare.

And then we had blood moons on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in 2014.

And we had one, of course, in Passover, and then the next one that's going to occur is going to be, in fact, September 28th, the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, what will happen? I wanted to take the time and the sermon today to tell you what's going to happen. You know, some say possibly an economic collapse is going to occur. So hang on to your wallets. Some believe it's going to be the beginning of a war. Some think that it's going to be some cataclysmic event, you know, that's going to occur on earth. It could be natural in the sense of maybe an asteroid, you know, careening, you know, end of the earth and causing incredible damage. It could be, you know, other things like Yellowstone going up, you know, great explosion up there that impacts a major part of the United States and the world. It could be something natural, unnatural as well, like, you know, a dirty bomb. That would be dropped somewhere and in some place. It would be shocking to the world in every sense of the word.

Now, there are a lot of ideas about what people think is going to happen, you know, after this final part of this Ted Trud that takes place. Now, the fact is we do not know whether anything will occur right afterwards. But we do know, brethren, that God says He will do nothing except He will reveal it to His servants, the prophets. In other words, the church would be apprised of what is going on. And, brethren, we do have, don't we? We have the prophecies of the Bible that have been revealed to us. We have the book of Daniel. We have, of course, the book of Revelation. And, you know, the book of Daniel is the key to the book of Revelation. So, again, we don't know what's going to happen after the, you know, this next blood moon that takes place.

But we do know what the Bible says is going to happen. And there are many momentous, very cataclysmic things that are prophesied to occur. But we know also, brethren, that the world in the future is not going to be suffering less, but suffering more. And look at what's going on right now in Hungary, where you have these refugees that are flooding over, you know, into Hungary, and they're being dispersed throughout Europe. I think Germany has said that they're willing to take an unlimited number of refugees coming in there. I don't know where they're going to put them. The United States has talked about taking in over 10,000 there in this country, as well as other nations are doing the same thing. But we do know that the Bible explains to us, brethren, that prior to the good moves of the Kingdom of God and the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, there's going to be suffering. And there's going to be trials that are going to occur.

Frankly, brethren, you and I are here today because of suffering, aren't we?

Suffering occurred in our life through which God caused us to come to Him, and to come to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to make changes in our lives.

And, you know, throughout ages, men have asked the question, why suffering? Why do people suffer in the world? Why does there have to be so much suffering in the world? I remember as a teenager asking myself that question, wondering what this life is all about. Why all this suffering? We went through a lot of it in our own personal family.

Well, brethren, let's take a look at history. And if we look at history, brethren, we know that from the beginning mankind has had suffering. It's been that way from the very beginning. We look over in the book of Genesis over here in Genesis. Let's go to the beginning of the book over here. It's always good to begin at the beginning. But we're going to go over here in chapter 3 of Genesis chapter 3. Notice here in verse 13, I should say, of Genesis chapter 3, the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done after she took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate it.

He ate you either that fruit, God said, don't eat it, or you're going to die.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat thus all the days of your life. And I'll put in the tea between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. There's going to be a hatred, a vicious hatred, between the two.

And he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

In other words, this being, Satan will inflict damage on the woman and her seed.

And in verse 16, to a remedy, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In other words, there would be, you know, after this, there would be pain, a conception, a delivery of a child. Imagine what it would be like to not have any pain in having a baby.

But after this, it was, you know, painful for a woman to bring life into this world. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

Now, by that, it's not saying that the man would not be the head of the house or the the leader of the family that God was bringing about with the creation of enemy. But what it means is that men would rule over the women, and they would be put down.

They would be subjugated and made very subordinate in every sense of the world. And that's what has happened in the world today. And in many cultures, it's very, it's terrible the way that women are treated. And then to Adam, he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursant is the ground for your sake.

But, coil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall will forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. And in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. It says, for out of it you were taken, for thus you are, and to dust you shall return. In other words, God was saying, because you have done this, and because I'm going to put in the thing between you and Satan, you're seen, and Satan the devil, you're going to have nothing but suffering from now on, because of the choice that you have made. And brethren, think about it. Hasn't that been the story of mankind? If we were to talk about the history of man, that's been the story. Six thousand years of human suffering.

You know, God's people had to dwell in that, and they suffered in the process. They went through some of the same suffering. When Egypt, you know, was a powerhouse in the world, Israel became subjugated to Egypt, and they served with rigor. They suffered in Egypt. And not only did Israel suffer, but remember, you know, Egypt was a type of sin, Pharaoh was a type of Satan, but Egypt suffered as well. Imagine losing your firstborn child, and that happened in every household in Egypt. You know, when the firstborn were put to death, because they didn't have the blood. Remember, on the doorposts and the rentals there. But because of Satan's influence, man has suffered for the last six thousand years. Let's go here to Lamentations 4. You know, we don't often read over in Lamentations, do we? But in Lamentations chapter 4 over here, I want to read some of the things it says over here. Because, you know, remember Judah? When Judah went into captivity, and went into captivity in the Babylon. Of course, there was a lot of things that preceded that as well, where, you know, Judah had to suffer amasurably. They had to suffer not only during the Babylonian captivity, but during the time of the Romans as well. But where, in fact, cannibalism was practiced at that time, because they were being starved out. They were being starved to death. But, you know, I mention to you, when you look at these refugees that are, you know, you're coming into Hungary over here, how difficult it is for them. Some of them, you know, they get to Hungary, and apparently they're not really handed much to eat. They don't have much to eat. It could be a horrible thing. But imagine the fact, brethren, that you and I may be in that situation in the future. America may be in that situation. In the future, if we read our Bibles right, you know, people are going to be fleeing. They won't be coming, you know, from Mexico into this side, you know, in the United States. We will be heading to Mexico to get away from what is happening in the United States. And other nations, of course, will be likewise if there is a recourse. But let's notice here, Lamentations 4, it's a book right after, by the way, Jeremiah, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in fact, is what it's called. It says, "...the tongue of the nursing-bade cleaves to the roof of its mouth," I'm reading from the Amplified Version, "...for thirst. The young children beg for food, but no one gives it to them." This is what happened to Judah. "...They who feasted on donkeys are perishing in the streets. They who are brought up in purple-like cleaving to refuge and ash heaps. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom." That was all over the throne, as in a moment. "...And no hands had come against her or been laid on her." So it was easier for Sodom because it just was over, wasn't it? "...And when the fire and brimstone began to fall." But going on, it says, Ezra and Andrew, Amplified, verse 7, "...with a physical appearance her princes are pure with snow.

They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in their body than rubies or corals. Their shapely figures suggested a carefully cut sapphire." But notice verse 8, what it says, "...Prolonged famine has made them look blacker than darkness. They are not recognized in the street. Their skin cleans to their bones. It is withered. It has become dry like a stick.

They who are slain with a sword are more fortunate than they who are the victims of hunger.

Flamed by the famine, for the latter pine abbere, stricken through the wrath of the fruits of the field. The hands of the hitherto poor, compassionate women have boiled their own children.

They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people, Judah." This is what happened to Judah. I know we think, Brethren, that it couldn't happen in America.

It could happen in Europe. But don't be so sure, Brethren, it couldn't happen.

You know, you and I, we look at TV and we see reports, don't we? Sometimes when there's maybe a famine in Africa, do we not see the pictures of the little children with the scented bellies having not eaten because of the famine? Do we not see people from other parts of the world that are suffering immeasurably? It's in living color on your television. And we do not suffer those same things. But, Brethren, things can change mighty fast. I was talking to Mr. Willis about what's happened with the hurricane down in Florida.

You know, when they knew the hurricane was going to come, I'll tell you, you try to go to the grocery store to buy anything. There's nothing there. Because it's all the way that people have bought it out, you know, prior to disaster coming. Imagine what it's going to be like, Brethren, when you go to the grocery store to buy and the cupboard is there. Well, that time is going to come, Brethren. And, you know, we need to really face that reality.

Right now, we weep for the world. But someday, the world, you know, will see the United States and Britain experience those same things. And I can promise you, they will not weep for us.

They will not cry for us.

You know, I think what happens, though, when people go through these horrendous, horrendous trials like that, and when we see people going through that, we pray, don't we? Thy kingdom come.

The gods will be done upon the earth. Right now, Brethren, that God's will is not being done upon the earth. It's not being accomplished on the earth. It is Satan's will that's being accomplished.

And so, the world out there that you see is not God's doing. A lot of people want to lay that at God's doorstep, don't they? They want to say, well, how could a good God in heaven allow this human suffering down here? Well, Brethren, it's not God that's causing it. It is Satan, the devil, that is inflicting misery and suffering on mankind. You know what the church's job is, Brethren? We have the job of preaching God's way of life. We have the job of telling people there is a better way coming. And not only a way that is coming that is going to be better for the world and produce, again, prosperity, it's going to produce a great, you know, bounty crop of food in the future so that all will be fed in the world. But, Brethren, we can have that abundance now. Jesus Christ came to give us life and that we might have it more abundantly.

You know, when we look into the Bible, Brethren, God's plan and everything He does, I think we understand this very much in the church, revolves around the harvest.

Everything revolves around the harvest.

And, you know, what we experience in terms of trials and sufferings, Brethren, in fact, look to that end of the harvest. I don't know whether you've quite thought of it that way, but everything you're going through, everything you and I are going through in our lives, the suffering, the trials, even the good things that happen, you know, the rejoicing that we go through, all of it points to the harvest. It points to the harvest in the future. And we have already, in the church, we have gone through once again in 2015 the festivals we observed Passover, we observed the days of Unleavened Bread, and we kept Pentecost. And Pentecost, pictured, as we were reminded, the early summer bar of the harvest, which was a smaller harvest.

And that, you know, Pentecost pictures the calling of the church, the initial few.

And so that is what it pictures, brethren. And if you go over to, I'm not going to go there, but Hebrews 12 verse 23, you know, we are called, brethren, we're called the general assembly of the firstborn. We're the firstborn. And if there's a firstborn, there's a secondborn, isn't there?

It'd be silly to call somebody a firstborn, and there are no secondborn or thirdborn that's going to come along. But we are the general assembly of the firstborn.

And so the harvest, the early summer harvest, is pictured by Pentecost, and it pictures the calling of the church. Now we're about to enter another great time of a harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the great fall harvest. It's a time of rejoicing. It's a time, you know, when in fact, you know, all the crops are going to be brought in. It's a time of abundance.

In fact, during the time of the abundance in Israel enjoyed, you know, they were able to enjoy, you know, certain accoutrements at different times, depending on what the harvest was.

You know, in the early summer harvest, you know, of course we know that like when grapes are brought in, you know, what do you have? You have the opportunity to have wine, don't you? You have the the opportunity to avail yourself of that if you do not have that option at any other time. But during that time, you do. Even if you were a pauper, you could glean the fields and you could do it.

You'd be able to do that. But the harvest was very, very important. These days, of course, people live in high rises sometimes, or in the middle of the city, and about the most you could probably have is a, you know, maybe a flower box with a tomato plant in some cases, and sometimes not even that. But the Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes a great fall harvest that culminates, it crescendos the eighth day that pictures the calling of everybody who has ever lived or existed upon the planet. We think it's going to be 40 to 50 billion people in the time of the second resurrection. Like I said, Belinda, we are, and I said this before, we're disconnected. Aren't we from agrarian practices and ways? We're disconnected from farming.

I grew up on a little mini farm. We had, you know, a cow to go milk. We had other animals, chickens, and all that, where you get your eggs and whatnot. So, we had, it was a mini kind of a farm. Not very many acres to it. I used to, in fact, we'd have a bucket of milk and put it in the refrigerator. And you wanted to pass the milk, you just dip it out of the bucket. And usually, my mother would take the cream off the top, you know, first. But that milk always tasted different than the store-bought kind of milk. But like I said, we're not really associated, are we, with farming today? We are familiar, though, with the fruits of farming, though. All of us are.

No contrary to popular opinion, you know, white milk does not come from white cows, and chocolate milk does not come from dark cows. It doesn't work that way. But sometimes, children think that. So, you know, they think, well, that must be how it is. I guess they reason in their mind to visit a farm. But, you know, we are, again, familiar with the product and the produce of farms, but we're not familiar, you know, with farming and what goes into it. You know, when you go down to your groceries, to get your groceries, then you pack your groceries, you know, you know, in there, it costs you an arm and a leg to buy your groceries. It gets more and more expensive, you know. The beans that you have in a can didn't come that way. Somebody had to do it, didn't they? They had to harvest it, and they had to can it for sale, like we buy it. But, you know, the fall harvest pictures a time of abundance, and again, it ties in to the saying of farming. But imagine, brethren, the hard work that goes into farming. I know my dad used to have a garden. His garden would be an acre. An acre. I mean, he had roll after roll tomato plants. I don't know how we ate all those tomatoes. I guess with 11 people in the family, it probably wasn't too hard. You know, it had green beans, they had peppers, and we had everything, basically. And I just happened to be the right age, by the way, where I could operate a hoe. And I worked pretty hard taking care of my dad's garden when he was off doing other things, but... Because he had a full-time job as well. But farming is... Even the little experience I have is not an easy thing. You've got to prepare the ground, and, you know, they work long hours. You know, it used to be when a guy plowed, of course, he would plow, he would do it by hand, he'd dig it up. Then, of course, you know, he came up with the idea of drawing a, you know, cow... I mean, a plow by an animal. Finally we got to a tractor, but, you know, when the tractor came along... But imagine that, being out on a tractor all day long, the dust swirling around, the heat that is out there. And if you had a big farm, I mean it, you're talking about a hard work, a hard labor.

I remember when I was working down here in Bakersfield, when I was about, I think it was probably 13, maybe 14 years of age. My brother and I worked for a farmer, a cotton farmer, out there in Bakersfield. My brother was three years older than I am, maybe four. And anyway, the farmer hired us as a man. You know, I was a half a man and he was a half a man, so they... So we got a full salary, and our job was to irrigate the fields. And I'll tell you, that was a hard job for a little guy like I was, even at that time, it wasn't very big.

And, you know, after it watered, you know, the fields, we'd... We'd set these irrigation pipes up, and they'd be a quarter mile long. So here's this, you know, 11, 12 year old kid carrying these, you know, these aluminum pipes over from one place to another to set it up for watering in another section, you know, of the cotton field. Sometimes the cotton got above your head, almost.

You know, it was that much. But sometimes after it got watered, though, it would be so muddy, my leg would sink down about halfway, you know, almost halfway up the knee. And, you know, you felt like you were... it was made to work twice as hard because of that. But it was hard, hard work. The farmer got plowed, he's got to fertilize, he's got to water the field, he's got to take care of it.

Then, after he's plowed it up, he's got to plant the crop. Now, when he plants the crop, his job's not over. You got to water it, like I said, depending on where you are. He's got to protect it from weeds. He's got to protect it from insects. He's got to protect it from other things as well. And one of the things he does is he crosses his fingers, and he depends on them, and he hopes it rains at the right time. He hopes it doesn't freeze when it moves to be out working, so it would not ruin the crop.

He hopes these things will not occur. And then, once he's done all that, he hopes that when it comes time to sell his product, whatever it is, whether it's beans or whether it's tomatoes or whatever it is, that the product will be at a price that made it worthwhile for him to get out there and farm. You know, sometimes that doesn't always happen. And even when you start harvesting, by the way, you hope that the weather holds up. Hope it again holds up so you can do that. If you're cutting hay and trying to put hay away, you've got to do it a certain time.

If it rains, you can't do it. I've seen in bale alfalfa, by the way, it was wet. I used to buck alfalfa myself, by the way, and you guys ever want to develop some muscles? That's the way to do it. That's kind of the natural way of developing muscles. But anyway, if you get an alfalfa bale soggy wet, I mean, there's no way you're not going to lift that thing.

It's just hard to do. But after he then, again, takes his product from the market, like I say, hoping he's going to be rewarded for his labor, then what does he do? Well, he begins to prepare all over again, year after year after year after year. So it takes a lot of work to be a farmer. Well, brethren, the Feast of Tabernacles, as I mentioned, pictures the great fall harvest. So what I'm saying, brethren, that this Feast of Tabernacles pictures, of course, we know the time of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

You know, at that time, of course, Christ, against the rural Feast of Trumpets, we know, symbolizes the return of Christ. Atonement pictures the binding of Satan the devil. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the beginning, though, of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. And for a thousand years, we'll observe, you know, a space pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles.

And then we'll cap it off by the eighth day of the great white throne judgment, second resurrection period, you know, of the last great day, the eighth day of the Feast. Now, harvests are very happy, happy times of abundance. That's the way the world of tomorrow is going to be. The name is going to be. In ancient Israel, rejoiced at the time of the harvest. But, you know, not, brethren, getting to the harvest is not easy. Getting to the harvest. Like a farmer, it's not easy to get to the product. It's not easy to get to the point where you've got the, you know, the money in your hand, and you start over again.

So, brethren, what precedes the frontiers of the memorial reign of Jesus Christ? It's going to be a time of suffering. It's going to be a time of suffering, you know, for mankind, as a matter of fact, before the Kingdom comes. And we may, again, suffer as well in the process.

Now, mankind, brethren, will be allowed to suffer to teach him a lesson of human history. Now, what is the big lesson that man needs to learn? What he did not learn in the Garden of Eden is this, that man is not God. You know, remember, Satan told him, he said, you'll be as God, knowing the difference, you know, between good and evil.

But what man will have to learn, and has been learning in the last 6,000 years, is he cannot rule himself apart from God. Under Satan's rule of worship, because he's called the God of the world in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, man has suffered amagerably. But, you know, man eventually will learn that he cannot rule himself, that he needs God. Let's go to Ezekiel over here, Ezekiel 33, and I'll read from the New King James, where it is. But Ezekiel 33 over here, Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 33 and verse 28, Here, God says in verse 28, Ezekiel 33 again, verse 28, I will make the land most desolate. Her arrogant strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through. I wonder if that may be because of nuclear problems that will have occurred, that then could not pass through. And then they shall know that I am the term, when I have made the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. And brethren, I think that the United States and Britain are worse, and I'm not leaving out Europe or other Western-type nations, because we are worse. Up in verse 11, let's notice this. He says, Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, He says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I don't desire that at all, God is saying. But that the wicked turn from Israel and live. And He says, Turn, turn from your evil ways. For why should you die, O house of Israel? Why should you die?

Why do men have to suffer? Why do men have to die? Why do people have to go through agony in their life? You know, they cling to a rare life, even though it's miserable. They cling to their rare life. You see that people?

It's like people hang on to alcoholism. They hang on to drug addiction. They hang on to the misery that they are living in. Why do they do? Why will they die? A lot of people throw their lives away, as so many people do.

Men are, again, a mystery, aren't they? But God is going to allow men, and because of His sin, by the way, not, you know, God's not going to reward men for sinning. You know, God's not going to reward men for shaking His fist in God's face.

When Israel, by the way, suffers to a point where they loathe themselves, and they come to repentance, and they say, there's got to be a better way than this. You know, God, brethren, is desirous of repentance and a change of life. He doesn't want to see people wive and pain and suffering. Nobody wants repentance. He wants repentance. Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29, over here. The book of Isaiah, of course, is a millennial book in so many ways, just as Ezekiel has a lot of things about the monion. But Isaiah 29, over here, you see, the time is going to come when God's going to begin to change things about. He's going to start intervening on behalf of Israel, and the world, for that matter, the rest of the world, is well to turn the tide of the direction that mankind is going in. Isaiah 29, verse 17, down here, Isaiah says this. He says, is it not yet a very little while until an evidence shall be turned into a fruitful field? And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest? And that day the death shall hear the words of the book? And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness? For there is going to be a spiritual awakening in people's lives. The humble also shall increase the joy in the Lord.

And the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nothing. The scornful one is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off. You see, this is what God is saying is going to happen down in verse 23. But when he sees his children the work of my hands in the midst, they will howl my name. They will howl my name. And howl the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel. Those also who have heard of the Spirit will come to understanding. And those who have complained will learn doctrine. They are going to learn the truth, in other words. That's what God wants, a change about brethren in people's hearts and their minds. To get tired of beating their heads against the wall and start recognizing there is a better way to live. They are our problems are basically spiritual. I know Mr. Armstrong used to say that often. All of mankind's problems are basically spiritual. And we just, again, come to see that begin to change the way we live, the way we think. I want to read again from Lamentations here, from the Amplified version.

Again, we don't read much from the Amplified, do we?

But here in Lamentations 3, Lamentations 3, it reads a little different than your King James, your new King James. But it sort of embellishes on the Scriptures.

But it says, The Lord is good to those who hopefully and expectantly wait for Him. Yet the patience awaits for God. God is good to those who do. It says, To those who seek Him, inquire of Him, and for Him. And require Him, and it has in parentheses here in the Amplified, by right of necessity and on the authority of God's Word. In other words, you know what God says in His Word, and you go and claim the promises God has made. But in verse 26 it says, It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation, the safety and ease of the Lord. It is good, it says, for a man that he bear the yoke of divine disfoger dealings in his youth.

You get what He's saying here, brethren? It's good that when you're young that you bear a yoke. Now when you get old, imagine when you start scrapping a yoke on you, when you're 80 years old. Not going to make it very far, are you? But if you're a young individual, you have more strength. And the thing about the fact, brethren, is that the world right now is quite young. In a way, there's innocence in the world, but now the world is bearing a terrible yoke.

It's a yoke, brethren, of suffering. It's a heavy burden to be born. Let's go on down here to verse 32. As though He caused His grief. God, of course, in dealing with His children, caused His grief, yet it says, Will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses and tender mercies? For He does not, willingly, and from the heart, afflict or grieve the children of men.

God doesn't want to do that. It's not as hard to do that. The mother and father just grabs a child and swats them, just because they want to. They may enjoy seeing a child cry. God's not that way. God is soothing. But sometimes, God has to take us as His children, and He's done that with mankind. He's had to give us some, you know, swats on the back, posterior.

Don't forget our attention. But the good one here says, To trample and crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside of the prior man of his rights, Before the face of the Most High, or a superior. To subvert a man of his cause, the word does not approve. This is not God's way.

Who is He who spoke or came to pass, When the Lord has not authorized and commanded it? Is it not out of the mouth, or Most High, That evil and good both proceed, adversity and prosperity? Physical, evil, or misfortune, and physical good or happiness? Why does a little man sigh, When he is still in this life-school of discipline? That's where we are. This world, brethren, is like a school for us. And we've been going through disciplinary parts of our education.

And we really repent, brethren. Hopefully that we've learned lessons enough that we've come to that. God has brought us to that repentance, though, Through the power of the Spirit. But it goes on to say, And why does he complain a man for the punishment of his sins? No, what right does anyone, like if you go out and you break a law, And you know you've broken a law, even though you've broken a law, What right does anybody have to complain that they get penalized for it? Well, if you're going a hundred miles an hour and fifty miles of them, And the policeman pulls you over, you know, you cheer him out to give you a ticket.

Well, you'd have to be out of your mind, but I guess some people do. How dare you give me a ticket? Well, he probably should have hauled you off to jail. Giving you a ticket would be far lesser of an infraction, you know, a penalty that one would pay. But, you know, God obviously has to, as a parent, if he sees us, do wrong, and has to correct us, Or else we're not even his children. But as he says, and I think the King James were bastards, That old Anglo-Saxon word, and I trust that we're not illegitimate, you know, as it says there in Hebrews.

But going on here, notice, let us test and examine our ways. You know, that is a complaint about, in other words, a punishment. How about examining our ways? Looking at our ways and why we're suffering, and return to the Lord. Let us look up our hearts to our hands, and then we then mount up in prayer to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not pardoned.

You have covered yourself with wrath, and pursued and afflicted us. You have slain without pity. You know, God does not apologize for correcting his children. He just doesn't. It's like, you know, he's not... Which of you, brother, when you're children, truly, we need to be corrected, apologize to them. So I'm just really sorry I corrected you. No, I dare say you didn't do that.

And, in fact, if they thought you were going to apologize, you know, and expected you to apologize, you'd probably punish them for that. At least in the world I grew up in. I know the world has changed a good deal. Not always for the better. Isaiah 54, Isaiah 54 over here, Isaiah 54, and verse 7. God says here, For a mere moment I forsaken you. That was, as it really been that long, a mere moment I forsaken you.

That with great mercies I will gather you. Yeah, I forsook you, God said. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, for a short space of time. But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you. It says, The Lord, eternal your Redeemer. So God says, Just for a little while I turned away from you, and yeah, you were afflicted. But boy, I am going to turn my mercy toward you now. So God, I know sometimes we think it's forever. You know, in fact we sing a song, don't we?

How long, eternal, I die away. How long are these things going to take place? We're so, we really are very impatient, aren't we? You realize this, brethren, I pray nothing happens in 2015 and 2016. You know, I heard it said one time that when things really start happening, brethren, it will have come too soon. And you will believe that when it comes. And you will long for the days that you have right now. And I think, by the way, when it comes, I'll tell you, the world will be eaten up by it in the future.

Hopefully we will not be consumed by it because our hope is in God and we prepared ourselves against that day. Let's go to Isaiah 27, verse 1. In that day, the Lord, with his severe sword great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, by the way, pictures Satan. When Christ comes back, he's going to bind Satan the devil. Leviathan, that twisted serpent, the rules of serpent that was in the garden of Eden.

And he will slay the reptile that is in the sea. Going on, in verse 6, those who come, he shall cause to take root in Jacob. Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the earth with fruit. So here God's saying, look, when Satan's bound, the world's going to be filled with the fruit of those things that Israel does. And not just here in farming, although there will be prosperity, abundance of prosperity in the world of the model, but everything Israel does is going to influence the world in a good way. Not unlike what happens in modern-day Israel today. We are the biggest exporters of pornography, of every kind of evil that is imaginable in the world.

And obviously some of the nations, when they call us the great Satan, have some pretty good ammunition, considering how we live as a people. Now, I know the opposite side. America, Britain, also have great love and great desire to do good. I can only imagine what the world would have been like had, you know, generally won World War II and not, you know, the Allied powers. If the Axis powers had won, it would have been a far, far different world. But listen to Psalm 12 and 13. And it shall come to pass in that day that the world will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt.

And you will be gathered one by one. So God's going to start His Threshing Machine. Threshing Machine gives overtones of being a harvester, doesn't it? A harvester is going to take place. And it's talking about one by one.

Sometimes you go out, you know, there's only one way to pick a strawberry, by the way. It's one by one. I guess they have machines now, though, that can eat strawberries. I don't know how they did it. I remember when I was a teenager, I used to pick strawberries. I think I ate more than I picked, though, but that's always...

But you've got to do them one by one. The guy's going to gather Israel one by one. O you children of Israel, so that shall be in that day that great trumpet will be blown, and they will come who are about to perish to the land of Assyria, and they who were outcast to the land of Egypt, they shall worship the Lord the Eternal and the Holy Mountain of Jerusalem.

They're going to come up to Jerusalem. They're going to do it again from year to year. I'm going to read verse 12, by the way, from the Living Bible. Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together, one by one, like hand-picked grain, selecting them here and there from his great, threshing floor that reaches all the way from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian border, a boundary.

God's going to begin to do that. And when that starts happening, I'll tell you, you talk about time rejoicing. I gave a sermon many years ago about how God is going to search out the people of Israel, wherever they are in prison, one by one. And he's going to bring them back together. And God's people, the church is going to be right there in the midst of all of this in Jerusalem. Remember, we're going to be with our husband, Jesus Christ, for all eternity. And so we can begin to set things right in the world.

Now think about it yourself, brethren. How did you come to repentance right now in your life? Hopefully you have repented, or will repent if you haven't already. Well, brethren, God alone has the knowledge of how to bring about real repentance. And what Israel must go through, God knew what you had to go through to get you to change. He does it for us individually, and God is going to do it for Israel. He's going to do it for the world, the whole world, in fact.

Because God will have all men to be saved, the Bible says. And God is going to do that. So God, what he brings is the repentance knows exactly the lessons we need to learn, whatever they may be. And it says he chastens every son that he receives. So we're going to be a part of God's family. You've got to live different.

You've got to be different. Because we're not just a part of just any family. We'll be a part of God's family. And sometimes the chastening is not very pleasant. Well, mankind will come under the umbrella of God's family, rather than in the world of our own. And men will be brought to repentance in the same way we have been, and they will have to change as well. Sometimes we may not understand why God does things, the things he does in our lives. But remember another metaphor, that God is the potter, and you and I are the clay. And the clay doesn't know what the potter is going to make, does it?

And God is molding us and shaping us. In our lives, and God wants us to change, though. He wants us to overcome and change and be different. In Isaiah 28, in verses 23-29, I will read this to you from the Living Bible. You can follow along, verse 23-29. He says, Listen to me! Listen to me! I plead! Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever howling the soil and never planting it?

Does he not finally plant his many kinds of grain, each in his own section of land? He knows just what to do. You see, God knows just what to do. He's a great farmer. He's the husband. He is the husband. For God has made him see and understand. He does thresh all grains the same. A sledge is never used on dill, but is beaten with a stick. A threshing will is never railed on cumin, but is beaten softly with a flail. Bread grain is easily crushed, so he doesn't keep on pounding it. The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher and gives the farmer wisdom.

The farmer knows how to have a farm, and God knows how to call us, brethren. Again, we don't understand sometimes why God does things in our lives, but we're the clay, remember? We're the seed that's been planted, and God will bring us to produce.

We know that it says, also, I'm not going to go to this, but in verse 21 of chapter 28 here, it says, The Lord will come suddenly and in anger. It says, As it melt parism and Gideon, to do a strange and unusual thing, to destroy his own people. Get that, brethren, to destroy his own people. Why would God do that? Sometimes God's work is strange to us.

How he works with us can be strange, can it? Why did God put me through that, or this? Well, you know, maybe sometimes we understand and sometimes we do not. Why did God allow Israel to go through the things it went through? Why would the world go through the suffering he's going to experience in the future? Again, God's the farmer, he's the potter. He knows. You know, in fact, it says, The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments? How unsearchable are his judgments? How unsearchable are his ways sometimes of past our minds to comprehend? You know, why do we suffer after being called and after we're repented, though?

You know, you've repented, haven't you? You're part of God's church? Maybe you've been a member of the church for a long time. Why do you suffer in your life? Why do you go through the illnesses you go through? Why do you go through the financial trouble sometimes you go through? Well, rather than because you've been called and because you repent, you're not there yet. Remember, we're being formed and fashioned into Christ. Christ is being formed in us. And then it was compared to Christ.

We got a long way to go. Repentance is this beginning, isn't it? You know, Anthony Smith was baptized the other day. He's at the beginning. And, you know, you may understand more than others may understand, as you maybe did when you were baptized, but when you repent, you're at the beginning. And sometimes there's a long and winding road, a narrow one, too.

Keep in mind, not so easy. You know, we are being perfected, brethren. We sin, we make mistakes, and God, remember, chases every son He receives. You're not going to let others get by with things that maybe some family that didn't care would let you get by with. So, brethren, God basically, everything centers around the harvest. It's around the harvest.

Like I say, the Pentecost, the calling of the church, the firstfruits, it's around the harvest. Early summer harvest, the barn of the harvest, was the little harvest. That's why you look around. There's room to sit in this room. There's going to come a time when there will be no room to sit anywhere. They'd rather be thankful for what room we do have. What if it was like this, brethren, if you came in here and people were standing all around you, there's no more chairs.

Yet people would stay in their aisles. The fire marsh would come over and say, you guys got too many people in here. Isn't it nice to have some elbow room as we learn, as we grow as God's people? You know, Jesus Christ, by the way, is called the captain of our salvation. Jesus Christ was a forerunner. He was a forerunner. He was the firstborn of the firstborn, as it were.

We're firstborn. We're firstfruits. But He was the firstborn of the firstfruits. You can put it that way with you. And He's our forerunner. You know what God needs right now in the church that is so, so very important, brethren, is He needs men and women of character. Men and women who have developed godly character, knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do right every single time. Something like that, by the way, can be a teacher in the world tomorrow.

And they can be a teacher even now, if we learn to do it perfectly. Frankly, if we learn how to do it 98 percent of the time, we're right. You could be a teacher. And we ought to be able to teach those that God is bringing along by example and even by word, certainly by deed in our lives.

But God expects, brethren, us to develop character. And we've been called, the church has been called ever since Christ established the church in 31 A.D. to follow up on the work that Jesus Christ began.

He laid the foundation for us. And you and I are called, brethren, to follow up. The apostles were called to follow up what Christ had done. The first service that took place on Pentecost in 31 A.D. there were 120 people. But after that, the apostles do the work that they did. They did mighty works in a lot of ways, even though they were not Christ, but they did mighty works, many miracles that took place in the early church, to cause the church to grow rapidly there in Jerusalem.

But they were willing to be people of character, like, in fact, the first message was talking about, when we go to the feast, we're there to represent God. Well, yeah, we're here to represent God here as well, you know, in our communities, wherever we may be. So God needs people of character, brethren. You know, God is merciful to us, though, and loving toward us. Not that, brethren, He's going to wrap His other knuckles every time we make a mistake. He wants us to learn, you know, from our mistakes. You know, when the apostle Paul taught in the New Testament, he said, you know, we reap what we sow.

If you sow to the flesh, where are you going to reap? You're going to reap in the flesh, right? If you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap the penalties that come for sowing, you know, in the flesh. You try to associate the appetites, the physical appetites, you know, you're going to pay the penalty for that. Eat too much, what happens? You gain too much weight, right?

Drink too much, what happens? Well, you never get shot. Other, other, or against you. You get involved in drugs, what's going to happen? You know, well, obviously, people end up down at the bottom of the barrel. Make God's law of financial laws, what's going to happen? You're going to have financial problems. It all, again, the law really gives us information that is invaluable for us. But if we sow to the Spirit now, we reap not only happiness and abundance in this life now, but as Paul said in Galatians, life everlasting. It's all good. Isn't that what they say these days? It's all good. When, in fact, it's not all good. Frankly, it's all bad in the world. But better if we live according to God's spiritual laws, God's spiritual principles, the climax of the end, the great reward of the end is you have everlasting life. Not only do you have an abundant life now, but you have everlasting life. God has called us again for a great purpose. And the purpose of your life, everything that is occurring in your life, brethren, is pointing to the hearts. Everything that we're doing, in fact, is pointing to the return of Christ and the great harvest. And hopefully when we're changed out of this flesh, brethren, into the spirit, then we're, you might say, our harvest, as it were, is over, at least in the physical flesh. God's going to teach as much in the spiritual, but our harvest will be over. And the world, at large, though, the great harvest is coming for them. So, brethren, when we gather, you know, on Monday for the Feast of Trumpets, we're going to begin a new year, brethren, which pictures the return of Jesus Christ in the beginning of a new world. The time when Jesus Christ will come will happen. We know in the future. We don't know how long it will be. The Bible does not tell us that. Then when we gather on the Feast of Tabernacles, at the beginning of it, September 28th, and we go and observe that, you know, and the last great day, the eighth day, we celebrate the great harvest when the most bountiful crop of all is going to be gathered in. And this occurs, brethren, when we will have our work cut out for us as rulers. We're going to have our work cut out for us in the millennium, and even more when the great white throne judgment occurs when there may be 40 or 50 billion people that are resurrected. A major part of God's festival simmers around, brethren, the harvest. We're being called, brethren, harvested now, but, brethren, realize that multiple billions will be called in a time ahead. Multiple billions. What you're learning right now, brethren, is preparing you for the time you can help those people. And we can help those people. So, brethren, let the experiences and our suffering prepare us for the great purpose that God has ahead. And that is the time of the great harvest, the great fall harvest, that's going to occur in the future.

Thank you.