Help Is on the Way

All right, we got it here on a festival that reminds us of one, well, of many realities, and one of those is that there is a sure and certain destruction coming to this very society of which we are a part, which we have lived, rather, lived in the world, but not hopefully of the world. This day focuses on the fact that there will be some final trumpet plagues that will be poured out upon the world, and the creation and the human race in general will have come close to a point of total destruction. But God won't let it in that way. This is not the first time it's happened. We've had four runners. We all are familiar with the story there in Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9 about Noah and family. The human family had departed so far from God that God looked down and decided that he's going to just choose this one man and his family. As Peter wrote, eight souls were saved via water, and he started all over. There had been smaller four runners, such as when God told the armies of Israel under Saul, Go, the Amalekites, the level of sin has risen to a certain point. Go kill every last man, woman, and child.

And then, of course, we have the story. In fact, let's go ahead and turn to Genesis 18, and we'll look at a little bit of the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18, and here is the account where the eternal, the God of the Old Testament, the one we better know as Jesus Christ day, but the God of the Old Testament, along with two angels, came and appeared to Abraham at his tent out on the plains of Mamre, which is down south in the area of Hebron. And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and below three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, pass not away, I pray you, from your servant. So you know the story, the meal that was thrown together, and the news that was given to Sarah, and how she laughed, and that gave Isaac his name. And let's see, let's go on down to verse 16. And the men rose up from there. The man, of course, refers to the angels accompanying the God of the Old Testament. And looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? And so as the story unfolds, God begins, God tells Abraham, Here's why we're here, and what's going to happen. And so Abraham later played, Let's Make a Deal. What if there are 50? What if there are 40? And you remember that story as well. But let's look at verse 20. The Lord said, Because of the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which has come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned to their faces from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. Well, we realize as the story unfolds in chapter 19, what had been reported turned out to be true. It was a disgusting and vile society, and it was such that it ended up with lot and family being pulled out of the city, and then the fire and brimstone fell, and the whole cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adamaz, Zeboam, they were all destroyed. Let's turn now to Luke 17, because Jesus referred back to that story.

Luke 17, and let's begin in verse 28. He first mentions the days of Noah, but then he follows that with the days of Lot. Let's see what he has to say. Luke 17, verse 28. Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. And so life was going on as normal. These are average, everyday events taking place. Perhaps we could say they were enjoying the good times. They were enjoying the pleasures of their own sin for a while, but there comes a time when there is a price to pay for that, when sin is not repented of. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

And in that day, he who is upon the housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. So when it's time to flee, then flee. Don't worry about a change of clothes. Don't worry about your valuables. Get out of there. And then it says, Remember Lot's wife. And that's a good verse to ponder on. Lot's wife, as we remember the family, the angels had to actually lay hands on them and pull them out of the city. And they went a certain distance, and Lot's wife turned and looked back. And it was obvious her heart was there. Her life was there. Her everything was there. She was fully immersed in that city of Sodom that is used in the Bible as an emblem for sin itself. And she was turned into a pillar of salt. Salt being a preservative, kind of an enduring example of the penalty of sin. I titled this sermon, Help is on the Way. Help is on the way because we live in a world that is moving rapidly in that direction. I'd like to just look at a few news items. I don't want to get bogged down in this, but I was collecting some and I didn't get it printed out. It's not that I'm such a high-tech guy, but I've got a computer up here. Stop laughing. Stop laughing. I saw that. I saw that. And this is from Newsmax.

Thank you. I'm about to lose my computer support. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt big time. All right, this is Newsmax yesterday, Sunday, October 2nd, and the title, this is a Reuters article, but it says, Pope says, gender theory, part of global war on marriage and family. Now, of course, popes historically have been very conservative as far as what is stated and decreed regarding marriage and family, but this pope has been a little more, what? What is the word? He's gone easier on homosexuality than any that I remember in my life. But here it says Pope Francis warned on Saturday of a quote, global war, end quote, against traditional marriage and the family, saying both were under attack from gender theory and divorce. Now, a little later, he defines this gender theory. Gender theory is broadly the concept that while a person may be biologically male or female, they have the right to identify themselves as male, female, both, or neither.

Now, I read that, and there's something in my brain still bouncing around, ricocheting around. I'm sorry, I cannot get my mind around that. There's male, there's female. Denise has a wonderful story about a conversation with our two and a half year old grandson and the body parts and who has what. And I'll let her tell you that later.

We will go no further in front of a microphone. But at his age, he is learning there is a difference. There is a distinction. And in the beginning, it says male and female created, he them. But we live in a different world. Now, I wouldn't recommend it around here for anyone. But apparently, we're moving toward the fact that if you identify with your, if you're a man, you identify with your female gender that day, you can go walk into the women's restaurant.

Like I say, I wouldn't recommend it in Alabama or Tennessee or many of these areas around here. But male, female, both, or neither. I'm still thinking about the both or neither. But as we could have seen in Genesis 19, Sodom had obviously made that leap. Let's try another one. Here's another article, Newsmax, AP, wary of election hacks. Department of Homeland Security urges states to get security help. Well, it's getting worth a little late for that. Elections are right over the horizon. Another article, and I don't know what has happened today, but the powerful Hurricane Matthew was a five for a little while, dropped to a four, was moving across Jamaica. We have a feast site there. Maybe other Church of God groups have feast sites there. I don't know, but we have God's people there. And they don't have to be God's people. They're all created in the image of God. And then it's moving toward Cuba. And from there, it remains to be seen. But at any rate, it's turning up through the area since, strongest hurricane in this area, since Felix in 07. So that's a news item. Weather. Of course, it was just a couple weeks ago that Taiwan got teed off on by a very powerful typhoon. A couple articles here about Britain's... they have a new Prime Minister. The Cameron administration fell with a Brexit vote. And they now have Prime Minister Theresa May. And she has stated that she will... she would trigger the divorce procedure to leave the European Union by the end of March. So they're going to give a timetable on steps to be taken on getting out of the EU. And let's see... Aleppo hospital hit as Syria army presses assault. So largest hospital in rebel-held East Aleppo, which I hope we all know is in Syria. Somebody running for candidate for president didn't know where it was. But anyhow, it was bombed for the second time in days as Syrian government forces pressed for Russian backed... pressed a Russian backed offensive to retake the entire city. So those poor people just are living in a war zone. And no wonder there are so many from Iraq. And Syria is trying to get out and go somewhere where they can live life. Some of them, of course, are proving to have been plants related to terrorism. But there are a lot of families. They're just people trying to live. You and I could be in that... could have been in that situation and we lived there. Here's another article of filmmakers, anti-Christian YouTube banned film promo. There's another faith-based movie that has come out. I'm not ashamed. And tells us true story of Rachel Joyce Scott, first person killed in the deadly 1999 shootings in Columbine, Colorado. Can you believe it's been that long, that many years since Columbine 1999? Long time. But she, of course, spoke up for her own faith and it cost her her life.

Well, we have... there's one more that I found online.

Hungary hopes to deploy thousands of border hunters in their bid to stop the migrants. It has a picture here of these tall, tall fences with razor ribbon on top. And says that Hungary is now recruiting thousands of so-called border hunters to patrol its razor wire boundaries, forming special units with night vision goggles, riot gear, and dogs in an effort to keep the migrants at bay at their borders. Well, enough for the good news from there.

I did something I haven't done in a long time. That's by a newspaper. Well, I bought one and was given a couple.

In the Gadsden Times, you'll be happy to know there's a county bridge that's at the midway part. I mean, seriously, that's the Sunday paper. That's the headline on the front. County bridge is at the midway point and being reconstructed. But there was a little bit, you know, quite a few pages into it about world news.

Hundreds of arch and memory of men shot by police last week. That's El Cajon, California, out by San Diego. It's not the one I was looking for. But anyhow, you get the point.

It's not a pretty world that we live in. It's been heading in the wrong direction a long time, probably reasonably close to 6,000 years. All the way back to the beginning with the events of what happened at the Garden. Adam, Eve, the serpent, when God was speaking to them, he told the serpent there would be this enmity between his seed and the woman's seed. And there would be the woman's seed, capital S, the first prophecy that we find in the Bible. The seed of the woman would bruise his head, but the serpent would bruise his heel. And we see that the time is ticking. And we're getting closer. We're getting a lot closer. Let's go to the book of Revelation, just to see a few highlights. I realized this summer, middle of the summer, we had more than one sermon on some of the events, some of the steps of prophetic events. And in the first one, we went to Matthew 24 and hinged back and forth with Revelation 6. But Revelation 4 is a beautiful chapter. John describes and envisioned what he sees at the throne of God. It's a most beautiful setting.

Verse 2, a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne.

Describes some of the beautiful stones there, the jasper, sardines stone. There was a rainbow round about the throne. Yeah, isn't it just so disgusting that this beautiful rainbow that God created all the way back there at the end of the story of Noah and the flood, afterward God told him, I'll place my bow and it will remind you I'll never destroy all of humanity by the waters of a flood again.

And now you know what has happened with the symbol of the rainbow and at any rate sad, more than sad. And it's signed like an emerald. And it lists these 24 seats, 24 elders, these angelic beings that are there at God's throne down a little bit further. Verse 6, a sea of glass like the crystal, these four living creatures. The definition, the description rather parallels the description of caribs that we find in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10.

And so we have these four faces, the lion, the calf, the man, the eagle. And in verse 8, at the end, they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And so these beings give praise to God always. Chapter 5 is somewhat of a prelude of what is going to take place. We have this scene that John continues to see unfold, and we have this scroll with these seven seals.

And initially it's stated that, no, there's no one qualified to unlock it. And then verse 5, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and loosed the seven seals thereof. And so we have more praising from those there at the throne of God, and worthy are is the Lamb.

But as we get to chapter 6, and again, we went through this in detail in the middle of the summer, we have the false Christianity as the first horseman. We have then wars and near wars. We live in a world that is an armed camp. It's not just nations. We have some rogue nations that are always rattling their sabers. It's a frightening thought to think of countries like Iran or North Korea having nukes. But they always have something to say, always have threats to make.

We have China flexing its muscles. There are islands down the South China Sea that are claimed by three or four countries, Vietnam, Philippines, I forget who else in other country claims some of these islands, and the Chinese have more and more might. And so they're there enlarging some of those Spratly Islands and fixing air bases there. But the average person here, look at the skyrocketing gun sales in this country. And people have stores of weapons. And if civil war would ever come, it would not be a pretty picture.

It would not be a pretty picture. But I think probably most of us are very happy, the foresight of the founding fathers to put that second amendment into the Constitution a long time ago. Well, it goes on then with famine. Maybe not a lack of food, but maybe food that's not fit to eat or is not nutritional. Maybe there's food, but no money to buy the food that is available.

Then pestilence. And in verse 8 in the middle, it says, The power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with hunger, with death and with the beasts of the earth. There are a lot of places here. Here it says the fourth part of the earth. It's hard to fathom how many people will die. Talk about job security if you're into burying people. And then later on, as you get to the second woe, or first and second woe, you've got to these were given power to kill the third part of human beings.

Verse 9, the fifth seal is open. And that, of course, is the tribulation. This is a time of Satan's wrath. There is a martyrdom, a continued martyrdom of saints, probably an intensified martyrdom of saints. We have those, verse 10, symbolically as though, I mean, we know they're in the grave. They're dead, but they're personified as though they're crying from the grave. How long, O Lord? And I think a lot of people in this society are beginning to think that way. And we do too. Time goes on. We pay a greater price. We have prayer requests that just break our hearts sometimes. Little children facing horrible situations. And people, you know, we all reach a point where when our time's up, it's up.

But we have people where they suffer and it goes on and on and on. And we too cry, how long, O God, until the feet of Jesus Christ stand on the Mount of Olives? Well, it's not that time quite yet. Heavenly signs are spoken of beginning of verse 12, and then verse 17, the chapter ends by referring to the great day of His wrath has come. So the final year is that day of the Lord.

And we realize that these seven seals have now been opened, but that seventh one opens up into seven trumpet plagues that are then broken down and defined in Revelation chapter 8. You have four that are primarily on the creation, but of course it affects human beings. The latter three are very much so on human beings because it involves a level of world war like we really have never seen yet.

So you have the, well, we won't even summarize those. You're familiar with those. And then chapter 8 ends by saying, whoa, whoa, whoa. And so the final three trumpets are the three woes. And the first half of chapter 9 involves this European beast system with an attack against the forces of the east. The men of the east, they're called. You have, let's see, five months is mentioned in verse 5.

Verse 10 mentions their power was to hurt men five months. Beginning in verse 13, you have the sixth trumpet, the second woe. You have a counter attack of the men of the east with numbers beyond anything we can imagine. Two hundred million men in an army. But in verse 15, at the end, it says, to slay the third part of men. Verse 18, by these three, was the third part of men killed, fire, smoke, and brimstone. Now, we'll pause from reading Revelation for now at this point.

Our first trip to the Philippines was for the Feast of 2011. We arrived a little early. Carol Romer was still living. We were able to go with Earl and Carol Romer out to Corregidor Island, and it was a very moving and meaningful trip for us. To stand on that little rock fortress, it's not very big, but that's where, of course, Pearl Harbor was attacked Singapore same time, and then in short order, they were moving on the Philippines, and being overwhelmed, the Allies being overwhelmed, and retreating and retreating, and then coming down the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon, and then moving over until basically Corregidor Island out in Manila Bay was all that was left. General MacArthur had resolved to just stay there until the last man drew breath. It took President Roosevelt, as Commander-in-Chief, gave him an order, you leave, you make your way to Australia to lead the army to come back to liberate. Well, we stood there and looked out and walked out on that very dock where he went with his family and loaded onto the PT boat that took them to South down to Mindanao, where they caught a plane and flew to Brisbane, where he found out there is no army waiting to be led. There was no army, but he stood there and he told them. He wanted everyone to know he was obeying a presidential decree, and he told them, I shall return. And he did. It took a bit longer, but he did return. It took a while for the the tide of the war in the Pacific to turn, because the policy from Roosevelt and Churchill, as you probably remember from history, is Europe first, then the Pacific. But Europe got the reinforcements, the equipment, and all. And so MacArthur cooled his heels and fumed and let everyone know what he thought of the avoiding. But the day came when the forces came back. You've probably seen the picture where you had General MacArthur, a couple of others, several other in the military, along with Philippine President Osmania.

Manuel Quezon had died in Osmania. They're walking ashore on onto the beach there at Leyte. And I think it was two, maybe three years ago before the feast. We were on Leyte in that area, and we were able to go and see that. And likewise, it was a very moving experience, especially for me. My father, once upon a time, got an all-expenses-paid trip the last year of the war to go there. You know what an all-expenses-paid trip is. Uncle Sam says, here's where you're going. So he was there on Leyte and then Cebu. But as MacArthur landed, he took the microphone, which went out by radio, and he called on the people all over the country to rise up and strike however they can, if at all possible, rise up and strike. And he reminded them that he had promised that he would return, and he had come back. Well, Christ told us that. Told the disciples that. The angels there, as he ascended, said, he'll come back in like manner. He'll come with clouds. We have many examples in history we could turn to as far as people in what appeared to be completely hopeless situations who then were given a little glimmer of hope. I look at the Feast of Trumpets as a feast day that gives us a healthy dose of hope. It reminds us that God's on His throne. His clock is precisely on time. We may have thought we were ready for Christ's return 20 or 30 years ago, but He hasn't come back yet.

Many of us sitting here probably have lived and been in the church long enough where, once upon a time, we may have thought like I did that my parents would live till Christ returned. But they've been sleeping in the grave for a long time. And now I reach the point where I think I look in the mirror in the morning, I think, where did that old guy come from?

And I may not live till Christ returns. And if not, that's okay. But Christ reminds us, the Father reminds us today, He helps on the way. Have hope. Be encouraged. Be inspired. I, once upon a time, well, okay, it was several decades. I called myself a political junkie.

And I've really tried to break myself of that. And I've noticed my blood pressure going down.

We had a visitor visiting family in Gadsden this morning from Murfreesboro. And I remember the time when he gave a sermon at Murfreesboro years ago. And he shared a true confession that he got in trouble for yelling at the news. And you have the television on, the news is going, and his wife comes, and you're yelling at a television. So I told him after church that I was so happy to hear that there was another man who had had that little talk from his wife. So I've really tried to break myself from being a news junkie. And when presidential party conventions would come along, when it was time for a new election of a president, I would watch a lot of the keynote addresses at the conventions. I totally broke myself of that this time. Can't do it. But I do remember some classic ones from years ago. You know, there's one that Dick Cheney gave that I really remember from 16 years ago. And if I go back eight years before that, I do remember one that Al Gore gave.

And there was a statement each man made that I want to mention to you. And I like to think about them. They're pretty good food for thought as far as this holy day and the next one that comes. But when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were running for the presidency, Mr. Gore made the statement something very close to this. The wheel has turned, and it is time. It is time for them to go. Of course, he's referring to the ones who were in office at that time, President George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle. The time has come for them to go. Well, eight years later, of course, Mr. Clinton won the election, and Al Gore was the VP. Eight years later, we have Al Gore running for president, but we had George W. Bush and Dick Cheney was selected as his running mate. And at that convention on August 2, 2000, Mr. Cheney spoke, and he kind of turned, you know, human beings, they like to twist the knife against somebody's side. He turned Mr. Gore's words back on him, and he quoted Al Gore and said, the wheel has turned, and it's time. It's time for them to go. And then, as he spoke to different aspects of American society, including, I know at one time, to the military. That had been defunded a great deal, but he turned and he said, help is on the way. And so, I want you to think of those two. It's time for them to go. We live in a world, and we tend to look around, and we see headlines, and we see this nation's leader and that nation's leader, our own leader, our own Congress, our own government in the state, and we tend to see human beings. But we fight not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in high and heavenly places.

And there is a God of this age with all of his cronies, and the wheel has been turning, and it's just about time for them to go. But there has to be somebody prepared, first of all, to replace them, or else the world tomorrow is just a rerun of what we have now.

And so, God waits. And maybe God waits until we are ready.

But we gather here today, and we have a feast day that tells us, reminds us, help is on the way. Let's catch me up in my notes.

My notes disturb me sometimes, and they get in the way at other times.

Let's go to Matthew 24, since now we know where we are in my notes. This is a day that pictures a coming change in leadership of the world in every sense.

This day looks at the world scene and reminds us that it is time for them to go, and it reminds us that there is a new civilization poised just over the horizon. It helps on the way. Matthew 24, let's read verses 21 and 22. Verse 21, For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, but this time no nor ever shall be, and except those days should be shortened. There should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

This day reminds us, and we look around, we may be few in numbers.

We drove from the Gazan Hall to here, and the world, the world is going on as usual. School is in session.

Houses are being framed. People are sitting under shade trees. Those are the bricklayers. Oh, sorry, sorry, excuse me. I just slipped out over there.

People were pumping gasoline and running dollar general stores that are everywhere these days.

Life goes on, but we're the ones who heard the call, and we responded to that call. And back in Leviticus, it gives a list of the feasts of the Eternal. And it began with the first festival Passover all the way through the year, and on the first day of the seventh month. It is a special, sacred, solemn, commanded assembly.

It is not optional. It's an annual sign. It's God's time. It's holy time. God hallowed this time. It's our date with God, one of the annual dates that we have with God. And so we gather here, and yet it says, man will reach the point where they just about exterminate themselves, but God says to us, for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. Time will be cut short. And that's the most marvelous thing. Our day is becoming like the days of Lot in Sodom.

We have to beware. We have to be careful to hold fast.

sin is one of the most contagious things in the universe. We have to be careful that less it infects us. Now, verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet. And we have enough in the Bible to tie together.

This final trumpet is the one we could call the great trumpet. It signifies lots of events. The freeing of captive Israel. It signifies the resurrection, the first resurrection. The dead in Christ who have been sleeping the sleep of death since probably Abel's the first one in that category, all the way today.

That sound is going to... And the voice of John 5 says, the voice of Jesus Christ will bring them forth.

And then as Paul has written in other places, we who are alive shall be changed. So, gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to another.

Help is on the way.

Let's go back to Isaiah. A lot of these prophecies we tend to focus on during tabernacles, and you may hear them, and that's fine.

Isaiah 35, we have 10 verses, as it's put here in our Bibles, as man determined chapters and verses later on.

But it speaks of the desert rejoicing and blossoming as a rose.

But in Isaiah 35, verse 3, strengthen you the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees.

1. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, 2. Be strong, fear not, 3. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, He will come and save you.

The eyes of the blind will be opened, the years of the deaf unstopped, 4. The lame leap as a heart, the mute will sing, 5. The parched ground becomes a pool, 6. There's a highway, verse 9, 7. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. 8. Nor shall it be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there, 9. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, 10. With songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, 11. And they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I think we're ready for that right now.

Revelation 21, verse 4, quotes that part of that last phrase there. 12. No more tears, no more death.

Well, help is on the way. Isaiah 27.

Isaiah 27.

And it begins the first verse, speaking of this great and strong sword that shall punish Leviathan.

The piercing servant, even Leviathan, that crooked servant, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

There's lots to ponder there, but the church's thought, Leviathan, here is representing the one introduced to us in Genesis 3 as a serpent, and the one in Revelation 12 still called a serpent. But at any rate, he speaks of this vineyard, and many times in Isaiah, Israel is referred to as God's vineyard. Verse 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Okay, let's go on down to verse 12. Last couple of verses is what I want to focus on. And it shall come to pass in that day, and the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, from the Euphrates to the Nile. And you shall be gathered one by one.

God isn't going to lose one person, whether it's spiritual Israel, those in the church, whether it's physical descendants of Abraham, that He still plans them to be an example nation, as they should have been back in the beginning in Exodus.

It shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord and the holy Mount at Jerusalem.

But here the great trumpet shall be blown.

Isaiah 60. So can Isaiah 60 a little bit? Very prophetic psalm looking at a coming golden age under the reign of Messiah.

The latter couple of verses of the previous chapter speak of the Redeemer coming to Zion.

But Isaiah 60.

Verse 1, Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Eternal has risen upon you.

When he's speaking here to spiritual Israel, and the way it's worded here, it is worded as though they have been resurrected to glory as a part of the very family of God. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness to people, but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be a scene upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from far, your daughters shall be nursed at your side.

Oh yes, all across the body of Christ, we have families who have poured their heart and soul into rearing children, only to watch them reach a certain age of accountability.

They decide to put it on the back burner.

God's not through with any one of them yet.

The time comes, your sons, your daughters come looking for you.

He mentions different peoples here. Then in verse 5, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto you. Midian and Ethah, it's one of Midian's sons.

Sheba, the line of Ham. Kedar, son of Ishmael. The Rams of Nebioth, another son of Ishmael.

Verse 8, who are these that fly as the clouds, as the doves to their windows? Verse 14, The sons also of them who afflicted you shall come, bending unto you. And all they that despise you shall bow themselves down to the soles of your feet. They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 4.

Speaks of a trumpet here as well.

1 Thessalonians 4.

But Isaiah was speaking of these nations flowing to find those who are obeying God as they learn that help has arrived.

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13, But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep. And sleep is that beautiful biblical emblem for death, of sleeping the sleep of death until being called forth by the voice of Jesus Christ. 1 That you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.

And every one of us, we have had loved ones, parents, maybe siblings, and in some cases, children or grandchildren, which is outside the natural order of things, but it happens.

And we do have a void in our heart, and we do grieve, and we do hurt. But He says you should sorrow not as those who have no hope, because we realize that help is on the way. There is help that is coming.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain, and to the coming of the Lord, shall not, oh, King James says, prevent better translation, precede. We shall not precede them who are asleep. In other words, the dead in Christ rise first, then those still living as the saints will be transformed to spirit. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. And of course, we have to go to other scriptures to find out where the returning Jesus Christ is going that day. And He's on His way to stand on the Mount of Olives and to do battle with the remaining armies of mankind. Second Thessalonians 1. Many of our loved ones have entered their place of safety, which is the grave, but a great family reunion lies ahead. In this letter, the second letter to those at Thessalonica, we have people who are being worn down. They're suffering a great deal. And Paul addresses that. Verse 3, We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because that your faith grows exceedingly in the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounds. So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer.

Seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, to those who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Verse 11, wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and to fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you and Him according to the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He wrote to a group of Christians who were facing a lot of trials, a lot of tests, and He said to them, God will repay those who persecute you.

God will bless you for suffering patiently and for enduring. And so He says to us as well, if you hurt, maybe it's physically and maybe it's in there are many other ways to hurt. Emotional hurt is horrible. If you hurt, helps on the way. If you've been let down by human beings, and we all have been, and we have all let down other people. We can't cast stones. But if you've been let down and hurt by others, helps on the way.

If you have lost loved ones, help is on the way. If you face one trial after another where you stand there and you just feel like you've been on the receiving end of a good long beating for years, helps on the way. If you feel shell-shocked by what has happened in this country in the last decade or so, helps on the way. God's timing. God's plan is right on time.

Let's go to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5.

I like the way he writes in the first few verses. Peter's a different man than once upon a time.

He writes to the elders and reminds them, feed the flock. Do it willingly.

Don't lord it over them. Be an example. Be a servant. Reminds them in verse 4, the chief shepherd shall appear. You'll receive a crown of glory.

Verse 6. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Some have suggested you could replace the word, cares as worries. We human beings worry about a lot of things that don't matter. We worry about a lot of things we don't have control over.

And so what he's saying is, put your burdens on God. Put your burdens on Christ. Let him bear it for you. Be sober. Be vigilant. Yes, we still live in this world that's kind of like Sodom more and more every day. We have to stay awake. We have to remain on the job.

Or else the tentacles of sin will infect us.

Your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.

Well, if we stay close to God, he can't devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions were accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, that sure would have been nice if it had ended right there.

But it didn't. It's a great saying, but He had to continue.

After that you have suffered for a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever.

Yes, we can look back over a lot of administrations this country has had.

I don't remember the presidency of Harry Truman, but I was born while he was president. But at three months when a new man came in office, I didn't remember much.

I do remember President Eisenhower.

He obviously didn't have the solutions to all the world's problems. And neither did Mr. Kennedy or Johnson or Ford or Nixon. Got those out of order. I know that.

I'm making this up as I go.

And I might still miss one, but there was President Carter, and he didn't have all the solutions. And Ronald Reagan, and he didn't have all the solutions.

George H.W. Bush, the same. Bill Clinton with Al Gore.

And eight years, it was time for them to go and try somebody else.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney came along after eight years. They obviously didn't have all the answers. Time for them to go.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, were almost eight years.

It's time for them to go. And we have an election coming up. And as I've told you before, it scares the wits out of me, because one of them has to win.

And I can guarantee, I'm not a prophet, but I can guarantee whichever wins will not have the answer to the world's problems. Because the problems have to come from above. They have to come from God.

Yes, we continue slouching towards Gomorrah, ever increasingly.

Let's go to Revelation, and we'll wrap it up. Two quick places here. Revelation 22, first of all.

Revelation 22, verse 12.

And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

And then let's turn back to Revelation 11. And some of you may remember, I at least remember, that for years on the day of the Feast of Trumpets, whether the verse has been read three times earlier that day, I end with Revelation 11, verse 15, and I intend to continue doing so, unless I forget. And that's becoming more likely as time goes on. But Revelation 11, verse 15.

And the seventh angel sounded. And there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And so on this Feast of Trumpets, God tells us, and God wants us to remember, that help truly is on the way.