How God Will Solve the Race Problem

Well, good morning, everyone. On behalf of all of us here, I'm sure we want to say special thanks to those who did special music this morning. Outstanding special music. Well, good morning to you all, and I hope that you're having a wonderful feast, and that you'll have a wonderful fifth day, which this is of the Feast of Tabernacles. Certain topics arouse interest immediately. Like, if I told you that this morning I'm going to speak about sex, I think I would have everybody's attention.

I might lose a few if I said I'm going to talk about politics. I might even lose everyone. I'm going to talk about your money. Well, I'm not going to talk about sex or money or politics, but the topic I'm speaking about is one of the most sensitive and volatile topics of all. Just mention this topic, and ears shoot up, people sit straight up, even people in the back row wake up. Just mention the word race, and we brace for discrimination. We brace for a racial slur, a racial stereotype, or a put-down. Why should race be such a sensitive topic? It is very sensitive. We're very familiar in our own country with America's racial background and problem.

Will our beloved nation ever be able to put down our history of slavery? Perhaps no nation on Earth has tried harder to eradicate racial discrimination. All kinds of laws have been passed, and yet racial discrimination continues to be a problem. And it seems to be getting only worse. Why can't we solve our racial problem? It's not just in the USA that there's a racial problem, but there are racial problems in other nations as well, and there have been down through history.

There's probably not a nation on Earth today who doesn't have some form of race problem. And in some nations, it's very, very serious. One tribe against another tribe, or persecution of a minority tribe, or even genocide, or ethnic cleansing. Down through history, then, and continuing today, there's a story of racial hatred, prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination. Jesus in the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24 prophesied that at the end time it would be kingdom against kingdom, and nation against nation. And the word in the Greek is ethnos, ethnos, denoting race.

So the race problem at the end of this age is not going to go away. It's going to keep flaring up, and it's going to intensify. Will mankind ever see a solution to his race problem? Will there ever be harmony, and love, and peace between the races? What will it take? Thank God that day is coming, and this Feast of Tabernacles pictures that time. The sermon titled this morning is, How Will Christ Solve the Race Problem? How Will Jesus Christ Solve the Race Problem? Let's first of all go back and get just a bit of background on the formation or origin of races and nations.

Please turn to the book of Acts 17 and beginning in verse 24. Acts chapter 17 and verse 24. God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Paul is talking to the philosophers at Athens. Verse 25. Nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. Everything comes from God. Now verse 26. He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.

So God has made from one blood an amazing thing. Everyone in this room, if we expand out everyone in this state, in this nation, everyone across the oceans, around the world, and down through history, billions and billions of human beings all come from one blood. So God is the originator of nations. Nations here is again from the great word ethnos, denoting race or people or tribe.

It's amazing that from one blood God has made the different races of black and white and brown. He is the author. God is the author of races. Let's go back a bit more and get some background. When did God create the races? You know, the Bible does not say exactly how this happened.

We have wondered if Adam and Eve may have been a composite with different racial features and that they gave birth to children bearing different racial features. In a way, it is very likely that God so designed things that races began to develop from the very beginning. We know that before the flood, the world became very corrupt. So corrupt with crime and evil and very likely race wars that God decreed to destroy that world, which He did. So become then to the great flood or after the great flood, and it's obvious that God wanted there to be races and different nations after the flood. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 10. Again, we're getting just a little bit of background on the origin of the races.

We're going to eventually get to how Christ is going to solve the race problem. In Genesis chapter 10, this is right after the flood. Let's begin in verse 1. This is the genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and sons were born to them after the flood. As we know, only eight people got aboard that ark, Noah and his wife, and these three sons and their wives. That's all, just eight. And after the flood, it was after the flood that children began to be born to these sons of Noah.

Noah's grandchildren, and then they had children. Noah's great grandchildren. We have the names of ones given here. Verse 2, the sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Medi, Javen, Tubal, Meshach, and Tiras. Those were the sons of Japheth. And then it gives some of the children born to those sons. In verse 22, verse 6, I'm sorry, in verse 6, the sons of Ham were Cush, Mitsrahem, Put, and Canaan.

And then it gives names of ones that were born to these children of Ham. And then verse 21, the children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth, the elder. And the sons of Shem were Elam, Asher, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

So we have the names of these children born to the sons of Noah after the flood. This is a very critical chapter in many ways because everyone on earth today traces his lineage back to Genesis chapter 10. You and I, one day, will be able to trace our lineage back to Genesis 10 to see how we came to be in our time. That would be interesting to do one day. So verse 32 says, These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations in their nations.

And let us say it goes on the same verse 32, that from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. So God wanted the nations to go in different directions. They hesitated and did not want to go. And so in the first nine verses of chapter 11, we have the story of the Tower of Babel. And God came down in verse 5 to see this tower they were building because they did not want to go to their separate areas.

Apparently, through likely Noah, God had revealed to the sons and their children that they were to go in different directions. Some were to go down into Africa, some were to go to the east over toward the Orient, and some were to stay perhaps in the Middle East and move up to the northwest. But they did not want to do that. They did not want to be scattered abroad.

So God came down, verse 6, He said, Indeed, the people are one. They have one language. Up to this time, there had not been any more than just the one language on the earth. Now nothing that they proposed will be withheld.

Let us go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So God scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Its name is called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. So it was God's will that the nations go in different directions. He forced them to do so by giving them different languages. So not only is God the author of race, He's also the author of different languages as well.

But why? Let's ask a question at this point. Why different races and nations? Isn't it because God is a God of variety. He loves variety. Look at His creation. Everywhere we look, we see variety. He did not make just one type of tree. What if every tree were a pine tree? You know, I like pine trees. They're beautiful. But if every tree were a pine tree, you'd miss all the oaks and the maples and all the other trees, the fruit trees. God is a God of wide variety.

We see it everywhere, and we would miss it if we didn't have it. Likewise, God wants His family, His human family now, to have variety. From one blood, He created different racial color and features. God is the author of the Oriental features, the national traits, and the appearance of the Oriental people. God, it all goes back to God. He put the ability there for that to happen for the Oriental people. And the same thing is true of the black and the brown and the white as well. Obviously, God loves variety. It is beautiful to Him. It is beautiful to us.

And He wants us to love and to appreciate the diversity that He has put in the different races and nations. So actually, when we look down upon any race or any people or discriminate, we are dishonoring the Creator of all that diversity, God, who is the author of race. No wonder many verses in the Bible—we'll read just a few of them—forbid, strictly forbid, racial discrimination. We know that when the Israelites came out of Egypt, there was a mixed multitude.

More than just the twelve tribes of Israel came out. A mixed multitude came out as well. But we read just a bit later that they were under the same law. They had the same law as the native-born Israelites. But there were minority people that came to live in ancient Israel, and they were not to be mistreated or oppressed. Let's read in Leviticus 19.

Minority people or strangers, those who live or strangers in the land were to be treated well. They were to be cared for in Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 33. Leviticus 19 and verse 33. If a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. You shall not mistreat him. But the stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.

There's the answer to the race problem right here in verse 34. You shall love him as yourself. The second great commandment. The golden rule. You shall, the way we treat others as we would like to be treated. You shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. There was to be no discrimination, no bigotry, no prejudice.

All were treated as equals under the same law. Strangers were not to be slaves, as in the early history of our country. It was sin back in the 16 and 17 and 1800s, and it still hurts today. And we can't live it down. And it's like doing it in the early ancient proverb that we read about in Ezekiel chapter 18. The fathers have eaten sour grapes.

Our fathers ate sour grapes as far as slavery. And the children's teeth are set on edge.

It is so true. Our teeth today are set on edge because of things our fathers did as far as the racial situation, the racial problem that we have. When we look at the New Testament, Jesus Christ came in a culture where there was racial prejudice. The Jews had no dealings with the Gentiles. The disciples were very surprised when Jesus talked to the woman at the well in Samaria. But Jesus Christ himself had no racial discrimination. He healed the Romans and Turians' servant. And he healed also the Canaanite woman's daughter. No racial prejudice. No discrimination. But the New Testament church had to grow just a bit in this understanding. There was a bit of racial discrimination. God's law did not forbid the Israelites from going into a Gentile home, but it was unlawful in New Testament times to go into a Gentile home. Let's read about that in the book of Acts. Acts 10 and verse 28. Peter saw this vision, let down three times. He came to understand the meaning of it in verse 28. You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. It was against the law of the Jews. But he went on to say that God, through this vision he had seen earlier in the chapter, God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Peter came to understand that God has no partiality.

Let's read in verses 34 and 35. Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. God looks on the inward man. And in every nation anyone that fears God and works righteousness is accepted. You know, even the twelve apostles, when they understood that Peter had gone into a Gentile's home, questioned Peter about it. This was a good number of years after the New Testament church had begun. But they came to realize that God was now opening the door for the Gentiles to come into his church.

There was a big circumcision question that came up then. What about Gentiles that are uncircumcised? Are they to be allowed to come to surfaces to be a part of the church? In Acts 15 the early church came to see that it's circumcision of the heart that matters and not circumcision in the flesh. Well, on to our time today. The Gospel is preached to all nations. God is choosing church members from all nations and races. And we can say that the sun truly never sets on members of the Church of God.

When you go to bed at night, people over in New Zealand and Australia and the Philippines and those areas are waking up. They're into their daytime and other areas of the earth. The sun never sets upon the work of God and it never sets upon the membership of the Church of the Church. Let's go to Revelation chapter 5. So God is choosing people from all different races and nations. And we see that in the church. He's been doing that for almost 2,000 years. In Revelation chapter 5, the four living creatures, verse 8, are described here as singing a new song in verse 9.

And that new song is Revelation 5 and verse 9. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and never redeemed us to God by your blood. Out of every tribe, notice God is calling people out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. During this Feast of Tabernacles, meetings have been held in many areas of the earth where different languages are spoken. English is not the only language where the Feast of Tabernacles is being observed.

Over in Africa, over in Asia, in different areas, other languages also, where people that God has called into His Church. And verse 10 has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. So we are beloved brethren in the Church from all nations and races today, and spiritually we do not consider ourselves black or white or brown or American or German or Italian. But as Paul wrote in Galatians 3, you are all one in Christ Jesus. Brethren, to have racial bigotry and prejudice dishonors God, the creator of races.

And so we learn to love and to respect and to honor the way God has made mankind into different races and nations. We appreciate more and more as we go along the national and racial differences. There are national and racial differences, but God is the one that has made it to be that way. And we are all one in Christ Jesus. He is the author of diversity of nations and races. And all the national and racial differences should be beautiful to us. Beautiful as they are to God. And we learn to appreciate the diversity of the races and the nations that God has made. And we acquire godly racial attitudes of respect and appreciation and love.

We love and appreciate all the races and nations. And we are set free as we come to love and to respect all the diversity, all the differences. We are set free from racial prejudice and hatred. God's spirit also helps us to deal gently with our present racial sensitivities.

We do have to be very careful not to offend. We do not want to cause hurt or anger or any problem to anyone. We strive not to hurt. We strive not to offend. Things we should always strive to avoid racial put-downs, avoid racial slurs, avoid racial stereotypes. It's hard to just categorize someone. Avoid comparing races, avoid derogatory statements or condescending statements. Avoid racial ethnic jokes. We likely, most of us, maybe all of us, have been guilty at one time or another of some of this in our lives.

These are things we strive to avoid now. But you know we don't have to be on edge about race. Even though the world is on edge concerning race and it is very sensitive, we need to respect the sensitivity but not necessarily just to be on edge. We should learn to relax around other races and nations, striving to be loving, gentle, and caring to those not only of our own race but other races equally without any discrimination, any difference.

Learning to be at ease. Not really all that conscious of race. Because that's not what really matters. It's the inner man that really matters. So we learn to be at ease, not all that conscious of race. And we thank God for the diversity that He has made. That we're not all just the same. My wife and I have been able to travel to some of the international sites in Africa and other areas of the earth. And it's wonderful to see the diversity that is there. Not everybody is Anglo-Saxon white.

To see the diversity of different cultures and all the beauty of how God created the different races. This Feast of Tabernacles pictures the time when all nations and races will begin to really appreciate and love one another. In Isaiah chapter 2, all nations are going to look to Jesus Christ and want to follow His guidance and the laws of God.

We have a description of three leading nations worshipping and working together. Let's turn to that in Isaiah chapter 19. Isaiah chapter 19. Three leading nations that have not always worked together, but will work together and love and appreciate one another for the good of themselves and mankind. Found here in Isaiah 19 and verse 23. Isaiah 19 and verse 23.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day, and this is the millennium which this Feast pictures, in that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. Actually, the blessings are going to extend on to many other nations around the world. Verse 25, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, blessed is Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my inheritance. Won't that be wonderful when nations begin to worship and work together and cooperate for the good of everyone? And there will be no discrimination. In Ezekiel 47, this is found in the midst of these chapters about the temple where Christ will dwell in the city of Jerusalem when He reigns on the earth after His return. Ezekiel 47 and verse 21. Ezekiel 47 and verse 21. Thus you shall divide the land. This is giving instructions on the tribes of Israel how to divide the land when they have been restored from captivity at the beginning of the millennium. Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves and for the strangers who so journ among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel, and they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger sojourns, there you shall give him his inheritance, says the Lord God. You know, if our country had followed that back in the 16, 17, 1800s when people brought, when they brought strangers over to this land, if they followed this, there would never have been a race problem. Isn't that sad? So no discrimination for strangers living in a nation. In the millennium, there will be no discrimination.

Discrimination will be against the law. So let's get to that question we asked at the very beginning. How will Jesus Christ solve the race problem? I'll give you three, very quickly, three things that Christ will do, which I think will take care of the race problem. Number one, He will remove Satan. Revelation 20, verses 1-3, describes Satan being bound for a thousand years. Satan has deceived the nations, it says. He's bound so that he can deceive the nations no more. Again, the word for nations is ethnos, and it includes the race situation. We can be sure that Satan is constantly stirring up racial mistrust, anger, and hatred. He's behind the race problem as it flares up on the ground. He's behind our own country and other nations as well. So number one, Jesus Christ will remove the master deceiver of mankind, Satan. He'll no longer be on the scene. Number two, God will grant mankind a new heart and take away the old one. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 11. Ezekiel chapter 11, and read verses 19 and 20. There has to be a basic change in the human heart if we are to solve the race problem. A basic change has to take place. We read about it right here in Ezekiel 11 and verses 19 and 20. It's talking about the Israelites being gathered, but this is going to apply to other nations as well. All nations will have this opportunity. In verse 19, then I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

So God is going to take away the stony heart. The stony heart is that heart that doesn't want to change. The heart that doesn't want to repent. Does not want to admit that it's wrong. Does not want to change. God's going to take that away and it's going to give a heart of flesh. The heart of flesh is one that can have the laws of God written upon it. It is one that can change, that can say, I was wrong. It can then have God's Holy Spirit to join with it and make it possible for God's laws to be kept. God is going to take away the stony heart and He is going to give a new heart of flesh to Israel and to mankind.

That heart is going to be able to address the race problem. It goes in verse 20 to say that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. So God will take away mankind's stony heart and give mankind a new heart and a new spirit. Put in other words, the stony heart of the words, God is going to grant repentance. God is going to grant conversion to Israel and to other nations. Then mankind can learn God's mind and God's way of looking at things.

That's what that new heart is going to do. Number two, then God will grant mankind a new heart and a new spirit. Number three, with that new heart and new spirit, Jesus Christ and the saints will teach all nations and races to love and appreciate variety and diversity. And so all nations will learn to love and to appreciate the diversity of nations and races. All during the millennium there will be racial love, respect, and honor and no racial discrimination for a thousand years. Won't that be wonderful? Okay, the thousand years come to an end and Jesus Christ has resolved the race problem, right? Wrong. Think about all the people during this six thousand years that will be brought back to life in the second resurrection. They will have the racial prejudice, the racial hatred, the racial discrimination. They will be ones, some of them who were involved in genocides, ethnic cleanseings and purges, killing even millions and millions of people. All the racial sins and crimes of six thousand years must be addressed in the second resurrection. The real truth must come to light, nothing hidden. And God will offer repentance and forgiveness. He will take away the stony heart and give a heart of flesh and his new spirit. And so at last after the second resurrection period, Jesus Christ will have resolved the race problem.

All racial sins forgiven by his blood. And all the hurt, all the hurt healed. The title I gave you for this sermon was, How Will Christ Solve the Race Problem? I think we've answered that. A secondary theme of this sermon is also the wisdom and the beauty of race.

When God made from one blood all nations and all races, he did a beautiful thing. In his great wisdom, he gave mankind many different races and nations with great diversity in appearance, ethnic traits and qualities, and developing unique cultures. The more of God's spirit we have, the more we appreciate and love the diversity that God created in the different races and cultures of mankind. One final thought is, will this diversity be brought on forward into the kingdom of God? There's some indication of that. Let's read as the final scriptures Revelation 21 beginning in verse 22. Revelation 21, verse 22, and verse 22, it's talking about the New Jerusalem. I saw no temple in it. In verse 23, the city had no need of sun or moon to shine in it. In verse 24, the nations of those who are saved. The word for nations is ethnos again. It's not talking about human beings, though, because these are nations, ethnos of those who are saved. These are sons of God. These are spirit beings now. The nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it, the New Jerusalem. The gates shall not be shut at all by day, and there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations, the ethnos, into it. Will there be ethnicity at this point in God's plan with diversity of sons of God? You know, I picture when I make it to be changed that I'll look basically like I do now, maybe hopefully an improved version of it. And you will look like you look. We will recognize each other. Orientals, will they not look oriental? Will we not have then some of those outward features and appearance? And will there be some of the national traits and characteristics that will come forward? I picture it being that way, that we are going to have diversity in God's eternal family forever. That this diversity He created at the human level is going to come on forward into the eternal spirit family of Almighty God. And it may be about that time that we come to really appreciate race. And to appreciate the great wisdom God demonstrated in giving mankind different races and nations with great diversity in appearance, ethnic traits, features and cultures. And that we will thank God for the wisdom and beauty of race.