How Should You Respond?

Last Sabbath after services, Mary and I came back to the Chicago area, and we had dinner with nine folks here, some visitors from into the area, and some Chicago folks. And as I was sitting there looking at the table, and the various ones sitting at the table, it just dawned on me on June 5th that that was the five-year anniversary of Mary and I being in the area.

And it's been a good—I think—I don't know what you think, but I think it's been a good five years. I've enjoyed it. I enjoy the area. I enjoy you. I've come to appreciate you and to love you very much.

I enjoy coming to services here. I enjoy each and every one of you. I enjoy our little children very much. But you know, brethren, as I watch world news, as I get up in the morning and scan the Fox News website for stories, one of the disturbing things I'm seeing on a regular basis now is what's happening to our young children in school.

I'm very concerned about this, and across the nation, more and more of our moms and dads are concerned when they find out what's being taught in the classroom. Some have felt maybe they couldn't do anything about it. Others have said, no, we can do something. We'll go to a board meeting, and we'll get everyone to resign.

We'll replace them. In some cases, they've been able to do that. Now, one case in point, at dinner last weekend, somebody brought up what they had read in the news about this one particular school in New York, in Manhattan. And I took a look. I looked at that. I saw that Sean Hannity commented on that in his program with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Hannity also spoke on this situation in one of his podcasts. I looked at the New York Post, dated May 29th of this year. The article was entitled, Dalton Parents Enraged Over Videos for First Graders. Six-year-olds. Now, I didn't read you the entire name of the article. There was a word there that I'm not going to repeat here because of our young years. A word I didn't repeat at dinner in front of all adults last Saturday night. That word deals with the sex practice.

And the film was a cartoon telling these little six-year-olds about this sex practice. I want to quote a little bit of this article. Last fall, parents at the posh $55,000 per year, parents were paying $55,000 per year to have their little ones go to the school. The $55,000 per year of Dalton school got wind of their first graders being taught sex education lessons, that included, again, that word which I'm not going to say, the post viewed this video of a cartoon used in one of the sex ed classes for six-year-olds.

Basically, the cartoon. And you can Google this and go online and see what it is. You'll find it abhorrent. Continuing on with the article, it says, lessons for first graders also included subjects such as gender assignment at birth, gender identity and gender expression. That same teacher taught a class in another school on porn literacy for six-year-olds. They taught lessons about consent, while one mother conceded that teaching the concept of consent can be valuable in protecting children from abuse.

Another said that telling kids that their own parents and grandparents should not touch them without first asking for permission is extreme. Literally, parents are supposed to say to their kids, may I hug you? one parent said. You imagine that in your family. I can't imagine my five-year-old, my sweet little five-year-old granddaughters, all their red hair and their blue eyes, saying, Poppy, before you touch me, before you hug me, I've got to give you permission.

Going back to the article, kids have no less than five classes on gender identity. This is pure indoctrination, adult mother said. This person, referring to the teacher, should absolutely not be teaching children. Ironically, she teaches kids about consent, that she has never gotten consent from parents about the sexually explicit and age-inappropriate material. Well, of course, they don't get consent.

The liberal left, the progressives, and they're progressing themselves right along the lines that Satan wants them to progress themselves, they feel they know better than you. They don't need to get your consent. They're going to teach these classes, and parents all around the country are finding out what's going on, what's in the textbooks, what's being taught, and these parents are furious, as one going on with the article.

We are furious, a third adult mother told the post. We were horrified to learn this was shown to our first grade kids, without our knowledge or consent. But it's also hard to fight back because you'll get canceled, and your child will suffer. I was reading in one case where parents who were fighting back, their names and addresses were taken, and people were going to go after them.

Brethren, we are witnessing right now the moral decay, and we've been seeing this for years and years, but it's intensifying to the place that's almost unbelievable. The moral decay of our world and our country. Let's take a look at Ezekiel 9 for a moment. Ezekiel 9. And as we're turning there, the reason I just brought that one, that's the only one of these examples I'm going to bring up, is I do love each and every one of our little kids in this congregation.

And I have no idea how much you've read about or looked into some of these things. But, you know, brethren, if you've not asked Johnny or Janie to bring home their textbook from school, please do so.

Find out what's going on in the school that your kid is going to. We love them so very much. We spend so much time teaching them the things of God. We don't want these teachers teaching them all sorts of things that are not of God. Ezekiel 9.4. And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.

Those who sigh and cry over the abominations. Brethren, I'm sure that I'm speaking to an audience that's sighing and crying over the abominations that you are seeing in our society today. I'm sure you wish the kingdom of God would come right now, so your loved ones wouldn't have to suffer through what we're suffering through. And, of course, as we know, things are going to get much, much worse. But, brethren, I want to ask a question. As you and I sigh and cry as to what we see around us, do you get down over that? Do you feel depressed or discouraged or blue? You name the word, the adjective. Do you get down after reading some of these articles and seeing what's happening, and perhaps feeling a sense of helplessness over what you're seeing in our society today?

You know, it's one thing we've been preaching about and teaching about the end of the age for generations now. Some of you are many generations into the Church of God. It's one thing to intellectually understand end-time prophecies. It's another thing to actually be living through those end-time prophecies. Now, we're not into the meat of some of the horrible things that are going to happen, but we are in a trajectory. And a trajectory is not good at all. That brings me to the theme of the sermon for today.

The theme is this. It's a little wordy for the themes I normally give you, but I'll repeat it a couple of times. How should you respond when you're sighing and crying over the world's sins? Get you down. How should you respond when you're sighing and crying over the sins of the world? Get you down. I've got three points I want to bring to you today.

Point number one, prepare that things are going to get even worse. You know, we have to gather ourselves, gather ourselves to understand the fact that maybe this is just some of the beginning of being in Sodom and Gomorrah. It's going to get a whole lot worse. A whole lot worse. And again, I hate to... I wish today I could come to you with a sermon that's all rainbows and lollipops and sunshine. But that's not the world we live in. And that's not the commission I have as one of God's ministers. Now, I took a look over the sermons I've been giving you over the last couple of years, and I think I've given my share of sermons that are uplifting. And we're going to end this sermon with what I think is something very uplifting. But we also have to cry out and talk about the sins of the nation, especially when they affect our little children that we love so much that we would give our lives for. And other people, they just walk into a classroom without your consent, without your permission, and start teaching these horrible things to our sweet little kids.

Now, you know, God has a plan, and we're so very thankful that God does have a plan. We rehearse elements of that plan every year during the Holy Days. And we wish the kingdom of God would come right now, but that's not according to God's plan. God has got more things to do. And there's a reason behind that. Let's go, though, as we work our way through the material today. Let's take a look at Isaiah. We went through this here a couple of weeks ago. Isaiah chapter 19. Isaiah chapter 19 is a prophecy about the end of the age for Egypt, but it has larger principles involved than just what's going to happen to Egypt. I think some of the principles involved probably affect every nation on earth. I think certainly this nation. Isaiah chapter 19 verse 14. Now, again, explicitly this is talking about Egypt, but I think there's a principle here. Isaiah 19.14. The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst, and may have caused Egypt to err in all her work, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Brethren, do we have a perverse spirit in our midst? I believe we do. You know, and as you look in the scriptures, and you see the the servants of God doing the work of God, it is not uncommon to see where servants of God have felt depressed or discouraged or blue as they were doing the work of God. They saw either the sins of the world that got them down, or maybe they had a temporary personal lapse, and they weren't all they felt they should be as a person following God. Maybe they also wish, and all of the above, and wished God's kingdom were here. But some of them got some very blue, you know, and had to deal with that. Elijah is a good example. I'm not going to turn there, but 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 19. You know, here's Elijah, and he's going to have this duel against the prophets of Baal, 450 of them, on Mount Carmel. God is going to be there. God is doing the heavy lifting. Elijah is the only person who's mouthing what's going to happen. But God did the heavy lifting and a tremendous victory over the prophets of Baal. We went through that in a sermon some time ago. I'm sure you probably go through that with other ministers at other times. But that took place in 1 Kings 18. In 1 Kings 19, you've got Jezebel, who just lost, you know, all these prophets, telling Elijah, I'm coming after you. You're going to die if you're going to kill off our prophets. And, of course, Jezebel had made the Baal worship the state religion of Israel. If you're going to take out my prophets, I'm taking you out. And Elijah in chapter 19 said, I wish I could die. He felt blue. He felt discouraged. He felt despair. Of course, God helped him to work himself through that, just as you and I do as we get blue and so forth. The Apostle Paul. You know, can we find a man more zealous, more faithful, more obedient once he was converted to the Apostle Paul, writing so much of the Scriptures? And yet, when Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, I'll read this for you. We're not going to turn there. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8, Paul said this, For we don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure above strength, so that we despaired even of life. So we despaired even of life. The great the Apostle Paul said that. Now, again, God worked with him in the succeeding verses to help him through that despair.

Now, why do I say things are going to get worse? Well, I've got a couple of things here for us to think about. Brethren, the world needs to get its full quantity of sin.

The world just needs, you know, we can't understand how hard, we understand to some degree, how hard and hard human nature is and so forth. But it just is almost mind-blowing what people will be doing and not repent before God. God's got to give them all the time they need to get their fill of sin in this world. Let's start with Revelation chapter 9.

Revelation chapter 9. I want to read something here, then I want to do a little bit of backtracking. Revelation chapter 9 verse 20. But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, but they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders and their sorceries and their sexual immorality or their thefts. Now, let's backtrack. Here we see these people are going through things that are just horrible and they're not wanting to repent. What had they gone through? Let me just go through these real quickly here. After the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Revelation chapter 6 verse 8 says 25% of the world's population dies. 25% of the world's population. These people in chapter 9 have witnessed that. COVID is nothing. They have witnessed that. They have witnessed in Revelation chapter 6 the Great Tribulation, Jacob's trouble. They've seen what's happened to a nation like our nation during the time of the Great Tribulation. They saw the heavenly signs. They saw various trumpets being blown. The first trumpet, 33% of the earth's vegetation struck. The second trumpet, 33% of the seas become blood. 33% of the life in the sea dies. They saw this and the stench that came from that. The third trumpet, 33% of the fresh water becomes bitter. The fourth trumpet, 33% of the sun and moon are struck and darkness prevails on the land. This is all in Revelation chapter 8. Fifth trumpet, first woe, first stage of World War III. Revelation chapter 9. The sixth trumpet, the second aspect, the second woe. 33% of the remaining part of mankind. 25% have been killed. And now what was left, 33% of what's left is killed. Revelation 9.15.

Now you would think after looking at all that, the hard-hearted, sinful mankind would say, enough is enough. Let's go to Revelation chapter 16.

Revelation chapter 16 verses 9 and on. Revelation chapter 16 verse 9. And the men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God who had power over these plagues and did not repent and give Him glory. Now intervening between what we are seeing here and what I read last, the two witnesses have had their ministry. Other things have happened and yet human beings still will not repent. Verse 11. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and did not repent of their deeds. Verse 21. And great hail from heaven fell upon them, each hailstone, about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since the plague was exceedingly great.

Brethren, the point is this. Mankind. God has got to work with mankind. God has got to spank mankind because of the way mankind has decided to live. As much as we would like to see the kingdom of God right now, mankind still has much to learn. Even after the return of Jesus Christ, you see, well, some people will not receive rain because they don't go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

So one of the reasons God can't bring the kingdom right now, there's other prophecies that need to be fulfilled, but mankind's got to get this fill. And that means that you and I have got to watch that and be in society as this is taking place. Now, of course, we've got a place of safety we can look forward to. Some of us. Bible talks about in Revelation 6, there is going to be a martyrdom of saints. That may be some of us. It doesn't mean that because you're martyred that you have lack of faith or something. It's just simply going to happen just like it did back in the first century, New Testament Christian Church. But, brethren, there's another reason that God has to give this more time. Not only does humankind need to get their fill of sin, the church needs to firm up its spiritual foundation. The church needs to firm up its spiritual foundation. How firm is your foundation? I remember when God... and I may have told you this story, and if I have, you can take a quick snooze. But I remember when God called me, I was up in my bedroom, I was listening to a Detroit Tiger baseball game. The Tigers were being killed by the Boston Red Sox. I decided to do some work on the radio. My little black trans... Remember those little black transistors? Started tuning. We'll see what I can get. Paul and Garnert at Armstrong. And he was talking about United States and Britain and prophecy. And I said, that man knows what he's talking about. And he doesn't sound like he's insane or something. He's a religious guy. And he sounds like he really knows what he's talking about. And so, starting at age 15, you know, my folks were kind of interested for a short time. Then they said, no, no, no, no, no. This guy, you know, he's a cult and you can't go to their church and we're not gonna let you have the literature and throw the literature out. And that happened several successive times where they would repent. Let me have literature. Then after a while, the literature would be tossed out again and so forth. I wasn't allowed to go to services until the day before I went to Ambassador College. And I went the third Sabbath in August 1970. And I thought, you know, oh, three years from age 15 to age 18 that I had read a lot of all the literature I can read. And I was trying to live by the Sabbath and keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days and all those things. I thought I had a great foundation. But I went to Ambassador College and there came a point where I was going and I did counsel for baptism. And at that point, Satan jumps out of the bushes, so to speak, and I realize that I've got doubt like I've never had in my life. Here I am at Ambassador College getting great grades in my theology classes. And all of a sudden I can't believe there is God. I can't believe the Bible is true.

So in my thinking, I wanted to counsel with somebody I thought would be tough on me. So I asked one of my instructors, Dave Albert, to counsel me. And over and over and over again, I think we met for six weeks running, always fasting, fast the next week, fast the next week.

Finally, he said, Randy, look, you're only going to break through this with God's help.

Do what you need to do, but you start fasting Friday at sunset. You don't stop until God gets you through this doubt that you've got. It took me three days, 72 hours of fasting.

Got skinnier. But I also was able to, with God's help, work through that doubt.

The point is this. I didn't have the foundation I thought I did.

Satan knew that. Satan took a sledgehammer to my weak foundation, exposed it for all it was. How about you? Only you know what your relationship is with God. Only you know what kind of foundation you have. Let's take a look at Exodus 8.

And it's not always easy to tell, brethren.

You know, Satan is going to pounce on us at a time we least expect and can do great, great spiritual damage.

We need to make sure that foundation is firm.

Exodus 8, verse 22.

These are the plagues of Egypt that are taking place. Three have already come and gone.

And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. Now, as bad as Israel was going through slavery for 400 years, hating every minute of it, dying in slavery, all the things that go with slavery, they wanted out. And they, there's no question in their minds how much they hated Egypt.

But God knows, knew that they didn't hate it enough. God allowed them to go through those first three plagues. Because they knew, God knew their hearts were not right, that they had not had the spiritual foundation. Of course, these are carnal people. But their foundation wasn't there like it should be. And you saw that after they left Egypt with a high hand, and then as things got, went wrong, or things didn't go the way they expected it, then they continually murmured against Moses. And that whole generation died in the wilderness. So again, you and I have not been in slavery all of our lives, not physical slavery. But those folks thought they were, their heart was right. But they were wrong. They were wrong. So God did what we see here in verse 22, because God wanted to demonstrate His power to His people. Maybe God needs to demonstrate more of His power to you or to I, to me. God wanted to show Israel they had weaknesses. They weren't humble like they thought they were, even as slaves. Certainly God wanted, God was, you know, I've said in the past, God may not be calling everybody right now, but God is working with everybody right now. Those Egyptians are going to be resurrected when their chance comes in that second resurrection. And God wants to work with them. So that's the Old Testament Church in the wilderness. Let's take a look at the New Testament Church and to the age. Revelation chapter 3. You know where we're going. Laodicea.

Am I a Laodicean? Are you a Laodicean? These are questions we must ask ourselves.

Revelation chapter 3, starting in verse 14.

And to the angel of the church of Laodiceans, write, These sons, says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

They had lukewarm works. They were spiritually proud, but their works had little true spiritual value. How about my works? How about your works? Verse 17, because you say, I am rich and become wealthy and in need of nothing. Maybe we've been in a church a long time. Maybe we are many generations into the church. Can we fall victim to this? Take heed lest we fall, right? And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You're poor, little spiritual value in your works. You're blind. You don't see the truth of who and what you are. You're naked. You're not overcoming. What does Christ say in His letter to this church? And this is the end-time church.

And we've always said that all seven of these aspects of these churches can be at any one time in history. So you yourself may be a Ephesian or what have you, but too many people will be led to sin. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, real character, refined through trial. Why do we go through the trials we go through? God is refining us.

Is God done with me? Is God done with you? Are you fully refined yet? That you may be rich, spiritually, in white garments where you're repenting of your sins, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see. Now what did Paul tell Timothy? He told him to tell the people that, you know, we want to repent so that we can see ourselves for the way we need to see ourselves.

Verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent.

Verse 20 to me has always been so interesting. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

It's not like he's always at the dinner table with the group. He stands at the door and knocks.

He's on the periphery. He's on the outside looking in. Is that the relationship we want with Jesus Christ? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, maybe there was the idea that they wouldn't even listen. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, something that must be done, open the door to obeying the great God, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. So, brethren, there's reasons why you and I still have to live in this horrible age that's only going to get worse. Mankind needs to see the fullness of their sin, and we need to make sure our foundation is strong. You know, you got the parable of the foolish virgins where some at the last moments wanted to go someplace and somehow quickly get what they needed for the trial that was coming, or for the circumstance they were going to meet. We can't live like that. We have to build our character brick by brick over the course of time. We can't just, in the course of a horrible trial, it may come our way, get prayed up real fast and studied up and fasted up and do it overnight. It doesn't work that way. So, point number one, let's get our bearings. Prepare for things getting worse, even much worse. Number two, the question is, how should we respond when your sigh and crying over world sins get you down? Number two, this is a good segue from point one. Point number two, make sure your spiritual foundation is solid. Make sure your spiritual foundation is solid. How do you do that? Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 11.

For no other foundation can anyone lay that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Our foundation is Jesus Christ. That sounds so basic. It sounds so simple. But, brethren, back in 1994-95, you saw what took place. You saw where so many people we thought were so close to God on a dime walk out of the church. I remember pastoring in West Virginia at the time, and I remember people just the week before that pastor General's report came out about, well, you know, Sabbath, we don't need it, and so on and so forth. Just the week before people were, I was dining with brethren. We were talking about how wonderful it was to be in a church. And then that pastor General's report came out about Sabbath, you know, forget it, and so on. I remember those same people coming to me and saying, you know, Mr. D, you're a Pharisee. All you want to do is keep that law of God. I'm thinking to myself, am I hearing this? These same people who last week said they loved the church and now this week, a week later, say, well, you know, we and other people would say, well, we always kind of thought this way that, you know, the Sabbath is kind of, you know, let's put that away, you know, we're New Covenant people. We don't need that Sabbath or the Holy Days.

You know, brethren, I've wondered in times gone by. When I see some of the friends I had and some of the people I knew, was their foundation Jesus Christ? Or was their foundation more that they came into the church because our message was interesting? It may be the message they thought was interesting was the message about prophecy. Maybe they just wanted to save their skin because things were going to get bad in the world. And so they were converted to a teaching.

72, we're through, we're going. 75, you know, we're not 72, it's 75. Move the goalpost, that's all right.

What were they converted to? And yet, I've known other people who, through the most horrible trials in life, quietly lived the life of a real Christian. You could tell the difference between true gold and fool's gold. When you see God's people who are true to everything we believe in, people who will not say, well, I just had to find work and there's only Sabbath work to be had.

No, people who said, well, you know, I may get skinnier, but I'm going to find a job where I don't have to work on the Sabbath. Or people who said, you know, I've been anointed, I've got cancer, and I'm just going to write it out with God. And people did. People did.

Some survived that, some didn't survive that, some died in the faith. But they were faithful people whose foundation was the rock. Let's look at Philippians chapter 3.

Again, I'm sure you know where we're going here. Philippians chapter 3.

Now, might I suggest if we meet here again this summer, somebody bring some fans.

Philippians chapter 3 verse 3, For we, the circumcision, who worshiped God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, there's a statement that deals with foundation.

Paul goes on, Though I also may have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I'm more so. And he goes through and gives all these things in the flesh that some people think matters. Paul says that's not what matters.

For example, But what things were gain to me, these have counted loss for Christ.

Yet indeed, I count all things lost, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. Mr. Paul already knew his priorities He knew where the foundation was.

He knew to have a laser-like focus on the truth of God. And you know, brethren, Satan is very active. He always is very active. He's got all the old tricks he's used with generations and times gone by, and now he's got all these new toys to play with. He's got radio and TV and movies. He's got the electronic media and the print media.

He's got your computer. He's got the internet. He's got our school systems for our precious young people. And boy, that gets me mad.

That gets me really mad. Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians chapter 2 verse 8. We must not, brethren. In this society, you know, I talk about finding out what's in your kid's school book.

Don't misunderstand where I'm coming from there. Can you go to a board meeting and say you detest what's going on? Absolutely you can. But we don't want to find ourselves so entrenched with a worldly cause that we lose sight of the cause that we have right here.

Being a Christian, working toward the kingdom of God. We've got every right to defend our children.

Every right to do that. But we can't go launch off and forget prayer and study and do these worldly things. There's a balance there. Verse 8, Colossians 2.8.

Bewareless, anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Boy, if there was a statement that was made for our age today, it's verse 8 right here. Philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, the basic principles of the world. So, build your spiritual foundation on the rock.

Going on in terms of, in that, in those terms, we want to obey from the heart rock solid teaching.

Rock solid teaching. We want to be people who know the scriptures. Matthew, Chapter 7.

We've been fortunate here in this area. You've had one pastor after another who's taught you the scriptures. It's up to us to make sure we follow those scriptures. Knowing is fine, but we must do as well. Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 24.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, we must have the ability to hear, to be able to separate wheat from chaff, to know what's godly versus what is ungodly, to know what is scriptural versus what isn't scriptural. We must be able to properly hear and does them. As we separate wheat from chaff, we hold on to that which is good, that which is godly, that which we've been taught from the scriptures.

Whoever hears these sayings of mine, of Christ's, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain descended, and floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock. So, brethren, as time gets worse and worse, if we are founded on Jesus Christ and obey His teachings, as it says here in verse 25, when the trials come, we'll be able to stand, because we're standing on solid, rock ground, Jesus Christ and His teachings.

You know, I remember so clearly back in 95 there in West Virginia, about half of my congregation left the church, the true church, and half stayed.

And I remember people who would come to me who were kind of sitting on a fence and wondering, well, what do I do? I said, well, for me, it's really very simple. They said, how can it be simple? I said, I think it's simple. I see what the Pasadena is teaching right now, and I see what Jesus Christ taught. And if I'm going to be a Christian, I'm going to go with Jesus Christ. I'm not going to Pasadena. Who are they?

So to me, it was very simple. To you as well, to your credit, you are here. You saw past all the false arguments and all the garbage that was slung your way, to your credit. Romans 6.

Romans 6.

Verse 17, a chapter that when I'm counseling something for baptism, I have this read this over and over again. There's so much meat in this chapter. One verse I want to highlight, verse 17.

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

If we want to walk away from the blues, the despair, the discouragement, we must be founded on the rock. Look what Jesus Christ was able to do.

Hours prior to his being crucified, he talked about the peace he had.

He knew exactly what his body was going to go through, what his mind was going to go through, with all the various trials he had, the three trials from the religious authorities, the three trials from the civil authorities, all the torturing and so forth. And here's a man talking about peace because he was founded on God and God's teaching, the godly principles, that he lived for eternity with the Father in heaven. Yet you obey... in verse 17, yet you obeyed from the heart. How is our heart? How good is our heart, spiritually speaking? You obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Get over there one of these days. 2 and verse 13.

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us... pause... this congregation has received over the years the Word of God. You welcomed it not as the Word of men.

You look past that. You look to who those words were coming from. But as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. You have been well taught. You have been well schooled. You know the truth.

Hard times are coming. There's going to be pressure put to bear on all of us to walk away from this beautiful truth. We must be founded on the rock and work with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Rock solid teaching. My third point today is we're looking about how should you respond when you're sighing and crying over this world of sins, get you down, make you feel blue. Last point. In this dark world, point three, in this dark world, focus on our glorious future.

Focus on what is coming. It's so easy to focus on the trial of the moment, the things that are happening to our country right now. We love our country. You know, it was interesting. I was watching the news the other day, and I forget what teams are playing was the National Hockey League playoff game, and the lady was singing the national anthem, and the crowd took over. They couldn't sing it loud enough.

They see what's happening to this country, and they want it to stop. Well, we can look past this and realize we got something better. In the world today, in this nation today, there are a number of things that we see that we wish weren't so. We see a great deal about race relations.

We see a great deal about how a nation should be run. We see any number of things. Let's take a look at some of that. What are race relations? I think Mr. Bradford gave a message on this not that long ago. Really good message on that. You can, you know, review his notes. But let's make it simple. Let's go to Galatians chapter 3. You know, the truth of God is simple. Man makes things hard. Race relations in the kingdom of God. Here's what God wants for us. Galatians chapter 3 verse 26.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of us, many of you, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Racism, any and all of its forms, is sin. It's an abomination.

But we shouldn't be putting ourselves or thinking like the world does today, where one group of people are totally oppressed and one people are the oppressors.

In Christianity, the way God thinks is we are all one in Jesus Christ. We don't care what color a person is. White, black, yellow, red, male, female, whatever economic status, we are one in Christ Jesus. Let's go to Acts 2.

Here we've got the Day of Pentecost, God giving His Spirit. Now, all these people here we're going to see are Jews.

But there's something else here we want to take a look at. Acts 2, verse 5.

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

Now, yes, they were all Jews, but there were different racism, I'm sure, involved here.

You see in Acts 8, we're not going to turn to her about the Ethiopian eunuch in this conversion. A beautiful story.

God is creator of all mankind. God hates any kind of racism, and that simply will not be allowed in the world tomorrow. I mean, people may still think some of those things, and they'll have to be taught. You know, things aren't going to change overnight. People are going to have their opportunity to learn a new and a better way when it comes to race relations.

But God's teaching is just what we saw there in Galatians. We're all brothers and sisters.

Something else that's going to happen. I've talked about what's happening in our schools today. Let's take a look at schools in the world tomorrow. Zachariah chapter 8.

Now, I don't know, and I say schools in the world tomorrow, I don't know what's going to happen with education in the world tomorrow. I don't know if it's all going to be a home schooling, if we're going to have elementary schools, and if we're going to have a home school. I don't know any of that stuff. God knows that's what's important.

But regarding teaching, take a look at this. Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 20.

I have Deuteronomy. Zachariah chapter 8. Zachariah chapter 8 verse 20.

Thus, as the Lord of hosts, people shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities, be inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also. Yes, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and pray before the Lord. Thus, as the Lord of hosts, in those days ten men from every language of the nation shall grasp the slave of a Jewish man, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

Education in the world tomorrow is going to be education based upon God's law, the beauty of the Ten Commandments, the statutes, the judgments.

People from all the nations, when they finally get their fill of sin and Satan's way, and realize there's got to be a better way, and they see what's coming out of Jerusalem, then something beautiful is going to take place. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 4.

Deuteronomy chapter 4. Israel finally is going to be the model nation God has always wanted it to be.

And the peoples of the world will see that, and they will begin to copy that.

Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 5. Surely I've taught you statutes and judgments. Now, explicitly, this is to Israel, but the other nations are going to say, you know what? That Israelist will say it's God's law, it's great law, it's a life-giving law. We want to obey that law. Surely I've taught you statutes and judgments. Just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

To know God's word is not enough. We've got to live by God's word. We've got to be diligent.

Verse 6. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, sure, this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us? What a reason that we may call upon Him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? The Gentile nations, the non-Israelite nations, are going to feel this very same way.

God's laws are for everybody. God's laws are for everybody. Israel, you know, in the world tomorrow, they will continue to obey God as we see here, but so will the other nations. These laws aren't just for Israel. They're for all of mankind. But notice here, I'm talking about teaching. Verse 9. Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen. Now, here we're talking explicitly about what happened as they were leaving Egypt. But here we can also see in the world tomorrow, people, you know, we're going to be teaching people, remember what you saw prior to the return of Jesus Christ. Remember what the earth became, how it was hard to even get a breath of air.

The sea was dying, the things in the sea were dying, the people in unimaginable numbers by the billions are dying. Take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life, and teach them to your children and to your grandchildren.

Yes, moms and dads will be teaching the things of God to their kids.

Verse 10, especially concerning a day that you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb when the Lord said to me, gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words. They learn to fear me in all the days that they live on the earth, and they may teach their children. You know, this is a constant theme in the book of Deuteronomy, teaching the kids, making sure the kids know the truth of God.

Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 17.

Jeremiah 3, 17, At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem.

No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

And one of the most beautiful things about all this, brethren, is you are going to have an opportunity to be teachers.

Right now, where you might feel that you need to fight the teachers who are teaching your kid, go to Isaiah chapter 30. A very well-loved scripture. Isaiah chapter 30.

Part of our job description in the world tomorrow.

We've got God's blessing to teach the things we're going to teach in those classrooms, or in our home school, or as we go by the way, and so forth and so on. Isaiah chapter 30, verse 20.

And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore.

But your eye shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

There's going to be plenty of instruction about the truth of God.

Where we're seeing so much right now that is just so revolting to us, teaching some of our little six-year-olds things that they shouldn't even know about, let alone be taught in a public school setting, okayed by the administration, rather than we need to respond properly.

It's easy for any of us to feel down or discouraged when we see what's happening in the world, but God has a plan. He's working that plan. You're a part of that plan. It's a beautiful plan, and that plan takes a certain amount of time. Last scriptures. Let's go to the book of Jude. The book of Jude.

Remember once we had an elder in Detroit, and no one knew what this elder did for a living.

We didn't know if he worked for the CIA or the FBI. He was always very secretive. He was a very statuesque man. You look at him, he thought that maybe he was the president of some great corporation or maybe in charge of the CIA or FBI and just such a stature. But I remember going up to him one day as a young man early in my ministry and saying, Mr. so-and-so, what about those people who've left? He said, Randy, he said, you just make sure you're here to greet him.

When they come back. You just make sure you're here to greet them when they come back.

Never forgotten that. He told me those words in the 1970s.

Let's see what Jude has to say here. Jude, verse 3.

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to condemn earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to all the saints. Brethren, let's have that faith. Let us have that solid foundation built on the rock, built on the teachings the rock has given to us.

We have that. We are not going to fail. Verse 24, the book of Jude, 25. Now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. We need not fear because we've got the great God who is our Father. We've got a tremendous elder brother. But brethren, as you see what's happening around the world and as you sigh and cry, let's not allow it to get us down. Let's remember the things we've heard to this day and keep them very much in our hearts and minds.