How will PEACE increase forever?

And now, again, our festival elder, Mr. Joe Dobson.

Well, good morning again, brethren. I apologize for our delay here in getting the song going.

It has to be my fault because I didn't get it lined up properly, so I'll take the credit for that. Or I guess I should say I'll take the blame for that. And yet I appreciate your patience and helping us be able to continue with services without any difficulty.

But I very much am thankful that the feast is here. I'm thankful that all of you are here. And I'm delighted to be able to be here and to enjoy the wonderful blessing that God has offered us of being in training for the kingdom of God. And the sermon that I want to present to you today is in many ways about the future, but it's about also what God is doing with us today, how it is He's training us, how it is He's teaching us. And I think none of us can avoid, if we watch television or any of the news services at all, we find that this world is inflamed. Clearly, if you think about the Middle East, you know over the last three weeks we have had such extensive difficulty there, such agitation, such anger. And of course, down I guess on 9-11, three weeks ago now, there was an attack on the American Embassy, and one of our ambassadors was killed as well as three others with him.

And right now, you've got just continual agitation there in the Middle East, primarily with many of the countries that surround the nation of Israel. And in conflict with the nation of Israel primarily, but also with the allies of Israel as the United States has and certainly should be as it continues to support that nation in the Middle East. You probably saw, if you were watching television, some of the presentations that were made at the United Nations by the Iranian president and then later by the prime minister of Israel. Those were in stark contrast, some of it very harsh words. And seemingly, the United Nations is not really able, not able to bring about some type of a settlement, some type of a calm, some type of an agreement on how it is that people could live together in peace. See, why are there uprisings in all of the, say, the countries that surround Libya, Egypt, Turkey, on over into Iran and Iraq and Pakistan and Afghanistan? Why is there such an uprising? Why are people, if you watch them on television, why are people seemingly so agitated and so hostile toward other human beings? Well, I think all of us know, if we turn to Ephesians chapter 2, we know that the God of this world, the God of this world, Satan the devil, is stirring up the world. He's stirring up people. He's agitating. He's creating hostility. Most people are not really familiar with that. They're not aware. They're not acknowledging that personally. And yet, I believe that almost all of us would certainly acknowledge that, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others here in Ephesians 2. In talking to the church in Ephesus, he says, you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

And all of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses. And we were by nature the children of wrath, like everyone else. This world is not acknowledging the true rulership of this world, the influence of the prince of the power of the air. And as we see in other places, Paul talks about the God of this world being Satan the devil.

And yet, that's why we have a lot of the conflict, a lot of the distress, a lot of the anger, a lot of the lack of cooperation. And yet, we find contrasting that if we go back to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9, we read what God inspired the prophet Isaiah to write down, what he talked to the kings of Judah about. Here in Isaiah chapter 9, it says, and we'll start in verse 6, because this is just highlighting what it is that I want to talk about today. Isaiah 9, starting in verse 6, it says, For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, an authority. Rulership, government rests upon his shoulders, and he is named. And here we find some names, names of descriptions of who it was Jesus would not only be, but he would install even into the future with the kingdom of God. It says, His names are wonderful and counselor and mighty God and everlasting Father. And then one's mentioned that I want to focus on today, and it calls him the Prince of Peace. He is. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. And it goes on in verse 7 to say, His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace. For the throne of David and his kingdom, he will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.

See, now I'm sure all of you have read that not only once or twice, but many, many, maybe hundreds of times. But see, what it explains or what it points out is that as Jesus is going to be installed as the King who rules over this earth in the world tomorrow, as we read that in the latter part of the book of Revelation, it talks about His authority, His kingdom, expanding continually. And then there will also be an expansion of peace, an expansion that is far, far different than what we see in people today. And yet I want to point out to you that all of us are learning. We're learning about that kingdom, but we're also learning about the peace that is not going to have any end. So how is it? This is the point of what I want to address today. How is it that peace will increase forever? It says the kingdom is going to continue to increase forever, but how is it that peace? We certainly don't find peace, not very many places in the world today, but how is it that peace will increase forever? I want to turn back to Mark chapter 4 to one of the parables that Jesus gave about the kingdom of God. Here in Mark chapter 4, we have a parable. I believe it is only recorded here in Mark.

But it starts in verse 26, and it says, Jesus said, the kingdom of God is. So here He's going to describe something about the kingdom of God. He's going to describe, as we know in the parables, He's going to describe what it is that the kingdom is like, how it is that it works, how it is that expands, how it is that peace will expand throughout all eternity. It says the kingdom of God is if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, and he doesn't really know how it happens. But the earth produces of itself first the stock or the blade. So at first, whenever you see, and growing up in Oklahoma and knowing a little bit about wheat, at least I used to, I used to be able to watch the nice green, lush wheat fields and be able to know that the plant has started to grow. But that's only at the very beginning. As you get later into the first part of the year, usually during the winter, you have a nice green field if you have a healthy wheat field. It's nice and green. It's still pretty small. But it says the earth brings forth the stock, the blade. And so the wheat starts to grow, and there is a blade that comes up, and then it starts to develop into a hit. And then it says the grain starts maturing in the hit. So it actually shows a progression, and he says the grain is ripe, or when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with the sickle and because the harvest has come. See, here Jesus is applying this. He's applying it as a progress or a progression from one level to the next level to the next level.

And so what we see are levels of progress where there's ultimately a maturing process, and that is something that I want to point out to you today. I want us to think about that as far as how it is that all of us are growing spiritually. You know, do we immediately grow up in the second day after the time when we're baptized, we're fully mature Christian? Well, no, it takes months and years and often decades for us to continue to grow, for us to continue to develop, and so the process of growing in conversion as God is working with our minds, as He is molding and shaping our hearts and our minds to be able to understand what He's going to do, and then not just know about it, even as our sermonette Mr. Green mentioned, it's not enough just to know.

We have to put into practice. We have to do. We have to experience, and I think in many ways we're experiencing through this physical life, we're experiencing things that in some ways we may understand, other ways we might not understand, but I think if we think about it in this way that we're in a process, we're in a process of development, and we're growing from a level to the next level and to another level, and that's what Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like. That's what I want to point out to you, that peace is going to increase because there are levels that have to be acknowledged and have to be, in a sense, internalized by how it is that peace will be achieved. See, we look forward to the time as we read in the book of Revelation that Jesus will intervene, that He will restore the kingdom to the earth, that He will bind Satan, and there will be a thousand years when all of us have been trained and given opportunity to serve one another now, and we're going to serve many, many others in the world to come. And we can read that and see, well, that's certainly the answer. We know exactly what's going to take place, and that's a true blessing, brethren. It's a blessing to each of us to be able to know what God is going to do, to know that this world is not going to go up in flames, even as it looks like it might, even as we have additional nations striving to obtain, and if they obtain potentially used nuclear weapons. Jesus talked about a time when the world can annihilate itself, and so we're living in such a day, and yet we have a knowledge, we have an awareness. What Jesus is saying is the kingdom of God will be a continual growing process, leading to a progression of the harvest of human lives. There are some of us that will be in the first resurrection. There will be some during the thousand years, the millennium. There will be some in the white throne judgment. There will be some in what we see beyond that, in the new heavens and new earth. The kingdom of God is going to continue to expand, and yet how is it that peace? How is it that peace is going to expand from this volatile, hate-filled, violent world that we live in now?

Well, I want to point out three different things that I think are kind of progressions, from one to the next to the next, and they involve each of us. They involve each of us at least to one degree or another, and I hope that you will follow along throughout the remainder of the sermon today. The first very obvious part that I want to mention to you as far as how is it that peace is going to come to the earth is simply that the conquering king is going to come and subdue the nations. I mean, that's pretty elementary, perhaps. A conquering king is going to come and subdue the nations, and of course, when we read the descriptions that we have in Isaiah and Hosea and in Micah, numerous places that talk about the world to come, we see that war is going to cease, and implements of war are going to be destroyed. Let's turn back to Micah chapter 4. Micah chapter 4, it starts in verse 1, saying, "...in the days to come, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the highest of the mountains, and be raised above the hills, and people shall stream to it." So this is very familiar to what we read in numerous other places in the Old Testament. But what I want to focus on is as Jesus sets up His kingdom here on this earth, as He's installed as the king of the kingdom.

It says in verse 3, He's going to judge between many people and arbitrate between strong nations far away, and it says what they're going to do is they're going to take their armaments. They're going to take their weapons of warfare. They will beat their swords into plow shears and their spears into pruning hooks. Now that would be a huge improvement, and I think anyone who reads the Bible and anyone who would probably read that verse could be able to conclude, well, you know, that's clearly a good idea, a good thought. And even we have an emblem around the United Nations that, you know, is kind of a symbol of beating the plow shear or the sword into a plow shear, and yet, you know, man hasn't been able to do that. Man hasn't been able to achieve that on his own. And what this goes ahead to say is not only will they be transforming the weapons into useful implements, but it goes on to say neither will they learn war anymore.

See, that's a part that I want to focus on, at least here briefly, to begin with, because in this world you have nations rising against nations. You have in every one of the nations a defense department. You have contracts where people, you know, many, many armaments are being developed. You have people who are being trained. We have military academies here in the United States. Some of you, I'm sure, have had a certain level of involvement in the military in the past.

And yet that hasn't proven to be a solution. That hasn't proven to be an answer. And what we read about in the world to come is that, you know, they're not going to be learning war. That's not going to be one of the majors in any of the colleges or universities that people might go to. You know, they're going to be learning a totally different way. I'd like for us to take a look at Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14 is in support of the fact that the conquering king is going to subdue the nations. And again, I believe we're familiar with this chapter because it talks about the Feast of Tabernacles. But over toward the very end of the Old Testament in the book of Zechariah, we see in chapter 14 what Jesus is going to do. What's going to happen right at the end of the age? What's going to happen in the transition that takes place from this world and the world to come? Well, it says in verse 1, A day is coming for the Lord when the plunder taken from you will be divided and I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle.

And so there's going to be a great battle. There's going to be a tremendous armament put together in the Middle East and in Jerusalem. It goes on to say in verse 4, On that day his feet, talking about Jesus returned to the earth, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies between Jerusalem on the east and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from the east to the west.

There he talks about his intervention, his return to this earth, his return to establish the kingdom on the earth, his return to Jerusalem. That's going to become a world capital.

You know, today Jerusalem is one of the most fought over nations or, excuse me, cities in the world. You know, there are numerous different factions, numerous different religions who struggle over the city of Jerusalem. There's constant conflict there.

And yet, you know, when Jesus returns, he's going to put an end to all of that. He says in the latter part of verse 5, an earthquake will occur and it says, The Lord my God will come and all the holy ones will be with him. See, we're looking forward to that time to be a part of what Jesus will do. And it goes on in verse 8 to say, On that day living water will flow out of Jerusalem, and in verse 9, The Lord will become king over all the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one, in His name one. Brethren, we're looking forward to that. We're praying for that. We're yearning for the kingdom to be brought to the earth and for the warfare and fighting to stop.

If we look in verse 12, it says, This will be the plague with which the Lord will strike the people that wage war against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall rot while they still on their feet, their eyes shall rot in the sockets, their tongues shall rot in their mouths. On that day, a great panic from the Lord will fall upon them, so that each will seize the hand of the neighbor and be raised against the hand of the other. There's going to be a tremendous battle, a tremendous transition that will take place. And then we read. Then we read in verse 16 through verse 19 something I want us to tie together with how it is that peace will increase throughout the millennium and even beyond. It says in verse 16, All who have survived the nations who have come against Jerusalem shall go up here to here to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. See, we're doing that today. We do that out of love and respect and gratitude to God. We do that because we want to obey God, but we want to learn how it is that God is going to bring peace to the earth. And the initial step in that is simply that Christ will intervene and stop the fighting. And yet I want to point out to you that that will simply be the beginning. That'll be the beginning of peace. If you stop the armaments from being developed and the training of war, that'll be the beginning. And I think it's wonderful to see that. But it says here in verse 16, people will learn to come up to Jerusalem. They'll be focused on the capital of the world to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And if any of the... Here it says in verse 17, this is talking about a growing process, a certain levels of learning that are going to have to take place during the world tomorrow. It says, if any of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, there will be no rain upon them. And if the family of Egypt does not come up and present themselves, then of them shall come the plague that the Lord inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Such shall be the punishment of Egypt, the punishment of all nations that don't go up to keep the Feast. People are going to learn to have respect for God. They're going to learn to have respect for His law. They're going to learn to process that process. But it talks about year after year, they're going to be taught to do that.

And if it doesn't initially catch on, then there will be some incentive that God will bring so that people will begin to have a recognition of the fact that I need to respect God.

And so, people at that point, people that we read about here that are going to be affected in a positive way about the world tomorrow, they're going to start having their lives transformed. And yet it's going to take time, just like it has with all of us. The process of conversion for us has been ongoing for some decades, in many of our cases.

And we're not perhaps a finished product at all. We're still learning. But people who fought against Jerusalem, who lived through that, are going to start on a way to peace. They're going to start on a way to serving God and honoring God. And so, I think it's interesting to see what we read in verse 16 through 19. That people are going to learn, and it's going to take some time for them to learn and to be able to recognize, you know, I have got to focus my mind. When you see people around the globe today who are clearly not focused on the great God, they're not focused on His Son, Jesus Christ. They're not focused on the kingdom to come. They're not focused at all, because Satan, of course, continues to agitate them in this age. And that will be, his involvement will be taken away, of course, in the world to come. But see, the process of learning, the process of conversion, the process of growing is actually going to continue to take time to work with people and if you and I are assigned to work with a certain group of people, well, then we're going to need to know. We're going to have gone through a transformation ourselves right now, where we're able then to serve and love and teach and direct.

We really need to know what we're going to teach. See, when we think about levels of learning, and this again was mentioned in the sermonette as well, we learn something. We can read it. We can be familiar with what the Bible says, what a given statement says. Well, then as we go along, we gain some understanding. We maybe gain even a deeper commitment. We desire to be repentant. We learn, once we are repentant and once we have the blessing of the Spirit of God, we learn to rely on God. We learn to trust God, and we learn actually to grow in an entirely different nature than what we started out with. And so we're growing in a divine nature. That's the process that God is putting us through today. And thankfully, He's doing that in preparation for allowing us to serve others in the future. He's doing that in order to prepare us to be able to serve others in that way. The second point that I want to make in this sermon today is simply that not only will that process have begun by the putting down of warfare, putting down of armaments, everyone is going to learn that man does not know the way to peace and that the one who does know the way to peace is the King. The one who does know the way to peace is Jesus Christ. I want us to look at Acts chapter 3 because this is an inspired sermon or statement at least that Peter made. Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Actually, Peter and John were involved. This is an incident where a man had been healed. This was after, of course, the Holy Spirit had come. This is after Peter had made a number of significant statements in the chapter, chapter 2. And here in chapter 3, starting in verse 12, Peter saw. People were running up to Peter and John, and they were wondering, well, how is it that this man has been healed? How is it that he has received this benefit? How is it that he is now able to be restored from having been restricted? When Peter saw that, when Peter saw that, he addressed the people, and he says, you Israelites, why do you wonder at this? Why do you stare at us? You look at us as though some power of our own, or some piety of our own. We have made this man walk. See, he clearly didn't want to take the credit. He knew that he didn't have that power. He knew that God did. He knew that Jesus did, but he didn't want them to worship him. He says, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you have handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. See, Peter rehearsed what it was the people there in Jerusalem had done just a few months before that, when they had resisted and rejected, acknowledging who Jesus was and what he had come to do. But he says, you rejected the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. See, what was Peter telling them? Well, he was saying, you haven't acknowledged who has all the power. You haven't acknowledged who has the authority. He goes on in verse 17, now, my friends, I know that you acted in ignorance.

See, I would certainly say that an act of ignorance would be defending the earth whenever Jesus returns. Whenever Christ comes back, people are going to be amassed, and of course Satan is going to be agitating them, and they are going to try to even stop Christ's return. So you could say that's going to be an act of ignorance, for sure.

What we read here, Peter told the people who rejected Jesus when he came the first time, I know that you acted in ignorance, and so did your rulers. In this way, God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets that his Messiah, his Christ, would suffer. And so he says, what you should do is repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you. That is Jesus. Who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets? And Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet. A prophet like me. And of course he was referring to Jesus Christ.

Now this world, you know, has a hard time identifying who's a legitimate prophet.

And yet, what we see Peter inspired to speak and Luke to write down for us is that the Lord your God will raise up from your own people a prophet. And that was going to be Jesus Christ. And he says, the last part of verse 22, you must listen to whatever he tells you. See, that's going to be something that we're going to be able to share with others in the future. We're going to be able to share with people who have come through the most horrendous time that the world has ever seen.

At the beginning of the millennium, people are going to have to learn that the King, Jesus Christ, is the one who has peace to give. I'd like for us to look at the book of James because it highlights how it is that the way of anger, the way of hatred, the way of hostility, the way of jealousy, the way of retaliation, that actually when we read about the first few people on earth, when we read about Cain and Abel, what do we find there? Well, Cain was jealous of Abel.

And ultimately, he hated him to the point to where he wanted to retaliate against him. He eventually killed him. Clearly, the way of war, the way of fighting, the way of anger, was begun long, long ago in the very beginning of humankind. But here in James, chapter 4, I want us to take a look at this statement because it tells us exactly what has to be changed. It's not enough to take away the weapons. That's a good start, and that'll be the beginning. That'll be what Jesus does, but it's far more significant what he's going to do. It says, those conflicts and disputes. This is in verse 1 of James 4, the conflicts and disputes among you.

Where do they come from? Do they not come from your craving that are at war within you? You want something? You don't have it, so you commit murder. You covet something and you cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts you don't have because you don't ask.

So he points out how it is that it's within the human makeup, within the human nature, and adversely affected by Satan's influence in the world today and in our lives personally.

You know, the anger, the lust, the greed, the covetousness, the jealousy that leads to fighting and bickering and war. All of us not only can read this, surely we can identify with that even in our own lives. We can see that that's something we have to fight against. And as we teach others, we're going to be able to teach how that that is a necessity. I'd like for us to look at Matthew 5 because the one who came to the earth the first time in order to provide redemption and provide salvation for all of us, he gave us some laws. He gave us some instruction.

Of course, we observed God's law. We observed the Ten Commandments. We observed the way of love toward God and man. We observe a way of love in order to take on and grow in the divine nature. But I'd like for us to read a couple of verses here in the latter part of Matthew chapter 5 and just ask ourselves, how well am I growing? See, I mentioned earlier, well, there's a process. It's a process with a grain or a wheat stalk and then the head and then the mature grain.

And this same process is how peace is going to be cultivated and how it's going to be expanded.

It's going to be expanded by helping people comprehend their nature and being able then to repent of that nature and then fight against that nature. And certainly with Satan having been bound, that's going to be what I would think to be a less difficult task. But that's still going to be something that's ingrained in people, certainly initially. But how well are we learning the lessons that Jesus gave here in Matthew 5 verse 38? It says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now here Jesus was pointing out a statement that the Pharisees in the Jewish world that he spoke to, you know, they were familiar with the Old Testament. They knew that that's what it said. See, what was that about? He says, I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn left. If someone sues you, take your coat. Give your cloak as well if anyone forces you to go one mile, go the second.

Now how well do you apply that principle in your own life? What is that even about?

Well, I think in some ways, I think I've thought about that. That's, you know, a way of making judgment. Maybe it's a way of assessing, you know, the fairness of something. Actually, what he's talking about is a law of retaliation. See, what he's preaching about, what Jesus was saying, is that I'm telling you in verse 39, I want you to learn an entirely different course.

I don't want you to just simply strike back. I don't want you to simply be filled with retaliation.

I want you to learn to commit your case to the Lord. And that's why he said this. He said, it's not really describing, you know, I think sometimes people can read that and they can say, well, you know, if Christians, you know, they're not supposed to hit back, they're not supposed to even be protective. And yet, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about, instead of retaliating, it's coming up with a different strategy, a different strategy of operation, a strategy whereby you realize what has happened and then you commit the case to the Lord. So we read that in Romans 12. Romans 12, if we go over there.

Romans 12, starting in verse 17. In this case, Paul wrote this. It says, do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, live peaceably with all. And so Christians are admonished to be at peace with others. And certainly we want to learn about the law of retaliation. We want to learn not to be retaliatory. It goes on to say, beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord. See what Jesus was talking about and how we should learn today, and we will teach tomorrow or in the world tomorrow, we're going to teach being, accepting even of a difficulty that might happen to us and not retaliate, not strike back, but to commit that case to the Lord and ask that He would resolve it. We go on in chapter 5 of Matthew, and Jesus adds even another dimension.

He says, I want you to learn about retaliation. I want you to learn how it is that you should respond and how it is that God will help you. He will avenge. If you learn to take your case, commit your case to the Lord, He says you have heard in verse 43 of Matthew 5, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Again, this was a common information that the Jews of His day, they were very familiar with that, but He said, I want you to love your enemies. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. Brethren, that's what we're learning to do. It's a process of conversion. I don't think we immediately start off doing this. It's a process of learning how it is that we can do what Jesus says, that we can do what He tells us, and we can have that internalized within us so that we then are able servants, able teachers for others in the world tomorrow who are going to need to learn this second step, learn this second progression, this second level of progress. We want them to learn not only to put down their armaments, but to actually help transform their human nature. That's what we're doing. We're in the process of learning. We're in the process of learning that. And of course, when you read this entire section, and I'm not going to take time to read all of it, but ultimately in verse 48, He says, Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. That's meaning be mature. Be fully mature. Be in the process of growing and developing, and be fully mature. If you're going to be fully mature like Jesus Christ and like God the Father, well then we are going to learn from His statements and from His example. And ultimately, whenever we read these sections, we know that the character of God does not display murder or hate or lust or deception or retaliation, but sometimes we do. Sometimes we make those mistakes. Sometimes we hit back. Sometimes we retaliate, and this can happen in any number of different situations.

But of course, we want to come to recognize that, acknowledge it, and turn from it. And so these examples I offer to you simply as whenever we say that everyone's going to learn peace from Jesus Christ the King, that's more than just being told, be peaceful. That's going to involve the conversion process. It's going to involve a transition of the heart and mind. And primarily, where it's talking about loving your enemy, truly loving those who don't treat you well. I guess we should read that as well. Verse 46, if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? If you greet only, verse 47, your brothers or your brethren, what more are you doing than others? How are we different from anyone else? If we treat those who treat us well, we treat them nicely. See, that's what Jesus was willing and able to do. And of course, he displayed a love that was beyond anything that any of us could imagine. And it was an act of his will. It was something that he did, and it was clearly overcoming evil with good. So are we growing to be teachers of that word? Are we growing to teach people to look to Jesus Christ, but to see what Jesus says and then do what he says? The third thing I want to mention in a sense is it even goes beyond what we see Jesus speaking about here in the latter part of Matthew, but ultimately human beings, and as people are learning in the world to come, as they're learning a way of peace, as that peace is going to be expanded, ultimately they are going to have to learn that the peace that comes from Jesus Christ must be truly internalized.

See, whenever the peace that we read about in the pages of the New Testament, a peace that comes from the Holy Spirit, a peace that comes from the King, the one who has peace to give to us.

See, unfortunately, because of the hassles of this world, we often overlook the fact that we need to seek peace from Jesus Christ. We have a number of verses. I'm not going to go through hardly any of them, but a number of verses that tell us to seek peace and to seek an internal peace that comes from a closeness to God the Father and to Jesus Christ our Lord. And what happens in that, in what happens in that sense, is that it creates a hopeful, settled, and happy Son of God, Son or Daughter of God. See, unfortunately, we struggle with cares, issues, concerns, distress. We struggle with that today, but we also want to know what Jesus has to offer. I want us to turn over to Matthew 11. And actually, Mr. Dennis Luker, who, as you know, is the President of the United Church of God right now, he wrote a letter a week or two ago. I'm sure all of you got that, but he made a statement that I thought was remarkably meaningful, remarkably beneficial, because what he said in the beginning of a paragraph in that letter was that, unlike what God gives us, the world does not yet have the serene strength that comes from the truth. See, that can be overlooked. Unlike what God gives us, the world does not yet have the serene strength that comes from the truth. See, do you have? Do you utilize? Are you benefiting from the tremendous strength that comes from knowing the way of peace and knowing that peace is coming, knowing how it is to have eternal or internal peace? Because we're in the process of learning right now, and we, like I say, are going to be able to teach that in Matthew 11.

Matthew 11, I want to start up in verse 25, because I think it's a pretty commonly known statement, and many people apply this, and yet I would say they may misunderstand. Because here in Matthew 11, 25, it says, at that time Jesus said, I thank you, Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and you have revealed them unto babes. Who's He talking about? Who's He applying this to? He's applying this to those that God had called, those who were heard His disciples, those who were able to be responsive to Him, those that He called babes as opposed to the mighty in the world. He said, yes, Father, in verse 26, for such was your gracious will. See, I see that myself as personally be directed at me.

He says, all things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

See, brethren, we have individually and collectively a wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ that needs to be transforming our hearts, transforming our minds so that we're no longer distressed by as many things as we can be easily distressed by.

But that we can have a peace, we can have a rest, that comes from, again, another level of progress, another level of development, another level of relationship with God. And that's what people are going to need to learn. That's how peace is going to continue to expand. It's going to continue to grow because people are going to learn a way to peace. Man just simply does not have that. We have verses that tell us man does not know the way to peace. But when we go on in verse 28, Jesus says to those that He said, I'm revealing the Father. I am giving a relationship to you with the Father. It says, Come to Me, you who are weary and who are heavy laden, you who are burdened, you who need peace, you who need rest. He says, Come to Me, those of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He says, Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.

For I am meek or gentle, and I am humble in heart. I am what you need. And He says, You will find rest for your soul. He says, My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Very easy words to read, but unbelievably profound connection that Jesus offers to us. He offers that to us to release our inner burdens and to create inner peace. And again, are we learning that? Are we applying those words today so that we then can serve others in the future?

That's how peace is going to expand forever. The kingdom is going to expand, but the peace that comes from God and comes from a relationship with God and comes from Jesus Christ living in us, comes from us looking to Him, taking His yoke upon us. You know, a yoke is kind of a wooden bar where you hook two oxen together. I think it's exciting. Usually, and you read about it in the Bible, it often is talking about a burden, a burden that's kind of put upon an individual who is enslaved and is having to, you know, tread work for others.

And yet what Jesus says, you know, I want you to be united with me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, and I will. I will give rest to your soul because my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Brethren, too many times, I think we either neglect or we are yet to even grow in understanding the immense value. And I certainly am not saying I understand it as well as it needs to be, but I am saying that we need to know that that's available. We need to know that we are growing in a peace that comes from truly knowing the connection that we have to Jesus Christ and to our Heavenly Father.

So, you know, these three steps are steps that I think are incremental. They go from the first, from putting away armaments to actually beginning to transform human nature, and then actually coming to truly rely closely with the one who has everything to give, the one who is able. And as we read in Isaiah 9, you know, it says, of the increase of His government and His peace, there will never be an end. And it says, Ezekiel, the Lord of Host, is going to perform that.

See, we want to tap into that strength. We want to be excited about what type of strength that is. And we want to learn the process of conversion that in many cases is taking numbers of years in our lives, and yet we're going to be able to use that. We're going to be able to teach that in the world to come.

So I'd like to close with just Matthew 5, verse 9. It's the final verse that I will use in this sermon today about how it is that peace is going to increase. How it's going to expand, because it's going to be a process of working with individuals, human beings who are destined to be a part of the divine family of God. And Matthew 5, of course, is a statement of Jesus. It's a statement that applies to all of us.

It's clearly a directive that all of us are to seek where He simply said, blessed. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are authorities in peace, who have been transformed and who desire then to teach and serve and love others. So blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Brethren, that's why we're here celebrating the feast. We're learning about the future. We're learning about what God is doing with us.

And we truly all want to live, not only throughout this week, but into the future in our lives. We want to live being peacemakers. So I encourage you to seek that type of peace, because it clearly is not only something that would benefit us now, but it'll benefit the entire world when it is made available to those who will be teaching. And we want to be a part of that teaching program.