Human Government vs God's Government

Well, happy Sabbath to all of you again. In just a few short days, we're going to be celebrating what we call here in the United States Independence Day. It's a day in which we acknowledge, we honor our American freedoms and liberty, and it's so easy for us to forget or take for granted the freedoms and the liberty that we have. It was on July 4th in 1776 that Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's revised draft of the Declaration of Independence and sent it to the printer for publication.

By the way, he was devastated because they just cut out big sections of his original draft. He was an old man still complaining about the fact that they butchered his declaration. But that's what happens when you work in committees, right? Most of the delegates signed the Declaration on August 2nd, and throughout the summer and fall, other delegates wandered in and out of Philadelphia to sign the document.

So it's kind of a myth if you've ever seen that picture of the Founding Fathers all in the same room and they're standing single file in a line, signed in the Declaration of Independence. That didn't happen. It was signed over a period of months by different delegates. But nonetheless, it was a document that changed the world because it had in there outlining some basic freedoms and concepts. And other nations have tried to duplicate and copy what we know of as the Declaration of Independence without the kind of success that we've had in the United States. And we'll explore why that is in a few minutes. Let's turn to Genesis 22 and verse 16.

Because the very fact that a nation arose in the world called the United States of America is not by accident. There has been no other time in human history when you gathered a small group of very brilliant and smart individuals like we had at the time of the American Revolution.

All together in one place on earth at the same time, that is extremely rare in human history. So the fact that this nation was even founded against all odds, and we'll talk about that a little bit as the sermon goes on, shows that there was a divine providence involved in the very founding of this nation.

As imperfect as we are, there was a master plan for this nation to exist. Genesis chapter 22 and verse 16. God had given earlier promises to Abraham about his descendants and how influential they would be in the world. But at this point, this is right after he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. And God said, you know, because you've been willing to do what I have to do someday, and that is allow my own precious son to die, and in your mind you were already committed that you were going to have that knife plunged into him and kill him because I had asked you to, I stopped you, but because you were willing to do that, now I know you, and I know what's in your heart and mind.

So he says, beginning in verse 16, and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and not withheld your son, your only son. In other words, you've been willing to do what I will have to someday do. Blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies. They will be militarily powerful.

They will control the major sea gates, the major areas of the earth. They'll have ports, they'll have bases, they'll have influence, they'll be powerful. Continuing in verse 18, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So God expanded on earlier promises he had given to Abraham, and he now told him that his descendants would be as the star of the heavens and as seashore sand. What does that mean? That's a metaphor meaning hundreds of millions, hundreds and hundreds of millions. Try to look up into the sky on a dark night and see if you can count the number of stars that are up there.

That's impossible. Walk along the seashore along Panama City Beach where I hope to be in the Feast of Tabernacles, and try to count all of that sand on the seashore. You just can't do it. There are too many of them, and that's what God's point is, is you can't count it.

The numbers are so large. God actually proclaims a double blessing here for all the nations of the earth because of Abraham's obedience. In a physical and material way, his descendants would be people with drive. They would be explorers, entrepreneurs. They would be innovators. They would make technological discoveries that would benefit every place on earth. They would make scientific innovations, innovations in medicines, which would have a positive influence everywhere on earth. They would be an example that other people would want to emulate in their level of wealth, in their laws, in their innovation, in their technological advancement. Other people would want to be like them.

So that's the one way. But I said there was a double blessing, of course, more importantly than what I just described. Abraham's descendants, one of them would be Jesus Christ, who would offer spiritual salvation to the entire world, eventually, as part of God's plan to everyone who has ever lived. So again, this was a double blessing that God was giving to Abraham.

So what events led up to the founding of the United States from these descendants? Well, I'm going to start off with something that was called the Mayflower Compact. This was written in 1620 as the Mayflower came aboard and they were ready to depart into America. This was the first written self-government in America. It's called the Mayflower Compact.

Again, it was written in 1620. And they drew up this document before they went ashore in Plymouth. And here's what they wrote. See if you can pick out a few things in here that might be interesting. In the name of God, amen, we whose names are underwritten have been undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first colony, do and by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, combine ourselves into a civil body politic. Very first form of compact ever made by the British settlers here.

And who do they refer to as the justification for what they're doing? God. They give God the credit. These descendants of Abraham came to the new world with their Bibles, believing in the God of Abraham. Just 20 years later, four of the British colonies in the new world created something called the New England Confederacy of 1643. And here's what it said. Quote, again, these are four colonies agreeing to this Confederacy.

Quote, whereas we all came into these parts of America with one in the same end, namely, to advocate the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity. We therefore conceive it, our bound in duty, that as a nation and religion, so in other respect, we shall be and continue one. So again, another example of using God as a reason, as a justification to have a civil body to create a new citizenship. These covenants were made over 100 years before the actual American Revolution, and they remind us again that the average British citizens who came to North America were coming here for religious convictions.

They came with their Bibles.

They came believing in Jesus Christ, in believing in the God of Abraham. Eventually, the Declaration of Independence itself, which was written in 1776, acknowledged the presence of God three times in its text. The divine providence of God was used in the Declaration of Independence as a reason for rebellion, to justify their rebellion. They said, why can we rebel? Because God gives us the right to rebel. Why can we thumb our noses at the so-called divine right of kings, which was the belief up until that time that the king, because the result of Lucky Sperm, he was born the king, and now he should control and command everyone in the kingdom because he was God's appointed king. The colonists said, nonsense!

The divine providence of God, again, was used as a reason and justification for rebellion from the British crown. By the 1770s, the relationship of Britain and its North American citizens had broken down. They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they didn't have any representatives in Parliament. Parliament sat in London, and it only represented the interest of England and Scotland and Wales and Ireland. The colonists said, wait a minute! You can't tax us! That's taxation without representation. You won't allow us to have any members in Parliament, therefore you do not have the right to tax us. And it was a boil that got more and more painful over the decades and over a period of time until there was literally open rebellion. And that actually began even before the Declaration of Independence was signed. That began in Massachusetts in February of 1775. And if we look throughout the history of the inception of the United States, we can see easily, if you have an open mind, that God intervened a number of times to save the outnumbered American troops from total defeat. There is no logical reason why we should have one of that war. We were fighting the world's greatest superpower. And they had incredible wealth.

And they had superior armaments. And they had resolve, at least early on in the war. And eventually we won it because we wore down their resolve. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington said this, quote, my gratitude for the interposition of Providence, capital P, he means God, for the interposition of Providence increases with every review of the momentous contest. So Washington is saying, I have deeper gratitude. Every event I look at, I can see the hand of God working it out to our favor. Later, Washington wrote, quote, no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which we have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. Again, he means by God's intervention, by divine intervention.

In later writings, Washington referred to the United States as the second land of promise.

Well, eventually, the United States wore down the British, resolved to stop the rebellion. Against all odds, we gained independence from a much wealthier and more powerful nation. We simply wore down their desire to continue to war. They were powerful. Think about a modern analogy. Think of what happened in Vietnam. Eventually, the United States, which was more powerful than Vietnam, grew tired, grew weary of the sacrifice of blood and unnecessary deaths and all of the resources that were spent in a war that became unwinnable.

We gave up and we pulled out. By the way, we're doing the same thing in Afghanistan today. Well, that's what happened to the British. After years of fighting and loss of a lot of British soldiers and expended resources, think of the cost of sending armaments and things from Europe all the way across that great ocean to the United States. They got tired of it and we wore them down. They said, okay, that's enough. We quit. You can have it. You're not worth it. You're just 13 colonies in the edge, just the very edge of this continent in North America.

You're not worth the effort. You're not worth the time. Of course, we had allies. We need to thank them even to this day for helping us to win the war. The British had no allies, but they had made so many enemies in Europe, we had lots of allies. For example, Dutch merchants began sending war material to our ports like gunpowder and supplies for the Americans. The British didn't like that. The French Navy helped us, particularly at the end of the war. They blockaded the British. They caused all kinds of havoc with Britain. The French were very important allies to us. Spain secretly provided money and gunpowder and supplies to the Americans.

So we had allies that helped us very much during that war. And again, what happened at that time can only be considered a miracle. And here's one reason it was a miracle. This nation already was very diverse. The colonies were diverse.

They came from various backgrounds, and they joined together to create something that would result in the United States of America. But I think we need to appreciate that you could not have gathered a people who were more diverse culturally, and as far as their values, were more different from one from another.

For example, the Northerners had an entrepreneurial spirit, and they liked to make things. They were in the manufacturing small shops. Think of Ben Franklin as a printer. Think of craftsmen. Their Puritan heritage created a strong work ethic. They had that Calvinist belief that work is salvation. And the way that you show that you are one of the chosen ones is you work hard and you become materially successful, and that proves that you've been saved.

So they were hard workers. They were industrious. Since many were from larger cities, they were aggressive. They were ambitious. On the other hand, the Southern delegates were more laid back. They came from a genteel agricultural culture, unfortunately. It was also a culture, shamefully, that had slavery. The South didn't live in large cities. They didn't have large cities like the North had already. They had large plantations instead of large cities. They weren't into creating or manufacturing things. They weren't creating financial setters like they were in the North.

What we now know as banks and other things that manipulate and use money. That was prominent already in the North, but not in the South. They considered Northerners to be rash, loud, and rude in their manners. And all of them, North and South, were fiercely independent of their cultures, their states. They didn't look upon themselves as Americans. They looked upon themselves as Virginians, members of the state of Massachusetts. They didn't look at themselves as a national government.

They loved their states. And that's how they looked at independence. After the colonies won independence, they had a weak form of government for a while that, frankly, didn't work well. It was called the Articles of Confederation. And it was the first written Constitution of the United States. And under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent.

So you really didn't have, quote, the United States. You basically had 13 individual sovereign countries who would agree to work together. And it didn't work very well. They only used Congress as a last resort to appeal disputes that occurred between the states. It didn't work. A number of issues led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 for the creation of new federal laws.

So the Founding Fathers were humble enough to say, you know, we created a form of government and it stinks. And we need to go back to the drawing board and we need to draw up something totally new and totally different. And being like all good Americans, they decided to do it secretly because they knew they would receive criticism for it. So they all assembled in Philadelphia explaining another reason they were getting together.

They said it was to improve the Articles of Confederation, but in reality, behind closed doors, they were all talking about a brand new form of government. Now let's now go to Proverbs 16 and verse 25. Because what they did was indeed imperfect. Time will tell how long this nation will survive But they did, under the circumstances, the best we could have expected them to do, knowing most of them did not have God's Holy Spirit, but they were looking at a problem and they were looking at ways to solve it and they decided to create a way that they thought was right and good and different.

And here's what Proverbs reminds us of when we try to do things our way. It says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. When mankind tries to do anything by itself without humbly beseeching God for guidance and direction, ultimately the things that we create fail. And this is a warning from the book of Proverbs.

Humanity has been trying to govern itself since the Garden of Eden. Various forms of human government have been devised throughout history. What these American founders were trying to do was to learn from the past and establish a new form of government that would benefit its citizens and give them a greater degree of personal freedom. They knew that what they were creating was not perfect. They said that they wanted to create a more perfect union.

Not a perfect union, but something that was better than the Articles of Confederation, something that was better than the existing forms of government that existed in the world today. And they said that was their goal. And what they created was a constitution that we live under today.

And I'd like to spend a few minutes talking about something that most Americans don't realize or appreciate what the founders did or what their intent was. They did not create a constitution because they think, oh, human beings are just basically good inside. Human beings really want to be nice. When you look at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, human beings tend to go towards the good. No, they didn't believe any of that. They said, human nature is rank. Human beings are selfish. Human beings basically are control freaks. They spend every minute thinking of themselves, how they can gain power over others, how they can gain money, become wealthy, how they can have prestige, and how they can be king and in charge of everything. What I'm trying to say is the founding fathers understood. They were very smart individuals and they understood the dark side of human nature. They knew that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. They looked at, again, these were highly educated people, they looked at the republics of Greece. Why did it fall? They looked at the republic that existed in Rome. Why did it fail? They looked at about 130 years earlier. Most people don't realize that England had a republic for a short period of time that lasted until the death of Oliver Cromwell. And they studied that. Why did that fail? And they looked at these historical things and these examples and they said, well, eventually they all failed because there were no checks and balances. Eventually someone became a tyrant who became a dictator who basically overruled the republican ideas and took control. They knew that what they were creating wasn't going to be perfect. It was considered by many of them to be an experiment. How can we know these things, Mr. Thomas? You say that they didn't trust human nature. How can we know these things? They're very easy, actually. We can look at their writings at the time. One of the most interesting things to look at, if you ever have the time, are something called the Federalist Papers. And they were published in New York, in the New York Press in 1787. And they're considered to be one of the most important contributions to political thought ever in America because Hamilton and Madison and John Jay, they wrote about what was going on in their heads. Why the kind of government was created that we have under the Constitution. They tell us that the Founders were distrustful of each other. Distrustful of human nature. And they put in place a system of checks and balances, and they did that beginning with creating three branches of government that would be adversarial and compete with one another. Most Americans don't realize that. I hear people, oh, if only the President would do this. If only the Court would stop. That's not what our Founders intended. Our Founders knew human nature. They purposely created a government that is slow, that is stable, in which every one of these three branches has checks and balances against it to make things hard. They did that, my friends, on purpose. And we need to understand that, and it's usually to our benefit. I know when we want something to happen that we agree with, we would like it to happen tomorrow, wouldn't we? But that's not what the Founders intended. It's not what they intended at all. So the government was designed with three branches that would be adversarial. They would compete with one another. They would have checks and balances. They wanted to prevent any individual or branch from gaining absolute control. So they wanted to make sure that no one branch would be able to control too much power. They created what they call the separations of powers. This branch has specific powers that they can do, and none of the other branches are allowed to interfere with it or mess with it in any way. That might be Congress. The President has particular powers. None of the other branches can assume or seize those powers. Only the President has those powers.

The court, the judicial system, has particular powers. The others can't mess with what their powers are, designated to them by the Constitution. And it was the separation of powers that was part of this check and balance system. I'm going to talk about what they are briefly. I'm going to take a few minutes to understand how our complex constitutional system works. It was created by humans. It's not perfect. It just happens to be the best form of government that was ever devised by human beings. And, frankly, all of us should be very thankful in all areas of the world that we could have been born to have the freedoms and liberties that we have because of this Constitution.

So, again, there are three branches of government. The legislative branch consists of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Now, both of those houses are different sizes. They have different cultures. They have different rules on how they function.

If you look at the Federalist Papers, some of our founding fathers considered the Senate to be the grown-up in the room. They said the House members will be passionate. They'll be knee-jerk. They'll come and serve for a short period of time. They're endorsing the latest fad that goes through culture. And the mature ones will be the Senators who will stop the House of Representatives from making knee-jerk decisions and moving the country too far, either to the left or to the right.

So, they thought about all of these things. They considered all of these things. Every House member is up for election every two years. The entire House of Representatives can be replaced, in theory, every two years.

Whereas the Senate has staggered six-year terms.

Oftentimes, the House and the Senate have different values, and they pass different laws throughout history. Oftentimes, they're adversarial towards one another.

And when they pass two different laws, they are required to come together, committees from each, and hammer out some type of merger or compromise that once again has to be approved back in their respective bodies before that becomes law.

Complex? Absolutely. Difficult? Yes. And that's exactly what the Founders wanted.

The Executive Branch is composed of the President. He or she gets help from a Vice President, Department Heads, called Cabinet Members, Heads of Independent Agencies, and that's the Executive Branch.

The Executive Branch carries out the laws that are passed by the Legislative Branch. The third branch of government is the Judicial Branch. This is the branch of system of federal courts and judges that interpret laws made by the Legislative Branch and enforced by the Executive Branch.

Complex? Yes. These are all intended to make it difficult for any one of these branches or any one person to rise up an individual and seize power and control.

I'd like to give you just a few examples of how the different branches work together, or check and balance each other.

For example, the Legislative Branch makes laws, but the President can veto those laws with a Presidential veto.

Well, then the Legislative Branch can override the President's veto with a supermajority. This requires a two-thirds vote in each of the two chambers, the House and the Senate.

By the way, Congress has overridden fewer than 10% of all Presidential vetoes throughout history. So you see a check and balance.

The Legislators can pass laws. Executives can say, no, it's not good, sorry, he can veto it.

Well, they can overcome his veto, but now they have to have more than just 51%. They have to have a supermajority.

Then the Legislative Branch can make laws, but the Judicial Branch can declare those laws as unconstitutional, meaning they don't fit within what the Constitution says has allowed the laws stricken down.

They're considered invalid. However, if it is just so important, the Legislative Branch can create an amendment to the Constitution.

We have 27 amendments to our original Constitution. And if they create an amendment, that becomes part of the Constitution and thus becomes constitutional by definition. It kind of ties the hands of the judicial system. Is it tough? You bet it's tough. It requires two-thirds, that's a supermajority, of both Houses of Congress, and two-thirds of the states have to pass an amendment to the Constitution.

But once it's done, the judges' hands are tied. They can't declare something unconstitutional if it's now part of the Constitution.

What is this? Complex? Yeah. Checks and balances? Exactly what we're intended.

The Legislative Branch has the power to approve presidential nominations. They control the budget. They can impeach the President and remove him or her from office.

However, the Executive Branch can declare executive orders, which are like proclamations that carry the force of law.

But the Judicial Branch has the right to declare those executive orders unconstitutional. See more? Checks and balances.

The Judicial Branch interprets the laws, but the President nominates the Supreme Court justices, the Court of Appeals judges, and District Appellate Court judges who make the evaluations.

Finally, the Judicial Branch interprets laws, but the Senate is the Legislative Branch that confirms the President's nomination for all judicial positions, and Congress can impeach any of those judges and remove them from office.

So you have this constant back and forth, this constant check and balance.

It can frustrate many people. And it does. It frustrates me.

But if you want to know the truth of why it happens, because that's exactly what our Founders designed into our Constitution.

What we know of as the United States under this existing Constitution has existed for about 230 years.

But you know, in contrast, when you look at world history, we're rather young by world standards. There's a website called OWLCATION.

It's a website for teachers. O-W-L-C-A-T-I-O-N. O-W-L-C-A-T-I-O-N.com. And here's what it said about human civilization.

Quote, the average length of time that a civilization lasts is 349.2 years.

The median is 330 years. The civilizations that lasted the longest seem to be the Aksumite Empire, which lasted 1100 years.

And the Vedic period of India, which lasted 1100 years.

So we're young by world standards.

We may be young, but we all know recently, the last few years, that our form of government has become more divisive than ever before.

I think I've mentioned before from the pulpit that what I distinctly know growing up in the American culture, you always had two different parties with two different value systems and two different ideas.

However, there were always enough people in the middle who would ignore the fringes of their party and who would work together to get things done.

Now the parties have both been driven more towards the edges. So there's very little common ground.

It's my way or the highway, and that's the reason that we find ourselves in the kind of gridlock that we have today.

For hundreds of years, our political environment was able to work together to find that middle ground. But now every simple action or decision is challenged and criticized, usually with anger.

Shouting, being impolite, being rude to one another. It's really sad what has happened to our nature.

And our political system is just downright broken.

The average 2010 House campaign to run, to become a member of the House of Representatives, they realized that this is only a two-year stint, then you're up again.

The average cost of a campaign was $1,163,000. That's for a $174,000 a year job.

Now it gets worse. How about the Senate? The average Senate campaign costs $10.4 million for a job that pays you $174,000.

So you see the money that's involved, what money has done to our political and election process?

Another problem with our existing environment today?

Congress is a club that now consists of 245 millionaires. When you put the House of Representatives together with the Senate, it now consists of 245 millionaires.

Now, if you're a millionaire, and many of them, when they say that, they don't mean you have $1 million and $2 in a bank. You're wealthy.

Why would you want a stinking $174,000 a job if you're a multi-multi-millionaire? Power. You want the prestige. You want the power. Or you want the ability, through secret deals and other things, to even increase your wealth more.

So the people that are in our politics today, in our political environment, many of them aren't there for noble purposes.

I personally am not very high on politicians. I believe that politicians are a lot like diapers.

They should be changed regularly for the exact same reason. So that's my opinion on most politicians today.

Well, that's our human government, and it's not perfect. And I could give entire sermons and all the flaws and weaknesses of our human government that we have under this Constitution.

I could easily do that. I'm very familiar and oftentimes frustrated with the flaws and weaknesses of this form of government that our Founding Fathers created.

But, again, that being said, it just happens to be, as Winston Churchill once said, it's a terrible form of government. It just happens to be the best government ever devised by man.

And it gives us incredible freedoms, including the freedom to sit here and worship according to our conscience on any day of the week at any location that we rent or we're allowed to be in without interference from the government.

Our brethren in Angola wish that was the case. So we are very blessed.

But having said all of that, we're looking forward to a new world and a new form of government.

How can we be sure that it's going to be any better when Jesus Christ returns to this earth and he establishes the kingdom of God on this earth?

How can we be sure that it won't fail? How can we be sure that it won't be yet another government that started out with the best of hopes and the best of intentions and over time just degenerates into money and people craving for power and prestige and control over everybody?

How can we be sure that that kingdom will not be like that?

Alright, let's discuss this. First of all, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 22. The first thing that's going to happen is an end of the age of man. And that means the end of everything. Our cultures, our languages. In the world tomorrow, we will not be calling months by the name of pagan gods like we do today.

We will not be calling the days of the week by the names of pagan gods like we all do today.

There will be a new language, a new culture. The slate will be wiped clean and God is going to make everything new.

1 Corinthians 15 and verse 22. As an Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after those where Christhead is coming, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power.

For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that would be destroyed is death. So every human government, every human law, every form of human authority from our financial system to culture, whatever it is, every source of power, military, financial, cultural, will come to a complete end.

The kingdom of God will not merely be an improvement over the American Constitution. It's not simply going to be an upgrade. No, we're going to put in a fourth branch of government and we're going to put God above the Supreme Court. I'm not sure they would allow that. They would probably declare that unconstitutional.

But it's not going to be simply an improvement or an upgrade or the best of existing governments. It's going to be something that has never been tried before on this earth. It's going to be a government from God and everything is going to change. As John was inspired to write in Revelation 14, verse 8, another angel founded, saying, Babylon has fallen at great city because she made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. We all have all human cultures have certain things in common and culturally, ethically, morally, and all of that must die. All of those things must be wiped away and the world made anew.

The second thing that I'd like to talk about that's going to be different about the kingdom of God, not only are you starting from brand new, after all, our founding fathers, in all fairness, had to live in the world that they already lived in. So they were doing the best that they could under the circumstances. And, frankly, the republics had existed before ours. So what they were doing wasn't brand new. It was trying to be an upgrade or an improvement over the republics that existed in Greece or in Rome.

But the second thing that I want to talk about is life-changing. It's God's Spirit on all. Joel, chapter 2, verse 24. If you'll turn there with me, Joel, chapter 2, verse 24.

And this is very important.

A scene from the world tomorrow from the prophet Joel, very encouraging.

The threshing floor shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. This is obviously after Jesus returns and establishes the kingdom, and Israel is restored to their land. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust. Now those are actually four different stages of the locust, by the way, and the damage they did in crops at that time. Migrate army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. He's not saying, I'm just going to pour out my spirit on Israel. I'm going to pour out my spirit on Ephraim. No, he doesn't say that. He says, and again, it may be in stages. It may begin in Israel, the nation of Israel at that time, and filter to the rest of the world.

But he says that he's going to pour out his spirit on all flesh. Gentile flesh, the descendants of Abraham, all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days.

So this is a most important change that will occur all over the earth when a universal change of attitudes and mindsets is generated, made possible by receiving the Spirit of God. Think about what the world would be like when everyone learns to love each other. What this world would be like if everyone learned to have joy rather than discouragement and depression.

What would it be like if everyone sought peace instead of war and violence? If everyone was patient instead of becoming angry over simple little things? If everyone was kind to one another? If everyone demonstrated goodness? Can I help you with that? If everyone had faithfulness, faithfulness in God, faithfulness in their families, in their villages, in their communities? If everyone was gentle, how would the world be if that violent nature was taken away from human nature and everyone was gentle? If everyone demonstrated self-control rather than spontaneity and knee-jerkism, we see a lot of people exercise in our culture today that eventually hurts them. So as you can see, this is a game-changer. But you know what? It's not enough.

If you only did this, that's hard. I'm going to tell you something. You have God's Holy Spirit. How easy is it? It's not easy, is it? It's not easy to change and grow. It's not easy to get rid of a bad habit. It's not easy to acquire a new attitude or mindset. It's not easy to resist our human nature.

So something else also has to be done to make the potential of receiving God's Spirit come to its fullness at that time. And of course, that is portrayed by the Day of Atonement. If you'll turn to Revelation 20, verse 2, when we see that Satan is removed from this world, and more importantly than him, bodily, if I could use that term, I mean his influence is removed from the world. His spiritual presence is removed from this world. The influence of Satan and his spirits permeates the entire earth. All people are influenced by selfishness and competition from the day that we're born, from the second we were born. Our minds were filled with negativity, selfishness, and carnal desires. And again, receiving God's Spirit is wonderful, and it's an incredible gift. But if you don't do the other, which is to remove that constant influence of Satan the Devil, the change and grow is very, very hard. Revelation 20, verse 2, he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil in Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up. That's a metaphor, meaning that he no longer could have influence. He is trapped. He is bound, jailed in this bottomless pit, and no longer has any influence on the earth. And set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a short while. So when you remove Satan's constant direct negative influence, and you give people God's Holy Spirit, they are capable of fully developing the fruit of the Spirit, which is such a struggle for us, which is so difficult for us.

And if you want to be reminded of how powerful Satan's influence is, just look at what quickly happens to Gog and Magog in verses 7-10. It doesn't take long. Even people who had been in a world for nearly a thousand years, in which God's Spirit had been poured out in all flesh, when you release the negativity, the influence of Satan, people can turn, and people can change. So that should remind us of how powerful a force that is. Indeed, he is as a roaring lion, and it's something that we have to struggle against. All right, just a couple more things here. That will be part of the kingdom of God that will make it different than the world that we have today and the governments that we have today. It's God's law, Hebrews 8 and verse 10. Hebrews 8 and verse 10.

The author of the book of Hebrews, quoting from the Old Testament, For this is the covenant that I will make. But the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts. People will be hard-wired to one who will obey God, to respect and love His commandments and His law. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, No, the Lord for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

In that he says, a new covenant. He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete is growing old and ready to vanish away. So not only will God give His Holy Spirit to all individuals, that's all flesh, we read that in Joel 2, 28. Not only will He remove the influence of Satan from the world for that period of time, for a thousand years, He will also hardwire His law into their hearts and minds. Right now, our natural carnal nature is enmity against God. It resists God. It resists God's laws. It resists rules. We don't like rules.

We want to do things our own way. That's our human nature. But thankfully, that will absolutely, positively change. Every belief system, every human thought, every agenda will be centered on God's value system of love for God and love for our neighbor. It won't be centered on self and what's best for me and how can I gain from this situation and how can I become powerful, wealthy, a celebrity? How can I control others and have them do what I want them to do? That will not be the kind of value system that exists in the Kingdom of God, as Matthew was inspired to write in chapter 4 and verse 4. But he answered, and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So it's God's law, it's God's commandments that will be hardwired in the people to actually love God's way of life and desire to obey them. There certainly will be room for various perspectives. God is not creating robots. There will be areas of room for ideas. But there will be no room for personal agendas, distorted human ideas and human ideas and attitudes about what fairness really is. Well, how come you get to be God? And I'm just a mere spirit being. That's not fair. There'll be none of that going on. I mean, that's what would happen today, the moment Jesus Christ returned in our existing culture. It doesn't sound like a whole lot of equity between heaven and earth. So all of those ideas and mindsets that people, human beings, mere human cultures strive for and think are important is ridiculousness to God. Absolute ridiculousness. And I also want to add, this will not be the Old Covenant law given to Israel. God gave Israel, a Bronze Age people, particular laws as blessings to them to help them at the time that they lived. That was for that place and that time only. There will be a new covenant centered on people who are filled with the Spirit. The core of the law will be love towards God and love towards the rest of humanity. Not simply a rehash or reinvention of the laws that we find in the Old Testament. And the final area that's so important that will make the Kingdom of God successful and different, far different, from the world that we live in today is godly rulership and government. Godly rulership. Those who are in rulership positions ruling because they love people. Primarily because they want to serve them, not because they're in it for some type of personal gain. Mark 10 and verse 42. This is our last point. Godly rulership and government. Mark 10 and verse 42.

He saw the Gentiles acting carnally, worrying about who's in charge and who's most important and all the things that human beings worry about. Who's got the biggest title? All of these silly things that go through the minds of human beings. Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles, Lord, they just love to have titles. They love to have fancy clothes. They love to have things stitched on their clothes to show how important they are. And they're great ones exercise authority over them. And my, they love to exercise authority. They want everybody to know who's in charge. Who's the boss? That's what they live for. That's what they thrive on.

Verse 43, Their attitude isn't how important I am and how much I can control you and tell you how important I am. It's, how can I help you? There's some way that I can help you through this situation. Let me know what it is.

The save of all, not being carried in a chariot or carried in a chair with two long poles and fifteen guys and people. That's not what it's all about, Jesus says. If you want to be greatest, if you want to be first, you're that simple, humble person washing people's feet. Because there's coming a time in a kingdom when that's exactly how the culture of that kingdom is going to be. And everything that is considered so important today, the power, the celebrity that human beings strive for, is all going to be turned upside down. And a brand new world and a new culture is going to be introduced to this world that is not based on power, celebrity and wealth. It's placed on humility and service.

Those will be the ones who are considered great and respected and applauded and admired. Not what we see in this world today.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, which is the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate service. So those who are spirit-filled rulers in the Kingdom of God will serve with the right motive. What are the motives of the leaders today? Push through my agenda. Get done what I want. Force it in your face. Ram it down your throat and gloat. Because I won. That's the agenda that exists in our political environment today. Do a happy dance. But in the Kingdom of God, it will be totally different. There won't be people who are serving for power or celebrity or wealth or any other self-seeking motive. They will be serving others using the Spirit of God to reflect their character. An example of this is in Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 20. Isaiah wrote, And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, though you're punished, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. But your eyes shall see your teachers, and your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way walk in it, whenever you turn to the right or whenever you turn to the left. I want you to notice their approach. The teachers don't say, Hey, stupid! The teachers will be patiently teaching, instructing, encouraging. And that's a whole different form of rulership than any of us have ever experienced in this human lifetime. Well, today we've reviewed human governments, and we took a little time to review our very own government of the United States as part of our Constitution. And again, we should all be very appreciative to live in a Western democracy. It's not perfect, but again, it happens to be the best created by carnal human minds that was ever devised. We can thank them for it. But yet, knowing that and understanding that, we know that there's a contrast and a dramatic gulf between the governments that human beings have created to rule themselves and the kind of kingdom, new world, that God has planned for all humanity upon the return of Jesus Christ. The human heart and mind will be changed. This, combined with the removal of Satan's influence and the addition of God's law, guided by godly rulership from people who genuinely care and want to serve, will create a new world in which everyone who lives at that time and will be resurrected and have an opportunity to live again after the great white throne judgment, everyone will have an opportunity to reach their awesome potential that God had intended from the very beginning. Let's all pray more fervently than ever before that Thy kingdom come.