The Kingdom Utopia

Happy Sabbath, everybody! Why do they do it to me again? That's so hard to follow something like that, right? And that's the way it should be. I really appreciate that. My wife's in the choir this year, and she said, today we've got a song you don't even want to think about the words, because it's very moving, right? And it was. Well, Happy Sabbath, we're getting close to halfway, aren't we? What a delightful feast it's been. What a delightful congregation for eight days we have been. We are a congregation, aren't we, for about eight days. And then we go our four corners of the world. I don't think anyone is here from Europe that I've heard about, but if you are from Europe, please let me know. And you get the award for being the farthest to travel. We had a wonderful Bible study last night by Mr. Steiber, just delightful, wonderful. And he's forgotten more of history than I've ever learned. He is a real history buff, does very well. And I wore my special tie today, and I wear it once a year, somewhere during the Feast of Tabernacles. It actually is a lion and a lamb. So that's my special tie. I don't know where the family that gave it to me got it, but I'm going to get them on the Internet and sell them across the street later in the feast. Just teasing.

We actually do have sound in the family room right now. We're very thankful for that. So I appreciate the family staying with us. If there's anything, brethren, that we haven't thought about or didn't do right, please let us know.

Please let me know. Or Mr. Les Cheeseman, he's our auditorium man, and any of the ushers will get word out to me or to others so we can try to help you to have a good feast spiritually and physically as well, all in one. So just let us know. You know, brethren, for many, if you had mentioned the word utopia, they're going to talk about or think about a beautiful garden with beautiful flowers, flowers just having a wonderful aroma, maybe a beach area like we just saw on the screen here a few minutes ago or out here on Virginia Beach or in Hawaii or wherever it might be.

Others might think of utopias being with great people, fantastic, strong people, like a superman or a superwoman or a superbaby, a superdog and a supercat. I mean, just everything is idyllic. Good weather, beautiful climate all the time. Man has really dreamed about utopia for literally millennia. Where did the concept of utopia come from? Well, it's defined as an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico legal system. It's interesting, the official definition of utopia deals with the legal system that's perfect, a political system that is perfect, and a social system that is perfect. Now, I know you're way ahead of me on this one because that definition of utopia does remind us about something.

And we're going to get into that today, but the word utopia was coined from the Greek, imported from the Greek by Sir Thomas Moore, in a book he entitled, Utopia, back in the 1500s. It described a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. Sir Thomas Moore said this was really a wonderful way of life. It was perfection. But it was fantasy. Well, Sir Thomas Moore was beheaded, however, in 1535 because he denied King Henry VIII, who was the Supreme Head of the Church of England at the time, and he said, Sir Henry, I deny you as the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

And for that, Sir Thomas Moore lost his life. The king had broken away from the Catholic Church. Now, Mr. Stryber could give a very good rendition of this and background, but that is part of the reason why our founding fathers decided to have a separation of church and state.

They did not want to have an official American religion. Many had come from England, and they were fleeing religious persecution under, yes, V.C.V., the Church of England. And when they came over here, they said, we're going to do things a little bit differently and better. We're not going to have an official religion. Now, that doesn't mean the founding fathers did not believe in God, did not have a faith, or did not believe in the Bible. In fact, many did. They just didn't want to have an official church of America. And so they had a separation of church and state.

But utopia, the word, again, from the Greek, means not and place. Literally, the word utopia means no place, because Sir Thomas Moret really knew it didn't exist, only in his book. The word actual has double meanings, because it not only means no place, but it also means good place. Well, Sir Thomas Moret did not intend this utopia to really exist, yet really, brethren, is a no place. Wherever you go in the world today, you're not going to find utopia. I don't care how nice and white the sand is, or how beautiful and warm the sun is, or whatever part of the world you think is idyllic, nationally, socially, religiously, economically, man can never create utopia.

He hasn't yet. And we've had a lot of time, about 6,000 years and a lot of opportunities around the world to do that. And really, utopia is no place. It doesn't exist on this earth. In fact, utopia is dysopia. It is not here. Now, some back about 60 to 70 years ago, in Europe, thought that Adolf Hitler was the utopia, that the Third Reich was going to create a wonderful economic and social and economic machine or political machine.

And of course, in World War II, 50 million people lost their lives in those 12 years of the Third Reich. It was not utopia. It was dysopia. It didn't exist. Now, as we heard in the wonderful sermon at one of the joys of this Feast of Tabernacles, in fact, we do zero in on a future hope, a future world tomorrow, a future place, in fact, where the Kingdom of God will be on this earth in reality. Now, right now, the Kingdom of God exists, but not on this earth. It doesn't exist, rather, in any nation, any island.

But the Kingdom of God exists right now and has forever in God. It's where the Kingdom is. Now, the Kingdom of God also, in the sense of you being an ambassador for God, exists in you and in me. But there is no nation on this earth that exists or represents God's Kingdom. But is the Kingdom of God, brethren, at a utopia that can never really become on this earth? Will it happen? Is it real? A lot of people say that can never be. We can attempt to get as close as we can, but it's never going to come.

Will there be a global Eden someday? A global Eden from one part of this world to the other? Well, God positively promises that utopia to come. The original Garden of Eden, of course, was a dysfunctional garden when sin entered in, and Adam and Eve decided to partake of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Some people on earth partake of a little bit more of that tree of good than others.

Others partake of that tree of evil more than good. Hence the disparity between some people who appear to be really good and others who appear to be really evil. It depends on one's background, where you grow up, when you grow up, and also individual choice. But that tree of evil, or knowledge of good and evil, certainly is a part of our world, always has been, since Satan came in.

Adam and Eve chose poorly, but God wants His people, who do represent as future citizens of that coming kingdom, to choose wisely of that tree of life. Now, the Bible is a best-selling book ever. We all know that. You have a Bible.

You have many Bibles. The world knows about the Bible, generally. Since the Bible was really starting to be printed in volume in the 1400s, especially the last 300, 400, 500 years, over 6 billion Bibles have been sold. It is the world's perennial number one best-selling book. What do you think is the number two best-selling book of all time? That's a much harder answer. Number two best-selling book of all time. I don't think any of us have read it. It's quotations from Chairman Mao.

Now, remember back in the 70s? I think it was the 70s when that came out, maybe it was in 1960s, it was published in 1966. It's the number two best-seller. 900 billion copies of that little book have been printed.

I said, 900 million have been printed. A lot of people consider Communist China as being a utopia on Earth. And of course, it isn't. Politicians are always promising almost a utopia, aren't they? It is funny, it's sad, it's hard sometimes every two years or four years on the national cycle to go through this again and again. How many times do we need to go through this? But here we are in another political campaign for the presidency. Politicians, again, always promising a better way. If you take the word politics, it describes the process very well. For example, the word poly in Latin means many, and the word ticks means bloodsucking creatures. So the word politics means many bloodsucking creatures. Now that's a real not technical term there, but it's close enough.

And again, I'm not picking on anybody. We're fair in our analysis here. But whether it's politicians or academicians or religious figures or the average person, whatever they do, can anybody come up with a wonderful system that's actually going to work and is guaranteed to work? And all the problems have already been figured out before that system happens?

Well, usually when man thwarts out some kind of new system, and really politically we've done it many, many times, they say, well, we'll kind of gradually improve on this. New and improved. But, rather, God has already had a perfect system in heaven forever. There's no need to improve the kingdom of God. It's been there forever with God, the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son. Now they have no beginning, they have no end. Mankind doesn't have a clue how to run things in terms of the political, socio-economic system. Now, we do understand a prophecy, and you are students of prophecy, all of you. You do understand that Satan has another new and improved system coming up, doesn't he? Ah, this one's going to be the good one. Trust us. Just trust us. And we know that is to be the beast power during the Tribulation, three and a half year of great Tribulation. That system, brethren, it will not be new. It's actually a reincarnation from an ancient system way back when. But every so often, God allows that system to come up, come out of the sea as a beast. And the final reincarnation of that system, brethren, will be the worst. But it'll promise utopia. You just sell us your soul, and we'll give you everything. In fact, if you don't sell us your soul, it won't matter, because we're going to take it.

Just trust us. We got all the answers here. Again, mankind has no clue how to do this, and we keep learning the hard way. If you take a glimpse into prophecy, and we really are not going to go into this part of prophecy today, but I just want to generalize a couple of things right now. If you go into certain parts of prophecy, as you already have for many years, most of you, and others that are a little bit new, you'll understand Ezekiel 5 and other chapters talk about upwards of two-thirds of those ancient Israelites that are now modern-day Israelites, as we heard last night in the Bible study, upwards of two-thirds of them will not live through those three-and-a-half years. Now, that system, brethren, that's coming is not new and improved at all, because so many lose their lives. And if you take other scriptures about the Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation combined, upwards of 90% of the world's population will not live through three-and-a-half years. It's appalling. And all that system is guaranteeing again is the best way, a new way, a way that will solve all the issues that you've ever thought, but you've got to sell us your soul for that to be done. Brethren, there is bad news before the good news. People say, well, your good news magazine isn't filled with good news. I've seen as you and sometimes letters the editor that we print. Take me off subscription lists, because the good news is filled with bad news. Well, actually, our magazine is filled with far more good news than bad news. But, brethren, the reason there's bad news in the Bible and where there's bad news today is because of mankind and Satan. God can't take ownership for that bad news. There was bad news in the original Garden of Eden because of what Satan did and because of what mankind did. What God authors, brethren, is always good news. He is good. There's no bad in God. It's impossible. So God's plan is all good, what He creates is good, but He also allows Satan and mankind or human nature to come into play here for us to exercise the spiritual muscles. If we had nothing, brethren, to resist against, we could not build divine character. Like you try to work out and build some muscles, and if there's no resistance, you're never going to build anything. People who have operations, they're bed fast for a number of days, they come out of that bed hardly able to walk. They need resistance of gravity against their muscles and their bones. They need to work out. And then there's this therapy thing. You know, some of you have been through therapy. It hurts, but you build the tissue, the muscle. Spiritually, we need that negativity of human nature, and yes, Satan and our world, to resist against that we grow spiritually. But the good news is all from God. The bad news is from Satan and mankind. So man will never find this utopia. It is dysfunction everywhere that we create. And God will allow us to come right up to the brink of World War III total destruction before Christ intervenes. And we just went through that about 14 days ago, or less, the Feast of Trumpets, where Christ's brethren comes in the nick of time, just right. Because then we could never say, you know, if you'd given us another few months, we could have had a peace treaty here. We would have worked this out. We would have had utopia, but you just destroyed our opportunity.

And He allows us to go right up to the brink.

If for no other reason to tell mankind again that we don't have the solutions. We've tried everything. Nothing has worked. Again, going into a little bit of prophecy, when Jesus Christ returns, brethren, we may have a billion or less people on this earth. It is staggering what we'll do to ourselves. So in the remainder of the sermon time, brethren, I'd like to review with you four reasons why the Kingdom of God will be the utopia of tomorrow. Four reasons why the Kingdom of God will be the utopia of tomorrow. Beyond our wildest imaginations, nothing that Sir Thomas More or anyone on this earth could ever have created in books or imaginations. The Kingdom of God is far, far, far better and far more real than anything we could ever imagine. The biggest good news, brethren, of why the Kingdom of God will be a utopia of tomorrow is Jesus Christ, number one, will be the King. Number one, Jesus Christ will be the King. He'll be on this earth. He'll take over. He will be in charge. And all other nations and governments will be gone. We have read many scriptures so far in this wonderful face. We'll read a lot more. And they all talk, brethren, when you're talking about government, as all the other governments disappear, all the mountains are flattened. And the mountain of the Lord is the one, the one remaining government that people serve and obey. God the Father and Jesus Christ have been working at this Kingdom for a very long time in terms of our human span. But, of course, they're without beginning and without end. So really, the very beginning of this plan of God, for them, is nothing in terms of length of time. For us, it's been, in terms of our history, a long time as we go back and see Jesus Christ creating the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1, and then appearing and reappearing many times as the God of the Old Testament. And then finally, Jesus Christ coming as the Immanuel, the God in the flesh, coming here, born of a woman, begotten by His Father, divine nature from the very beginning, and yet fully human and lived a perfect life and died. Notice with me in Isaiah chapter 94. Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7. Boy, that would be a new verse.

Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. So Jesus Christ, brethren, is the one who came to this earth, died for us as our Savior, was resurrected, sits at the Father's right hand, and He's that future King to this earth. Isaiah 9 and verse 6. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6.

Jesus is mentioned here in prophesied in the book of Isaiah, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder. That's, of course, the government of God, the kingdom of God. And his name will be called Wonderful. Notice all the titles that Jesus Christ has or will have. Wonderful. Now, isn't that a wonderful title? Imagine a title of Wonderful. Why isn't that? Because Christ's way, His Father's way, is wonderful. It's absolutely utopia. Far beyond any of our utopia created ways. It's wonderful. He's our Counselor. He's our Mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace, there's no end. Unto the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it, establish it with judgment and justice. From that time forward, even forever. And the zeal of the Lords of Host will perform this. Going back in verse 7, He says, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice. Brother, that kingdom is going to be structured and established. And there won't be a variation. There won't be a change in the pattern because it's perfect.

We won't have election cycles. We won't need a change. We won't need the waste of time and money. Christ is going to rule forever in that sense of under the Father. And He's going to be the one who restores order on this earth and makes this utopia possible under His Father's direction. That is why, number one, we'll have utopia, the Kingdom of God, because Christ is coming. We don't know when. We don't have to know when. We just know it's coming and prepare for that. Now, again, as I mentioned earlier, the Kingdom of God has been around forever. But God is going to open up a branch office on this earth real soon. It's coming to a neighborhood near you. Now, wherever you live, it doesn't matter. That neighborhood is going to have the kingdom someday. Those local politicians will need to find work.

And, brethren, our school administrators and teachers will have to be retrained. All of us will have to be retrained. Because the businesses, many times, are greedy. Many times, businesses don't care about the health of people. We'll get into that a little bit later. So, I want to get into that right now. But when you realize that kingdom of Jesus Christ, that government that He gives to the world on behalf of His Father, He is absolutely perfect from the beginning. There won't have to be any changes.

That's wonderful. Wonderful. Of course, right now, brethren, we have to internalize the values of that kingdom. We can't wait for the kingdom to come. It's too late for us. We have to learn the kingdom today. The values, the laws. We have to internalize that. As we represent God the Father and Jesus Christ as their ambassadors. We cannot wait for that physical, spiritual kingdom to come, because, brethren, God is revealing the kingdom to us now. Our training is now. The world, they're not held accountable for it, are they? They're suffering because they don't know that kingdom. They will, someday. We know it now. We must be about our Father's business. Notice in Micah 4 and verse 1.

Please turn over to Micah 4 and verse 1.

Micah 4 and verse 1, I shall come to pass on the latter days. Notice again, this is future. And we know from studying God's Word that latter days means, of course, the kingdom of God or the very end of this human culture and way of life. But in this context, it's referring to the return of Jesus Christ. In the latter days, that mountain or that kingdom of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains. And shall be exalted above the hills, and the people shall flow to it. And many nations will come and say, come and let us go up to that mountain or that kingdom of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us His ways. And we shall walk. We're going to obey. We're going to follow in His steps. For out of Zion, the law will go forth. And the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It's not coming from Washington, D.C. or Paris or London or anywhere except where Jesus Christ resides. And it says here, Zion, what is the name, brethren, of that future city where Jesus Christ will reign from? It's in the Bible, isn't it? I think I mentioned that on opening night. We'll get to it. But God is going to rename Jerusalem or Jerusalem. He's going to rename that city. But that's where Jesus Christ resides. Verse 3, He shall judge between many peoples. He will rebuke strong nations from far off. Now, that's amazing. We're a leader to rebuke nations of far off. He doesn't have to send an army. He doesn't have to send troops. He doesn't have to say, we're going to have an economic boycott of some kind. We'll get around to that. We'll go to the United Nations, and maybe six months later we'll come up with a solution on that one. Brethren, Christ rules immediately. It's out of love. It's out of necessity. And it's going to be done. Sometimes there will be the rebuke. But remember, Jesus Christ, brethren, His approach is love. His approach is mercy.

And His approach is teaching. But if somebody's bullheaded and stubborn, then sometimes you need a little bit of loving correction. So He can do that too, if He has to. If He has to, He certainly will. They shall beat their swords into plowshares. He's going to insist on that. And their spears, they're not going to allow to throw spears or get those missiles going. They're going to be used in a pruning hook. They're used for pruning hooks, something profitable. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. I want to talk about that verse, learn war anymore. Man sure has learned war well in modern times.

Historians have carefully studied the Civil War. It's our only Civil War.

So we've studied the battlegrounds. In fact, there's battlegrounds just up the highway here from the American Civil War. The average firing rate was very low in these Civil War battles. The killing potential of the average Civil War regiment was anywhere from 500 to 1,000 men per minute. But the actual killing rate was only 2 or 3 men per minute per regiment. In other words, the killing potential was hardly there during the Civil War. Why was that? During the horrific Battle of Gettysburg, of the 27,000 muskets picked up from the dead and dying after the battle, 90% of the muskets were loaded. That's an anomaly because it took 95% of their time to load the muskets and only 5% of their time to fire. But of the thousands of loaded muskets, over half of them had multiple loads in the barrel. One musket had 23 loads. Now historians have studied and studied this. The average man would load his musket, bring it up, but he would not bring himself to kill another individual quite often. He would be brave, he'd stand up, shoulder to shoulder with his soldiers, his friends, his buddies, but he often would not pull the trigger. He wasn't trained in that era how to just look beyond that person over there, whether it's gray or the blue, and say, I'm going to kill that individual automatically. So he lowered the weapon, reloaded it, put it up to fire, I'm left-handed, would not pull the trigger. The vast majority of these soldiers admitted they were shooting over the enemy's heads if they did fire. They couldn't bring themselves to kill. You know, the Civil War brothers, of course, have taken more men in battle than any of our wars overseas. It's a terrible thing to go to Civil War. Brother against brother. And very common backgrounds, many of them could not bring themselves to kill.

Now, fast forward to World War II. Researchers asked individual soldiers what they did in battle. They discovered that only 15 to 20 percent of the individual riflemen could bring themselves to fire an exposed enemy soldier. Only a small percent of these soldiers were able and willing to participate. But by the Korean War, around 55 percent of the soldiers were willing to fire to kill. And by Vietnam, the rate rose to over 90 percent. As a matter of fact, military historians have gone through this for decades now. So what's happened is we have learned how to kill better and better as moderns. We are able to train people to do that without flinching, without thinking. You get somebody up there in your crosshairs, you fire. You don't think. You just fire automatically, ritually. Just fire and fire. Pull that trigger, that rocket, doesn't matter. And so, as Isaiah says, they shall not learn war anymore. We're not going to teach this. Even when kids are little, they say, it's okay. And I don't want to get into the controversy of video games. But it's okay. It's just a bunch of pixels. It seems to me a cause and effect as we get more graphic in some of these things. We say, it's just a computer. Well, maybe we're learning a little bit of that, even as young ones with video. But we're not going to learn war anymore, Christ says. So Micah states it very accurately. Speaking of the Civil War, the great American author, Carl Sandberg, wrote a remarkable biography of Abraham Lincoln. When Mr. Sandberg opened his speech up at a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1959, that was the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, he referred to America's 16th President this way. Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both still and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace, unspeakable and perfect. Well, what a writer Carl Sandberg was, but what a man the 16th President was. A man of still and velvet. Now, his 16th President was really a man of peace. He was a large man, as you know, really very accustomed to the woods. And he got into politics, and he lost, and then finally he won the presidency of all things. And he found himself rather than within months of the Civil War. There was nothing he could do to stop it. And most of his presidency was about the war, and yet he was a man of peace. But that man of peace did fight for peace, and finally peace was won. A very bloody peace indeed. So when the defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army, President Lee can send a message to the defeated General, a General that he really very deeply respected. And the note said this, Tell your men they may keep their horses, they'll need them for plowing. Tell your men they may keep their rifles, they'll need them for hunting. And when Robert E. Lee heard those words, he went. Because he thought, how could this President of War be so peaceful and so giving and trusting? And he was broken with those words. Well, today you wouldn't say to a defeated army, you keep those tanks, you keep those aircraft, you keep the bombs. You may need them someday. But Mr. Lincoln understood, you need the rifles for hunting, you need the horses for plowing. And we're going to treat our brothers with respect. It worked. It truly brought this nation together in ways that no other words or act could. So, to me, President Lincoln was a man of great peace, and yet he had the awful, unfortunate role of being a President at war for almost his entirety of his presidency. Turn with me to Daniel 11, verse 13.

Daniel 7, verse 13.

Now, brethren, we talk about Jesus Christ being on this earth as the King, starting the Kingdom of God. Now, Jesus Christ is not the King on this earth yet. Now, Daniel 7, starting verse 13, has a wonderful part of the future of Jesus Christ. I was watching in the night visions, Daniel writes, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, and they brought him before him. And interesting, Jesus Christ will be brought some day to his Father. And then what happens, verse 14, then to him was given dominion. So the Father, rather than here, is ordaining his Son to the office of King. And great glory and a kingdom in all people and nations and languages should serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. It's the coronation of Jesus Christ pictured here. So Jesus Christ has not been coronated yet. That's the future. And I'm assuming that, of course, this happens before Jesus Christ comes to this earth. Because in Revelation, he says Jesus Christ comes as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So this, I'm assuming, happens very soon, immediately before Jesus Christ comes to this earth. It's a thrilling vision into the future.

Now the world will experience the wonderful love of Jesus Christ, because first and foremost, Jesus Christ the King is love.

He is the Lamb. I gave a local sermon recently, and I said, Which book in the Bible contains the word Lamb about as often as any other book?

It is the book of Revelation. And you would not think the book of Revelation has the word Lamb referring to Jesus Christ all that much. But it does. I think it's 19 times the word Lamb is found in the book of Revelation. So Jesus Christ, brethren, is pictured very often in the last book of the Bible, which pictures a lot of war, a lot of death, a lot of destruction, as a Lamb.

But he comes this time as the King. But he is the Lamb, always.

Turn with me to Ezekiel 43 and verse 1. Ezekiel 43 and verse 1. Ezekiel 43 and verse 1.

This, of course, is the awesome future, the measurements of the temple, the future millennial temple that will exist in Zion. A lot of details here about that millennial temple and Jesus Christ reigning from that temple. Ezekiel 43 and verse 1.

And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. Verse 5. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And then I heard him speaking to me from the temple while a man stood beside me. And he said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile my holy name, not they nor their kings by their harlotry, or with the carcasses of their kings or their high places. Brother Jesus Christ is going to be a hands-on king. He's not going to be where the Father reigns from the universe, the whole expanse that we don't even comprehend. Remember, the universe was made for mankind in this part of the plan. But here Jesus Christ is reigning from Zion, the future capital of the world. His glory fills the temple. The glory fills that area of Zion. And that's the future reign of Jesus Christ on this earth. Notice Ezekiel 48 and verse 35. We'll turn all the way over to the end of the book. Ezekiel 48 and verse 35. I mentioned this earlier. The very last verse of this wonderful section starts in chapter 40, goes all the way through the end, chapter 48. It says here in verse 35, All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits, and the name of the city that day, from that day, shall be the Lord is there. It's not going to be Jerusalem. It's going to be the Lord is there. Now that would have to be the new language, which we don't know. But in the new language, it's going to be, the Lord is there. Whenever you hear that word, you're immediately with the new language, you're going to say, Yes, that's where the Lord is. That's where He reigns from. That's wonderful. He's on this earth. He's reigning there. He's the King. He's establishing the Kingdom, minute by minute, week to week.

So the first reason, brethren, why the Kingdom of God is going to be a future utopia is because the King comes to this earth. Number two, we will have the greatest laws ever. We will have the greatest laws.

The greatest laws ever. And of course, those come from God. Jesus Christ is the lawgiver of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ personally gave those laws to Moses. Jesus Christ, brethren, taught those laws when He was on this earth. He died because those laws had been broken.

And He lives and reigns forever at His Father's right hand. So we're going to have the greatest laws in that future Kingdom ever. He will set His perfect laws in motion. Those laws will be taught. Notice with me in Psalm 119. Psalm 119.

Psalm 119 in verse 59. Verse 59.

So verse 59. I thought about your ways, David writes. So David is saying, God, I thought about Your laws, Your ways, Your principles. And here's what David did. After he meditated, after he thought about those laws, he says, I turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste. I did it quickly. I did not delay to keep Your commandments. I think that's one reason why David has called a man after God's own heart, because, brethren, he really respected. He loved God's law. He responded to God's law.

And sometimes that's hard. And sometimes that's very challenging. We get accustomed to the law, and we don't treat it respectfully. And that means we don't treat God respectfully because those laws are His. He lives them. That's what He is. So he says, I made haste. I didn't delay. And then in verse 133, maybe just a page over, verse 133, David continues, Direct my steps. He says, Buy Your Word.

Now, that's interesting. He said, God, You just make sure I stay within Your Word, within Your laws. You just let me really just pace right in that main channel, that bedrock area. Let no iniquity have dominion over me.

And that's a tough one. That's a tough one. Because we're human. And sometimes, as we heard in the wonderful sermonette, we can get discouraged. I appreciated the message very much. And we can ask God to get us out of that rut and out of that discouragement. But to stay on track, let's go back to verse 37. Verse 37, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, David writes. Wouldn't that be wonderful, brethren, if we could just automatically kind of have our eyes just, you know, self-center? He says, turn my eyes, got away from worthless things. They might be reading things, viewing, you know, any of that. Just say, God, let my eyes always look on productive and good things. It goes on in verse 37, revive me in your way. Again, I think that ties in very well with Mr. Thomas' sermonette. You know, revive me, store me, encourage me. I've done wrong, help me to get back on track. So, brethren, the law of God is going to be that big, deep channel where the Holy Spirit of God flows. It's always through that law of love. That law of outgoing concern. We have those laws now. No new system. No one's going to come along and say, hey, you know, I've got some brand new things you didn't ever hear about. There's the 11th commandment, there's the 12th commandment.

No, brethren, God has blessed us with the law. It's not a curse. It's a good thing. Because then it prevents hurt.

It's just a beautiful thing. And, of course, we can't keep it on our own, so that's where God comes in, has to come in. It's His Holy Spirit that changes the mind from the inside, the heart. And then we love that law. We honor it as best as we can. Sometimes we can't do it perfectly. We can be forgiven as repent, but we're right back on track. Now, the royal law of God does not hurt, does not destroy. It's only for the good. It never hurts, never destroys. It's always for the good. I read an article some years ago about a man who was tested for over 300 chemicals. Now, there are tests like that. I've never had a test. I'd be, I think, afraid. But he was tested for over 300 chemicals, and the test determined that he had 165 chemicals in his body.

You know, he had a really small heart. How many chemicals? 165. Chemicals in his body included traces of PCBs, which are used as electrical insulators, and the pesticide DDT, which this man may have been exposed to growing up amid factory smoke and sometimes playing in a dump. This man actually lived in Kansas City. If you live in Kansas City, I'm very sorry about this. Nothing personal. This man remembers playing in an unfenced landfill near the Kansas River, and he recalled his neighborhood being sprayed for mosquitoes.

Now, today, I know our neighborhoods are sprayed in the fields. They tell us to get out of town. They actually notify you by law, probably, where they're going to be spraying. So that left a pesticide-laced mist in the air. Nearby factories made cars, soap, fertilizer. They released plumes of smoke that sometimes would engulf passing cars, he said. The landfill was closed in 1970. The EPA in 1982 declared it hazardous. Well, it's too late for a lot of people. The chemical with the highest relative concentration of its body is known as PBDE. It is used as a flame retardant in mattresses and pillows and plastic casings of products such as TVs and cell phones.

Now, one thing, if you go into a new building, you know, you have that new building smell. Brethren, a lot of that actually is not a good smell, is it? It's off-cassing of the chemicals and the plastics and the adhesives and all of that. We're about to change halls in one of our local areas back west, and we're going to a beautiful new library, and it's a green library. And one of our brethren had been in construction for years.

He said, you know, Steve, I think this building costs at least a million dollars more. Because it's built green. It's built with the consumer in mind. There are such standards that you, there are a lot of natural products instead of these processes and chemicals that are not good for you, are built in this building. I thought that was wonderful for our brethren. Not only have a better hall, but it's green. And I think in the kingdom, brethren, we're going to go green, don't you? Now, I know there's politics involved. I'm not there. There won't be politics in the kingdom.

But, you know, when you really look at scriptures, which we will hear in Isaiah 11, you can't hurt in the kingdom. You can't build a place that's going to off-gas and hurt people. It's against the law of God. It's against the law of love. Let's go to Isaiah 11, verse 9. Now, this is something we've read many times, most of us. And the one application, and there's many, many applications to God's law of love.

So let me just slice this into a narrow piece here. Isaiah 11, verse 9. And it's a major principle, truly, that is applied across the board in the coming kingdom. Isaiah 11, verse 9, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy kingdom. The word mountain means kingdom. For the earth shall be filled of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So, brethren, everyone will know the Ten Commandments, the law of love, and as it is applicable across the board.

We're not going to hurt. Not only does that mean we're not going to hurt people and physically, but we're not going to hurt them chemically. I guess I could get into some of this stuff and say, I wonder if Christ will not invent a brand new way of creating energy in the kingdom that is going to be so natural and so wonderful.

I don't know. But again, Christ isn't going to have anything that really hurts us. However, he has this in mind, and the Father, it's already planned out, it's been planned for a long time, it's not going to hurt. People won't have, oh, I test me for chemicals, you know? Or I have this and I have that element. How many of our elements are caused by our environment? Our food, for instance, our soils. It is greatly polluted. Imagine, though, what Satan does the last few years before Christ returns.

Imagine the kind of radioactivity that can be on this earth in our soil, our water, and our air. Wouldn't Satan want to destroy us even through our environment, don't you think? Anything he can to hurt life, he's for. So I think it will have to be a universal cleanup process. It may take a while, but you apply this law, and it's a wonderful thing.

It will help people. So our world is in violation of God's law. We don't even know them, much less live them in this world or this kingdom now. Our government, most governments, have thousands of regulations. Thousands, and it's a controversy today. The Federal Registry is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations.

Also, executive orders and other presidential documents. Today, the Federal Registry stands at an all-time record. Last count I saw a few weeks ago, and it may be out of date, but now probably is, 81,405 pages. So if you're opening up a business, you've got to read a lot of material to be within these laws and procedures. To me, brethren, if you are within the law of God, you don't need many more additional laws.

Now, there will be laws, I don't doubt, because if you go up to the Old Covenant, you'll see administrative laws dealing with that culture. One of them was with the flat roofs in the Middle East at that time, and they still exist. I was in Israel last year, and you'll see a lot of these flat roof buildings. All right, so there's a little, I call them a parapet, a little mini-fence around the top of that roof.

Why? So people won't stumble off. So God has the Old Covenant laws added to the law of love, the law of neighborly love. But they're all sensible. They're all sensible. And they're, again, for the edification of the human family. But we have over 81,000 pages in the Federal Registry today. The impact of regulatory overhead in our nation is $1.75 trillion. This absorbs 12% of the U.S. gross domestic product. That's over a tithe of our overhead, and our nation is spent on making sure companies and citizens are not violating some regulation.

It shows the terrible waste of human nature and this world. In the Kingdom, brethren, as we live the laws of God, the laws of God free us from the encumbrance of a lot of waste of money and effort. When you live the law of God, brethren, you don't need others saying, ah, you have violated something else. Why? Because God's Spirit in you is showing you how to extend love to that individual or that company over here. And we're not self-regulated. That would be a wrong verbiage. We're God-regulated. God in His people today, in the Church, and in the Kingdom of God, all people will have that ability to say, you know, you're right.

I'm not going to bury some waste in the ground because that could hurt. We'll have our recycling and our reprocessing as Christ shows us. And on and on, we'll enjoy the fruit of that. There's a lesson here. The laws of God save money.

They save lives. They bless people. Satan has re-educated mankind to say, oh, let's do away with those terrible laws. The Sabbath is a bad law. Brethren, if you ever thought that, it's probably been a very long time. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift to you. It's a wonderful blessing today to have the Sabbath, each and every seventh day. Notice in Jeremiah 31 and verse 33 with me. Jeremiah 31 and verse 33.

Jeremiah 31 and verse 33, please. Mr. Seiber, I think, referred to this verse last night, this concept of the New Covenant in the Kingdom. And it is, of course, critical. And we're really talking in the second point that that law of God, the beautiful law of God, will have to be activated only through the Spirit of God. Otherwise, it's not in our heart and we're become like ancient Israel, just simply having a form of obedience and not any substance. Jeremiah 31 and verse 33, please. Verse 33.

I will remember no more. Well, I have repented. That's why. God doesn't forgive until we repent. And God says, well, I don't remember their sin because they're a devoted son or daughter. I love them. They're on track and they're doing great. They're going to be in my family, my kingdom. So I just think it's amazing. A lot of these political arguments, brethren, that we're exposed to, we just think, what if they could learn this law or that law of God right now? It'd be amazing, but that's not going to happen until Christ comes. James Madison stated in 1778, quote, We have staked the whole future of America, civilization, not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God, unquote. James Madison, 1778. Pretty close, isn't it, brethren, to the truth? See, our civilization, our republic, cannot stand, he says, unless we have the ability to govern ourselves and sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments. What are we missing here? What are we missing here? The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, 200-plus years later. The farther, brethren, our nation or any nation goes from the Ten Commandments, the tougher it's going to get on that nation. Its people will suffer, and there will be inevitable death to that civilization. So here we are, a nation seemingly with so many problems today, and they argue, they debate, and there's no solution. Because they don't want to look to God. They don't want to look to His laws. Well, God will carry over us individually into the Kingdom, brethren, and we will be in that family of God. We're learning the laws of God today, day to day, and that's a major key for the Kingdom of God in the future. Number three, the third reason why the Kingdom of God will be the utopia of tomorrow, and that is territory will be conducive to success for every nation. Territory will be conducive to success for every nation.

Well, the natural resources will be spread abroad by Jesus Christ as a blessing for all peoples. Our world is not made that way today. We have natural resources kind of glumped together here and there, but they're going to be spread out so all peoples, all nations are blessed. We won't have the rich countries and then the poor countries, but frankly, a lot of our poorer countries have done a very bad job in managing their resources. America is one of the most wasteful, in fact, they say, the most wasteful nation the world has ever seen. We are consumers. We consume, and we devote a lot of our space to landfill. And I'm guilty of it as much as anybody. It's kind of frightening sometimes to go out and see after a week in the rubbish bin what you've consumed and created in a week, right? And then you look down the neighbors down the street and say, wow, do they have a week? You know, they've got three trash bins full and stuff overflowing, but you think, we really are a nation of consumers, and we've got all these RVs and this and that. Some of that's fine, but, you know, must we have it all? You really think that God says, I'm going to spread about my blessings. We're going to learn to take those resources and maximize them and not waste them, and not just take that kind of thing and misuse it. Notice in Isaiah 41 and verse 18. Isaiah 41 and verse 18.

Isaiah 41 and verse 18, please. Isaiah 41 and verse 18. Many scriptures in the Old Testament particularly talk about this reformation of the world. I will open up rivers in desolate heights. Well, that's going to be a great blessing for all those areas. Fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. We, brethren, have in the West today a lot of desert. We live in a semi-arid high desert in Boise, Idaho, but we have the Boise River. We have the Snake River, so we get by pretty well. But we're not as green as the east, certainly, but there's a lot of deserts around the world. The Gobi Desert, Sinai Desert, desert's all over. So some of that's because of mismanagement, frankly. And God is going to heal those lands and put back the water and the soil. Verse 19, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar in the acacia tree. So instead of deforestation, we're going to have a forest again, the myrtle and the oil trees. And I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the ox tree together. I'd like to see that, the ox tree.

Verse 20, that they may see and know and consider and understand, he says together, that the hand of the Lord has done this. You know, who's responsible? God is Jesus Christ and the Holy One of Israel has created it. So when we see the old photos, the videos, that, well, that used to be the Gobi Desert, now look at it. Wow, they're producing wonderful gardens and they've got forests and all of that. Well, who's done that? Jesus Christ has loved those people there and He's loved people everywhere with all the resources they need. Now, the challenge for all these people in the Kingdom, brethren, is not a lack of resources, it's to use the resources God's way.

That's a challenge. That's where God's Spirit again comes in. Because people can take a wonderful gift and abuse it. They can waste it. Nature likes to do that. So, again, there has to be the control factor. And is this going to really produce something? Do I need this or just want this? Do I have to have this or am I just wasting this? Droughts will be a thing of the past. Natural disaster is gone. The weather healed. The soil perfect for growing. Mountains will be brought low. Ocean's gone. Ice fields vanished.

Amazing prophecy about the change here is in Ezekiel 47. Please turn with me to Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel 47. Now, I'm going to be reading this section in part from today's English Bible. I don't recommend it at all for doctrine, but this is a passage where it's translating cubits into yards. So that's the reason I use it.

A lot of you may have the New King James like I do or the King James. So we're going to translate through today's English Bible those cubits so it makes a little bit more impact for us. So Ezekiel 47, and I'm going to start rather than verse 1. Ezekiel 47 verse 1. So here's what Ezekiel saw here. The man led me back to the entrance of the temple. Water was coming out from under the entrance and going east in the direction the temple faced. So the temple, brethren, in the kingdom will face east. And this water, an artesian well, if you will, by God. Christ is going to create this artesian pure.

It's not natural water. It is what I would consider holy water that's going to come out of the threshold of that new temple. And that's going to be flowing to the east constantly. And notice the fascinating trail of that water. It's flowing down underneath the south part of the temple past the south side of the altar.

And then the man took me out of the temple area by way of the north gate and led me... So there are several gates in the new temple. He led me to the gate that faces east. And a small stream of water was flowing out to the south side of that gate. So not much water, but it's water. In verse 3, with his measuring rod, the man measured 560 yards.

Hence I use this translation, 560 yards downstream to the east. And he told me to wade through the stream there. He says it came up to my ankles. Verse 4, then he measured another 560 yards and the water came up to my knees. And another 560 yards farther down, the water came up to my waist. And another 560 yards more. And there was a stream so deep I was not able to wade through it.

It was too deep to cross except by swimming. Verse 6, he said to me, mortal man, note all this carefully. Then the man took me back to the riverbank. And when I got there, I saw that there were very many trees on each bank. And he said to me, this water flows to the land to the east and down into the Jordan River.

And, as this translation correctly states, and to the Dead Sea. So eventually this water gets to the Jordan Valley. And, of course, that's where the Dead Sea is. When it flows into the Dead Sea, it replaces the salt water of that sea with fresh water. Verse 9, wherever the water flows, there will be all kinds of animals and flesh. And the stream will make the water of the Dead Sea fresh, and wherever it flows, it will bring life.

Now, let me go back to the New King James here in verse 10. There will be that that fisherman will stand by it from Ngedai to Ngelim, and there will be places where spreading their nets, and their fish will be the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea. That would be the Mediterranean, exceedingly many. But its swamps and marshes will not be healed. They will be given over to salt.

Well, brethren, what a fantastic journey Ezekiel took. He had to start swimming. And he says, you know, this water just keeps getting wider and deeper, and wider and deeper as I go away from the temple. And finally, it's a massive river, and it goes into the Jordan. And then from there, because the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea to the south, because the Dead Sea is the deepest place on earth, 1,300 feet below sea level.

He said that water is going to heal what we call the Dead Sea. It's dead because the salt content is enormous. It's way saltier than any of the seven seas around the world. It's seven times as salty, as a matter of fact, and you float in the Dead Sea. I was there last year. We did float. It's hard to swim in the Dead Sea because of the buoyancy with the salt. It smells terrible. It's a resort area. I thought, I don't know why it's a resort area. Well, it's a resort area because people like to get all the mud from the Dead Sea.

There's a lot of salt and nutrients there, evidently, and they just spread themselves all over. It looks pretty ghastly. I thought, resort area? I can think of a better resort area. But anyway, they do like it for the health, and perhaps there's reasons for that. But I never indulged. I went into the Dead Sea, but I didn't want to just go full tilt into that. But it does smell.

A lot of minerals, a lot of salt. Well, nothing flows out of the Dead Sea. It's the deepest part of the world. Nothing flows out. It's dead. There's no fish there. Nothing can survive, except there's stagnation, and there's foul minerals, and there's some microscopic life and all that. But this is fantastic. It shows, brethren, how Christ will heal the world in terms of the nature of God. I mean, the world's land and sea life and all of that. It's just a wonderful thing to think about.

And again, it's an analogy of God's Holy Spirit flowing out of the temple. That's where Jesus Christ resides. And wherever God's Spirit goes, it heals. It actually changes people. Turn with me to Amos 9 and verse 13. Now, we've studied this for years, but again it shows the change of topography and how the resources will be spread around the world for all people to enjoy. One nation won't have to attack another nation because they don't have anything. They'll all have many, many things, all that they need, and then some.

Amos 9 verse 13, We've all seen vineyards. It's quite symbolic here. The mountains will drip with sweet wine and all the hills will flow with it. But the way I take verse 13 is these crops rather are going to grow so fast. You're going to have one cycle of crop and reaping and sowing one after the other very, very quickly, which does not happen in the world today. We spent 29 years in the Midwest and some years west, and if you get three hay crops in, you're doing well in that part of the country.

Maybe in the South you get four, I don't know. But there you could have maybe five or six crops. Just think about that. The soil is so rich and the warmth of the sun is so wonderful, and the dew is just perfect. These crops just grow so quickly, and pretty soon you're harvesting, and yes, it's time to plant, and it's time to harvest, it's time to plant. And there's an abundance of food, but it has to start with the healing. So God will repopulate the earth from maybe around a billion or whatever it is to many, many billion, but we're going to be fed, we're going to be sheltered, we're going to be clothed, we're going to have many, all that we need, and then some.

So all nations are blessed. Let's move on to our last point, and that is people have the covering of blindness taken away. Now this is major. If we don't have the blindness taken away, these folks come up in a wonderful kingdom, but brethren, they don't understand. They just think they've struck it rich, and they abuse it, and they're not any happier in terms of their own life than they were before.

They just have a lot more. So we understand how important this is. We rehearsed this the day of atonement. You don't have the kingdom without Satan being put away. And then you don't have it, brethren, without the spiritual blindness being removed. We're not going to turn to 2 Corinthians 4, but it's in verses 3 and 6. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 6.

That veil of blindness shall be removed. Now, brethren, if I were to ask you, how many of you have relatives that need to have the blindness removed, all of our hands would come up. Everybody has family who that veil hasn't been lifted by God yet, but he will. You can't remove it. I don't care how long you and I preach. There isn't enough time. God will do that miraculously.

It may be in the kingdom of God when that happens. Wonderful. That's their best time. So God will do it for each and every person. No one is lost. No one is lost. They'll all have a chance for that understanding of who God is, what he is, just like you and me.

One day they'll wake up in the kingdom and say, wow, I never knew. You're right. Was it your fault? Mostly not, because God didn't open your mind. Satan put that veil in front of there and God didn't remove it. So let's turn to Ezekiel 36 and verse 25. Ezekiel 36 and verse 25.

Ezekiel 36 and verse 25, please.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, God states, And you shall be clean, and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the heart of stone and out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk. See, again, how do we walk in those laws? It's God saying, I cause you. It's my spirit in you. It's me in you. And you will keep my judgments and do them. And then you shall dwell in the land that I give to your fathers, And you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanness, And I will call for the grain, and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. Well, of course, because God is merciful and loving and kind, And he cannot wait, rather, from all of this to happen. Now, let's see if I can find the section. Let's just drop down then to verse 36. And then, the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places, And planted what is desolate, and I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it. It's just a wonderful time, brethren, coming, as we rehearse these seven days, And then finally the last day, the eighth day, the last great day, Which is, of course, an entirely different holy day and theme from these seven days. Robert Frost once wrote, A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. And our justice system, brethren, today will be changed. Christ is perfectly just. He knows the heart. He knows what's happened. We won't have the jury system and all this kind of rigmarole today, Because again, the mind changes, and all of those lawsuits, and all of that waste each, And the difference of opinion, it's gone. So I'm saying it's perfect. Human nature will be there, but not compared to what we have today. The mind that God is working on can see the problems that need to be changed. The mind that God is working on can see the problems that need to be changed. While the mind that is not being worked on cannot see them.

Of course, even if that mind could see the problems, it does not have the ability to overcome them. But the time is coming when everyone will see, and everyone has a chance then to grow in God's love and God's grace. I'll tell you a story about how this is a story about me and my blindness, so it does tie in. Years and years ago, we were at a wonderful family's home for Sunday dinner out in a rural area. And it was about 9.30 at night when we were trying to get home on this dark, desolate, two-lane rural road in the Midwest. And I knew that our gasoline tank, fuel tank gauge was low, and I said, You know, Maloney, we can still get up to the interstate, because interstate exits always have service stations, right? Always. But I said, I think we can get up there. Pretty soon, I realized we're not going to get there and the engine quit, but we coasted to a farmhouse, driveway. And I looked at my wife, rather smugly, and said, Not to worry. I'm in charge here. It's okay. So I got out, I went to the farmhouse, and there was a dog barking. And being a farm boy, most farms, you got a little fuel tank, right? It had a fuel tank there, gasoline tank. I said, Oh, this is going to be perfect. All I do is wrap on the door, talk farmer, and, you know, get a gallon or two, and away we go. So I knocked on the door, and I saw inside one little light, and I saw the silhouette of a little lady. And I wrapped again. I said, You know, she's not coming. So I just started to talk through the door. I said, Hello, my name is Steve. I've run out of gas. I've got my wife and three little kids in the car. Could you give me some gasoline, please? And she didn't move. So I repeated it, and then finally said, Ma'am, I'm a minister. Thinking, Oh, this will do it. You know, trust me.

And then I saw the silhouette go upstairs, and the light went off. And I thought, She's probably getting her shotgun right now. But I said, The dear lady, I've scared her. I don't blame her for not wanting to open that door. She's done the right thing. So I went back to the car, and I told Malani quickly, and I said, This is what happened. Then I said, What are we going to do now? And my wife says, Well, we could pray. What a novel idea, I thought. So we had a quick family prayer with three old kids in the back, my wife. Steve, you goofed it again. Here you are in the middle of nowhere, and I can't get gas. We did pray. God, please have mercy. And please help this head of the household here. And so I said, I'm just going to get out of the car, and I think she did as well. We got to the back of the car, rather than within seconds. Boom. Saw a headlight come around the corner. Then I saw another headlight come around the corner. Two Illinois state troopers cruisers came up within 30 seconds of that prayer. Okay, maybe it was 60 seconds. But I kid you not, two came up. You know, they always have these big engines. A couple of big burly guys. And the one said, what do you want? I said, well, I've run out of gas. I'm an idiot. He says, yeah, yeah, I get that.

And so he motions to his friend, go ahead, and the cruiser pulls off. So he said, get in the car. So he doesn't say a word all the way to the service station. I look over, there's the gun, there's the badge, and I said, is he an angel or what? I don't know. Do angels wear badges?

But anyway, he doesn't say a word. He gets me the gas, comes back, and we're home free. But I thought, boy, you know, some of us have to learn a while, don't we? I could have prayed. So that's the veil of being removed, isn't it? Where God is in all things. God can help us any time, every time. No exceptions. We depend on Him. Well, let's start wrapping things up here, brother. It's over in Isaiah 25 and verse 6. Isaiah chapter 25 verse 6. Just had to get my short story in there. Isaiah 25 verse 26. True story, we'll meet the dear lady someday, and I'll apologize for scaring her that Sunday night. Isaiah 25 and verse 6 says, In this mountain the Lord of hosts will make all people a feast of choice pieces. And he says, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the leaves. And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that has spread over all nations. And He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces, the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken it. Now this is so encouraging, verse 9. Listen to this. It shall be said in that day. Now this is the kingdom. This is the time, rather than we're portraying right now. In the kingdom of God, they're going to say, behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him. He will save us. This is the Lord we have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. It's almost like people in the kingdom are going to say, you know what? I just kind of knew there was something. Didn't know what it was, but I knew there was something more than what I saw in this life. And that's probably going to be true for a lot of people. God says, you're going to say, wow, if I'd have just known. But it wasn't their time, and they'll have that opportunity in the kingdom. It'll be wonderful. So as a tiny mustard seed truly grows, that's the kingdom, isn't it, brethren? A small mustard seed at the beginning. And as the generations go by, your city is going to get larger, and then more cities and your generations will come and go. Those that you have responsibility for under Jesus Christ, it's going to be truly amazing to see that utopia of the kingdom come. So first of all, the Christ will be the king. And second, we will have those laws, the best laws ever. And third, the territory will be conducive to success for every nation. And fourthly, the veil of misunderstanding and not knowing will be removed. So a utopia, brethren, truly is coming. It's coming to a neighborhood near you. It's coming sometime in the near future. How long? None of us know. But that utopia of the kingdom come, God, truly is coming.