Kings and Priests

Well, Hoxamaya, everybody! Happy feast! It's always good to be able to say that at the feast at the very beginning here. And, of course, we had a wonderful here number that was done very triumphantly, talking about the coming of the Kingdom of God.

We're really happy to be up here. It has been really something we've wanted to do for a long, long time. My wife and I, this is our first time in Alaska, and it is certainly a very beautiful place. I understand why now people are coming up here and living, and it is just absolutely gorgeous up here.

A tremendous place, and I hope we have a little bit of a chance to explore some of it. But, as you know, the time sometimes gets away from us, and we probably will not have enough time to get up there and see the gold miners and all that sort of thing, which would be very, very intriguing.

I'm sure probably all of you see that on TV anyway, but a lot of gold mining going on, I guess, up in the Yukon area. Of course, that's not close by here, but other areas, of course, in the northern part of Alaska. Last evening, Mr. Semeth-Kolviek talked about how Jesus Christ was coming to establish His Kingdom upon the earth, and He's going to bring world peace.

Think about that, how wonderful that is going to be when the nations lay down their arms and finally there is a type of peace in the entire world. Well, how's that going to come to pass? How's that going to happen? You know, Jesus Christ began His ministry and He came proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is the government of God being established upon the earth.

And that government, of course, is already being formulated, and that government processes you. Those who are God is calling now and training for the purpose of being a part of that wonderful government for the future. You know, we are, of course, practicing, as Mr. Ewell was talking about, on surveying, but we're also practicing for that duty, for that tremendous responsibility in the world tomorrow when it all begins. You know, government is very, very important.

And we see in the world today, in fact, government's gone awry. And of course, in the nations that are round about us, oftentimes, and even in our own nation, we have serious problems because government is not right. It is not the way that God intended it to be. You know, the Bible is the greatest single contribution to what government should be. In fact, I think that when the designers of the Constitution of the United States and much of the laws that we have in the United States are based upon what the Bible talks about.

Of course, it doesn't mean necessarily people practice it. But the Bible has contributed much to not only our government, but the governments of other nations around the world. And interestingly, when you study the subject of governance, besides the Bible, probably one of the great contributions to government was the Magna Carta.

I'm sure all of you here have heard of the Magna Carta, but in 1215, after, of course, so many that were tyrants in England, the Magna Carta was signed, signed by King John. And basically, it gave certain rights to the English people. Before, basically, a king had total right, and citizens had no rights whatsoever. And it, of course, also secured rights for kings, but it gave rights to the people.

And it made a great impact upon not only, of course, Britain and what happened after that time, but it impacted the United States later, and other nations of Europe, and other nations in other parts of the world. And when, in fact, the original thirteen colonies were declared independents from Britain in 1776, you remember that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, he says this, he says, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And so they recognize government should help citizens pursue happiness.

And that, of course, is one of the main duties of what government should do. Certainly, it should not rob us from happiness. It should ensure, in fact, that we can be happy in the kind of atmosphere, the kind of culture that is developed within a country. You know, the laws of God, brethren, give rights to human beings.

We all have rights because of what the Bible says. It gave rights to people. It gave rights to slaves, even. And, of course, it allowed the king also to understand how he should govern. In the time of the giving, of course, of the law of God, and when the Torah was developed, it had to be read by the king of Israel every year, basically.

He had to, in fact, write out a copy of the Torah himself. And he had to keep that with him at all times, and he had to himself refer to that. And, of course, it was to enable him to be the kind of king that he should be. You see, God never intended the leaders of Israel. He never intended that they ever be tyrants. He wanted them to be the kind of leaders that were good leaders, where people could be happy in such a government, in such a country, in a nation that would have the laws of God as a basis for their society.

And so he had to be familiar with the laws and the commandments and the statutes of God, and he had to be humble if he was going to lead the nations. You know, Americans typically—I'm sure I don't have to tell you this—but Americans typically have a problem with authority. I'm sure you don't, you know, of course, not in this room. None of us have ever had a problem with authority, have we? No. If we're like most Americans, yes, we do. And even we who are converted can have a problem with authority.

And, of course, it's kind of hard to avoid authority, isn't it? It's all around us. It's almost woven into the fabric of society. You can't get away from authority in the societies that we live in. It's a part of civilization. In fact, one would argue that it actually is what makes civilization work. Well, brethren, as future kings and priests in the kingdom of God that is coming, it's important that we know how to properly use authority when we have it. Now, think about the fact that what we're talking about here at this feast here on this first day, we're starting discussing and began last night talking about the coming kingdom of God. I was thinking today, and you know that might be as closer than we think, closer than we realize. What if it happened in 10 years?

You know, imagine again, 10 years from now, or 20, or whatever it might be. I'm not trying to set dates, but our lives are going to be totally transformed from what they are right now. And we're going to be doing things that are going to be so awesome that will reflect the awesome God that we serve. All of us are a part, again, of something that is taking place, a monumental thing.

You know, God, when he brought about Israel, gave them his laws, he intended that they be a nation, a kingdom, a priests. He intended that they be an incident to the nations of the world, that all the world would look at them and what they did and how they accomplished things, and that they would be led by that example. And you know, it didn't happen, of course, so much with Israel as God intended it to be. Well, let me tell you, brother, it is going to happen. It is going to occur. God says something that's going to happen. You can bet on that. That it's going to be accomplished, and it's going to be accomplished, we know, at the very outset of the millennium. But we need, as God's people, brethren, we need to know about authority from the biblical perspective. You know, in the world tomorrow, we're going to be ruling. Again, think about it. It might not be all that far off. We're going to be ruling with Jesus Christ as kings and priests. Revelation 5.10. I'm not going to go to it because you know it so well. And as Mr. Ewell was talking about, here at the Feast of Tabernacles, we are to serve, learn to serve, and this is a good place to practice not only serving, but in that service, we're learning how to prepare to be kings and priests for the future. Though we don't often think about this in this way, but we exercise authority in many ways in our lives already.

We exercise authority as parents. You know, sometimes, of course, we don't feel like we're too much in terms of authority, but we do exercise authority as parents. If you're a boss at your job, you exercise authority there. An officer of a company or whatever your role might be as far as your work, you may exercise authority over other employees or over whatever it is that you have responsibility over. But not only are we exercising authority, brethren, but we also must submit to authority on all times. Now, how many people of you, when they're young, particularly, people sometimes can say this, you know, I don't like people telling me what to do. I'm joining the Army. Of course, that is the worst thing to do, isn't it? To go off and join the Army. Then you learn really what authority is. So we have to learn to submit to authority as citizens.

Now, if you decide you don't want to submit to authority and not pay your taxes, you know, they're going to give you one of those suits with the stripes on it, and you'll be off somewhere put away. So we have to, again, be under that authority.

As employees, we're under authority. As children, we're under authority. To parents, you're simply people submitting to one another. The Bible says we're supposed to submit to one another. Doesn't it say that? That God expects us to submit to one another. So we're under authority in that sense with one another. So what we have to be, of course, in our lives, not only if we're exercising authority or under authority, we have to be humble. We have to have a certain amount of humility to be successful at what we do. But, you know, brethren, sometimes we lack wisdom about dealing with authority. People often use authority unwisely in this world. It's not, of course, something that would be unique. It happens all the time. I don't know how many people come to me, you know, in the ministry and talk about, my boss at work does this. And how many times have you heard that story? You know, about what happens on the job where somebody maybe is being a bit unwise with how they use authority, maybe in the workplace, and maybe, just maybe, sometimes people don't have the right approach to submitting to authority as well. So that might be the problem as well. And sometimes people under authority don't react to it in the right way, in a godly manner. You know, looking at our government, brethren, it is impossible to learn the right way or the right use of authority. I mean, chances are, if you're going to look to the United States government or any government of this world, typically you're not going to fight a very good example about how we're supposed to exercise authority or react to authority. It just is not that way at all. It can be, of course, very hard to find anybody that seems to have common sense. Sometimes we call it common sense, but it's not very common, is it? In the world today, it just simply is not. I remember former President Ronald Reagan once said this. He said the most terrifying nine words in the English language is this. I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.

Typically, again, people are not too fond of the help sometimes the government gives.

Regulations, of course, have been multiplied, and that was one of the big complaints that Mr. Reagan had back in those years about just regulations. Of course, since he was president and since died, there are probably infinitely more regulations in the world and the society that we live in. I had the opportunity to be the cat director up in High Sierra and got to know the caretaker of the High Sierra camp pretty well. He and I have the discussion. There were new laws that were being enacted. This is a couple of years ago, but he was talking about how that the EPA had come up to his property there that he oversees, and they'd been there for decades, having a camp on the property. He said that the EPA came up and they had to test his water to see if it was drinkable. They've been drinking, of course, about 75 years up there, but apparently there was a fee that was slapped on the camp for that. They had not paid a fee for any such thing. So anyway, it was something he was very, very upset with.

In real life, very often this happens, where people have to pay a fee for something before they have not. I know we've got a little bit of a mountain cabin over in the San Bernardino Mountains, and now they have put a fee, and it's roughly, I think, $175 or $80, and it has to do with a septic tax to check the septic tax. Before, we hadn't had that fee, and now we've got that fee every single year. So they're multiplying. They're increasing. Of course, a lot of it is, of course, the way the government raises money. There was a Department of Water Resources representative that decided that he had to go by, and he had to go by a Texas ranch, and he had to talk to this old rancher. Now, you go down and you start talking to these old ranchers in Texas, and obviously they've been doing things the way they've been doing it for a long, long time. And this water rep, he goes out to see this old rancher, and he says, I need to inspect your ranch for your water allocation. And the old rancher says, okay, it'd be okay if you did it, but don't go in that field right over there. And the water representative says, you know, rather indignant, being on his high horse, he said, Mr., I have the authority of the federal government with me. He says, you see this card right here? This card means I'm allowed to go wherever I wish on my, on any agricultural land, and no questions asked or answered. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand? And the old rancher nods politely and goes about his chores. And later, the old rancher hears these loud screams, and he sees this water representative running for his life, and close behind him is a rancher's bull.

And the bull is gaining on him at every step, and the representative is clearly terrified, and the old rancher immediately throws down these tools, runs to the fence, and he yells at the top of his lunch, your card! Show him your card!

Maybe that tells us a little bit about humility that we have to have, and we're going to work for the government, at least, and we one day are going to again have those government positions.

I'm sure the card didn't impress the bull much, though. But there truly are no end to regulations the government has put on people, and sometimes those that come to administer them are not all that humble. But, you know, I remember an old quote by Will Rogers. He was a pretty good old Oklahoman philosopher. He said, be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

I like that quote. I like that story. I like to tell the story.

Well, in this message, brethren, let's notice what the Bible says about authority. Let's go into what the Bible says about it. And, of course, we know that people are typically resistant to that authority. Let's go to Romans chapter 13 over here. Romans chapter 13.

Well, people are resistant to authority. I'm joking about these things here, brethren. But we shouldn't, as God's people in any way, of course, be the kind of people that we're picketing against. We're trying to somehow be violent against the government whatsoever. I know we hear a lot of things about what people say. And, again, from the standpoint of being even critical of the government, I think we even should be very careful about that. But in Romans chapter 13, notice here, it says in verse 1, "...let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Let me remember what it says there. It's appointed by God. God is the one that does this. Verse 2, "...therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist it or bring judgment upon themselves." Of course, if the government tells us to disobey God, we know the answer to that.

We simply cannot go against godly authority. Like Peter said, we ought to obey God rather than man.

And the apostles remember, even when they were at odds with the religious authorities of their day, what did they do? They submitted even to a beating. They submitted to these things, and of course, they afterwards rejoiced. They were happy that they were able to suffer in the way that they did for serving Christ. And of course, following the example of Jesus Christ, where He endured so much for us. There's so much in government that is good. Sometimes we joke about the bad things, but there is so much that is good. God has used governments in the past to do good things. In fact, to fulfill His plan, He's used the governments of this world to do that. I do believe that God is used in the United States in a very powerful way, as He did in World War II and other situations around the world. God has used this as a tool to bring about something that fit into His plan. Let's go to Isaiah 45. Just a brief reference to this over there.

So let's again get the understanding that government is not bad. Government is good.

Ultimately, we know it's going to be the best saying for this world and society we live in, that is formed when it comes together, that we're going to have a utopian society in the future when the right kind of leader is there. And Jesus Christ, of course, is coming as the King of Kings of the Lord of Lords. But in Isaiah 45 over here, God had prepared long in advance for this individual to come along. We all, of course, know the story of Esther, but ultimately, God brought about an individual by the name of Cyrus. And of course, when Babylon fell in 539 BC, God had actually given certain prophecies about how that was going to happen that God had prepared Cyrus, who was a powerful king that God used to change the course of the Jewish captives of Babylon. So God was taking care of them through here, you know, a secular leader. But in Isaiah 45, verse 1, notice this. Somehow or another, it went back. My Bible went back to where I had just turned from. But anyway, Isaiah 45, verse 1, Thus says the Eternal to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, so this is why God brought him about, and loosed the armor of kings who opened before him the double doors that God had, in fact, prophesied here, long in advance that Cyrus was going to be a conqueror of Babylon and that these doors were left open. And the account, you know, his getting into Babylon was tied in, in fact. In fact, the doors that normally were bolted shut were left open. Going on here, it says, So that the gates will not be shut, and I will go before you, and it says, and make the crooked places straight, I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron, and I'll give you the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places, and you will know that I the Eternal, who called you by name. You know, here God named him before he was born.

He says, I am the God of Israel, and Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name, and have named you, though you have not known me. He didn't know God, but God used him in a very powerful way. Down in verse 13, it says, I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways, and he will build my city. This is the time, of course, 70 years after the captivity of Judah, when they had gone into Babylon, 70 years afterwards, he made it possible for them to return to Jerusalem. And it says, he will build my city and let my exile go free, not for price, nor reward, says the Eternal of hosts. So God performed this, brethren. He brought it about. He made it happen. He used the government of this world in order to do that, so that Jerusalem could be rebuilt. You know, the Bible is just chock-full of things about government and authority. You know, we look in the Bible. There, of course, there's governance by even judges. There's governance where, you know, prophets were involved.

There's governance, of course, of kings, both good kings and bad kings. So, you know, there's been governance mentioned in the Bible. I don't know what percentage of the Bible talks about government, but a goodly part of it. But what is the goal of government, anyway? What's the goal of authority?

And more specifically, what's the goal of godly authority? Well, the goal of godly authority, brethren, by somebody who is in rule—you know, we know the rulers today are politically motivated, basically. That's what they do. They have nothing to do, in fact, with righteousness. They don't think about the Bible as far as I know. Most of them don't. I'm sure they do what is popular with people, and nations tend to drift that seems farther away from god as a result. You know, we probably could have a ton of funny stories about midterm elections that are coming up. You know, one of the things I find kind of entertaining is to some of these people that are running for Senate, you know, in Arizona. You know, you hear them advertise against somebody else.

And they—I mean, they're like Simon LaGrie. And then you hear the other person advertise against their opponent. And the conclusion is neither one of them should be elected.

None of them should be elected to office. But it's the way, again, politics takes place in this this world, and it's what they do. But again, the Bible says a lot about how kings of Israel ruled, but why, rather? Two basic reasons. Number one, kings were to rule in a way their people should live.

You know, never mind the way sometimes the world is today. You know, you look at the leaders—we hope that people don't live the way the leaders themselves live. But kings should rule in the way that people really should live. And number two, we must learn to live right so that we can rule righteously. So if we can learn how to live righteously, we can rule righteously as God's people. So God wants us to, again, know those two big lessons. You know, when Jesus Christ came, he was born to be a king. He said, I have come that you might have life, he said, and have it more abundantly. And that's what he's going to do when he comes back the second time, and he begins to rule. You know, it says in the Bible that when we see Christ, we will be like him.

Well, then we should be pursuing in a mighty way efforts to become like our elder brother, Jesus Christ. Because as he's going to rule, we're going to rule under him. We're going to have responsibility under Jesus Christ. I won't turn to it, but over in Proverbs chapter 29, verse 2, if you want to record it or write it down, it says, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.

So when the righteous rule, the goal, brethren, of government by righteousness is met.

And people are productive, they're very happy. There have been an occasional leader who has in American history, who has been that kind of person, not in the sense of being righteous so much, but the kind of leader that at least leads in a way that the people are very happy.

They're very secure. They feel very, very much in secure position. And, you know, they are able to pursue, again, their dreams, their hopes, and the things that they need to do.

So again, keep in mind the goal of authority. It really is so people can be happy.

The righteous authority should, again, help us to achieve that. Another thing that is very important to a leader, and hopefully one day we're going to be, again, practicing kings and priests in the world tomorrow, but those in authority must make righteous judgments.

They make righteous judgments. Let's note this over in Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16.

In verse 10, Proverbs 16, you know, we mentioned about being kings and priests in the world tomorrow. To a large extent, David was a king and a priest. His chief role was not again to be a priest in the temple so much, but David was a very, very diligent king. He really set a tremendous example, you know, for Israel. According to Jewish tradition about David, that David was a remarkable man who studied the Torah. And according to Jewish tradition, David, you know, the priest said that David was up studying the Torah before they were.

He was that kind of a king. So, in essence, what we're going to be in the world tomorrow is somewhat like David. We're going to be priest kings. In other words, God's going to expect us to know what the truth is. How can you govern otherwise? We're going to impact people in ways that are going to be so tremendous in the future. And we're doing so, in fact, now by our personal examples. But in Proverbs 16, let's note this over here. It was talking and not turning. But in chapter 16, in verse 10, here in the New King James, it says, divination is on the lips of the king.

In King James, it says, the divine sentence is on the lips of the king. In other words, God is working through him. His mouth must not transgress, it says, in judgment.

He's got to be spot on when it comes to judgment.

Honest weights and scales are the lords. God wants a king who is going to be honest. You don't want somebody stepping on the scale. You don't want to deal with people like that that are dishonest.

And all the weights in the bag are his work. It is an abomination, it says, for kings, verse 12 here, to commit wickedness. For a throne is established by righteousness.

You get that? Throne is established by righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings. And they love him who speaks. It says, what is right. And so this is, again, what a king ought to be like. This is what we should be like when that time comes. Well, this is why God expected kings to write out the Torah and to refer to it every single year, to study it, so that they would be able to make right judgments. And, you know, to be close to God, that they would know the law of God. And we, rather than like manor, should learn the law of God.

Of course, we've got much more, don't we, than they? We don't just have the Torah. We've got the entirety of the Bible, the Old and New Testament, and all the writings of the prophets that go together. All the wisdom of David and Solomon and those that have written that are a part of the scriptures that we read. But we would be better people when God sets up his government, in his kingdom, for the future. Chapter 25, verse 2, of the same book, but in Proverbs 25, verse 2, it says, "...it is the glory of God to conceal a matter." Now, one thing we know is that God has not revealed is everything to us. We have a bit of the plan of God. We see through a glass darkly, even though we have a great deal of understanding. We don't see everything, and God has not revealed everything to us. But notice, it is God's glory that he knows these things, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. So here we see God expects a king to be studying like David was, as I mentioned, the kind of man that he was. He wants us to do that now. It won't be much of a stretch when we do it in the future. When we begin to discuss these things and we go over these things, we learn lots, don't we? So God knows everything, brethren, but he expects kings to search it out so that they can give right judgments. Royal decisions carry a great deal of an impact upon people. So a king has to get the judgment right. He can't make capricious decisions, snap decisions, you know, because of the impact it has on people. People's lives are tied up into it. And unfortunately, there have been people that have been just that kind of a leader that made snap decisions they didn't think about the impact it was going to have on so many people. Another point, brethren, about how we prepare to be kings and priests in the future, it is administering justice. How do we administer justice? Let's go to Proverbs chapter 20 over here. Proverbs 20.

Proverbs 20 in verse 8. Notice it says, a king who sits on the throne of judgment. Again, it might not be that far off that we're going to be sitting on a throne of judgment.

God speed the day when that comes. But it says he scatters all evil before his eyes.

He has a big impact. He can't have a big impact, you know, by the fact of his presence.

From Adam Clark's commentary, it says this, in the British Constitution, there is what is called the court of the king. And it was called the king's bench, where he should sit. Again, this is Adam Clark. And where he always is supposed to be sitting, Adam Clark writes here. The eyes, he's referring to this scripture here that we just read, the presence of the monarch is such a place and he scatters evil. He sees into the case himself and gives right judgment. For he can have no self-interest. Corrupt judges and falsifying counselors cannot stand before him. And the villain is too deeply struck with the majesty and state of the monarch to face out iniquity before him. So God, you know, here in England, they had this and Adam Clark refers to it. Chapter 20 now, in verse 26, notice this here, it says, a wise king sifts out the wicked and brings the threshing wheel over them. Remember the example of the two women and the baby, where Solomon said, well, we'll just divide this baby. And he found out who the real mother was. He was able to sift out the one that was wicked. He was able to figure out who that was and brings the threshing wheel over them. Of course, the threshing wheel that was used in Hartman's time was to divide the weak from the chaff, the good from the evil. So he's like a threshing mill to determine who's right and who is wrong in a case or what the situation is. But it says, the spirit of man is the lamp of the eternal.

Searching all the inner depths of the heart, mercy and truth preserve the king, and by loving kindness he upholds his throne. In the future, we will do that, too, for a thousand years, by how we administer justice, how judgments are rendered at that particular time.

You know, people need to know where you stand. Where do you stand as far as the law of God is?

Are you a straight shooter? Are you going by the scriptures? In the world tomorrow, it'll be no different. We're going to be dealing with physical human beings when we, again, are given judgment opportunity. Chapter 29. Let's go to chapter 29. The Proverbs are just chock full of so much about how, in fact, we can be better people prepared to take on the responsibilities of the future. But in chapter 29, verse 4, notice, as the king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it.

You know, bribery, of course, is what makes the governments of some day should go rattle. I mean, it is an entirely, completely a part of the governments.

You know, prior to the Magna Carta, you know, basically you bought justice in England.

And I guess it could be argued that even in the United States, even though we have all these good laws, you can buy justice in the United States. You know, it's, of course, in some cases, not entirely impossible, that one would not be able to do that. And the reason why is because when people are impoverished, they just can't buy justice. So the rich tend to be able to do that.

But in England, it was that way. Here's a quotation about that time. During the time prior to the Magna Carta, it says, a man was obliged to almost ruin himself by gifts to the king and the queen and their favorites to get the case decided in his favor. That's Adam Clark again.

But a king has to be unbiased.

You know, a good king, brethren, establishes himself by just helping those who can't defend themselves. If we are the type of people that watch after those that themselves just don't have the wherewithal to take care of themselves in the legal sense, that obviously, you know, that is what God desires. We think about the fatherless and the widow.

Chapter 29 here, verse 14 and 16, through 16, it says, the king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever. And that's why we're going to rule in the world tomorrow, brethren. That's why we're going to be around for a thousand years.

And it says, the rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Now, let's apply this, brethren, not so much to child rearing. You know, that's not the point of what the context is really here. It has to do with kings. You know, a king is like a mother or a father to the nation. And, you know, mom and dad see things a little bit more clearly. You know, I've got three of my sons here, or two of my sons here. And, you know, one thing they said when they were younger, as they got a little older and they were able to see it, is that it was hard to fool their parents. You know, they couldn't get away with anything.

Some, in fact, were worse at getting away with it than others, I'm going to say this.

But a father and a mother can really pick up on things much more. And a king is like that.

Or a big brother might be another analogy here. But notice in verse 16, For the wicked are multiplied and transgressions increases, but the righteous will see their fall.

If you've got a good king, and God even can change what even a bad king might do, or a bad someone bad in authority might do as well, to our favor. You know, it happens all the time.

You've got these, sometimes you've got people in authority that, you know, are just hard, hard-tack, they're very hard on how they do things. And God could change the heart of a person for our favor. And I'm sure it's happened for you many, many times. One of the things, brethren, we've got to keep in mind as well, to really be able to make good judgments and to exercise justice in the kingdom, is we should not judge by the outward appearance.

Learning to sort of read people. You know, of course, none of us are ever going to be perfect about that in this physical life. But, you know, we should not judge by appearance. We shouldn't look on the outward appearance of a person, but even Jesus said, judge righteous judgment. You know, God wants us, again, to be merciful. And merciful not, you know, just to those that, you know, are the rich and the wealthy, but merciful to all and be equitable with people. And certainly for those who are defenseless, that need our help even more to be that way, to judge righteously. Just keep in mind—and, of course, we need to learn this very valuable lesson. Keep in mind, someday, the way we treat other people, that's the way we're going to be treated. That's how we're going to be judged. Even Jesus, of course, talked about it. He said, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you're going to be judged, and with a measure you use, it's going to be measured right back to you. That happens in this life, doesn't it? That things come back on us, sometimes like gangbusters, and can humble us mightily. So look at your own flaws, you know, how you are as a person. Be humble to see that you're not all that different. None of us are all that different. We are here in the Church of God today, knowing the truth of God because of God's grace shown to us. And that should be a very big lesson we should learn. So do to others what you would have them do to you, and hopefully that is, you're going to bend over backwards to be as merciful as you can be to people. Now, primary, brethren, to use an authority, primary to it is submitted to authority. I mentioned that already.

You know, we who are, of course, in this life are going to have to learn how to submit to authority.

The fact of the matter is, brethren, God cannot rule anybody, or God will not let in by rule, that He cannot rule Himself. God will never give us a chance to be kings and priests unless we have proven we can be under authority. In one sense, what we're going through now and what we're practicing in this life is learning how to be under authority and making a part of our character, of having humility and being some mischief. You know, God tells us that we should honor, again, the king. The Bible talks about that quite often, to honor the king. And so God wants us to look upon the powers that be and have a certain amount of respect for them, to honor those powers that God has allowed to be placed into office. We should fear God, and the Bible says fear the king, too. In other words, honor them, but, of course, not having a fear, a cowering, prevalent fear of God or the king, but a high respect, a high regard, and stay away. The Bible says stay away from those who are prone to rebelliousness.

Talks about that, in fact, in the Proverbs. In Proverbs 24, I'll just give it to you, Proverbs 24, verse 21 through 22, it talks about not, basically. You know, associated with people who are given to change. You know, these are people that, frankly, are not going to submit to anybody.

Some won't even submit to an authority that's right. And, of course, God condemns that.

Another thing is important the Bible points out, it's better to gain the favor of the king, rather than his wrath. I won't go there, but in Proverbs 16, in verses 13 through 15, it talks about that. You don't want to gain the king's wrath, or, frankly, any magistrate's wrath and anger against you. If you gain the favor of the king, it might open a door.

You know, Mr. Armstrong, when he was alive, he befriended individuals that were, of course, kings and everybody. In fact, he came in contact with, he established a relationship with them.

As I think about it, it's the Philippines, of course, with President Marcos. I'm sure he did not agree with some of the things that Marcos did, in his style, necessarily, but he befriended him.

And it opened doors. It opened doors, and the church in the Philippines grew mildly back in those years. King Budapal of Thailand, another example in the Queen's Circuit, he befriended them.

I think that King Budapal actually considered Mr. Armstrong a very close friend of his.

And they had a bond, and it was beginning to open up doors in Thailand for us. It did open up doors, but I mean, in terms of many people being called, we didn't have a lot of people that were called. If there had been time, maybe that would have worked. Maybe that would have happened.

But it did allow us to do things that were awesome back in those days. But if you anger the authorities, then you cut off even the possibility. So we have to be very careful about what we do and how we conduct ourselves, even as we're learning here and we're practicing here. Those of authority deserve our respect for the office that they hold. Even if they are not so great as a person, they deserve our respect. We should not be denigrating them and putting them down. There are offices in the church that Jesus Christ himself has established. In Ephesians 4, it talks about different roles that have been appointed within the church.

Rather, we will not be held without fault if we denigrate those things that God has placed in the church. What other qualities do we need to have to rule in the kingdom of God? Like I said, Proverbs is just filled with many things. You know, there's a scripture in Proverbs 14 that talks about how we need to have clean hands, basically. We need to be honest. A king has to be honest, and we, of course, as the training to be kings, need to be honest. We shouldn't be ashamed of what we've done in our lives. It's kind of hard to make a judgment about something that you're guilty of. You know, it certainly is... one can be humble and say, well, I've done the same thing, and you could show mercy, obviously, in such cases. But generally, again, you know, we should keep our hands clean. In other words, our example should be right. We need to have purity of heart. The Proverbs talk about having purity of heart and graceful lips. In other words, we need to be the kind of people that are positive, uplifting to others. Nobody wants to be with somebody who's always negative. You know, God wants us to be a positive people, not domestic people.

We've got the greatest promises any human being could ask for in this life, in the Church.

Barna, nobody in the world can even measure up the promises that God has outlayed for us.

But, you know, we don't get high in mind about it. We realize that those promises are not just for us.

We're claiming them now, but someday the whole world will have the chance. And we'll talk about that, of course, as the Holy Days progress and we get to the eighth day. We need to be patient. The Proverbs talk about how we need to develop patience and in generalness and dealing with people. That's a quality that a king has to have, being a gentle person. Brother, if we have all these qualities, we'll gain the favor not only of God, but man, mankind. We would gain certainly the favor of kings and rulers. And not only would we learn how to rule, brethren, we would learn how to be ruled so that we could rule. We've gone through the practice. We've learned about it. Let's go to Revelation chapter 20. As you know, John the Apostle was taken in a vision to the day of the Lord.

He was able to see many, many astounding things. But over here in Revelation chapter 20 is one of the most hopeful chapters, I think, in the Bible because it talks about God's resurrections. It talks about being able to rule with Christ for a thousand years. It gives the hope, in fact, for all mankind here in just Revelation chapter 20. But I'm going to focus on verse 4. John is taken in a vision. He's able to look ahead at this time.

Again, realize it may not be that all that far off for us. This year we are one year closer to that happening. But John looks in verse 4 and he said, I saw thrones. And they sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded, for the witness to Jesus and the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads. But it says, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So John looked ahead, rather than he saw what was going to really happen. I remember one time Mr. Armstrong made this comment.

He said, I've read the end of the book, and we win. We win. So John says, I saw thrones.

You know, in this life, brethren, we mostly, all of us are mostly under authority, aren't we?

We learn how to deal with that. But you know, that's okay. That's okay. It's okay to be under authority. It's okay because we're learning a whole lot more, brethren, in Satan's world, by learning to be under authority than we could ever learn if we were in authority.

Don't you agree with that?

Often, things happen to us that show us the correct way to exercise authority.

And God is far more interested, brethren, in us learning that because in the future, Jesus Christ is going to sit on his throne in Jerusalem. And when he does, brethren, we will be sitting on thrones exercising righteous judgment and authority in God's kingdom. John said, I saw thrones and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. Brethren, think about the fact that might not be all that far off.