We Pioneers of the Kingdom

I grew up in a little town called Sugar Creek, which was right next to Independence, Missouri. And back in those days, by the way, Harry Truman was still alive, and he would take his walks around Independence. I went to the same school that his daughter did. Of course, she was older, but, and had been there many years before. But Independence, of course, got its name as a result of the Declaration of Independence. And Independence was very important to the formation of this country, because back in the 1800s, it was the beginning point for the wagon trains that headed west during the time of what the historians called the Great Migration West on the Oregon Trail. And, you know, as this country was being settled, many thousands of people journeyed across the west to the west, and they faced very difficult times, sometimes hostile territories they had to journey through. Many didn't make it, and they perished along the way. And it was not easy to establish a new life on a vast and unsettled land filled with dangers on every side. I don't know if any of you have ever been through Nebraska, but in Kearney, Nebraska, there's a large exhibit. It's a hall there that is dedicated to the pioneering spirit of America. And there's a placard that kind of caught my eye, you know, when I was studying about this particular exhibit, and it went like this. The cowards never started. The weak died on the way. Only the strong arrived. They were the pioneers.

You know, I wonder, brother, if we think about this, that we here at this feast are pioneers of the kingdom of God. And we're here, of course, for eight days to shine our light in this community, to show a better way of life. You know, we are now pioneers of God's new way of life in a world that's cut off from God. And no one, no one, except those who are called, those who have been separated from this world, have ever done what we're doing, and what we've been doing many years of our lives in some cases. We are pioneers of the kingdom of God right now. And pioneers are indeed, brother, in a special breed of people. You know, the pioneers who established this country from one seat to another were rugged, and they were very tough people.

There were no signs to direct the way for them. You know, there were no signs, as of course we traveled throughout this country. You know, we're able to get where we go today because of our computers and our telephones and all of the apparatuses that we have now to direct us where we're going. They didn't have any signs of how to get there. It was said by old-timers, during that time, if a man knows where he's going, he don't need a sign to tell him when he's got there.

You know, that was their way of approaching things, always sort of a common sense, you know, tough-as-nail kind of approach. You know, God told Joshua before entering the Promised Land, be of good strength, be of good courage. You know, pioneering, brethren, is not for the faint-hearted. When the West was being settled, many journeyed across the plains and they didn't make it. They were left in shallow graves on the prairies. They were covered by whatever rocks that they could get to put on them, and the people, of course, were left behind.

Cowards stayed home, and they turned back when they saw how hard it was going to be to move on West. There were long stretches when people were beginning to, again, settle the West, where there was no water. You know, people had really a lot of trouble with that, that there was no water that was available for them as they headed West. And people had to do the best they could.

And, of course, they went Thursday. They went hungry. You know, when they were headed over, a lot of times people starved to death on the way. And they faced terrible, awful weather.

I remember reading a story, it's been a long time ago, a story about a man who survived on the plains when there was a freak winter storm that took place, and he had to actually, you know, carve out a place in a buffalo and crawl in to a buffalo in order to survive the winter storm.

I wouldn't have believed it, but there were a couple of fellas up in Idaho that did that with their horses up in the mountains. Somehow they got trapped up in the Idaho mountains, and they almost froze to death, and they had to kill their horses, and they had to crawl inside in order to survive the night. And so this was something that was done, and has been done, even in the modern day since. But the journey out west was difficult. People were either walking, they were riding a horse, or they were riding on a bone-jarring covered wagon. And they slept in wagons, they slept under the wagons, or they slept in tents, or sometimes they just slept in the wide open.

They faced small plaques, they faced cholera. A lot of people often died of cholera. Sometimes in a wagon train, cholera would go through the whole entire group of people, and they would lose a goodly part of those that were headed, again, on the journey. And there were other diseases that people faced, you know, when they headed west. Sometimes, again, they endured thirst and hunger, and they endured hostile Indians. On the way, the trip, by the way, from Missouri through the plains and across the Sierras to the coast would take over six months. Imagine being in a wagon for six months. Now, it's hard for me to be in a car with air conditioning.

You know, with a cold drink, you know, cruising along at 70 miles an hour for three or four hours. It's hard for me to do that. I flew here, and it was hard to fly on the airplane. You know, I don't know how some of you got here, but these days, it's a little bit more difficult to actually fly than it used to be. Years passed.

Of course, flying was a lot more fun than it is now. But, you know, imagine, again, traveling the way pioneers had to travel. But the weakness of any kind was magnified on a journey out west. If you had a problem, you had a weakness, you know, it was brought out in the trip. Many died on the way, and they just simply didn't make it. It's like the old saying, what didn't kill them made them stronger. And they were stronger for it when they got to the west.

No, only the strong survived, just like the placard said. And, brethren, our journey to the kingdom of God, it reveals our weaknesses, doesn't it? The things that we need to overcome, the things that we need to change about ourselves. If we're going to make it, if we're going to be in the kingdom of God, you know, it's the same kind of endurance that we have to go through. You've got to be strong, brethren. When they arrived at their destination, I've read stories again how they settled the land, but they set down roots, and they built up farms and ranches, and they built up the land. They worked hard, you know, from morning to night. These were the pioneers. These kind of people God used. He used these people to establish this country. And this is one of the reasons why the United States grew as fast as it did, and why it rose in terms of prosperity. So that, in fact, what we have in this country, brethren, is unparalleled in the world. And people are envious of this country. And, you know, they would do anything to get into this country. And, of course, this is why, of course, we have a lot of the problems we do now in terms of people who are coming into the country illegally. But God used people who were tough as nails, who would press through thick and thin to make this nation the great nation that has become to fulfill the promise that God made to a Brahm, to Abraham as he became. That God said he was going to make of him a great people. And we know that we are not the only children here in the United States of Abraham, but God used those kinds of people, brethren. You know, I came into the church back in the 60s, and we were told then, I remember, you know, hearing many, many times from different ministers in those days, that we were pioneers when I went to a big, sandy Texas. And I'll mention this to you a little bit about this, because when I decided I was going to go to Ambassador College, I had had a couple of years of college beforehand. I had gone to Northeastern State University for a couple of years, and I told God if I got accepted to Ambassador, I would go. And sure enough, I got accepted. And I didn't know a great deal about the church, although I'd been associated with the church for two years or so, but I headed down to Big Sandy. And the person who picked me up at the bus station, and I was telling this to Joe backstage, that when I fell off the turnip truck there in Gladewater, you're the one that picked me up.

You know, I was the guy, by the way, who was so green, behind the ears, I had trees growing back there. But Joe Dobson picked me up and took me over to Ambassador College. And that was the year, of course, that he was the student body president of Ambassador College, and got to know him a little bit, and of course, to be associated with Ambassador College. And I graduated, of course, four years later, and headed out into the field of ministry. But when I came to Ambassador College, what they told us is we were pioneers. And in fact, Ambassador College had just started back in the mid-60s. It was a new college, and we were pioneering the college. But, brethren, we're doing things that nobody in the world has ever done. We're pioneering this way of life. And some of you may have been around for 40 or 50 years, but, you know, nobody else has done this in the world, what we're doing. And that is living God's way of life. And we are pioneers today, in fact, you know, as we were when I came in and when you came into the church. Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 23 here. Leviticus chapter 23, and down, we'll go down to verse 41 here, but it says, you shall keep it as a feast. Leviticus 23 verse 41, to the eternal. So this is God's feast, not our feast, although we've been invited in on it, for seven days in the year. It shall be a statue, a law, forever in your generations, and you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. And so we're here in the month, the seventh month of Tishri, as we understand from the Hebrew calendar. And you shall dwell in booze for seven days, and who, all who are native Israelites, shall dwell in booths.

That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths, which I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God, the eternally your God. And so Moses declared this to the children of Israel. And so we are dwelling in booths, you know, throughout this feast, because we are commanded to. Now, we don't have to go and build a booth, thankfully. You know, we don't have to, you know, denude the trees around Branson here, and build our own little dwelling. But, you know, we are to dwell in a temporary dwelling for this time. Or, as it's called in the Hebrew, a sukkoth, which is a hut, a cottage, or a tent.

I'm really happy about that. By the way, we don't have to live in a tent, because my way of roughing it is a really bad holiday inn. You know, that's about the worst we want to get, you know, in terms of a booth. But anyway, we are to dwell in a temporary dwelling. We are to dwell in a temporary lodging for the feast to remind us, as it was to remind the ancient Israelites, that we are pioneers, and we're passing through. It's not our destination, as yet. You know, God took Israel by the hand, and He led them by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. And, you know, if the cloud moved, they moved. So they had to be ready to move, to go forward. And, you know, we have to move as God inspires, as God teaches us, as He leads us. We have to be willing to do that as God's people. And they had to remain ready to pick up stakes and move to where God led them. And it wasn't easy, and sometimes it caused some people to murmur. And we don't want to allow ourselves to get, you know, to the point where we complain, because God hates murmuring. You know, that's what the Bible says. And what happened is, of course, moving as they did, it tested them. God found out what kind of people that they were.

You know, were they the kind of people that would grumble if they were told to do something?

You know, sometimes they had to move quickly. But why did God take them through these things? Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 over here. Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Where God says this to the ancient Israelites, why He was the way He was with them, and how He dealt with them. But in verse 2, it says, You shall remember the Lord your God led you, by the way, these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you. And God has led us precisely the same way, to test us. What kind of people are we? And this test we're going through right now is quite an unusual one, isn't it? Unlike any of us have ever seen before. To know what is in your heart, what really is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you and allowed you to hunger. God lets us go hungry sometimes. And fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that they might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And notice it says, your garments did not wear out on you. No, they had wear ever clothes that didn't wear out. It's incredible. Neither did your foot swell during these forty years.

And it says, you should know in your heart that as a man chases his son, so the Lord your God chases you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him. And so we keep obeying God no matter what we go through. No matter what it is, we don't let COVID-19 stop us from obeying God. And we have an obstacle. We either go through it, we go around it, or we go over it. We do whatever we need to do in order to continue on to the kingdom of God.

So He led them to prove them. Now, all of us, brethren, are being proven before God. Sometimes He allows things to happen to us, to try us. You know, God cannot build character in us, as we heard an old man say for many years, by instant fiat. God can't create character by instant fiat. And He can't overcome for us, either. God won't teach us, you know, or live our lives for us. He's not going to do that. Otherwise, we would be automatons, wouldn't we? So we've got to be courageous, even when it's dark outside.

Now, I'm not really afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of what's in the dark.

Reminds me of the story of a little boy. You know, he was playing with his mother's broom. And one afternoon, he was outside, had his mom's broom, and he uses a horse. And a wonderful time, until it began to get dark. And he left the broom on the back porch. And his mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.

And she asked her son about the broom, and he told her where it was.

And she then asked him, well, go get it, please. And the little boy informed his mom he's afraid of the dark. And he didn't want to go out and get the broom. And his mother sort of smiled at him and said, the Lord is out there, too, you know. Don't be afraid, son. And the little boy opened the back door a little. He stuck his nose out the door. And he said, Lord, if you're out there, hand me the broom. You know, God is not going to hand us the broom, brother. We're going to have to be courageous. We're going to have to be people that are fearless, eventually. I got a little grandson, by the way. He's fearless. Sometimes you do have to teach little kids to have a little bit of respect for things, but he can do some — he does funny things because sometimes he's fearless. But Israel faced trials to prove them, and they were seeking the Promised Land, brethren, and we're seeking the Kingdom of God. And Jesus allows us to face trials to help us grow, to help us change. You know, brethren, I learned this a long, long time ago.

Number one, God is not going to do anything for you you can do for yourself. And number two, God can only bless an effort on our part, what we do. If we don't do anything, I guess God could do it for us, but it doesn't work that way. God will only bless the effort that you and I make, brethren. And so we've got to make the effort. And you know, when it comes to this world, we can't get too attached to this world and the society. You know, God is not calling us, brethren, to lay claim on this world. God has always required a mobile mentality in His people. Sukkoth teaches that. Dwelling in a booth teaches us that, brethren. Someday we may have to leave all the physical things that we have, that we've accumulated all of our life. We may have to leave it behind.

Let's notice over in Genesis chapter 12 what God did with Abraham over here. In Genesis chapter 12, we know that God called Abraham, and he was living in a city that had all the accoutrements of life that a human could want at that time. But here, notice in the Lord God in verse 1 of Genesis chapter 12, it says, Now the Lord had said to Abraham, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I'm going to show you, and I'll make you a great nation. I'll bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And you, all the families of the earth, shall be blessed. I think that we would agree that that has happened in the modern-day sense to the descendants of Abraham. But verse 4 says, So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Saria, and his wife, and Lot, and his brother's son, and all of his possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan, so they came to the land of Canaan. Now, Canaan was basically a wilderness. Oh, there were cities there. There were good cities, but basically, again, the area, the environment, was quite different than where Abraham was. We know he was in the area of Ur of the Chaldees, and this is what what Halley says about Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham lived. It was a seaport city located on the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates River. It was the greatest city of the world next to Babylon at that time. It had manufacturing, it had farming, it had shipping. It was a crossroad for traveling caravans with temples and palaces and a great library that was there. It was surrounded by a wall that was 70 feet thick and 80 feet high, and it was about a two and a half mile circumference city. It had a wall around it that high and that thick. And in Abraham's time, it had shops, it had homes, it had schools, it had chapels, and they've dug these things up. The archaeologists have done this. They had two-story brick homes that had courtyards, and the homes came right up to the street. So it was a sort of a city type of a circumstance, and they had inside courtyards where, again, family could relax. You know, we might feel pretty comfortable in Ur of the Calities, but God told Abraham, I want to get you out, I want to send you to the Canaan, which is the wilderness, where it's not so comfortable. He had, when he got there, he couldn't live in a home that was, like I described in the Ur of the Calities, he had to live in a tent, a temporary dwelling. In fact, the Canaanites had it better than Abraham did. Remember, when he got there, God told him, he said, I'm going to give you all of this land. But in the final analysis, he had to ask the Canaanites where could he camp. He was all going to belong to him someday. And, brethren, I can stand up here and say, you know, brethren, someday all this land is going to belong to you. But you're going to have to, right now, you have to buy it. For him, he had to ask permission. But that's what God did. You know, why didn't God send him to a better place?

Because Abraham was being tested. Would he do it? First of all, God asked him to go, and he went past the test. And the ultimate test he had to go through, and I'm not going to go through that here, but the ultimate test that he went through was he was willing to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. And then God said, now I know. Brethren, let me ask you, when is God going to say that about you and me? Now I know that you will obey me in all that I've told you to do. Now I know. That's what God wants to find out about us, brethren. Brethren, it's the journey that's our testing ground. That's really what's important right now. It's the journey. We're being tested, and we're being made into real believers.

You know, maybe it was a job that we had to step out on faith to obey God. We left the job.

And somebody told us, you don't come back. You won't have a job. And you obey God anyway. And you went back, and yeah, you may have lost the job, but you got a better job. God bless you. He was with you. Now, you know, brethren, I've seen whole businesses closed down during the feast to allow God's people to go to the feast. Now, they didn't do it purposely. It was what God orchestrated.

You know, it's like I remember when I, before I went to Ambassador College, I was at Northeastern, and I had a chemistry test that was going to be taken of all times on the Day of Atonement.

This was the first Day of Atonement I ever kept, by the way. And my professors said, well, if you don't take it, you flunk it. And so I went ahead and kept the Day of Atonement. And I went back, and I went to my professor. I remember his name. His name was Dr. Ireland. And I asked him, I said, you know, what about this test?

He said, well, don't worry about it. He says, everybody flunk the test. He said, just do well on the next one. And I made an A, and after that, we were buddies. You know, we had many, many talks. I was learning about all kinds of things at that time about evolution. And I was studying, of course, astronomy and other stuff as well. But learning about, you know, proving to myself God existed. I believed He did, but I was looking for again other things to prove to myself. And I would talk to Him about it. But we, brethren, learn, don't we, that God watches out after us. We don't have to worry. We don't have to fear if we trust God. We put our faith in God. Let's go back over to Hebrews 11. You know, Mr. Dobson, you know, alluded to this in his announcements and talking about why we're here. And, of course, certainly very apropos here is this first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. But in Hebrews 11 and verse 8, let's notice here, he said, But by faith Abraham obeyed God. He just had faith in God, and he obeyed God. And he said, Abram, I want you to go. And he said, okay, I'll go. And when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive an inheritance, he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelled in a land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. And so this is what he did. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He and Sarah again dwelt in tents all the time. A pilgrim, brethren, like John Wayne says, pilgrim. A pilgrim is someone on a pilgrimage.

It's all temporary, brethren. Even the vast universe we look out here is temporary. Read the book. The book says that it's all subject to decay. We're going to have to be the ones that maintain it. Our physical bodies are merely temporary.

You know, the longer I'm in the church, the older I get.

I remember the old adage, hair today and bald tomorrow.

We're all breaking down, physically speaking. You know, Peter called his body a tabernacle of a temporary dwelling. And it would seem to he knew if he died in a split second, it would seem like a split second he would be in the kingdom of God.

Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 over here.

Where the Apostle Paul is talking about what kind of people we ought to be.

In verse 14, here Paul says, I'm sorry, I'm in 1 Corinthians 4. That won't do any good.

But down in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 4 verse 14, knowing that he has raised up the Lord, Jesus, you will also, you are knowing that he will, he who raised up the Lord, Jesus, will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with him. For all things are for our sakes, that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. So we break down, we lose hair. Don't worry, God has numbered our hair, so when he resurrects us, he can put the same number back.

He'll be able to do that. And he says here, for our light affliction, this physical life is a light affliction, which is but for a moment, just a short time, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You know, God is going to give us so much more than we ever thought possible. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And so we can't get, again, too attached on this physical universe that we live in, this physical world that we live in, to our physical bodies even for that matter.

What's important for us, brethren, is to begin to build that character, that holy righteous character, and that is to undaunted obey God and do that which God commands us to do, no matter the obstacle, so that when we are ready to inherit the destiny that God has called us for, we're not found naked, spiritually speaking. You know, Jesus Christ said, many are called, but few are chosen. And if we do not arrive, brethren, it's because we've not prepared ourselves. But if we do arrive, then we will have proven we truly are pioneers. We are pioneers.

As God's people. And as pioneers, God is giving us that opportunity, again, to build character.

Our temporary dwellings, brethren, during the feast is a confession to the world that we're passing through. We're passing through this world. And we have not arrived at our destination. Let's go back over to Hebrews 11, if you will, Hebrews 11. And again, all of the patriarchs that endured so much who were, indeed, pioneers of what we're doing, and they were called like we are called, brethren, and they were the true pioneers. But we're pioneers, too. You know, Jesus Christ pioneered what it's like to live through life and to be changed to immortality. He's the forerunner for us for that. And He's our elder brother. But in Hebrews 11, verse 13, let's notice this. But it says, by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seeds. She bore a child when she was past the age because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man and Him, as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky and multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. The descendants of Abraham have multiplied that much. And these all died in the faith, as Mr. Dobson mentioned. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, we're assured of them, embrace them, and confess. Are we confessing this, brethren? But confess they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Are we confessing that, brethren? That that's what we are.

That's what you and I are, brethren. We're pilgrims. We haven't arrived at our destination. And, brethren, we need to keep our eyes on that goal. Don't let anything get our eyes off of it. What God is offering us, brethren, is a sure reward for anybody that hangs tough and endures to the end.

And we all need, again, endure to the end, because, you know, like with the old pioneers going west, some died along the way. I hope you understand, in terms of us, that some have died spiritually along the way. They didn't make it.

Now, how many of us started out on a journey with friends that even maybe we were baptized with, who are not with us anymore?

Oh, they somehow fell by the wayside. They were not pioneers. Now, maybe they will respond. We don't know. We keep praying for people that they will respond and that, you know, they will inherit the great promises that have been given to us. But some just did not make it or are not here now. They died along the way, you know, as that placard said in Nebraska.

You know, some become tired by their journey. They give up. They go back to the world. Some don't keep strong spiritually and were killed off by deceivers along the way. Some rebelled against God. Then they turned aside. Some were enticed by the world along the way and set down stakes before it was time. There were Israelites that wanted to do that too.

And during the end, brother, is what makes the few who are chosen that the Bible talks about. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. So we've got to hang on. We are yet, I believe, and I'm sure you would agree with me, we are yet to face the most tumultuous times this world has ever seen. And our mettle is going to be tested like never before in the future. I think COVID-19 is a precursor to what is coming. Now, I'm not here to tell you when it's going to happen. And we may find that eventually this will die down and we'll, you know, get back to some sort of normal. I don't know that we'll ever be back to where we were.

But we know the times that are much worse are indeed coming. Daniel 12.1 says, there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And you know what, brethren? The times that Daniel describes are chiefly on modern Israel, on the United States and Britain and Australia and the modern-day people of Israel. I'm not going to go to it, but over in Ezekiel 6 it talks about the cities of modern-day Israel that are going to be laid waste in the future. And some prophecies, 1 and Ezekiel 5, 12, indicate that two-thirds of our people will perish in the time ahead. And the rest are going to go into a horrible captivity, as what the Bible indicates. And when Christ returns, He's going to set about saving Israel from that captivity. In Revelation 12, verse 14, I won't turn to it, but you might want to write it down. It indicates God will take His church out during a particular time to a place of safety, during the most climactic time in the history of the world. And hopefully, brethren, you and I will be able to escape, as Jesus said in Luke 21, 36. And, of course, if we're able to, you know, be a part of God's Kingdom, we're going to assist Jesus Christ with all the people that are coming out of the Tribulation, the Bible talks about. Let's do go to Ezekiel chapter 20 over here. In Ezekiel chapter 20, and we'll begin, I think it's in verse 33 here, and, of course, you know, the prophet Ezekiel is talking about in-time things, because Ezekiel wasn't in captivity himself, you know, when he wrote these things. But in Ezekiel 20, notice this, as I live, says the eternal God, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will, God is telling Israel, I will rule over you.

No, Israel was going to be the instant nation to the world, but they rebelled. But God will indeed make Israel that in the world of moral. They're going to be that example nation to all nations on the planet. But verse 34, I will bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, and with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, now bring you into the wilderness of the peoples. So this is a time in our time that God is describing here through Ezekiel.

And I think it becomes clear that it has to be our time, because it talks about where people are going to be repentant. They're going to loathe themselves, and they're going to be regretting the choices they made. But going on, notice what it says, I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead my case with you face to face. So God's going to plead with Israel the way he did when he brought them out of Egypt. He's trying to appeal to them. He's trying to reason with them, show them his way of life. And this God will do with all those who are captives, who are captives. He's going to bring them back, bring them out. I think God's people are going to do the instrumental in helping that happen as well.

But he says, just as I plead my case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead my case with you, says the Lord God. So God's going to plead with him. So God's going to plead with us, brethren, since we've been pioneering his way of life. He's been pleading with us all the years.

So I thought Jesus Christ was going to return back in the 70s. How many of you thought that here? Okay, I think I'm in a familiar crowd here.

And when it didn't happen in the 70s, I thought it might be in the 80s. How many of you thought that? I thought that could happen. Maybe I'm sort of innocent in my thinking. But, you know, of course, we've thought that all along. But, you know, I've realized more and more I have a lot to learn. A lot to learn. When I got out of Ambassador College, I knew everything.

It's like the 16-year-old boy, you know, your parents can't teach him anything. And by the time he's 21, he's surprised how much his parents have learned. You know, in a way, that was the way it was in Ambassador College, you know. It took a little while. You realize that you had to—you needed to learn a little more.

I've been, again, in the church since the late 60s, and keeping God's feast.

As many of you have been, I'm still learning. Many of you remember Mr. Armstrong, when he was in his 90s. He was telling the brethren back then, I've got a lot to learn. I'm still learning things. He was still learning in his 90s. And I think we all, of course, are going to be learning until the day we die.

But God, in a way, has been pleading with us throughout our conversion. But God's going to bring Israel brought out of captivity, and He's going to plead with them the way He did ancient Israel.

So after World War III, and the day of the Lord takes place, man will be practically knocked back to the Stone Age. You're not going to have all the accoutrements of this modern age. Probably cell phones won't work.

Nothing electronic work, probably. Maybe not even vehicles, because of the use of atomic weapons and other problems that will result in man not having access to these things readily.

I'm reminded of what I read about what Albert Einstein wrote many years ago. He said, I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the Third World War, assuming there will be a Third World War, but I can tell you what the Fourth World War will be fought with. He says, stone clubs.

You know, the Bible talks about when Babylon falls, and it's the whole system of man, the merchants will stand off from it and say, Babylon has fallen. They're going to be crying because of the great merchandising of Babylon. But the world will be beaten down. The world will release, though, the prisoners of Israel in defeat after God intervenes, after Jesus Christ intervenes. It will be a massive exodus that will take place. Will Israel be brought back down into the area of Israel? And it will be a massive exodus which will pale into insignificance, the Bible says, the exodus out of Egypt. We're going to talk about multiple millions, maybe tens of millions of people, that will be brought down into the area of Palestine. Let's notice down here in verse 37, though, But I will make you pass under the rod.

So God's going to bring them into Palestine. He says, I'm going to make you pass under the rod.

Maybe this is akin to a shepherd's rod, who checks his sheep when they come through, into the fold. But I'm going to make you pass under the rod. He says that I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And notice this, brethren, I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who trespass against me, and I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, and they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the eternal. So God's going to take away the rebels. The rod is also symbolic of authority as well. But God's going to make people pass under the rod before they enter into Israel. So God's not going to build a new world, you know, where you've got rebels. God wants people to be cooperative in the new kingdom that is being built. And brethren, I think we're going to be there. I think we're going to be there helping Christ, assisting Him. And we're called again to pioneer the right way ahead of everyone else, but we're going to prove ourselves, brethren, obedient to Christ. And it makes sense, brethren, that God will use us to assist Christ in preparing those who come out of captivity and go in to New Israel, as it were. And the Bible says, you know, you can read the passages here, that God is going to, in fact, you know, bring to the point where people are going to loathe themselves. They're going to go through repentance, and they're going to be sorry. And that God's going to bring them into the land. He's going to give them opportunity to rebuild this new world. Let's go over to chapter 36. Chapter 36 of Ezekiel.

So God will use us and help us, brethren, to sort of clean up the people before they go in to the promised land of the kingdom of God. But in verse 24, let's notice this. I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all the filthiness and from all your idols. I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I'll take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. And then you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

So God has this in mind for us, brethren, in the future. Let's drop on down here to verse 36. Thus says the Lord God, On that day, or in that day, I will cleanse you from all your iniquities.

I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. So this is depicting, again, what's going to happen in the world tomorrow, brethren. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lines desolate in the sight of all who pass by. You're going to have a lot of farming going on in the world tomorrow. So they shall say, This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden.

And the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around shall know that I, the Eternal, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Eternal, have spoken it, and I will do it. And so it's going to happen, brethren. It's going to occur.

So we're going to transform this world from a burned-out mess that it will be, you know, that will take place as a result of the great tribulation. And the day of the Lord, we're going to rebuild it, and it's going to be like the Garden of Eden. In this pioneering time, brethren, in the wilderness, God is allowing us to have trials. He's allowing us to have tests. And all of us, brethren, all of us must go through these trying times and pass the tests. It's a small price to pay for all of us, brethren, for what God is going to give us in terms of His inheritance.

This time isn't worthy, as Paul even says, to be compared to the glory that's going to be revealed for us, what God is going to give to us. God has given us an understanding, a small understanding, of what He's going to give to us. But, brethren, it's far greater than we can even imagine that it's going to be. If we face a fiery trial, we should understand, brethren, it's not unusual. For us.

Now, I've gone through some trying times of my own, health-wise, at least.

I went through one when I didn't know if I was going to get through it or not.

And then it occurred to me, in the midst of all the trials going through because of my health, you know, I read in your book, God, that we shouldn't think it's strange when we have fiery trials. I guess this is one of mine. And somehow, I had hoped that God would see me through it, and He did.

And He will be with us, brethren, no matter what happens. He would have been with me even if He had not chosen to intervene. I know the split-second I would have known I had been in the kingdom of God.

We need to remember, brethren, God is not trying to break us. He's trying to make us. He's trying to make us into what we should be as a people.

And when we arrive, as it were, everyone is going to be interested in what we went through, what we endured, the trials that we endured in this world. And you know what? They're going to be just as intrigued about you as we are in the old pioneers that went across this land and covered wagons. They're going to want to know.

You know, I want to go talk to some of the old patriarchs what they went through. They want to know what we went through in the modern-day sense that we went through.

And so, brethren, we are pioneers.

That placard dedicated the pioneers that formed this great country that we live in, brethren, really does apply to us. The placard says, the cowards never started.

The weak died on the way.

Only the strong arrived.

They were the pioneers, brethren. If we can hang on, brethren, to the end, brethren, we will truly be among those who are the great pioneers of the kingdom of God.