Welcome to the Kingdom of God

Good to see all of you and any guests we may have with us today. And appreciate Mr. Hanaway doing the piano special music for us here today. We brought that to you all the way from China. Because Mr. Hanaway is living over in China and he teaches over that way. And he's in town for some reason. I don't know why. No, we know his daughter will be getting married, not too far in the distant future. Again, welcome to those who are here with us for the first time. If you have been watching the news, and I think most people do tune in to what the news brings to us every evening, you know that today, usually we hear bad news. In fact, news is not really, by the time it comes to us, it's old. And it's always bad news. They tried, by the way, the format of doing only good news, but it was not successful. But the world seems to, again, be fixated on bad news. And a lot of people, in fact, can read newspapers or watch television news. And after a while, you just get depressed because of how bad the news is. We are conditioned to bad news. And you can get pessimistic about things. I was listening to Michael Savage yesterday, in fact, and Michael Savage was talking about how his listenership had gone down because people just get tired of hearing the same old thing. And so they want to hear good news. And that's certainly true. People want to hear good news. And we need encouragement by good news. The Bible actually is replete with good news. And when Jesus Christ came nearly 2,000 years ago, He brought the greatest news that the world has ever heard. And that is the good news, the gospel of the kingdom of God and what is going to happen in the future. But very few people know what is going to happen in the future. Very few people are aware of what the Bible says. But Christ came to deliver news of that coming world that is ahead of us, when in fact He's going to be ruling all over this earth for a thousand years in the future. And in fact, these things are going to be ruling with Him, according to what the Bible says. Let's go over to Mark chapter 1, if you have your Bibles with you. In Mark chapter 1 over here in verse 14, let's notice over here, it says, It says now after John was put in prison, of course Jesus began to emerge in terms of His proclamation of the gospel, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the good news, the gospel of the kingdom of God. And He said the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is of hand repented, He said, and believe the gospel. And so He was saying that as a result of the fact that He had come on the scene, that the time was fulfilled, and the kingdom of God was near. In other words, it was nearer now than certainly it was when man was put upon this earth. And yet it was, of course, before it was going to be established, was quite a time away. Although the kingdom of God was at hand in their presence, and that is the representative of that kingdom, who was Jesus Christ, who is going to be the king of kings and Lord of lords. But He challenged people to repent and believe the gospel, to believe the good news.

And now more than ever, we need to believe and have confidence and have faith, and we need to move forward in that belief. But Jesus came bearing the good news of the kingdom of God. And we are here, of course, today to talk about that coming kingdom of what it's going to be like. I don't know if you had the chance to pick one of these up when you came in, but it's a newspaper. Quite different than any you've probably seen, if you haven't seen this variety. It's called Millennium Today, News of God's Kingdom. Wouldn't it be a wonderful time when you can sit down in the morning, you don't have your coffee, and you can start reading about, I mean, really good headlines. I like this one at the very beginning. The King of Kings reigns. And the date, by the way, on this is Tishri 2, 6004. So four years after the beginning of the Millennium, you know, Jesus Christ is reigning upon the earth. And there's a number of headlines here that are available. Here's a revolutionary zoo that opens. And this one, of course, there's no problem with lions and tigers and bears. You know, you could pet them, and even vipers, poisonous vipers that are very poisonous now, little children, can play with them. Here's an advertisement in the back of it, if you want to look at it a little bit later on. Giraffe saddles, finely hand-tooled leather, beautifully crafted in the heart of Africa. And you can contact the exotic saddle company, South Africa. And it says, we make any saddle to fit any animal. And so they're in the saddle business. And here's another advertisement, snakes of all types for sale.

Baby ass, pythons, rattlesnakes, and exotic lizards.

And contact Richardson's reptiles, by the way. We have a nephew or cousin who is a reptile. And so we put him in the millennium today. So you can have fun with this and look it over these tremendous headlines for the future and what it's going to be like. Like I said, the Bible is replete with good news, really good news, about what the kingdom of God, what the moving of reign of Jesus Christ, the thousands of reigns of Christ is going to be like. Imagine if you were to pick up your newspaper, not going to happen in the world today, and you had these headlines.

The number one headline, I think it would catch everybody's attention, would certainly be Christ returning, wouldn't it? But next to that would be this. War stopped worldwide. All over the world. You have peace. In other words, in this world there's war after war after war. You know, since World War II, there have been 130 wars. It seems like that we're always marching off the war as a country in one place or another. We end one war and we begin another.

We're seeing, in fact, terrible things beginning to happen in the world with beheadings that are taking place of Christians, professing Christians over in Libya. I think it were 21 that were beheaded there. And my understanding is that ISIS has actually captured another 40 or 50 Egyptian Christians there in Libya, and they're likely to do the same thing again. Incredibly, they're using the social media.

They're using Twitter and other means to get their message out to the world. But imagine a headline that says, World War Stopped. No more war. No more violence in the world. In Isaiah 2 and verse 4, it actually tells us about this incredible time that is coming that the Bible speaks about. And by the way, the book of Isaiah is a book about the Millennium. It has a lot of prophecies about the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ. Speaking of Christ, it says that He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people because He will have absolute authority.

According to God's Word, He will rule with a rod of iron, but He will rule in a loving way as a benevolent, loving ruler. But He's going to rebuke, have to rebuke, many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And so we'll take the armaments of war and we'll begin to make them into things that can be implements of farming for the future.

And it says, Nation shall not lift up the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. No longer will there be war colleges and naval academies. Imagine the physical resources that will be available when we start beating down all of the implements of war into something that is usable. On the screen, you no doubt saw the picture of the United Nations with the revolver with the gun, the barrel, tied in a knot. And also a picture of the man beating the sword into a plowshare that is right in front of the United Nations.

And oddly, that was, by the way, given to the United Nations by Russia, who's currently going to war over in Ukraine. And there's, again, a hot spot that's going on. But in this time of the future, we have the good news, the tremendous news, that war will be stopped worldwide. Here's another one that most people think, in fact, has already been fulfilled. But in reality, it has not been fulfilled.

Most people think this particular event has already happened. But here is a headline for the future. Israel restored to the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, people think, by the way, that this has been fulfilled already with Israel over in the Middle East.

You know, that piece of land over there is like a postage stamp, compared to what, in fact, God promised to Abraham. And all of that area, by the way, involved land all the way up to the Euphrates River, and all the way down into the Sinai. So God made tremendous promises to Israel of a lot of land. And, frankly, the tribe that is over in Israel and Jerusalem today is not all of Israel. It's Judah. And if you know anything about the Old Testament, Jacob had 12 sons. He had 12 sons, and Judah was only one of them. But the prophecy is that God's going to restore Israel to the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But God's going to bring back, you know, and unite Judah with the other tribes of Israel. Because remember, back in about 721 B.C., Israel, that was already divided off from Judah, went into captivity. And in 604 B.C., Judah that was to the south went into captivity. So there were two separate groups, and God says he's going to unite the two into one in the Millennium. When Jesus Christ rules as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's go to Isaiah 27. Isaiah 27 over here. Just a few scriptures to again to show you what the Bible says.

And most people, again, don't read the Bible and study the Bible. But God wants us to know what history is. He wants us to know not only what history is, but he wants us to know what the future, what prophecy is going to be fulfilled. But in Isaiah 27 verse 12, it says, it shall cut the past in that day. Now, whenever you see the phrase, in that day, he's talking about the Millennium. He's talking about the end of the age, which is upon us today. So it's going to come to pass in that day that the eternal will fresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt. And you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So in the end of the age, in that day, those who were scattered in the diaspora of the Jews and also the diaspora or the dispersing of Israel through Assyria and the Assyrian Empire, they migrated all over the European areas and so forth. And God says you're going to be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. And by the way, that includes Judah and all the other sons of Jacob. They're going to be gathered together. In verse 13 it says, And it shall be in that day the great trumpet will be blown, and they will come, who are about to perish of the land of Assyria, and they who were outcast on the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount of Jerusalem. Now, Israel as a whole has not done that.

Now, if you haven't read our booklet on the United States and Britain in Prophecy, I encourage you to read that because it will show you that Israel today is not, again, just confined to the little nation over in the Middle East today. But Israel involves today major nations upon the face of the earth. The United States, by the way, is one of those. And Britain and other nations of Europe are modern-day Israelites in our time, in our day, in our age that we're living in now. By the way, the trumpet that is pictured here, pictures the time when the last trumpet is going to be blown, when Jesus Christ is going to return. You can read about that, of course, in the book of Revelation. Well, let's go to Jeremiah 31. I do want to really point this out to you.

Jeremiah 31, over here, in verse 8. Jeremiah 31, verse 8. Notice here again, it says, "'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth.'" Again, he's talking about Israel here. He's going to gather them from the ends of the earth. "'And among them the blind and the lame, and the woman with child, and the one who labors with child together.'" Jeremiah 31, verse 8, continuing, "'And the one who labors with child together, and a great throng shall return there.' And that there is again the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them, and I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble.

For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." Ephraim is Britain, by the way, predominantly today. "'Hear the word of the eternal old nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him.'" So Israel being scattered is going to gather together. "'And keep him as a shepherd does his flock. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and rancid him from the hand of one stronger than he.

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.'" Streaming, it says, "'To the goodness of the Lord, for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd, for their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.'" The world that we know today, by the way, is going to go through a terrible, horrible tribulation in the future. The world doesn't really know. The United States and Britain and Europe doesn't know what they're going to face. But it's going to be so terrible, so awful, that even Jesus himself said that we ought to be watching, that we ought to be praying always that we escape those things that are going to come to pass.

It's going to be such a difficult time. But God is going to bring Israel out of that, and the weeping is going to cease. He's going to bring them into His kingdom, and He's going to give them plenty of food. It's going to be a time of great prosperity when Jesus Christ is going to reign upon the earth. Now, over in chapter 3 of Jeremiah, in chapter 3, over here, just at the front of Jeremiah, and down in verse 17 here, it says, At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Eternal. Not called that now, that's a time ahead.

It's going to be called the throne of the Eternal. And all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to the Eternal, to Jerusalem. And no more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts. Not the way it is in the world today, is it? But then it will be that way. People will turn from evil. They're going to turn from being contrary to God.

And in those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel. You see here, they're going to be combined one with another. And it says, And they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land I have given as an inheritance to your fathers. That's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Again. So we see this happening again for the future. They're going to be brought from the north country. And traditionally, of course, we felt that the beast power is going to be center out of Europe.

And people in the future will be taken captive into that area, in those environments. In the future, by the beast power, as it's known as in the book of Revelation, or the beast, and it won't be Jews alone, it's going to be Israel. It's going to be all the tribes of Israel that will have been taken into captivity. It will be a time, by the way, when it talks about in the book of Amos, how a girl in the time of the Tribulation will be worth a glass of wine.

It's almost amazing right now, by the way, when we look at what's going on with Isis, and how they are bringing some of these young ladies, particularly, I think, we heard about the capturing of 200 of these girls down in Africa. I understand that Isis has said they're not going to associate with those down there, because they are very prejudiced. They don't have anything to do, by the way, with the black Muslims that are that part of the world. It is amazing. You'd think the outcry would be amazing in this country, but you don't hear an awful lot about it from different groups that ought to be very vocal about what's happening with regard to this.

But young girls by Isis are being traded. You can buy. They actually have. I saw an article where they talked about how you could buy a slave girl, and they cast their approach to the Koran and other things that they have done. But again, the Bible lets talk about how slavery will be a part of the future. And the human life will not be very valuable at all. But God is going to again bring Israel together, unite Israel and Judah.

He's going to bring them into the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. Let's go over to Zechariah 8. Some key scriptures again to keep in mind with regard to what's going to happen for the future. Zechariah talks about here. If you want to read again about what the Ammonium is going to be like, you know, piece it all together. The Bible's written in such a way it's here a little and there a little.

But it all has a cohesive picture that it paints when you read it from cover to cover and you see all the Bible says about a particular subject. But Zechariah 8 and verse 13, it just says, So come to pass, that just as you, speaking of Israel and Judah for that matter, were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel. Now we have to understand why God says that about Israel. Why says it about Judah? You know, the modern nations of Israel today are not the model of morality. We are not the model of morality. As God intended Israel to be, He intended Israel to be like an instant to the nations to show the world how, in fact, they ought to be.

But all we do is show people how we ought not be as a people. And given the great affluence God has given to us, what do we export with all of that affluence? I think the United States has been very generous to nations by giving aid packages to different nations. But right along with the monetary blessings that we're able to convey to other people, we also send along the filth of this country.

The drugs, the immorality, the pornography. Pornography has evolved, if anything evolves, by the way. What man does evolves. Or should we say, devolves. It's like it gets worse and worse. I don't think Satan is going to stop until you can see any kind of filth you want to see, you know, at any second, that you're faced with it all the time. But we export pornography to the world. In fact, right down in San Fernando Valley, down there in the LA area, is where a lot of pornography is produced, right down there. You've got all these very wealthy people down there who've made fortunes with pornography.

And not only that, we as a country, as a nation, export war materials, tanks, guns, missiles, whatever you want to buy. Well, what God's going to do in the future is going to clean Israel up so that we can begin to project to the world a way of life that will bring peace and tranquility and prosperity. And happiness to all people upon the face of the earth. But God says He's going to do that with Israel.

In verse 13 going on here, it says, oh, house of Israel and house of Judah, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. He said, do not fear that your hands be strong. So God is promised He's going to make Israel and Judah a blessing to the world. And that will happen, of course, during the time when Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. When Jesus Christ came, He said, we ought to be praying, thy kingdom come, your kingdom come, your will be done.

You know, on earth, as it says, as it is done in heaven, this world needs a change, a very big change. And it's coming, and Jesus Christ is going to make that change. And a focal point of it, one of the first things God's going to do is restore Israel and make them what He intended them to be. An instant, a model nation to the world. And a lot of great things are going to start happening right there.

They're going to fan out to the entire world before all is finished. Imagine the next headline. True education established worldwide. You know, the problem in the world is the educational system. I traveled myself to Thailand. I've been able to go to parts of the world to see firsthand people kneeling down before idols. And, you know, in Thailand, by the way, I think when I went, the average income per month was $200.

People live in abject poverty. And, you know, I remember seeing one of the temples there, you know, in what they call a temple there is a wat in Thailand. And walking through it, there was a man that was bowing and he was having a rather intense prayer before this jade, green jade idol. You know, he was laying incense before it. And, I mean, there were dozens of people milling around as he was praying to this idol. I don't know what had happened in his life. Perhaps maybe there was a horrible sickness or whatever. But, you know, you read the Bible. The Bible tells us, why do you rely on these dumb idols that can't do any good for you?

It's like to remember in the time of, you know, when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and they put it, you know, in their temple where Dagon was. And, you know, remember what happened, the miracle of how the Dagon, you know, which was a fish god, it fell over. And, you know, they went in and set it up again in the temple.

Here they put the Ark of the Covenant, which was a very holy relic at that time. You know, that was, you know, they had captured. And anyway, they set the idol, they got up. And then the next day they went out and it had fallen over and things were broken off of it then. And after a while, the Philistine priests wouldn't even go across this threshold, you know, into the place where the Ark of the Covenant was. And, you know, as a result of their capturing this Ark of the Covenant, remember they had all kinds of sickness too.

They had horrible hemorrhoidal tumors that resulted. And pretty soon they had that Ark of the Covenant on a cart, sending it back, you know, to Israel. Because they didn't want to have anything to do with this thing, which was more powerful than their Dagon, God, or their idol. Not a god. God said, why do you worship these stick and stone idols? They don't move, they don't do anything.

But God's going to re-establish true education. The only thing that's going to change the people of Thailand is true education. And there are so many false ideas that are in the world today. You know the motto of Ambassador College, when I went to college, and the college today, in fact, is re-capture true values. And that's what we're going to do in the world tomorrow. We're going to re-capture true values of what God intended for the world. Let's go over to Isaiah 2. Isaiah 2, over here.

And Isaiah 2.

There's so much in the Bible, again, that we can read that will tell us what the future is going to be. Isaiah, again, is a great resource for millennial prophecies.

But notice, there's going to be a change of heart when Jesus Christ is sitting on His throne in Jerusalem. And the Bible does say He's going to put His throne there. There's going to be a tabernacle there. Ezekiel talks about that, by the way, His tabernacle. He even gives the dimensions of it. But in verse 3 it says that the attitude will be different. It says, Many people should come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways. And out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem. And then it goes on to say He will judge between the nations and rebuke many people. And then again, they're not going to learn war anymore. They're going to get rid of the war colleges, and God's going to establish schools of real learning in the world, and people are going to be taught true values. And you know, over in Isaiah 11, verse 9, it says, The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Eternal as the waters cover the sea. In other words, everybody's going to know God from the least to the greatest. I'm not going to go to Zephaniah 3, verse 9, but it talks about also, God says He's going to cause man to speak with one tongue.

Be one language. Think about the disparity between people just by the language, barriers between people. You see that on the Internet. You know, sometimes people write you an email and you totally misunderstand it.

You know, there used to be some people when they'd write to you, you know, they would write in all capital letters. If they wrote like an email. What does it mean when you write in all capital letters to someone today? Does it mean it's like you're shouting at them? But, you know, you can misunderstand.

But, you know, someone maybe write an email that didn't mean to be angry or anything. They just pushed the all cats button. And they did it automatically for them. But God's going to change that. He's going to give us one tongue, one pure language that is going to resolve the differences between people and bad language will be extracted from it. They're going to be taken away from it.

You know, the world today yearns for one thing.

The leaders of the world today yearn for one thing. They want one world government. Well, when Jesus Christ returns, there will be one world government. And Jesus Christ will rule over it. But be aware that Satan and the beast power will attempt to establish one world government and it will be based on tyranny. It will be based upon subjecting people. In fact, you will not even be able to buy or sell unless you have a mark. People will be under the iron boot of the beast power in the future.

But we also need to be aware of the fact that, in fact, that's not going to come to pass. If it comes, it will be ephemeral. It will be short-lived. Because over in Zechariah 14, go back over to Zechariah 14, verse 9, the Scriptures tell us this. In Zechariah 14, in verse 9, speaking again of the Millennium, it says, It says the Lord shall be king over all the earth. He's going to be a potentate over the entire earth. That is Jesus Christ, by the way, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

And in that day, here's that phrase again, in that day, it shall be the Lord is one and His name is one. So all will call upon God. They're going to call upon the Eternal. They're going to call upon Jesus Christ and the Father, and they're going to know again who they're speaking to. It's not going to be any question whatsoever.

There's going to be one God over the entire earth. But God's going to establish again a true educational system that is going to root out all of those things that are contrary to His way of life. You know, God has a right to tell us how to live, doesn't it? I mean, after all He created us, He made us. In fact, He's the only one that knows how to tell us how to live. Now, how many of you, when you get a say, if you buy a new car, you know, you look in the glove compartment and it's usually a manual.

You look at this thing and say, well, I don't need that. And yet, that's what man has done with the Bible, which is the manual that shows us how to live here. God gives us the information we need to operate this human body and to operate as a people, as nations, as communities.

And God is the only one that is qualified to do that. You know, in the world, like I mentioned to you about Thailand, Thailand has a horrible situation with regard to its standard of living, you know, and many nations do. China used to have grinding poverty, India, and yet, as a result of economic means, they've been able to pull themselves out of that. But there's still tremendous economic problems in those nations, certainly in Africa. In going in Africa, my wife and I journeyed out to Mapoco.

Now, we don't think that people live in houses with dirt floors, but they still do. In Mapoco, Zambia, by the way. You know, some have concrete floors, but some do not. They live in houses with dirt floors. And so, the world has an incredible poverty. But God's going to resolve that. Unemployment, you know, imagine this headline again, unemployment rate eliminated. No, nobody's unemployed anymore.

Well, how's God going to do that in the world tomorrow? How's Jesus Christ going to commence to do that? Now, this is a serious problem everywhere. In the world tomorrow, though, there will be a zero rate for unemployment. Nobody will go without a job. And it won't be just work, you know, just to be work. It will be work that people will enjoy.

You know, it used to be that when farmers went out to farm, they whistled when they worked. People enjoyed doing what they do. Of course, that as long as it's changed. People don't whistle. You know, in fact, I was somewhere the other day, and I heard some woman who was whistling. You don't often hear women whistling. And I thought when I was listening to her whistle, she must be pretty happy. But it was good. It was pleasant to hear that. You don't hear that very often, but in the world tomorrow, you will. People are going to be happy.

They're going to have the opportunity to do what, in fact, even their fathers did not do. And other nations and countries, they'll be able to be in a land that will be so prosperous that no one will go without. In Isaiah 2 and verse 4, over here, we are told that we're going to, again, beat the spears into pruning hooks and the swords and the plowshares.

So we can see that that time is going to come. And again, here's a picture that is, in fact, statues that are in front of the United Nations building. The aim of the United Nations, which has not done a very good job at, is to tie the knot, the barrel, stop, in other words, the use of weaponry in the world. And, of course, again, the statue as well of a man beating a sword into a plowshare. But when we begin to do that, think of all the jobs that are going to be available. Think of all of those who are going to be working to do that. And as we begin to work in the world tomorrow, after the world has gone through a horrible conflagration, World War III will have come and gone, cities will be laid waste, people's lifestyles will change. Frankly, you and I might have to get used to riding horses. That may change altogether for us for the future. But let's notice over here in Ezekiel 36, because hope is coming. After people have been beaten down, some are about to die. In the beast power, they're going to be brought back. But they're going to be put to work. People are going to be put to work, and all of us will be working. And hopefully, brethren, you and I will be working too. God says the law is going to go out of Zion, and a part of our job will be to carry that law out of Zion to the nations of the world, the nations of the earth. But Ezekiel 36 here, notice in verse 33, Thus says the Lord God, on that day, that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, God is going to clean Israel up, and I will enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. So we'll have to go about rebuilding all the ruins, by the way, that have been left behind because of the World War III and the tribulation period. And the desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. So we're going to start changing, dramatically changing the landscape. And the wasted, desolate, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified, and it says inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around you 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 God will, at that time, begin to transform through those that are going to be brought back, and the world is going to be put to work, as it were, to begin to bring this world together again, but in different ways. They're going to be brought together as the world we know today. It's going to be God's world. It's going to be a place where God's will will be done. Isaiah 61. Isaac 61. You know, I get so excited. I don't know about you, but when I read about the Scriptures, about the future, I get excited about it. And when I was first beginning to read the Scriptures, these things jumped off the pages to me. When I began to realize that these were prophecies of the millennial reign of Christ and the world of Aral. And we need a change in the world today, like no other time in our history. We need it. And we need it badly. Isaiah 61 and verse 4, it says, "...and they shall rebuild the old ruins, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations." So during this time, we're going to again raise up the ruins.

And those cities are going to be rebuilt. So that's going to solve the problem of unemployment right there.

Everybody will be working. There'll be something for somebody to do everywhere and in every place.

Imagine what we could do with a tank. Imagine what we could do with missiles and other things. They were put into resources that could be produced, something that would be incredible for us. And when we find Jesus Christ ruling there, things are going to be changing another way. The world today is basically up and down, isn't it? You and I have been through economic instability all of our lives. You know, the stock market's up. The stock market's down. In 2008, people, you know, all of their homes went down dramatically. Now, they say the homes have gone up now, at least in the Bay Area they have. I don't know if that's true or not. I am sure it is. It depends, again, where you probably live in the Bay Area. But all probably come up somewhat, but it's like that. It's up and down, up and down. And so it's feast of famine for people.

But what's going to happen in the future is economic stability. God's going to stabilize the economics of this world.

You know, many nations are all, it seems like they perennially are on the edge of a bankruptcy. Greece is an example of that. It's the terrible sick man of Europe.

And I think that pretty soon it's like they considered Greece almost like a tar baby. You can't get rid of it, because they don't want to sacrifice, you know, the lifestyle that they, I guess, have over there and change any of that. And I think that they recently just bailed them out, by the way.

For four months, by the way. Four months. You may not be aware of the fact that in some nations in Europe now, they are beginning to devalue. They're devaluing. You know, our interest rate is, we borrow money basically, it's zero percent in the United States. But in some nations of Europe, it is a negative percent. You could actually go in and they'll give it to you at a negative percent. Now, I'm not sure how that works, but what it amounts to is a devaluation. That's what it amounts to. And what some are concerned about is it's going to begin to landslide in the world.

But Christ is going to give us economic stability. In Isaiah 33 and verse 6, we don't need to turn there, but God says that wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your time. Speaking again of Israel for the future. And so stable times are ahead because God, brethren, is going to cause wisdom and knowledge to be so prevalent that will guide us. And that is going to be exported to all people around the world. And everybody's going to be changed. You know, we need to, brethren, have a vision for the future of what it's going to be like in that time.

I'm not going to go to Isaiah 35 verse 1, but over there it talks about how the deserts are going to blossom like a rose. My wife, Joan, and I used to live in the desert. We did for 10 years down in the Phoenix area in the little community of Awatuki.

And when it rained, you know, the desert just really explodes in great color. But imagine where you have rain in due season. You know, God's going to do that in the world tomorrow in places that have been uninhabitable today, like this Sierra Desert. Imagine Sierra Desert being turned into a productive farmland. Where you've got all kinds of, you know, a corticopia of fruits and vegetables that are going to feed all of Africa.

Because of the vast stretches of the Sahara Desert. That God's going to change that about. Now, let's go to Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51 should not be very far from where you are there. But in Isaiah 51 over here, in verse 3, it says, Here it is again.

And it says, In her desert, like the garden of the eternal, the garden of the Lord, Enjoy and gladness will be found in it, and thanksgiving in the voice of melody. You know, if harvest is going to whistle then, people are going to be whistling when they go to work. They're going to be happy. They're going to be thoroughly, thoroughly happy.

And God is going to bring that about when people's lives are more stable, when they have other things that also they don't have to worry about as well. It seems like all of my life in our family, we faced this problem that is going to be headlined for the future. All sickness, all sickness and disease wiped out. I grew up in a home where there was a lot of sickness. I had a brother when he was, you know, five years of age, developed a tumor of the brain, and they lost his vision.

As a result of that, we thought he was going to die. This was back in the 60s. I think it was around 61 or somewhere in there. It may have been 62. But, you know, it took away his vision, and we thought he was going to die, like I mentioned.

But God did spare him. He's still alive today, by the way. But I remember very much that trial going through that, my parents coming home and telling, you know, the children that he might not make it. Because that's what the doctors told my mother and my father back in those days. And, in fact, when they closed him up after the operation, they said, I'm sure we can't do anything for him.

Because it had actually metastasized, it covered his entire brain. And if they had sought to take any part of it out, he would have died. They tried to, but they could not do that. But, amazingly, you know, God, again, spared him. And recently, they actually did apparently a scan of it, and apparently this tumor that was there, I'm talking, how many years ago would that be now, back in the 60s?

Loose track of time, but it has shrunk. And he has these health challenges. I don't mean to say it's totally gone, but imagine a time where nothing like that's going to happen. I have a sister, by the way, I don't know if I've ever mentioned this to you. When she was about, I think it was just about nine years of age, she had rheumatic fever. And they had to put her in a hospital. And, anyway, her fever was so high that she sustained brain damage.

And so she's handicapped. And I know I prayed about my sister, Grace, that's her name, from about the time I was 11, and I still do pray for her today. I look forward to the time when no more of that kind of thing will happen. God's going to wipe away these things. He's going to give health to people. In fact, we see that in the Bible over in Jeremiah 30. Let's go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the prophet, of course, one who also talked about things that are going to happen in the millennium.

Remember, God had promised to, in fact, he had promised to Israel. You know, when they came out of Egypt, he said, if you will obey me, I will lay none of the diseases of Egypt upon you. Of course, Israel didn't obey God, and we faced all the results of that sense.

But Jeremiah 30, verse 17, it says, For I will restore health to you, and heal you of your wounds, says the eternal, because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, no one seeks her. We will be considered outcasts in the future, but God says he's going to heal in the future. He'll heal, in fact, all in that time, but seek it. In fact, it talks about how the blind are going to see, my brother will see again.

It talks about how the lame are going to leap like a heart, how the deaf are going to hear, how God's going to intervene, and people are going to have, again, physical, robust, healthy lives, to live out their lives and live God's way of life in a happy and have a greater sense of well-being. Next headline, is crime and violence going to be wiped out? Today, murders are taking place all over. We do not hear, by the way, news out of San Francisco like we used to, because we cut the cord, by the way, and we have the free television by the antenna that we have in our house, but we used to hear of so many more murders that took place in the Bay Area.

Now we get about the murders in Sacramento, but at least there's not as many that we hear about. But it seems wherever you go now, there are murders of one sort or another that are taking place, violent crimes.

We had one of our ladies here, and in fact, her house was, she thought it was burglarized, but apparently she came in before they could do anything and ran them off. But we never know, do we? We never know. What can happen in this world? But over in Isaiah 30, in verses 20-21, notice how God's going to take a bite out of crime. So it used to be one of the old models of the crime, what was his name? McRuff, I think it was. How to take a bite out of crime, or however they did that, I can't remember, frankly.

But Isaiah 30, again, a time in the future. Now, what if somebody decides they're going to do something wrong in the world tomorrow? How would God deal with that? How would God deal with that? Let me show you how he's going to deal with it. Over in Isaiah 30, verse 20, it says, So the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore.

So God is saying, your teachers are going to be right there, readily available. But your eyes shall see your teachers, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, you know, if you decide you're going to do something wrong, you know, you're going to go in and you're going to take money from a store, you're going to do something wrong, there's going to be a voice, a word behind you that's going to say this, this is the way, walk you in it. Probably cause you to jump about ten feet high.

Of course, hopefully, we're going to be that voice behind people, showing them the way to live. It says, whenever you turn to the right hand, or whenever you turn to the left. So in other words, we won't actually have to deal with the crime, we'll stop the crime before it ever happens.

You know, somebody gets angry with his brother, voice is going to come say, are you sure you're going to let that anger get the best of you? You sure you want to do this? And people will again stop. They'll catch it even before it happens. And you and I are going to be, hopefully the voice is behind them, that are going to show them the way to live God's way of life. Hopefully we will be Spirit-composed. It'll be like Jesus Christ, because the Bible says we're going to see Him as He is. You know, John said it does not yet appear what we shall be. He said we know we're going to be like Jesus because we will see Him as He appears. We're going to be like Christ, Spirit-composed. And if you want to take a bite out of crime, that's the best way to do it. Catch it before it even happens. So this is what's going to happen in the future. Another thing that's going to occur in the future is this headline. Serious accidents and violence, I mean, serious accidents and catastrophes are stopped.

No more tornadoes ripping through communities.

No more kids falling down and hurting themselves in the way that oftentimes they can do. Today, people, you know, children injure themselves, adults injure themselves. All the time you hear about somebody who's lost their life as a result of an accident or a catastrophe. You know, you wouldn't expect it, but on one occasion, I remember there was a right up here on Highway 4. No, there was a family driving along, apparently an airplane, you know, crashed on the road up there. Vapellar tore through the car, and I don't know, I can't remember if this young girl's leg was cut off, or it was, I think it was cut off. So again, horrible catastrophe. But in the future, those kinds of things are not going to happen anymore. In Isaiah 11, verse 9, Isaiah 11, verse 9, it says, "...they shall not hurt nor destroy at all my holy mountain." So serious accidents won't happen. As they do in the world today, we'll be able to stop them before such things were to happen. Another thing that is going to happen in the future, brethren, is that people are going to have, like I said earlier, happy lives. They're going to have happy marriages. They're going to have joyful family life. Oftentimes, marriages are so much a clash that they end the divorce. Oftentimes, family lives are nothing more than a battleground, a miniature microcosm of what the entire world is like. People are at odds with one another. Sometimes I watch David Letterman when I get in a little late, you know. But one of the things that's kind of interesting about David Letterman is every time he talks about the holidays, he says he hates going to the holidays. And, you know, and of course we do not observe Christmas and those things in the church, but I'm thinking to myself, you mean you have opportunity to be your family and you don't look forward to that? I don't know about you, but I love my family. I love spending time with my family. I assume, you know, maybe he's just joking. I don't know. I mean, after all, he's a comedian, so maybe that's what he's just joking about. But, you know, family can be so happy, can be so wonderful, but in the world of art, we're going to have happy marriages and joyful families. Over in Jeremiah 33, Jeremiah 33 over here, Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 10 and 11. Jeremiah, the prophet, says, Thus says the Lord, again, it says, There shall be heard in this place of which you say it is desolate and without man and without beast, in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate without man and without inhabitant and without beast. So this is what's going to happen in the future, by the way. But when God begins to transform the world and the world of art, it's going to change. In verse 11, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say, Praise, the eternal of hosts! For the eternal is good, for his mercy endures forever. And of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise in the house of the eternal, for I will cause the captives of the land to return as, at the first, says the eternal.

So God's going to bring back Israel, as we pointed out at the very beginning. He's going to again rebuild it. It's going to be a time of joy, a time of gladness, a time of happiness, marriage, people getting married, people having families, and they will be joyful families. They'll be happy families. In chapter 31, chapter 31, God's going to change the spirit of man, change the attitude of man. In Jeremiah 31, verse 13, over here, notice here, it says, Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice rather than sorrow. I will satiate the soul of the priest with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with, my goodness, the eternal. You can read on here, by the way, God's going to change the essential spirit of man. He's going to change, again, as we mentioned earlier, He's going to change people's attitudes so that they'll want to obey God, they'll want to come to God, they'll want to live God's way of life, unlike today. And so we're going to be filled full with goodness, the goodness of God, and we're going to rejoice unlike any other time we've ever known. So these are the things that are going to happen in the future. This is just a thumbnail sketch of what the kingdom of God is going to be like, what the millennium is going to be like. That's why Jesus Christ said we go and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. It is good news, and we need that good news today. Now, how can you be sure that you're going to be there? You know, it's nice to hear about all these things, but I'm sure you want to be there, don't you? You don't want to participate in this. Well, let's go over to the book of Acts over here. You know, in the book of Acts, actually, the Apostle Peter talked about these refreshing times that are coming. It's a good way to look at it, isn't it? That God's going to refresh the world. It's going to make it a place where you can breathe in deeply into your lungs, and be thankful that you are alive, be thankful that you can participate in such a world.

We can have a foretaste of that in our lives even now, today, because, you know, if we live in God's way of life, you know, we can have active and very alive participation in God's way of life now, by the way. But how can you make sure you're going to be there? How can you make... How can I make sure I'm going to be there? All of us here. In Acts 3, in verse 19, after Paul...or Peter had preached his powerful message here on Pentecost in 31 A.D., notice what he told them.

He said, Repent, therefore. Remember, Jesus Christ said, The kingdom of God is at hand. He said, Repent, and believe the gospel. Believe the good news. Embrace it. Begin to change your life. But he says, Repent, therefore, and be converted. Be changed. So conversion is a transformation from what one was to what they should become. That your sins may be blotted out. Only when we have that attitude, our sins wiped away by the blood of Christ. So the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Eternal. These times we've talked about here today, in other words. And that he may sin Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things. Which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his holy prophets since the world began. You know, we'll go back to the book of Enoch. Enoch talked about these things we're talking about today. He talked about the time when, in fact, the saints were going to rule upon the earth.

But, you know, the times of the restoration of all things is ahead of us. And God's going to restore true values to this entire world. And so we have to repent and make a turnabout in our lives, a 180-degree turnabout, and begin to go God's way of life and obey God's laws, if we're going to participate in the times of the restoration of all things. Now, what are the laws of God? Well, you know, we're told in the Word of God that, in fact, in John 17, verse 17, that the Word of God is truth. And, you know, we ought to be willing to obey even the very whisper of God as God's people. But over in 1 John 3, 1 John 3, I didn't want to point this out. We live in a time where people debate, in fact, what sin is.

But, you know, the Bible tells us that sin is the transgression of the law, 1 John 3, 4. So sin is the transgression of the law. And the Bible also says in 1 John 2, in verse 4, you know, He that says He knows God and doesn't keep the commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. So the law of God, basically embodied by the Ten Commandments and the statutes. And, by the way, Abraham kept the commandments, the laws of the statutes. You can go back to the book of Genesis and see that. But notice over here, in 1 John 3, in verse 22, if we want to, again, make that turnabout, that dramatic turnabout in our lives, notice it says, in whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. So we've got to make a change about, start keeping God's laws, walking in God's law. And on down here in verse 3 of chapter 5, notice it says in John 5 and verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. So God did not send His Son Jesus Christ to do away with the law. He sent Him to magnify the law. He said, no longer is a sin for you to commit adultery, but to look upon a woman to lust after her. So He made the law of God magnified. It had to do with the thoughts of the mind, even, of changing the way you think. So how can you and I make sure we're going to be there in this wonderful world tomorrow, brethren? There's a repent. Be transformed. Be converted, not to the world, but be transformed and renew into your mind so that we can have the mind of Jesus Christ. And God has revealed in advance this tremendous picture for the future, brethren. And there's a great transformation going to happen in the world. But ahead of that, if we are going to be there, any of us are going to be there. In fact, we're going to have to be transforming our lives. I think it's good, again, to dwell on and think about the good news, though, that Jesus Christ came proclaiming. That good news of the coming Kingdom of God. And God wants us to be uplifted by it. But let's take it seriously and prepare ourselves so that we can be a part of that wonderful world tomorrow.