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Why Will the Kingdom of God Be Successful? (When All Others Have Failed)

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Why Will the Kingdom of God Be Successful? (When All Others Have Failed)

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Why Will the Kingdom of God Be Successful? (When All Others Have Failed)

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For thousands of years humanity has created different forms of man-made government in an attempt to rule ourselves. Most have failed miserably and have caused enormous human suffering and pain. When Jesus Christ establishes His Kingdom on earth is will be an everlasting government. How will the Kingdom of God be different from human governments? What qualities will make the Kingdom of God successful? What changes will God institute to ensure the Kingdom of God lasts peacefully for 1000 years and beyond.

Transcript

[Greg Thomas] Well, indeed, we are here at the seventh and last day of the actual Feast of Tabernacles. Thankfully, we have one more very meaningful day tomorrow. But I wanted to cover a topic today, kind of sum up some of the things that we’ve talked about the last seven days that I hope will make things a little bit clearer for us. The title is “Why Will the Kingdom of God Be Successful When All Others Have Failed?”

For thousands of years, humanity has created different forms of man-made government in an attempt to rule ourselves. Most have failed miserably and have caused enormous human suffering and pain. When Jesus Christ establishes His kingdom on earth, the Scriptures say it will be an everlasting kingdom, it will be a kingdom without end. So, how will the kingdom of God be different from the human governments that have ruled this earth? What qualities will make the kingdom of God successful? What changes will God institute to ensure that the kingdom of God last peacefully for a thousand years and beyond? Well, before we can answer those questions, we need to have a brief history, a brief survey of humanity’s attempt to rule ourselves apart from the guidance of God or His law. So, please bear with me as we will be exploring a brief history of human governments for about the next 30 minutes.

Let’s begin by going to Genesis 2:8. If you’ll turn there with me. Genesis 2, beginning in verse 8. We know, of course, that God designed a very beautiful garden and put the man in that garden. It says here beginning in verse 8, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” These were literal trees, but they’re also metaphors for two different ways of life, two different philosophies of existence. The tree of life represents stability, peace, abundance, blessings, having a personal relationship with God, embracing God’s law. And these include the fruit of the Spirit that lead to fulfillment and eternal life. The other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was a metaphor for chaos, scarcity, learning through trial and error, constant experimentation, being cut off from having a relationship with God, embracing human philosophies, and dysfunction. These include the works of the flesh, the human works of the human flesh, that leads to misery, unhappiness, war, violence, and ultimately death.

So, we see in these simple verses here that God established a garden. That was a sample of what He intended to do all over the earth and will indeed complete during the time when His kingdom is established once again on this earth. This was a small sample of what He intended. God created the first man and He placed him in this intended paradise to live abundantly, any place those two trees in the Garden. They offered two opposite choices like we just spoke about. Adam was lonely, he needed intimate companionship, and a friend that was just like him, so God created Eve, but sadly, they both made the wrong choice. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there would be negative consequences for all of their descendants from generation to generation to generation, including our very own.

Chapter 3. Now, Genesis 3, we’ll pick it up here in verse 20, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.” This is after they had made the wrong choice, and they were suffering shame. They had been innocent, now they’re suffering shame. And this is actually the first indication that Jesus Christ someday would shed His blood to cover our shame, the shame of sin. So, God literally had to kill one of the animals, and shed its blood in order to make skin out of that animal so they could cover the shame that they felt from disobeying God.

Continuing here, verse 22, “Then, the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil.” Of course, the problem is God understands what evil is, but He has the righteousness and the character not to do it. Adam and Eve were immature spiritually, emotionally, mentally, they now understood evil, and they would go towards it. Continuing, “And now, lest you put his hand out and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground, which he was taken. So, He drove out the man and place the Cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

So, God said, “You’re not ready yet for the power that comes with eating and participating in the tree of life.” God is saying here, again, as a metaphor, you obviously don’t love Me, as much as I love you. God said, “I created you, I gave you this beautiful garden, I gave you each other. Every day, I would come in cool of the evening, and I would meet with you, and I would talk with you. And I said you can have everything you want, except one tree. God says, and you didn’t even love Me enough to respect My wish, My statement to you not to eat of that tree.”

So, God said for an established period of time, “Go ahead. Make your own governments, make your own cultures, develop your own religions and languages and laws. And I want you and your descendants to see for yourselves if the knowledge of good and evil brings contentment and happiness.” God said, “I will always maintain the right to intervene when I want to, but I will allow you and your descendants down to this very age, to experience the consequences of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

So, it didn’t take long for humanity to begin to understand the need to be together as families and to begin to build and create governments. Genesis 4:16, very simple statement. “Then, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod.” Someone told me the other day the land of Nod is when you fall asleep during services, you nod off. Actually, the Hebrew word nod means to wander. So, He send them into a land of wandering, a vagabond is another way that word is described on the east of Eden. “And Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and call the name of the city after the name of the son, Enoch.” When you build a city, you need organization, you naturally need structure. You need a way to rule and govern and guide that city.

Now, this was the first city but it was before the flood, it was pre-deluge after the flood, the first city would be named Babel, which means the gates of the gods, we call it Babylon, and today we’ll take a look at how what’s referred to later on the book of Revelation. Like anything that human beings do, some immediately with the development of cities began to strive for position and power. Within the dark reaches of human nature is the desire to control your destiny, but some people also want to control everyone else’s destiny.

Genesis 10:8, “Cush was the grandson of Noah, begat Nimrod and he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” He used power. He used strength in order to dominate others. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, he has weapons, he has strength, he has presence, he wants to dominate and domineer, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, as it was said. Verse 10, “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” And sure enough, anthropology, sociology and history reveal that it doesn’t matter which continent human beings eventually traveled to instinctively, some within each human group seek power and desire to control the entire group. That’s human. That’s carnal to have that desire.

They gain power because they either have more material possessions or they might be bigger in size, which is why males dominated most of the kingdoms of this world, or they may have friends who support them. Or they may claim to have special knowledge to hunt or special wisdom to do something that attracts power, that allows them to assume power. In times, families grow large, they intermarry with others, they may conquer and absorb other families, and they become a tribe. In time, tribes intermarry, and they may absorb or conquer other tribes, and in time, they become nations.

This is what happened to the family of Abraham. God said, “I am going to bless you with being one of those families that grows into tribes, and eventually becomes a nation.” And this was actually duplicated all over the world where families eventually became tribes, and eventually became nations. It’s seemingly natural to group together with family or others for protection and strength. And in the process, some individuals become more powerful from others, and they seize rulership, they begin to dominate. Again, this is a universal tendency of humankind all over the world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Asia, or the Americas, or Africa, or skin color, or culture, these traits are wired into being human. It’s a universal tendency of humankind everywhere.

We know this, as autocratic-type government. It’s oftentimes, very hierarchical. And in this structure, someone gets to the top and controls everything. We have titles, like King, Chief, Ruler, Pharaoh, Caesar, Czar. In this structure, someone is always at the top, he is supported, he is maintained by other leading individuals who have a vested interest in maintaining that structure and that order. It was read earlier in the book of Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death.” And this verse pretty well describes humanity’s attempt to rule itself. Autocratic control is natural, it seems right, but brothers in history proved it doesn’t work very effectively. Self-absorbed human nature makes it impossible to work well because except for enriching the elite at the very top of the pyramid, everyone else is abused. Everyone else suffers. All human governments are filled with intrigue in politics and backstabbing, and strife, and violence, and everyone else suffers.

Autocratic government also seems to work and seems to be instinctively natural because of a trait that human beings have. Human beings have a trait known as being compliant. There is a reason that the Scriptures refer to human beings as sheep, sometimes in a good and positive way, but sometimes the Scriptures refer to human beings in a derogatory way as being sheep.

What autocratic leaders know is that if they deal ruthlessly with anyone who defies them, the majority will fear and simply fall in line. This is known as herd behavior. There’s another term, a derogatory term that’s called a sheepy. And that means, or a sheeple, I should say, the word sheeple means the passive herd behavior of people easily controlled by our governing power that likens them to sheep.

And in autocratic-type governments, the compliant are rewarded rather than the talented and the creative. The talented and the creative in this kind of environment are considered a threat to the king so they are pushed aside or abused, and those who are most compliant are rewarded. Its goal, remember isn’t to develop the potential of people, but to control them and keep them in their place. And that’s the history of the early governments of man throughout this world.

Another part of human nature is that people are attracted to powerful leaders who project strength, or are handsome, or are charismatic. Do you remember the first king of Israel whose name was Saul? He said, we want a king, we want to be like everyone else. So, what did God do? Well, He gave them the king, but He gave them the kind of king that He wanted them to have. He wanted to teach them a lesson.

You know, some of the qualities of Saul, 1 Samuel 9:2, he was taller than everyone else. He was head and shoulders taller than everyone else in the kingdom. It also says there that he was handsome. So, He gave the people a charismatic leader. They wanted to be like the other nations, He said, “I’m going to give you the kind of king you deserve.” He’s tall, he’s good-looking, he just lacks character.

It wasn’t until David that God chose a man after His own heart. God chose the exact kind of king that He wanted to lead the people. So, what happens when we want to be like everyone else? Let’s spend a few minutes here in 1 Samuel 8:10. 1 Samuel 8:10. Samuel tried to warn the nation, “You want to be like everyone else, I want you to know, I want you to understand what happens with human governments. You don’t want to be ruled by God anymore, you don’t want to be ruled by His judges for your own reasons, you want to be like everyone else. Bah. You want to be sheeple.” He says, “So I’m going to warn you, I’m going to give you a prophecy, I want you to understand what happens when you submit yourself to any kind of human government. So, Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked Him for a king, and He said, “This will be the behavior of the king.” This is what it’s like to be under autocratic rule. “The king will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots.” In other words, he’ll begin to create a military complex suddenly, to have an army, to support himself as important, “And to be his horseman and some will run before his chariots.”

You see, 50 and 60-year-old generals will decide when your 18-year-old son needs to be the first one to die in battle, the first one to run before the King’s chariot and catch all the arrows. That’s what the prophet says. “He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, more hierarchy, let’s create more structure and set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest.” His ground. His harvest. So, it’s all about the king.

“And some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.” So, he needs to begin to create not only a military complex, he needs to create a government bureaucracy that takes the taxes from the people and redistributes it to those whom he knows he can buy their support because their livelihood will depend on doing all of these things to support the system. Continuing here, “He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers, he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.” So, he’ll take your tax money, and he’ll give it to his cronies, those who prop him up, those who keep him in power. He’ll reward his friends and his family and his cronies. Verse 15, “He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage at high taxation. He’ll begin to tax you and give it to his officers and his servants.”

Now, we use a politically correct term today, okay, we call them taxes. What they really are, it’s a form of extortion. It’s taken from you and you never even see it. It’s taken from you before you even get your paycheck though, isn’t it? So, now he’s gonna introduce taxation to support this bloated bureaucracy that he’s created, this swamp that now supports his whole system and the parasites who exist in that swamp, his supporters, and those whose sole purpose in life is to prop up the king. Long live the king. Keep the king in power.

Continuing here, “He’ll take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys and put them to his work.” He’ll take away their freedoms. He’ll put them all to work for him, either in the military or some form of service to the king, to this new bloated government that’s been created. “He will take a tenth of your sheep.” What? He already took a tenth of your grain. He already took a 10th of your vintage, now he’s taking a tenth of your sheep? More taxation. “And you will be his servants.” In other words, all you basically do, your whole life, your whole purpose in this kingdom will be to support blindly the king and pay for all of his toys, all the things that he wants done.

Do you think I’m kidding here? You know, the average American pays 40% of their income in taxes, you pay 40% of your income in taxes. Don’t be deluded into thinking your taxes only include state and federal income taxes. You provide retail sales taxes, telephone taxes, cable taxes, internet taxes, gasoline taxes, hotel taxes, rental car taxes, alcohol taxes, import taxes, now, you don’t see those because they just bury that into the price of anything made in China or outside of the United States. Property taxes, if you own your property. Insurance taxes, now you don’t see that because when you get your insurance bill, they’ve just billed it into your premium price. Then, there’s licensing. If you want to buy license tags or have a driver’s license, or if you’d like to fish or do things, there are taxes there.

One of my favorite is what they do to Social Security. If you have worked 30 or 40 years of your life, your entire adult life, and live long enough to qualify for Social Security and you decide you want to be productive and have another job while you’re collecting those Social Security payments that you made for 40 years, in our system today, if you make the phenomenal amount of money of a whole $34,000, you will be required to pay taxes, not on those additional monies but on from 50% to 80% of your Social Security will be taxable. And then when you die, it’s time again. The federal government has an estate or death tax, 21 states have some form of a state or inheritance tax.

I love the play “Les Misérables,” especially the musical. And there’s one scene with the corrupt innkeeper. And every time I hear that I have to smile because I truly think of man’s governments, I think of the United States government in particularly. Here’s what he says in one of his dances that he does in the musical. He says, “Charge him for the lice, extra for the mice, 2% for looking in the mirror twice, here a little slice, there a little cut, 3% for sleeping with the window shut. When it comes to fixing prices, there’s a lot of tricks I knows how it all increases all the bits and pieces. It’s amazing how it grows.” And that’s what the government does to us here a little slice, there a little bit, little penalty here, little fee here, little hidden tax here. And what has become of our human governments was all prophesied by Samuel.

Verse 18, “And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” There will come a time when you will regret rejecting God and His judges. And the time when you said I just want to be like everyone. Bah. He says, “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, they said no, but we will have a king over us.” I want you to notice from, in essence, his prophecy the whole market human governments everything exists, everything happens to provide the ruling class with money and power. A bureaucratic government complex, the swamp, is created to keep the ruling elite in power.

So, a mankind has been trying to govern itself since we left the Garden of Eden in various forms of human autocratic power have been tried throughout history, and they have different names depending on the nuance. It can be a monarchy, oligarchy. Communism is just a form of an oligarchy. It’s controlled by a party, authoritarianism, totalitarianism. What I have described here is the classic government structure that dominated the earth for 200, up until about 230 years ago, so 95% of the time of man has been under the kind of government that I just talked about, autocratic, oftentimes very hierarchical.

But something changed in the latter part of the 18th century, the founders of the United States, we’re searching to establish a new form of government. And what the founders were trying to do was to learn from the past failed mistakes of particular Republic’s that existed in ancient Greece, and ancient Rome. They desired to establish a new form of government that would benefit the citizens, the people, and give them a greater degree of personal freedom. They knew what they created would not be perfect, and it certainly is not. What they designed was a Republican form of a democracy, and it’s become more democratic and less Republican during the last 230 years.

I’m going to give you a brief definition of democracy. Democracy is defined as a form of government in which power belongs to the people. There are a number of different types of democracies, what they have in common is the ability of the people to select and replace their representatives.

About 20 years ago, when I was working towards my master’s degree, I read a biography of the 66 kings of the United Kingdom that existed since 1827 A.D., beginning with a man named Ecgberht. I read a biography on all 66 Kings of England and Scotland. And here’s the difference. Here’s why in 230 years, democracy has been on the rise, and monarchies collapsed and fell, became weaker. First of all, you have balloting and the strength of balloting is that the people get to change their government. Every four years, there’s a mini-revolution in the United States. We call that a presidential election. Every two years, there’s a mini-revolution in the United States, the entire House of Representatives can change. The Senate has staggered terms. But you see rather than just constant civil war and people coming in and creating revolutions, people are allowed to have a mini-revolution. They can vote on the people that they want to serve them. And that has given democracies the slight edge in world affairs. Why is that?

Well, as I learned in studying my 66 Kings, and other types of history, let’s say that you have a king, King Nincompoop comes on the scene. Hail King Nincompoop. And there certainly were a lot of those throughout history. He may reign 30, 40, 50 years before he dies, he may be inept. He may be corrupt, but he’s ruling until he dies and you’ve been patient. And you’ve prayed, guess how you’re rewarded when King Nincompoop dies? Son of Nincompoop replaces him. So, when democracies rose, I mean, the quality of the leadership isn’t any better between a monarchy and a democracy, but in the democracy, you get the roll the dice more often, you get an opportunity to remove those who are mediocre and not doing a good job, wherein a typical autocratic form of government, you must put up with them until they die. And some of them seem to live a long time, especially the bad ones.

Another strength of democracy and why it overcame monarchies in the Western world is a democracy has built-in checks and balances that stop knee-jerkism in government. With an autocratic leader something comes into their head, they just do it, why? Who’s going to stop them? They’re king. So, things go from left to right, things are chaotic. Make a law, pull the law back two days later, do this, do that. With a democracy are purposely built-in checks and balances, so it cannot, it takes time to do anything, and it cannot knee-jerk to the left or to the right.

Democracy has proven to be the best of the worst in human governance and that’s not accomplished. Winston Churchill once said, and I will quote him, quote, “Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe, no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” End of quote. Again, that was Winston Churchill.

So, much of the Western world has accepted various types of democracy. It has many flaws, it has many problems. I could spend the rest of the sermon talking about the problems that democratic government has, and why ultimately it fails. But it also has some benefits, it has given greater numbers of people a comfortable lifestyle throughout the world, more personal freedoms, advanced technology, improved health care, a social safety net. So, in spite of its obvious flaws, it has been the most effective type of human government ever experienced by mankind, but there’s a reason for that. And I think sometimes in the Church of God, we don’t give our founders enough credit. And realize why democracies have a slight edge over autocratic-type governments.

Let’s go to Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17, beginning in verse 5, we may have read this scripture earlier in the Feast. If so, please bear with me and we’ll go through it again. Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus says the Lord, cursed is a man who trust in man.” Are we trusting in man’s government, man’s ability to rule himself or are we trusting in God? Are we looking forward to the kingdom of God being established on this earth and makes flesh His strength, “Oh, I’m stronger than everyone else. I have a greater army than any other nation.” Whose heart departs from the Lord? And that’s certainly occurring more day by day within our nation. “For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in the salt land, which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spread out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought because it has a good root system. It is deeply rooted in the way of God, nor will it cease from yielding fruit.”

Verse 9, a scripture many of us are familiar with, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways,” in other words, reward or punishment, “according to the fruit of his doings.”

The American founders were religious people. Now, many of them were not part of mainstream Christianity. There are letters in which Jefferson wrote Adams, and they both mocked the Trinity, ha, ha, ha, how can anybody believe in the Trinity? So, many of our founders were religious people, but they weren’t part of the mainstream. They had their own perspectives and ideas on religion. They created the U.S. Constitution we all live under today.

What most people don’t realize or appreciate is that the founders were very smart individuals who understood the darkest, deepest, ugliest side of human nature. They knew that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. They had studied the republics of Greece and Rome, and why they failed. They knew that 130 years before their time, there was actually a brief Republican England that also failed after the death of Oliver Cromwell. We can know some of their thinking process in creating the American Constitution by a couple of things.

First of all, are the Federalist Papers. These began being published in 1787. These were essays. Then the founders told us in these essays, they were distrustful of human nature. They said we know that power corrupts, we know that human beings are depraved, therefore, we’re going to build a government that separates, that mutes power among various branches, and has all kinds of checks and balances to stop and thwart any part of the government or any individual from gaining too much power.

A government was designed in which three created branches would be adversarial and would compete with one another for power. The purpose of the checks and balances again was to make sure that no one individual or group could control too much power. They called it the separations of powers.

There are three branches of our government. The legislative branch consists of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They both are different sizes, they have different cultures, they have different rules and how they function. Every House member is up for election every two years, the Senate has a staggered six-year term. Often the House and Senate have different values, they pass different laws that must be merged in joint committees. The executive branch is composed of the president, he or someday she, if time goes on long enough, gets help from the vice president, department heads that are called cabinet members, and heads of independent agencies. The third branch of government is the judicial branch. And this branch is a system of federal courts and judges that interpret laws made by the legislative branch and are enforced by the executive branch.

Again, these were all purposely intended to make it difficult for anyone branch, or one individual to gain too much power. There would always be a check and a balance. And why did they build these in? Because they acknowledged and understood that the heart is deceitful above all things. And a government that’s better, not perfect, but a government that’s better will be one that is constantly on guard against the depravity of human nature and the desire of human beings to control.

Here are some examples of how these different branches work together. Just a quick example. Understand the checks and balances. The legislative branch makes laws but the president in the executive branch can veto those laws with a presidential veto. Well, the legislative branch can come back and override the president’s veto, but now they have to have a supermajority. It requires two-thirds vote in each chamber, the House and the Senate. Congress has overridden less than 10%, historically, of the vetoes that a president vetoes, there’s a check. There’s a balance.

The legislative branch makes laws but the judicial branch can declare those laws unconstitutional. However, the legislative branch can achieve an amendment to the Constitution, there have been 27. And then it becomes part of the Constitution. So, therefore, it becomes constitutional if it’s part of the Constitution, but that requires two-thirds of Congress and the states to do that. The legislative branch has the power to approve presidential nominations and to control the budget. They can impeach the president, they can remove him or her from office, but both legislative branches must agree to do so, the House requires a simple majority, but the Senate has to have two-thirds in order to actually impeach him. The Senate holds the trial, the House does the actual impeachment.

The executive branch can declare executive orders which are like proclamations that carry the force of law, but the judicial branch can declare those acts unconstitutional. The judicial branch surfaces laws but the president nominates Supreme Court justices, the Court of Appeals justices, and the District Court justices who make the evaluations. The judicial branch interprets laws, but the Senate in the legislative branch confirms the president’s nominations or judicial positions. And Congress can impeach any of those judges or remove them from office.

I could provide many more examples, but I think you get the point. The founders of the United States purposely created a form of government to mute the depravity of human nature and the desire that people have to grab power impulsively. As we know, our nation is under a lot of stresses today, politically, civility has broken down, the political parties are perhaps more separated now than since the Civil War. For many years, our political environment was able to govern by working to find middle ground. Now, there is no middle ground, every simple action or decision is challenged, it’s criticized with anger, television, social media. People no longer talk to each other, they now shout at each other. People no longer think things deeply, they have repeated and memorized sound bites that they can say in 20 seconds to anyone.

The average Senate campaign costs $10.4 million for someone to have $174,000 a year job. Does that seem like a lot of money to you for $174,000 a year job? Now, why would you do that unless you’re interested in power and influence? The American Congress is now a very unique club if you put the Senate together with the House, it now consists of 245 millionaires. Long gone are the days of the simple Virginia plantation farmer coming to serve in Congress for one or two terms and going back to the farm. Now, these are lifetime gigs. These go on and on, and on, and on, ad nauseum. So, if you were a millionaire, why would you want $174,000 per year job, if it’s not simply the perk of being in power?

So, that is a brief and sad history of mankind’s attempt to create our own governments and rule ourselves. And again, the reason that democracies have risen to dominance in the past 200 years or so, is because they have the advantage of removing mediocre leaders more often than other forms of government, autocratic leaders rule until they die or are killed off. And another thing that I sometimes think we don’t appreciate is the fact that our politics are ugly. Our politics, people lie. People exaggerate. People are angry. But in our form of government, that is the alternative to constant civil war, as ugly as it is, as nasty as it is, it’s an alternative to continual civil war.

Some weaknesses of democracies, one weakness of it is the ballot process. If you have a major decision the nation is trying to make and let’s say, it comes out 52% to 48%, whatever that issue may be, you just disenfranchised almost half, 48% half of the people who balloted for that, that’s going to cause a problem in any organization. If you’ve been following the Brexit crisis in the United Kingdom, they decided to leave the European Union a couple of years ago, and the vote was like 51.9% to leave, and everyone else voted to stay. It’s torn the nation apart. They’re in shreds, the greatest constitutional crisis since the Second World War. And that is one of the big weaknesses of the ballot system. If it’s too close, you disenfranchise, you alienate a very large proportion of those who perhaps were a minority for half a percent or 1%.

Another problem with democracies is in their never-ending desire to have freedom and equality, eventually, they begin to take up the causes of 1% to 2% of the people. And to them, freedom means that they have to accept every deviancy and every perversion, and first, they accept it and then they legalize it, and then they find a way to subsidize it. And you know what you get with any behavior when you encourage it and subsidize it? You get more of that behavior, whatever it may be.

So, these are democracies. These are the types of human governments that exist in the world today. So, what will the kingdom of God be like? And why will it be successful compared to modern human democracies, for example, what will the kingdom of God be like? Why will it work? Why will it succeed when every other form of human government throughout history has been dysfunctional, has caused evil, and war, and misery, and ultimately failed?

Let’s see what the Scriptures tell us will change on earth. Number one, end of the age of man. The end of the age of man, God is going to lead humanity out of the wilderness, out of Nod, out of being a vagabond, and back to the Garden. God is saying that time is up that I told Adam and Eve that go ahead and make your own governments, go ahead make your own cultures and religions and languages that time is up. It’s time for Me to intervene for the sake of My elects and to change this world. 1 Corinthians 15:22, if you’ll turn there with me. 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul was inspired to write, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first-fruits, afterward, those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father when He puts an end to all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

So, every existing human government, law, authority, every human source of power, whether that be military, financial, cultural, everything, as we know it, will come to an end. The kingdom of God is not merely an improvement or an upgrade on the best of existing governments. There are no best of existing governments, there’s just the best of the worst. They are all bad, they are all corrupt. Every political party in the United States is corrupt without exception.

The kingdom of God is something totally new. As the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write and we read this earlier, so I’ll just read it rather than have you turn to Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a Child was born, unto us a Son is given and the government will be upon His shoulder.” You see, the government of God can only occur when Jesus Christ brings it, carries it on His shoulder into this world. The kingdom of God is spiritual. The leaders are Jesus Christ and His saints. That’s what it takes to have the government of God. And though some people may have all the right intentions and may want to have the government of God on earth, the government of God is impossible on earth until Jesus Christ brings it upon His shoulders. “And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government,” and that increase is slow, but sure, beginning first when He touches upon the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and Israel and slowly encompassing the entire earth. “The increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”

Revelation 14:8, if you’ll turn there with me. Revelation 14:8. Revelation 14:8, and another angel followed, saying, Babylon, remember the first city after the flood from Nimrod, the mighty hunter, the first one who flexed his muscle, said, “I’m going to take charge, I’m building a city. I’m in charge. I’m calling the shots. I’m the big wig.” “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she has made all nations drunk with the wine of wrath, and her fornication.” That can mean numerous things, but this first city that occurred after the flood represents humanity’s futile attempts to create our own civilization. Every part of our world today is in spiritual Babylon, our own cultures, our own religions, our own languages, our own governments, our own man-made laws using the knowledge of good and evil. That’s spiritual Babylon, and that’s got to come to an end. It is brought only upon us evil and pain, suffering, and death.

The second change that will occur, and this is wonderful, God’s Spirit will be offered to all. God’s spirit that you have, that God has given you when you repented, and you were baptized, you had hands laid on you and received His Holy Spirit, He’s going to offer that to everyone, not just Israel. And that’s why I’ve chosen Joel 2, to read Joel 2, we read some other prophets who were referring to Israel with this prophecy, but there’s a reason that Acts 2:17, quoted from the prophet Joel 2:26, “We shall lead in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be put to shame, then you shall know that I’m in the midst of Israel, I am the Lord your God, and there is none other. My people shall never be put to shame.”

Verse 28, “And then it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh,” not just the descendants of Israel, first, perhaps, fine, wonderful, but He’s pouring out His Spirit on all flesh, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also on My menservants, and on My maidservants, I will pour out My spirit in those days.” So, this is the most important change that will occur all over the earth, this universal change in human desire and attitudes and mindsets generated by receiving the Spirit of God. Of course, it doesn’t mean that it will be forced on people, but it will be offered to everyone who desires this gift. In our lifetimes, we have it because God called us, and we had the courage to accept that calling and we repented of our sins, but that’s very few in our generation, but then it will be provided and offered to all flesh. It will be for everyone who desires this gift of God.

So, what will it be like when everyone learns, as it says in Galatians 5, everyone learns to love one another, to have joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Do you think the world will be a little different than what we have today? Absolutely. You know something? That’s good. But without something else happening, they’ll probably fail. I wouldn’t shock you with that. Something happened before this time, that was actually a holy day that you and I celebrated just a few weeks ago, we call it the Day of Atonement.

So, another thing that has to happen in order for God’s Spirit to enrich and reach the potential in this new kingdom, is that Satan will have had to have been removed. In Revelation 20:2, “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished.” Because of the present influence of Satan and his spirits that permeate our earth, all people are influenced by selfishness and competition.

Let me give you an example. I have no doubt looking out among you that some of you have had God’s Spirit for 40, 50 years. God bless you and thank you for your faith and dedication, but Satan is still the god of this world. How easy has it been? It’s been tough, hasn’t it? We’ve all been through a lot. It’s a struggle to control ourselves and to develop the character of God’s gift of His Holy Spirit, the fruit of that spirit when we live in a world that is permeated and controlled by Satan. They’re not going to have to face that. And part of that includes part of human nature, the desire to control others and always be number one. I like to say that Satan has a hidden Wi-Fi network. And we all have access to it the moment we’re born, the moment we had awareness in this world, we were bombarded with a hidden Wi-Fi network that broadcasts negativity. From the second we came to consciousness our minds were bombarded with carnal desires.

Some psychologists now say that 80% of what we think is negative and works against us. Eighty percent of what enters our minds, is negative and works against us. Why is that? It’s because of the prince of the power of the air. When you remove Satan’s constant direct influence, as will have been done, at the time that God pours out His Spirit upon all flesh in His kingdom, you will have a people who are capable to fully develop the fruit of the Spirit. It won’t be as hard, it won’t be as challenging as it’s been for you and I. And if you want to know how powerful Satan’s influence is, just take a quick look at verses 7 through 10 and see what quickly happens to Gog and Magog shortly after Satan is released. Let us never underestimate the power of the false god of this present world. He’s a deceiver, he’s a destroyer, and he must be removed.

The third thing that’s very important, that will differentiate the kingdom of God from human governments is the universal establishment of God’s law, the universal establishment of God’s law. Hebrews 8:10. We all live by human law, secular laws, and they change all the time. Something that’s considered an abomination 20 years ago is now legal and acceptable. We all live in a world in which human laws are all over the place.

Hebrews 8:10, but there’s another option, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says, Lord, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people, none of them shall teach his neighbor, and none of them has brothers saying know the Lord for all will know Me, from the least to them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more.” In that, He says a New Covenant. He has made the first one, that is the Old Covenant that ancient Israel lived under obsolete. Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Again, human laws change with time, they change with human agendas, they change or are different depending on the culture that you live in. Most laws in our society today need to have penalties to enforce compliance. If you don’t pay one of those wonderful taxes that I spoke about, earlier, you can probably expect a call from the IRS, ultimately, right? But not only will God give His spirit to all individuals, which we’ve already talked about, but He will also hardwire His law into the hearts and minds of humanity beginning with the nation of Israel.

In God’s kingdom, every belief system, every civil law, every program will be centered on God’s value system of love for God, and love for our neighbor. People in the kingdom, and this is important, people in the kingdom will not do things simply to be compliant. Like the sheeple that exists in the world today, people will do things in the kingdom because it’s written on their hearts, and they want to do it.

You know, there are three types of motivation. The first type of motivation and the least effective and this is a little talk that I often give to the companies that I work with, the first type and the least effective is fear. That’s what autocratic governments have used throughout history. The problem with it, it only works short-term, it has to be external, you have to have someone on the outside constantly applying and making you fearful. It’s not very effective. People don’t grow, people don’t develop, they just comply. It’s not a very good motivation system.

The second one is incentive. And it works better than fear, but ultimately, in time, when you give someone bonuses or an incentive, pretty soon because we’re human, we begin to expect it as an entitlement, and it loses its ability to motivate us. The most powerful form of human motivation is internal. It’s not because someone has to threaten you to do something, it’s not because someone has to bribe you to do something, you do things because you want to. You love to. You are excited about doing it. It gives you purpose and meaning. A racehorse runs for the sheer thrill of running. And when your heart and your mind have been wired to love God’s law, you will love God, and you will respect Him and His law because you want to, not because you’re forced to, or you have to.

Matthew was inspired to write in Matthew 4:4, but Jesus answered and said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” And in His Kingdom, there will certainly be room for various perspectives and various ideas. There’ll be no room for personal agendas or distorted human ideas of so-called fairness or equality like we have in our world today. It won’t simply be the Old Covenant that was given to ancient Israel, it’ll be a New Covenant, a law written on the hearts of spirit-filled people. And that’s a game-changer, totally different than human governments are able to achieve.

It was mentioned earlier in the Feast that in Numbers 29, sacrifices were instructed on the Feast of Tabernacles. Burnt offerings of bulls and rams and lambs were made on every day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Interestingly, the number of bulls offered during the Feast of Tabernacles decreased by one each day, decreased from 13 to seven by the last day of the Feast. Seven is the number of perfection. It symbolizes the earth becoming more righteous, more healed as the Millennium progresses, and as people’s hearts are changed, as people receive the love of God’s law in their hearts from the most remotest parts of the earth.

And the last quality that I want to mention today is Godly rulership and government. And that’s where we fit in. That’s why we’ve been called at this time, Godly rulership and government. I’m going to read from Revelation 20:4 we’ve read this also during the scripture, “And I saw thrones, and they sat in them and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Verse 6 says, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

My brother Jesus Christ is bringing His saints back to this earth. Upon His return, after they’ve been resurrected, and joined with Him returning to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, you have been called to become the religious and secular leaders in that new kingdom. You are being tested and trained for Godly leadership. Everything you experience in your life, good or bad, has a purpose. God is working with you every moment of every day to mold us as the master potter into something new and better and spiritually minded.

When you received the Spirit of God, you now live in the light of eternity. This means that from this point on, nothing in your life is wasted. Even the mistakes that we’ve made, the negative things we’ve experienced, even the things that we’re ashamed of, are for a purpose and can make us spiritually mature and wiser, more forgiving of others because of maybe some of the things that we’ve done, more compassionate because of some of the mistakes we’ve made along the way. But we need to understand that when you live in the light of eternity, nothing in your life goes to waste. God loves you, and He’s working with you each and every day to prepare you for rulership in this kingdom.

Mark 10:42, our last scripture that we will actually turn to today. Mark 10:42, the reason that this phrase, the statement that Jesus makes here are in all of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark 10:42, it’s very important because Jesus wants us to do this now. This is the training. This is what we should be doing. He told His disciples, here are the principles to live by, and I want you to do this now. And it’s contrary to the governments of this world. It’s contrary to gentile rulership and lordship over people and who gets to be in charge and who’s the boss and who has the most power. It’s anti that entire system of Babylon, but Jesus called them to Himself and He said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the gentiles, lord it over them.” Oh, it’s great to be number one. “I’m king. I have power. I have control, I can tell everyone what to do.” And they’re great ones, those were considered great in this gentile-Babylon-ish culture, the great ones exercise authority. It’s all about control, whom has authority, yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Why? Because we are serving humanity in the Kingdom of God.

And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of everyone. How can I serve? What can I do for you today? “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” This is the type of rulership and leadership that will exist in the world tomorrow. And Jesus Christ wants us as His disciples to learn how to serve others now in preparation for what we’re going to be doing for all eternity.

Those who are spirit-filled rulers in the kingdom of God will serve for the right motives. It won’t be about power, celebrity, wealth, or other self-seeking motives. It will not spring from some carnal desire to be in charge or to feel like we’re important or we’re great. It’ll be to love others, using the Spirit of God that reflects a desire from our hearts to serve, to care for others. The scripture that we’ve also read a number of times today, Isaiah chapter... or throughout the week, I should say Isaiah 13:20, “And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction, your teacher shall not be moved into a corner anymore.” Unlike today where we’re marginalized, it’s religious, you think adultery is wrong? What planet are you from, Thomas? All right. So, we’re marginalized today, no one takes us seriously because we believe in God and we believe in God’s law. The rest I’m going to read I want you to tell me whether you hear anything in here about a rod, or harsh correction or punishment, or putting fear on people. “But your eyes shall see your teachers and your ears shall hear a word from behind you saying this is the way walk in it whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.”

That’s a heart of service. No need for fear. No need to pound somebody. No need to threaten somebody. This is a coach. This is a teacher. This is someone who has compassion and love and wants others to be able to share the same joys and same opportunities that they’ve received. So, in conclusion, the kingdom of God will be successful because God will be restoring access to the tree of life, that tree that was cut off from Adam and Eve. Dysfunctional human governments will be replaced by the wise government of God. Carnal human nature will be replaced with the gift of the Holy Spirit upon all human hearts. Satan and his demons will be removed from negatively influencing the earth. A universal law founded on love and respect will replace the thousands of conflicting and changing human values and laws that exist in our various cultures in the world today. Godly servants and teachers will replace the carnal, power-obsessed rulers who have abused humanity throughout history.

It will be a wonderful world. If there is any type of financing needed, it’ll be a simple tithe, not the millions of ways that the government today finds to take money out of your pocket. You know, I live in Northern Ohio and one of the beautiful things about living in Northern Ohio is every February, some days are so cold that the politicians have their hands in their own pockets. It won’t be that kind of a world. There will no longer be a military complex, you won’t need huge taxes to support this enormous military to protect your nation or to protect yourself from others in the world. There won’t be Medicare, there won’t be Medicaid, there will be no health care expenses because people will be healed.

There will be no poverty because everyone will have an opportunity, everyone will be healed. And beyond that, if for some reason you’re not motivated, or you’re not trained to work after you’re healed, you will receive the training so that you too, can be fully productive in your life, and do wonderful things and reach a degree of fulfillment that can only come from doing productive activities in your life. There will no longer be a separate church and state, church and state will be combined, it will be the government of God, no longer divided like we have in our democracies today.

This will create a new world that will finally allow all individuals to reach the awesome potential that God originally intended for everyone. Humanity by this time will have understood that the tree of good and evil only brought pain and suffering, and war, and death. Everyone will eventually have access to the tree of life, that tree that was barred from Adam and Eve because of their sin. And that will be made possible because of the righteous Kingdom of God and His righteous government.

The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates that wonderful time in which, contrary to man’s silly, ridiculous attempt to rule himself, to create his own governments, all of which have failed and caused nothing but misery, Jesus Christ will return to this earth, carrying the government of God on His shoulders. And from that time on, everything changes, and you will be part of that change. Thank you for being faithful to God’s way of life. And remember that we fail, we really fail only when we quit. No matter what you go through in life, whatever is tossed at you by the god of this world, pick yourself up. Repent. Ask your great Father for strength and continue to serve God and serve His people. I wish all of you the rest of the day, the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and a wonderful Eighth Day tomorrow.