The World to Come

Well, we're here on a weekend that has a lot of meaning. Just a couple days we'll be back here, and we'll be celebrating the Feast of Trumpets and all that the Feast of Trumpets means.

As we live in a world that we live in today, as we look at the world around us, as we listen to the campaign rhetoric of what's going on in the election, you might even hear little trumpets going off in your head so the Feast of Trumpets could have more meaning for us today because we live in an increasingly dangerous world. We live in an increasingly volatile world and an uncertain world with no answers. Little bells are going off, and there's people that are trying to come up with the answers of how we can live in a more stable and a more secure society, but those answers aren't out there.

You know, every time we get into a presidential election, we're used to hearing candidates talk about what they can do, and they want people to follow them, and if they people will follow them, and they have the opportunity to lead the country, then it'll be so much better place. We'll be safer, we'll be secure, we'll be more prosperous than all these things.

We're all used to campaign promises. It makes for good sound bites, I guess, but all too often those promises don't amount to anything. By the time you look at four years down the road, nothing really has changed for the better, and life can be even more difficult in the world, a different place than anyone expected down the road.

Because flat out, mankind just doesn't have the answers to the multitude of problems that are facing it. You know, we sit here and we'll begin observing the All-Holy Days, and we'll talk about the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Trumpets, but we know what those what those sounds and those trumpets are warning as we approach the return of Jesus Christ, and we'll talk about the Day of Atonement and the steps necessary between now and the return of Jesus Christ to establish the Millennium and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. And as we look forward to that time, we know these steps that we need to go through, but it's a beautiful picture that God has put for us of the Kingdom of God.

And as we start these Holy Days, I want us to focus on that, and that's where our vision should be. You know, we need to know the things that are there going to happen between now and then, but that shouldn't be where our focus is. If our focus is on that, you know, we're going to fall by the wayside somewhere along the road. We need to be focusing on what God has.

And as we compare what God says to what the world has to say, you know, we are used to empty campaign promises, but the promises in the Bible of what the world will look like, what you want the world to look like, what the world itself wants the world to look like, are right there in the Bible. And that's what we picture as we enter into this Holy Day season.

So today I want to talk about some of those things and talk about the elements that will be there. Not a campaign promise, but a real promise that you can count on. And I hope that as we go through, and we're going to go through a lot of Bible verses today, I hope you get a picture of what God has planned.

Because whatever a candidate says, his picture of the world isn't going to happen. If we truly want the world to be great again, if we really want to be together again, and the world in harmony again, and walking hand in hand again, it isn't any of the leaders of this world that are going to make that happen. It's when Jesus Christ returns. You know, to have a government, to have a land that is what people want it to be, a land that is moving forward, and that is the picture of what everyone, I believe, wants.

Whether they've ever even heard of Jesus Christ or not, they'll lose that term lightly that everyone, loosely that everyone wants that.

There are certain things that have to happen. Let's turn over to Proverbs 29, verse 2, and see the first thing that has to happen in order for the world to have the things that it wants again.

Proverbs 29 gives us a very basic principle, and any leader that we would follow should have this as part of his resume, if you will, or his part of what his character is. Proverbs 29, verse 2 says, When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. And you know what it means to be righteous.

It means they follow God's laws or people of integrity. They say what they mean. They mean what they say. They follow through on what they say. They have a good idea of what to do.

They know how people should live. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. So you can follow that principle, and you can look at the world around you, and if you hear people groaning in what they're doing, then you know what? Good well-beater is not a righteous man leading that government.

When the righteous man leads that government, the people will rejoice. That's just part of the law that God put in place on this earth, part of what people respond to. You know, it gives us a list of the Straits of the Holy Spirit, and it talks about love, joy, peace, long-suffering. It says, against such, there is no law. Imagine if there was someone on earth today that was running for office that we would say, there's a righteous person.

It would be an interesting thing to happen. Let's go over to Psalm 72.

And see this definition of a leader that will lead the world to what it is looking for. Psalm 72.

And let's begin in verse...well, we'll read the first eight verses here. Psalm 72, verse 1.

Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son.

He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people in the little hills by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor, setting it free the people who are held down. They shall fear you, referring to God, as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, like showers that water the earth.

In his days the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace until the moon is no more.

He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Let's step down to verse 11 and read a few more verses.

Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him, for he will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy, will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence, and precious shall be their blood in his sight. Isn't that the kind of leader that you want to follow? Isn't that who you would like to see at the head of the government? Isn't that who you would like to see that has the needs of all people in mind, and not just a few? Someone who has the answers, and someone who has proven that in his time when he was on earth, when he showed his unfathomable love for all of mankind, when he gave himself, gave his life so that people could have life, so they could have their sins forgiven. With the caveat, as you heard in the sermon at that, when they accept that forgiveness, they move on and they walk in the way that God directs them to walk, not going on in their same way, but turning from the old way and living a new way. Because if there's ever going to be some of the land or a government that even delivers on some of the promises that you might hear physical leaders talk about, there's going to have to be a change. There's going to have to be a change of direction. It can't be the same old, same old.

The same old, same old has us in the position that we're in now, with the direction going not better, but in many cases worse. So that's the type of leader that you would want to look at.

Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9, verse 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us the Son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Someone that you can look to, that you can say, he has all the qualifications and more than we could hope for. Someone who isn't partial in his view of things. No partiality, no accusations of racial bias, sexism, or anything like that, but he is absolutely impartial. And he will treat all people equally because we've seen him do that already. He's died for all people, not just one group of people, not just one nation, for all of mankind. That's the type of leader it will take to have the world that people want. And, you know, as we go through the various things that you would hear on TV, as we look at the world to come, because there are three worlds mentioned in the Bible, the world that then was that was destroyed in the flood, the world we live in today, and the world to come. Under Jesus Christ, when he returns, we see a perfect world, one that should be in our vision and we should be asking God to hone continually so that it motivates us, inspires us, and drives us to continue to overcome and yield to him. One of the things that we hear about today is peace, right? Everyone wants world peace. I have a feeling from the time that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, mankind has been saying, we want peace. When you look at the world in Genesis and you see how it descended so quickly into just a terrible state, so bad that God said, I repent. I'm sorry that I created man. They're evil. They're violent. They're corrupt. The world is filled with this, and so we wiped them out. With the flood, it became so bad. It's because they were following the wrong way. I've been here, kind of, wanted peace. You hear that all the time, and every single presidential campaign is going to talk about peace. People talk about peace.

They've never been able to achieve it. One of the things we hear about is as part of the platforms on peace. It's disarmament, right? We talk about we need to prevent this country from having nuclear weapons. Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. North Korea can't develop it. We need to limit what Russia has. All these other countries, it would be wonderful if all the world would just become disarmed. But there isn't a nation on earth that's going to let go of what they have, because they can't trust everyone else. So there is no peace that comes from disarmament. We hear on a personal level and our local levels. Here in Orlando, it was the theme, I think, a few months ago.

Gun control. Everyone, you know, if we didn't have guns, if people just couldn't buy guns, we would have peace. We would have safety. Not so. Not so. And you won't find anyone that's going to willingly give up their guns. But, you know, under the righteous leader and the land and the people that have learned and that have learned to live the way of life of righteousness, disarmament isn't going to be an issue. It's going to be something that happens. We're here in the book of Isaiah.

Let's go back to Isaiah 2. Isaiah 2, verse 4. I'm sure you all know what verse I'm talking about, just as I turn to it. Isaiah 2, verse 4. Isaiah 2, not 1. Isaiah 2. He shall judge, speaking of Christ, the leader that I'm talking about, he shall judge between the nations. He shall rebuke many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. They're not going to need them anymore. Though the world that come in the perfect world, people aren't going to be worried about arms. They're not going to be worried about defending themselves against those who might come in and harm them or steal from them. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. How many trillions of dollars you've heard on TV, how many trillions of dollars are spent on war? How much better would those dollars be if they were spent on anything else? But that can't happen in a world today. It can happen in a world led by a righteous leader. It will happen. It's not a campaign promise when you're talking about what the Bible says. Not at all a promise. It will happen. Hard for us to imagine as we look around us and as we see the world around us, but it's as sure as you and me sitting here today, it's going to happen. It'll be a place of no arms. Over in Ezekiel, we find another thing that will be absent in that world. Ezekiel 38 talks about a time after that world begins. There will be people who still have thoughts in their minds, even though they will be being educated in a different way. That will have a thought in their minds, and they will decide they're going to do something. But notice what it says here in Ezekiel 38 and verse 10. It says, this is speaking of the future time, the world we're looking at, Thus says the Lord God. On that day, he says to a group of people, at that day it will come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you'll make an evil plan. You'll say, I'll go up against the land of unwalled villages.

Walls? Walls are a topic today, aren't they? But in that land, there will be unwalled villages.

There won't be any need for those fortresses. In ancient times, you could tell the security of a city by the strength of its walls, but there will be a time where there's unwalled villages.

You'll say, I'll go up against the land of unwalled villages. I'll go to a peaceful people who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates.

Pick up on that. No walls, no bars on windows, no gates, a society that is a perfect peace.

Nation and nation, neighbor and neighbor, city and city. And God is warning these people who have that thought in their mind. These people are easy-plunder. Remember back a few years ago, we could walk right in and we could take anything they want, anything we want of what they have.

People won't have to defend themselves. God will defend them as you go on and read Ezekiel 38.

A land of perfect peace. No walls, no bars, no gates, no weapons. Wouldn't you like to follow?

A leader that could promise that, not just as a campaign promise, but an absolute promise.

Can you even imagine a world where there's absolute peace, where you don't flip on the news at night and hear about some skirmish someplace, some war, some flare-up, some violence in the city? Imagine just turning on the news and not hearing about one murder in any big city in America or any shooting. Oh, that's the world we look forward to. That's the world you and I should be looking to. Law and order is going to be part of that society.

There won't be people just doing everything they want. They will be following law and order because a big part of what is the problem in the world today is people don't know. Let's look at Ojai Hosea 4 right after Daniel.

Hosea 4 verse 6.

My people, God says, are destroyed. Why? They're destroyed for lack of knowledge.

They don't know. They don't know the way to peace. They don't know the way to the things that they would like to see happen. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you've rejected knowledge, I will reject you, He says, from being creased for me.

Telling those who would serve Him, you better learn, you better know, it better become part of you, you better practice it. The world around us doesn't know it. So the world to come, the world that the promises are sure, there will be knowledge. It's going to take a monumental education effort for that to happen because we know as we look at the world around us, people move and move further and further away from any sense of morality. Even common decency that would have been defined 10-15 years ago doesn't apply anymore. Much less the knowledge of law and order, God's law, the ways that lead to peace, prosperity, and all those things that people talk about in every presidential campaign, but they can't deliver.

People are destroyed for lack of knowledge, so people are going to have to learn and be taught those things. And you know what? When they begin to be taught that, they're going to desire it.

Just like you and I desire it. When we learn God's way, when we see the beauty of it, we'll begin to understand the benefits in our lives. When we put it into practice and we see those blessings really do result, our families are at greater peace. We're at greater peace.

God blesses our efforts. We're at peace with ourselves. We want to know more and more.

People are going to want to know that, too. Back in Isaiah, Isaiah 2, another memory verse. You'll hear it when you go to the Feast of Tabernacles, probably on the first night. If not that, probably on the first day. Isaiah 2 and verse 2.

It'll come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains. It will be supreme. It'll be over all nations. This is a worldwide effort, not a one-nation effort, not a one-region of the world effort, a worldwide effort. The mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above all hills. No little groups out there with different ideas, no little groups that are going to set their own laws in their own times. Everyone will be following the same principles, and all nations will flow to it. Many people will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. We will do that because we know, and we've come to understand, this is the way. They're not going to have to be prodded. They're going to go because they're going to see the benefit, the same benefit that you and I should be seeing as we put these principles into our lives, because the whole world will be living by that way. For out of science, they'll go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

That will be the headquarters, but it'll be taught everywhere. That's where it'll emanate from, and people will go there and they will flow to it, just like today we go to educational institutions to find our learning. The law will be taught. There will be other things that are taught as well because we live in a physical world and we have to work, but that law will be taught.

But it won't be taught just at Jerusalem. It'll be taught everywhere. If we go back to Isaiah, a few chapters forward in Isaiah, and Isaiah 30, we see a concept that is actually quite a blessing.

Maybe some of us would like to have this in our lives right now. Isaiah 30 and verse 20 talks about some of the teaching efforts that will go on on a worldwide basis, not just for one group of people or one nationality, but for everyone. Verse 20 says, Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, because sometimes we learn by tough times, right? When we go through trials, we learn things that we wouldn't learn otherwise.

Though we give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. They're not going to be hidden. You're not going to push them aside. You're not going to forget they exist and say, oh, you know what? We don't want to hear what you have to say. Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

Wouldn't that be nice if we have thoughts come into our minds? When we're walking down a wrong path, if someone tapped up on the shoulder and said, no, no, that's not the way. That's not the way you go. Turn around and go this way. Don't be thinking that thought. Be thinking this thought.

Get rid of those things. Walk on the path that leads to everything that you say you want.

That's the teachers that will be there. That will be, if we follow through the Bible, and I don't have time to talk about that today, that will be you and me. If we learn, if we follow, if we do what God says, if we apply in our lives today what He says, not just know it, but live it.

But you know we have that today, don't we? We may not feel a tap on our shoulder, but we may feel a knock on our head. We may feel our conscience saying, this is not the way that you should do. You may feel some of that guilt when you do something.

When you feel that you shouldn't ignore it. You shouldn't push that teacher into a corner.

You should listen to it and go back and repent and do the things the way that God says, just the way they will do and the world will be in the time ahead of us.

You know, when you teach law and order, there are certain things that have to happen.

One of the things that are going to be taught is something that is becoming more and more absent in the world today, and that is that actions have consequences. Let's go back to Zachariah.

The law will be established. People will be taught it. People will understand it. But when people determine not to do it, there will be action taken against them. We talked about the walled villages where there's something that enters into someone's mind, and God takes care of those people. The people don't have to defend themselves. God interrupts that whole process.

And here in Zachariah 14, we find that the world is keeping God's holy days, just like you and I keep God's holy days, just as Jesus Christ kept God's holy days.

But in verse 16 in Zachariah 14, we find that one of the nations thinks, I just don't want to do it. I don't see any reason to do it, and so we're just not going to go.

And it happens to be one of the holy days that are coming up, the Feast of Tabernacles. It says, in verse 16, it'll come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations, not just some, all the nations, which came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever the families of the earth don't come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If a family of Egypt won't come up and enter in, they'll have no rain. They'll receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who don't come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

They'll not be just Egypt. If Egypt happens to be one of them, they'll suffer consequences.

They'll learn, ah, there's only one way to these good things, and that is to keep the law of God.

There will be actions or consequences for actions that aren't taken.

And it'll be universally enforced, not just for a group of people. There's no partiality with God.

He doesn't apply His laws to one group and not the other. He's not going to be more lenient with one or the other. He expects, just like He expects you and me, complete compliance over the course of our lifetimes as we learn to live His way, as we assimilate those things into our minds and let Him write them on our minds and on our hearts. Complete and universal compliance, and people will learn. And they will be better off for it because when they learn and when they do, they will see the good in their lives. Not so much taught in the world today. We don't see so many consequences. Sure, there are, but sometimes they can be very protracted and not at all, in any time we matter. Back in Ecclesiastes, it tells us another part of what is wrong with us today or our society that won't be there, won't be part of that world. Ecclesiastes 8.

Now, verse 11 says, Because the sentence against an evil work, I've been tried, I've been judged, I got a sentence, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

And isn't that a hallmark of today's society? And then we wonder, why does the world become more and more evil? Our system of justice today, our sentences today, won't be that way. It'll be a complete overhaul of that system. Consequences and speedy consequences, so people learn that you need to obey the law of the land, which will be the law of the world at that time.

You know another thing that's going to be taught? Certainly we know that the Ten Commandments are going to be caught. They're the basis of any good society. They provide the basis and the spine, if you will, of our way of life. Respect. Respect is going to be taught again, too.

Respect is something that seems to have gone way by the wayside in recent years.

When you turn on the news and you see some of the things that you see, you realize people just don't have respect for authority anymore at all. No matter what anyone tells them, they just kind of go out and do their own things, and that's the system that we live in.

It's not a system that's ever going to lead to peace. Never going to be a system that ever leads to the things that people want. People have to be taught respect. Let's go back to Romans 13.

Speaking of a purely physical government here in Romans 13, God sets the standard for us, and what we should do, as long as who has authority over us, isn't asking us or requiring us to do something that we contrary to His laws, because God is the ultimate authority. Verse 1, chapter 13, Every soul, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

That'll be the law of the land. Now, today, the caveat on that is, if your boss says, you work the Sabbath, you don't obey Him rather than God, you obey God first. He's the ultimate authority. But if they ask you to do something, or if a police officer asks you to do something, or if someone in authority asks you to do something, you do it, is what God says.

That'll be the law of the world. If that was the law of the world today, imagine how different life would be. If we just had that one thing going on, one thing going on in the world today, that people respected authority, can you imagine how different life would be? Can you imagine how different the news would be when we flip it on at night if people just respected authority? I don't think our minds even conceive of that. And that goes now not just for adults, but for children.

I mean, there is a fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. And in Ephesians 6, Paul says, children obey your parents. Oh, the law will be taught. It'll be taught from Jerusalem. It'll be taught by those teachers that are tapping you on the shoulder. It'll be taught at home.

It won't be something that you learn just because you go to high school or to grade school. It'll be something that's part of your life every day. People won't be teaching their children to hate, to bear guns, and to hate this group of people and destroy them that they only deserve death.

And death is too easy in many cases. They teach them they should die a torturous death.

That's not going to happen anymore. They will be taught respect. They will be taught the law of God.

They will be taught love. They will be taught how families work together, how marriages work together. They will be taught all those things that we should be teaching at home because Deuteronomy 6 is very clear about what God expects of His people, and that will be the law of the land then. When you rise up, when you lay down, when you go to eat, when you go outside, when you go inside, that will be part of your conversation. God and the way of life will be part of everything we do, not just something we might do on Friday night for an hour or Sabbath morning as we're preparing for a Sabbath school, but all the time. God, the law, the principles, the respect, everything that goes along with it. You want the way to peace. You want your children to have a beautiful life. We want the world to be a beautiful place when Jesus Christ returns.

All those things are going to be taught, and they're going to be taught at home.

And all the pain and all the suffering are going to disappear. There won't be the hurt, the suffering that comes from wars, that comes from violence, that comes from crime, that comes from within families, because everyone will be learning. And when someone acts out of context and they're causing those things, there will be that tap on the shoulder. This is the way to do it. That's not the way to handle the situation. Back it up a step. Calm down.

Respond this way. A totally different society. Total education reform. When people talk about education reform, there's an awfully lot about it. There will be worldwide education reform, the type of education reform we should be doing in our lives today. Because if we look at our families and they look too much like the world, then we haven't been doing enough of what the world to come will be talking about or what we'll be dealing with. You know, I won't turn to back at 2.14. We'll talk. We're going to be going to a verse here in a minute in any way that will repeat it. Back to 2.14 says, the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth in those days as the water is covered the sea. It'll be a complete and successful re-education effort. Complete and successful. And when it results, the results of it will be mind-boggling. Let's go back to Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11 and verse 9.

A simple phrase. It comes from the right education. It comes from following the right leader. It's come from doing the right thing, developing the character. Verse 9, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. No hurt on any level. No violence on any level. Not at home. Not in the streets. Not in the cities. Not nation against nation. Every single one of those precepts will be taught. It will be learned. And the effect on the world will be absolutely stupendous. I mentioned if everyone just, if every, if just respect was taught.

Imagine, and just pick one commandment. Just pick one commandment if thou shalt not kill.

Can't turn on a newscast, right? Not hear about someone being killed, whether it be in war, whether it be as they walked out of a bar. These days, even if they were walking outside their house, like the man in Chicago who was shot just by watering his lawn. Imagine if just that commandment were taught. Imagine if that commandment everyone abided by. There was no killing. Can we even imagine a world where there wasn't any killing? And then you multiply that by ten. As all of them are kept in, you begin to see a picture of a world that isn't like any of the promises that you hear on TV today, but these are promises that are really, really, really going to happen. And that can be happening in our lives now as we implement the things that God asks us to implement.

Another thing we hear about, because we're all humans and there will be physical life in that government as well. How do we live? What is the economy for us? Are we going to be rich?

Are we going to be poor? Will there be abundance? Will it be worldwide? Or will there be some nations that are blessed and some nations that live in abject poverty? Because we look around the world at us today, or as we look around the world today, you know, we see some nations that are all of us here live a pretty good life. And if we lived in other parts of the country or the other parts of the world, we wouldn't even have the same outlook that we even begin to have when we see the way people live. But there will be total and complete economic reform in that world to come. Not the economic reforms of trade agreements and things that might matter in this lifetime or in this economy, but doesn't matter in the long run. It'll be part of the education as well. I won't take the time to go through all of the economic principles of the Bible. There's a sermon or two on that as well. Not too awfully long ago, we gave a sermon on some of the financial principles of the Bible. People will be taught that as part of education reform as well. You know, when Jesus Christ came to earth—and the first time, let's turn over to Luke 4.18. He addressed this in his own words, quoting from Isaiah. But when he came and he appeared in the tabernacle or in the temple that day, he picked up the book of Isaiah—or says he was handed in Luke 4.17, the book of Isaiah. He opened the book and he found the place where this is written. And he quoted, "'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' Oppression gone. Brokenheartedness gone. Needy addressed their needs addressed, paying attention to the needs of the poor, not just using them for your own purpose, but paying attention to what's going on—a total worldwide re-education in economy.

Applying the principles of the Bible. Looking at the land-sabot, looking at the jubilee year, looking at the year of release. That's there. Where families don't make a mistake and then for the rest of their lives, they're crippled and they're behind the gate wall because of any mistake they made. But God is ultimately there. He wants us to learn from our mistakes and go on from there and not be crippled for the rest of our lives. You might, if you have time, read through Leviticus 25, where it talks about the jubilee year and the year of release. Those things that we read about in the Bible that really will be part of the economic platform of a world that has peace, a world that is living the right way, a world that has abundance. Now, when those things are taught and when they're applied, the world is going to see the results of it. There will be plenty of jobs around in that same Jesus Christ quoted from Isaiah 61. Let's go back and look at Isaiah 61 and read on from where he quoted. Isaiah 61, he quoted from the first two verses there, in Isaiah 61 you see in verse 2, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Verse 3, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes out of a miserable society, to give them hope and to give them something to live for, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness. When we live that way, in all the ways, trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

Verse 4, and they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations.

They shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. There will be work. They're necessarily going to have to sit around all day waiting for something to happen.

There will be plenty of work going on in a physical environment for people because God created us all to work. He works. Jesus Christ works. And He expects all of us to as well.

Plenty of work, and not only in those areas of building, but a whole different system that, again, has been escaped almost from our society today. There will be agricultural reforms that are there. People will learn how to work the world or work the earth again. The Bible is full of agricultural principles that are going to be applied. It's going to have to be taught.

Even to many of us, those principles are going to have to be taught because, I don't know, maybe we have someone I'm overlooking here that lives on a farm, but we don't use those principles today. I don't go to Publix and ask them, did you observe the land Sabbath or did these people do that? They're just not part of our society today. But they will be, and the land will yield its increase. Amos 9.13, and there's other verses besides Amos 9.13, but let's turn there, says that in that day, not just in North America, not just in Europe, but in all the world, parts of the world that are continually hungry and underserved, it says this, Behold, the days are coming, a promise, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows seed. That means there's going to be bounces harvests year-round. They're not going to have it out of the field before it's time to plant again. There's going to be such abundance everywhere in the world when the people follow the principles of that way of life, when they live that way. The mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills will flow with it.

Those are real promises. Those aren't campaign promises. Those are real things that you and I will learn to live when you look at the picture of what God has planned that we should be looking forward to as we march into these holy days and see what is ahead of us. The result of all of that, of all the economic reforms that are going to be taking place, we find it in Micah.

Micah 4, a couple books over.

Micah 4.

Micah 4.

Verse 1.

Repeat what Isaiah said, but it's the very source of having a world that has in it and part of its makeup, what everyone wants. It shall come to pass that the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and peoples will flow to it. Many will come and say, Let us learn His way. And it talks about the time of peace. Verse 4.

Everyone, everyone shall sit under His line and under His big tree. Everyone will have a home.

Everyone will have land. Everyone will have these things that most of us in this room have become accustomed to. But the vast majority of the world doesn't have those things. It'll be a beautiful, beautiful world. It'll be something that is an absolute amazement, I think, to the people who live on over from today to see what could happen and what could have always happened if they had just not followed the wrong leaders but followed the right principles and the correct principles where these things are sure to happen. And notice it says, There's abundance and no one will make them afraid. Complete security, complete safety. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. It has been spoken. It will certainly come to pass.

We talk about economic reform. We talk about national reform. We talk about disarmament.

We talk about government control. We talk about peace and safety. We talk about tax reform as well.

It's always a hot topic every four years, tax reform. Someone always has a unique idea about how they can abolish the IRS. And I'm telling you, there won't be an IRS in the world to come.

There won't be an IRS. There won't be a tax code that's so thick that you have to have tax attorneys and tax accountants to decipher it. It'll be pretty simple. And you know what that tax code is, right? It is the flat tax that many politicians have said over the years. It's always rejected.

What's God's tithes? You know, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, he set the tithes, but in the New Testament, what did he tell the Pharisees in Matthew 23 verse 23?

They were tithing. They were going through the motions of it. But what he told them in Matthew 23, 23 was, he says, you know, you pay tithe of mint and anise and coming. And he said, isn't these you should have done? He didn't say you don't have to do that. He said, you should have done that because that's just kind of a fact of life. It's good to give back to God and recognize the source of all of our blessings. You should have done these, but you shouldn't have left the other undone. You should always be part or making sure that justice, mercy, and faith is part of your life. Don't just go through the motions and do the physical things. Make sure that all of God's principles are being written on your mind and heart. So tithing will be part of what goes on in the kingdom, and people will pay their tithes, and they will pay their second tithes. Deuteronomy 14 talks about a second tithe so that we can keep the feasts of God, because the feast days will be kept, the holy days in the kingdom. As long as there's a heaven and an earth, those will be observed. Jesus Christ observed them. He kept the Feast of Tabernacles. And if He kept the Feast of Tabernacles, then He expects us to be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles as well. You know, Jesus Christ didn't do anything. He doesn't ask us to do anything that He didn't do Himself. And He did so much more. 1 Peter 2, 21, it tells us He set the example that we should follow. Let's go back. Let's go back to John 7 and see that Jesus Christ kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Many in the world would say Jesus Christ didn't keep these days. But we see in John 7 that He did. John 7 and verse 2 says, The Jews, Feast of Tabernacles, was at hand. So we have the setting of what we're talking about here. If we drop down to verse 10, we see Jesus Christ speaking with His brothers. It says, When His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast. Not openly, but as it were in secret. There were people that wanted to kill Him. But He went to the feast, even though His life was in danger. Verse 11, the Jews sought Him at the feast, and they said, Where is He?

They knew He'd be there. They knew He was there someplace. Jesus Christ wouldn't have missed one of God's holy days. Down to verse 14, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never studied? He wasn't in a seminary. Where did He learn these things?

Oh, Jesus Christ was at the feast. He kept all the feasts. The New Testament Church kept all the feasts. The apostles kept all the feasts. It wasn't until later when men got involved and thought, We don't want to keep these feasts, and we'll create little scenarios that excuse us from doing it. But they did keep the feast days, just as you and I keep those feasts days, and just as they will be part of the world to come, when all the world keeps those feasts days, just as we read about in Zechariah 14, pertaining to Egypt. We have peace. We have economic reform. We have tax reform. How about healthcare? Healthcare. It's a big issue today, isn't it? At least for the last 20 years, people have talked about healthcare reform. Healthcare costs going through the roof.

One of the things that I saw in the last, when I worked in that whole system before, no matter what you do, costs just go up and up and up. You have doctors. You have doctors. You have hospitals. You have medicines and increasing medicines. You have ambulances. You have clinics. You have home care people. You have a cost that is enormous for healthcare. Some estimates say that we spend some three trillion dollars a year on healthcare. And how many people are cured? They still say, on the medicine, it's treated. But you know what? If everyone could wipe off the cost of wars, just think how rich the world would be. If everyone could just walk out, wipe off healthcare and the cost of healthcare, just think how much more there would be for everyone.

There won't be any of those healthcare costs in that government. We won't have to worry about this care and that care and affordable care. It'll be a very affordable care. It'll be marked by faith. And you know how we know that there will be complete healing of diseases and mental illnesses in that time? Because the leader, the king, has already done it. He's already shown that he's capable of healing. Let's go back to Luke. Luke 4. Luke 4, verse 40. When he was on earth, he healed all that were brought to him. Like Luke 4, verse 40, when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him.

And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Every one of them. And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, You are the Christ, the Son of God.

And he rebuking them didn't allow them to speak. They knew he was the Christ.

There'll be healing. There'll be healing at that time.

Isaiah 35 is pretty clear in its description of what will happen. Let's go back to Isaiah 35.

When you talk about a society, when you talk about a government that can provide for its people, this is one of the key things that I'm sure a lot of people would look at. Isaiah 35, in verse 3, clearly speaking of the time ahead when the deserts blossom and wastelands begin to bloom again.

Isaiah 35, verse 3, strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees, say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong, don't fear, behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. Do we see any of those things happen as a result of the healthcare systems today?

It won't be just in one area. It'll be worldwide. People will be living, and part of the education will be how to live in physical ways as well. If you remember back in Exodus 15, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, what did He tell them? He said, If you will learn all the principles, if you'll abide by all the statutes that I give you, if you'll just live my way, and there were physical laws that were in there as well as the spiritual laws, I won't bring any of the diseases on you that were there in Egypt. If people will just learn to do things his way, and they will, in that society, in that government, healthcare will be, healthcare problems will be a thing of the past.

I could go on and on. I could talk about all sorts of other reforms that'll happen. I could talk about all other things that will be part of that society. But you know what it will take?

Society will change. It'll be what you and I go through now. People are going to have to respond to God. They're going to have to follow Him. Turn back to Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36 and verse 26.

God says to Ezekiel, I will give you, speaking of the time, well, to us now, to the time ahead, I will give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you'll dwell in the land that I gave your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God. There will be a change of heart. The same change of heart that you and I should have had when we received the Holy Spirit after we repented, after we were baptized, after hands were laid on us. And over the course of time, since that baptism, a new heart, a new way of looking things, a new way of responding, things that are important to us then that weren't important to us before, but now we can see clearly the answers to the problems that we have in our lives, clearly see the answers to the problems that lie in the world. They can't be solved without a new heart and a new spirit. And that spirit that God says He will pour out on all people, we read in 1 Timothy 1.7, is not the spirit of fear, it's the spirit of love, it's the spirit of power, it's the spirit of a sound mind, a sound mind. Just think if every single person in the world had a sound mind, how different life would be then. And every single person will have that spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. And so we'll see the world will blossom. The world will become a totally different place and not just people. It has an effect on the whole world. We talked about Isaiah 35 where the desert will bloom. The wetlands will be controlled again. Let's go over to Isaiah 29.

Isaiah 29 and verse 17. Is it not yet a very little while, till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?

If you look at Lebanon today, it used to be of a just place, but after thousands of years of man's abuse, not applying or living by the laws of the land, it's become a wasteland.

Just a little while, it won't look like that anymore. In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble will increase their joy in the eternal, and the poor among men shall rejoice.

They're not rejoicing so much today. They will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

For the terrible one, something that has to happen before all this good that comes to the world, the terrible one is brought to nothing. The scornful one is consumed. All who watch for iniquity are cut off. And don't we see that all around us today? People who just wait and are looking for something to talk about, who make a man an offender by a word and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate and turnside the just by empty words. A new way, a new attitude, yielded to God, a world that will change, a world that will be not only beautiful physically and restored physically, but people will be beautiful. That leader is just waiting to return.

That leader is waiting for the time when he can come back and he can restore all things. Acts 3.

Acts 3, verse 19. Repent. It's always the first step. Always the first step in a successful life, eternal life. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who has preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his prophets as the world began.

He's waiting. He'll return. He'll save the world from itself. He'll institute a government that has all these reforms on it and in it that make the world a beautiful place. Even things that we haven't taken the time to talk about, even the wild animals' nature, will be different.

A whole new world, a world that we can look to, a world that if everyone around us understood the beauty of what is to come, they would embrace it, I would hope, with open arms just like you and I do.

But a world that if it's going to come, we have to make the steps toward God to make it happen.

We can't just live our lives the way the world around us do. We must yield to Him. We must be led by His Holy Spirit. We must let Him mold us into who He wants us to be. We must become people who see that vision. We must be people who live that vision. And through all the times, you often hear me say, between now and the time of Jesus Christ, we must keep that vision and ask God to hone that vision in us, and it must shine bright before us because it is a fact.

Not just an empty campaign promise, not just some orders that appear in ice, it is absolutely going to happen, whether we want it to or not. I hope we all want it to. But before that time, there will be some tough times in our lives. There will be some tough times on earth.

And on Monday, we'll talk about some of those times, as the piece that trumpets pictures, but through it all. We continue our faith in Christ, and we keep our eyes on the vision and the hope that He has set before us.