Herbert W Armstrong

   Of human beings to bring about a utopia, to bring about a perfect society. There have been different attitudes, different concepts of what would constitute a perfect society, and the various plans that have been formulated and that have been put forth in many ways contradict each other. And of course, none of them have ever proved workable.

   None of them have ever produced the results that were designed. You can go back to the time of ancient Greece and the book that Plato wrote, Plato's Republic, in which he formulated what he thought would be the perfect society. And he patterned much of it after the city-state of Sparta.

   His concept of the perfect society was one in which there was no private property, in which the state basically took responsibility for the rearing and training of the children. And he formulated his idea, which in many ways was the original predecessor of many of the communist and socialist concepts of utopia down through the centuries.

   You can come forward into the first centuries of the so-called Christian era and Augustine's book, The City of God, in which he formulated that the Roman Catholic Church was itself, as he termed it, the Rome of God, that this was the kingdom of God on earth, formulating the concept for the Catholic world of the relationship of church and state and what is the kingdom of God, and his concept of what would constitute a utopian society, what would constitute the perfect way of doing things. We look down through, again, through the centuries, there have been various attempts. There have been various ideas of establishing model communities.

   You look at the, some of the groups that sprung up in Germany around the time of the Protestant Reformation. Certain of these sought to create their own little enclave, their own little community. And there have been these various attempts.

   You come on into the 19th century, and as it was called, the Great Protestant Awakening or the Great Western Awakening of the early 19th century and the resultant, particularly in Britain and the United States, the resultant social reform legislation that was spawned. Because again, they misunderstood, they didn't really understand what is the kingdom of God because of a total misunderstanding of what Jesus Christ said back in the book of Luke.

   They felt that the kingdom of God was something that was in the hearts of people. And somehow, if you could just get everybody together and put through various legislation, that you would create a utopia.

   You would create the kingdom of God on earth. Well, many of these various groups have made attempts. Various books have been written, various ideas formulated.

   We come right on into our 20th century. There have been revolutions. Of course, there have been revolutions in times past.

   You look at the French Revolution of the late 18th century, and many of the ideas and philosophies behind that you find paralleled in the Communist Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the attempts to create a utopian society, and yet they have all failed. Well, the workers' paradise.

   The only problem is they have to build a wall to keep the workers in. Well, man has failed in his various attempts to create a utopia, and yet here we are at the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles, picturing a time talking about a time when there will be a utopia on this earth.

   Now, how can this be? I would like for us to understand a little more fully today why man's attempts at utopia have all failed and why God's plan, God's blueprint for utopia will work. Now, Mr. Armstrong has brought out in the booklet, What Do You Mean, the Kingdom of God, and in various other things, that there are four basic elements that constitute or that are necessary in order to have a kingdom or a government. You have to have a law, you have to have a ruler, you have to have people, and you have to have a territory. Now, man's utopian schemes have all been doomed to failure.

   Because if you're going to bring about a utopia, a perfect society, then you must have perfection, which means you have to have drastic reform from where we are today, but you must have perfection in all of these areas. You have to have a perfect law, you have to have a perfect leadership, you have to have a people that are motivated by different things than we look around and see today. And you have to have a land that is also a perfect land.

   Now, to begin with, man has rejected, man in all of his approaches, man in all of his attempts at government, man has rejected fundamentally the government of God. Man has rejected the law of God, which is the only true foundation. We're told back in the book of Isaiah 55:8, God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Eternal.

   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So mankind has not taken the law of God. Mankind cannot automatically come up with the law of God on his own. Man can't invent a perfect law. Jeremiah tells us back in Jeremiah 10:23 a lesson that he understood and knew.

   He said, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. A very fundamental lesson: mankind of and by himself cannot create a perfect law.

   Mankind, of and by himself, cannot direct his own steps. Mankind, of and by himself, does not know the way that he should go. God says, His thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways.

   Therefore, if we're going to apply the right ways, we're going to have to learn them from him. We're not going to be able, of and by ourselves, to just come up with them. Now, Mankind has never been able to apply these things.

   God tells us in Hosea 4:6, he says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me, seeing you have forgotten the law of your God. Will also forget your children.

   Now, if you remember, God, when he called out ancient Israel, called them out to be to him a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Go back to Exodus chapter 19 when God first proposed the covenant to Israel. They were called out to be a kingdom of priests.

   God speaks here through the prophet Hosea, saying, you have forgotten the law of your God. You shall no longer be a priest to me. Mankind has forgotten the law of God. Mankind has rejected the law of God and has sought to build his society on another way, another system, another standard. And these standards and these systems are as varied as human beings are.

   You see, a fundamental error that all of those who have sought to create their own brand of utopia have had. You know, if you go back and you read the writings of some of the of Marx and some of the others, and their concept of how to create a perfect society.

   They looked around, and to a degree, they properly analyzed some of the problems. They said, look, people are greedy, people are selfish, people are motivated by the wrong things. And they looked and they described a society that was corrupt, a society that was filled with greed and envy.

   Now, so far, so good. But there the next step, you see, this is where they went wrong. They said, look, the way to change the way that people are is to change the society.

   We will bring in a totally different way of doing things, and this will somehow change human beings. And we will create a new man. And they actually use that term: we'll create a new man that will be the product of our system.

   Well, the new man that's the product of their system is the same old man. Because you see, man was not created by society, but rather society was created by man, and society is a reflection of the nature of man. And so, if you see human beings that are greedy and corrupt, and you see a society that is greedy and corrupt, the human beings are the ones that created the society.

   They're not simply the helpless victims of a society. So, man of and by himself can't come up with this. No society can be more just than its laws.

   No society can be more equitable, more righteous than the fundamental laws upon which it is based. And man has rejected the only true foundation. Man has rejected the knowledge of God and the law of God.

   And as a result, any society that is based or built on any philosophy of human beings, God says those ways are not his ways, and they're doomed to failure. So, man has never been able to come up with the right law. So, that's one reason that's the very most fundamental element of the society.

   And man has been unable to come up with the right laws. He's been unable to reform and produce a perfect law. Therefore, none of his utopias would have any chance of working.

   Now, a second factor. Would be the rulers. You know, even if you had the right law.

   If you don't have the right rulers, they're not going to properly administer that law. Now, the rulers are a part of the problem. God tells us back in Isaiah 9:16: For the leaders of the people, the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed. You know, Jesus Christ said, if the blind shall lead the blind, they both fall in the ditch. Well, God says here that the leaders of this people caused them to err.

   So, a part of the reason why this society has never been able to become a utopian society, aside from the fact that it rejected the basic foundation. The foundation of the law of God, the leaders are a part of the problem. The leaders of the people cause them to err.

   Notice back in Ezekiel chapter 13, as God again talks about some that constitute the leaders. Isaiah 13, or Ezekiel 13:9: My hand shall be upon the prophets. Now, this word prophet, if you'll look it up, means in the Hebrew, the word literally means a spokesman.

   So God is talking about those that are the spokesmen of the people, those that are the opinion centers, the opinion molders, those that are in the forefront of speaking or communicating the media, those that are in that leadership role of shaping the thinking of society. My hand shall be upon the prophets, the leaders who shape the thinking of society that see vanity.

   They see a lot of emptiness, a lot of foolishness, that divine lies. That's what they come up with. They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Eternal, because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, peace, and there was no peace.

   And one built up a wall, and low others daubed it with untempered mortar. They built up their ideas, their philosophies, others came along and whitewashed it. And so, the opinions of men leading people astray, pointing them in the wrong direction.

   God says the way of peace they know not, but they talk about peace, and they give prizes for peace, and they talk about peace, but they prepare for war. So, the ruler are a part of the problem.

   This society cannot be reformed and made into a utopian society because it lacks the rulers. The rulers are a part of the problem. The laws of society are part of the problem.

   And the rulers of society are part of the problem. What about the people of society? Notice what God says back in Isaiah 2:6.

   God describes the people of our Society. Isaiah 2:6. Therefore, you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, or as the margin renders it, they be full of divinations from the east and are soothsayers or astrologers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.

   So God says, Look, now there's a reason why God is going to reject and punish our people. He said, because they've rejected God, they go after the great wisdom of the East.

   And oh, we're impressed in this nation with the great wisdom of the East. You look at the nations of the East, you look at some of the most backward, degenerate, superstitious, ignorant places on the face of the earth. What has the great wisdom of the East ever produced for the East?

   Our nations don't realize that. Our nations don't see that.

   And we're impressed with some of these individuals and their Oriental mysticism and their Zen Buddhism and all of these crazy philosophies. We go after astrology and we go after these things. So that's one of the indictments God says about the people.

   The people are going out seeking answers from the wrong places. Their land also is full of silver and gold. Neither is there any end of their treasures.

   Their land is also full of horses. Neither is there any end of chariots. I'll tell you what, if you're in Houston around the time of the rush hour, you would believe that maybe this is what Isaiah had reference to.

   There doesn't look like there's any end of their chariots. Oh, we're a rich land. We're a land that is overflowing with material things.

   Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands. Does not that describe what we as a nation do?

   That we worship the work of our own hands. We worship the God of materialism. In this nation, we have sacrificed the family on the altar of materialism in order to acquire more things.

   We've shunted our children off, have Strangers take care of them and fill their minds with all kinds of garbage, with all kinds of false ideas. They were busily trying to accrue more physical things. Their land also is full of idols.

   They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. So God says that as a people. We have sought the wrong place for answers.

   We are imbued with materialism. He talks about in verse 11, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Eternal alone shall be exalted in that day. So there's a lesson the people are going to have to learn.

   Back in Jeremiah chapter 5, it talks a little more about this kind of thing. Jeremiah 5:7: How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by them which are no god.

   When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's house. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for this?

   For these things say the Eternal, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this. So God says that our nation has corrupted itself, the people. Our leaders have corrupted themselves. They've caused the people to err. And the people have gone the wrong direction. They sought the wrong answers.

   They've been filled with materialism. They've been filled with a desire to simply please the self. You can't reform and produce a utopia until you reform the people.

   What about our land? You know, God tells us in Jeremiah 2:7, and I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof.

   But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination. God says, I brought you into a good land, I brought you into a wonderful place.

   I brought you into a land that was rich. The kind of land in which a utopian society could be produced. But you defiled my land.

   You polluted my heritage. You dumped garbage all over the place. Your greedy farming practices eroded the soil.

   So you've depleted my land. You've spoiled my land. You've made what I gave you an abomination. Now it goes on back in Isaiah 5:8 it says, Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field till there be no place.

   So we have our urban sprawl. We've gone in and we've taken prime farmland and we've paved it and made a parking lot. We've joined house to house.

   We've created our urban ghettos. We've not properly administered and managed the land that God gave us. So, when you look at the elements that constitute a society, a kingdom, a government, we're corrupted in our laws, we're corrupted in our rulers, we're corrupted in our people, we're corrupted in our land.

   And there is no way to create a utopia on the basis of that. You see, society is a product of human nature.

   Man rejected the law of God, sought to seek his own law, his own way, produce his own knowledge, select his own rulers who pandered to his baser desires and led him astray even further. People following their own way and of course, corrupting everything, the land included.

   In order to produce a utopia, the basic nature of man must be changed. Communism hasn't changed the basic nature of man. Society did not invent human nature.

   You know, what is this society based on? And I don't care what aspect of it, what particular system of Babylon that you're talking about.

   God says in I John chapter 2, I John 2:15: Love not the world. Love not the cosmos, the society, this system. Love not the cosmos.

   Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

   For all that is in the world. And here, John sums up the three basic elements that constitute the motivation for everything that makes up this society. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

   The world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. So, if we set our affection on the things of this world, the things that have produced this society, which is a far cry from a utopian society. This is a society that is headed toward a great cataclysm, a society that is headed toward destruction.

   God says the things that produced it, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh, the inordinate physical appetites, people desiring things they shouldn't have, desiring their neighbor's wife, destroying the very family unit because of fornication and adultery and homosexuality, the lust of the flesh. And then there are other aspects of the lust of the flesh, the desire for things to titillate the physical senses.

   You can even include in that all of the craze. For drug abuse, alcohol abuse, the various things that have the people corrupt themselves because they want what's going, they think, to make them feel good. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.

   People want what looks good. They want what appeals to. They want looks good.

   The pride of life. Great swelling ego, vanity, pride. People wanting to impress other people and put down someone else so they can somehow raise themselves up, they think.

   That's what this society is based on. Those are the elements that have produced our society. Those are elements of human nature.

   That's the way of this world. And that is a way that is passing away, is going to pass away. We're not going to pass away with it.

   And with all of man's schemes of utopia that have been absolutely futile, that have not produced the results that people sought for. And we're going to have to realize that God has a system that will work. And there is a reason why God's system will work.

   You know, we're told back in Revelation 11:15, the very significant event, the most significant event in the history of mankind. And the seventh angel sounded, and they, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. The time is going to come, brethren, when that great trumpet is going to be sounded.

   And the kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of God, the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. He's not going to turn it over to human government.

   He's not going to turn it over to human beings going after their own way and devising their own methods and their own laws and their own cultures. You know, when Daniel went through, he saw a vision back in Daniel chapter 2.

   He saw a vision of a great image that pictures the four world-ruling empires, beginning with Babylon, then with the Medes and the Persians, then with Alexander the Great's Greco-Macedonian Empire, and then the great two legs of the Roman Empire, coming all the way down to the ten toes. And then he saw, Daniel in his vision, saw a stone cut out without hand that came and smote the image on its toes and crushed it. Destroyed the whole thing, the whole system.

   Now, that is described, that is explained in Daniel 2:44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. God is going to establish a kingdom. God is going to establish a government.

   Jesus Christ is going to come back to this earth and he's going to take over and conquer and put down the governments of this world. And they're going to become a part of the government of God. And he's going to institute certain reforms that are going to bring about a utopia. We're here during this Feast of Tabernacles and we're picturing that time. We certainly need to understand more fully our role in it.

   In Isaiah 11:1, there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Eternal. And shall make him of quick understanding and the fear of the Eternal.

   And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ear. He's not going to act on hearsay evidence. He's not just going to go off half-cocked and look at things and make a judgment based simply on appearance's sake. He's going to judge righteous judgment. Notice verse 4: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meat of the earth.

   And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. So, he's going to be gird up with righteousness and faithfulness.

   There is going to be a right foundation upon which the government of God will be built. Describes this society.

   Verse 6: The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the wean child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den.

   They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Eternal, as the waters cover the sea. Violence is going to be rooted out. The earth will be a peaceful place.

   There are remaining scriptures we could go through the book of Isaiah and look at many of them. But to illustrate or to point out to satisfy of understanding that man has had many attempts, and all of man's attempts have failed, and there are reasons why they fail.

   Because the fundamental elements that need to be reformed and changed, man is unable to change. Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth and he is going to establish a government, a government in which we have a part to play. And it will be a government that brings a change, that brings about a change in society, that does reform the world and produces a utopia.

   And there are reasons for that. There are reasons why it will work. Now, let's go back through some of these elements that we mentioned: the land, the people, the law, the rulers.

   Let's go back through some of these elements we saw that man has gone astray, that man has been unable to produce the result that he's desired. Man has been unable to produce a utopia in any of these areas.

   But there is going to have to be reform in each one of these areas in order to have a utopia. What about the land? We saw earlier God says, look.

   I brought you into a plentiful land, a bountiful land, and you spoiled my heritage. You defiled my land. You made my heritage an abomination because of what you did.

   When you go through and you read the prophecies of what's going to happen, you realize it's going to get worse. We're going to see a land, a world that is virtually depleted of all of its resources: the trees, the grass, the water is in great part to be destroyed before the end of this age.

   Man's actions catching up with himself. So, when Jesus Christ comes back, there's going to be real land reform. Now, usually, when there have been various revolutions and various attempts, a new group was going to come to power and they were going to produce utopia.

   So, they were going to have the land reform. And they would go in and they'd confiscate certain properties from certain individuals, usually the people that were on the opposing side, and they would supposedly divide this up and apportion it out.

   Or they would take it over and move a group of peasants in and they would have it as communal property. Well, you know, real land reform has to start with making a change in the land itself. You take the desert and divide it among, you know, you, you take it and divide it up, and you still have desert. That doesn't really solve the problem. Well, God says in Isaiah 35 that He's going to make a real change.

   The wilderness, Isaiah 35:1: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for then, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. We could come on down, verse 7: the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons or jackals, where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

   So the parched land will become like a pool. Now, there are other scriptures that show how God is going to bring down the high places and raise up the low places. He is going to make a change in the topography of the earth, which will result in a change in weather pattern.

   Some of the great high mountain ridges that are so high that they block off any movement of air that they block off, or not air, but of the weather, of the clouds. They create a desert on the other side because their height interferes with certain weather patterns. And you look at a map and you see great mountains, and usually you see on the other side desert, whether it's the Great American Desert, whether it's the Sahara Desert, whether it is the Gobi Desert, the various deserts.

   There are reasons why they're deserts. And so, God is going to change the topography of the earth to make for a more even distribution of rainfall. And many of the desert areas are going to begin to blossom forth.

   And so the whole earth is going to become a desirable place to live. That's the start of land reform. See, that's something man is unable to do.

   God is in control of the weather. So he starts a land reform by making the whole earth a desirable place to live. Then we can read back in Deuteronomy chapter 32 another aspect of a land reform.

   This goes back, this is something God did at one time. He's going to have to do it again. We read in Acts chapter 7 that the time after Christ comes back is the time of the restitution of all things.

   So we read in Deuteronomy 32:8, referring to the time anciently when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam. He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. God divided up this loan, divided to the nations their inheritance, separated the sons of Adam.

   The various ethnic and racial groupings were given, the various families of the human race were given an inheritance. Now, this is one of the things that's going to have to be done. You read when God first brought Israel into the promised land under Joshua.

   One of the first things they did was to begin to allocate the land by tribal groupings. You've got to divide it up and make it equitable. God is first going to make the whole earth a desirable place.

   And he's going to reallocate the land. He's going to divide to the nations, to the various families of mankind. He's going to divide up to them their inheritance and give them their area, apportion to them their area.

   Then in Leviticus chapter 25, we read a part of the basic law of God, which will ensure and protect that reform. You find in Leviticus chapter 25 the law of the sabbatical year and the law of the Jubilee.

   And it talks about in Leviticus 25:10: You shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land. Unto all the inhabitants thereof, it shall be a Jubilee unto you, and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.

   So, in order to ensure the distribution of the land, that there won't be vast hordes of dispossessed people, of dispossessed peasantry crowding in to cities that are already overcrowded, producing a giant crime problem, producing a breakdown of the family, producing a group of people that are virtually unemployable, God's going to solve some of that problem because He's going to reform the land. He's going to make a perfect land, a land that blossoms and buds forth.

   And then He's going to divide to the nations their inheritance, and then He sets in motion a law, the law of the sabbatical year, that makes sure that people let the land rest. They don't wear out the land, they don't abuse the land until they've worn out theirs, and then they go over and take their neighbors, because their land won't support them anymore.

   They've worn theirs out. They've wrecked theirs. So now the solution is to go over and take what your neighbor had.

   Well, God's going to set in motion a law, and He's going to God's law in terms of land reform to ensure that the land will remain productive. To keep large concentrations of land from falling into the hands of a few people and having a vast dispossessed peasantry, the law of the Jubilee.

   So you have land reform, which includes economic reform based on the sabbatical year and the Jubilee, as described here in Leviticus chapter 25. So God is on, God begins an approach, or God has a way of producing a utopia. God has a solution for the problems of the land.

   God has a solution for the problems of the people. You know, that's a fundamental part.

   In Jeremiah chapter 31. What's God going to do? Jeremiah 31:31: Behold, the days come, says the Eternal, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

   Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the Eternal. You know, the problem with the old covenant was that the people broke it. God did his part.

   They broke the covenant. God is not going to make the same covenant. What's the new covenant?

   Verse 33. This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Eternal, I will put my law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

   And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Eternal, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

   Now, God has begun to make the new covenant, and he is making it with us today. But the new covenant is not yet completed. We have not yet reached the point where, as described in verse 34, they shall teach no more, every man his neighbor, every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. That time hasn't yet come when the knowledge of God fills the earth like the waters cover the sea. God is going to begin to deal with human beings, he's going to open the mind of people and deal with them through the power of his Spirit.

   And where, under the old covenant, the law of God was written with the finger of God on tables of stone. Under the new covenant, the law of God, same basic law is written with the Spirit of God in the hearts and minds of people. So, God is going to put His law into their inward parts.

   God is going to begin to deal with people, deal with human beings that have come through the events of the next few years that have lived on over into the society into which Jesus Christ returns. He's going to begin to deal with them and bring them to repentance and forgive their sins and give them His Holy Spirit. And begin to write his laws in their hearts and in their minds, he's going to begin the conversion process in the lives of people.

   That's the only way to change human nature. Just to change society is not going to fundamentally change human nature. You know, God gave Israel a perfect law, He gave them a perfect land, and in some cases, they had a righteous ruler.

   They had David a king after a man after God's own heart. Now, he was not a perfect ruler, and neither was Moses or any of the others. We're going to see how God is going to produce perfect rulers, but they were certainly individuals that were outstanding, and they will be ruling in the world tomorrow.

   But even with all of that going for them, it still went to pot because the people did not have a heart to obey. God is going to deal with people to bring them to repentance and he began converting them.

   We saw that God's ways are not man's ways, and that man has sought his own ways and produced his own laws, and man's laws have not produced equity, and they've not produced justice. God says none calls for justice. And God talks about those, and he describes our legal system in the prophets, as those which justify the wicked for reward.

   It's not God's legal system, not God's system of justice and law. Back in Psalm 119, we find a description of the basic law that is going to be the law of society.

   It describes it in Psalm 119:142. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth. So, God's law is the truth.

   Helps, you know, when the law is the truth. Verse 144.

   The righteousness of your testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding and I shall live. God's testimonies, God's law produce an everlasting righteousness.

   On down in verse 151, you are near, O Eternal, and all your commandments are truth. So the basis of society is truth, a law that is truth. On down in verse 160.

   Your word is true from the beginning, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. You know, we're not going to have the system we have today where there's constantly a repeal of old laws and an addition of new laws, and they're constantly haggling and fighting back and forth over changing the law. And of course, the more laws a man makes, generally the bigger mess he gets himself into.

   The state of Texas at least recognizes that to a degree. It's the only major state that only allows its legislature to meet for 60 days every two years with the idea behind it that they're not going to be able to pass very many laws, and the less laws they pass, the better off people are going to be, because usually they just make a bigger mess. And maybe there's something to that.

   You know, that's not going to be the problem in the world tomorrow. We're going to start off with a righteous law, a law that doesn't have to be changed and constantly appealed and constantly revised and just haggled over back and forth. Verse 165: Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

   God's law leads to something, it produces something, produces peace, produces happiness. Down in verse 172. My tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness.

   So we've got a basis for society. We've got a law that is a righteous law, that is a law that will endure. Now, God's law will be the basis of forming that utopia.

   And God's law is the basis of society. So, when we get down to things, when we talk about the various problems that we face or the ways to solve things, we find, for instance, economically back in Deuteronomy chapter 25 that God has a law that'll solve a lot of the problems of inflation. You know, God talks about, I believe it's in the book of Haggai, about those, woe unto them, that make the ephah small the shekel great, talking about selling less and less for more and more.

   In other words, inflation, making the epoch smaller, the unit of measurement smaller and smaller, making the shekel great, charging more and more money for less and less. And so we have an inequitable distribution.

   Well, God says in Deuteronomy 25:13, a part of his law, you shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small. You don't change things up that way. You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small.

   You shall have a perfect and just way, a perfect and just measure you shall have, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Eternal your God gives you. So there's going to be a right system of economics, a right system, the right standard of measurement, of a right and an equitable value that is going to be placed and maintain.

   Now, Micah chapter 4 and verse 4 gives us another little bit of insight into the way that some of the law of God is going to, some of the ways that it's going to produce a perfect society, a little bit of the description of that society. It describes in Micah 4:4, they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid. That doesn't say everybody is going to sit under the communal fig tree.

   It says, Every man will sit under his tree. Own vine and his own fig tree. So when God divides things up, there's going to be private property.

   The way to produce a utopia is not to get rid of private property, is not to just have a communist or socialist state that's never worked, and that's not the way that God is going to propose to do it. Rather, he's going to divide things up in a more equitable fashion, and it will be an inheritance that you will have for your children, your children's children. So there's going to be a reform of the land, there's going to be a reform of the people, there's going to be a reform of the law, because the law will be the law of God, a perfect law.

   There's also going to have to be a reform of the rulers, of the leaders that administer that law. Now, we saw earlier in Isaiah 3 that the leaders of the people caused them to err.

   Well, the leaders of the people in the world tomorrow are not going to cause them to err. Are going to be those leaders. Revelation 5:9 it talks about the latter part of the verse.

   God is, we have been redeemed to God by the blood of Christ out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and have made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. We, those who've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, are going to be made unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Now, what's the job of a king and a priest?

   Have you ever considered it? Let's look just briefly and understand a little bit of what that means. We focus on that scripture.

   We're going to be kings and priests, ruling and reigning under Jesus Christ. What's entailed in that? What's involved in that?

   Let's notice a little bit back in the book of Malachi, 2:7. Here's what the priests, here, here. A little bit of our role as a priest.

   Malachi 2:7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law and his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

   So the priest's lips should keep knowledge. The priest should be there in the role of a teacher, of one who has a his role to instruct in the law of God. That's one of his basic functions, to instruct according to the law of God.

   Notice back in Leviticus, the book that was written to the priesthood, describes a little bit the role of the priest. Leviticus 10:8. And the eternal spoke unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, you nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle.

   The congregation, lest you die. In other words, no drinking on duty. You need to be where you can properly function and carry out your responsibilities.

   It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, and that you may put, here's why, that you may put difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Eternal has spoken unto you by the hand of Moses. So the job of the priest was to make a difference between the holy and the unholy, between the clean and the unclean, to teach the people of Israel the statutes and judgments of God. So when we talk about that we're going to be kings and priests in the world tomorrow, we're talking about a role of teaching, of teaching and instructing in the law of God, in teaching and instructing the difference between right and wrong, between clean and unclean, between good and evil.

   And in order to instruct, we have to first be instructed and taught. The law of God must be first written in our hearts and in our minds.

   It must be a part of us. We have to learn to think the way God thinks, to be filled up with His Spirit, with His law, with His way. Because only in the aftermath of that are we going to be able to teach and to instruct others.

   And to point them in the way that they should go. So, our role as a priest is in the role of teaching and instructing in that way, instructing in the law of God. What about our role as a king?

   Notice in Deuteronomy chapter 17 a little bit of God's instruction to the king. You know, in the world, the concept of a king was the king was the one who made the law, the king's word was law. Now, the law does not originate with the king under the government of God.

   The law originates with God. The law is supreme. And the king, as is his role, to administer the law.

   Notice in Deuteronomy 17:18: it shall be when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this book, of this law, in a book. Of that which is before the priest, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall lead therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Eternal his God, to keep all the words of his laws and these statutes, to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, and the midst of Israel.

   So the king was to be subject to the law. The king had to learn the law of God. The king was instructed to write out his own personal copy and to be thoroughly steeped in the law of God that he was to administer.

   He was not to turn aside from it. Coming on down, let's notice in Psalm 72 a little bit of a description of the way that the king was to function in his role. Psalm 72:1: Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge your people with righteousness and your poor with judgment. So the king had the role of administering law to the people.

   He had the role of judging, of making decisions, and his responsibility was to judge the people with righteousness. Now, Psalm 119:172 says, All thy commandments are righteousness. In order for a king to function, he had to know the law of God, he had to be filled up with it.

   The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and he shall break in pieces the oppressor. So it talks about here that a righteous king would administer justice.

   He would administer one law to the stranger and to the homeborn, to the rich and poor. He would administer justice with equity. So our role as a king and as a priest involves our understanding of the law of God, our having the law of God in our hearts and in our minds, being able to teach God's law and administer God's law, make judgments on God's law.

   That's what we're going to be doing. And in order to do that, well, that's going to produce results. Notice in Isaiah 32.

   Isaiah 32:1: Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. A king shall rule in righteousness, and princes that's us shall rule in judgment.

   The result. Of that, a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and as a covert from the tempest. As rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

   You know, a stranger will be a welcome sight. It'll be just like seeing a spring of water in a dry land. You'll be glad to see people.

   You won't have to be scared of them. You won't have to instruct your children not to talk to strangers. The result of a perfect government will be people that are headed in the right direction.

   Coming on down in verse 15: until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation and insure dwelling and in quiet resting place.

   There are going to be results from the reforms that God is going to bring about. From reforming the land, reforming the people, reforming the law, reforming the rulers, producing rulers that will reign and righteousness that will be filled up with the law of God.

   Because unless we're filled up with the law of God, brethren. We can't administer God's law. We can't teach and administer and make judgments in righteousness.

   We can't judge righteous judgment unless we know what is righteousness. God's commandments are righteousness. Those commandments have to be written in our hearts and in our minds.

   That gets back to the way that God is preparing us. You know, a very fundamental part of our job in this work.

   It's interesting when you look at what the statement that was made about John the Baptist in Luke 1:17. It's certainly a statement that applies to this work and certainly to the one that God has raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah today. And it says in Luke 1, verse 17: he shall go before him, before Christ, in the spirit and power of Elijah, right at the end of Malachi.

   Mentions and prophesies in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Brethren, we are that people that are being prepared for the Lord, that are being prepared to rule and reign with Jesus Christ, to be kings and priests. And this work has as one of its main functions.

   We see here the turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, the restoration of the family unit, which is the basis of a right society, the basis of a godly society. To turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. You know, where does the beginning of wisdom come from?

   The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. So, turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's what we're in the process of doing.

   That's what we're in the process of becoming: a people prepared for Jesus Christ and for the job that He has for us. We're told back in Isaiah chapter 52, Isaiah 52:11: Depart you, depart you, go out from thence, touch no unclean thing. Go you out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Eternal.

   Now, the priests and the Levites of ancient Israel were the ones that bore the vessels of the Eternal, and God told them, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Eternal. Brethren, we're preparing to be kings and priests. How are we being prepared for that job?

   God says to us, Come out from this society, don't be part and parcel of this unclean society. We have to clean up yourselves up through the power of the Spirit of God.

   Touch no unclean thing. Don't be involved and enmeshed in this society and its way and its corrupting influence. Don't try to look like, act like, be like, be part and parcel of this world, this society, and put your affections there.

   God says, come out from among them. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Eternal. We're told, as we notice, on back in 2 Corinthians.

   II Corinthians 10:3. Here's a little bit of how we have to, how do you clean things up? II Corinthians 10:3: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

   Casting down imaginations or casting down reasoning. We're fighting a warfare for the control of our mind. We're engaged in a warfare for that.

   We have to clean up our mind, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, not allowing ourselves to be defiled by the thoughts and the ways of this world and this society, but rather replacing it with the law of God in our hearts and in our minds. We're told over in the book of Colossians, 3:1: If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

   Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. What are we wrapped up in? What are we excited about? What are we enthused about? Are we all caught up in the things of this world and this society?

   Or is our affection set on the things that are above? For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our light, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.

   Mortify, therefore, put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Get rid of these things. Fornication, unclean, inordinate affection.

   In other words, lawless affections. Things that are not right. Lusting after things that you should not have.

   Evil concupiscence or, in other words, strong desires. Strong desires that are unlawful. Covetousness, which is Idolatry.

   Third, we've got to be clean. We've got to be clean in terms of being sexually pure, of being faithful to our one wife. God talks about back in the book of Malachi: those that want to try to finagle away around the law of God.

   Those that want to call evil good and good evil. God says that He hates putting away. And He talks about people not being.

   Faithful to the wife of their youth. God says he hates that kind of thing. We've got to put to death.

   We've got to get rid of these lawless desires. Verse 6: For which thing's sake, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Verse 8: But now you put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.

   Well, there shouldn't be dirty jokes proceeding out of our mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. It goes on in verse 12: put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another.

   And then in verse 14, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. This binds us together.

   We've got to be changed. We've got to be transformed in the way we think. Romans chapter 12.

   Romans 12:1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, we've got to have a new way of thinking, the law of God written in our hearts and in our minds, turning away from any vestige of this society, coming out of this world, of this cosmos, not being part of it, not trying to see how close can you get to the edge of the cliff without falling over, but coming out, being separated. Being clean, being the people of God.

   Be not conformed to this world. Don't try to blend in with this society. But be you transformed by a renewing of your mind.

   Learn how to think the way God thinks. That's what the new covenant is all about: God placing His Spirit within us to write His laws in our hearts and in our minds. A renewing of our mind.

   Coming on down a little bit further. Well, let's go back to the book. Let's go back to Romans 8 right now.

   What's the result of this? As we yield ourselves to God, we find here in Romans 8:16, the Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. You have God's Spirit, you are a child of God.

   And if children, then heirs, inheritors, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. Now, what does God possess? God the Lord High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. God owns everything, and we are, brethren, the heirs of God. We are the joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

   We have a calling and an inheritance so great that we can't comprehend it set before us. The children and heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.

   The things you have to go through to learn lessons of character now to build and develop the character of God, those things are not even worthy to be compared to what God has in store for you. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

   The whole world is waiting on us. The creation was made subject to vanity, subject to passing away, it's temporary, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected the same in hope.

   Because the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The glorious liberty of the children of God. The whole creation groans and travails, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

   This world right now is. Not a utopia. The land is not, the people are not, the rulers are not, the law is not.

   But God is going to set in motion changes that are going to produce a utopia. Not a far-off, never-never pipe dream. Something real and something tangible.

   God has set in motion a law that is a perfect law. God is calling out individual to submit themselves voluntarily to Him to have that law written in their hearts and minds to become like Him in their thoughts and in the intent of their hearts and being filled up with that law of God so that they can teach it and administer it.

   Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth, transform us into spirit beings, begin the process of reforming this land, of healing the land, and of healing the people. And so, brethren, we find ourselves, as Paul expounds in Romans 13:11, that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. That day is closer than when you were baptized and when you came into the knowledge of God's truth.

   The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

   Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, not in being a part of this world and living like the world and acting like the world, and enmeshed in all of the uncleanness of this world and in the world ways, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

   We have to turn away from those things. Come out and be a part of the people of God, allowing God to write His laws in our hearts and in our minds, recognizing that the day is at hand, the night is far spent. We have a calling, brethren, a great and awesome calling.

   We have an opportunity to be a part of the people that are prepared to meet Jesus Christ, to rise up to meet him in the air, to descend on the Mount of Olives and to have the rewards of governmental responsibility pass out to us, the assignments that we will have, and an opportunity to usher in the government of God. God has a blueprint for utopia. And it will work.

   We have, you have, I have, a part to play in that. We need to wake up. We need to get our eyes set more fully on the great and awesome calling God has before us.

   We need to seek God and walk with God and allow God to use us and to transform us and to make us His people, ultimately as kings and priests, to rule in the government of God, of the increase of whose government there will be no end.