Herbert W Armstrong

   "And he, John the Baptist, shall go before him (Christ) in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedience to the wisdom of the judge, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

   A lot of times we read some of the various commissions that God gave men in the Bible, and yet we don't find in the records of their lives that they fully accomplished the commission that God sent them to do. For example, you might search your scriptures and say, "Now how did John the Baptist turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedience to the wisdom of the judge? And how many people did John the Baptist make ready, prepared for the Lord?"

   Now, in one sense, you can understand that he did that by being the first one to preach the gospel of the kingdom, being the first one to announce the Messiah in his day. And yet in another sense, what's meant by these scriptures goes way beyond what John the Baptist did in his day.

   Now, in Christ's teaching, he shows that there wasn't a greater born of woman than John the Baptist. And yet he shows also that in the end time, this same commission would be completed again. As a matter of fact, when you read the book of Malachi, you find two separate chapters talking about a person coming in the sense of the spirit and power of Elijah in the dual fulfillment of John the Baptist's commission.

   So in chapter 3 of Malachi, it talks more about the John the Baptist who came before Jesus in Jesus' day. And yet in chapter 4 of Malachi, it talks about someone coming in the spirit and power of Elijah lest God smites the earth with total destruction. So even the writers separated these two statements about the John the Baptist or the Elijah to come.

   That's one of the great responsibilities of the church today to fulfill verses 16 and 17 here. When you think about how many people John the Baptist was able to get ready to receive Christ when he came and when he taught, and then you think about the number of people who've been converted in the end time, it becomes more and more obvious that the duality of the commission here.

   So our job today has been verse 16: "Many of the children of Israel." John the Baptist coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, many of the children of Israel, he should turn to the Lord their God. And you know, Mr. Armstrong not too long ago was saying that he felt like the number of people in God's church today who come to the feast days - he feels like it's the largest number of people in the church of God from the time the church was founded.

   And I know, studying a great deal in church history and having done two theses - one on the Waldensians and one on the history of the church - you find a lot of people called Paulicians or Waldensians back in the Middle Ages. But when you check out the real doctrines and the real practices, a lot of them weren't the real Christians of the church of God at all.

   So this verse, "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God." Now we've done that primarily in Australia, and Africa, and Canada, and England, and democracies of Northwestern Europe.

   Now in verse 17, he goes on to say, in the sense that John the Baptist went before Christ before His first coming, there's a parallel in that another was to go before Christ in His second coming. In the spirit and power of Elijah, as we saw last week, the two witnesses mentioned back in the book of Revelation - one turned the water into blood and did the very obvious miracles that Moses did, and yet another caused it not to rain as Elijah did and then prayed again and it did rain. So even the two witnesses are described by miracles that would lead you to think, paralleling them with Moses and Elijah.

   So here, just as John the Baptist went before Christ before His second coming to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, the same thing is happening again in the end time before Christ's second coming, in the spirit and power of Elijah. We're fulfilling this commission.

   And notice the last part: "To turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the disobedience to the wisdom of the judge." Of course, that actually says two things there. It says first of all, in a sense, restoring family government, happy marriages, well-trained children, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children. The second part of that, "The disobedience to the wisdom of the judge," and the word restoring God's law, making people realize that this modern idea of so-called Christianity is no law, nothing you do, no obedience - it doesn't hold water if you're going to try to follow the scriptures.

   So he says that not only are we going to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, but we're going to cause the disobedience to get back to recognizing the wisdom of the judge, living by God's laws and God's justice. And then finally, the last part of verse 17: "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

   Now, I wonder how many of us have come to the place in Christian growth, in Christian overcoming, and learning Bible truth that you would say that you've been made ready, prepared for the Lord? In other words, are you really ready and prepared and qualified for Christ's return so He can give you the authority over 5 cities or 10 cities? You know, is it enough real to you? Are you going about from day to day and week to week thinking, "Well, now I'm in training to be a king"?

   You know, they came to Jesus one time and said, "Is it true that they're trying to take you in as a king?" And He said, "For this reason I was born." And I wonder if we ever take those terms to ourselves and say, "Well, that's the reason I'm a Christian. That's the reason I keep the Sabbath. That's the reason I'm living by God's way. Why, that's why God called me I'm called to be a king. I've got to get ready."

   Now you know if you keep your eyes on the fact that God is making you ready to be a king and a priest, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, then you won't look at a trial as something independent by itself. You won't look at little things you do in daily life as just imperfection. You will look at whether you're qualifying to be prepared for Christ's return so He can entrust you 5 cities or 10 cities.

   Now you might notice back here in Revelation chapter 2. I know it's hard to keep our minds on these things from day to day because we hear the news and read the paper and read the news magazines, and it's all kind of disconnected in a sense of just different countries and different peoples, but I wonder when we hear that how many of us take it the way we should, as we mentioned here, Revelation 2.

   In verse 26 (Revelation 2:26), and of course there is a succession of "he that overcomes" and "him that overcomes" here in Revelation 2 and 3, and this specific verse he says, "He that overcomes" - overcomes what? Of course other places tell you, overcome human weaknesses that would hinder you being a king and a priest. Overcome impatience or anger, overcome moodiness or evil.

   "He that overcomes and keeps my works unto the end, to him I'll give power over the Russins, over the Cubans, over the Brazilians, over the Egyptians and Ethiopians and Libyans. You know, do you take it that way when you hear each day about the Egyptians and they're battling the Libyans and the Lebanese and Syrians and the Jordanians, and you hear about the Jews and their battles with the Syrians? Do you remind yourself when you hear that? "Alright, you just keep overcoming. God has promised you, if you keep overcoming and keep living His way, keep keeping His work, just keep right on doing that, God is gonna give you power over the Germans. God is gonna give you power over any of the powers over any of the powers of the nations."

   "He shall rule them with a rod of iron." Now you know God's going to have to know that you can get provoked and yet you won't blow your stack and destroy with power God's going to give you.

   God has to know that you wouldn't be an ultra liberal or a pacifist or some kind of a person who objects to authority or government or force. Because God says when He gives you power over the nations, some of them you're going to have to rule with a rod of iron.

   You know, we know good and well whoever gets power over the Egyptians, according to Zechariah 14, is gonna have to shut off their rain. Then after a while you're gonna have to send plagues on them because they're gonna be hardheaded and stubborn about this Jewish religion. They're not about to accept this Jewish Bible and throw away their Quran and their supposed rights to their father Abraham.

   But you know when you read these pictures, does it make you aware from day to day and week to week that you've got to keep overcoming and you've got to get yourself made ready? That a part of our commission is to get people made ready for Christ's return, because you're gonna be given power over the nations and you're gonna rule them with a rod of iron. Some of them, like vessels of a potter, you're gonna have to break to shivers, as God gave the cry. And God will give some the morning star.

   If you have an ear, He says, then you ought to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Now back in Revelation chapter 5, God reminds us of this same thing again. Beginning verse 9 (Revelation 5:9), they sang a new song. I might back up just a second to get the context here.

   The 24 elders before the throne of God - and he describes the Lamb in the middle of the throne in verse 6 - they come and take this book out of the right hand of the one sitting on the throne, and he takes the book and the four living creatures, as it should be translated, and 24 elders fall down before the Lamb.

   They have harps, they have golden vials full of odors, which represent, symbolize the prayers of saints. And they sang a new song. So here are these spirit beings up here in heaven in the spirit realm, praising God with incense and harps. And they're singing this new song, which is a victory song - it's like the victory song of Moses back in the Exodus.

   So here they sing this new victory song, and it's a victory song of God's intervention of the time when God is going to hault man's government and turn nations over to the saints and we're going to rule. So here these elders and these living creatures sing this new song. And they say, "You're worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof," saying this to Christ because you were slain.

   So by Christ's death, He qualified to rule the world in the future, to take over the world. So the spirit beings say, "You are worthy to open the seals because you were slain." And "You've redeemed" - and of course the word "us" would suggest He's talking about the 24 elders being redeemed or the living creatures, and they were spirit beings, they never need to be redeemed. So if you check it out, you find out the word "us" has been added by the translators and it isn't really there in the language at all.

   So He's not talking about 24 elders and 4 living creatures who are redeemed. But they are doing the singing, they are singing this victory song to the Lamb and saying you're worthy because you were slain and by your death you've redeemed to God by your blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation.

   So they're singing, celebrating God's redemption of other human beings out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation - showing it's meaning mankind, humankind, because angels aren't divided up that way into kindred, tongues, people, and nations. But, They're celebrating that God has redeemed me and you, Peter, James and John, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

   And they're singing this victory song to God that "You've redeemed out of every kindred, tongue and people and nation and have made them" - as the translation should be there - "You've made these human beings whom you've redeemed by your blood, you've made them to our God kings and priests, and they shall reign on the earth."

   Now, you know that's why you're sitting here on a Sabbath day. That's why God commands you to assemble on a Sabbath day, to make you ready to be a king and a priest, to help you overcome, to become holy, to have the holy Sabbath, the Holy Spirit, the holy scriptures, the Holy Days, and gradually by the washing of the Holy Spirit, the water, get yourselves ready to be a king and a priest, as those who've been redeemed and made ready. And we'll rule on the earth. We're gonna reign over the nations of the earth.

   And yet you know when I told the Bible class up in Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary - as Doctor Darcy calls it "the theological cemetery where they bury the truth" - but anyway, I told him what the Bible teaches the future of the redeemed is. He just shook his head. He never heard such a thing.

   You know, they've got this reversed - they've got the saints playing the harps and offering the golden vials and doing the singing, and they've got spirit beings being the ones who are ruling. That's not what it says here. We're going to be made kings and priests, and we're going to reign on the earth, and we're going to rule over the nations, and we're going to rebuke strong nations afar off, and we're going to cause them to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

   Now you might back up to Luke 19. I've heard Mr. Armstrong say this many a time. I believe it's 100%. He said the least position available in God's kingdom is pictured right here. And yet you know, years ago when I was up in Kansas City and I made the circuit in the district, we had about 22 churches in the district, and on each one of those churches I went out and I thought I'm gonna just take a poll.

   So every church I went to I said, "alright, how many of you people have 10 talents?" Now, would you believe - 22 churches, nobody ever raised his hands. I mean there wasn't anybody on earth in God's church in those churches that had 10 talents. I said, "Well, all right, how many of you have five talents?" And rarely, you know, I think one or two churches, 2 or 3 people raised their hand. Everybody else looked over like, "Well, big old George Smith over there, I think he's got five talents."

   Then you know I said, "Alright, how many of you have one talent?" About half of everybody raised their hands. And I said, "I assume the rest of you don't have any talent." I said, "You know that's impossible. You can't even be in the scripture. You gotta have at least one talent to even be in the scriptures."

   But it shows an attitude God's people have, and we've had this attitude of self-abasement and you know, "I'm a clod and I'm worth nothing and I'm just a hunk of junk and I'm nobody," and you know if you admit you have any talent it's vanity or something. Well, look at this story here in Luke 19.

   Christ speaks this parable. Verse 11 (Luke 19:11): "Because he was near to Jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." Though even Christ's disciples didn't know for sure the time element, they thought maybe for sure God might cause Christ to decide to intervene way back there and set up God's kingdom back there.

   Well anyway, Christ speaks this parable because they thought that. So He says, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." Now of course in the interpretation of this, you'll see that the nobleman was Christ and He had to go back up to the Father in heaven and then be brought before the Father and be given the right to intervene and take over the world - and that's His kingdom and it's going to happen at His return.

   So the parable actually pictured Christ and what He's been doing since He left the earth and when He's coming back. So He called His ten servants - and that's the people of God who've been left since Christ went up to the Father. So even then He describes the ten servants, He delivers them ten pounds and says to them, "Occupy" - now the word means make use of these, increase them, go to work with them, improve them, busy yourself with them.

   He didn't say sit on them like a chicken on eggs till they hatch or something, you know it wasn't like that - it was like an investment. "I'm loaning you this money to make use of, to increase," so He told them to busy themselves with it till He came. Well, for different reasons they didn't want to busy themselves.

   So He says in verse 16 (Luke 19:16), "The first came saying, 'Lord, your pound has gained ten pounds.'" Now you notice all of them received the same here, so this is the parable of the pounds which is representative of the Holy Spirit. Of course the parallel in Matthew applies more to talents, which are weights of money. And to how much you use God's Spirit as to how many talents you have by God's Spirit. But this is just a picture of everybody getting God's Spirit.

   And you can use God's Spirit as you will. You know God doesn't give His Spirit by measure. Who's to say how much you can grow spiritually? Who's to say what you can accomplish spiritually, how far you can go, how many cities you can qualify to be over? How is God going to know how many cities to turn over to you in the kingdom? He's gonna have to see how you take care of other people that He gives you charge over in the first place.

   But you notice God says? This first one came and said, "Your pound has gained ten pounds," well He said, "Well, you're a good servant." I mean to take 1 pound and make 10 pounds out of it, that's a good servant. And He said, "Because you've been faithful in a very little..."

   So you know God's Holy Spirit starts out like a little grain of mustard seed, but you can use it, stir it up, rekindle it, increase it, multiply it. There's no limit to God's Spirit that you can have. So He called this man a good servant who increased it tenfold. "And you've been faithful in a very little, have your authority over ten cities."

   You know you don't take that figuratively, symbolically - that means exactly what it says. God is going to look at what you've done since you've been converted. And how much have you changed? How much of God's Spirit increased in you? How much more spiritual attitude, judgment, how much more spiritual of a tongue? You know how much more of a spiritual weekly life do you live? Well, that's what God is going to judge how much responsibility to give you in God's kingdom.

   I remember a man up in Indiana one time. And he said, "You know, I can't understand why God didn't call many more people in my area." He said, "Why just a few weeks ago you baptized 7 people over in a little podunk town, and you know our town is 3 or 4 times as big as that town." And I said, "Well, I don't always like to just level with somebody because I'm not too sure you can take it, but you know if you really want to know I'll tell you why."

   He said, "Well, you know, you won't offend me. I really want to know." And I said, "Well, if I remember right, there's a real old man over there near your area and an elderly widow over near your area and they don't get to come to church. You don't visit them and you know, if I were God, I wouldn't call any more people in your area either. You don't even take care of the ones that are around there."

   Well, he got the lesson and got vigorous, and there's a church about 30 miles from his house now. But you know, if you think God doesn't mean what He says here, God means exactly what He says here. If you've used God's Spirit and grown tenfold from the time you receive God's Spirit, God is going to give you authority over 10 cities.

   And why would you want to be an authority over 10 cities? You know, I find people then say, "Well, I don't want to be a king and a priest. What do I care about being a big shot? You know, I don't want to be any officer walking around with bars on my shoulder. I don't want to be somebody in a position of rank."

   But you know, we misunderstand authority when we look at it from a worldly angle. God means: How would you like to have 10 cities of people to heal, 10 cities of people to send rain on, 10 cities of people to teach how to have a happy life and how to live by God's laws, how to have the Holy Days, how to have Sabbath service, how to eat by God's laws?

   You know when you think about authority over cities, you ought to think about outgoing service. You ought to think about benefiting the fellow man. You ought to think about having the joy of teaching other people God's way. Authority over 10 cities doesn't mean you're gonna walk around like a dictator and you're gonna have great military support and you're going to shout and yell your orders and people are gonna jump at your orders. That's not what authority in God's sight is - serving.

   You know, Jesus said he who would be the greatest, let him be the servant of all. So if God sees you serving by using His Spirit, He's gonna give you authority over 10 cities.

   Well, the second came. And you can discuss and wonder why maybe this guy that's also got 1 pound only increased 5 pounds. Did he just not have as much natural ability in the first place so he could only increase 1 pound to 5 pounds? That may be. Was he just not that diligent? Well, that might be too. You know, why did the guy who also started out with 1 pound only increase it to 5 pounds? Well, it doesn't really tell you, you know. Almost as if God wants you to kind of think about it and figure out what reasons a man would just use God's Spirit half as much as another man would use it.

   Well, notice what He said to him. He said likewise to him, "You've been a good servant." I mean maybe not as good as the first one. Or maybe he just didn't have natural talent as much to use God's Spirit as much, so He doesn't correct him for it, but He just says, "You've been a good servant, but you be also over five cities."

   To another he came and said, "Well, Lord, here's your pound." And it's kind of interesting, the guy with a bad attitude was the one that only had the one pound. You know, he hadn't done anything with God's Spirit. He hadn't increased it fivefold, he hadn't increased it tenfold. He was converted, he had baptism, he had God's Spirit. He's the one that had a bad attitude towards God.

   "Said God, I don't think that's fair. You leave us down here to do all the work and then you're gonna reap all the benefits. You seem to be an austere man." So he didn't really see God the way God really is. Well, he didn't get authority over anything. In fact, he got his pound taken away and given to somebody else.

   Now when you think about your daily life, do you really think that way about the future? That you're called to be a king and a priest? That you are a people that God is making ready to be teachers, to be servants?

   Now, maybe you never noticed this little verse back in Obadiah, but notice back in the little book of Obadiah in the minor prophets - Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. One chapter, one little verse is kind of unusual when you read it. Let's just jump right into verse 21 and notice (Obadiah 1:21): "And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion."

   And when you read that - well, you know, those translators didn't even capitalize the word "saviors." And they really blipped because they made it plural. No, they didn't either on either case. There's no mistake on the translator's part. That verse literally says "saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau."

   Now I don't know who those are gonna be and you don't either. But they're gonna be sons of God because that's what you have to be to be a savior. Saviors are gonna come up on Mount Zion. Maybe we better back up a little bit and get context there, so we are sure we know what we're reading here.

   Go back up to verse 17 (Obadiah 1:17): "But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance." Now of course this is talking about the time when Christ comes back and stands on Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives and makes His headquarters in Zion. "Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance."

   Now is this just talking about physical deliverance from war? Is it talking about physical deliverance from a captivity, or is this talking about spiritual deliverance? Is this talking about salvation? Well, let's just read on: "On Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness."

   But not just talking about national deliverance from the captivity, but it's talking about a deliverance to holiness. "And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions." So here's the time when the house of Jacob is going to gain possession of the Gentiles who've taken them captive, and "the house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame."

   So, primarily England and America, that's the house of Joseph - Ephraim and Manasseh - so they're the two primary powers at the time he's talking about. They are going to be a flame. Now it's true other tribes that made up Israel are going to be involved, but they are more or less just a part of the fire. "The house of Jacob shall be a fire, but the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble."

   But there you see plainly the fire of Israel is going to burn the house of Esau like stubble. "They're going to kindle in them and devour them. There will not be remaining of the house of Esau, for the Eternal has spoken." In other words, God is going to put an end to the kingdom of Turkey, Esau or Edom as it's known through the scriptures.

   Now not forever, but for the first part of the millennium at least because of what they're going to do in the future, God is going to consume the house of Esau like stubble. "And they of the South shall possess the mount of Esau and they of the plain, the Philistines."

   So here He is talking about some of the southern tribes that made up the house of Jacob. They're the ones God is going to plant over those areas. One of the houses of Israel is going to be over the mount of Esau. Another one of these southern houses that made up Israel is going to be over the plain, the Philistines, and "they're going to possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria and Benjamin shall possess Gilead."

   So here's Israel put back into their area where they formerly inherited, "and the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites." So at the time of Israel being restored from a captivity and going back to their territory, and they're going to get back into the land of Canaan, Palestine, "and the captivity of Jerusalem, which has been taken off over in the Sepharad, is going to possess the cities of the south" where Jerusalem always had been.

   Now when that happens, when Israel is restored back to their proper territories after a captivity, when they gain possession over these Gentile conquerors, then in that context, "saviors shall come up on Mount Zion." I know that might mean you, that might mean me, that might mean - who knows who that might mean? You realize some of God's sons are spoken of right there.

   Now that might be Matthew, Mark, it might mean - well, it can't be any of the 12 patriarchs because we know where they're gonna be. It can't be certain ones like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they're all gonna be at headquarters in Zion. It can't be David, he's gonna be king over Israel. You know, it can't be the 12 apostles. They're gonna sit on 12 thrones ruling the 12 tribes of Israel.

   Why, who in the world are these saviors then? Well, it might be Timothy or Titus or it might mean Gaius or it might mean Bill Smith or Joe Brown in our day. Saviors are gonna come out of headquarters, which is God's Mount Zion, and they're gonna come out to judge Turkey, the nation, the kingdom of Esau, Edom or Turkey.

   And notice when all this happens, "and the kingdom shall be the Eternal's." That's when, when the time has come that God sets up His kingdom we read of last time when, as Daniel said, the saints possessed the kingdom. So here the kingdom is going to be the Eternal's and He's gonna cause saviors, plural, to come up on Mount Zion.

   Are you ever looking at yourself in the future as being a savior? You know, what do you think you're gonna be? You're gonna be a son of God, you're gonna be a born-again spirit being. Aren't you gonna be one who's gonna go over to some country like Edom and say, "Now look, that Muslim religion - that isn't the truth. Let me show you where you went off. Now in the first place, God did say He blessed Absolom, but God did bless Isaac ahead of Absolom. And David was the father of the Messiah, so He didn't come down through your line through Absolom, and Jesus Christ is the son of David, the savior, so you know you've gone off. You've done well to follow the Bible, but you've got your Quran and you've got your false leaders and you're not following the God of the Bible."

   Now, you know, when you get those people back to living by the holy scriptures, you think you're not going to be a savior? Now, let's just come back to Isaiah chapter 40. I think this time we want to read in the last chapters of Isaiah - they are really something else. No wonder somebody speaks of the first and second Isaiah as if one of them is some kind of a nutty guy and the other is a good guy.

   Isaiah 35 - this is a millennial chapter, the whole thing is talking about the future. Now if you do like most people do, you'll jump right off into verse one and it says (Isaiah 35:1), "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them." And one of the biggest problems in understanding the Bible is pronouns because over and over you'll say "he said to him" and "we said to them" and "they came and said to them" and you know, you just get all tangled with all these "hims" and "thems" and "its."

   And now who is "them" there anyway? "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them" - who them who, them what? You know, read on. It doesn't tell you. "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." Now, you know the Jews in Palestine today, they'll quote Isaiah 35 as they're fulfilling this. They'll say, "Why aren't we making the desert blossom like the rose?" And they are in a way with all their irrigation projects, but they're not fulfilling Isaiah 35. You're going to and I'm going to, because He's talking about you and me. We are the "them" there.

   How would you ever figure that out? Well, you know that man divided the Bible into chapters and thankfully he did because how else would you find - have someone know where to find something in Isaiah if you didn't have a chapter and a verse to refer them to? But you have to be careful when you're reading it that you don't miss the context by a paragraph or by the story flow.

   So let's back up in chapter 34. Sure enough, it's talking about Edom, just like Obadiah was where we're reading. Edom. Now look at the last couple of verses. Verse 16 (Isaiah 34:16): "Seek you out of the book of the Eternal and read. No one of these shall fail. None shall want her mate, for my mouth it has commanded, and His Spirit it has gathered them. And He has cast a lot for them and His hand has divided it unto them by line. They shall possess it forever from generation to generation, they'll dwell therein."

   Now you know, here again, who's He talking about? What are you to seek out of the book of the Lord? No one what's gonna fail? None of what will want her mate? Well there again you've got to back up a little further then till you get the context of the story flow and what He's talking about.

   Now just back up to the first part of chapter 34 (Isaiah 34:1): "Come near you nations to hear and hearken you people, let the earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all things that come forth of it." And that's a worldwide message He's talking to here then. "Come near you nations, all that therein the earth, the world, all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Eternal is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them, He's delivered them to the slaughter."

   So here He's talking about Armageddon as we were reading last week too, that God is going to gather all nations together and they're going to end up trying to fight Christ at His coming and here God's wrath is poured out. All the nations gathered together, so God is pleading with the nations to come in here and hearken because God's indignation is on all these nations and His fury. And that's when He's going to take over the whole world and they're not gonna like it.

   Their slain are going to be cast out. The stink's gonna come up out of their carcasses. All the host of heaven is gonna be dissolved. The heavens are gonna be rolled together as a scroll, and we know that's one of the seals back in Revelation, and all their host shall fall down.

   God's sword is gonna be bathed, it is going to put an end to these nations fighting. Now verse 8: "It's the day of the Eternal's vengeance. It's the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." In other words, it's the year when God is going to intervene and recompense Zion and recompense the nations for their controversy against Zion.

   And the streams of these nations gathered to fight God, the streams are gonna be turned into pitch, the dust is gonna be turned into brimstone, the land is gonna become burning pitch, it's not gonna be quenched. The smoke's gonna go up forever from generation to generation, it's gonna lie waste.

   So here's a picture of Armageddon and how Christ is supernaturally intervening and fighting these nations who are resisting His taking over. Then He talks about the wild animals that will all be left to dwell in the seat of the beast where these plagues are poured out - the cormorant, the bittern are going to possess this land that used to be possessed by these fighting nations trying to destroy man. The owl and the raven are gonna dwell in it.

   You'll stretch out upon it the line of confusion, the stones of emptiness. They'll call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none will be there. All their princes shall be nothing. Thorns are gonna come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses. So that's the way the powers that resist Christ at His coming are going to be left like the Babylon desert wilderness - the wild beasts of the desert are gonna meet with the wild beasts of the island, there's gonna be the great owl.

   Now after He describes the overthrow of the Gentile nations and God's year of recompense, now He talks about seeking out of the book of God and reading. That in spite of Armageddon, in spite of the emptiness of the area where all these nations have gathered together to fight Christ, God is gonna wipe out all life. All the wicked aren't gonna be wiped out with Christ's coming. There are some who are going to be kept preserved through all that, protected.

   There are some who are going to end up - everywhere you read about this time period - some are gathered up in God's skirts and protected. There's a little remnant that's going to be spared, and He says if you seek out of the book of God and read, no one of those is gonna die. They're not gonna be killed in Armageddon. They're not gonna be destroyed with the coming Holocaust and troubles.

   No, they're gonna live right there with their mates, not split up, not one has taken and a wife left behind or a husband and wife taken and their children left behind. God says you seek out of God's book and read and not one of these is gonna fail. None is gonna want their mate because God's mouth has commanded it and notice, God's Spirit - it has gathered them.

   God's Spirit in them caused them to be gathered into this safety, into this protection. God's Spirit gathered them together and protected them through this time of Armageddon and this time of the wrath of God being poured out. God has cast a lot for them. God's going to say, "Well, let's see now - you go to Egypt, you go to Ethiopia and you go down there to Libya, you go over here to..." You know, God casts a lot as to where you're going to be.

   God's hand has divided up the nations by a line for you. You're going to possess it forever, from generation to generation, you're going to go there. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them" - the sons of God. So that's who the "them" is there - the people who are protected through that time of Armageddon, people whose spirit God, God's Spirit has gathered them together and protected them.

   Now you know, you may remember, if you want to read back in Josephus, back in the time of the Roman army coming down on Jerusalem. And the people who responded to that warning left, got out of Jerusalem. And they didn't have to go through that siege and that famine and that cannibalism, starvation. They didn't have to go through that.

   So here He says, talking about those sons of God in the end time, they're gonna be protected through all this time of great trouble, and the wilderness and the solitary place are gonna be glad for you because you have the power to change them and bring rain and crops into places for people to live in. So instead of being dry, desolate places for wild animals to dwell, we as God's sons are going to have the power to change that.

   So the wilderness and the solitary place are gonna be glad for the sons of God. "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. Yet the desert shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon is gonna be given to what has been desert before. The excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they're gonna see the glory of the Eternal, the excellency of our God."

   And now notice what He says in verse 3 (Isaiah 35:3): "This concept should strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees." In other words, when you kind of get weak in the truth and you kind of backslide seriously and you get, you lose sight of God's goal of being a king and a priest in God's kingdom, then God says these verses should be strengthening for the weak hand and confirming.

   Now, you know, "Are you sure you're gonna be a king? Are you sure God's gonna make you a son of God? Are you sure God's gonna give you 5 cities or 10 cities? Are you sure God's gonna back you up with His power when He gives you 5 or 10 cities?" Yeah, you ought to confirm feeble knees by what these promises are. When you read back over these verses that should confirm the feebleness, that should strengthen any weak hand.

   "Say to those that are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, don't be afraid.'" Behold your God will come. Now, notice that context shows that this is meant for us down here in the end time, but it even foretells that people in the end time, right at the time when God's about to intervene, people are going to become weak hand, feeble-kneed, they're gonna become fearful hearted, they're gonna become afraid.

   And God says, "Say to those that are of a fearful heart, be strong." Why be afraid? Why doubt? Why be fearful? You know, why worry? Be strong. Don't fear. Your God will come. God's gonna come with vengeance to stop all the hydrogen bombs, to stop neutron bombs. God is going to come to stop pollution, to stop violence. God is gonna come to stop all these world problems.

   "Your God will come, be strong, don't be afraid. God will come with a recompense. God will come and save you." Imagine that - 3 or 4 times in one verse, reminding you your God is gonna come. Be strong, don't be afraid. Don't be weak-handed and feeble-kneed, be strong, God will come, God will come and save you.

   Now look what's gonna happen when God does come and save you: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened." Who do you think is gonna do that? You know, I think we as ministers have the greatest vision of God's kingdom because of what we do week after week, month after month.

   And I remember one lady up in Chicago that had cataracts. She was going totally blind. A little bit longer, she would have been totally blind and she said one time she wanted to be anointed, so we went in and prayed for her and anointed her. A few days after that she was filling up a wash basin, splashed water up in her face and looked up in her mirror and saw something in the corner of her eyes, reached up in there and just took the cataracts and drop them off in her trash. And she could see very well from then on.

   Now you know what do you think that did to me for a few months? Maybe even from time to time for a few years. But can you imagine that's what God is calling you to do? You ever think about that? You ever look ahead and say, "Boy, imagine that - I'm gonna be laying hands on somebody and have them just totally supernaturally, invisibly just healed right there, right on the spot."

   And I remember one of the elder's wives up in Kansas City had real bad breast cancer. And she wanted to be anointed so we prayed for her and I guess it was 2 or 3 weeks after that that she examined herself and went in for an examination. There wasn't any signs of breast cancer, period. She's just totally normal and natural and healthy as ever.

   I remember I guess the first frightening experience I had was the power of God working and surprising you or, you know, causing a lot of awe in you. We went into County Hospital out in Los Angeles, a giant building. This little boy had polio, right in the contagious period. And he asked to be anointed. You know, that's pretty dangerous to walk right into somebody that's in the contagious period of polio and put your hands on them. And so when we got there they put white robes all over us and the white hat and white mask and let us in near this iron lung and we put oil on his forehead and stood there and prayed.

   And I'll tell you, I was really relieved when I got out of that place. And I was even a lot more relieved when he got out of there a few weeks later. But you know, can you imagine that's what God called you to do in the future?

   You know, not too many months ago you went to Passover. Not too many months down in the future, you're gonna be conducting a Passover. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine calling your people together and standing up there and reading the scriptures and then having them go do the foot washing and then not too long after that, having them come in and you ask the blessing on the bread?

   And you know when you first start out over cities in the millennium, who do you think is going to teach those people? Who do you think is going to anoint them? Who do you think is going to marry them? Who do you think is going to bury them? Who do you think is going to be the king and priest for them? You are. You are that who.

   Now, as those people grow spiritually, as they become converted, as you baptize them, as God's Spirit develops in them, you might say, "Well, I think old Bill Smith here in my town is ready to give sermonette," so you have him up there giving sermonette. Before long you say, "You know, I think that guy is ready to be a deacon." So you'll ordain somebody as a deacon and later on maybe somebody is ready to be an elder and a deaconess and you know, don't you realize that's the way it's gonna be in God's kingdom? Why, it sure is.

   So when you read "the eyes of the blind shall be opened," I know that means both spiritually and physically. This is the time when people who are blinded to the truth, their eyes are gonna be opened, they're gonna see the truth spiritually. People whose ears have been deaf to the truth, they're gonna be unstopped. The lame are going to leap like a hart.

   You know, maybe you weren't around when Mr. Dick Armstrong anointed the guy who'd been a quadriplegic out in Pasadena. I'd never seen him except at church and at the college. His wife would drive up, take this wheelchair out of the trunk, push it up beside the front door and help him scoot off over into that wheelchair, then wheel him into the hall.

   He'd sit there for church, then a little later after church, he's always laughing and talking and then wheeling back out, sliding him back into the chair. You know the same guy, a few months after that, decided it was time he asked God to heal him. Now quadriplegic is someone who's paralyzed in all four - their arms and legs and all except their neck and their head.

   Well, you know, the next thing we knew he was running across campus, jumping up and down, shouting, running, celebrating, yelling. If you can imagine that. He wrote to the government and said, "Take me off of the disability 'cause I'm healed now and I'm not a quadriplegic." They said, "No, that's impossible. We're gonna go on and send this check anyway - you can't be." You know, he for years kept writing to them trying to tell them that he was healed, that he didn't need their money. Well, they never would believe it. They just couldn't believe the guy that was totally disabled that way to be up running around. Well, if they'd ever gotten on a handball court with him and had him wax them good, they'd have known it.

   But notice what it says here. That's what's going to be going on. The lame are going to leap like a hart, the tongue of the dumb are going to sing. In the wilderness now - here you can take that spiritually and physically both because we know God is going to cause a new river to flow through the Middle East. He's going to cause a new river to pop up out of the Mount of Olives that's going to turn that wasteland into the Garden of Eden.

   "In the wilderness, waters are going to break out and streams in the desert." You know we're finding out there's a lot of places underground rivers we don't even know about. Well, God is going to cause them to bubble out on the top. And so just as the Holy Spirit is gonna go out of Zion, physically healing waters are gonna go out through the hills of the desert.

   The parched ground is going to become a pool, the thirsty land is gonna become springs of water. Back where you just had crocodiles and dwellers in the marshes, it's gonna be grass and reeds and rushes. There's gonna be a highway there, a way that's gonna be called "the way of holiness." In other words that road up to Zion is the way of holiness. That's the way to the holy God, the way of holiness.

   No unclean is gonna pass over that road or up that road. It's gonna be for those, the wayfaring men. Those fools won't err therein. No lion is gonna be there, no ravenous beast going up there on it, won't be found there. The redeemed - that's who the "them" is through here - the redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of the Eternal shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They'll obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

   Now you know all that because the sons of God are ready, because saviors are gonna go out to these countries, because we're going to be children of God, sons of God, and the wilderness and the solitary place are gonna be glad for you and for me. The desert is going to blossom as a rose because of you and me because we're gonna send rain, we're gonna teach those people God's laws, they're gonna get back to serving God.

   Now you know, in a way I can't help but think, because we in God's church get our eyes off of the goal, that we're a lot like children in a lot of ways - we keep our eyes off the goal. I'd like to read these are a couple of little books I picked up, "Children's Letters to God," and you know it makes you realize they don't really know what God's like and who He is, where He is, what He's doing. And it makes you realize how we get ours off the goal and we forget what we're supposed to be shooting for.

   But here's one little girl that says: "Lord, thank you for giving me my dad and mother and their children and dog and fish. Thank you for giving us a nice world to live in and eyes to see it and what we eat and brains to think. Thank you for everything. Love, Maxine."

   So there's a little girl that has a pretty good vision about God. And this little boy says: "Dear God, when you started the earth and put people there and all the animals and grass and the stars, did you get very tired? I have a lot of other questions too. Very truly yours, Sherman."

   You know, you won't get tired when you're God, when you're a son of God. You're gonna get tired creating all this greenery and beauty out of waste and desert? Well, another little boy says to God: "Dear Sir," so he probably had a militaristic disciplinary childhood. "The reason I'm writing is this - my mommy and I are going to spend Easter with my aunt Via. My daddy can't come. We're supposed to fly, but my mommy is scared to go. Maybe you better come with us. Martin."

   And here's another little boy that says: "Dear God, my friend Arthur says you made all the flowers. I don't believe it. Best wishes, Benjamin."

   And here's a boy that says: "Dear God, are you as big as the whole sky?" You know humans can't understand power and greatness except by size. We think the bigger it is, the greater it is, the more powerful, and yet the strongest, greatest thing man has unleashed so far is the little hydrogen atom. That's not very big, but he says: "Are you as big as the whole sky, as strong as the whole world? That's a good thing. Very much, Dean."

   You know if that's the way God is, you might want to be a son of God or to be in God's family. Now here, there's a little boy that says: "Dear God, my name is Robert. I want a baby brother. My mother said to ask my father, my father said to ask you. Do you think you can do it? Good luck, Robert."

   You know, that's gonna be your job in the millennium. You're going to cause people to have children when they haven't. I remember a couple up in Illinois, they'd been married for 13 years, never had any children. And they came in and they wanted to be anointed and ask God to help them to have children. I said, "Well, you know, you show your faith by your works, so if I were you, I'd start getting everything ready. I mean if you ask God to cause you to have children, then you better get ready."

   So they started turning one of their rooms into the nursery and they bought little pink things and they got all kinds of little pink things, and within a year and a half, they had a little girl, I think this time, and then before long another one and another. I think they got 4 kids now. They weren't anointed to stop it, but you know, that's gonna be your job in the future. Can you imagine the joy of doing that? That's gonna be something else. I've had the joy of doing that.

   Here's a little boy that writes and says: "Dear God, if you do all these things you're pretty busy. Now here's my question: When is the best time I can talk to you? I know you're always listening, but when will you be listening hard in Troy, New York? Sincerely yours, Alan."

   Now you know what do you think - when you're God, do you think you just hear everything? When you're God, do you think you just know everything about everybody? No, you don't want to. You know, the Bible says God is too holy to behold evil. So if you think God is just standing up there in heaven looking down on all the rotten wicked evil all the time, you're wrong, He didn't do that. Now God is aware of what's going on overall. You know God doesn't know every little bitty thing about everybody the way we think.

   Well, here's a little boy that says: "Dear God, I've got to know something. What is it like in heaven? I'm not sure I wanna go there." Now you know I've heard people say, "Well, you can't hunt and fish in heaven. I don't wanna go there. They don't have any sports up there, thanks but no thanks."

   Well, here he wants to know what it's like in heaven. Well, you know, all I was ever told is you're gonna walk the golden streets with your golden slippers and ride on the clouds and pluck on a harp and that was it. Nothing a kid would really want to do. I didn't care about harp music and who wants to walk golden streets in golden slippers? You know, what good is that gonna do? I know it's nice, but what kind of nice, what happens when it rains? Now, the little boy's named Marty.

   Well, here's a little boy that writes says: "Dear God, we're going on vacation for 2 weeks Friday, so we won't be in church. I hope you'll be there when we get back. When do you take your vacation?"

   Well, I think God takes His vacation feast time. His angels probably don't just busy protecting everybody on their way and on their way back. That's probably a busy season for them.

   Here's a little boy says: "Dear God, we're learning about Jonah and the whale, where he swallowed him and everything. It's the best story I ever heard with action and fright. My daddy says it sounds pretty fishy. Do you think that's funny?"

   You know you're gonna be a funny god, you're gonna be a happy god. You know the way most people picture God - He's a sour puss, a stern, legalistic, harsh, strict: "Let me see now, I'm gonna make some laws and boy I'm gonna get people when they don't follow them. I'm gonna make 'em taste the best and if I catch anybody eating it, boy, I'm gonna get them." That's the way God is, and yet that's the way most of us had God pictured to us.

   Well that's a little different story, but here's a little girl that says: "Dear God, are you real? Some people don't believe it. If you are, you better do something quick." I think that pretty well hit the nail on the head too.

   Well, here's a little boy that writes: "Dear God, I love you because you're so good. I try to be good like you. I'm good to all people, my mother and father and two sisters. It must be fun to be God and have everybody love you." You just kind of sense little boy didn't get much love there, can't you?

   But you know, how many people know that that's what we're here for, to become sons of God? You know, 21 years in the Baptist church, they told me we're gonna be sons of God, children of God, born again sons of God, born again children of God, but you know they never did say you're gonna be God. That'd be blasphemy to them - kind of like double talk.

   Well, here's a little boy that says: "Dear God, can you really do everything? I wish I could too." Another little boy just says: "Dear God, count me in as your friends." Well, I hope that's the way you feel - God, count me in.

   Isaiah Chapter 60, Here's the chapter 2 that's easy to misread and misunderstand. One thing Mr. Herbert Armstrong would do, every Sabbath when he was in Pasadena, he'd get out those records that the choir did on the Messiah. And the ones on the Elijah, and you know, always on the Sabbath, he would play those records. He'd listen to the Messiah records or the Elijah records, and I'll tell you it does your world good because these very chapters are in those records. And it keeps your mind on what everything's all about.

   Isaiah 59:20 builds up to chapter 60. "And the redeemer shall come to Zion." Now, you know most churches try to tell you that they didn't have knowledge of redemption in the Old Testament until Jesus came, you know, there wasn't grace in the Old Testament, there wasn't redemption in the Old Testament, and that's just a reflection on the Old Testament. To make the Old Testament sound antique and outdated and done away with and useless. That's the biggest lie man has ever had pulled off on him.

   But the Old Testament, you know, where, where in the New Testament do they ever call Genesis and Malachi the Old Testament? They don't ever call it the Old Testament. Oh, what they call it—what Jesus called Isaiah, Genesis and Deuteronomy and Daniel. He didn't call them Old Testament ever. That's not what they are either.

   Well, here's the redeemer in Isaiah 59. No wonder they thought this was the 2nd Isaiah. You're different from that sundown in the first part of the book. The redeemer shall come to Zion. First time or second time? You know, is this talking about 31 AD or is this talking about 1996 or something?

   The redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. Now, but notice who's he coming unto, he's going to come through Zion. But he's going to come unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, that's the church, that's you and me. That's talking about the firstfruit there, the redeemer shall come unto the church, the firstfruit. Because who else is turning from transgression in Jacob?

   As for me, this is my covenant with them. So here's this New Covenant that God has always made with his church. "My spirit that's upon you and my words which I put in your mouth," he's talking about Isaiah. Now, Isaiah, my spirit that I put on you and my words that I put in your mouth, they're not going to depart out of your mouth nor out of the mouth of your seed nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says the Eternal from henceforth and forever.

   In other words, that's God's promise of the New Covenant with the church that was just going to go down from generation to generation to generation.

   "Arise, shine. For, your light is come." Now, you know, most people read that and they just spiritualize that away. They say, "Isn't that great when a Christian is baptized and he comes up out of that water? Why isn't he just shining? Why, he's just a born-again Christian."

   Now, that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the resurrection of the saints whose spirit God is going to pour out on them as the promise of this New Covenant and they're going to be raised from the dead and they're gonna shine when they arrive. And their light is going to come when they are rising and shining in the resurrection, and the glory of the Eternal is risen upon you.

   Now, that isn't what they'll tell you, you know, they'll tell you that that means, "God's glory will dawn on you." In other words, you can really see God as God, and then you'll really give God glory, and that's what that means. That is'nt what it says. This say's, this doesn't say you will give God glory. This doesn't say the glory of God will, you will be aware of. This is the glory of the Eternal is risen upon you.

   In other words, you're going to have the glory of being the son of God. You're gonna shine like God does. You're gonna have a faith like the sun and quite radiating glory. You're not gonna have this little halo around the back of your head like some sun worshiper. That's what that was always a token of.

   This is the picture of the resurrection. When you and I are changed from flesh and blood, when all of a sudden when Christ returns, we're just changed in a second in the twinkling of an eye, and we're going to become spirit beings, shining in glory.

   Now, you know, it's as if the devil knows how people stand in awe of something like this, so they picture, you know, Mighty Mouse and Superman and Wonder Woman and $6 Million Woman, Bionic Woman, Bionic Man, $6 Million Man. What they got over what God has in his plan. You know, God wants us to shine in glory. To become sons of God, to have the power of going through the heavens, or streaking through the heavens—you can't even say that anymore. And hopefully you'll have clothes on, but you know, here he's talking about what you're gonna be like when you're changed to the son of God.

   Now look what he says in the next verse. "For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth," but when are the saints raised in a resurrection? Right at the darkest time in the earth's history, at a time when the moon quit giving its light and the sun shining blotted out. Right at a time when darkness covers the earth and grows darkness the people. But the Eternal shall arise upon you. I didn't say God shall arise and you'll see him or he will arise and you'll know he's there. This is the Eternal shall arise upon you and his glory shall be seen upon you. You're a glorified shining, radiating spirit being.

   I notice verse 3 (Isaiah 60:3). What do you think is gonna happen when a bunch of dead saints come popping up out of the grave over in Gladewater or somewhere like that where a lot of people have lived and died? Well, look what he says, the Gentiles shall come to your light. So when the Gentiles around the world begin to see all of these saints of God gathered in Jerusalem, I mean the Gentiles are going to come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

   You know, if you drive into a little town, there's a great big beacon light there, I wonder what's going on over there. So everybody drives over and see what this big beacon light advertising. That's kind of what this is. When humans are changed to sons of God and the glory of God shines and becomes the glory of them, Gentiles are going to come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

   So he says lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather themselves together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from far and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Now, you realize what that saying there? That saying when you're changed to a spirit being, you know, a lot of times kids get very practical and say wait a minute. Now let me see that when Christ comes back, you're gonna be changed to a spirit being, boy, what about me? You just gonna leave me. I just go up off and disappear and here I am, nobody around, no dad, no mom, nobody, you know what what's gonna happen to me.

   Well, you know God tells you right there what's gonna happen to you. "Your son shall come from far and your daughter shall be nursed at your side." Now you think God is going to take people and leave them from their family? What kind of a God do you ever read about in the Bible? That is the way God is. You know there's another scripture we will read later that says God sets the solitary in home. God's the one who originated home.

   So you're not gonna have to worry, you know, I mention to my kids say well wait a minute. You get in trouble now, and you come to me for help, you know, as a human, there's not a whole lot I can do. But imagine what I can do when I'm a spirit being, you know, you want to come to me for help when I'm a spirit being, boy, I mean just have that. What do you need, rain? What do you need a bolt of lightning to strike something or somebody or what what do you need? You know what's your problem? You need help, boy just wait till I get to be a spirit being. I can really help you then.

   You ever had one of your kids lying there suffering with some kind of a big illness? And I remember when our boy was small he had a lymph gland swelling about the size of a grapefruit out on the side of his neck. I didn't know anything about lymph glands. If the thing had burst inwardly, it would have caused poisoning of his system and he could die. But you know I was trusting God to heal him and praying fervently and vigorously and crying and rocking him and crying and saying, "God, how long, why not? What are you waiting on God? You know, God, if I were you I'd heal him now. I wouldn't wait around. I, I mean, I know you know how much he's hurting and how much he been hurting and I know you can heal him anytime you decide to, but you know for me I'd sure do it right quick."

   I just kept rocking and praying and you know God knew he wasn't in any danger because he, after all, his life was in his hands. But you know when I get to be a spirit being, I'm gonna know when somebody needs help and I'm gonna be able to help them. Now, if somebody needs their rain shut off because they're stubborn and hardheaded and won't come up to the Feast of Tabernacles, boy, I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna be a liberal and say, "Well, that's right, you know, maybe after a while you'll learn about feast and you'll keep it later on if you want to and if you'd like to and if it's handy for you." That isn't what God says. I'm afraid people with that attitude aren't gonna be there either.

   But look what he says here. This is a golden verse to me, verse 4. "Your sons are going to come from far and your daughter's gonna be nursed at your side." Then you're gonna see and your heart is gonna fear and flow together and you'll be enlarged. In other words, then you'll realize how great and how big and good God is and you'll just be filled up with thankfulness and appreciation because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto you.

   You know, to me that verse suggested there's power in the sea that we aren't even aware of, and I know when we went through this verse in Bible prophecy. One real brainy scientific student came up and said, "You know, I've been reading where there's power in the hydrogen atoms in the ocean water and we can very well get our power source for the millennium right out of the ocean water. We don't have to worry about oil and coal and solar energy. Why, we can get it right out of," and I said well you know maybe that's what that verse means. I don't know whether it means that or not because I'm not scientific enough to figure that out.

   But I know that until Christ comes back, the abundance of the sea is not gonna be converted to us. But that verse right there is tied in with the return of Christ, the resurrection of the saints. That's when the abundance of the sea is gonna be converted to us. That's when the wealth of the Gentiles is brought over to Israel to use to establish their millennium kingdom.

   The multitude of camels. Now look what he pictures. When the saints are raised and God's government begins, here are all these Gentile powers who gathered up all this wealth of the world, and they're going to come and bring it to God's headquarters and give it to God's people to establish the millennial kingdom. So you see multitude of camels covering them, the dormitories of Midian and Elphin, all from Sheba, which is Arabia, they're gonna come, they're gonna bring gold and incense. They're going to show forth the praises of the Eternal.

   Now you don't imagine that's ever happened. You've never seen the Arabians and the people of Midian showing forth the praises of the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. But, that's going to happen. All the flocks of Caesars are gonna be gathered together under God's millennial government, the Rams of Nabiar, they're gonna minister to you. They're gonna come up with acceptance on God's altar. God's gonna glorify the house of his glory.

   Now look at these things, almost as if they're just celebrating this resurrection. So Isaiah said, "Who are these that fly as the clouds?" There went Bill Smith. There comes Tom Brown, you know, what are these guys doing up there? Just like a bunch of clouds coming and going, you know, when you're a spirit being and you're able to just dash around as a spirit being, you think you're not gonna celebrate that?

   So it's almost as if he said, "Who are these that fly as the clouds, as the dove to their windows?" Then he talks about the isles waiting. For me, the ships of Tarsi bringing your sons from far. So here the people of Israel who have been in captivity, the sons of God's people of Israel, they're gonna be brought back from far. The silver and gold of these nations that have taken Israel captive is going to be brought unto the name of the Eternal your God and to the holy one of Israel because he glorifies you.

   And the sons of strangers are gonna build up the walls of God's new headquarters in Jerusalem and these kings of these ex-powers are going to minister to God. And in God's wrath, he smote them, but in God's favor, he's gonna have mercy on them. So the gates of God's City are gonna be open continually. They're not gonna be shut day or night. Men are gonna bring to God's saints gathered at headquarters the wealth of the Gentiles. Their kings are gonna be bringing this wealth up and admitting that God is God and they're ready to come to serve the real God.

   And the nation and kingdom that won't serve you is gonna perish. Yeah, those nations are gonna be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon. Now you know it goes on here talking about how God is going to make his headquarters in the millennium. The glory of Lebanon is going to come back to the Land of Palestine, the fir tree, the pine tree, the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary.

   So we're gonna spend a lot of time rebuilding and re-glorifying God's headquarters. God's gonna make the place of his feet glory. The sons also are those who afflicted you, in other words, the sons of the Germans and the Asiatics and all the powers of Gentiles that were battling there, the sons of those who afflict you are going to come bending unto you.

   Now, you know, there's no way you can ever have that unless these people who come out of that captivity are made sons of God and then these sons of these Gentiles are going to come up and bend down to these people of Israel. All they that despise you are going to bow themselves down at the sholes of your feet.

   So here are the very powers that persecuted the saints, the very powers that martyred and led captive. And they're going to bow themselves down at the soles of their feet, and they have to be sons of God before God would have people bow down at the feet of others. They'll call you, notice what God is going to have Zion called in the millennium, the city of the Eternal, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

   Now in the past they've been hated and for forsaken. Nobody would go through, but God's gonna make them an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations. They're going to be nourished by the wealth of the Gentiles. And then he said, you know that I the Eternal, your savior and your redeemer.

   Now look at that, even calling the God of the Old Testament savior and redeemer. And instead of building with brass, I'm gonna build with gold. And where we humanly might have built with iron, God's gonna build with silver, and where we built with wood, he's gonna build with brass and where we built with stones, he will build with iron.

   And God is going to make the tax collectors peace. No more oppression, fraud, crookedness, your exact righteous. There again, people who live in government leadership positions are going to exact by righteousness. Violence, no more is gonna be heard in your land, no wasting or destruction. And your walls are going to be called salvation. You're gonna call your gate Praise.

   Now you know, here's a picture of the saints raised and beginning their government and chapter 61 actually tells you how you're going to feel when God put you in a job as a king and a priest. "The spirit of the Lord Eternal is upon me. The Eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the me. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted."

   Now you know in the past you may have read Isaiah 61 and applied that to Christ, which it is and does, but it also applies to you. When God divides to you your inheritance, the spirit of God is on you and it has anointed you to go preach good tidings. So whatever city God puts you over, God is going to send you to bind up the brokenhearted. God is gonna send you to proclaim liberty to the captive. The opening of the prison of those that are bound. God is gonna send you out to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance.

   Appoint those that mourn in Zion to give beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. You're gonna be called creeds of righteousness, the planting of the Eternal. Then we're gonna build the waste places, raise up the former desolation, repair the waste cities.

   Now look at verse 6, you're gonna be named priest of the Eternal. That's plural. That's talking about you and me. That's not talking about some Old Testament priesthood. This is talking about the millennial kingdom of God. And your commission and your job over 5 or 10 cities and you're gonna be named as the priest of the Eternal. Men are going to call you "ministers of our God." And you're gonna eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory, you're gonna boast yourself.

   And you're saying you're gonna have double blessing for whatever shame there was and look at verse 8 says, God is going to direct their work in truth. God's gonna make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles.

   I'm talking about my kids and their kids. I mean there are many verses in the Bible that make promises about our kids if we teach them God's way, if they grow up respecting God's way. There's another verse that not only does God say when you're called priests, when you're called ministers, your seed is going to be known among the Gentiles. You think God has young people who spent 15-20 years in the church and then later on in the millennium when they're converted, you think they're not going to be leaders, you think they're not going to be people who practiced that way for years.

   God says over and over our seed is going to be known and their offspring shall be known among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Eternal has blessed.

   Now there's one last chapter I want to read and just a part of Psalm 75. I don't think this psalm's been understood that much in the past, but you know when you really study into it thinking about God's kingdom and God's millennium and about when you're made kings and priests, it's talking about that time. So I've got 1,000 written across this big chapter because it's all about the kingdom, the millennium.

   Now here's what you're gonna say when God gives you 5 cities, when God divides your lot over certain areas. "And to you, oh God, we do give thanks. We do give thanks." It's almost as if "Thank God you finally did it, you finally took over, you finally intervened, you finally stopped man," unto you, oh God, we do give thanks, we do give thanks. "For that your name is near, your wondrous works declare."

   In other words, you knew God's name was near by the wondrous interventions in the heavens, by the wondrous miracles God is going to work, that God supernaturally was going to send Christ back and stop the war. So your name is near. We're gonna be named by your name real soon. Your name is near, your wondrous works declared. "When I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly."

   So here's your prayer to God. You're thanking God that he's intervening, that he is stepping in and you're saying now God, when you give me my 5 cities or my 10 cities, when you give me the congregation and I receive the congregation to shepherd over, to love and heal and bless and teach and correct and guide, I'll judge uprightly.

   But look at the condition at the time God gives you your reward: the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it. But right at the time when the earth just about had it—when man's inventions of warring against one another and all the pollution and violence and lawlessness—but right when the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are just in a condition of almost being dissolved. And you're receiving the congregation, you're just like a pillar of the earth that's left.

   I bear up the pillars of it, the earth. So be it. I said unto the fool, "Be not foolishly." And to the wicked, I said "Don't lift up the horn," but here you are when God gives you your reward dealing with people who are still trying to go their own way. So you say to the fools, "You don't do that, don't go that way. No, here's the way, don't do that you wish you hadn't."

   So you say to the fools, "Don't be foolishly," to the wicked, "Quit trying to raise up your own human leaders. Quit putting up your own king." A horn is always the king in Bible symbols. "Don't lift up the horn as you've decided. Don't lift up your horn on high. Don't speak with a stiff neck."

   Promotion doesn't come from the east, nor from the west, north from the south. It's obvioue one directions left out of there, isn't it? North. That's where God is, north. God dwells in the far north. So God says you don't need to look for promotion as far as lifting up some human horn as king. It's not gonna come from the east or from the west or from the south, coming from heaven from God, but God is the judge.

   God is gonna put down one. God sets up another. Because in the hand of the Eternal, here's his Seven last plagues—his wrath. In the hand of the Eternal is the cup. The wine's red, it's full of mixture. He pours out of the same, but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth are gonna ring them out and drink them.

   So here's the time when God is going to pour out his cup of wrath on the wicked who refuse to quit going their wicked way. "For, I'll declare forever. I'll sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the kings of the wicked, I'm gonna cut them off. But all the horns of the righteous are gonna be exhausted." You know, there's a picture of the time when the saints are gonna take over.