Transcript
Well, brethren, it’s wonderful to see all of you. This is the first time I’ve been at one site for an extended period of time, since really, the series began. It’s really special to get to talk to so many of you at length here for the first time with my wife and keeping the feast. It’s really been a wonderful experience from the messages, to the fellowship, to the venue, this is an extraordinary place that God has placed his name.
Well, what I want to talk about today has been touched on in previous messages, and it’s really a hot button subject right now. Really, it’s been a subject on the minds of humans since the time of Adam. That is freedom. Freedom.
The US is all about its freedom. We’re a First Amendment, Second Amendment country. We have freedom of speech that’s why the work of God can be done in America. There was quite a debate surrounding our freedoms through COVID. Could the government really mandate that we stay indoors? Did we really have to wear masks? And on and on and on. Now, it’s at the core of conversation politically, core of conversation medically, but it’s nothing new. We’re promised in the United States Constitution, life, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. The Star-Spangled Banner speaks of the home of the free and the land of the brave. The home of... the land of the free, excuse me, and the home of the brave.
We’re a nation, we’re a people that value freedom, but it really transcends the United States. Freedom is a universal subject. I come from Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, and there’s a long and terrible history associated with that city and what it represented. Great numbers were held against their will and forced to work. In some sense, there is no greater an injustice, yet we think of slavery as a thing in the past. It’s not. According to the UN, there are actually more slaves today than at any other time in history. Whether it be forced marriages, forced labor, trafficking, most horrible kind, child trafficking. More slaves now than ever before in history.
Now, you might think that’s just because the population is increased, and yes, that’s a large part of it, but why is there even a single slave? Why is anyone killed against their will? Well, we know slavery is broader than just people knowingly, wittingly being held against their will. We know that the world is ultimately held captive to the god of this world, the prince of this world, as it’s put in John. The prince of the power of the air. That being who deceives the nations. We have a booklet, “A World Held Captive.” We understand that the world is not free. They think they’re free. They think they’re living the good life, doing whatever they want. No one’s telling them what to do. They champion their liberties in this country.
I’m not saying liberty is bad in that sense. There are wrong elements and right elements, very much a mixture of good and evil because of that tree that our first parents ate from. We understand captivity, slavery, bondage, extends to the whole world. There is a master slave holder ruling earth, and things are not going well under this captivity. I have here an article from twenty-twenty, late twenty-twenty, October twenty-first, twenty-twenty. I’d like to spot through it. Now, keep in mind this was written before Russia invaded Ukraine. This was written early in the pandemic by some magazine. It’s titled, “Don’t Worry, the Earth is doomed.” “Don’t worry, the Earth is doomed. A brief list of the existential and catastrophic risks facing the human species,” and I would add under this captivity.
“Catastrophic risks are events that threaten human livelihood on a well catastrophic scale. Most are interconnected, meaning that one event such as a nuclear detonation,” and remember, again, written before this massive escalation of conflict overseas before the tense language that is in the news every day regarding World War III. A nuclear escalation of the conflict between NATO and Russia. “Such as nuclear detonation, is likely to trigger others. They’re interconnected like water and food crises, economic depression and World War. The intricate interdependence of our physical, social, and political systems have left humans vulnerable,” something that COVID-nineteen has highlighted, and then at lists first some near term risks.
“Autonomous weapons,” the first. “High risk in the next ten years.” Well, they came with the war. This article was more right than they could have known. “High risk in the next ten years. Fully autonomous weapons didn’t exist yet, but advances... don’t exist yet, excuse me, but advances in drone technology and AI make them more likely. Rogue code and irresponsible use could lead to mass violence on a scale and speed we don’t understand today.” Next, cyber attacks and information infrastructure breakdown. Another thing we’ve seen since this article was written. Foreign entities impacting our power grid, attempting to penetrate our military installation, high risk in the next ten years.
Hacking the transport system or a central bank would wreak havoc and threaten public safety. Prevention relies on education about cybersecurity, educating people about cybersecurity. There’s data fraud and theft. Then here are some long-term risks. Extreme weather. Okay? The earth is being destroyed. We do see catastrophe. God is upset with those who destroy the earth. We have the most balanced view on climate change, global warming, what’s happening to our earth. We understand what’s going on under this super capture, if I could put it this way, this master slave holder. There’s catastrophic climate change.
It lists here, biological and chemical warfare. Again, written before that was a hot button issue. Very prophetic article in a certain sense. Artificial intelligence concerns. Up to a ten percent risk in the coming century. The catastrophic risk associated with AI, and this was well before the Chatbox emerged that we’re seeing and talking about, and that have good uses and bad uses. The catastrophic risk associated with AI hinges more on misuse or poor development than I’m concerned about computers overtaking human society. Algorithms that spread fake news and create echo chambers could undermine trusted information sources and leave democracy even more precarious than it already is.
Left unattended, these bots can spit out seemingly very credible information that’s simply riddled with lies. In an era where you already have difficulty believing what you see on TV, what you hear on the news, even what you read in print, what is this doing to augment our disbelief and what it is that our eyes see and ears hear? How destabilizing is that to this society, again, in captivity? There’s ecological collapse, food and water crises, pandemic. When is the next one coming?
Asteroid collision is one of those listed in these catastrophic or long-term risks. Then it breaks down ultimate doom. That’s the subhead MIT gave this one. Ultimate doom. Super volcanic eruption, nuclear warfare. The world’s nuclear nations have over thirteen thousand warheads between them. They give it a one percent risk. Well, I would venture to guess had this been written after Russia invaded Ukraine, it would have been given a little higher than one percent risk. The world’s nuclear nations have over thirteen thousand warheads between them. In a nuclear winter, soot and dust released by fires would block sunlight leading to global cooling and mass extinction.
Collapse of democracy is the next. How much has occurred in the time since that has left people talking about that, particularly in this nation? Finally, the sun consumes Earth. According to the author here, that is certain. In about eight hundred million years, Earth will become uninhabitable for humans because of the expansion of the sun. About six point five billion years later, the sun will expand enough to consume the planet in a fiery end. Now, they don’t know that God’s kingdom is coming. They don’t understand what we understand. They don’t understand this world will actually be freed from these strongholds that are tearing it down presently.
The world is ruined, Brethren, under this master slaveholder. It’s not going to be ruined. It’s already ruined. We’ve reached the point of no return. God’s kingdom must come. Now, we’re the people who wait. We’ll wait however long we have to but God’s kingdom must come to turn the tide and free humanity from its captor. The feast, actually, brethren, is all about freedom. I’d invite you to consider that perspective. Here in Leviticus twenty-three, we’ll turn there, we’ll see the feast is actually about freedom. That is fundament. We’re here rehearsing freedom. I’m not just talking about how free we feel here keeping God’s peace, where He’s placed His name.
The abundance we have because we obeyed God during the year and saved our second tide. I’m not talking about the ability to walk down to the wharf here and see brethren all around and band up with them and go to dinner and enjoy one another’s fellowship. In one sense, it’s the freest time of year because of how extraordinary an experience this is with our brothers and sisters. I’m speaking of here in Leviticus twenty-three, we’ll start in thirty-nine, a different kind of freedom.
“Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days.” That’s what we’re here doing. “On the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath, high days. You shall take you on the first day, the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees and the willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” Now, we’re not going and collecting those species, but we’re certainly rejoicing.
“You shall keep at a feast unto the Lord seven days in a year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths seven days.” Temporary dwellings. These are beautiful temporary dwellings God has blessed us with here. “You shall dwell in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths.” Why? “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
We’re here remembering when the Israelites came out of Egypt, when they came out of slavery, when they came out of hard bondage. We’re picturing a time when the world will come out of slavery, out of hard bondage, out of captivity to the god of this world. The Feast of Tabernacles is all about freedom. Freedom. It’s a time of freedom. What we’re going to do today is get that vision of freedom in our minds. We want to seer into our minds the freedom that God is going to bring to this world that desperately needs it. If we can catch that vision of what future freedom will be like, we’ll be more motivated to seek after it.
We heard about seeking the Kingdom of God on opening night, cultivating that vision of what’s ahead. We’re going to do it through the lens of freedom today. Looking forward to the only thing that can bring that freedom, the Kingdom of God. Thinking more about vision after the opening night, looking up quotes by various people, and I found this one, and it speaks to our purpose here today cultivating this vision, catching that vision of freedom. Steve Jobs, a man of extraordinary vision in this world, one of the great innovators of our time, said, “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” The vision pulls you.
The more real we can make the freedom that the kingdom will bring, the easier it will be to pursue that kingdom. The vision will pull us. We really care about what we’re involved in, if I can borrow from the quote. We really care about what we’re involved in, and that vision will pull us. Now, freedom, on the other hand, is not easy to come by. We’re free. We escaped the god of this world. We’re in the process of escaping this world. We are not there yet, but you know how hard it was to get here. You know how hard it is when you’re called, the resistance you face. I know I faced a lot of resistance. I’ve talked to many of you, we’re all in the same place.
Freedom is hard to come by. Einstein said, “Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it.” It’s a constant struggle. Look at the struggle that ensued in this country over the very issue of freedom some a hundred and fifty years ago. Now, the gateway to all freedom, every freedom that we’re going to talk about is fitting on your lap right now. It’s the golden piece. We were captive in Satan’s world until we understood the truth.
Turn to John eight. The truth. The gateway to all the freedom we are going to talk about is this first freedom of truth. John eight, verse thirty-one, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, ‘If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed.’” We continue in His word. That’s a huge part of what makes us His disciples, His followers. “You shall know the truth,” if you do the word, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
They answered Him. They understood what He was talking about. They understood the concept of freedom. It was evidenced by their answers. They answered Him, “We be Abraham’s seed and we’re never in bondage,” meaning slavery, voluntary or involuntary to any man. “How say you, you shall be made free?” What are you talking about? We are already free. They didn’t understand that they too were subject to Satan’s wavelength, that they were held captive by the great kidnapper.
Jesus answered and said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin.” We saw how to escape that vicious cycle yesterday, how to get free on a personal level, but we’re talking about freedom for everyone right now. We’re free in a certain sense. Yes, there’s more to do, but we’re already free. What is the world going to look like when it’s free as a whole? If we put in the effort, we’re going to see. If we ensure we remain free to the very end through that four-step process yesterday, we’ll find out. We’ll see it with our eyes, but God records it in advance for us here. Verse thirty-four, “Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin and the servant abides not in the house forever, but the son abides forever. If the son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”
There is a process, that conversion, that we understand, that allowed us, that gave us that freedom. “I know you are Abraham’s seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.” The truth has no place in you so you’re not free. Christ told them, and it angered them. “I speak which I’ve seen with my Father, and you do that what you’ve seen of your father.” Free, the truth shall make you free. It means to liberate. That is to exempt from liability. We’re free from sin, but a much greater, not greater, but a different kind of freedom is soon coming to everyone and the truth is the gateway to it all.
The world will soon be free from confusion. The confusion that trapped us before we were called. Turn to Habakkuk two. Habakkuk two. We often turn to Habakkuk to look at technical matters. Sometimes it’s helpful just to pull back and realize what God is soon going to do. Living in an unbelievably exciting time. Habakkuk two and verse thirteen, “Behold, it’s not of the Lord of hosts,” He doesn’t like this. It’s not His purpose, “that the people shall labor in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity.” Is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
There is punishment. Sometimes God allows people to labor under fire. It’s not our purpose to get into specifically when this is prophetically, but sometimes God does bring that punishment, that judgment. Why? “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” That’s what God ultimately wants. He wants the earth filled with His knowledge and if people reject it, they’ll be punished, as this verse shows. Ultimately, God doesn’t want people in a fire. He doesn’t want them under duress. He wants the earth filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea, everywhere.
The world will soon be free of confusion. We long, brethren, for when the world knows the truth. If you’re anything like me and I know you are, you can’t wait for that brother, sister to understand what we understand. You can’t wait for your mom or dad to see this the way you do, the way I do. You can’t wait for the day that your child’s eyes are open and they understand how they should be living. We long for that. That desire holds us toward what it is we’re seeking, the kingdom of God. It’ll be a beautiful time. Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews eight. Right now, we feel out of place, or at least we’re viewed as being out of place because our beliefs are so obscure. Our beliefs are so strange in contrast to what everyone else believes. That’s not going to be the case in the very near future. The world is going to be freed from confusion.
Hebrews eight, ten. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their heart and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. They shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ For all shall know me from the least to the greatest.” Imagine when everyone, not the brethren you come into contact with at this feast day when everyone you come into contact with at this feast day will know the Lord. What a beautiful time? “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that, He says a new covenant He has made the first old. Now that they which decay and waxed old are ready to vanish away.”
God is doing away with the modern way of doing things. Everyone will soon know the truth. Everyone will be free of the confusion, the confusion that so gripped the world. How is this possible? Well, it’s because of us and because of our willingness to be set free. He’s going to use us to do that. Isaiah chapter thirty. He’s going to use us to free the world. We’ll get more into that later, but right now Isaiah thirty verse eighteen. Isaiah thirty, eighteen. “Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted that He may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion, at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry. When He shall hear it, He will answer you.”
Real-time interaction with God. “Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity...” We’re thinking back to Habakkuk. Sometimes it’s God’s purpose to punish. “Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.” God is cultivating a group of highly trained teachers. A very important part of that is what we’re learning here at the Feast of Tabernacles as we come together to learn to fear God and rejoice.
We have to be here in order to be a part of this in order to free the world. “Your eyes shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it,’ when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.” Well, the only way we know which way is the right way and which way is the wrong way is again, because we’ve sat here in God’s church for some length of time and learned what is right and wrong. That’s the only way He’s going to entrust us with such a privileged responsibility, bringing His truth to all people, freeing the world from confusion.
When that happens, the world will have a real change of heart. The result of learning the right way is, verse twenty-two, you’ll defile also the covering of your graven images of silver and the ornament of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth. They’ll understand, “Whoa, we’ve been way off track.” The truth is what sets us free. Not these lies that we believe for lifetimes. All mankind, not just our generation. They’ll say, “Get the hints.” They’ll be disgusting for them. “Then shall He give the rain of your seed that you shall sow the ground withal and bread of your increase of earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous.”
Truth is the gateway to everything we’re going to talk about, to everything we are talking about. “In that day shall the cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise, and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender which has been winnowed with a shovel and with a fan. There shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall.” Yes, it involves punishment to usher in this time. “Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days and the day that the Lord binds up the breach of his people and heals the stroke of their wounds.”
A better time is coming. The world will be free from harm. That’s the next element we’ll look at. Free from harm. Right now, the world is gripped by harm, by hurt, coming from almost every source imaginable. We’re here in Isaiah. Turn back to chapter eleven. Again, a verse we look regularly at, but let’s not look at it from a technical perspective right now. Let’s look at it from a perspective of, “Wow. God is offering great hope for everyone.” “The world will soon be free from harm,” Isaiah eleven-one, “and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
The same spirit that we’ll exercise. “He’ll make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.” That’s how we’ll interact with those vast billions we’ll come into contact with. We won’t be doing it on human scheme or logic. No, we’ll have the Spirit guiding us when where God will be Spirit.
“With righteousness shall He judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth those who need it. He’ll smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. A little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed. Their younglings shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox.”
Perfect harmony. Perfect peace. The world will be free from harm. I was preparing this message, finishing up this message this morning, and I went out onto my balcony, and one of the other brethren who is staying adjacent to us was on his balcony observing the squirrels. I went out there because I wanted to see the squirrels. Every morning, until this morning, they didn’t come onto my balcony today. Every morning, I’ll go out there and give them some nuts and I’ve gotten them within about a foot and a half of me. It reminded me of when I was a child.
Right now, animals hurt each other. My cat, a little Japanese bobtail, killed a mother squirrel. I knew there were little squirrels up in the tree so I climbed up there and I got them out of the nest and brought them inside. They began to look to me for their food and they crawl, climb up on my shoulder and they eat Cheerios. I just thought it was the greatest thing as a kid until my dad said he was taking them to the squirrel farm, which now sounds very suspicious in hindsight. I don’t think he enjoyed the messes, the messes that they make. My cat ate their mother.
That’s a much simpler or a much more tame version of a bear dwelling alongside a cow or however it put it here. The wolf with the lamb. Even a cat can’t dwell with a squirrel this side of the kingdom. That’s going to change. Can you imagine nothing hurting or destroying? I’ll tell another story now. This bear, I got to thinking about it. My uncle was an engineer. My dad’s, I think, oldest brother, he lived all over the place, and he was quite a character. Just a different man. I took in squirrels. He was in Iran, I think, building a dam. He found a bear cub in the woods. He took it home and started to raise it from its youth.
It eventually got so big. It was friendly, but it would come and give him the bear hug, as it’s called. It would latch onto him, but its grip was so forceful that he realized, “This is starting to get dangerous.” What he would have to do is take his thumbs and jab it into the side of the bear and then hen it would kind of open its arms and he would take a step, “Oh, I just stepped back off this box here.” Wow, I just got a shot of adrenaline. Give me a bear rather than this. He said it’s time to release the bear. This bear is going to get angry if I jab my thumbs into it one too many times. Animals are dangerous.
This all flows off of that first point of truth. Verse eight, “The suckling child shall play on the hole of the ass, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain for because,” this is the reason, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The truth is the ultimate gateway to these freedoms, freedom from harm here. Isaiah sixty-five. I love the piece because a lot of the time you hear the same scriptures over and over again, but who can get tired of hearing about this kind of stuff? It’s the vision that pulls us forward. Isaiah sixty-five verse seventeen, “For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth. the former shall not be remembered or come to mind but you be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”
Free from harm. “There shall no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that has not filled his days. For the child shall die one hundred years old but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit.”
Talk about slavery. Talk about being taken advantage of, building and then other people enjoy what it is that you produce. “They shall not build in another inhabit; they shall not plant in another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they’re yet speaking, I will hear.”
God will be very close to all mankind. Through us, we’ll be that vehicle he’ll will use. That closeness to God, that closeness to his way and his truth is what yields what’s in verse twenty-five here. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent’s feet. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains,” says the Lord, “because they know the truth, because they’re living the right way.”
It’ll extend to more than just animals, this peace. Turn back to the second chapter of this book, Isaiah two. It’ll extend to far more than just animals. “The word that Isaiah saw,” verse one, “the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he’ll teach us of His ways.”
Many people will be eager to learn God’s ways and will walk in his path. In great part, due to our example, they’ll be eager. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he’ll judge among the nations and rebuke many people.” That’s the path to ultimately understanding. “They’ll beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.”
That author gave nuclear war a one percent chance prior to the current showdown between Russia and NATO. In many regards, that’s the scarier part of what’s going on, apart from it doesn’t in any way diminish the tragedies of war. The prospect of open conflict between Russia and NATO is now far above one percent. That one percent was assigned well before the conflict even started. There won’t be a ten percent chance, a one percent chance, a half a percent chance. There’ll be zero chance of not just nuclear war, but conventional war or even skirmishes. It’s not going to happen anymore. No one’s going to be harmed or hurt in God’s kingdom. “O house of Jacob, come you,” here’s the key again, verse five, “let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
We operate with the lamp of God’s word. His word is a lamp unto our feet. Imagine when that lamp is active in every person’s life who will pay attention. Imagine when everyone is functioning under the light of that lamp. Micah four, parallel account. It’s so clear why this is possible, why this can happen. We’ll go down to verse four here in Micah four. We read the parallel in Isaiah. “They shall sit every man under his vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Again, how is this going to happen? Four verse five, “For all people will walk, everyone in the name of his God. We will walk in the name of the Lord our God, forever and ever.”
They’ll be looking to us as gods, looking to us for the guidance that only we can provide, because we’ve put in the time, this side of the Kingdom, to educate them, to instruct them, to show them the paths of the Lord that will free them from the slavery they now endure. That was freedom from harm. This next one we’ll look at is related, but freedom from pain. I’m sure there are a lot of you in this room who endure chronic pain. I’ve battled it at times. It can make life hard, it can make life miserable. Pain comes in all forms, physical pain, emotional pain. If you look around at how some people have to live their lives, they don’t understand what we understand. You see people made in God’s image out there, who are handicapped, who are mentally ill, who don’t have someone to care for them. They’re in great pain. They might not even understand the pain they’re going through.
I have another uncle. My dad was the last of the brothers, but another uncle who I was also very close to, he was by all accounts very healthy, very talented, very smart young man, until at age... I believe it was eleven. Go back to, “None shall hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” The age of eleven, a dog bit him on the butt and threw him to the ground, and it damaged his brain. He was somewhat retarded and lived with epilepsy for a lot of his life, and it affected him emotionally. He was prone to outbursts, and he actually pushed my grandmother, who was his caretaker, into a window. She hit her head and she died in her nineties. You look at that and, of course, it made me incredibly angry, but at the same time, something’s fundamentally wrong with this man’s brain. Then he was left to fend for himself in the house.
His caretaker had died. A few years ago, because he’s not adept at cooking and things like this, this was in Lebanon, doesn’t really know what’s going on, he was trying to increase the fire in the stove that you cook on in the house wood stove and he sprang a bottle of alcohol into it to increase the flames, and it came back, ignited, covered his body with third-degree burns, and three days later, he died in the hospital.
See, that’s just one of my stories about people that I’m looking forward to getting a fair crack at life. Would he have killed my grandmother had his head slammed on the ground? No. He wouldn’t even be living with her. I’m not justifying what he did, but so many people are hurting in so many ways. And it eats God up to see that. It eats us up to see that. And he’s far more emotionally dynamic than we are.
We’re all His children. Can you imagine looking down and seeing your children suffering some of these things, some of the things we suffer, some of the things people who are not yet called, some people who are not yet on track to be in His family? It has to fill Him with deep emotions that probably we can’t even fully comprehend.
Back to Isaiah chapter sixty-one. We’ve learned a lot about the precise guidelines Christ received when He was sent to preach the gospel. Isaiah sixty-one, one, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,” those people deeply afflicted with pain, emotional, psychological, whatever it may be. To bind up the broken hearted. Broken hearted there means the burst heart. Think of heart bursting pain, the burst heart to proclaim liberty, freedom. That’s what this is all about, to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Not just physical captives, but those who are spiritually captive, those who are captive to this God of this world who runs this present evil world. Liberty to those captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Verse two, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. That comfort will provide freedom to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, the feeble spirit that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Quoted again here in Luke chapter four. Let’s look at the parallel, the New Testament parallel in Luke chapter four. Some of these words are just so rich with meaning and underscore what we’re talking about. We’ll look at it in Luke as well. Luke four, “And He came to Nazareth...” Jesus. “...where He had been brought up and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah.” And He read what we just read.
“And when He had opened the book, He found a place where it is written, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. The good news of the coming kingdom of God to the poor, He has sent me to heal, meaning cure the broken hearted.’” Now, broken hearted there meant burst hearts. Here it means those who are crushed completely, those who are shattered. We’ve all been through shattering experiences. We’ve all been crushed in certain ways. There’s some people who that’s their life.
They don’t have Sabbath services. They don’t have the truth. They don’t have brethren that love them. They don’t have this awesome plan of God as revealed in the holy days that allow us to come and participate in something like this. There are some people who are chronically crushed and sad. Our hearts burst for them to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind. There’s a malady. To set at liberty to free those that are bruised, those that are crushed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. That was Christ’s goal and mission. He wanted ultimately to free people. That’s our goal and mission too.
Let’s look at Revelation chapter seven. Picture of the great multitude is there after the hundred and forty-four thousand are complete. Verse thirteen. “And one of the elders saying unto me, ‘What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came them?’” Whence came they? Where did they come from? This is after vast billions who have made the right choice. “And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.’
‘Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He sits on His throne and shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto fountains of living water. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. They won’t have to hurt anymore. They won’t have to hurt anymore.’”
Chapter twenty-one. They’ll be free from hurt. There’s coming a time, brethren. Again, it’s not our purpose to get into the technicalities of the timeline. There’s coming a time when this will come to pass. “And I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for us.”
“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell among them. And they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crime, neither shall there be any more pain. Finally, everyone will be free of pain for the former things are cast away.’”
Verse seven. “He that overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be His God and he shall be my son.” So much of this pain is from the past, from unshakable memories. When we move past things, we do our best to forget and move on, but it’s so hard. It’s so hard to do. Isaiah sixty-five. Isaiah sixty-five. A merciful God isn’t just going to free the world from pain. He’s going to free us from memories of pain. Because those very memories often rear their ugly head and we relive those horrible moments, those horrible times.
Isaiah sixty-five, verse sixteen, “He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth. And he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth. Because the former trouble, the former tightness, the mean are forgotten. And because they’re hid from my eyes.” God will forget them, and He’ll grant us, He’ll grant people the ability to forget those memories that can still weigh us down.
You’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced it. Imagine all the collective memories of all mankind. Matthew chapter five. Matthew five, “We will be free of pain.” This includes us too, in a big way. We’ve been through a lot. If you’re in this room, God has allowed us to go through a lot. If we’re in this room, and a lot of it wasn’t mean. Matthew thought, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We can sometimes feel like we’re poor in spirit. “Blessed are they that mourn, that grieve, for they shall be comforted.”
Comforted there means called, near, invited, invoked, and sold. Ours is the kingdom of heaven. We’ll be free. We heard also about this. We’ll be free from corrupt leadership. Now, it’s not our purpose as brethren to single out different leaders that we take issue with. Their conduct speaks for itself. But we can certainly look at what the scriptures say in a broad sense. Micah chapter three. A horrifying picture of how people are taken advantage of, how the common man, the common woman is taken advantage of at the expense of leaders.
Micah three, one. “And I said, here, I pray you, O heads of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment?” So this applies at various times in God’s plan, His application, who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off their skin. Here’s a graphic word picture of people being taken advantage of, “...who pluck off their skin from them and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people and lay their skin from off them. And they break their bones and chop them in pieces and for the pot and flesh within the culture.”
God is extremely angry with how people are being taken advantage of down here, His children, who He ultimately wants, every one of them in His family. He’s upset about it. That’s why Luke twenty-two comes into play here. Luke twenty-two. It’s not just Israelite leaders. Luke twenty-two, verse twenty-five. “Christ said unto them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercised the lordship over them, and they exercise authority upon them. They that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors ruling with an iron fist, subjugating. But you shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.”
And maybe your goal was to serve more. We’re a people who are about serving others. Ultimately, we’re going to serve everyone who’s ever lived, everyone who will ever live. That’s what we’re training to be. Not those corrupt leaders that live off the backs of those who are struggling to make ends meet. There will be those who are helping them, will be the ones who are guiding them, the ones who are teaching them the path to life. Very, very different. We’ll be those judges and kings that we heard of.
Another thing the world will be free from is hunger. Hunger, maybe one of the worst kinds of pains. One of the most visible kinds of pain. When you see the pictures of forensic emaciated, Holocaust survivors or those who perished, you’re left really without words to describe what you’re seeing or what you’re feeling or what they must be feeling or seeing. I sometimes have trouble going to sleep if I don’t have some food in my stomach.
I can’t imagine the sleepless nights of hunger and we just fasted for twenty-four hours on the day of atonement and you don’t feel great at the end of that. Imagine that was a weekly thing or a chronic thing for people. Not just fasting because they wanted to draw close to God, but because they don’t have food or water. Sometimes it gets so brave that it occurs for days on end and then they just die. It’s unfathomable to those of us here in a prosperous notion, you can’t really comprehend it.
I remember hearing about when the Ottoman swept into Lebanon, there was a great famine and the Turk forced able-bodied men to... there was a famine and there was a locust plague forced able-bodied men to go out and every day to collect. My great grandfather had to do this, if I understand the story correctly, to collect a large basket of locusts to try to stem the plague and turn them in order to get some rations to be able to eat. It’s incomprehensible to us.
Maybe some of you are from foreign countries where you’ve seen it directly, but someone like me, I can’t wrap my mind around it, that level of hunger. But the world is going to be free from that. God doesn’t want that. The kingdom is going to free mankind from that. Isaiah chapter seven. Verse nineteen, “And they shall come and shall rest, all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks and upon all the thorns and all the bushes. And that same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely by them, that is beyond the river by the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet. And it shall also come, it shall also consume the deer.”
Some challenging language there. But here’s what we’ll focus on, “And it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep...” Everyone’s going to have a rib eye in their yard.” Yes, sometimes we focus on agricultural blessings. This is the kind of agricultural blessing that I’m looking for too, a cow and the sheep. And I know with the power of God, we’ll be able to dial ourselves down to enjoy a steak. We don’t want to get over that, do we? “...nourish a young cow and two sheep, and it’ll come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give. You shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land.” Great prosperity. Great prosperity.
Psalm eighty-one, verse sixteen. If you want to turn there you can. But God said if Israel entered the promised land, He would have fed them with the finest of wheat and honey out of the rock. That’s a picture of the kingdom. Can you imagine honey dripping out of a rock and anyone being hungry on earth? Oh, I’m hungry. I need some lunch. Let me go to the local restaurant. No, let me go to the local rock, or let me wander off to some random neighbor’s house that I’ve never met before because no one can herd or destroy in all the holy mountains. Share a meal with them. Maybe it’s rib eye day there. Rain will come in due season.
Zechariah ten, Zechariah ten. We take rain for granted. Ten-one. “Ask you of the Lord, rain in the time of the latter rain, so shall the Lord make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to everyone, grass in the field.” The world will be burdened, lush. You know, I’ll tell one more Lebanon story. I’m on a roll here. As you see, it started popping into mind because you think of the contrast of what people have versus they don’t. I remember one year I went and my cousins were eager to show me something. You know, and I’m handing it up a little bit, I think. But this is pretty well how I remembered.
They’re eager to show me something. I thought, wow, what must it have been? They took me over this shady spot in the yard and they, you know, they showed me like they were unveiling. It was a patch of grass. And they told me, “This is American grass.” Because nobody has grass over there. They thought it’s something just great. They have a patch of grass, maybe about two meters by two meters, and they put a plastic lawn chair in there and they would sit in the grass, and invited me to sit in the grass. And I’m just thinking, “Wow, just wait till you have to start cutting it and you’ll burn it to the ground, and you’ll want it like everybody else’s. All your neighbors here have it figured out.”
We’re confused in the US. I didn’t rain on their parade. Well, I rain on their parade totally. No pun intended. Yeah, rain is coming, and the earth is going to be burdened. Christ summarized the first iteration before even the new heavens, the new earth, as paradise, paradise. Paradise is short of what’s ultimately coming because the world will be free from hunger, free from the scourge of agricultural-related punishments, agricultural related punishment, the most critical of which is lack of rain. We’re ultimately, brethren, going to be free from this fight, this great fight of affliction that we fight. We’ll be free from sin.
We’ll be like God, who cannot even be tempted by sin. We’ll be able to rest, as Paul put it, which is ultimately going to leave us, us and anyone who ultimately wants it free from human frailty.
Job, Job fourteen, another verse that we look at in technical senses, but is very appropriate for the feast here. Job fourteen, Verse thirteen. “‘Oh, that you hide me in the grave,’ Job asked, ‘that you would keep me secret until your wrath be passed.’” He understood what’s coming. He didn’t want to be a part of that. And there it’s half right. He was enduring wrath in his own life too, but he didn’t want to be a part of what’s coming. “Until your wrath be passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change comes. You’ll call and I’ll answer. You will have a desire to the work of your hands.”
Job knew he was going to be freed from the human condition, freed from the ability to be hungry, freed from the ability to be plagued with boils, free from the heartache of losing his children, having his wife turn on him, and on, and on, and on. Types of so many of the things that we go through, you know, we know that we will. We who wait on the Lord are going to mount up with wings as eagles. Run and not be weary. We’ll be freed from this human condition, walk and not faint, won’t be tired. You know, just traveling to the feast can leave some of us tired. We’re frail. We’re humans. We’ll be free of that very soon. We’ll be satisfied when we awake with God’s likeness.
Turn to Psalm seventeen. We’re beginning to come to a point here. We’re going to escape the human condition. Verse fifteen. “‘As for me,’ David said, ‘As for me, I could put my name in there.’ ‘Sure, you put your name. I will behold your faith in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, filled to satisfaction when I awake with your likeness, when I change, when I along with the rest of the hundred and forty-four thousand and in your family,’” David’s family. No, we go further. But we’ll be filled to satisfaction. “He that has begun a good work in us is faithful to perform it,” Paul said.
Now, brethren, we have a certain liberty right now that the world doesn’t have. It’s what sets us apart from the world. And let’s turn to Second Corinthians three-seventeen to see that. While you’re turning there, I’m going to read one thing from Galatians additionally that Paul said, “Stand fast, be stationary, persevere, therefore, in the liberty, the freedom, the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” We’re learning the fear of God so we don’t go back to that world, so we don’t go back into captivity.
We have achieved a certain level of freedom in God’s church, shown here in Second Corinthians three-seventeen. “Now, the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” God’s spirit either resides in us or is working with us. There is a freedom that we right now enjoy. Now, it’s going to be taken to the next level very soon, when that freedom expands in that, we escape the shackles of the human existence. But it’s also coming to everyone, everyone who’s ever lived and ever will live.
Final scripture, Romans, Chapter eight. You and I are part of something borderline incomprehensible. We’re going to free the world under God, of course, from the clutches of Satan, from the clutches of sin, from the clutches of misery, pain, hurt. All those categories you looked at.
Romans eight verse eighteen, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, anything we go through that we will ultimately be freed from are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage, from the slavery of corruption that is afflicting this world at large into the glorious liberty, freedom of the children of God.”
We have the down payment of eternal life now. We have that spirit residing in us. Soon we will be spirit. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, captive until now, needing freedom until now. Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit. We’re not completely free yet. We haven’t fully made it. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of our body.
Hopefully, we have a vision that makes us groan evermore, that makes us long evermore for that kingdom, for the freedom that will come with it. Brethren, God freed us, and He is going to fully free us very soon so that we can help free the world. Everyone we personally know and beyond that we’ll free them in so many ways. The glorious liberty, freedom of the children of God is coming.
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