In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the insignificance of our worldly accomplishments and knowledge in the eyes of God. He describes a terrifying wilderness where one is stripped of everything and faces the threat of death. The speaker then discusses the concept of exile and expulsion, specifically referring to the last day sifting of Israel through the nations. He raises the question of how to reconcile God's mercy with the harsh consequences faced by those who reject Him, using the example of the Israelites who were unable to enter the promised land due to their disobedience. The speaker calls for a deep understanding and empathy for those who must endure such trials.

And Lord, even now as we turn to this remarkable subject of exile and expulsion, the last day sifting of Israel through the nations, there will be a requirement for mercy as they have never known it or could have ever imagined that they would need it. And yet in the receiving of it, my God, the revelation of yourself. So we're asking for something more than instruction. We're asking for something that would sink deep into our entrails, our gut, the deeps of our being, the pathos of your heart for this people who must pass through this, Lord. There's no alternative. It cannot be prayed away, but that we would have a comprehension of its meaning that we could even explain to them when they come upon us, my God, in the places where we will be situated by you. Why it is that they are suffering what they are suffering and that the end of it will be joy, unspeakable and full of glory, that they would survive just by the hope projected by the word communicated through us prophetically, a life-giving word, even as it is described in Isaiah 35, say to them, your God will come. And when they hear that the blind eyes are opened and the lame leap and water breaks forth out of dry ground. So now we know that we're at a crossroad here and however precious the things have been given by you to bring us, it's a preparation now for what is before us in your ordinance, in your wisdom and will, your blessing, Lord. And we thank you and give you praise for the privilege in Jesus name. Amen. So we're going to talk about Jews who are devastated to begin with, and then their devastation is compacted by wilderness itself. What is it that makes passing through the wilderness so requisite? What is it about a wilderness that strips men of every confidence, of every sign of those amenities of civilization and life by which they have protected and even been shielded from ultimate reality itself in the name of reality? That the wilderness has the prospect for stripping. Have you ever been lost in a wilderness? You wouldn't desire it. I've had the experience just for a few hours, but it was frightening, if not terrifying to not know which way to turn. There's no clue. There's no street sign. We who have been habituated to the amenities of civilization and can read street signs and be directed are bereft of any token of anything by which we can find our way. Our university backgrounds, our training, our erudition, our skill counts for nothing. You are stripped to the utter bone and terribly lost. And you can perish if you're not found. There's no water. There's no food. There's terrifying animals. There are vultures flying around waiting for you to collapse, to peck at your flesh. So wilderness is a terrifying prospect. How much more when you come into the wilderness completely already emptied by the very issue of eviction itself, expulsion itself, and expulsion at the very time when you were tasting success and final fulfillment. I mean, I can't say enough. I want to say more. I don't have the ability to drop your hearts and rub into your hearts the magnitude of what God feels is required in order to fit a people for their millennial and eternal destiny to be a nation of priests and a light unto the world. So the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable and he'll not take them back. And if they are not fulfilled and what does it mean to be a nation of priests and a light unto the world? But the very incarnation of Christ, his wisdom, his weakness, his meekness is totally contrary to present Jewish character. All the more as is being demonstrated in the aggressive and painful way that we're seeing every day exhibited in Israel. That what has been required from the state and the nation to preserve their existence is calling for a conduct and a character that contradicts all that we have understood about what it means to be Jewish. And that contradiction is necessary because until that illusion is emptied, how can reality come? And one of the great illusions that have sustained us in our modern history is that somehow we are ethically and morally superior to the goyim. The goyim are the dum-dums. They're the ones who are brutal and hard and merciless, but we fancied ourselves moral ethical philosophers, meditation, which is an illusion contrary to what God says is the truth of man. But you can cultivate that in your ghetto existence where you're not really tried. You're only tried in the place of power. And as that remarkable sage said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, which I have paraphrased to read, power reveals and absolute power reveals absolutely. How you exercise power is what you are, especially to the defenseless. And that is necessary. And Israel is passing through the revelation of the truth of its own condition that could not be seen in any other way than out of its own conduct. It's a humiliation. But if you'll not receive God's word of truth as the statement for your condition and think in your illusion that Jews are not subject to that definition, that somehow we're transcendent and different from and other than man, and that does not define us, then we have to experience it cruelly and humiliatingly in our own experience and out of our own conduct. And that's not the least of the reasons for the existence of the state of Israel. Not to succeed, but to fail. Not to vindicate us as being a superior kind of humanity, but to show what in fact we're made of as nothing else would have revealed it. And then to come crash down and then be cast out and into the wilderness. So let's look at this. And the whole of chapter nine, the beginning of it, you won't look at it, you can consider it yourself. It's full of threat, judgment. God does not hesitate to say he will kill with the sword. In verse one, not one of them shall flee away. Not one of them shall escape. Though they dig into shale, into hell, from there shall my hand take them. Though they climb up to heaven, from there will I bring them down. Though they hide themselves, I will search, I'll take them as they hide from my sight. There I will command it. And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies, there I will command the sword. It shall kill them. I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good. That's hard. How do we reconcile statements like that from what we think God to be? Merciful, kind, loving, generous, gracious. In fact, he says that he has mercy to the uttermost, the last generation, to those who love him. But here we're seeing God in a way that he needs to be understood and seen. He's capable of this. And maybe this is what was spoken when people pass a line where grace can no longer be received and has been rejected. There's nothing for them but rejection and death. And that's why the wilderness was littered with an entire generation that came out of Egypt, of which only two could enter the land. What a remarkable ratio of the tens upon tens of thousands who perished in the wilderness because they were disobedient and would not enter into the rest. Okay. Verse six concludes, the Lord is his name. Don't, don't be mistaken. However much this contradicts your sanguine and fanciful notion of God, the Lord, this is God. This is God of judgment. And then saying to the Israelites are not like the Ethiopians to me or people of Israel, says the Lord, we're not bringing Egypt up from the land of Egypt, the Philistine from Kaptur, Arameans from Kir. Do you think you're exempt that if I do this to this people and to that people that you yourself will not be subject to the same kind of severity? And then we begin with where we need to begin. Verse eight, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom. It's an, it's every day more sinful. And I will destroy it from the face of the earth, except here's the, the until the, the, the, the clause that allows us to breathe. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob says the Lord. There'll be a massive judgment. Jesus warned of it. So greater trouble as has never before come to the nation. No, we'll again come. That means if it's greater than the Nazi Holocaust that took 6 million lives with what will this take? Probably two thirds of all existing jewelry, because that's the ratio. When the Lord comes in Zechariah 12, two thirds have already perished and one third are brought through the fire. And if that is the ratio of Jewish survival of the 15 million approximate Jews in the world today, two thirds will perish. Now we're talking about 10 million Jews. It's a massive judgment, but a remnant will be brought forth. He'll not utterly destroy for low. I will command and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground. Not so much as a kernel shall fall to the ground. This is an utter process of sifting and refinement and of identifying who in fact, the remnant of God's people are all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword who say evil shall not overtake or meet us. So here's a very way by which God discerns and recognizes who are the sinners of the people. Those who refuse to recognize in the devastation that has come God's own hand will attribute it to men. They'll attribute it even to Christianity. They'll attribute it to defects in the New Testament and somehow think themselves exempt as the German Jews who perished in the Holocaust, who thought that this shall not come upon us. We've had too long a history in Germany. We have served the fatherland. We were involved in World War I and we have occupied offices of state and places of dignity and significance in the culture and society of Germany. This will not come upon us. They were no more exempt than a Jewish street cleaner. Their histories, their contributions did not save them from the same death, the same judgment. And again, we hear the same kind of comment in this verse, it shall not overtake or meet with us. Okay, let's look at that before we go any further. How do you sift 15 million people? It will require all nations and not only will Israel be sifted through all nations, all nations will be sifted through Israel. There's a madness to God's method. This is a way by which nations themselves will be tested on how they will respond to this bad flow of Jewish life brought very low, even into a stink of corruption, defilement, dejection, where you just want to turn your face away. You don't even want to have anything to do with these people. You can't wait for them to pass through your vicinity speedily enough. And yet if you allow them to pass through and not extend mercy, you are condemning yourself and suffering an eternal consequence by that failure, that rejection. And so you're being tested. You're being sifted by those for whom God is sifting. So I've had the confidence on the basis of this and other texts, wherever I am, New Zealand to Egypt, to Oshkosh in Indiana, the United States, Indonesia, doesn't matter where, when God says all nations, I naively believe he means all nations. So we're going to see the most remarkable movement of men. And it may well be that these Jews in flight will pass through more than one nation in the course of the three and a half year migration that God intends. Why do you think that he would want so long and so arduous, wearisome, a dejection, dejecting a journey that people will be nigh unto death, even for the want of hope, let alone for their physical enablement. Why is that necessary? And why, why more than one nation in the course of it? Why isn't, why isn't God more expedient, even if there's an expulsion in establishing a return that would be more direct and not require this extension through the nations. And of course the nations need to be included if they themselves are sifted. It's necessary to be proliferated through the nations for whatever the nation, black or white, and black certainly will be included. Africa will be a critical lifeline from Cape town to Cairo that Jews will be seeing, whether it's white or black or Asian or native American, Indian, or, or whatever, the same consistent character of God in the mercy that is extended to them. And they have to see that, that this is not accident or temperament or something that can be humanistically understood nor dismissed, but to see very God in the consistency of his character, no matter the locale, the race, the nation, the people as the process by which they're being sifted. Have you ever sifted anything in a sieve? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So what is an impediment? What, what is not the authentic stuff falls through and what is retained is that which is precious and there's no sifting without shaking. I mean, sometimes you have to express a truism, but that, that shaking is not gentle. It's vigorous and necessary. It's never before in the history of mankind has God ever submitted an entire people to such a process. Now you won't know when they come to you, who are the true remnant and who are those that are destined to be extinguished, the enemies, the, the sinners of my people who shall die. So how do you react and respond? Not going to those who come. You have to treat the one as the other. And even those that will reject that testimony are the ones who are sinners. They cannot even recognize the grace of God that comes to them at sacrifice. Because what if at the same time, this is that anti-Christ period when, when one can neither buy nor sell, what if there's a, a poverty and a fallen economy that is global and worldwide that in fact contributes to the rejection of the Jew as being the culprit by which that world economy, that global economy has fallen because they're looked upon as conspirators. This is the conspiracy of Zion to take over the world by the possession and the manipulation of the economy. They are the, they have set an emotion. There are people with this kind of mentality, conspiratorial mentality. In fact, the true church will be identified by its attitude and by what it exhibits to this people without knowing which of them are the elected, which of them are the sinners that shall be cut off. But in either case, it serves the purposes of God. The elect will respond. Their hearts will be softened by the testimony of that mercy coming at expense, not only at the threat of giving up your vital food stuff without any assurance it could be replaced, but even the taking the risk of being identified with this destitute people and bringing upon your head something of their penalty. Who identified with the Jews in the Nazi time? Suffered and went to the concentration camps with them as we know from Corrie ten Boom, her father and her sister. Are we willing to suffer a ten Boom fate for our identification with Jews is really going to be the question by which the true church will identify itself. Because it says of that true church, they do not hold their lives as dear unto themselves. And in fact, they counted privilege. If by any measure, their identification with the Jews should require not only their sacrifice and their peril, but their life. Because what do they hope likely to obtain in that sacrifice eternally? Can't answer that. If you can't answer it, you'll not be willing to bear it. What they hope to obtain is a martyr's crown, which is like, what'd you say Art? That's completely out of tenor with our modern Christendom. We don't talk about martyrdom and we have no notion of what a martyr's crown is, but the people of the church of the last days will definitely know. They will share Paul's eternal perspective who counted his present afflictions as momentary and light in view of the weight of eternal glory that will be his. We will have an apostolic church that sees its present suffering as momentary and light, and there will be a present suffering. On what basis shall they see that in view of the eternal weight of glory? That is the reward that comes by that sacrifice. And I can't, I'm just fumbling. I'm feeling for the, to pin the tail on the donkey, because who has gone this way before? What do we know of martyrdom? And maybe if I can venture this a little different, different than the martyrdom known by the Anabaptists, even the Hutterites, where martyrdom was a proof of their sanctification. They yearned for martyrdom as the ultimate and final proof that they were in the right place with God. They needed it, so to speak. And in fact, even went out of their way to provoke it in many cases. I'm not talking about that kind of martyrdom. God bless them. I'm talking about a martyrdom that is not masochistic, that does not want to suffer for the, for suffering sake, and yet bravely understands that the nature of the faith, the logic of the faith is suffering and bears it with the kind of equanimity and poise that is not shallow or will bring upon itself that reward. We won't have to provoke it. It will come. It will be the logic of a, of a life truly lived in Christ that cannot do other than extend itself for the, for these Jews in their reduced condition, even if we did not know that they were the least of these Christ's brethren or that they are our brethren. We may find that out later. We'll find it out when the Lord gives us the reward and says, come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you, you righteous. How does he call you righteous? Because you put what is right before the preservation of your own life. Righteousness that does not cost or require, even in the last analysis, our life is not righteous. Righteousness is made manifest in the willingness to suffer that ultimate loss. If it's cheap, if it's convenient, if it's just a matter of principles or keeping kosher and being fastidious about what you eat and lighting candles and wearing yarmulke, that is not righteousness. Righteousness is by definition sacrificial. It's a love for what is right more than the preservation of one's physical earthly life. And the only ones who can depict it are those who know that there's something beyond this present earthly life. That's right. The life to come. These all died. It says in the book of Hebrews, the heroes of the faith, not having received the reward. And yet not one of them failed in faith and a complete and total giving this up themselves from Abraham through Moses. And for those of whom the world was not worthy because they had a confidence in the reward of that which is to come. This will distinguish the church of the last days. And I'll have to say in the same breath, we will not find it in a final moment. If it is not true of us in all of our moments until that moment, even now, we should be living in expectation of that reward, living in view of eternity as Paul himself did. And that's why Paul said, I have my citizenship in heaven. It's a remarkable paradox. And it's at the heart of the genius of what the word apostolic means that a man who is heavenly minded, who has his citizenship in heaven, every aspect of his life is lived in view of that thing that is beyond the present, that is eternal. And yet in the present and in the earth, the man is vital, totally relevant and applicable to the things that are at hand immediately. Isn't that remarkable? Telling the church because of his, because of his heavenly mind, that's the paradox. He could tell the church how to conduct communion, what to do with sinners, how to bring correction. I mean, there's no practical nuts and bolts question about the daily life of the church in which the apostle is not involved and giving the most superb answer, not only verbally, but in his own conduct of life that he can say, follow me as I follow Christ. And it's altogether because of his eternal mindedness, because of his apprehension of the things that are eternal and the weight of glory that will come. And this is not some fluky thing of a man who is fanciful and flighty in his imagination. This is the very distinctive of the apostolic man and of the apostolic church. And it is this church which Israel must find in the wilderness. It is this church that it must encounter, who will not be panic stricken by the world, the bottom of the world falling out or the economy collapsing or wondering where its next meal is going to come from and extending mercy to a people who are all the more despised in that very moment that they have to ask, what's with you? All the Gentiles all will hate us. They're seeking our death. We're being pursued. We would not be in this wilderness place if we could have found any measure of safety in New York City or New Jersey or Toronto or the places that we got. We're out in this place because we had to flee. We are so despised and so detested. We are looked upon as abomination. There's a Gentile world that will not tolerate our existence. So who are you? Where are you coming from? How do you explain your attitude toward us? What's in it for you? All we know in the way that we have lived is that you take care of number one first, that you act in terms of your own self-interest. And if you can afford to be philanthropic as we Jews are, it's because we're making fortunes and we'll give a portion to charity or Israel bonds. But you guys, what's in it for you? What's in it for you in the identification with us is the possibility of your death. And not only that, but your families and your children. And you're willing to take that risk for us and you're not even Jewish. What's with you, Goyim, that you have this identification with us at such sacrifice. You shall be witnesses unto me. And the word witness in Greek means martyr. That we think that we can be martyrs for the gospel, but not martyrs for the Jews. I'm not happy with this definition because the word gospel is made like a generic term that relates only to promulgation of a message by which meant to be saved. The gospel in its true meaning is the whole overarching mind of God in its totality, which includes the subject of Israel. So better than being trained in an inadequate view that we're willing to suffer for the gospel, but not for the Jew is to be willing to suffer for righteousness sake. Those that suffer for righteousness sake, we've reduced the gospel to a little formula for salvation, a nomenclature step one, step two. Who's going to die for that? We've lost even the sense of the glory of the gospel. Paul speaks about my gospel as if there's a devotion, a personal affection that he's entrusted with the message of the mystery of the gospel is far more than just a little formula for salvation. It's the, it's the mind of God. It's a total, the Germans have a word for salvation, history, the breath of God. We're waiting for the gospel of the kingdom. It's a much larger thing. But who can proclaim it except those who have come out of and are living in that reality. If we allow the gospel to be reduced to a formula, we not only reduce the gospel, we tribulate the God of the gospel. So maybe what is incumbent upon us who are messengers to the church as well as to Israel is to disabuse them from allowing that reduction that we have got to a part of our message is the highest of God, the greater thing that the gospel means, and that we would show them you're reducing it to a safe, tepid little formula, a nomenclature for salvation, which in fact doesn't save because you yourself did not know it in the greater breath and shamed them before that to stand before God eternally in that narrow little thing. And that God is waiting for the nations are waiting for the gospel of the kingdom to be proclaimed. Then shall the end come, but you can only proclaim in the limit of your own knowledge. If you're living a predictable Christianity, a safe little message kosher, but you yourself are not in the kingdom place and reality. I know the sovereignty and governance of God, where your, uh, how's it, your, your guidance is on his shoulder. How shall you proclaim the gospel of the kingdom? Maybe it waits for messengers who are already examining and pasting and living in some measure of the kingdom now, which is to say community of the kind that is apostolic and was the church at the first. And by the way, if it's the gospel, the kingdom, what kingdom are we talking about? If not the Davidic kingdom, which is very, a very next verse of this text. Isn't that remarkable to go from this sifting to the very next verse is the tabernacle of David. What is that tabernacle of David that will be raised up in that day? So these elements are so co-joined. If we're, if we're, if we're proclaiming a kingdom independent of Israel, we're not proclaiming the kingdom of God for the kingdom of God is the Davidic kingdom. It's the kingdom that has its locus in Zion, out of Jerusalem, out of the restored nation. See what I mean? So any other kingdom is just a play on the words. In fact, this chafes me no end at those who take the word kingdom and use it in such a light manner, as if it's an ambiguous kind of designation that doesn't really point to anything in particular, least of all the nation Israel. So it's almost promulgating a lie and using a holy word in that process. So we have to be jealous of a language and not allow the ambiguity of the word kingdom or the word gospel, but give the specific content of God's intention, which you'll know, because when you begin to speak like that, people are challenged to the root of their being and they tremble or oppose you with anger or fall before you and cry out, what must I do to be saved? So here's our prophetic obligation to restore true content in the proclamation of the kingdom of the word of God. The Greek word that we think means being lifted up and out is actually means greeting a dignitary as he is coming to attain his place of office and honor. So those that in that day, when Christ comes, those that are asleep in Christ shall rise first, but rise for what purpose? And those who are remained were narrowly alive, saved out of persecution. They rise and glorify God to do what? To a parousia, to accompany the king, to his place of honor in the place where he was disgraced publicly, the city of Jerusalem over his head, king of the Jews, to be king of the Jews in the city where he bore the greatest disgrace there to be honored. Isn't that so much the wisdom of God to controvert the worst design of the enemy to reduce and to bring into shame and there to bring exaltation and honor. And here's the entourage of people who have suffered for that kingdom coming first to accompany their king to his historic place out of which the law shall go forth from Zion, the word of to all nations. This is the gospel of the kingdom and this expectation. So there's much to be restored. And as we said yesterday, this is the time of restoration and we've got to undo. It would be wonderful if we were just operating a blank slate and setting forth truth, but to set forth truth where men already have their preconceived notions that are stubbornly opposed to that really makes it a time of contention and difficulty. Have they stumbled? They should fall. Are they permanently out of their kingdom destiny? God forbid you should think that, but their fault, Paul's usually they're stumbling. He indicates something partial and temporary, but not taken away because he says in Romans 11, the gift and callings of God are irrevocable without repentance. So there's a destiny yet to be fulfilled. What is that destiny? What has, what is the hope of Israel historically and prophetically, but the Davidic kingdom, what did God promise David out of his lights and that this will never cease. It will be eternal. So the promise of a kingdom to Israel is intrinsic to the whole biblical testimony and the history of the nation, though it was momentarily set aside for what purpose so that a, that it would be given to another, not so much as to establish it permanently, but as to move to jealousy, those to whom it was first intended. So this guy doesn't see the mystery, which is the greater glory. It's not a final removal, but through this people who have not been given the gift in order to turn to jealousy, those who have forsaken it. But the ultimate destiny is the coming of a Davidic kingdom that is ruled from the throne of David by a descendant of David, who shall live forever. And when we read Ezekiel 37, what follows the restoration, the resurrection of the dry bones is the description of the kingdom that shall therefore follow. Maybe we want to take a quick look at that. Ezekiel 37. We only occupy ourselves with the text of the dry bones and then we, they're brought forth out of their graves and exceeding great army. And then we forget to, to read what follows about the sticks that are joined. But let's see here. I will take in verse 21, the people of Israel from among the nations among which they have gone. We'll gather them from every quarter, bring them to their own land. I will make them one nation land on the mountains of Israel and one king shall be king over them. Never again, shall they be two nations. Never again, shall they be divided into two kingdoms. They should never again defile themselves. I will save them from all the apostasies, which they fall. I will cleanse them. They should be my people, be their God. My servant, David of verse 24 shall be king over them. They shall have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and the verse 25, uh, their children's children shall live there forever. And my servant, David should be their Prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them, be an everlasting covenant with them. I will bless them, multiply them, will set my sanctuary. This is not just my, my folding cup. This is my eternal abode among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them. I will be the God. They should be my people. Then the nation shall know that I, the Lord sanctify Israel. My sanctuary is among them forever. The sanctuary is also the place, the locus of his Davidic rule. It's the tabernacle of David restored in the place of God's intention, which is Zion, but it waits for a restored nation. What did the Lord have his disciples to pray when he said, when they said, teach us how to pray, pray this, our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. How's your name? Hallowed. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And in that time, Israel will be the head of nations and not the tail. And those nations that refuse to recognize the exalted nation out of whose locus God's theocratic rule is issued will suffer judgment. If they'll not come up every year in the feast of tabernacles to honor God, by acknowledging the nation, which he has exalted. That's how dear this is to God. And even the text in Amos nine, when he's about the tabernacle of David, how is that understood today? Charismatic? It's a form of worship. There's no acknowledgement or awareness that what is spoken here that God is going to do all this. He's going to uproot a nation, bring them to a crashing disappointment in their whole expectation at the moment that they thought it was within their reach in order to restore a form of charismatic worship. If that's not the thing of which Paul warned, I don't know what is. This is the conceit that comes from those who have rejected the mystery. There's much more at stake than a form of Davidic worship as banging tambourines and simulating or emulating an Israeli type of worship. This is government. How do you know that cats? Because the text tells you we've got to look at the text. In italics over verse 11, the editors have inscribed the restoration of David's kingdom over the text that follows about the tabernacle of David. They rightly understand that the tabernacle of David means the restoration of Davidic rule out of Zion. And when does it take place on that day? What day is that? The day in which Israel is uprooted, expelled, and sifted through the nations. In that same period of time, in that same final climactic eschatological dealing, this restoration takes place and will not have taken place except because of this. God chooses to identify his eternal rule with the word David and the tabernacle of David. Because you'll need to read somewhere in 1st or 2nd Chronicles. I have to find it again. A last statement of David about Davidic rule. And it talks about coming down from above like a gentle mist over the earth. There's something about the character of God's governance that is Davidic that is going to be restored. This is not shuffling papers. This is not, give me a word that I often use. Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy. This is not men stuffing their pockets because they have their hand in the till and they have an advantage being employed in government. This is the government of God, not only in its wisdom, but in its character, in its purity, in its selflessness. This is dominion coming in over all creation that the powers have been battling against since the inception of their fall. This is the object, is the rule over creation. So that it comes that this is being revived and restored on that day, in that time has got to be considered. So the same spirit that inspires Thomas inspires Isaiah to refer to the same phenomenon. The fact that the tabernacle of David is now considered the restoration of a certain form of worship is a remarkable statement of not only of the church's obtuseness, but of its own insertion over as against the destiny of Israel. That they would take for themselves this statement as referring to some kind of groovy and acceptable and enjoyable form of worship that is Israeli like in the smacking of tambourines, rather than the thing that pertains to the glory of the nation. To what degree are we yearning and longing for the establishment of this world? How content are we presently with human rule? How much are we chafed by Clinton's and all the rest of the dictators, the Milosevic who's on trial in The Hague for misuse of power and the corrupt government of Zimbabwe that has reduced the state to terrible poverty and 600% inflation and destitution, AIDS, false rule, men self-aggregating. Have you had a stomachful? Are you aching and crying out, thy kingdom come? Are you yearning for the government, the kingdom of God? Because if you're not, all of this is academic. You cannot proclaim the kingdom as some kind of an academic evangelical responsibility unless there's a real identification with the kingdom. You can't wait for righteousness in the earth. You're chafed by every infraction of the misuse of power by men. You yearn to see right things. That creation itself is groaning, waiting for that liberation, that when they see Jews traveling through in their wilderness, it's glad for them because they know this is the sign that we are at the end and the kingdom is coming and creation itself is going to be released. So we need to search also, do we want that government? And to what degree is it operative now? Is his government upon you? Is your government upon your shoulder? What, you determine you're going to college and you're going to take this course in this career and you're going to marry this woman and live in this place? To what degree is your government upon your shoulder? To what degree has his kingdom already come for you now? And do you desire his kingdom? And what if his choice of his kingdom is in contradiction with your desire? That you think he was going to necessarily applaud and, and commend because you're going to make a living and, and everything in logic supports that choice. What if it's not his choice? What if he wants you to deliver garbage? What if he wants you to have to be in a place of hiddenness in the wilderness and that you're not to have a career? What if you're not to marry at all? What if he's called you to the celibacy of a Paul? Who are you to assume anything whose life is not your own? And that's why the kingdom suffers loss. That's why we cannot proclaim the message. That's why we have a truncated gospel that has reduced it to a formula. That's why men are using the word cheaply as a little adornment for their own selfish ambition. And think that because they articulate the word, they have the reality. It's our deficit where there's a vacuum. There's not an identification, a longing. Although the one prayer that the Lord gave was his kingdom come on earth as in heaven. And there's a place where it's waiting right now with us. So we can handle this merely academically as instruction without being searched by this word. We would be at fault. We would bring judgment upon ourselves. If we talk about the restoration of the tabernacle of David, while we ourselves in our own conduct, in our own attitude, do not desire that governance. Follow me? I'm crying out. What kind of a message can we bring? As I said to the pastor, you spoke on the rest of God, but did you speak it out of the rest? Yes, you spoke on the kingdom of God, but did you speak it out of the reality of that kingdom, which is yours to know even now? Or are you a unilateral autonomous entity calling your own shots? And all the more disgracefully thinking that God comes behind to, to what's the word, applaud and to stamp, give the stamp of approval. We have not sought the Lord, nor his face, nor his will. We've not cried out by kingdom come for me on this earth, where I am in the earth, that I am as it is in heaven. And therefore we have not a message that's viable. And that's what the world is waiting for. When the gospel of this kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the earth, then shall the end come. God's waiting for a proclamation, but can only come out of a nexus of reality by those who proclaim it and not just a little article of their ministry, a formula of words. We need to pray at a point like this. And if we're not praying repentantly for ourselves, we need to pray for the church that has wallowed in this trivialized, this made it less than God's intention, has not this expectancy, this desire, don't even want to see a king come, think themselves establishing the kingdom they're going to take over and Christianize society and its institutions. What presumption against God by those who are not submitted to his rulership. So Lord, we cry out, my God, I cry out. I'm, I'm not expressing this as poignantly, as deeply as it needs to be expressed that our hearts would be cut to the quick. If not for ourselves, for the church and not just any church book, but the church, ironically, that purports to be the best, the best expression of the church, the foremost ministers, my God, are guilty of a non-compass mentis, a mentality with regard to the kingdom. It's just become a word. And the gospel itself has become a word. And the great fear is God will just become a word. That is the ultimate judgment. When we start to go down this slippery slope and have not been jealous for this kingdom, whose nature and character is Davidic and intrinsic to the whole destiny of Israel, because something in our Gentile hearts does not want to give them that benefit. We don't want to see them have that destiny. We desired, we usurp it and therefore make it less than other than God's intention, which reduces God himself before the face of all nations. So Lord, I'm asking mercy for those in this room who are called to be proclaimers to set forth, my God, your truth, that their voices will be like a trump, a clarion call to repentance to the church first, my God. So grant, my God, that mercy. Give us a jealousy for that kingdom and for its kingdom, its king, for the issue of the kingdom is the issue of your glory. It's the consummation of all things. It is the gospel. Thank you, precious God. Break our hearts for the condition of the church today in its best forms, my God, and bring the spirit of repentance to the word that will be sent out of sending bodies. For this is no little trifle. This is not a little personal opinion. It has got to be the prophetic fullness of God's own heart spoken in his authority under unction. That is only the privilege of those who are sent. So we bless you, Lord. Oh, my God, help us with understanding, we pray. Don't allow us, my God, to go further and touch holy things and make of them trite. We bless you for your jealousy that broods over us, my God, the king who's contained in the heavens, waiting for the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets since the world began. Come, my God, you're waiting to come out of Zion. May we be that Zion that brings your release, we pray, as king in Yeshua's holy name.