The Last Great Day

Wayne Matthews

Last Great Day Sermon – AM

Deuteronomy 16:16, which we won’t turn there, it’s been covered before in the Feast.  In the sense that it is a Holy Day and God does command an offering.  Now, that offering is up to the individual and it is about counting the blessings that God has given us, and it’s not always the ability to count a physical blessing, it is actually counting our blessings.  And we in the Body of Christ know that the blessings truly are spiritual, are the greater blessings than the physical, because as the history of man is, physical blessings can cause problems to the mind.  Incredible what we are.  Human nature in itself, and the years I’ve been in God’s Church, I have been through very poor times and I’ve been through much better times.  And the reality is that the more I had the more I depended on myself – simple.  So wealth in itself without God’s spirit is a big problem to the world because there’s a tendency to say, “I trust God. I rely on God.  Thank you God for everything...while I’ve got a million dollars in the bank.”  Easier to trust in God.  It’s a wrong mindset.

So the blessings that we have counted and look at in this Holy Day offering are spiritual in nature, that we can rejoice in.  Now, whether it’s 10 cents, 5 cents, 1 euro, wherever we are, it makes no difference, it’s between you, the individual, and God, and your relationship with Him.

Today I’d like to start with Leviticus 23.  Of course we all know that this is the area that God outlines His plan of salvation, and often just reading Leviticus 23 of an by itself we can’t see God’s plan of salvation; it does require God’s spirit to reveal much more than what is actually written.

Leviticus 23:33 - Then the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Eternal. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation: commanded assembly, you shall do no customary work on it.  It’s a Sabbath rest.  For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal: now this is something that we have just finished.  We have kept the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days and we have rejoiced before God on a physical level, but also on a spiritual level we have rejoiced.  We have thanked God for the pouring out of His spirit that we have 57 Truths and the understanding that we have.  Because within each truth the depth of understanding continues to grow, and just reading one of the truths is just knowledge, but to come to understand it and live it and implement it into our lives in the way we think about God and the rest of mankind takes time and God’s spirit to have understanding, and then of course wisdom in how we apply it.  And that’s something that takes a lifetime to apply.

So, continuing on with the instruction in the last part of verse 36 - ...on the eighth day, that is actually the twenty-second day of the seventh month, which is today, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal: it is a sacred assembly; that word there is actually used ten times in scripture.  And then it continues on and says, and you shall do no customary work in it.  It’s a Holy Day, it’s a High Day, and we are here on this very day as God has commanded.

This word ‘sacred assembly’ is rather interesting because it is only used ten times exactly with this particular word that God has allowed us to come to understand.  Four times it points to the Last Great Day.  One time it points to the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, the Last Day of Unleavened Bread.  Two other times it talks about – and the word ‘sacred’ can be ‘solemn assembly’ – it points to fasting; we have a solemn assembly, a sacred assembly.  Three other times God mentions how He hates man’s solemn assemblies.  So there are the ten times it’s used.

When you think about that word and go into it in a little more detail the word ‘sacred assembly’ there actually means ‘solemn assembly’ – a solemn.  Now, the way we understand solemn is not that we go into depression, solemn, dead serious about everything and withdrawn.  It actually means ‘to be under restraint’, ‘to restrain’, ‘to detain’.  So what God is saying, that this day, the eighth day, points to a time when mankind needs to bring his selfishness into restraint, to restrain the self.  And it is a solemn time.  The last day in man’s history, what it points to, the hundred years, is a serious time because this is a solemn time, it’s a time for mankind to bring himself into subjection to God, to restrain the self, to work on the self.  The word actually is used like ‘detained’, ‘to take heed’; and you think, “Why is that word so important?”  Well, it’s very important because for mankind it’s their day, it’s a time of judgment, a hundred years, and at the end of it if we have not subjected ourselves, or those that are in that hundred years, not have subjected themselves to that time and brought themselves into restraint, a solemn time, seriousness, the end result.... Why is it solemn? Why is it serious?   You face the second death.  Mankind at that time, it’s a serious time.

So it actually is rather interesting that God uses that four times for this particular day, the eighth day, which points to the last hundred years.  It’s solemn because its outcome could mean the second death for many.  That’s the outcome.  It’s time to be serious about life.  Because really, for this last 6,000 years, is man serious about life?  Do they really care what God thinks?  They’re not.  They’re not serious about it.

Within the Body of Christ, the Church of God, we should be serious!  It’s not a game!  They’re not suggestions to bring ourselves into subjection to God, to repent, it’s something we have to do.  When we fight ourselves it’s actually serious, it’s actually a solemn battle we’re in, because the outcome – there is a result, there is an outcome...there is actually an outcome and it will be implemented.  Man doesn’t know about this solemn assembly today but their day is coming where they’re going to face it and a lot of them are going to live in it and they will have to address their selfishness.  It’s a wonderful picture that God is so merciful to present this time to mankind.

This is the seventh annual Feast Day, a time to bring self under restraint.  It’s a beautiful day in what it pictures. This eighth day, a holy convocation, is a Sabbath, a rest day.  This Feast day reveals to mankind that God has planned a physical life for one hundred years under the rule of His government, the government of God.  So there’s a hundred year period that this points to where man has the opportunity to come to know God.

This one hundred years of life will be unique in many ways.  God in His mercy planned that the majority of mankind would live twice.  Isn’t that a wonderful thing!  In today’s saying and sometimes I’ve slipped and said it myself, when people are having a good time they say, “You really should have a good time because you only live once!”  And I’ve turned around sometimes and said, “We actually live twice, you know...”   “What?!”  But in reality that’s man’s thinking.  True?  Have a good time, get what you can, enjoy it, because you only live once.  That’s not true.  The vast majority of mankind are going to live twice in this period of having to bring self into restraint.  They’re going to have to do what the 144,000 have already done, fought themselves during their life as God has revealed it to them. They’ve had to battle, they’ve had to fight, bring the self into restraint so that God can live through us.  That’s our purpose in the Church today, exactly the same.  We are under judgment.  It says ‘the Church of God is under judgment’.  We don’t have to wait for the hundred year period; we are now in a time of bringing our self into restraint, under restraint, to be subject to God, to be in obedience to God.

This second time of physical life will be free from the influence of Satan and his demons.  And that is just a wonderful plan!  The fact that mankind for 6,000 years has had to be subject to a period where Satan and his demons have been able to influence the thinking of man.  And so what we see in society today is basically that everything is motivated by greed.  Everyone is trying to get something from you, no matter what it is.  Because without even knowing it friends from the world, when they have a relationship with you, they don’t understand (but we should) that the base nature of our nature is that we are trying to get something out of the relationship.

Now, when people drop names, what’s really going on?  “I know Julia Gillard.”  Well, you probably wouldn’t say that in Australia now...   “I know John Howard.”  What’s that really all about?  Getting something.  We think we’re getting something.  We’re lifting ourselves up, you see, because “I’m a little better than you because I actually know John Howard, you don’t.”  Because that’s our nature.  So friends or often people will give a gift in the world; they don’t know what they’re really doing, but really they’re trying to win a friendship.  And as I’ve said before, often when it comes around to the silly season people will give gifts, and the moment you say, “Look, I don’t give gifts.” The presents then stop, because they’re not getting anything back, they’re not getting anything from you so we’re not going to give it anymore - because they’re not going to get anything.  That’s something mankind’s going to have to address, our nature.  Just like we are accounted now to address our nature; that’s our job, that’s our role, that’s our desire, to address our nature.

Many over the last 6,000 years have asked this question: Why was I born?  I can remember Mr. Armstrong saying this, “Why were you born?”  Why was I born?  What’s the purpose of my existence?  Well, mankind hasn’t known it, God has not revealed it.  They have never found the answer because it must be revealed by God by the power of His holy spirit.  What a blessing that is; we understand the purpose of life.

Many have asked this purpose of life – Why do I actually exist?  God provided the answer in His word but man in his carnal mind and his pride has rejected it.  They don’t want to know why they exist, really.  It just can’t be accepted why you exist; to enter Elohim seems so proud.

If you were to tell people in the world, “The purpose of life is that one day I’m going to be god.” Now, they don’t understand that phrase.

“That is just so proud that you would take that on yourself that you say that!”

“I have a personal relationship with God.”

“Whew!”

“God talks to me.”

He does!  He places truth in the mind, that’s how He talks to you.  But they can’t understand that and therefore we don’t go down that path.

Well, the purpose of the next period, and the purpose of the first 6,000 years, was God creating Elohim.  Isn’t it marvelous?  And all the periods of life, physical life, there’s one outcome.  What is God doing?  God is creating Elohim.  So the first 6,000 years is about creating Elohim and there are 144,000 that God has chosen, God has made, and is going to fulfill His promise to them and make them Elohim.  Isn’t that amazing?  Isn’t that incredible to know that!

What is the Millennium about? The next thousand years that we soon face from the middle of May, or 26th of May, the end of that day, we face what?  A thousand years of creating more Elohim; the purpose of life!  What is the hundred years about?  What is this eighth day about?  God creating Elohim.  That’s the purpose of life.  So all the periods are about God creating a Family – that’s what life is about.

What period of time we exist in is up to God. There are people in the future that are nothing (we’ve talked about that), people that don’t exist today that there’s nothing, are yet to be created by God, given physical life.  What a blessing just to have physical life in itself.  But that is the future of mankind, that they will be given that opportunity to enter Elohim.

Only a select few during the first 6,000 years would be given this opportunity.  They do not have to live twice.  But the rest of mankind has to live twice.  The majority of mankind will have to live twice.  During the first 6,000 years everyone would live under the rule of Satan for a great spiritual purpose that God is working out with mankind.  And then of course we see a resurrection.  During that end of the thousand years we’re going to see a resurrection.

One thing that is important to understand in all of this is that we don’t know everything about God’s plan.  We have outlines.  We just don’t know everything.  Many things that come up in our thinking is that we assume a lot, just because of our backgrounds, we think we know a lot.  One of the things that comes up is...  we’ll read a scripture later about a resurrection.  At a great resurrection, how will it happen?  Now the valley of dry bones talks about there was a valley; so it’s talking in spiritual language as there’s a valley and there’s all these dry bones.  So, in our minds we think, well, there’s going to be a valley and there’s going to be these people resurrected.  Well, how do you resurrect 10-15 billion people in a valley?  They’re not going to fit!  We really are so limited in our thinking, the way we think about things.

Well, there are 15 billion people; the world during the Millennium is build into an environment around the world!  So people will be resurrected around the world.  Everyone doesn’t have to be in one location.  We just think that, well, everyone has to be in one location, so we just think that everyone has to be in one location surely...  Why would that be?  You can’t fit them in.  Surely they’re going to be resurrected around the world potentially.  See, there’s so much we don’t know.

Will they be raised by family, by nation?  Death separates; husband and wife of old, there’s so much we don’t understand.  But we know in God’s word there’s going to be a resurrection, that’s what we know.  But all the mechanics of it I’m sure God will reveal as it becomes closer, of how it will be.  And we’re going to look at some aspects of how things can change before that great resurrection.

So, this next thousand years that we are now facing and soon to enter, the big difference is Satan and his demons will be removed in that time.  Now mankind will have to fight against the self, but it’s easier because that influence, that continual bombardment will be removed.  Things will be stopped.  So, the current world system where you have Satan influencing everything, driven by greed and not cooperation, by competition, is removed and mankind will learn to cooperate.  Things will be stopped; pornography on the internet will be stopped, won’t be allowed.  Simple.  And yet the governments of today says that we are moral countries but we legalize prostitution and pornography on the internet.  We could stop it but you know, they’ve got an IP and they pay money and there’s tax involved...  What a sick system, really, when you think about it.  No one’s serious about stopping sin.  Not really, not deep down.

It’s interesting, the one thing that will be taught... is justice with mercy will be implemented by the 144,000 – justice with mercy.  There was a discussion the other day about...in Australia, particularly, people think we have a lot of ‘boat people’, so called, coming to Australia, but in numbers it’s really minute compared to other countries.  But when you talk to people and say, “How do you stop it?”  Well, reality is government could stop it tomorrow, if they really wanted to implement part of God’s law.  There’s a scripture in Deuteronomy that tells you what you should do with somebody that actually sells people or trades with people.

The easiest way to stop what’s happening is you turn around and you pass a law that says that the captain and the crew, whoever is sailing that boat, the moment we identify you we’re going to shoot you.  We’re going to implement justice.  It’s not right what they’re doing, a lot of them.  It’s because they’re trading and a lot of it’s not about people escaping.  Some of it, the people are trying to escape but the only way they can do it is to pay somebody and they’re gaining something from it, that’s what they’re doing.

But if you really wanted to stop it, you’d say, we’ll, we’ll execute the Captain.  Do you think there’ll be any boats turning up?  It would stop it really quickly. But see, man doesn’t want to deal with that.  No, we’ll burn your boat... you say, “Great, I’m going to be stuck here!”

And of course, in the future there won’t be people having to flee areas, that’s the difference.  Without Satan and the demons people won’t have to flee areas.  People will be able to move around accordingly.  They’ll still have the rules; one of the main rules is if you don’t work you don’t eat.  Basic principle of scripture.  If you refuse to work you don’t eat.  So, what do you think is going to happen?  What do you think is really going to happen in a society?  Because it’s got to be implemented.

The purpose of the hundred years is to create Elohim.  Satan and his demons have been removed; now the struggle against self is easier because the environment has changed.

We should look at what the hundred years offers.  There are many of things through scripture that we realize what will be experienced.  Now, we’re a witness to Trumpets but not everybody here today has been called to witness Pentecost 2012, because if we are changed to spirit we will witness everything of that day.  They will have been called, that’s the 144,000, to fully experience the Day of the Lord, to see the impact on a physical and spiritual level, but if we’re still physical what will we see of the day of the Lord.

If you’re in Melbourne, what will you see?  Reality... We’re not going to see everything, but the 144,000 will experience and witness that day.  They will see the plagues being poured out.  But if you live in Melbourne will you see the plagues being poured out?  You might see little aspects of physical things but we just won’t know what’s been devastated, what’s been happening.  So there is a different experience for different people at different times according to God’s will.  The 144,000 will see the Last Seven Plagues poured out at the end, or during that day, to its final conclusion.

They will see spirit for the first time.  Isn’t that amazing?  Isn’t that exciting?  But if we remain alive we will not see Satan and his demons...we will not see it.  Can’t see spirit – we’re not spirit.  They will witness the restraining of Satan and his demons; mankind will know of this event but not see it.  All those alive physically at that time will not witness these spiritual events but they will experience certain aspects of the day of the Lord.

So, Atonement will be witnessed by the 144,000 and those that are spirit. When it’s fully completed, Atonement is fully completed, not just the one part of Atonement, the full completion of Atonement – will only be really witnessed by spirit beings who will see every aspect of it.

The Millennium will be experienced by those that live in it.  So, there are humans to be created 500 years from today, and they will experience something different than what we’re experiencing today.  It’s because it’s different!  They will not have experienced Satan and demons influencing the mind.  And when the conversation is talked about in saying, “Well, how do you understand these things?  How do you know these things?”  It’s because you’re experiencing it.  You have to go through it.

The Last Great Day will be experienced by those who live on into it.  So if you go to the year - I’m taking it virtually from Pentecost – if you go from say, year 900, from the Day of Pentecost coming up, or 950, there’s a group of people just like today that are looking for a resurrection.  Yes?  A lot of people there will be looking for a resurrection at the end of that thousand years.  They’re thinking, “I’m looking for a resurrection.”  Just like there’s a group of people hoping to be part of the 144,000 – whether you are or not is up to God.  But there’s a group of people.  But the majority are still looking to live on into a Millennium.

Well, there’s a group of people at the end of the thousand years, at 950 years, that will be looking forward to living on into the hundred year period, and they will be told what? “Satan is going to be released.  You’re going to be tested.”  Now, what is the ability to understand at the year 990 of the Millennium that what is coming is a release of Satan?  What type of thinking is it going to be?  Well, we’re going to have a look at a little bit of that as we go into this Last Great Day, of what that might be like and what would happen.  Because mankind in general doesn’t change; we have a natural mind.  During the thousand years people have a natural mind but it’s not as influenced.  So what happens to a mind that has God’s spirit, because scripture says there’s a time of testing coming again for those people who are alive at that time.

Revelation 20:1 – Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having a key to the bottomless pit, which is a place of restraint, and a great chain in his hand. Now, the book of Revelation is written in symbolic language, so the tendency of our mind is to translate this to say, “Well, here’s an angel, he’s flying along and he’s got this big key and he’s got this big chain.”  But it’s pointing to something, it’s talking about restraint.  He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, it’s talking about symbolic language, it’s pointing to something, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, so there’s a thousand years of restraint.  Now, we know that starts May 27, 2012, a thousand years; that’s when the count starts, starting to count for a thousand years.

And he cast him into a bottomless pit, or an abyss, a place of restraint, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, Why? Why has this happened? ...so that he should deceive the nations no more... So Satan’s power is that of deception and that’s something we should be fully aware of, that deception is Satan’s power.  That’s his strength on mankind.  He’s bound up so he can’t deceive the nations any more till the thousand years were finished: so there’s a time when he’s going to be released again.  ...but after these things he must be released for a little while/a little season, a short period of time. So after a thousand years has ended and before the second resurrection Satan is released for the purpose of deception of mankind, a time of testing.

Now there’s going to be a group of people that live during the thousand years that will not have that testing to the same degree as this group of people at the end of the thousand years.  So it’ll be like the Church waiting for something.  Mr. Armstrong warned the Church, and I can give testimony, witness to, I can give you the evidence of what it was like.  The Church at that time was warned about a coming time called a ‘falling away’.  The Church is going to be warned at the end of the Millennium there’s a time coming where Satan is going to be given the power to deceive.

What is that like?  Well, when you’re asleep, which I was, you can’t actually hear, because there’s a tendency to think, “Well, I know Mr. Armstrong’s talking about someone out there...”  Wasn’t me!  Because when you’re asleep you tend to look outward, the fight’s gone, you’re not really fighting yourself, so you look at it and say, “Boy, there’s going to be a falling away!”  And we didn’t know it was going to start internally, we just thought there’s some sort of big deception coming and a lot of people are going to leave the Church and it’s going to be like an apostasy.  “Oh, I wonder who that applies to...”  Mr. Armstrong at times got so adamant that he said, basically, “Only ten percent of you get it!” He used to say.  And I’d say, “I wonder who that 90% is out there!”  Pshew!  But that is the ability.

Well, go forward a thousand years – what do you think hits the Church again? There’s a level of complacency, everything’s familiar.  Everything is familiar!  The ears to hear spiritually will become dull.

Now most of us here today will not witness this.  I’m telling something because the second resurrection hasn’t taken place but its coming.  What’s coming?  Those people are going to be given over to a spirit power they’ve been warned about but complacency once again is a way of life.

One of the things that has happened in God’s Church, which I lived through, is there’s a statement that says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’  Well, what it really does is that familiarity, you become too familiar, that people don’t respect others; you tend to look down on them.  And that’s what’s coming at the end of the thousand years; people are not going to be as zealous as what they should be.  Truth will be taken for granted.  What level of truth will there be at the year 992 of the Millennium do we really think?  A way of life where everyone is keeping the Sabbath, everybody is tithing 1st and 2nd tithe, and 3rd at times, and everybody will be keeping the Holy Days.  Well, I learned that I did all those things but it proved nothing; I was cut off.  I actually did all those things.  I went through the habit of those things but it meant nothing; it was Wayne Matthews doing it because I had been cut off, I’d gone to sleep.  But I still kept the Sabbath, I came here and dressed up and did all that.  I tithed, went through all the tithing system, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  I also kept all the annual Holy Days...but God wasn’t in it because He wasn’t in me at that time.

So, at the end of this period you can see what’s coming.  Now, let’s have an overview when we read what happened to the Church; let’s have a look at what the potential is, of what’s going to happen to the Church at that time.

Revelation 3:14 – Now, this is, if we just look at the spirit of it all because that’s what it’s all about, it’s about the spirit of it - To the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, and that word, of course, is ‘let the people decide’.  Isn’t that interesting?  ‘Let the people decide, or judge’; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning/beginner of the creation of God; That’s Jesus Christ of course because He was first into the Family of God, first to enter Elohim so that we could follow. I know your works, in other words, I know your fruits, I know what you’re like; that you are neither cold nor hot: so you’re basically lukewarm; I wish that you were either one way or the other.

Well, I actually know what this is like.  I actually know what it’s like to be lukewarm. I’ve actually done it, and I’ve experienced it.  And I do so know what it’s like to be hot.  I actually know what it’s like to be cold.  I’ve done all three of these things.  I was cold before I was called. You mention ‘Church of God’, ‘Sabbath-keepers’, ‘Christ’s returning’...whew... I was dead cold.  I then became hot.  I was zealous!  I’m a bit zealous in things by nature, by disposition; I’m a zealous type person, general ‘can-do’ in times past, getting wiser.  I often do things and then turn around and think, “Oh boy!  Maybe I should have slowed down!”

I said to the wife, “You know, we’re packing up in Albany. I met one of the ministers and he said, “You’ve got to keep the Sabbath,”” so next I went to the boss and said, “I’m going to start keeping the Sabbath and I can’t come to work anymore.”  And I just blew his brain!  “Where did this come from?!”  “Oh no, I’ve got to do it!  I’m not working so I’m not going to come in Friday night, Saturday.”  Went home to the wife and I said, “You know what, I found out where the Church is.”  It was a small group in Bunbury in Western Australia, “We’re going to sell everything and we’re going to pack up and we’re going to go to Bunbury where the Church is.”  And she was, “What about all the furniture?”  I said, “Don’t worry about it sweetheart, we’re going to sell everything and I’ll buy you a new lot.”   So, we drove to Perth, bought a car then, backed it up into the caravan park on the 1st I think it was, on the Thursday and two children in tow, and then we went driving around looking for the Church.  Bit too zealous, Wayne, stop and think and find out what the Church really is.  It’s the people!  It’s not a building.  And really, I don’t think I really ever bought the furniture; it took a long time and we’d run out of money by then.

So, to be zealous for God is to put God first in everything, and there is no cost.  When people say, “I’m putting God first and it’s going to cost you...”  No, it’s not! It’s not going to cost you anything, it’s a perceived cost!  Because if God is for you who can be against you?  In our thinking it’s so bound that we think, “Oh, this is going to cost me! I’ve got to tithe and this is going to cost me.”  No, it’s not!  Wouldn’t you want the Great Creator of the Universe on your side working for you?  But it takes time, spiritual maturity.

I have never gained a job ever!  God actually helped me every time.  God actually provided for me.  In times where I thought which way to go, I did it, God allowed it, I learn lessons either way.  If I’d gone left or I’d gone right, I’d come to realize it didn’t make a lot of difference whether I’d decided to go left or I decided to go right in a job, because I knew that either way God would be with me, therefore it’d make no difference.  And I was going to have a trial if I went left or right, because that’s what’s best for me.  So I did the best I could, I had priority lists and tried to work it all out best I could on a physical level and then I handed it over to God and said, “Well, I’m Yours, You do whatever.”  Because there is no cost.  Resigning from a job because of whatever reason to do with God, there is no cost, but that is something we have to grow in and learn.

So, I know your works, you’re neither cold nor hot; in other words, you’re just in the middle, you’re going through the motions.  What it’s really saying is there’s no fight in you!  There is no fight in the mind about anything – you can go a whole week and never have fought a thought and gone to God and repented.  That’s what it really means.  You can just go through the motions of being religious. So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. In other words, you’ll be cut off from God; and of course it’s symbolic language here.  Being spewed out, it’s symbolic of being cut off from God’s spirit.

Because you say, now here’s the attitude.  Now, just think, 990 years into the Millennium... Because you say, an attitude, a way of thinking, I am rich, I have become wealthy and have need of nothing; In other words, self-reliance has crept in.  Now, let’s project forward, year 990 – What is society like?  Well, society, one Church, one government, one education – the education focus is God first, about what God does, how God lives in your life.  It’s about character.  It’s not about intellect, it’s about character and what type of person we are, what we’re living.  That’s what’s important.  But there’s a thinking that all this has been built for a future people coming, and there’s a tendency to say, “Look what I’ve built.  Look what I have.”

So, there’s housing ready for future people, there’s crops, there’s food, and then God reveals that, well, I’m going to raise up fifteen billion people and you’re going to give and share all this with them.  Some of them will be resurrected and be placed over you in authority.  GASP!  “But I’ve been in the Church 18 years!  Huh?! ...and they were in Laodicea and they died, and you’re going to resurrect them back and they’ve only been in the church 15 years and you’re going to...  What?  They were ministers and they were going to be reinstated?  But... you don’t understand – they don’t know anything compared to what I know!”  Rich and increased with goods!  It’s an attitude brethren; it’s an attitude that man is very capable of.  “You’re not going to ordain her are you?!  ...or him are you?!  Sure, you obviously don’t know what I know.”  That’s an attitude of our mind.

Brethren, don’t deceive ourselves, we all have it!  We all have it!  It’s a matter of whether you fight it, and whether I fight it.  Because that’s our nature; our nature is that we think we’re more important than others, that’s just who we are, that’s the battle.  So you can see an attitude potentially that will be there.  We cannot see our true spiritual condition.

God is the provider of all things physical and spiritual.  So everything that the people have at the end of the Millennium has been given to them by God.

Verse 18 - I counsel you to buy of Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, Godly character, have God’s mind, that you may be clothed, in other words what we put on, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. See the self. For as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: therefore be zealous and repent.  So just like this period that we have been through in Laodicea, the potential is that that’s what man will be like.  Now, we don’t know exactly what is going to be said, that is going to cause people to rebel but there are a majority that are going to rebel.

So, verse 22 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the Churches. So let that people hear.  Now, when you can’t hear you can’t hear.  It’s a spiritual matter and if you can’t hear you can’t hear.  It’s just easy.

Going back to Revelation 20:4 – so we go forward to the first resurrection - And I saw thrones, and they, the 144,000, who sat on them, and judgment was committed to them: and then I saw the souls/the lives of those who had become beheaded/cut off for their witness to Jesus, in other words, the way they lived, and for the word of God, the thinking.  Because if you think like God you are cut off, you’re cut off from man and man’s society, who had not worshipped the beast, and his image, I’m not going through all that because of time, and had not received the mark on their forehead or in their hands; in other words, Sabbath and Holy Day keeping; and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years; on this earth as Elohim. But the rest of the dead, so all of those that have died up until this time that weren’t resurrected in the first resurrection, did not live again until the thousand years were finished. So it’s pointing to the end of the thousand years and a resurrection that is about to take place.

Verse 6 - Blessed and holy is he/she who has part in the first resurrection: over such... and why is it so blessed?  Over such the second death has no power, because the second death is our enemy; but they shall be priests of God: What does a priest do?  Serves; they serve God; and Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. So the second death is the enemy that mankind is to be concerned about, to be solemn about, because that is permanent.  And if we fully understand, the first death is something not to be feared if we believe God; because often in this current 6,000 years, often environments are so bad that people are better off to have died.  And God has fulfilled that; the time of Noah – it’s better off because their minds are going to be too polluted.  So we look at things so physically, and that’s normal, but we look at death on a physical level, but the reality is the one we should fear is the second death because it is permanent.  It is permanent.

So the fact is the majority of mankind will die once; they then will be resurrected and given a second chance. But really it’s their first chance only because they’ve never known God or God’s ways.  Some, who were in God’s Church and went to sleep, well, it’s an opportunity to continue that growth from where they were and God will give them His spirit and therefore they can live the way that they were called to do and fulfill what God had planned for them.

So when the thousand years is complete Satan will be released for a little while and go out to deceive the nations once again.  Those alive at that time have no real comprehension of what they now must fight and resist - that being falsehood by deception.  Falsehood by deception is what the battle is, and that’s something we’re being called out of, falsehood by deception, because we are all deceived, and even in this room to a degree, one way or the other, we are still deceived in some things, because that’s the way it is and we have to continue the growth out of deception.  So those that live on into the Millennium, it’s a continual path of coming out of deception.  That’s the path, coming out of deception.

Mankind will once again underestimate Satan’s great power of deception.  The future lesson is even with God’s spirit mankind turns against God because of his nature.  It’s happened once before and it’s going to happen again.

Revelation 20:7 - And when the thousand years have expired, Satan shall be released out of his prison and shall go forth to deceive the nations; and ‘nations’ is another word for ‘families’; the various families of the earth are going to face this and it’s about deception.  So something’s going to trigger a thought process and people will start to challenge things and raise themselves up in their minds. ...which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, so that’s symbolic of mankind, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sands of the sea. So it’s a large percentage, we don’t know the number, but it’s a large percentage of people who are actually going to turn against God and God’s government.  Now you would think just logically, just even human reasoning, that you would raise yourself up to fight against Elohim?  You’d have to say you’re pretty insane really, don’t you?  Because you can’t win, but that’s how delusional we can become.  We actually can raise ourselves up, we just don’t comprehend.  That’s the mind of Satan – did this before, not happy, raised self up, “This is what I’m going to do...”  Not understanding God.

So when Satan is released from his confinement he has a short time to do his last evil work upon the world.  So it is a question – What would really motivate a people?  Well, it’s an attitude, and we’ve been there before.

The scriptures talk often about a famine, and God says, “I won’t allow a famine.”  So what’s it like to live through a famine on a spiritual level?  A physical one, well, it’s difficult of course, but what’s it like on a spiritual level?  Well, the problem with a famine on a spiritual level is that once God withdraws His spirit from the ministry – which is what happened – there’s no spirit life in the sermons so it’s about  repetition of things.  So someone can preach about the Sabbath but there’s no life in it.  But worse than that is the person listening, which was me, I had no life in me so I could not perceive the spiritual intent of what was happening.  I was starving to death because of the state I was in and so it’s just information.  It’s no different than a protestant of the world, or a Catholic of the world opening up the scripture and reading it; you sit there and go, “I’ve heard that before.”  It’s dead, there’s no life in it because God’s not in it.

So, it’s not just the ministry that didn’t have life, it was the congregation that had no life because they were being starved, because God had cut off His spirit.  And you actually don’t know you’re starving to death.  In the beginning you think something’s wrong, you get this feeling like the twinge in the stomach, “Oh, that doesn’t really sound quite right.  What do you think it really meant?”  You get that twinge, a hunger pang, but in the end, just like the second day fast, for me physically it was reasonably like it didn’t make any difference, I was hungry, nothing happened, no pain, nothing, I was just dead, I couldn’t feel anything.  Well, when you starve to death you don’t feel anything, there’s no battle, you just go through a routine and you might lose your patience with others and then you think, “Oh, I shouldn’t have done that, God, I’m sorry...”  and you keep moving on.  There’s no real battle, there’s no overcoming because we can’t overcome unless God’s spirit dwells in us.  We might think we know some aspects of sin but we can’t really dig the real intent of the human mind, we can’t repent of it.  We can still go and pray and do all those things but God’s not in it.

So, during this time those who have been deceived by following Satan (and there will be many) will try to destroy what God has built for the last thousand years.  Isn’t that amazing that that’s what’s coming.  Revelation 20:9 - And they went up on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints, the beloved City: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. So God will intervene because God says, ‘they won’t learn war anymore.’  God will not allow it to happen, but people still can have the intent, “Let’s do this!  That’s what our desire is!”

Verse 10 - And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, now, the term ‘fire and brimstone’ in symbolic language, is symbolic of a permanent death.  It’s a permanent death.   ...where the beast and the false prophet are, and this, if it were correctly translated should read – where the beast and the false prophet were earlier cast, and shall be tormented, no life ever again, day and night forever and ever.

So we can see there is a time coming where we are about to enter a time of peace, the beginning of a time of peace and it starts at the beginning of a thousand years, and it progresses.  Peace is not something that we can just have; true peace is when we’re made Elohim.  True peace is when we’re made Elohim, because God is peace.  And it’s a wonderful thing to come to understand from many of the sermons, to understand, and if you ever have the inclination to understand the mind of God, is to go back and understand that God is peace.  So the only way peace comes about, it’s the way God thinks – there is no competition – no competition, there’s just peace.  God doesn’t have to compete – there’s no compete.  Now, we are born in a state of competition.  Satan is a competitor; he competes, he tries to compete against God but God doesn’t compete against him.  There is no competition!  There is no competition because Satan can only do what God allows him.  The creation can only do what God allows.  So we have the opportunity to one day enter peace.  And as we go longer and longer in God’s Church we come to understand God’s nature and what God is, and God is peace just like God is love.  There is a peace in God, so that’s what we aspire to, true peace, the ability to think that way.  What a marvelous opportunity that has been given to us!

So there is an end to Satan’s existence.  His punishment is that of eternal death, never to have life again.  That’s the outcome.  At the end of this short season of rebellion Satan and his demons are removed forever from the power to influence mankind.

Only Jesus and the 144,000 will witness the final rebellion, this final rebellion before the second resurrection.

We believe that it is those that are alive during the thousand years who have been obedient and faithful will be resurrected at that second resurrection to spirit.  At the end of the thousand years and the rebellion is over, than there is a spiritual resurrection to life which is the opportunity for us, for many in this room.  True?  That’s what we look forward to.  But amongst that there’s an understanding we have to die, and there is a thousand year period but we won’t know, it’ll be [snaps finger] like that for those that are involved in that, to come back to a life.  But there’s a lot we’re going to miss – true?   If you understand it, there’s a lot, there’s a thousand years, and there’s a lot that Satan is going to do again that we’re not going to see.

But that’s why the lesson of Laodicea is so important for us now and those that are living on into the Millennium – I can actually understand why that has to be taught – because I have felt and I know and I understand complacency.  And having been awakened there are times when I know that I’m slipping – even after being awakened I know there’s times when I’m slipping.  I know it!  I know it in the core of my being and you have to go back and fight again, and you still have to push forward.

But you know, spiritual growth is not just something that goes [constantly forward and upward], because that’s what knowledge... spiritual growth [is going forward, upward, slipping backward, forward, upward, slipping backward, forward and upward] –and for me it’s been... (I’m going up and down with my finger...).  It’s not easy!  It’s not easy, it wasn’t meant to be easy.  You’ve got to keep fighting.   One thing I have learned, you have to keep fighting.  And as I said in my opening here, it is a battle, you have to keep going.  And you know what the hardest thing is?  Correction.  And as I said, to be corrected, and you feel it, you’re feeling pride.  So whenever correction comes and you feel it... and you say you don’t feel it physically per se, you feel it in the mind – you know you’re being corrected and it’s directed at you – well, if someone’s looking at you and telling you, it’s you, you’re wrong, then you’ve got a choice, got a choice in the mind... What am I going to do...?  I learned that the times I’ve been corrected in more than one ways than...

My wife actually corrects me.  Is that easy sometimes?  No, it’s not easy sometimes, but I know and I’ve learned no matter what correction comes that it’s done because the person loves me.  But we forget that because pride gets in the way and we resist it.  [grumble, grumble, grumble] – “...just wait until she’s finished talking and I’ll make sure I have my say about this...  yeah!”  Because you feel it!  Well, now I’ve learned that when I feel it its pride, Wayne, it’s pride!  Pride–pride–pride: shut-up, shut-up, shut-up, shut-up; take it, take it, take it!  That’s what goes on in the mind, and that’s a good thing.  That’s a good thing to fight it; but as I said, maybe a day later, “I’m not too sure she was right...”  (Sigh), got to fight it again!  But I do know that correction in the Church from the ministry is done out of love, because it’s God correcting and He loves because He wants us to enter Elohim.  That’s His desire!  His desire, the purpose of all the creation, is to give us something He has, and we’re nothing.  How great is God?  What a marvelous, wonderful God; but we’re nothing, we don’t deserve anything.  But He’s willing to share this out of His love and mercy.  Incredible!  Absolutely incredible!  And we earn nothing out of it all.

So the 144,000 will now support the rest of those resurrected into the second resurrection; they will now support the 144,000 and Jesus Christ to develop what in the hundred years?  More Elohim.  More Elohim!  Working for God with the desire for them, for everybody, no bias, no prejudice as an Elohim.  What a wonderful time to look forward to.  This is like the first resurrection.  Most will have died in the faith.  Most here today will be awaiting a resurrection as scripture says.  And also, some will be changed to, at that time who are alive, to be to spirit.  So it’s no different than where we are now; it’s a wonderful time to go to.

The hundred years is about God giving mankind the opportunity to enter Elohim.  It is a solemn time, a time to bring self into restraint.  Those who have deliberately chosen to reject the truth and have committed the unpardonable sin, they have willingly hated God’s ways over the last 7,000 years, will not be resurrected to life.  There is no point, the mind is set – there’s no point.  So this last hundred years is a very exciting time.  This physical resurrection to life is discussed in Ezekiel 37.  Now, again, it’s talking symbolically about what God is going to do for mankind knowing there is a large group alive at this time – a large group alive – that are waiting for this resurrection, they’ve been taught about this resurrection, they understand what is coming and what is expected of them to support this physical creation.

Now, that’s why it can’t just happen in one little area, true?  It’s just not going to be physically possible.  And that’s why we see very dimly.  We think we know certain things – be prepared for change.  Be prepared for change, because a life in the Church is about the ability to change, to think differently.

Ezekiel 37:1 – And the hand of the Eternal came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones, so this is after 7,000 years of man on the earth – 7,000 years!  Billions have died.  And at this time I would think there’s possibly billions actually alive, multiple millions, we don’t know how many exactly, but there will be people alive waiting for this day and have been prepared by God for this day.

Then He caused me to pass by them all around: so he’s seeing in his mind that he’s passing through it all, going past it all, and behold, there are very many in the open valley; and, indeed, they were very dry. So this is like one location, what he’s seeing. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? So I answered, O Eternal GOD, You know. And again He said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the Word of the Eternal. Now that one statement is the key to life.  That’s our key.  Our key in life is to hear the Logos of the Eternal.  Hear the Word. It’s a spiritual matter.  So here it’s talking about physical things but it’s a spiritual thing.  But for them it’s the same thing, they have to hear God in the mind.  They have to hear God in the mind to have life, to have true life, to follow.

Thus says the Eternal GOD to these bones; Surely, now this is God – Surely, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live: “You’ll live with the same mind that you had before but this time I’m going to pour My spirit out into you so that you can think differently, otherwise you’d remain the way you were before.”

Verse 6 - I will put sinews on you and will bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live; Then you shall know I am the Eternal. Now this is going to be a shock to the brain, because the last situation that you remember is going to be completely different; and I’ll use an example.  My father who died of emphysema, took about seven years, and in the end he had only ten percent of his lungs and he was about seventyish and he’s resurrected and I think he’s going to be shocked – he’s going to go... [breathe in – breathe out – breathe in – breathe out...both quickly and shallow and slowly and deeply].  He’s going to test it out!  And then he’s going to look and go – Whoa!  And you can understand the brain, what’s going to happen – something’s different!

Now to many of the Muslim faith that died it’s going to be a shock to the brain!  I’ve got a feeling – this is not the truth or doctrine – I got a feeling that most of the Muslim world in men, being men, are only going to be resurrected where there’s men around.   There won’t be seventy virgins.  Because the mind, if you’re resurrected and there are seventy women over there, you’ll go, “I made it!”  Going to be resurrected and there’s seventy guys you go, “Whoa – this is not what I thought it was going to be like!”  Now that’s not doctrine, don’t get me wrong.  But you can understand the mind, the shock to the brain?  You go, “Well, hang on a minute, this is not where I was, this is not what it was like.”  There’s a lot to be addressed in the mind.  You know the kings of the world and how they treated people, and then the servants and the debauchery, and then you have to come to accept you’re nothing!  You’re nothing; you’re nobody!  You can’t do all those things!  You can’t go bossing around and getting people killed.  You’ve got to change!  There’s going to be some battles in the mind here, going to be some tough stuff to address.

The main thing is people are going to understand only God could do this.  It’s a great power that is doing this, it’s not of me, I can’t do this.  This is incredible, but here I am!  So the mind’s going to be shocked, willing to listen.  They’re going to hear the voice of the Eternal.

Verse 7 - So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I was prophesying, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them over: but there was no breath in them. So in other words a body is there, talking symbolically, the body is there but there is no life still, God hasn’t placed the spirit of man back into the body.

Also He said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man and say to the breath, Thus says the Eternal GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. In other words, God’s in charge of life and death. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, a second time!  They lived a second time!  I think it’s exciting!  I think it’s wonderful!  I sure look forward to the day my family can see the truth, and knowing the disposition of their natures I believe that they will be zealous for God, I really do.  Because it’s such an exciting time when you are called out of deception, all the garbage that is taught, that’s taught in the world.  It’s just such a wonderful time!  To be able to have a fresh start!  To have a younger body!  Any features that are scarred or whatever, healed!  The healing of the mind!  The mind’s healed to be able to receive God’s spirit in a vibrant body of health, in an environment that has been created for the person.  I think it’s just such a wonderful time.  What a merciful God that He is willing to do that for the majority of mankind!  To have gone through all of this suffering to this point of a resurrection so that He can now give them the opportunity to come into Elohim, which was His plan from the beginning, to create a Family.

Verse 10 – So I prophesied as He commanded and breath came into them and they lived, a second time, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. So we don’t know how many billions there will be.  There is much we don’t know about this resurrection.  We really don’t.  We really don’t know what steps – it will be organized, it won’t be anarchy or confusion; but it will be organized and structure will be given, just like when the children of Israel came out of Egypt.  There was an order.  The way things are done in order, otherwise there’d be anarchy, there’d be goats running everywhere and kids running everywhere.  It wasn’t like that; there was an order.  There were different tribes that left at different times.

So God is a God of order.  It’s perfectly planned out.  He already knows what He’s going to be doing and who He’s going to be doing it through.  It’s planned out!

So the things we don’t understand:  Where will people be resurrected?  We don’t fully understand all of that.  What language will be given?  All languages or one language?  We don’t fully understand how.  What about locations and housing?  So if someone’s allocated a two bedroom and someone’s allocated a five bedroom, is that going to be a problem?  Knowing the carnal mind it will – “I wanted to live over there...”    I’ve often said to someone, “What will your attitude be like when land’s allocated and they say, “Okay, well, that tribe, that family, you should go over there, that’s the best place for you...and there... And by the way, Wayne, the Matthews, you’ve got that swamp over there...”

“The swamp?!”  Now, I’m only jesting.  You understand?  We’ve still got this! [The mind with pride] “Why did God allocate them that, the hill, with all that country and I got... what?!”  Human nature.  We have to come to see that God provides everything and we have to come to see that we should be content no matter the situation.  It’s a spiritual thing.  No matter what.  I know God’s with me no matter what.  No matter what stupid things I do, no matter what happens in life, God’s with me.  I’ve just got to keep fighting, I’ve got to keep going and just got to keep working at it.

And we fail daily.  Failings are actually a good thing because that’s how you learn.  If it’s bad enough you can .... *moans* “I’ve got to work harder at that!  ...gotta work harder at it!”  And it’s a constant battle, we don’t always get it right.

People will have to deal with feelings and emotions – feelings and emotions.  Now, that’s powerful.  Feelings and emotions.  Going to have a hundred years, going to have to start dealing with these things – “Why did you stab me last time?”

“Solomon – why did you wipe out my whole family last time?”  Right?  There’s some tough stuff coming, but we’re going to have to deal with it.  What do we learn?  Forgiveness, mercy, forgiveness, holding nothing against anybody.  It’s an incredible process.  There’s a lot to be learned in this time.

Verse 11 - Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: symbolic of all mankind who now enter spiritual Israel once baptized and have received the holy spirit.  That’s an exciting time!  I’m actually very excited about people being called; and I have been so blessed to have witnessed a process in Australia of people being called, and it’s difficult to transfer the excitement of seeing someone repenting.  Say, well, what is it you’re excited about?  Repentance.  You’re actually seeing repentance, what God’s doing.  So it’s really exciting to see it.  Awakenings are the same thing, you see repentance.  That’s what you see!  And it’s so encouraging, it’s very motivating, it’s very moving when you see people repenting.  It’s no different if we’ve been in the Church for 2-3-4 years, 10 years, to see repentance and people growing, it’s an exciting thing, it’s so motivating, it’s so encouraging.  You can be lifted up, I know I am, because you see change, and when people learn things and then when I learn things myself (as hard as it is), you get excited. There’s an excitement in it that you are drawing closer to God.  I’m getting closer to Elohim no matter how long it takes.  So are you!  You’re getting closer to Elohim no matter how long it takes.  That’s exciting!

So here it’s symbolic of the Church, really.  Everyone’s going to be in the Church!  They indeed say, Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off; there’s an admission here, there’s an attitude of humility.  Can’t do it by yourself, we need God.  They will come to see that they were indeed cut off from God physically and more importantly, spiritually.

Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Eternal GOD; Now this statement has moved me in ways that it’s difficult to explain.  This is God talking and it’s like a father to a son; Behold, O My people, there’s a love and outward concern here that no matter who it is – Behold, O My people, we’re God’s people, God created us for a purpose and there’s deep feeling in this statement, O My people, we belong to God...we belong to God, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Of course it’s talking about spiritual Israel, the Church, the Body of Christ. Then you shall know, when this happens, that I am the Eternal, when I have opened your graves, O My people, there is a desire to do this, there’s a desire for this resurrection... for this last hundred years God is desiring for that, He wants to give what He has.  It’s up to us whether we accept it with the conditions that go with it ...and brought you up out of your graves.

Verse 14 – I will put My spirit in you and you shall live, so this is a physical thing but it’s also spiritual.  We can only live, truly, if God’s spirit is in us.  That’s the only time we can truly live, live Godly toward others.  I will place you in your own land: then you shall know that I the Eternal have spoken it and performed it, says the Eternal, They will now have the ability to hear spiritually.  Isn’t that beautiful?  We have had the opportunity to hear spiritually.  It’s a great blessing!

Revelation 20:11 – Now this is describing this resurrection; Then I saw a great white throne, and He who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no more place for them. Now that’s symbolic language which I don’t fully comprehend what that’s really saying at this point, I don’t fully grasp what the intent of all that really is.  I know aspects of it – great white throne I understand - but the rest of it I don’t fully comprehend.

Verse 12 - And I saw the dead, small and great, now, small and great on a human level is a thinking; some people think they’re great, but God says, well it’s the small and the great.  Some people think they’re small, they know they’re small because of whatever, they think that.  But we are all created with the same opportunity.  So this is not ‘great’ in God’s eyes per se, it’s great in what the human mind can think.  ...standing before God; so we’re standing before, or these people are standing before God on the earth, and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; so spiritual sight is now given to see the truth, and it’s in the Bible, the Word of God.

These books are made open to them, every one of them, going to read it and say, “Ah, that’s what it’s really saying!  Look at that!  Isn’t that incredible?  Stones of the Temple were cast down – ah ha, it’s the people!”  Now you’ve got people who look at it and say, “The stones of the temple were cast down?! There’s still two or three of them there; that hasn’t happened!”  And then you walk on and say, “I’m really one of those, I’m really one of those hard stones.  I’m one of the stones of the Temple that was cast down.”

“You crazy person!”

“That’s true!  I’m a stone of the Temple, I was cast down...shut out.”

So that’s what’s going to be given to people at that time...going to read God’s Word and begin to understand it.  But you know how long it takes to come to understand aspects of this hundred years?  And will everybody at the end of it understand all of this? No... no-no-no, it’s an ongoing process.  There are things in here that take on from the completion of Elohim all the way through to whatever God’s got planned for the future – they’re actually written in here.  You read the last part of the book of Revelation, talks about different trees and we have no real understanding of that.  We know it’s spiritual in nature but what is it really saying?  There’s a lot we don’t know.

So they’re going to be given sight to see this, and more importantly the ability to judge the self.  Now, human nature tends to judge outwardly, but God has called us to judge the self.  That’s the only thing that’s really important, is to judge the self.  Don’t look outwardly.  We have that tendency and when we do we can repent of it, we can change and go back and look here, look inside here at intents and motives, and God will give you and me the ability to see more and more as time progresses...if we are willing to repent, to keep going back to God.

I won’t cover Isaiah 65 which talks about this period of one hundred years, about no births, no need for children, it’s about completing God’s plan.  Isaiah 11 going through there talking about the wolf and the lamb – the main point there is all about harmony and protection; it’s about learning a way of peace.  God will create an environment, the best possible opportunity for man to enter Elohim.  Because the 144,000 have had to face something completely different, Satan and evil spirits.  It’s a different challenge.  Here God has created the final environment for the majority of mankind to enter Elohim.  That’s the whole purpose of the hundred years.

John 5:25 – and this is Christ speaking: Most assuredly I say to you, The hour is coming, talking about the future and shortly, and now is, was then, that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God: so this is dual because we are actually dead on a spiritual level before being called.  We’re dead.  But also on a physical level, those that have died are going to hear God’s voice, so it’s a dual application.  You’ve been called or awakened, and they who hear will live. So true life only begins when God begins to dwell in us.

Verse 26 - For as the Father has life in Himself; He is eternal and immortal, the one and only God has life to give; so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself; so God the Father gave life to Jesus Christ on a physical level and a spiritual level.  God the Father gave life to Christ.  God the Father made Jesus Christ immortal now, cannot die, no second death. He’s made Him High Priest and has appointed Him to come to the earth as King of kings, to represent the true King of Kings, God the Father.

Verse 27 – And God has given Him, Christ, authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Now that happened since His resurrection, authority has been given over to Jesus Christ to continue the creation of Elohim.  Jesus Christ was the first, the 144,000 follow, and then more follow in time until it’s all complete.

Verse 28 – Do not marvel at this: for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice, He’s talking about a resurrection.  Now, how do you hear the voice, really?  It’s in the mind, true?  God speaks to us in our mind.  We can hear with the hearing but it’s about being in the mind.  We begin to hear God speaking to us in the mind, truth placed into the mind.

Verse 29 - And come forth; those who have done good, at the end of the thousand years there’s a resurrection.  The only way to do good, of course, is to have God living and dwelling in us.  Of ourselves we can do nothing.  There is no good in us other than what God does.  ...to the resurrection of life; they are made spirit or made Elohim with the 144,000, and those who have done evil, based on our human nature of selfishness, to a resurrection of condemnation, which is really to judgment, and it lasts for a hundred years.  It’s talking about a physical resurrection back to a life for a hundred years.  So there are choices here, and for us we are moving toward a resurrection.  That’s what we’re moving towards, one way or the other.  That’s the purpose, we just keep going forward and based on God’s mercy and love and what choices we make, potentially God has called us for the second resurrection to spirit, not to a physical one.

Christ often spoke about a period of judgment, or a second resurrection.  Matthew 12:36 - But I say to you, That every idle word of men shall speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. So there’s coming a time where whatever has happened in a person’s life there is a time of judgment in sense of having to address the self.  It’s a solemn time to bring the self into restraint, and to start to repent, admit things. Things that we may have said or done have to be repented of.  It’s going to be brought into judgment, a judge reckoning.  So people are going to be resurrected and they’re going to have to say, “Oh, that’s what I was like!”  Bring it into judgment and say, “Well, it was wrong.”  Repent of it, be baptized – it’s all forgiven and forgotten – and move forward and continue that process for a hundred years.

We are under judgment now.  We have to give account now of our idle words.  And how do we give account?  Take them to God the Father and repent.  And one thing that is difficult for a human is to fully comprehend and believe that no matter what sin they have committed, that when we take it to God and repent that it’s forgiven and forgotten.  Because human nature is that we tend to carry it further, which what we’re really saying is we don’t believe God.  That’s what we’re really saying.  Because if we hang onto it and repeat it and go over it and over it and over it we’re actually saying to God, “Well, I actually don’t believe the first time you actually did forgive me.”  Because we just don’t believe God.  But that’s something we grow in and in the end no matter what it is it’s not an unpardonable sin because we’re willing to repent of it and strive not to repeat that same sin.

Verse 37 - For by your words, in other words, what is in the mind that comes out of the mouth; because it does in time no matter what, you will be justified, by repentance, and by your words you will be condemned.  Why?  By not repenting.  What can God do with somebody who won’t repent?

Verse 38 - Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. In other words, prove who You are. But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, we’ve covered that during the Feast so we don’t need to go into that; but that’s something that we know in our minds and should be able to explain to another person. We should be able to do that.

Verse 41 – The men of Nineveh, and we know the story of Nineveh and Jonah, will raise up in the judgment; so all those men of Nineveh who were not called are going to be raised at the end of the thousand years for this hundred years, a period of judgment.  And they’ll be raised up with this generation, the one that Jesus Christ was talking to, the Pharisees and the Jews and all the rest of that generation that existed then are going to be raised up at the same time.  ...and that generation will condemn it.  The men of Nineveh are going to condemn them and say, “You what?!  Jesus Christ walked among you and you what?!  You didn’t listen?”  If we had been there (that’s human nature  ), “If I had of been there I would have followed Him!”  No, you wouldn’t have done.  That’s our nature.  But they’re going to condemn them and say, “Wow, you had all this evidence; we never even got that evidence.”  Well, they had certain evidence, but, “We never had that same opportunity and you did what?!”  And why?  ...because they repented on a physical level only at the preaching of Jonah.  Remember? Jonah went into the city and walked from one end to the other telling them they need to repent otherwise this destruction was coming.  And they repented on a physical level, what God had given them to do on a physical level.  And then Jonah wasn’t happy, of course,  there are lessons in that.  ...indeed, greater than Jonah is here.

And I think of this generation...I think of this generation because they have been given much.  So there’s an opportunity to... other people will say, “You lived in what?!  You lived 5...4 years and right up to Christ’s return and there’s all that evidence out there in books and you what?!”  Human nature – because if you’re not called you’re not called.  But a condemnation is there; this is proving there is a hundred year period of a judgment and people will say, “Wow, you had all that! We didn’t have any of that; we never knew anything about that.”

Verse 42 - The queen of the south will rise up in judgment with this generation, talking to the Jews at that time, and condemn it: for she came forth from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; so she was given a thought process that says, “There is wisdom in what Solomon is saying and what he’s doing.  There is great wisdom there.”  And of course, true wisdom is the mind of God. So she then sacrificed and sought after this wisdom, even if it was on a physical level. She sought to find out why Solomon was so great, why this kingdom is so great – “Something’s got to be right, something’s being done right here so I’m going to go down and find out what’s going on.”  They sought it. ...and, indeed, greater than Solomon is here. Because Jesus Christ was there, the Word of God was there.

God has provided this generation much...much! John 7:37 – On the last day, this eighth day, today, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, He’s talking spiritually, of course, let him come to Me, and drink. So it’s talking about a spiritual thirst which we should have, and therefore we need to come to God the Father through Jesus Christ and seek to have our thirst quenched, to have the mind of God, to think like God, to have wisdom, true wisdom

Verse 38 - He who believes in Me, believes what Jesus Christ said, as the scriptures has said, out of His mouth will flow rivers of living water. So the only way this can happen – it’s not a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing – if we desire, we’ve been called, we’ve repented and God has given us those gifts, God can live in and through us, but it’s to the benefit of others.  It’s not a selfish thing.  It has to flow out.  The fruits of the spirit we talked about on the first day, of Galatians 5, they have to be flowing out to the benefit of others.  So we have to learn to live love, we have to learn to live mercy; we have to learn to live joy – all that God is.  We have to learn to live that to the benefit of others!  It’s not something we just hold in and keep to ourselves.  And of course we can’t, because it’s God doing the works, it’s God living through us out to the benefit of others in ways that often we don’t even perceive; we just don’t perceive them.

God’s spirit must go in and through us to the benefit of others because it’s God that does the works. It’s God that does the works.  Jesus Christ... you know when Jesus Christ said, “Of Myself I can do nothing.” That is a profound spiritual statement.  Profound because it’s God that does all the works.  Anything good is God coming through and living out toward others.  Of and by ourselves we can do nothing.  Anything we did of ourselves, of our own generation, is going to be selfish, because we’re going to be trying to get something out of it even though we don’t even know it, we don’t even see it because we just don’t see ourselves.

God’s spirit will be given to all who will receive it during the last 1,100 years starting with the return of Jesus Christ.  Now, some of these things will be witnessed.  I’ve actually had the pleasure and the honour and the privilege to witness this very event, because it’s talking about one thing here (which we’re going to go to Ezekiel 36...and while you’re turning there...) - it’s a continual process that God has done.  Because when you see somebody called or awakened this is what is the process that’s started.  Now we are about to see in a very short time this happening before our very eyes!  We have the potential here to witness wonderful, amazing, incredible things that God is going to do.

Ezekiel 36:26 - So this is simply what God has done for us.  It’s what God is going to be doing very shortly for millions of people, and we’re going to be able to share in this.  We’re going to actually experience this type of event, this type of event.  But it’s something that’s going to continue on in the Millennium, then it’s going to start again at the hundred years until its conclusion.  Ezekiel 36:26 – I will give a new heart and put a new spirit within you: it’s called a calling, the gift of repentance, the ability to start a process of coming out of the bondage of our own minds. I will take the heart of stone; now a heart of stone...  A stone is hard, true?  It’s rock hard; you can’t ply it, you can’t do much with it, it’s just hard.  Hard!  You can’t do anything with it; that’s the natural carnal mind.  It’s hard!   It’s very hard because it’s filled with pride.

Over my calling God gave me the ability to understand that the cause of all sin in my life was one thing – pride. So, I understood that no matter what I did pride was the motivator.  So at different times God has granted me the ability to see it in myself, other times you’ll probably see it and I don’t.  That’s normal.  But that’s what I’ve learned.  So, any time there’s a problem I realize my pride is in the way.  And you put it to the commandments; why does somebody not love God with all their heart, all their soul, and all their mind?  Pride; because we put something else up there.  Why won’t somebody submit themselves to keep the Sabbath?  Pride.  Why do we speak evil of others and pull others down?  Pride.  Pride drives everything, every single thing!  Why do we argue with another person in a family or in the Church?  Pride.  It drives everything we do – every single thing we do!  So, I learned that early and I have this heart, this stone, and it’s solid; and God’s been able to soften it for me.

And so over time aspects of pride I see in myself and I detest it and I hate it; but there’s a lot I haven’t seen yet because I just don’t see it.  Now and again certain things happen, or things are said, and I go, “Whoa!  I’ve been doing that for thirty-six years!”  That’s terrifying really!  Longer... I’ve done it for fifty-eight.  But the reality is in a calling, it’s about what pride we see in ourselves, not in others, because that’s simple to the human mind, “That’s a big head – that guy has a big head, you can tell.”

We were in the restaurant the other day with Peter there and I don’t know whether you heard the guy on the motor bike?  Probably a Harley Davidson by the sounds of it.  And he started at one end of the corner and he revved it, braam...braam... braam; we couldn’t talk it was just so loud...so loud...roar, roar... look at me, look at me, look at me... braam, braam, braam... all out on the street.  We commented, “Boy, that’s pride!”  But I used to do that!   So I know what he’s thinking!  It’s “Look at me! You don’t know how good I really am!”  It’s pride; that’s what it is.  It’s no different than in the mind we have those things where, for me as a child I always used to throw the last ball at the basketball net and the clock was just about to stop and the ball would fall through and we would WIN.... “WOW! WAYNE!  He’s a HERO!”  Pride.  That’s the natural mind; we lift ourselves up to be worshiped by others almost.  We want them to know, we’re better...!  But over the years we battle that, we fight it and we learn.  We learn that the root cause of every sin is simply pride, Satan influencing to lift the self.  And we do it in ways that we don’t even imagine, in our thoughts, in our thinking.

So this heart of stone that all these people are going to be resurrected with – before our calling this is exactly what we have, a heart of stone, the pride of life...the pride of life!  Vanity!  We just don’t see the depths of it.  And it takes a lifetime, a whole lifetime to come out of it.  And really, to our death we will have never conquered it all because there’s aspects in our life that God in His mercy will probably never show us, to the depth of what we really are.

So, out of your flesh/your mind and I will give you a heart of flesh. Humility in the mind, a softening, a pliable, teachable mind.  See, a mind of pride is unteachable, because we already know.  We can’t be taught anything because we already know, we know those things.  But here God is going to open the mind, place His spirit there, and we start to learn and begin to have a teachable spirit.  So that’s the softening of it - in the mind by the power of the holy spirit.  So it’s God that does it all.  It’s God!  Without God we are nothing, absolutely nothing.

Verse 27 - I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, so without God we can’t walk in God’s statutes and commandments – it’s absolutely impossible.  We’ll just go through physical rituals of self-righteousness, that’s all we’ll do, because we’re doing the works.  No, it’s God, He will cause us to go that way because the mind is going to change, the thinking will change.  ...and you shall keep My judgments and do them. It’s God that will do the works.

Verse 28 - Then you shall dwell in the land and I will give to your fathers; you shall be My people, I love that saying.  I love that saying.  ‘O My people’... now He’s saying, “After I’ve resurrected you, O My people, now you shall be My people.” Because we all belong to God, really.

I remember a long time back, probably 1985, might have been 1994, and we used to have what was called ‘Graduate Club’, ‘Spokesman’s Club’, different speaking clubs, and at different times people have to get up and give a six minute speech and then it was sometimes a ten minute speech.  We were preparing men to give sermonettes, basically.  That’s what it was about.  And the biggest issue that you had to learn was sometimes when you gave a particular speech for six minutes or eight minutes the rest of the men in the group would... there was a comment slip and you’d write the comment on the side.  And the early part of it I learned some lessons because the first one you had to give was a two minute ice-breaker.  Well, what am I going to talk about for two minutes.  Can I talk for two minutes?   It’s difficult, it’s a big battle in the mind; and you think, well they said the best way is to talk about yourself for two minutes because we normally can talk about ourselves for a long time.  So I’ll talk about myself for two minutes.  Did that.  I got up to the six minute speech and there was the assessment slips and the men in the club, most of them at that time where I was, were much more mature than us.  We were some of the first people to come into a particular area for I think about ten years and they treated us really special because they hadn’t seen anyone that God was calling for about ten years coming into the Church in this area.  So the men were much more mature than I, a lot more wiser with God’s spirit.

And one particular man wrote down on a slip, and he wrote down, “Excellent job Wayne. The only issue you need to address is pride.”  And do you know how that nearly destroyed me?  Because I had pride.  So, when a man in God’s Church pointed out that the biggest issue I had was pride I could hardly drive home.  My mind was... I thought, “You...”  I thought all these things!  And I really struggled!  And it took a long time to realize that he was, out of love, trying to help me to be a better speaker.  Then over the years I heard a particular sermonette and I remember the man who gave it (who’s no longer in God’s Church), and he gave a sermonette and it was about, ‘How dare a person criticize something of God’s.’  What arrogance!  What pride that we would criticize another member of the Body!  Because any time we speak evil, or pull down another member of the Body we’re pulling down God’s people.  We don’t own each other, we belong to God!  What arrogance!  What pride that we would stand to another member and say... pull down, to harm...pull down to harm, wish ill will on another member of the Body.  How revolting is that!  ...when you understand the scripture?  Okay?  ‘You shall be My people...’

So members of the Body of Christ, anyone that is baptized, belongs to God.  People in the world belong to God too, but they haven’t been held to account yet.  But we, particularly, that... if you want to understand your own pride... if you ever find yourself pulling down another member, criticizing another member, judging anyone in the Body harshly, that is motivated by pride!  That’s what’s driving it!  And this is so beautiful, ‘You shall be My people...’ because we’re God’s people!  So how dare we criticize something that belongs to God.  What arrogance!  Isn’t that... it’s insane really when you think about it, but we do it.  We do it!  ...and I will be your God.

Verse 29 - I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses/from your sins: by granting repentance; I will call for the grain and will multiply it and bring forth no famine upon you. So there’s not going to be a spiritual famine in any way.

Verse 31 - Then you shall remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abomination. So, in other words, the ability to see self.

In concluding; at the end of the hundred years there is a final resurrection.  There’s a resurrection to spirit where those that are going to be Elohim are Elohim, and those that have willingly and willfully rejected God’s way during that hundred years will face the second death...they will face the second death.  The second death is what we should fear, we should be solemn about, because God is serious about making us Elohim, so we should be serious about striving to obey and enter Elohim, to obey God, our Creator.  He knows what’s best for us.  Everything He does for us is done out of love for us.

Revelation 20:14 – Then death and hades/the grave were cast into the lake of fire. This is symbolic of the death; it’s a final conclusion. This is the second death.

Verse 15 - And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is not an eternal punishing but eternal punishment never to live again.

So, brethren, we understand that this time, this solemn day, solemn because it is a time that man has to face up to who he is, but ‘God so loves the world that He has given His only begotten Son’ – isn’t that marvelous?  So God created a way for us to enter Elohim.

At the end there is an angelic realm that is obedient to God and then there are members of the God Family, potentially us, that will have God’s mind to live on into a future that we know little to nothing about.  That’s exciting in itself because once we are in Elohim God’s plan continues.  Some of it’s in here [Bible]; we can’t see it.  Some of it’s in there.  But how do you imagine forever?  How do you imagine eternity?  Our minds can’t grasp it.  What are we going to be doing all day?  But as spirit God has a plan for us.

So from this point, when everything is finished, Jesus Christ hands it back to God the Father as a complete creation – God has a Family.  But the reality is it’s the beginning of true life for everybody...the beginning of true life.

~~~end