The Last Great Day – 2023

Ronald Weinland

October 7, 2023

This sermon today is simply entitled Last Great Day – 2023.

I look forward to the day that will occur, when the Last Great Day sermon will be the final one for this age of mankind. Perhaps this is that one. That would be an awesome thing. We’re getting so close.

Yesterday, I began a new series entitled The Existence of Evil, and it’s a very sobering series, and it has quite a bit to do as well with some of the content of the sermon today. At least that series does. But we went through as well some news articles, and it’s just a continuation of things getting worse and worse and worse in the world around us.

We know we have that example of, that I used even yesterday and have used a couple of times now, of a frog that is in slow boiling water. It starts to boil; it heats up slowly and begins to boil and supposedly it won’t jump out. Some say it’s a fable and not true, or whatever. But anyway, it’s still a good analogy of something that people can understand, that if the water were already hot that it would automatically try to save itself and jump away from that. Well, whether it’s true or not is immaterial.

But the analogies that can go with it, of something we can picture in our mind, is an example I gave yesterday of how sometimes even within the Church if we’re not careful, if we’re not on guard and watching as we need to, we can begin to accept things that are happening in the world slowly. We can begin to accept the way evil is increasing in the world around us and consider that the norm and not be shocked and moved to understand where we are in time. Because these things that are happening in the world now, the things that have been read regularly in the news, are increasing with power and magnitude.

A lot of time I primarily focus upon the things concerning WWIII and the economic system and how all these things are intertwined because those are the things that push toward war. But there are so many other things happening in the world.

Crazy weather from one extreme to another, back and forth. Those are intensifying more and more because of the time we live in. We’ve had different cycles on the earth and different things that have happened, but this time it’s different and it’s unique because of all the kinds of things that are in the news because it has to do with Thunders. It has to do with the example of a woman in labor, a woman that is getting close then, starting the process of delivery of the baby.

And with God’s time that is extended over a longer period of time. Some of that has been really extended, especially if you look at the Thunders alone since 9/11 and the things that began then. And slowly but surely something else happened on the earth, and then later on something else of greater magnitude and things were farther apart. But the Thunders were there, they were in different areas. But now there are so many at the same time and they’re happening more rapidly in the sense of sequence, in the time in between.

Those are the things above everything else that revealed to us, in that respect, where we are, that we’re getting closer to God’s Kingdom being established, to the things we pictured at the Feast of Tabernacles, to the Kingdom of God, the Millennial period that’s going to be established on this earth.

And so, we have to be careful that we don’t get lulled to sleep, and that we don’t begin to drift or to level out. A lot of that really, there’s another term for that, it’s called being lukewarm. We can’t have that. We have to be on guard, we have to be hot, on fire for God’s way of life, desiring it with all of our being and keeping alert and on guard to the things around us. Otherwise, we can begin to become weak, and we can’t afford that.

So anyway, this being the Last Great Day there is a lot pictured in this particular day. But at some point, there will be a sermon on the Last Great Day, and it will be the last one for this age of mankind. I hope it’s this one. That would be awesome. But we’ll have to wait and see. It’s in God’s time and depends upon the growth and the maturity and the preparation then of 144,000, the final few.

So, this is going to be the twenty-eighth Last Great Day service that many of us have observed since the Apostasy. So, we have fewer now, people are getting older, some have died, and some haven’t held fast. And because of that, some time has been extended because some gave up their crown and others who were called after the Apostasy then given awesome opportunity to be a part.

We don’t know who they are. We don’t know what God has specifically called each one of us to since the Apostasy, and so again, but we’re to put our whole life into this and God is to be first. Wherever we are in this process of building and construction, creation of God, God knows what’s best. He knows what’s best for us and what will make us, indeed, the most fulfilled in the first place.

So, it’s incredible to think that twenty-eight Last Great Day services have been held since the Apostasy. Rather sobering in some ways, and to realize there is significance in times and various cycles and so forth. That’s four times of seven-year cycles. To grasp and comprehend what we’ve gone through, what we’ve seen, where we are in time, we’re getting so close, we truly are. Not a time to let down.

If we could just grasp the sermons we’ve had just this past year and all the process there even of repeating some and going back through in the sense of a review and see what God has been giving to us leading up to this Feast of Tabernacles, I find that very moving, and indeed very sobering, but exciting too. Because those who hold fast, that’s what it’s about. It’s about holding fast, being at one, being a family, indeed.

So again, that twenty-eight years ago on that particular first Last Great Day service after the Apostasy it seems so long ago, and yet it doesn’t seem that long ago. But it has been quite a while, obviously, twenty-eight years. But once you’ve gone past it it’s like where did it go? It goes by so very fast just like the Feast of Tabernacles. Here we are Last Great Day after the service, different people be going to different areas, some have already checked out of their establishment in order to move forward, maybe to go up to Amsterdam and stay in a hotel for tonight, catching a flight tomorrow back home.

Anyway, we have different things that are taking place in this Last Great Day as far as all of us as a part of a Body and then going back into the world, going back out there, and having the weekly cycle of a Sabbath now. But we have to hold fast to what God has given to us.

Let’s turn over to Leviticus 23. So often, obviously, on each Holy Day, we turn to verses that explain why we’re here, as we did on the first day of the Feast, that example that Herbert Armstrong left, and understanding then that God even commands that then, that we’re to speak on the meaning of this period of time. All the sermons should have something to do with that which is contained within the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles or the Last Great Day and things concerning the Church and preparation for being in that age and whatever it might be. But they all work together.

So again here, Leviticus 23. As we go through this it should be rather striking that this day is a little different from so many of the other Holy Days in Leviticus 23.

Let’s notice, Leviticus 23:36—Seven days you shall offering an offering made by fire unto the Eternal. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you. That’s this day, the Last Great Day, and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Eternal. Always being reminded of the importance of sacrifice.

For us to understand that spiritually that we have to be willing to go through that which is difficult, being tried by fire, to understand the importance of why we have to go through things in order to have this mind transformed up here. Because it’s that fire, it’s the hardship, it’s the difficulties with God’s holy spirit and with His life living within us that we’re able to begin to discern and judge and see things that we need to see and understand, and the thinking of the mind to be able to be changed through these experiences that we’re able to have.

He says here, gives the instruction, “The eighth day is a holy convocation.” It’s the last annual convocation in the sense of annual Holy Days of the year.

It is a solemn assembly, and you shall do no servile work. So again, making it clear that it is an annual Sabbath.

Then jumping down to verse 39—Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a Feast unto the Eternal seven days. Feast of Tabernacles. On the first day a Sabbath and on the eighth day a Sabbath. So, putting all these together we grasp and comprehend there is an eight-day period of coming together, the first seven the Feast of Tabernacles, and the last one, well, it doesn’t have a name. It’s not given any name here. It’s not given anything that would indicate what it might be about. It just says observe it as a Sabbath.

Now, that’s the least said about any annual Holy Day here in Leviticus 23. It just gives it as a date that we are to observe. And so, as we look through time we see that God began to give more. If you look through the Old Testament you really don’t know, whereas other Holy Days it’s clear in different areas where Trumpets is being observed and where the Feast of Tabernacles is being observed or Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks is being observed.

But the Last Great Day, what is it all about? Well, again, so incredibly awesome here to see how God progressively reveals things through time to help us to learn and grow but doesn’t give certain things in specific times until it is a need, or until there is a need or purpose behind it. They didn’t understand the meaning of Passover. They always looked back to the past and Israel coming out of Egypt and did the things that God began there in the beginning. They didn’t understand it.

And then, finally, two thousand years ago Christ came, and he began the process of fulfilling the Passover. His disciples began to be taught various things that they didn’t quite grasp nor understand, obviously, until afterward on the Day of Pentecost and forward. Then they understood very deeply so, he is, he fulfilled the Passover. He was the Passover Lamb for all mankind. Beautiful!

Then the Days of Unleavened Bread and how those things have been revealed and given more and more meaning later on, especially within the Church and the things that Paul gave in various areas of examples and 1 Corinthians 5 and 10, 11, in through there. Hebrews, it talks about some of the things there that we begin to learn more from.

So again, awesomely inspiring how God progressively reveals things to us. So, it’s really interesting because, candidly, a lot in the sense of the Last Great Day, it just wasn’t given until the end, until Herbert Armstrong was called to raise up the era of Philadelphia, and then God began to bless him, to give him insight, to help him to see certain things that were written.

Just like what Christ did. He quoted so many situations and so many situations are quoted about him that you wouldn’t know certain areas of the Old Testament were about that until it was revealed, until it was spoken: “This is what this is about.” If you’re just reading the Old Testament you wouldn’t know. No one would know that.

So, incredible here then that same thing with the Last Great Day. So, it’s one of the last things to be given in the sense of greater understanding because we’re moving toward a period of time here that moves into the Last Great Day. We’re so close to a period of time that goes into the Millennium. All that is in preparation for the Last Great Day. God’s giving more so that we can comprehend a more complete plan that He has established and what’s going to take place and why and so forth. God gave to Herbert Armstrong here understanding of some verses here.

Let’s turn over there, Isaiah 65. These things weren’t really understood before as far as the Church was concerned through periods of time.

Isaiah 65:19—I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people, and the voice of weeping… And even that when it was given, a lot of the focus was still about the city of Jerusalem. It was about that location and that Christ is going to return, his feet are going to stand upon the Mount of Olives. It’s important in a sense of a location because of many things that God began to reveal about it and the name it was given, because of what it means, obviously, but the greater part is what it pictures and what it means on a spiritual plane. It’s about God’s people.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem. It’s not the location. It’s not the buildings. It’s not the old, buried temple. It’s not the destroyed temple. It’s not the physical temple. It’s not about the rebuilding of a physical temple. It’s all about a spiritual one. Jerusalem is about that portion of it as well, the temple, the city, the name. All these things have significance.

And I will joy in My people. And the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in here, nor the voice of crying. Well, as long as there are human beings there is going to be sorrow, there is going to be unhappiness, there is going to be times like that. Even in the Last Great Day, there are going to be times when some of these things exist, when certain things happen in life. It’s just a part of the human mind and the human suffering because of being physical.

Although there are going to be things of protection to be able to live, there are still going to be times, there are going to be situations that occur, relationships and the like, that are going to cause some sorrow in people’s lives. Things that others choose to do that aren’t right, that’s going to cause some sorrow in people’s lives. Going on.

So, it makes it clear here, it’s showing here that there is coming that time that it’s all building up to when there will be no more tears, no more sorrow. That is at a specific time when there is no more human life. That’s the only answer.

No more shall there be an infant… So, it goes to show here what takes place before that. It’s this day. Just before that’s accomplished, before everyone that’s going to be in God’s Family is in God’s Family something else is taking place here, and this is it. So, it starts out by saying, No more shall there be an infant of a day. Well, what does that mean?

Well, it’s really, literally here in the translation, it’s No more will there be a day of a suckling infant. The point being in all this is that it’s making a contrast here between a child being born and an old man. …or an old man who has not fulfilled his days. So, it’s giving a contrast between the two, someone who is old, and it’s talking in context here then about a resurrection as we go along.

There are going to be those who are old who are going to have a longer life. They’re going to be infants but not newly born. It’s a point being here that it’s not going to be a child that’s born and begins suckling immediately. It’s not that.

So, there are going to be babies who died who are going to be resurrected. There will be families who will want to take them in. There are going to be people who are relatives, fathers, perhaps, mothers or grandmothers or great, great grandmothers or whatever, and grandfathers that are going to be resurrected and they’re going to know their lineages and so forth.

They’re going to want to rear those children because it’s at this point there is no more birth. That only happened in the first seven thousand years. That is awesome to understand those things about God’s plan. But the understanding of much of that began here as God opened up Herbert Armstrong’s mind to know what this was about.

…or an old man that has not fulfilled his days. For a child shall die a hundred years old. So, God gave him to know in his mind because God revealed it in his mind as His apostle, that the child is going to be able to live a hundred years. We’re talking about a hundred-year span of life now, that this is what’s taking place.

But the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed. It’s not cursed. If we understand what it’s about it has to do with those that have sinned, that have chosen evil, as we went through that series, they’ve chosen that as far as their mind is concerned. They do not want God’s way of life, they don’t agree with God’s way of life, and they’re not going to be given it. They don’t want it. They don’t desire to live God’s way of life. Because God says, “This is the way, walk in it,” and if you don’t want to do that that’s your choice, but it ends in death. It’s just as simple as that.

And so, here it’s about being removed. It’s about God taking care of all evil as we went through in that series discussing. God’s going to destroy all evil. At the end of that hundred years, all evil is going to end. There will be no evil existing in God’s creation anywhere. God’s going to take care of it all. Awesome! Beautiful! Wonderful!

So, let’s go on and read the rest of what’s stated here. Verse 21—Even they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. So, it’s about life and the ability of life going on and the kinds of things; there’s going to be work and work to be done. But it’s showing here what’s different about it.

They shall not build, and another inhabit. So, people aren’t going to have to worry about an unjust system, about greed of others stealing and taking from others and making it impossible for them to not reap the fruit of their labor and the like, or someone because of war, whatever it might be, that takes. So, it’s about getting rid of the taking, the stealing, and the kinds of things where people haven’t been able to enjoy their lives because of others and the oppression around them. It’s not going to be allowed during the Great White Throne period.

They shall not plant, and another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of My people. Growing strong, solid, being able to have a firm footing, if you will, or being firmly rooted in their choices of life, in the things that they’re able to accomplish and do without oppression, without war, without fighting, without unjust governments that take things away and heavy taxation that robs people to where they can’t have what they’ve worked for.

And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. So, it’s showing here that God’s people, all who have been resurrected are given opportunity. And of course, other scriptures in other places the picture became clearer that this is the time when God’s going to reveal, continue on with what’s already been revealed throughout the Millennium that’s greater to what we have to this point in time even obviously.

But truth is going to be rampant on the earth. But not everyone wants truth. Not everyone wants God and to be told this is how you live. Because of free moral agency, free choice, there are people, there are minds that just don’t want that even if they’re told what’s going to happen at the end.

They shall not labor nor bear children into trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal. So, everything belongs to God. All mankind belongs to God. He has given life. He has given things in life to be able to be used as far as the earth is concerned, to enhance life. Then what people do with it, again, it’s individual choices. But the ability for people to be able to grab hold of that truth and change their lives is far, far greater in that period of time for those who lived in the previous six thousand years, if you will.

And so, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal and their offspring with them. Can’t even imagine that; people of all ages in time, people who know each other at a certain period of time, all of them, but it goes back all the way to the beginning. To know lineages and times that people lived, I can’t comprehend that. It’s going to be so vast.

Then it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they’re speaking I will hear. So, it shows that people can have a relationship with God. God knows what’s in our minds. He knows what we have need of, He knows how we think at any stage in time. And so, there are those things that God is ready to answer when there are individuals who want to be close to Him, want certain things in life, desire His way of life, and want the help to accomplish it because we can’t do it on our own. We have to have God’s spirit. That’s the only way to change.

And so, it’s showing here God’s going to know those things and He’s going to begin answering certain things, giving certain things, molding and fashioning people before they even know what’s taking place in their life, giving them every opportunity.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. Hebrew really means here, “They shall eat as one.” So, they’re going to be able to be in the same area together without one eating the other, the wolf eating the lamb. So it goes on to say, and the lion, it says, “shall eat straw like.” That’s not even there. That’s not what it’s saying. And the lion, literally, And the lion as an ox that eats straw. That’s the translation, an actual translation literally in Hebrew.

And the lion as an ox shall eat straw. So, it doesn’t mean, as it says here, that literally the lion is going to be eating straw too. It’s like their digestive systems are going to be changed and everything is going to be happening and lions are going to be out there eating straw. It’s not about that. It’s about the fact that they can be together, that they’re going to be able, as it says here, “And the lion as an ox that eats straw.” So, it’s contrasting here the wolf and the lamb are going to be together as one, in other words, not to kill one or the other. They’re going to be out here and they’re not going to be bothering others.

Something does change in that regard as far as their nature is concerned, as far as what they might do, but not necessarily that the lion is out there chewing straw because everything about their digestive system, the way they eat, the teeth, and everything else would have to be changed, and that’s not what this is about. It’s about a lion as a lion. It’s still going to look like a lion. It’s still going to have the same structure as a lion, but they’re going to be like an ox. In other words, they’re going to be the same. The ox isn’t dangerous. The ox isn’t trying to attack people and kill people or kill other animals and the like. And so, neither is a lion now at this point in time. Something will change as far as that’s concerned.

…and dust the serpent's meat. Now, I truly believe that God is showing us here that it’s just adding something in here about the hundred years, that nature is going to change, so much in nature is going to change, and there is still a being that God has revealed to us sometime back now, that there is a serpent, and it’s not that serpents are out here and, you know, they’re licking up dust off the ground and they’re getting nutrition from it.

It’s not what it's about. They’re still going to be eating other things as they would in order to live. A cycle of life there, evidently, on some of that, but they’re not going to be dangerous to mankind. A lion isn’t going to be dangerous to mankind or even to other animals, in that regard.

So, what serpents do, we really don’t know at this point, but this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be eating dirt. Serpents can eat other things. They can be given things that, animal life that lives for a while, died. We don’t know. I’m not even going to try to speculate because I don’t know. We don’t have the answers. But we do know what it’s not saying, and basically, here it is not saying that serpents are going to be living off the dirt.

It’s about Satan. And so, he’s going to be in that period of time toward the end for just a little while, a short season. More than ever those scriptures that we’ve come to understand farther back that God prophesied about from the very beginning, they’re going to be coming to pass here more so at the end of when that being is able to be once again in the presence of mankind and tries to accomplish what he does by bringing and gathering all those together who are of an adversarial nature and mind to God Almighty. Kind of like a giant vacuum cleaner to get up all the evil so it can all be dealt with at one time.

But what he’s going to witness even more so now is what God has accomplished now over one thousand, one hundred years. For him to see what God has accomplished, that God is true, that God is right, and that he’s coming to his time of judgment, well, there’s going to be some things he knows by this point in time, but he’s going to try one more time just to cause as much destruction as he can. You can’t understand insanity. Insanity is insanity. To try to reason? There is no reason in it.

So, the point being of all this it says, They shall not destroy in all My holy mountain. So, in that which God is creating and that which God is working with God is not going to allow those who have chosen His way of life, those who are striving to live that way of life throughout that hundred years, God isn’t going to allow them to be destroyed because it’s about God’s holy mountain which has to do with what He’s creating.

Again here, the marvel of all this is that these things weren’t known until God gave it to Herbert Armstrong at the end of an age. And He’s giving us more to understand these things as time goes along here more and more. Just about like Satan, what’s going to happen to him. We didn’t know that before and it wasn’t time, and it wasn’t time for that being to be told specifically what those things are.

So, let’s turn over to Revelation 20. Now, we have to understand as well, look at the Old Testament. Right at four thousand years. People knew there was going to be a time of judgment. They believed there would be a time of judgment. They didn’t know what that was or what it would be or what it would consist of but there were those who had the belief because God said so. There is going to be judgment and people have to pay a price for evil. Again here, it’s about whether individuals are willing to repent and strive to live God’s way or not.

And so, mankind has understood various levels of that in the first four thousand years, and then more began to be given during the time of Christ about this and Paul began to, especially Paul began to preach more about certain things that were going to happen as time went on.

And yet here is a situation where it wasn’t until right at the end of Ephesus, John’s life, that God gave him the book of Revelation. Then he didn’t know what all that was about. He wrote those things that were given to him, he saw much of it, and so much of it was still very physical, because we can go through the various eras, and we can understand and comprehend that still they didn’t understand what so much of this was because it wasn’t for their time.

Perhaps some of the messages to the Church they were able to understand because of what was happening to them and they were able to say, “Boy, this is like us,” and with God’s spirit they could have grasped and understood those things. But for what was going to come to pass in the end they didn’t know.

We didn’t know! We’ve still been learning, throughout the time of Philadelphia, and then Laodicea, there’s nothing there in the sense of any growth and development or more being given. On the contrary, it began to be lost. Then the Apostasy and then God began to really give more.

We’ve been incredibly blessed to be given a greater picture of what all these things are about.

Now, let’s read it. Revelation 20:1—Then I saw an angel come down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. So again, physical things in the sense of representing something that is spiritual, perhaps something of a kinship to what it looks like, we don’t know, but it’s making it clear here that it’s a matter of being bound, it’s a matter of being put away into an area, into an abyss that has no ability to be gotten out of it unless God gives the ability because this is spiritual, spiritual confinement.

And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. So, he doesn’t have the ability, mobility to harass mankind and work with nations as he has in the past to bring them to wars and all the perversions that exist. Not going to have that. So, what a beautiful thing to realize what the Millennium is going to be like and then on into the Great White Throne. Satan isn’t going to be around.

…and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more. Beautiful! What a beautiful earth. Not only will there be one Church and one government, but he won’t be around to create confusion and stir things up like he’s been doing for the past six thousand years. Human nature is bad enough as it is without that being around and doing what he’s been doing. So, God’s putting a cease to it.

…until the thousand years should be fulfilled. It doesn’t say right then he’s going to be let loose but that has to be fulfilled first, the thousand years, because that’s the primary purpose. Because at the end of that no more human life, no more continuation of human life in the sense of birth.

…and after that, he must be let loose a little season. So, after that, sometime after that. Well, we know that because of what God began to give to Herbert Armstrong, the hundred years, and the things He’s given us now in PKG to understand, to comprehend, it’s going to be toward the end of that hundred years because of what takes place. And so, it’s just a little season there to the end, a short time.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls, the lives of those who had been beheaded, “cut off” in other words, as the word says there. But we know it means cut off. We understand it means cut off, not beheaded, I’m sorry. As it says here, for the witness of Joshua. So, we understand what that means. What an awesome thing that God has been revealing more of those things during PKG. We grasp and comprehend it’s not talking about certain ones, like John the Baptist who had his head cut off. That’s not what this is about.

This is about people that have, in that respect, because of what they’ve chosen to live, those who believed in a Messiah that was going to come though they didn’t comprehend it in that first four thousand years. Those then that were shown that he was Passover first and he is the High Priest and is going to come back as the Messiah. To understand what happens when we’re called, when God gives us the understanding of those things and we are able to have that life, the witness of Christ’s life in our lives because the witness is that we are able to live God’s way of life because God the Father and Christ dwell in us. That’s the only way that happens. So, we live a unique life.

But when that happens we’re cut off from others around us. We make that choice. Automatically, we choose to be removed from much of that in the world, obviously, then, and yet there are relatives and perhaps people that are at work that we know. But they’re separated as far as any closeness was before, primarily because of what we believe. So, most of those go by the wayside as a whole.

Some things continue on, the closer relationships and some of the things of closer family and relatives for those who are able to have that. But in many cases that goes by the wayside as well.

…and for the word of God. You choose to live this way of life; people don’t want that. They don’t want to be around that.

…and which have not worshiped the beast and neither his image. So, we think of the last two thousand years especially and the false Church that’s out there, and churches, obviously, that came from her, and God’s blessed us to be able to be removed from that. He brings us out of that as He brings us out of sin. And yet there are those who go back to that. There have been a lot of people who’ve gone back to it. Astounding!

…and neither his image, neither had received the mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. So, we’re given understanding in Philadelphia, what that meant, that it has to do with the difference in that great false religion as a whole that has been throughout the earth and then had influences on all the others who came from her. Because all did because she was the primary one. There were some other ones back then in that time, but they haven’t endured like that. But that big one is still going and a whole bunch of others that came out of her and they have Sunday as their primary day. Sometimes some don’t work on Sunday. It’s when they choose to work and not work. But it all revolves around Sunday.

For us our mark, our sign as God’s people, is we keep the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths. That’s the sign that we have. That’s the mark that we bear. It’s in our foreheads, in our thinking of what we’ve chosen, that God’s given us the ability to and when we choose to work and not work. It revolves around those things. Beautiful.

And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. So, the primary focus going up to this period of time, Revelation being given and the coming of Joshua the Christ as King of kings, leading up to this it’s the 144,000 who are going to come with Christ, that are gleaned out of the first six thousand years.

So, we’re so blessed to have such a picture, to see so much. We hear it year after year. We hear it at different Holy Days, perhaps in sermons at different times. That’s our life. That’s what we’ve been called to.

Never a time to become dull in hearing, tired of hearing. Those things would be sick. It should be something that excites us; it’s our focus, it’s our choice, it’s our desire, it’s our love, it’s what we’re willing to sacrifice to go through the fire for. Because that’s the greatest value of all of life, what God offers us. The majority have turned away from that, found something else more valuable.

Verse 5—But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. So again here, very clear understanding then because of the way it’s worded, to understand all the rest of the dead in six thousand years. Only 144,000, not speaking specifically of things happening at the end-time here, in that short period of time. But in the previous six thousand years, up to that point in time, their time will come later. So, only a certain amount will be resurrected in the first resurrection.

So again, beautiful understanding that we’ve been given. Again, certain things like this that the early Church didn’t comprehend. They didn’t comprehend anything about 144,000. We, even after Philadelphia, haven’t fully understood what was going on there because it wasn’t given yet. The idea, the concept was there was going to be 144,000 that are primarily called only out of the end, Philadelphia, and that there is going to be a great multitude beyond that even, greater, that are going to be a part of the firstfruits.

That’s not the case. It’s 144,000 only. But we didn’t know that then. So, just think of the timing and how God reveals things as we go forward and gives us clearer and clearer understanding and helps us to comprehend the things that we misinterpreted because of where we are with the present truth. Because there are certain conclusions that are based upon and should be based upon the present truth as to what we do and how we do it. God’s allowed us to do that because we learn from that too.

So, it talks about the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Of such the second death... Introducing something here the world has no idea of. This doesn’t fit into anything that they believe. Second death? Meaning if you look at it honestly and truthfully, meaning you’d have to live twice. To be a human being twice? To be resurrected to a second physical life? People don’t even give time to think about that in that respect. If it comes up, if it pops up, it’s like, just discarded. Doesn’t fit anything that they believe.

Instead, they’re either down low there in a fire somewhere being tormented by somebody running around with little hot pitchforks or they’re up there in a cloud or some kind of a cloud, I don’t know. Or they’re somewhere in this spiritual realm fishing and catching spiritual fish. A spiritual being has to be nourished off a spiritual fish? I don’t know. Or perhaps up there playing some amazing golf, shooting from one planet to another perhaps, I don’t know. What does all this mean? It’s insanity. Because they don’t know.

But how blessed are we that we know?

…on such the second death has no power. Didn’t mean anything. This at that time still didn’t mean anything as a whole to the Church at this time when it was given. What could it mean to them until God gave more?

…but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. What a blessing to understand that period of time, the Millennium.

And when the thousand years have expired, when they’ve come to an end, Satan will be let loose out of his prison, as we’ve already read, that little season, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog. So again, given understanding some time back of what this is.

Because they were looked upon as being two particular peoples because it was looked at physically. But it’s not physical, it’s the spiritual of what this means. Again, God has given us understanding of that. Much, part of this then, is about all of humanity who have not known God, and the other part of humanity who have known God but rejected God. It’s going to be a lot. It’s going to be a lot. …and gathered them together to battle. The number of whom is as that sand of the sea.

Verse 9—They even went up on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. So, a concept in mind of some often within the Church was it was around Jerusalem. Well, it’s not about gathering around Jerusalem, it’s understanding what these things picture. The beloved city is about what God has created on a spiritual plane and what God’s creating that’s about to be born even more so, adding more so to that entire Family, if you will, to the Temple, to what God is giving and creating over the entire period then of six thousand, one hundred years. Things are about to happen here at the end now, at the end of this hundred years, what this day pictures.

So again here, they come up, whatever that means. They gather together. They have something in mind. We don’t know what these things are. But somehow they’re going to try to destroy as much as they can because they’re following that being's influence once again. They’ve been given incredible stirring up in the minds because it’s going to be known, it’s going to have been taught throughout the hundred years that this period of time is a hundred years and then there’s judgment and then the end.

Not only is that being when he’s resurrected knowing what God has said before, that it’s going to end in his death, that he can die. For all humankind to understand that if you rejected God and you haven’t chosen God’s way and you don’t want it, you’re going to die. The insanity. We can’t understand that kind of thinking. How can we understand fully sometimes if we think about it?

I understand part of it and why it’s done, how it’s done, but to think of the insanity of it, that people who have left the Church, of people who will steal God’s tithes, of people who will not give Holy Day offerings when God commands it and they know full well they’re supposed to, people who will go out and commit adultery, fornication, people that go out and live recklessly in life, take drugs, do different kinds of things, who are supposedly in God’s church? How can that be? Well, it can’t. But it happens and it’s happened. Things have happened for two thousand years that are totally wrong and in the environment around God’s Church.

So, when you talk about Gog and Magog it’s not just the world and people in the world who will reject God, it’s people who have been in the environment of the Church who have even had God’s spirit dwelling in them who have rejected God.

Then fire came down out of heaven and consumed them, devoured them. That’s how it’s going to end. They’re not going to be able to do anything. They’re not going to be able to accomplish what they set out to do, to try to destroy those before they’re resurrected into the God Family at the end and try to destroy them. God’s not going to allow that.

…and the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. So, as far as the world thinks about various things, and even within the Church in times past, how some of these things were seen, how would that bother him? Why be cast there? What do you mean “lake of fire and brimstone?” Well, it’s something that shows that on a physical plane, if we grasp those things, of what is used in the Old Testament, there comes a time when people can be destroyed and burned up, just go back to ashes or dust of the earth. That’s what it’s all about. It's about being consumed, not existing anymore. But it is for him as well.

“Whereas the beast,” even the false prophet… Whereas this beast, is how it should be because it’s not something separate from the devil as we used to think in times past in Philadelphia, carried on into Laodicea, and is in the scattered Body to this day when they read these things as being something about a beast power at the end-time or this false prophet, this great false prophet that’s going to deceive so many in the Church and thinking that’s going to be the pope, or whatever. Nuts. Totally nuts.

But we didn’t we couldn’t see those things in times past. Some maybe didn’t make sense and we waited until things became clearer, but again, certain things didn’t make sense fully. How could he deceive anyone who has the truth of God? And who would want to go back to Christmas and Easter? And yet some have chosen to do those things.

But as far as God’s people who are truly filled with God’s spirit, this isn’t going to happen. But there's a being called Satan, the devil, the adversary who in Revelation is referred to as the beast. He is the false prophet. He’s been the false prophet since he began to do what he did so long ago when he first sinned and began to influence others in the angelic realm.

…where he’s cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, whereas the beast or this beast, even the false prophet is tormented, not “shall be,” is tormented day and night forever and ever. In other words, for as long as that lasts, a term that’s used in that manner, until it’s over. There is not any existence in the individual, then it’s over, but until it comes to pass.

So, even in this end-time that being has come to understand, at least been told he’s going to die. That’s his judgment. He’s going to be consumed. God is going to destroy him. Just because he’s spirit, he’s had a deception that was still allowed to be within the Church, perhaps certain things known to a point. But even there, because of how we thought in the Church that because he’s spirit, he’s eternal. No, he’s not. What does that mean? He didn’t eternally exist. He was created. So, he had a beginning, and because he was created, he can be uncreated. He can be given death by God who created him. But there was this concept that something that’s spirit composition, it lasts forever into everlasting life. Well, God has shown us, no, that’s not true.

Then I saw a great white throne, and He who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. We’ve come to understand that this is about this period of time, it’s about the things that take place during this period of time. So, it’s kind of backing up here. It’s showing there is going to be a time for judgment for this being. There’s going to be a time when everything is gathered together toward the end and yet there is still this being that has influence and he’s going to be let loose for a little season.

We’re to think about these things on this day. Every year God tells us to. Every year seems like there’s just a little bit more, something that’s a little bit clearer, and we’re to rejoice in those things. We’re able to see things the world doesn’t know this.

The scattered Church doesn’t know most of what we’re talking about here today. They have the ability on a physical plane to continue on with certain things that were taught before and can go in and talk about those things. But to understand them, to grasp them, to comprehend them and the growth that God has given since that time, it’s not there. How blessed are we? And indeed, something we should rejoice in, that we have this peace because we do know when we do see. It should excite us. It should be inspiring to us.

The more that God gives to us even at this Feast, to understand about judgment and the seriousness of it, God means what He says and we’re to take it seriously and not to slough it off. Wrong concepts that sometimes people come up with with this last minute maybe repentance, and then maybe then we’ll get it together and get serious about this as so often happens in the environment of the Church and thinking that people can do certain things.

No, we’re to be serious all the time because you can easily lose. And if you leave, if you’re gone for a time, most never come back. How blessed are you if you’ve been one of those who have been blessed to be able to come back because most haven’t, and perhaps will not ever by their choices? We don’t know.

But there are going to be a lot who had God’s holy spirit, just like we’ve talked about somewhat yesterday, which is something God is giving to us in a greater way to understand, that just because someone was a part of God’s Church, and they go out and live the life they want to because right now it’s just too hard right now…

Don’t know what goes through a mind that begins to choose to be adversarial to God, to God’s ministry, to God’s apostle, to God’s Church, adversarial to Christ because they begin to work against the very purpose of why Christ died. But they’re not able to think it through anymore because they’ve already made certain choices that have hurt their minds, that begin to corrupt and destroy their own minds, and when it’s mixed with God’s holy spirit and over a long period of time…

Satan, when he did it was instant because he’s of spirit composition. He was changed forever and couldn’t be changed back. There was no way to change that. It was his choice and so be it forever, or until God brings it to an end. For mankind, there is this that can go on through time if a person will repent and is convicted of certain things. But sometimes with the impregnation of God’s spirit, a person can so corrupt their own spirit that that spirit can’t work with it anymore and can’t be in there anymore. What a horrible, dangerous thing.

So, there are going to be individuals who are going to be resurrected for the purpose of judgment. Whether it be at the beginning of the hundred years, for what purpose, or at the end, some of those of Gog and Magog. It doesn’t say specifically that all of those who are part of Gog and Magog in the first six thousand years, or even seven, that when it comes time for the hundred years that all of them are going to be resurrected who have died or have opportunity to live on into that period of time at the end of the seven thousand if they haven’t yet made their choices.

It's a lot more serious than what we’ve thought about in times past and God is letting us see that so that in the Millennium people can be taught more fully this is serious. Your choices count now, not later on. You make certain choices now and they can be permanent because you can corrupt your mind, a mind blessed to have God’s spirit dwelling in it is unique.

Now, it’s one thing if it goes to sleep spiritually because God has revealed after the Apostasy it’s possible to awaken someone who’s been spiritually asleep. Our lives are testimony of that, are witness of that truth. But that’s a very dangerous area, and the longer one is asleep and remains asleep, and especially if certain truth is rejected along the way or toward the beginning when there is opportunity to accept it and receive it, but because of prejudice, because of various personal beliefs and ideas, still rejects it, rejects what is clear? We’ve had an Apostasy, there was a man of sin, a son of perdition; those scriptures have been fulfilled. We live in the end of an age, which should lead to other repentance in other areas. Yes, we were Laodicean, but won’t accept that truth?

What happened to the mind? What happens when someone becomes antichrist who has had the blessing of Christ dwelling within them? Is there the ability to repent? Is there the desire to repent from such a mind? It’s choice, isn’t it? And some have made their choice in this age. Some have made their choice around the period of the Apostasy.

Again, there are certain things that God hasn’t revealed to us about this last hundred years. Of when all are going to be resurrected. Is there a possibility that toward the end of the hundred years, because some of that has been thought about in times past, that some are resurrected for the purpose of judgment, of passing along judgment because judgment from God is absolute, and have a second life in order to face that judgment? Time will tell. God will reveal.

But ever how God does it there will be judgment, there will be that which is a matter of some who have known God’s way of life, who have had God’s spirit dwelling in them who will never change because they have corrupted their minds. That much God has definitely given us to grasp and understand.

So, it backs up here a little bit in part of the story and says, And I saw the dead, because of the Great White Throne, that period of the hundred years has come, small and great, of mankind, people who have been written about and known and became great as far as man’s concept of greatness is concerned, and people, others didn’t know about them or whatever. It means everyone.

…stand before God, and the books were opened. Again, it’s not like there is some great big book up there. God has shown us this is about what happens when God calls us, our minds are opened up to the books, to the truth, to the word of God. And so, this is taking place.

…and another book was opened which is of life. That is what God is offering then when their minds are opened up, that they can have life, everlasting life, and that we want to be written within that spiritually speaking. Not that there is some book and names are being written down like that.

…and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. Just like with the Church. That’s why the scripture that talks about how “judgment now is upon the House of God.” Whenever we’re called, judgment is upon us when we’re called, judgment. Judgment that can lead into everlasting life or judgment that can lead to death. Have some been judged? Are they going to be given opportunity at some point in time here to have a longer life or another life? We don’t know. To have judgment passed out upon them, it’s going to happen. Whenever God does it, however God does it, there is going to be judgment and an end of all life that rejects God. All evil is going to be destroyed pretty much all at the same time.

…and were judged out of those things which were written in the book according to their work, their choices, how they choose to live, according to God’s way or their own way. The majority since Pentecost of 31 A.D., the majority have left God’s Church, have become antichrist. The majority. What have they done to their minds? How far did they go?

“…according to their works.” So, it’s just like a spirit being can so corrupt their own mind by their choices, so can a human being corrupt their own mind by their own choices to where the judgment becomes you will never repent, you will never genuinely repent because of your choices. Because when you corrupt your own mind to that point, to where you become set in that, it won’t change back. It doesn’t want to just as Lucifer when he became Satan, it was set. He wouldn’t want anything to do with God. It’s just the way he is. That’s the way some have become, did become, whether they be dead or live today. That’s what their minds were.

…and the sea gave up the dead which were in them, and death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, everyone according to their works. So, there is judgment. Those who are all resurrected, they’re going to have judgment. But everyone who has ever lived is going to have judgment passed upon them, those who were a part in the past two thousand years in the Church.

Death and the grave were cast into the fire. This is the second death. So, at the end, it’s all going to be cleared up and God’s righteous judgment fulfilled because everyone is accountable for their choices. For some, it’s the God Family. For others, it’s to be put to death; it’s death forever.

And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire, right along with Satan the devil, that false prophet, that beast.

So, it’s an incredible thing to digest when we come to the kind of contrast and what God has revealed over the past six thousand years concerning a final time of judgment that’s to be executed on earth at the end of human life. Yet God’s plan is perfect. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome when chosen, when embraced. For those who don’t embrace it and don’t choose it, it’s still a perfect and a beautiful plan because evil shouldn’t exist forever and forever.

That’s God’s way and God’s purpose that only peace, that only happiness and joy and fullness of life, rich lives, enjoyable lives will exist, and the fullness of all that to give into all time. I can’t comprehend all that but that’s what I want. No more suffering. No more anguish. No more tears. No more crying. No more hurt and no more pain. None of that. No more drama because people learn, have learned, now able to do it forever or into age-lasting life, to be at one with God, to have that mind and the way we think about one another, the joy and the fullness that’s there, the closeness of relationships that are exceedingly closer and more meaningful than what we’re able to have in this human life even. Which within the Church people can have some very close relationships but it’s not close yet to what it’s going to be like once we’re in the God Family.

So again, what an incredible thing that we see so little that was ever written in the book of Leviticus that is about this day, and yet God has revealed more and more through time. Very little was known around the time of Christ and the disciples concerning this day and its meaning. Then through the Church wasn’t until John was able to write what he did sixty-some years after. Then they didn’t comprehend all these things because they were more for the end-time, just as the book of Daniel was. God told him, “Shut up the book, Daniel, this is for the end.”

What an incredible time we live in. Sometimes we just don’t grasp the awesomeness of the time we are blessed to be alive to witness various things that we do.

So again here, we go past the period of time of John then, of the Church starting in 31 A.D. and then sixty, nearly sixty-some years later when all the other apostles have died, and John is the only one left and he’s writing some of these things here that God gave to him.

Revelation 21:1—Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. It’s a fresh earth, a new earth. It’s not a new creation of a new earth somewhere or that this one is going to be destroyed. Because some of those things were misunderstood in times past as well when it talks about, uses certain expressions about the earth and burning up. That’s not what it’s about. Certain things of evil are going to be burned up and so forth, it’s going to be destroyed, the lake of fire.

But what’s new about it is God’s Family and what’s going to be done on the earth and what’s going to be done in the universe. It’s out there for a reason; it’s just that God hasn’t revealed all those things yet. But it’s going to be awesome, truly is awesome.

So, the first earth had passed away, that period of time, all the suffering of humanity. And now it’s been cleansed, all evil has been destroyed. …and there was no more sea. It’s not talking about water. It’s not talking about oceans and seas. It’s talking about, in a prophetic sense, as we have discussed this year now already in different sermons and in the present sermon series that I’m going through right now about the existence of evil, it’s the sea of humanity. There is no more sea of humanity. There is no more birth among human beings. There is no continuation of physical life, it’s all come to an end.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So, everyone goes through the same process in the sense of whatever takes place once the 144,000 are resurrected into spirit life and the expressions here of that which takes place as the bride and her husband, speaking of Christ, and those things that are taking place on a spiritual plane because of that resurrection and because of that life that’s given and God and Christ dwelling within us forever and we in God, and as spirit beings in the God Family.

It goes on to say, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. So again here, when it says, “the tabernacle of God was with men,” well, there is that which as far as mankind was concerned there comes a time where there is no more mankind. We’re either in God’s Family or not.

It says, “He will dwell with them,” speaking of this tabernacle of God, with those who were a part of mankind. But once you’re resurrected, you’re spirit, but we had our beginning and our molding and fashioning and our birth within the existence of mankind, that spirit that works within us until finally we’re begotten until were born, and then spirit and God will dwell in us forever. That’s what it’s talking about here, “and He will dwell in them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God.” Together forever, forevermore.

Verse 4—So, God will wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Just what an amazing thing, no more death. Because there’s no more life, there’s no more existence, God’s taken care of everything and everyone who has had an opportunity then who didn’t have it before in the first six thousand years, they’re all resurrected, or people are resurrected and given an opportunity to know the truth.

These are incredible stories about God getting rid of suffering and of pain and sorrow and saying there will be no more of that because the plan is completed at the end of the hundred years. It’s all completed at this particular point in time. In God’s Family or not in God’s Family.

For the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. So, what a blessing that we’re given to understand, that the complete plan of God is going to be accomplished, it’s going to be fulfilled, and we’re going to have opportunity to be able to dwell with Him forever. It’s about having the opportunity for everlasting life in God’s Family, in peace, Jerusalem, and everything else that’s evil, that’s wrong, that’s bad destroyed.

“All things are made new.” Then He said, I am Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto those who thirst to the fountain of the water of life freely. So, expressions about that which God’s word, God’s way will live in His Family into age lasting life.

Revelation 21:7—He who overcomes shall inherit all things. Those who are blessed to conquer, to overcome self, to overcome our own selfishness through the power and help of God’s holy spirit, what an incredible thing to understand it’s a battle, it’s a war to fight against self, to fight against our nature that’s tugging back and forth and continually saying no to human nature and no, “I’m” not giving into our way, Satan’s way, to the selfish way, but learning to conquer that by God’s help to do the right way, to live what is true and what is right and to be blessed to be a part of “inherit all things” with one another and with Christ. We can’t comprehend that.

We can’t comprehend the vastness of the universe and the things that God’s Family is going to be doing, that everything belongs to all. What does that mean? No fences, no division of property, no, you know, “You live on this side of the river; I’m on that side of the river.” It’s so vast, so far beyond us that we have it all. We can’t understand it. It’s too great. It’s too vast.

But the fearful, the unbelieving, those who detest or are detestable as the word means. So, those who detest, frankly, God’s way of life; people who don’t want it, they want their own way, they come to the point in time that they detest it. It’s just what happens spiritually.

…the fearful, the unbelieving, just won’t hold on to what is true and what is right and want to believe something else, want to be a part of something different because they just don’t agree with God, they don’t agree with what God has given.

…and the murderers, the adulterous, the sorcerers, the idolators, something people want different. They don’t want what is from God. …shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death. Point being is it means what it says, it says what it means. God is helping us within the Church to become more sobered by these things, to understand the greater seriousness of opportunities as given to us, and to be more thankful then of the opportunity we have to live His way of life. And hopefully and prayerfully, to be moved and motivated more to fight against this, ourselves, the carnal human nature, to see evil for what it is, as we went through that series.

An incredibly valuable series before the Feast here, The Existence of Evil. But God is going to destroy it all. We want it to be destroyed. I want it destroyed. I want what’s in me that’s evil, that’s wrong, to be destroyed, that which isn’t yet at one with God to be destroyed. I want to get rid of it. I don’t want any of those things within me. None of us should. We want to be of the same mind of God, to honor God, to love God because of all that He’s given and shown us thus far is so rich, so powerful, so mighty.

But it’s a choice, and if somebody wants something temporary, God lets them have it because to choose that which is temporary and that which is evil can mess up the mind to the point where life comes to an end. But what an awesome thing to think, to know that we can continue on in a beautiful, awesome creation of God.

Let’s turn over to Jude verse 10. Remember some of the things we went through here, really, we’re able to see them more clearly now. In the Millennium these things are going to be able to be taught in a way that’s stronger in the sense that it’s been opened as far as the mind is concerned to see certain things.

To think that even then and in the Great White Throne when all these things are being taught… Just with PKG there’s been so much given even here toward the end; in the last few years, more and more has been added. But you know what? People still are choosing something else. They’re choosing to go the way of antichrist, to go a different way, to turn against what they have been taught. And that’s a choice.

But there’s payment for that as well. They can so easily destroy their own minds, corrupt their minds to where they can’t come back, won’t want to. That’s the point of it all. God gives opportunity for repentance and change and how long do we have to have that with the spirit within us?

Jude :10—But these speak against, or slander as in speaking against that which is holy and not understanding than when it’s all said and done so often can actually blaspheme the holy spirit. We’ve read what that does. There comes a point in time when a person can go so far. If that really happened on a spiritual plane in one's mind, it’s the mind and working against what God has given in the mind to that point where a person can become set in evil. Dangerous.

But they speak against those things which they do not know, cannot see. A person can become blind. That person can begin to lose what they’ve been given. It’s hard to grasp sometimes but it’s a matter of choice and it’s a spiritual thing within the mind where the mind is no longer sound. Once it’s been given God’s way that’s even worse because it’s a type of insanity on a spiritual plane where a person can so destroy their own thinking by their wrong choices, willingly having done so, that there is no coming back, there is no turning around, there is no desire to repent.

That’s why we’re to hold fast to what we have, to love God, to love what He’s given to us. That’s each person’s choice. And to realize if that’s not what you want, if you want something different and you want to go and just separate yourself or whatever it might be from what God is offering and giving and not use the opportunity He’s given to us when He’s called us… Because so many have chosen that.

If you want to let something else begin to water down your life because you want it more because you want this temporary thing right now that becomes more important than what’s permanent that God places before us that we can have that’s far richer than anything that we could want physically? Unsound thinking.

They speak against those things which they do not know, cannot see, in other words, but what they know naturally by their own human thinking, instinct, and whatever that’s in their minds. People can turn back to that. Well, is it a choice to do that? Is it like, “Well, that’s okay, God will raise you up in the hundred years and He’ll forgive all that.” Well, if you’re able to repent He will. If you haven’t gone too far He will. But too many go too far, and they won’t.

…what they know naturally as it says “brute,” but it’s unreasonable creatures. Unreasonable. It’s hard to try to grasp unsoundness of mind.

It’s like what’s happening in this country and other countries around the world and some of the crazy things that people believe and are doing and it’s like, “Where is your thinking?” It can be something as simple as well, we’re going to dictate that by whatever, 2030 that everybody has to have an electric car, an electric truck, an electric tractor, and electric this and electric that. It’s insanity.

So, how can you try to understand that kind of thinking? What do you mean? What are you going to do with all those batteries? Where do you get all that material? Yeah, China has it, and what are you going to do when it comes to an end, and it doesn’t work anymore, and it has no value? Where are you going to put it? How are you going to redo that again? It’s insanity!

All the places you’ve got to plug it in, and so forth, and what massive kind of power is going to have to be out there? How much coal do you have to burn? How much petroleum? How much nuclear power? How much…? It becomes insanity. How can you understand it? You can’t.

God’s way of life and rejecting it, how can you understand that insanity? It just shows people have choices. And just like in the angelic realm, some just choose something different than what God places before them even though God is our creator and sustainer and gives us everything that’s theirs from God. Think we can have that forever? Can’t understand that kind of messed-up thinking.

By these things they corrupt, destroy themselves. I think that means a lot more to us now that we’ve gone through these scriptures this past year and have now come to the Feast to things of judgment and recognizing how important judgment is, that we be able to learn how to judge ourselves, judge things in life because we want something that’s true and right and good and we don’t want the evil, we don’t want the things that cause pain and suffering and hurt and sorrow, and we don’t delude ourselves to think that somehow there can be happiness or thrills or whatever it is that people think they’re going to have for a short period of time (because they don’t last), and would rather have that than what God is offering.

Jude :11—Woe to them! “Woe to them.” Even the way it’s stated there. Woe to them! The Third Woe. What an incredible thing that God has given us understanding about things to happen in the Seventh Trumpet, that it takes a thousand, one hundred years to fulfill and accomplish it as far as God’s Kingdom on earth and Christ ruling and the 144,000 with him and the changes that are going to take place on the earth.

Then after that thousand years, a hundred years and everyone who’s ever lived resurrected, in that respect, as a whole, and to understand that at the end of that; there is still the fulfillment of the Third Woe because partial of it started when Christ returns and a judgment upon the earth and a judgment upon mankind is going to take place at that time. It’s a part of the Third Woe and a part of the judgment that is spoken of in the Old Testament and different places at the end-time, a great judgment that’s cast, that’s given to the entirety of earth, when God takes control of government. Then at the end in order to get rid of all evil and to clean everything up another powerful time of judgment, a final time of judgment and it’s referred to as the Third Woe.

Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and have run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. We went through those scriptures and now we have a greater, deeper understanding of what it’s talking about than what we did then even.

God has blessed us to build upon these things, to become more at one with Him, to learn about judgment in a way that is a blessing to us because it’s about the mind of God. It’s about the being of God. It’s about going through the process of reasoning and thinking in the making of choices. That’s what determines whether we continue on, whether we’re able to continue on and God continues in us, making choices through reasoning led by God’s spirit because we desire that and want that, and He gives us that help then. It’s a beautiful thing when it's done right. It’s a horrible thing when it isn’t done right.

Revelation 21:9—Then one of the seven angels who had the seven vials filled with the Seven Last Plagues came and spoke to me saying… So again here, coming down to the point of realizing, which we didn’t know in the Church before until God gave this, to grasp this thing about the Third Woe, that it has a beginning early on just at the point in time to end six thousand years of mankind governing itself, and then God’s government ruling for a thousand, one hundred years, and then at the end again that Third Woe that is needed, a final destruction of all who have chosen evil, to go against God, to choose some other way. They had that choice then and have been able to live that way. God let them do that but brings it all to an end.

And so, this being one of those angels who had the Seven Vials filled with the Seven Last Plagues came and spoke to me saying, because these things are going to be poured out in their fullness in the sense of what takes place at the end to complete everything.

I will show you the bride, and the Lamb’s wife. Finally, a period of time that reflects the fulfillment then of the God Family, the completion of the God Family.

Then he carried me away in the spirit in a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, and having the glory of God. Her light was like the light of a precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also, she had a great high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and the names written on them which are the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

God gave us understanding that all those names have some kind of purpose and a meaning that were to continue on, just like the word “Israel,” “to persevere,” and how that’s important then in what God has created as far as His entire Family. But it has structure, and we haven’t been given all the structure, of what it means and what this organization is about. Because it’s about how it’s all organized as a structure functioning together as a great Family forever and forever. And yet it will be awesomely beautiful that can’t be comprehended nor understood except for those who are there at that time once they have been given that life together. Then it’ll all come together and make sense.

Verse 22—So, I saw no temple in it for the LORD God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. So again, beautiful, showing here the establishment of it and how it exists. It’s not something physical. It’s not something you can see. It’s not something spirit in composition that people go in and out of in that respect, like a physical temple, and everybody is right there. It’s going to be vast and it’s about all who are part of it and a part with God Almighty and with Christ forever and forever or into everlasting life, age-lasting life.

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illuminated it. I think of mentioning yesterday in the sermon and at other points in time here that God has given us a glory that sometimes we just don’t comprehend. To have the impregnation of His holy spirit He’s elevated us to a glory above all mankind, and we in our own mind and thinking need to elevate that and realize how blessed we are that we have been lifted up to have that glory dwelling with us, the spirit, the impregnation of God’s spirit that enables us to grow, to be transformed until we’re actually born then as spirit, spirit composition, into spirit life, into age lasting life forever and forever in time.

We can’t comprehend those things. But to understand we’re going to be given those things? Bodies of spirit composition? So, God lifts us up mightily to give us what we have. What a shame when people turn from that and lose that glory. It’s not there anymore because God won’t be in evil, He won’t be in sin.

…and the Lamb is its light. It’s what gives light, has given light to all and given that life possible, and sustains it.

Even the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light. In other words, all who have come through it or are a part of it that’s the way it’ll be forever.

And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Just shows that there is greatness in it and what we’ve been given that’s so far above and beyond anything that God’s ever created. This is the pinnacle of all of His creation.

Well, let’s end today by turning over to Hebrews 10. Yesterday, in the final sermon for the Feast of Tabernacles for this year we went through some verses here that we’re going to go over one more time, that we need to revisit at the end of this sermon today. Because God loves us, God wants us to be in His Family, but He says it’s our choice. He’s called us, He’s elevated us, He’s given us incredible glory and life that if we grasp it, if we comprehend it, that’s what we’ll treasure above everything else.

Putting God first, it won’t be as much of a struggle and a battle in fighting against everything else. As we grow to even fight against this because this is where the greatest of all the battles is because we have the power of the choices that are made. And so many have made the wrong choices. God allows for that because only that which really wants God’s way of life, has really chosen it and seeks that oneness with God, to live His way of life, and to realize that everything else in physical life, our pursuits, they’re so puny and so small. They have no significance except that it be to God’s way of life and geared to God’s way of life and to God’s purpose. Then it has meaning and purpose if we grasp that.

Hebrews 10:35—Do not cast away, therefore, your confidence which has great recompense of reward. God’s given the truth, you’re blessed to be able to see it, we’re learning more how to trust God, to love God, to comprehend what God has placed before us. There should be a confidence and a boldness in that to hold on to. God says, “Don’t cast it away.” Don’t throw away what God has offered. Don’t put it aside. Don’t get caught up in other pursuits save to that which can be a part of moving forward in the Church, in God’s way of life toward the end-time here.

So, it has great payment of wages, is what is being said here. We can understand part of that. But it shouldn’t be for that purpose, it should be for the purpose, “It’s what I want because it’s right, because that’s the only thing.” That’s the choice because it’s the only choice. But that requires a soundness of thinking and a soundness of mind and an agreement with God.

For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise. So, we wait. We wait for God’s plan to become fulfilled in us. We wait as we grow and we fight and we recognize the need to keep up the fight, to watch, to be on guard, to never let down. We look to God for the help to do that because we can’t do it by ourselves. We can’t do it ourselves.

For yet a little while and he who shall come will come and will not tarry. He won’t delay any longer. It’s coming. We haven’t understood it perfectly, but God has allowed certain things to take place with the present truth whenever we’ve had it for a purpose and for a reason, the experiences we go through that help to mold and fashion us, and more that we will be given later on to understand it all and why it was the way it was fully, more fully that we grasp, thought we understand much of it, though we understand and comprehend things about individuals who turned against God, several in the ministry themselves who had incredible opportunities for a long period of time, who absolutely had no excuse whatsoever to do what they did, turned against God. Others followed that and made certain choices in their life.

We’re free, people are free to do that, and because they did that at that time gave up the crown, what God was offering them, to be a part of the firstfruits. And so, and it was all by design. There were others who had been called that God is giving that opportunity to. So, that’s why God says, “Let no one take your crown,” if you will, because hold on to what God offers., fight for it. It’s far greater than what we comprehend, that calling that He’s given to us. Yet some have done it for the wrong, crazy, weird, insane desires for something different, temporary.

Now the just, the just. When we think about what it means to be just, to be right because we’re in agreement with God, because we’re learning how to judge things properly, because we’ve come to conclusions and decisions properly, because we’re looking to God and seeking to place God first and upholding the truth He’s given to us and holding on to it. When we don’t grasp something we pray to God for help to grasp and comprehend it so that we can be at one with Him because we have agreed and seen so many things and we desire more and we want to see, we want to be at one, we want to walk with God in every respect because that’s what’s right.

Now the just shall live by faith. The truth that God gives to us, that He’s given us the ability to believe, we choose to live by it, and we want to be able to judge it properly in our lives so that we can continue forward, that process of reasoning that leads to right conclusions and do it.

But if anyone draw back… So many have. I hate to say it – next year, if we have another full year, if this wasn’t the last of the Last Great Day sermons in this age of mankind, then we will have another next year and we’ll have fewer people observing the Last Great Day. Or unless God perhaps brings some others along there may be more, but as a whole, we’ll have fewer than what we have potential for now.

In other words, some are going to leave, some are going to make certain choices. They’ve already started the process and too weak to fight it, too weak to believe it, what God has given us at this Feast of Tabernacles even, and won’t be here, won’t be in our fellowship. Every year! Every year! What an awesome thing if it wasn’t that way this year, but it will be.

But if any draw back My soul shall have no pleasure in them. To turn away from God, to draw back from what He’s given to us, from the glory, the power, the wealth, the beauty of that, it’s insanity. But God lets us be insane if that’s what we choose.

But we are not of those who draw back unto perdition, unto destruction and corruption, and finally being destroyed, that this day pictures at the end and the Third Woe. We desire to be in Elohim. We desire to be a part of God’s Family. Do we? Does everybody? Well, only you can answer that. But as a whole what we have remaining has that heart, that mind, and that desire, and that’s beautiful. Hold on to it.

So, as a whole we who want God’s spirit, who are yielding ourselves to God’s spirit, who are seeking to obey God’s way of life, to hold on to and live by what He’s given us to believe, this is about us. It’s about you.

But we are not of those who draw back unto perdition, unto destruction, but of those who believe to the saving of life. We desire that life. Thank God we have such opportunity to see all this come to pass, to be a part of it one way or another, that at the end we see all evil gotten rid of. We’ll either be a part of what’s gotten rid of, or we’ll be a part of what is observing it being gotten rid of. Destroyed forever.

A time to rejoice. Evil does not belong in God’s Family. It will not be allowed within God’s Family of His creation anywhere in the creation. What a beautiful time. What a beautiful time when God cleanses everything, when it’s all complete and His Family is complete.

So, we have awesome blessings, incredible things, as a part of God’s plan that He’s given us to comprehend and understand and to recognize things about this Last Great Day that has such incredible meaning and hope. So, let’s hold on to what God has given to us and look forward to all the Holy Days that God has given us, to all the weekly Sabbaths God has given us, that we continue in fellowship with one another, loving one another, learning to love one another more and exercising that more in this following year.

1. Chapter 1