Well, all the holy days lead up to this very day, every one of them. In the spring, we look back on and memorialize events that have previously occurred. Steve did a very clear job of outlining those in his sermon, you know, Passover and Christ’s sacrifice, the Days of Unleavened Bread, acknowledging our sins, and putting away our sins. However, then Pentecost becomes kind of a transitional day, because we look back on the coming of God’s Holy Spirit and the founding of the New Testament Church, but we also look forward because many of us believe Christ could well come on that day and we also look forward to the harvest of the firstfruits.
The rest of the holy days, we look forward to in time; Trumpets = man ultimately reaping what he has sown; Atonement = Satan being put down and man, at last, becoming at one with his Creator. The last seven days (Feast of Tabernacles) = As was pointed out by Rod in the prayer this morning, we get a taste of the world tomorrow and then we look forward to the world tomorrow. Then we have today and the fact is that all the holy days lead to and culminate with this very day.
I personally can’t wait for this day to be fulfilled, to repair relationships of those that are dead now and you want to go back and talk and explain and repent and apologize, you know, with my parents especially, rebellious teenagers that we were and all of that. Then to reunite loved ones, to take scared little children that are resurrected and comfort them, to take mothers who have had their children ripped from their arms and never to see them again, to have wives reunited with husbands. Wives waved to their husbands, maybe going off to war and never to see them again, or here in this area, miners saying goodbye with their lunch pail and going down into the mine and never coming back, or parents who lost children to some horrible accident.
So to bring this into a modern context by way of introduction, Dorothy and I watched the 9/11 ten-year anniversary on television. They played everything that happened that day, ten years previously. We saw again people jumping out of the twin towers as they were forced to my fire and falling and dying. We heard again the audio of that group of brave people in that airliner, rushing the cockpit and the screaming and the banging and then finally the plane went down in the field outside of Washington D.C. We saw and heard again the grief and the crying of the parents who had lost a child, and especially the children who lost a mom or dad in that horrible event. Ten years later they are still grieving and crying, and I’m sure many of them think they will never see that lost loved one again. Later that evening, Dorothy and I called Daisy Swent who is in Williamsburg right now, listening to this. Daisy worked inside one of the twin towers when it was hit and she got out before it collapsed. She said she went down to the memorial and she said it was very emotional for her and it brought back flashbacks of the tragedy and, of course, those who died will be resurrected on this day.
You know, there are many such situations where people grieve uncontrollably because they will never, ever see their loved ones again. As we are here to look forward to a time when all that crying and grief and Terror will be healed, it is going to be a tremendous day. James Smyda gave a sermonette on this day a year ago, he said, "This is the big deal!" That stuck with me and so I’ve spent the better part of this year preparing for this sermon, because I don’t think we realize or appreciate how big a deal this is.
So what we’re going to do in the sermon is cover two things. The first one is, we’re going to cover how big a deal the Last Great Day really is, and then we’re going to cover two areas in which we must be improving and growing now so we will be present at the Last Great, when that is fulfilled.
So, let’s address the first one and, frankly, this just blew my mind while doing research on this. The first question is, just how big a deal is this; how big a day is this? Think with me for a second because I’m going to give you some population estimates going back in history. In 1810, the world population reached one billion people, so it took all of those years to get to one billion. Then 130 years later, in 1930, the population expanded to two billion. Then 31 years later, in 1961, the population reached three billion. Then fourteen years later in 1975, the population reached four billion. It reached five billion in 1989, six billion in 2000, and we are scheduled to pass seven billion in April of next year. Now, let me ask you a question. Let’s just assume we have seven billion people on the planet right now. What is the per cent of those living today of the total number who have ever lived? We have seven billion today, but what is the percentage of the total that have lived down through history? Is it fifty percent? Have another seven billion lived down through history, or maybe it’s a third, another 14 billion lived down through history? Let me tell you that the seven billion that is here today is only 6-1/2 percent of those who have ever lived. There has been a lot of scientific research in the last few years and, yes, the estimates vary fairly widely and I picked the median. It is estimated that the number of people who have ever lived on the face of the earth is 106,500,000,000 (106-1/2 billion people). Now, even if you’re ten billion off, it’s still a lot of people. Now it’s hard to understand what 106 billion is, or even a billion.
So, let me give you two examples to expand the mind on how many people that really is. In the military, we ordered our ranks by (and Harold Lee will remember this) you put your arm on the shoulder of the guy in front of you, and that established the distance between you and them. Well, if you had all of those 106+ billion people standing in one long line and they were two feet apart, how long would that line be? You could say, well it could wrap around the earth … how many times? Five times? Ten times? A hundred times? Put a number in your head. What do you think it would be? That line would wrap around the earth 1,600 times at the equator. Think about that. That is a lot of people! This line is two feet apart, everybody who has ever lived, 1,600 times around the earth. Let me put it another way. Let’s say we said the name of everybody who has ever lived and it took two seconds to do each, Allisa Hall as an example and then Hanna Hall as another example and then Seth Hall, a couple of seconds. If you started at the time of Adam and took two seconds to name everyone who ever lived, how long do you think it would take? Would you maybe finish at the time of David or Christ or maybe in the 1,400’s in the middle of the middle ages? If you started at the time of Adam and spent two seconds naming everyone who had ever lived, you would still need another 750 years from today to name them all. Think about that.
When James said, "This is a big deal", this is a big deal! The thing on top of that is this incredible mass of people is going to be resurrected within a few minutes, all over the earth. Think about that. If those people were resurrected with today’s land mass, no change in the land mass, how many people do you think that would be for every square mile? How many people per square mile? That would be, with today’s land mass, 1,858 people for every square mile, every square mile of the Himalayas, every square mile of the rain forests in South America, every square of the Sahara Desert, every square mile of the northern provinces in Canada, every square mile of every piece of land on the face of the earth. You would have 1,858 people on that square mile. That is the same population density as Shreveport, Louisiana; Salt Lake City, Utah; Springfield, Illinois; Tallahassee, Florida or Lubbock, Texas, where Dorothy and I lived for three years. It would be like taking Lubbock, Texas and that same density, but have that everywhere, the islands of the Pacific, Gobi Desert, Southwest Desert, all the provinces of Canada. It would be like a big Lubbock, Texas everywhere, all over the world.
As James described very clearly in his sermon, I hope we can see why the oceans have to rise and the mountains have to come down, so that every person can have their vine and their fig tree and have a little spreading out room. Think of this.
Now the point that I’m trying to make is, this is gigantic, it is stupendous what is going to happen on this day. Now, let’s go back and read Ezekiel 37 that we normally read, but please read it with the statistics that I’ve just given you. Please read it. This is not just one little valley. This is all over the world and this is a staggering number of people. Ezekiel 37, the first fourteen verses.
Ezekiel 37: 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley which was full of bones.
There’s no valley right now that could handle the number of bones we’re talking about. Just take 100+ billion and the number of bones in the human body, that’s a lot of bones.
Verse 2. And caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and they were very dry.
Verse 3. And He said unto me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered and said, "Lord God, only you know.
Verse 4. Again He said to me, "Prophesy upon these bones and say to them, 'O you dry bones, hear the word of the Eternal!"
Verse 5. 'Thus says the Lord God unto these bones: "Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
Verse 6. "And I will lay sinews upon you and bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Eternal."
Verse 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise,
Can you imagine the noise? 100 billion bones of people and all of a sudden they start to move and to come together. The noise would be deafening.
Verse 7b. and, behold a shaking (I guess so!) and the bones came together, bone to bone.
They’re all lying down, but the bones started migrating together.
Verse 8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews then started appearing to link the bones together and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them above; but there was no breath.
They were just lying there, corpses. 100+ billion.
Verse 9. And He said to me, "Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say unto the wind, 'Thus said the Eternal God: "Come from the four winds, O breath and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."
So he did.
Verse10. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
I guess! Can you imagine all of those people waking up and then trying to stand and slowly moving and standing and looking around and they have a utopian world around them. They’re looking and they’re dazed and amazed.
Verse 11. He said unto me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our bones are dry and our hope is lost, (I guess so. They’ve all been dead.) We’re cut off from our parts.
Verse 12. "Therefore, prophesy and say unto them, 'Thus says the Eternal God: O my people,’
Now we’re going to see before the sermon is through, all people are God’s people. All people are God’s people.
Verse 12b. I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves, bring you into the land of Israel.
Verse 13. "You shall know that I am the Eternal when I have opened your graves, O My people and brought you out of your graves.
Verse 14. " And I shall put My Spirit in you and you shall live,
My suspicion is, just speculation, that when they kind of are dazed, they’re going to hear a voice, a booming voice of God or Christ, and they’re going to get a little explanation of what’s going on as they are standing there, amazed.
Verse 14b. I shall place you in your own land and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and I performed it, says the Eternal."
The firstfruits are going to be there and are going to be watching as spirit beings. We’re going to be there, we hope, and we’re going to watch this tremendous event. So every one of us should yearn and hope to be there on this day and to help serve them under the direction of Jesus Christ, help Him serve all these traumatized, confused and bewildered people. 100+ billion confused people.
I hope this is just a taste of how great the Last Great Day is, and I think we have diminished that somehow, just kind of blew past it and didn’t really understand how big a deal this is.
So now let’s get to the second part of the sermon, because this applies to us. What must we be doing now to be present at this biggest of deals? How do we have to change now so that we can be there when this staggering event occurs? We’ll talk about two major character traits that we need to have in order to be there. We will not be there if we don’t have them. If we do have them, we will be so eager, in such anticipation of this day to come.
The first is that we will be there if we are free from prejudice and bigotry. We will be there if we are free, if we have no prejudice or bigotry. Now Israel was a very prejudice nation. Let’s go to Isaiah 65 and we’ll read the first five verses. This section of scripture is also quoted in Romans, Chapter 10. Notice the attitude of ancient Israel.
Isaiah 65: 1. "I am sought of them that ask not for Me; (God says) I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, 'Behold Me, (God says, "Listen to Me, look at Me!") 'Behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My name."
Verse 2. I have spread out My hands all the day unto (what?) a rebellious people, (and
what did they do?) which walks in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; (not God’s thoughts; their thoughts.)
Verse 3. A people that provokes Me to anger continually (That’s been covered many times in the sermons. Jack covered it in his sermon; just provoking God continually over the centuries) to My face; and they sacrifice in gardens; and burn incense on altars of brick;
Verse 4. And remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments; and eat swine’s flesh and broth of abominable things in their vessels;
Verse 5. Which say, (they say this to other people) 'Stand by yourself (Stand away from me) don’t come near me, (Why?) For I am holier than you!"
I’m better than you. Don’t get near me. I don’t want to rub elbows with you, and in fact, even if their tunic came in contact with an unclean person in Christ’s day, they would go wash it. God says…
Verse 5b. These are smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day.
You see, this horribly rebellious people, they’re so rebellious that at the same time, they thought they were holier than anybody. And God says, you’re a stench in My nose, and yet they thought, "We got it. We’re Abraham’s seed. We’re the ones. We’re Israelites. We got it made."
Now Judah was prejudiced in Christ’s day. Let’s go to John, Chapter 1 and read verses 43 through 46. Christ was gathering His disciples and just starting His early ministry.
John 1:43. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, He found Philip and said unto him, "Follow Me."
Verse 44. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Verse 45. Philip found Nathanael and said, "We found Him, (We found the Messiah) of whom Moses and the law, and the prophets did write – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Verse 46. And Nathanael said unto him, (Notice what Nathanial said) "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And Philip said unto him, "Come and see."
But he said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" It would be like us saying, "Can any good thing come out of a certain state you want to mention, or with the Canadians, "Can any good thing come out of a certain province?" Do you see the prejudice there that was common in Christ’s day? The prejudice carried over to the disciples; they brought their prejudices with them when Christ called them. Harold covered that on Monday in Matthew, Chapter 19, when they brought the little kids around and they were at Christ’s feet and wanted Christ to bless the kids. What did the disciples say? "Oh, get those kids out of here! We don’t need those kids. We’re too important for those kids. They don’t mean anything. You ought to pay attention to us adults, Us Jews." They wanted Christ to shove them aside, and what did Christ say? He said, "Allow them to come unto Me. Don’t forbid them, for of such is the Kingdom of God." But yet, they were prejudiced against what we call today, little people, little ones running around at our knees before and after services. They are so cute.
Peter had respect of persons after his conversion. Peter had prejudices after his conversion. You remember, God opened up salvation to the Gentiles through Peter. Remember he had the vision (we won’t turn there) in Acts, Chapter 10. The sheet came down three separate times and it had all kinds of unclean animals in it, and he was told to eat. Peter said, "I’ve never eaten anything unclean in my life," and then after the third time and the whole experience of the vision, he said, "God has shown me that I should call no man, no human unclean." So we know that the gospel was opened to the Gentiles through Peter. But later when the Jews came down from Jerusalem from Antioch, prior to that time, Peter had been eating with the Gentiles. He had been fellowshipping with them; there was no distinction between Jews and Gentiles in Antioch, but when the Jews came down to Antioch, guess what Peter did? He stopped associating with the Gentiles and he went over to the Jews. Paul called him out publicly in Galatians, Chapter 2 (we won’t turn there) but he called him out and he said, "You are a respecter of persons." So Peter, even though he had this miracle, still had prejudice left in his heart. He still had those thoughts in his heart. So that tells us that prejudice runs deep in a human and we’ve all had it. We’ve grown up with it, depending on where we were, parents, environment, part of the country, whatever. A wise man once said, "Son, men change their minds while others merely rearrange their prejudices." How true that is.
Today, the United States is a prejudiced nation. We are prejudiced by geography. Look at the north and the south. We have people still fighting the Civil War. They still do. Then we have the crass easterners and the fruit loops on the west coast and there is prejudice back and forth there. "Can anything good come out of __________," and then name a state, name a province. In World War II, there was great prejudice against the Germans, great prejudice against the Italians, but the greatest prejudice of all was against the Japanese in our own country. It makes me sick to think about it and to see the documentaries about it where we took our Japanese citizens who were born in this country. They were loyal and faithful citizens. We stripped away their land, stripped away their possessions, we stripped away their homes and herded them into concentration camps for the duration of World War II. There was great, great prejudice.
There is prejudice between men and women. Some women feel all men are evil brutes, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. We joke about that locally. Then some men feel that all women are to be dominated and subjugated. They are to be put down. They don’t have a straight thought in their head. We have those prejudices today.
Then I don’t have to mention the prejudices about race. We’ve all heard the racial epithets; I will not even repeat them because they are so disgusting, racial epithets against all races.
Then there is prejudice about money. The people who don’t have money are "poor folk" and proud of it. They look with distain upon the wealthy, and look at the sit-ins we have now. They’re just after people with money; they hate them. Then people who have money, look down on those who don’t. If you remember back in the '80s, Leona Helmsley, she was the wife of a real estate tycoon in New York City and paraded her wealth abundantly. She said, "Only the little people pay taxes." She went to jail for that, thankfully.
Then there’s prejudice between the Canadians and Americans (HA!). We have our Canadian Brethren here and I’m partly joking here, so bear with me. But the American view is that all Canadians do is play hockey and shoot moose. I know they don’t, but, there’s that view. Then there’s the Canadian view toward Americans, (and this is with a good bit of justification, I might add) is that the Americans are rude, loud, and crass. There is some justification for that.
But sadly, there has been prejudice in the Church. Very sadly, there is prejudice in the Church, and over the years, I’ve heard all the comments made up to this point from brethren in the Church; ministers and members alike. People look down on those who are not called. Ken was talking about that in his sermonette. They are looked down on as second class people because God hasn’t called them like He has called us. I heard a minister say at a ministerial conference, he happened to be a Canadian minister, he had flown out of his Canadian town and came to the ministerial conference. I think he said this in the sermonette, "As I took off and came over the town (I don’t remember which one it was; it was a good size city) and I was thinking about all the disasters that are going to come at the end in the days when the wrath of God is going to come upon all these people. I looked down at all the people down there and said, 'Good riddance, suckers!’" I heard that. Now think about that. Talk about prejudice. I’m up here in this airplane, looking down on you, and I am better than you because God called me. We might think we are better because we are called, but that’s not what the Bible says. In fact, it’s already been covered in I Corinthians 1. We won’t turn there. We are called because we are base, because we are weak, because we are not high and mighty, and how dare we look down on other people, because in the grand scheme of things, as the sophomores yelled in my ear as a freshman at Texas A & M in the military school, they said, "You are lower than the lowest fish poop on the bottom of the ocean." That’s us, but God called us.
We also look down today, as Ken pointed out, on those who are not part of our group. The disciples did that. Let’s go over to Luke, Chapter 9, and we’re going to read verses 49 and 50. They did exactly the same thing. This was before their conversion. I’m going to read it out of the NIV because it’s a little clearer.
Luke 9:49. "Master, said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because (Why?) he is not one of us."
Meaning not of this entourage that’s walking with you; not part of our group. What did Christ say? "Yeah, we’ll just call fire down from heaven and blast that guy to smithereens." "No," He said,
Verse 50. "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."
I’ve had people say to me about a person in another group, this goes back several years after the breakup of Worldwide, but I’ve heard somebody say, "I will not pray for that person because they are not part of us." Now think about that. This has been kind of running through all the messages, that this is something we just cannot do. The fact is, Christ did not think this way. It’s in the Bible. There are so many examples of Christ not thinking this way. Look at Luke, Chapter 18. This is a very familiar scripture. We’re going to begin in verse 9. Notice Christ’s attitude, Christ who was above all, all of us as Head of the Church. Notice His attitude.
Luke 18:9. He spoke this parable unto certain people which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
The Greek for "despised" means to be least esteemed. So those who were not part of his group, he viewed as least esteemed. As Ken again said, what did Paul say? "In lowliness of mind, we should esteem each other better than ourselves," but this man did not. That was in Philippians 2, of course.
Verse 10. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee , the other a publican.
Verse 11. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,"
Meaning his prayer didn’t go to God. The only person that heard his prayer was his own ears.
Verse 11b. 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men –
Meaning, "I am better than other men. I’m not like all this riff raff out here."
Verse 11b. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
Verse 12. 'I fast twice a week; I gives tithes of all I possess."
And the publican (tax collector), was standing way over in the corner, probably, and wouldn’t lift up so much as his head or his eyes to heaven. He beat on his chest saying, "God, please be merciful to me, a sinner." That should be our attitude. I’m just so glad to be here. I’m just so thankful you called me. Please have patience with me. Please have mercy with me. Christ said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, in a right standing with God, rather than the other. For everyone that exalts himself, (that means exalts yourself above others, he said,) shall be abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted." Remember what Christ said. We won’t go there. Matthew 7. "Judge not that you be not judged." He says, "Why are you beholding this little speck of dust in your brother’s eye when you have a 2x4 in your own eye?" He says, "Maybe you should get the 2x4 out of your own eye and then you can see your brother more clearly." He’s implying that the 2x4 is blocking the perception, causing wrong judgments. He said, "Don’t do that."
The fact is that the prejudiced people will not be here to see this great day come to pass. Look at I Corinthians, Chapter 6. We’re going to read verses 9 and 10. These are plain, plain scriptures. Ken was saying, "How can people have attitudes when they read these plain scriptures? How can they have viewpoints when they read these plain scriptures?" This is as plain as it gets.
I Corinthians 6: 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? (There were people out there kidding themselves). Don’t be deceived. Neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind,
Verse 10. Nor thieves, covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers
(hang onto that word) nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Revilers are not going to inherit the kingdom of God, and the definition of a reviler is to speak in a contemptuous manner, just like the Pharisee did, that we just read, contemptuous of other people. Look what James said about not being there. Let’s go to James, Chapter 2, and we’ll read the first nine verses. I’ll tell you, all of us have seen this in the Church, all of us. If we are honest with ourselves, if we have eyes to look around, we’ve seen it. James is very plain spoken.
James 2: 1. My brethren, don’t have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
He says, "If there comes somebody in your assembly with a gold ring and beautiful apparel, modern, fashionable apparel and there also comes at the same time, a poor person in raiment that isn’t the most fashionable. Maybe the suit goes back to the 1970’s and maybe the tie is a half foot wide and all of that, and you have respect to him that wears the gay clothing (I’m reading out of the King James and it shows you how much the English has changed over the last four hundred years.) and he says, 'Oh hey, sit here! We have a reserved seat for you. Come over here!’ We had a big brew-ha at the Feast a few years ago because one guy wanted a reserved seat and he did wear the top notch clothing. Then they say to the guy or woman that walks in with maybe not the most fashionable apparel, 'I want you sit at my feet, right here by my footstool. Get down on the floor.’
Verse 4. Aren’t you then partial in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts?
Are you judging what’s inside these people based on what’s on the outside?
Verse 5. Listen, my brethren, hasn’t God chosen the poor of this world (I Corinthians 1:26 again) rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him?
Verse 6. But you have despised the poor, Don’t rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
Of course, they do and have done and will do.
Verse 7. Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which you are called?
Verse 8. If you fulfill the royal law according to scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself", you do well:
Verse 9. But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted of the law as transgressors.
We cannot do that. One of the joys of this Feast is everybody, I think, is becoming friends with everybody. Everyone looks at everyone as a brother or sister, and I see people going out with groups. There are no cliques, there are no little inner circles or anything like that. But, the fact is, James says, we’re not going to be there if we show favoritism.
The New Testament Church learned, after Peter’s vision and the revelation that the gospel was open to the Gentiles. That was in Acts 10. Let’s go to Acts, Chapter 11. We’ll read the first four verses and then to verse 18. This is after this revelation, after the vision, but the Church learned not to look down on the Gentiles.
Acts 11:1. And the apostles and brethren were in Judea and heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Word travelled fast. This was what they call a paradigm shift. This was a new day.
Verse 2. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, (after all this happened) they that were of the circumcision (the Christian Jews) contended with him,
Verse 3. Saying, "You went in to men uncircumcised, and you ate with them."
Same prejudices that we talked about before.
Verse 4. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning …
He told them about the sheets and the miracle and the voice and the Holy Spirit coming down on the Gentiles.
Verse 18. When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. (KJV)
So, they changed their whole view. They had grown up their whole life looking down on Gentiles, and God opened their mind and they changed. If they can change, so can we. But you see, Paul spent a lot of his ministry dealing with prejudice. We cannot, today in this world, comprehend the world that the New Testament Church was in, at that time, because there were slaves. That is foreign to us. There were slaves and owners of slaves, and guess what, they attended the same congregations. Now think about this; an owner of a slave and a slave in the same household, but on the Sabbath, they attend Church and then what happens? Does the master boss his slave around at Church? What is the relationship there? How does that work? They were working through all of this and I don’t think, sometimes, we appreciate that.
Let’s go to Galatians, Chapter 3, because Paul had to deal with things like this that we don’t have to deal with today, but he did. The other ministers had to deal with that. Notice what he says. This is, again, as plain as it gets.
Galatians 3:26. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (KJV)
All of us are children to God. Sometimes we can think we are more than children, but we’re not! I don’t care if you’re in your nineties or what peoples’ education level is, or income level, or background or whatever. Compared to Who and What God is, we are kids. We stumble and bumble. You see these little kids here walking around and they’re in their diapers, so the bottom end is heavily padded, which is a good thing. God made them, when they first grow up, that their legs are shorter compared to their torso, so their center of gravity is not very far off the ground, so when they fall, it’s just "bump" and they go down. They look around, get back up and off they go. We are that way to God. We slip and fall, we stumble, we scrape something, be bang something. You know, God picks us back up, has patience with us and off we go again. We are kids, ninety year old kids, eighty year old kids, twenty year old kids. So in Galatians 3 and verse 26, he says we are all children.
Verse 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (KJV)
Here’s the key in verse 28.
Verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
There was great prejudice between the Jews and the Greeks, horrible prejudice between the Jews and the Greeks and between various factions within the Jewish community of those who Hellenized and those who did not. Then he says,
Verse 28b. There is neither bond nor free,
Dealing with the slave/master relationship, in God’s Church, in God’s view, you’re all the same. No master, no slave, and you better behave accordingly in the Church. There was great prejudice between masters and slaves.
Verse 28c. There is neither male nor female;
There was great prejudice. It was a male dominated society and women were subjugated and it was not very pleasant, frankly, for women, if you look at the history. But notice what he said, this last phrase.
Verse 28d. for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (KJV)
We’ve got to get that message, ministers and members alike. It makes no difference as we’ve heard before. We’re all one in Jesus Christ. We’re all kids. We’re all trying to learn; we’re all trying to grow and we’re all children.
When we are prejudiced toward other people or show favoritism, we criticize God’s plan and design. He made the races; He allowed the nations. That is His design, and when we have prejudice against others, we are criticizing God and His plan and His design. So we need to be careful about that.
I know that none of us are intentionally prejudiced. We don’t go out to be prejudiced, but yet we can have a blind spot. My Dad and my Mom were prejudiced. Dad used those words; I grew up with those words, in high school, when I went to military school, I used those words. I’m ashamed of using those words. I have flashbacks sometimes to things I said and did, and I just agonize over using those words. I want to go to some people and apologize, to some people I’ve known. We can have a blind spot. A wise man once said, "A prejudice is the easiest thing to acquire and the hardest thing to get rid of." As with Peter, it gets buried very, very deep. So we need to be careful.
We won’t turn there, but in Romans 2:11, Paul says, "There is no respect of persons with God," and thank God He doesn’t have respect of persons. How would you like to be in a kingdom where there is prejudice and respect of persons? How would you like to be judged by someone who has prejudice and respect of persons? Thank God that is not the case.
So, let’s ask a question in closing out this first area where we need to make sure we have no prejudice or bigotry. Given what we described about the resurrection of all of these billions of people, would God allow someone who is prejudiced to be a teacher and a mentor of these billions of people? Would He? Obviously not. So, if we’re going to be there on that day, we must rid ourselves of any bigotry or any prejudice we might have. We must do that. If we have and as we do that more and more, then we can teach and serve and help these 100+ billion people with a pure heart, a clean heart, because we love them for who they are because they are children of God.
So, in this life, this is a practice time. This is the practice before the big game, so to speak. We must learn and practice treating all people equally with no favoritism and no prejudice. We have the chance now; God is giving all of us He has called now, the chance to do that. If we do that, we’re going to be there and see those bones come together and see those people stand up and have a chance to participate in this awesome, awesome event that we look forward to today.
The second qualification and character trait that we must have is that we will be there if we have love for all of God’s children. These two tie together, obviously; if we have love for all of God’s children. You see, we have to have love for all mankind now. It’s not going to be that God will wave a magic wand when we’re spirit and automatically will have love for everybody. It doesn’t work that way. I remember a man years ago who was caught up in a sin that he just could not overcome, couldn’t overcome, couldn’t overcome and he finally said to me, "Well, I guess God is just going to have to change me in the Kingdom." It doesn’t work that way. We must change now, otherwise we won’t be in the Kingdom.
God is giving us a chance to view all mankind as our future brothers and sisters, the bank teller, the person behind the cash register, the person that cuts us off in traffic. They are all our future brothers and sisters. Look at John 3:17. It’s a very familiar scripture. Sometimes in the Church, you know, going back decades, we shied away from scriptures like this because they were "protestant", and we didn’t really focus on it.
John 3:17. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world (the world, not us) through Him might be saved.
Then Paul said it in a different tone to Timothy. Let’s go to I Timothy, Chapter 2, and we’re going to read verses 3 and 4. Paul was training this new minister and he wanted to make sure he knew he understood.
I Timothy 2: 3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior;
Verse 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Their minds will be opened, but as God’s goal, it’s their destiny, if they choose to be saved. Now the word "men" here is Strong’s 444, and it’s the Greek word, "anthropos" which we have the English word "anthropomorphic", and all it means is a human being. This word doesn’t have any sex. It’s a human being. He wants all human beings to be saved. That is the plan. That’s been the plan from the time the plan was conceived, that all would be saved, therefore, all are going to be brothers and sisters to each one of us.
But look at the attitude of some of the disciples before their conversion. Let’s go to Luke, Chapter 9, and we’re going to read verses 52 through 55. I’ll read it out of the NIV again because of clarity’s sake. Christ was sending messengers ahead to a city, and He was going to pass through that city on His way to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:52. And He (referring to Christ) sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him;
The Jews looked down on the Samaritans as the lowest of the low.
Verse 53. But the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.
That was out of the NIV, and now I’m going to switch back to the King James.
Verse 54. And when his disciples, James and John (they were called "the sons of thunder", and we’ll see why right now) saw this they said, "Lord, is it your will that we command fire to come down from heaven, and just blast them to smithereens, as Elijah did?"
Because they didn’t welcome Christ, the solution is to just blast them off the face of the earth. Notice Christ’s attitude in verse 55.
Verse 55. But He turned and rebuked them, and said, You know not what manner of spirit you are.
What He’s telling them is, "You have the spirit of Satan", because that is exactly what Satan wants to do. He just wants to blast all humanity off the face of the earth. He said, "You better be careful and you better pay attention to who you’re listening to with that attitude." We’ve seen that attitude in the Church, all too often.
Look at what God says about the enemies of ancient Israel. You would think the enemies that harassed and killed Israelites, that God would reserve a special punishment for them, a special torture for them, if you were thinking according to Satan or according to the world. But notice what God has to say about Egypt and Assyria. Let’s go to Isaiah 19, and read verses 24 and 25. This is very revealing about God’s attitude toward His children.
Isaiah 19: 24. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the middle of the land:
Verse 25. Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.
So what God is saying to Israel, He says, "I love the Egyptians and the Assyrians just as much as I love you." That’s what he is telling us. You see, Christ brought a new and different way. We won’t turn there, but we know that I Corinthians 12 is the chapter that covers spiritual gifts, but you know the last verse in that chapter, Paul says, "Covet earnestly these gifts." But notice and remember what he said, "I show you a more excellent way," and then went into Chapter 13, we call the "Love Chapter". It is no accident that the fruits of the spirit begin with love. Let’s go to Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23. It’s not an accident that the first one is love. Now as we go through these, I’m just going to read them, we’re not going to spend a lot of time, but think of these characteristics in dealing with 100+ billion people on this day. Think about that.
Galatians 5: 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
Do you think these people, that are standing up in bewilderment, need love? Do they need someone to care about them? Do they need someone to reach out to them? Of course.
Verse 22 continued … joy
These people have been dead! They don’t have any joy. Whether they suffered a long-term illness, whether they were killed in war or died in some horrible accident, there’s no joy at the end of their live, but tragedy, misery, pain, suffering.
Verse 22 continued … longsuffering
Ken pointed that out. Do you think we might need a little patience with these people who have odd ideas, different religions, different backgrounds. Of course. Do you think they might need a little gentleness on this day? Someone to put their arm around them and say, "Stop shaking. It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be alright. We’re going to take care of you." Do you think they might need that?
Verse 22 continued … Gentleness, goodness, faith,
"There is a creator. He just spoke to you. We’re going to teach you about Him."
Verse 23 continued … Meekness
I just hate that and I’ve hated it for years when back in Worldwide days, "We’re going to rule with a rod of iron." Now, do these people need a whip and a chair, or do they need someone who is meek and humble and come up to them and say, "Hey, I know what you’ve been through. I understand. We’re going to make it better. You’re going to be laughing in a few days. I know you’re upset right now, but just be patient. I’m going to help you along the way." Rather than stand up and just beat on people and yell and scream at people.
Verse 23 continued … Temperance (self control)
Do you want someone dealing with these people that is a loose cannon, out of control completely? That would ruin the plan of God. God is not going to allow that to happen. Yet, all of us fail in many of these areas, but God wants us to overcome, to grow and to bear fruit, otherwise we won’t be there.
You know, Christ kept company with sinners. I’m saying, this is under the fact that Christ brought a different way. He frequented and fellowshipped with people that the Jews looked down upon. He stayed with a tax collector. We won’t turn there, but it’s in Luke 19. Zaccheus was a chief tax collector and Christ was coming by and people were thronging about. Zacceus was a short man and he climbed into a tree and as Christ came by the tree, He looked up to him and said, "Hurry up! Come down, today I’m going to come to your house." With that, all the Jews sucked wind. "Oh, how dare that He does this. He can’t do this." Christ was showing them, early on, what Peter learned later with the miracle of the sheet. But, oh, the judging and gossip about Him. Look at Luke, Chapter 15. We will read the first seven verses.
Luke 15: 1. Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him.
They were very interested.
Verse 2. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, (they were muttering) saying, "This man receives sinners, and eats with them." (How dare He do that.)
Verse 3. And He spoke this parable unto them, saying,
Verse 4. "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he looses one of them, doesn’t leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he finds it?"
Verse 5. "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing"
Verse 6. And when he came home, he got his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, "Rejoice with me; we’re going to have a party."
Verse 7. I say to you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, (and who were the sinners around Him that needed repenting? You see, the publicans and sinners.)
Verse 7. I say unto you, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.
Now notice the one sinner, there’s no mention of race, there’s no mention of ethnicity, country, wealth, background. It doesn’t make any difference. God is saying, the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents and we should too.
Christ didn’t look down on the adulteress. You remember the story. Let’s go to John, Chapter 8. Christ was in the Mount of Olives and He came to the temple and He sat down and was teaching in the temple, and of course, the scribes and Pharisees wanted to trip Him up and they devised a test. This was a setup. We don’t the time to go into the details of all that, but it was probably a setup.
John 8: 3. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery. (She was guilty; no question about that.) and when they had set her in the midst,
Verse 4. They said unto Him, "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act."
Now how did they know that? But that’s another story.
Verse 5. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say you?
Again, as a test.
Verse 6. This they said, tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down (as we know) and with His finger wrote on the ground.
My guess is that He started writing the sins of the least in the group first. Then when they continued asking Him, "Come on answer us, answer us. What’s going on here? Are you afraid to tell us what the answer is?" Then He stood up and said, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her." Then He stooped down and started writing more, and I’m sure He’s going up the ladder now to the highest ranking ones and writing their sins on the ground, maybe just a word.
Verse 9. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last (or youngest or least experienced).
Verse 10. When Jesus had lifted himself up, He saw no one but the woman.
Just the two of them alone. Years ago, you would expect, if that was a minister, he would start railing on her for her sins, accusing her for her sins, telling her what a horrible person she was for her sins.
Verse 10b. He said, "Woman, where are your accusers? Where are they? Has no man condemned you?"
Verse 11. She said, "No man, Lord."
I think there are two things going on in her head. She was realizing that this was no normal man. Maybe she knew He was the Messiah or thought or suspected, and she knew He was different. But she was probably expecting Him to condemn her. She was expecting it. That’s the way men treated women in those days.
Verse 11b. And Jesus said unto her, "Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more." (Don’t do it again.)
Christ treated her with love and kindness, but He didn’t excuse her sin. He encouraged her to change her life, and you see, on this day, that is the position we are going to be in. We need to encourage them, train them and teach them to change their life, not beat them with a rod of iron.
So you see, we should not love what people do today, but their time is coming and today is that time that we look forward to. So shouldn’t we have the same attitude toward them as Christ had toward this woman? Obviously, we should. We need to follow Christ’s example of living in a different and a better way, and He made His disciples His friends. Ken talked about that. I’ll have to tell you this, Ken completely eliminated the sermonette he was going to give. He did so last night and concocted a whole new one and it couldn’t have been a better fit. God is obviously behind it, a better fit, because he talked about friends.
We won’t turn there, but in John 15, we read it on Passover evening, Christ said, "You are My friends if you keep My commandments." He said, "I don’t call you servants, because the master doesn’t tell the servant what he is doing." He doesn’t let the servants know what is in his innermost heart, but He says, "I’m doing that with you because I’ve called you My friends." So, we’ve made friends here at the Feast, haven’t we? We’ve met new friends. I’ve met people I’ve never met before. That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. But you see, the big deal about today is that all people can be our friends. It’s going to take a while, even as spirit beings, it’s going to take a while to meet everyone, visit everyone, talk to everyone, but the whole world is going to be our friends.
You see, God wants us, though, now in this life before Christ returns, to have love for all of His children, no prejudice, no bigotry, just love. We don’t accept the evil that goes on, of course. But they’re our future brothers and sisters, because we are all God’s children, and if we’re all God’s children, who are we not to love one of them? Just one, who are we not to love them? If God and Christ love all His children, how can we not love them? How can we say, "Oh, I’ll love a 105 billion of them, but this other billion over here, I’m not going to love. How does that work? It doesn’t work. It doesn’t compute. If we do not have love for every human being and want to express that love to them and serve them, we will not be there. But if we learn now to love all of God’s people and want to help and serve God’s people and straighten this horrible world out, we will be there.
So, there is a reason why this is called, "The Last Great Day". It could be called. "The Last Day", but it’s called "The Last Great Day" and I hope we’ve seen why today. It is enormous. It is stupendous, this day. And all the holy days, all that has come before, lead up to this time. It’s going to be the biggest of challenges and the biggest of opportunities, and there will be 106+ billion challenges and 106+ billion opportunities. But in order to be there, we have to overcome any prejudice, any bigotry, and we have to develop the deep, abiding love God has for all of His children. We have to have that inside of us and we have to demonstrate that every day of our lives.
So, you see, what God wants on this day is an army of firstfruits, an army of firstfruits that are so eager to serve these people, so eager to help these people, so eager to train these people, so eager to mentor them and set an example for them and so eager to love them and have compassion and take them and help them in this traumatized, emotional state they’re going to be in when the bones come together. He wants an army right behind Him that are going to go out there and take these people and show them God’s way and show them a better life.
So we need to realize just how big a day this is. We must. We have to realize how huge it is. It’s the culmination of everything, and we need to make sure that we are there. We all want to be there this day, and we do that by getting rid of bigotry and prejudice, but most of all by learning how to love our brothers and sisters in and out of the Church and behave like Jesus Christ and have the mind of Jesus Christ.
So, let’s do that. Before we come back next year, let’s practice that.
Again, I just want to thank you for the most wonderful Feast. I want to thank you for being here and may God bless us and keep us all, so we can be back together again next year.
Transcribed by RV 08/10/12