Are we Ready to Face our Creator?

Today, I want to talk to you about whether we are ready to meet our Creator, which is symbolized, as we know, by this day of trumpets. As it was mentioned in the sermonette, it has a very profound meaning this specific day. You know, as we look at the wall today, you and I only see suffering. I don't want to show you pictures upon pictures upon pictures, because you are tired of seeing them in the media and watching and all that. But we get to the point that we just ask, Thy kingdom come.

And brethren, today is the day when that prayer is answered, Thy kingdom will come. And it's symbolized by today. What a beautiful, meaningful meaning for this day of trumpets. You know, people come out of different ideas. I have lived through times that people said, well, we had these four blood moons in two years in succession, and then we've had the Mayo calendar.

Some of you may remember. Mayo calendar ended, therefore it's the end of the world, and whatever, whatever. And people come up with different ideas. And I don't know what other different ideas people are going to come tomorrow. But they're going to go in social media, they're going to display things, and put things out, and frighten people, and whatever.

I don't know what people... But the point is, we've got to understand events in their proper context. You see, because a lot of people say, well, we have these events, we see these things in the sky, etc. Yeah, Christ is coming, it's the day of the Lord. But we've got to make sure we understand this in the right context. Because these might not be the very signs that people are, quote-unquote, preventing them, us. And so it is important for us to understand God's truth clearly.

It is important to understand the correct sequence of prophetic events, so that we may be watching and being praying, and obviously watching events, but watching ourselves, so that you and I may be counted worthy to escape and to stand before the Son of Man. So it is important for us to understand the correct sequence. And therefore, part of that is understanding the meaning of the seven trumpets, as it was brought up very adequately during the sermonette. But we've got to look at that in a little bit more focused detail to comprehend it correctly, so that you and I may be counted worthy to escape, so that we are not taken astray by false ideas and go wrong.

And as it was mentioned, the book of Revelation, as it was mentioned in the sermonette, the book of Revelation basically describes the events of the Day of the Lord. And we'll talk more about that in a moment. And so, as it was mentioned after a few introductory chapters and the letters to the churches, then we see the book of Revelation being opened, and in the sixth chapter of Revelation, we see the first six seals. And basically the seventh seal is the Day of the Lord. So it's basically just covering very quickly, bringing you up to the point of the Day of the Lord.

But it is important for us to analyze a little bit more carefully these six seals to understand where we are. Because you and I know we've been saying for many years that we are in the period of the forcemen.

And brethren, we still are in the period of the forcemen. That hasn't changed. And basically what happens is they ride to an intensity and then things calm down, and they ride to intensity and things calm down, and then ride to intensity and things calm down. And brethren, I don't know what's going to happen now. And over the last week or two, we saw some significant events. But I want to emphasize one that most people have forgotten.

I want to emphasize one that most people have forgotten. Today, Day of Trumpets, 40 years ago, Mr. Armstrong gave his lost sermon. Today, 40 years ago, Mr. Armstrong gave his lost sermon. I don't know, but have we walked around for 40 years in the wilderness?

And there's now time for things to move forwards. It is significant and makes me wonder. And so we know these four warsmen are false religion. And you can see that religion is becoming more aware in the world. But I think there's going to be a hitback against this religious, let's call it between inverted commas, revival. And there'll be a hitback against it, very probably with false ideas.

Because in the end, religion is just an ideology, in a sense, to this world. And so you'll have different ideas. And those ideas will aggravate and cause wars, the Red Horse. And as a result of wars, there's going to be hunger. And as a result of that, there's going to be disease and death. And that's what's been happening and continues happening time and time again. Now, we have been saying for many years that there are a number of things that we need to be watching during the period of these four horsemen. Now, I've grouped them into seven.

And the first group, which is four, which are basically geopolitical. And I am not going to go into each one in detail at the moment. But I just want to highlight that we've been saying about the importance of being watching what's happening in the Middle East, in Israel, and the possibility, as we have been saying, of sacrifices. And we need to keep a watch on that.

We need to watch about what's happening in Europe. There is bigger problems in Europe than in this country. There's bigger problems. And when there is a turn to the right in Europe, it might not just be a turn to the right, but might be a turn to the extreme right. And imagine if there is a collapse, for instance, of the German government. What will happen to the European Union? And so we are watching for ten powerful groups of leaders or kings to come up and give that authority and that power to one leader.

We have been saying that for many years. We're saying also to watch the king of the south pushing against Europe in the words of the king of the north. We've got to watch these things. Are we watching what's happening? And we've seen over the last decade or so a decreasing respect for American power. And yeah, at the moment there is maybe, let's call it, a little bit more respect. But that one lost long.

America is creating a hatred against itself from other countries. We need to be aware of that. And so those are four, let's call it, geopolitical points, and we've got to keep watching. And then there's two important religious points. It's the false church and God's church. I believe we're on a verge of seeing strong moves, not only in Europe in what, let's call it, the beast power, but also in the woman that will ride that beast.

This is on the verge. But I think we're also on the verge of seeing the church, God's church, God's people, probably getting bolder. It's not anything that I know, but I just suspect I can sense it. Let's call it in my veins. I don't know. But we need to watch things happening because that will trigger, you know what will trigger? Persecution to God's people. But time is young. So those are, at a religious point of view, certain things we need to watch.

The last, but not least, is moral decadence. Brethren, if you and I cannot see moral decadence in this world, then we are blind. It's just, as I watch some, the bites of some students, and it's just, the mind is just gone. Just gone. It really is terrible. So we've got to watch these things.

But that is still not the end. What is the end? Well, we've got to go to the Scriptures. And Matthew 24, 13 says, He who endures to the end will be saved. Right. So you and I are not just called. We are not just chosen. That means selected, baptized, having God's only spirit. In other words, children of God, chosen. But you and I have to be faithful till the end. We have to endure till the end. When is the end? Well, the very next verse gives us a bit of a clue. It says, This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached unto the whole world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.

At the last council meeting, I was amazed when we looked at some of the statistics of people going to our website. And what has kind of hit me like a ton of rocks on the head, that we didn't have that nation amongst the top nations going to our website. You see, obviously it's the United States and other English-speaking nations. But you know what nation was third with the highest number of visitors on our website over the last three months or so?

Do you know which country it was?

China.

The Gospel is being preached unto the whole world.

Now, we don't have to translate everything into every language, because today you can go on to whatever, and you can give your language, and Google automatically translates it into your own language. Maybe you're not aware of it. But it's a door that God has opened for us to preach the Gospel unto the whole world. Now, 40 years of the Muslim Strong preaching aloud, one of the last things the Muslim Strong said to us is, watch the next thing to come is trade wars, remember?

Are we on the verge of that? And so, brethren, the end is soon because the Gospel is being preached to the whole world as a witness. Understand it is as a witness. And when I talk to people that are not in the church, that are in various... They want counseling, and I talk to them, and I do counseling via Zoom. And not just in this country, but in other countries. I'm doing people in this country that are not out of Dallas. I'm counseling them in other towns and cities, in English, in the States. But I'm also counseling people in Brazil and in other areas, and in Angola.

And when I deal with people that are interested in religion, their thinking is, we've got to preach the Gospel to save more souls. And then the end will come. But that's not what it says. You read it out there. It doesn't say, preach the Gospel to save more souls. It says, preach the Gospel as a witness. Now, obviously, those that repent and that are being called and change, we will help them and guide them and help them to grow. But the mission is to preach the Gospel as a witness. Why? Why do we preach the Gospel as a witness?

So that when the Great Tribulation will come, these people will have a hope, and then they'll repent.

So that when the Great Tribulation comes, and then they say, they were right. I better repent now. And God is merciful. God is patient. And God will grant them repentance and protection, as I will show you a little later.

And so the Gospel has to be preached before the end comes, and the Gospel is being preached. But you and I need to be a little bit more razor-focused about exactly when the end comes. Why? Because you and I are human beings, and you want to know exactly. Well, I'll tell you exactly, because the Scripture says exactly. The problem is, in the meantime, there is a possibility that some of us might say, oh well, the Lord Elieze is coming, and this will suddenly come suddenly. And you have Scriptures like this one, in which, for instance, there comes suddenly a bond, those that are in the days of Noah. But if you read that Scripture, it's interesting, because it says, And the flood came and took them away.

The taking away in context was taken away to destruction. Quite often we think, oh well, we're taken away, therefore, that's what the Protestant world says. You are taken up. You know, there's false teaching of rapture. But you read it carefully. It's talking about they were taken away by the flood, which means they were destroyed. Huh. It's interesting, when you read things in context, the meaning is a little bit more profound. And so, the Scripture, to answer the question about being more razor-focused about the time of the end, talks about that when you see the desolation or the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel standing in holy place, and we had a seminet some months ago about that same subject.

And so, I don't want to go into that, but I'm just saying there's going to be an event that will be significant. Because then, the tribulation starts. And then you need to bring in together Daniel 12, that talks about there is a period of 30 days, between 1260 and 1290. You've got to bring in Hosea 5, verse 5, that it says over the period of 30 days, over a moon, you know, it was over a month, that a period of 30 days, Israel will be destroyed. You and I have to understand who Israel is, and there's a whole different thing that we can address at another time, or you can ask me. But the point is, when that abomination of desolation happens, it will be basically 30 days before the Great Tribulation. And so, that is important to understand, because yes, today we are preaching the Gospel, and then the end will come. But the real razor-thin edge of the end is when that abomination of desolation happens, and then we've got 30 days to the Tribulation. And then we have Scriptures like, and then we open the fifth seal. You see, because these were the four horsemen, the first four seals. Now it comes the fifth seal, which is nothing else than the Great Tribulation.

The fifth seal is the Great Tribulation. And it says, there have been people being persecuted in the past. Yes, we know, during the Dark Ages, but it will happen again, and even worse. And so you tie that in with Matthew 24, the Great Tribulation is the first seal.

And so we have those four seals, which are the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And I want to emphasize one point, and I might mention it more than once, that these four horsemen don't stop at this moment. They're not saying, well, there's not going to be more false religion.

Well, there will be a lot more false religion into the Great Tribulation and beyond. Oh, there'll be no more wars. No, there'll be plenty wars until Christ comes. There'll be no more death and diseases. Of course there will be. So these seals, once opened, they remain open until Christ's coming. An important point to understand. It's not the four horsemen being, and then it closes, now we move to the first seal, and all the other things finish, and now we start a new one. No, those continue.

And so this Great Tribulation, as we know, runs for three and a half years until Christ's coming, but we'll see it gets reduced after a certain amount of time. And so one point that we need to understand before the Great Tribulation is that God does promise some of God's people protection before the Great Tribulation. You tie that in with Revelation 12 about Satan being very angry, thrown to the earth. That is the second time that he is thrown to the earth, but this time now he's expelled.

The first time he wasn't expelled, as we know, he's reading Job. He still has access to God's throne. But this second time he'll be expelled, and he comes with great fury, and he persecutes the woman. The church. And then you read that a portion of the church will be protected, will fly to a place, physical place on planet earth, not rapture, but a specific place on planet earth, protected from Satan.

Maybe it'll be a place where you will not have Wi-Fi and cell phones and social media or whatever. And there'll be no demon influence. So, the promise is that some people in the church will be protected. Not everybody. Because there are seven churches and seven letters to seven churches, and this is only to one of those churches. Now I know that those churches represent churches that existed at that time. Point number one, those churches represent how the church has developed over the years, over the last 2,000 years.

Point number two, but point number three, it also represents attitudes of people that are in the church today. And in fact represents all three. And so, you have certain attitudes of people in the church today that have a brotherly love attitude, a Philadelphia attitude.

But there are some people in the church today that, for instance, maybe have a Sardis-like attitude. They act as if they're alive, but they did. Or there could be some people in the church today that have a loudest They look warm, and they're not really committed. And so God doesn't promise to all the people protection. He just promises to some. In fact, if you read Revelation 12 at the end of it, it talks to you about those that are protected, he can't get to them. Because he sends an army or a flood, and that army is destroyed. And then you read a little later that he then turns for the remaining of the church, the ones that have stayed behind, they were not protected.

And it says those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And so there is a difference there. And it's just a little bit more than just coming to church and believing in Christ. There is a little bit more than that. And it is possible that some leaders that are faithful to God and they committed that they will die. As an example of two, these are two witnesses. They will die. They will suffer and they die. And they could be others as well. So it's not a carte blanche guaranteed ticket. But the overall concept is that those people that are faithful to God and committed will be protected.

That is absolutely true. So there will be a protection of saints somewhere between the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation. I put it there. Maybe it's a little bit before. I don't know. But I would imagine it's probably there. And so it is important for us to understand that that is part of the sequence. We haven't reached yet, by the way, the heavenly signs. You see? It's important to understand the sequence of prophetic events because at this time we have not yet reached the heavenly signs.

And immediately after the tribulation, then there will be the heavenly signs. Oh, that means the tribulation ends? No! Because like I said, wars will continue. Fighting will continue. False religion will continue. And therefore, tribulation will continue. And so it's after the tribulation in the sense that it has run for a certain amount of period. And then God intervenes to reduce that impact, as we'll see in a moment. And so, and that is the sixth seal because it says, then he opened the sixth seal and there was these heavenly signs.

And so it is important to understand the sequence. We've got the four horsemen, which by the way continue riding, but it'll come to a point where there'll be abomination, desolation, and then the great tribulation will start. Before that, the saints are protected. Some of the saints are protected. And then the tribulation runs. The total period, you and I know, of that is three and a half years. But as it was explained in the sermon, the Day of the Lord is approximately a year. So that means a year before that great tribulation is, let's call it, managed in intensity, so that not everybody is destroyed. And then we have, for one year, the Day of the Lord, or the meaning of the Day of Trumpets. So let's look at that in a little bit more detail. We clearly are not today in the heavenly signs. Once we put this in the right sequence, we can see we're not in the heavenly signs period, because the heavenly signs period comes after a number of years into the great tribulation, probably two and a half years into the great tribulation. And so that is important to understand that, put it into that picture. Now we look at Joel chapter 2. I did show you earlier, Joel chapter 2, but now we want to look at it a little bit more carefully, because in Joel chapter 2 verses 31 and 32, it says, There's the heavenly signs before the Day of the Lord. The heavenly signs happen before the Day of the Lord, as it was explained to you in the sermon early on today. An interesting thing.

And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That is meaningful, because it means, during the great tribulation, before the Day of the Lord, there will be people in the world, that are going through the great tribulation, that watched our preaching of the Gospel as a witness, and during the great tribulation they will repent and say, I should have changed. And during the great tribulation, they repent. They call upon the name of the Lord. And God is merciful to them, even at the end of that period, or that part of the period, where the heavenly signs occur. And then we have the Day of the Lord and the Revengence of God. Those people will not be punished. By God, of course not! They're calling upon God, and when God brings his revenge on earth for that final year, they will be protected, or sealed, as you and I will see later. And so, what we have is the Day of the Lord, it's the heavenly signs, it's after the heavenly signs, and when you read Revelation 6, as it was mentioned in the sermon, and when you look at it with Joel 2, is that the Day of the Lord is after the heavenly signs. That's important for us to understand. And that's what it says in the angel too. After the heavenly signs, we have the Day of the Lord.

Right, so that is very clear, it is very significant. And it says it shall come to pass, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, because immediately after Revelation 6, which is right at the end, the people say, fall upon us because the wrath of God has come, you know, it was the Day of the Lord, before the Day of the Lord comes, which is chapter 8, which is the trumpets, we have a middle chapter, chapter 7, which is the sealing of God's servants.

And quite often, we only pay attention to half of the people that are sealed, saying, oh well, it's the 144,000 that are sealed. Yes, it's 144,000 Israelites. That's called a purebred Israelites.

But it says there will be a great multitude that can't be numbered of all the other nations that will also be sealed, that have come out of the Great Tribulation. And so there will be 140,000 Israelites and a great multitude of Gentiles that will repent, will call upon the name of the Lord, and they will be sealed so they will be protected during God's wrath on earth. And so before the Day of the Lord, as the heavenly signs have happened, we have a period of sealing God's servants, a very solemn period. And then after that, we have the seventh seal, which is Revelation 8. And that seventh seal has seven trumpets. That seventh seal has seven trumpets. And so we have the seventh seal, which is the seven trumpets, which is the Day of the Lord. And so right in the beginning of chapter one of Revelation, it says, John was taken in a vision to the Day of the Lord. It's like he was given a PowerPoint presentation, like I have here. He was put into a vision, spiritual vision, of seeing things from that moment onwards. And up to Yah is referring to all the antecedents, things that have happened. And there will be some other filling chapters later on, or as we call, inset chapters, that gives a few little bit of background of additional details. But the focus of the book of Revelation is all about events from chapter eight onwards.

That's the bulk. That's the Day of the Lord.

And so today we have the Day of Trumpets. The symbolism of the Day of Trumpets is these seven trumpets. It's the Day of the Lord. And it's symbolized by one year, approximately. As we heard in the sermonette, I can't say it'll be exactly one year. But in the sermonette it went very well into a day-for-a-year prophecy, and showed a number of prophecies in Isaiah, referring it to one year. So, speaking biblically, I'm not wrong in saying it'll be a year.

And so we'll have the Great Tribulation that will run for three and a half years until Christ's coming. But after two and a half years of the Great Tribulation, we have the heavenly signs, and then for that last year, we have the Day of the Lord, which is the Day of Christ's Revenge. That's God's fury on earth. That starts being unleashed. And so when we look at the seven trumpets, Revelation 8 addresses the first four, which are basically punishment brought by God, and maybe some because of our own sins as mankind. But it'll affect a third of the earth, a third of saltwater seed, and a third of fresh water, and a third of the heavenly bodies. That's what it says. And then, as it was also mentioned earlier on after that, then we hear it says, whoa, whoa, whoa! Because there's three more trumpets to go.

And then we have those last three trumpets, which are the last three woes.

And this is all during the period of a year.

The fifth trumpet, as we saw, is the one about the locusts that was referred early on, which lost for a period of five months. I don't know what it'll be, but I would imagine, with today's technology, will be drones spraying some bacteria or something that is going to affect, or some gases that is going to affect human beings. But you're reading that very section that those people that have been sealed by God will not be impacted miraculously.

So those people be, those people that are sealed by God, will be amongst the nations, and God will protect them right there. But, as you remember, before the tribulation, a portion of the church was protected into a special place. So there are two groups of, or two time periods of protection before the tribulation, and immediately after the heavenly signs. And then, as we read that, in Revelation 9 as well, you see the sixth trumpet, which is this army of 200 million. The church, as said, maybe it's speculative or not, but it's based on scriptures from Daniel 11, has said that this fifth trumpet will most probably be the beast power, attacking the nations of the north and east.

And then the sixth trumpet will be, once that period of five months is over, it's, let's call it, the counter-attack of the nations of the north and east against basically European countries, but it will affect the whole world. And you read there, with that army, they will kill a third of mankind. At that moment, during those last few months, or maybe that very lost moment, they will counter-attack the beast power and they'll wipe out a third of mankind. Thus, I believe then, is atomic war on planet Earth. And now what do we have? Think about it. You have two bullies. One punches the other one in the face, and the other one counter-attacks and punches the other in the face.

What do you think the two bullies are going to do? Oh, okay, it's over. No. Now they're going to get up and say it's either you or me, we'll wipe everything else. We'll go mad, right? And that is when Christ has to intervene. Otherwise, the world will be extinct. That's it. Christ has to intervene then. And that is the lost trumpet when Christ comes. But, but before that, we read a scripture that says, Now, now, there's going to be no further delay.

That's it. Now, that's it. That is it. That is it. Christ is going to intervene. God, the Father is going to ascend. Christ is going to say, Now, pull the valve and go. Now is the time. But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, that's the lost trumpet, when he's about to sound, the mystery of God will be finished. Do you get that? What is the mystery of God that will be finished? The mystery of God is that what has never happened, borrowing from Christ, has never happened that human beings suddenly become spirit beings, changed and transformed as corrupt and immortal beings.

That is the mystery of God that will be revealed to mankind and even to the angelic world. And so, you and I, knowing these things, you and I need to really consider that whatever trials we go through, whatever difficulties we go through, whatever health issues we go through, it is nothing to be compared with the glory that you and I will receive that you and I cannot begin to comprehend.

Because even we that have the first fruits of the Spirit, in other words, we are the first few that have God's only Spirit, that is the symbol of Pentecost, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for us to really become true children of God. It was waiting when our bodies will be redeemed from this body of death, of pain, of suffering, and our bodies will be redeemed to a new spiritual body which has no death, no pain, no suffering.

That is the mystery of God, and what a hope we have. And that is symbolized by today. And so, the seven angels sounded, and you read that in Revelation 11. The seven angels sounded, and it's the time when the nations of the swole, as it says, the kingdoms of the swole, that's the nations of the swole, will be come, will be long, will be ruled by Christ, under obviously the authority of the Father. That is the moment, the seventh angel sounds, yes, there's the resurrection of the saints, but that is the moment when Christ is going to take over rulership of planet Earth.

But it's not immediate, because it says what happens. The nations are angry, as you read in verse 18. And they want to fight. Because they see in the clouds, like you know, you see in these modern movies, you know, invasion from outer space, and it says we got to fight this invader.

And so, it is a time when the nations are angry, the final wrath of God is now going to be poured, the very final wrath, as we'll see, is the seven lost plays. And the dead will be judged. What do you mean the dead will be judged? Because some will be judged to be resurrected in the first resurrection, and some will be judged to remain sleeping for another thousand years.

The dead will be judged. And yes, those that will be in the first resurrection, they'll have the gift of eternal life. It's a gift. But on top of the gift of eternal life, there will be a reward. Some will rule over ten cities, some will rule over five, some will rule over two. And so, it's the time to say, oh, the next millennium, these are the kind of things you're going to do.

And also, it's the time when these people that are gathering together as we read in the Valley of Armageddon, they're going to be destroyed, because Christ will then destroy those that destroy the earth. And so, at that moment, then that seventh trumpet opens up like another group of seven, which is a seven lost place.

And when you read at this place, they're so intense that there's no water, the heat is so intense. Humankind would not survive for months. Would not. This will be a very quick, short period, maybe just a couple of days.

And that is described in Revelation 15 and 16.

There'll be punishments. There'll be time when the nations will gather together in Armageddon, and all these things. And then it will happen as they gather together, they move to Jerusalem. And this is quick. Today, those nations are armed, they're equipped, they're ready for battle. It's not a thing that's going to take months. They'll move super quick. I speculate, I guess it's probably something between the period of trumpets and atonement, a very short period. And then, during that time, they will attack somewhere, try to attack Christ, and then Christ will wipe them out. You read that in Malachi and others, Zechariah, Beggar Paul, and other scriptures, where they're standing, and they're trying to fight Christ, and they can't even move a split second, because their eyes and their tongues will melt in their mouths.

And then we know that then it's the day of atonement, which Satan is put away. And so it is important for us to put this into one big picture. And I've got a simple one big picture. If anybody would like this picture in more detail, send me a message. I'll send you this JPEG or PDF of this picture. I also have a second one, which has all the scriptures embedded into it, which is a lot more detailed than this one. But it shows this four horsemen. It shows things for us to watch as I went through. It shows the abomination of desolation and the protection of the saints. It shows the Great Tribulation. And then it shows the heavenly signs. And then we have those that are sealed. And then we have the seven trumpets, which is the day of the Lord or the day of God's wrath. And then right at the end we can see on the last trumpet I have a little yellow flashlight sign kind of representing lightning, symbolic of Christ's coming, like lightning. So it shows that, that the lost, and that means His second coming. And the events that follow that is obviously it's the first resurrection. It's the lost trumpet. That opens up to the seven lost plagues. It opens up to the wedding supper. Then it follows up with the Day of Atonement and Satan being bound. And then after that we have the wonderful world tomorrow symbolized by the Feast of Tabernacles. So all these things fit together in a beautiful picture.

Now, so what? You can have all the knowledge, and yes it is important to have all the knowledge. That gives you, hopefully, a little bit of understanding of what's going on and gives you some hope. And shows you God's mercy and kindness. Because whenever you repent, when you repent you turn to God, God will listen to you. And God will open His heart towards you. But the important is our heart. It's what's in our heart how we treat other people. How we treat other people. I'll put it another way. Are we being attentive to God's principles of justice, of law, of love? Because it is love. Are we also applying mercy when people stand on your toes, rightfully or wrongfully? Are you willing to forgive? Are you willing to apply Matthew 18 and God talk to them privately? Oh, I've had people come to me and say, no, I don't have to apply Matthew 18.15 because He said it in public, therefore I've got a hitting back in public. Brethren, that is self-justification not to apply Matthew 18.15. You know, it's always...and I have done wrong in that. I've had to learn that, sure, the principle is when they offend you, but I think the principle is a principle. There's something a person said or upset you, whatever it is, or they said, and they shouldn't have said, just go to them privately in ameekness and gentleness and say, hey, you know, couldn't you have said it? Slightly different. I mean, maybe what you said is 100% right, but couldn't you have said it with a little bit more grace? And then we've got a walking faith, trusting God that God, through His Spirit, will work the other things out. And so those are the weightier matters of the law, aren't they? Matthew 23.23. Those are the weightier matters of the law. And so Christ summarizing this in Matthew 24, so He's kind of summarizing this very quickly, He says, yeah, His angels will come and will gather the people. That's the resurrection. You'll bring them all. They'll go up in the clouds to be of Christ. But then after that, Christ describes four interesting parables. I'm not going to go through these parables in detail, but I just want you to do a bit of Bible study with this context, because the first parable is the fig tree saying, hey, time is around the corner. Summer is the hour. Don't be deceived. Then you have the other one about the two servants, and one of them is a wicked servant. They say, the Lord delays His coming. So, summer is the hour, and God is not delaying His coming. And the third one, it says, five were ready and five were not. So, some were ready and some were not. So, where are we? Because, note, they are virgins. So, technically speaking, that means they are all in the Church of God. But some are ready and some are not. And then after that, because those are already, then it goes into the part of the talents. That means they will now be giving their job descriptions for the next few years, or the responsibilities they will have. What are they going to do? What are they not going to do? And some rule of a ten, some rule of a five, etc. And so, brethren, what I want to leave with you is that there is hope. God is in control. Don't be discouraged. There is hope. That's why we are going to preach the Gospel. And in addition to that, what about God's work? Quite often we think, oh, God's work is preaching the Gospel. Well, God's work is in you and I.

Are we being molded and shaped to be prepared to be of Christ? You know, in our seal, it says, preach the Gospel and prepare the people. They are equally important. They are both part of God's work. Are we being prepared? We are being trained, molded, to rule in the world tomorrow. How are you doing? You know, one of the big, important things about ruling is you've got to rule your spirit. There is a prophet that says, he that rules his spirit is mightier than he that governs our multiple cities. So one of the tests for you and I to be able to rule in the world tomorrow is clearly how you are ruling over your carnal instincts and passions. In other words, having self-control and moderation. How are we doing? And then we'll rule with him and right at the end of Obadiah and the last verse of Obadiah, chapter 1, verse 21, it says, Then saviors will come to Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau. And yes, the whole book is about Esau, but now you could elevate this to a spiritual, more meaningful level. That saviors will be you and I resurrected, helping Christ to save the world. You see, we're not saving the world today. Today we're preaching the gospel as a witness. But when Christ comes back, yes, our job responsibility will be to save the world. But not today. Oh yes, those that repent today will do our part to help them. But our mission is to preach the gospel as a witness. But when Christ comes back, we'll have a responsibility to save the world. And Obadiah says, we'll come to Mount Zion, which is where Christ will rule, will be coming on from where Christ will rule, and will judge the Mount of Esau, which symbolically could mean all the nations, all the gentle, unconverted peoples. We will help Christ rule the world. And we'll then reign in the kingdom of God.

You know, scriptures like in Matthew 25 then, talks about that job of reigning in the kingdom of God, and separating the wheat from the chaff and all that, which is not only that in a millennium, but it's into the second resurrection and all that. And so the question is, are we ready to meet our Creator? Are we? Are we doing our part? Are we working on ourselves besides preaching the gospel to the whole world? It's both. It's not one or the other. It's both. So are we ready to rule with Christ? And now we come to a very interesting scripture at the end of 2 Peter, which says, God's got a lot of patience, because God wants everybody to come to repentance. But then it says that day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And yeah, we talked about the day of the Lord being that last year. But you know what? Christ's day continues into the ruling the millennium, into the second resurrection, into the lake of fire, because that's the day that is intervening. And yes, it's correct to say that day of the Lord is that year, but in this context here, in 2 Peter, it's saying that whole period that Christ is ruling until he hands over the kingdom to the Father. And that will come, start, as a thief in the night, if people are not ready. We need to be ready, because everything at the lake of fire, at the second death, everything will burn out. Everything, every element, every element, every physical molecule of this world of ours, of this planet, will melt, will burn. And so, because you and I know these things, what is important? Again, so what? What is important? We need to watch our conduct to be godly and to be like God, to be gentle. We've got to watch that conduct.

And the main thing, you and I need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, it's easy to say that. The first thing is, you learn about how Christ was, the person, how he was gracious, how he was kind, how he was merciful, how he talked to people of kind and loving kindness. Oh yes, he was strict with the hypocrites, but he had a lot of loving kindness when he talked to others. You and I are to be like Christ. Therefore, you and I have to grow in how we apply the same graciousness towards our fellow brethren. We have to grow how we apply and how we treat others with the same loving kindness and graciousness. That is the whole matter, to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, because to him is the glory, both now and forever. Amen.