Choose Life

Well, thank you very much, Paul and Bonnie. Very beautiful special music, wonderful worship of God, as all of us are gathered here to do. Good morning, brethren! I am absolutely sure that I am not able to keep up with Mr. Salome. That was a really interesting little part that he had to share with us there. I certainly do want to thank all of you for coming today. I'm talking about choices today. You made a choice to come! Even though they did advertise, I'd be speaking. So, I'm really excited that you came. But I wanted to make a few comments. I certainly want to welcome all of you here today. We are all, as far as God watching us, we are all the sons and daughters that he wants to be in his family. That is a wonderful thing to think about, a wonderful thing to consider. I'm very grateful to be able to have the opportunity to speak to you today. As Mr. Salome mentioned, I am still recovering from my open-heart surgery this past February. But I do want to thank all of you. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your so many cards. I know shortly thereafter there were cards from all over the United States and all around the world and several from Canada. So, there may be people here who sent cards. But I am very grateful to be here. I have a little different perspective on life than I had prior to that time. I had been in very good health. And yet, when I found that I needed this surgery, I was thankful that God was involved.

Everything went very smoothly. My cardiac rehab has been extremely good. I'm glad to be able to do it. And, as I understand, I'll be able to hike up and down the mountains out here. So, I'm looking forward to that. My wife Pat and I do live in Kansas City.

We serve the church there in Kansas City and the surrounding area and over in Fulton, Missouri. So, I do bring you greetings from the brethren there.

Most of them are attending the feast in Branson, Missouri.

Somebody really wants to get a hold of us here today.

Most of the brethren there in Missouri or Kansas are attending in Branson, and that's where Pat and I normally go. We're kind of familiar with the area, having been there for a long period of time. And yet, this is our first trip up to Alberta. I can't say it's the first time in Kansas, though, because we did go in 1971 to attend the feast in Penticton.

And some of you have already mentioned that feast in Penticton in 1971 or surrounding that time in the big tent in the newly mowed hayfield.

That's the thing that I recall about it, because the tent that was being used at that time with however many thousand people were there had been in Big Sandy. And it had been moved up to Penticton for that year, and they had set it up in a hayfield.

And it smelled to me exactly like home.

I'm from Oklahoma, and Dad raised alfalfa. He seemed to delight in being able to have us boys bale the hay.

And so snails smelled just like an alfalfa field. I don't think it was alfalfa, but it was a...we usually grew wheat or barley and quite a bit of hay.

So that's what it smelled like there at that feast. But I know a few of you, at least I've mentioned this to some, you have mentioned you were there. So I'm thankful that you're able to be here now.

That's been a long time ago. It doesn't seem like it could possibly be. That's pretty much our exposure to Canada, that one year.

I do want to thank Mr. Saloma, Raynor, and his wife Claudia for all the work they put into the feast here. I know it's a...it's sometimes a year-round job working out the housing, planning, preparing, and then awaiting all of our arrival.

But I know God is pleased to see us as we appear before Him.

He has appointed these days, and that's why we're not doing it because we have to.

We're doing it because we choose to. We're doing it because we want to.

And that's, again, part of what I want to talk about today.

Now, Mr. Saloma has mentioned several things about Canada in contrast to the U.S.

I guess I might want to ask, since I'm from Kansas or live in Kansas, how many of you are from other than Canada?

Can I see your hands?

Okay. Now, how many of you are from Canada?

Okay, that looks about half and half to me, maybe 60-40. Anyway...

I thought the U.S. and outside the U.S. might have a lot more, but it's pretty close to half, so I thank you for that.

I have to say that the people we've run into, not only all of you who are very friendly, very nice, very loving and caring, many of the people that we've been to and talked to in the store or at the hotel, they have just been amazingly pleasing to be around.

courteous, friendly, polite. I guess that's why they might be saying, I'm sorry, all the time.

Anyway, I think that's a good trait in learning to be that kind. I think it shows respect, and that's what they truly must be wanting to promote, and I think they do a good job here. Of course, we've mentioned a good amount about the beauty of the area, and clearly this is one of the most majestic and gorgeous areas that people could travel to, so all of us benefit from that. But it also is wonderful to see people who are kind and who are polite and courteous. In talking to several of you here in the last couple of days, it's been nice to see the makeup of the people who are here.

It's always interesting to me to see what kind of group that we have in any given location for the feast.

I know that we do have at least some very few of you who are brand new, who have only been here attending or are attending the Feast of Tabernacles for the first time.

I'm thankful to have been able to talk to some in that category, and know some of you are returning to church fellowship.

That also is very good, and we certainly want to be like Luke 15 gives an example of what they call the prodigal son and him coming back to his father.

But we don't want to be like his big brother. We want to be welcoming. We want to be receiving.

And so for those of you returning, that's wonderful. And then I know there have to be many.

Many of you who have been long-time faithful members of the Church of God, some 20 or 40 or even 50 or more.

I know we've talked to several who have been in the church or a part of the church for over 50 years.

And of course, it's wonderful to see that faithfulness. I commend you for that. That is still your choice.

God is working with us. He's doing that in a very merciful way. But He involves us. He involves us in choosing to obey and honor Him.

So I want to cover something that I hope would be helpful for all of us at this time.

We all know that we're privileged to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles right now, this year.

We're privileged to know what the Feast of Tabernacles means. And we know that it pictures a glorious time, a future time for man.

A time that's going to be quite different than we see the world today.

And it truly is going to be out of this world. I think we could say that what God is going to do...

And we see this revealed in the Word of God. And again, I know many of you are quite well versed in the Word of God.

You can tell that from talking to people and the familiarity with the words.

And yet there's more to it than simply knowing what God says. It's got to be applied in our lives.

We have to choose to obey God. We have to choose to honor and worship God.

And that's what I'm encouraging us to do. I know we're doing that right now.

But we also want to do that throughout the year, and we want to be here next year.

At least we want to be at the Feast of Tabernacles next year if God permits.

And so I'm going to be...and I hope this is not confusing to you...

I'm going to be reading...whenever I read Scripture, it's going to be out of the New Revised Standard Version.

So it's very similar, but it is a little bit different than the New King James that many of you may have.

But I want to tell you that to begin with. But I'd like for us to look in Philippians 2.

Philippians 2 is one of the most amazing chapters that I think we can read in the Bible.

It certainly gives us a perspective that we need to have.

Philippians describes...Paul describes to the church at Philippi...

He describes what he wants us to be like. Now we've already had messages that point out how God wants us to be and how it is He wants us to value spiritual things and not be tied up and wrapped up in just the physical surrounding or the physical stuff.

I could truly relate to what Mr. McNeely was talking about yesterday because my wife and I have cleaned out a lot of our stuff in the basement.

We've been collecting for a long time. I'm not sure exactly why.

Because then we just have more and more stuff in the basement and in the garage. Thankfully, this past year or past summer, being a little more limited than we have been at times, we've gotten rid of most of that.

It made me feel bad sometimes because my favorite couch I put out in the garage could not get anybody to even haul it away!

I guess it was probably enjoyed by me more than it would have been by anybody else.

But here you find, of course, this is a description of what we want to become like.

Verse 1, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion, and sympathy, make my joy complete.

Paul was telling the people, you just fill me up with your joy.

He was joyful and excited when he saw them yielding to God.

We have the same mind, have the same love.

Being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or deceit but in humility.

I regard others as better than yourselves.

That is, in my estimation, being exemplified by many of you here at this B site.

We would hope that could be all of us, but we want to seek this attitude of humility.

Verse 4, let each of you look not on your own but to the interests of others.

When we are looking out and caring for other people, that not only helps them, that helps us.

That helps us become like God.

He says, let this same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ.

I'm reading this, I'm going to read down to about verse 11.

What Paul is inspired to explain is an outcome.

An outcome to God's plan for men.

I'm going to describe that as God's human project.

It's a human project that's going on.

God, of course, is spirit. He's working with us as humans.

That is, we're going to see throughout the Bible spans numerous different sections, and we need to have those sections in mind. Paul writes about the outcome to God's plan for mankind.

He describes, verse 5, the same mind that's in Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be clung to.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness, and being found in human form, he humbled himself. Humbled himself became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Now, that's an incredible section of Scripture to think about or to read.

And yet, what I want to point out is beginning here in verse 9, because of what Jesus was willing to do, because of what he and the Father put together as the plan, because mankind, in this human project, was going to need to be redeemed. Every one of us owe our lives to God. We owe everything we have to God.

And of course, we do owe our lives to our Redeemer. But he says, because of what Jesus was willing to do in verse 9, God has highly exalted Him and gave Him. In verse 9, God has highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bend.

In heaven and on earth, under the earth, every knee is going to bend. In verse 11, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

See, now, you can read that and say, okay, that's what God says is going to happen. And yet, see, that's talking about each one of us. Each one of us, if we're going to be a part of the divine family of God, if we're going to come to take on His mind, His outlook, His attitudes, as Dr. Topping was reading about, discussing earlier this morning, and the attitudes that God has, He's able to help us with those.

He's able to guide us. But see, if we're going to be a part of the family of God and a part of the outcome, we are going to have chosen to honor and obey and worship the Father and the Son. And we will, of course, read about the way in which God has designed this human project. We read about it throughout the Bible. And yet, I want to point out in Deuteronomy 30, the Scripture I know you're familiar with, Deuteronomy 30, even though choice is read throughout the Bible, Deuteronomy 30 is directly stated to the children of Israel that God holds out before us a choice.

Now, clearly, He was stating this to the people of the nation of Israel back many, many millennia ago. But it's also applicable to us. We have a choice. Starting in verse 15, He says, I've set before you today life and prosperity, and I've set before you death and adversity. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I'm commanding you today by loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways and observing His commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous.

And the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you're going to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but your lettuce stray to bow down to other gods, if anything becomes more important to you than the great Creator God, He goes on to say, I declare on verse 18 to you today that you shall perish. You shall not live long in the land. In verse 19, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing, and cursing.

And so what does He say in the remainder of this verse? In the early part of the 30 verse 19, He says, choose life. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Loving the Lord your God and obeying Him and holding fast to Him, for that means life to you in length of days.

Now, clearly, it was applicable to a long physical life for some of the Israelites, but it's even more applicable to all of us. God holds out before us, as we've had it described here early in the feast, eternal, immortal life as a spirit being. I think Mr. Dubkowski mentioned, you know, he starts with dust and turns us into, you know, the human, physical people, and ultimately then he's going to transform. God is going to transform us to eternal spirit beings. That's an incredible blessing.

It's not something any of us deserve, and it clearly is not something we earn. We're simply going to choose to yield to God. We're going to choose to honor God with our lives, and we'll see this throughout, you know, the entirety of what I want to cover in the remainder of the sermon today. So I think it's good for us to each think of, you know, just what am I choosing?

As Christians today, you know, we've been selected by the Father. You read in the Bible about our calling. You read about an election. We've been selected by the Father. But we have, because of God's design and because of the way He created us, we have free will. We have free will. You know, we can choose to disregard God. That's not what God wants. That's not what He wishes for us.

And many times when we struggle, and admittedly, you know, we do. Every one of us, I do. You know, all of us do struggle at times. And we have to be reminded, and maybe it has to be a daily choice to draw close to God, to spend time in prayer, to study the Word. And I, again, know so many of you are very well-burhed in the Bible. Thankfully, that's because of years of study, years of reading the Bible. And of course, we not only want to read it, we want to understand it.

We want to appreciate what it has to say, what it says about God and man and about the future. Because, you know, when we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, we're looking forward to a millennial rule of Christ on earth. There's more information there when we read the Bible that we find out about. And so, being given free moral agency carries with it a responsibility, a responsibility to choose.

Choose life. That's what's described here in Deuteronomy. I want us to go to Revelation 21. Again, this was read earlier in the sermonette, and so it ties right together with what I want to point out today. Revelation 21, also like Philippians 2, that points out what the outcome is. See, there's only really two options. And here in Revelation 21 and 22, we see a beautiful picture of life beyond the second death. But here in verse 7, it says, "...those who conquer or those who overcome will inherit these things, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

But as for the cowardly, the fearful, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." So you see in those two verses, verse 7 and verse 8, the two outcomes we can have are eternal life on one hand. We choose it. We want it. We seek it. Our heart yearns for a closeness to our Heavenly Father and our High Priest and Lord.

We want that so badly, and God certainly wants to give it to us. But see, He says the outcome will be those who overcome, and we be given all things, and then those who do not. Those who refuse to overcome, those who resist God will simply die a second time, and then that's it. It's over. And so, you know, that's relatively simple. It's even something I can kind of follow.

It's either we are in agreement with God, we're in submission to God, we yield to God, we thank God for everything, or we no longer will exist. Not only we, but actually this applies to all of humanity. It replies to everyone as we'll see. So, in light of this, what do we want to choose? What do you want to choose? Because it's your choice. It doesn't really matter what the person next to you chooses. It may help or not at times.

But, you know, what will you choose? Will you choose God's gift of eternal life? I want to lay the groundwork for this a little, as God is going to deal with all humanity in the past, in the present, and in the future. He alone determines a few things. There are three things that God determines. One is that He determines who He will work with and when He will call and draw people to Jesus Christ. So, in essence, He's the one who determines when He will extend an opportunity for eternal life, for salvation to different people.

He does it in different times. You read that not only throughout the Old Testament, but through the New. And so that's the first thing we have to be thankful for. The second thing is that God gives knowledge to those He calls and draws. He calls us to Jesus Christ and He gives knowledge of the truth. That's the second thing. He gives knowledge of the truth. Knowledge from the Bible. Knowledge that we receive, that we identify with, that we grow to love from the Word of God and through the aid of the Spirit of God.

That's what He provides. And in a sense, when we think about our free moral agency and the fact that we have a responsibility to choose, it's a wonderful blessing to realize that God has called and drawn us today. And that He has given us the information, the knowledge of the truth. The Bible talks about coming to believe the truth. Of course, it talks about the Word of God being truth. But it says we have to come to believe the truth and then we have to come to love the truth.

It's got to be something we are fully excited about in every way. In a sense, we are able to give informed consent. We can agree that that is what God has offered and we know what the Bible says. And so we then are given the third point. All who are going to be a part of God's family are going to have a choice. Choose to obey from the heart. Those three things. God drawing and working with us.

Secondly, giving us a knowledge of the truth. And then lastly, letting us choose. Do we choose eternal life? Here in Revelation 20, back up a page, at least in my Bible. In Revelation 20, in verse 14, it's talking about a time that is after the human project has concluded. At the end of the human project, it's described here in verse 14, death.

Chapter 20, verse 14, death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death, the lake of fire. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life, those who refuse to have their name written in the book of life, who refuse to choose to obey and honor God, will be thrown into the lake of fire. See, verse 14 describes death being destroyed. This is beyond just the times that we think of in connection with the way that man is going to come to understand that they must relate to God.

Us now, others in the future. But see, death is going to be destroyed, and all men will have had a knowledgeable choice. They will have been given that choice. See, we think of ourselves as preparing for the world tomorrow, and God truly is preparing us to serve other people and to be cheerleaders and to be teachers and to be encouragers of others.

But we're very special to God because He's drawn us to Jesus Christ in an age that is a difficult age. It is an evil age. You don't see the millennium talked about as an evil age. You don't see the white throne judgment talked about as an evil age. You know, there will be obstacles there, but it doesn't look like it would be quite the same as what we're going through today. Each of us are making a choice today against the influence that Satan has in this world, the influence he has in our lives, the effect that he has had on us.

And of course, God is not an author of fear of religion. He's not the author of that. But a fear of God, a respect for God, and awe for what God's word says is necessary for us to choose to accept God's gift of eternal life.

So I'd like to just briefly run through what we see revealed in the Bible. And again, to keep in mind, God chooses when he offers salvation. He chooses as he would give knowledge of the truth. And then we have to choose. We have to make a choice to obey God. I think you can see that this is really important in every segment. I've got six different segments here that you can easily think through when you think about the Bible. There are six sections that are revealed that are kind of periods of time. And yet, each one of them involves a certain level of offering a choice. You know, the first one is God dealing with the angelic realm.

See, we know that going back beyond before the time of the earth being set so that it is perfect for man. You know, we can see how perfect it is when we get into some of the beautiful areas like this area. You know, there are a lot of gorgeous, beautiful things around. And yet, you know, before that time, God was dealing with the angelic realm.

And it's very clear that some of the angels, and particularly Lucifer, made some very bad choices. Terrible choices! Now, we see when we study the Bible about the angelic realm, you know, that there are many good angels. There are many righteous angels. There are many righteous, or at least two, I guess, righteous archangels. We know of Michael and Gabriel, and they seem to be God's servants, do what he says, and the bulk of the angels. Serve God, they honor God, they worship God, they bow before God, they praise God, you know, they exalt Him for His holiness. And yet, obviously, a third of the angels, they went awry. The Bible talks of them about being those who, you know, the angels that sinned. We'll get to that in a second. I'd like to have us think a little bit about Lucifer. Now, Lucifer was a gorgeous angel. In Ezekiel 28, we won't take time to read through that, but Lucifer was a gorgeous angel. He was a talented angel, an archangel. He was gifted, he was musically able, he was intelligent, he was smart, he had everything going for him. He was around the throne of God. And yet, he lost sight of his relationship with God. See, and I have tried to continue to help people in the areas where I am to be mindful of the fact that Lucifer forgot that he was a created being. Here in Ezekiel 28, Ezekiel 28, as marvelously as he is described here, and again, we won't read through all of it, but in Ezekiel 28, in describing the way that Lucifer was even at the throne of God, in verse 13, in the Garden of Eden, the latter part of verse 13, on the day that you were created, they were prepared, and anointed care of his guardian. I placed you on the mountain of God, and you walked among the stones of fire. And in verse 15, you were blameless, you were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created. Until iniquity was found in you in the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. Of course, this is original sin. This is a sin that occurred even before the earth was shaped for man. And yet, you see Lucifer forgetting. And actually, you have to, when you think about it, you know, Lucifer had everything going for him. He was right at the throne of God. He had every ability, every talent. But of course, all that went to his head. All that became to warp his understanding.

And in essence, I think we have to say that Lucifer deceived himself. He chose to rely on himself, and actually became the author of doing what is right in your own eyes. See, that's what we see perpetuated on to man. He became the author of doing what is right in your own eyes, and of course, that's completely opposite to what we read earlier about Jesus.

You know, Jesus was looking out and caring for others. He was not focused on himself. But as I said, Lucifer forgot that he was a creative being. In 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 2, verse 4, 2 Peter 2, verse 4, it says, If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, or Tartarou, as we know, a place of restraint, and committed them to chains of darkness, deepest darkness, to be kept until the judgment, then he is able to deal with those who resist God.

And clearly, with Lucifer and with those angels that he deceived, how long did it take Lucifer to do that? To get a third of the angels to believe that he was right and God was wrong? I don't know how long that took. We don't see time frames at that point. It doesn't really matter. Time is not really a problem to God. Time is wonderful. God is eternal.

He inhabits eternity. And yet, in this area of dealing with the angelic realm, clearly some bad choices were made. And so the second time frame I want us to think about is simply the pre-flood world that started with Adam and Eve, and of course went on for the period of time until Noah was on the scene.

It's called the world that then was. See, very bad choices. Adam and Eve even were given the knowledge of the truth of God. They weren't exposed to that. Now, how God views them, how he will judge them, that's clearly up to him. See, they had knowledge from the Creator. They were told what God wanted. Don't do this, do that. Follow me. And clearly, and we have to appreciate this since we live in this age clearly, they didn't comprehend how powerful Satan was.

They didn't understand who he was. They didn't comprehend that Satan's effect in the offer that he was making to them, how powerful that would be. That that would choose death instead of choosing life. In Genesis 6, you see the time that was right before God would rescue the world through Noah and the Ark. In Genesis 6, verse 5, the Lord saw the wickedness of humankind was great and that every inclination of thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. So how many bad choices were being made by people 1500 years into the human project? How many bad choices? It sounds like almost all of them were bad.

It sounds like they were not choosing life, they were choosing death. So that's the second of our time frames. The third time frame I want to mention is simply what we see called this present evil world.

And this is actually a lengthy period of time of about 4500 years, from the time after the flood and through what we read in the Old Testament. Old Testament Israel, God working with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and later the kings in Israel, David being the most notable. During that time and then into the time of what we read in the New Testament when Jesus would come, again at the right time, he came, he offered redemption, he offered the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

And then, as we know in the New Testament, the bulk of it is not only about Jesus' life, but the life of the church. The life of the people that God would choose to draw to Jesus Christ in the last 2000 years. And of course, the church age is mentioned here, and we should be coming to understand how that the church is the Israel of God, how that we are to be learning from that example. And admittedly, when we look at this time frame, this present evil world, clearly in the Old Testament, God worked with very few chosen people.

You know, Abraham is a specific individual, and then his descendants, Isaac and Jacob, were specially selected to have a relationship with God. And Galatians 1, I think it's, of course, this is where Paul describes our world at his time, and certainly our world today, as the present evil world. Galatians 1, verse 4. Verse 3, he says, See, Paul's description of the world at that time, and what we know of as our world today, is a description of a present evil world. And see, it goes on to say in verse 6, I'm astonished. Paul says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ, and you're turning to a different gospel. See, now, we've all seen that, if we've watched over the last 20 years, and we've seen that happen. And see, Paul says, I'm astonished that so many bad choices are being made, turning us away from the one who called us to a relationship with God. And we could back up, maybe go forward a couple of pages to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17. Again, Paul is writing to the Ephesians, another group that he had a great deal of love for. He spent several years in Ephesus. He was very close to the people, and he understood and knew many of them. He says, I pray. And verse 17, Ephesians 1, verse 17. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He's called you, and what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints.

What is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe according to the working of His great power? See, God calls and draws again a very small group of people in this age. You know, we all wish that were bigger, more. We pray for that. We yearn for that, but that's up to God. He's the one who determines whom He's going to work with prior to Jesus coming.

And He goes ahead and says His power, verse 20, God put His power, this power to work in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated in matters right hand, and heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named. And so He is above everything, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And of course, that's why we look forward to the coming of Jesus. We look forward to His intervention in world affairs and His visible activity as the King of Kings. He's over us if we choose to respond to God. He's over us today. And clearly He's over the rest of the creation, but He's directly dealing with us today, and He's going to be a greater impact in the future. So as the Israel of God, with our eyes of our heart enlightened, we have to choose to love and to live God's way. We have to make that a priority. And again, I hope that I can emphasize that enough to encourage you always to know that that is an imperative. The fourth timeframe is the one, of course, we're celebrating. During the feast, the world to come, the world tomorrow, the Kingdom of God on earth, the millennium. What we think of as, and of course even as our program and magazine are called, Beyond Today. We're looking into a time beyond Christ's intervention in world affairs. And of course, as that time period comes, which it will, we don't know if it will come in our age, in our lifetime. You know, all of us may have thought that 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. We don't know how long God is going to allow us to live and allow us to be tested and allow us to continue to faithfully choose His way. But that's up to Him. And of course we know, and we've had read the Scriptures about the knowledge of God covering the earth as the water covers the sea. I do want to read Jeremiah 31, because in Jeremiah 31, you talk about again the future, Jeremiah 31, verse 34, Jeremiah 31, verse 34. This is talking about a new covenant, a covenant that all of us are involved in with God. We've been selected, we've been given knowledge, we have to choose. We have to make sure that we remain faithful to God. But here it's talking about, in essence, a time in the future. But in verse 33 it says, this is a covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel. After those days I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, they will be my people. Verse 34, again writing of the millennium, Millennium no longer shall they teach one another and say to each other, Know the Lord, for everyone will know me. Everyone will have come to an awareness and a knowledge of the truth. God is going to deal with people throughout the thousand years. He's going to reshape the earth. He's going to restore so much on this earth. It's going to be a reclamation project. It's going to cause the whole world to be as beautiful as the pretty areas are. And I think whenever you think about the area that we're in, the beautiful mountains are often mentioned. You can see the delightful clear sky like Mr. Saloma showed us a picture of. He showed us the dazzling, brilliant stars that we see out at night.

And yet, I think maybe one of the foliage, of course, is beautiful. I think one of the things that stands out is the water. The water, the lakes, the streams. The water is just incredible. I'm sure that's why God describes the fact that Israel forsook the fountain of water and that we are to embrace, as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, the living water that he's the source of. We want to seek that. But see, God is going to reshape the earth. He's going to reshape the world. And he's going to have the knowledge of God available. Everywhere. Everyone will have the knowledge of God. But see, even then, people will have to choose. If they're going to be a part of the divine family of God, they will still, even though everything might be wonderful, maybe their lives, I'm sure over a period of time, the beginning of the millennium, there will be a transition. And you will think, and as you read Zechariah 14, you can read just Zechariah 14, verse 16 through 19. I won't read it, but we know it talks about people learning the truth, learning to come up to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. And obviously, some don't get it immediately. Some don't like that. They don't want to do that. And so God can deal with that. He will deal with that. He'll withhold things. In order to teach them or to show them. And see, how long it takes for people to get the right idea? I don't know. But it's not going to instantaneously happen. They're going to have to be taught. And then, they're still going to have to be, and I think this might be good for us to think about, they're going to need to be encouraged. And see, one of the things that we're going to do, we're talked of as being at that time kings and priests and teachers and judges. Whatever those different titles would include. I think one of them is going to be an encourager. We're going to be an encourager because we've already gone through and experienced our time for salvation. And we have chosen to agree with God and to yield to God and to rejoice that God has given us that knowledge. See, that's what's going to happen in the millennium. The fifth time frame is, of course, Revelation 20. The time period, however long that is, that we read about in Revelation 20, whether it's 100 years or something else. Revelation 20, verse 11, I saw a great fight thrown, and one who sat on it, and earth and heaven fled from their presence. No place was found, and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

And the books of the Bible, the books were opened to them. Their knowledge of the truth will be extended. Their knowledge of God is going to be expanded. And then, of course, it goes ahead to say, the books were opened and another book was opened, the Book of Life, and the dead were judged according to their works as recorded in the books. So their name could be added to the Book of Life. Their name could be added to that book that all of us want to be in, and all of us want to choose. Once God has given us, we don't tell God what it is we're going to do. He shows us what His plan is, and then we follow by learning to make right choices. And so you see a time there, and I think it would also be a time, not only like the millennium, where a great deal of encouragement should be offered. And we will be. Billions of people will rise in this second resurrection that's at the end of the millennium. And yet those people are still going to go through a similar process of knowing that God is now making available to them salvation, and that the knowledge of the truth is available, and they still have to choose. And I'm going to say the last time frame is what we read about here in chapter 21 and 22. The time of a new heavens and a new earth, because again, this is a time, this description in Revelation 21 and 22 is a time beyond the human project. So the human project is going to come to a conclusion here in chapter 21. Chapter 21, or let me jump on to chapter 22. This is describing a time when the family of God is in complete harmony. They have all chosen, whenever God chose to deal with them, the human project is complete, and God is living with His family. That's what you read in chapter 21 and 22. But in chapter 22, let's go to that, it says, verse 14, "...blessed are those who wash their robes," or other translations, "...blessed are those who do His commandments, so that they have the right to the tree of life, and may enter the city by the gates." But then outside, those who are fornicators or murderers, idolaters, everyone who loves and practices a lie, they're not going to be there. They will have died. And if we back up to chapter 21, verse 22, this description is just incredible. An incredible description. I saw no temple, verse 22, in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no meat of sun or moon to shine, for the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb.

The nations will walk by that light. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. This is talking of a time when God is then residing with His family. And in verse 27, nothing unclean will enter it, or anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who have chosen to be submissive to God. Only those who were written in the Lamb's book of life. We had that marvelous privilege today. God is going to extend that to others in the millennium and others in a time frame beyond that. But see, the choice for us to be a part of that is God encourages us so much. I want to conclude here by again reading one of Paul's outcome letters, 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15.

Now, of course, this summarizes what we've already been talking about, about the different time frames that the Bible reveals. And yet in verse 20, it says, In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, and He is the firstfruits of those who have died. And in verse 23, each in His own order, Christ the firstfruits, and at His coming those who belong to Christ. And then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom of God the Father, after He has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For He says He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Those who... that's what we read about in Revelation 20, about how God will deal with others during the millennium and the white throne judgment.

But here in verse 26, again Paul gives a summary here, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Now Revelation 21 and 22 are beyond death. They're beyond. They're in a time of a new heavens and a new earth. But see here in verse 27, God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says that, all things are put in subjection, it's plain that He does not include the one who put all things in subjection under Him. Because when all things are subjected to the Father, all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the one who put all things in subjection under Him, so that God may be all in all. It's incredible to know that Jesus is God, but He is voluntarily and willingly in subjection to the Father. He said that while He was here on the earth. He says, for the good of the family, I'm going to do that in the future. And then all of us who are a part of the family, all of us who have chosen, not just worship God in whatever way we please, worship God and honor God and obey God in the way that He asks. The way that He directs us. So the question for all of us during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then of course throughout the remainder of our year, the question for us is will we choose? Life. Will we choose what God offers as a gift? The gift of eternal life. And I will say that we all really have to do that. We have to choose daily because we struggle when we fight in this age. And it's an age that Satan has ruined in what's called the present evil world. But we all have struggles. We all have, and unfortunately there are so many distractions today, that our mind can be diverted from what's really important. But what's really important is to daily draw close to God in prayer, in study, to be able to relate to how concerned our Heavenly Father is. We've already had some great Scriptures read about how much God loves us, how much He wants us to relate to Him in love. And so, you know, I hope that you think about the thought that, you know, it's my choice, and I want to encourage all of us to choose the gift and to do that daily, to do that throughout the feast, but that do that throughout the remainder of the year. And certainly, you know, God, our Heavenly Father, is waiting. He's got plenty of time. We don't all have that much time. We don't know how many years we may live. So God is waiting, and certainly God is watching our choices. He's doing that attentively. And so I hope that all of us, you know, will continue, as many of us have faithfully done for decades of years, continue to choose life.