The Day of the Lord

At the Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia in 2005, we were meeting in our hall, and we had some public lectures where we were meeting. And I noticed that across the hall where we were at, there was another group meeting, and I found that it was a Rotary Club meeting.

And it was just after our service was finished, and they had a lunch. And since I was a member of Rotary in the United States, I thought that I would go over there as a guest. They warmly welcomed me as an American guest. And they asked me who I was.

Usually, you are asked if you're a visitor to give an icebreaker as to who you are, who you represent, what your job is, and so forth. And so I said, you know, I'm from that group that's across the hall. We're keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, you know, explained a few things about the feast, and explained the fact that I was a minister, and that these were people from the Baltic Republics, and from Scandinavia, and visitors from the United States and Canada, which we had at that time at the feast.

Well, that was very interesting to them. Most of the club were university professors, because there's very... the largest university in the Baltics is right there where the feast site was in Tartu University. Tartu University. And a brash professor came up to me.

And this was just a few months after the tsunami hit in southern Asia, and 300,000 people perished. He came to me, how can you tell me that there is a God when 300,000 people perished? Why would a loving, caring God allow for that to happen? I'm... you should be ashamed of yourself. So here he is, angry. He's angry. I'm not sure that a God that he kind of thinks exists, but then he says there is no God. It's kind of confusing on his part. But it was a very, very deep question, is why do we see the kinds of uncontrolled things that we see in the world?

And right now what we see in the world, as far as environment with earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons, then what we see politically, what politicians realize as far as what's happening in the world of political powers, that it's really out of control. And the new normal is that the world is chaotic, and really nothing can be done about it. There is no nation, there is no power, or there's no reliable way in which we can control it. We also live at a time when we have weapons that could obliterate the earth if alliances form.

We also know that the disparity between the rich and the poor is ever increasing. And one of the causes of war from the book of James is disparity of economics you want, but you cannot have, and so that you go to war over it. And very poor nations are extremely frustrated in nations where the average wage can be 20, 40, 60, or a very good hundred dollars a month, where in this country, you know, it's maybe 1 50th of what people make. And disparity between the rich and the poor in the world is even more obscene.

When you see people who are the top 10 richest people in the world, in Saudi Arabia, in Russia, America, and India, are valued at 60, 70, 100 billion dollars. And you have people who are millions of people who are eking out a living at the lower end. And you say, how could God like this? I mean, why can't God just make it easier for us to have an economic system where we can all share in the wealth of the world?

And so this Rotarian was angry. In fact, he just, I told him, look, I said, why don't you come to our service? I was asking him to come to the last Great Day service. He said, I will answer those questions. I'll be very happy to you to do my best to answer that question. I said, you religious people are all alike. You don't really have answers. You just try to say any old thing, and you just stomped off, and nobody from that group came there.

But these are questions that people have about why do we live in this world? They absolutely have no comprehension about who we are, about a God, what God's plan is, what God might do, what he might not do, if he does exist. We were amazed when we did the Why Were You Born interviews.

We just went on the street to ask people why they were born. As to the shallow answers that most people had, I know we kind of confronted them, and they didn't have a chance to really think about answering the question, but why were you born? I know some said, I have no idea, whatever. Or, you know, I think I might have been planned, I think.

You know, they really had no idea about their existence. And you know what I was thinking about that? That, you know, I do. And is it wrong for me to feel so self-satisfied? Do I know something that is so deep and complex? It's not. I just feel like God has no idea what to do.

Given you and me and understanding about, you know, who we are, where we came from, who we are like, or supposed to be like, and even more to be like, and what our destiny is.

We've become inured to the fact that it's so beautiful that it becomes very, very commonplace. But it is a very, very great truth. I told this professor that God is going to straighten things out, of course, which sounds shallow. But it's not at this time that I told him that this is not God's world. I said, I live in this world, but it is not God's world. But it takes some explaining to make that point. Since we're at the Feast of Tabernacles, we're talking about things dealing with prophetic events that deal with a time when there's a transition from this world, which is outside the scope of the kingdom of God. This is not God's world. This is not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not here. Now, some people say, why don't you talk more about how the kingdom of God is among us, and so forth. It's not here. The reason we pray thy kingdom come is just a question itself, or just a statement itself suggests that it's not here. We pray, let it come. If it's, you know, if you ask somebody to come over for dinner, that means they're not there now. You know, they ask them to come, you know, and they will be coming to you. Right now, there is an enclave outside the kingdom of God in this universe, and it's called Earth's, and it's the human experience. To understand all this, we need to have an understanding, a global understanding of this book, where 100 million copies of this book are sold or given away every year. And one good thing to look at this book, and I'll just give you a very quick cook's tour, is the story about the kingdom of God that was established on this earth.

Mankind making the choice of leaving the kingdom of God and living a painful history. All this, prophecy, stories, multiple marriages, many wives, I mean, everything. It's just a big mess.

It's an experience of human beings over the years who have tried to do it their way, with different forms of government, different laws regarding morality, marriage, family, and so forth, tried to do it their way. And then we see it all come crashing and burning to where, unless God would step in and intervene in the affairs of this world, no man would be saved alive. But no worry, because God does step in just in the nick of time and ushers in a change where the kingdom of God returns to this earth, and where what is lost in Genesis 1 and 2, man's relationship with God and the world's relationship with God is restored in Revelation 21 and 22. We have the Garden of Eden brought in in Revelation 21 and 22. We see a great river flowing for the healing of the nations. We see everything made right. And it's not just a fairy tale. It's a story that is based on cause and effect upon prophetic events, upon cause and effect, but more importantly, what the fact that God is creating mankind to be part of the very family of God, of His kind, of His likeness. Just like a dog has puppies, they look like the mother, like the father. A cat has kittens, they look like the mother-father. They do the things that mom and dad do. The same is true about the God kind. He has children that do the things that act like, that are part of, and will grow up to be adults in that family. That's what God is doing. And that is an amazing truth that so few people really understand, because it's been occluded by making God into some kind of a ball of three co-existent, co-equal things that you can't get into, that can't even be explained as three, it's one, whatever, but certainly can't add any more, and to understand that you can't, because it really cuts off understanding that we have about what our future will be, and why we have been born into this universe, into this life. There's a time coming when there will be no special zone outside the kingdom of God. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 22. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 22. Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth. But again, you and I may have a relationship with God on our knees, in our thoughts, in the way we conduct our affairs, in our personal lives, but we don't live in His world, and we have a lot of resistance towards doing things right.

I mean, you try to do things right. You try to obey God's commandments and laws, and you'll find resistance. You'll find resistance from people around you, from the values of around you. You say, oh, I'd like to go to a movie, and you think there's something good that you might see. You go there, and you see violence, you see sex, you see horrible languages. I say, I don't want this. This is the world. You try to become involved in other things with people, and you find that they observe things, days, and so forth, that are so contrary to what we do. We live in a society that's resistant, and actually hostile to the kingdom of God. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 22, He put all things under His feet, God the Father, but all things under Christ's feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. Jesus Christ is not only the head of the church, but in charge of the executive director. In a hierarchy that will include God the Father, who will be the greatest, whom Jesus Christ looked to and says, He is greater than I, and we are Jesus Christ's friends. We are His children. We are part of the bride of Jesus Christ, who are part of that family. It's a very, very beautiful truth. Which is His body, verse 23, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ultimately, Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, will fill all in all, but not yet. That time has not come, because we live in this zone that's outside the kingdom of God. One of the parables that illustrates the kingdom of God is the one about leaven filling an entity. In Luke chapter 13, which is the same as pretty much as Matthew 13, about the parables, there's a parable about the leaven. This is Luke chapter 13, verse 20, 21. Two verses. In fact, even only part of two verses, but it explains a concept about the kingdom of God. And actually, all the parables there are about the kingdom of God. The seven parables of Matthew 13, or Luke 13. And again, He said, To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? What's it like? Of course, there's different illustrations about sower and the seed, pearl of great price, a treasure hidden in the field. But this one is about using leaven to illustrate something about the kingdom of God. It is like leaven, verse 21, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. That's it. That's the whole parable. The kingdom of God is like putting yeast into dough, and it will permeate the entirety of the dough that it causes to rise. There's no part of the dough that will somehow be outside the effect of the yeast. When you put yeast into making a loaf of bread, the yeast spreads to all of it. And that's the story about the kingdom of God. It fills all in all. Christ will fill all in all, but that's not the way it is now. And the parable of the leaven shows that it's a process. It's something that has yet to take place. The fall festivals begin with a feast of trumpets, which is a landmark moment with God working in the world. Because this is a moment when God is no longer going to be waiting, pleading with nations, with kings. He's no longer going to be patient. A time is coming when God is going to intervene, and he will start bringing his kingdom of God to the earth. This is our hope. This is what we live for. This is what we pray for every day. Thy kingdom come. You know, on my Facebook page, if you have those of you on Facebook, there's a profile that you can make about yourself. You know, it asks you certain questions, you know.

What are your political views? You know, well, my political views I put down, thy kingdom come. That's what they are. My political views are not governed by Rush or Shawn or anybody like that. They're governed by the kingdom of God, by Jesus Christ and the coming kingdom that is coming to this earth. Matthew 24 verse 21.

Matthew 24 verse 21. There will be a time of great, there will be a great tribulation, such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time no sure or shiver shall be.

Now, this is in response, and I'll be giving this as my sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles. Matthew 24. Jesus Christ, just days before his crucifixion, was asked by his disciples, by the apostles actually, what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus Christ answers those questions. He answers those questions and he also talks about what our responsibility is. But as part of that discourse and part of his answer is verse 21. There shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no nor ever shall be. There's going to be a time of great confrontation where things are going to come to a head. And actually the Feast of Trumpets begins the process of everything coming to a head.

When the kingdom of God does return to this earth, there will come a singular moment where God says that's enough. God only knows the date when that will be. But through Jesus Christ and the prophecies and all the prophets, inklings of that have been given to us. But it will be received first as a dramatic moment. And unless those days were shortened, verse 22, no flesh would be saved.

But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. Now I hope that we can consider ourselves the elect as those who get it, who understand the plan of God, understand that he has a certain order of things. And I'm amazed as to how people can lose the fact that Jesus Christ is even returning literally to this earth. There are people who may have been part of us, have left us, who no longer believe that Christ will literally return, or that's some kind of a spiritual thing.

I would say that one of the drawing things to my conversion was the fact that there is going to be a literal return to this earth and a fixing of this earth, a kingdom returning to this earth. It's not because I want to believe that, it's because it's so clearly stated biblically. As we stated earlier, I want to find a preacher who will preach what I'm reading, you know, in the Bible, the things that are so very, very clear. There is a day, this event, of God's intervening in the affairs of this world, in Matthew 24, 21, and 22, which we just read, is referred to biblically 30 different times, from Old Testament to New Testament, as the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. And the rest of the sermon here, I want to talk about that day of the Lord. We could go through all 30 scriptures, but I'll just go through some of the highlight ones, because the day of the Lord is the period when God's government will fill all in all. Now, the day of the Lord is not just one day. The day of the Lord is not just one year. How long is the day of the Lord? When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I had a book. It was called The Day of the Dinosaur.

It was a book about an age on this earth when dinosaurs, you know, roamed on this earth. And it was for a long period of time, I think it was maybe millions of years, that dinosaurs walked back and forth. These big triopidoporuses, whatever they are, you know, were on the earth. The day of the dinosaur, but it wasn't one day or five days, it was an age, a period, a long period of time. Well, the same way the day of the Lord is the age of the Lord. Right now we live in the day of man, and we've had 6,000 years of man's trying to figure it out and trying to rule himself without laws, with conflicting values, misunderstandings, wars, conflicts, everything.

This is a day of man, an era, but it'll be ushered in by this intervention by God, called the Day of the Lord. It's the age of the Lord, and it's a period that is not going to just last for a year, but it's going to last forever. It comes in, in a very, very harsh way, because God is not going to just sit down and say, blah, demir, can you come and just talk to me? You know, Mr. Barack, you know, Mr. Obama, can we just sit down and just have a cup of coffee and just discuss this and just work it out? Those days are gone. There's not going to be any more discussion about how we can just talk these things through. God is going to have to intervene and enforce His rule on the earth.

The option, or the alternative to that, is oblivion to this earth. And we live in a time, in a period, where that is possible. I'm not going to be predicting any times, because I don't know. There's no way that I could know. I just do know that it doesn't look good out there, and that there are many people, very knowledgeable people, who know that we live in extremely dangerous times. We live under great, dire threat of not only extinction as a people or just a human race, but the way we're so globalized and so dependent on everything. We're dependent on food around the world. Communications are all intertwined and interconnected. Right now, we could have communications be completely gone in seconds. We could have what would happen if electricity here went out. And of course, if it does go out, would you say, well, just wait five minutes, ten minutes, you know, it comes back. Or if there's a big storm, it may be a day. But if it never came back. What if there was no trucks delivering food to Costco or to wherever a person's Kroger or wherever a person shops? How would you get food? How long would it take before society would absolutely just unravel completely? Some people think about surviving through living in special bomb shelters. Now that was just a fantasy. It never would have worked. And now people don't even take that seriously, except for some hardened people that can buy an abandoned missile silo out west, you know, and store up food, maybe live a few more years. That's just for a very few. The vast majority of people in this world are going to perish and will die like flies. But God so loved the world that He is going to come back and bring His kingdom of God back. He's working on a greater plan, and in that plan He's going to bring about restoration. Acts chapter 3, this is a passage I want you please to turn to, Acts chapter 3 verse 19, because this refers to the day of the Lord in a general sense. This is part of Peter's preaching at the genesis of the New Testament church. And again, the message continues to be, in verse 19, repent therefore and be converted. That's Christian responsible activity and what is expected of us, to repent, to stop being selfish, you know, stop being what you are, be more like God, like Jesus Christ.

That your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Peter had very, very amazing insight by what he is saying here now and what he's going to be continuing to say in the next verses. The times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before. Not talking about some kind of a Jesus in your heart, talking about a time when Jesus Christ will return, whom heaven must receive, which it just did 10 days before when Christ ascended to heaven, until the time of restoration of all things. This is one of the most important verses in the New Testament. It's called the pivotal verse of the Bible itself because it is the shift from one world to another. Jesus Christ will return and there will be a restoration of all things.

And where do we find out more about that? Which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. If you analyze every single one of those words, it's really, truly amazing what is being said. Jesus Christ is going to return. There's going to be a restoration of all things. And these things have been spoken of by all the prophets, many who are in the Bible and many probably who never wrote a book. They just were, you know, oral prophets or whose writings were not preserved. But going back to Adam and Eve and Abel, you know, and the things that were told through a whole lineage of people about the return of a Messiah, a Savior, to this world.

Things that were spoken of by Isaiah, about the return of Jesus Christ.

Things about spoken of in Zechariah, about Him returning to the Mount of Olives. All these things that were spoken by all the prophets, every single one of them, whether it be Jonah, Habakkuk, or whether they be Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, whomever. A time of restoration, a pivotal moment when Jesus Christ will return, and that there will be a restoration of all things.

There will be a new kingdom set up on the earth that's going to topple over a statue that was built in a time of Daniel representing the world's kingdoms, that will simply topple over, and a new world coming.

Back when I used to visit with Ukrainians, I haven't been over to Ukraine now for a couple of, well, five years now, I'm surprised. I talked to a group of their leaders, and we were talking about restoration of society, and they were talking about how the Soviet system had just wrecked the country, people were in poverty, and how what they needed to do as far as reorganizing everything, commerce, education, infrastructure, and all these things, that we need to, well, one of them piped up and said, you know, we need to just really reform. We really need to reform, and we sort of need to kind of improve things as we have. And one of the more sarcastic, well, the Sabbatarians, he's not a pastor, but he's a very interesting fellow, that we don't need restoration. We need a bulldozer. He said, our society right now, we just need to bulldoze it down, scrape it down to the ground, and start all over. So we have nothing. We have nothing that we can really offer a new society. And he was right. You know, there will come a time when this world, we're not going to go to Harvard, you know, to set up our curriculum for our law university, where the law will proceed from Jerusalem. Now, we're not going to be looking to the professions of this world to guide us and to help us to work in their thinking. We're going to have to have God's government, Jesus Christ, establish a new world order. And that's the way it's going to work. That's the only way it's going to work. Right now, there is nothing that you and I can do. We could only pray, thy kingdom come.

But you can start a little group of people. You can elect a congressman that may represent you in a small way. It's not going to work. And we can complain about government right now. And as people are trying to find solutions, is Hillary going to help us? You know, who's going to be the one that will save this nation? There's nobody except thy kingdom come. And this time of restoration is what is spoken of here in Acts chapter three, which we have just read, Acts 3, 19 through 21. You want to write that down or note that it's the pivotal section, pivotal verse, verses in the Bible, because it is the transition from this world, from what it is, and all the horrible things that happen here, a world that is based upon the descendants of those who said, we want to do it our way. We don't trust God or believe him. And God says, okay, you can work it out yourself. The six thousand years of man's rule on the earth is a tough love that God has imposed upon us. But God is love, and that he deeply cares about us, deeply cares about restoring his children and to bring something good.

The book of Revelation, the book of Revelation, is a chronology of the day of the Lord. As I said, there are 30 references to the day of the Lord, biblically, that run the gamut from the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, through most references in the book of Isaiah, to the New Testament, to Peter, and the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 10. The book of Revelation is an amazing book. When I was first reading it and my priest came to our home, he saw that we had the book of Revelation open. He says, don't read that. He says, that'll just confuse you. But the book is very, very clear about what the time period is and a sequence of events that will take place. Revelation 1, verse 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, or the day of the Lord. John writing on the island of Papos. Many commentaries will have this explained as Sunday. It's not Sunday. Believe me, if Sunday is all the things that are coming up in the whole book of Revelation, that's a bad day, you know, with all the things that have happened. But he says, I was in spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a voice, a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see, and he is basically saying, I'm going to dictate to you in this vision, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. And what we have in the next 22 chapters, chapter all the way to chapter 22 of the book of Revelation, is what John saw. It's drama beyond drama. It's all about the interdiction of God into the affairs of this world. It's the salvation of this world. And it's putting a capstone on the story, the greatest story that's ever been told biblically, in a book that 100 million new people every year, yeah, I'm not sure 100 million new people, but 100 million copies are sold and given away every year. There are 135, 155, I should say, million copies of You version on telephones now. The Bible has been translated into three and a half thousand languages and dialects. It is by far the most proliferated book, yet the one that's least understood. But you have it, and let's be thankful that we can understand it. And interestingly enough, that God has made it possible for every human being on this earth to have access to that book. Unlike any period in history where people had to go and just hear it once a week in a temple or in a church, owning a Bible was a big event, very expensive. But now most of us have several different versions of the Bible. And so the book of Revelation, just very brief overview of it, chapters two and three are about the message to the seven churches, because that's the audience to which he had written everything down. And then this scroll that was dictated by the angels to John on the island of Patmoulston was sent out to the seven churches.

Chapters four and five lead to the unveiling of seven seals. The book of Revelation basically is divided into seven seals of major chronological events that take place to the returning of Jesus Christ. However, the first six seals, the first six seals, deception, wars, pestilence, plagues, famine, plagues, are all man-made. The first six of the seals are all done by mankind.

And what we see in the world and the behavior of human beings, of what appears not to be stopped by God, which God is not stopping, are things that man does to himself. I hate it. I hate what I see happening in Ukraine. I hate seeing what's happening in Syria, in Iraq, in northern Iraq, in east-eastern Syria. Because I know that these groups kind of all get together, they use human shields, there's... the only way to deal with them is to destroy them, but in the destruction of them, children died. I hate that. You know, actually, this one person wrote to me this morning, Mr. Kubik, are you going to be speaking about the beheadings that took place in Oklahoma City? I said, well, what am I supposed to say about them? I mean, it's terrible what had happened. And actually, I feel a whole lot worse about 40,000 children daily dying of hunger and disease. You know, there's just so much horrible things that are happening, you know, in the world leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. The first six seals are of man's doing. Chapter seven, in verse one, we have a sealing of the servants of God. After these things, verse one of chapter seven, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. Now the first six seals are for man, but now the seventh seal is the seal of the living God, which is divided into seven trumpets.

And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. There'll be some type of protection that is being offered here before all hell literally breaks loose, with the seventh seal, which divided to seven trumpets. The seventh seal is the day of the Lord. It's God's working and imposing himself on the affairs of this world. Chapter 8, verse 1, when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. Now it's symbolic, but it's talking about the prayers of saints that's coming as incense before God. And in the ancient temple, the priests walked through the temple with incense that made the temple smell nice. And that was symbolic of the prayers of saints, our prayers symbolic of incense appearing before God and his throne. And so what he is speaking of here is a noticing, a notation being made of saints of all time who have prayed for this moment. And what was their prayer? Their prayer was, thy kingdom come, Jesus Christ in his message to the disciples as to how they ought to pray, saying, pray after this manner. He says, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name, praise of God. But the very next thing after our gratitude and thankfulness to God is thy kingdom come. This is the primary prayer of saints throughout all time. It is something which precedes praying for our needs, praying for our enemies, praying for everything. Thy kingdom come.

Because right now these prayers are noted. Thy kingdom come. That's the smoke of this incense. Then in verse five, then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar.

This is kind of interesting the way this is presented here. He takes the sensor, which is his pot, which had all represent all the prayers of the saints, which is God, bring your kingdom to this earth. Thy kingdom come daily by hundreds of thousands of saints over time.

And this angel came and threw this sensor down on the earth.

This is the beginning of God's intervention. Threw it to the earth. And there, no more silence now, and there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So verse six, then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets, and there were going to be these winds that we belong to these trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. This is the day of the Lord coming to this earth. We can be so thankful that we have been called to understand these things. But one way we understand them is by observing the days that represent these things. The Feast of Trumpets, a time when Jesus Christ will return, when the trumpets are warning, the trumpets are preparing this earth for a new world order, a new world rule. The grand bulldozer of all time is coming to establish a new order on this earth. Well, I'll just give you a number of passages here very quickly about the day of the Lord. And you can just write them down. You can find the others. There's 30 of them. Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 12. Isaiah 2 verse 12. For the day of the Lord, of hosts, shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low. That's the day of the Lord. Verse 17. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the hotliness of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. No longer will they have these proud looks of world leaders in their uniforms, you know, looking important.

Little do they know that they don't have a chance. They're going to all die.

I don't know how in the world they can think anything except for the moment to be in power, because there's a time when even Hitler died and Stalin died. Everybody else died. It all comes to an end. All will be equalized. Isaiah 13 verse 6. Whale, for the day of the Lord is at hand, it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be limp, every man's heart will melt. Verse 9. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate. He shall destroy its sinners, and he will destroy its sinners from it.

This is referring to what's in Revelation, chapter 8, when the censors are thrown to the ground, and God begins to work with mankind. Isaiah 34 verse 8. For it is a day of the Lord's vengeance, the year recompense for the cause of Zion. Jeremiah 46 verse 10. For this is the day of the Lord, God of hosts, the day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself on his adversaries, the sword shall devour, shall be satiated, and made drunk with their blood.

Zephaniah verse 1 verse 7. For the day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has invited his guests. And it shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princess and the king's children. Zechariah 14. You find these prophets from different time periods. These prophets ranged from being slaves to being fishermen, to being royalty. And they had a consistent message that God inspired to be recorded there. 40 authors that created the Bible. Behold, Zechariah 14 verse 1, behold a day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. Obadiah verse 15, only one chapter. For the day of the Lord is upon all the nations near. Joel 1 verse 15. Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand. Pretty consistent. Repeated many times biblically to impose or to impress a lesson about the fact that God is going to return to this earth. There will come a time of the restoration of all things. There will come a time when all this will change. However, as I said earlier in my sermon, the day of the Lord is not just that moment. The most dramatic part is the fact that when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, it will be very, very dramatic. It will be very, very a change. Definitely a sea change. But in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 10, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Now this is another period. This is not just right then when Jesus Christ returns. A brief summary of the events. Christ returns and there will be a millennial period that will come to this earth. You know, one of the first things, one of the first questions I had when I learned about the millennium? Well, I said a thousand years. Well, okay, well, what about after the thousand years? I mean, is it just a thousand years? Then what? Well, it's going to be another well, it's going to be another period of a hundred years when all of mankind that have never heard the understanding of God's plan or had any opportunity will have that opportunity. But what about after that? There'll be a resurrection of those who will be burned up in the third resurrection. And then there will be coming of a period known as the new heavens and the new earth, which is spoken of here and also spoken of in the last chapters of the book of Revelation. There'll be a totally different composition even to the universe. I have no idea how this will take place, but we know that even the universe as it is right now is temporary, that while it could last billions of years matter, it does run down. And the source of everything that's been created is the Spirit of God. And there'll be something way different. But what is it? I can't explain it to you. I just know I live in my world of four dimensions.

You know, the length, width, height, time. You know, some people can maybe figure out one or two more dimensions. Physicists can. Some say that there are 20 dimensions. That's beyond me. But there'll be something way different. There'll be a new heavens and a new earth.

This is a further continuation of the day of the Lord. I am so thankful that these truths have been crystallized and made clear to us. Not something that should make us tired, or I've heard that before, or it's self-evident, because only very few people understand the things that are so clearly written about in the Bible, that are so consistent in their understanding from the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of the book of Revelation. A message that's been spoken of by all the prophets, as Peter said, of which we have 30 references just to the day of the Lord.

You see a very, very interesting and comprehensive, consistent and truthful picture that does not contradict, but tells the story about God's working with mankind. There's so much more biblical has stated about what God will do to the earth. We'll be hearing about that at the Feast of Tabernacles, about how the deserts will blossom, and after all the horrible things that will take place in the seven trumpet plagues, there will come a time when the earth will be restored. The deserts will blossom as the rose. People will live at peace. And a time of man being with God will take place. We will see him. We will be with him. He's no longer just only in our prayers and in our imagination, or as we understand him from the Bible. Now we do pray to him, and as I look in my life, events that have taken place, as I look back, I see, oh God was there. God helped me. God helped me teach this lesson. I learned that. I see how God had intervened in my behalf. Even yesterday, my wife and I were just, we missed a turn, coming to the hop first place and had to turn on the freeway, and we were going through an intersection. Here comes a car just careening through the intersection. If I didn't have the sense, or it happened just to look at that very second and slow down, or I was thinking that, well, certainly he's slowing down, but he just careened through. He would have hit us broadside. I just thank God for it. I said, God, thank you for protecting us. Thank you for helping me kind of lift my, kind of think ahead there, and not just assume that he was going to slowing down, but that he was not going to stop, and he was through it. I just kind of just, sometimes I don't drive as defensively as I should have, but that time I did. I said, God, thank you for protecting me. I know God is working in my life. I know he's working in your life, and be thankful for that. But what we observe and what we celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles every year is the return of a new order to this world. It's going to be taken care of. The inequities of society, the natural disasters of a world that is not Satan's, a world that was basically delegated to Lucifer to manage, has been so mismanaged. Everything from the environment, to the politics, to religion, to commerce, to everything. And that will be removed. That's all part of the teaching which will be taught as part of the Day of Atonement.

And then a new order, a new world, will come. I am so thankful for this, and I hope that all of us are thankful.