Days Of Salvation

A couple weeks ago, I gave a sermon on the outline of the Holy Days as the Gospel. And I have another sermon I gave in Nashville last week I will give next week here. Well, next week, this coming week here. It's sort of the middle of three sermons that were supposed to lead up to this day here. And they all come together. So you'll get one out of a little bit out of order, but it will help you be able to see what I'm doing.

There are some themes that are running through all three of these sermons. So there's a few things you're going to hear more than once. But each time, each sermon adds something to the message. So there's a different emphasis in all three times. Next time, we'll talk about the sort of the gravity of what it means to be called by God.

What does that really mean? And even tie it some into the Holy Days. What I'm talking about about the Gospel again is a message to a dying world. The Gospel is how we learn about God's love. We learn about sin and repentance and salvation. And how God's way of life is to help us see how dysfunctional Satan's way of life is. And that we can be children in his family forever. But you know, there's another part of the Gospel that has to do with the fall Holy Days. Both this day and specifically Feast of Trumpets and the last Great Day. Let's go to Acts 24. Actually, Atonement does too, but that's beyond the scope of what we're going to talk about here. Let's go to Acts 24. Acts 24. Let's look at this element. Now here we have Paul giving a message to Felix. Felix is a Roman governor. So here we have a chance for Paul to tell the most important things. Now there's things he doesn't tell him, and part of the reason why is because Felix's wife was Jewish. So he had a background in what the Jews taught. And so he doesn't come along and say, let me tell you about the creator God like he does with pagans. He doesn't do any of that. He comes to him and he says, okay, I want... Felix tells him, he wants to find out about his faith, and this is what he says. So let's go to verse 24 of Acts 24. And after some days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Now is he reasoned about, and here's what Paul talked about, righteousness. What it's like to live a life as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ. Self-control. Well, that would have had to do with sin. You know, because the Roman world didn't have a lot of self-control, unless you were stoic. And the judgment to come. Part of the message he gives him, which is basically, you know, I want to know about this faith in Christ. Well, let me explain this to you. It was about the judgment to come. And notice Felix's response. Felix was afraid and answered, go away for now. When I have a convenient time, I will call for you. Well, if you read on it, basically also hoped that he would give him a bribe, so we could let him go. The entire Roman world was, the oil of everything was money. Sort of like the society we live in today. You know, it's money that oils everything. A time of judgment. We're going to talk about judgments today, in the context of the full holiness.

Now, when I say that, probably you think, oh, this could be a sermon about how when Jesus comes and all the armies are gathered together, he passes a judgment on them by destroying all those armies. That's not what we're going to talk about today. That is a judgment that happens on this day. But that's not what we're going to talk about. You know, sometimes people look at the Old and New Testament, and there's sort of an idea in the Protestant world, not among all of them, but in some of them, that when you look at the Bible, what you're looking at is the Old Testament is a, you know, it's a book about God's judgment, God's wrath, God's anger, but the New Testament is a book about God's love.

If you study the Old Testament, there's a lot in the Old Testament about God's love and God's mercy. And if you really study the New Testament, there's a lot about the judgment of God. And somehow that gets lost in the viewpoint that people have of the Old and New Testament.

What is the other side of the Gospel? I mean, the Gospel is the good news, but there's another element in this. Let's go to Matthew 3. Matthew 3 is John the Baptist. He's out doing his work baptizing people. And he tells them, you know, there's a prophecy about the Messiah coming. They all know that. And he brings that into focus. Of course, we know from what happens next, if you read through Matthew, that Jesus comes along and he declares he's the Messiah, or John the Baptist does.

And so he knows that's going to happen. And so that's the context of what he says this. Let's start in verse 5. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him, and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now that's an interesting question, because if you look at the Scriptures they had, the Old Testament, there are many times that God told Israel that they were going to experience the wrath of God, because they weren't following God.

So he's taking these people who seem to be following God, but they're not. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God was able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Now that's a heavy blow to them. And the reason why is just look at the Scripture.

God makes promises to Abraham, not only that a promise about Jesus Christ and how all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him, but about how his physical descendants would receive specific blessings from God. He told them that you will become a great nation. And when you see everything from Moses to the time of Jesus, is God fulfilling promises to those physical people, even though they failed much of the time.

So that when the Messiah came along, there was a Jewish presence there, because Judah and Benjamin and Levi was where Jesus was come from. And he was going to be of the tribe of Judah. And the tribe of Judah is there. Well, how in the world did they get there? I mean, historically, it's amazing. Because 400 years earlier, they were all in Babylon, and then scattered throughout the Babylonian Empire.

Here's these people there, because God said they would be there. Now think of yourself as a Jew at the time of Jesus, and you could look back through your history, and you could look back to Abraham, and you were there because God said you would be there. Because Abraham was your father. Think of how stunning it would be to be told, Oh yeah, don't think that's salvation. Don't put so much stock in that, that's how you look at all things.

I am a child of Abraham, and that's how I look at everything in life. He said, because God can make children of Abraham out of stones. He continues, And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear a good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Wow. You talk about a statement of judgment. He tells them, you're in danger of being cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now, being baptized with the Holy Spirit is one of the most positive things you can talk about. What he's saying is, you will be able to receive salvation if you follow this one.

Because the only way anyone is going to receive salvation is, of course, through God's grace, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and God putting his Spirit in them. You and I can't obtain salvation without God indwelling within us with His Spirit. It's not possible. Because you can't earn it. You can't be good enough. You can't dance fast enough to somehow make yourself worthy of salvation. But God can. And we have to respond to that.

But then he talks about fire.

Now, I know in the Pentecostal world there are those who say the baptism of fire is speaking in tongues. They tied that in the chapter 2 of Acts.

So if you don't speak in tongues, you're not truly saved. But John explains what he's saying in the next verse. His, speaking in Jesus Christ, His winnowing fan is in His hand. The fan that they would use to get the fire going when they burned up all the chaff, when they had gone through and separated the wheat from all the stuff in there that they didn't want to keep.

His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But He will burn up the chaff with unquestionable fire. Now, unquestionable fire, anybody that reads that knows that there are scriptures in the Old and New Testament that are about an eternal judgment, where people are destroyed with unquestionable fire.

It's not a fire that never goes out. It's a fire that nobody puts out. It burns up. It burns up everything, so there's nothing left to burn. So it is a statement of judgment. He's talking about the Messiah who's going to, you know, He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That's why whenever we do a baptism, we do water baptism for repentance, and then following the New Testament, we lay hands on somebody and ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Because without that, we can't do anything.

But we don't ask anyone. No one asks for the baptism of fire, who understands what that means.

Jesus said He came to judge the world. Jesus said He came to judge sin.

So He not only came as Savior, He came as a judge. Now, there's places He says, I've not come to judge the world now, but there is a time He comes to judge the world.

So we start to move now into the fall Holy Days.

When we look at salvation in the New Testament, we come to the realization that this isn't the only day of salvation.

Now, that's a new concept for most Christians.

You know, there's one day of salvation. It's now. And if you were born in outer Mongolia and never heard of Jesus Christ, He's the one or two things that are happening. You're going to go to the lake of fire, or God's going to say, you know what? Jesus was in your hearts, even though you didn't know it. So I'm going to give you heaven. That's the only two conclusions you can come to. And that's the two that are most often said.

You're either going to the lake of fire, if you come from a Calvinist background, which some Protestant churches teach, whether you were predestined to die, they were predestined to hell, they were predestined to hell before they were ever born.

So there's nothing you could do about except rejoice that you weren't predestined to hell. You were predestined to heaven. And if you go do something really bad, it doesn't matter, because you're already predestined.

Or you go to the other, which just says, no, God loves them and they were good people. So a good person will go to heaven.

And the extreme, that's universalism. The Bible doesn't teach universalism. There isn't universal salvation. There is a lake of fire. There is a judgment, a final judgment.

So let's look at the three times, the three different distinct times, that we can see are different days of salvation. They all have the same conclusion. They all involve the same process, but they're in different time periods. I'll show you what I mean. Let's get to 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4.

1 Peter 4 and verse 12.

Now he's talking to the church, which was about to go through a terrible time of persecution.

And they were going to struggle with that, of course. You know, persecution isn't fun. We're not just talking about being defended on Facebook. We're talking about having someone kicking in your door, drag you out, and maybe kill you.

And he says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. You know, like this is strange, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you will also be glad with exceeding joy.

Now, right now, I've had people say to me, this is the worst time I've ever experienced in my life. And that's true. For us, this whole COVID thing and the confusion in the government, the confusion in the world, the evil that's just been unleashed is just amazing to us. And we feel, like, oppressed. And I don't want to make people feel bad, but I say, wait a minute.

The amount of people that have died, now this is going to get worse. I'm not minimizing what's happening. But no, this isn't the worst time in history. I mean, if you've ever studied the First World War and the Spanish Flu, it's a lot worse than this. If you've ever studied the Great Depression and World War II, it was worse than this.

Now, before the end, it's going to get worse than those times. I'm not minimizing it. But I'm just saying, be thankful for what we still have. Be thankful for what God has given to us. 55 million people died in six years of World War II. That's hard to imagine.

From war, disease, and starvation.

So this is hard, but don't be surprised at the fiery trial that is to come. He says, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings. Verse 14, if you are reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. And their party is blaspheme, but in your party is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. I find that strange in there. People that just busybody in other people's issues. It must have been an issue that Peter saw in the church, because it just seems out of place. But he's making a point.

You know, they go around gossiping and slandering and putting other people down. He says, none of us be persecuted for that. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. Now the reason I read all this is because I'm going to talk about persecution. It's because it's the lead-in to this remarkable statement.

For now, for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? The first day of salvation is on the Old Testament saints and the New Testament church, which all becomes the house of God.

In other words, if we have been called by God, if we have received God's Spirit, then our time of judgment is now. Nobody gets two times. Nobody gets two chances. Everybody gets one.

We are being judged by God now for eternity. And that will reach a culmination where the judgment is made.

God makes this judgment. Now, when I say this, I know this should make us all a little uncomfortable because we don't believe in what's saved, always saved. But at the same time, it shouldn't fill us with fear and trepidation unless we are spiritually headed in a bad direction.

Because we have to understand in our lives, God has already made a judgment.

It's whether we will respond or not that's the issue. I'll show you what I mean. Let's go to 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

I want you to notice how he makes some points here, but they're always very positive. They're always very positive because he's trying to show the people at Corinth that God will work out what he has done and promised for them as long as they will do it.

My sermon next week is on salvation. Salvation is a gift. It's a gift from God. How else do you get it?

But you can give it back. So we'll talk about that next week.

But let's now zero in on this day and a certain judgment that's made at this day, a fulfillment of a judgment, that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ slaying all those armies.

At the sound of the trumpets, there's a couple things that happened. At the sound of the seventh trumpet, yes, Christ comes back and destroys those armies, but there's something else that happened.

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In other words, he says, look, we know that we live in this temporary house.

It's a nice house. We like our house, right? We like our bodies.

Of course, as you get older, it's like, oh, man, my house has a little rundown.

Is that the same house I used to have?

He says, but we know that there's something else beyond this.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed.

No. Once again, we don't want just to be disembodied spirits, which is one of the strange things about those who really don't understand the resurrection.

You die, go to heaven, as a disembodied spirit. But you don't get your body until the resurrection. It says the reward is the body. So that means you go to heaven to be punished. Or you go to heaven to be unhappy. You go to heaven not to receive your reward, because you're a disembodied spirit.

Because it clearly says you don't get a body until the resurrection. A spirit body. That's something else.

He says, now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God. This is verse 5. Who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. Now I want you to understand, God is preparing for each of us. It's a personal thing. He is preparing us to be changed at Christ's second coming. This isn't some... well that's a nice idea, and some people will be there. You were chosen by God to be there.

I don't know who all God has chosen to be there. I would guess it's a lot of people. But that... we're just talking about us, right here. If you have received God's spirit, you have been chosen to be there and receive something other than this tent. This temporary tent. Let's really zero in on God's preparing this. God isn't saying, I don't know. You know, I've been looking at Bob. See, Bob's not here today, right? No, Bob. I was talking to Robert Bittner this week, and they're doing okay.

You know, she's still struggling with some health issues, but they're doing okay. So they are... I'm not sure they're going to go to the feast. I forget what they were talking about, simply because of her health issues. But, you know, her cancer, that issue is getting much better. God has intervened. But anyways, I was talking to him, so he's not here. So I can use Bob. Okay? Not that Bob. God doesn't say, Bob, I called you to be here. But you know, I've been thinking about it. That was a mistake. I shouldn't have called you. So you're not going to be there. That's not how this works.

God says, I called you to be there. And a judgment had to take place for that to happen. A judgment had to take place for that to happen. We received the Spirit as a guarantee or a down payment. You haven't received a new house yet. Okay? You're still in this one. But you've actually received the down payment on the new house, which is God's Spirit, isn't you? To prepare you to become a new house. Verse 6, so we are always confident. Now, notice he's looking at this and Paul's saying, this gives us confidence. We're not constantly beset by angst and worry and fear and anger. I mean, we all have some of those things. Some of the times we're human, but that's not what controls us.

We have a certain confidence in what? Okay, here's what the confidence has to be in. Knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident. Yes. In other words, we don't see Him yet. How many times have you... God, I just want to feel your presence.

I just want to know you're there. You might feel lost. You don't know what to do. I hear so many people say, I've never told anybody that because I've always been afraid. They're like, there's something wrong with me.

I say, well, I know David said that. You see, in the New Testament, Paul said that. Jesus said, why have you forsaken me? So why shouldn't we sometimes experience that? He says, for we are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Now, this is Paul talking. Anybody who read this that was under the age of 60 would have said, I don't know. I don't know if I'm that ready to go yet. I'm not that ready to go yet. I'm all over 60. Okay. But I understand what he's saying. He reached a point that that was so real that he said, that's not so bad. That's not so bad.

That's what I'm living for is that time, that judgment. Verse 9, therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. And this is what it is. All of life is to please God. We want to please Him because we love Him. So we desire, we desire to please Him. Just like a child desires to please their family, right?

And sometimes it seems silly. I don't know about you, but we had to sit through a lot of plays where the kids would perform songs and dances. And after a while, it was like, this is so silly. But they were so excited. You know, they wanted to please us. And the sermonette this morning in Nashville, Mitch Moss, talked about how his children, his son, will do anything to please them. So he brought down a pretend pancake made out of play dough the other day and said, Dad, I made you a pancake!

And he was excited. He'd actually done it. So he had to pretend to eat it. That childlike attitude is how we're supposed to approach God, just with the desire to please Him. For He must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in this body according to what he has done, whether good or bad, according to what He has done. Our response, the things we've done don't earn us salvation. It's according to what He has done. Our response to what He's doing keeps us on the track to salvation.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. I think that's very interesting. He says, knowing the terror of God, I'm trying to tell everybody. Come to God now. Come to God now. This is a very important day of salvation, and the Feast of Trumpets pictures that.

When that seventh trumpet blasts and Christ comes back, the dead in Christ rise. And those who are alive, who are in Christ, rise. They are changed. Understand, and we'll cover that next week, that judgment has already been made. You see, how could that be? Because you've already been written in the Book of Life. It says that.

But you can be erased from the book, huh? That's why David said, don't blow me out of your book. Don't do that.

Because the gift's been given. We can take it. I don't want your gift. I want something else. I want something else in my life. I don't want you to control me. I want to control my own life.

And we can throw the gift away. But the judgment, think about it.

You repented, and the judgment was, you deserve death. That was the judgment. You repented, and you accepted Christ as your Savior. And you went to God, and then you were baptized, and you received God's Spirit. At that point, he said, welcome, child. You're already a child of God.

So at that point, he's made a judgment that says, stay with me, I'll get you there. And what this reminds me of, one time I was a man, I was counseling, who had broken the law. And he had a state counselor, and we were counseling. It wasn't a major offense, but we could have put him in jail.

And I went before the judge, and he said, can you guarantee this guy won't do this again? I said, no, Your Honor, I can't guarantee he'll do anything. I can only tell you we did what you said, and we went through what he wanted me to do. And he looked at him, and he said, okay, I'm going to erase this, but don't you ever appear in my court again?

And that's sort of the way God is. We went before him, and we were forgiven. Now, you and I still sin. We still fall short. We still struggle every day. But what is the way of life? Where's the direction? The direction is towards this resurrection. Our daily direction is toward the completion of God's work in us. When that's happening, God never throws us away.

What happens is, God doesn't want us to go back out and become who we were. God is saying, never. I don't want you to ever see me see you before my court again.

He doesn't want that. So there is actual judgment that's taken place. God has judged us to be in the first resurrection. See, not all judgment is bad. Now, that judgment isn't complete yet, and that's the warning. It's not done yet. But the gift has been given, and we're heading in that direction. And that is one of the messages of the Feast of Trumpets. Now, we talk about the resurrection of the Feast of Trumpets. But sometimes we don't delve into what is promised. And God says, no, I've judged you that I've forgiven you.

Think of what would have happened if Abraham would have gone back out into Ur. You know, he would have gone all the way to Canaan, and God would have said, you have to sacrifice your son, Isaac. And he would have gone back to Ur. And said, God, I don't want anything to do with you more, and he'd become a pagan again. He would have told God, I don't want your gift. And we may have a totally different story about Abraham, right? A totally different story.

But we know Abraham is going to be in the first resurrection, because that's not what he did.

The second day of salvation is the millennium. It's during the millennium itself. You know, the Bible says that there's going to be lots of survivors of the Great Tribulation.

Millions and millions of people on this earth. Jesus Christ comes back, he heals the earth.

And he begins to bring people together to him to be converted.

That's part of the reason why we're being converted now, is to help Jesus Christ convert the world.

And I'm not going to talk much about that. I just want to go to one Old Testament prophecy, Micah 4.

This is considered, even by the Jews, to be a messianic prophecy about his reign on earth.

Of course, they're looking for his return.

Micah 4.

So you have all these people. For a thousand years, Christ rules on earth.

We assume there will be children born.

They will have the same time of judgment that we do now in terms of what there is expected of them, except they won't have Satan around.

So it's going to be a whole lot easier.

But at the end of that time, there will be only two judgments.

At the end of all three of these times of judgments, there's only two judgments.

But think about the opportunity those people have.

They know that Jesus Christ is right there. They can go to Jerusalem. He's there.

To understand and be taught God's way to repent, be baptized and receive God's Spirit.

The process is going to be the same.

At which point, God will say, I forgive you. A judgment is made.

Now, the final judgment is here. Don't appear in my court again.

I don't want you to ever see you in my court again. I want to deal with you as Father.

When you do something bad, I'm still going to be upset as Father.

But I don't want to see you in my court again, being judged again.

They're going to go through the same process.

Micah 4, verse 1.

Now, it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountains of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all people shall flow to it.

Mountains here being, of course, a word that's used for kingdoms and nations.

Many nations shall come up and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways.

And we shall walk in His paths.

For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He is a judge between many peoples, a rebuke among nations afar off.

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, and shall they learn war any more.

This is a time of judgment, at which these people will go through their period, and then there will be a point of when they will be judged.

Okay, what's the third period of judgment?

And this, by the way, is what we celebrate, doing a feast at the house, how God restores all of the earth both the natural state of the earth, and restores people and civilization to what it should be.

Now we know Satan is released for a little time after that, according to the book of Revelation.

But let's go to Revelation 20.

Revelation 20.

And I know I'm sort of jumping around a little bit in terms of, it's a lot of information.

But it's information we should know if you've kept the Holy Days.

At least a certain, you know, this shouldn't come as a shock to any of you.

So at the end of that time, that thousand years on the earth, here's what happens.

Then, okay, so Satan's released for a little bit.

Verse 7 says, Satan will be released, and it's going to go out and deceive a bunch of people on the earth.

They now receive their judgment based on, you've seen God's way, you're Satan's way.

You have to choose, just like we are today.

Just like we are today.

And they will have to have access to God's Spirit for that to take place.

Just like we are today.

Verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven flood away.

There was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.

And books were opened, another book was opened, which is the book of life, the books being the Bible.

And of course we have this book of life.

I don't know, it's not probably made of paper, I can tell you that.

But in the spirit world, and God uses this as an example, it's written down.

It's written down.

The names of all the people who will receive eternal life.

And the dead were judged according to their works, but of things which were written in the books.

Now, I have to stop here because, and you'll hear this on the last great day, the eighth day.

We look at this and we say, Ah, after the millennium there's one more event. And it's interesting that after the Feast of Trumpets, there's an extra holiday out there, which very little information is given.

In fact, if it wasn't for the book of Revelation, we would have to be guessing.

But there is an event after the millennium.

What's interesting about this event, it is the resurrection of all the dead. That's right, the beginning of the chapter of Revelation 20, it says the rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years is over. So the rest of the dead come up.

Now, what kind of resurrection is this?

The common belief is that it is a physical resurrection, and it is. But in this idea, everybody is judged immediately to go to heaven or hell.

The problem is that doesn't fit the Old Testament prophecy. Or what Jesus said.

In Ezekiel 37, the people resurrected, ancient Israel's resurrected, and they're resurrected as physical human beings. That doesn't happen at the beginning of the millennium, because the beginning of the millennium, according to here, according to what Paul writes in Thessalonians, according to what he writes in 1 Corinthians 12, the resurrection, the return of Jesus Christ, is to be spirit.

So this is a physical resurrection.

And so all the rest of the dead are resurrected at the end of the millennium, and the great white throne judgment as physical beings. To be judged. And the books are open, the Bible is open. Now when you look at the passages in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 31, where these promises are made, he always says, and I will pour out my spirit upon you. In other words, these people have a chance, their only chance. This is where the people who lived in outer Mongolia, under Genghis Khan, or before that, and spent ten generations living in a village where they never met anybody but their own village and the marauders who would come through.

Those people who have never heard of God or the Bible or Jesus Christ, they have their opportunity. Everybody gets one. Just one. But everybody gets one. And this is a unique doctrine we have that's hard to find. Now, every doctrine we teach you'll find someplace, except a few. And this is one of them. Not universalism, but everybody gets a chance.

So the ancient Babylonians or Assyrians or the people who lived in Central Africa or Asia for thousands of years, never had a chance. Never heard of the God of Israel, you know, the picks up in Scotland. They never heard of the God of Israel 600 years before Christ even came. What happened to those? What about those people?

Well, these people come up and they get their opportunity, because it is a physical resurrection, and that means they have to be judged. Now, we have a problem. If you don't understand, it has to be a time. All judgment periods are a period of time. They have to be, because the person has to make a choice. So either the first people are resurrected, and you go to heaven, you go to hell, based on some arbitrary standard, or according to the Bible, there is no salvation without the acceptance of Jesus Christ.

None. So what that means is you have to be exposed to Jesus Christ, and you have to choose. That's going to take time. So it's a period of time in which these people resurrected and given this opportunity. We talk about that on that last great day.

Even the Jews wonder, what does that day mean? Because it's separate. So we have another day of salvation. And this is what Jesus talks about in Matthew 11. Let's just go there. Then we'll come back to Revelation just for a minute here. Matthew 11. Think about what he says here. If that second resurrection, because this can't be the first resurrection he's talking about, it has to be the second one, which is a day of judgment.

Verse 20. Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works have been done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Cherazin, woe to you, Bessidia. For if the mighty works which have been done in you have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago with sackcloth and ashes.

But I say to you, it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Sidon, it would have remained to this day. But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Wait a minute. It's not just a matter of, okay, everybody's resurrected, God says, all of you are going to hell and sends everybody to hell.

Well, then you've got to come up with purgatory. What do you do here? It has to be a time of judgment. It's going to be easier, he's telling them, it's going to be easier for pagans like the sodomites to repent than it's going to be for some of you. In that day of judgment. Now, that day of judgment ends differently.

Well, not entirely differently, but it does end in a final judgment. The judgment on the saints in the church today, Old Testament saints' church today, ends with eventually you receive eternal life or you receive eternal death. During the millennium, at the end of that period, you either receive eternal life or eternal death. The end of the Great White Throne Judgment is the final one. Because at the end of that period, and we'll just go to Revelation 20. Then I have one more script. Revelation 20. Let's pick it up again here in verse 14. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the time where Jesus said, do not fear those who can kill the body. Do not fear the people who can destroy your tent. He said, fear God who can destroy your body and your soul.

He can destroy your whole life. He gave life, he can take it away. That's the lake of fire, the second death. What you have is the final judgment. At the end of this time period, there's only two kinds of humanity left. Those who have been changed into the children of God, and those who are gone. There is no other type of human being left. And the final judgment is over. So we have three types of judgment. Judgment on the church now, pictured by the final accumulation of this judgment, is when we are changed. Those who are in the church now, give back the gift, and give up God's spirit, they won't be in that resurrection.

They'll end up in the lake of fire. We have the second time of judgment during the millennium. Because there's people alive. The Bible describes it how they're alive. Those people have their time of judgment. In the end, they'll either be changed, or they'll end up in the lake of fire.

And then we have the great white throne judgment, and the third time of judgment when all of humanity is resurrected, and given their time of judgment. And at the end of that time, they'll either be changed, or they'll put in the lake of fire. And then it's over. So the gospel does contain a message of judgment. But you know, this is... the New Testament writers, they always have a little caveat that says, we should be real serious about this. But they also...

there's always this positive message. Understand that God already judged you by forgiving you of your sins. He already gave you the gift. So we're not walking this razor's edge. You know, oh, I'm going to go to the lake of fire. Oh, I'm going to be saved. God says, no, I've already done that. But you can go jump off the cliff if you want to. He doesn't take that choice away.

You want to go jump off the cliff, but I didn't call you to live on the edge of the cliff. I called you to understand what I'm doing in your life. 2 Peter 3. So you can see how actually the last two sermons and the next one are all tied in with certain ideas here. But I thought we need to center in on it at this time. 2 Peter 3, verse 7.

He says, But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment, a perdition of ungodly men. Now what he does here, now you've heard me talk about before I mention this couple of sermons, there's more than one day of the Lord. We center on the day of the Lord that this day represents. When Christ comes back, there's this day of the Lord before he comes back in which God pours out punishment on the earth and then Christ comes back. So this is part of this day. But there's more than one day of the Lord. And Peter jumps way down to this time of judgment when all the earth is renewed by fire. And he calls that the day of the Lord, because it's a time of judgment, which is what the day of the Lord's all about. So he jumps down to there and he says, but beloved, do not forget this one thing, that what the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, that his long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. I find that interesting toward us. He's talking to the church here. He says, God is working this out, preparing people for this time of judgment, not to be in the lake of fire, but to be in God's kingdom forever and ever, in God's family. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away, and with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in them will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things, the things that we think are so important as we walk around in these tents, therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? He zeroes his back end on. If we really understand this, our lives are shaped and molded by the understanding of the judgments of God. I don't need the sort of punishment judgments, but the judgment of what he's now doing in your life that he already said, I forgave you. He says, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We're here not just to celebrate and look forward to God's destruction of the great beast armies that are brought against him. We're here to celebrate another judgment that happens at the sound of the blowing of the trumpets. A judgment that God has already opened you up to, and you are now in your day of judgment, but understand he already said, I forgive you. Here's the gift. And now what he wants us to remember is God's message to us on this day in one way is, I don't ever see you in my court again.

I don't.