Death

Awesome job in helping out, too. So thank you for all of them. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for making our stay here special. I probably won't be back for a while because fish and visitors think after three days, or fish and speakers think after three feasts. So we probably won't be back for a little while. But it's been a pleasure to be here with you. Our family has enjoyed it. We've enjoyed being here with you, visiting with several.

I especially am grateful to see so many Ambassador College students, former students of ours, as well as Ambassador Bible Center and College students who are here. Really grateful. Probably about 20-some Ambassador Bible College students here. And Ambassador students sprinkled throughout. I see them. I also want to let you know that four that I count—I'm trying to think of the other two. The one I know isn't Ambassador Bible.

But four of those new trainees that have been hired, they're all Ambassador Bible Center or Ambassador Bible College graduates. So Ambassador Bible Center, Ambassador Bible College has been turning out people that help and assist in the work. And many of them give sermonettes in their local areas. They're not ordained and they're not hired by the work, but they do help and support. So I want to thank you. Thank all of them for being here. Their cheerfulness and their enthusiasm is something to behold. Also, a number of them have gone on projects to Thailand and serve over there. It's not a pleasant place to go to, but it is a pleasant place to serve.

Those areas are third world and our people have gone there and they've served wonderfully. And they've made friends, lifetime friends, of people over there. So we thank you for that as well. So it's been a pleasure to be here saddened by the death of Gordon Barr, who was a Canadian. So we knew him from—I didn't know him from Canada, but I knew him from down here in Southern California from being down here with him.

And our prayers will go out for the family. We know he's in good safekeeping right now asleep waiting for the resurrection. Also want to say I appreciated Mr. Turgeon's sermonette and Mr. Turgeon and I both came from Buffalo. Did you know that? My first pastorate was Buffalo and Toronto. And his family came in just after I left Buffalo because I don't think they liked me too much. But anyway, they came after the church began there. But I knew them there and knew them from Buffalo, New York.

So it's nice. And he was also in my class. I was an advisor to the class. That particular class had graduated in 1987. And he was in our class for four years. So I got there and I was on my basketball team. One of my three basketball teams. We had so many freshman guys who wanted to play. We had three different teams. So he was on one of them as well. So it's nice to see him serving and helping and his wife and both of them were college students that we taught at Ambassador College.

Today is a wonderful, great day. Some commentaries will actually call it the last great day, whether it is not. We've traditionally called it that, but definitely the Bible calls it the eighth day. It falls right on the heels of the Feast of Tabernacles. So what does that portray in God's plan for us? I'm going to share with you a story. December 7, 1941, at 7.55 a.m. in the morning, the first wave of 350-plus Japanese airplanes flew over Pearl Harbor and the island of Hawaii.

The islands of Hawaii. 45 minutes later, another wave of Japanese planes flew over. The entire attack on the Pacific Fleet lasted 110 minutes. They destroyed all eight battleships that were there in Battleship Row. They destroyed a total of 16 ships. They ruined 188 U.S. aircraft. And they killed 2,335 U.S. servicemen. And 68 civilians died. On that one day. There are still 1,102 of those sailors encased, buried in the SS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

More recently, mass killings in Roseburg, Oregon, Community College, 9 people killed by a crazed person. Charleston, South Carolina church shooting. The man stood there, a young man, sat there with people in their prayer session, then stood up and murdered 9 of them. Death is a painful for all families who see their loved ones die, and they may no longer have them around to share life with anymore. But death comes in all sizes, and it calms to all ages. Babies, teens, middle-aged, aged. We all die. Some too young, some wanting death to come.

How many of you have lost a close friend or relative in your lifetime? See your hands. How many of them were not in the church? You know what? What's going to happen to them? Because Feast of Trumpets pictures at that last trump, all the trumpet plagues and all that, but that last trump is when you're changed as a spirit being. See, you'll be a spirit being when the millennium begins and is ushered in. You'll be a spirit being at the time I'm going to be talking about now. But what about the rest of the dead? What happens to them? I'll share with you four individuals.

I'll call him Baby Richard. Baby Richard was about six weeks old, contracted whooping cough, and died. I did his funeral. It was unusual to do a funeral with a little box, a little wooden box about so big, with his little body in it. His parents grieving. They had several other children. But you know what? You don't replace children with another child. You never replace someone that you lose. Never. Your dog dies or you lose a dog. You say, I'm going to replace him. Well, you might get another dog, but you don't replace that one.

That dog did things with you and to you, memories with him, you'll never replace. Oh, another one will be fine and wonderful. Never replaces it. As a teen, Heather rode in with her family for anointing my first visit from Toronto, where I was launching from, to go to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, up in that area, which is about 250 to 300 miles away from Toronto.

So we drive up there. Deacon and myself drove up there to visit them. The little girl, 16, had cancer, a big cancerous tumor on her knee. They said, the only way we can stop this is to cut your leg off. I don't know if that was sure they would even stop it. She said she did not want that. So we anointed her. I did. Came back. The church prayed for her.

We saw them several times in the process, and she finally died. A beautiful 16-year-old girl died. Never converted, never baptized, but a sweet, awesome, wonderful attitude. In the middle-aged group, a man in his 50s, his wife was in the church, and he wasn't. He gave her a hard time. So this one day, to show his disdain for God, and his disdain for her Sabbath belief, he went out and was going to chop trees down, because he did that, but he's going to do it extra. He didn't need to.

He never worked on Sabbath, but he wanted to defy God. I'm going to defy God today. When she came home, after Sabbath services, he was dead. A tree fell on him. And guess who did his funeral? I did. He was the man who hated God's way. But you see, he didn't know God's way. And then when I think of the aged, I think of my wife's grandmother, German lady Marie Oakes, sweet woman, dice woman, Lutheran. Never knew God's way. Had a son. My wife's father was in the church, and her mother.

Sweet lady. I never heard her ever say a bad word about anybody. I never saw her in a bad attitude. In the times that we would visit her, never. She died. She never knew God's way.

All of these individuals, what happens to them the rest of the dead? I think of tragic deaths like the Allison Parker 24 and Adam Ward, her cameraman. She was a reporter. And she was interviewing this lady in this little small area in Kentucky.

And a jealous rival anchorman shot her and her cameraman to death on live TV. All death, no matter how it comes, many ways and many forms, to all ages. Starvation, torture, execution, war, murder, natural disasters. As we see the rain down in South Carolina, I think there were seven people who died attributed to the flooding. Sickness, accidents, no matter how death comes, it always brings loss, it brings grief, and it brings depression. There is no pleasant way to die. There's no pleasant way to die.

Do you know the average? How many people die every second? Rough average, estimate, and I've found this in two different sources on the Internet. Two people die every second, which means in the length of my sermon, about 50 minutes, roughly 6,000 plus people will die somewhere in the world.

Death is an enemy. Death is something that happens to us all as human beings. God didn't make us to live forever in the flesh, but there's an answer to that. Mr. Turgeon alluded to that. That we will have eternal life.

On this eighth day, which falls on the heels of the Feast of Tabernacles, we answer the question, what about the rest of the dead? And we will see that the final enemy of all of us, death, will be eliminated once and for all for human beings.

The Scriptures give us hope. Let's take a look. Genesis 3, verses 1-4, lay a little bit of groundwork. Genesis 3, verses 1-4, we find Adam and Eve.

And we find a serpent who loves to lead people to death. He loves to cause them to commit suicide. One lady I visited in Canada, she seemed to be interested, but she was preoccupied with, well, I'm so bad, my sins are so bad. So, you know, God can forgive you, and God will do this. And here, her dad called me, I think it was a month later, found her hanging in the garage. She kept thinking, Satan the devil, you know, what happened to him, why did he do it? She was talking about Satan a lot.

Hanged herself in the barn.

Chapter 3, verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.

Subtlety, trying to pull things over on people, trying to get advantage of people is not a godly trait.

God wants us to be genuine and open. God wants us to be sincere.

He said he was more subtle than any other beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Yea, has God said to you, shall not eat of every tree in the garden? Did God tell you you couldn't eat of everything? She said, oh no, God told us we could eat of every... Oh, except for that, that one tree over there, the knowledge of good and evil, he told us not to eat of that.

And she said, but of the fruit of the tree of verse 3, of the knowledge in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die.

You're not going to die. God didn't know what he was talking about.

But verses 22 to 24, God did know what he was talking about. Notice what he says.

After she took of the fruit, some people say it's an apple, doesn't say it was an apple, he took a banana, you wouldn't like that, because we don't call this bananas out, you know, Adam's apple. We don't call this Adam's banana. We don't call this Adam's peach. Call it an Adam's apple. That's why they call it that. It got stuck there, not to have made all of us men have bigger throats, usually, protruding.

Verse 22, the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us. Now he knows he's chosen to decide what's good and evil. We have to understand, what did he do? What did they choose? They chose for themselves to decide what is good and evil.

We will decide what's good and evil. And you know what secularism today does? Exactly the same thing. They wait, the peoples of the world wait for the intellects of the world to tell them what's good and evil. And there is no truth that's absolute. Everything is on a shifting sands. This might be true today, but it might not be true tomorrow. This might be true yesterday, but it's not true today. There's no way to have any stability, and that's what they don't want you to have. So he says, he'll be just like us. And now lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever, cast him out.

He can't have God's Holy Spirit, which will lead him to eternal life. He can't have of that tree of life, because it would be dangerous to have someone like that running around who's living forever, deciding for himself what's right and wrong.

In verse 23, and therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from where he was taken. In verse 24, so he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, caribim, and it with a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. So they were denied that. They said, you will die. They didn't die that day. The death sentence was already given. Chapter 6. Of course, you have their son, Cain, commit the first murder and killed his brother Abel, the first person to die.

Abel. Abel Adams, if you want to call him that. Chapter 6. Chapter 6 and verse 7, I want you to read what God proclaimed on the world of Noah.

He said of that world in verse 5 that their thoughts were only evil continually. Can you imagine a world in which everybody, all they do is think of evil continually? I think about Isis. I think about what they do. What would it be like to be a member of the Isis group?

All you think about is what you can do to destroy, cause fear, kill, hurt. They showed a picture of suicide. They showed a picture of some of the individuals who have now gotten HIV infection from all the women that they've been having sex with. They have HIV. You know what they said? Here's your penalty for doing that. You get to be a suicide bomber.

What kind of a life is that? That all it's about is destruction and hurt and causing pain on others. See? That's Satan the devil. Their world, under Satan's influence, still, because he's the God of this world, he's in our world too. Yet, he won't be. When the millennium begins, he'll be out.

But verse 7, the Lord God said, Man has become so violent, so in the noation flood, some say, about three billion people died.

You can check that out too. According to the different commentaries I've read, about three billion. So there are three billion people there that need to come up. The rest of the dead. Deuteronomy 30. God has offered Israel, and then by extension, all of humankind, the opportunity to make a choice.

You know what that choice is about? Life versus death. Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30, verse 15, he says, Life and good, death and evil. Now, he doesn't give you a 50-50 chance. He actually tells you.

Choose that one. That's the way to go. Take that one. Not that one. Not go there. He's kind of giving it. Do you know you have a little kid and you're playing games, you put something in your hand, and say, okay, which hand has the toy? And you kind of stick it out for him to try to get it, and someday he goes for this, and it's empty. He actually tells you, Choose life. Notice verse 19. He said, Therefore, choose life, that both you and your seed may live. God doesn't want us to die. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

If you want a scripture on that, Ezekiel 18, verse 32. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He doesn't want people to die, but they will, because remember the wages of sin, Romans 6, 23. What do you earn? And by the way, the only thing we can earn, can't earn salvation. It's a gift of God.

That doesn't mean you get on the salvation trade and buy your ticket, get on the salvation trade. Where's my birth? Okay, just lie here. Swoop me into the kingdom, God. That isn't what he'll do.

You still have something to do about it. You still have to make choices. You still have to make a stand. And it is character that we have to build. God doesn't build it for you. He will help you to build it. You have to make choices, just like the Apostle Paul said. He said, you know, after I've preached to others, I've got to keep myself in check. Lest after I have preached to others, I should become a castaway.

I've got to ride herd on myself. I've got to get a grip. Even one of the words, ingrataia, means take a grip of yourself. One of the wisdom, take a grip of yourself. You need that. Romans 6.23 says, the Apostle Paul writes, For the wages of sin is death. Satan loves to get you in a sinful mood, sinful attitude, sinful way, because that will lead you to death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Contrast it. Eternal death or eternal life? Which one? He says, choose eternal life. The human beings who die the first death without a chance will still have a chance. Notice Romans 14 and verse 9. Christ is the God of the living and the dead. Romans 14 and verse 9. For to this end, Christ died and rose and revived, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Because the dead can be raised from the dead since Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Now, I may also be speaking here spiritually. He can help people who are spiritually alive and people who are spiritually dead.

That's a possibility, too. But Jesus Christ died. He conquered death for us. Let's take a look at that in Hebrews 2.14. Hebrews 2 and verse 14. God wants us to live. God doesn't want us to die. He has no pleasure in seeing people destroyed. Sometimes He has to do it. And always remember, it's for their well-being. It's hard to imagine that someone can do everything He does out of love. We know of parents who spank their children, not necessarily out of love. Sometimes it's out of anger.

I told you not to do that. Now you've really got me in this mood. Who's going to get a spanking now? Why don't you give them spanking regularly if they need it? Why only when you're angry? You're not teaching them anything. Except when you're angry, they get hit. When they're in a good mood, they don't. Why don't you teach them? Discipline them. When you're in a good mood, if they need to, be disciplined.

For their sakes, not for yours. God doesn't do that. Hebrews 2.14-15, He says, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death. Satan, the devil, likes to drive people to death. He says, that is the devil. Verse 15, And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

You take one person with a gun and you have many people, and you'll control them all. Satan, I'll shoot you. Satan, they're afraid. They don't want to die. The latter years for my mother, she lived till she was 96. The latter years of my mother, she spent fending off death. I don't want to die. I don't want to do this. I don't want to die. I said, Mom, you're so busy defending from death that you aren't living.

You need to live life fully. You need to enjoy. Every day your husband saves money for you so you can have a nice life. You need to enjoy life. That's what's good for you, to not live, to not defend from death, but to actually enjoy life. But that's that power of death over people. It keeps them in bondage. They're afraid. Those guys on the train over in France are three heroes, American heroes, who saw this guy reloading. They said, Let's get him.

They didn't say, Oh, he might shoot us. Let's get him. Let's take him down. Good for them. So people, Jesus Christ conquered death. Hebrews 9, 27. Hebrews 9, 27. The Apostle Paul writes here, and I believe he wrote Hebrews. Chapter 9, verse 27. It is important to all of us that wants to die. If you're alive when Jesus Christ comes back, it'll be an instantaneous death of life. This life, flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Flesh and blood can enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood can be under the kingdom of God, but flesh and blood can't be a bona fide citizen in the kingdom of God. You know that from 1 Corinthians 15, 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So he says, Hebrews 9, 27, It is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment wants to die.

And after they've died, then there's going to be a judgment. As we know, our judgment is being made now. The final reward that comes at the end of that judgment will be at the resurrection. But for others, their judgment will come afterwards. And that's what this is so great about this day. That God wants to give every human being a chance. A chance to know the truth, undeceived, undiluted, untampered with, unfettered.

He wants human beings to have a chance to know the truth, and to live that way, and to know Him, and to be a part of His coming kingdom. So while it's appointed unto men all wants to die, John 5, verses 28 and 29, tells us from Jesus Christ's own words, John 5, verses 28 and 29, that all men are going to hear His voice. They're going to hear that trumpet call, and they're going to come forth.

Red letter edition, verse 28 says, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, at the which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, all, and shall come forth. That's a resurrection. They that have done good to the resurrection of life. That's the first resurrection. And we'll see that in a moment.

And they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation, condemnation or judgment. So there are going to be two resurrection to life and a resurrection to judgment. We'll see that as we come to the great throne judgment. John 11. John 11. It's interesting. You think this is something new. It isn't something new.

Did Martha, the sister of Lazarus, understand there was going to be a resurrection of those who die? Yes, she did. So in John 11, verse 20, Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him.

But Mary sat still in the house and then said, Martha to Jesus, Lord, if you had just been here, my brother would not have died. If you had just hustled here, you could have saved Him. And I know that even now, whatever you will ask of God, God will give it to you.

So nice platitude. Then Jesus said to her, Your brother shall rise again. Your brother is going to be resurrected. Notice her answer. Verse 24. Martha said to him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at that day, at the last day. I know he's going to be resurrected at the last day. She understood a resurrection, not the second resurrection. She was hoping her brother would be in the first, but there's going to be a time of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15, 54. Let's go there. We're talking about when death is going to be destroyed. 1 Corinthians 15. Whole chapter is the resurrection chapter. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 54. We read this. Inspired by the Apostle Paul after he said in verse 50, flesh and blood can't enter the kingdom.

He said, I'll show you a mystery. It's a mystery. The lot of the world has missed this mystery. How someone can be changed from physical to spirit. What will that be like? I've been flying in an airplane. You're flying an airplane. What would it be like? You're flying no airplane. It's just a soaring Superman. He's the closest I come to with how you can be. He's limited by lead. He can't see through everything. But he can see through everything. He can't go through walls without destroying them.

You will. Christ did as a spirit being. What would it be like? He goes on to say in verse 52, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, that the trumpet shall sign, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. That's his hope and goal for all people, not just for the saints. Saints first, then others after. For this corruptible must put on incorruption. Humans don't automatically have incorruption. They don't automatically have immortality. You do not find immortal soul in the Bible.

In fact, you find the opposite. You find souls can die. You find souls can be put to death. For this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. Verse 54, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying it has written, Death is swallowed up in victory. No more death. He says, O death, where's your sting?

O grave, where is your victory? No more death. God's going to take that away. Colossians 3-4. Mr. Turgeon was in there, but Colossians 3-4. Beautiful section. He almost came to it, but he didn't. Colossians 3-4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.

Christ is our life, and Christ is the one who's going to make all the resurrections happen. Christ is the one who could bring back people from death, no matter how they died, whether they're ashes, as both my father and mother chose to be cremated. There's no bodies there. There's no skeleton. Just ashes.

Too hard for God. Nothing's too hard for our Eternal. Nothing too difficult for him. He'll bring them back. God wants all to have an undeceived chance. Everyone will. That's why in Matthew 10, the Gospels record this in Matthew 10 and verse 15.

Jesus Christ talked about some of the cities in that area and some of the peoples that had been known. Matthew 10. I'll get there in a moment. And verse 15, he says, Verily I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for this city, that city who has rejected him.

How can it be more tolerable if you're raised only to be condemned? If you're raised, okay, you're going to get a little condemnation. You're going to get a lot of condemnation, but you're both not making it into the kingdom. How could that be more tolerable? If you take poison, somebody stabs you, somebody shoots you. Which one's more tolerable? You're dead! Like I like to tell people, they say, well, if you offend me, you let me... if you offend me, you get a big millstone around your neck.

I say, yeah, you're not in the kingdom either. They just get a millstone. They get thrown deeper before they die. You're both not there! Don't let somebody offend you. Well, he's going to get a millstone, yeah, and you're not going to be there. Because you've been offended and you're gone. Don't do that. Don't go that direction. Matthew 11, verse 20, he said again about Tyre and Sidon. Matthew 11, verse 20. Then he began to upgrade the cities where his mighty works were done because they didn't repent. What mighty works?

Well, around those areas, he fed five thousand with a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Right around the Sea of Galilee, these little cities, he says, woe to you, Corazon! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

And Tyre and Sidon were known as horrible cities, too. But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon. So the peoples of Tyre and Sidon are going to be resurrected along with these other people. He said, in the day of judgment, then for you. And you, Capernaum, which be exalted to heaven, you be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works had been done in you, had been done in Sodom, they would have repented a long time ago.

Verse 24, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Why? Because they didn't have Jesus Christ. They're among them. But they're both going to be resurrected at that day of judgment. Now, are they going to be in the kingdom, the first resurrection? No. So when are they going to rise? In judgment. Second resurrection. We'll see that in a moment. Chapter 12, one more verse.

In the Gospels, it tells you there's going to be a resurrection of people, the rest of the dead. What happens to these people? Matthew 12, verses 41 and 42. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. They're going to get upset. You had Jesus with you? You had the Christ that you didn't listen to Him? We didn't have Him. We may have had a few prophets wandering through, but we never had Him and all of His dynamism and all of His truth and all of His miracles. We didn't have that because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Now Nineveh did repent, but of course later on they died. Notice verse 42. The queen of the south, queen of Sheba, shall rise up and condemn in judgment with this generation. They're going to rise up together in this generation and shall condemn it for they came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the witness of Solomon, the wisdom of Solomon rather, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

So you have all these different groups coming up in a resurrection. What an awesome time! The Gospels reveal a second resurrection. I'm going to pause for a moment and tell you that I gave a sermon similar to this in Mount Pocono in 1976. When I finished on the last day, a man who came to retrieve his wife came up to see me.

He was a sheriff or a chief of police from a town in Pennsylvania. His wife was coming to the church. He wasn't. He just came to retrieve her. He stood and he listened. He came up and he thanked me because his father just recently died and nobody gave him any answers. And when he heard that there was a second resurrection, that his father was going to live again, and it was so comforting to him, he had to come up and say that, give me congratulations. It's awesome. I did a funeral for a Catholic girl who started coming to our church, wasn't baptized yet, but wanted to follow God's way.

It came three or four times. She had some rare disease and it took a turn for the worse and she died. She wanted her parents to ask me to do the funeral. So I did this funeral. Most of the audience were Catholics. At the end of the funeral service, I went up to her and put my arm around her and I said, you're going to see your daughter again. You're going to see your daughter again. She's going to come up in her resurrection, which the funeral message is usually about. And she took comfort. I said, don't grieve too much. You're going to see your daughter again in a healthy state.

The hope of the resurrection gives us a lot of joy. Let me ask you a question. Whom do you want to see in that second resurrection? Who do you look forward to seeing? Not the first resurrection. What relatives or friends did you have? I can remember a fellow who played basketball. He played on the opposite side. We were both kind of like a three guard system.

He was a shooting guard. I was kind of a shooting guard, passing guard. We played on opposite sides on a three-two offense. And I found out when I was a minister of about two years that he had leukemia and he died. He died at about 23, 24, a really nice guy. I think, why him and not me? Why him and not me? But he'll have a chance. He's going to be resurrected.

He'll have a chance to be in God's family. Maybe I can have a chance to teach him. Maybe we can shoot a few baskets. I'll probably be great because I'll be God. I know how to write trajectory, write... I can do a better job at anything I turn into flesh.

I can jump a little higher, all these things. Think of whom you would like to see. I've never seen my dad's side of the family, his parents. We couldn't even find his mother's grave.

I'd like to see them. Who would you like to see? What historical character would you like to see what they really look like? What biblical character that's not in the first resurrection you're going to see them in the first resurrection. What biblical character that didn't make it? What did Goliath look like? How tall really was he? What did Jezebel look like? Was he really that stunning? What did Adam and Eve look like? How about Cain? Cain, the mean guy. The one who killed his brother. What did he look like? Did he have a sinister mustache? What did he look like? We don't know.

The second resurrection is going to be so exciting. To see Pharaohs. To see Caesars and Czars. To see presidents and kings and queens. To see princes and princesses. To see Rajas and Rani's. To see dictators and horrible despots. You won't want to miss that. That's going to be a great time when those people come to get an opportunity to be taught of God and His way. Revelation 20. And verse 5.

After he spoke about sitting on thrones and judgments, he said in verse 5, But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. The rest of the dead. So there's a thousand years which we had. That's why today falls on the heels of it. The rest of the dead lived not again until. That means they did live again. The thousand years were finished. He says this is the first resurrection. That statement that I read to you is kind of a parenthetical statement.

It talks, verse 4, about the first resurrection. He says, that's the first resurrection. Oh, by the way, the rest of the dead don't live yet until the thousand years are finished. But notice now, going to verse 11, he says, And I saw the great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, And there was no, found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, the big ones, the most, the important people that the world thought were important, the great ones, the warriors, the generals, the intelligentsia. And then you have the little carpenters and janitors and teachers, and they're down there in a lower scale. In the world's eyes, they're going to all come up together. Talk about a parade of costumes. What if God lets them all come back in their same original costumes?

What a contrast there will be. And I don't know what song you'll have playing, maybe Onward Christian Shoulders or whatever song, a march for them to march around, and you get to see all these people. What a awesome time! I've done funerals, and I've stood in that graveyard when we did a graveside part or the interment. All types of gravestones are on, and I said to people, one day all these graves are going to be opened. One day people are going to stand up, those gravestones are going to fall back, and people are going to stand up.

And your loved ones, your friends, are going to live again and be given a first chance, undecieved, to know the way of God and to be a part of His family for all eternity. That's an awesome time. He said in verse 12, And I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened.

Now why do you want to open the books? Not the book of life, but the books. What's the word for Bible? Books. This has many books in it. What are we judged by now? The Word of God. God's Word is what judges you. Do you match up to it? Are you in conjunction with it? Are you in harmony with it? That's what we'll be judged by.

Jesus Christ said, the Word that I have spoken, that will judge you in the last day. What's His Word? This is the written Word, inspired by God Almighty for us. So those books were opened, He said, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

So they have a chance to learn the books, what's in the books, and then to be judged. That's a second resurrection. That's a second resurrection. You know, it's typified by the people who come to Mount Zion and say, Teach us your ways and help us to learn. Of course, that's during the millennium. But afterwards, they'll be doing the same thing.

They'll be learning God's way. God's Spirit will bound on this earth. This earth will have lived God's way for a thousand years before they come up. And verse 13, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. One hundred and two sailors from the USS Arizona will finally be resurrected. One hundred and two. I've been on that little bridge over it, over top of the USS Arizona. I've seen the names of all those sailors embedded and buried in that ship, which they could not raise from the waters.

They're going to come out. They're going to be resurrected. That's an awesome time. But you see, then, there's another resurrection that kind of ends humanity. I don't spend a lot of time on it, but at least we should acknowledge it. He says, The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and the death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them.

And they were judged, every man, according to their works. So here's another resurrection where people aren't judged according to the books and according to their works, but rather judged immediately according to their works. However many there were who knew the truth and turned away, who knowingly, willingly turned aside once they had committed to Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. They turned aside. They already knew what was in the books. They were already judged according to what was in the books.

He says, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. The resurrection of all, some will be resurrected to life and judged out of the books.

Some will be resurrected who already have been judged because they knew the books. They will be resurrected to the lake of fire.

That's going to be a third resurrection. Whether it's immediately thereafter, or whenever it is, God is up to God to do that. It doesn't give us time frame.

But I do know this. It's going to be a great time, a significant time that you and I won't want to miss. Revelation 21, verses 1-5. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more seed. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So again, New Jerusalem typifies the bride of Christ, too. We're all going to be at New Jerusalem, too. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man. He shall dwell with them, with men who now have become spirit beings. They're the only ones who are going to be there. And they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears, whatever remembrances of people who no longer are going to make it. And there shall be no more death, no more death, than you know there are no more human beings. And neither shall there nor any sorrow or crying, neither shall there be any more pain, no more human beings, for the former things are passed away. And God says, He that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new, all things new, new human being, new bodies, spirit bodies for human beings, new temple, new Jerusalem, new earth renewed. He said, Write these things, for these words are true and faithful.

Brethren, because of the awesome resurrections from the dead, the plan of God for human beings will be concluded. You won't want to miss out. Every year we come to the feast. Many people return, maybe to a different feast site. Some people don't. Sadly, some may die. In the faith, that's okay. Some just leave. Some say it's too tough. Some get their eyes off the focus. We'll leave you with one life insurance plan that you can purchase for nothing. That's eternal life insurance plan. I generally, I love to say it with the word, Godliness into Godliness, brotherly kindness into brotherly kindness, love, charity. See, if you're working on yourself, if you're becoming more like God and less like you, and you're keeping your focus on the wonderful world tomorrow in the kingdom of God to come, he said, If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall never be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Verse 10, Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and your election sure. If I could give you a guarantee you'll be in God's kingdom, would you accept it? Here it is. God does give it. If you do these things, you shall never fall. You'll never fail if you do these things. For so an entrance shall be administered to you abundantly. You're not going to just squeak in, but I hope I can just squeak in. Can I slide in this door that's almost closed? It'll be a wide open door, he said, abundantly, that into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, brethren, we look forward to sharing eternity with each other. And we look forward to the wonderful time when we'll see our loved ones again. And for all the rest of the dead, when God gives them a chance, and God reckons with the ones who had their chance already, and then it's on to eternity into the wonderful kingdom of God and beyond. To infinity and beyond. Have a great rest of the feast, and thank you for making our feast wonderful. We hope to see you one day in God's kingdom.

Thank you.