Do You Love the World Like God Does?

And there was light. Well, good morning, everybody! Good to see all of you. Certainly enjoyed the offeratory and special music. Always so very lovely. You know, the feast is a wonderful opportunity. We many times only get to see people here at the feast. We don't see you during the course of the year. We live in different parts of the country. And for me, it's so exciting. In a number of ways, at a number of levels, with my last name, people often remember me from face to face, but they're not quite sure of the name. And it's not in common where, you know, people get so zealous and they just want to greet you. Oh, hey! What, you're that, Mr. You're Randy Delicatessen.

That's me, Randy Delicatessen.

You know, this feast we've been admonished to imagine, I guess, maybe the idea of Delicatessen and all the eating we do here at the feast. I had a dream the other night, and it was a wonderful dream. Some people have more imagination than others, but I dreamt I was Fabio.

It takes a lot of imagination, I know. And I told my wife about the dream. She says, hey, I can buy into that one. But, you know, the dream was short-lived. I woke up the next morning, looked at the mirror, and instead of seeing Fabio, that wonderful hunky Italian model with that beautiful blonde hair, what did I see? I saw Flavio.

Prior to the feast, actually beginning in June, I started to die. I had been somewhat successful until I got here, but started a diet. I was having dinner with my daughter. She is about 25.

I guess every dad thinks that their daughter is pretty, and sitting across from this lovely young lady who's my daughter, and telling her I was going to be starting this diet, and kind of saying, I'm just tired of getting up in the morning and seeing the Pillsbury Doughboy. And, you know, she looked at me, a pretty little face, those big blue eyes. She said, oh, dad, I don't view you as the Pillsbury Doughboy. You know, at that point, you know, your heart just kind of races, and that's so nice. And she said, but, you know, you do bear a striking resemblance to the Mitchell entire man. In the audience, we've got a very lovely couple, Lloyd and Norman Nelson. A number of you have stayed with them over the years. They live in Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is, and you stay at their home. They've been very generous with their home over the years. But at the feast, and they've enjoyed a wonderful feast, but they've mentioned that they've been a little sorrowful because of the trash talk against their beloved Minnesota Vikings.

And I felt I was in a perfect position to give them a little encouragement. I said, look, I said, you know who I am. They said, yes, you're Flavio. And beyond that, I said, I'm a born and bred Detroiter. We have the Detroit Lions. Everybody beats the Lions, and they beat them all the time. I said, you know, you folks have got the Vikings. They've got a proud history. And by the time we were done, they felt much better about the situation. Brother, I want to ask a question to begin the sermon today. Do you love the world? Do you love the world? Now, there are many different responses to that. There are probably a number of scriptures that you may have in your mind, depending upon how you want to respond to that question. I want you to think about that for a moment. Do you love the world?

Perhaps there is a certain scripture you've got in mind. Let's turn there. 1 John 2.

1 John 2.

1 John 2. Where it says, Obviously, this is talking about Satan society. It's talking about what Satan has done in this world. It's telling us what not to get caught up in. We don't love the world in this way. But let me clarify that opening question.

Let's add three words to that question. Do you love the world like God does? Do you love the world like God does? You know, in this same book of 1 John, it says that God is love. We have beautiful weather here at the Delves. The sun has been shining, and the sun just can't help itself. It is going to shine. It's going to exude warmth and light and heat. God is the same way. God is a God of love.

He can't help himself. He is a loving being. Today, the last great day, pictures a wonderful piece of the plan of God when God is going to be working with people who have never been worked with Him in quite the same way. Now, it is my belief that God has worked with every human being to teach us. Not necessarily to bring us to a calling, not to bring us to salvation, but we've had a life experience.

And when these folks that we're talking about in the last great day are resurrected, that life experience is going to help them in the calling process. And of course, our great God is a loving God. Now, what I would like to accomplish today, my sermon really is in two halves. For me, the second half of the sermon, I want to go through the meaning of the day.

Very important we understand that. But prior to getting to the meaning of the day, I want to frame our discussion as to who our God is. This great, loving God, who is going to be taking care of... And right now, you're thinking about a number of people in your mind's eye. You're thinking perhaps of beloved grandparents or parents, maybe a mate. Maybe you're thinking about children or grandchildren. I've only had one grandchild child born to mate or to my family.

A little guy was born on October the 7th, 2007, eight pounds, four ounces. Twenty inches long, looked like a perfect little baby boy, but we knew that as he was being carried by his mother, there was a difficulty. His kidneys were plugged, his kidneys kept on growing inside of his chest cavity, inside of his body cavity. He developed virtually no lungs. He lived six hours. I'm looking forward to him being resurrected. Now, he doesn't have much of a life experience. But, you know, as you think about the various ones in your life, we want to understand who it's going to be that greets them as they come up out of the grave.

I think if we understand this God, the God that is so powerful and so loving and so wonderful, we understand how he's going to work with our grandparents and our parents and whoever it is in our life that didn't know this truth, we're going to understand the technicalities of this day so much better. This day is not just about knowing every chapter and verse and explaining the day, although we are going to do that.

It's about understanding the power and the love and the grace of the living God. Today I'm going to do something a little different. I've not done this in prior years and I've given this kind of a message on a number of occasions now. If you do like to take down a theme as to what the speaker is going to talk about, please write down these several words. Here is the theme. Here's what I'm wanting to accomplish with today's message. The theme is this. The last great day. Pictures a time when God bestows his life giving grace to all mankind. That's a big mouthful.

Let me go through it again a little slowly. You can catch up and write it down. The last great day. Pictures a time when God bestows his life giving grace to all mankind. For that one to frame the discussion. The last great day talks about people being called, people being offered salvation. What better way to think about this than in the terms of God's tremendous and his powerful life giving and life altering grace.

I'd like you to turn to these next couple of examples. I've used turn to Del's a couple of years ago. If you're ones that come on a regular basis to Del's, please don't mind the review. But if you turn to Mark 7, I'm using these because I think they really show just the beauty of our great God's love. We're going to take a look at Jesus Christ here. He's going to heal somebody. He's going to heal a death mute.

And as we take a look at this, I want you to be thinking about your grandparents, maybe your parents, maybe your spouse, maybe your kids or grandkids. Anybody in your life, or all folks in your life, a beloved neighbor, a business associate, whoever in your life that you really are thinking about right now about this day, what this day represents. I want you to think about how Jesus Christ is going to respond the same way to them as Christ's response to this individual. Let's take a look at this here in Mark 7, verse 31.

Again, they departed from the region of Tyre inside, and he came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. This is Mark 7, verse 32 now. Then they brought you on one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him. Now notice what Jesus Christ does. And he took him aside. Pause. Christ took him aside. Because this man was deaf, he may not have understood everything that was happening around him. He couldn't hear. So Jesus Christ took him aside from the crowd. Jesus Christ wanted him to realize, you're not a project of mine. You are not a cause. You're not a photo op. You're not a sound bite. You're a flesh and blood human being. And I love you. And I want you to understand that right now, my life is wanting to touch yours in a very special way. Now again, you picture your loved ones facing Jesus Christ, this same Christ, in this same manner. And Christ took him aside from the multitude, put his finger in his ears, and spat, and touched his tongue. Christ wanted this man. Christ touched his ears, touched his tongue. Wanted him to realize, I know what you're going through. I understand your challenge, your challenges. And we're about to do something about that.

Verse 34, then he looked up to heaven. He wanted this man to realize where the power was going to be coming from for him to be healed. He looked up to heaven, and he sighed. What did Jesus Christ sigh? Jesus Christ was about to heal this man. Why did he sigh? Jesus Christ sighed because he didn't want human beings to have to live like this. This was not the original intent. This is not what God wants. He loves you. He doesn't want us, any of us, to have to go through what we've gone through. But because of what happened in the Garden of Eden, because of the way man decided they were going to go, mankind, well, now we've chosen to kind of learn through the school of our knives. It wasn't his intent. He sighed, and he said to him, if that's the which is, be opened, and immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loose, and he spoke plainly. The first voice he heard was his Savior. There's going to come a time when your beloved relatives and family friends and business associates and all the folks you are thinking about in your mind's eye, they're going to be resurrected on this last great day, and they are going to hear the voice of Jesus Christ, and they are going to have their minds opened, and their hearts opened, and their tongues in their ears, being able to hear the truth and be able to praise the great living God. You think about Jesus this Christ when we are thinking about those we want to see resurrected and who will be resurrected. Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the God family will take an intense, personal, hands-on approach for those people in the wonderful world tomorrow and during what we call the last great day. Brethren, might I ask, what do we see here in this example? We see a loving Jesus Christ. We see a powerful Jesus Christ, but I would submit to you, we also see God's grace. We see God's mercy right here. God's life-giving, life-altering grace. Let's take a look at another example over here in Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1.

Mark chapter 1 verse 40. Mark 1. 40. Now while a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I am willing, be cleansed. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leper see left him and he was cleansed. Let's pause for a moment and get our bearings with this story. There's a little bit more, but we'll stop there. This man was born as a baby. When he was born, he wasn't leprous. When he was born, he probably had to say he probably played with the other kids. He probably had the same kind of thoughts and dreams and hopes any young person would have. Drempt of doing this or that in terms of a business career and so forth. Then one day he saw a spot on his body and it grew larger and larger. And he knew that he had that dreaded disease of leprosy. When you were a leper, it meant that you had to separate yourself from your family, from society, from the synagogue, from church. You couldn't come to the Feast of Tabernacles because you were a leper. Try this one on for size. Those of us in this room, there are some of us in this room who are very we've got everything together physically in terms of we're handsome fellows or beautiful women. Then there's the rest of us. We've got issues. Maybe we've got body issues. We're too skinny, we're too chubby, we're too short, we're too tall, or this or that. Can you imagine this individual when you were a leper, you had to wear certain clothing. When everybody saw the clothing, whether they saw the leprosy immediately or not, they saw the clothing and they knew who you were and what you were. And as you pass through society, you had to call out unclean, unclean.

What do you think that does to a person's psyche? And yet, here you see an example. Here you see an example where this man saw Jesus Christ, and I'm sure their eyes locked. And this man looked into Christ's eyes and he didn't see horror, didn't see terror, didn't see Christ move away from him. And as he came closer to Christ, Christ stood right there waiting to receive him. And then Christ touched him and he was healed.

Again, what do we see here? We see the love of God, but we also see the wonderful life-giving, life-altering mercy and grace of the great God. But I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes you might want to jot down Isaiah chapter 64, verse 6. Isaiah 64, verse 6, let me read it for you. It says, But we are all like an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness are like filthy rags.

The whole of humankind are like that leper. You know, leprosy was an interesting thing. It was a type of sin because leprosy corrupted and destroyed the flesh. Sin does the same thing.

Sin separates us from God. Leper had to be separated from the synagogue, from society. They couldn't interact in the same way. But rather than everybody, you and I included, all of us spiritually, have been lepers. And it's only through the tremendous life-giving, life-altering grace of God that our sins have been forgiven, and that we are what we are. And what did the apostle Paul say? He says, In this grace in which I stand.

In this grace in which I stand. Now, let's go over to Acts chapter 4. And this particular scripture, brethren, is very key to this day. You know, if you want to take the note as to the ones that are really important, we're going to go through this in the second half of the sermon. But this is a key scripture for this day. Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, where it says, Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. We must know the name of Jesus Christ. We must know what He stood for, what He stands for. We must know a life-giving knowledge, a saving knowledge of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

Some time ago in the Ann Arbor and Detroit areas, I gave a sermon on the subject of grace. It was last Holy Day season before Passover. And I studied the subject in a way that I have probably not done in a long, long, long time. And I saw things that perhaps I don't know if I've seen before when it comes to grace. I've come to see that grace is a doctrine. It's one of the dominant themes of the Bible. It's one of the dominant themes of the Bible. And I came to see that grace is so much more than just the fact that our sins have been forgiven. And that is so important. We don't go anywhere with our sins. And I don't want to in any way negate that. You know, when I sit there on Passover evening and I've got to conduct a Passover service, I think for all of us who have to do that, that's one of the most humbling things we can do. Who in the world am I to sit at this Passover table and say the words I'm about to say? Because I know myself. I know my spiritual leprosy. Thankfully with God's help, it may be a slow process, but I'm growing. And perhaps you feel the same way. We'll talk a little more about that as we go through the sermon. But let's take a look over here at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself it is the gift of God, and not of works lest anyone should boast. For by grace you have been saved.

Brethren, what is our standard definition for grace? Our standard definition, and it's a good one, is grace is unmerited favor.

Accurate, but incomplete. Accurate, but incomplete. Grace is more than what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We have, let's use a spiritual sounding word, justification. We have been justified, which means our past sins have been forgiven, which gives us right standing before God. This last great day pictures a time when people's sins upon repentance will be forgiven, and they'll have right standing before God.

Let's take a look at the rest of this passage here in Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Brethren, verse 10 is predicated on verse 8. It's by grace that we are His workmanship. It is by grace that we are to do the good works. We don't do any good works apart. We don't do anything of eternal value apart from the grace of God. There's nothing physically you and I are ever going to do or can do that's going to stand the test of eternal time without the grace of God.

I'd like to read you, and this is going to be from the Amplified version. You can follow along if you want, and whatever you've got in your lap. Acts 6, verse 8. Again, this is going to sound a little different. This is the Amplified version. The Amplified version does just what it says. It's going to amplify things. Acts 6, verse 8. Now, Stephen, full of grace, divine blessing and favor, and power, strength and ability, worked great wonders and signs, miracles, among the people. I think in your King James, we'll say he was full of faith. But my center reference there points me to the center, and it shows that that also could be translated grace. Stephen was full of grace, and because of that grace, because he was a recipient of God's grace, he was a conduit of the grace. Yes, his sins had been forgiven, but then it was by the grace of God that he performed those wonderful works.

Now, I've got a section of my notes here. I'm not going to be able to go through all of these scriptures because there are a number, but I want to at least give this to you. You can jot these down. I've got a section here that in my notes is called, Grace Being Vital to the Mechanics of Salvation.

You might want to jot that down. Grace is vital to the mechanics of salvation.

I'm going to begin to read some of these scriptures. You can take them down as notes. You don't need to turn to them because I'm not going to read the full scripture. But we are calling. Remember when you were called, when God began to open your heart and your mind? Think about that for a second. Where were you? Now, some of you know, Mr. Black, some of the others were raised in the church. And that's a wonderful and it's a beautiful thing.

Certainly when you see Mr. Black and the way he gives his sermons, he's always an amazing speaker. We've had tremendous, every man up here has given a tremendous message.

I'm always curious, though, with Mr. Black, what's he going to pull out of the bag next? Because he has such wonderful props every year. I mean, next year, of course, we may not be here next year, but I'm fully expecting that one of these years he's going to have a zip line down here. He'll have two of these six-foot birds on his shoulders, and he'll make a great spiritual point out of it because he always has a great sermon. But remember your calling. I was 15 years old when God called me. He didn't call my parents or anybody else I knew. He called me. I was listening to a transistor radio, and I was kind of going through, and I was trying to find the Detroit Tiger baseball game. This is in the summer of 1967, and I found Garnerton-Armstrong talking about United States and Britain in prophecy. And I heard Bible as I was going through that little transistor radio, and that caught my ear. And then God caught everything else, just like you. 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. Again, I'm not going to turn there, but it talks about how we are called with a holy calling according to His grace.

According to His grace.

Ephesians 1, verse 7. Not going to turn there.

In Him we have redemption according to the riches of His grace. So there in Ephesians 1, verse 7, we see how we're justified. We're justified by God's grace. But then there are other aspects of grace. Grace is like a beautiful diamond that has so many facets, and it sparkles, and it's very beautiful. Acts 20, verse 24, talks about the gospel of the grace of God.

The gospel of the grace of God. That same chapter, Acts 20, verse 32, talks about how I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.

The Scriptures.

For I just quote those to show you that God's grace permeates all that we do. All that we do. The Apostle Paul, when he was in Athens, he was talking to a group of people who were worshiping an unknown God. Paul says, you know, I want to talk to you about that unknown God. And Paul said, for in Him we live and move and have our being. I think that's a great way to look at grace. For in Him, in God, in Christ, we live and move and have our being.

Now, let me be even a little more specific here about the subject of grace. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3.

2 Corinthians, chapter 3.

And verse 5.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 3.5. Forgive me if I've been a little quick there. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

Our sufficiency is from God. That's why I said a moment ago that everything of eternal value can only be accomplished through God's grace.

Through God's grace. I mentioned a moment ago that grace is like a beautiful diamond, many faceted, very much like faith. People say, well, do I have enough faith?

Brother, some people have tremendous faith, but you can have faith in so many different aspects of life. You can have faith about healing, but a different kind of faith about God protecting you. And yet a different kind of faith about God prospering you. And a different kind of faith about God helping you raise your kids. Now, you may be strong in some and not as strong as in others. You may be really down the road and you really believe God's going to protect you. But God healing you, maybe that's a little something different. And as Christians, we kind of ebb and flow on these things. There are different facets of faith, but there are also different facets of grace. Part of it, one of the most beautiful facets, is the idea of being justified, of having our sins being forgiven. But as we're going to see here in just a little bit, there are aspects of grace, what I call universal grace. Universal grace that every human being has touched them, whether they're being called or not. Doesn't the Bible talk about God sends the sun and the rain on the just and the unjust? Doesn't every human being exist because of the power of God and God letting them live?

You ever had a stress test?

I hate those things. You know, they get you on this treadmill and you're going as fast as... You know, they start slow, you're walking, it's a piece of cake. And every two minutes, they raise the incline and they speed it up at the same time. And after a while, you think you're like one of those cartoons, you're going to be just sucked in by the treadmill. And then when you're completely exhausted and you tell them, yeah, that's enough, they want you to jump immediately from there onto a table. They lay you on your side. They want to do an ultrasound of your heart, a picture of your heart. And they tell you, now for us to get the best possible picture, you need to hold your breath.

Now, I mean, you are every pore of your body is wanting to, you know, breathe in and breathe out.

Made it so matter of fact, yeah, hold your breath.

I thought I was going to black out.

But I remember because I was at the University of Michigan, I was remembering looking at the monitor, which was right near my face, and just watching that heart go.

I don't tell it to go. I can be sleeping. That thing is still going. Who's the one who keeps that going?

It's God's grace. It's God's power. It's God's spirit.

So you've got a universal grace. You've got a grace, and we're going to talk about this in a moment, a grace that helps us overcome through difficult times. We've got a grace that helps us build one another up. There is a type of grace that helps us to serve.

There are many different types. I don't have time here to go through a sermon I gave a number of months ago. But I do want to go through a couple of types of grace here that are so profound for the meaning of this day. There is the justifying grace, where our sins are forgiven. And on this last great day, when the people come up out of their graves and they come to an understanding of who the real God is, the billions who will be coming up out of the graves, they are going to know that there is a God. But let me ask you a question. Why is it that the Apostle Paul wrote so much about grace?

Why is that?

Could it be that the Apostle Paul remembered his life as Saul of Tarsus? You know, the Scriptures are quite clear. When you go through the book of Acts, it talks about Saul of Tarsus, who made havoc of the church, who imprisoned and beat the saints, who put them to death, who compelled them to blaspheme, who persecuted them to foreign cities.

We've been told to cease to imagine.

Imagine yourself at the feast 2,000 years ago.

The Apostle Paul is a keynote speaker. You are coming to the feast. You are excited because you had heard all about this Apostle Paul and wanted to really hear about him speak and the depths of the messages he would be giving.

But other people coming to that same feast would remember, he is the guy who had my husband thrown in jail.

God called him, but my husband is still in jail. He is the guy who tortured my mom and had her blaspheme.

He is the guy who, we lived in a certain area for generations, but he drove us out of our house and home, barely getting out of that little village with our lives before he drove us out someplace else.

That's what they had to think about at times. Think about the Apostle Paul as he viewed some of those same people after his conversion. Now, God forgave him of those sins. God had justified him through God's great grace, his life-giving, life-altering grace. But Paul still had to look that woman in the eye, still had to look at that fellow whose mom he had tortured and made blaspheme, and the family he had moved out of a beloved area where they had lived for generations. And I think that's one of the reasons why Paul says, I am the chief of sinners. He understood what he had done. He was very sorry. And God forgave him for what he had done.

We've got people here, I'm sure, and I think it's true every feast.

You probably wonder, why have you come? Because you feel you've been a hypocrite. You feel you've not done the things you should be doing. You feel you've been a hypocrite. Your prayer life is not what it should be. Your study life is not what it should be. You're not close to God. You feel like a real hypocrite. But you know something? God is happy you're here. You're his son. You're his daughter. He wants you to be here.

Let's give God thanks that we are. Because, you know, the truth of the matter is, we've been in a church, most of us a long time. And generally speaking, we're down the road quite a ways in terms of growth and development. But in other areas of our life, and we all know this, I think we're all in the same boat, there are some areas probably in everybody's life in this room where we need a lot of help.

Years ago, I was talking to a gentleman. He said, you know, Mr. D, I've been in a church 19 years. I should be 19 years down the road.

But I feel like as though I've lived one year, and in a second year, I lived that first year over, and I've done that 19 times. I'm not 19 years down the road. I'm one year down the road.

Well, thankfully, we've got the grace of the great God to help us with that. Let's look at 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1.

Notice the words of this one who knew his sin, but also knew his forgiveness. And, brethren, Paul knew, and you need to know, you know, you need to have somebody reaffirm this in your heart. There's no sin that you've got, that you have that's going to outrun the grace of God, not one. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I formerly was a blasphemy or a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. And this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason, I obtain mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all love and suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. I'm not going to turn there, but you've got Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, where it talks about how we should go boldly to the throne of grace. Define mercy? Yes. Forgiveness? Absolutely. But also, it says, define grace to help in times of need.

Which brings me now to the second aspect of grace I want to discuss with you, and that is a sanctifying grace. Now, we talked about how a justifying grace, our sins have been forgiven, we had right standing before God. A sanctifying grace gives us the ability to live properly before God. Our sins have been forgiven, that's the story of Passover. But then we've got the story of the days of unleavened bread. There's something we need to be doing. We're not talking about cheap grace here, we're not talking about God's going to forgive. There's always repentance. There always has to be that heart full of repentance that, please don't misunderstand anything I'm saying here about that. And this is part of the reason. God wants us to use His grace on a daily basis because this sanctifying grace is a grace that helps us grow. This sanctifying grace helps us mature, helps us become the people God wants us to be. Let's take a look at just a couple of scriptures here. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Kind of interesting, this is one of the chapters that talks about the resurrection. Now it's not the resurrection we're highlighting today, but it does talk about the first resurrection. But notice here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, excuse me, verse 10.

1 Corinthians 15, 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me. With me. It is through the grace of God that helped Him to accomplish, to do, to live, to grow, to mature. Yes, God's grace is a mercy item of mercy, helps us with mercy and forgiveness. But as we see here, grace is something that helps us live an unleavened life. If you go over here to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I can see now I'm fighting my clock.

I was talking to Mr. Shaw about this. He said, Randy, don't worry about that. You've got all eternity.

I was talking to Mr. Faye as well. I said, you know, I'm really concerned I've got these two points. And like the typical minister, I'll probably spend 55 minutes on one point and five minutes on the other. He said, Randy, take all the time you want to. Just realize that at 12 noon, we're all going to lunch.

But here in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I believe we may have read this, this feast, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7. Now, here's a man going through a real-life trial. I may mention that one of the facets of grace is there's an overcoming type of grace, a grace that helps us overcome. Well, here we see an example of that. Unless they should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan above it me, unless they should be exalted above measure. Considering this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times and it might depart from me. He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Note the connection between grace and strength. He asks to be healed. God said, I've got something else in mind for you. It's going to be through the power of my grace that you're going to be able to accomplish. Therefore, he says, continuing in verse 9, most gladly I'd rather boast of my infirmities, that the power, that the grace of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Yes, God uses his Holy Spirit to convey his grace, and we can use that grace in a very, very powerful way. Go back to Romans 12. Romans 12, a chapter that talks about gifts. Romans 12, verse 3. For I say, through the grace given to me, now, you're not talking here about forgiveness. For I say here, through the grace given to me, to everyone whom is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Verse 4, for as we have many members of one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Now, notice verse 6. Having then gifts according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. And he begins to delineate a number of types of ways to serve God's people. But he says here, having gifts according to the grace that has given us. Now, again, what does all this have to do with it last great day? Well, when our relatives and whoever are resurrected, they're not just resurrected to know their Savior. And that's a wonderful and beautiful thing. Don't want to make light of that. But they are resurrected to do what you and I are doing right here, to grow and develop and to mature, to have those lovely fruits of God's Spirit ripen and be all that they need to be. And that's going to require the grace of God. One last comment before I get to this last five minutes of the sermon here. As I was putting together my thoughts, I was thinking about, and please try to follow this. I hope I'm not being a heretic here, but I was thinking about the example in Genesis chapter 11. I'm not going to turn here, but in Genesis chapter 11 verse 6, talking about the Tower of Babel, God says, indeed the people are one. Now nothing that they shall propose to do will be withheld from them.

I got to thinking, and you place that statement in the last great day.

You place that statement, indeed the people are one. One in God, one in Christ in the last great day. Not Old Testament times. The people are one, and nothing that they've purposed to do will be withheld from them. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Can you imagine what it will be like in the last great day when all these people with all the personality and all the drive that they have, all the various talents that they have, are now channeled into a proper way of looking at things, are channeled with the power of God's Spirit and the power of God's grace? Can you imagine the kind of society we will have? You know, Mr. Johnson gave a wonderful message about the difference between the physical people living in the millennium and the kingdom of God ruling, the spirit beings ruling over those physical people. Can you imagine what physical life would be like? The Apostle Peter said, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The manifold, the multifaceted grace of God. You know, years ago I saw a movie, I think it was back in the 80s, called Stand and Deliver. A story about Jaime Escalante, who was a computer professional. He wanted to teach. He had a gift for teaching. He knew he could do much better and be more effective as a human being as a high school teacher. So he wanted to teach computer science in high school. He got to a high school and as the story showed in the movie, it's a true story based on fact, they didn't have any computers. It was a school that was down on its lot, down on its money, about ready to go to school. He was about ready to lose its accreditation. He himself was Hispanic and the class he was given was largely Hispanic. And it was like a typical blackboard jungle. It was just chaos in that class. Well, one day there was a meeting of the teachers and the teachers, the principal said, you know, if we don't do something, we're going to lose our accreditation. We need to be doing more. And Mr. Escalante said, I can do more. I can teach these kids AP calculus, advanced placement calculus. And the teachers began to laugh him to score. And they said, you know, there are people on this faculty who could not pass that AP calculus test. Well, the movie goes on to show how Jaime Escalante had those kids come again after school. Now again, these are kids in a rough neighborhood coming in after school, coming in on the weekend, coming in during breaks, and coming in during the summer, coming in Christmas vacations. You know, they were always in his class. And it was hard. It was tough. But at the end, the movie ends with showing how many of those kids passed and in some cases completely aced, didn't get anything wrong, aced the AP calculus class. Now you take a guy like that who knows how to teach, and you give him God's Spirit, God's grace, what can be done?

Think about music. All those who ever lived who have the gift of being able to produce beautiful music, and they do it in a godly way. The arts, literature, where people will write gripping, moving things, praising God or on some aspect of life, but again, giving ultimately glory to God. Can you imagine that society? That's what we're going to have in the last great day. And you're going to be a part of it. Why do you go through the trials you go through?

You go through them so you can teach these folks. So you don't come to them with platitudes.

You teach them because you've learned through the school of hard knobs.

Okay, and to part one. Let's go to part two. I got 20 seconds left.

You know, we, well look, we do have a, somebody did bring a clock up here. I didn't even see that till just now. You know, Doug Johnson's down there laughing. Doug and I used to be classmates, not only classmates, but dorm mates. I think he and I living in the same dorm for that one year, the calendar year, 71, 72, probably has altered our both of our lives forever.

It may have been him, but somebody once told me, you know, Doug was a year older, wiser, more spiritual and all those good things. I think I said that correctly, Doug.

But somebody once told me that the worst way anybody can die is to be preached to death.

So we will not, we will not go over time today. We will not go over time.

Let's look at the meaning of the, you know, now that we have a proper understanding of the great God. We see we've got a God who will go personally, like to the death meter, to the leper. We see a God who justifies, a God who sanctifies. We see a God who has got this tremendous life-giving, life-altering grace and what it can do to the human experience. Now, let's take a point, let's take a look at some key scriptures about the meaning of this day. And it's important that we understand this. See, I want to give you a little bit of a personal story. My dad died in 1977. He was 55 years of age when he died of a heart attack. Three years later in 1980, my brother died of a heart attack. My brother was not 55. My brother was 36. Sometime after that, my mom, who and my folks were not in any way, they did not love the church. You know, I came into the church as a 15-year-old. I was not able to go to church until the day before, you know, three years later, the day before I went to Ambassador College, the minister came to visit Randy. You know, you've not been to church in three years. We've accepted you to Ambassador. You've never been to church. You need to go to church. So I went to church the day before I flew out to California.

And been coming ever since, and just so happy God has worked that out. My folks did not like the church. But after my dad had died, after my my brother had died in quick succession, my mother had remembered what I had discussed with her about the last grade day. And one day she asked me over to talk. She asked me over to talk on December the 25th because she wanted to know, and she was fasting that day. She had no relatives. I don't think she had a tramp that year. What does she do? December 25th, like she's always done, or God's plan of salvation? Which way is proper? And we began to discuss that with her. I began to discuss that with her. Had an opportunity to baptize her a little bit later in the year. Kind of funny in that after I had baptized my mother, I was, you know, everyone had kind of filtered out. And I was kind of chuckling there off to the side. She came up to me. Mom's only about five foot two, big blue eyes. And what are you what are you talking about, Randy? I said, well, you know, Mom, for a change, I got to lay hands on you. Brethren, we've read the Scripture in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12. I said it was an important Scripture where it talks about, for there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved. We have to know the name of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to the Ephesians. You can jot this in your notes. I'm not going to turn there. But Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 12 talking to the Gentiles that you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So, brethren, what about these folks who've never known God? They have not known a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. What about them? Well, obviously, God is fair. God has a plan. It's a beautiful plan. And today we're highlighting the last part of that plan, when all those who've never had an opportunity, who have never been called, will have their time of calling. Let's take a look at Leviticus chapter 23.

Leviticus chapter 23 verse 34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days. This is Leviticus chapter 23 verse 34. Now, verse 35. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation. And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly and you shall do no customary work on it. So what is this eighth day? This eighth day became known as the last or the final great day. What does it all mean? Well, let's do a little bit of detective work. Clue A. Clue A is found over here in 2 Peter chapter 3. You know, sometimes we've got to do a little detective work. You know, as you're talking to whoever, they're asking about why you believe what you believe. And this day is a profound... this day gets people's attention. Obviously an understanding about Christ and who He was gets people's attention. Every aspect of God's plan does. But certainly in a very emotional way this day does.

You know, I had to remark to Mr. Grovack and certainly I see Mr. Martin down there and just amazing the power of those two messages those men gave.

2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 9. Clue A, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but His long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is what God wants. This has always been on God's mind. So that's clue A. God wants everyone to be a part of the family. Clue B. Clue letter B over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 verses 22 and 23. 2 For as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. All, not some, not just the saints, all shall be made alive.

Each one in his own order. Verse 23. But each one in his own order. Christ the first fruits. Afterwards those who are Christ that is coming. So letter B shows there's going to be a number of different resurrections. There's a definite order of things here.

Now we go to Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation chapter 20 verse 1.

Revelation 20 verse 1. When I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having a key to the bottomless pit. With a great chain in his hand, he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who was the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should not deceive the nations until a thousand years were finished. But after those things, he would be released for a while.

So Satan is not there during the time we call the millennium. Verse 4. I saw thrones and they that sat on him, a judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and now received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. He said, we get a bit of a time setting here. Verse 5. But the rest of the dead did not live again until a thousand years were finished. So here we have clue C. But after the millennium, you've got another resurrection for people who are going to be resurrected and something's going to happen to them. We see later on, verse 11 here, clue D. Clue D. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. So here you've got that resurrection, you know, that takes place after the millennium. You've got people who are dead, who are now alive, and it says, and the books were opened. The Biblios were opened. The books of the Bible were open to them.

Through God's grace, he began to open their hearts and their minds to understand the book that you and I are coming to understand right now. The books were open, and another book was open, which is the Book of Life.

They never had that book open to them before.

Brethren, when you were baptized, your sins were forgiven.

Immediately after your baptism ceremony, there was another ceremony called the laying out of hands. And when the ministry came and laid hands on you, you received God's Holy Spirit. And something else happened that was very powerful. Your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And it's still there. These people have not had that chance. Now they have that chance. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works. They were judged. They were evaluated.

I believe Mr. Faison talked more about that this afternoon. They were evaluated according to their works by the things which were written in the book. Revelation 20, verses 11 and 12 refers to the second resurrection. A resurrection to mortal life. Not to spirit life, but to mortal life for those who died and spiritual ignorance. And all generations past who didn't understand, but now will be given an opportunity to understand. Let's go to Ezekiel 37. Mr. Hinesco, in his message, I think on the first high day, talked about how Israel was going to be a model nation. Take a look at what we have here at this discussion in Ezekiel 37.

We have clue E.

I've been kind of rushing a little bit if I'm not giving you all the clues. See me afterwards and I will clue you in.

Ezekiel 37, verse 11. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, our bones are dry.

We've been down there a long, long time. Our bones are dry. Our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off. And that's a true statement in terms of the way they feel. Spiritually, they feel cut off. Verse 12. Therefore, I prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up from your graves.

Nothing more eye-opening to have then died and to realize you've been resurrected. Hard to be an atheist at a time like that.

Go over to verse 5. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. Now, what do we see here? We see breath. Something physical. This is a resurrection to physical life. We've got the spirit of man being put in these people. I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sin you. I'll put muscle on you, and bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

So here we see a resurrection to people being resurrected to physical life. Flesh and blood. They have been given the spirit of man so they can be a human being again. That was clue E. Clue F. Final clue. Same chapter. Verse 14.

Ezekiel 37, 14. I will put my spirit in you. This is not talking about the spirit of man. It's talking about God's Holy Spirit. I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I'll place you in your own land. You shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

So here we see these various clues that God has given us. It makes this day such a beautiful, wonderful day for us to appreciate. Two final scriptures, and I hear the lunch bell calling us. Over here in Romans 11.

Romans 11.

What I'm about to read to you is a kind of an idiomatic statement. It's a generalization, but I think it's a very good generalization. Romans 11.26. And so all Israel will be saved.

All Israel. Not every last one. There will be some who will be in the lake of fire. But it is a general rule, God will, when He raises from the dead, those who have never had an opportunity. And they're living in a world without Satan, without the demons. They're living with people like yourself, who are now spirit beings, who've gone through all of life's challenges and troubles, and you have lived and breathed because of God's Spirit and God's grace, and all the things you have learned, you're going to be there to help them. And they're going to learn, and they're going to accept, and they're going to live and grow and mature. Final scripture over here in John 10.

John 10.

And in verse 10.

John 10, 10. The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Well, that's Satan. In this day, pictures of time, he's gone. He's out of here. No more Satan. No more demons. No more false prophets. No more people trying to trick you. That's dumb. But now notice the last half of John 10, 10. I have come that they may have life, and they may have it more abundantly.

Brother, in this last great day, pictures of time when God will give the abundant life to those who never knew it. And we're not just talking about the abundant physical life. We're talking about the abundant spiritual life in God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Brother, this will be the only time I have a chance to address you, so I certainly want to... You've been a great, great crowd and certainly want to thank you for your prayers, the number I've asked for prayers. I certainly need them. But certainly travel home safely. We'll see you this afternoon.