The End of Sin and the Beginning of Everlasting Righteousness

For seven days, we have been eating unleavened bread, which is reminding us of the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ who came down, and the process of becoming more like Him. And we have abstained from unleavened bread for seven days, which symbolizes not giving a place of sin in our life. As Romans 13, verse 14 says, very eloquently, But put on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

That is the lesson for the present time. But the last day of unleavened bread also symbolizes a time when sin will no longer exist. That is what God the Father and Jesus Christ are so looking forward to, when sin will be removed forever. Now, we've always lived in a sin-filled world, so that's all we know. I call it the distorted mirror. We're inside this house of mirrors, and they've been distorted, and that's all we know. But we know there's a kingdom that's coming where the mirrors are not going to be distorted. We live in a distorted world. We know from the Garden of Eden things got distorted up to this time. And can we envision how that time will be? When there will be no one sinning, we all be together as brethren in the world with Jesus Christ guiding, beautifying the earth, teaching us His ways, and He's not going to have competition.

We long for that time. Every time we pray after addressing God the Father, that first category is, Thy kingdom come. We want that kingdom of righteousness. We're fed up with a world that's sinful, and as you get older, you become more aware of it. It doesn't mean everything is bad. We also have a lot of good things, and we should enjoy life. Christ said He came to give us life and to give it abundantly.

And so I'm very thankful to live in this world, to enjoy the blessings that God gives us, but at the same time, yes, you become aware of how much we're being bombarded with wrong ideas, wrong thoughts, right, wrong type of lifestyles.

And so we pray that outline every day, Thy kingdom come. And notice the outline that God has about His plan to remove sin one day forever. Notice what it tells us in Daniel 9, verse 28. Daniel received these words from God. It says, 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, talking about Jerusalem, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness. So there's going to be a time when it's going to be everlasting.

We're never going to have another world like this one, what is called the present evil age, Galatians 1.3. To seal up division, it means to fulfill it, and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy, as Christ comes now, as the anointed king to the world. So the ultimate fulfillment of these days is when God the Father will come to the earth and everything will be purified. Now, the closest I've ever been to a place where we don't have sins, and that's very relative because we're all imperfect people, but at least when we go to the feast and we're among the brethren, and basically we're doing things as God would want them to do, especially if we're in a place where everybody is basically a brethren, and we enjoy that, and we hate to go back to this present world and have to rub again your elbows with the dirtiness of society trying to avoid it, but it's all over the place.

And so the ultimate fulfillment is described in Revelation 21, verse 1. This is when the purification and elimination of sin will take place. Revelation 21, verse 1. It says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The best way we understand this term, a new heaven, it has to do with everything that is an atmosphere. It's still talking about the earth and its surroundings and a new earth.

It's not a new planet as such, but it's going to be a new purification, renovation. It says there's no more sea. So if it was another place, why are you saying that? It used to be the same place where there was a sea. Notice it says, And the earth had passed away, also there was no more sea.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It's so beautiful, it'll catch our breath. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. In other words, His dwelling place will be, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. From what we know, this is the first time that we're going to finally see God the Father. We've had God the Son with us.

He's been there during the millennium. He's been there taking care of all. He says He must put all His enemies under His feet first. And then, when everything is purified and everything's been judged, then God the Father will come.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. So this means a personal relationship where a lot of people will ask God the Father a lot of things, and He will explain them. He'll explain why it was. He'll explain when He started. That gleam in His eye. This is a person I want in the kingdom. There shall be no more death. So you see, no more sin or penalty. The penalty of sin is death. No more death, nor sorrow, no more weeping. A lot of people have had just pure sorrow, especially places in Africa, India. Some people have never lived a normal day in their lives where they weren't hungry.

They weren't frustrated in just living an impoverished life. It says there won't be any more crying. A lot of people are crying in this day. There shall be no more pain. So there won't be any sicknesses to produce pain. I know that's difficult to believe, but be one time where pain will no longer exist. Human beings will have been turned into immortal spirit beings. And you know what? The organs are not going to deteriorate. You're going to have eternal bodies that will never deteriorate.

For the former things have passed away. All of this world and all of our experiences will be just like some dream that we had. We had to live through this distorted society and mirror for a time. I remember that because when I came into the church, again I hate to tell you these anecdotes, but they come to mind to share with you.

I was the only one in my family. I was 17 years old there in Murphy, North Carolina. I met a fellow in high school, a classmate that was a member of the church. And so through him, I started studying and studying. Coming got opened my eyes to the truth. And I had a dream that I was one night in an amusement park and I had gone inside a house of mirrors. And I had had that experience as a very young child, maybe 6 or 7, when I got lost inside that distorted mirror place and my mom had to finally rescue me because I just kept bumping into mirrors.

And I would never find the exit of the place. Well, of course I'd forgotten that one. But now I was again in this distorted house of mirrors and there was a light, there was a candle. And I was on a table and I thought, oh, if I can just find this candle, I can get outside. But I kept bumping into the images of the mirror. And I was just so frustrated. And finally, I was able to grasp it and go out.

And I thought, you know, I didn't find a distorted religion out there. I found the genuine one with the light. That'll get me out. And then peace came into me and I felt, well, it looks like God is showing me where he wants me to go. So anyways, it says here that the former things have passed away.

All this distortion. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. Talk about God the Father. See, now it's a spirit being whirled with all these angels at our beck and calling. And he said to me, right, for these things are true and faithful.

And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to those who thirst. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. So we have to have evil in the world. We have to have sin. We have to have because those are temptations. A runner has to have all kinds of challenges before you win the trophy. If somebody just hands you a trophy without any effort, what good would it do?

So it says if you overcome the evil part of your human nature, if you overcome what is the false values of the world, if you overcome Satan and his temptations. He says, shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. Oh, that's basically like unleavened bread world that we'll have. But he'll remind us of what the leavened world was like. Verse 8.

But the cowardly, those who never committed to God, those who just didn't want to commit at all, unbelieving. So these are the people that continue and are incorrigibly wicked as far as their lifestyles. They don't want repentance. Abominable murderers are people that are serial killers. That's all they want. That's the only pleasure they can get. And so, of course, when they come before the judgment, they don't want that forgiveness. They don't want to change. Because all of these are incorrigible.

They've been judged. This is what they have become. This is what they want to become. I'm sure they don't want the penalty, but they don't want to change their lifestyle. Just like a person that comes before a judge, a thief, and oh, he says he'll never do it again and everything. And then he leaves, goes back to the same lifestyle. That's what he loved. It says, sexually immoral, saucers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

So these people will be mercifully put out of their misery because God cannot create righteous character without the person wanting it. So this is a lasting mark of the person. Their character is that way. Thankfully, I don't think there are really going to be too many in world history that have ended up quite this way. And so that's what it tells us is the time when sin will no longer exist. And God the Father is so pure, says he is light, no darkness, the same with Jesus Christ. And so now they can dwell among us. They don't need some priesthood between us and them. We're all going to be one family.

Happy family, joyous family. And you know what? We won't even have any capacity to sin. We won't ever want to sin. Our character will be sealed like the one that Jesus Christ had and like the one God the Father had. Notice in 1 John chapter 3. Now this is so remote still. We might think, oh, that's just a dream. Or maybe that's not something I want. Who knows what we have people thinking. But this is what God is offering for those who want to do things God's way. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1.

It says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. What a privilege. We don't deserve it. It's unmerited. But we're very thankful. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him, not truly as He is. Again, you have all the distorted mirrors of the religions. And some will have something of truth here and then falsehood.

As somebody mentioned during lunch that when they finally came to understand the teachings that eventually were being taught in the wrong way and the person didn't accept it, they said, Well, it's just that you don't, you're not coming along with the new truths. And actually, what they were were old lies. These things Satan has cooked up in all the different varieties of the way to distort God's truths. And so it says here that the world doesn't know it because if the world knew it, they would be part of the church.

Then they could be called. He says, Beloved, now we are children of God. We're already baptized, received God's Spirit. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. Still, we're an unfinished product. But we know that when he is revealed, when Christ returns, whether we're dead in Christ or alive in Christ, we shall be like Him.

Doesn't say we're going to be inferior in the sense of being a different being. No, we're going to be part of the God family, like Him. He's going to be our elder brother. We're going to be His younger siblings. For we shall see Him as He is. It means we're going to have spiritual eyes, just like He has. We're going to be able to see Spirit. We can't see Spirit right now. We just have this visual, physical vision that has this very narrow wave of light where we can see things.

We can't see infrared light. We can't see ultra violet light. We can just see this very thin margin. When we're a spirit being, all of that will disappear. We can see absolutely everything we desire. It says, and everyone who has this hope, this vision in Him, purifies Himself just as He is pure.

So yes, seven days we have to do this to remind us. It's important to purify ourselves, to continue with this purification. That's part of the system. That's why God designed it. And so that's why we are here.

And so how does that vision get carried out? I told you about an outline. So let's briefly look at the outline that God has set up. So finally, sin will be vanquished and eliminated. It says in Revelation 20, in verse 1, when Christ comes back, it says, And He cast them into the bottomless pit and shut them up and set a seal on Him so that He should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, He must be released for a little while. So it talks here about a thousand years. And this is where you get the term millennium. Millennium comes from the Latin, also the Greek, and it just means a thousand years. That's what it's going to be, the length of the Christ rule at that time. And then in verse 4, once Satan has been removed and all the agents of deception, of course, usually when talking about Satan, it also has to do with his angels, the demons. They're all put together. They're not going to be loose because then you'd defeat the whole purpose because they are deceivers too. So Satan and his demons, and it says in verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls, which means the persons of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus. So some were martyred for the faith and for the Word of God, others because of their belief in keeping God's commandments, who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So we see here the beginning of the reign of righteousness starts with Christ coming back, removing Satan and his demons, and then beginning to place those that are part of that first resurrection. It tells us in verse 6, It means that they're never going to die again. They'll be eternal spirit beings, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. So that's the first theme that God now is forming on this earth. And from the time of Abel, the righteous, all of these Old Testament men and women of the faith have died faithfully. And then in the New Testament, all the way to our days, new people are being placed in that tomb, those who are called, those who sleep in Christ. So they're just waiting for that resurrection to take place. Now let's glimpse how that society will be that, God willing, we will be part of those in the first resurrection. Notice in Zechariah chapter 14, Zechariah chapter 14, in verse 4.

This is the description after Satan has been put away, the saints are reigning with Christ from Jerusalem. Zechariah chapter 14 verse 4, it says, And in that day, talking about Christ, talking about here the day of the Lord, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two. And so Christ comes and we know exactly where He's going to land. He's going to land on the Mount of Olives. How many have had a chance to visit the Mount of Olives? Yes, probably about 10 brethren here. And so that Mount is still there, and it overlooks the temple. It goes on to say in verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day it shall be the Lord is one, and His name one. In other words, no more alas, no more Buddhas, no more Mahomas, or no more, it seems to be one religion. Now it's going to take some time for people to come around and accept that. No more politics either. Won't have any divisions among the nations and everything. No United Nations, or should we call them disunited nations, whatever. But that'll be a thing of the past. And notice in verse 16, what are they going to be doing when Christ establishes Jerusalem? Verse 16, And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem. So this is pretty recent. After that incident has taken place, Shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feasts of tabernacles. No, not Easter. No, not Christmas. These are all the feasts of God. This is the great gathering for eight days. That we all leave a place and we go. It was Temecula, wherever we go, we gather together. Guess what? People are going to have to learn. That's the truth. That's the way you should follow God and not all these other ways. And it says, And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts. On them there will be no rain. So Christ makes the invitation. And of course we're going to have rowdy countries. Countries based on probably dictatorships and things where the boss just says, No, we have Buddha. We don't believe in God. We're atheists or whatever. Okay, fine. You have a drought that covers that entire nation. Everything dries up. The food, the water. How long before they come and say, Guess what? We've repented. Can we come? Because we're starving to death. And so there's not going to be a second way. See, God isn't going to say, Well, just as long as you worship me, you can do it your way. No, you better keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And then it says, And if the family of Egypt, these are the majority Muslims, very fanatical. If they will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Notice the plural of nations. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And that word, kata, means sin and its punishment. For instance, it says in God's word version, This will be the punishment for Egypt's sin and for the sin of all the nations that won't go to celebrate the Feast.

But of course, this isn't the only one. This is just the main feast. It says once a year, they get to go to Jerusalem, that whole area. And of course, it'll be all prepared to be able to gather together at that time. But we also have in the Bible that during that time when Christ establishes a kingdom, all of these seven feasts will be kept. Notice in Ezekiel 11, let's go to Ezekiel 11. Am I boring you still?

I don't see too many people going to sleep, so that's pretty good. That's all I'm attempting to do. Ezekiel 31? I'm sorry, Ezekiel 11. This is very important because one of the purposes of the Book of Ezekiel is to describe the vision of the departure of God's glory from the temple of Jerusalem. So remember the time of Solomon, God's glory went in, just a shining cloud came in, and the priests had to leave because God's glory was there in the Holy of Holies.

And it lasted from the time of Solomon around 300 years, but now in Ezekiel's time God said enough is enough and I've got to leave. And so he gives Ezekiel this vision. Ezekiel 11 verse 22. It says, so the carobim lifted up their wings. So this is a portable throne where Yahweh, being Christ, is on it.

It says, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city. So he left the temple. Now, nobody else could see this, but God was showing, giving spiritual vision. Angels could see what was going on, but not human beings. When the glory of God left, and it says, the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city. And where did it go? It stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.

What's the name of that mountain? The Mount of Olives, the one that Christ will come one day and bring back that glory. And at that moment, Christ, who was the Word, he delayed the vision of, he delayed the leaving. It talks about lifting first of all, and then kind of going above it and hovering it. He did not want, but he just knew this was the time, and of course Jerusalem was going to be destroyed shortly after.

But you see there, when Christ left, approximately in the here 586 BC, when the temple was destroyed. But notice, Ezekiel also shows us when Christ is going to return. Ezekiel 43 verses 1-3. Ezekiel 43, 1-3. And of course this is still in the future.

There's no temple yet. There's no glory of God yet. But this is what it says in Ezekiel 43 verse 1. And afterward, he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. This is another one of the visions that Ezekiel received. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters and the earth shone with his glory. And so here we see in verse 3, it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city.

The visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Kibbar and fell on my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by the way of the gate which faces toward the east, which is toward the Mount of Olives. So Christ from the Mount of Olives establishes here his residence. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

Verse 7, And he said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of my soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile my holy name. They shall know their kings by their harlot, holler tree, or the carcasses of their kings on their high places. And what's interesting, too, let's go to just after Christ establishes himself there in Jerusalem, Ezekiel 44, verse 4.

It says, Also he brought me by the way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face. In verse 23, this is Christ giving the instructions. He says, I'm talking about his priests now, and this has to do with his people, the spirit beings as priests, and also kings, and they have physical priests that will be there. And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

So those clean and unclean meats will be taught to the people. Versus 24, in controversy, they shall stand as judges and judge it according to my judgments, according to God's word. And they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed meetings, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths. So, again, God's calendar is in action. It's binding. Going on to verse 45, I mean, chapter 45, verse 17. It says, Then it shall be that the prince, and by the way, the prince is David, Ezekiel 34, 23 through 24. He's the one that's going to be over the 12 tribes of Israel to give the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, the Sabbaths, and all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel.

It goes on to say in verse 21, In the first month of the fourteenth day of the month you shall observe the Passover. And then that should be a period, because then the next is a feast of seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself, and for all his people a bowl for sin offering. So the sins are now with the sacrifices, just as they're projected forward in time after Christ did it, then at that time that will be projected back. In other words, this is a reminder of what Christ does as these nations learn God's way of life. This is a symbol, right, of Christ and his sacrifice.

So it's going to be a process, and certainly man has a lot to learn as he starts keeping God's commandments. Notice in Isaiah chapter 2.

Verse 1, it says the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, at the end time when Christ returned, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills. That's Jerusalem. Many people shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. So just like with the Feast of Tabernacle, we'll be teaching them about that meaning. So all the feasts will be taught, and it says, He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths, no longer rebellious people. They will follow God's way. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, talking about the law of God, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall their learn war anymore. So again, there's no hostility in their hearts. It's going to end this crazy world with all armed to the teeth as they are now. So it's a world of hope that we see ahead in our lives. But it's a process. It begins in the millennium and continues all through the periods of judgment, through the second resurrection and third resurrection of the incorrigibly wicked, and then anybody who is left there, whose name is not in the Book of Life because they rejected it, they will be thrown in the lake of fire and that will be purified and burnt completely. People's memories will no longer remain active, thinking about the horrors that have happened before.

In Isaiah 11, just a couple of chapters over, Isaiah 11 verses 5 through 9, describe that world that is coming. A world where women are not going to be afraid of men, where men are going to be perfect gentlemen and respect them and never seek to take advantage, where the children will also be safe, there won't be anybody lusting and all of that, because none of the outlets for sin that we have today, by way of all this electronic media, that will all disappear. The only thing we'll have is electronic media with healthy things, good things, and also it'll be a life very active, not going to be living in cities where everybody's cooped up, where everybody's going to have spacious places to invite others. It says here in Isaiah 11 verse 5, righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, talking about Christ, and faithfulness, the belt of his waist. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with a young goat, all of these animals that now the wolf eats lambs, the leopard eats goats, but then it says they shall all dwell together and lie down. They will basically have herbivores, which means they will eat grass, they won't eat meat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall eat them. Nobody will be afraid. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together. There won't be any of this attacking hostility, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The lion will become a herbivore as well. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. There won't be any venomous animals. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So we'll have true science based on God's word, on His guidance, and there won't be any of this anti-God type of movements and educational systems. It will all be based... Because God is the author of all science. He created everything. So He knows every law, physical, biological, chemical, that there exists. And we will all learn from Him, from those that He uses as teachers at that time.

And we're about ready to finish in Isaiah 30, verse 19. These are the teachers of the millennium. It says in Isaiah chapter 30, in verse 19, It says, For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you. At the sound of your cry, when He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the breath of adversity, and certainly that's going to happen before Christ returns, in the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. But your eyes shall see your teachers. You will actually see these spirit beings appearing. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand, or when you turn to the left, you'll also defile the covering of your images of silver and the ornaments of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing. You will say to them, Get away. And so, again, teaching people the difference between sin and what is righteousness. And so, to finish the sermon, let's go to Revelation 22.

At the very end of the Bible, where this outline of the Days of Unleavened Bread finished, Isaiah 22, verse 20, after everything that has been revealed, it says, He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. I have it in the contemporary English version. It says, The one who has spoken these things says, I'm coming soon. So, Lord Jesus, please come soon. So let's keep these lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread, but let's do it during the whole year.