God's Decisive Holy Day

There are four examples of ideas about God's early days, which I want to mention today, because they are only examples. But it shows how people can lead others astray. The first example that I want to mention is from somebody in the church. This was on the 21st of October, 1999, just before Y2K. This individual wrote 23 years ago, and I quote, because I got his email. 70 years after the end time, church started in 1933, is the year 2003, which this author has long pointed out is the most likely date for the first resurrection on trumpets, 2003. Well, that has come and gone, 19 years gone by. And then he added, this is too, all too systematic, and I allow my control to be my invention. Brethren, there are many ideas out there. That's from somebody in the church. But the ideas from other people, not in the church, for instance, they say the holy days are optional. You probably heard people say that. God's holy days are not optional. If you read, for instance, in Leviticus 23, 29, when he's talking about the day of atonement, clearly says, any person who is not afflicted in Saul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. That to me is not an option. I mean, for some, maybe, but I don't think it's an option for you now. And then, from people even further away from the truth, as a third example, they say the holy days distract us from the gospel.

Brethren, the fact is that God's holy days are an integral part of the gospel of the good news of the kingdom of God. They point to the plan which will fulfill those good news, that great mystery to be revealed. And lastly, as another example from people even further away, they will say, we do not want the message of grace to be confused with laws which the gospel specifically set aside are not for Christians. Paul never said that the law of God is not for Christians. That is lawlessness. It's the spirit of antichrist. Now, you may ask, why am I mentioning this? Because Satan will come up with many tricks and ideas to deceive mankind and particularly to try and deceive the elect, you and I.

There will be many false ideas in the days to come. And some of you will probably come to the minute and say, yeah, well, this is going to be, I've got the same, this is what it's going to be. They will be very convincing, very convincing. Turn with me to Matthew 24. Matthew 24, yeah, is Christ before the disciples. You know Matthew 24 very well. And starting from verse 5 to verse 8, the people came to Him and said, look at this, how wonderful, you know. And then Christ says, well, it all will be destroyed. And then He says, oh, and then they ask Christ, well, tell us when will be Your coming and the end of this age? What will be the sign? And then Christ, starting in verse 5, says, many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ. Oh, yeah, they'll say Christ is Christ. And will deceive many. You see, the key point about Christ was deception that is going to come. Satan is the arch deceiver. And so Christ then focuses on a series of events, false religion, and wars, and plagues, and famines, and death. So He focuses on those things, Christ says. And then a little later, in verse 24, Matthew 24, 24, He says, false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders. They're going to do miracles, stunning, amazing miracles, convincing miracles to deceive, to deceive. Christ's warning here is about deception. Don't be deceived.

And if it were possible, even the elect. And if you read verse 25 and 26, He says, I told you before. If they say, Luke is in the desert, do not go out, or Luke is in a room, do not believe. In other words, whatever idea or speculation or whatever it is people are going to come up with, don't believe it. Don't believe it. So you could be deceived, because Christ is saying, don't believe it. If it were possible, you could be deceived. But you have to be close to God, and have to have your eyes open, and understand the basic things so that you are not going to be led astray. So why are you young today? Why? Brethren, today, I want to particularly focus on the fourth holy day, the middle holy day. Think about it. There are three before and three after. It's the middle. It's the pivot. It's that decisive holy day, which celebrates the greatest event in human history, celebrates the greatest event in human history, celebrates the revealing of the mystery of God. I don't want to make any confusion that the day of trumpet symbolizes this important event event in human history, and in which the mystery of God will be revealed. And so, this holy day, today, the day of trumpets, it's pivotal. It's decisive. And why is it so important? Because it is like it is the kernel of the gospel of the kingdom of God.

You see, God's alloys reveal the plan of God. In other words, they expound the rest to come, which is pointed by the Sabbath. So God's holy days, in a sense, are an unfolding of the meaning of the seventh day Sabbath, a detailed explanation of the meaning of the seventh day Sabbath. And they expound the way that God will establish the kingdom of God, which is none other's. Than the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Now, the day of trumpets consists of seven trumpets, which are part of the seventh seal. I have a slide which I'd like to show now, and we'll keep that slide up for a while. And I will be talking a little bit more about that slide. But I want you to just give you a little bit of a glimpse on that slide.

Is that, and maybe for the people on Zoom, we could adjust a little the camera on Zoom, so the people on Zoom and the people on the webcast can also see the slide. If we may ask that, please. So that, in that slide, I've got seven little red circles, like seals, and that is to illustrate the seven seals. So I just tried to pictorially describe the seven seals. And you can see the seventh of that red circle that looks like a seal, the seventh, then follows it a trumpet, and you can see a block which symbolizes the seven trumpets.

So we will leave that slide up for a while, because I don't have any other slides today. That's the only slide I've got to show you. But I want you to continue thinking about Matthew 24. So I'll come back to that in a moment. But think about Matthew 24. You see, Christ was talking to the disciples and saying, don't be deceived. And many false prophets will come to try and deceive you.

But there's one interesting thing he does after that. He lists four parables. There are four parables there. You know there's a parable of victory, starting in verse 32, and then there's the parable of the faithful and evil servants, starting in verse 45. And then in Matthew 25, starting in verse 1, there's the parable of the ten virgins. And then in verse 14 of Matthew 25, starts with the parable of talents. Now, we all have gone through those parables and there's a huge value and significance in each one of the parables, which have been explained and described in many other sermons. But I want to look very briefly in a summary sequence point of view and remind you that Christ is warning the disciples not to be deceived. And then he expounds their warning with four parables.

And there is an interesting sequence to those parables besides the individual powerful meanings of each parable, which I'm not going to go into today, but I just want to highlight this sequence of value. In the first parable, the parable of the victory is basically saying, as a warning, you don't know the day or the hour.

You know, and then he even talks there about one will be taken and one will be left. What do you mean by that? That's very interesting. And then in that sequence, he goes on to starting in verse Matthew 24 verse 45. He's got the parable of the faithful servant and evil servant, which is, well, you know, Christ's delay is coming.

That's another warning. You know, first you don't know the time, but don't get into the perspective, oh well, it's happened before, we said it before, that Christ's coming with set dates, etc. Don't think Christ is delaying his coming. Can you see the sequence in the thought pattern of the warning? And then he's got the parable of the ten virgins. This is, five are wise and five are foolish, which basically ties into the point, are you ready? Oh, you're ready.

So, yeah, we have, you know, it's the season, the parable of the fig tree, but you don't know, you know, it's summer, it's coming here. Don't think the Lord is delaying his coming. And it says, some will be ready and some won't, which ties in with the earlier parable of the fig tree that says, two in the field, the one will be taken and a knock. So, like, the ten virgins, some are ready, some are knocked. It brings that concept again. A possible extrapolation is that 50% of the church will not be ready.

And then he goes into the parable of the talents that says, there's gonna be a reward. If you are faithful, if you are ready, there's gonna be a reward. But you've got to produce fruits. So you can see there is a circle sequence in those parables giving you a warning message to be ready. That is very important to understand, because people are going to be deceived, people are not going to be ready. They're going to say, well, the Lord is delaying his coming and they're fast asleep, not all, but son.

And we, as ministers of Jesus Christ, have to continuously, it's our duty to remind you to be ready. I think the sermon this afternoon will be around that topic itself, if I'm not mistaken. So we need to be ready.

Now I'm going to go back to the book of Revelation and to the slide that you can see, because we are looking at the time period of the four seals in which we live now. You know, the first seal is, and you can read that in Revelation chapter 6. I'm not going to go through it in detail by detail, but you can see them in Revelation chapter 6.

And you see the first one is a white horse. That's deception. That's false Christianity, false ideologies, false ideas, false messiahs, false Christ, false leaders saying, I will solve the problems of this nation. And they solve nothing. They say, vote for me and I'll solve the problems of the nation. They don't have enough power to solve the problems of the nation. How good an intent they may have. And that's why we don't get involved in politics forever, because it's a waste of time. They don't have enough power to fix it, even if they got good intent.

There'll be false messiahs, false ideologies all over the place. And these ideologies could be religion, could be philosophies, could be whatever, trigger war. How many wars have been started by religion? Or how many wars have a root or a justification to get people behind you with some sort of ideology behind it? You know, either through false advertising, through false media, or whatever it may be, but you say enough of this lie that people start believing it. So you've got to get people behind you with this false ideology. That triggers wars, which is the red horse, which is the second seal.

You read that in verse 4 of Revelation 6. And when you've got wars, what are you going to have? Hunger. You're going to have hunger. There's going to be lack of food. And that's, as you see, is the third seal or the black horse. And as a result of that, what happens? People die. And the pale horse, the fourth seal, is called, and the name of him, you read that in verse 8, who sat on it was death.

Death. That pale horse is death and Hades, Hades, which is the grave. So, and obviously it includes diseases, epidemics, and all that. So what do we have? These four horses are riding in parallel. False religion, false ideas trigger war, which triggers famine, which triggers death. And that is going to build up and build up and build up till one moment it explodes into another world war. And there'll be many that will die. But you see, that's not the end because you remember many times the churches said there are a number of things to watch.

You've got to watch Israel as a show in the slide. You've got to watch the United Europe. You've got to watch the King of the South. You've got to watch the loss of pride and power of the Israelites nations. Those are kind of political, so I grouped them four. And then the other two are religions, which you've got to watch the false church and God's church. And last but not least, you've got to watch declining morality. Do you see that today? So these are things to watch until it gets to a point, which is a breaking point, in which the Bible talks about we'll see the development.

And I've marked there in red banners at the top, development of the man of sin and the beast coming up. And then there will be the abomination of desolation. And then it ties in with Daniel 12. So there's a lot of detail, yeah, and I'm not going into all detail, but I just want to emphasize the importance of the Day of Trumpets, but I'm building it up to it.

So that abomination, desolation basically is the time when half of the church will flee. A portion of the church will flee. You read that, you can compare that with Revelation 3 verse 10. That's because you're faithful, you kept the word of my promise, I'll protect you from the Day of Trial on the all-earth. You also read in Revelation 3, 17 and 18 that others will not be protected. Then it says, I counsel you to buy gold, triad, and fire, which means they're going to have to go through the Great Tribulation. And then you read Revelation 12 verse 14 through 17, where it says, Satan will then persecute the church, but the earth will protect, but then understand that there's only a portion of the church, because then the earth protects it, and then it turns to the remaining of the church, which ties in with the parables that are showed that five were ready, five were not, two will be the field, one will be taken, one will not, so they'll be protected.

And in Revelation 12 says they'll be protected for three and a half years from the face of the serpent. So that's very probably where that fits in. So the point is, a portion of the church will be protected from the face of the serpent in a place, somewhere. That's what it says. Revelation 12. It's very clear. Then what do you have? You have the Great Tribulation, which we know is for three and a half years. Matthew 24 explains that clearly. You got the Great Tribulation, but we know that that gets cut short. How does it get cut short?

It gets cut short by the heavenly signs, because the Great Tribulation, as we can see, is the first seal, and then it gets cut short by that sixth seal, which is the heavenly signs. And those heavenly signs are described in Revelation 6, verse 12 through 17. And those heavenly signs is basically the sign of the Son of Man, and it is the moment, and you read in those last two verses of chapter 6 of Revelation, verses 16 and 17, and it says, the people says, "...

hide us in the mountains and rocks, fall on us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great eye of his wrath has come, verse 17." So we are three and a half years of Great Tribulation, but one year before the Great Tribulation ends, it's cut short by a year. In other words, its impact, its strength, is cut short. It still continues, but not of the same power, because now God is intervening. And the heavenly signs, as the sign from God, from Christ, signs the sign of the Son of Man, says, from Yah onwards, God starts to intervene in human affairs.

So it initiates the wrath of God upon earth. It initiates the seventh seal. But the seventh seal is described in Revelation 8. And in Revelation 7, we see the sealing of God's servants, a sealing of a fixed number of Israelites and a sealing of a great number of Gentiles, of nations. And basically what happens is the work that you and I have done for all these years the gospel that we have preached during that period, because a part of the church will have gone to protection. So the church will cease to exist, quote-unquote, as an organized institution. From their own words, God continues the work with the two witnesses. And those people will go into the Great Tribulation and say, we should have listened to it. Why didn't we watch this? Why didn't we change? Now they're in the fire, in the frying pan, and they will repent. They will repent. During those two and a half years of the Great Tribulation, a great number of people will repent. And God will say, I'm going to seal them where they are, wherever they are. I'm going to protect them because they've repented, they've been baptized. Yes, because part of the church will be underground, because, you know, the other 50 percent of the church would have remained, will be underground. Yes, some will die, some will not, but they will be underground, and people will be baptized and will repent, and the two witnesses will be telling them, that's what you're going to do. So there's no further deception, no further deception to the ones that want to really learn. And therefore, the ones that really repent, they will have to act in fife, they will have to deny completely the mark of the beast, and stand faithful in fife. Some will die, but many will survive. Those that repent and are baptized and given their commitment to God as God's children, why should God punish them when it's the time of his wrath? So he's going to seal them and protect them. Therefore, this period of the seven trumpets, which culminates on the seventh trumpet, which symbolizes Christ's return, this period of the seven trumpets is a time to rejoice. Why? Because all God's people, thousands of people that you know, maybe they are your beloved friends and family, they will repent. And therefore, many of them will be sealed and protected by God right there where they are, and they will survive that rest of the year. That's why the Great Tribulation will be reduced in impact because God is going to protect those people that have repented.

You see, the wall will go still through many upheavals, even during that last year, which symbolizes that the period of the seven trumpets.

And many of them are caused by man as you read those trumpets. They are caused by man. It's the time of those diseases initially for many months where they have those gases or whatever it is that people suffer. And then there's that army that will fight of 200 million and kill. That's still mankind causing problems. But God will protect His people and the time of His wrath and He is allowing us to punish evil mankind because it says the rest of the people never repented. Yeah, during the time of the seven trumpets, those people that were ready to repent would have repented by the time of the heavenly signs. But the others will not repent now. They're too hardened, so they don't repent. But those that have repented will be sealed. And therefore it's a time to rejoice because all God's people will be protected. Reminds me of the days of at the end when they were leaving Egypt, those people were protected from those blades. Same thing, it's going to happen again. And so when we read Revelation 8 and 9, it's talking about those seven trumpets. And then we get to Revelation 10. Revelation 10 starting in verse 5 through verse 7. Revelation 10 verse 5 to verse 7. It says, at the end of the space is the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land raised up is unto heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things which are in it and the earth and the things that are in it and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be no more delay. And so we come to the end of that period. Those first six trumpets have already blown. As you can see, they're part of Revelation 9. Now we are at the time of the seventh trumpet, and there shall be no more delay. No more delay. Verse 7, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, which obviously is the seventh trumpet, when he is out to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as he declared to his servants the prophets. The mystery of God would be finished. What is the mystery of God that will be finished? Is that man and woman made of dust are finally born again as spirit beings in the family of God. That is the mystery of God being finished. It's completed. And then, as we heard in the sermon today, we get to Revelation 11, verse 15. Then the seventh angel sounded, that's the seventh trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and it shall reign forever and ever. The nations of this world, the governments of this world, at that seventh trumpet, will now belong to God through Christ. Yes, he's delegating to Christ to do the work. Christ is, let's call it, the chief executive officer. He's doing the work on behalf of the Father. And so, the nations of this world will become part of the kingdom of God. At the seventh trumpet, it's when Christ takes over to rule the world. Clearly, in Revelation 11, verse 15, and at the seventh trumpet is also when the saints are resurrected at the last trump. You've read that in Corinthians 15, you read that in Thessalonians, you've read that many times at the seventh trumpet. But there are many events that will happen at Christ's coming. There are a lot of things that will happen at that time period.

But first, I want to review one thing. The day of trumpets symbolizes that period of one year, which includes from the first trumpet to the seventh. It's that whole period which the Bible calls it as the day of the Lord.

And it's the time to rejoice because those that have repented, our beloved family that maybe have not repented yet today, they will repent at that day and they will be protected. It's a day to rejoice.

But I want to highlight something else that Revelation 11, starting from verse 15, says, because it talks about the elders and the giving God thanks for this. But look at verse 18. He says, in the nations we're angry. Oh yeah! The nations were fighting against each other. You saw the fifth trumpet and the sixth trumpet with the gases and those locus and the 200 million army, they're going at each other, blowing the earth to smithereens, and they say, well, that's it! Either you or me, now we're going to destroy everything at that moment! No further delay. Cross got intervened and stopped.

I mean, things are going to get pretty bad. But all of God's people will be protected. That is the good news during that last year. Christ is already starting to intervene in all the fears. It's a day to rejoice. Before that, we have a lot of sad things. Now, a lot of our beloved friends and families are suffering. But from that moment, at the beginning of trumpets after the heavenly signs, people will be protected, sealed, right there in the middle. How? I don't know. But God is powerful. He can do everything. But I want to highlight to you in verse 18 of Revelation 11. The nations were angry, so they're kind of conditioned today, you know. I just have Star Wars and there's invasion from outer space. And they see these star ships, mothership there, and we're going to get up and fight the invasion from aliens. I will not be surprised that they will call Christ an alien. And the nations will get gathered when they see this. Because, you know, we gather with Christ up in the clouds, right? And why? I don't know what it'll be. I'm speculating. I don't know what it is. But nations will get gathered. They see, well, there's the mothership, whatever it is, we gotta bow and strike them down. I don't know. I'm speculating. I don't know what it will be. But I think the nations have been conditioned to fight invasions from aliens. In fact, I'm now speculating again. I would not be surprised that soon we'll see, quote-unquote, evidence that there are aliens. So that we start building the scene in society, we gotta be prepared to fight these aliens and gonna invade us. I would not be surprised that they're gonna see things about extraterrestrial and things like that. Okay, I'm speculating. But I'm just jumping a couple loops there. It's possible. I don't know. But the point is the nations were angry. And look at three things that mentioned Zia in verse 18.

You see, the nations are angry and your wrath has come. Because there is a moment when the nations are gonna want to fight Christ and Christ is gonna hit them real hard. I mean, you read in Zechariah 14 when it says Christ returns and Christ comes down to Mount Olives and the nations want to fight that in Jerusalem. And you read in Zechariah 14 that Christ will really hit them hard because it says their eyes will melt inside their eyes and their tongues will melt inside them. I mean, it will hit them hard. That's obviously the armies. Not mankind, but the whole, but it's those armies that are fighting Christ. So it says, you see, the nations are angry and there are three things and I believe it's important we pay attention to the sequence of these three series of events. Number one, that the time of the dead that they should be judged. What do you mean by that?

Because some of the dead will be judged to be resurrected in the first resurrection and it's like they go on the express lane to life eternal. The remaining of the dead are judged to remain sleeping for at least another thousand years. So the dead at that moment are judged, some are judged to be resurrected and some are judged to remain sleeping for at least another thousand years. That's point number one. Point number two, and that is should reward your servants, the prophets, the saints, and those that fear your name, small and great. So whoever you are as a servant of God, whether you small or great, important, rich, poor, doesn't matter. A servant of God will be rewarded. So obviously they're going to be resurrected first, right? So there's a sequence and then there'll be a reward. And then third, it says, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. Those people, those armies that are gathered that are destroying the earth and ready to destroy Christ, they will be zapped super quickly. So there's a time of three major events that is described here in Revelation 11 verse 18 at Christ's coming. Christ takes over the rule of the world. There's a resurrection at the seventh trump. You read that in 1 Corinthians 15, run about 53 and 54. And then we see that the saints are rewarded. And then those nations are destroyed. So there is an implied sequence of events which is supported with further biblical statements. You look at Revelation chapter 14.

And now we see a resurrection, the Lamb standing, a resurrection. You see that in verse 1, through verse 4. That's at Christ's coming, that seventh trumpet symbolized by the meaning of the day of trumpets. And then we read also in verse 14 and 16, because now after that resurrection, the earth is ripe for more people to be harvested. Christ is going to come, the saints are going to rule, and the earth is ripe for the harvesting which will happen during the millennium. So we see that. But then it's Gorya in chapter 15. And chapter 15 is basically takes that seventh trumpet and again expands it into the seven lost plagues. Relations 15 verse 1 expands that into seven lost plagues. And you can see I've marked them there under the rightmost block, the seventh trumpet, first resurrection. As I got there, Christ will come as lightning, you know, and then the seven plagues are to happen. And then when you look at the seven lost plagues, that is super devastating. There'll be storms, there'll be lack of water, the water in the seas will turn blood, the fresh water will turn blood. How long can you live on planet earth without water?

Not long. So we're talking about a mighty short period of time.

And then we see in still in these seven lost plagues, which are described in chapter 16 of Revelation, the seven lost plagues, which are described in chapter 16, which as I said, a source and water's turn into blood, fresh water turns into blood, men are scorched, darkness and pain. And the sixth of that is the river Elthratis dries up and the nations gather in Armageddon, in the Valley of Megiddo, to fight Christ, which they'll fight then in Jerusalem. See, the battle will not be in Armageddon, the battle will be in Jerusalem, but they'll gather in Armageddon. That is all during a short period of time. Granted, it's not one day, but it's a short period of time, which will be possibly now a speculite period of the trumpets, but before Atonement, a short period of time. I'm speculating there. We don't know. No man knows the day or the hour. So I'm not trying to put dates onto things. Please understand that. But it will be a very short period of time, and they will want to fight Christ. And so there will be that great earthquake, and then allowing people around that area to escape. As you read that, there will be a great earthquake, and allow people to escape around there. And then Christ will destroy them as you read through Zechariah 14. Christ returns with the signs, and the first nation to repent in Mass. The first nation to repent in Mass will be Judah. You read that in Zechariah 14, verse 12 through 14. The first nation to repent in Mass, and say, this is the Messiah, and they'll turn and back up Christ. And then thereafter we can see as we... there will be the rest of Israel, and then the rest of the sons of Abram into the beginning of the millennium. And then other nations will repent one after another during the millennium, as you probably will hear that during the Feast of Tabernacles. And then we read in Revelation 19, verse 20 and 21, because as we get to the end of that battle, and those people are destroyed, you can see then the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. And now we are ready for the next holy day, which is a tournament which is described in Revelation 20, when Satan will be imprisoned, and the trumpet of the Jubilee will blow. Leviticus 25, the trumpet of Jubilee, which blows on the day of Atonement, and in which liberty is declared on earth. Because Satan is imprisoned, those armies that wanted to fight Christ are destroyed, and liberty, Jubilee, is declared on earth. And that's why, forever, no man knows, no man knows when is the year of Jubilee, because the Jews haven't kept it. They haven't kept it. So no one knows when is the year of Jubilee. Oh yeah, we can speculate, we can speculate a lot of things, but no money knows that year. We can now turn off the slide. I finished with the slide. But what I want to emphasize is there's so much, there's so much packed into the meaning of the day of trumpets. Because it's from that period of the heavenly signs until Christ's return, and those nations are destroyed, the beast and the false prophet are put into the lake of fire.

That is so much packed into the day. And so God's Holy Days explains us in more detail, and today I focus just on one section, which is the meaning of the fourth Holy Day, which is a magnification of the Sabbath, because the Sabbath points to a day of rest, and will tomorrow be a time of rest, and the greater rest to come will be the new heaven and earth even after that, which is described by the lost great day, which points to that great resurrection and great white throne and whatever else comes beyond that. But why are we here, brethren? Why are we here? We are here today to celebrate the most decisive and pivotal event in human history. Christ's coming, the establishment of the kingdom of God rolling on earth, and the revealing of the mystery of God. It's a time to celebrate. It's a time to rejoice.