God's Plan of Salvation, Part 4

God planned calling and converting firstfruits into His family from the foundation of the world, the Bible says. The foundation of the world took place evidently some time ago. This earth didn't even cool before 4.5 billion years ago. Before that, we see light coming 13 and a half billion years from distant galaxies. And if God planned all of this before then, it's been a long time in the making for you and I to be saints who are destined to be the firstfruits in the family of God, the very first harvest that the festival of harvest speaks to.

God has taken time in preparing and planning. God is very skilled and patient at preparing just the perfect environment for all of humans who will and have ever lived to have an opportunity at being in His family. That environment had to be just right at just the right time and fulfill just the right things in order for Him to be able to select, to approve, to judge, to reject, and go through the whole process of you and I having a chance to be part of His family. Eventually in this process, Adam and Eve were created. We read in the Bible that God Himself very personally was involved in their creation and very involved in their life, the first phase of it especially.

4,000 years later, Jesus Christ came to earth. 4,000 years after Adam and Eve, Jesus Christ initiated the New Covenant. 2,000 years after that, you and I are here in our brief lifespan having an opportunity as saints to be called, to be one of the few that are chosen to receive the sealing of God's Holy Spirit, and then to enter into a slow conversion process whereby we first have some realization and then begin to develop some trust and then we sort of work on some obedience and we go back and forth with that a bit as we test it as we determine whether it's right for us and slowly we grow.

Slowly we mature spiritually and our growth and our development is paced at a very reasonable, a very realistic growth as one changes from the carnal old self to the new person. Not that that person isn't initiated right at baptism, but there is a maturing and we are told then to become perfect or fully mature, transition fully into what our Father is, what our Lord Jesus Christ is. Now in time, one of the next things to happen is the second coming of Jesus Christ and that will come in a period it's like birth pangs for a new age that will begin.

God will then harvest the very first of his children, the very first sons and daughters after our Lord Jesus Christ became the first of the first fruits. After all these billions of years or whatever time God sees that in, the first harvest will take place. Then, next, a thousand years later, there will be another resurrection for all who have ever lived and died without knowing, without sampling God's way of life.

And they will have an environment that is just right for them to slowly come to realize reality and truth, to realize who God is, to sample and to taste and to participate in the mindset of the God family. And then after that, there will be a judgment. 100 years afterward or so in God's time, there will be another great harvest of the majority of God's family from human beings.

Now, the point is that God has taken his time. God has been patient. God has done all that it takes in nurturing humanity to be part of his divine family. And it's not an instant process. It's not a quick process. There's really nothing fast about it whatsoever. And for God, there is no hurry. There's no rush. There have been no cut corners. Rather, God is always loving, is always patient. He's long-suffering. He's slow. Slow to anger, slow to wrath, slow to give up on anyone. Let's go to Deuteronomy 7 and verse 6. In the series that we're going through on God's plan of salvation, it's important for us to understand this perspective that the Bible teaches us about God.

It says in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 6, it refers to the holy people of God. In whatever covenant they were in, these verses, these words would apply and will apply, both past, present, and future. It says, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, holy because God has given us his Holy Spirit, holy because he has set us apart, sanctified us for a certain purpose, holy because at this point in time we are called the children of God, the sons and daughters of God, if we're being led by his Holy Spirit, a special treasure above all peoples on the face of this earth.

Not that that means anything other than this is our time to be the holy people and it's not the time yet for the others. There is more to that going by what it says in Revelation 20 verse 6, how special and blessed those who are part of the first resurrection, those first fruits will be. But at the same time, verse 8, it says, Because the Lord loves you, it's not because of anything you and I have done, it's because of this love that God has had going back to the foundation of the world, whatever God considers that to be.

If that's from the designing and the implementation of the physical universe, then that's been a long, long time that you and I have been a special treasure. Because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand. Then physically, you and I spiritually have been brought out of our slavery to Satan's mindset, this way of self.

And he has brought out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, from the hand of Satan, king of this evil age. That's pretty exciting for us to know that it's our time.

This is a real special opportunity. Verse 9, therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. God invests time for those whom he is working with, for a thousand generations. That's not years. That's a thousand generations. He is there, loving, committed, merciful. Humans are the apple of God's eye. That is what God's focus is on. This isn't some project over on a shelf in the garage that he checks on every now and then.

This is what God has been taking his time, sacrificing his life, humbling himself in a sense to work with some very inferior people and a very inferior creation compared to the spiritual plane in which he lives. And so he's humbled himself as the Father and as the Son and devoting their time and their attention, sacrificing what they would otherwise be doing for you and me.

This has been his focus perhaps for billions of years. And now, time's getting pretty exciting because the harvests are approaching. And we know through the prophetic plan of salvation that prophecies are showing that the time is short and that first harvest is going to be taking place soon. In fact, all the harvests will be finished in a blink of an eye compared to what God has done in preparation until now.

God's patient focus is not going anywhere else. And that's why he says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And Jesus said, I am always there with you even until the end. God is with this great plan of salvation. God is timeless. God has always existed. He always will exist. People rationalize that where God is, there's no such thing as time.

Well, I don't know that type of thing. We can theorize on a lot of things, but we know that God has existed forever, will exist forever. We know that his son broke that eternal existence for three days and three nights to give us the opportunity to be freed from sin and to have eternal life. That's a wonderful gift. But God's plan of salvation is so crucial for his future children, the future family that will live forever.

That God is now patient, taking time, giving opportunity, all the opportunity and time that is necessary for his family to have that opportunity to live with them. Today I'd like to see an aspect of your calling from God's perspective, instead of our own. Our own three score in ten, busy little life, racing around, looking at things from our human eyes. Let's look at it from God's perspective, and then we'll take a look at it back from our human eyes and see if that perspective might have changed a little bit.

The title of the sermon today is God's plan of salvation, Part 4. Time is on God's side. Time is on God's side. As we see how time really is on God's side for accomplishing his plan of salvation for his future children, we'll also see a reverse situation in which we need to have an urgency to march out of Egypt in time to be able to participate. So after billions of years of creating this physical realm, Adam and Eve were finally created.

God had reached a real landmark point in the plan of salvation where Adam and Eve, the father of all the lineage between him and Jesus Christ, the father and mother, were created. And as God had taken all of this time and made all this effort, suddenly Satan raced in and struck a death blow at those two people.

It's interesting how God takes the time Satan jumps in and, bam, in just a split second, gets them lined up for eternal death, cast out of the garden, blocked from the tree of life. When their children were giving offerings to God, Satan rushed in, terminated Abel, and barred Cain through murder from a relationship that was close to God, chasing him away. After the flood and all that sort of torpedoing of God's intent by Satan of humanity that drowned in the flood, we see God calls Abram. At the same time, Satan got Nimrod going, and Nimrod had a son, and Nimrod began to develop, and through Tamas, after Nimrod's death, began to put together a false counterfeit religion that spread.

But Abram married Sarah, and they were barren. They didn't just take off and fill the earth with kids. Their progress was measured. It took time. It was a hundred years before they had their first child, and that child was due to be sacrificed. Israel was freed from slavery to Egypt, and they departed on the night to be much observed with God. What a great opportunity to go out with a high hand. But Satan raced in after them and got Pharaoh and the armies to go back and capture them, or kill them if necessary, and trap them in at the Red Sea.

God established a covenant with Israel at Sinai, an elaborate covenant. It was so well thought out, so well planned. A covenant that would really allow a civilization to not only flourish, but be a model civilization on earth with a consistent relationship with God and a direct involvement with God that would go on and on and on with His blessings. Satan pounced the very evening or the very day of the delivery of the Ten Commandments. He pounced with a golden calf and got them to offend God. Let's take a look at an overview of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and the first 11 verses.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 will begin in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the sea. So they were being led out by the one whom we'll see in a minute was Jesus Christ, Christ who was the God of the Old Testament, as Paul will state here in a moment.

All were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. With most of them, God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Satan got them to do things to where God was not pleased and they died. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Satan jumped right in there with that wrong inspiration right there at the foot of Sinai. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted. Notice they're tempting the one who later became Jesus Christ and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happen to them as our examples. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

You know, four slow decades took place there. Forty years. God being very patient with them. And just as Paul writes some of the things that they did, some of the things they tested God and they complained and they did this and they did that. God took time to replace that entire generation with a new stock of Israelites that then marched out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. God led them wandering. He led them in regenerating the nation of Israel.

And it says in Acts 13, verse 18, now for a time of about forty years he put up with their ways in the wilderness. God is patient. God has time on his side. God works with individuals. Now about fourteen hundred years after that, that same God came in the flesh. What happened? Satan pounced. He tried to kill all the children up to age two to try to kill off Jesus. When that didn't work, when Jesus started his ministry, what was the first thing that happened? Boom! Satan comes to tempt him and he tries to trick him. He tries to deceive him.

He tries to get him to follow her to a thin God like he had tried with the Israelites. You know, when our Passover is what Jesus is called also in the New Testament, when our Passover shared the symbols of the bread and the wine, Satan jumped into the heart of Judas Iscariot to kill him, to go turn him in, betray him. And yet, time in those final hours was on Christ's side. He didn't hurry. He didn't bolt.

He didn't do anything capricious. He was patient. He went through it. He was non-reviling. He did not say anything out of place. He continued to, even on the stake for hours as he hung there, be concerned about other people. He was patient and persevering to his end. And then the church was founded. The day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given and Satan attacked like a ravaging lion.

He came out and Stephen was stoned. The apostles eventually were put into jail. They were persecuted through Saul. They went after church members who later became Paul. Most of them eventually were killed. The church, in some cases, was driven around and Satan attacked the faithful by the end of the New Testament. Quite a few of them had been deceived. But meanwhile, we find that we as saints are slowly growing, slowly developing. Sometimes it doesn't seem like we in this 21st century make a whole lot of forward progress, but God is there.

His Holy Spirit is in us. Satan pounces like a roaring lion whenever he can. It says in the Bible that we are being saved by Charis, Paul said. That's one of the things Paul said we're being saved by. The Greek word Charis, it's most often translated grace. Charis from Thayer's lexicon, one of the prime meanings of that word that's translated often grace, which is often a very small, shallowly understood word, says this.

This word means the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon lives, turns them to Christ, keeps them, strengthens them, increases them in Christian faith, increases them in knowledge, increases them in affection, and kindles them to exercise Christian virtues. That pretty well describes how we are moving toward salvation.

It's a process that takes time. It's like being saved by a God who is gradually changing the human mindset, which of itself is pretty entrenched, even as a young child, and takes a lot of time to move, to change, to grow, to develop. God is gradually changing our mindset from carnal to spiritual.

Part of it is left to us to make decisions. A big part of it is decision-making. We do that through trial and error. We don't just say, wake up one day and, oh, we're baptized, and now we're totally obedient. That's great. It's more like that's our starting point. We're delivered from slavery to a mindset. We're free now to march towards God and with Christ down a difficult road. It's difficult for us. But it's a forward, back. It's a sampling. It's a going back. It's a testing. It's realization that, well, God's way really does work better, but I'm drawn to the other way. It's a process of developing new habits, habits which take, some people say, 20, 25 exercises of doing right before a habit is even formed.

And habits can be regressive. We can fall back to old habits even, and then have to go through 25 more repetitions in order to redevelop a good habit. You can see what I'm saying. And God is there. And through this process of what he calls cherries, or the Greek word, that is God involved in taking us through this change, this transition from carnal to spiritual, He is there with us as we grow and develop precious fruit.

Fruit doesn't just pop out of somewhere. Fruit is a process that involves a lot of effort, a lot of sowing, a lot of growing, watering, fertilizing, stretching.

And finally, there is something in the end that is worth harvesting. And time is on God's side to convert, to transform you gradually. I'd like to read some in James chapter 5 with you.

And yet, let's understand the context of James 5, because we're going to talk about a word rich.

And you don't just go to James 5 verse 1, or one of the other verses in James 5, and, oh, all of a sudden we're talking about somebody that's rich. The concept of rich began to be built back in the third chapter. So if you go back to chapter 3, you find a person who has a challenge with his tongue. And the tongue is slicing and dicing, and it's very selfish, and it's of a carnal mindset. But that person is building up stuff for himself. And then you go into the envy and the jealousy of person that wants stuff for himself. And then you get to chapter 4, and, oh, there's wars and fighting, and piling up stuff for self. And then there's praying for stuff for self, so that you can use it for your own personal desires. And so on and so forth. We weave on through chapter 4, including people saying, I'm going to move over here for a year, and I'm going to merchandise, and I'm going to invest, and I'm going to get rich from that. Okay? Now, as we step into James chapter 5 and verse 1, he begins to make his point about those people, or perhaps, we might say, those of that mindset. So he says in chapter 5 and verse 1, come now you rich. That's the one that he started with in chapter 3 and worked in through 4. This is the person is now identified as rich, quote-unquote, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Because your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped treasure in the last days. You see, what's going on here is this mindset that you and I have acquired in life is a wrong mindset. It really has to do with a person is rich in their own eyes, not so much a big bank account, but one that's been so self-focused and everything's been sacrificed and everybody's been sacrificed for me. And it's really all about me. Now, notice in verse 5, you have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughtered. You have condemned and murdered the just.

He does not resist you. See, God has time on his side. There are times when all of us don't really see ourselves for what we are. There are times when you and I are corrupt, but we're thinking highly of ourselves. We're like whitewashed sepulchers that need repenting, but we don't see it. And it may be that God takes a lot of time and opportunities to finally reveal that to us. It's not something somebody can just come up and tell you or me and, oh, we get it.

It has to somehow come together through a set of circumstances and a mental revelation from God.

But even here, God does not resist you. Verse 7, therefore, be persevering, brethren.

God can be patient. You and I need to be persevering. People in this state who are, in a sense, condemned and are not being murdered by God yet because he's not interfering, he's got time. These people don't need to be patient, continuing doing what they're doing. They need to start persevering in making those difficult choices. That's what we need to do.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. From God's standpoint, he has time.

Winds and the storm and the trials and too much sunlight and we get burned and then there's too little water of God's Holy Spirit and we dry up. But then, like David, we come back and we say, oh God, don't take your spirit from me, creating me a clean heart. And so we have this ebb and flow in life. The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. God has invested so much and you are precious to him. He is waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. We might say the covenant, the new covenant with the saints and then the covenant that God will make at the second resurrection, the resurrection of all who have ever died when that Holy Spirit will rain on us and will gradually develop fruit. You also persevere, persevere, establish your hearts. You and I have work to do. We need to be busy. We need to establish our minds as to being godly and growing and developing that fruit and changing. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. We don't have time. Time is not on our side. It's not. Because the coming of the Lord is at hand. Notice the contrast here. Time is on God's side because he lives forever.

He is eternal. He is in this for the long haul. But time is not on your side because, in fact, our time is very short. Let's first see that time is on God's side in accomplishing this plan of salvation in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but he is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It takes time to come to repentance. Sometimes you can come to repentance and then regress from repentance and think, maybe you've made a mistake and back up, only to find out that was a wrong choice.

And I need to repent of that and repent overall again and move back in the right direction.

The parable that Jesus gave of the prodigal son is a very good example. And that does happen in profound ways. But the gap between a person walking away and finally being restored can be lengthy, using up the little time that we as humans have. And yet God is not willing that any should perish, but he is in to make sure that all come to repentance. However, verse 10, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Time is not on our side.

You and I have a finite amount of time.

There are two major phases of God accomplishing this repentance. One, of course, is represented by this feast of unleavened bread that we're keeping.

It's a small group for a small harvest, a first-fruits harvest. And later, we'll have what is known as the eighth day when the billions of people will be resurrected, and a great white throne judgment will take place. God will see that through, and he is fully involved.

But let's notice John chapter 3, verse 14 through 21. John chapter 3, let's notice here what Jesus is saying to us.

John 3, verse 14, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

Oh, that's four. Sorry, let's go to three. John chapter 3, verse 14.

It's talking about the Son of Man came down from heaven, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. There were things in his plan that had to take place in a certain time, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. He didn't just show up and say, all right, you guys, you're bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, you guys, come with me and we're down here. No. But that the world through him might be saved in a very gradual, timely procession in proper environments created at the right time.

He who believes in God is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. That's where we base ourselves. We like the darkness. We like the night activities. We like the drunkenness and the partying and the fun and the self-live-it-up that's associated with evil. Not that there isn't a fine way to live as the children of God, but just as the human experience goes, people love the darkness. They love the satanic versus the light of God. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But notice this, verse 21, but he who does the truth comes to the light.

That's where you and I are transitioning, not only coming to the light, but we do the truth and come to the light that our deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. And that's not so easy. To be the light of the world is even a step beyond that.

It is a growth process to love to come to the light and want God to try us, to test us, to take our reins, to demonstrate, as it says, verse 21, that our deeds have been done in God. Some are being called now, some are later. The growing season takes time before the harvests can complete what God has put in motion. Let's see patient continuance from God's perspective in Matthew 18, verses 21 through 35. God is patient with us. He continues.

He endures with us. He is very much slow in condemning us. Matthew 18, verse 21.

Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Well, that's magnanimous, Peter. You're going to forgive somebody for the same sin seven times. I think that's magnanimous. I'll give you one, maybe two, if you really didn't know what you were doing in number one. You know how we are as humans.

But that's not how God, who has time on his side, does things. Jesus said, I do not say to you up to seven times, but seventy times seven. Whatever it takes, that's what God does for you and me.

He says, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him that owed him 10,000 talents. That's a lot of money, I guess. That's more than what probably you and I would pay if we were required to do that. It's kind of like our sins. We can't pay for our sins.

We can't get out of the death penalty.

But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children, and all that he had, and that the payment be made. The servant, therefore, fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you. And the master of that servant was moved with compassion. What did he ask for? Patience. He released him. He forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and did things a little differently. You know the story.

Threw a person into prison, so he'd pay the debt. In verse 32, then his master, after he'd called him, said, You wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you beg me.

And that's what we do to God. And that's what he does for us. Should you also not have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry, delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So my heavenly Father will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

Now, what's the point here? We transition not from just a sinner into one who's not sinning.

We transition in a whole mindset across the whole broad spectrum of what the agape mindset is. This takes time. It's not just one little thing here and one there. Okay, I think I've got all the little details mentioned, so I'm going to get saved. I'm going to get myself saved here. Actually, what this is, is us having buy-in into the plan of salvation with some patient continuance for those also involved in it with us. To where, just as God is forgiving us, we are forgiving others. And just as God is encouraging us, we are encouraging others. And just as he is light for us, we are lighting the path for others. And just as he wants no one to be left out of the kingdom, we don't want anyone left out of the kingdom. And we will go in the highways and the byways and we will search and we will call and we will try to rescue those who fall away.

We will always be there for them. We will never give up on them. And if they treat us treacherously, we will pray that they repent and are restored and will welcome them back.

Because that's what this God, the mindset of the family that we're growing into, does.

God is very patient. He's very merciful. And we have to transition into that mindset of being the same and being there for others.

You know, there's a big lesson. Our Passover died for us, as we've read John 3, 16, so that we can constantly be forgiven of sins. Not just once, or seven times seven, or seventy times seven, so that we can have constant forgiveness of sin as we repent, as it says in 1 John 1 and verse 9. We have a patient God. We have a long-suffering God.

John 3, 16 essentially unstuck us from slavery to sin and also from a death sentence that was set and could not be broken. He began to gradually lead us in right paths, in right ways. We call it righteousness, but it's making right choices, right decisions, according to God and His words. But now, that's not where it ends. We are to reciprocate in doing the same. As it says in 1 John 3 and verse 16. If you'll turn with me there, we'll read this passage through verse 23. 1 John 3 and verse 16 says, By this we know Agape love. By this we know we begin to understand what our slow, methodical transition is because He laid down His life for us. Now, how did He lay down His life for us? Well, let's go back a few billion years. He laid down His life for us by putting His life on hold and developing the physical cosmos and all that has been involved in it with all the molecular miniaturization to the huge things and all the mental things and all the everything putting into it. He's laid down His life for us, then He laid down His physical life for us on top of that. Therefore, we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Well, what does that mean?

Same thing. Just as God has interrupted what He was doing so that we can have a part in His family, we need to interrupt whatever it is we are doing and in the same way sacrifice, dedicate, love, encourage, help, do whatever it takes to make sure that the brethren's lives are saved as well.

And so, being like God, imitating our Father in heaven, imitating Jesus Christ, being Christ-like children who are imitating their Father is what it's all about. Notice verse 17, whoever has this world's goods, we're talking about laying down our lives for the brethren, whoever has this world's goods, and you do, by the way, and sees His brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

The point here is we need to begin to act like our Father, like our elder brother. My little children, let us not agape love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.

Verse 22, and whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandments that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has given us commandment.

You know, little children that are born into a family don't just instantly become like their parents. On the plane day before yesterday, there was a prime example of that, a little two-year-old boy. And this boy was going through his terrible tooth with a mother who hadn't really disciplined him. And so the whole airline got to sample what that was like. Unfortunately, I was in the seat nearest to him, and I got a direct sample of what that was like. That little boy won't be like that his whole life, but it will take time, time for him to transition and begin to develop whatever the nature of his parents are and to take on their personality, to take on some of the traits that they have. It takes time for us to imitate our Father and our Son and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Taking time to grow is what God gives us. And this is how the body of Christ, described in Ephesians 4, grows with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one calling, gradually through teaching, gradually through expressions. It says the whole body then begins to grow itself. The church grows by every part. Doing its share in love causes growth of the body.

It's not an instantaneous thing. Representing the family of God is a challenge. Being family is a challenge. Shining actual light, like the glory of God that gives off light, being a reflection of that and taking on that, is a challenge and it takes time. But time is on God's side.

And with the power of his Holy Spirit, he is accomplishing his plan for mankind.

If we look at the book of Revelation and just drop in on chapter 20 to the end of the book, you see here, once Christ returns, there's more to do. God has a thousand year reign.

There are many scriptures in the Old Testament about what that will be like and some of the effort and the work. He's going to be patient with nations at first who don't want to sample, and finally do sample. There's trial and error in a thousand years and Satan is released.

And finally done away with. And then another resurrection and people are taught and people have understanding open to them and then gradually they grow. We come to chapter 21. We see a new heaven and a new earth come and God the Father steps in in a very personal and dramatic way and creates all things new. In verse 5, he who sat on the throne, I believe being God the Father, is creating all things new. And the Father creates things of the spiritual realm. So we're looking at a spiritual kingdom. And verse 7, he who overcomes, there's a process of that, are going to be the children of God. And then we see New Jerusalem and the glory of New Jerusalem.

God has time on his side for all of these things. It's said that the God family is timeless.

We read in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9 that the Lord is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

Well, it's nice to know that God is not stressed over time issues or pushed by time issues. We need to be. Time is not on our side.

James and David refer to human life as a vapor. You might consider that a fog, a morning fog.

You know, you think it's there. Is it going to be there for a long time? Are we all socked in? The next thing you know, there's a little sun and the next thing you look back out and gone.

That's our life. It's short.

In Psalm 39 verse 5, David says, Indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths.

Oh, my days aren't like a bunch of these. They're like handbreadths. They're small. That's all I get. And my age is as nothing before you. Certainly every man in his best state is but vapor, is what David said. And then he skips down verse 8, and now, Lord, what do I wait for?

Deliver me from all my transgressions. Trans... transform me. Deliver me. Get me out of this and over to there. Convert me into something else.

Jesus came preaching, repent, for the kingdom is at hand. It says right here in Revelation 22 in verse 12, Behold, I am coming quickly. For us, time is short. We don't have a lot of time.

I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work.

There's only one opportunity that you and I have, one calling, hope of our calling, one baptism. This is it. Question for me is, how are you doing with it? What are you doing with it?

That's what I have to ask myself. That's what I encourage you to ask yourself.

In this window of opportunity that we have, that it's like a vapor, like a few hand breaths, what are we doing with it? You ever take a quiz that's a time quiz in high school or college?

You know, they pass out the... okay, now... okay, you have 30 minutes to take this exam. 70 questions. 30 minutes? 70 quid? Okay, well, go ahead. So you start, oh yeah, I know they... oh, that one. That one's gonna take a little thought. I better save that for later. Well, I'll get back to that one.

Everybody's doing this all of a sudden. Time's up. Pass your tests over to... what? No, no, no, no, no, no.

I've still got a bunch of answers here that I... or questions I haven't answered.

Time's up. Pass. It's done. Pass it to the aisle. Joey, pass it to the aisle. I... no.

Well, that's what our life is like. The teacher is coming back. And it's a similar scenario.

It's like, oh, that was it. We don't know when that is. You might think, well, I'm gonna live a long, long age.

My wife and I knew... well, I had a school friend. I had a school friend growing up. His name was Bob.

Bob was a minister's son. Bob was one of the coolest guys. He was a neat guy. He really was. He was muscular, young, energetic.

He graduated from high school, went through Ambassador College as far as I know. I was on the other side of the planet going to college. But a few years later, my wife and I came to a ministerial conference. I think we were probably maybe in our 30s by then. I think he was about 34 and I was about 30. And there's Bob.

I said, hey, Bob, glad to see you. I remember the building where we were in.

It was actually in the lobby of one of the administration buildings on the west campus, the east campus in Pasadena. And I went, hey, Bob, how you doing? He's like, well, I'm gonna die in four months. I'm like, what?

Bob, you're 34 years old. You're the picture of health. You know, what do you mean? He said, I'm gonna die in four months. The doctor says I'm dead.

I said, but you look fine. He says, I feel fine. Doc says I'm dead. Four months.

Wow. And I didn't know what to say. I said, yeah, but you know, we used to go, remember, used to go to the beach and get sunburn and stuff. And there's just this little spot on me.

This little thing. It's on my back. Doc says it's gonna kill me. It's melanoma. Nothing they can do.

We went back out in the field where we were and got the news. A few months later, Bob had died.

You know, there are things that happen in life that cut the short time that we have, the few hand breaths and the vapor, a lot shorter than that. We just never know.

Let's go to Matthew 25 and verse 5.

Matthew 25 and verse 5. We are living this life. We're trying to participate in the covenant and go for salvation, go for the goal here. And yet, times up is going to happen. Times up.

Jesus has warned us so many times. You know, it's at a time when you don't expect.

I'm going to say, times up. Matthew 25 and verse 5 says, But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. I wouldn't personally make anything out of that. I believe the point here is to show that the arrival of Jesus Christ's return is not known by anyone except the Father. And so, in a parable where you have people who are righteous and people who are foolish, people who are wise spiritually, the wisdom of God versus the wisdom or the foolishness of this world, nobody knows. So, what better time to put that in a story than when everybody is equally unknowing, they're asleep. So, it just says here, While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

Everybody was in the same category, equally unknowing, about his return.

Just like you and me, none of us here have any idea when Jesus Christ's going to return.

Of that day and hour, only the Father knows.

Verse 6, And at midnight a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meeting.

Time's up! Wow! At a time when nobody was expecting him, because they were all dreaming, it time's up. Well, if I'd known, you know, Nicodemus in the story, if I'd only known, I would have. But time's up. Verse 10, The bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. See? Those who were ready. The whole point of the story is to be ready. The whole point of the story is to be participating and really fully engaged here, because time is short. There's a definite part of time, period of time, and the time's up signal is going to come.

Verse 13, it says, Watch. Thayer's lexicon says this about the term watch. It means to give strict attention to, Be cautious, be active. So he's saying here, Pay strict attention and be active, therefore. Why, therefore? Because you got to be ready.

The door's going to be shut. Time's going to be up. Therefore, be active.

For you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Time's up. We'll be said to you and to me much sooner than you and I probably expect.

So in Romans 13 and verse 11, here's what the Apostle Paul says about this.

Romans 13 verse 11, Knowing the time that it is now high time to awake out of sleep.

You transitioned from Jesus' parable. Everybody was sort of unknowing. Paul's saying, Now we're knowing. We're knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off. Let's be busy marching out of Egypt, casting off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly, moving down that difficult path, heading for the narrow door.

And he concludes in verse 14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Put on that unleavened bread that you took at Passover. Put that on every day that you eat it. Put on Christ. Become like God and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.

So, brethren, God has been using time. He is the Father of time, the Creator of time, in our dimension. I don't know yet what time is like in the spiritual realm, but we shall know.

Now, God is taking time to create and time to monitor and time to judge all things. You have sufficient time. It may be short, but you have sufficient time to develop and to demonstrate what God needs to know. Think about that. He's given you sufficient time, but we need to be active with the time that we have. In 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 5, Paul gives us a little caution concerning time. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5, Therefore judge nothing before the time. Don't jump into conclusions like Satan does and accuse and give people little opportunity and not want to forgive them. Realize that people need time, that God gives time, that God is patient. He is working and helping and giving every opportunity to everyone. Therefore, you and I don't judge anything. Don't jump to any quick conclusions before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.

Time is on God's side, but your brief opportunity for salvation is passing quickly, the Bible says.

So this week, eat the bread. Be the bread. Be unleavened bread.

And let's use the time that we have very wisely.

Next time, part 5 of the salvation series, we'll take a look at walking with God. Have a happy Sabbath.