God’s Plan of Salvation Revealed in the Holy Days

Death and resurrection. Again, they set an example for us to follow today. We also saw that the Apostle Paul taught the Gentiles to observe God's holy days as well. And we even saw that the Feast of Tabernacles and God's weekly Sabbath would clearly be observed after Christ's Second Coming during the Millennial 1000 year reign of Christ here on the earth. But let's ask ourselves, why was it God established these days? What was the overall purpose? What was his underlying hidden purpose for establishing these days? I say hidden because most people don't understand at all why God made these days, why He gave these days to His children. So why did God give us these days? What do they mean? What do they picture? And how do we observe these days today? And what is God's plan of salvation that is revealed in the holy days? That's the most important question. How is it that these days reveal God's plan of salvation? Frankly, this world's religions have many things all wrong. And when we go through these days one by one, we will point out some things that, frankly, the religious people of today, those who are professing Christians, they don't understand. They don't really believe these things. We do clearly find the origins of God's holy days in the Bible. The Bible and the revelation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives us clear reasons for keeping these days. We'll see that as we go on. The themes that these days portray reflect God's spiritual harvest of mankind. So think of it in this way. God is harvesting the earth in a sense. It also, in Revelation, shows that God is harvesting the earth in a negative way, in a sense, in the future, where it talks about how people are going to die by the millions. Because they've sinned against God, they haven't followed Him, and there will be blood as high as the horse's bridles, it says, because of man's sin against God and the rejection of God. So we have some frightening days coming. Jacob's trouble is coming. It's to be the worst time that ever has ever been. We've had some pretty bad times here on the earth. But these days, these holy days, picture God's spiritual harvest. In John 4, Christ spoke of fields that were now white for the harvest. He was speaking of a spiritual harvest of people into the family of God. Let's go to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, verse 34, Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, There are still four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.

God is only calling a few, however, right now. It's a very small harvest of firstfruits at this particular time. But God's plan of salvation covers all of mankind since mankind was created, since Adam and Eve were created. The billions and billions of people, perhaps over 30 billion people that have lived, they are all covered under God's plan of salvation that is revealed in God's holy days. All right, so let's consider that. And as we go to Matthew 25, Matthew 25 clearly shows that we are to inherit God's kingdom that is being prepared for us from the foundation of the world. This is a plan that's been in motion for a long, long time. Since Christ, the one who became Christ, created the earth, created Adam and Eve, there was a plan of salvation from the very beginning. Matthew 25, verse 31, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides His sheep from the goats, and He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So from the very beginning, when the world was created, when the heavens and the earth were created, God had a wonderful plan in mind.

By observing God's holy days, we see His plan for mortal man, how that mortal man may one day attain immortality and live forever, because that is our destiny. Our destiny is to live forever in God's kingdom. Our destiny is to be born into the family of God and to become children of God, spiritual beings who are no longer capable of sinning because they have chosen to obey God and follow Him, and God has changed them into spirit. Now, let's begin again with God's weekly Sabbath day. How does this help us understand who we are? Why was there one day out of the week, every week?

You know, why did God sanctify one day out of the week, every week, for us to observe? Is it not to keep us ever mindful of who God is, of whom the God of creation is, and also to keep us ever mindful of whom we are? God says, I will be your God and you will be my children. When we observe the Sabbath, we honor God on that day. We consider who God is and we consider who we are. In the first session, we showed that there's a covenant between God and His people, and the Sabbath is actually a sign between God and His people. Those who keep the Sabbath show that they are God's people. If they're not keeping the Sabbath, they're frankly not God's people in the fullest sense. Now, God loves all children, and eventually God will open up everyone's mind to understand the truth. The fact is, He isn't opening everyone's mind to understand the truth today. There's only a few people here. Out of four or five hundred thousand people that live in the area, there's a very small group of people that God's actually drawing to Him now. God isn't saving the whole world right now. Now is not the only day of salvation. This is the day of salvation, however, for God's true Church, because it says, judgment has begun at the house of God. So God is judging the firstfruits, the ones He's calling now. So actually observing the Sabbath helps us to stay on the right track spiritually. If we don't keep the Sabbath, then we drift away from God. I've been keeping the Sabbath for 40 years now, and I know that if I didn't have the Sabbath to come every week and be rejuvenated and to be inspired, I would have really been in trouble, frankly. This is what helps keep me on the right track spiritually. I know that's true for all of us here. Now let's go to Isaiah 58, because it talks about honoring God on His Holy Days, specifically the Sabbath day here. Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58. And by the way, it starts out in verse 1, Cry aloud and spare not, Lift up your voice like a trumpet and tell my people their transgressions in the house of Jacob their sins. God doesn't say that I'm going to do away with sin, so you don't have to really preach about that. No, He says, cry aloud and spare not and lift up your voice. Tell my people their transgressions. Sin is the breaking of God's laws. Sin is the transgression of the law. The law isn't done away. God wants us to cry aloud and let people know that they need to repent of their sins. So in Isaiah 58 verse 13, it says, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath. Now, what does that mean? It's very simple. If you'll stop trampling on the Sabbath, that's all He's saying. If you'll stop trampling on it with your feet, you know how you trample on something with your feet? He's saying that that's what you've been doing with the Sabbath, because you haven't been observing it. You haven't been keeping it. So if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Certainly not working on this day. We saw earlier that this day was a day of worship. It was a day to not be working on this day. He says, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

So this tells us how we are to observe God's holy day. We are to be careful to assemble together. It's a commanded assembly. We are to honor God by thinking about Him and His ways, by not doing our own thing. The fact of the matter is, most people that profess to be Christians, even if they believe in keeping a Sabbath, they call it Sunday, they get out of church and they do whatever they want to do the rest of the day. They watch football, or they go out and work in the yard and do whatever they want to do. They don't really sanctify that day and make it holy by honoring God on that day. Sabbath is a 24-hour period from sunset to sunset. It might sound hard for someone who's never really done it, but a lot of people have been doing it for a long time.

It's really a wonderful time. It's a beautiful day to observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy by not working on that day. It's wonderful not to have to work, frankly, not to have to do the normal things that you would do on any other day. It's a day to rest and be rejuvenated. It's a time of fellowship. It's a time to hear God's word expounded, to come to church. It's also a day to get a little extra sleep and rest more on the Sabbath day. There are many blessings in keeping God's Sabbath day. Some people call the Sabbath a burden, but I've never found it to be a burden. In the 40 years I've been observing it, it's been a delight to me because that's how I look at this day. Anyone who's hung in there and kept the Sabbath, some of you for as long as I have or longer, you know it's because you love this day. It's a beautiful day. All right, so the Sabbath is a very important day. It keeps us on track spiritually. God's Passover is the next annual Holy Day we'll talk about. Let's go to Exodus 12. And we're not going to take the time to read a lot of this because we simply don't have the time to do it here today, but you can read this whole chapter. It'll give you greater understanding of the Passover and how it was instituted and why it was instituted. But the bottom line is God was delivering His chosen nation out of bondage and out of slavery. He was bringing them out of Egypt. And according to the Bible, Egypt is symbolic of sin.

So God was bringing His children out of sin.

Again, they were to be a model nation. They were to keep His commandments. And in this chapter 12, it again shows that in the first several verses, it talks about taking a lamb, an innocent lamb, a lamb without blemish, and sacrificing that lamb, killing it, shedding its blood, and taking the blood and putting it on the lentils and on the doorposts of the houses in Israel. Notice verse 12, So the Passover clearly points to Christ as the Passover lamb. Christ is the one who shed His blood for us.

We are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God who lays His life down for His people. And we know that John 3, 16, says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. And it says, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So just as the children of Israel were saved by putting the blood of the Lamb over their lentils and their doorposts, we are saved today by accepting Christ as our Savior.

Christ purchased us with His shed blood. Christ died for us, so we ought to learn to live for Him and dedicate ourselves to Him and surrender our lives to Him. So that's what the Passover is all about. It's a very meaningful service, but frankly, most people who are professing Christians don't keep the Passover, even. I mean, some do, but they don't keep it the way the Bible says to keep it. We do it once a year on the Memorial of Christ's death. And we take a little bit of wine, just a thimbleful, which is symbolic of the shed blood of Christ, and we eat a little bit of lemon bread, which symbolizes His beaten body.

He was beaten beyond recognition for us. So His body was beaten, His blood was shed, and that is symbolic of Christ's sacrifice for us. Also, we wash one another's feet on the Passover because that's what Christ did on that last Passover. He washed His disciples' feet. Now, that's something that most people don't do today. It's very humbling, but if Christ, who is our Savior, was willing to humble Himself and wash the feet of His disciples, He set an example for us.

So that's what we do just once on the Passover evening, once a year. It's a very, very meaningful evening. So this annual Holy Day is very, very important. The Feast of Passover begins with the Passover, and then it goes right into the days of 11 bread. And the first day is a Holy Day, and we're to have all the 11 put out of our quarters. Exodus 12 explains that. It's supposed to take the 11 out of our homes, out of our quarters, because 11 represents sin.

And sin is, frankly, what killed Jesus Christ. Your sins and my sins are what killed Jesus Christ. So sin puffs up. It is, frankly, the sin that Lucifer was guilty of. Pride welled up within Satan, and Satan rebelled against his Creator. Lucifer rebelled against God. So, again, this was a very dramatic event that took place in the land of Egypt, this Passover. And so, every year we keep the Passover, and then we keep the days of 11 bread.

We put 11 out of our homes, and we eat 11 bread. And the 11 bread pictures Jesus Christ. In John, the book of John, refers to Christ as the unleavened bread that comes down from heaven. Christ is unleavened because he's sinless. He's never sinned. Christ was tempted in every point as we are, yet he never sinned. He's the perfect sacrifice. He's the only sacrifice that we could possibly have. So, during the days of 11 bread, we picture the importance of striving to put sin out of our lives.

That's what it means to put sin out of your lives and to allow Christ into your life, to eat that unleavened bread, to have Christ live in you through the power of his Spirit.

So, the days of 11 bread, again, they show God's love for us that Christ died for our sins, and that we should strive to put sin out of our lives. We shouldn't make a mockery of Christ's sacrifice by just sinning. That's why Christ died for us. We should try our best to put sin out of our lives. That way, we please God because God abhors. That is, God hates sin. He hates all forms of sin, and he hates all forms of rebellion against him. He wants his children to see the seriousness of sin and to put it out of their lives. So, that's the early spring harvest, or the very earliest part, the Passover and the days of 11 bread. That's when the wave sheath, which represents Christ, is the priest waves that on the day after the Sabbath during the days of 11 bread.

So, you count 50 days from there, and then you come to the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of First Fruits. Again, this is symbolic of God's early harvest. God is only calling a small fraction of people today, and throughout the ages of the 30 plus billion people, maybe it's 50 or 60 billion, we don't really know how many people have lived since Adam and Eve, but many, many people have lived. But most of them have never really known the truth that you're hearing today. So, in Leviticus 23, we went through how Pentecost means to count 50, and the wave sheath was offered, and then we come to the day of Pentecost. And it was on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when God's Holy Spirit was poured out upon the followers of Jesus Christ. So, Acts 2, we're not going to take the time to go there except for just a few verses. Acts 2, we'll just refer to some of it here. Christ, again, poured out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2. And we see that Peter was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and Peter began to preach the truth about Jesus Christ. And people were being convicted that they had killed Christ because of their sins and because they had joined the mob in crucifying the Savior of the world, the Son of God. So, they asked, what shall we do? And in Acts 2, verse 37, it said, they were cut to the heart. They asked, what shall we do? And Peter said to them in verse 38, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. God is calling a small group of people called the firstfruits today. Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the very first of the firstfruits. Christ came, he lived a perfect life, he died, and he was resurrected. He now sits at the right hand of God and he makes intercession for us. He's our high priest. So, he is the first of the firstfruits, but there are those who will follow his example. We are among those that early harvest. The early harvest of God's people are being called today. The Bible clearly says it's only those who are who are called chosen and faithful who will actually be among the firstfruits who will become the bride of Christ at his return. You have to be called chosen and faithful. Not enough to just be called. You are chosen when you respond to God's calling and when you become baptized. So, you have to humble yourself and be baptized. Accept Christ as your Savior. Repent of your sins. Have your sins washed away in the blood of Christ.

Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the laying on of hands. A true minister of God will lay hands upon someone who is truly repented. You'll go onto the watery grave. You will be crucified with Christ, as Romans 6 refers to it as being baptized or crucified with Christ. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, you are sanctified and set apart by God's Spirit. The New Testament Church began on the day of Pentecost. Again, we are the first fruits of God, those who are called, chosen, and then also faithful. It's not enough to be called and chosen, but you also have to remain faithful. It's those who endure to the end, the same shall be saved. It's not one saved, always saved.

That's a false doctrine that the churches of this world teach that, but it's not true. It's only true in the sense that you're only saved until you're actually born into God's family when you become spirit. So, in that sense, it is true. Once saved, always saved, but it's not true the way the churches of the world teach it today.

Now, this will lead us to the next holy day, the Feast of Trumpets. 1 The Feast of Trumpets Christ will return to this earth at the blowing of the seventh trumpet. The book of Revelation clearly says that, that Christ is coming back at the blowing of the seventh trumpet. Also, in 1 Thessalonians, if we'll go there and read it together here, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. Paul says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. He's talking about people who have died. Paul never taught that when you die, you're either going to go to heaven immediately or you're going to burn in hell.

That isn't what Paul taught. Again, that's what many religions teach today, that you burn in hell forever and ever, or you go off into heaven immediately. That's not what Paul is going to talk about here. He's going to actually tell the truth. He says, I don't want you to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep or have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. In other words, those who have died in Christ, for this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive... Now, Paul thought he would be alive when Christ returned. Paul was badly mistaken. You know, it's almost 2000 years, Christ hasn't yet returned, but we're getting ever closer to the return of Christ. He says, we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. He's saying that those who have died in Christ will come... they will be resurrected first. They will come out of their graves first. That is, if they are in Christ, if they had the Spirit of God and Christ when they died, then they will rise first. Notice verse 16, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. If you're already in heaven, why do you need to rise?

Okay, those who are died... those who have died are in the grave. They're awaiting a resurrection to life. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Now, it clearly shows that Christ is coming back to the Mount of Olives at his return, so we will rise to meet Christ in the air, but we will come back to the Mount of Olives, and we will rule and reign with Christ here on earth for a thousand years. He says, comfort one another with these words.

We don't have to worry about loved ones who died thinking that they're burning in hell forever and ever if they haven't accepted Christ as their Savior. Now, that's comforting to know that they are simply in the grave awaiting a resurrection to life, and they will be judged according to what they've understood, what they've known, and what they're willing to do with their lives. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is also very important to go to at this point. It ties in with what we've just read here in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

This is the resurrection chapter because it talks a lot about the resurrection. We're not going to read much of it. There's certainly more that's said about the resurrection here in 1 Corinthians 15. But notice verse 50. Paul says, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The fact of the matter is God's kingdom is yet to be established here on the earth. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. In other words, not every single person is going to die because Christ is going to return, and there will be people alive on the earth when He comes. But we shall all be changed. If someone is in Christ, alive at Christ's return, we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now this is what the Feast of Tabernacles pictures. I'm sorry, the Feast of Trumpets pictures the return of Christ at the seventh trumpet. So when we get together on the Feast of Trumpets, we talk about the return of Christ. We talk about many aspects of Christ's return and what that's going to mean to the earth and what it's going to mean to God's people and to all people. Verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption. And speaking about this fleshly body must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. We only know what sin is because the law defines it. It's the breaking of the law that tells us what sin is. He says, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, our sins are forgiven through Christ's sacrifice.

So the Feast of Trumpets again shows the return of Christ. And in Hebrews 9, verse 28, Hebrews 9, verse 28, it shows that Christ is bringing salvation with him when he returns. The first time he came, he came to die for us. The second time he comes, he's bringing salvation with him for the first fruits. That's Hebrews 9, verse 28. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin. In other words, he's not coming to die the first time, as he did the first time. He came to pay the penalty for our sins the first time. The second time he's bringing salvation with him. And that is for the first fruits, those who are being called today, those who are called, chosen, and faithful. So again, this is another important part in God's plan of salvation. Christ is going to have to return. The Feast of Trumpets pictures Christ's return. The Feast of Pentecost pictured the giving of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the New Testament Church.

Trumpets pictures the return of Christ. The Day of Atonement pictures the binding of Satan the Devil. It pictures a time when Satan is going to be bound. If we go to Revelation chapter 20, we'll see that Christ is actually going to be an angel or a messenger from God. That's what it means. Angel can be a messenger. It's actually a fit man, as it says in Leviticus 16, that Christ is the one that's going to bind Satan the Devil, is most likely the case here. Revelation chapter 20 verse 1. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit. Again, angel can be a messenger. It could be that it's speaking of actually Christ, who is going to come, who has the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil, and Satan, and he bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and 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 during the millennial reign of Christ, Christ is going to return as the Feast of Trumpets pictures. He's going to return. He's bringing salvation with him for the saints, and the saints will rule and reign with him for a thousand years. Satan will be bound. Satan will no longer influence people. People will come to know the true God, and God's law will go forth from Zion throughout the land, and people will come to know the true God.

I'm not going to take the time to go to Leviticus 16, but that's an important chapter that does explain the Day of Atonement. It shows that there were two goats that were taken upon one of the goats. One of the goats was slain, and that represents Jesus Christ, who was slain for the sins of mankind. The other goat had the sins of the people laid upon him, and he was taken into the wilderness. This picture is Satan that's going to be bound. Satan is the one who is largely instrumental in the first sinner, for one thing. He was the one that deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He is the God of this world, and people have followed him. He has imprisoned billions of people over the 6,000 years of human history. Nearly 6,000 years, not quite, but getting close now. So the Day of Atonement, it pictures the binding of Satan the devil. It also pictures a time of drawing close to God, becoming at one with God. We do that through fasting and humbling ourselves and getting close to God. It also shows that Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Then the Feast of Tabernacles is the next holy day. It is the Feast of Tabernacles that pictures the 1,000 year reign of Christ here on the earth. It also pictures the Promised Land. People will come into the Kingdom of God at that time. This is truly the Promised Land, and it is a 1,000 year rest from Satan the devil who is bound. 1,000 years of rest from Satan the devil and his influence. Christ will establish his kingdom. The saints will rule and reign with Christ for 1,000 years. If we go back to Revelation 20, verse 4, "...and I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the word of God, 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 they reigned with Christ for a thousand years." Here it says, "...but the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished." Now, the next verse or the next phrase, it says, this is the first resurrection. Now, that is actually pointing back to the end of verse 4. They lived and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. When Christ returns, that's when the saints are going to be resurrected. Those who have died in Christ will be resurrected at that point. And then there will be a second resurrection that will take place a thousand years later, and that will be during the Great White Throne Judgment period.

So, the Feast of Tabernacles, again, it pictures Christ's reign here upon the earth. It pictures the Promised Land and Satan, of course, no longer around to influence mankind. At the end of the thousand years, then Satan is going to be loose for a short time, and he's going to create havoc, frankly, and people will follow him. Certainly not everyone, but many people will follow him, and they will be destroyed because of their sin and their rebellion against God. We have to make choices in this world. God doesn't make us obey him. He doesn't force us to. He gives us free moral agency. We're free moral agents. We can decide whether or not we're going to obey him or not. We know that the Bible shows that there are blessings for obeying God. So the firstfruits will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. It also says that in Revelation 5, verses 8 through 10. When Christ returns, he's going to establish his kingdom, and the saints will rule and reign with him for a thousand years. There's a weekly seven-day plan, obviously, that God used in creating mankind and creating the earth or recreating the earth. That plan is symbolic of a master plan of what we consider a seven-thousand-year plan. Six thousand years for man, and that's roughly how long mankind has lived on the earth since Adam. If you study the chronology of the Bible, I think it comes out to somewhere 5,800-plus years is what the scholars believe. Close to 6,000 years, we're drawing close to that time. The Bible says that these days will be cut short, lest no one would be saved alive. Because man would wipe each other out with our nuclear and our atomic and hydrogen bombs, we would kill each other. So God's going to have to cut this time short. But in essence, it's a seven-thousand-year plan. Six thousand years for man, who has rebelled against God. God has allowed them to learn their lessons by doing their own thing and by bringing curses upon them. The world's in bad shape. People are dying prematurely these days with all types of diseases and cancers and various heart diseases and other things that are a result of our sins against God.

The world's not getting any better. It's getting more and more permissive all the time. And more and more sinful, frankly. Here in the United States, we accept gay marriages now. You know, that's unheard of. Just a few years ago, we would not have thought that possible. So we're going at a blinding speed, frankly, toward the abyss when it comes to our sinful nature, our sinful ways. The world is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah.

And the Bible says that that's going to happen in these last days.

2 Peter 3, verse 8, says that one day is as a thousand years. So if you figure six days of creation and then the seventh day of rest, the Feast of Tabernacles is that day of rest, that thousand-year period when Christ reigns on the earth and the saints reign with Him. And that brings us to the eighth day, the last great day, the final festival.

Revelation 20, let's go back there, verse 11.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. Speaking about the books of the Bible. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Now, many religions would have us believe that there are billions of people who are riding in hell right now for eternity. People who have lived in India and Africa, and in China and various nations of the world, and, you know, American Indians, I suppose. You know, lots of people who have lived and died, and they never knew Christ, and there's only one name under heaven whereby a person can be saved. So those people are evidently riding in pain, in hell, forever and ever. Now, that isn't what the Bible teaches. It doesn't teach that at all. It says they're in the grave. They're awaiting a resurrection. The first resurrection is for the saints, for the first fruits of God. The second resurrection will take place during the Great White Throne Judgment period, and that's when billions of people will be resurrected. We're going to have a thousand years to prepare for this. We're going to need it. That's a lot of people to have to deal with and to teach God's ways. So the saints will teach along with Christ. We will teach the ways of God, and people will have a choice to make. Will they follow God, or will they follow Satan's way?

If they reject God, then they will be cast into the lake of fire, and they will suffer the second death. They died once, and God resurrected them.

And if they refuse to obey God, then they will be cast into the lake of fire. They will suffer the second death. Those who accept Christ at that time will not suffer the second death. Instead, they will be changed into spirit. This is God's plan of salvation. It's revealed in the Holy Days. This is what the eighth day, or the last great day, pictures. It pictures the Great White Throne Judgment period, and it pictures a time when the New Jerusalem is going to be established. And there will be a new heavens and a new earth. So it's really quite remarkable that this is a hidden mystery to most people on earth. But it's right there, and it's really not that complicated when God opens your mind to understand it. Ezekiel 37 speaks about those bones, those bones, those dry bones. There have been songs written about Ezekiel 37. You know, the knee bone connected to the ankle bone. You know, you've heard the songs. Well, speaking of a physical resurrection, people are going to be resurrected. Billions of people resurrected, and they will have an opportunity to accept Christ as their Savior at that time. God is an equitable, he's a just God, and he's a merciful, loving God. And hopefully most people will accept Christ, and they will be given the gift of eternal life. Now, in Revelation 21, it speaks of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle or the dwelling of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and he will be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And then dropping down, speaking of the Alpha and the Omega and the fountains of living water, given to those who thirst, and in verse 7, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. It's speaking about overcoming our sinful natures. It's talking about overcoming sin in our lives. Verse 8, But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So if people will not repent, if they remain unbelieving and abominable and cowardly and murderers and sexually immoral, they will be cast into the lake of fire and they will suffer the second death.

So there indeed will be a resurrection of those who have lived and died, billions of people who have lived and died over the ages. It really shows that God's love for mankind, when He's willing to give them a real chance at salvation, they will come to know God, they will come to know Christ, they will make a decision at that time. If you notice verse 27 in chapter 1, That there shall by no means enter it, nothing will enter into the new Jerusalem that will defile it or cause an abomination or a lie, that only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. When we repent of our sins, when we receive the Spirit of God, our names are written in the book of life. Only those who are written in the book of life will enter into the family of God and will live for all eternity. And then in Revelation 22 verse 1, He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life. Now the tree of life is spoken about in the very earliest chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve were barred from the tree of life because they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They rejected God's way of life. God banished them from the garden. He banished them from the tree of life. But here we see that the tree of life will be for the healing of all people, all nations. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. All people will be healed as they enter into God's kingdom because they will be changed to spirit. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. Excuse me. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. They will reign forever in God's kingdom. They will be free at last, not free from God's holy law, but free from corruption, free from dishonor, free from weakness, free from Satan the oppressor. They will be free from this corruptible flesh. They will be free once and for all from sin. Observing God's holy days helps us to comprehend his master plan for us. Each one of the days, picture a step in God's master plan. The eighth day pictures, this new Jerusalem, that picture is living together in God's family for eternity. It is our destiny. It is what we were called to be, to become born into God's family. These days speak to why we were created and what God has in store for us. It is important to begin keeping these days when you learn of them. If you're not keeping these days now, now is the time to start. Start keeping the weekly Sabbath. Begin keeping the annual holy days. Next spring, we will have a new year of holy days to observe, of annual holy days that picture the plan of God.

Observing these days will strengthen your faith in why they're so important. You can only really comprehend these days when you start observing them, when you start keeping them. God's weekly Sabbath and His annual Sabbath are a tremendous blessing. God's holy days, both the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbath, reveal to us more clearly God's wonderful plan of salvation for us. These days are wholly sanctified and set apart for a holy purpose and design. Christ Himself observed these days. Christ's disciples observed these days long after Christ was crucified. It is important that we too observe these weekly and annual reminders of God's love and His concern for us. We will see God's love more clearly as His love is revealed in His special holy days.

These days reveal God's loving plan of salvation for all of mankind. When all of us get together and we keep God's holy days, we talk about the meaning of these days. And it's truly inspiring to get together and observe these days. The Sabbath day is true. It's a real positive thing coming out of this world and having a day of rest and rejuvenation, a weekly Sabbath. Also, the annual Sabbaths do the same thing for us. They rejuvenate us.