Hope Fulfilled

Well, good morning for the last time from me, and for the last day. I always call it the last great day. We used to call that for years, and then scholars come along and say, well, it says the eighth day. Yes, it does. But you can look up where he talks about on that last day or that great day of the feast, and you can look up commentaries, and many of them will tell you that could be the last day. The eighth day, not just the last day because of the water ceremony and so on. But I know all that scholarly. I still call it a last great day, and it's called the eighth day, too. You call it whatever one you want, but it is a great day. Mr. Are we on? Is it better?

Okay, do you want to stay close by here? And Jim, can you come up? Because, brethren, we have enjoyed a wonderful feast, and I know a lot of you have served. Many times, if I'm a coordinator, I had everybody stand up who served it. You'd be surprised, it's almost the whole audience, has served somebody and sometimes the chorale, the singers, the people who come up, the ushers, the people who hand out. And it's a huge number. So, as what Mr. Hall said is absolutely true. But I'll tell you, I came here the day before the feast began, and guess who was over here setting up? That was it. The only two. Then finally, Wilma came and she set up the stage beautifully. Thank you. And there are many people behind the scenes. Sharon Johnson's back there doing the deaf translation and the signing. And also, there's Eileen Sharkey, who's out there doing all the captioning. We thank you. We've had several song leaders. We've had sermonette givers. We've had sermon givers. We've had special music givers. It's been a wonderful feast of giving. And I thank all of you for being here. You could be here because God commands it. That's you have to. And you can be here because you want to. And I hope most of you want to. Because that makes it easier to preach to you. You see, captive audience, where you have to be there, you have to be here for this time, are harder to preach to. You have to really work at it. But people who want to be there, there's that anticipation. What am I going to hear today? Maybe I'll hear something different. Maybe I'll hear something that I could take away with. Maybe it'll just reinforce what I know. You're scholars and biblical individuals, and we love you for it. I'd like to call them on the stage. And I would like to say, on behalf of all of us, I have two gifts for them. One for Mr. Hall, who's the coordinator. I've gotten coordinating before, and I'll tell you, there are a lot of heartaches and headaches that come with it, and a lot of physical effort. And we thank him for it. He can relax with this, but he also could know that I couldn't get what I wanted to for him. So I ordered it online, and in seven to ten days, it'll show up at his house on behalf of all of you. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. And for Jim, thank you. He's assisting, and here's something new, and there's a card inside. And I'd give that in for both of you from all of us. Let's give them a nice hand. Yeah.

It takes a lot to run a feast. I know. I've done them several times. I've done them for thousands. And whether it's a thousand, or whether it's 250, or 290, or 300, it's the same thing. You're God's people. You deserve the best, and they have really tried to do the best they can for you. And we thank you for being here, because without you, there is no church, because you are the church. We just get the privilege of serving you. Today's the last great day. August 23rd of 2000, sorry, of 1984. I did a funeral for a young girl, young woman, who had contacted me because she heard of our program, she read of our literature, she was Catholic. She told me when I visited her the first time in Toronto, Canada, that she was ill. Probably wasn't going to make it for long. And I didn't know it wouldn't be very long at all.

I visited her wonderful attitude, great Italian girl. She died. On that day, I did her funeral. She wasn't baptized yet. I don't recall her being baptized yet, but I think she wanted to be. The whole funeral service was basically composed of relatives who were Catholic.

I gave the sermon. She wanted me to do it. And I did. It was in her will or desire, whatever. At the end of the funeral service, as I was walking to the gravesite, from the gravesite, with her mother, who was weeping. I put my arm around her and I just said, you will see your daughter again. You will see, because I've spoken about the resurrection in what I gave of the presentation, and she was comforted. My own grandmother died, and my mother was very close to her, did a lot of service to her. I'll tell you, knocked herself out to help her. Walking up and down from our home, she didn't drive to get to her house coming back every day. And at the funeral, I had a chance to drive because I came back to be there for her. I drove the car for one of the sons of hers. She had 10 kids, 6 boys and 4 girls. Most of them lived right around their parents, her and her husband. How many of them do you think spent much time caring? Very few. My mother did. I drove the car, and one of the sons was just sitting in there weeping. And my mother, when I went back home afterwards, she was weeping somewhat, and I said, Mom, don't cry. Sorrow, yes, but don't cry. You will see your mom again. This day is about the resurrection of the rest of the dead. Those who never had a chance in this life, because God made everybody subject to vanity, and he said, He's only going to call so many. John 644. None can come to me. People think, well, if you just get out there and you just say, yes, Jesus loves me, that's going to make people come. It's not going to make people come. They might come to that Jesus. Remember, there was another Jesus being taught, and another gospel being taught. The gospel about the person of Jesus, not the gospel of Christ that Christ preached. Understanding Jesus Christ is very important. I love to read the Gospels. I love to see what he did, how he did it, why he did it. I love that. But it's not only about his life. It's about his message and how he lived that message in life.

We've been called today on a great day to picture the resurrection of all those who are the rest of the dead. The rest of the dead. We used Ezekiel 37, which I'll go through toward the end. In Ezekiel 37, you know what the people come up and say when they're resurrected physically? It talks about the physical nation of Israel, that they will be resurrected. Bone comes to bone, ankle bone to the foot bone to the ankle bone to the ankle bone to the shift shin bone to the thigh bone to the hip bone to the hip bone to the chest bone and hear the word of the Lord. That's going to happen. These people are going to come alive physically. And when they're awakened, standing in their graves, brethren, you'll never, you do not want to miss this. You want to hang into the church. There's going to be such a parade of people. And I believe it'll be in all their clothes. You know, God made Israel's clothes last 40 years. I'm sure he could make the, bring them up and have them clad in their, whatever they died in. So you have all these centuries of people, 6,000 years of humankind, all being resurrected. Different states coming up, standing beside each other in a cemetery, maybe hundreds of years apart. Can you imagine all the the Southern? I've been to some of these Confederate seminaries down in Virginia. And all of them coming up, they're gonna be, what did they die in? Their uniform! What are they gonna remember when they come up? The very last thought of maybe being bayoneted by an enemy soldier or a foe. They're gonna be shrieking, or somebody killed them, or somebody choked them to death, or somebody just died. Or they were aborted because they were born, or they were killed. Or they were aborted because they were born, or they were aborted because they were born, and didn't quite take the abortion, and you killed them again.

Babies that died in childbirth. Young kids that are hit by cars and killed.

My uncle, my dad's brother, his oldest brother whom I've never seen, sent off to war because his mother, the sponsor, couldn't afford more than three children and a mother. She left him in Syria. He was conscripted into the armed service at probably 12 or 13 years old.

Never made it. I never have seen him. I never have seen him. All those people are going to be resurrected. I don't know if 360 billion will be resurrected all at once, or if he'll do them in stages in an order. I don't know. God's going to do this. We will have just spent a thousand years with people helping them to become members of the God family. But there aren't going to be a whole lot left on the earth after all the calamities of the trumpet plagues and all the rest, and survive the tribulation and survive the final cataclysmic events of the seven last plagues and the trumpet plagues at the end when Christ comes back, the seven last plagues, and then the grand fight at the end. I don't know how many will be left then, but they will walk on into the kingdom as ruled by God. And God starts it all. He'll have a thousand years to prepare everything, the world, the earth, for billions of people. Some of your friends, some of my classmates will be there, some of my relatives, many of my relatives, most of my relatives will be there, and you'll be able to help them. That's what this day is about. It's the rest of the dead. Trumpets is our day. When I come to Atonement, Atonement is not for me. It's not for me in many ways, but it's not for me. It's not about me. By the time on the plan of God, if you understand the plan of God, what happens to you at Trumpets? You're resurrected. You're a spirit being. Do you have to fast? I've got to fast and overcome my sins. You won't have to overcome your sin anymore. But we fast on that day of Atonement. One thing gives me great delight on the day of Atonement is I'm fasting for a world that's going to be saying, we have waited for Him. Now we understand Him. There's no more deception, no more veil over our face. Isaiah 25, I believe it is, talks about that. And we will be resurrected. They will be resurrected. We will be in the kingdom. We will be in the kingdom of God. And these people will be brought up, and they have it in Atonement. They're going to have to lick their wounds because they have got a lot of pounding from God.

Do you think sometimes you spank your child? Some parents are cruel. They'll spank them and then they'll say, okay, smile. Now, Hook smiles after you've just been spanked. Who smiles after you've been told, stand in the corner or sit over here, or you've been denied dessert at dinner? I would never let my kids eat. That's a rule. They say, you're not getting dessert tonight. No, that hurt. Well, you expect them to just thank you. Thanks, Dad. Thanks for punishing me. I love that. I love that.

I see the Day of Atonement as a time when this world is going to be grieving. And when I fast on the Day of Atonement, I'm fasting picturing them. And yes, does it help me? You bet. You bet it helps me. But that's not the main purpose of the Day of Atonement. Not for us. For Israel, they love the Day of Atonement because they need to repent. And they still do. I'll be a member of the family of God. As far as my personal journey to salvation, it ends with trumpets. But after that, God has plenty of work for me to do. To help him in working with people, working with the peoples of this world. We're not going to be just sitting around doing nothing. We have a job to do. Who is better able to guide people who are human beings, who want to be in the kingdom of God now because they've come up to Jerusalem and said, your way works, our ways doesn't. Teach us your ways. Who's better able to say, here's how you do it. I know what it takes. I did it back then. That's what I had to go through. You, people like you, as spirit beings in the family of God. I love the last great day or the day, eighth day of the feast. It's not really the feast yet. It's always attached to the feast. So what comes right after a thousand years? When the thousand years are finished, what happens? Satan's released for a little while. He gathers up all the people who at the end of a thousand years of God's way still want to rebel. They're called Gog and Magog, but they're called all over the world. They're not called Gog and Magog in their region. These are people who are like Gog and Magog, godless and atheistic. They've rejected God in his way, even though they've had it. You see, when an airplane flies overhead, I don't go outside, run out. What's up there? I've seen airplanes before. Flying it and being in an airplane is a marvelous thing. But we've taken it. We've got... so driving in a car, going somewhere in a couple minutes. You imagine what the Apostle Paul could have done if he had an automobile. Well, he had to run out of gasoline because nobody had gasoline stations back then. And if he had an electric, he definitely would run out of fuel. What could he have done? He had to walk everywhere he went. But people get used to blessings. People get used to modern things, to miracles. They get used to that.

They'll get used to God. You show up and you say, hey, this is the way you walk in. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you walk through the wall and you appear to them. You say, hey, stop. Hey, I don't want you to go that direction. You should go this direction. Thanks, yeah. And then you leave. They still don't. There'll be people who need to be helped. And at the end, they won't want to be helped. Some. We don't know how many. I hope very few. God says he wishes everybody could be saved. What do they say when they come up? Our hope is lost. We were told we'd get to see Jesus Christ. We were told we'd get harps. We were told we'd get beyond cloud nine. All the stuff they've been told. We've been promised heaven. Well, this isn't purgatory, so we all know we're in heaven. This isn't heaven. This isn't heaven. This isn't purgatory. And this isn't hell, thank God. But our hope is lost. That's what they say. Our hope is lost. Everything we hoped for. Everything that people told us to be a part of, to want to be a part of. You're going to be with all the saints in heaven. And one of the main things taught by one of the churches is you're going to get to look at the vision of Christ, stare at His face and God the Father's, for all eternity. I would get tired of people staring at me. Now, I could turn my head. By the way, one of the people I met at one of the grocery stores we were at, they said, they knew us. They recognized us. And I said, oh, how did you? By the back of your head. So I told them, I was going to come up here and I'll just sit up this way. Oh, that's Gary Antion.

Sorry, I didn't realize my head was so misshapen in a way that anybody could recognize me, but they did. All right.

Gentiles also said in Paul's day, he said of them, they are without hope. At that time, they were without Christ, Ephesians 2.12. That at that time, you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. Gentiles didn't have any hope either. They didn't have hope that they could be anything different. They didn't hope for what the future could, yet God said He made a subject of vanity in hope, because God is a God of hope, and God, that God of hope, hopes for you. You talk about rooting section. Who's in your rooting section? Angels. He said, don't you think that the angels in heaven are rejoicing over one person who repents?

You're about to be baptized. Those angels are chapping, and you can't hear them. They're clapping and whooping it up in heaven for you. But they have no hope. People in this world really don't have a hope that they can cling to. We have a goal nobody can take from us. Only you can let them take it. They can't take it. That's the kingdom of God. And we have the privilege of having been a part of the kingdom of God, helping establish it on earth for a thousand years to help those who had no hope come to know God, repent, be baptized. That's the model of the Bible. Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the Spirit of God. After a thousand years of God's rule, we'll be dealing with the billions who died before Christ's coming and never were called or repented and died. As we begin the rest of this sermon, I'd like you to think of all the friends, family members. Pick out a few in your mind and think about them. I'll be playing a song at the end that you could listen to. I've played it before. I love it. I listen to it every year, whether I speak about it. And somebody, I wasn't going to use it this year at all, somebody come up to me and said, Are you going to play that song? Welcome to my world. So I wasn't planning on it. Oh, I love that. Okay, I'll play it at the end. Two minutes. Two minutes. John 5. John 5 verses 28 and 29, we read this. John 5. Jesus Christ said, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice. And verse 29, And come forth. When someone's in the grave, and they come forth, guess what? There's a resurrection. You don't come out of graves.

Unless you're resurrected or somebody exumes you for studying your body, once again, whatever's left of it. They will come forth those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil, to the resurrection of it says condemnation in New King James. The word is judgment. It's creases. K-R-I-S-I-S in the Greek, and it means judgment or a decision. See, if we just resurrect all the people who are in their graves who died never knowing the truth and never living God's way, we resurrect them, say, you were bad, you're still bad. Bye. You can't judge me on how well I play hockey. Can you? Anybody know how I play hockey? Maybe Joanne might know that I can. She's from Canada. She might know. Anybody know how I play hockey? How would you know how good I am or not good? First of all, you'd have to teach me how to play. Secondly, you'd have to let me practice for a while. Secondly, you'd have to let me practice for a while. Thirdly, you'd have to see how I skate on the ice and how I could handle the puck, stick handle, and how I can skate and swim. Now, I learned to skate in Canada. I hadn't skated before we moved to Canada in 1964 or 68. We actually moved up there. I finally took some time to get some time to go learn how to skate. My wife could skate. She could skate forwards and backwards. I couldn't. So I cling to my wife all around the rink. That was very humbling. But I gradually learned my footing. When I became a pretty good skater, I could skate fast. Sometimes I'd say, what am I doing? I'm on these blades and we're zooming around. I'd say, what am I doing? And I'd cross one leg over. I was good at the ro- Except I couldn't skate backwards. I could never be a good hockey player because I'd have to make this wide circle if they went the other direction. So you can't judge me on how I play hockey until I learn the game, right? Then you can say, he's no good. Let him go out for recreational skating, but he's no good at hockey. Can I judge how good you are as a Christian unless I teach you Christianity? No. That's why we have to teach them. That's why they come to Jerusalem and say, teach us of your ways. We'll walk in your paths. Isaiah 2 and Micah 4. We'll come and learn. They have to be taught in the resurrection. They have to be taught. God's way. They have to let God's Spirit work with them, with them, bring them to conversion if they're willing.

And they'll all respect God. There'll only be one way then. You won't say, what church are you going to? There's only one church. You won't say, what way are you going? There's only one way. The right way. God's way. But they'll be taught that. Now we have a chance to see how they do, and we can judge them. Judgment is given to us, right, as saints.

Judgment. But you're not going to be able to judge them based on what they've already done. You resurrect them. Second resurrection. Whoops, you're no good. Bye.

They have to be taught the books in order to live by the books, because the books will be open. And the word books in the Greek could be biblia, biblia, which is the Bible. The Bible's a collection of books. The book of Genesis, the book of Leviticus, the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Ezra, the book of the Psalms. They're all books, all in one book called the Bible. So we have a chance to work with them. Job said, we use this at funerals, Job said in Job 14 verses 14 and 15, if a man dies, shall he live again? Is it the end when people die? No. No. God says, I kill and I make alive. Do you feel so sorry? Oh, God wiped that whole people out. Yes, he did. Why, they were bad.

Yes, even little kids. Why could that, how mean is God? God's not mean. He teach them a good lesson because they're going to be resurrected. He wants everybody to come to the knowledge of the truth. How can you come to the knowledge of the truth when it's so pitifully poor in this world? The truth must go forth. Not just the truth of the Bible, the truth on everything. And there are people that don't like truth. Somebody said, was it a sermon or a song? If you know the truth, if you teach the truth, they will hate you. People don't want the truth. So a lot of people don't go too hard with the truth, soft so that so the person can so the person can gradually take it in. This day and age, young people, whether they call them snowflakes sometimes, they can't, oh, you don't want to tell them they're wrong. Why not? You're going to get plenty of people to tell you you're wrong, including your future employers, including your good friends, if they're honest with you. They'll say, no, you shouldn't do that. Don't go that way. We have to learn. Life is about yeses and noes. And those people are going to have to learn what the yeses are and what the noes are. But Job said, if a man die, shall he live again? He said, all the days of my hard surface, I will wait till my change comes. You call and I will answer you. You, Joe, desire the work of your hands. 1 Corinthians 15, 21-23 tells we read this, For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

Adam introduced death, death into the world through his family, through his deeds, through his sin, right at the very beginning, introduced death. But that sin doesn't pass on from person to person. The effects of it can. Sin is an act. You don't pass on acts to people. An act is not passed on. But the effects of that act is that person is living poorly and unhealthily, and then they generate children, and those children are born, they might be born with deformities. That's passed on the effects of not living right. But he said, You'll call, and I will answer you. You have a desire to the work of your hands. And then we read, For in Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive. Jesus Christ is going to resurrect God the Father, all these people, each one in his own order. Firstfruits, afterwards those who are Christ that is coming. That's the first resurrection. But then what about the rest of the dead? Revelation 20 verses 4-6. The rest of the dead will live again. That's what Christ said as the Revelator in Revelation, written by John the Apostle. Revelation 20 verses 4-6. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. Who are they? Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded. So some people have been martyred. Now some teach, if you're martyred, no matter where you are, who you are, how you are, you go straight to heaven. That's not what we teach. There have been Christian martyrs. Stephen was stoned to death, remember? And others have been persecuted. Peter, the Apostle, Peter apparently was crucified upside down. He said, Please don't crucify me the way my Lord, I'm not worthy. So tradition says he was crucified upside down.

I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and the Word of God, because they believed in God's Word and who had not worshiped the beast or his image. That is the system of this world, whichever one it was, and had not received a mark on their foreheads or in their hands. Apparently there was a time, there may be a time in the future, we don't know how that's going to exactly be, where you won't be able to buy or sell unless you have a certain mark, whether it is in your system, you know, where some people say, Now, if you wave your hand, you've got this embedded in you to say what the price is on this, or to charge something, or to pay for something, or identify you. It's terrible, and that'll happen. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Now, this is the kicker, verse 5, But the rest of the dead lived not again until... See, if I want to put it a different way, I'll say the rest of the dead did not live or lived again after. Same thing. The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. So after a thousand years of preparing the earth, there's going to be an impuged harvest. I'm not God. I can't tell you how he's going to do that. 360 billion people are estimated to have lived in the last 6,000 years. Estimated 60,000 a year for 6,000 years. You could add it up. It's 360 billion. Right now, our earth has 8 to 9 billion. Can you imagine how many people that's going to be who are displaced, who've been killed in different spots? Some at war over here, some at sea, some buried at sea, you have to bring them back from inside of whatever the animals were when they were killed.

It's pretty awesome. You see, our God is a miracle worker. We read about that and read about that and heard about that during this feast. Then he says, this is the first resurrection. Which one's the first resurrection? The first one. Then he goes on to say, blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. So people who resurrected, there's a second death coming. People died once, there's a second death. How do you have a second death unless you resurrect it again? First time. After the first one. The second death has no power. Over such it has no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ shall reign in a thousand years. That's the first resurrection. But what about the second resurrection? Second resurrection are those who are after the first. Revelation 20 in verses 11 to 15. We read this. These are crucial scriptures on the last great day. Then I saw a great white throne, great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. It was so awesome. God was so awesome. There was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. The small, the average person, the person who could not make the team, the person who was chosen last for the volleyball team in high school, the person who was never chosen except who was assigned to a team because nobody wanted him. They are going to be resurrected. And then the great. There have been so many greats. I can read you about greats and smalls. Let me, I have a note here. The small and the great. Abortions in the world. 40 million. 40 to 50 million. 125,000 a day, according to worldometer. Information. That was 2022. 40 to 50 million. 125,000 a day. Are killed after life has begun. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Political exiles in Siberia. We have no idea. They're sent over there and they disappear. No idea. American Indians, once a proud people, now on reservations. 5.2 million Indians and Alaskans in the U.S. Census now. Slaves. Millions held against their will. Killed. Remember in Rome, a slave was a thing. He just happened to be able to speak. It was a thing. You could do what you wanted with it. You could treat it any way you wanted to. Some of them were doctors. Some of them were teachers. Some of them were household servants. Trusted household servants. Ran the whole household. The Mater D of the household. The master of the house. For the boss. But they were slaves. They could talk and they could speak and they could run and jump. But they were just like a cart that you could put things on and carry. It's a servant and it's worth nothing to them. You could dismiss it anytime you wanted. You could kill it. You could whip it. You could beat it. That's not what God wants. Before the Exodus, male children of Israel were killed and slaughtered. Firstborn Egyptians. How many of them died during the time of the plague from God? What about orphan babies that are born in the world? How many are those? Babies that were slaughtered by Herod trying to kill Jesus. How many? Two years and under. Every child killed. I didn't even say... well, maybe it was a male child. He was so mad. Ordinary people, waiters, waitresses, carpenters, pilots, they're the small. They're going to be resurrected. Of course, the great, the presidents, the prime ministers, the kings, the author, the queens. Some of the ones who were despots never had a chance. They were just mad.

They get a chance. They get a chance.

1 Timothy 2.4, I'll have everybody come to the knowledge of the truth, Paul wrote. In 2 Peter 3.9, he wants all to come to repentance. Give everybody a chance to come to repentance. God's not shy with trying to help people. He wants to give everybody a chance. I hope a majority of people will take up that chance. They will not lose it. Let me quickly move on. You find Gentiles, there'll be such a parade of history you'll never want to miss. And you can be there to help lead the parade, direct it. Their manner of death, their last thoughts, the scene that they saw before dying, not knowing where they are now as they come up, and their disappointment from their teachings of salvation in heaven. You get a chance to help them. All these notables, and your relative, or your friend, they come up to.

In Matthew 11, verses 20 to 24, in Matthew 12, verse 41 and 42, we find one of them, it'll be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment. How can it be more tolerable when you've been destroyed? Unless you're resurrected. How about the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment? And what about the queen of the south will rise up in judgment? Queen of the south has been dead as long as Solomon has. How's she going to rise up? Resurrection. And they'll say to you, you'd had Christ there? Woe to you, he says, of course, Coraism. Or woe to you, Betseidah. For if the mighty works which were done in you, this is Matthew 11, verses 20 to 24, if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented a long time ago. You saw the Christ. You heard from Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You heard him preach and talk about a kingdom to come. And you poo-pooed that? You pushed it away? You rejected it? Tyre and Sidon wouldn't have. So Tyre and Sidon are going to be given a chance. Sodom and Gomorrah are going to be given a chance. Sodom and Gomorrah are pretty awful people. That's the last part of it. But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable than in the land of Sodom, verse 24 of Matthew 11, in the day of judgment than for you. Not going to be more tolerable. They were just burned up.

Well, okay. We'll just kill you by poison. There. It may make it more tolerable. How can it be more tolerable? Because they're going to be given a chance. They still have to make the most of that opportunity that God gives. So we'll have the opportunity as God's Spirit beings to comfort. We'll have to exercise comfort and our detection ability.

You think of how many family members have been separated by war, by slavery, by kidnapping, by just being killed in different locations, and they come up. It says in those cemeteries, that's where they're going to come up. I did one cemetery for a lady, and most of the people who attended were not in the church. I always had our funeral crew. They came. Some of the brethren who loved to come and helped me. And so I would look out at the audience.

I would see a few familiar faces sitting together. That was God's people. They were God's people. And they would come, and some of those there, and I said to them, one day, everybody in this cemetery, those graves are going to pop open and they're going to stand.

That's what God says, John 5, 28, Jesus Christ. Everybody will be resurrected. Before we close, I'm going to quickly read Ezekiel 37, and then after I'm done with that, I'm going to play the song, have Jim call, play the song by Jim Reeves, and welcome to my world. I'll tell you before that time what I look forward to hear you're seeing.

Ezekiel 37. Let's turn there. Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy of dry bones. Okay, I've got in my Bible, but I've got it down here too. Ezekiel 37 verses 1 to 3. Ezekiel was brought to the valley of dry bones, and he's asked if those bones could live. And he responds, well, only you know the answer, God. God says, look at these bones. It's a vision, okay? Look at these bones out here. Look at these bones. Can they live? I don't know, only you know.

Verses 4 to 8. He's told to prophesy the bones that they may live. Prophesy. You imagine standing out here, all these dried bones in this area where all these skeletons are, and you're saying to them, okay, dry bones, come up and live. They don't have a brain. They don't have a mind. How do they hear you? God says, prophesy. He said, they came together, bone to bone, flesh on it, muscles, tendons, skin, and they all arose.

But there was no life in them. Verses 9 and 10 prophesy to the breath to come and blow on the resurrected group, and they came to life. And he calls them a vast army. A vast army! Just like it says in Revelation 20, eight armies are going to be resurrected. They're identified as Israel. These are the children of Israel. You know, why do you think he's going to start with Israel? Because they're such a great people, not necessarily, although they are pretty good people.

Why is he starting with them? Well, didn't he start with them when they were nothing? When they were absolutely nothing, he picked them. As a slave people in Egypt, as humble as you could be, as low as you could be. And he brought them out and he said, I want you to be an example to the world of what it's like to live my way as a nation. And of course, it didn't take them long to turn away.

And they kept violating God's law, God's way, continually. Finally, what did he do? After he had sent them aside, after he had told them, he rejected them. In fact, he said, I entered into a marriage covenant with you. I loved you. I was a husband to you, but you didn't like what I gave you. I gave you all the fine furs. I gave you all the jewelry. I gave you all those things. Ezekiel 16 goes through that. And you rejected me.

You went the wrong way. Now they're going to have a chance. They split up into two sides, Israel and Judah, northern kingdom, southern kingdom. They are going to be together. They are going to be reunited. It talks about that. So verses 12 to 14, they never returned, by the way. Israel went into captivity. They lost hope. Israelites were taken by the Assyrians in 722-721. They called them the Lost Ten Tribes because they never returned, and nobody knows where they went.

We have an idea where they went to Western Europe. We have an idea where they went to the United States and Britain and Australia as brother nations. We have an idea where they went. Some of the other nations, they can identify where they are. Gentile nations, they know, but they didn't know those. Judah was different. Judah went to Babylon, and Judah was returned.

So Jews know they're Jews. Some people are partial Jews. They don't, maybe, not even know they're partial Jews. But everybody doesn't have to be a physical Jew. That's not what's important. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God. That's what something God teaches you God's way. So what took place is prophesied. They will know the Lord and will have His Spirit and live. I'll put my Spirit into you, verses 12 to 14, Ezekiel 37.

I'll put my Spirit in you, and you will live. How did they do that? How did they get that product? Did God just dump His Spirit to anybody? From what we see in the New Testament, they have to believe, repent, and be baptized to receive God's Spirit. That's the normal way. God can do it any way. He can do it any way He wants. I'm not going to tell God how He can do it.

And God will make Israel and Judah one nation. That's verses 26 to 28. Jesus Christ came back, was prophesied to be the king of Israel. He would reign over the house of Jacob. That's in Luke 1, verse 33. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

It starts with physical Israel. But physical Israel is to be an example to the rest of the world. That's why we read in Zechariah 8, 22, and 23. They will all come up to Jerusalem to say, grab the whole skirt of a Jew, say, teach us, because we heard that God is with you.

We've heard God is with you. God starts with physical Israel and then branches on to all the nations. They will no longer be deceived. David Toman pictures that. Revelation 12, 9. Satan's deceived the whole world. They'll all be called. They won't have to worry about being called. John 6, 44. So I have a question for you. So whom did you choose? Who did you like to see? I wish we could have a discussion. We won't. I chose my paternal granddad that I never met. Died when my dad was about two years old, one or two, before my dad's mother brought him and his older sister and his older brother to America. So I'm the son of a landed immigrant who became an American citizen and said it was the greatest day of his life. He said, Dad, don't you want to go back and see? I don't have any desire to go back there. I have relatives somewhere over there. I have relatives in South America, too. Some own shoe factories, coffee factories. Some are doctors, brain surgeons. I don't even know who they are. I know some of their names vaguely.

But I hope I can see my paternal granddad and my grandma who brought my dad to America, and she died when my dad was only eight or ten. We walked all over a cemetery trying to find her little plaque that said where she who she was. We could not find it. All the records were lost. Just a few records somewhere in this one or that one she is. Not even a marker for her. Her oldest son, my dad's oldest brother, Solomon, died, left behind. The mother saved money for a whole year on her own. Couldn't speak English. Save $50. At that time, you could bring him over $50. So she was going to bring her son. And the sponsor found out about it. He said, give me that money. And Arab women listened. Give me that money. Took the money away from her. I'll send for him when I'm ready. She said, I'll never see my son again. She never did. I would like to see them. I don't know who you would like. My wife would like to see her grandparents or her grandparents or any of her grandparents. She said, I'll never see my son in the church, but her grandmother was one of the nicest ladies you'd ever want to meet. Her granddad was an accomplished musician. owned a music store. Started something that her dad succeeded in following.

So this day is about hope. The title of the sermon is, Hope Fulfilled. Those people said, our hope is lost. Today is about hope fulfilled when the rest of the dead will live again. And Godspeed that day for your friends, your relatives, and the rest of the world that never had a chance. And you get the privilege. If you're there, and if I'm there, we get the privilege of helping them become a part of the kingdom of God. Listen to this beautiful song, which I found many years ago, that really epitomizes in words, and it of what we might feel if we stand there as a spirit being, waiting for our family to come to life again, who never had a chance. Beautiful words by Jim Reeves, who himself died in an accident. It's called, Gentlemen Jim Reeves. His music was more popular after his death. He said he had 11 number ones on the country music chart, and the six of them became number one after he died. This was not number one, but this is one of his very good songs included in the greatest songs of Jim Reeves. So let's listen to that for the next two minutes, and after that we could have the final song.