No More Curse

Well, we've had just a wonderful, wonderful feast here, have you? You enjoy this feast? It's been really wonderful. You know, I wish I could say that it has been a perfect feast. It has been an ideal feast in so many ways, but you know, we're not in the utopia yet, are we? We haven't actually come to that particular point, you know, in development as Christians, where we can have a perfect time at the feast.

There's always something that we can learn about. We're not at the utopia. You know that Sir Thomas More coined, first coined the term utopia with his book in 1516. It was a fictional island where there were no societal evils that were portrayed in it. And, you know, we think about the fact, brethren, that Adam and Eve really lived in a utopia. They lived in a utopia. They know what it was like. It didn't last very long, but it was a utopia that they lived in. It was a perfect world.

They lived in a world that was pristine, perfect in every way, in terms of the environment, the air, and the water. The animals were tame. You know, there was no violence, of course, and they didn't have to really work hard to eat either. You know, because everything was provided for them in the garden. And the land provided everything that they needed, and their only job, the only job that God gave to them, was to beautify, to make it better. Now, that's the kind of world that we want to be a part of, right?

You wonder how our first two parents could make such a big mistake. You know, of course, they did, and they made terrible choices for all of us. And rather than set this entire earth on the pathway to utopia, here we are in a dystopia, a world that is the very opposite, and it grows worse and worse. You might say that Eve, when she ate the forbidden fruit, I suppose you could say that Eve ate Adam out of house and home. You know, so as a result of what she did, all of us, of course, have to dwell in this world.

And Adam, of course, was a part of it all as well. No, brethren, when I was about 16 or 15 years of age, I was like any other 15 or 16-year-old kid that was dealing with his hormones and all the rest of the things that were raging at that time in my own life, I think it was a little more serious-minded in my life, because in my family I was very aware of sickness. It seemed like it was always around.

When I was about 11 years of age, my brother developed a tumor of the brain. He was five, and he lost his vision, and we nearly lost him. We thought he was going to die. And, of course, I had other situations in our family. My sister, you know, when she was a baby, was actually had a fever, a high fever, and as a result of that, you know, she had mental deficiencies. My mother faced the problem of cancer, and these were things that hit me very early on in my life.

And, frankly, I got to a point in my own personal life where I looked around, and, of course, if all of you who were a little bit older remember what it was like in the 60s, all of us were looking at the news on a daily basis, colored television was developed about that time, and everybody was able to get that into their homes. And what were they piping into the homes? The Vietnam War. You know, people being killed right and left, and mangled over in Vietnam, in a country far away. And, of course, I thought about the prospect that maybe I would end up over there.

When I was about 15 or 16, my brother was drafted into the military, and so I began to think that way myself. But I looked at the world at that time as a young boy, and I thought, is this what life is about? I remember sitting, in fact, at a barn across the road from where we lived, up in the, you know, where the hay bales were at the top of the barn.

And sometimes it would rain like it did this morning, you know, over by the beach. But, you know, I would sit there and I would think about things, and I really began to ask myself the question, do I want to even be a part of this life? You know, I really came to that particular point in my life. And I, of course, began to ask God questions about things. I started reading the Bible, as probably all of us did. Maybe that was my big mistake. I picked the Bible up and actually started reading it. I remember one night, though, I had read and read and read the Gospels, and I got angry. And I said, God, I am going to understand this.

And anyway, I continued to read. And I finally told God, I told God, I said, you know, look, if you will tell me what this means, if you'll put it all together with me, I will do it.

That was another big mistake I made. I made a promise to God I would do it. And he began to open up things. And when he began to show me, you know, what the Scriptures really meant, I had a different view of life. I began to look at life differently. I understood about life a bit better. And I've grown in that understanding over the years, I'm sure, as we all have.

But here we are on the eighth day, as Mr. Lichtenstein talked about and gave us a framework here of the last great day. And it symbolizes a new world that is coming to us, one that we really are sitting here for. We're listening intently about. It symbolizes a new millennium, a thousand years. We're in the eighth day, which is going to be another one thousand year period, as it were.

And of course, in merely a symbolic fashion, like in fact the first seven days were seven thousand years, as a picture of it, or a thousand years, you know, symbolized by the week, as we understand. And the seventh thousand years is the millennium that we've just observed. But there's another thousand year period, which is symbolized by the eighth day.

And we're going to leave this old world behind. And things are going to look a lot different.

You know, in fact, in this time that we are celebrating here today and beyond, it's going to look a lot different in the future. Let's go over to Revelation chapter 22.

You think about it, in the millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ, that seventh millennium, as it were, symbolized by the Sabbath that we observe, a time of rest for all of us, things are not going to be perfect in that millennium. Why? Because people are going to have human nature. Still, they're still going to have a little problem of human nature. Even though Satan is going to be out of the way, we've got problems with human nature.

And God is going to deal with it. It's going to take a long time for people to work that out. In fact, by the end of the millennium, there's still going to be problems, as we will see as we go through this sermon. But let's go to Revelation chapter 21, 22, I should say, in verse 1. And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And notice going on here, verse 3, in this time He's describing, And there shall be no more curse, no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will serve Him, or serve Him, or shall serve Him, as it says here. And it says, And they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. Now, this is certainly a very idyllic, utopian time. But as has been said already in the Feast of Tabernacles that we observed the last seven days, it's a reality. It's going to come to pass. It's going to happen. There'll be no more curse, no more human nature, no more of the problem of human problems that we experience today. Finally, when, you know, that period of the last great day and the eighth day are over.

Now, we see in the world today, brethren, trouble that is brewing. I watch news all the time, and I'm sure you do as well. And things look scary out there. And no matter what we see, brethren, in the future, and I think we're going to see earth-shaking things, the Bible tells us, they're going to happen. When we look at God's plan, brethren, we win. We win. And not just us, but everybody wins.

Everybody wins. No, God's plan makes it so that everybody wins.

So, brethren, in God's future plan, the world has no more curse. None of the troubles that we see in the world today. No more curse. And Jesus Christ, of course, will have taken that away from all of mankind. But how did the curse come? And what will it be like when it's removed?

You know, we've had a glimpse of that at the Feast of Tabernacles here, what it's going to be like.

The Feast of Tabernacles is a type of what Adam and Eve had in the Garden for about one day.

And with the troubles of this age gone, there's not going to be any hunger, no pain, no suffering.

None of the back-breaking work, you know, to gather food, all of us have had to go through that through our lives. You know, I know I actually was telling somebody the other day that when I was like 14, 15 years of age, man, I was out in the fields up in Bakersfield picking tomatoes.

And, you know, around maybe 15 or so, I was out in the fields moving irrigation lines through the cotton out there in Bakersfield, sinking up in the mud up to my knee. You know, and I was telling somebody as well that it was kind of interesting that my brother and I, my brother was four years older than I, I was again just a boy, a teen at the time, and, you know, they paid us what you would pay one man. So I was not even a half man. My brother was more of a man than I was.

And the only reason I participated is because I had the hope I might have been able to drive the truck. But we, we earned money to buy school clothes to go to school. That's how we were able to do it. And, you know, we worked hard to do that. All of the kids were, in fact, out in the fields doing that. I picked tomatoes and grapes and all kinds of things to earn money.

Trump greens back in Oklahoma, picked strawberries, you know, it was, it was sometimes not an easy thing to do. But it was good experience. Good experience for me to learn what work was about, particularly. But think about a world is coming, but no more backbreaking work. My dad worked so hard in his life. A lot of times people just worked themselves to death. I don't know that necessarily happens that much today, but people still work very hard. If they're not doing it with their back, they're doing it with their brain. I know up in the Bay Area we have people that it seems like that they work 24 hours a day with some of these, you know, technical companies. They expect almost you to surrender your freedom. You become a slave to a company, and people work very hard. But think about the fact that in the world tomorrow, it's not going to be that way. In the future, it's not going to be that way, because the curse is going to be gone. And God is going to make it easier on people. And one of the things that we're going to be doing, by the way, more of in the world tomorrow is we're going to build and we're going to beautify. That's what we're going to do. Build and beautify. And I don't believe God is going to demand of us working 24 hours a day, necessarily. I'm talking about physical human beings of the millennium. I think God's going to, you know, give us a balanced kind of life, because everything's going to work with us instead of against us. You know, the world that is God is going to have not only during the millennium, but in this last great day, period of time. So let's go on and talk about, let's go to Genesis chapter 3, if you will, with me. Genesis chapter 3, what is the curse, brethren? We know over here that there was a dastardly kind of an individual, Satan the devil. Little s, by the way, Satan.

Not big s, but it says now the serpent was more cunning. He was very crafty. And you live in a world, in fact, that is a result of his craftiness. And it says that, "...eat these to the field which the Lord God has made. And he said to the woman, Has God at deed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Well, we know the story of what happened here.

Let's go over to chapter 3 and down to verse 12, where we are.

Of course, when Eve had taken of the fruit, the forbidden fruit, you know, she offered to Adam and he went right along with it. And the Bible says he wasn't deceived. He knew what he was doing. But again, let's go to verse 12 here. And it says, Then the man said, The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you've done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Is this the way of human nature? Is it to blame somebody else?

And so she went all the way down and she blamed it on the serpent.

Going on here, notice that he said, Because you've done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, talking about again the serpent, and more than any beast of the field, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

And to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desires shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Apparently, there would be something there that would happen in the marital relationship that God did not want to happen, and that in fact men would take a superior position that would be detrimental in its nature to women, not as God intended it to be, that it be a team in terms of marriage. And in some cultures, you see this more accentuated than others. Where basically a woman, in some cultures, is a possession, someone that you own. And that, again, was perverted.

And then to Adam, he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Curse it as the ground for your sake.

In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. And he talks about thorns and thistles shall bring forth from the soil. And you shall eat the herb of the field, and the sweat of your face shall shall eat bread. Until you return to the ground. Of course, God didn't have that in mind for Adam and Eve as a first choice for them. He, of course, knew that there was a possibility that this could happen. We know God is the all-knowing God. He's fully aware of these things. But to hear the word curse, by the way, comes from the Hebrew word arar, which means, or, you know, in the Hebrew, bitterly cursed or repugnant. Not only were the ways that Adam chose repugnant to God and something to look down on, but man would not get the full benefit of the land that he was going to have to, you know, be able to get his food from. Things would not be in harmony.

And so the man was under a curse. And look at the world today, what we see out here. So many people again that are starving. My wife and I have been to Africa, to Zambia. And, you know, our, what we eat is, by comparison to what some of the people in the bush country of Zambia eat, you wouldn't believe it. You really wouldn't believe it. If they went into a, you know, a buffet, a nice buffet, it would blow their mind. Or they went into a supermarket. They would be amazed of all the choices we have in the West. Because the world, again, is suffering from the curse, that the earth is not in harmony with man as God intended it to be. Eventually, of course, as has already been said here at the feast, they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden.

And when they were put under, because of the sin, they were put under the death penalty.

And, interestingly, the first thing that they did after they were kicked out of Eden, they raised Cain afterwards. In Cain, of course, over here in verse 9 of chapter 4, Cain grew up a primadonna, had in mind that he was something he may have thought he was the Messiah that had been talked about in Genesis 3 verse 15. That some would come along and actually bruise the head of the serpent. And maybe as a result of it, the vanity grew on him, and he began to think of himself above what he should. And he didn't do things that were pleasing in God's sight, while his brother Abel did. He became very jealous of him. But verse 9 here, Then the Lord said to Cain, after Cain had killed his brother, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

I have to watch after my brother. And he said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. And now you were cursed from the earth, which had opened his mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. And when you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond shall be on the earth.

And so Cain, of course, carried forth in that way that produced the curse that we see around us here.

You know, the progeny of Adam and Eve. People have gone the way of Cain, spoken of in the New Testament. Same Hebrew word is used here, by the way, arar. It is a bitter curse that God has pronounced against him. He's spoken against him. You know that Josephus says that Cain began to force the ground. Now, we don't know what he did, but we know what people do today, don't we? They use, you know, every kind of insecticide on it. They farm in incorrect manners, too long in some areas so that the land is worn out. They're learning again more about that.

But they use certain fertilizers are not good, and that ends up in our food supply.

So all of us, of course, have to deal with the problems that we have health-wise, you know, because of the curse that has happened. A badge and again a world where that is not there anymore. There are four main Old Testament Hebrew words that are translated, curse, by the way, and all are defined in this matter that people are living apart from what God has commanded his laws. And the fact that people depart from the God's law means that there's going to be a bad result, and not only that there would be a bad result in people's lives, but even death takes place, as death was pronounced on all mankind when Adam and Eve sinned.

The world we see today is due to Adam and Eve's choice.

The curse resulted in the first murder, and then violence began on a regular basis. So much so, in fact, that violence filled the earth, that God had to come and take the world away as a result of the flood. Marriage and family was perverted. Art was perverted. Music.

You know, brethren, there are two ways of life. Mr. Armstrong used to call it, there's the get-wave and the give-way. It's also defined as the way of life, to life, and the way of death. And Adam and Eve chose the way of death for all of us.

Now, we could maybe complain about it, but you know, we were much like Adam and Eve, weren't we, in our lives before God called us? So every generation did the same thing that Adam and Eve did. Cain did it, and everybody since has done what Adam and Eve did. They chose death. And Adam basically told God, you get out of my business. When he made the decision to disobey God, you get out of my business, and you know, God had a hands-off policy toward this earth, toward this world. And at that time, as Hebrews 9 and 27 brings out, it was decreed that all men would first die, they would live out their lives, and they would die, and then they would be judged. This day looks to that time for however many millions and billions of people there are, whether you know, we're looking at a hundred billion or whatever it is, we don't really know the number of people that have lived on this earth. We need a good mathematician to figure that out, I guess.

But, you know, all are facing first death, and all of us have got to entertain the day when we're going to breathe our last. We want to be here when all the things happen, but there are no guarantees, are there? But mankind, of course, has lived in a world as a result of those choices. The last 6000 years, God has let man do what he wanted to do, to form his own societies, to form his own governments, and we've tried everything. I mean, this world has tried every kind of government, monarchy, oligarchy, dictators, democracies, even anarchy, and none of them, of course, have worked. And we've written in blood, sweat, and tears in history that we don't know how to rule ourselves. I mean, I make a joke of the politicians, you know, in talk about that, and I know a lot of people do, but they don't have the answers. If you think they do, we need to have a talk, by the way. Let's get up here and talk about it, because they do not have the answers in this society. The leadership of the world does not know the way to peace. All we've had in the world is a lull between the war that we've called peace. Things are brewing now with Russia and China, and a lot of other places around the world where we're going to see Bedlam break out in the future. But all again, the governments have failed, brethren.

And the reason is, is because of the human nature that is there, the get-orientation of all peoples. And it puts us all under the curse. That's why we need to overcome our human nature. We need to change. You know, as long as we again go contrary to God's law, the sword of Damocles hangs over our head by a slender thread. And, you know, if we are not of a repented attitude, you know, we are under the death penalty. And I trust all of us are here repenting, you know, and we're keeping on repenting in our lives. We're changing. We're trying to overcome in our lives. You know what? Satan the devil would like to keep us under that sword, under that death penalty that Adam and Eve brought us under. But when man decided he was going to go his own way for the last 6,000 years, God reserved the right to call whomever he chose.

And the job that they have had, you know, people like Noah and Enoch and Abraham and Moses and all of the servants of God. And there are so few, so few, brethren, a handful you can count before the crucifixion, that God sent to warn this world of what was going to happen if they continue to go on the pathway they were going.

And that's what our job is today, except we're a collective group that have a job to preach the gospel of the world, to warn the world, to tell this world what's going to happen.

This entire world jumped tracks from the very, very beginning. Now, we're in Daniel 11. If you can go with me to Daniel 11 over here.

Of course, the prophet Daniel was a very righteous man, one of the most righteous men in history, in fact, among three that were named. A very special individual who lived, in fact, in Babylon, and yet he was a man who was very, very close to God. You wouldn't expect that.

You really wouldn't expect that. Right in the middle of Babylon, and yet he was a righteous man.

Puts a high bar for you and me, right? We live in basically religious Babylon out here. How are we living? Are we like Daniel? But Daniel had a repentant attitude for all of Judah.

Notice in verse 11 here, he says, in verse 11 of Daniel chapter 9, he says, Yes, all Israel has transgreshed your law, and has departed so as not to obey your voice.

Therefore, the curse, you see that, brethren? The curse. And the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him. The curse.

That's why they were in Babylon and captivity, because of the curse.

And, brethren, that's why the United States of Britain is going to be there in the future because of the curse. The curse that is going to be fulfilled. That word curse, by the way, in the Hebrew here is Allah. Like you pronounce, you know, as you guessed it, the god of a certain religious segment of this world. And that word Allah means spoken curse. And God made it plain, brethren, to ancient Israel when he made the covenant with them. He said, look, if you obey me, blessed are you going to be when you come in, and blessed are you going to be when you go out. Everything you do is going to be blessed. Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want that?

Boy, human nature is pretty powerful, isn't it? But they did not listen. They agreed with the covenant. They all liked the sound of having rain-induced season. They liked the sound of being blessed, you know, so that, you know, your offspring are healthy. They loved, you know, the fact that they were going to have such bounty that all nations around the world would be amazed by how great they were and how wonderful they were. But they did not want to obey God. I'm not going to go there, but in Psalm 119 verse 21, you might write it down, there it says, you rebuke the proud, the cursed who stray from your commandments. So when we stray from the commandments of God, brethren, we bring ourselves under a curse. Things are not going to turn out too well for us as we go that direction.

We've seen people that have come back to God's church after so long, and, you know, they say the same story that I said many, many years ago, like you did as well. I don't want to be a part of that world. I know what it's like. I want to be a part of God's way. The God revolution, as I talked about yesterday, I want to be a part of a new world that's coming. And in Proverbs 26 verse 2, again, I'll refer to it. You can write it down. Proverbs 26 verse 2, it says, for a curse without cause shall not alight. Interestingly, that word, you know, means vilification here.

The word curse means vilification. And maybe an example of what a vilification is, is that, you know, a bad name is usually, you know, something that is not causeless. There's a reason why some people have bad names because of the choices that they've made. And you know, a good name is really very valuable. Don't want to lose that good name. Your example, I know I grew up in a real small town. I mentioned before, Roland, Oklahoma, the cultural capital of the world. I know you've probably heard of it. But a very small town. Everybody in the town knew me.

You know, one time I ran a stop sign in Roland. And, you know, I thought I had escaped the constable. They called him a constable. And anyway, he comes driving up the driveway.

This is after I'm home. I'm in the house already. You know, and anyway, he just drives up the driveway, comes up the front door, and he said, you ran a stop sign. And you know why he knew me? He let me off. He didn't give me a ticket or anything because I was very good friends with his son. And I went over in his house and we would play together. And those, at that time, we played basketball together. And anyway, you know, he knew knew me. And if you made a mistake, I'll tell you what, people didn't forget it. You've got to be careful what you do in a small community.

Wouldn't it be great if that's the way it was all over the world?

That we're careful about our names. That we're going to set a good example.

You don't want to be under a curse. There's nothing, again, that's causeless. Usually, we contribute to it. We do it. You know, God's laws, brethren, impact every area of our lives.

You know, sometimes brethren will come to me and they will mention that they're having financial problems, you know, for whatever reason. And of course, we normally go over budgets and all that sort of thing. But inevitably, we get around to the topic of what? Tithing. Are you tithing?

And sometimes, you know, maybe it might be fudging on some of those things. Maybe they're not budgeting as well. Again, there's no causeless curse. When people have problems, there's a reason.

You know, this country has a 20 trillion dollar debt. 20 trillion dollars. You know how much that is, brethren? That is about $60,000 for every one of you sitting right here in this room.

In this room. You don't have $60,000, do you? You got that stashed away in your bank somewhere?

None of us do, do we? We are the wealthiest nation in the whole world.

But you know what? We're the greatest debtor nation, too. We're losing money like we got holes in our pockets. A lot of Americans, in fact, are doing exactly the same thing.

They're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Well, let's notice over here in Malachi chapter 3. Malachi 3.

In the book of Malachi over here in chapter 3, and down in verse 8, God says, will a man rob him? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you? And God says, in tithes and offerings, He said, you're cursed with a curse. And He says, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. You ever wonder why a nation has problems? Because we don't do that. We don't do that as a people. Now, I know some do, in this society, actually do that. I know Mr. Armstrong mentioned about Colgate tithing, and he used to say how that Colgate, of course the Colgate toothpaste, that actually God blessed him because he tithed. He kept that particular law.

But God wants us to reap the blessings. God says, if you will put me on the test, if you will prove me, I will pour out blessing from heaven that you won't have the room to store them in.

So again, the law of God affects finances. It affects life and health. And you know, look at our nation. You realize, brethren, that in 2015, last year, this country spent $3.2 trillion on doctors, hospitals, all of that. And you know how much money that is? $10,000 for every one of you sitting here. $10,000? You got $10,000 in the bank?

No, you don't, do you? None of us do.

Our land, brethren, is rife with sickness and disease. I've felt it. You have as well, because this world is under a curse. This nation, our people, have been under a curse. God told Israel, if you will keep my laws, you do what I ask you to do. I won't lay any of the diseases of Egypt upon you. The spoken curses that we read about in Deuteronomy 28, that God said over there, He said, you do this, you'll be blessed. You're going to be blessed, you'll get rain in due season, you're going to be so powerful that one of you will be able to set your enemies in flight. You know, a thousand people in flight, they're going to be running away from you. They'll be afraid of you. God has broken the power, the power of our nation.

And now we've got Iran over here, you know, that is looking, you know, at the United States and actually thinks that they can stand up to us. They send a battle ship down to Yemen to cause trouble with the American fleet that is down there. Again, our land is rife with sickness. How about marriage and family? Here's another area where the laws of God have been violated.

And so many, again, you know, have their marriages ending in divorce. We've heard the statistic many times over 50 percent. Let's go to Isaiah over here. Isaiah, in verse 43, Isaiah 43, that the prophet Isaiah, you know, in this millennial chapter, but it also, again, looks to the time of the last great day. But here in Isaiah 43 and down in verse 25, he says, I, even I am, he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, God told Israel, and I will not remember your sins. You know, God is saying to Israel, remember, I'm the one that does that. I can blot your sins out. I can erase them.

He said, put me in remembrance lest you let us contend together. State your case that you may be acquitted. Your first father sinned and your meteors have transgressed against me. Therefore, I profane the princes of the sanctuary and I gave Jacob to the curse. That's what's happened to our people and Israel to reproaches. So we are, unfortunately, hated around the world.

And over in Malachi, by the way, in Malachi chapter 4, Malachi chapter 4, we notice over here that the prophet Malachi records for us. He says, remember, Malachi 4, verse 4, remember the law of Moses. See, this is the key, brethren. In the end of the age, remember the law of Moses, which I commanded him in the horrible for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I send you, Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

This Hebrew word, by the way, means utter destruction, utter destruction, or extermination.

You see, unless the family unit survives, God is simply going to clean the petri dish, as it were, erase the blackboard.

Now, it doesn't mean he will cast us aside, by the way. Even when he was going to do that, you know, during the time when Israel rebelled, God said, I'll just start over with you, Moses.

So maybe God would do that in his great mercy. But again, the curse leads to utter destruction.

So Jesus Christ came to take away this great burden upon human beings, this sort of damn the cleaves. And Galatians, over here in chapter 3, it shows over here what Christ came to do.

In Galatians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul tells us, in chapter 3 here, down in verse 10, and it says, For as many as are of the works of the law, or under the law, or under the curse, he says. So in terms of the law, it defines for us, if we break it, that we are going to face the penalty. And that penalty is eternal death.

For it is written, Curses everyone, it does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. We just read, by the way, in Malachi 4, that we are to remember the law. But we know that Jesus Christ came to forgive us again of those sins we committed upon repentance and baptism, and we have the opportunity for eternal life. But he takes away from us the death penalty. And Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, which is, of course, that penalty that sort of Damocles I mentioned. Having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. Christ died Himself on the stake for us.

So the curse, brethren, of the law is eternal death, which our first two parents violated that law from the very, very beginning and rejected God and God's leadership over their lives.

So Jesus Christ's sacrifice delivered us from the curse of the law.

In the future, there are two outcomes for human beings. There is life and there is judgment.

The Bible tells us that, in fact, that man was to die and then the judgment. Generally, that applies to every human being that has ever lived or existed. Let's go to John, John 5, John 5 and verse 28. Jesus Christ talks about, again, these two areas. The prophet Daniel actually talks about it. In Daniel 12, he mentions about it in verse 1 about the crisis of the close. And of course, what is going to happen to people at that time, that they're going to be, you know, those are going to be brought up to life and those that are going to be brought up to judgment as well. But Jesus reiterates that here. In John 5 and verse 28, John 5 and verse 28, he says, "...do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming, in which all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come forth those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." So this is coming, rather than that word condemnation can mean judgment, by the way. And so that's happening. Those two things are going to happen to people. Some are going to be brought up to eternal life. And hopefully that's us, brethren, the firstfruits who are going to be in that first resurrection are going to be brought up to eternal life. But what of all human beings that ever lived or existed upon the earth that never came to know God? You know, what about those prior to the flood? Who never came to know Christ, and He's the only one whose name under heaven that we can be saved? What about those? Well, we know that God has a purpose and a plan for them. Let's go to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation 20. In Revelation chapter 20 here, we see that in fact John is in vision and he sees what's going to be like in the millennium and the plan of what is going to occur. But here we see in verse 1 that an angel comes down and binds Satan. On down to verse 3, he's cast into this bottomless pit, so he's taken away from mankind. And then John says, I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given to them. That's us, brethren. He's talking about there. The thrones that are here, brethren, are talking about the future kings, which are the firstfruits who are going to be sitting on thrones and they're going to be judging in the world tomorrow. We're going to be judging not only physical human beings, but we will have a role eventually, I'm sure, of judging angels, as the Bible tells us, that has been brought out here. But it says, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years, these people that were sitting on the thrones. But it says, blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power.

That will be those who, again, have cast off, you know, the penalty of eternal death forever, because they are now spirit beings. That God's going to give us those wherever bodies that don't ever wear out. I don't know if we could take another eight days of this. You know, we're having so much fun, but, you know, as you see, sometimes we get worn out, right?

But there will come a time, brethren, we won't be worn out by anything.

But God says, blessed are you, if you're a part of this, that you'll reign with Christ for a thousand years.

And so, going on here, in verse 5, it says, but the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. That's a parenthetical statement that Paul puts, that John puts in there. And he says, this is the first resurrection, which, of course, refers back to verse 4 there. And then he says, blessed are those who are going to be, you know, in that first resurrection, so that the second death does not have any power over them. Then he talks about what's going to happen after the thousand years takes place. Satan is released, and he begins to go up to areas of Gog and Magog, and he stirs up people's wrath to come against the unwalled cities of Jerusalem. And, of course, Satan the devil thinks, of course, he has a chance. He's deluded.

He thinks he can defeat Jesus Christ, who is in Jerusalem, ruling over an unwalled city.

And it says, and they went up on the breadth of the earth, verse 9, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were. The beast and false prophet are going to be put to death at the beginning, you know, of the millennium. And they shall be tormented day and night. Satan will be tormented day and night.

And in verse 11 it says, And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no more place for them.

You know, Christ's brilliance, God's power as the sun is going to pale into its significance every other light. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

And the books were open. The word books here, of course, from the Greek word biblia, or Bible.

And another book was open, which is the book of life. Hopefully the one we're already written in.

Our names are there, so that we will have been resurrected by this time, and been kings and priests for a thousand years. You can imagine here, we're picturing today that you've been a king and a priest for a thousand years. Unbelievable, isn't it, to think that way. But as was talked about, this is real. This is really going to happen. And it says, The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works. And then death and Hades, death and the grave, were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. So when that happens, the second death does not exist anymore. There's no fear at all, brethren of it. This time that is described here is described also in Ezekiel 37. You know, the Valley of Dry Bones. People come up and they think their hope is lost. You know, the billions of people that have lived and existed, died, that had false ideas.

You know, they're going to come up and they're going to wonder, why am I not in heaven? I must have not made it. I know I've had relatives that are going to be that way. They're going to think that way. I think God is going to allow us to be there, to comfort them, to be there.

You know, Jesus Christ is going to defeat, finally, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 26, I'm not going to go there. He's going to defeat the final enemy, death. He's going to kill death.

And all of us, brethren, have an interest of this type, don't we? Because I would imagine there's not anybody that's not touched by the loss of a loved one. A grandparent, a parent, a sibling, or even our own mortality. I don't know what you're facing in your life.

Maybe your life is on the line because of maybe health issues that you're going through. Millions of people are tragically killed not having lived out their lives. Boys in the military and war, people in tragic accidents, it goes on and on. As I said at the beginning, I grew up in a family where I was very acquainted with sickness. My mom, dad, are dead. I've been gone for a long time. My younger brother, I have a younger brother that died in 2010. My dad and my brother, by the way, were veterans. And both of them, you know, both of them had the sounds of the bugle.

The taps played at their funeral. Very touching thing. I always listen when I hear those eerie sounds of the bugle because of the memories it brings back to me. Think about all the millions again who have lived and died. Arlington and other places in France where many of our boys were buried with little white crosses that seemed to go on forever. Almost uncountable. You know, brother, there's going to come a time when there will not be a need for the taps song, the taps bugle music. The story, by the way, is kind of interesting if you have not heard it. The story of the taps bugle song was set during the Civil War when the Confederates and the Union soldiers were battling over Richmond in 1862. It was a moonless night and the Union and Confederate soldiers and armies were facing against each other and there was only a thin slither, a narrow strip of land between the two.

And during the night, a Union soldier, a captain, heard the sounds of moanings of a soldier crying out, who was trapped in that narrow strip between those two opposing armies. He didn't know whether it was a Confederate soldier who would have been his enemy or a fellow Union soldier.

And he decided to risk his life and so he crawled under the fire that took place.

During the time he was trying to rescue this soldier, a vicious crossfire. I've read books, by the way, about how vicious they would be. Sometimes large trees were just cut in two by the number of bullets that were coming flying through the air. And the captain, Captain Alekombe, reached the stricken soldier and he pulled in toward his camp slowly. And he was attempting to rescue this young soldier and he died. The soldier died in the process. Finally, when he got dragged into the camp, a lantern was brought and Captain Alekombe discovered to his horror that the dead soldier was his own son.

His son had been studying music in the south and when the war broke out, he joined the Confederate army. The next day the captain asked his commander if his son could be buried with military honors. And the commander, General, granted the mourning father his wish for a dignified burial for his son. But he said, you can't use the whole band to play for your son.

I'll allow you one member of the band to play. And so Captain Alekombe chose a lone bugler.

And, you know, he looked through the pockets of his son and he found a note, notes that were written on a small piece of paper that his son had written. And so this is how the bugle sound of taps came to be. It was a song with a series of heart-wrenching notes of melody known as the taps. Imagine again a world, brethren, where taps are not played anymore.

Whereas it talks about in Revelation 21 that there will be no more pain, there are not going to be any more sorrow. All of that will be gone, brethren. And that God, at that time, brethren, is going to take away the curse. He's going to take away death entirely from us. Let's go over to Revelation 22. You know, it will be wonderful when we don't have to hear mournful music with the loss of a loved one. But in Revelation 22, notice here in verse 3, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. But notice here that his servants shall serve him. It's going to be a place, brethren, where our only duty, when people are going to be brought up, they're going to have the opportunity to know God's way, they're going to live out their lives and make a choice. And I think the majority of them are going to make a choice to obey God, and they're going to inherit eternal life. But God's going to do away with death because he's going to do away with physical human beings, and we'll all be spirit beings in the family of God.

And we will be there, and we will serve God perfectly. We will build, we will beautify, and we will serve him without sin perfectly. We will serve him powerfully, without weariness forever. This, brethren, is the future, the real future that's going to happen. Again, we read the end of the book, and we win. Everybody wins. And what we ought to do, brethren, is reflect on these things. The remainder of this last great day, this eighth day, that we're participating in. And, brethren, let's think about this as well until we meet again, next year, to observe the Feast of Tabernacles and this last great day, that there will come a time when the curse will be no more.