Resurrection of Life

We're good to go. It's good to be with you here in... Oh, where are we here?

Jane? Where? Danesville. That's right. We're in Danesville. I was told I was coming to Elmira and Buffalo, somewhere in between, and congregations from both. So it's good to be with you here in Danesville, New York, our first time to this part of God's creation. And we're glad to be here. My wife Debbie and I, with all of you here, I don't see a watch or a clock hanging around on the wall. That means I can speak as long as I want, right? The way that works. But you got the food section over here, so I guess when I see your eyes sort of lingering, fading to the right, that's my signal to shut up, sit down, and finish up. But I did bring a watch up, so I'll try to keep things on time. We came in last night, and we're staying with Mr. Mrs. Lambert here this weekend. We'll be here through the Sabbath. And so those of you in the Elmira area will see you again on the Sabbath. So we're bigger since we came in for trumpets. We might as well stay over there yesterday, see a little bit of the area, and spend another Sabbath. Though, kind of the way this worked out, I had told... we live in Indianapolis, past the Indianapolis and Fort Wayne congregations. And every holy day we always combine with Victor Cubic's congregations. And in the spring, we, after what we'd been through in the winter, we had our spring holy days. And I think Mr. Cubic left his congregations, and he was off in Africa, running around someplace. And he got back, and we'd had the holy days in the spring. I said, Vic, come trumpets, you're staying home. I'm going someplace. And I didn't know where. And he's operations manager for ministerial member services. I said, wherever there's a need, let us know. And so we pulled that back in on July, and said we still got a bargain. And he said, okay. And so he said, well, they could probably use a guest speaker up in this area. So I said, that's fine. We'll come up here. So we're glad to be with you this weekend, and spend some time with you. Before I jump right into my sermon, I might just mention a few things in regard to what is our most current frontline, front burner effort in the church right now. And that's the Kingdom of God seminars. We had a teleconference a couple of days ago to kind of go over this first round that has gone through the church. And it's going to fall my lot to begin to kind of work into helping prepare those as we go forward with them. So I was on the teleconference, or I was in the meeting by telephone the other day. And we have basically, with the exception of just a handful of congregations, over 160 different congregations have gone through the first round of these. We've had yours here in Elmira, and the Buffalo area. We had quite a good response from our readership and from a wide audience. I think when it's all said and done, we will have an attendance of people in seats of around 1,500 in all of the congregations where these have been held. We had a much larger response via the internet by people registering online, indicating that they were interested in attending. Of course, on the internet, this is the first time we've done this, and people can very easily click something that they will commit to something or whatever. It doesn't always translate into reality. And we knew that, but we did have quite a strong interest. And so, at least through that, we gathered a number of email addresses and contacts that way. And the way people came to attend was not only through our promotion there on Beyond Today, not Tomorrow's World.

I thought I'd switched organizations there for a minute, but that's okay.

The Good News magazine, word of mouth. We had, in our area, we had some members bring friends who had always been interested in the church. And so, we had friends and family invited. We had former church members going way back. I was giving my presentation in Fort Wayne, and about halfway through it, two men walked in the door, and I just kind of looked at them to see if I recognized. I thought I recognized one of them, and he went over and sat down next to one of our deaconesses, a member, and I realized, oh yeah, I know who that is. It was a sister. I thought, I baptized him 25 years ago. And so, he had come to the presentation. So, we had that kind of a wide variety of people walking through the door through various means, which is to be expected.

I think the seminars have really focused the congregations, the membership, and the church. And this is a success all by itself, just to get our minds focused on the Kingdom of God.

I think God has given us a gift, really, through these seminars that will be ongoing over the next year to year and a half, at least in this current phase, but to focus upon the Kingdom of God, which is at the heart of the Gospel and the mission of the church. And to the degree we work that through and get our minds on that and understand what the Kingdom of God really means and that hope of the Kingdom of God and be able to focus on that, I think God is going to bless the efforts of His people to do that and to give that message even a stronger emphasis, which is a message of hope. It's an energizing message to understand the truth of the Kingdom of God to come, the truth of the Kingdom of God, what it means to those who are called today.

It's a complete package. And through that, we are accomplishing our mission of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and of Jesus Christ and also to prepare a people. Because, as I said, it's a success already in that so many members have become focused and energized on that and helping to prepare for the welcoming new people and making the seminars of a successful welcoming environment for people to come. It's accomplished so much. And as we refine our approach, our format, our messages, I expect that it's going to continue to bear fruit going forward. And we may have an entirely different audience that will come in January in the second round when we do these again. We're already planning to begin about the third weekend in January with the second round. And I expect we'll probably see different faces, maybe some others that came the first time, but it's the sowing of the seed. I'll talk about that in my sermon here on the Sabbath. But we are sowing the seed of the Gospel. And that's important. That's our mission. That's what Christ has given us to do. And so with that, I think that we're going to see in the the efforts of preaching the Gospel in print, on the internet, and television, and other means that God gives to us a continued focus upon the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Mr. Lambert mentioned that Debbie and I are in kind of a transition right now. I'm still a pastor in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, although my replacement will be moving in right after the Feast of Tabernacles of Mr. Terry Swagarty, who is going to be my replacement. And we will be moving at some point after we sell a home to the Cincinnati area, where I'll be working full-time in the media department with Peter Eddington and the other media staff to focus on our message. It's after 38 years in the ministry and being a pastor, we're going to be going through quite a transition in our lives. And I'm looking forward to the new job. Mr. Luecker called me a few weeks ago and offered me the opportunity when he called. I thought he was going to either transfer. I thought he was calling about a transfer. You know, when a president of the church sends an email and says, can I call you this morning? You're going to wonder what's going on, and you'll get an email like that just every day in your job. And I thought, well, you know, there's probably a need to go someplace else. And 21 years in Indianapolis, it's time to go, time to move. And he started talking about the needs of the media and the television. And I thought, and the greater emphasis on the television and sharpening the message and the focus. And as he went along, I thought, he's going to fire me from television. He's probably going to replace me. And I thought, okay, I'm ready for that. I think I'm ready for that. And just never, honestly, the whole, the offer of this opportunity, as what I'm saying, came completely out of the blue. And I'd say that in all sincerity, I had no inkling intention or whatever, and not even a conversation with anybody that I would be working at the home office full time in this responsibility. It came completely out of the blue. And I hung up the phone. I shook my head and realized, you know, didn't know really what had happened. And we took a few days to think about it. And Debbie and I actually went down to talk with Mr. Luecker about it and Peter Eddington to just make sure that this was the right thing for everybody and that it was of God. We've been through moves and transfers in the past, quite frankly, with, you know, in the ministry and the church, the way things go. You can be moved and things happen that are of men's design or your own design.

And we wanted to make sure that this move was of God's design. And to the best of our limited ability, we feel confident that it's the right thing to do. So we're looking forward to it and in the process of being able to focus more on the in that area, which has been a passion that I've had and able to work with at least the last 16 years in the United Church of God, we'll get a chance to work with very talented media staff in that process. So your prayers will be appreciated for some of the things we want to do. One of the things we want to do is to have a more relevant, timely message coming out of the church. Right now, the means to do that is going to be on the internet in addition to our television program. But the presenters, the three of us, Gary Petty, Steve Myers, and myself, are going to begin working on producing content that will be at least on the internet initially on a more regular basis, two to three times a week, maybe up to five times a week if we can sustain that effort. But kind of a daily or semi-weekly commentary on the world and what's going on in the world and relating it to the message of the gospel. And we want to do that and we've had a desire to do it for a long time and we hope that we'll be able to marshal the resources and the time to do that and just keep focused on it. When I took this job, I knew how things could drift. I did ask for a specific job description and even after I got that and said yes, there was an offer to increase the teaching load at the Ambassador Bible Center. And we had a meeting on that a couple weeks ago and I said, you know, they wanted me to teach the book of Acts and take a load off of somebody else. I said, well, I'd give my IT to teach the book of Acts in that setting. But I thought I was coming over here to work in media. So I'll have to say no, at least for now, and focus on that. So things, you know, drift as you get into various responsibilities and we do want to keep focused on that. I guess I'm telling you all this just to ask for your prayers and to let you know some of the plans that we're having and working toward in the church to increase the effort and the exposure of the message of the kingdom of God. Your prayers and support for that will be critical and important to God's blessing, that it will be effective as that seed is sown. So I bet that's all the time I better take on that, better get into a message for the day. In the modern nation of Jordan, there's a city called Jerarash.

I don't know if any of you have ever been to the feast, the Tabernacles in Jordan, or been to Jordan.

Any of you been there, anybody that ever been to Jerarash? Jerarash is one of the best examples of an ancient Roman city that is intact and you can walk through and see the ruins of that city. It's kind of on the eastern fringe of the Roman Empire during the heyday. Then there are a couple of times in recent years and as you get off your tour bus and you start to walk up the small rise to the city into the old part of the Roman city of Jerarash, there's an arch that is there. It's quite prominent and it was built about 120-125 AD. It was built at the time when the Roman Emperor Hadrian was making a tour of the empire and he was coming to Jerarash. This is when they built this huge monumental entry arch into the city. As you would go through the arch, though, on your left would be the Hippodrome where they had the chariot races and everything and a processional way into the heart of the city. Two times we were there in taste and scaffolding as they were restoring it. I'm sure it's probably done by now, but it's just a huge arch. You can look at it and find it in pictures on the internet. Many other cities in the ancient Roman Empire had such arches. Rome had such an arch. What's significant about that is that it was the portal into the city in those ancient days. This one being built for the visit of the emperor of the Roman Empire helps us to move into the message of the Feast of Trumpets. Because you could almost picture in your mind's eye, and this is the way it would have been done, as the emperor's entourage came to an arrived at the city of Jerash. The city fathers, whatever they were called, the council, pro-councils, mayor, prime minister, whatever they were, they would go out through that arch from the city and go out a ways down the road and meet the emperor as he came to their city. Then they would escort him back through that arch into the city. This would be the formal welcoming way in a ceremony for the mighty Roman emperor coming into the city and making this visit. This was not an everyday occurrence. Building such an arch would cost a lot of money in those days.

The officials of the city would welcome him in in that way. That's how it was done. That was the purpose of those arches built in that way. For the citizens to go out, greet the emperor, escort them back into the city. It was the coming of a great import to the city of the king, the Caesar. Now, when we turn to 1 Thessalonians 4, we can understand a little better what Paul was really wanting to convey to the church when he wrote what he did in 1 Thessalonians 4, a well-known scripture to us all as we study it in regard to this day, the resurrection of the dead.

And what we want to focus on and what this day really focuses on, which is the coming of the Lord, the coming of Christ as the king of kings. We had the shofar heralding with a trumpet here this morning that there sounded for us. And that was always a sound of something very critical taking place, an awakening call of either to go to war, to march, to gather for the people of Israel. Here in 1 Thessalonians 4, let's begin in verse 13. Paul writes this in regard to a church that was suffering because it had some persecution.

People had died in that persecution, and he was wanting to encourage and comfort the people with the hope of the resurrection. And so he drew on this well-known image that they would have all related to in their day. He said, "'Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.'" This was his prime intent to encourage the people because of the loss of some of their loved ones. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. And again, Paul uses this language that death is like asleep, from which the dead will be awakened at the time of the resurrection. And even in this section, he gives us a little bit more detail about what we call the first resurrection.

And we have from any other scripture in that the dead will rise first. And those who are alive and remain will not perceive them. So there's a kind of a sequence going on here. But it says in verse 16, "'For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first." Those who died in faith, those who had the hope of the resurrection, the dead in Christ, they will rise first.

We have the setting here, the trumpet of God will sound, an archangel. Revelation has much more to say in detail about all of that. But Paul kind of brings it here into focus. And with that trumpet, with the voice of the working of the angelic hosts, the spirit world, in a sense, of God working to usher in this point at this time.

And then he says about those who are alive, "'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.'" Again, if you understand the well-known imagery that Paul is bringing to them here, you don't jump off into some idea that this is talking about a rapture and that we're going to go up into heaven to be with the Lord.

Paul, this would have been the furthest idea from the in the minds of the hearers sitting and listening to this letter being read to them at that time. They would have understood it with the idea that, well, when the emperor comes, the town officials go out and they meet him and bring him back into the city.

They escort him in. The members hearing this would understand that their king is coming, Christ the Lord. And we who are alive and remain, we will meet him like the city officials and the other citizens would go out to meet the emperor and bring them in through the arch if the city was big enough to afford it or escort them in.

And that's where they would be with the emperor. And Paul was showing to them, you're going to rise in the air and meet the Lord that is coming and then we will be with him. And they would have understood that they would have been here on the earth.

And if they'd had the privilege of reading some of the other letters, like 1 Corinthians 15, which we will touch on, they would have known that that would be also accompanied by a change from flesh to spirit. And where they would be with the Lord would be right there or on the earth. It wouldn't have jumped off to some other wild conclusion of going up to heaven. But this verse really sets the stage for the Feast of Trumpets. And understood in its context and understood in the truth of what it is saying, it opens up the meaning of this day and the meaning of our relationship to God and Jesus Christ today to a far greater dimension than we could ever hope to understand. And it should awaken us just as a blaring sound of a shofar, of a horn, of a trumpet. Now something about a shofar, and we had just a little taste of it with the young man giving it here, giving a blast on it today. I've never heard a shofar that's very melodic. It's not like a trumpet or a cornet.

You know, when they blast out, it is a shrill piercing blast that kind of is meant to get your attention. It's not a trumpet solo that you might hear of Handel or some other Baroque classical piece that can be very, very beautiful. It's a piercing blast of alarm to wake up. And given as it should be, in a spiritual sense for you and I today, the meaning is to wake up.

For us all to awaken to the spiritual reality of life. As we anticipate the coming of Christ, in all the glory of the universe as King of Kings on this day, but also to awaken to our responsibilities, to our calling, and to our relationship with God today as we are the elect, as we have been called to understand the truths. To recognize that our life is in a preparation for this very moment when either as the dead we will be resurrected or if it comes while any of us in this room may be alive, we who are alive and remain will be in that category, but we will be part of that event. And to live our lives every day with that reality driving us, changing us, focusing us, giving us meaning, giving us an energy to our life.

Answering the age-old questions that have always been there as to what's life all about, what happens after death, what happens at death, what is the purpose of all of this.

We're told here, as Paul wanted them to understand, and to have hope that the dead will live again.

The dead in Christ will live and rise in this resurrection. But there is hope. The age-old questions at that point in time will be put to rest and finally answered. If a man die, will he live again? Given voice by Job. If a man dies, will he live again? The world has been deceived on that important question. That deception has kept the world from achieving a relationship with God, its fullest potential. It has kept it locked in a prison of hopelessness because of all the false ideas that have been promulgated through the years about life and about what happens at death and what is the whole purpose of life. The resurrection, which Scripture speaks to in this day's pictures, is a central part of God's plan.

The events of trumpets are so critical to God pushing forward with His plan.

We will turn back to Genesis 1, verse 26. Let's just do a quick survey of some key thoughts to help us focus on the culmination of this day, the Gospel, the events of this time.

I like to refer to Genesis 1, verse 26 as the franchise scripture, if you will, because here God shows what our purpose is. In verse 26, at the creation of man, it says, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over the cattle, the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Here is where the Gospel of the kingdom of God begins. Here is where God reveals in one statement the whole purpose for life, that man would be made ultimately in the image of God.

And that's far more than just the physical form and shape that has to do with the spiritual qualities of character, the mind of God. This is where the beginning scripture, if you will, for the preaching of the Gospel or the time to begin to understand the Kingdom of God, it's right here. This is where God began to lay it out. His intent was that man would receive the knowledge that would lead him to the threshold of eternity.

A lifetime of experience as physical beings on a physical world where people could act upon knowledge that was revealed from God, all of which would be a prelude to eternal life, represented in that one tree of the tree of life that he revealed to Adam and Eve there in Genesis chapter 2, and told them to focus their attention on that tree of life. And we know the whole story there, but this was God's intent. Satan came along in Genesis 3 verse 4, and he said, you shall not surely die, God keeping something from you. And Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so we have a world today that is both good and evil. And I don't have to tell you anything about the good and evil of this world and of this life. We all live, walk, and make our existence in the midst of good and evil in all of its shapes and forms. The challenge for us as Christians is to focus on the good while we combat the evil, rather than just to focus on the evil. Yet so much trial and challenge has come into our lives at times that that in itself becomes a challenge, as I realize. But that's the world that we are in.

God's intent was to have man live a life based on revealed knowledge from him. But that has been given to only a few because of this lie that has been injected into mankind from this point forward. And we've had so many differing ideas about what life is all about, whether it's strictly by chance, evolved from some lower form, or placed here by a creator, a first cause, or whatever term may be used to explain that. And then that creator walked away from it, and the whole creation has been left to operate on its own. There's another idea that is out there.

We have ideas of the immortality of the soul. We have ideas about reincarnation, spiritual ideas like that, new age ideas where at death one just kind of melds into an ethereal eternity of existence, and all kinds of ideas that have been promulgated through the centuries to explain, to comfort, to try to make sense of it all, all the way down to just that there is nothing beyond the grave.

That once one dies, they fade back into the element, and there is nothing.

The Scriptures tell us something different. They give us the truth of a resurrection, all of which is central to understanding life's purpose as the Bible reveals it, describes it.

And that resurrection is a very important meaning of the day of trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets.

I've already quoted in Job 14 verses 10 through 15 the question that Job put. I will turn there and go through all of those. But Job, who went through a unique period of testing and situation, and his story is told there in that book. And it's always for mankind. It's a book that presents so many different challenges as to who was Job, where did he come from, and why would a loving God put a man through all that you read about there in the book of Job. And it's a dense, important book to work our way through it in life. Just one comment. I find that the book of Job is a book that takes a whole lifetime to understand. I remember having it read to me, at least when I was probably 12 years old, through scriptures and reading through it, you know, probably was teen years, but for the first time and didn't understand it. You heard the story, you don't relate to the story of having the children taken away from you or everything that's physically removed from you and your body's suffering. You don't relate to that. But as you go through life's experiences, then you begin to understand Job. And I think that Job is one of those books for life.

But really at the heart of it is that question that he asked in chapter 14.

The man dying, will he live again? And he answered his own question.

All the days of my appointed time, I will awake. And he spoke to an awakening from the dead, living again. A change. All the days of my appointed time, I will awake until my change takes place, he said. The truth and the understanding of a resurrection was taught in the scriptures. Abraham understood it in his own way, in the moments of his life. Job understood it. Moses understood it. In the book of Daniel, chapter 12, we will turn there.

Daniel, chapter 12.

We have a clear reference to a resurrection that Daniel mentions here, beginning in verse 1, which describes a time of the end. At that time, Michael shall stand up, one of the great archangels.

The great prince who stands watch the sons of your people.

Keep in mind, again, we read in Thessalonians 4 that an angel will sound. So again, there's a reference there to a spirit world that is working to bring about and to bring to pass these events of God's plan. Daniel here specifies Michael, who stands over and stands watch over the sons of your people, protecting God's people, intervening for God's people in ways beyond our total understanding, but mentioned here. There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who was found written in the book. And so, the latter part of verse 1, there is a reference made here to a time of trouble that will come upon the nations, unlike any previous time. That is the period ahead of us.

That is pictured by the other events in Daniel and prophets, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Revelation, called the Day of the Lord, a day of clouds, a day of trumpets, and a day of alarm, and war. I'm not going to go through all of those. It's not my purpose in this sermon on this day to focus just on those. That's ahead of us. And that is that period of darkness, if you will, a time of trouble unlike any upon the world that has ever been seen that is ahead of us. That we do talk about a lot in Bible prophecy, end time events. And the Bible has its chapter, if you will, of Revelation about that. And as we preach the gospel, as we preach a message of warning, what does lie ahead immediately in our world today is part of that message.

But it is not the entire message because there is a world beyond. Call it the world tomorrow in our phraseology, call it tomorrow's world, call it beyond today.

There is good news, and our focus must always be on beyond that time.

Warn, witness, but also give people hope for today of a coming world that is better, and how to focus on that today and to live in the midst of the challenges of this world presently with the hope of that kingdom to come, just as we are also watching the times and the events of our world in preparation to this. So it's maintaining a balance that is always a challenge as we read the story, as we do the job, and as we focus upon the message of the kingdom of God.

In verse 2, it goes on to say that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

Some do everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. So here is a clear reference to the resurrection here of the dead arising or awaking from their sleep out of the dust of the earth coming back to life. And those who are wise in verse 3 shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. In Isaiah chapter 26, let's just turn back there and notice what Isaiah 26 says.

Verse 19. Isaiah 26 and verse 19. The prophet is inspired to write here, Your dead shall live. Together with my dead body they shall arise, awake and sane, you who dwell in dust, for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Isaiah understood the hope of the dead. Job, as we've seen, Daniel's message. The scriptures that we call the Old Testament scriptures are very clearly talk about an awakening from the dead and a coming back to life, to awake and to sing in that sense, and to take on a newness of life. When we come to the New Testament, the resurrection is brought out very, very clearly in great detail, and it is certainly central to the terms of the New Covenant, the teaching of Jesus Christ. He showed very clearly that man would live again through a resurrection. John chapter 5.

The beginning of verse 24. Christ said, Most assuredly I say to you, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Put together with what we read from 1 Thessalonians 4, it fits perfectly. The dead will hear the voice of God and live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the 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 of judgment. And so a distinction is made here, but a clear reference to the resurrection to life, those who have done good coming into a resurrection of life. God gives that knowledge. God gives the seed of eternal life to those that He calls to salvation and to that understanding now.

The Holy Spirit is that seed, that power, that life-giving essence that God imparts to a believer that is going to ultimately be the connection by which this resurrection to life ultimately is made. Those who are called, part of the elect, part of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, who have repented, their lives are forever changed. Therein lies the hope of eternal life.

In Matthew 19, Jesus was asked, what must I do to live forever by a certain individual? Matthew 19.

Verse 16, Now, behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? He wanted to live forever, but He wanted to know what was the good thing that He could do, that He could do. And Christ did go on to say, He said, why do you call me good?

No one's good but the one that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Now, He went on to explain in detail what those commandments were. Don't steal, don't commit adultery, referencing the Ten Commandments. Didn't list all of them, didn't need to. There was no question that they were all ten. In fact, if He just mentioned one that included all the others, He said, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, we should not infer from that that Jesus was saying that if you keep, you know, by keeping the law, you qualify for eternal life or you earn your salvation. We know other scriptures teach us the truth is that salvation is a gift of God, by the grace of God, not of ourselves. Even Jesus said, here, don't call me God. There's only one that is good. So, it's not law-keeping that qualifies us for eternal life.

But He said, if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. You know, as we do keep God's law, we do experience life. That's God wanted people to live if they would have taken from the tree of life, not the other tree, but the tree of life at the beginning.

And it's by keeping the commandments that we experience life as God intended man to live in the flesh, not to earn our salvation. We all know that we can we will fall far short of that. And you cannot want to get off into that subject and whatsoever. But I think we all understand that it is by the keeping of the law that we experience life on the level of God.

And the power of each of those commandments is so intense.

Whether it's the don't lie. If we just went through life without telling any lies, what a radical departure we would experience and what a better world we would have. If nobody stole, how many of you would be out of business?

I don't know if any of your jobs are connected to security systems. We have a member in Indianapolis that makes a good living selling security, keyless entry systems and electronic security systems. If everybody follows just that one commandment, he'd be out of business. He'd have to retrain for a new occupation. But we all know that we don't live in such a world today.

Everybody kept the Sabbath. We don't worship the Sabbath. We worship God on the Sabbath.

I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago. I belonged to a fitness club just a couple of minutes from my house and I go in there and swim three or four days a week in their lap pool. The general manager I've seen as I've gone in and out over the few years that I've been there, I've always just said hi to him, but I've never engaged him. A few weeks ago, I walked in on a Sunday afternoon to get a swim. It's kind of a downtime on Sunday afternoon in the club and get in and get a lane. The general manager was sitting at his desk, and I stopped and I said, boy, it must not be bad for the manager to be working on Sunday afternoon. He said, well, I have to work on Sunday. Saturday's my Sabbath.

I stopped, backtracked, and I said, well, it's mine too. Found out he's a seventh-day Adventist, third generation seventh-day Adventist. He was stunned to be talking to a Sabbath keeper. I was kind of surprised that the general manager of my club was a Sabbath keeper.

And so we started talking about it. He said, now, he said, I don't, you know, say, you read the Bible, it's a Sabbath. I said, yeah, I know, I've read the Bible too. And it is. He said, I don't worship today. We worship God. I said, well, we don't worship the day either. We worship God on that day. And we lease our hall in Indianapolis from an Adventist congregation. So I've learned a little bit about Adventism over the years. And we do have, you know, the Sabbases are a powerful connection with them, with us between us and Advent. Adventists have many other doctrines that we don't accept. But we have a connecting point on the Sabbath. Just to show how powerful, just one point of the law is, I mean, we've always had an affinity, like we're cousins, in some sense, that you don't have. The church we have there used to have a Baptist church meet on Sunday morning in there. So we had two Sabbatarian churches and a Baptist church on Sunday morning sharing the same building. And we got along real good with the Adventists. But the others, they just, they were just a little challenging to share the space with. Eventually they built their own building and moved on. But the elder there commented to me during that time. He said, you know, there's something about us Sabbatarians. We've got the Sabbath in common and we can get along.

I said, yeah, you're right, Don. That's true. And we wouldn't get along on a lot of other things because he was a Trinitarian and he kept Christmas. But the Sabbath was enough of a connecting point and it made a difference that we were kind of kissing cousins in that way. The law of God is very powerful. And as we keep that law, we experience the life of the kingdom of God to come in its fullness. To the degree we align ourselves in our daily walk every day with thoughts of holiness and purity, where we don't, we're not tempted to fudge on the truth or to take what is ours or to lust in some way after another person or to put something else between us and God.

To the degree we align ourselves with the law of God, we enter into the life of the kingdom to come.

We're not qualifying the sense or earning anything except a better way of life today and a relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father that will culminate in the resurrection that is to come. In Romans 6, the Apostle Paul talks about the transformation, the type of that resurrection as we are baptized. Romans 6, verse 4, therefore he says, we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Everyone who is baptized goes into a watery grave and experiences with Christ and the simple likeness of His death. But just as He was resurrected, we come up out of that watery grave and we are in a likeness of His resurrection, a type, foreshadows that. And it tells us that the resurrection is a part of our future.

And so Paul beautifully lays it out here. What happens after repentance and obedience and baptism, being a picture of the death and the resurrection. And in verse 11, he tells us something. He says, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. We emphasize and go through that message during the days of the love and bread, but it's an ongoing message that brings us into the meaning of this day as well. Our lives are to be dead to sin, striving against sin, putting sin out of our life. But alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That is a very powerful statement that he makes here and makes it in many different ways throughout his epistles, that we are alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Go back to what we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, the people going out to bring in the Roman Caesar. He was their Lord. If you were a Roman citizen, you worship Caesar, not the church but the Roman citizens, worship Caesar as their Lord, and they worshiped him as a God, and it was eventually raised to that status. They were welcoming their Lord into the city. Here comes the Apostle Paul along, and he's a converted, you know, he was raised a Jew, a Pharisee. He has a conversion experience. He begins to come into the church, God becomes an Apostle, and begins writing things like we just read in here in Romans, that we are alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The power of what he is saying sometimes escapes us because we really don't focus on it. He was saying in this in so many other places, look, Christ is our Lord. He is our King. He is coming. And to the degree that as we are resurrected in his likeness through the right of baptism and the giving of the Holy Spirit, you and I, he says, in other places, we're translated. That kingdom has, in a sense, come near to us. In Galatians he develops us a little bit further through the Holy Spirit.

And the relationship that we have with God. And he is saying to the people, this is a time to awaken and to wake up. When we come to the Feast of Trumpets, it's a time of spiritual awakening.

We have a trumpet blast that sounds. Just as it, in a sense, sounded when we were converted, our minds were first open to understand the truth. That was a blast of a trumpet, in a sense, that turned our lives around. And every year, as we observe this day, we should kind of focus on that. The reality of a blast of a trumpet that got our attention, that turned our lives around.

It's a wake-up call today. The reality of life. What this day means. Today for us and in the future for all of the world. On this day, we will begin to, we will truly fully, and the world will too, see God as He is. There's a wonderful scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15. So it says, in a moment, in verse 52, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye that the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

We will put on incorruption. This mortal will put on immortality. And then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. From the reality of this day and its fullness, we will see God as He is. We don't see Him as He is in His fullness today. We're still mortal.

We have the indwelling of God's Spirit. We have a foretaste, if you will, of eternal life through that power and to the degree that it is empowering us to live to God. We understand and see God to, you know, not even that much, but I mean, we see His way of life. We have a relationship with God in our prayers and our life and in our daily walk that helps us to understand God, His purpose and His plan, have a relationship with God, but we don't see Him fully. On this day, we will.

In 1 John 2, we quickly turn there.

John talks about this. 1 John 2, beginning in verse 28, he says, Little children abide in Him that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed to be for Him at His coming when He appears. Again, there's this coming of the Lord. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Chapter 3 in verse 1, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. They didn't know Him then. They don't understand the fullness of His life, purpose, and plan today. And because we are gathered on this day, on this holy day, instead of on some other traditional holiday, the world doesn't know what we do and can't understand comprehend what we do on this day. You have to keep the holy days and the Sabbath to understand the fullness of God's plan. John goes on and says, Beloved, now we are children of God and has not been revealed what we shall be. We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. When He is fully revealed at His coming, we will see Christ in the power and the glory of the universe. That is what is pictured here in Revelation 11, verse 15, where it says, the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. He shall reign forever and ever.

That event is yet future, pictured by this day. When this event happens, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. The King will come. And we, who are alive and remain, will be changed. And the dead in Christ will precede us, and they will be changed. Mortal will put on immortality, and we will see Him as He is. We don't see Him as He is today. We'd like to. Moses wanted to, and he only got to see a little bit of the backside on one occasion. But He has given us the power of His Holy Spirit. And that understanding, that is should be enough to kind of jolt us every day of our life and direct, help us realize the power that God has given to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the calling that we have, the knowledge that we have, and the relationship that we have with God and with His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and as our King. That is what should drive us, change us, motivate us, give us hope throughout all the challenges of life. Paul said in one occasion, he said, we see through a glass darkly.

And in a sense, you apply that to the resurrection and the reality of Christ.

We see through darkly. We're not going to see Him as He is until He comes as the King of kings.

But you know something? These scriptures, that few that I've read here this morning, are powerful in their meaning. They cause us to turn around in our life and to begin marching toward the Kingdom of God. They inspire us to stay in the way of faith. They inspire us to make life-changing decisions when you're a teenager, when you're 25, when you're 40, when you're 60. Whenever God calls us and we turn our lives around and we begin to live for the Kingdom of God, that is a life-changing event. And it is because of these verses. And it should change our life every day, is what I'm trying to get us to. Because that's what Paul and John meant them to do when they wrote those, were inspired to write these words that we've read here that talk to the resurrection, that speak to Christ as the King. And that relationship, that nearness of that is so powerful today.

It is that reality that caused people in the first century under the Roman rule to lay down their life for their God. It is that knowledge that Christ was King and that He is ultimately going to come that inspired hope, vision, and people being willing to go to the death for their faith.

And to be real honest with you, it was the writings of people like Paul and John that kept a Roman emperor in that period of time awake at night.

Because those words changed people's lives and said that Caesar was not King. Jesus Christ was Lord. It caused people to follow Him. And as Lord began to follow Him, it created upset to where eventually there was persecution in the first and second and third century upon those who held to the pure truth of the Scriptures. The writings of Paul kept Roman emperors awake at night if they understood the meaning of those terms. Sometimes scholars today focus on Gnostic Gospels and other spurious writings of other people as if they were somehow spurned by the original church. You read some of those letters, books, the so-called Gnostic Gospels, they put you to sleep. They wouldn't keep anybody awake because they're lifeless. The writings of Paul and the writings of John moved people to live for the Kingdom. No other text from that period of time did that. The coming of Christ is at the heart of this day.

Our world today is a world that is continuing to move toward a time of a crisis at the end.

But for the people of God, we have that relationship with God that ties us to Him to help us to live our lives each day with the reality that Christ is coming. And through that, live a changed life by taking on the image and the identity of God in the hope of glory, in the hope that one day we will see Him as He is. And so that relationship with God is what is so strong, so valuable, and so important today. One day, the spirit world and this present world, in a sense, will become one under the reign of Jesus Christ. And the saints will be resurrected.

Those who are saints at that time, still alive, will be a part of that resurrection as well.

And their lives will be transformed to the glory that is described by Paul and by John in these scriptures. All of that should inspire us to live godly lives today, and to live for God for His work, for the Kingdom, and our calling and the commitment that He has given to us today. That's the wake-up call that is so vital behind the message of the Feast of Trumpets. For all of us to be here today, to have made the effort to drive the hours and the miles, to take the time off, if you will, from work, from school, from our lives, and come and focus here together, and worship and fellowship to get together, should energize us and awaken us to that reality. It is the right thing to do. It is a good thing. And so, as we are here and enjoy the remainder of the day, let's keep in mind the wake-up call that is inherent in the sounding of a trumpet, and enjoy our lives in that sense, and enjoy our time and our fellowship together as we observe the Feast of Trumpets.