Salvation for All Mankind

Good morning to all of you, brethren. I wasn't sure whether you were going to pass, hand off, or run with a ball. It's been a tremendous feast of tabernacles, I'm sure, for all of us. My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. We have tried to remember the last time we were in Branson, and there comes a time in life where time sort of truncates, and you don't know exactly how long things have been. It's been over 20 years, I believe, since the last time we were here. I remember the Bald Knobbers as our location where we were. Can't remember at all where we stayed, but it was a delightful time then, and even more delightful time this year. Among our takeaways that we will take home from the feast, someone said to me, they said, you know, I hear your name and I think you've been in the Northwest forever. I said, well, we've been there a long time, but both of my sons, both of our sons, were born in Mobile, Alabama, and we covered everything from the middle of the Mississippi Gulf Coast all the way past Tallahassee, Florida. And before we left the South, we had pastored the entirety of the state of Alabama, except for a little corner up toward Mississippi.

A little bit of Georgia down in the southwestern corner. And then spent 10 years in Columbus, Ohio, and after that, the Michigan-Indiana border churches in Elkhart, Michigan City, and Plymouth. So, first 25 years of our ministerial life were spent in literally a straight line from the Gulf Coast up to the Great Lakes.

And now that we have been in the Northwest for an equal amount of time, the last 25 years, a lot of time has gone by, and one of the great delights this year was to have a string of people walk up to us, smile, and say, do you remember me? And it was a delight to renew memories with members from Birmingham, which would take us all the way back to before 1973. And then a series of dear friends from Columbus, Ohio, that we left in 1984.

Friends in Elkhart, Indiana. We left in 1990, and so it was just an absolute delight to walk through the times we spent together, the things we had shared, the counselings, baptisms, shared ministries, all of those things. Even going back in some cases before we started services this morning, I was down talking to Mr. Preston Fritz, and I said, well, I've known Preston since 1965 when Diane and I were sent to Indiana as a trainee, and Preston and Pauline were living in the greater South Bend area, church area at that time. And while we were talking, another person walked up, and I said, well, I've known him since 1957.

And they looked at him, looked at me, and I said, well, you have to understand, he was only this tall. And I was a bit taller. And I said, his mother and father managed an apartment that later became a dormitory on the Pasadena campus, and my mother and father and we three boys lived in that apartment, so I'd go downstairs, and there was a... I'd have to ask Mr. Collier-Wells whether he was in school yet or whether he was first or second grade. So there are relationships that go way, way back in time, and the feast is always a great time to renew those friendships and relationships.

Among the things that happens at a feast, and considering how long it has been since we've been in Branson, I know that all of us share a common experience, and that is when we leave a feast site, one of the things that sticks in our memory will be anything that was other than what we thought it would be.

Beginning of the feast, I think the first day after the Holy Day, my son and grandson and I went to... grandson asked if we could go to the Titanic exhibit, and it's one of those I will take away with me because it wasn't what I thought.

I grew up in the northwest, where you'd see signs for 300 miles that you had to stop at this great place, and there would be a ramshackle old service station at the end of the 300 miles with a couple of weary and tired coyotes in a cage and maybe a raccoon or something else, and this was what you'd been anticipating for 300 miles. It was an oxymoron to me to see the Titanic, the greatest exhibit of Titanic memorabilia in Branson. I thought maybe Halifax, Nova Scotia, where over 100 of the people who died were buried, or New York City, where it was supposed to land, or even London, where it started from, but to see that this was the premier collection of Titanic memorabilia caught me off guard, and as a result, it'll be something that I will remember.

Mr. Don Hoosier and I were... and my wife were walking in from the parking lot yesterday, and we were just simply talking about the exhibit. He asked if we'd been there, and I said yes, and then the conversation transitioned over to the last great day, and the awesomeness of knowing that the 1,200 people that went down with that ship, their lives are not over, along with billions of other people who have lived whose lives are not over.

I brought up my iPad, if I can make it work, for me, because I wanted to share something with you, and I couldn't remember it without help. In the spirit of the day that we're keeping, it was sobering to walk through the Titanic Memorial, and early in the walk, there was a hall with glass with etched pictures and sayings under the pictures, and maybe because it was early in the walkthrough, but I think more it had to do with the content.

There was an etched glass wall, the etched silhouette of a gentleman, and a saying that went along with his picture. It was an abbreviated form of the Fuller saying, which I took off the Internet, that said, I am willing to remain and play the man's game if there are not enough boats for more than the women and children. Tell my wife I played the game straight out to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim is a coward. Ben Guggenheim, in modern money, was worth about $64 million.

He could have considered himself a very important individual and therefore privileged and in need of being given preferential treatment. He dressed up formally with the knowledge that there was a high probability that he would go down with the ship, and indeed he did. I don't know how many of you have seen or heard or gone through the story of the boys in the band, which is just an absolutely phenomenal story, that for the sake of keeping calm, the band, the three-piece and five-piece ensembles making eight altogether, all eight of them played calming music, knowing that they'd never get off the ship.

They played all the way to the time that water entered into the lounge where they were playing, and all eight of them drowned. Very accomplished musicians, not given exceptional pay for their job. They were required to know, I think it was 354 songs. And the audience, this is a 1912 version of a jukebox, the audience could simply say 258, and they were expected to know 258 and all know how to play it. So to be hired for the position, you had to know how to play 354 songs, and people would call them out at random during dinner or during the parlor time.

And you were expected to know and be able to play all of those songs. You know, these are among people whose stories run the gamut. There's no end to the stories of people who have lost their lives that we, sitting here, can look at and say, it's not over. It's not over. The first round of the story was not a good story, but that story isn't finished.

Ever have a conversation about Biggest and Best? A conversation that would go along the lines of what is the greatest doctrine and the beliefs of the Church of God? Tough one, because when you get into superlatives, it reminds me of the statement Mr. Armstrong used to mention when something didn't seem to stand up, that they mutually excelled at each other. And I think if you ask what is the greatest doctrine in the Church, it would be a case of mutually excelling at each other. That we will become literal sons of God, mind-bending. I love 1 John 3, too.

I'm not going to turn there. But John is saying we really can't wrap our minds around what's ahead. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him. So he says, look, I can't tell you what it's going to be like to be turned into a spirit being, but what I do know is when Christ returns, you and I are going to be like Him. That's an absolutely phenomenal doctrine. What we've been rehearsing for the last seven days, the coming of Christ, the Millennial Kingdom, universal peace, absolutely phenomenal doctrine.

For me, the doctrine I appreciate as much or more than any other is the fact that all mankind will have a chance for salvation.

No one left behind. No one left out.

For us, if we use the analogy, it will not be a case that we are on a ship that can only provide lifeboats for less than half of those who are on board. God has lifeboats aplenty, and everyone will have a chance to enter, and there will be no one left behind.

You know what makes this particular doctrine even more special? It's the fact that it's a teaching not offered by the Christian world.

I don't know which is more impressive in one sense, the beauty of the doctrine itself, but the fact that it just simply is not offered by the Christian world.

What we look forward to on the eighth day, the last grade day, is a teaching that simply is not a part of Christian theology.

You can wrestle, and you can scratch your head, and you'll never get finished wrestling and scratching your head over how to reconcile a God who is preached endlessly as a God of love, who assigns people to eternal torment.

It is a dichotomy that is unexplainable to a rational mind, and yet it is a foundational doctrine in the Christian world.

No matter how skilled the theologian, there's no way to leave the hearer at peace with the teaching of a God of love assigning people to excruciating torment for the endlessness of eternity.

You know what's interesting? As our society becomes more pluralistic, and as it becomes softer in terms of doctrinal stances in the Christian world, we're at a time where mainstream denominations are, for the most part, just decreasing in size, and community churches are more the norm.

And they don't have to conform to old-line doctrines. And as a result, you find some interesting shifts in the general Christian world. More and more, the Christian world is going soft on the existence of an eternal ever-burning hell.

Statistically, there are fewer people in the Christian world who believe that than there would have been 50 years ago, and definitely far fewer than there would have been 100 years ago.

It's been some time ago when my wife and I were on a flight. A little German gentleman had come over with his wife from Germany and was touring the United States, and he sat next to my wife.

And he had broken English, and they were social. They talked for a while before takeoff. And then everything went silent during the flight, as each did their own thing.

As they landed, out of the clear blue, he resumed the conversation with my wife, and he looked at her and said, The priest says, in hell there is no fire. I am glad. Now, where that came from, I don't know.

But you know, it was an interesting piece of societal history. Apparently, this elderly gentleman, I knew what he believed by his statement, but he was expressing a relief that his priest had said to him that in hell there was no fire, and I am glad.

You can't reconcile a loving God with that doctrine. And so there are those in Christianity who simply say, if I've got to lean one way or the other, I'm going to lean toward the belief that maybe that hell just isn't there.

You know, another belief that's only slightly less difficult to defend is the doctrine that this is the only day of salvation.

It's on a par, if it's not an equal, with explaining a God of love who assigns people to hell, because anyone who knows statistics knows that Christianity statistically loses ground every decade in terms of the ratio of the population that they reach with a message of salvation.

How do you reconcile a missionary that goes into a remote area, happens to make it to one village, teaches them, gets them to accept Christ, and by theology now they will go to heaven, but the next village over, because there wasn't another missionary who could make it to that one, well, that village is all going to go to ever-burning hell.

You know, in like manner, as what I just said, there are those in the softening of doctrinal positions in Christianity who simply say, I can't reconcile an ever-loving, bountiful God simply saying, well, we're sorry the missionary didn't get there, so your option is hellfire.

And therefore, you know, human reasoning, therefore, because this is all I have to work with, with my theological beliefs, then I choose on my own to say God won't do that.

Only leaves another problem. You appreciate their mercy and their kindness, but it leaves the problem that now you have assigned to heaven an individual who has never repented of anything.

In your mercy not to condemn them, you also require nothing of them.

This is a lose-lose. No matter which way you go, it's fraught with difficulty.

These teachings don't make sense. These teachings simply don't make sense.

None of them jive with the God that you and I know.

None of them jive with the God that has been preached to you for the last seven days in sermonettes and sermons.

None of it jives with the God which Christianity proclaims.

But back now to our belief.

To understand our teaching, what we celebrate today, why we're here, and what we look forward to.

To understand our teaching requires that we go back to some of the very fundamentals of Biblical study.

The Bible expresses its gems of truth in two very different ways.

It expresses some of its gems of truth by direct declaration.

And it expresses some of its greatest truths by overarching principles.

Direct declarations are simple to state because they are direct and they use an economy of words.

The statement, God is love, sin is the transgression of the law, the wages of sin is death, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God are simple, direct statements. And they illustrate what I mean by some of the Bible's greatest teachings are declared by simple, direct statements.

Overarching principles express how God thinks, how He views things.

The details may not be there, but the direction and the focus of His thoughts are clear and cannot be argued.

I don't know if you ever stop to think about it, but some of our doctrines are arrived at by direct statement, and others are by overarching principles.

A good example of direct statement is the Sabbath.

There it is in the Ten Commandments.

Six days you shall labor, on the seventh you shall rest.

Very simple. It's amazing the whole world has been able to work its way around it, but it is a simple declarative statement.

Other doctrines are arrived at by deduction from overarching principles.

Once the principle is clearly in place, it then gives a basis for drawing a conclusion.

I'll give you an example.

This day, an integral part of this day, is the second resurrection.

And by extension, following the second resurrection, a time of judgment.

Once the...well, if we take the term second resurrection, if somebody says to you, show me in the Bible where it says there's a second resurrection.

If you're honest, you'll look them in the face and say, there isn't any place that says there is a second resurrection.

The principle is clear. The principle is embedded.

But there is no place that makes a statement.

There is an overarching principle that demands it.

Now, that may sound presumptuous, but bear with me.

I want you to look at two opposing principles that are clearly laid out in Scripture, and they are polar opposite, and they demand reconciliation.

The first one, principle one, God wishes all men to be saved.

If you ask God what His wish is, my wish is that all would be saved.

Now, we understand the reality that all will not accept salvation.

But if you want to know what God's wish is, He's not ambivalent about His wish.

Turn to 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2.

The thought begins in verse 3, where it says, What does God desire?

Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?

So what does God desire?

Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?

Turn with me to 2 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3, verse 9, says, The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And to that a verse that, in my time of growing up, was the best-known verse in the entire Bible in the Christian world, John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.

It is a clear, fundamental principle of Scripture that God wants everyone to be saved.

Principle number 2.

North Pole, South Pole.

Principle number 2.

God has blinded mankind.

The great Scripture that makes that principle clearly known is at the very beginning of Christ's use of parables in His meetings with the crowds.

In Matthew 13, the very first of His parables called, commonly today, the parable of the soils.

And He talks about the four different kinds of soil. The disciples are listening to Him.

And in verse 10, after giving the parable, the disciples came to Him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables?

And He said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For whoever has, to Him more will be given, and he will have abundance.

But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing, they do not see. And hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in this, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing, you will hear and will not understand. And seeing, you will see and not perceive, for the heart of this people has grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn so that I should heal them.

He said, I don't intend they understand. And oh, by the way, that position didn't start with me. I will cite to you Isaiah, and take you back half a millennium, so that you understand this principle has been embedded long before I arrived here to begin the work of the Messiah.

John 12 John 12, beginning in verse 37, He says, but although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him. Christ had done mind-boggling miracles.

Blind man comes to you, and in a brief statement, He has 20-20 vision. Men who you can see with your own eyes, have the skin literally rotting off their bodies, turn in the blink of an eye to people whose flesh is as nice and healthy as any young person's skin. And on and on it goes. But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him. That the word of Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled which he spoke. Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe. Because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, unless they should turn so that I should heal them.

Isaiah 44. Not the area cited here, but it is in Isaiah. Isaiah 44. Isaiah more than once made this particular statement under the inspiration of God as one of His prophets. And he said in Isaiah 44, in verse 18, They do not know nor understand, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see, and their hearts so they cannot understand. Very simple, very straightforward statement. A fourth one just to round it out. Romans 11. We've seen the words of Christ. We've seen quotations from the prophet Isaiah.

Now we can turn to an example from the writings of the Apostle Paul later than both of these. In Romans 11, verse 7, Paul says to the church of God in Rome, he says, What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it was written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear to this very day.

We have two huge, overarching principles, totally contradictory, unless the whole issue is about timing.

Let me say that again. We have two huge, overarching, scriptural principles that are totally and completely contradictory, unless it is a matter of timing.

If the whole issue is when, not if, those principles move from being completely contradictory to smoothly and perfectly aligned within the plan of God.

These two great principles can be reconciled if it can be shown that God intended salvation to be offered in stages, which He does.

As I said earlier, if somebody simply walked up to you and said, open your Bible and show me a sentence that says, the second resurrection. And as I said, you'd have to say to them, there isn't such a sentence. There is a second resurrection.

The fact that it isn't called that in that simple three-letter phrase, the second resurrection, doesn't change anything. There is a second resurrection. The resurrection chapter, as all of us have come to know it by, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, introduces us to that reality.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul begins by saying, you know, there are some people that don't believe in the resurrection at all. And he says, you know, if that is the case, if that is the reality and that is the case, we are of all people most miserable. But he said that's not the case.

And he says in verse 20, he said, Christ is risen. He said, but, in other words, I've addressed the other side. No, that's addressed the true side. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, that is the man Adam, by man, capital M, Christ also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order.

But each one in his own order.

Christ the firstfruits. Afterwards, those who are Christ's at his coming.

Obviously, as we have read in the two overarching principles, the majority of mankind were mandated to be blinded. So obviously, they are not Christ's. Not at that time. So he says everyone is going to be resurrected and there will be an order to that resurrection. Christ has already been there, done that. Those who are Christ's, they will come next.

And because there is an order, somebody has to follow. John is told, if we go back to Revelation 20, know everyone that works with ordinal and cardinal numbers knows a simple reality, there is no such thing as a first unless there is a second.

There is no such thing as a first without a second. It's just simply one. If there is one, there is one. If there is more than one, you can have a first, and a second, and a third, and a fourth. So in Revelation 20, when God reveals to John in Revelation that what is taking place between verse 1 and verse 4 is, as it says in verse 5, the first resurrection, then there has to be a second resurrection.

There's a resurrection when Christ returns. It's the sound of the seventh trump. The saints will join Him. They will rise to meet Him in the air. They will come down on the Mount of Olives. They will reign and rule with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. And the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished.

So now we have John fleshing out Paul's simple statement in the resurrection chapter. Christ first, those that are Christ's at His coming. John is in total agreement. The saints will rise when Christ returns. They will reign and rule with Him a thousand years. And there is no activity from the grave until the thousand years are finished.

That's the order of things. That's the order that Paul was talking about. When the thousand years are finished, there is a second resurrection.

Doesn't matter what label you want to put on it. The order is established within Scripture. A first is established. The time of the first is established. The fact that there is another one coming is also established. There will be a second resurrection.

Living again, so we have them resurrected.

Living again is only half the issue.

If they come to live only to be condemned, surprise, surprise, you're alive again. Oh, I want to let you know. The only reason I resurrected you is so I've got to let you know I'm going to send you into the lake of fire.

Now, you've completely nullified the entirety of that first overarching principle, which is I want them saved. They can refuse it. They can turn their back on it, but I want them saved.

The formula for salvation we will get to in a moment, but as I said, living again is only half the issue.

There has to come knowledge.

Back a long time ago now, probably about 30 to 35 years ago, my mother called me, and she said, Bob, there's a family reunion going on in Utah, and your grandfather—that was my mother's father— your grandfather has never seen your wife or your children. The last time I had seen my grandfather was about age 18, and I was now on the north side of 40, and she said, would you be willing to come out? And I said, I'd be more than happy to come out.

My grandfather embarrassed all the rest of his family.

My grandfather and all of the family except my mother are Mormons. The family reunion was at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where my aunt was a dormitory mother.

To have that family reunion required either a tour or a missionary to come in and basically proselyte.

The only people that were proselyte were me and my wife, my mother and father and our children.

And the Mormon relatives thought, oh, Dad, you know, Norma left the church ages ago.

None of us need converting.

Our kids have been on foreign mission around the world. We're all involved clear up to here. And I laughed with my wife. I said, you know what? I'm deeply... All of my relatives are embarrassed by my grandfather, and I am greatly honored.

That from his perspective, he cared so much about us attaining to salvation that he was going to give it another try.

And I said, there's going to come a day where my grandfather will find out the shoe was on the wrong foot.

But I feel honored because he cared that much.

My grandfather lived in a home in Walla Walla, Washington, and on the back stoop you could look over the chicken house, and on the full moon it would come up over the chicken house, big orange moon. And he and I would sit on the back step and watch the moon rise. As I said, he hadn't seen me since I was 18 years old, and I was past 40, and I brought in my wife, a teenage son, and an almost teenage son. And we walked in, he was sitting at a table with my aunts with his back to me.

And after all those years, when somebody, one of the aunts nudged him and he turned around and he saw me, a big grin on his face, and he smiled and he said, look at the moon, look at the moon. Because as a three-year-old, four-year-old, I would sit next to him on the step, and when the moon came up over the chicken house, I'd say, grandpa, look at you moon, look at you moon. You knew the love, you knew the affection, you knew the bond.

He gave it his best shot.

There comes a time where we'll get to reciprocate, and God will allow us to be a part of giving the best shot the other direction. But that includes, in addition to living again, it includes the ability for that mind to see, to be opened, and to understand.

You've got to have a chance to be saved, or the living again is of no consequence or no value.

What constitutes a chance for salvation?

That's a dark question, isn't it?

It requires that God open a mind. How many of us, in our own lives, or in the lives of people we know around us, have either personally experienced or had other people experience the sitting there saying, Why did it take me so long? Why did it take me so long? Why couldn't I understand that earlier? Why did God wait till I was X number of years old for me to understand this? And people wrestle, even though they academically know the answer, they wrestle with, why couldn't I see all of what is as sharp and clear as can be 10 years, 20 years, 30 years earlier?

You smile and you say, because God didn't intend you to see earlier. This is a matter of an invitation. This is a matter of a calling. And until that calling comes, it doesn't matter if you're Albert Einstein. You're not smart enough to see the Word of God without an invitation.

The simple reality. What you're going to do with the invitation, now the ball is in your court. If you will repent and be baptized, God will give you the Holy Spirit, and then you need time to demonstrate that there is endurance, that there is conviction, and that it has durability. Been there, done that. Looking at an audience.

Been there doing that. I should have said doing, because until our last breath, we're still on the doing side of things. But this is an audience. Been there doing that. Well, we've got a few billion people that haven't been there yet, but they will. And they'll get there the same way you did. And they'll get their opportunity to do it.

Paul cracks open the door to understanding the doctrine of a chance for salvation for all who have previously lived by means of a second resurrection in his beautiful writings in Romans 9 through 11. One of my favorite portions in all the Bible. But Paul's passion, his love for his people, and his understanding of the Word of God is so passionately shown between Romans 9 and the end of Romans 11. Turn with me to Romans 9 to start with.

Because here Paul does us the favor of helping crack open the door even further regarding the second resurrection and the meaning of this day. In Romans 9 and verse 1, he says, You know, he was ready to do a great job. To do a Benjamin Guggenheim. He said, I'd give up my seat on the lifeboat if it meant they would get on the lifeboat. He said, that's how passionate I am about my people. He said, I'd give up my spot if they would take it.

He goes on to show that they wouldn't take it. But it didn't change who he was and what he was. He continues on as he introduces the beginning of chapter 10, and he says, I read these three verses. I have no trouble understanding them either academically or emotionally. I have a profound respect for anyone who has a belief in God and Christ, who with that passion does everything within their power to try to convince others that they should believe in like manner. It's the comment I just made about my grandfather. I was honored by his passion. I was honored by his desire to hopefully see me and my wife and children change and become as he perceived we ought to be.

And I also understood, as he gave it the attempt, that my grandfather fit in the first three verses of Romans chapter 10. I have a zeal for God without knowledge. I simply don't know. I have nothing but total belief that when God brings him and other family members up in the resurrection, that with a zeal they have shown for a misdirection, that they can come to have the same zeal for the true direction. Romans 11. The first three verses of 9 and 10 are about an introduction.

Romans 11 I'm going to read portions of. First of all, verses 1 and 2. He said, I say then, has God cast away his people? I told you they're blind. I told you I would give my life for them, but they won't change.

I've told you that they are zealous for God, but they honestly don't know where God is. As a result of this, as God said, well, sorry, can't use you. He said with an exclamation point, certainly not. For I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scriptures say of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel saying?

And then he goes on from there. Verses 7 through 10. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it. You have what Israel wants. Israel doesn't know how to get there. God gave you a phenomenal honor, the ability to understand how to get there. So you have it. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it was written. God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear to this very day.

And David said, Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their backs always.

So that's the state of things. And then Paul says, as he continues his reasoning, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Meaning, is this permanent? Is it signed, sealed? The flap has been licked, the envelope has been sealed, and it's done. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? And again, he says with the same emphasis, certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

And so we see within the church of God that God has opened the door to salvation by calling to every race on this planet. That our congregations are not all blood, ethnic, Israelite. Our congregations are made up around the world at the sixty-some feast sites of people who are white, and who are black, and who are red, and are yellow. All of the classic nominative terms to describe the different bodies of people called by God, the elect, who are having their chance for salvation now.

He then wraps up this three-chapter conversation with the Romans about salvation, beginning in verse 25, and he says, I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.

He said, I don't want you to get your fingers in your lapels, pooch out your chest, and walk around and say, I'm special. You know, I didn't realize just how special I really am. He said, I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.

Now, hardening, in part, has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they're enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you they may also obtain mercy.

For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on them. So you see, it's not just about saying, well, I can show you there are two resurrections. Just living again is no great accomplishment. Living again so that you can be saved, that is an accomplishment.

And He walks with the Romans through that step by step by step. He then reaches a place emotionally, brethren, that I think all of us arrive at occasionally. He looks at this whole plan and He just shakes His head in verse 33 and says, All the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

For who's known the mind of the Lord? Who's become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and shall be repaid? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. They must live again.

They must live again to know, to understand, to have a chance. Without the two, there is no reconciling of the two great overarching principles. Of on one hand I want everyone saved, and on the other hand I have blinded and hardened them all. Where do you go to show such reconciliation? Ezekiel 37 is a classic location. A few years back a minister gave me a call as you're turning to Ezekiel 37, and he said, Can you help me out?

And I said, Well, it depends. What is it that you want? He said, Can you direct me to any of the commentaries that will describe Ezekiel 37 as meaning what we believe? And I laughed. I chuckled. And I said, No. I said, For a commentator to tell you that Ezekiel 37 believes what I believe will go contrary to every single fundamental of the doctrines that they believe. And he's not going to go there.

So if you're looking for a commentary to give you support, don't waste your time. Because this flies in the face of the immortality of the soul and immediate departure to heaven and hell, and we go on through the doctrines. It just simply won't fit. Ezekiel 37 has, by commentators in general, and I don't know how far back in time, whether it all goes all the way back to Augustine and others, you know, in the very early Fathers, they learned the art of turning everything into allegory. And so I take all the scriptures I believe, and these are scriptures, I take all the scriptures I don't believe, well, those are allegories.

And so, you know, life is real easy. If I believe it, it's scripture. If I don't believe it, it's allegory. And they turned Ezekiel 37 into a lovely allegory, a beautiful lesson, absolutely useless. Ezekiel 37, verse 1, The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley, and it was full of bones. And then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and indeed, they were very dry.

Been there a long time. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel was no dummy. He said, so I answered, Oh God, you know. He sidestepped that one. You've got all the answers. I don't. You know I don't. And then he said to me, prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

And I will put sinew on you, and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. And then you shall know that I am the Lord. And so I prophesied, as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinew and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over. But there was no breath in them.

And then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. And so I prophesied, as he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

You know, brethren, either this is a nice fairy tale, or as some of the church fathers were prone to say, it's a lovely allegory, and from it we will find some lesson that we can gather from it. Or it is a reality. And if it is a reality, it is yet future. Because there has never been, while Israel was a nation, an event such as this.

There was never, while Judah was a nation, an event such as this. There was never, during New Testament times, an event such as this. And so if there has never been an event such as this, it's either simply nonsense, or it is future.

There's absolutely nothing inconsistent with all that we have given you so far to God's intent to let Israel live again, and to have a chance for salvation. I've always enjoyed verse 11. Then He said to me, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Obviously, absolutely impossible to be a historic event. And the whole house of Israel is not going to be resurrected at the seventh trump, because the whole house of Israel is not the elect, nor has it ever been. Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. And they indeed say, our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off.

I may be a little bit perverse, but that verse tickles me, because I can see, in the church that I grew up in, I can see somebody who has got it totally figured out when I die, I go straight to heaven. Blink, the next minute, they're pinching and saying, ouch!

This is not heaven.

In my teaching, there's only one option to heaven, and I don't want to go there. I've had it. I don't see any pearly gates. There are no big white robe things flying around with pigeon wings. Nobody's got frisbees over their head.

I'm sunk.

That verse makes total sense to me. I don't know about you, but it's, I see large, vast bodies of people saying, I've had it.

Salvation always depends upon God's willingness to take the blinders off your eyes and grant you the help of His Holy Spirit.

Therefore, prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, cause you to come out from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord when I've opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

That day is coming.

This is a picture of what John, in the briefest, parenthetical statement, said in Revelation 20, verse 5, The rest of the dead shall not live again until the thousand years are finished.

This is Israel.

Is that all it is? God resurrects the house of Israel and says, Oops, I'm sorry, all the other nations of the earth and all the other races. I forgot you. Well, sorry, Charlie. Just wasn't to be. You know, you get a little window as Christ is giving the what for to some of the cities in which he was teaching.

In Matthew 11, as he is shaking his finger verbally in the face of some of the Galilean cities, he says, verse 20 of Matthew 11, Then he began to reproach, to upbraid, scold the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn't repent. And he said, Woe unto you, Corazin, and woe unto you, Bessedah.

For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who is exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. More tolerable. More tolerable. You know, when you've got an on-off switch, and the light's on or the light's off, where is more tolerable? If you're in heaven, you're in heaven. If you're in hell, you're in hell. If you're alive, you're alive. If you're dead, you're dead. Where is more tolerable? I said to you at the beginning of the message that the Christian world has a very difficult time trying to reconcile an ever-loving God with a level of grief and misery and punishment in the doctrine of an ever-burning hell.

And they have a hard time with salvation when the majority of humanity have never even heard of Christ. And that is true of every century in knowledgeable history. I couldn't resist writing down a comment from Gil's commentary on Matthew 11 on this Scripture, because it shows the feeble effort that Christianity has to make to try to make sense of something that I hope makes perfect sense to you. You know, tolerability comes with how open are you to hear and how resistant and stubborn are you?

Somebody whose ears are totally open, and Nineveh demonstrated that in a way that Israel rarely ever, if it all ever did, is going to be easier to make that change. Gil made a comment on it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you. So you get a window into how the Christian world has to try to deal with this. Quote, their punishment in another world will be more mild and moderate. They will not have such severe stings of conscience, nor have reason to make such bitter reflections on themselves as those who will have had the advantage of a gospel revelation.

All sins are not alike, nor will the punishment of them be the same. There will be degrees of torment in hell. You get roasted at 400 degrees. There will be different degrees of torment in hell, in which the judgment of God requires. These words suppose that the men of Tyre and Sidon will be punished for their many abominable sins committed against the law and the light of nature, but they had inhabitants of Coraz and Abecedah having rejected the Messiah and the doctrines of the gospel against all the evidence of miracles and conviction of their own mind, and probably sinned the sin against the Holy Spirit.

As their sins are aggrieved, their condemnation will be greater, and their punishment the more intolerable. That's what a blinded world has to do with those Scriptures. You and I have the joy of a freedom and a relief from a mental bondage and a bondage of blindness, and knowing that those Scriptures are simply saying the day is coming when all of them are going to have a chance. It will be more tolerable for some than others by their own making, but they will be there. The people of Sodom and the people of Bessedah, and the people of Tyre, and the people of Coraz, and the people.

We could go on and on to cities forever and ever. Christ made the same sort of statement in Matthew 12, verse 38, where He said, Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. And He said, An evil and adulterous generation seek after a sign, and no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was in three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Indeed, a greater than Jonah is here. And the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. He said, they're going to go, Shame, shame, shame. Shame on you. We didn't get that. It was handed to you on a platter, and you turned your nose up at it. What's wrong with you? But you know they'll both be there having the dialogue. They'll both be alive for one to say, Shame, shame, and the other to say, Well, now that my eyes are open, shame on me.

Multiple great principles come together in the teaching of an opportunity for mankind to live again in a second resurrection and to have a chance for salvation. The core of the meeting that we come together every year on this last holy day of the calendar year to remember, to look forward to, to even see our own flesh and blood, parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, and look forward to that day and time. The time that pictures the love and mercy of God spoken of throughout the Bible. Here it is validated. The blindness God gives to mankind throughout the ages is understood as not keeping them from having a chance for salvation. The process of conversion is validated by the fact that people have a time in their life that will demonstrate their sincerity and they will be given the Holy Spirit, something that has not been available to any but to the elect. And the mercy of God will be shown in that He blinded mankind during this age so that He could show them mercy at the time that He intended to give them their very best opportunity for salvation. As we conclude the observance of this day, or as we conclude the Meaning of the Day sermon, as we look through our annual cycle, we get a chance to see the mercy and the wisdom of a loving God who not only would like to see all man saved, but is going to give them the best possible chance they could have. This, I think for many of us, and as I said at the beginning of the sermon for myself, this is one of, if not the greatest doctrine of the Church of God.