The Salvation Highway

We're going to do some traveling today. You'll see what I mean as we go through this. You know, the Christian world talks about traveling and destination, doesn't it? Have you ever heard statements to the effect of all roads lead to heaven? Heaven's highway. Oh, we may take different roads to get there, but we're all going to the same place. You know, heaven. Heaven has many roads to it. Well, any country, any nation is full of roads and highways, like America, for instance. And obviously, what's a highway?

Well, it's something to travel. And a highway has a destination. You don't just go out in the middle of somewhere and put a road for no reason, no destination. You have a highway to travel on it, and it has a destination. So, here's where we're going to do our traveling today. We're going to travel on what I'm calling the Salvation Highway. And if you want a title, that will work well, because that's the subject, the Salvation Highway. Now, first, I want to talk about basic destination. Where will we be when we have arrived?

When you're talking about the Salvation Highway. Again, a highway goes someplace that has the destination. And what is it? Well, if you talked about a Salvation Highway to most Christians, that destination is heaven. Salvation and going to heaven are synonymous. You know, the fullness of salvation and being in heaven, that's synonymous. But can they make a road go where it does not go? Can they make a road go where it does not go? A very important question is, who built the Salvation Highway? Is there such? And who built it?

Who put it together? Who designed it? And who determined how it's to be traveled? And where it goes? It's destination. Well, we know the answer to that, don't we? God. And we can say, God, in the form of God the Father, and God the Son. God, the Word, the spokesman, the logos, the Son. God, what does He, what do they say about destination? Now, on traveling this highway, sprinkled all along it are quite a few Scriptures.

But I'm not turning to all of them. I will read them, reference them, and for some, we'll turn to. In the first one, 1 Thessalonians 4.17, what does God say about the destination? Well, a good marker, a good point to look at is 1 Thessalonians 4.17. Talking about the resurrection and when Christ returns, then we, which are alive and remain, because the dead will rise first and supersede us on the time to meet Christ, will follow right on their heels.

But we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught together with them, that is, the dead who have arisen first, together with them in the clouds. You want to talk about a destination point in the clouds? For the purpose of, as it says, to meet the Lord in the air. Not to meet Him in heaven. To meet the Lord in the air. And then this reality kicks in, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's pretty plain, pretty clear. Meet Him in the air. That is a destination point.

And from that point on, we're going to be with Him. Because, see, the bride of Christ is to be with her husband. She is to be at His side, to help meet. Now again, in terms of referencing, like Acts 1, 11, the angels told the men there, the disciples, the angels said this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. That's the Mount of Olives, of course. Verse 12. But He will come back as He went. As you saw Him go, so shall He come back. And again, referencing Zechariah 14, 4, His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, the very first piece of ground that Jesus Christ's feet will touch when He comes back is the Mount of Olives. For the purpose, as Zechariah was recorded to say and inspired to say in Zechariah 14, 9, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth.

Beautiful statement. In that day shall there be one Lord in His name one. And then again, something that incorporates this because again, that destination of meeting Him in the air, to be with Him wherever He is going to be, and He's going to be touching down on the Mount of Olives, He's going to be taking charge of the earth in that beautiful Scripture in Revelation 5, verse 10, and has made us, where is bride?

Where it helped Me. We're going to be at His side. And in what form and fashion will our serving Christ and the Father and the people of the planet be, has made us unto our God kings? Those are rulers, administrators, governors, kings. And priests, those are educators. And we shall reign upon the earth. Very plain. Beautiful Scripture. Let's not be unclear. Heaven is a glory beyond description. Heaven is real. Heaven exists. It's a glory beyond description. Remember how that Paul had written to the Corinthians, again, not going to turn here, but in 2 Corinthians 12, 4, and 2 Corinthians 12, and verse 4, Paul had written about how that he had been caught up in the paradise and it was so real to him.

He didn't even have the words to really express it. He could not find the words, and it was so real to him that from a sensory perception, he couldn't tell. He wasn't really there. Now, we know he wasn't really there by other Scriptures, but he's making the point that it was so real. And he speaks of that also in Romans 8, 18, when he says this in Romans 8 and verse 18. He says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.

What it means to be a spirit being and all that goes with that, and to be with God and all. No, heaven is a place of beauty and splendor beyond description.

It would have to be. It's the throne seat of God Almighty.

It is God's home. But as a location, which it is as a location, it is not our destination.

We have a job to do, and that job is right here on this earth in the coming Kingdom of God. And that's what these Holy Days are this fall Holy Days season is about. And when that job is fully done alongside Jesus Christ, because the one we're going to be serving alongside of is Jesus Christ, and when that job is fully done, then, and not until then, and only then, the location of the Father will change. His location will change.

God the Father's throne will move. God's home will change. God the Father will relocate.

You ever done any moving in your life? Most of us have. I've moved.

Well, enough times I don't want to have to move anymore. Let's put it that way. Not physically, you know, as a human being, have to move anymore. Let's put it that way. God the Father will relocate. God will change the location of His home and His throne.

And that is something that somehow the Christian world, it escapes them.

That's what Revelation 21 is about beginning in verse 1. And if you read with me there in Revelation 21 and verse 1, this is speaking of the time when the Father's throne will move, when God's home will change, where the Father will relocate. He's going to change the location of His home and His throne. Revelation 21 and beginning in verse 1, John said, and I saw a new heaven. We're not talking about a new heaven and a new earth, and let's just focus on the earth from them. We're not talking here about the new earth that is built, rebuilt, revitalized under Jesus Christ's rule in the world tomorrow. That's not what we're talking about here. Because that earth, that Christ will rule over and that we with Him, it's still made of dirt. It's still made of matter. This new heaven and this new earth, the new heavens, the heavens around us aren't made of matter. And the earth that will exist from this point on is not made of matter. It's not made of dirt. It's of something permanent, for lack of a better word, since we're not in the spirit world to really understand everything fully, but it will be made of spirit. It'll be created of something that never can pass away. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven, which is made of matter, we're talking about the terrestrial heavens around us, and the first earth, which is made of matter, were passed away. And there was no more sea. At that time, there's no need for a sea anymore.

Why? Well, John answers it in verse 2. He says, and I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. New Jerusalem, the holy city and all, that is God's home, prepared as they bride. It's going to be shared, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle or the dwelling of God. This is God the Father we're talking about, is with men.

And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. This is when the Father comes here. This is when the entire plan of salvation has been completely and totally completed. The Salvation Highway has been fully traveled all the way to the final destination. Now, I would add in conjunction with Revelation here about the Father coming down. If you understand that, then it makes even more sense what we read in 1 Corinthians 15.28. 1 Corinthians 15.28, beginning in verse 28, And when all things shall be subdued to Him, to Christ, it is a millennial rule, the rule through the last great day, the eighth day, when it's all been completed. When all things shall be subdued to Him, it's all been squared away. Then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him, that is, the Father, that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Then comes the end when He Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. When He shall have put down all rule, all authority and power, for He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. As long as you have human beings, you have the potential for death. This brings us down to a time where mortality doesn't exist anymore. The whole processing along the Salvation Highway with mankind has been completed, and you're either now a spirit being in God's family or you're smoking ashes.

And at that time, He delivers that up to the Father. There's a new heavens and a new earth created, and the Father comes here and joins all of His children. But see, we have a job. It's here to do. And when that job here on earth is fully done, again, the physical heavens and the earth, there won't be a need for the physical anymore. And frankly, although you knock on wood, you knock on yourself, you pinch yourself, you take a pen and stick yourself, you're pretty real, the physical isn't as real as the spirit world. That world of the spirit doesn't pass away.

It's lasting, and we're not. We're real. Yeah, we're real. There's no doubt about it.

But that world is even more real in one sense than we are because it doesn't pass away. But the physical heavens and earth will be completely renewed and eternalized, and then the holy city of New Jerusalem will be brought here. And we will be forever with the Son and the Father in all of their plans, all of their purposes, throughout eternity, centered from this point in the universe. Scientists acknowledge, astronomers acknowledge, that everything is expanding away from earth in all directions. They can't find the edge of the universe. They can't find the edges. The further out the reach, the more they see. Is it possible that this is the center of the universe? How do they know it's not? It doesn't matter if geographically it's the center or not. It will someday be the center of all operations. This place where we came into existence will someday, once it's been completely renewed, a spirit rebuilt to where it never can pass away, and God the Father brings His home, His throne. I mean, this belongs to God. The universe belongs to Him. He can live where He wants, and He brings all that He has there and what we call heaven, He brings it right here someday. And all the plans and purposes for all eternity will be centered from this point in the universe. What is our destination? What is your destination and my destination? I'll tell you what it is, and you really already know that. Our destination is the Kingdom of God. That's what Christ preached. That's my destination. That's your destination, the Kingdom of God. See, for us, salvation, that is full salvation, finished salvation, completed salvation, and being in the Kingdom of God are one and the same. It's synonymous.

It's synonymous. And again, we're going to travel the Salvation Highway and look at the Scriptures and the checkpoints and the mile markers and all of that. But me having full salvation, completed and finished, unloosable, and the Kingdom of God, being in the Kingdom of God, that's one and the same. It's synonymous. To be a part of the eternal family of God, administering the government of God, that's our destination. And there is a whole universe to administer. And there's an entire angelic host to administer. God no longer, in any sense, puts the angels in as governors. There was a time long, long ago that at least some of them were utilized in that way. That's another account, another story for another time. But there's a whole angelic host to administer. And between now and then, there's a whole human race that's got to be worked with. Salvation, for us, means being a part of that forever, doesn't it? Salvation means being fully apart with God in His plans. That's how it all translates out. That's how it all comes out. And I want you to think about this. Full salvation is both a condition and a destination, isn't it? Full salvation is both a condition and a destination. Think about completed salvation.

Completed salvation is to be eternal with God. I'm not eternal with Him yet. I'm temporary. I'm flesh and blood. I matter. I can die. Now He can resurrect me, and that's what I'm banking on.

And He can then make me eternal with Him. Yes. See, completed salvation is to be eternal with God as a Spirit, composed son or daughter of His with Him in all those plans and purposes forever.

That condition, that situation, that existence, that is our destination. And it starts now in this life. But where does it begin? And how does one get there? Because again, if you're going to talk about the Salvation Highway, and you're traveling the road with that destination at the end, where does it begin? And how does one get there? We recognize, don't we, that there's a sequential flow of events, of needs, of activities that are involved, don't we? Number one, and we're speaking of this age, we're speaking of salvation being offered and being processed in this age.

We're not talking about the Millennial Rule of Christ, or that eighth day or last great day, although these same things do apply and will apply, the pattern, the template, and all of that, the process doesn't change. But here's what we recognize about a sequential flow of events or needs or activities that have to be involved. Number one, we have to be called, don't we? And what we mean by calling is God extending the opportunity to us to know His truth by opening our minds to be able to understand it, to give us the capacity of light sufficiently in our minds and thinking to see His truth, to know it, to understand it, so that we can have the opportunity to respond to that knowledge and understanding in light. We are three moral agents. We do have to choose whether we respond or not, but God's the one who makes the decision whether to give us the opportunity. So, number one, He gives us the opportunity through His calling. Number two, we respond, and what do we call that response? It's called repentance. It's repentance because calling doesn't get off the ground. Calling goes nowhere. Calling cannot be actualized. It cannot be fulfilled without repentance. The road can't be traveled. You're going down this salvation highway. God is the one who with His calling puts you up on that salvation highway. He gets you up there to give you the opportunity to walk the salvation highway to travel it, but you've got to be willing to travel it. You can't just say, no, I balk, I sit down here, I'm not responding.

You go nowhere, just like somebody sitting in the middle of the road gets nowhere.

So, number two, you do have to repent. We repent. And what comes as a result of the fact that God called us and we responded to repentance? Then, number three, what do we receive? We receive forgiveness. We receive forgiveness. And obviously, that forgiveness comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His covering cleansing blood, His pure blood as the Son of God. Then that makes possible, number four, the fact that God can take of Himself, of His composition, of His being, a portion of Himself called the Holy Spirit of life and light and can inject that in us in a begettle-type way with our mind, we can be given God's Spirit. And then, living in Christ, cleansed in Christ, forgiven in Christ, an active flow of God's Spirit to us.

Number five, what can take place is growth and overcoming. We can grow. We can overcome.

And through growth and overcoming a period of time in the whole process that goes on, we have the wonderful result, number six, that wonderful result eventually of the resurrection.

Resurrection to come out of the grave if we're in the grave, to meet the return in Christ, or if we're still alive on our feet, to be changed, to be changed, you might say right before our eyes, so to speak, to be changed to rise immediately after the dead in Christ rise first, to meet the return in Christ. Is there anything in God's laws, God's ways, God's commands that lays out this flow or this sequence? That sequence of calling, repentance, forgiveness, God's spirit, growth, overcoming, resurrection? Is there anything in God's laws, ways, commands that lays out this flow, this sequence? Is there any road map for this salvation highway? Generally, what we do when we want to travel, now these days you don't have to do this because they take your smartphone and using Waze or whatever you use, GPS, whatever, you just put in your destination and it tells you as you go along. But the old days, you know, well I want to go to such and such place, I got this destination, how do I get there? How's the best place to get there? And you pull down a map and you look at the map and you chart it.

Well, is there any road map for the salvation highway? Are there any checkpoints? Are there any mile markers? Is there anything to chart by? Is there anything that helps keep us on that road?

Because, you know, roads, those ditches that usually run alongside them are shoulders, drop-offs, and you know, you can run off the road. We've all, I can't say we've all, but I'll put this way, I'm sure we've all at one time, if we haven't run off the shoulder, run off the edge of the road, we come close to it. But some of us just plain run off the road sometimes. But, you know, if there's no harm done, no foul, no harm done, we get back on the road out here and our vehicles can keep going. But let's consider something very basic. Who does salvation rest with?

Where does salvation come from? Again, we know the answer down below when we say, who has it, who owns it? It's God. Again, I just want to reference these verses in light of who salvation belongs to. No need to turn there with me, but Psalm 3.8, Psalm 3.8 makes this statement, salvation belongs to the Lord. Jonah, in the little book of Jonah, chapter 2 verse 9, even Jonah acknowledged Jonah 2 in verse 9. He said, salvation is of the Lord. David said it belongs to God. Jonah said it is of God, is of the Lord. Psalm 37, another Psalm of David. Psalm 37 in verse 39. Psalm 37 in verse 39. David said, but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. And to get even more specific, Hebrews 5 verse 9, Hebrews 5 verse 9 speaks of Him as the author, the author, the originator of eternal salvation. Of course, to us we say, well, that's a given. That's obvious. We understand that. Salvation is of God. He owns it. It belongs to Him.

That also means He designed it. He designed it. Who built the salvation highway? Who designed it?

With his checkpoints and mile markers. Who built it? God did. It is His to design and lay out, and that is what He has done. God has designed and built the road to salvation. He has laid it out in a progression of steps for the individual, and guess what? For all mankind. It's interesting that that salvation highway that's laid out, you can show the relevance to the individual, and you certainly show the relevance to all mankind. And this road to salvation is a very specific highway, and everybody, everybody, without exception, will have to travel it eventually.

That is, if they want an hour to have salvation. Because, see, there is only one true road to salvation. There's not many. There's not many. There's only one true road to salvation, not many, and that road has a very specific starting point. A very specific starting point.

Do you remember the account in Luke chapter 2? The old man who had been told that he would not die until his eyes had seen God's salvation. And so you find, his name is Simeon, and you find Simeon saying this in Luke 2, and in verses 25 through 29, you have the account about him being given the assurance that he's not going to die until he has seen the Christ. So when he sees the babe, he says in verse 30, he says, for my eyes have seen your salvation. Christ is salvation. As that road has a very specific starting point. As we move further and further in this world, deeper and deeper into the corruptions in secular society and even in the Christian world, there are fewer and fewer professing Christians who even believe Acts 4, 12 anymore. And I understand the cognitive dissidents that they're having to deal with at their thinkers when they look at the world about us and they look at the doctrines they're hearing from their pulpits and how things don't match up and create cognitive dissonance for those who think. But it's sad that fewer and fewer are believing Acts 4, 12 anymore. Neither is their salvation in any other period.

For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Period.

Christ is the specific starting point on the salvation highway and there is no other starting point in designing the salvation highway. In John 14, in verse 6, Christ said this to one of His disciples there in John 14, in verse 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by man. I am the way, the truth, the life. And remember I told Martha and Mary there in John 11, I am the resurrection.

See, the salvation highway has a specific starting point and that never changes.

And you taking on Christ as your Savior, that's going to have to be done by any and every single human being who ever wants a chance to travel that salvation highway with the destination of full salvation being an eternal member of the family of God at the end of that process.

No, the salvation highway has a specific starting point and that never changes.

Notice 1 Corinthians 5, 7.

1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7.

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

On the checkpoint, the mile markers on that salvation highway with what God designed, this one leads the way.

This is the hinge point. This is the crux.

Paul would write a little bit later in the letter in chapter 11 and verse 26, he would write this, He would say, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He come.

And that death was so important because as He would write to the Romans in Romans 6, 4, He would write to the Romans in Romans 6 and verse 4, that therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.

Our death has been paid for in His. His death stands then for us. Now, if we want to travel the salvation highway, what do we do?

Again, God gives the opportunity, but we have to respond.

And if we want to travel the salvation highway, we take on Jesus Christ as our Passover through baptism, don't we?

And we commemorate such each year with the Passover service. That doesn't change. Every many years we have left, every year, whether we're able to do it in assembly together or have to do it in our private homes, the one thing that remains the same is we take the Passover every year until Christ returns. We commemorate what He did for us. That doesn't change.

See, the salvation highway, if it's a salvation highway, it starts with a Savior.

A Savior has to be provided, or there's no salvation on that highway. Period. You travel it all you want. There's no salvation to be had. There has to be a Savior.

It's interesting, in Matthew 1 and verse 21, in Matthew 1 verse 21, where Gabriel is delivering this message regarding Mary and her pregnancy. And this statement is made, and she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, which means Savior.

You should call his name Savior, because that's what the word means, the name means.

For he shall save his people from their sins.

And as I've generally always done, I don't usually fail to do it at Passover service to read Colossians 3-3, because it's so meaningful. Colossians 3-3, for you are dead and your life is hid, or that is safe, or covered with Christ and God. And that starting point for you, again, was predicated upon your willingness to repent. I mean, it's predicated upon our willingness to repent, isn't it? Because without repentance, we can't take on Christ. We can't be baptized. It's a requirement. Acts 2, verse 38, that multitude, verse 37, pricked in their conscience, pricked in their hearts.

Peter, men, what must we do?

And Peter said in verse 38, he said, Repent, leads the way, be baptized, every one of you for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And in accepting that admonishment, that truth, responding to that, we were showing our acceptance by our repentance.

Think about this.

Because without Christ, our Passover, if He weren't our Passover, if there were no Passover, without Christ as our Passover, without Christ being the Passover, it wouldn't matter what happens. It wouldn't matter what follows, would it?

See, it would just simply be a lonely, desolate highway, a wasteland to nowhere.

Remove Christ as Savior, remove Christ as Passover, never having generated a sacrifice for sin, Christ never having willingly offered Himself as the sin sacrifice to be our coverage.

There couldn't be a salvation highway.

It wouldn't matter what follows, it would just be a desolate highway, a wasteland to nowhere.

What do we do? We reject it then.

We turn to God. We received forgiveness. We were cleansed.

And we face the reality and the need that we must continue to repent, that we must continue to reject sin, that as long as we're flesh, we continue to struggle.

We continue to battle, that we have a continual battle against sin in this life, that it never drifts far from us.

We recognized and we acknowledged that we must do battle. To the end, it's a battle we can never quit on, period. We can never quit on, because if we do, we come off of that highway.

We understood and we understand Christ's words in Matthew 24.13 as He's talking to His disciples in the context, even, of the end of the age. There in Matthew 24.13 where He said, but He that shall endure to the end. No wiggle room, no vagueness, no ambiguity.

He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. There is no completion of one's personal salvation until the end, whether it's drawing your last breath before going to the grave or drawing your last breath as you rise to meet the returning Christ. Going to your last breath faithfully. Endure to the end. That's pretty plain. And again, Paul would write the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27, and in echoing that type of thing in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 27, he would write this, but I keep under my body. I bring it into subjection list that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. So there in 1 Corinthians 5, where we were with verse 7 about Christ our Passover. Look at verse 8. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And he's doing the very same type of teaching analogy that we do during the days of the leavened bread, talking about the old leaven, physical leaven, and spiritual leaven. And we do the analogy-type messages many times. Paul's doing the same thing. And so he'd come to a very important mile marker, a checkpoint that's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On this salvation highway, you have to have a Savior established. Now for you to be up on that highway, God has got to work with you by giving you a calling. You've got to respond and repent and all of that and be baptized to be up on that highway.

But that highway that's designed that God's going to give you the opportunity to be up on, there's got to be a Savior. And Christ is that Savior. And you start traveling that highway, and immediately, what's the checkpoint or mile marker you come to on that salvation highway, the Feast of Unleavened Bread? You can't travel down the road of salvation and miss that.

You can't travel down the road of salvation and avoid it. To do so is to run off of the road of salvation. Think about it. Christ was willing to die for us that we might be cleansed in His blood.

What does He require of us? Is it right and fair that He require anything of us? I think so.

He said, I died for you. I spilled my blood. I went through excruciating pain for you.

I got a little bit of the requirement of you.

Boy, that's fair and that's right. What does He require of us? To fight the enemy that killed Him.

You ever thought of it that way? To fight the enemy that killed Him. What killed Him, sin?

That's why He had to die not for His own personal sin. He had none.

But for my sin, your sin, our sins, mankind's sins. Sin is what killed Him.

To fight the enemy that killed Him. If we're willing to sleep with enemy, sleep with enemy, how can Christ be and remain our Savior and our friend?

See, in part, this is what James, his half-fibbling, was talking about, the Apostle James there in the book of James, James 4-4. When James wrote this in James 4-4, he said, You adulterers and adultresses, don't you know that friendship of the world is enmity with God? And it's talking about these corruptions and things that are around us.

Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And this is just talking about sin. That's why he addressed it like, you know, as reflective or representative, you'll adulterers and adultresses. He's talking about sin, friendship with sin.

If we're willing to sleep with enemy, so to speak, how can Christ be and remain our Savior and our friend? And again, this is why when you get next to the last chapter in the book of Revelation, Revelation 21, verse 7, again another familiar Scripture, Revelation 21, verse 7, But this marker on the highway to salvation brings us to a hard reality, a great and a constant need. God, I want to do it. I'm fighting to do it. I'm not going to quit. I'm going to keep on. But I can't do it on my own. I realize you won't do it for me if I quit. If I quit and walk away, it's just going to be an empty spot there. You're not going to bless an empty spot. You can't bless me if I quit and walk away. But God, I realize that even as I make every effort I can and do everything within my power and push and strive and all of that to do what I should, I can't do it on my own. There's not enough of me to get it done on my own. I've got to have help. We have to have help. For one thing, we have to constantly be cleansed, don't we? We have to continually go back and say, Father, forgive me. Wash me once again under the covering blood of Christ because I messed up.

We understand that we'll never reach the perfection that we'll have at the resurrection as the Spirit being in this lifetime. But we've got to keep striving for that. But we know we have to constantly be cleaned and we have to constantly be strengthened. And so, a continual cleansing, yes, but also a continual flow of assistance is needed. Remember there in Acts 1, just shortly before Pentecost is going to be at hand, in verse 8 where he told them in Acts 1, verse 8, he said, But you shall receive power. It's interesting that the word power is used after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, that the Holy Spirit is power. It is power.

And in Philippians 1.19, again, a most encouraging Scripture, Philippians 1, verse 19, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation or result in my salvation through your prayer, Philippians 1, verse 19, through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Father does the begetting of the new life in you, and then both the Father and the sign feed that through their Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. And so, you have the next marker on that highway. You come up to the signpost, the mile marker, that checkpoint. It's the day of Pentecost, which pictures the pouring out of God's Spirit to us so that we do have that help.

God's involvement with us, that's what it pictures. And we're talking about what is pictured that we're to put into operation in our lives, that at Pentecost, or that is the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of First Fruits, all applying to that sign marker. You have the giving of the Holy Spirit which empowers us in the struggle and does what? Initiates us for the first harvest, the initial harvest of God's Kingdom. Initiates us for that. God plants Himself in us to reap a harvest, to have an early initial harvest ready, not at Pentecost, have it ready, but not reaped, not reaped until the return of Jesus Christ. Henry, how's the wheat looking? Well, it's ready to harvest. Are you going to go back out there and start harvesting it? No, no, Martha.

I'm going to do that next week. It's ready to harvest, but I'm going to go out there with the combine next week and harvest it. The initial harvest, to be harvested at the return of Jesus Christ. Notice the Scriptures. Again, very familiar with them, aren't we? 1 Corinthians 15, 52. 15, 52 of 1 Corinthians in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. The last trump. Oh, there's trumps before that one? Yeah, I wouldn't be called the last trump. If it's the last one, then there's others before it. And by the Scriptures, we know that there are actually seven of those trumpets in sequence, and it's the seventh, aren't the last one.

Where we were before in 1 Thessalonians 4 started out in 1 Thessalonians 4.

But this time, verse 16, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a chap, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

Trumpets involved. Paul identified it in Corinthians as the last trump, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. But then, in Revelation 11.15, the return of Christ to take charge of the world, Revelation 11.15, the seventh angel sounded. There are six before that one. Each was given a trumpet. So the seventh angel is sounding the seventh trumpet. And there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. So the next marker is reached when the initial planting of the first fruits is harvested, when you come to the time that they're harvested, and the saints are given rulership with Christ. And Daniel wrote of this, and in this chapter 7, at least three different places, but one verse in Daniel 7, verse 22.

One verse, verse 22 of Daniel 7, says, "...until the ancient days came, and judgment or rulership was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." So what we have as another mile marker, checkpoint on this highway, is the Feast of Trumpets, the time when the first seeding of God's Spirit is harvested and Christ is taking charge of the world.

But now something very specific and important begins to happen with the Salvation Highway.

Up to this point, that highway has been a very slim and a very narrow road, with a very few on it traveling it. Very tiny few on it.

And, of course, Matthew 7, 14, because straight is the gate, narrows the way which leads to life, and few there be that find it. Very, very few on that highway.

Again in Matthew 22, 14, for many are called, few are chosen. Matthew 22, 14, very, very few.

Where has that highway been running? It has been running through a spiritual wilderness, with thorns and thistles and weeds crowding right up next to it, right up to the shoulders of that highway, and prowling constantly up and down the sides of that highway, an angry lion and his pride of lions, looking for whomsoever they can devour. That's the reality of the Salvation Highway in this age. And now, even as the firstfruits are now fully at one with God, this lion and his horde of killers are grabbed and thrown into a pit that they can't get out of, and so another marker is reached on that highway, the Day of Atonement. When Satan and his are bound, a day picturing at one month with God, and you remove the main obstacle, it's between people and God.

And an amazing thing begins to happen. Salvation's highway begins to widen.

The further down the road you look, the wider it gets. You're standing at oneness with Christ. Satan has been bound. The main interference between God and man has been removed. Now the way is being opened up for all mankind. It's the same road, but it's now becoming as wide as the earth. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. They shall not hurt nor destroy, and all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord! For they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. Those are the scriptures in Isaiah 9, the scriptures in Isaiah 11, and scriptures in Jeremiah 31, and we have the special marker of the Feast of Tabernacles. And what it pictures, the kingdom of God ruling on this earth, and all the peace and the prosperity and the safety and the happiness that it brings, just like it says in Revelation 20 and verse 4, chapter 20 and verse 4, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. That's where we get the word millennium. It's Latin. Millennium means a thousand, century means a hundred, decade means ten. It's that simple. That's why it's called the millennium because it's a thousand-year period. It's the time of the salvation of the nations. Let us go up to the house of the Lord, to the house of Jacob. He will teach us of His ways. He will teach us His law. That's Isaiah 2.2. And there's one marker left to get to, and this final marker truly makes it the salvation highway, the highway for the lost, the highway for the forgotten, the highway for the buried, the highway for the dead, all of the ages, all the billions and billions of this age today, as I stand here, it's not even a third of the world's billions that even claim the name of Christ, that even claim to be Christian. It's over two-thirds. They're caught up in something else. And back down through the ages and the billions that have lived, the ratios were worse.

There's a final marker on this salvation highway that's got to bring about the opportunity for the lost, the forgotten, the buried, the dead of the ages. The last great marker, what we find in Scripture called, and what we've also come to call and rightly so, both terms are good and speak to the meaning of the day, the eighth day, the last great day, the last great day of salvation.

And we go through and we'll do it again this year on the last great day at the feast, the valley of dry bones, at the time when none of it will come up, and Sodom and Gomorrah even, and the cities of Christ time, and there will be an opportunity without a devil around.

And as it says in Isaiah 65 and verse 20 so beautifully, Isaiah 65 verse 20, there should be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days, for the trials should die a hundred years old, but the center being a hundred years old should be accursed, an opportunity on that salvation highway, but when it's all said and done and completed, God will have given every human being who has ever lived, is living, and who yet shall live, the opportunity to travel the salvation highway to the ultimate destination. Without this final marker, the salvation highway would be an unfinished road. It would be incomplete.

There would be a type of barricade across the end of it and still a certain wilderness beyond within there. You know, the beauty of God's salvation highway is that He has so designed it that everybody, with no exceptions, everybody, everybody will get the opportunity to travel it.

Now, they'll have to travel it, but at least they'll be given the opportunity to travel in due time, but that timing is up to God, and right now it is a narrow road. And when you look at it close, you see very few tracks on it because there are very few people on it right now. But in due time, it's going to be wide and it's going to carry a crowd. It's a AAA highway. All are activated, AAA. All are activated for salvation. Salvation and the Holy Days. They're tied thoroughly together. The salvation highway is marked off by God's Holy Days. You cannot travel it without dealing with the Holy Days. Salvation is of God. The Holy Days are of God. And over these weeks ahead, you might review Leviticus 23. God meets us constantly at these markers along the way. And He also meets us even more frequently along the way every week with His weekly marker, the weekly Sabbath. But God's Holy Days and God's salvation travel together on this highway.