What Happens After the Millennium

What can I say that was very, very wonderful? Can't even start speaking. That's Ukraine's answer to the Myers Brothers. Which is a group that sang on the Sabbath from Florida, and it was also very, very good. But this was very, very wonderful as well, and the harmony and everything. Just one comment that they made to me just before they went up. They said, we have CDs. They were not selling them at all. They said, this is not sales or anything. And I said, well, I want to hear you first. I think they passed the test. But I don't have contact information or anything, but they will let me know, and I'll have a copy of CDs. Actually, they told me, how long would you like us to sing? They could sing up to ten numbers. And we maybe should have seven more to wrap up the holiday here.

But it certainly was very, very wonderful. Thank you. Thank you very much. Praise God for the talent that you have and how it was used to glorify God and to give us inspiration on this last day. There's so much said about this particular day. It's the end of the feast, end of the feast. We talk about the time of the end. We talk about the end of the world.

We've talked about the eighth day and, as we have traditionally called it up until now, the last great day and the end of the feast. And sometimes it's the day that you're checking out and you really have your mind on going elsewhere. And don't give full attention to the total meaning of this day. We have come through the millennium and we have celebrated the millennium through the seven-day feast of Tabernacles.

And we're fully aware that the day that we're celebrating today is a separate and completely different festival, even though it's adjacent to the millennium. And one day, one reason we need to be that it's adjacent is because, timeline-wise, it follows what happens after the thousand-year period. Now, when I was learning the truth about the millennium, about the fact that Jesus Christ is returning to this earth and setting up a world kingdom, a world-ruling kingdom, in which He will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords for one millennium for one thousand years, a question in my mind was, well, what about after the thousand-year period?

What about after this period of millennium? What happens after that? What will occur? Is a thousand years enough? I mean, is that a nice long time, but certainly not an eternity. What happens and what is the process for that? Or what is the process in the plan of salvation and eternity beyond the thousand-year period?

What follows that and really is there something that comes after that? I would say there are two things that I have learned from traditional Christianity that I have come to understand in the church, that have been the most beautiful of truths that I hold dearly to myself to this very day. And to me, they are the biggest distinctives from where I was to where I am today. One of them is understanding the kingdom of God, exactly what that kingdom is. It's not a feeling, it's not the church, it's not either Charlemagne.

It's none of that. The kingdom of God is a very literal government of God ruling this earth. And not just as a platitude, but actually Jesus Christ returning to this earth. It's that stone in the book of Daniel that returns to this earth and smashes the statue representing the kingdoms of this world, and becomes something which fills the entire world. And when I came to understand that, I said this is a beautiful truth. This is an answer to this world's conditions, world's problems, world's inequity, world hunger, world government, world politics, world economy. It's all that. It's an answer to that.

But there is another truth that to me was equally as exciting, which is the celebration of this day, this eighth day. It is something which made me look at God completely differently from the way I had looked at Him before. It makes God fair. It gives everyone equal opportunity. It is something which spells out the beauty, the wisdom, the love of God. If God is loved, then how is He demonstrating it? A few years ago at the Feast of Tabernacles, this was in Estonia, and where we were keeping the feast, we had a Rotary Club meeting right at noon, which is the same time that our service has ended.

And I went over to that meeting since I am a member of Rotary as a guest. And I explained to this group, and you've heard the story, but it really has a lot to do with what I'm going to be talking about. I spoke to this group, and I introduced myself as a minister. This was just a few weeks after the tragedy of the tsunami in 2005. And one of the men at Rotary Club came up to me and poked his finger into my chest and said, How can you dare to represent yourself as a minister of a God who has allowed such a terrible tragedy to occur?

All the children who have perished, all the villages, all the people that have died in the tsunami, and you say that you believe in a fair God. And I said, You need to come to our service, to our last great day service.

It's just across the hall. I invited the whole club to come to the service, to explain the plan of God, what God is doing, and what biblically is shown, and what He is accomplishing and doing.

Well, this intellectual person didn't come, neither did anybody else. But the truth about the fact that this is not the only day of salvation, that God is a fair God who has a plan to work with everybody in a fair way. Everybody is not equal, because some have two talents, some have five talents, people are different, but also there's an equality of opportunity. God is willing that everyone should be saved, that not anyone perish, and that everyone have a fair chance.

We can feel very fortunate in America to have the freedoms that we have. The freedom to worship God, although that was challenged yesterday in the report I gave you. And actually, when we came home last night after the Bible study watching the news, that was a news item.

That was a news item on national television about this particular event of restricting religious freedom. But that is not the case in most of the world as far as having religious freedom. We have so much more than the world does. And if anybody of you have traveled, I'm sure our Ukrainian friends understand very much for the freedoms that they have here, it is such a contrast to what's over in Ukraine. But then when you take a look at other people who are unfairly treated as it appears on the outside through being the victims of disease plagues, being the victims of poverty, which includes some of our brethren in Zambia, Malawi, and other poor places in the world, our brethren live in some of the poorest conditions in the world in other places.

We are the ones who are rich. We are the ones who really have it made. To them, this is the Kingdom of God. And getting to America and getting a green card for some is the Kingdom of God. But this day represents the fact that God is going to give opportunity for others, for all mankind, in His time and in His place.

And when I understood this truth, it was such a relief to understand the fairness, the love of God, and the fact that He is really working and developing a family, that He really does treat humanity with dignity, with respect, that everyone whom He creates, whether it's an individual, an intellectual in America, or whether it's someone in Ukraine, or whether it's a pygmy, or some other more not developed tribe in the world, everybody has opportunity having been made in the image of God.

Since man has the ability to reason, which is a God-given trait, man has the ability to make choices, man has abilities that the animal kingdom does not. The animal kingdom operates on instinct. Human beings are made in the image of God. They can reason, they can think, they can love, they can develop, they can pass on knowledge, they can create. And God is opening this opportunity up for all mankind, for all the billions of people who have lived. But on the surface, it appears to be so unfair that only a very few in our time, in our society, are saved, so to speak, and the rest are doomed to whatever—extinction, hellfire, or wherever people send people.

But in the great plan of God, the vast majority will be saved. All Israel will be saved. Speaking about the majority of Israel will be saved. God is a God who wants to have His family developed.

He does not want mortality in His family, just like we don't want mortality in our children when they are born. We want them to be born. We want them to breathe. We want them to live. We want them to be able to pass on our name, our traits, our inheritance to them. We want them to inherit what we are. And that's what this day is all about.

It's about another resurrection, different from the first resurrection which was celebrated by the Feast of Trumpets, which is different from those who live in the one thousand year period. It's yet another time, another day of salvation. Mankind was created to manage this earth. That's only a very, very small part of the management process because under Jesus Christ, mankind will be involved in managing the solar system, the Milky Way, their galaxy, our 20 galaxies in our local cluster, so to speak, and ultimately the entirety of the universe.

David, Psalm chapter 8 and verse 3, David philosophized at night with this question, a question that you and I have had. If you're here, you no doubt have asked this question.

Psalm chapter 8 and verse 3, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. This is David at night looking up at the stars, and he sees the moon. He knows it's some celestial object, the sun and the stars which are far away. And he has the question that we have had, what is man? What am I? Who am I?

That you are mindful of him, that you care about him. Certainly David already had extolled the fact that God created him, but what is man's purpose? What are you mindful? What this mindfulness aspect is? What are you going to do with me? Now that you planted me here on the earth, now what?

Why are you mindful of me? And the son of man, that you should visit him, that you want to have any interaction with mankind.

For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and this is what's quoted by Paul in the book of Hebrews, you've made him a little lower than the angels. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. And David and Paul explains this further by saying, but not yet, not at this time. But we have been created to be the ones who will be the managers of God's creation.

We have not been made to be robots. We have not been made to just be like little pets who are corralled in a little doghouse or in a little pen. We have become co-heirs with Jesus Christ, co-managers in the universe. And when I quoted in my first sermon of the feast, at the very beginning, God gave man dominion over the whole earth. He gave Adam and Eve management powers of have dominion over all the animals and over all life on the earth.

Man rejected his original role, and man has been expelled from the Garden of Eden and was basically sent out to pasture to figure things out for himself. Man still manages the earth. Man still, as a conglomerate or as an aggregate, does manage the earth. But look how he's managed it, or how he's mismanaged it. He's polluted it. He has not looked to the source of who created mankind for guidance and direction. He's tried to figure out governance his own way through dictatorships, through oligarchies, through parliaments, through democracy, from every conceivable way. Sometimes one form of governance being a reaction, a slingshot reaction to another form of government.

And when you take a look as to how even we're governed in a free country, you only shake your head when you see the candidates. These are the people who guide the future of our country.

The first job that God had for mankind was to have dominion over his creation. I'd like to focus today on four chapters that I will read sections from. And this is the grand finale. This is the grand finale of the Bible. Actually, it's a total completing the circle of Genesis 1 and 2, which started with mankind being created, being given dominion, and being placed in the Garden of Eden, where he was in the midst of the Tree of Life. It didn't take too many chapters before man left the Garden of Eden because he made it wrong choice. And death has passed on all man. And the entirety of the Bible is a story of man trying to manage it using his own rules, his own methods. And we see it as an enterprise, which is a total failure.

It's like people who go into business who have poor capitalization, poor management skills, have no way of honestly and fairly and ethically working, and their business collapses. Well, that's the story of mankind. It's a business. It's an enterprise which has failed. And God is going to have to do a great bailout that unless God would intervene in the affairs of mankind, man would destroy himself. The balance of power, which is shifting to anarchy in this world, is going to come to a melting point or a collapse point that the only savior to this world is God intervening because unless he does, no man shall be saved alive. No flesh will be saved alive.

And that is not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. And right now, it could be something that could be sooner than later. I don't believe that we're going to have another 50 years or a grace period like we did after the Cuban missile crisis, or that we will be held at bay because of nuclear deterrence, because the powers that have nuclear possibilities or nuclear abilities are no longer deterred by the fact that they will be blown off this earth. They want to be blown off this earth because they're going to go to heaven. They're going to be with Allah, the virgins, whatever. They'll destroy this world because they don't have the decency and the civilized thought of much of the world, which is also declining. Chapter 19 of the book of Revelation is the collapse of this world's Babylon-ish system. And it is a collapse ultimately signified by the removal of the great whore, the great religious leader, and the beast power. And they are both expelled. Jesus Christ returns on a white horse in this chapter, and he is crowned. Verse 16, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

This is a fulfillment of Daniel chapter 2 of the statue which comes crashing down, representing the world's succession of world governments. And the stone which appears out of nowhere representing Jesus Christ is now the government that fills the whole earth. This is Jesus Christ. This is the day we're looking to. This is our hope, and this is the gospel that we preach. This is salvation.

Now we come to chapter 20. I just gave you a very brief summary here of chapter 19, which is a prelude, obviously, to the events of chapter 20, which speaks chronologically of three resurrections. They're all there in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation.

Chapter 20, verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. We've gotten rid of the beast, the great whore, the false prophet—all that's gone. And they were only a manifestation and only empowered by Satan the devil. And now the evil power behind those entities is now suppressed as well.

And bound him for a thousand years. This is the same period as the millennium.

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little time. The subject of deception and lying is a far bigger subject than we really may even think it is. Deception is something which was the first interaction with mankind that brought his downfall. Eve was deceived. Eve then deceived Adam. And because of that, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Satan is spoken of as the great liar, the father of liars. And he is the one, as it says in this particular section of Scripture, the one who has deceived all the nations. And the book of Isaiah and Ezekiel is the one who has weakened all the nations, who has brought nations down through deception, taking people away from the truth of God. He's been in his heyday for these six thousand years. And there's going to be a contrast now of mankind's rule, which is almost up at the six thousand year point. I'm not sure when that will be. I cannot calculate that. I cannot give you figures. I'm not a numerologist. I don't have Vizio charts to get all this there. I can't really do the history on it. I just do know that we're close. Six thousand years of man's trying to figure it out for himself is coming to a screeching halt. And it'll be contrasted with a thousand years, a Sabbath, a seventh day, where Satan is locked up, bound for a thousand years. And God then will say, after Jesus Christ returns to this earth, let me show you how it's done. After mankind has tried to figure out for himself through experimentation, through trial and error, through various philosophies, through all the things that mankind has done, now God is going to bring Jesus Christ back, and the knowledge of God will cover the entirety of the world.

Nothing will be hidden from Christ. Let me say this about what I'm talking about and about what I understand, because it's what you understand. What I am talking about is not that difficult to understand. I am not brilliant on these points. This is not rocket science.

This is biblical. What I've read to you, there's nothing in what I have read to you that has required even a discussion of Greek or Hebrew. It is simply a narrative of a succession of periods, of events, of the return of Christ, the shutting up of Satan, and the setting up of God's government on the earth. And there are times when I say, you know, how do I really get it? There are people close to me, my family. There are people who have been friends. There are people who understood this at one time now who have left this understanding. And I say, I even feel a twinge of guilt. Do I really understand this? Is it that simple? The answer is yes, and you understand it as well. What Satan has done is try to deceive people in making something which is so clear be complicated, or be something that is so clear and so bright to become darkened and occluded.

The minds of people in this world are darkened from this understanding. It's just like when we talk to somebody who speaks Chinese, you know, they speak in a language that, you know, sounds so complex, you know, so difficult. Yet, to a Chinese person, it's very natural.

I had a person, I went to Shanghai one time, and I was working with a person with the old Sun Chingling Foundation. She was part of a group that I was traveling with, and I asked her since I had breakfast with her and a group of people every morning. I said, could you please explain to me these Chinese characters? I mean, they look like, you know, a chicken, you know, just stamped on a page. And how in the world do you not only read it, but look at a whole page and understand it, you know, in short order? Oh, she says, it's so easy. Actually, she says that each character is not one character, it's four characters. There's, you know, she went on and on and on and explained all this and how certain things explained certain concepts and principles and how the symbol for China was character with one line through, and there's two sides of the earth, and she went into the whole philosophy of that. It sounded so complex, but to her it was simple. She understood it. You may hear our Ukrainian friends speak Ukrainian. To them, it's very naturally normal. We're talking Ukrainian with one another, but to you, it may be complicated.

The truth of God is so complicated to mankind where He's, they just don't get it. They don't understand it. It is something that's just not part of their mind, they're thinking, they don't want to learn it. I don't want to learn Chinese. It is so hard. But these principles of God to us, because we speak a spiritual language, are clear. They're very, very obvious.

And it's not something that I'm saying with persuasive language. I am just reading it from the Bible. Anyway, we're in chapter 20, and we have the three resurrections, as I have said.

Satan would bound and set a steel hymn so he should not deceive the nations no more till a thousand years were finished. And believe me, Satan has been deceiving the world over and over again with the cheapest of all persuasive tricks. Now, this week I went, in preparation for this sermon, I just went to a Google search and just did principles of persuasion, persuasion techniques such as bandwagon. And I've got a lot of just charts and graphs. You go look it up yourself. Go into Google, not right now, but go to Google and just put, you know, look up methods of persuasive methods such as the bandwagon method. And you will be amazed as to how many tricks are used to twist people's minds to turn away or to believe something different. There's the bandwagon. Well, everybody's doing it. Now, shouldn't you do it? This is what all these people are saying. Testimonial is another one. Well, so-and-so says, I lost 60 pounds in two weeks, you know, and then you have these, you know, testimonials of people that, oh, if they could do that, then it must be, you know, the right thing. We have an expert opinion. You have some doctor, Dr. Strangelove says, you know, that this is, you know, true. Oh, he's a doctor. He's wearing a white coat on television. It must be true. You find emotional appeals. I find some of that, you know, while heartbreaking, I see ads for hunger and children and famine, I just realized they're pulling on the heartstrings of people. Or repetition, saying the same thing over and over and over again. This is what Hitler's method was. You say something over and over again, enough times people will believe it. People will believe it. You tell a lie enough times, and eventually people will believe it. And his minister propaganda say, you tell a lie that's big enough, they'll believe a bigger lie. People want to believe after they hear it over and over again. My wife and I like to listen to serious XM radio because it came with a car and we don't really listen to it too much and we don't want to renew it because, you know, it costs money, but they keep giving it to us at a real cheap price because they don't want to lose this.

But we enjoy sometimes on a night drive where we have two, three hours to drive back from somewhere to listen to, you know, Fox News or CNBC or even CNN at night. And they play commercials that are not CNN's commercials, but just over and over commercials. They are so annoying. They're so irritating. When we get CNN or serious XM to call us, we say, we hate those commercials.

I don't want to hear this commercial over and over again. I have to have my volume control turned down and turned back up, turned down, turned back up. For months, the same commercial is there. But that is a persuasive technique because eventually, after hearing it a hundred or two hundred times, you may want to buy the product or you may want to use it or you may want to try it. And that is a technique that's used. But Satan has been using techniques to deceive the world, those and far more devices and tricks. First, verse 4 of chapter 20. This is the one that has to do with this day. And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded. This is Revelation 20. For the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received this mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the millennium, and that is what we finished celebration of yesterday. But the rest of the dead, the rest of the dead. And believe me, there's a lot of rest of the dead. In fact, you might say most of the dead, not just rest of the dead, most of the dead. The first resurrection, how many people will be in it? I don't know, but it's not going to be the majority of people. Trust me, it's going to be a very, very small minority. Now, I see even in our church as to how we can be diminished. You know, at one time, we were 10 to 15 times larger than what we are, and we have had Satan come in and scatter us in so many different directions. It can happen. That's why I said, if you think you can't be deceived, think again. But here are people who stayed faithful, who endured to the end.

People who would not be deceived. In fact, in Matthew 24, a scripture I did not quote, if Satan could, he would deceive even the very elect, as it says in the book of, in the King James translation. So if you think you can't be deceived, think again. Keep your mind always on alert, watchful, and that was the point of that particular sermon. But the rest of the dead did not live until, again, until a thousand years were finished. Can you... What does this verse say?

It is such an awesome verse. It says that most everybody didn't live until a thousand year were finished. This is after the resurrection to eternal life. This is after the thousand year period, with the rule of Jesus Christ. But now we have the rest of the dead, most of the dead, and you know something? This was so beautiful because it made so much sense to me. So how unfair it is it to have somebody who's born in a society like the USSR, which is godless, atheistic, that people don't have a chance. When I think of my cousins in Ukraine, in Russia, in Siberia, they never had a chance.

There's no way that they could come to conversion unless God specifically worked with them one-on-one.

But they lived in a society which gave them absolutely no opportunity. We live on good earth, where at least we can have the opportunity to do that. Even then, it's hard.

The beautiful truth was that God is raising up the rest of the dead. And when we see what He does with the rest of the dead, it's absolutely beautiful and amazing. He says the rest of the dead did not live a thousand years were finished. And then the rest of that section there, which we know is a continuation of what He said earlier about the 1,000-year period, is a reference to the first resurrection. Now, verse 7, verse 7 of chapter 20, now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to do what? To do what he does best! To deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle, whose number is the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved of the city.

And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who had deceived them, can you imagine after a thousand years, that after a thousand years of man's rule, seeing Christ's government establish, the desert blossoming as the rose, seeing equality in economics, seeing not the great disparity between the rich and the poor, that people would still say, God wasn't fair. The same mentality that Lucifer and the angels who had fallen had eons ago, when there was only good and only God's government, and they found something unfair about it, something that wasn't what they had wanted and did what they did. And it twisted and warped their minds to become what they did. To deceive the nations, they went up to the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, Jerusalem. And fire came down from heaven out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were cast earlier, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. And then there's one more verse that talks about Satan's fate, which is in Jude. In the book of Jude, verse 13, a description of the finality. You see kind of the smoke here of the remnants of Satan's kingdom. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Nothing is more said about Satan and evil, because that's the end for them. That's the end. We don't hear any more about Satan. He is finally out of the picture for whatever his fate is since he was created immortal. He stays immortal, but he's out of the picture and somewhere else. Then we continue here in verse 11 of this chapter about the great white throne judgment. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, great, small and great, standing before God. Now this is way past the first resurrection. This is the rest of the dead. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things that were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead. All those who had been shipwrecked, lost at sea. Sailors, navy, individuals, soldiers that perished in the sea.

The sea gave the dead who were in it. Death and Hades are held, delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. This is that white throne judgment.

Now judgment is not a one-time event. Now we are living right now in a period of judgment. God is judging us. Is he sentencing us? No, he's judging us. But how we're living according to the words in the book of life. What's the book of life? Right here. Contains the Ten Commandments, contains the will and the mind of God. It contains prophecies and a story about man's potential, his future, where he's going and how it's going to work out.

Contains Christian principles. It talks about the Holy Spirit. It talks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit of God. We're judged by what we do. We're judged by whether you were given two talents, you were given five talents. If you're given, you know, just one and a half talents or ten talents or even the one talent, different people are given different amounts. And you're judged by what you do with what you have and unto whom much is given, much is required. That's the judgment. Unto whom much is given, much is required. And you've got so many years to make your case. You have so much time to prove, to demonstrate that you are doing what you should be doing and more with what you've been given. There's some people that try harder. There are people that really are gung-ho and try to accomplish more. There's some who have more wisdom than others. But nonetheless, all of us have equal opportunity for the level of intellect and a level of gift that we have been given. So we're being judged now. But now, we have the rest of the dead who are raised up and who are being judged by the same parameters. Because some of the people who come out of the grave, to whom much was given, much will be required. There will be a Napoleon who will come out of the grave, who will need special care and special instruction.

There will be people who have great intellect, great skills, and there will be common laborers who did not do much with their life and didn't really have much in their lives. But you know, something to God, every human being, is important. And no matter what you think of yourself or what state you're in or what troubles you have come to, God loves you. I don't want to sound like Joel Osteen here, but God does love you. And what God wants to give you, his Holy Spirit, he wants to give you his name, he wants to give you his legacy, he wants to give you his name.

And you all have opportunity for what God has for you. And actually, a warning, if you want to be a teacher, if you want to be a minister, you are held to a higher standard. The people who have more given to them actually have a harder goal of it. You are judged by what you do with what you have.

Since it was mentioned earlier today that we would mention Ezekiel 38, I did not know if Mr. Walker was going to cover that or not, but since he didn't, which is fine. I mean, every year we say, we've got to cover the bones. We've got to cover the white throne judgment. We've got to have the meaning of the day. So let's go to the bones. In Ezekiel 37 is an illustration of the fact that there will be a resurrection of the rest of the dead and also a description of what that resurrection would be like. Ezekiel 37, the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me in the spirit of the Lord and sent me in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones.

I have been dead. Flesh is gone. Barely the DNA can be recovered. 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, and demonstrated that they were long dead gone, valley full of bones. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? So I answered, oh Lord God, you know. I mean, how would I know?

Again he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh 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. This is a prophecy of a physical resurrection. This is not a resurrection to spirit. This is not to a new creation. This is to a physical entity.

I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. These bones are going to have skin, muscles, tendons, organs, all the soft things that are put into the skeleton, and a body will be reformed, identities will be restored.

Isn't this a wonderful truth? When you think of somebody who left this life by committing suicide, or somebody who lost their mind, or somebody who died in an accident, or somebody who had never been baptized, to me, I get so much encouragement out of this passage about the fact that God is going to put the people who have died, a class of them, into a new body.

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. This must have been pretty scary. Stephen King could make something out of this one.

Indeed, as I looked, the sinews in the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over, and there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy, and to the breath prophesied, Son of Man. Thus did the Lord God come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came on them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army, or great company of people.

Then he said to me, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

This is the majority, probably, the house of Israel. How many Israelites will there be in what we call the first resurrection? I'm not a judge, but it doesn't look good.

Take a look at the report cards of all the kings. Pretty bad. You've got a David who lived a rough life, but I guess he crossed the border to being okay. And there's Noah, and there's others.

But the whole house of Israel basically is in this rest of the dead category. Therefore prophesy, verse 12, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up from your graves. But this is not a resurrection to eternal life.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So it's got to be a resurrection that only lasts a certain period of time. But here's what happens. Here's the big missing ingredient.

Verse 14, I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live. This is not just the spirit of life or the human spirit. This is talking about the spirit of God that we have had placed in us as a down payment, the earnest of salvation in us.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

So this is that resurrection to the rest of the dead, the great white throne judgment.

And then, verse 14, back to Revelation 20, where we were, they were judged, of course, verse 13, each according to his works. That's a span that they live in this white throne judgment period. And they are judged whether they will inherit eternal life. Under the same criteria that we go through in this lifetime, whether we qualify for eternal life.

There's a certain minimum that we have to do because we are judged.

Then, verse 14, then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

This is the third resurrection that's spoken of in Matthew 25, that's spoken of in other places. But the three resurrections, the three resurrections are spoken of in this particular section of Scripture. Then we will conclude with Revelation 21 and 22, the grand finale of the story, because it continues on to, well, even after there's a thousand-year period, and then there's a span where the rest of the dead are judged out of the, the rest of the dead that are judged by the words written in the book of life.

And then they receive eternal life. And then those that are not qualified are cast into death and Hades and burned up. And we have, we'll be looking at a passage in 1 Peter on that. Then what? Then what? This is always a question of mine. I was very curious about, well, does the Bible say anything about time periods after that? Otherwise, it's kind of a blank wall.

And believe me, God does open our minds to greatness and a great future. Not too much, not too much, because we don't have to worry about that too much. We've got enough to worry about right now with what we have to do with our lives. But there is a vision given to us about the future of the family of God. Verse 1 of Revelation 21, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now this imagery of bride and husband. The church has been the bride, the husband has been Jesus Christ, and we have it appear in different places. We have it appear in the book of Ezekiel, we have it appear here, we have it appear in the book of Ephesians. A relationship between God and mankind. A relationship between Jesus and mankind.

And I've heard a loud voice from heaven. This is now after all the resurrections.

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. You know, this is what God wanted from day one in the creation of Adam and Eve. He wanted to be with them. He talked to them on a daily basis. Adam and Eve and God worked in naming the animals.

They had a harmonious relationship before an evil spirit came in to divide them, and to bring hostility between God and mankind, which we have to this very day.

But now we have a healing of that breach. Behold, God's house is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God will be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, which we heard in the song sung by our Ukrainian Sabbatarians.

There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. Man's destiny, man's potential, man's future is exposed here. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

You know, as we go through our lives and go through the hurts and the sorrows and the grief that we go through in our lives in various periods of time, there are times when we are abased, there are times when we're elevated, there are times when we cry, there are times when we laugh, there are times of sorrow. Well, this is a time now of rejoicing, of victory, of conquest, over all those things that are our enemies, primarily death. And we, as a hopeful Christian, rise to this position to understand what God is doing.

Now, we are writing. We want to continue on with the theme of why were you born, to really bring to the world this message about the potential of man, why he was created, who man is, what his relationship with God is, and how it's all going to work out, how it's all going to come to fruition. And here we have these beautiful words, no more tears, no more death, no more crying, no more sorrow. I look forward to the time when I can be reunited with my mother and father. Those are the first two people I want to see in the resurrection. Believe me, when I'm raised up, I'm going to plow through everybody and look for my mom and dad.

They both died very young, and I miss them very much to this very day. But I want to see them and be with them. I understand that I'm so happy with what we understand about life and death and the resurrection and what we will be. Still, the last thing that I would want to be is to be some part of some kind of a living blob, but I can't see people that I knew in the past. I might as well be dead. I want to be living. I want to be what I am. I want to be able to be back with the people I loved and knew and have them as the people that I want to be around and enjoy and talk to. I want to heal breaches from the past. That's what I look forward to.

And we understand the plan of God and it is symbolized with this final, victorious day, this eighth day. It symbolizes all that here when finally there will be no more death.

Now, I know it talks about the white throne judgment, but it really talks far beyond that into Revelation 21 and Revelation 22. Not just that period, because Revelation, the eighth day, really is a continuation beyond the millennium of God's working His plan to ultimate fruition.

Verse 5 of Revelation 21, then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And he said, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, verse 6, It is done. Finished! My plan to this point. This Bible, this message here, we're done with this section. I am the Alpha and the Omega, which was sung for us, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely to him who thirsts. Water symbolic of the Holy Spirit, thirst to a world that is dying of thirst, waiting for the life-giving aspect of the Holy Spirit of God. And while this was said, John, Chapter 7, I'd like you to hold your place in Revelation. It's easy to find because you're going into the Bible, but John, Chapter 7, on the last day, and we know that it's talking about the last day of the feast, because the feast was seven days, and we can you know quibble about that, but nonetheless, this is at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles at the beginning of the day of the White Throne Judgment, the eighth day. The great day of the feast, John, Chapter 7, Verse 37, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

See, we have a fulfillment here of this water of life for a thirsty universe.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But this he said concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. But you know something?

We have received the Holy Spirit. Jesus has been glorified, and upon your baptism, hands being lit in your head, you have received the Holy Spirit.

Verse 7, back to Revelation 21, Verse 7, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, thy will be his God, and he shall be my Son. And then he refers to those who didn't make it. This is a backwards reference. The cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, adulterers, and all liars shall have their part, or have had their part, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. We have to do Jerusalem. Then one of the seven angels, Verse 9, who had the seven bowls filled with all seven last plagues, came to me and talked. This is in retrospect. He's talking in his interview here with one of those angels.

Common, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. Once again, the restored relationship, the relationship of man being at one with God, we being the bride, mankind being the creation, the family of God being created, being united in a very close, intimate relationship with God as a man and wife. When you talk, you share your thoughts, you sleep in the same bed, you share, you whisper to each other, you share personal thoughts. I will show you the Lamb's wife, and he carried me and way in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me a great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. We're having a now changeover now of even the way that the earth looks, its dimensions and composition.

Her light was like a most precious stone, verse 11, like a jasper stone clear as crystal. She also had a great and high wall with twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates, and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Three gates on the east, three in the north, three in the south, three in the west. The wall of the city, verse 14, had twelve foundations, and then were written the twelve apostles of the Lord, names of the twelve apostles of the Lord. Quite a bit said here about what it's going to be like, quite a bit revealed. And he who had talked to me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates and wall. The city is laid out as a square, its length is as great as its breadth, and he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs, fifteen hundred miles. Furlong is an eighth of a mile. What this means, how this is going to be, I don't know. And I know that I heard and saw a sermon one time where somebody was drawing a big pyramid that was fifteen hundred miles from the side. Well, it's interesting, but I don't get it. You know, it's another dimension, and it's something that God has on his mind. Dropping down to verse 22, the glory of the New Jerusalem, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The temple that started with being a tabernacle, being a temple in Solomon's time, the rebuilt temple in Herod's time, yet another temple to come, this temple in heaven and so forth, there's going to be yet another temple that will represent God himself being with mankind. God, Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illuminated it.

And perhaps in the spirit world, what's physical will be irrelevant. And even scientists know that physical universes we have it, every element will ultimately break down. Even ultimately, the simplest of elements will break down given enough time. So God has yet another way in which He will display His majesty. And all matter is made out of energy anyway, that originally put it there, and that energy exists.

And the nations, verse 24, of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor to it. Chapter 22. And He showed me, verse 1 of chapter 22, a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now, we're already in the spirit world, and it could be said symbolic, but also constructed in the spirit world, where I can't even explain the dynamics of it. But nonetheless, we have all these explanations or elements on this earth now that represent certain spiritual characteristics, such as water representing life. We have this river of life, pure river of water of life, proceeding from the throne of God. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life. The tree of life pops up again. It's not been around since Genesis 2-3, when mankind was cut off from the tree of life. But now, here the tree of life appears. To me, this is an amazing conclusion to a phenomenal story, saga of mankind. No human being could write the table of contents to this book, which God has inspired over fifteen or sixteen hundred years with forty authors that range from being slaves to being kings, to write this story from the early chapters of Genesis to the end of Revelation and tying it all together. And as we zoom away from looking at the Bible, we see this whole story of what God is doing with mankind, which the grand climax is in the eighth day, symbolizing the conclusion of this phase of God's creation.

Tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. To me, this is such a beautiful and emotional verse. When studying world history and seeing how nations hurt one another, how Russia hurts Ukraine, how the Kurds and the various radical elements of Islam hurt one another, how the Sunnis and Shia hurt one another, how Hamas and Israel are Palestinians, the world is in such a mess.

And there is no reconstruction, there is no more negotiation, there's no more discussion, there's no more Cape David, Cape Camp David talk where world leaders could just talk and discuss it and just work it out. There's no more peace prizes to be given. It's over, but this all will be healed by the tree of life. That is going to bring reconciliation, will bring peace, that will never end. They were for the healing of the nations. There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. In connection with the nations of the world, I truly believe that some nations are absolutely cursed. They're under a curse. We work in some of those countries and we say, why can't anything go right? No matter how much we do and how much we help, they still can't get things straight or right. Maybe it's because they're under a curse, but this curse will be gone and nations will be blessed like the United States.

We're blessed physically, but spiritually we're a mess. Nonetheless, some nations are cursed both physically and spiritually. And His servants shall serve Him, they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there.

They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. What a beautiful image of all eternity as nations work together. Verse 6, then He said to me, These words are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly come take place. Behold, I come quickly. This is still the vision of John in words that He is writing to every generation of Christians. And whether it was Christians in John's time in the second, first century AD, in their lifetime Christ was coming quickly. If you die tomorrow, if you die within this year, you're going to see your Lord very, very quickly. If you hold that come quickly, blessed, verse 7, is he who keeps, pays attention to, values, responds to, obeys the words of his prophecy of this book.

And I, John, saw and heard these things, and I heard it. I fell down to worship before the angel.

The angel, of course, tells him, don't do that. He can't worship me.

He said to me, do not seal the words, verse 10, of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

Jesus now gives His last words to the church as we come to the last verses of the Bible itself.

Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me to give to everyone according to His work.

At the very end of the New Testament, we have the value of works. I will give to everyone according to His work. I am the Alpha, verse 13, and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life. These are words to you on this day, the eighth day, and may enter through the gates into the city.

The New Heavens, the New Jerusalem.

Verse 18, I testify to everyone who hears the words of this prophecy. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to Him the plagues that are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away His part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. It's quite a warning, the last words in these books. And here's how the Bible ends, the last words. He who testifies, verse 20, to these things says, surely they come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with all of you. Amen. An amazing story about the New Heavens and the New Earth that are spoken of again in a few places, one of them being Isaiah chapter 65 and verse 17. We're talking about the same New Heavens and New Earths, prophesied by Isaiah. Isaiah 65 and verse 17.

Behold, I create a New Heavens and a New Earth, and a former shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a-joyce. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and a-join my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Prophesied. Isaiah prophesies beyond the first coming of Christ. He prophesies beyond the second coming of Christ. He prophesies beyond the millennium. He prophesies beyond the restoration or the resurrection of the rest of the dead. He speaks about the New Heavens and the New Earth. No more shall an infant, verse 20, from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner, being one hundred years old, shall be accursed. They shall build houses that inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build another inhabit. They shall not plant another eat. For as the days of the trees shall be the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Talking about the work of the rest of the dead, as they are in their judgment phase. Isaiah chapter 66, for as the New Heavens and the New Earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. I'd like to turn among my final passages to 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 10, because here's another reference to the New Heavens and the New Earth. The reason that I'm speaking about this phase is because the white throne judgment period, and what is pictured by the eighth day is not just for a small segment of time. It represents a period that begins with the rest of the dead, but it goes beyond into the New Heavens and the New Earth, as we see the linkage be made in Isaiah chapter 65 and verse 66, where we have physical people and talking about a period known as the New Heavens and the New Earth.

But the day of the Lord, verse 10, verse 10 of 2 Peter 3, will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burnt up. And as I gave a sermon on the day of trumpets, the day of the Lord is not an event that is a one-day event. The day of the Lord is the age of the Lord's working in mankind. It's the day of God's intervention. But not only the intervention, but the continuation, because once the day of the Lord comes to this earth, the day of the Lord will continue with this earth. It's the age of the Lord as compared to the age of man. Therefore, verse 11, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner a person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire. And this is really referring now to the third resurrection, to time when anything that doesn't fit in the kingdom of God will pass away. Looking for and hastening of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, according to this promise, look for new heavens and new righteousness, where new righteousness dwells. In chapter 14, therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent, to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. These are the words we want to leave with you at this festival period. Be without spot and be blameless and righteous. Pray that we can be worthy to escape these things that will be in the future, but be worthy means to be righteous at peace. Be without spot and blameless. And consider that the long suffering of our Lord's salvation is also our brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you.

Verse 17, You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, be wearless, you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, or the deceit of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is our assignment, to grow in grace and knowledge and righteousness and peace, and to be without spot and blameless. I'll conclude with Isaiah 9 and verse 6, another passage that refers to a time way into the future beyond anything on this earth, because it talks about the first and second coming of Jesus Christ and the eternity and endlessness of His kingdom. Isaiah 9 and verse 6, For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

His name will be called Wonderful Counselor Mighty God. Jesus first came as a child born into this world, came out of a physical woman. But then ultimately He will be called Wonderful Counselor Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the increase of His government and peace.

There will be no end. There will be no end. There is no end anymore. We can't say, what about after the thousand-year period? What about after the rest of the dead are resurrected? What about the new heavens and the new earth? All this will go on beyond end. This puts me to put me in a state of great confidence, confidence being faith and hope.

And now as we leave the feast, and believe me, this room will be dead.

Just like it was said, I'm amazed sometimes I'm clean-up cruised after the eighth day as to how dead it seems. And that's because life is here right now. Jesus Christ is here with us. He's with us. The tabernacle of God is with mankind. We are here to rejoice and learn to fear the Lord always, which no doubt was preached at the very beginning of the feast.

And hopefully those prayers and those ambitions have been fulfilled. Let's rejoice in our great God and His great wisdom for giving us the Holy Days that help us understand what God has with us for all eternity, His great plan for mankind.