What Is Required for Your Salvation?

If you'll turn with me over to the 11th chapter of Daniel, let's take a look at a prophecy that is linked with the events of the Feast of Trumpets. In-time events are described here at the end of chapter 11, in verse 40. It says, At the time of the end. Now we'll skip to chapter 12, in verse 1. At that time.

Verse 2, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. When is this time? He's talking about the seventh trump. He's talking about a time, in verse 1, when there will be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even till that time. Right after the great tribulation, at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, we're told in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51, that the dead in Christ shall rise. And here we see that that referred to in this prophetical order of the prophecy of Daniel 11 that flows into chapter 12. And it says, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

You and I can look at time through a lens of creation, to the kingdom. We're about to go observe the Feast of Tabernacles, a thousand year reign of Christ. There's been 2000 years since we were here. If we're not careful, we can get lost in that timeline and not firmly understand that this is your day of salvation. If you have been called and baptized and given God's Holy Spirit, this is your day of salvation. And this event is referring to those who are called now, you, those who are baptized now. It says here, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Now notice, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

You and I have this little, little life in a short period leading right up to this end time, and we have sort of a wall, as it were, that prevents us from going any further or being judged any further. This is our time, and in time events, including the Feast of Trumpets, have everything to do with your salvation in mind. We don't get another chance. We don't get to say, oh, we'll just live over in the millennium and try it then, or we'll come up in the second resurrection and try it then. This is our day of salvation. And as we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets every year, we're celebrating the timing of our resurrection. Now notice in verse 1 at the end, and at that time your people shall be delivered everyone who was found written in the book, the book of life. If you're baptized, you have God's Holy Spirit, your name is written in the book of life. And then there's a judgment. Some to everlasting life, some to shame and contempt. Verse 3, but those who are wise, there's 10 versions. Five are wise and five are foolish. If you take the Church, those who have God's Holy Spirit, according to Jesus' many parables, you might get the idea that some half are wise, some are not. Some half are going to rise to everlasting life as the wise. He talks about the foolish coming along but the door being closed. He talks about wheat being harvested but tares being burned, etc., etc. So as we look at God's festivals and as we look at our own lives within that timeline, we should realize the importance of where we live and what we're doing here and now. Recently, we've seen events in the news that show that this world is disintegrating into more violence, possible warfare. We see a great concern of financial collapse and at the same time a building of nuclear weapons, some countries becoming more and more explosive and more and more reckless and yet ramping up their ability to make war and being given more and more weaponry and sophisticated weaponry by some of the larger countries that have had the sophisticated weaponry. It's almost choking them with how much weaponry is coming in and in recent events we've seen on the news how quickly and readily these people want to use whatever they have to create all kinds of chaos.

We'll talk a little bit more about that in a sermon on the Feast of Trumpets about God's festivals and end-time prophecy, but we need to realize that this world is a world of not being concerned about others and it's a time that's called a dangerous time. The times of the end will be very dangerous because people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money and lawless. Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that even within the church the love of many, the agape love of God of many, will grow cold and people will then begin to hurt and harm one another. You and I, as we look at our lives and any timeline, have got to decide are we going to be part of those here in Daniel chapter 12 that are wise and are resurrected to everlasting life or those who are foolish in that regard spiritually and are cut out, shut out, are resurrected to shame and everlasting contempt. Now this is a very serious question. As we get all excited about the fall festival season, it's not just a Pollyannish mindset, oh good times are coming and let's go enjoy the feasts. This is a warning to you and me that trumpets of war are about to blow, that mankind is slumping down into depravity that's going to annihilate itself and only a few are going to survive. Are you going to be one of the survivors and if so how are you going to survive? Today I want to take a look at a question and the question is can you enter God's kingdom by pleasing God and keeping his laws, his feasts, his sabbath, his holy days. Will that gain you entry into the kingdom of God? And I want to show you resoundingly know that alone will not. There is a maturity that God wants us to grow into. We come into the church young and eager and wanting to know things.

We find out about the laws and we find out about God and his rules. We find out about blessings and cursings in Deuteronomy 27-28. We come alive. The church is very, very good at teaching this kind of information. We are very good. Just grab these out in our literature display. Let's look at some of the titles. God's Holy Day plan. Now we know the holy days. We're going to keep those holy days. Time of the end. We know prophecy. You can understand Bible prophecy. You can have living faith. We've got to trust God. You know, one thing about God, he's so big, he's so powerful, you do not want to tick him off. All right? So that's one of the first things we learn. Better please this God because he can bless you, he can curse you, he can let you live, he can kill you. All right? So please God, you know, fear God. And so we're careful to have faith in God and tithe and know that God exists and know about the kingdom of God and the covenant of God and the Ten Commandments of God and understand the Bible of God and know he's not a trinity and know the road to eternal life and know about the church he built. We can be all about these things, you see, and feel very comfortable. Yes, I'm in the true church that Jesus built. It gives me comfort. I'm in the right group, you see. Sometimes we confuse that with a corporate name. Or, I know who God is. I know his Bible. And I'm keeping and doing the things that he commands, and I'm not displeasing him. And therefore, I think I'm good to go. We keep the Sabbath. We don't work on the Sabbath. That would displease God. And we pray maybe one time a day, maybe two times a day, maybe three times, maybe three will please him more than two. If three is good, how about four? Some religions pray five times a day. It's kind of annoying when they wake you up at four o'clock in the morning to let you know they're praying. But, you know, keep the Master happy. And if you do, you know, maybe he'll let you live in the end. That's in a way, that's a good way to start. I remember when I was young in the church, a young boy in the church, I would go to Matthew 5 and read the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes never made any sense to me, but seemed like if you did the Beatitudes, you got in the kingdom. Let's look at the Beatitudes. Matthew 5, blessed are the poor in the Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I want that kingdom of heaven. I want to be poor in spirit. Whatever that is, I'm on it. Blessed are those who mourn. God amorn. Blessed are the meek. They'll inherit the earth. Want to be meek. Whatever that is. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. I want to obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Whatever that means. They shall see God. I want to be pure in the heart, and I'll see God. Blessed are the peacemakers. They'll be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted. So there's a few things there that we can say, I need to figure out what these are. I need to interpret the Hebrew and the Greek and the Aramaic here and get it figured out so that I'm lined out. You know how that mindset is? I've got to figure this out so that I'm keeping God happy. Keeping God happy. And I think in our own lives, in the immature state that we grow through, we certainly begin at the point of wanting to keep God happy and keep the rules and keep the laws and not displease, you know, great God in heaven who can kill you. But do we ever really grow beyond that?

We as a church are good at the first four commandments. You think about it. God, you know, pick up literature about God. He's first. You don't want to have any idols or images, nothing displeasing Him, you know, nothing. Got that. You don't want to take His name in vain. Watch your tongue. No euphemisms, you know, lock it down. Don't want to displease Him because He's not going to hold you guiltless if you take His name in vain. Better keep His Sabbath holy.

Better remember that. We're good at that, including the other Sabbaths, the annual Sabbath, the holy days. Give Him what's due is tithing. We're good at that. We've got first tithe, second tithe. We got it down. Offerings on top of that. Holy day offerings.

You feel comfortable? Well, let's take a look at what Jesus says. Let's start over in the book of John, chapter 15. He says, you are my friends, verse 14, if you do whatever I command you.

All right. We want to be His friends, right? We're doing the commandments.

Got the law thing down pretty well. We are people of the law.

You're my friends if you do whatever I command you.

Verse 16, you didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. We're not careful. We're going to really emphasize, emphasize pleasing God, never displeasing God, going to our graves if we have to, not displeasing God. What about the other six of the Ten Commandments? What about the rest of the law, rest of the Bible? Can you get in the kingdom of God? Can you stand in the judgment and gain entry into the kingdom of God by doing all of these things, but not stressing the love your neighbor is yourself part? We kind of see that as optional. I mean, which neighbor do we have that can bring curses, dry up the skies, kill you? People are just kind of people, aren't they? I mean, if they ignore you, ignore them back, so what? If somebody doesn't like you, there's enough people around the can. So what? If you've got a brother-in-law who lives in the next county, the next town, the next state, the next country, and you don't get along, don't call. Ignore him. Leave him alone. If you've got people in the church or even in your own family that don't get along, it's not a big deal. Are you studying your Bible an hour a day? Are you pleasing God? Am I pleasing God? Are we really boning up on the things that count? After all, the first great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.

And that's a place where we come in and we begin. But he says here in verse 34, or actually let's stay in chapter 15 for a moment, going on down, you're my friends if you do whatever I command you, verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. Okay, that kind of sounds like an option in a way. Because you gotta be God. You gotta keep all these laws. You gotta do all this stuff, right? And as you have opportunity, you should be nice to people. You should be nice to people. And I think generally we're pretty pleasant people. But has the church really stressed the agape love of God aimed at fellow man like Jesus Christ came and did? Let's go over to John 13 now in verse 34. A new commandment I give to you. All right, you had the commandments. You've been taught the basics. You're doing what you should do. Now he says, I want you to step up a bit. Just like he said to the Pharisees. He says, you're hypocrites. You're keeping the law.

Like, yeah, that's me. You're keeping the law. But you're hypocrites because you're ignoring the greater part of the law. Justice. Nothing to do with justice between God and you. Mercy. Nothing to do with you being merciful to God. And faith. He puts faith third. Justice has to do with how you interact with other people. And mercy has to do with how those relationships can grow. And he calls those the weightier matters of the law. And so here in verse 34, he's saying now, we've got to ratchet this up. You're called to a new covenant.

It's a bigger covenant. It's more expansive. You know, the previous covenant he said, I did not come to do away with, not a flick of it, but I came to expand, to take something that was small and expand it. And he goes through the commandments in Matthew chapter 5 and 6, some of the commandments, and talks about how you've got to not only not kill somebody, you've got to love your enemy, bless him. You've got to give him things, even though he's trying to kill you and want you dead. This isn't just magnifying something that was kind of hidden. No, this is new. This is loving one another, he says, as I have loved you. Wow. Now, is this optional?

This is the big question. Is it optional? Is it possible when Jesus Christ returns and the seventh trump sounds and you're resurrected for him to say, okay, I want you on my right, because you are sheep, and I want the foolish ones here on my left, because you're the goats, and it's okay that you didn't do this loving one another as I have loved you.

He says, verse 35, by this we'll all know that you are my disciples if you have love. Well, okay. It's a nice thing, I guess, to be known as his disciple, but do I have to?

Do I have to? Let's examine this today through the lens of the one who is going to arrive at the seventh trumpet, the one who has life in him as life, the one who the father has given power to do the resurrection to life and the resurrection to condemnation through his eyes, through his lens. Let's take a look. First of all, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.

1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 12. He makes a statement about growing, maturing. You know, the Holy Spirit is something he is. It's not just he has this electricity he sends out. He said, I will not leave you. I will come again to you. The Father and I will come and dwell in you. That's the Holy Spirit. You are holy because God himself is living in you and he's made you his temple and that makes you holy only by his presence. The only things that are holy have God in them. So, consequently, we see here in verse 11, Paul is praying for the church at Thessalonica, and he says, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in agape love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all the saints. Here is where that separation takes place. Here is how we get in the right line on the right side, where the sheep are, that we can be growing and then abounding in his agape mindset that he had for us so that we can have our hearts established blameless in preparation for that day, for the resurrection, for the seventh trumpet. You can see here that you have a very good You can see here that you and I need to be doing something a lot more than just head knowledge and pleasing the master, as it were, trying to get on his good side, and yet being careless with others, and for good reason. Let's go back to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10.

1 John chapter 3 and verse 10 says, In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

Now, in order to grasp this, I want to paint a picture here using two trees.

Oftentimes the two trees analogy gets left in Genesis, and that's not right, because you know the tree of life exists all the way in Revelation chapter 21-22, in the divine kingdom of God after the world is done away.

The children of God and the children of the devil. These aren't sort of a mixture.

These are people that go all the way back. This is like goats and sheep in various parts of the world, in Africa, the Near East, and other places. Sheep are kind of followers, and they don't really go the right place. They just kind of graze on grass. But if you throw some goats in with them, goats are leaders. In other words, they're very selfish, and they just go where they want to go. They go over here, and they do that, and they climb and pull down trees and brush. The sheep will follow anything. They'll follow the goats, and the shepherd doesn't have to do so much work. Just kind of watch them go. Unless they get really out of hand, you don't have to do much. Sheep are the same size as goats. They're the same height. There are a lot of different kinds of sheep and goats, but over in that part of the world, they're also the same color.

They look about the same. The sheep over there don't give wool, so the hair length is the same. They both have ears. They have heads. They have legs. All about the same. And so they run along together, kind of like in the church. We all kind of look the same.

But what he's pointing out here is there is something here deeply different, not surfacy at all, deeply different. You know, a goat is not a sheep. You can tell them apart by the goat tail goes up, the sheep tail goes down. You can always tell them apart by that.

However, what's inside is very, very different. Anything from the brain, the whole mindset of the two are totally different. The mead is different. You know, they're just different. They're very different. And you can't make one end to the other. You can't sort of say, well, let's have the sheep and the goats breed here. We'll get a goat sheep.

And kind of breed this. It doesn't work. They're two separate species.

It's like those two trees. You know, there's one tree, and that's of God. And it goes back forever in time. It is always been of God. It's purely God. It will always be of God. It will always have the same fruit on it. It will always be godly. And then there's the other tree.

And it's of Satan. And it's never been part of God. Satan's never had the mind of God. He will never have the mind of God. He's not going where God is going. The two will never mix.

Now, people can eat from both trees, and they can be identified with both trees. You and I can change trees if we want. In fact, the Bible is a lot about changing trees.

You know, repent. It talks about Gentiles being grafted in. Come on over.

It talks about people falling off the tree and going away. But those two trees have nothing in common and are totally separate. So the children of the one tree are going to act like the Father, the mindset of the one tree. The children of the other tree are going to act like unless they jump trees. Now, in verse 10, the children of God, the children of this one tree, this mindset that goes all the way back, and the children of the devil are manifest.

Whoever does not practice righteousness, now that's keeping the laws of God. Where's the... oh, yeah, here it is. Laws of God. Righteousness. Okay.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. You can't separate those two. You see, because in the commandments, there's more laws about loving your brother than there are about loving God. And in Jesus' great command that summarizes the Bible, it's love God, and the second is like unto it. In other words, it's love. Love for all. You can't really break it in...

you can't separate one and say, okay, well, if you love God, you get to be in the kingdom of God. But if you don't love other people, you only love God, you know, you've got to have both. And so here, in 1 John, we see that if you don't love your brother, you're not of God. So let us not think that, oh, well, we're of God. I'm not really loving my neighbor as myself. I'm not doing what Jesus said, which kind of sounded optional to me, you know, love others like you've loved me. It's a nice thing to do. Maybe we haven't pushed ourselves so much, but you can't be a child of God if you don't love your brother. You know, Jesus gave a parable about this. It's called the parable of Good Samaritan, because sometimes we say, well, I love my brother. I mean, you know, his name's Fred, you know, we grew up together and have the same mother. Or I love my brother, we're in the church and we're friends, so that's my brother.

But now there's these other people, you know, outside. I don't love them. No? He said in the parable of Good Samaritan, which is a different religion, you know, they persecuted each other, one tree to the other, like dung. And there's the example. Yes. All humans are our brothers. And if we don't love all humans, we can't be of God, a child of God. For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning that we should love one another. He tried to teach that to Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, but this world doesn't listen to that message.

We're all about religion as human beings and afterlife. How can I get myself to the afterlife? Look at all the religions, including Christianity. Put that one at the top.

How can I get to heaven? Well, I've just got to do something to please Jesus, and I'll get myself to heaven. I'll fight, I'll kill. Some religions, I'll blow up other people. Christian religion, we'll go torture people, we'll convert them, we'll kill them, we'll fight in the name of the cross, do all kinds of things. Some will worship some animal or bow to some statue. They'll cut themselves, whatever to please that. But what about human relations? We see that human relations as a human race are the last thing that we're thinking about. Self-first, eternal life, relations second. And it bleeds over into the church because we're humans, too. And if we're not careful, we are looking out after me with my God and too bad about you. But that's not what we find the children of God are about. So, as we go down to verse 14, we know that we have passed, or are passing, from death to life. We are in God's eyes, going to the sheep side, moving into the right line, getting ready for life. We're passing from the left side to the right side because we love the brethren. Hmm. Now, you might be saying, yeah, it still sounds optional. Still think we can work this out another way. Because, you know, if I preach the gospel, if I, you know, cast out demons in His name or do these wonderful things or tithe or, I don't know, SIM cards, whatever it is we do, study extra hard, have visions or dreams or, I don't know, stay up all night, fast a lot. You know, you see the things in the Bible written. We do all these things as humans to circumvent the need to love our brother. But it boils down to this. Verse 15, whoever does not love his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. That's what he said. You've got to love them as I loved you. So he sacrificed his life for us. We ought to sacrifice our lives for others. And we say, well, I didn't buy into that. I don't really want to sacrifice my life, my time, my words, my thoughts on, well, maybe my friends, maybe my family. That's a carnal love that we all have. God, I'm taking care of my kids, and I love my husband so I can be in the kingdom. I love my brother. That's a very selfish love. That's an empirical type of love. It's about me and my empire. And I also love my baseball team. And I like my town. And that's me. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Now, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, what are the world's goods? Well, you'll have to answer that. Time, telephones, food, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, transportation. Who knows? When you see somebody who has need, whatever that need is, and you shut up your heart from him, how does the love of God abide in that person? And if the love of God doesn't abide there, then the righteousness of God isn't there. The obedience to these very commandments are being overlooked. In verse 19, By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. We're all about truth. If there's anything this church is famous for, it's truth. We'll take on anybody. It doesn't matter, because God's Word is truth, and we teach this Word as faithful as we possibly can with his inspiration. So we're about the truth. Now, when it says here, we know that we are of the truth by this, what's it referring to? It's referring to the previous verse.

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

That is the truth. That is us being truthful. That's us being honest.

In verse 22 and 23, he says, Whatever we ask, we receive of him. Now, we're quick to ask of God. I don't know about you, but I think prayers to God fall into pretty much one category.

As far as the percentage of what God hears, God, I came to ask you for something.

Okay? I think that's probably what we do. We see God as somebody who is able to help us.

We want him to forgive our sins. We want him to inspire us. We want him to encourage us.

We want him to help us. And when we fall down well, we want to be saved. And when we don't feel good, we want to be healed. And when we think of other people, we want to pray that God will help them and God will inspire them. And God will be with the work. We're just asking God, over and over, on so many different good levels for his help. So he gets a lot of requests from us.

Whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments. Okay? Because we keep his commandments. All of his commandments. Or, if you use the two great commandments, both of his commandments. Notice not one, but two. Or both. And we do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Yes, it's right to please God, but we've got to realize you can't please God by selfishly doing the first four, kind of having this little in with him. You and I, we've got this thing going. It's you and me, you know. We've got this special thing going. This cosinostra, this thing of ours.

It's just us. God doesn't work that way. No. Verse 23. What's pleasing in his sight? And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. You roll the first four commandments in that one, and love one another as he gave us commandment back there in John 13, 34, and John 15, and other places. It's a package. It's a seamless joining of agape love for all life. And if we have it, then we are the children of God. But if we don't, then we're playing the world's game. We're playing the world's religion. We've brought Babylon into the church of, I want to go to, you know, fill in the blank, where you want to go and how you want to get there. You know, we've got a better version than everybody else, according to the Bible, but essentially it's the same selfish pursuit. I'm looking out after me now and forever.

In verse 7 of chapter 4, it says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Now, I think that verse needs a little explanation. First of all, we associate agape or agape with godly love. It's the perfect, selfless, thoughtful consideration and serving and sacrifice for others that God has.

And that's why he says, let us agape one another, for agape is of God. That's where it comes from. It's of this tree. It's of that mindset, the tree on the right. And those who are of the tree, eat of the tree, associate with the tree, this tree that will grow up like, and the birds of heaven will lodge in. And this is like the kingdom of God. This is solid and stable.

That's what's growing out of that tree. And everyone who loves agape love is, it says, born of God. It means ganayo. He's engendered from God. He is part of the tree, the fruit from God, the mindset of God. He's been inspired by this agape mindset of the God family that comes only on this one tree. He's essentially going to be born of God. He's being engendered. He's the child of God in the mother's womb, as it is. The egg is growing and developing. And we need to grow and mature and not stay in this childish baby state of, like a child comes out, it's like all about me. Feed me. I want this. Give me that toy. We've got to grow up to the point where we're like the parent who gave life to the child and we're sacrificing for others. We're giving of our bodies. We're giving of our time. We're giving of our lives in helping others.

He who does not agape does not know God for God is agape. That's where we get the statement, God is love. You see that plastered all over? God is love. Yeah, God is love. I'm not, but God is. No, wait a minute. You better be. I better be. We better be.

He who does not agape does not know God for God is agape. And this is the agape of God that was manifested toward us that the Son has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And that is powerful. That is the huge expression of love that you and I will never match, but we're called to imitate. We're called as babes to a daddy, as children to the mother, to grow up in the church, grow up in the family, and imitate the parents. And we didn't love God first. We were selfish, but he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. And, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Okay, ought.

I've heard that all my life in the church. You ought to. You ought to do this. You ought to do that. You ought to do this. You ought to do that. I'm like, yeah, well, I'll take it under advisement.

You ought to love one another. Yeah, probably should.

Can you be part of the first resurrection without doing that? Well, let's keep going.

In verse 16, we have known and believed that agape love that God has for us. We know that. We believe it. We celebrate it. We depend on it. We get on our knees and beg for it. We ask for the mercy and the sacrifice to go with it. And we are deeply moved every year at Passover as we think about that deep love. God is love. It's not something God has. It's not something God likes to do.

It is what He is. And it is what His children are or are becoming, striving to become.

So God is love, and He who lives in love. If you live there, you abide in love. That's your dwelling. Your life, all day, my life, all day, all night, every day, seven days a week, 24-7, we live in agape. Agape for the Father, agape for each other, pushing ourselves, asking for help, asking for inspiration. If we live there, that's what He's saying. He who abides in agape abides in God, and God abides in Him. We're being led by that Holy Spirit. You know the Holy Spirit? Love. Agape is the primary ingredient, as it were, or actually the effect of it, the result of having it. So if we want God living in us, and us living in God in this harmonious relationship, it is about agape, and there is no other option. No other option.

As we've said, the children of God and the children of the devil are very different, and yet in one thing, one thing, the Bible shows the difference. And that was in verse 11 of chapter 3, that we should love one another.

Now, let's go on down here in chapter 4 verse 21. And this commandment we have from Him.

Now it's going to get nailed down. We read a while ago that what we ought to, right? Let's see if it's possible. Last verse of 1 John 4. And this commandment we have from Him, that He who loves God must love his brother also. You can't do one without the other and be in the kingdom of God. You can't do one without the other and be on the tree associated with the tree of life, associated with the family of God. You can't be a sheep because without the one, it's the mindset of the other tree. It's the mindset of the other God. It's all about deities. Oh yeah, man is great about worshiping deities. Remember Paul went to Athens and the place was full of deities. He even had one to the unknown deity. But He who loves God must love his brother also. Verse 2 of chapter 5. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. You see, it's totally inseparable. You can take all these back now begin to say, oh yeah, these are all good. See, this is what I need to love God and I need to love His commandments. I need to really appreciate everything that Jesus has done, God the Father has done, all of His holy days, the commandments, tithing, everything. Because when we love God, we please God. Notice here in verse 2, when we love the children of God, we love God and keep His commandments. That's how we know we're loving God.

It's when we love the children of God. Wow, it is one package. 6. Loving God, keeping His commandments, loving the children of God. Verse 3-4, This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. Now, these commandments, we think of the Old Testament, we think all those commandments, and we think of this booklet, the Ten Commandments. It's a lot of stuff in there. Jesus Christ magnified them. Well, maybe it's just about that. Maybe it's just about keeping those commandments. If I just keep those commandments, you see, let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5 and be reminded about why we keep the commandments.

1 Timothy 1 and verse 5, Now the purpose of the commandment, the purpose of the commandment is agape love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. That's what God is developing in you and me. That's what we're supposed to be maturing into. The tree on the right, mature, heartfelt, genuine agape love, is what the commandments are intended to develop and generate in you and me.

That is the fruit that God is coming back to harvest. That is what He wants us to be growing in and maturing in. Let's go to Matthew 22 chapter. Now look at the statement that Jesus gave about the law, as it were. Matthew 22 and verse 36, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law.

These are individuals essentially wanting their own salvation, wanting their own eternal life. Teacher, give us the insight here. What's going to really please God?

What's the great commandment?

You shall agape the Lord your God with all your heart, with your emotional side, with your conviction. This is who you really, really, really are. Didn't we just read that? That the purpose of the commandment is agape from a pure heart. And here it is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your living being. That's the soul is. Your mind, your living being, your body, and with all your mind.

You're going to think. You're going to really love and appreciate God. Now God's kind of easy.

I understand this. God's kind of easy to love because He doesn't talk back to you.

You don't tend to think about that. God likes me. He's never said anything to me that I didn't like.

He doesn't get on my nerves. He doesn't bug me, man. He doesn't do things I don't like. I think of God as one who we've got this thing, this cosinostra. I pray to Him and please Him. He blesses me. I'm a friend of His. He likes me. I'm a special one of His kids. I'm the pet because of this and because of that. And I never hear anything different.

Never hear anything different. It's very easy to get along with. Very easy to get along with. The second one, however, is like it. You shall love your neighbor, shall gop your neighbor as yourself. Now that's a bit of a problem. People, they say things. They do things. Or they don't do things. And they don't say things. And they are irritating. And they tend to be selfish. And they tend to hurt. And I have issues with people. And now He's telling me to love my neighbor as myself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and all the prophets.

Well, what are we going to do about that? Oh, I know. Let's get a Bible that has only the New Testament and the Psalms. That got rid of the law and the prophets. Let's just think about the new covenant. Let's just think about grace. Let's do anything except what He's saying here in Matthew 22. We have to love our neighbor as ourselves. All those other things that He's taught us.

Is it possible that we could get into the Kingdom of God without loving our neighbor as ourself? Is there any other way of doing it? Well, as we've heard many, many times, many, many parables, there is a genuineness and then there's a hypocrisy. There's a wisdom and there's a foolishness. There's a true tree and there's a fake tree. And the fake tree is going to get pulled up by the roots and burned. But the true tree is going to last forever. And you can't fake it. You've got to be genuinely of one or the other. Let's go to Matthew chapter 25.

Because when we see again through the lips and the eyes of the one who will resurrect you and me at the seventh trumpet, the one who is judging us now and will pronounce an ultimate judgment at some point as to which line we're in, left or right. Tree, sheep goat, wheat tare, whatever, whatever. He's the one. And he does this not joyfully, not flippantly, but with great love and compassion, having given himself, having said so much to us of warnings and encouragement. He says, when the son of man comes in verse 31, when does the son of man come? Seventh trumpet. Seventh trumpet, he'll stand on the Mount of Olives. We'll learn more about that on the Feast of Trumpets. And all the holy angels with him will sit on the throne of his glory and the nations will be gathered before him and he'll separate them. One from another is a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he'll say to the sheep on his right hand, he set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on his left. Again, they're different. They're easily discernible, totally different nature, but to themselves, sheep and goats, when they run around together, they kind of think they're all the same. They just bunch up. Even a little bunch will bunch up. We're just here. They all kind of sound the same, too. Or, I don't know.

But he'll separate them all the sudden. And he says to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, because, because, because of this. Well, not specifically. It's not what he says.

He's saying, because of the fruit of this, because of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, because of the results of how you've lived and what's in your mind, what you've become. Four. I was hungry. It's interesting here. He puts himself, you know, we're pleasing God, aren't we? We want to please God, love God with your heart, soul and mind. What does God want of us? Well, he said, I command you that you love one another as I have loved you. That's what he wants of us. And so he puts this, that I was hungry. I wanted you to do this. This was what I was looking for. And you gave me food. I was thirsty. You gave me drink. I was stranger. You took me in. I was naked and you clothed me sick and you visited prison and you came to me. And none of these things are on our standard list of church approved entry visas to the kingdom. You know, we've got prayer and Bible study and, you know, I tithed this much and I gave that much. And they're dumbfounded. And they'll say, Lord, when did we see you like this? He says, well, I, this is my church. See, these are my people. I made everyone on earth.

These are my children, all of them, not just the ones that I've baptized so far, are called so far. They're all my children. And I'm going to resurrect all 100 billion of them, or whatever, at some point in time, and they're going to be my children. So this is a package. This is the most important thing in the eyes of God is human beings that can become children in their family. And therefore, He sees them as Himself. And so He says, verse 40, the King will answer and say, as surely I say to you, and as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, we are so easily dismissive of who we will serve. And yet He served everyone.

We'll look at height, we'll look at weight, we'll look at skin color, we'll look at economic status, we'll look at IQ. What are some of the other things? How much hair you have, how much hair you don't, how tall you are, how short you are. Jesus talks about people coming in who are dressed better than other people, etc., etc. And yet He says, these are my brethren, these are my brethren.

And He says, if you did it to one of these, even the least of these, you did it to me.

He talks at some point about helping others. You know, when a teacher helps somebody, the individual gets the reward of a teacher. Sometimes we like to kind of get close to people. If you go over here and get with somebody, you get the reward from that person. But He says, you know, at some point it's important that you give somebody a cold cup of water, a cold cup of water.

And you get the reward of a disciple's reward. Just giving a cold cup of water.

Cold cup of water in a world where refrigeration didn't exist took a little bit of work. It took a little bit of thought to know that somebody would want a cold cup of water rather than a tepid cup of water or didn't want water at all. And here He uses this in verse 35, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. It's looking after sometimes just the basic needs of other people. Other people on the block or other people somewhere. It's not just writing out a check and sending it over there.

Boom! It must have done a good job. But somehow having this world's good and caring as He walked through life, He saw Him stop and care and help and even babies who could do nothing for Him.

In Africa this time, I learned something about the blessing of little children I'd never thought of before. You'll have families that will come and bring little children at various times. And since the pastor was there and myself, four ladies said, we've had babies, we'd like them blessed.

So, okay, we'll do this. And Mr. Oteno and I took turns. I'll hold one and you pray, you hold one, I'll pray. So we did this back and forth. Well, the second child I got was soaking wet all the way through. I never thought about that. And I don't think it was just soaking. And I was holding this and it was up against my tie. And I thought, this kid's going to spoil my tie. You know, maybe how come he didn't get this one? You know, these little things run through your mind real fast. Then I realized, I thought, you know what?

When Jesus had all these kids brought to Him, how many of them were wet? And He said, yeah, bring them on. Bring them on. And He picked them up and held them. They didn't have these little plastic liners on, you know, just you got what you got. And as I stood there holding this child more and more, I began to hug it a little tighter and be comfortable with that and thought, you know what? This is what Jesus did, what He must have done. This is what He does for us. But He'll say in verse 41, to those on your left hand, depart from me, you curse it into everlasting fire.

Now, I would, you know, our understanding of the Bible is such that, and I don't want to throw a wrench in the works here, the understanding is such that you have the first resurrection to life, right? And then you have a later resurrection. If you didn't make the first resurrection, you have this later resurrection.

We'll see exactly how it all works out when Christ arrives, but we did read in Daniel the 12th chapter that in the end time, they will be resurrected to life, some will be given everlasting life, and some will not. They will be given everlasting death. And here, when the Son of Man comes, it says, He will say to those on His right hand, or His left hand, depart from me, you curse it into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

And I'm sure this has been worked out by somebody as far as the timing goes. But once again, let's look at the timeline here as being described in Daniel 12 and Matthew 25. When the Son of Man returns, there's a judgment. There's sheep and goats, and there's wheat and tares, and they're going to gather up the tares and burn it, and they're going to gather up the wheat and bring it into His barn, into the family of God, into the kingdom of God. Despite the timing, we're told in all of these things, depart from me, you curse it into everlasting fire, for I was hungry and you gave me no food.

This is the criteria that the judge is using. It is not just that, oh, well, we don't have to obey the first three or four commandments of God. All we have to do is love our neighbor now. It's a package, but the proof that we did not develop the agape nature of God is that we didn't care about people, the ones that we could see.

So if we go back to 1 John, in verse 1 John chapter... Just a second here. Chapter 2 and verse 10. If you are of light, you're of God, you're loving your brother. If you're of darkness, you're of the other tree, you're of the tree of darkness, of Satan the devil, and you're not. Now we know here that we are loving God, and we're loving each other if we love the brethren, because if we do not love our brother, we cannot love God. In chapter 4 and verse 20, if someone says, I love God and doesn't love his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he is not seeing? And yet that's the game we play. We think we love God whom we've not seen, because he doesn't irritate us and he doesn't talk back to us, and we don't really have that direct, instant sort of communication, retribution, punishment, etc. God is very, very patient with us. And so if we don't love our brother whom we do see, then how can we have agape love in us?

Here in Matthew chapter 25, he says, look, depart from me into everlasting fire, because the physical opportunities you had as a human being to demonstrate agape love, which is to a human, you can't really demonstrate to God very well, because you can't see God. You can imagine God, but you can't see Him. You pay your tithes, but they go to humans, you see. You can pray. Sometimes you say, I don't feel like God heard my prayers. It's kind of a feeling. You don't see God. But when an individual comes by and you can actually perceive a need, perceive a problem, perceive something that needs fixing, and you don't love it, then the agape love is not there.

And that's the proof. It's not one or the other. It's the litmus test. It's the litmus test if we have the love of God, because this is who we see and what we can actually tangibly interact with.

Now, I don't mean to limit in any way our interaction with God, but He is invisible, and that's why John says, How can you say you love God whom you cannot see if your brother, you're not interacting with agape with your brother, who is right there in front of you? And so, he says, you did not do these things to me. Verse 45, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, not everlasting pain, but punishment, which is eternal death, but the righteous into eternal life. So, when we look at the holy days of God, when we look at the timeline of the plan of salvation and all the things that are written here, Jesus Christ has boiled it down for us. He's shown us what He wants us to mature in, what He wants us to grow in. And if we're going to have our rightful place within that timeline, it's just a few years that you and I are living right now, before the seventh trumpet sounds, before Michael the angel steps up for the people, and the resurrection takes place, and you and I are judged and given our final reward. It's not much time. And the time is going to be very challenging, as we'll see in a future sermon. It's going to be very, very challenging. It's going to test this. It's going to test this beyond what we as humans could possibly do or bear. And yet, with Christ who will never leave us and forsake us, with the great powers of the Holy Spirit, with the true agape mindset, the challenge is to always love God and love fellow man in any situation, no matter what. And the faithful will do that. The faithful will do that, and they will inherit eternal life at the seventh trumpet return of Christ.