[Jerold Aust] My father died at age 56 of leukemia. My brother died at 46 of Hodgkin's disease, actually they doubled up on the chemo they gave him at one particular point and it weakened his heart. And he finally died I guess just of a weakened heart. He played a lot of basketball and football was all-state in both sports for three years in each one. And so he loved sports and became a coach, and he actually died on the football field when his son was out there right at halftime, and he had tried to encourage him and when he walked back on the field to go to the bench, he died.

So I miss my father a great deal, took me three years to forget him. In the sense that I kept thinking he was going to come back. I didn't know what God had in store. And I just kept dreaming that he would come back. Finally, after three years I think the dream played out, and I realized that my father was not going to come back. Death, as you well know, is a great enemy of humankind, and it's going to be abolished and put out of the way entirely, and that'll be done through eternal life. You and I have the opportunity to serve our resurrected families. My mother also died, but she died at almost 101, lived a little bit longer of course and she had all of her faculties. She was really quite a lady. I have a great deal of respect for my mother. Going to be able to by the grace of God, and as I endure to the end, I'm going to be able to be there to serve my family. I really want to do that. My story is your story, you have family that you want to be around and want to be able to serve in the fulfillment of the Last Great Day or the Eighth Day of the Feast.

That last resurrection to physical life is revealed in Ezekiel 37. I'm going to turn there. We just heard a little bit about that. I'm going to read Ezekiel 37. I'll do it pretty rapidly, maybe give a little comment here and there, but overall I'm going to do it a little bit rapidly here, "The hand of the Lord," Ezekiel, 37:1, "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and sat me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,” so the imagery here has to do with people that have died and the bones are dried, we'll see that here in a moment, "and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there was very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’"

I'm reading from the Old King James translation, you may have a different one. And in places it'll be a little clearer, "And I answered ‘O Lord God, You know.’ Again He said unto me, ‘Prophesy unto these bones, and say unto them, “O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones: ‘Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you,’”’” so if you were to go no further you would know that this is a resurrection to physical life for those concerned here.

"And cover you with skin, and put breath into you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." As we read on, we're going to see that they thought they didn't know, they thought they had no hope. And God says, "I'm going to make absolutely sure that you know." "So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above:” this all happened very rapidly, "but there was” at the point… at this point “no breath in them. Then He said unto me, ‘Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, “Thus saith the Lord God; come from the four winds,”’" that's north, south, east, and west, “'O breath, and breathe upon the slain, so that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, then they stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army." Incredible number of people that are going to be resurrected at that time.

“Then He said unto me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:’” verse 11, “behold, they say,” or they have said in the past, they might even tell you this now as they are awakened suddenly. "Our bones are dried,” we've been dead a long time, “and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.” So we have no help at all, “Therefore prophesy and say unto them,” verse 12, "Thus saith the Lord God; ‘Behold, O My people,’” this is Israel, “‘I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it,’ saith the Lord." I love the wording in Isaiah 25:9 which I'll simply allude to where it says in effect. "We have waited for You. We have waited for God."

I've given this message over the years I'm remembering in Hawaii, back in about 19, whenever it was 84, and the title was, "They Are Waiting For Us," but they're waiting for God, because God is the only one that's going to bring them out of their graves. He is the only one that's going to be able to raise them up and make them very much alive, and then call them, give them His Spirit. And show them the truth, help them to be able to honor and obey it. And you and I as we endure to the end, as we continue to do what we're doing and do better, what we're doing. And then endure to the end and not quit, we're going to be there. We're going to be able to help them, they're going to need help.

I've often wondered, and it doesn't take over my thinking so don't get carried away with what I'm going to tell you, whether they're going to have clothes on or not. If they don't it's no big deal. They're going to need clothes. They're going to need housing. They're going to need a place to live. They're going to need infrastructure in the cities and the whole bit, and we're going to be able to provide that for 1,000 years. We're going to prepare for that time.

So when they come up they're not just going to come up in the desert. They're going to come up in a global Garden of Eden, which is precisely… they don't use global, but in Ezekiel 36, it talks about that this place has become a Garden of Eden. So the entire world will be a global or a universal Garden of Eden. So the very first Garden of Eden that we see back in the early part of Genesis is only a type. It was good but is a type for fulfillment, which you and I are going to help to prepare for these, billions upon billions of people, that are going to come up by divine fiat all at once. And that's going to be an incredible thing, little babies, young children, middle age, older people, very old people, they're all going to come up at once. What an incredible miracle that's going to be. And I might just add here before we get to my thesis, this great resurrection will also include the Gentiles, they've got to come up.

God, works first through the Jew, or through Israel, and then the Gentiles, you can see that in Romans 1:16 if you're taking notes or if you want to look it up. So they'll be coming up as well, billions of them. And this great resurrection begins the White Throne Judgment. So if you're looking for a theme, a thesis, an S.P.S., here it is, the Great White Throne Judgment meanings help fulfill this great Eighth Day of the Feast. That's a long one. I'm going to break it down to four terms Great, White, Throne, and Judgment. We're going to support the premise for each one. We're going to support the words that God, actually uses Jesus Christ, the author of Revelation who actually uses these terms. So they'll only be four points and it's embedded and embodied in, the Great White Throne Judgment. Great meaning here and I don't want to miss it.

Let's go back now to Leviticus 23, brethren, I think we'd be remiss, if going into this message that we do not show where it is, codify it as it were in Leviticus 23, let's take a look in verse 36, "Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation” or a commanded assembly. God commands us to assemble. He doesn't request it. It's not just if you'd like to that would be fine. However you feel, if you don't feel like doing it don't worry about it. This is a commanded assembly before God with many good reasons, "and you shall offer an offering made by fire under the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein." Now, years ago when I first came across this scripture I thought a solemn assembly meant that I had to be downcast, and I couldn't be happy, I couldn't rejoice. That's not what it's saying, solemn here refers to a Holy Day, holy convocation, very important to God, and it's important to us and billions of people.

Look in verse 39, "Also when the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in…" this is the Feast of Ingathering I like to add the term end-gathering. It is ingathering, but it's a great Feast and it ends all of the harvest-like gathering that God, does for human beings right here on the fulfillment of this day, “…when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: and on the first day shall be” a rest, “a sabbath,” or a Sabbath rest that's holy to God, “and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath." So we see that and it's very clear, let's go now to Revelation 20. Revelation 20, let's take a look at what Jesus Christ tells us about this period of time.

What I appreciate about Revelation 19 and 20 is that you will see the fulfillment of the last four festivals, of God's seven festivals. Revelation 19 shows the fulfillment as it's depicted there of the Feast of Trumpets. Revelation 20:1-3, depicts what we know as Atonement and the fulfillment of Atonement. The incarceration of Satan and the demons very likely on this earth. But that's not the final execution of Satan, well, get to that in just a little bit and later on Revelation 20. Then in verses 4, 5, and 6, for the most part, you will find the Feast of Tabernacles and the 1,000 year period that is shown us there. Then you'll have as it were an insert for a little season from verses 7, 8, and 9, you can include 10 as well if you'd like and we will. And that's a little inset and that's after A-F-T-E-R, not before, but certainly after the 1,000 year period. There'll be some people alive. They will become pretty rebellious, and Christ will take care of that. And then in verse 10, He's going to take care of Satan and the demons, final execution of sentence for Satan and the demons as an object lesson passed them through not the lake of fire, but a type of the lake of fire, a lake of fire. And then they will be put into outer darkness. We'll get into that as well.

So we've covered as it were real quickly Revelation 19 Trumpets. Revelation 21, through 3, Atonement, 4-6 Millennium 1,000 year period. And then you come to verse 11, 12, and 13, you've got the Eighth Day of the Feast, the fulfillment of that day which we also call The Last Great Day, and here we see it in Revelation 20, it's good to get a bit of an overview here. Let's read along with me if you'd like. "And I saw a great white throne,” verse 11, and John is saying this. He is the scribe. He is not the author of Revelation, Jesus Christ is. He said, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it,” so He's already here on this earth, “from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;” that should be,  looked at as the heaven had fled away and of course you would be able to see that in Revelation 6:14-17, the heavens rolled back as a scroll fits, with this part because they are identifying, these are descriptors of Jesus Christ and what had happened earlier, a 1,000 years earlier. The earth and heaven had fled away again Revelation 6:14-17, "and there was found no place for them, and I saw the dead," verse 12, "small and great stand before God."

This word “stand” has an application to the term resurrection. I believe it's anastasis and it's resurrection from the dead to make to stand, to raise up. Remarkably, you can also find the word stand saying the same thing in Luke 21:36. Stumbled on to that one day and it surprised me. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened,” I believe this biblioasis is the Bible, what we know is the Bible, books of the Bible, Scripture with a capital S, Holy Writ. "And another book was opened," here it is, "which is the book of life:” where our names are written. Your name is written in the book of life if you have been baptized, had hands laid on you, received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Your name is entered into the book of life. That's very important to God and us, "and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." The very same thing we go through, 1 Peter 4:17, the Scripture tells us there that judgment is now on the house of God, my words.

"And the sea" verse 13, "gave up the dead which were in it; and death and [the grave] hell delivered up the dead which were in them:” and he says, it again, "and they were judged every man according to their works.” So we've already looked here at an overview of Revelation 20, and we have addressed most of, in an overall sense, of what 20 has to say. And especially reading about the White Throne Judgment. So people are going to be judged during that time. Let me just add really quickly that some might think that if Satan isn't around you can't be judged properly, and you can't find that in the Scripture, it doesn't say that. Because Satan is not going to be around during the 1,000 year period. We know that that's very clear. He's incarcerated or jailed for 1,000 years.

We also find in verse 10 of Revelation 20 and let's take a look at that, "And the devil that deceived them…” that's after the inset of these rebellious individual Antichrist. Agog, and refers to Antichrist, Magog to a party of anti-Christians. And he gathered them all together, you have a correlation and it's a throwback all the way back to Armageddon where he gathers them together to battle, and we see in verse 9 where they come to the beloved city, the camp of the saints which I think we believe for years to be Jerusalem. Verse 10, "And the devil which deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are," it's italicized they were cast in the past. You see that in Revelation 19:20.

"The beast was taken with him and the false prophet." I'm reading Revelation 19:20, this is a thousand years earlier, "That wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive in a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” So this is the middle part fits with the middle part of verse 10, where the beast and the false prophet, of course, we're cast, "And the devil” going back there as well as the demons “shall be tormented day and night forever." I'm going to touch here on Jude 1:6, Jude's letter and verse 6, and then verse 13. Breaking in the context, "And the angels, which kept not their first estate,” where was that first estate? You can buy real estate and that's land, and they had the whole earth, they had the responsibility of taking care of this earth. They didn't want to do that. They thought God didn't know what He was doing, "but they left their own habitation,” you can tie that together with Isaiah 14 where they attempt, Satan does, to throw God the Father off of His throne, and he was thrown back to this earth. And Jesus in, I believe, the gospel of Luke said, "I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning." So that was his return to earth, and he was not allowed to take over God's throne he couldn't do it.

So they “left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains” or God, the Eternal… His ability to restrain “under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Well, it doesn't happen during the great day, it happens immediately before the great day. Then let's take a look in Jude 1, only one chapter, and we've got it going back and forth here between human beings and spirit beings, meaning the angels and specifically Satan and the demons. You will see here in verse 12, “These are spots” of these human beings in your feast of love, all of the feasts, “when they feast with you, and they feed themselves without any fear:” no fear of God, "they're like clouds that are without water,” you've seen those, "carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots." Then he steps into the spiritual realm, and when you come to understand with the help of God's Spirit, you understand that this is like a symbolism or symbolic, or symbolicity and a metaphoric approach to Satan the Devil.

"Raging waves of the sea,” if you go out here and the Gulf of Mexico is stirred up you're going to be able to see that waves of the sea can be raging, and they foam, they have their own foam, "and they foam out their own shame;” then he goes in the next couple of words “wandering stars,” oftentimes referred to angels, "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." I know many years ago in the '60s we often suggested that might be black holes in the universe. They found more black holes. I read Scientific American, which I really appreciate sometimes it's boring, but sometimes it's pretty enlightening. They're finding out in looking out into the heavens that there are a number of black holes. But do you know, there's a scripture back in Isaiah 50:3, that's pretty interesting and I'm not going to turn there. But it shows that God has enveloped the entirety of the universe, all the heavens as if it were in sackcloth and there's blackness surrounding it.

So I have no idea exactly where this is going to be, but they are going to be placed away from light. Light, God is light. Christ is light. John 1, away from divine beings who shine brighter than the stars in the heavens above. They are going to be… not allowed to be around that. You can see that the end of Revelation 22 as well. Now I'm coming back here to these four points. And the first one is having to do with my thesis the Great White Throne Judgment, the word “Great” here as we understand it through the help of God's Spirit, the Eighth Day is numerically the greatest resurrection of human beings that will ever take place. It begins with Adam, the first man and the return of Jesus Christ, which Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 15 the second Adam. So at the return of Christ, from Adam, physical Adam to the return of Jesus Christ, all of those individuals that die and do not go into the beginning of the Millennium or the 1,000 year period. Those people that are dead they're going to come up and there's going to be a great number of them.

Great in Revelation 20:1 fits with the number eight, the number eight, if you were to look it up in Ecclesiastics 11:2 literally means superabundance. I wonder if I address that a little bit later. I don't want to miss that so I'm going to to go ahead and step into that in Ecclesiastics 11. Ecclesiastics 11 brethren, and let's take a look at verse 2, "Give a portion to seven," well, verse 1 says, that we should be freely giving of ourselves. Tithes are absolutely required. God, says “You will 10th to Me, you will tithe to Me because I have given you a responsibility. I'm going to make sure that you have enough funds to be able to get the gospel out to the world.”

In verse 2 it says, "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for you don't know what evil shall be upon the earth." I was amazed one time to look and I don't remember the lexicon, at this time where they actually addressed this seven having to do with the Feast of Tabernacles, and eight having to do with the Eighth Day of the Feast. So what they then said was that seven has to do with completeness, but eight has to do with superabundance. So this is why we have the term “great.” In Ezekiel 37, we have already read those verses, verses 1-2, and verse 10 it talks about “an exceeding great army.”

In verse 28, it includes the nations which are the Gentiles. And they are going to become spiritual Israelites. So we know number one great has to do with the great numbers of people in that singular dispensation of salvation. The end dispensation of salvation for all humankind. God is a great Farmer with a capital F and He harvests, and He harvests human lives. He was harvested in the early as the early barley harvest, she finds the wave sheaves offering in the early part of Leviticus 23. Then we have the firstfruits the latter spring harvest, that's your second harvest. Mr. Rick Beam, addressed that in Deuteronomy 16 those three seasons. So we are the Pentecost harvest, the Feast of Weeks Harvest, fits with Pentecost count 50, we are the firstfruits and of course, we live in a world where Satan is very much walking to and fro on this earth as we find it in Job 1.

Firstfruits, have it a little bit more difficult than others who follow. Think about it as a parent? Did your first did you learn as you were training your first child? Oh, boy I tell you, you think “What do you do next? How do I handle this?” And sometimes we get a little bit over-exuberant as parents, and sometimes we just let it go entirely. The firstfruits have a little bit more difficult than those who follow. I was not the firstborn in my family. One of my sisters, I have four, was the firstborn, and she could take charge no problem and she did. She stood up for me a couple of times. I was like one, two, three, four, I was number five, so I was down the line a little bit. And if my mother hadn't recognized me, they might have lost me. But she was always very nice to me and kind of took care of me and I'd hang on to her, taught me a lot I was grateful that I had her training because she was really very helpful, and she did not… she took no prisoners, so to speak. But she was really sweet and you're going to think that's a contradiction, but she was both. I'm so grateful that I had her as my mother.

Firstfruits go through some tough times, tougher times and those that follow. When I was listening to Mr. Herbert Armstrong in the '60s and even in the '70s, he would discuss this thing about the family relationship, and the firstborn in a family. And how much more difficult it can be for that firstborn and those that follow, it's a little bit easier on them. And that's actually what takes place among the harvest when you finally come to the Feast of Ingathering in the fall feast when billions of people are going to be changed.

We know that billions are going to well, actually yes, a few billion will go into the 1,000 year period from the Great Tribulation. And it's going to be very difficult for them. You and I are preparing to be able to help them as well because we're going to be resurrected by Christ, as He circles the earth and we're going to follow Him. And we're going to be able to help them but as time goes on for 10 centuries, this earth very likely will be filled up with a lot of people. Now I'm sure you probably know that the earth is going to the configuration of the topography of the earth is going to be changed to the return of Christ because there's going to be a great global earthquake. And during that earthquake, the mountains are going to be lowered and very likely the continental shelves will be raised, islands apparently, will disappear. So if you happen to like an island in the Caribbean, you better enjoy that because it may not be there. I was baptized first baptized member in Hawaii, and I said there's no place like Hawaii, and I found out later I don't want to be on the islands at that time.

So it's all going to change, and it's going to be a place for agriculture like we've never seen before. And that's from where our prosperity is going to come. The crops you see that in Amos 9, that's already been read. So it will be a great time. Now point number two why white? Well, white represents light, radiance, and the holiness of God. Let's take a look in Revelation 19. I know you've probably heard I've got my little MP3 here, not because I think I can't be recorded in the back, these guys do a great job. That's not… I'm looking at my timing. And we used to kid about this when the little child or the son said to his dad, "What does it mean when the minister gets up there and takes his watch off and puts it on the lectern?" And the dad looked at him and says, "Absolutely, nothing."

So I am trying to follow this. That I heard in the '60s, so if you don't mind me sharing it with you, that may be true. I'm trying my best not to be doing that, okay. White, Revelation 19:8, "And to her was granted" that would be the Church, the wife, that's made herself ready to marry the Lamb, that would be Christ, “And to her” verse 8, "was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for…" Here's a direct definition. We don't often see this in the Scripture when you get it, grab hold of it. This is one of those, "for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Verse 14, "And the armies which were in heaven followed Him" This is a little bit different part of the context here, that's Christ, "followed Him upon white horses,” we used to kid about this. If you've never ridden a horse, you're going to have an opportunity. White horses because Jesus Christ is going to be on a white horse, verse 11.

And they will be “clothed in fine linen, white and clean." And it has to do with light, has to do with radiance, has to do with the glory of God, the holiness of God. If we were to go back to Malachi 4:2 it talks about the Sun capital S, not small S. Capital S-U-N not capital S-O-N, but S-U-N of righteousness speaking of course of Christ Jesus, to come. And so we know that the individual that is on this throne is depicted, by incredible radiance, His holiness, shining white, shining bright, and radiant light. God's divine holiness shines brightly. I don't know if we've actually I've been in and out sometimes having to do so some particular responsibility during the message, but I don't know if anyone used Revelation [James] 1:17. I'll just allude to that, it talks about the Father of lights. The Father of lights well, we're all lights and were made, we're lit up as it were through the Holy Spirit of God. And it has to do with the character, God's character, in and through us.

So God's divine holiness shines brightly in this world, and it should through us. And Daniel 12:3, when the fulfillment comes about when that down payment of the Holy Spirit then suddenly becomes our entirety, the entirety of our bodies. We're going to shine like blazing lights. Like the stars in the heavens above. So we have now looked at why great because it's numerically the greatest resurrection of human beings for their day of salvation. And white because that has it with the holiness of Jesus Christ and the holiness that God, gives us through Him. Now let's address throne though we'll keep this short. The word “throne” here has to do with a seated potentate, an uncontested sovereign. Actually, I'm doubling up on the word sovereign because it implies uncontested, there's no contest. He rules all by Himself. That's what s
Sovereign means with a capital S.

And He has total unmitigated or absolute power to judge His subjects. We already know that Satan the demons have been removed. We've seen that. So the word “throne” here in Revelation 20:11, we've already addressed the great. White we understand the meaning, and throne here has to do with Jesus Christ, the uncontested sovereign, seated looking out over His Kingdom. "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it," refers to that throne. That's point number three, wow. We get to number four you're going to lunch early. Number four, I love this one. I one time did a bit of research on judgment, and that's what we're going to talk about. Why judgment?

Because it is so easy for you and me to look in the negative side of things and say well, all I know is Revelation talks about all these trumpets and trumpet plagues, and God is angry and His wrath is on human beings He's going to… well, He's going to dispatch, kill, a lot of people if you go to Revelation 14:14 through the end of the chapter. It shows that Christ is like a farmer that puts His scythe into a sickle, into the vine, and He will be harvesting the grape and they will be trampled down. In this case the… what we're doing well, not translation, but the movement from that physical thing that you can do by making wine. It transfers into the blood that's going to be emanating out of the bodies of these thousands and hundreds of thousands of human beings that are surrounding Jerusalem. That would include the beast power and it would include also the armies of the north and the east.

So here we find that judgment isn't what we always necessarily assign it to. I put here godly judgment is a necessary blessing for saints. If we aren't judged, and I know the scripture in John 12:48, I understand that we might even turn there in a few minutes or less than a few minutes. And I do understand that Jesus Christ was making a point to His disciples who became apostles, and He said, "I didn't come to judge mankind. I came to save them. My Word shall judge them." Now that begins to extend to you and me. We have a responsibility in that as well. Once God opens our minds to understand His holy truth, and we are judged as to whether we keep His laws or whether we do not. I'm not saying that we don't sin, we do. I'm not saying it's a good thing to do it isn't. I'm not saying that sin is not harmful, it is. I'm not saying that sin can't kill us, it can. What I'm saying is, and I already heard here a couple of times by a couple of ministers who said that we do sin now and then. We don't want to we hate sin, but we beg God, to forgive us so, we confess our sins and He washes us clean, and we walk in newness of life once again. You know, that process. We must be judged.

So let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 11. We'll get to the chase right away here about the importance of judgment. 1 Corinthians 11, and of course we read these verses oftentimes during the Passover service. We expound them a little bit, will refer back to the gospel messages that have to do with the taking of the Passover. And he gets into the subject of letting up man verse 28, examine himself, so we do that. Examine ourselves and verse 29, "He that eats and drinks unworthily,” which is to say irreverently “eats and drinks damnation” or judgment “to himself.” He doesn't understand or does not discern the Lord's body for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and even many sleep." That is they are dead. Notice verse 31 and verse 32 pretty powerful. I urge you to remember these verses there in your corner. They're a help to you and to me. “For if” that's conditional, “if we would judge ourselves,” I like to add here perfectly, “we should not be judged.”

“If we would judge ourselves,” and we would be really astute in this, we would be really careful and sensitive, and really draws us close to God as possible, “we should not be judged. But when” — not “if,” next verse, "But when we are judged, we are chastened” or corrected, evaluated and put back on track “of the Lord,” why? I'm adding so ‘that we should not be condemned with the world.” God through Christ is all about saving you and me and all of mankind. We are the apple of His eye. He loves us, especially loves the saints. He knows He's working through us of course, and He wants us to, "succeed" got to be careful with that word. But we want to do the will of God, and we want to be lights to this world and help other people, we judge ourselves. We have a hand in our own judgment. We don't often think about that. With people especially, when they're relatively new to the Church or to coming to church, and the truth, they often think as I did that, "God is out to get me. He doesn't want me to live. He doesn't want me to ‘succeed.’ He's just waiting for me to make my next mistake."

Well, if that were the case we wouldn't be here. We've made many mistakes. We've sinned a number of times in our lives. So God is all out for you and me. But God wants us to prove to Him through our hearts and minds how we think, how we speak, what we say, how we conduct ourselves to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to God that we will never turn against Him when we're made into sons of God. That's pretty important. We're proving ourselves, and He's proving us. You go all the way back to Genesis, what was it chapter 18? I'm guessing on that one. I think that's where I think it was the one who became Christ, the God of the Old Testament and maybe one or two angels came to visit Abraham and Sarah. And there's a scripture in there that says, "But I know Abraham, and I know what he'll do."

God knew Abraham, or Abram, who became Abraham. I want God to say that about me. I want to make sure that God, has no question about me. Now it would be easy for me to discourage and say, "Well I made a mistake and I sinned and oh my He just can't, He can't forgive me, He can't keep loving me." That's not true. He does, He loves you with every fiber of His dynamic divine being. He loves you and me so much that He gave His only, He didn’t have 10 of them, one Son to die for us. That's how much He loves us. And more importantly, He loves us even more because that one Son lives for us, He lives in us. And we can see back in Ephesians 2, that we are as it were with Christ, beside the throne of God. We're physically not there, but it's the phrasing that He uses to show how close we are to Christ, that's how God the Father looks at us. He looks through Christ at you and me, sees us as holy.

So God loves us greatly, so judgment it's so important for you and me, that God does judge us. Do not think that because Satan the Devil is not going to be around the White Throne Judgment, and especially before that during the 1,000 year period which no one can quibble about. I don't think we can quibble about the other. Do not think that we still can't be judged. If you look at the scriptures beginning in Isaiah 30:20, I'm going to go back there so that we can see that no, God didn't make a mistake yes, He does know that we need to be judged, even though Satan is not around, human beings still have human nature.

I was trying to go back to the point where the one who became Christ, the God of the Old Testament, was walking in the garden with Adam and Eve and talking with them, teaching them, probably answering questions. You know what He told them in Genesis 2? He said, there's a difference between good and evil. Remember those two trees? Satan jumped in there in chapter 3, could they have human nature? Could He be aware that human beings could go the wrong way? I've always said over the last maybe 20 or 30 years we have two big strikes against us as human beings. Number one is we're flesh.

When I was younger I thought, “Hey I'm strong enough to do anything. I don't care if John Wayne is around or not, I can walk through a wall, hit the wall, knock myself out.” Not too smart, and my flesh is weak. Now as I get older, you can bet because a lot of you experience this, your flesh is weak. Do you ever have trouble getting out of a chair? Do you ever have trouble getting… and I'm not trying to depress you, do you ever have trouble getting out of bed? Well, thankfully I don't and sometimes if I do I just roll off the bed and forget it. I fall, get myself back up again, but by the grace of God, I'm still able to move even though I got a couple of two… I've got two deteriorating discs in the middle of my back. But God has helped me to be able to function and get around. But we have this body of flesh that's not going to last forever. It's a type, it's of the Feast of Tabernacles because we are temporarily dwelling here as it were in these fleshly bodies, because we're eventually slated to become spirit beings, sons of God. The other is human nature, fleshly body, human nature. Now if during this Feast you never got upset at anybody, I want to shake your hand. You probably don't have much human nature.

But if you're like I am, you may see yourself once in a while not thinking right, maybe blaming someone else not blaming myself, that's human nature. Now God has given us the ability to preserve our lives so that we're not silly and crazy and go off and do ourselves in, obviously. But we take it a step up, we ratchet that thing up just a little bit, and we begin getting jealous of other people, that's human nature. And that is something that of course Jeremiah 17:9 addresses. So judgment is so very important.

Brethren, I am looking forward to the day when I can serve my father whom I deeply respected and loved to be around him. We'd walk down… well, we didn't have sidewalks. This goes back to the late '40s and early '50s, but I'd reach up and I grab his hand which to me looked like a Virginia ham, I know, I'm not making you hungry, but he had big hands and he was a pretty strong guy and he was just so easy going. And loved humor loved to tell jokes. He didn't seek them out like I do. But I mean, he'd sort of do a little play on the things of life. And I just love very much being around him, he was a cobbler, a shoemaker, he repaired shoes so he had my brother Jake and I work with him in the shoe shop. We did some farming and wheat, we planted wheat and we harvested wheat. And I remember how my back hurt trying to shovel that wheat because I wasn't that big.

And we had a few cattle and few hogs and so on, and I'm not trying to destroy you here. But the point is I really enjoyed being around him. I'm looking forward to being around my father. I'm looking forward to helping my brother. I'm looking forward to helping my mother who actually, though I don't believe she was called necessarily, I can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. But she never did come into the Church of God. But when I pastored in different churches she would actually come and sit in the congregation, and I would warn her I said, "Mom are you sure you want to come?" She says, "What can you say that's going to bother me?"

I said, "I'm going to be respectful to your mom, and I love you, but what we're saying here might be a little difficult." And I remember when I'd really get strong on some prophecy and raise my voice a little bit. I'd see my mother in the middle of all of these 600 people, like in Wichita, Kansas, for example, and there she'd be sitting there and I thought, "I wonder what she thinks. You got a move on Jerald." So I keep going and then when it was over I'd say, "Mom, what do you think?" She says, "Well, you preach pretty straight stuff. It's pretty strong stuff, but you do preach from the Bible."

And so I'm going to be able to help my mother, I'll still have a great deal of respect for her, and all of the family members. You're going to be able to do that as well. We're looking forward to that wonderful time. Here today in this very Last Great Day or Eighth Day of the Feast, we're going to be able to help others in the future by dedicating ourselves to endure to the end. We are going to have an effect on the billions of the White Throne Judgment, little letter a) both in limited personal contact today, but more importantly, b) working out our own salvation so that we'll be there to teach and to serve billions of… I love these words, and I've heard this from someone else, future brethren. You've got brethren, all around you those people waiting on us to fulfill our responsibility, our calling they're waiting for us. They are future brethren, brothers, and sisters, all of them.

What a beautiful opportunity, that we have. So, may God richly, bless you and me at this time, so that we can enjoy the Feast of the Great White Throne Judgment today. In order to prepare to serve billions of future brethren tomorrow. Have a great Feast.