Welcome to The Last Great Day with the Great Lakes Church of God.
Every year the holy days remind us of how everybody fits in God’s plan for salvation. Pentecost represents the firstfruits (those called in the 6,000 years of man’s history). The Feast of Trumpets shows us that Christ will return at the seventh trumpet; then the firstfruits will rise from the dead as spirit beings. At the Feast of Tabernacles we learned that the innumerable multitude who live into the Millennium will be given God’s Holy Spirit, and their descendants will also be given God’s Holy Spirit. One more group of people must be offered salvation, and they are those who lived during the 6,000 years of man’s history but were never called by God.
Turn to I Corinthians chapter 15. We often call this the Resurrection Chapter. Read I Corinthians 15:22-24. It is talking about an order to salvation (each in his own order). First, it refers to those who are Christ’s, in other words the Christians. Then Christ presents the kingdom to the Father. Everything will be under God at that point. Everyone in the Millennium and those who come later will all be under God.
Turn to Revelation chapter 20. We find here that there is to be a first resurrection. This occurs after Jesus Christ has returned and after Satan has been bound and put away. Read Revelation 20:4. Read verse 5 where there is a side remark. It is very specific here. It talks about a first resurrection. Read verse 6. Those who are in the first resurrection will be able to reign with Christ for a thousand years. We pictured that time as we observed the Feast of Tabernacles.
WHAT ABOUT THE REST?
What about the rest of the people who are not in that first resurrection? Let’s turn to John chapter 6. The people who are not in that first resurrection have not been called yet. Read John 6:44. This is saying that we have to be called, but not everybody has been called.
The Church has been so small over the centuries. If you look at all the Church of God groups, it is a small number of people. There are certainly now no more than a hundred thousand members. This is out of six billion people on the earth, or as the British express it, six thousand million. One hundred thousand out of six billion is a very small fraction.
Turn to Matthew chapter 13. Jesus Christ taught that not everyone was being called. He had begun to explain one of His parables, and then He received a question from His disciples asking, why do You speak in parables? Read Matthew 13:10-17. Here Jesus Christ is explaining the exact reason why He spoke in parables. It was not, as some say, just an illustration to make things easy to understand. Rather, it was to hide the meaning from those who had not been called yet. So the whole world has not been called yet. It would be unfair to expect them to behave as if they had been called.
Turn to John chapter 3. The fact that the whole world has not been called does not mean that God loves those who have been called any more than He loves the rest of the world. That is certainly not true at all, because look at John 3:16. It is a very well-known verse. Read John 3:16. He is showing that God loved the world and gave His Son for everyone, even for the people who have not been called yet.
Continue reading John 3:17. It does not say in this verse when they will be saved. We have to look elsewhere in the Bible for that, but it does say that they will be saved. Let’s read in Acts chapter 4. Here the apostle Peter is speaking. He is speaking to the Sanhedrin (the council of the Jews). Read Acts 4:12. He is talking about the name of Jesus Christ. What he is telling them is you cannot be saved without knowing the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, you have to understand what that means. It does not mean to just know the name and think immediately that you are going to be saved. The name portrays everything about a person, in this case, everything that He would be teaching and His authority as well. It is more than just knowing the name. Most people have never even heard the name! Many that have, have heard the name used incorrectly.
We have seen that not everyone has been called. It is just not their time yet. We read in Revelation 20 about a first resurrection. If there is a first one, you would think that there would have to be a second one. There must be more than one resurrection.
THE SECOND RESURRECTION
Let’s read about a second resurrection. First let’s turn to John chapter 7. In John 7 we will learn about The Last Great Day which pictures the second resurrection. You may remember in John chapter 7, at the beginning it talks about Jesus Christ attending the Feast of Tabernacles. Read John 7:2, 10, 14. So we have proof that Jesus Christ went to the Feast, but now continue reading in verses 37-39 of John 7. In verse 37 it talks about “the last day, that great day of the feast.” That is why we call this The Last Great Day. The name is scriptural. On that Last Great Day of the Feast, He was showing us that there was a time coming when anyone could come to Him and would receive the Holy Spirit which is symbolized by living water. This is connecting The Last Great Day to that great white throne judgment that we are going to read about in a few minutes. In John 7 it is talking about that Last Great Day of the Feast.
Let’s go to Leviticus chapter 23 and read about that Last Great Day, where in this case it is called the eighth day. Leviticus 23 is the Festivals Chapter. All the festivals of God are listed here. Read Leviticus 23:34-36. It is talking about an eighth day, and that is the day that we are observing right now. It is a day when there is a sacred assembly (a worship service), and we are not to be working on this eighth day.
Read Leviticus 23:39. All of us around the world who understand about The Last Great Day and observe it enjoy this peaceful Sabbath rest.
In John chapter 7 Jesus had been at the Feast. Then it was followed by this eighth day, which is what we are calling The Last Great Day.
Let’s go back to Revelation chapter 20. This is a time after Jesus Christ has returned, Satan has been put away and then he was released for a short time. Then he was put away again forever. Now we go to Revelation 20 where we find a time when God’s Holy Spirit will be offered to everyone. Read Revelation 20:11-12.
In verse 11 it talked about a great white throne and people standing before God and books being opened. That same word “books” would also be used for the word Bible. In other words, the Bible is opened to people who are coming up in this resurrection. The Bible is explained to them. The Bible is opened to their understanding, and they are judged according to their works. They are not judged by the works that they had done before they knew anything. They are judged by what they do after that, during some period of time. They are judged according to their works and how well their works agree with what is written in those books.
Think for a minute. What are people with the Holy Spirit judged on? Are we being judged now based on what we did before we were converted? No. Those sins were put under the blood of Jesus Christ and forgotten. We are being judged by what we have done after conversion and how we have grown in God’s perfect holy righteous character. Remember God’s character is knowing right from wrong, choosing the right and doing it under all circumstances.
Have we learned to put sin out of our lives? Have we learned to overcome ourselves, Satan and the world? It is going to be similar to that in the great white throne judgment except that they will not have Satan to overcome. They will be judged by what they do after they have received the knowledge of the truth, which they have never had before. They will be judged after they have received God’s Holy Spirit which they have never had before. Then comes their period of judgment.
Let’s read in Ezekiel chapter 37. There is proof that there is a physical resurrection. This resurrection that people come up in that is discussed in Revelation 20:11 is described in Ezekiel chapter 37. As you know, the first resurrection is a resurrection to spiritual life. The second resurrection is a physical resurrection. In other words, it is a resurrection to physical life.
Let’s read Ezekiel 37:1-8. This is obviously talking about a physical resurrection because it is talking about bones, sinew, flesh, skin and even breath.
Continue reading Ezekiel 37:9-14. Not only is this a physical resurrection, but they will be given God’s Holy Spirit as well. They will then be having their opportunity for salvation.
In Ezekiel chapter 37 that we have just read, it talks about the house of Israel. It only talks about Israel here. It is not talking about the other nations. We can see that this is actually extended to all nations. Turn to Matthew chapter 12, and we will understand this better.
Jesus Christ was teaching here in Matthew 12. We are going to see that the people of Jesus Christ’s time who had not already received God’s Holy Spirit will be in this second resurrection. Read Matthew 12:41-42. The people of Nineveh were given the message by the prophet Jonah. They repented but did not receive God’s Holy Spirit. They were spared the destruction that would have happened to them. This was around the eighth century before Christ. The queen of the south coming to hear the wisdom of Solomon was about one thousand years before Christ. They were in different times and different nations, but they will all be in the judgment with the Pharisees of Jesus Christ’s time, the people of the first century. It is showing that this period of judgment will be opened to everyone.
Let’s go back to John chapter 8 and pick up the story on that Last Great Day when Jesus Christ was speaking. Remember in John chapter 7 Jesus Christ had talked about the meaning of The Last Great Day. He must have made that statement about rivers of living water in the evening of The Last Great Day. Go to John 8, and it is the morning of The Last Great Day. Remember in the Bible the day starts at evening.
Read John 8:2-11. On that Last Great Day, Jesus Christ had a woman stand before Him who was accused of sin. She did not deny it. She did not say she was falsely accused. He said, “sin no more.” In the great white throne judgment, people will stand before Christ. They will remember their sins. They will be told to sin no more. In fact, they will then go through the same process that Christians do now.
They will have to repent and believe the gospel of the kingdom. Christ told us we had to repent, but of course one has to know what to repent of. A person has to repent of breaking God’s law. In the great white throne judgment they will have to repent of what they were. A person has to understand what to repent of before he can repent. It takes some learning. By then the books of the Bible will be opened to everyone.
In the Millennium everyone will be called. Then the great white throne judgment will take place when everyone will be brought back to life who has never had an opportunity for salvation. They will be called as well. One of the main differences is that Satan will not be around. We read in Revelation 20 how Satan will have been bound permanently. These people will not have to deal with Satan. Everybody who is coming up in this resurrection will be having the same opportunity. They will not have quite the same pressures of this society that Christians have to work against. They will not have Satan and this society to work against. They will have to overcome themselves because they will have lived life before. They will have their memories and their bad habits from before. That can all be overcome. The sins can be overcome with God’s Holy Spirit. With God’s Holy Spirit there will be a time of joy, peace and plenty just like the Millennium right before that period. We will have that thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, and this will be just like an extension on to it with the same type of happiness.
THE THIRD RESURRECTION
Turn to Revelation chapter 20 again. We are going to read about a third resurrection. Read Revelation 20:13-15. It says the sea gave up the dead. Satan’s system (the sea) gave up the dead. They were those who had never accepted God’s way of life. We have already covered everybody else up to this point, as we discuss salvation. Now we have only those left who are cast into the lake of fire, as it talks about in verse 14.
We see there is a third resurrection. It is a resurrection in which people are mercifully destroyed, if you want to think of it that way. Instead of having eternal life like Satan the devil in rebellion and hatred, they are mercifully destroyed. They are gone, but there are going to be very few in that condition.
Turn to II Peter chapter 3. God’s plan is very fair. In fact, it is more than fair. Read II Peter 3:9. God wants all to come to repentance. That is His desire. It is not His desire to put anyone into the lake of fire. He wants all to repent in their own time. God wants to offer salvation to everyone, but each in his own time. With verses like this, you can see that there will be very few who would fail in God’s plan. God is not a failure, God will succeed with the vast majority.
TO INHERIT THE UNIVERSE
Let’s go back to Revelation chapter 21. There is a verse that talks about our potential. It is a potential that all humans will have. Read Revelation 21:7. That is our promise to inherit all things (all things meaning the universe)! Those who are now Christians will be sons of God and members of God’s family. We will become God, and so will all of those billions of people who will be in the Millennium and who will be in the great white throne judgment. All those people who never knew God will have that same opportunity we have to inherit all things as it says in Revelation 21:7.
This Last Great Day has some special significance for me this year. I had to take a break from preparing this sermon to go to a visitation for someone who died. We were there to console the family members. They will miss the person who has died. Even for those of us who understand God’s truth, funerals are not easy. We know it will be a while until we see those people. We will miss them in the meantime, yet we know we will see them again. While I was there at that funeral visitation, I was meditating on God’s wonderful plan that offers salvation to everyone.