LAST GREAT DAY – 2005

Fred Coulter – October 25, 2005

And greetings brethren. Welcome to the Last Great Day, the eighth day, that great and final day of the feast. And what a day this is going to be. And what a time that this pictures. And what an absolute fantastic finale for the plan of God as outlined by the holy days. Tremendous and wonderful thing.

Now God tells us here in Leviticus 23 that on the eighth day we are to have a holy convocation, and we are to bring an offering to God. Now it’s very important that we really understand something. Now let me just give you a little story, a little instance, because we are living in a time where there is the greatest wealth, the greatest amount of everything that we have in the history of mankind. And yet as human nature is it’s reflected in what one man has said. He was visiting from a foreign country and he visited one of the churches of God and he saw all the wealth and he saw all the things that we have here in America and he says, “You know, we’re praying for you.” And every one was happy. “Well, we’re thankful you are praying for us.”

“Well, we’re praying for you a little bit differently than you think. We are praying that all the wealth that we see, and see that you have, does not destroy you.”

Now we need to think on that, and we need to understand that because that’s what’s destroying this nation, and it is also destroying a lot of people because they have accepted the proposition that God tells us in the New Testament we don’t have to tithe. And I got a letter recently from a man who said, “Well, you’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing because you teach tithing.” And he was all mad at me, condemned me, and said, “Well, you have to look forward to the lake of fire.” So what I did, I just wrote him back and said, “Go where you want to go, do what you want to do, keep your money, but know that as everyone else, we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of God. So you do what you do, choose what you choose, but know that God is going to bring it into judgment.”

Now also in the way of giving it says here besides your gifts, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and your tithes, and everything that you do there’s a reason why God has us tithe and give offering. Not only for the sake of doing the things that we need to do to accomplish in this age, but also as a reflection of your belief and faith in God that He is going to fulfill His promise that He is going to provide for you that you will have sufficiency in all things. And also it does something else. It helps us manage our money and it helps us realize that wealth must be used properly, and wealth is not an end in itself.

Now some people view giving a lot of money, as Jesus said … Let’s come here to Luke 21, and this was just before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. A lot of people view the giving of money as sort of an inside track to God. The more that they give the more that God is going to have to bless them and favor them, and all that sort of thing. And then other people think, “Well, the ministers and the priests and all of those people, they take the money and they misuse it.” Granted, in a lot of cases they have. And we’ve also experienced that too, haven’t we? But let me tell you two things out of that. If we haven’t learned the lesson, number one (for those who are ministers and teachers) to use the tithes and offerings that God sends in a proper way, then we haven’t learned a thing from what we’ve gone through. And if the brethren, who are all mad because they sent in their tithes and offerings and it was misused and abused, and then you get all bitter and you all say, “Well, I’ll never give anything to a man again.” Well, where do both of these attitudes put you before God? See, God says He loves a cheerful giver. God has blessed us with so much. He has blessed us with tremendous things. Now if we used them properly, and if we used them to glorify God, and if we use them decently and honestly in the sight of all men, or that is in the sight of all the brethren, which we do, then God will bless us and lead us and strengthen us and give us understanding. But look at the two extremes that we have here in Luke 21.

Now let’s go back here to Luke 20:45 so we’ll get a little story flow here: “Then in the audience of all the people He said unto His disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts [these are the religious high mucky-mucks]; which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation [judgment]” (Luke 20:45-47, KJV). See, because God is judging. As I’ve said how many times, God is judging every human being all the time through His laws and His commandments and His statutes and by their conduct.

God also at any time, especially with us, knows and understands our minds, doesn’t He? And He knows what we think. He knows every hair on our head. He understands us. He has called us, and that’s for a great and a marvelous purpose. So in bringing up an offering for the Last Great Day let’s look at it properly the way that Jesus Christ wants us to, and not to the either extremes: that I’m rich and increased in goods and I’m not going to give anything; or I’m rich and increased with goods and therefore I’m going to buy my way into the Kingdom of God; or from the other hand, “Well, I don’t trust any man and I won’t give anything to any man at all.” I even had one man write and say, “Well, the only way to solve the tithing problem is this: tithe to yourself.” So you see not only are we at a time of wealth and increase of goods, but we are also in a time when people have so many vain ideas. So like I told the man, I said, “Keep your money, go your way, do what you want to do but you’re in the hands of God.”

Now here, after saying that Jesus: “…looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury [or her poverty] hath cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21:1-2, KJV). That is obviously for that particular time. So there are the two extremes that Jesus saw.

Now Jesus is aware of the attitudes of both. So as we come to take up the offering for the Last Great Day we all stand before God in what we do, in what we’re going to give, and how we live our lives. We all stand before God in how we use the money, how the money is spent.

But as one man who just recently received the books that we sent out, he was amazed because he’s a minister in one of the Churches of God 7^th Day, and he said no other church that he knows of is producing and putting out high quality books, and in addition to that giving them out free. Now we do sell a few through York Publishing, that is correct. And this year we’ve been able to give $6000 to the church from York Publishing. So anything that people out in the general public want to buy a book, there it is for them to buy. But for the people in the church we give them free. And we offer the free book on the website. And he was totally amazed, because he’s coming from a Church of God 7^th Day that is generally very poor, very penurious, and having a hard time even spiritually coming to understanding and truth. And so then he looks at what has happened because he understood what happened with Worldwide and everything that has taken place, and he was totally amazed. So I said, “Yes, we live within the budget that God gives us. Whatever He sends we live within. We don’t go into debt. And we try and make every dollar go as far as it can, and to produce as much as it can so that we can serve the brethren and people with the truth of God. And so that’s what we are doing.

So you can look at it in this sense: Whatever you send in, whether it be tithes or offerings or whatever, they are used to help build the brethren in the spiritual character and love of God so they can attain to the Kingdom of God. And that’s the whole purpose of why we’re here. And that’s the whole purpose of what we’re doing. And if there’s any other purpose that we have in mind we are liars and cheats and hypocrites – all of us together. And that’s not the case. So at this time we’ll go ahead and pause and take up the offering and then we’ll continue on with the sermon for the Last Great Day.

(Pause)

When you look around the world, I know just a while back there was a story in the San Jose Mercury News and it was quite a touching story. And it was this: Four babies were buried in one grave in one day. And I looked at that and then read the story. And what happened was this: There was a woman who works for the county and she was going through the morgue and there were four babies unclaimed. Now it didn’t give any of the circumstances of the babies. They were infants. It didn’t say that they were stillborn, no identification, no name. There was nothing in the paper that there were trash-can babies so this had nothing to do with that. So it makes you wonder: were these babies late term abortions and just sent off as human garbage to the morgue?

And so this woman came along and she was touched at seeing them – that no one cared, no one had any love, no one had any concern, and the coroner, who it was just his routine business. So she got a hold of a funeral home and had them donate some small little caskets for these little infants – dead, forgotten. Someone in their great selfishness to live their lives – a choice. As my wife said, “How can any woman forget that which comes out of her body between her legs?” So here are these poor little infants. And so what the woman did to bury them, she got a nice brand new blanket for each one, and a little teddy bear. And she said that she got the teddy bear so these poor little infants could have some sort of comfort.

So this is the kind of cruel world that we live in. And the world has been cruel and miserable from the time of the sin of Adam and Eve. And men have wondered, is it God? Why does God allow this if there is a God? And if He does allow it, how is He going to solve this? And let’s look at all of the tragedies down through time. Let’s think about the 63 million abortions in America alone. That’s murder to the god of Molech. You see in this case, instead of putting the babies, or the infants in the arms of a leering sun-god, and then the arms come up like this and the babies roll down into the belly of the god to be consumed by fire, you see, the abortion clinic becomes the temple. And the table becomes the altar, and the doctor becomes the high priest. And the scientists become gods so they can take the parts of these poor aborted babies and use them for scientific improvement. You know God’s judgment is going to come. And this nation is going to be hit. And the world is going to be hit. And it’s all going to lead to the return of Jesus Christ. But God has a way out. Because stop and think a minute. Think about all the murders, all the brutalities, all the accidents, weather, earthquakes, calamities, famine, war, death, suicide bombers, terrorists – all of those things God has not interfered to stop. And since God didn’t do it to stop it, then God is also responsible for it in the final analysis. And that’s because He gave choice to human beings. And that’s because also they followed Satan the devil.

Now you see, God is also responsible for this and we need to realize it and understand it: God has given this world over to Satan the devil who is the god of this world and is deceiving the whole world actively right now in every way. And let me just mention, the ones that he wants to deceive right now are the people of God more than ever before. And so that’s why there are so many prophets and teachers. You’d be surprised. Every once in a while I get a stack of email like this that 90% of it is nothing but informational trash as to how bad the condition of the churches of God really is. And Satan is wanting to get in there to disturb, to deceive, to upset, to lie, to bring in lying doctrines, and to bring in creeping Protestantism.

Now let me just tell you this: Protestantism is schizophrenic. Claims the forgiveness and sacrifice of Christ and rejects all the commandments of God. It is a lawless grace. It is a counterfeit – very clever, very clever. One of the cleverest that Satan has done. So you stop and you look at all the things that have come down through the world in time from Adam and Eve until now, all subject to Satan the devil. Now how’s God going to take care of this? How is He going to overcome this? That’s the story and the lesson of the Last Great Day.

Now let’s first of all understand because of the sin of Adam and Eve human beings were given into them the law of sin and death. And human beings are deceptive. As we know the carnal mind is deceptive above all things and who can know it – deceitful, tricky. Because in rejecting God the judgment has come upon all mankind from Adam and Eve down to our day that they have carnal minds, they are hostile to God, they have the law of sin and death in them, and there is a way that seems right to them but the ends thereof are the ways of death, and Satan is right there. He’s right there to lead them astray.

That’s why, God in dealing with those that He calls, it is a special calling. And it is something that is fantastic from the point of view that God has not forgotten these people. Now let’s understand something here very clearly. As tragic and as emotional and as upsetting as many of these things are that we read and see in the news and hear and watch and you know, we can have it just pour right into our living rooms all the problems of the world, just absolutely pour into our living room and see all of these things. You see, let’s understand something: God knows what He’s doing. And since all of us have the law of sin and death in us (all human beings do), now maybe you can understand why Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead” because all human beings, spiritually before God without the Spirit of God in them, are dead. And that’s why He reaches down and chooses whom He will. And that’s us. That’s why it’s a great miracle that we are here. And that’s why we are called out of the world. And that’s why God has given His plan as related through the Holy Days so we know what He is doing. And we understand what God has done with His calling, and we understand the problems and difficulties that we are going through. We understand the human nature that we are fighting. We understand to a great degree (not to a full degree) the work of Satan the devil who’s the enemy of God. We understand that. And the reason that God has done that is because He’s going to save in the end.

Now let’s come here to Jeremiah 2 and let’s see what God says. Very, very profound. And why would people do this? God not only gave all these things to Israel: revealed Himself, gave His laws, gave His commandments, said, “I’ll bless you, I’ll watch over you, I’ll fight for you, I’ll protect you.” But you see, He didn’t give them a calling to salvation, and so they still had their carnal minds. Now as long as they lived in the society of Israel, and the society of Israel was led by righteous kings and righteous priests and righteous judges then things would go well for them. But Israel didn’t want that. And yet we’re going to see something very profound here. What they did – and yet in spite of the fact that they did this, paid the penalty for their sins, died ignominious deaths, went into captivity – that God is yet to have mercy on them. Now that’s something we really need to understand.

Now Jeremiah 2:8: “The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew Me not: the pastors also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.” So they gave up on God. Now notice verse 11: “Hath a nation changed their gods…” You look at all the other nations. No, their religions go back hundreds of years and thousands of years, yes indeed. “…Which are yet no gods? but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters [and we’ll see this a little later on], and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:8, 11-13, KJV). So God says, “Alright, your own wickedness is going to correct you,” verse 19.

Now out of all of that we see that God still, in loving the world, He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, that whoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And God has said some other statements here, when in the face of everything that we are looking at today, how is God going to do it?

Now let’s come here to the New Testament and let’s see some things that God says here in I Timothy 2 concerning this. Yet in spite of all of it God has a plan, God has what He’s going to do. And those that He has blinded, those that He has given over to Satan the devil, those that He has not called; and as we have read the Scriptures before He even says that He blinds them so that they will not be converted at that time in order, as we know by the Last Great Day, to have mercy upon them.

Now let’s come here to I Timothy 2:4 (FV). Speaking of God our Savior: “Who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Now how is that going to happen when God has only called a few, when God is only involved in, as we know, the firstfruits?

Now let’s come back here to Romans 10 and let’s see a principle and let’s ask the question: Has this ever been done? How many people have ever really been able do this in knowledge and in truth. It says here in verse 9: “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Well now as we know it takes more than just a profession of this. It takes the calling of God, but nevertheless that’s a starting point. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation because the scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in Him shall not be ashamed.’ For there is no difference between the Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all is rich toward all who call upon Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Those are true statements. And those are also taken from prophecies of the Old Testament. Now notice verse 14: “How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?” Now the gospel is not gone out, even though being preached in all the world, it’s preached mostly for a witness. How many preachers have been out there preaching the truth? Preaching the Word of God, obedience to God, the love of God? Very few. God hasn’t sent them. “And how shall they hear without preaching? And how shall they preach, unless they be sent? Accordingly, it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of peace, and those who announce the good news of good things [to come]!’ ”

Now notice verse 16: “But all have not obeyed the gospel because as Isaiah said, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of God.” Yes, these things really have been something. Then he sums up that He gave it to them to hear, verse 18: “ ‘…Their voices went out into all the earth…’ ”, but how many people heard? Very few. And also with Moses they were constantly rebellious. Now verse 20: “Then Isaiah was very bold and said, ‘I was found by those who were not seeking Me [that is because God sent the apostles to the Gentiles], and I was revealed to those who were not inquiring after Me.’ However, to Israel He said, ‘All day long I have stretched out My hands to a people who are disobeying and contradicting’ ” (Rom. 10:9-18, 21, FV). And then you read in the Old Testament…, and the reason we are going through this is so that we can understand how God is going to solve the problem because not only did God let the problem be, He caused the problem so therefore He’s got to solve the problem. Now in the midst of that He’s given us choices so that the problem will either be less severe or more severe, depending upon our choices.

Now then because of this, Chapter 11, verse 1: “Now then I say, did God Himself repudiate His people? MAY IT NEVER BE! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God did not repudiate His people whom He foreknew. Don’t you know what the scripture says in the account of Elijah? How he was pleading with God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, and they have torn down your altars; and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ ” The answer that came from God was, “ ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed a knee to Baal.’ ” So God still is always dealing with a remnant, and this is the key thing, verse 5, that we need to understand today. See because Christ is the forerunner, having gone into the holy of holies for us. He calls us. We are the firstfruits. We are the ones that God is dealing with. And He is preparing us then to assist Him in the Millennium, as we have seen, and then in the Last Great Day to help fulfill the great and fantastic promises that God has given to all His creation.

So notice verse 5: “Now then, in the same way, at the present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” And we are that election. We have been called and selected of God. And then he talks about how that everyone needs to be in that olive tree, partaking: “…of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree…” verse 17, which is true Israel. Then he says, yes, some of them were cut off for unbelief. Then he gives the warning that if we also have unbelief He’ll cut us off too.

Now let’s see what is very important in the whole thing, down here in verse 25: “For I do not wish you to be ignorant of this mystery…”, this secret. How can God undo all of this evil, and all of this wrong, and all of the injustices? And that’s why a lot of men have become atheists because they look at all of the carnage of the world that they have seen and they don’t know. If there is a God why did He do it? If there is a God why did He allow it? If there is a God why isn’t there any answer? Well the answer is very simple – you’re looking in the wrong place. You need to look in the Bible. You need to seek God, He’ll give you the answer.

Now verse 25: “For I do not wish you to be ignorant of this mystery, brethren, in order that you may not be wise in your own conceits…” Don’t think that because God has called you, or God has called us (we’ll put it in plural sense here) that we’re better than the world, that we’re greater than the world, that we deserve it more than anybody else. No, that’s not true. “…That you may not be wise in your own conceits: that a partial hardening of the heart has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved…” And you go back and you read the history of Israel, and you see all of their sins, and all of their problems, and their wars, and their captivities, and everything that they went through God says, “So all Israel shall be saved.” How’s that going to be? “ ‘…Out of Sion shall come the Deliverer, and He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant, which I will make with them when I have taken away their sins.’ ” And we have read that – the New Covenant that He’s going to do.

But what about all of those who never had an opportunity, including Israel? And this is the greatest section in the New Testament, which shows that those under the Old Covenant did not receive spiritual salvation. If they had they would have already been saved. But this “shall be saved” is a future event and is pictured by this Last Great Day. Now today it says: “On the one hand, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but on the other hand, concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes…” So even modern Israel today still receives the blessings because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in the final analysis all of these physical things and blessings didn’t turn them back to God, did it? No.

Then it says here, verse 29: “…because the gifts and the calling of God are never revoked.” In other words because the descendents of Abraham did not do as Abraham, and God promised to Abraham irrevocably, then none of it’s going to be revoked. So in it there is the blessing and cursing that we know about. “For just as you once did not believe God, but have now been shown mercy through their unbelief [he’s talking to the Gentiles], in the same way also, they have not believed at this time in order that through the mercy shown to you, they also may have mercy shown to them.” And we are going to show the mercy to them when they are resurrected in the second resurrection, as we will see. This is going to be something. This is going to be fantastic. And this is why this is called the Last Great Day.

And let me just tell you something here brethren, that we need to understand: Paul, though he knew this was going to be, did not have the understanding that we do. But he does say this, verse 33: “O the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unfathomable are His judgments and unsearchable are His ways!” Because of His great and His marvelous plan “For who did know the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who first gave to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? For from Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things; to Him be the glory into the ages of eternity. Amen” (Rom. 11:1-5, 17, 25-31, 33-36, FV).

Now let’s ask the question about the rest of the dead. Let’s come back here to Revelation 20 and let’s see what it says. Now as we’re going back there and we’re talking about those who have died let’s understand this: Those who are called and are converted and attain to the resurrection of the dead (the first resurrection), we are all firstfruits unto God. We know that through Pentecost, don’t we? And we know that the dead in Christ are going to rise first. It says Christ is the firstfruits, and then afterwards those who are Christ’s at His coming. Every man in his own order. So there’s an order to the resurrection.

Now we see something that God reserved to reveal in a clear statement until the writing of the book of Revelation. Now that’s something to realize. And Satan has deceived all these religions. Even Christian professing religions in the world believe that they have immortal souls and the soul goes to heaven, whereas the Bible teaches the revelation of the resurrection here.

Now let’s pick it up here and review again just in verse 4. “And I saw thrones; and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given to them; and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and those who did not worship the beast, or his image, and did not receive the mark in their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Now notice the next statement – a parenthetical statement inserted in there to show the difference between those in the first resurrection and the rest of the dead. “(But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were completed.)” Now that is a definite and absolute statement, isn’t it? And we know that the only ones who are going to be resurrected from the dead are not going to be resurrected until the coming of Christ – and that’s the first resurrection. But what about the rest of the dead who are not in the first resurrection? Now we’ve gone through the whole story of the Millennium and how people will enter into the Kingdom of God during the Millennium and so forth, and it will be a reign of life where if you’re righteous you’ll be changed from flesh to spirit at the end of your life. And if you die you’re in the congregation of the dead and you are accursed.

Now – the rest of the dead, all of the rest of the dead. Isn’t that something? So he says: “This is the first resurrection [referring to verse 4]. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power” (Rev. 20:4-6, FV). And this is an interesting thing, isn’t it? The second death. It means just what it says. Now in order to die twice you have to be alive twice, right? So this also tells us then, since those in the first resurrection – the second death has no power over them; then those who are raised from the dead (they don’t live again until the thousand years are over) will be raised to a life that is still subject to death. Now we’ll see why. We’ll see what that is all about.