OUR TEXT FOR THE BEGINNING OF THIS MESSAGE WILL BE TAKEN FROM THE 19TH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW, AND PARTICULARLY FROM VERSE 28 WHERE JESUS SPEAKS OF THE REGENERATION. HE HAD BEEN CONFRONTED BY A YOUNG MAN THAT NO DOUBT WAS VERY RICH. THAT WAS THE OCCASION FOR HIM TO SPEAK AS HE DID. THE QUESTION WAS ASKED, GOOD MASTER, WHAT GOOD THING SHALL I DO, THAT I MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE; AND THE ANSWER TO HIS QUESTION CAUSED HIM TO TURN AWAY VERY DEPRESSED BECAUSE HE HAD GREAT RICHES. WHEN HE WAS GONE FROM THEM, JESUS SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES, IT IS GOING TO BE HARD FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. THAT IS WHEN HE SAID, IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE, THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD. THIS STATEMENT CAUSED HIS DISCIPLES TO BE VERY TROUBLED AND THEY ASKED, WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED? JESUS TOLD THEM THAT ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD. PETER THEN SAID TO HIM, "BEHOLD, WE HAVE FORSAKEN ALL, AND FOLLOWED THEE; WHAT SHALL WE HAVE THEREFORE?" (IN OTHER WORDS, ARE WE GOING TO MISS IT TOO? THEY HAD LEFT THEIR FISHING BOATS, WHICH WAS THEIR MEANS OF EARNING A LIVING; AND THEY HAD LEFT THEIR FAMILIES; SO YOU CAN SEE WHY HE WOULD ASK SUCH A QUESTION.) JESUS ANSWERED HIM LIKE THIS, (VERSE 28) "JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT YE WHICH HAVE FOLLOWED ME, IN THE REGENERATION WHEN THE SON OF MAN SHALL SIT IN THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY, YE ALSO SHALL SIT UPON TWELVE THRONES, JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL. AND EVERY ONE THAT HATH FORSAKEN HOUSES, OR BRETHREN, OR SISTERS, OR FATHER, OR MOTHER, OR WIFE, OR CHILDREN, OR LANDS, FOR MY NAME'S SAKE, SHALL RECEIVE AN HUNDREDFOLD, AND SHALL INHERIT EVERLASTING LIFE." NATURALLY, HE WAS SPEAKING OF THE MILLENNIUM, WHEN HE SPOKE OF THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY, AND OF THEM SITTING ON THRONES JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL. UNTIL THEN, THIS OLD WORLD WE ARE LIVING IN IS GOING TO CONTINUE ON IN ITS DOWNWARD TREND OF DEGRADATION. ONLY THE LITERAL COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO RULE AND REIGN FOR ONE THOUSAND YEARS IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT PICTURE.
RIGHT NOW THOUGH WE ARE GOING TO BEGIN LOOKING AT SOME SCRIPTURES THAT ENABLE US TO KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT IF WE ARE AMONG THOSE WHO WILL STILL BE LIVING WHEN HE COMES. THERE ARE PEOPLE AMONG THE DENOMINATIONAL RANKS THAT THINK IT IS VERY FOOLISH FOR ANYONE TO THINK OF COMING BACK TO EARTH, ONCE THEY HAVE GONE TO HEAVEN; (AS THEY THINK OF IT) BUT WHAT WE NEED TO REALIZE, IS THAT EARTH IS WHERE GOD HAS DETERMINED TO WORK WITH, AND FELLOWSHIP WITH MANKIND. RIGHT HERE, IS WHERE HE PUT MAN IN THE FIRST PLACE; AND THAT IS WHERE HE INTENDS TO DEAL WITH MANKIND UNTIL HE HAS THAT FAMILY UPON EARTH THAT HIS HEART YEARNS FOR, SO TO SPEAK.

I believe we should at this time go to Revelation 20:1-3, and read the only scripture in the Bible that tells us the duration of the Kingdom Age. (1) "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (2) And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (3) And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." This is when the Millennium, or Kingdom Age begins, which is the age of regeneration. Verse 4, describes the next scene, what takes place next after Satan is chained up. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." Let me stop right there. That is not all of the verse, but the rest of it belongs to another message. I will read this portion again. "And I saw thrones, (plural) and they (plural) sat upon them. (What did they sit upon? Thrones, plural.) And judgment was given unto them, (plural). I wanted to be sure you catch the plural terminology, and now I will take this right back to the 19th chapter of Matthew, to that word Jesus mentioned. He said as He spoke to Peter, "In the regeneration." Christians for centuries have read right over that word, never even allowing it to register in their mind's, and certainly taking no time to try to understand exactly what the word pertained to in the statement of Jesus. I notice in the Scofield Bible that the word regeneration is translated from the Greek word paliggenesia, which means to recreate or renew a social order. When we compare that with Genesis, where the Lord commanded Adam and Eve while they were still just spirit beings yet in His presence, He put into their intellect a commandment, or commission. Replenish. That word replenish, and the word regenerate are almost the same. There is a difference in this sense, When the Lord said to Adam and Eve, Replenish, He was merely referring to repopulating, or refilling the planet. He was not talking about creating any specific social order, or anything like that. The social order was to be determined by how Adam and Eve met their test. That is what we have to understand. Even though they failed in their test, there is a social system that has come forth out of it, and that social system has not always been pleasing to God. As man has been propagated upon the planet, he has been left to his own fate many times, and to his own doings, because he creates his political and social environment, motivated by the nature that is within him. Therefore, he is born a sinner and many times until the grace of God changes him, he does knot know anything else to do but what comes naturally. Many times that can be very greedy and selfish. Nevertheless this word regeneration used by Jesus, is applicable to an age of time, an age that is going to accomplish something on earth far greater than what any man prior to that period of time has ever accomplished. It is not only going to be an era of repopulating, propagating life again, but it is going to bring about the establishing of a kingdom, and a social structure that will be exactly like God wants. It will be strictly motivated by the Spirit of God. For 1000 years, the earth will know only righteousness, because righteousness is in power to rule and reign. When we can see that Millennial Age from the scriptures, it makes one wonder how so many of the professing Christians of the world, all having the same New Testament, could miss the whole picture. They may have different translations, or versions of the Bible, but that particular passage of scripture, no matter what translation it is taken out of, when you read it with the right thought, you are going to have to look ahead to the period of time in which that will be fulfilled. It is a tragedy that within our denominational church world we have thousands, possibly millions of church going people that will read that verse and the whole thought just passes them by like water under a bridge, having no meaning whatsoever. They see nothing, so why be concerned. That is why the Methodists, the Nazarene, the Pilgrim Holiness, Church of God of Prophecy, and elements like that do not even see a Millennium reign of Jesus Christ. They will take certain scriptures that Paul wrote, like in 1st Thessalonians 4, how at the last trump the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which will remain alive shall together with them, be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with Him, and say, Praise the Lord, that proves we are going to go to heaven and get out of all this heartache and materialistic struggle. Who would want to come back to earth? Yes saints, I have heard it presented just exactly like that, but now it is my time to say something. They have said that for as long as two hundred years, or however old their movement is. It presents a false concept of what the plan of God really is. Naturally I realize we can only see what the Spirit of God reveals to us, but I have very little patience with those who just simply take a stance and fight against the revealed truth of God's word. God gave the original Church an insight to the future, that they might see the world to come, and the part the Church was going to play in the overall picture. Well if there is going to be an age that will accomplish that, then let us look at the hour we are living in. Why will an age like that be necessary? What causes the hour we are living in to be changed? We have many scriptures to look at, and we are going to deal with them in this phase of this message, hoping to prove by the scriptures that the world cannot expect to just move out of this era of time into an age of bliss, without there being a period of time wherein humanity will pass through a terrible ordeal; catastrophic, chaotic conditions that will prevail upon this planet. Those conditions lead right up to the day of the Lord. As you read the writings of those Old Testament writers, you find the day of the Lord mentioned often. We are going to look at some of those prophecies.

Verses like Joel 2:31, give us a little more insight than a lot of the others; but they all speak of the same time, the end of this age when these chaotic conditions are climaxed by the coming of Jesus Christ back to earth in bodily form calling forth the wrath of God upon all ungodliness. Here is what that verse says. "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come." As that anointing came upon those old prophets and took possession of their insight, it was almost like a captain on a ship taking that long set of binoculars, pulling them out to the limit, and focusing on a certain object in the far distance. That is exactly how those prophets could see things that were far off in the future. God caused them to be able to focus way beyond the time they were living. There was no way those prophets could understand, or relate to what they were seeing, but they were certainly able to write what they saw. They saw the day of the Lord and what a terrible time it was going to be, and they just simply wrote what the Spirit inspired them to write when they saw those things. Not only did they see future events, they also heard things which they wrote down. And then they took their place among the dead, never to see any of it come to pass. Why would we have a book that relates over and over, repeatedly, about the day of the Lord, unless God wants mankind to pay close attention to what is taking place in the world, and recognize the nearness of that time as it draws nigh at hand? We will not be able to touch all these prophecies; but we can look at the main one's. Some are major, some are minor, some are lengthy, and some are just two or three verses in a particular chapter or writing of a prophet, but taken together, they paint a very clear picture of what they are pointing to. We will endeavor to get the major ones, that give the overall profile of this day of the Lord which will precede that throne setting we looked at in Revelation 20. That day of the Lord will close out the things you and I see, and are related to in this present hour. Therefore it is necessary, if we are going to play our part in this end time wind up, that we have obeyed the gospel call and accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior; and that we are willing to let HIM take possession of our lives. We can only know how to walk day by day, by letting Him lead and direct us in every walk of life. In Isaiah, chapter 13, is one of the first major prophecies spoken, concerning this time. We begin in verse 9, because verse 9 starts with this, "Behold, the day of the Lord." Now let us describe this day of the Lord. What are we actually dealing with? Are we dealing with a period of twenty four hours? No. Are we dealing with one specific hour? Not at all. Then what are we dealing with when we are talking about the day of the Lord? We are dealing with an hour of time upon earth, during which the Lord Jesus Himself will come to earth in bodily form to finish out all of what the prophets have spoken concerning the end of this age. We have been given signs to watch for at the end time. When we begin to see those signs developing in political, economical, military and social orders, we can rest assured, the time is getting close at hand for God to fulfill His purpose in the whole thing. I am not talking about the rapture, and I am not going to tell you any exact time when the rapture is likely to take place. We are presently dealing only with the day of the Lord. In your denominational realms, they have taken these prophecies and split them apart. Some have said the day of the Lord is when Jesus comes. That is true, if you are not thinking of the rapture when you say such a thing. Then they will take other scriptures which describe the day of the Lord and say, That is just before the eternal age sets in. Well we know it cannot be both, so let us go back. The day of the Lord is that era or that little span of time that God begins to introduce His purpose, as He begins to execute certain drastic changes, judgments, creating chaotic circumstances, wherein mankind has to stand back and begin to realize, This has to be the hand of God. A man would be a fool even today, to look at the present world right now, and in the light of what has transpired in the last few months, not see the hand of God setting everything in place for the wrapup. Anyone who would stand today and say, I do not see anything happening that looks like God changing things, would have to be spiritually blind. I see a lot. I see things taking place in this hour that could not have come about forty years ago, or at any other time. Think of the Communistic world, how long they were, in accomplishing their previous boundary and influential status. The Bolshevik revolution which cost millions of lives when men died in the snowy battlefields, eventually led to the creation of an ideology. Years of occupation, then a war, and then gradually spreading. We can safely say that over a period of roughly seventy some years, an empire eventually spread its net. Then in seven months of time it practically fell to pieces. Do not tell me that is mere chance. It just simply does not work that way. Therefore this day of the Lord is how mankind is going to begin to be dealt with. In some of these tragedies, disasters, chaotic upheavals, social disorders, and economic disturbances, as mankind begins to be jostled and shook, if somehow these events are not allowed to awaken him to the reality of what is taking place, and if he does not take heed, then you can rest assured, God's wrath will strike him. There is no way such a person can look up and say, well you did not tell me. Yes. The day of the Lord is within a period of time, as we begin to see signs developing. The day of the Lord is a little era of time, a span of time when we begin to see the hand of God executing in the earth things to cause His word to begin to be quickened, and come alive. All of that is going to lead to, or be climaxed by the day of His wrath, judgment and destruction of ungodly men, and the destroying of man's so called beautiful social order. Our nation in the past forty some years has tried to lead the world and portray an image of democracy. The democracy our nations portray today, is a philosophy that you can put criminals and law abiding people all within the same environment, and that everything ought to be wonderful. The people who read the Constitution today, and who interpret the Constitution to the modern application of democracy, are blind. The men who wrote that very charter they interpret so carelessly, did not believe you could put a mad dog and sheep in the same pasture and have any right to expect that they will all get along together, and that everything will come out alright in the end. Those men were endowed with a true concept of right and wrong, and they established a true democracy. The trouble comes as a result of all these amendments and modern day interpretations by people who seem to be unable to look beyond their own nose. Never has there been an era of time before, when the political leaders of this once great nation were as void of understanding of what true democracy is as they are today. I am not talking about one party being better than the other. God forbid. They are all cut from the same mold. They are like a bunch of spoiled children playing, each one feeling that if things do not go according to his or her own way, they will just refuse to play. In other words, you will all play by my rules, or I will take my ball and go home. The other side of the picture is, each one has a private interest of some kind, and they will only vote for a certain bill, or law, if their interest is sufficiently represented. Is that what our founding father's had in mind when they drew up the Constitution? We every one know better. People campaign for these politicians, and promote them as great men, (or women) but when somehow we are able to look behind the front they put up, a lot of them live lives that are abominable, and do very little to preserve and uphold principles that would be acceptable in the eyes of God and in the eyes of our forefather's, if they could see what is going on. If the founding fathers who wrote the charter of the Constitution of the United States were to come alive today and step in the White House, and could be allowed to express their temperaments like they did back then, you would really see some action. If you have not already done so, you ought to read a little of the history about what went on in the early days of our political system. Those men so cherished a point of truth, they were ready to defend it at any and all costs to their personal being, even if it led to a fist fight. Oh! But we do not believe in those things. That is why we have a stinking mess in our political offices, instead of citizens that have the interest of the whole country at heart. Our politics stink to the high heavens; and a just God will naturally deal with it in due time. All of this lets us know, this eventually is what constitutes the need for God to fulfill His desire and bring it to an end. Let us read the rest of that verse. (Isa.13:9) "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." When God really gets angry, brother I want you to know, mankind is going to learn in very short order, by some of the things He demonstrates, that they are no longer messing around with a God of love. He will be a God of wrath instead. Naturally the day of the Lord and His wrath is aimed at sinners, transgressors, atheists, dope addicts, drug kingpins, crooked politicians, people that have no regard for decency, immoral and evil. His wrath is aimed at that type of individual, because they have corrupted everything round about them and spurned any mention of a righteous God. (10) "For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." More than one prophet down through the span of time, saw this day of the Lord; and many of them saw how the constellations, the heavenly bodies would become disturbed. We are living among a modern minded generation of mankind that think this book is just a book of religious myths. They think of it as being in the same category as Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, and some of that type of literature. They are going to find out the hard way that this one is the very word of God they ignore. God will just let mankind pass through an era of time where they create such an attitude about God and creation. When their abominations reach a certain point, then it will be time for Him to pour out His wrath upon the whole thing. That is what God was looking at, when He caused things way back there to be spoken and written in the Bible. He was looking right on through time to an hour that is just ahead. Even the constellations will testify against their ungodliness. You cannot go to a modern scientist and have him give you a logical explanation of how that is going to come about. I cannot tell you either, but I do believe this for sure: God is able to shut the heavenly lights off when the time comes. I have heard how they used to say at the turn of the century when Haley's Comet come in, how it scared the daylights out of people. Because it created a semi darkness in certain areas of the earth as the day would dawn, articles were written in the paper, Doomsday is upon us, Judgment is coming. Well Haley's Comet passed over and all of that faded into the background. Then it reoccurred on the horizon a few years back, but this time it was announced and did not have the same effect as before. No. It is not going to be Haley's Comet that will do this. It will be something God Himself does. Somewhere out in space, He has something all lined up to do that very thing; and your scientists and astrologers will not have an explanation for it, even if they had an opportunity to give one. This is not the only scripture that tells of this event; Matthew 24:29, tells of the very same thing. So does Revelation 6:12-17. (11) "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." We all know, because we hear the news and read in the newspapers, of the various evils our social structure is being invaded with today. The underworld gangs of organized crime, with their drug dealing and all of that, are making a nation that once was influenced by godlike ideas and principles, and that had politicians who used the Bible as a road map and a basis for writing laws to govern us by, into a rotten mess that only God Himself could deal with. It is the same the world over, we just know more about what is happening in our own country. We have passed out of that era when such a large percentage of our population at least had respect for God and the Bible and have gone past the point of no return in the other direction. We now have a nation where the larger percentage of the people want nothing at all to do with God; and do not want the Bible mentioned. But little do they realize, the very things they are doing, and are advocating, are what God's word is pointing to. Think of our scientists today, our philosophers, who on TV News programs and talk shows, talk about the gradual process of man's evolutionary patterns. They seem so sure that they know where he came from, and how he has come through certain stages of evolution to get where he is today. Brother, they are just as arrogant to talk like that, and to take our young children and fill their mind's with this kind of picture as they could possibly be. If you, as a parent would go to the school and put up an argument against such, then you are immediately looked upon as some kind of fanatic. They begin to brand you, and even write articles in papers about how illiterate, unlearned, unstable, and irrational you are. They want you to be looked upon by the rest of the world as though you are some insignificant speck of humanity that ought to be eradicated from existence. That is the arrogancy spirit of this world, that this scripture is referring to. They are proud of thinking in terms like that. However, God says He will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. In accomplishing this, it is God in that day known as the day of the Lord, which is a time of wrath poured out upon all who fall into that category.

When God is accomplishing His purpose in all of what constitutes the day of the Lord, here is something else that is derived out of it. Notice verse 13, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." In other words, when God gets through with all that He will accomplish in the time called the day of the Lord, it is going to bring the human population down to such a low level, that world wise, global wise, a man that survives that hour will be likened to a piece of gold that has been brought through the refiners fire. "I will make a man more precious than fine gold," has to be talking about the realm of living mortal mankind that survives that day of the Lord. The earth will still have a living element of decent people left alive to repopulate the world during the Millennial reign of Christ. Verse 13, says, "Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." How would you like to be left here on this planet, and all of a sudden it is no longer just a 6.4 on the Richter scale, but this old planet starts having convulsions, upheavals, and they are of such a magnitude that it creates tidal waves from continent to continent? This cannot help but create a planet like a lop sided basket ball trying to roll across the floor. It will be wobbling instead of spinning. Instead of the planet being able to stay on course and spin at its normal rate, it is definitely going to create some kind of unstable course in its rotation around the sun. It is going to pass through a little era of catastrophic upheavals, so that the inhabitants left on it are going to wonder what has gone wrong with this old ball of clay they have lived on for so long. I will tell you one thing for sure, there will not be anyone sitting around laughing about it. (14) "And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land." I read that last verse to give you this thought, the prophecy that we have just read started in verse 9. Isaiah was prophesying to Israel things relating to their present tense hour, when he knew Israel was going to be dealt with, actually was already being dealt with by their Creator, but when we reach verse 9, the Spirit of prophecy began to reach way out into the future tense. Isaiah soared through the spiritual atmosphere of the future, writing of things for our day; and then in verse 14, he is right back to his day and hour, right back on the same level he was before. That is how God keeps the doctors of divinity in your denominational ranks from being able to put a picture together. Without the Holy Spirit revealing it, the natural mind just simply fails to make the distinction. Let us look at the writings of a New Testament apostle concerning this same era of time we have been considering. Go to 2nd Peter 3:1, to begin reading; but verse 10, is what I want to get to. The apostle Peter is also speaking of this DAY OF THE LORD, and he holds back no words. Think of the license these self willed teachers have, to teach their garbage to mankind. They will present their charts and refer to them as though there could be no doubt about what they portray. They find all these skulls, skeletons, and various bones, they mark them, and date them, and give a little biography about each one. Then they write and elaborate thesis that is supposed to settle the whole issue. The most they can do is assume and accumulate a bunch of ideas, This is the path. This is the process. This is how we have come to the hour we live in; and all the time completely ignoring the scriptures. If ever there was an hour that the scientists, the atheists, the evolutionists, the agnostics, were in their hey day, it is now. You know it. Sixty years ago they had a hard time getting into schools with this nonsense, but this is their hey day. This is the hour Peter was talking about. (2Peter 3:1-10) "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: (2) That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: (3) Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers." (What is a scoffer? Look in your dictionary. A scoffer is not a little old ignoramus; he is a character that thinks he knows what he is talking about. He thinks he has so much to back him up and prove his theory he no longer looks at it as theory. To him it is fact, and anyone who differs with him is just plain stupid. But in reality, he is the fool. We are talking about the same scoffers Peter was talking about, people who out rightly make fun of the word of God, and of anyone who believes it.) Walking after their own lusts, (Their own fleshly ways of reasoning.) (4) "And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" (They would say that to you and me, Where is, or what about the promise of His coming?) for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (This word fathers can be a word better translated ancients, in this case. for since the ancients, the teachers of the same belief you believe, died, is what it all points to. In other words, those who used to say that are all dead now, and He still has not come. Your category of people who believe that, is getting less and less, and ours is getting more and more; so where is the promise of His coming? That is the final analysis of what that all leads up to. There is not as many of you as there was before. Let me tell you, When the hour comes that the Bride, the living element of the true Church, is to be taken, there is not going to be as many as there once seemed to be.) (5) "For this they willingly (or because of their self willed attitude) are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water" (or it could be read like this, existing in the water and out of the water) (6) "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (That scripture does not tell you that the planet perished. I hear Methodists, Nazarene who advocate the idea that all of this present creation will be burned up simply because they read this and literalize it so much. To them God will have to burn up everything. The Bible tells us that this earth is going to be burned, that is what the word of God says. They say that ignorantly, not knowing how to read what the Bible actually says. That is why they take what Paul said in Thessalonians and say, The Bible says we are to meet the Lord on a cloud in the air and we are all going to heaven for the rest of eternity. Well let us see what Peter really did mean, when we come on down. He gives us a remembrance of how the heavens and earth of old perished, but I ask you, What perished? Did God create a new world after the flood, or would you agree that we are living in the same world Noah lived in?) (7) "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, (Everybody has to realize, it is the same planet, not another ball of earth out here in space. It is the same planetary body Genesis 1:1, speaks of.) by the same word (What does he mean by the same word? It is the same word of judgment, the same word of wrath.) are kept in store, reserved unto fire against (or for) the day of judgment and perdition (or destruction) of ungodly men. (8) "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (After 1900 and some years have passed since the gospel of Christianity began being proclaimed, we have almost come to the closing of two millenniums, which is two days of time counting like that; and that scripture, or prophecy has been lying there all the time.) (9) "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." In every generation throughout these almost 2000 years of time that God has been dealing with us Gentiles, just think of the grace of God that has been ignored as it came, visited, and then moved on through nation after nation. Somewhere in those nations, that gospel, the effect of it, the purpose of God in it, was there long enough that it left a picture, a testimony, and it left a message that should not have been ignored. I have thought many times as we would read in our secular histories where Gentile Christendom started, really in the western coastal areas of what is now called Turkey, how in that same area today there are very few traces of the existence of true Christianity. It is now mostly all under Islamic control. At one time it was the very center of the existence of Christianity. The seven churches of Asia, which are mentioned in Revelation 1:11, today are all ancient geological ruins. God passed through and took His quota. Then somehow or other He struck those areas with situations, knowing they would never return to what they had been before; and those cities just lie there in ruins. We have come down to where Peter gets real specific and brings in details as to how this day of the Lord is to be executed. Notice verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come (When Peter said this, he was actually speaking of the same period of time that we read about in Isaiah 13. Only he gives specifics as to how this day of the Lord is going to be executed.) as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." The way that sounds, people who literalize the disintegrating of the planet, think this planet is literally going to be completely dissolved and pass into oblivion, complete annihilation. They say the Bible says that, but if we stop there and just let that kind of attitude launch the rest of our thinking, then we have to read the rest of what he wrote with a lot of misgivings. (11) "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, (12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (Peter brings this in, This will take you back to Isaiah 55 and 56, because his mind was looking back there to what Isaiah said in those last chapters; but you can rest assured, the burning God does will be for the purpose of cleansing this planet, not destroying it completely.) If you want to believe that pertains to a literal annihilation of this planet, then you would be more comfortable in the Methodist Church which believes like that. You cannot preach the true revelation a lot of the Bible in the Methodist Church. I tried it years ago; and was told that we ought not preach things that the Methodist Church does not believe. Well it is very strange, it was preached in the apostolic Church. If the Methodist Church is like the apostolic Church, then it ought to open up to apostolic teachings. Time may have changed people, but God has not changed; and neither has His Word changed. (13) "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." A new heaven and new earth. What is that telling us? Is that saying that we interpret the epistle of Peter, that this planet we are on now is literally going to be dissolved, melted down, completely annihilated, and that we are going to be transported far beyond time into some distant realm of space to another planet, another heavenly environment, is that the new heaven and new earth? Is that the way we apply the scriptures? No. The point is, No one scripture you read is the complete determining factor as to how you apply the day of the Lord; and what it is to accomplish in the earth. Look with me, in the 21st chapter of Revelation, and I will show you why I say that. I will start reading in verse 3, because this is actually talking about what takes place in the eternal age, beyond the Millennium. The reason I will read this at this particular time, is to remind the readers of this important fact, Throughout these centuries of time that God has been among us Gentiles, He has been taking out of us a people to be known by His name. He has given to us the Spirit of regeneration. The Spirit of regeneration is the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost which is in us. He is not making a complete new physical being out of us, but He is bringing about a renewing of the real you and me, making us into what we should be. We were born into this world by a God ordained means; but because of Adam's sin we have an inherited sinful nature, which renders us spiritually dead. Therefore until the Spirit of God does something to get our attention, we have no desire to know God or seek after Him. There is no righteousness in us. Our nature is strictly earthly, animal, and very carnal. That is why Paul speaks of us in the many terms that he did, carnal, natural, earthly, and all of that. Without the Spirit of God in us, we only think in realms that we can reason ourselves through. On the other hand, when God gives us that Spirit of regeneration we have within us that part of His Spirit that sin caused us to be born without, and that we are helpless without. We do not know how to please Him no matter what anyone says to encourage us to live right; but His Spirit in us, causes a renewing of our spirit, and that is referred to as the regenerating Spirit of God. He will make a new person out of you, which in reality is the person we ought to have been, but we were not. That is what the Spirit of regeneration does. Did you know, The word regeneration, appears only twice in the Bible? First in Matthew 19:28, which we read at the beginning of this message, and in Titus 3:5, where Paul was instructing that young man concerning his ministry. Let us read verses 3-7, and see how the apostle Paul used the term, and then we will go to Revelation 21. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers (or various) lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." As you can see, the one in Paul's writing is talking about the renewing of the individual person, and in Matthew where Jesus spoke of it, He was applying it to the social order of the whole planet. Therefore, this age of regeneration in which Jesus will sit upon the throne of His glory in Jerusalem, is going to bring about an era of time on earth that things are to be renewed and brought to a higher plane. Now we can go to Revelation 21, which picks up after the great white throne judgment is completed, and every abominable thing has been cast alive into the lake of fire, leaving on earth only the righteous one's that have been regenerated, washed by that Spirit of regeneration. We will start in verse 1, so we can get the whole picture. (1) "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; (actually cleansed and completely changed from their former estate) and there was no more sea. (2) And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, (To where? Not to a newly created earth, but a completely renewed old earth.) prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, (Where? Right here on this same planet where we were redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and renewed in our spirit to be like Him.) and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (4) And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (5) And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." Here, it is even prophesied as the Lord speaks, "Behold, I make all things new." If He is going to make all things new, do we interpret that to mean that He is going off somewhere ten million light years away to make another planet, another heaven and so forth, and that He is literally going to transport us from here to there? That is not the picture the Bible presents.

It should not be confusing for people to see the Bible prophecies of what is ahead; and it would not be if people did not try to interpret the whole picture by just two or three verses taken out of context. When you consider the whole scope of the plan of God for the ages, you can better associate the terminology of the various writers of the scriptures that were inspired of God to write their part of the plan, without being shown the whole picture from start to finish. Peter spoke of the heavens and earth, and how they will be dissolved by a fiery, catastrophic judgment. Well the planet is going to go through it, but not for total annihilation, just for cleansing. God knows what to burn and what to save. As I said, no one prophecy is the complete determining factor as to how we look upon that day of the Lord because each prophet only wrote what he saw. That is how God dealt with that prophet, and that is how God keeps the true picture from theology scholars and reveals it to whomsoever He has chosen. Let us now go back to Isaiah, chapter 24. Isaiah saw again, this terrible, catastrophic day of judgment and wrath, just as Peter described it in his epistle. It lays out here in front of mankind somewhere. When we read this, we need to look at our present world conditions round about us and realize why it is necessary for God to bring this present world system to such a drastic end, like is described here. (ISA.24:1) "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, (That is the way Isaiah saw it, looking like it was empty. Him looking at it from an overall viewpoint, it would look empty to him.) and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." When that day of His wrath comes, and when God executes this kind of condition to bring about the ending of sin, wickedness, pride and such like, He will not be a respecter of persons. Their rank, wealth, status, nor anything else will make any difference, when God begins to cleanse this earth of all traces of sin and rebellion. "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; (Saints, there is going to be many so called preachers left here.) as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, (I wonder if that is not a little of what the earth is going through right now, the earth is mourning and groaning.) the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, (That is referring to the planet itself.) and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." Every time you hear the environmentalists speaking today, they are telling you that very thing. Greedy mankind is polluting the whole planet. We know how, in the past number of years we have had these giant oil spills. I would be a fool to elaborate on how not to have oil spills; but I do know this, when our ships were smaller and somehow or other man had not quite reached the state of greediness they have in this hour of time, we hardly ever heard of oil spills. All of a sudden though, there was an all out rat race to see who could build the largest oil tankers. Japan built theirs, some were built in Europe, and today they have them that look like aircraft carriers. They ride way up out of the water when empty, but think how deep down in the water they go when they are full. I have to say this: With the technical knowledge we now have, and with the capability we have to launch huge satellites that can bounce communication signals around the world, if man could get his greedy feelings out of the picture, we would be harnessing the sun for much of our energy today. That is a non polluting source of energy that mankind could be enjoying without so much fear and heartache. Huge batteries could be used to hold that energy for periods when the sun was at a minimum. I am just an ignorant farmer, but I can look ahead and envision the Millennium. There will be no oil spills in the Millennium. It is my opinion, there will be a knowledge of how to harness things of nature, that can be used for the tranquility of earth's inhabitants, and for the cleaning up of a lot of things. Right now though, one of the things that has this earth mourning is the way man is allowed to cut down the rain forests. Eventually that will lead to a shortage of oxygen. The shortage of oxygen, and the increasing of the monoxides in the air, will eventually create such an environment in the air, man will have difficulty breathing. We are not far from that now. I saw this demonstrated on TV by an environmentalist, portraying the year 2000 and something; and they said if man does not do something to curtail that oncoming condition, in certain areas of the earth people would have to wear a mask and carry a little oxygen tank, in order to step outside their homes. Is that not a tragic future man has to look forward to? I cannot help but wonder what some of these people have for brains, that want to spend billions of dollars building space platforms, so they can go into space and experiment with the idea of growing plant life in glass bubbles. The idea is, when the world gets overpopulated, we will send a few up there. Let me tell you, When that time comes, God is going to render this thing void and He will do it in quick order. All of this type of thinking lets us know that man has come to the end of his road. I heard the other day, that the world population has passed five billion and in every ten years it is doubling its population. Well there is only ten more years until the year 2000. If this planet doubles its population every ten years, by the year 2000, there is going to be a lot of people on this old ball of clay. That means there is going to be less oxygen around. Things could be rough. I am not belittling, only expressing the fact that politicians, along with other greedy, carnal minded men are bringing this planet to an hour of ghastly tragedies. I say that the hour for greedy men to make wealth and control energy, so they can charge the poor in a reckless way, is just about over. God knows exactly how to bring the whole thing to an end. What a tragedy. In December 89, we had a terrible cold spell strike this area, and it set a record in this nation in over 105 cities,causing heating oil prices to shoot sky high. Then it warmed up; the oil companies did not get in any hurry about regulating their prices to reflect that. Now is our chance to get rich quick, no doubt they thought. They raised the price on everything. My point is: They are going to play with this kind of thing every chance they get, because they are getting it where they can control it. It is that dollar they are after. They are in a position to use the earths natural resources to squeeze out of you every penny, and every dollar for their greedy purposes. God is going to get tired of that. Do you know what He is going to do? One day He is going to simply choke the life out of them. That is why it is pictured here, when the world languisheth, and when the world mourneth. It is talking about a terrible environmental condition that has come about upon this planet; and no matter what man does now, it is too late to correct the situation. We have made our chemicals and thought we were doing a good thing; but the manufacturers were probably more concerned about jobs for their people and money in their bank account than they were the safety of the products. Little did they realize, that one of these days as these little river and streams flow to the oceans and the oceans flow nowhere, that all of this would catch up with us. One of these days our oceans will be nothing but cesspools of the overflow of chemicals of man's industrial waste. It is all because greedy mankind wants to dig into the earth and use the earth's resources for a carnal, greedy purposes. This is my way of saying, The earth is mourning today. Is that not why Paul says the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now? For what purpose? Waiting for that day. What day? The manifestation of the sons of God. No, not in this era, but in the Millennium. That is as soon as anyone has any right to expect this situation to be corrected. That is when the righteous will rule. That is when the planet will be lifted from its terrible struggle with death. Environmentalists are suddenly jumping to the rescue of certain species of birds, fish, and wildlife. They are going about it as if they think they are the only hope these species have; but God only needs two. Did you ever stop to think about that? He only needs two. But Bro. Jackson, we need to help Him. You were not there to help Him after the flood. He instructed Noah what to do, and then He destroyed all the rest. The point is, God is looking at this hour we are living in. He sees man in his sinful, greedy, selfish state. He knows mankind will not change. Things have gone too far. It has to be changed by the intervention of the coming of the Lord in the day of His wrath and judgment, when this planet will undergo a drastic, terrible, chaotic upheaval. He is going to cut off the wickedness, every existence of it. He is going to bring an end to all political regimes, and man's systems of monetary control. He is going to send His Son Jesus the Christ, who after this time of wrath is past, will sit upon the throne of His glory in Jerusalem. He is coming back with His Church, which is called the Bride of Christ. He is going to set them over the nations they were taken out of, to rule with Him. This will be an era of time when the earth will be repopulated, the righteous will rule, and the glory and knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth. Yes, there will be children born in the Millennium. The earth will be completely repopulated, but Satan will never get another chance to pervert things. He will be loosed from his chains for a little season to test all of those born in the Millennium, but he will never be allowed to carry out any kind of evil plan for judgment will be knocking at his door. This time he will be cast into the lake of fire, instead of just being chained up. That is what the Bible says.

Jesus is certainly not sitting on the throne of His glory yet. For almost two thousand years, He has been sitting upon the Father's throne. The Father is not a person, and therefore needs no literal chair to sit upon; therefore we must think in spiritual terms when we read of these various positions of authority. The Bible says The Father took His only begotten, immortal Son and positioned Him on His right hand of majesty and power. The Father has invested in this Son His very divine presence, and given Him to be the head over the Church and all things that pertain to redemption. He has been, and still is our high priest, pleading for every lost sinner foreknown to be a predestinated seed of God. No. He is not pleading for the serpent seed of this world. Their destiny is the lake of fire, and no amount of intervention could ever change that. We have all been servants of the devil, but not his children. Religious beliefs around this world are as varied as the colors of a rainbow; and none of them like to hear anyone say that there are people in this world that are ordained to damnation, but the Bible says that. These words did not originate with me; they come from Jude 4, and John 8:38,41,44, and from various other scriptures through the Bible. Therefore there is a vast difference between being a servant of the devil and a child of the devil. We serve the interests of Satan until we come to the knowledge of what the Father has in store for His foreknown children. Hallelujah! We have an inheritance from the great Creator; for the Bible says we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The devil's children do not have this promise, so do not tell me Jesus is interceding for the devil's children. He is interceding for lost, predestined children of God, whose lives must be changed from reflecting the image of this old world we live in, to reflect the image of the One who died for us and rose again. Even though we are predestinated children of God, we still have to be washed in the blood of Jesus, and be renewed in the spirit of our mind's by the washing of the waters of the word of God. The apostle Paul referred to this as the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, in Titus 3:5; so that is what this Christian life is all about. Predestinated children of God being molded into vessels fit for the glorious privileges we have awaiting us. Over comers will partake of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God and will reign with the King of Kings, when He comes to rule and reign upon this earth for one thousand years. I will not try to limit my remarks just to the subject we are dealing with, The Age Of Regeneration, for there are a lot of other things that can be meaningful when you are on a subject like this. We need to get a picture in our mind's of what our Heavenly Father is really after. He did not design this whole plan just so certain one's could go to heaven and dwell there in His presence throughout the eternal ages. He wants the world filled with creatures like He created in the beginning, but He designed the whole thing so every human being that dwells with Him in eternity, is there by his or her own choice, after having been tempted and tried by Satan and offered all of the things that pertain to this present life in exchange for our soul. That is really what it all boils down to, you know. God did not just create a multitude of people and pick some to be saved and the rest to be lost. He created angels. He created one man and one woman and He created the animal kingdom. He gave the man and woman which He had created in His own SPIRIT image the freedom of choice. They originally had the privilege of fellowship in both the physical and the spirit realm. The choice was theirs to make, but like every promise we have in the word of God, their privileges and benefits were conditional. They were not to partake of the tree (or law) of the knowledge of good and evil, if they were to retain the original standing they enjoyed with the Creator when He would come by in the cool of the evening and fellowship with them. Well you know the story, how they disobeyed the word of God and became earth bound creatures. Not only did they loose their access into the spirit world, a penalty of death was imputed to them, making it necessary for them to be redeemed from that sentence of death, in order to be restored to a place where eternal life would again be their portion. At this point, every child born into the world from the genes of both Adam and his wife Eve, would be predestinated children of God, because the only adverse attribute in them was that sentence of death that was imputed to Adam and Eve because of their disobedience. The foreknowledge of the Creator is an important factor that you need to keep conscious of if you are going to understand predestination, because the story gets real twisted up from here on without it. What makes the difference is the fact that God knew before He ever created Adam, every person that would ever choose to serve Him throughout all time; and these whom He saw like that are the Predestinated seed of His. Bro. Jackson, how did the children of the devil that Jesus spoke of get into the picture? That is the part that you need to understand, if you want to be able to receive revelation of much of the written word of God; for without that understanding, you cannot make application of much of what you read.