God’s Promises to Israel
Now, my dear friends, I’ve read you these prophecies so you’d understand the promises God made to Israel— the promises he’s repeated to the Jewish people through his prophets, generation after generation. One day they’ll return to God’s true family. They’ll come home to the lands he promised them and finally settle there for good. I’m telling you all this so you can celebrate. Hold your heads high, because God is going to bless your children and their children.
I know many of you have searched hard to understand what’s coming. So you already know this: our bodies will age and die. But even so, in those bodies we’ll see God. You know he’ll show himself to the people in Jerusalem—the place we came from. It has to happen there. The Great Creator will take on a human body and die for everyone, so that everyone can be brought back to him.
The Need for an Infinite Sacrifice
Death came to all of us—that was part of God’s merciful plan. So there has to be a resurrection. The resurrection became necessary because of the fall, and the fall happened because of sin. When humanity fell, we were cut off from God’s presence. That’s why the sacrifice had to be infinite. Without an infinite sacrifice, our decaying bodies could never be made incorruptible. The first judgment would have lasted forever. Our bodies would have rotted into dust and never risen again.
How wise God is! How merciful and gracious! If our bodies never rose again, our spirits would belong to the angel who fell from God’s presence and became the devil—never to rise again. We would have become like him—devils ourselves, serving the devil, shut out from God’s presence forever, stuck with the father of lies in his misery. That’s the one who deceived our first parents. He disguises himself as an angel of light and pulls people into secret conspiracies, murder, and every kind of dark scheme.
Escape from Death and Hell
How good our God is! He made a way for us to escape that terrible monster—death and hell. By death, I mean both the death of the body and the death of the spirit. Because of what God has done—the Holy One of Israel—physical death will give up its dead. The grave will open. And spiritual death—that’s hell—will also give up its dead. Death and hell will release everyone. Hell will release the captive spirits, and the grave will release the captive bodies. Bodies and spirits will be reunited. This happens through the resurrection power of the Holy One of Israel.
What an incredible plan! Paradise will release the spirits of the righteous, and the grave will release their bodies. Spirit and body will be reunited. Everyone will become incorruptible and immortal—living souls with perfect knowledge, like we have now, except our knowledge then will be complete. We’ll have perfect knowledge of all our guilt, our filth, our shame. And the righteous will have perfect knowledge of their joy and their goodness, clothed in purity—wearing the robe of righteousness.
The Day of Judgment
When everyone has passed from this first death to immortal life, they’ll stand before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel. That’s when the judgment happens. Everyone will be judged by God’s holy standard. As surely as the Lord lives—and his eternal word can’t be broken—the righteous will remain righteous, and the filthy will remain filthy. The filthy are the devil and his angels. They’ll go into everlasting fire, prepared for them. Their torment is a lake of fire and sulfur, with flames rising forever and ever, without end.
How great and just our God is! He keeps every word. His law will be fulfilled. But the righteous—the holy people of Israel who believed in the Holy One, who endured the world’s crosses and shrugged off its shame—they’ll inherit God’s kingdom, prepared for them since the world began. Their joy will be complete and eternal.
How merciful our God is, the Holy One of Israel! He saves his people from that terrible monster—the devil, death, hell, and that lake of fire and sulfur, which is endless torment. How holy our God is! He knows everything. There’s nothing he doesn’t know.
What God Requires
He comes into the world to save everyone who will listen to him. He takes on the pain of all people—every living person, men, women, and children, everyone descended from Adam. He does this so resurrection can happen for everyone, so we can all stand before him on that great judgment day.
He commands everyone to repent and be baptized in his name, with complete faith in the Holy One of Israel. Without that, they can’t be saved in God’s kingdom. If they won’t repent and believe in him, if they won’t be baptized in his name and stay faithful to the end, they’ll be damned. The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken.
That’s why he gave a law. Where there’s no law, there’s no punishment. Where there’s no punishment, there’s no condemnation. Where there’s no condemnation, the Holy One’s mercy covers them through the sacrifice—they’re delivered by his power. The sacrifice satisfies justice for everyone who never received the law. They’re delivered from that awful monster—death, hell, the devil, and the lake of fire and sulfur with its endless torment. They’re restored to the God who gave them life, the Holy One of Israel.
Warnings
But terrible things are coming for those who have the law—who have all God’s commandments, like we do—and break them, wasting their time of testing. Their situation is awful.
That’s the devil’s clever scheme! How vain and weak and foolish people are! When they get educated, they think they’re wise and ignore God’s counsel. They push it aside, thinking they know better. Their wisdom is foolishness. It does them no good. They’ll be destroyed. But education is good—if people listen to God’s guidance.
But disaster is coming for the rich who are rich in worldly things. Because they’re wealthy, they look down on the poor and persecute the humble. Their hearts are set on their treasures. Their treasure is their god. And their treasure will be destroyed, along with them.
Disaster is coming for those who refuse to hear. They’ll be destroyed. Disaster is coming for the blind who refuse to see. They’ll be destroyed too. Disaster is coming for the hard-hearted. Knowledge of their sins will crush them on the last day. Disaster is coming for liars. They’ll be thrown down to hell. Disaster is coming for murderers who kill deliberately. They’ll die. Disaster is coming for those who commit sexual sin. They’ll be thrown down to hell. Disaster is coming for idol worshipers. The devil of all devils takes pleasure in them. In the end, disaster is coming for everyone who dies in their sins. They’ll return to God, see his face, and remain in their sins.
A Final Plea
My dear friends, remember how terrible it is to sin against that holy God. Remember how terrible it is to give in to the devil’s tricks. Living for the flesh leads to death. Living by the Spirit leads to eternal life.
My dear friends, listen closely to me. Remember how great the Holy One of Israel is. Don’t say I’ve been too hard on you. If you do, you’re attacking the truth—because I’ve spoken the words of your Creator. I know the truth cuts against everything unclean. But the righteous don’t fear it, because they love the truth and won’t be shaken. So then, my dear friends, come to the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his ways are right. The path for humanity is narrow, but it runs straight ahead, and the Holy One of Israel guards the gate. He has no assistant there. There’s no other way except through the gate, because he can’t be fooled—the Lord God is his name. Whoever knocks, he’ll let in. But the clever, the educated, the rich—those puffed up by their learning, their wisdom, their wealth—he despises them. Unless they throw those things away and see themselves as fools before God, unless they humble themselves completely, he won’t open the gate. The plans of the clever and careful will be hidden from them forever—including the happiness prepared for God’s people.
My dear friends, remember what I’ve said. I take off my coat and shake it in front of you. I pray that the God who saves me sees me with his all-seeing eye. Then on the last day, when everyone is judged for what they’ve done, you’ll know that Israel’s God witnessed me shaking your sins off my soul. I stand clean before him, free of responsibility for your blood. My dear friends, turn away from your sins. Break free from the chains of the one trying to bind you. Come to the God who is the rock of your salvation. Prepare yourselves for that great day when justice will be given to the righteous—the judgment day. Then you won’t shrink back in terror. You won’t remember your guilt so clearly that you’re forced to cry out: “Holy, holy are your judgments, O Lord God Almighty! But I know I’m guilty. I broke your law. My sins are my own. The devil has me, and I’m trapped in his awful misery.”
But my friends, do I really need to wake you up to this harsh reality? Would I trouble your souls if your minds were pure? Would I be this blunt with you if you were free from sin? If you were holy, I’d talk to you about holiness. But you’re not holy, and you see me as a teacher. So I have to teach you what happens when you sin. I hate sin. My heart loves what’s right. I’ll praise the holy name of my God.
An Invitation
Come, my friends, everyone who’s thirsty, come to the water! Even if you have no money, come, buy, and eat. Come buy wine and milk—no money needed, no cost at all. So don’t spend money on what’s worthless. Don’t work for what can’t satisfy you. Listen closely to me and remember what I’ve told you. Come to the Holy One of Israel and feast on what never spoils, what can’t decay. Let your soul find deep satisfaction.
My dear friends, remember God’s words. Pray to him constantly during the day. Thank his holy name at night. Let your hearts celebrate. Look how great God’s promises are! Look how he reaches down to humanity! Because he’s so great, so full of grace and mercy, he’s promised that our family line won’t be completely destroyed. He’ll preserve us. In future generations, they’ll become a righteous branch of Israel’s family. Now, my friends, I could say more, but tomorrow I’ll tell you the rest. Amen.