Jack Jackson – Two groups throughout the Bible – 1963

After we had tea last evening, I took a walk. As I walked, I tried to think of something to speak about in this meeting. I remembered what we had heard in the other meeting, “If we could tell our past to others, something that had been a help to ourselves, it could be a help to others, also.” Some things came to my mind that have been a help to myself down the recent years. I didn’t just rightly know if the Lord wished me to tell you or not. I find it difficult for me to know what God wants me to say in a meeting. I will tell you what happened. When I went to bed, I said, “If Lord, You don’t want me to speak of these things, put something else in my mind in the morning.” The first thing that came to my mind when I awoke, was the same things. If I am making a mistake, I hope God will forgive me. I hope you will, too.

Maybe I should, before I tell you about that, refer to another little matter. We often talk about there just being two classes of people in the world, but as human beings, we classify people in the world as rich and poor or white and dark, etc. Now that is from man’s standpoint. From God’s standpoint, He classes all in two groups. That’s all. You can go right back to the beginning and all through the Bible, and find it so. In Noah’s time, there were two classes of people. There may have been rich and poor, but there were just two groups. One group was in the Ark and the other group was out of the Ark. In Egypt, in Moses’ time, there were two groups; one group stayed in Egypt and the other group came out of Egypt. Jesus said there are just two gates and two ways, two groups and two destinies and He said all that in just two verses. One is a large group and one is a small group, but there are only two groups. You can go on right to the end of the scriptures and find this is the teaching. There is nothing new to you, but then I haven’t anything new for you.

I will tell what happened one day, I was thinking about many people who go through the country, back where I work. They have tracts and religious books and they come to the door and they explain to you that these books explain about what’s in the Word of God, and they tell you, “If you don’t want to buy the book, I will leave it with you for a time, etc.” Little have I talked with them, but if I happened to be there and they gave me that tract, my curiosity would have me do this. I know the thing is wrong, I know it’s not the doctrine of Jesus Christ, I know there may be some things there that are right, just to get you to swallow the pill and get you in. My curiosity wants me to just look through – see what they say, I know it’s poison.

If such an animal as a donkey was around, go and ask him. Have you never read, “Ask the beasts – they will teach you?” You talk with the fowls which fly over our head, the fishes in the sea, the earth. Have you never read those words? Well they are in the Bible. Yes, go and ask the donkey, you say, “What do you mean?” I’ll tell you what I mean. If I were going up the road, and there I met some of you and you say, “Hello Jack, where are you going?” I’d say, “I am going to Paddy Murphy’s. He has a donkey and I want to ask it something.” You would say after I had gone on, “Poor Jack.” Alright, you can say what you like, but that donkey can tell me something. He would tell me, “Jack, that’s not right, that’s not your Master’s crib. Don’t put your nose in there, that’s the Salvation Army’s crib or that’s the Jehovah Witness’s crib, or some other’s crib; you put your nose in your Master’s crib.” That poor beast knows its master’s crib but my people do not.” (IsaiahA 1:3, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.”) I could tell you of talks I have had with animals, birds, and the earth, all have taught me much.

 

Those people are everywhere and they talk a lot of the coming of Jesus and the end of the world. I was thinking of that and my thoughts started going over these things. First of all, I would impress it on myself, that when Jesus, and when the apostles or any others in the Bible, talked of anything that might happen in the future, it wasn’t for the purpose of making people understand every detail concerning this matter. To the end of His days, Jesus talked of His coming back, have you noticed, at the same time He said, “Watch, watch therefore. I’m telling you so that you will be ready.” If I could tell you every detail of the coming back of the Lord, and not be ready, what profit would it be. That’s what these people are doing. They are telling what’s going to happen tomorrow and missing what they should be doing today. The present and future are divided into periods of time and instead of saying “periods of time” we’ll say “days.”

 

Now I will tell you of these times or days that come to my mind. “Life’s day,” “The day of death,” “The day of waiting,” “The day of resurrection,” “The day of the reign for one group,” for those who are in Christ; “The judgement Day,” “The Eternal day.” How many days? SEVEN, For both groups? NO! For all those in Christ Jesus when He comes. And for those without Christ when He comes, SIX DAYS! God’s number is seven (7) The Devil’s number is six (6). The day of waiting, this is the day between the Day of death and the Day of resurrection. Paul died, Peter died, they haven’t risen yet, they are waiting.

 

Now go back to the first day of both groups. Those in Christ and those out of Christ. We are in Life’s day. It begins at the cradle and finishes at the grave. Some have a longer day than others. It is which group we are in, in Life’s day, that will determine which group we are in, all the days that follow, and that’s the reason it says, “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” If you want to die in Christ, get in there. If you still want to die in Christ, Stay there. If we are in Christ, let us stay there. Jesus said in looking forward to the future, “Watch ye therefore …” Can’t we take His word? Could we not say, “God help us to do as the Thessalonians, who grasped and did this?” I Thessalonians 1 He was talking about what He had told them. He says, “Ye turned to God from Idols to serve the Living God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven.” They turned from Idols to God to serve and to wait. I know of no better way to wait. When Jesus was leaving the disciples, and He was talking to them, He gave them an illustration, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a nobleman, who journeyed to a far country to receive a kingdom, and then to return.” Is that not what Jesus is doing? Is He not going to return? Before he went He gave His servants ten pounds and said, “Occupy until I come. Wait for my return, but don’t wait idle, wait not with folded arms, but do something.” Did not the Thessalonians grasp that from the beginning? That is why Paul said, “Ye have turned to serve and to wait.” I know of no safer way of waiting. Keep busy and await His return. We are still in the first day – Life’s Day.

 

The next day is the Day of Death. Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now your Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, ‘I have no pleasure in them (verse 5) because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.” Then He tells us what Death is, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.” I have seen death notices, “Such and such ceased to exist at a certain hour.” It’s true and yet not true. If I should step out of that door, I would cease to exist in here, but not out of the door. The spirit leaves the body, it ceases to exist in the body but exists somewhere else. That’s what Paul means when he says, “Absent from the body but present with the Lord.” ( II Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”) If I want to understand Death, I picture God making man out of the dust of the earth. Just a form that is man, but after that He breathed in his nostrils the breath of life. Part of that man came from the dust of the earth and part from God, and death is just the separation of the two. All go there, part to the earth and part to God and He deals with them accordingly.

 

The next day is the Day of Waiting. Revelations 6:9, “And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” The souls, not the bodies. Verse 10, “And the souls cried with a loud voice saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?'” Verse 11, “And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them,that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be as they were, should be fulfilled.” Now where are the souls of the righteous, you’ll say. It says, “They were slain.” If it means that, it means that Abraham, Moses etc weren’t there. Matthew 24, “He that endureth until death comes, shall be saved.” Revelations 2:10, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.” Shows, whatever way we die, or they died, their souls were there … and they were impatient saying, “How long and they were told, ‘rest for a season.’” Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, “That they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them.” We were saying, the best way to wait is to be occupied, that’s in the present day. Now, how will we wait in the waiting day? We’ll be resting, and our works will follow on. Can we see in the future, things worth living for? That is sufficient to make you understand.

 

What about those who die out of Christ? Now let me read II Peter 2:4, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” What does “reserve” mean? Kept for a certain time – till the day of judgement. I think of two men in Jail, both waiting for a certain day to be tried, both knowing they are going before a just judge, knowing he knows everything in connection with their case. One knows, “I’m guilty,” the other knows, “I’m not guilty.” The man who knows he’s not guilty is looking forward to the day. What about the other fellow? He wants to put it off. The longer it’s postponed the better. II Peter 2:9, “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” Are they waiting, are they resting? The righteous are saying, “How long?” As in Life’s day, there only two groups, so too, in the day of waiting.

 

I have tried to tell some folks and found out afterwards it’s still very difficult for them to get the difference between the body and the spirit when we die. They don’t understand what Paul meant, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart to be with Christ.” They seem to think when Paul said that, he meant when he goes to Heaven, he’d be the same as after the resurrection. The body goes to the dust, the spirit to God. Later on there will be the resurrection, After Jesus rose, He was the same in appearance, but sown natural, raised spiritual. I Corinthians 15:53-54, Paul talks about Mortal and Immortal in that chapter. If you keep that in mind, you won’t find it difficult to understand other passages. When Paul said, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart to be with Christ which is far better.” He did not mean his body would depart. The body goes to the dust from whence it came. There is not much difficulty in understanding what Jesus spoke of the rich man and Lazarus.

 

The fourth day, the Day of Resurrection. I don’t know how or what passage to refer to if any. You understand that all through the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the epistles), we read about it. We don’t talk much about it. We take it for granted it’s going to happen. However, there is a passage. There are two groups in all the days we have spoken about. You read about what it said in John 5. Folks marvel, wonder, because of what Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” He wasn’t talking about the dead in the graves, He was talking to them about how you and I were. He says the dead in trespasses and sins shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live. Wasn’t that how we got life? That was nothing to do with the resurrection. I will tell you so you will understand, what He meant when He said after that, “Marvel, not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.” No need to marvel at that, there will be a time when all in their graves will hear His voice and shall come forth, “They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” How many groups? Two, according to Jesus. All come forth, one group to resurrection of life, the other to resurrection of damnation. Now there is something perhaps we might say. All shall come forth, that’s definite and sure. BUT NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME. That’s where the other extract comes in.

 

In the last book of the Bible, Revelations 20. Just before we look at this verse, I’ll refer to the beginning of this chapter. It tells us about Satan being bound, he can’t deceive the nations anymore till the time be fulfilled. Now that’s a wonderful thing. I’ve tried to think even without Jesus coming and if Satan were bound today, do you think it would make any difference to the world, or even in our own world. We, as the people of God, are like a little world, in the world. That’s why we talk about gates and boundaries, etc. I think it would make a very big difference if Satan was bound. When Satan is bound, the people of God will rise to reign with Jesus. After He speaks about certain one’s reigning, verse 5, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” This is the first resurrection. We went over here, to talk about the resurrection and we talked about a passage in John, where it says, “All shall come forth, and I was telling you, those who lived and reigned with Christ a 1000 years,” then it says the rest of the dead … those are the unsaved, “They lived not again till the 1000 years were finished.” This is the first resurrection. Look at the next word, “Blessed.” Who? Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be as the priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a 1000 years. Can you imagine that? Can your mind grasp that? I can’t follow it, I can’t grasp it. The devil bound and the Lord living here and His people with Him. Living and reigning with Him for 1000 years. I understand it’s going to happen, but to grasp it in my mind what the poor old world will be like then. I know it’s worthwhile watching and waiting.

 

Who will rise in the first resurrection? It doesn’t matter what I think, I think of what the Lord said. In I Corinthians 15:23, you remember Paul spoke about the resurrection. ….. every man in his own order, in other words … there will be a resurrection and now I tell you the order. Verse 23, “Still! Christ the firstfruits, Christ has risen,” that’s the first fruits of the resurrection. Afterward, they that are Christ’s at His coming. “Then cometh the end.” Is that not in keeping with what we just read in Revelations 20?

 

I Thessalonians 3, well, have you noticed in reading the I Thessalonians that every chapter finished on the coming of Jesus? In the end of the 3rd Chapter, “To the end He may establish your hearts, unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” Isn’t that exactly the same as he told the Corinthians in their letter? Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming. You notice when you read the end of the 4th chapter; you got the same thing. Look at the verses in John 5 again. We said we all come forth, and we will all come forth, not all at one time, and we looked at the passage to help us to understand that is so. I would like to say to you as to myself, if it speaks in the passage that all that are His shall reign with Him. I shouldn’t just think that because I am in the Way, I’m right. I may be in the Way but how much of the Way is in me? Words of Jesus himself, you remember when He spoke just two days before His death, He was up in the mountain talking to His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem, His coming, and the end of the world. Now after that He said, “Learn a parable of the fig tree, when you see the fig tree shooting, you know summer is nigh, like the wise, when you see these things you know it is near, even at the doors.” He went on to say, “It will be as in the days of Noah. Then shall two be in a field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in one bed, the one will leave and the other will stay there in bed.” Maybe it wouldn’t be any harm to refer to question the disciples asked. Luke 17:34, it tells you that in that night, two men shall be in one bed, one shall be taken and the other left; also Matt 24, two woman shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken the other left. One will go the other will stay. The disciples question was, “Where Lord?” and the answer Jesus gave, “Wheresoever the body is thither, will the eagles be gathered together.” Now if you want to confuse me just ask me to spiritualise that. But if you want me to understand it, leave it as it is, please. I see the Lord telling these disciples that these things are going to happen and they say, “Where is it going to happen?” Why ask? Because they don’t want to be elsewhere when it happens. He just tells them a simple thing, “You see the eagles.” I have watched those creatures, even before an animal died, its eyes were closed, not dead, yet it brought the eagle. Can you tell me how they know? Can you tell me the moment an animal dies, why are they there on the spot? Why? I can’t tell you. The Condor is the biggest eagle, wing span 9 feet 2 inches. Well they come down and get a kid or a lamb and go off with it. In North America I asked, “Will you tell me how they know? Is it by sense or sight or what?” No one knows, but every one can tell you, “They’ll be there.” They are going to get it. If you are right in the body, there is no need to worry, you will be you’ll be caught up wherever you are.

 

I was telling you about the fact, that all don’t rise at the same time, and was trying to tell you that I don’t like to go through life with the feeling in myself, “Nothing matters, I am in the Way.” You are in the Truth. Is the Truth in you? And I said, “We could go over the words of Jesus, which He said to His disciples on the mountain in Matthew 24.” He talked to them about His coming, What is the first word of the 25th Chapter? “THEN.” Why do I draw attention to that? We have these words in verses and chapters, that’s alright, but when Matthew wrote that Gospel, he didn’t write it in verses and chapters. For that reason sometimes when reading, I put the verses and chapters out of my mind altogether, and picture Jesus on the mountain talking to His disciples, and He continues on with the word, “then.”

 

He tells them about the ten virgins. All went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Jesus is not talking to the unsaved, but to the apostles, and He is telling them, “Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins, all went forth to meet the Bridegroom.” They took their lamps. All were on the same journey, all going to meet the same person. All ten had that thought in mind, they’d wait on Him when He comes. Five were disappointed. Now, there’s Jesus and He is talking to Peter, John and the others who journeyed through life with Him, and preached the gospel beside Him. If He needed to tell them, how much more would He need to tell me? We are talking about His coming. The Devil bound, His people rising and reigning with Him, but I wouldn’t like to go away with the thought in mind, that just because I’m with the Saints, I’m safe and secure. I am if I have the oil and if not, I’m not safe. We have looked at references to what will happen. Well then, Satan is bound, and the Lord is here, and His people are with Him. What will happen then?

 

I was in a home talking to some folks how Workers had failed to get into some countries. The Sister said, “Well, if it’s like that, there is no chance of the Lord coming soon.” I said, “Why?” She said, “Well, doesn’t it say that the gospel will be preached in all the world before He returns?” Well, that verse reads a bit different to what she thought. Matthew 24:14, “And the gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations and then shall the end come.” Not the Lord coming back, but the end coming. Now, I will tell you how I look at that, it’s partly had its fulfillment now, and from Paul’s day, but this passage we have referred to. I was telling you how I look at it, and I may be mistaken. Jesus Himself quoted, and He doesn’t say, “Then I’ll come,” but “Then shall the end come.” That verse is partly fulfilled now, but I look for it in its fullness, when Satan is bound and Jesus is here, then look for that verse having its fulfillment.

 

Isaiah 2:2 tells us what will be taking place. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, (not in the end) that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be established in the top of the mountains” (meaning, the Kingdom of the Lord’s mountain shall be established on the mountain). “All nations shall flow into it and many people shall go and say, ‘Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.'” You Workers go inviting people to meetings and how many come? Well now, look at what I have read, “Many people.” You don’t have to go giving out invitations, people say one to another, “Come ye, let us go up.” It’s the very opposite to what it is today. That would be a miracle. How could you think of many people saying, “Let us go, let us go up to the House of the Lord?” Now, I was going to tell you, I read that and I think of it in the light of the present time, it could hardly happen. But think of it in the light of the conditions we have been talking about. Satan bound, Jesus here with His people. Ah yes, I could understand how it would be. The devil tied. Jesus here, it wouldn’t be so difficult. “And they beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation.” It will be a gloriously wonderful time. Do I know all about it? No, and to be candid, I don’t try to, I have just an idea. The Lord gave me sufficient to know there is something worthwhile living for.

 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses, (I don’t like using the word), the devils witnesses that’s the truth. If Jesus had any witness in this world, we are the ones, and I am not blowing my own horn about it. The others have to blow their horn, because they are not in it. They will tell you the day He’s coming back and Jesus Himself said, “The angels don’t know and the Son doesn’t know” (He’s referring to Himself) “but the Father.” Yet some foolish men know more than Jesus. Now that’s the Day of Resurrection for the Just.

 

The other day was Judgement Day. Revelations 20:13, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works.” Is that the resurrection for those who die out of Christ or not? I think it is. Read back to this chapter, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. And they lived – reigned with Christ a 1000 years, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the 1000 years were finished.” Many that went into the sea came up just the same as if in the grave and death and hell delivered up the dead and they were judged every man according to their works. So back to the 11th verse, “And I saw a great white throne.” Does that put in your mind of a passage where Jesus spoke about that time, as He was sitting on the mountain. In the latter part of the chapter, we have spoken about the ten virgins.

 

Then He went on to speak about the talents. Then in the first part of the chapter He says, “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and the holy angels with Him.” (Matthew 25:31) I’d like to just say to you to help you understand, don’t confuse that passage with His coming to reign. If you do, you will be muddled up. When He comes to reign, it will be with His saints. When He comes to judge, He comes with His angels. Would it bring to your mind the parable of the tares and the wheat? (Not to confuse with the parable of the sower, the sower went and sowed seed in the heart … The Word.) In the parable of the tares and the wheat, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom. He that sows them is the Son of Man. The tares are the children of the wicked one. They are sown by the devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. When the end comes the Lord will send forth His angels and they will gather together the wicked and they will be burned as tares. “Then shall the righteous shine in the Kingdom of their Father.” Revelations 20:11-15, isn’t that in perfect keeping with the wheat and the tares, and the end of Matthew 25? Everybody is there. This is the Judgement day. One group on one side, one group on the other side making a separation. It is I that decides where I go, God doesn’t! Where I am going to be on that Eternal Day…I decide that for myself. The Lord has done everything for me to be with Him in His Glory.

 

We don’t decide it just when we wish, but when He gives us the opportunity. When He comes to the door with the Gospel message. Then we live 30 or 40 years if we are fortunate enough, after for Him or go our own way. The group on one side, the group on the other side. “Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, ‘Come ye blessed of My Father etc.’” On the Left hand, “Depart, etc.” You know, I have heard people say, “God is kind and wouldn’t prepare such a place for anyone.” That’s right, He never did, He prepared it for the Devil and his angels. They wouldn’t do it so He got a place to put them. People in jail, they are keeping the law by force. We are keeping it by choice. They don’t want to keep it so the jailor says, “Right, you go in there.” The same thing they said to God. “This is not what we want,” so He made a place for them and called it Hell. You and I, in this life, if we don’t want to do His Will, what can God do for us on that day but say, “You go in there, the place prepared for the devil and his angels.” It’s the best He can do for us.

 

It’s the beginning of the Eternal Day. I will just close with this, “And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the Righteous into Life Eternal.” It’s just two groups on the Eternal Day. I would exhort you with these words from a much better man than any of us. I Corinthians 15, “Therefore, for this reason we have gone into these things.” Paul says, “I have given you the order of it, I have told you what will happen.” We’ve told you all this, now he says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”