GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

Mark Finley

1. Who Are the Remnant? An Overview of the Biblical Teaching on the Remnant

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Before we pray, let me tell you a little bit about the seminar.

When I attend a seminar, I always like to know something about it.

What direction the presenter is going to go in the seminar.

And so if you have your program called Chosen and Faithful, if you just take that out momentarily and look at the seminars, and if you drop down to the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5th seminar, the title of our seminar is remnant identity, who we are and why it matters.

And I'm going to be looking at the whole concept of the remnant.

What does the Bible mean when it talks about the remnant?

And we're going to study that through scripture in the first session.

The second session, I'm going to talk about the Book of Revelation, particularly the 3 Angels message, and how that is relevant to young people today.

How can a university student really be excited about, turned on, if they're a postmodern young person, by the whole message of the remnant.

Well I guess we've got to do 2 things here.

We've got to, You have a speaker and we've got to record.

So this is our second microphone, so we can put that on as well.

Is the message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and particularly the 3 Angels message, a byproduct of 19th century mentality that has no relevance today?

And so particularly in the second presentation, we're going to look at the great needs of the human heart in the 21st century.

We're going to look at the great needs of the human heart in the 21st century.

We're going to look at the great needs of contemporary society.

And we're going to discover how the Adventist message is incredibly relevant.

It's on the cutting edge of where the thought processes are in our society today.

So we'll look at that in our second presentation.

In our third presentation this afternoon, we'll look at is there a remnant of a remnant?

Will God lead out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church a smaller, more faithful group?

That is an incredibly important presentation for today.

What will Adventism face in the 21st century?

What are some of the issues that it's facing and how can we be prepared for them?

And then the fourth presentation later this afternoon is how a generation of youth, young adults and older adults are going to be filled by the Holy Spirit to finish God's work on Earth.

When you look at the fact that on this planet there are between 6 and 7000000000 people and you consider the fact that there are more people being born that are being reached.

If you look at the Middle East, with its multiplied billions of people, and China, with its over a billion some odd people, and you look at India, with a billion some odd, and you look at the infinitesimal number of not only Seventh-day Adventists but Christians, but if you look at the whole world population, Christianity is very low in the whole world population, and then you look at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it's less than 1% of the world population.

So how can a small group ever expect to see the work of God finished?

We're going to study that and we're going to look at it from a prophetic standpoint, from a biblical standpoint, and from a practical standpoint.

So our seminar lasts today, 4 sessions today.

Tomorrow morning, for those that missed, I'll take sessions 1 and 2 and summarize them.

And then, Sabbath afternoon, I'll take sessions 3 and 4 and summarize them.

So the session really is, the seminar really is 4 sessions for today.

So let's pray, and then we'll enter directly into our Bible study for the morning on remnant identity.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to study your word.

We thank you that the Word of God is the living Word, that it's inspired by God, and that as we open its sacred pages that you will speak to us.

So we invite you by your spirit, we give you permission to speak in our hearts, to our hearts, to change our lives.

May we not only learn new thoughts, but may our hearts be changed.

Isn't it rather egotistical for Seventh-day Adventists to say, we are the remnant of the book of Revelation, when you look at all of the Christian churches and the varied Christian denominations, isn't it rather egotistical for a group of Adventists to say, we are the remnant, we have the truth?

It would be quite egotistical if it wasn't biblical, wouldn't it?

And so when Seventh-day Adventists talk about the remnant, we're not talking about a exclusive doorway to salvation.

We believe that those that have accepted Christ and are honest in heart, and even those who have not, we believe that salvation is a matter that we leave with God.

We don't judge the salvation of other human beings.

But we also believe that prophetically, God has raised up an end time movement that will share his grace and love with others.

And so this morning we wanna look at this whole matter of identity, and maybe to get us into the topic, I can tell you a story that took place about 150 years ago in England.

Clarkson was a very sophisticated, very well-educated banker.

He was well-known through that region of South England.

He was 1 of the wealthiest men in the community, lived in a palatial estate, and as a premier banker in the banking industry, he employed hundreds of people.

She was beautiful in every way, physically beautiful, long, golden blonde hair, blue eye, just a very attractive, intelligent, and he desired that she would largely take over the business after he died.

Clarkson was a junior clerk, another guy in his 20s.

But this guy had no social status at all.

And he had a fancy for Clarkson's daughter.

Clarkson got nervous about it because he said, look, my daughter is of the upper crust.

And why should she marry some second-rate junior clerk who's not gonna make much of himself?

Clarkson about taking his daughter's hand in marriage, Mr.

Carkson said, not so sure about this young man.

What are you gonna ever make of yourself?

And he said, look, I'll give you 1 opportunity.

Our bank has a business relationship with 1 of the largest brokers in Dusseldorf, Germany.

I want you to go over and see what kind of business deal you can negotiate with them and show me your stuff and then come back and I'll consider my daughter marrying you.

Well, this young man went to Dusseldorf and he was nervous, to say the least.

He knew that not only his future, but whether he could marry this girl he loved, depended on it, so he went there And these people didn't want to talk to him.

And he said, they said to him, you know, go back and send somebody more senior in the corporation.

He listened for a while, very wise young man, he smiled and he said to them, would it make a difference if I were the son-in-law of the banker?

Would it make a difference if I married the banker's daughter who may become the president of the corporation.

They said, yes, it would make a big difference if you could prove that.

Would it make a difference to you if I was just appointed as the chief associate and the representative of the firm in Germany?

That they will do all business with you through me.

Clarkson said it would make a big difference.

He said, let me marry your daughter and all that will happen.

And when we study the remnant, we're looking at a royal identity.

I'd like you to take your Bibles and we're going to start with a familiar Bible text in Revelation chapter 12, verse 17.

2. The Message of the Remnant & Postmodern Youth - How Revelation’s Message Resonates with Thinking Young People Today

Good morning and it's time to start our next session this morning.

We are in a class called Remnant Identity.

We studied who the remnant were in our last session.

Looking through, if you missed that session, we looked through the Old Testament, discovering who the remnant were, and the concept of the remnant is a concept of a DNA faithfulness, a posterity that's faithful to God.

Throughout the Old Testament, we looked at the fact that God pardons, preserves His remnant.

He's always had a remnant that He's preserved.

We looked at Revelation chapter 12 as well.

Last session was a Bible study where we looked at our Bibles.

This session will be, we'll use graphics and go to the screen.

Then this afternoon we talk about the shaking of Adventism and how to be sure that you're not shaken out.

We will go back to the Bible and then our last presentation back to graphics.

That gives us some variety in our presentation.

We'll keep the lights on because there will be many Bible texts and references you want to write down.

Remember, you do have in the back of your booklet, you have some excellent pages for notes for the seminar if you need to use them.

Father, as we approach 1 of the most significant chapters in all of the Bible, we pray that you would help us to have a deeper understanding of that chapter, and particularly as we think about the society that we live in, in the United States and many of us Western Europe, where post-modernism and secularism has gripped the mind, help us to see once again afresh and anew just how The message of the 3 angels speaks to this contemporary society and speaks to all humanity.

So I pray that you would bless in a very special, special way our presentation.

May your spirit be here, may we sense that.

4 chapters in the book of Revelation that talk about an end time people.

We have Revelation chapter 3 that describes the Laodicean condition of God's people.

We have Revelation chapter 10 that describes the historic rise of God's people as the result of studying the book of Daniel, the little book in the angel's hand that was sealed then opened and the disappointment, you know that chapter.

Revelation chapter 12 that describes the characteristics of the remnant.

And then Revelation chapter 14, hope's grace-filled end time message.

You know, in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, The nation of Israel found their identity in this passage.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.

The Israelites called this the great Shema.

This passage more than any other identified Israel.

When Hebrew mothers were rocking their babies to sleep at night, from the time that that child was, oh, 3 months old, 5 months old, the mother would rock the baby and sing to the baby.

Throughout the centuries of their exile, when the Israelites were exiled and they were no longer in Jerusalem, but they were in Babylon, the chanting of the Shema reminded the Jews of the spiritual vision and the path that united them as a people.

This Shema gave them the sense of vision, that God is still our God.

Jewish mothers continually taught their young children to chant the Shema before going to sleep.

So when the children were old enough to speak, some of their first words would be, the Lord, our God, is 1 Lord.

And Israel mothers and Jewish mothers would be rocking their babies, and as they rocked their babies, The baby, as soon as it could speak, would begin chanting back to its mother those very words.

Now during the Holocaust in the late 1930s, 39 to 45, some Jewish parents in Europe placed their children in Christian orphanages to save their lives.

The German Nazi forces were taking Jews by the tens of thousands and putting them in prison camps like Ravensbrück and Dachau, and these Jewish parents were concerned about their children.

So they put them in the orphanages, Christian orphanages.

After the war was over, many of the leading rabbis visited these Christian orphanages because they wanted to secure Jewish children.

See, the parents of these children had died.

If you were a Jewish-Polish child, you would have a Polish name, not a Jewish name necessarily.

The same was true with German Jews, the same was true with Swiss Jews.

So the rabbis would go to these Catholic orphanages and they would say, we want our Jewish children.

And the priest would say, there are no Jewish children here.

And because, of course, the records were destroyed, the rabbis couldn't do it.

And so they said, no, we're not going to give you any of these children.

1 day, 2 of the leading rabbis came to a major Catholic orphanage and said, We'd like to have the Jewish children." And the chief priest said, nothing doing, there are no Jewish kids here.

And the rabbi said, could I please come back in the evening?

During 1 visit, a leading rabbi asked the priest in charge of the orphanage to allow him to return in the evening when the children were going to sleep.

As he came into the orphanage, he just began to chant the Hebrew words of the Shema.

Mama, mama, they'd begin to chant the Shema back to the rabbi.

He identified every 1 of the Jewish children that way, in that orphanage.

Because those children, from their earliest ages, had a sense of who they were as Jews.

They knew this Shema, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and they would repeat the words of the Shema and identified them in that time of captivity.

Now for Seventh-day Adventists, the 3 angels' messages in Revelation chapter 14, they're our Shema.

Revelation 14 describes Seventh-day Adventist.

So we're going to spend some time looking at that message.

We find our unique prophetic identity outlined in Revelation 14, verse 6 to 12.

And it's here that we find our passion to proclaim the gospel to the whole world.

It's here we understand the very foundation of who we are and why we're here.

So let's read together Revelation 14, verse 6 and 7 from the screen.

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.

And worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of the waters.

Now Ellen White puts it this way, she says, in a special sense, Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and lightbearers.

To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world.

On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God.

They have been given a work of most solemn import, the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages.

There is no other work of so great importance.

They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

Is the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' message, is that 19th century mentality that the church has now grown out of that has little or no relevance to the church today?

Or are the 3 angels' messages on the cutting edge of what the world needs?

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

My favorite time to teach is after lunch because everybody's so wide awake.

You know, once I was looking at a preaching magazine and there was a little cartoon in the magazine.

And it was of a bishop in all of his pontifical robes and he was getting up to speak and people were falling asleep while he spoke.

But then the next cartoon showed up in the balcony there was a little boy.

And he had a bowl and he had a straw with peas in it.

He would blow through that straw and hit some guy in the face and wake him up.

And the caption on the bottom of the cartoon said, Dad, you keep preaching and I'll keep him awake.

So if you fall asleep, I'll have 1 of my kids up there with a little straw for you.

We are on a journey together and let's kind of summarize the first classes that we had this morning and then we will launch right into this afternoon while many others are still coming in.

We looked this morning at the Old Testament remnant and the New Testament remnant.

We pointed out that the word remnant is a very rich word in the Bible.

It means much more than the rest, much more than those that remain.

The whole idea in the Bible of the remnant is a DNA idea.

That the remnant have the same DNA as the original.

It's a word that really comes from a similar word to posterity and that the remnant are the posterity.

They are Those that have been pardoned, purged, and preserved down through the ages.

And we showed that in the Old Testament and the New Testament this morning.

We've shown also that God would have an end time remnant that would be characterized by their faithfulness to God, their obedience to God, and their keeping His commandments.

Then we looked at the idea of the 3 angels message as it relates to contemporary society.

And we saw this morning that God tailor-made, he shaped a message for this generation.

This afternoon, we're gonna look at the subject of the church.

Will God call a remnant out of the remnant?

And we have 2 presentations this afternoon.

1 is on the shaking and will the church survive?

And the other is on The whole idea of the revival of the church and God's last day message and movement of evangelism to finish his work.

So let's pray and then we'll launch right into our Bible study for this afternoon.

Father in heaven, We thank you so much for the mighty power of God.

We thank you that your spirit is moving through your people and that a mighty revival is coming.

We thank you for the promises of your word that you will preserve and protect your church.

Now grant to us wisdom as we study in Christ's name, amen.

There was a small congregation that was really rejoicing because that was the day their church would be dedicated.

There were some things that made them sorrowful though.

They had picked out a piece of property in the center of the community.

It was an absolutely beautiful piece of property.

The problem was that Sam Sadler, 1 of the wealthiest men in Swan Quarter, North Carolina, wouldn't sell the property.

He said, no, your church can't pay enough for the property.

I would never sell it to a church, I want to get as much money as I could for the property.

And so the disappointed congregation purchased another piece of land right off Pimlico Sound and this land wasn't as favorable but they could afford the land And it was on a lower terrain.

The day of their church dedication of this new church on this less than desirable land, a hurricane blew through the South of America.

And Pamilkosound flooded and their church was lifted up off its moorings and began to float away the night of its dedication.

It floated down Oyster Creek Road, blown by the wind." Now if you think that this is a fabricated preacher's tale, you should look up The church moved by the hand of God.

And you'll see, not while I'm preaching please, but you will see this story of the church Providence built.

The church floated down Oyster Creek road.

Church members were amazed as they watched it float.

It was blown by the wind and took a right down Main Street in the town until it settled on this high piece of ground that they wanted to build on in the first place.

Sam Sadler came out and he said, I will sell you the land at a reduced price because 1 cannot fight against God.

Although the winds may blow against God's church in the latter days of earth's history, the church will still be guided by the hand of God.

Matthew the 16th chapter and the 18th verse.

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, either on the phone or on your iPad, Matthew 16, and we'll start there with Matthew 16 and verse 13.

We're studying the nature of the church, we're asking the question, will the church survive?

We're looking at the whole idea of the shaking and how God will purify his church at any time.

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Series

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1. Who Are the Remnant? An Overview of the Biblical Teaching on the Remnant

1h

2. The Message of the Remnant & Postmodern Youth - How Revelation’s Message Resonates with Thinking Young People Today

1h

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

1h

4. The Remnant & A Final Generation of Spirit-filled Witnesses

54m

5. Summary of 1 and 2

1h

6. Summary of 3 and 4

1h

Sound Doctrine