Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Practical Truth for Perilous Times

Wes Peppers

1. Adventist Culture or Adventist Faith

Precious Father, this morning, we rejoice that it is once again time for camp meeting.

But Father, we would not just desire to come to camp meeting to see our friends, to visit with other campers, to come and eat the camp food and eat our veggie links and soy ice cream and all the wonderful things that we have at camp meeting.

We're here to be transformed by the living Christ.

We want to be changed by the power of the living Word today.

We want to experience, Lord, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Lord.

We've been receiving drops of blessing for decades in the Adventist Church.

We've seen wonderful things happen in the Adventist Church, but Lord, we would receive the fullness of the Spirit today.

We would open our hearts this morning, Father.

And by the power of Your living Spirit in us, Lord, We would be victorious over sin.

And we would go forth as Your church, Lord, to win souls to Christ.

So, Father, please today, let Your presence fill this place, but more importantly, let it fill our hearts.

Let it fill this body temple which you have given to us, and may our minds, our hearts, and our lips be saturated with your praises, and with the promises of your Word and the presence of your Spirit.

This morning we ask, Lord, do a work in us that we cannot do ourselves.

And when we leave this place, Father, may we not be the same.

We ask this in the sweet name of Your Son Jesus.

I want to begin this morning with a story.

There was a young lady that was attending 1 of my churches.

And I'm not going to tell you which church and who it is, because if I tell you the name, you're going to know the person, or you're going to at least know someone that they're associated with.

This young lady was in her early 20s and she had attended Adventist elementary schools, she had attended Adventist middle school, she had attended the Adventist Academy and she had just graduated with her bachelor's degree from Andrews University.

Sweet, sweet young lady, beautiful character, she was just a sweetheart, and she had come to work at a place near where I was pastoring.

And this young lady had just gotten married, she was, I won't even tell you the grease she had because I don't want you to try to figure out who it is But this young lady had gone through all of our schools and she came to me 1 day After a sermon that I had preached and she said, you know Pastor, I'm not even exactly sure what I believe.

She says, I've gone through all of our schools.

And by the way, dear friends, this is not a knock against Adventist education.

But she said, I've gone through all of our schools and she says, I have no idea what our church believes.

She says, I'm not even exactly sure if I should keep the Sabbath or not.

I mean, if you grow up in the church and you go through our schools and you're not even sure why or if you should keep the Sabbath, I would say that's a bit troubling.

And she said, I'm not sure which direction to go.

And she told me, She said, my senior year in high school, I had to write a paper, and the paper was on Ellen G.

She said, well, actually, I wrote my paper against Ellen White.

She says, I looked up all kinds of research, and I wrote, it was like a 10-page paper on why I didn't believe Ellen White really was a prophet of God.

Fortunately, praise God, we were about to start a Revelation series in the next 2 weeks.

And I said, hey, listen, why don't you come to this series, and I promise you that by the end of this series, you're going to have confidence in the Bible, you're going to have confidence in Christ, you're going to have confidence in the Adventist message, and you're going to have confidence in the Adventist church.

And she says, alright, I've got nothing to lose.

And night after night, she soaked those meetings up.

We went through all the prophecies of Scripture.

Listen, friends, some people will say, well, why do we have to have these Revelation seminars?

Why do we have to have these, why can't we just preach about Jesus?

I can't tell you a Revelation seminar I have not preached, or I have preached, that Christ has not been the center of.

If we preach these meetings properly, we can preach Christ, we can preach prophecy, and we can preach the truth of God all in sync and all in harmony because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

The book of Revelation says it is the revelation of who?

The truth of God's Word and Christ go hand in hand.

So she came and she not only found Christ, but she found the truth.

And she found that the Bible could be trusted, that the messages therein were valid because of the prophecies that spoke to her heart night after night.

Not only that, friends, she found confidence that the Adventist church is not just another movement, not a movement, but it's not just another denomination.

It's not just another church on the corner of the street with 14 others.

But it is a divine, prophetic movement of destiny.

How many of you believe that this morning?

You wouldn't come out at 7 o'clock in the morning if you didn't believe that, would you?

How many of you know, let me ask a question this morning, and probably this group will be higher than most, but how many of you understand the contents of the prophecy found in Revelation chapter, let's just say 12.

You know about the mark of the beast, 2 beasts?

How many of you are familiar with, and raise your hands high because I want to see them, the contents of Revelation chapter 10?

All right, the number dropped by about 2 thirds.

Dear friends, if you really want to have confidence and understanding the Adventist church is a divine movement of prophecy, you must study Revelation chapter 10.

Because if you study that chapter, you would never have another doubt that the Adventist church was called by God in times like these.

You will understand why you should be an Adventist and not some other denomination.

Because this is not a denomination, it's a movement.

So this young lady came to that seminar and her mind was blown away.

She says, I used to be afraid of prophecy.

She said, I've had the book Great Controversy on my shelf for years.

Even though she had written a paper against the author.

She said, I had this book on my shelf for years.

And she says, I was so afraid to read it.

She says, but after the seminar, I'm not afraid.

And in fact, she said, just prior to her coming to the church, she said She had had a dream in which Christ returned to the earth, and she was unprepared to meet him.

2. The Adventist Atheist

Father, this morning we praise You for waking us up today, for giving us life, for giving us health, and for giving us the strength, Lord, to rise up and come to the meeting today.

And Lord, You've told us through Your prophet that we should have a desire to be wherever prayer is being made, wherever the Word is being preached.

And I pray this morning that it will be our heart's desire to be in your presence, and that today, Lord, you would call us to a deeper consecration.

You would call us to a deeper walk with the Savior.

You would call us to a deeper experience in Your Spirit.

And Lord, that the mysteries of the Word of God would be revealed to us today.

That we would be challenged, we would be convicted, we would be comforted and assured in the hope and the truth of Your Word today.

And today, O Lord, we would open our hearts to receive Him.

I remember a number of years ago, I was pastoring in Kansas, and I was an associate pastor, I was a Bible worker as well, followed up on many interests, and We saw many people come to Christ.

And we had an evangelistic meeting and he came to our meetings.

And he came night after night and he was being blessed and His heart was opening up.

Every night He came, His heart and His mind were more open to the truth.

And we were sitting there talking together.

And I had somebody with me and I was visiting with him about the things he had learned in the meetings and asking him if he wanted to make a commitment to Jesus, if he wanted to give his life to Christ, and we just kept on and on.

And finally he looks at the person that had come to me, that had come with me, and he said, I think he's trying to get me baptized.

Usually the people are running from baptism oftentimes.

And the person was shocked, and I was shocked, and I said, well, if you want to put it that way, I am.

Would you like to be baptized and join God's church?" And he says, you know, I think I would.

He says, I was wondering when you were going to ask.

And so that next Sabbath, we cleared him and prepared him, and that next Sabbath he was baptized.

And about a week later, I got a phone call that he had been called into the doctor's office.

See, prior to that time, he had had some testing done and they found some lumps in his lungs and in various places in his body.

So I went by there and he told me, he said, I've got a fatal cancer.

He says, they've told me I have 2 weeks to a month to die.

I'm so thankful that I came to know Christ before this time came.

And he said, you see, I had gone in for those tests, and then I got that flyer in the mail, and he says I recognized how frail my life was.

I recognized how needful I was to have someone higher than myself watching over me, so I came to those meetings.

Studying the Bible, people, is important, yes?

Public evangelism is Life or death, what do you think?

For many people, it is their last hope to put their trust in God.

And about 2 weeks later, indeed He passed away.

And I said, brother, what do you want me to say to people?

When I invite people to follow Christ, What do you want me to tell them?

And he says, I'm so thankful that I found Christ.

He says, but, he says, I'm so regretful that I didn't seek for him in my early 20s or my teens that I might use the strength of my youth to serve Him, to be consecrated to Him.

He said, tell them not to be half-hearted Christians, but to be wholly consecrated to the Lord all the days of their life.

That all they possess, that all they are, all their strength might be given over to Christ for His kingdom and His service to win souls for Him.

And so today, many years later, I'm telling you about my good friend.

And I know that I'll see him in the resurrection.

But friends, he wants to see you in the resurrection.

He wants to see those whom we will lead to Christ in the resurrection.

He wants us to be wholehearted Christians And I would tell you today that there is nothing more that Jesus wants in this life for you than to be a wholehearted Holy committed holy consecrated son and daughter of the Almighty God Today friends through the righteousness of Christ alone.

We can be holy Consecrated amen how many are thankful today for the righteousness of Jesus?

The grace of God that does not simply redeem us and leave us in our sins, but redeems us and restores us into the image of God.

Christ frees us from the penalty of our sins through justification.

He frees us from the power of sin through sanctification.

And 1 day very soon, He's going to free us from the presence of sin when He comes in the clouds of heaven and glorifies our bodies.

Now yesterday we talked about 1 of the great dangers that is coming upon God's church.

1 of the great dangers that many Adventists are falling into today.

And we talked about the pitfalls of that.

Being accustomed to a very nice culture, but not having transformed hearts by grace, being a part of a comfortable culture, but not seeking self-denial to lead other souls to Jesus, by seeking to be restful and where we're at and not putting the kingdom of God first.

Now we talked about that yesterday, and today we're going to go to the other extent of that.

Now we're going to talk about something very different today.

The title of the message this morning is, The Adventist Atheist.

Could it be possible that there are people who are not just enjoying a nice culture of veggie links and soy milk and all these different things, but could there be people who are within God's church also seeking the world?

You suppose today that there could be atheists even in the ranks of God's people.

We're going to go to the Bible and we're going to see a story of a man who I think fit many people today in our generation.

If you would, please turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke.

The Bible talks about a parable of a man who I believe is very representative of so many in our church today.

The Bible talks about the parable of the rich fool.

3. When Righteousness Becomes Sin

Father, this morning, we praise Your name.

We cry unto You that we are poor and needy sinners.

And Lord, I know that my own life is full of faults and defects, But Lord, I claim the righteousness of Jesus today.

Our only hope, Lord, is that His sacrifice is sufficient, and we know that it is.

And so, Father, this morning, as we gather together to open the pages of the Bible, I pray this morning that You would move us, that You would shake us, encourage us.

Lord, I pray that You'll bring comfort to the afflicted, but that You will also afflict the comfortable.

And we pray this morning that the Spirit would transform us and would make us more and more like Jesus until we become just like Jesus.

This is our prayer this morning, and we come in Jesus' sweet name.

And I often don't put the Scriptures on the screen, but this morning I did because I want us to read it together.

Let's all read that together, if you would, on 3.

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts." 1 of the most beautiful passages of Scripture for Seventh-day Adventists.

The Bible tells us that we have this prophetic word.

And throughout the ages of history as Adventists, we have been preaching this prophetic message, yes or no.

For the last 150 years, we've preached this message of Bible prophecy being fulfilled, Jesus soon to come.

Jesus would come in the clouds of heaven to take His people home.

And we have had a very distinct, a very specific message that centers and anchors in the book of Revelation 14, the 3 angels' messages.

Everything that we believe from salvation to the second coming can be found in that little passage.

Now, what I believe today, that in the last 5 to 10 years, that which Seventh-day Adventists have been preaching for the last 150 years, those prophecies, we have been preaching always in a sense a futuristic way.

But I believe today that we can look upon the world and we can see that those things which we once preached to be taking place in the future are now taking place in the present and indeed over the last several years.

We are no longer living in the waiting for the final prophecies to happen, but we are now watching them unfold.

Recently, Time Magazine put out this publication after Pope Francis was elected, and it was called, the new Roman Empire.

Can you believe the things that are taking place in our world today?

Christianity Today made this statement just a few years ago.

It said within a few centuries, the pope has gone from Antichrist to Brethren Christ for a lot of Protestants.

And just a few years ago, Pope Francis addressed a joint session of the U.S.

Something that no religious leader, much less a Catholic leader, has ever done in the history of our nation.

And if you had tried to attempt this 30, 40, 50 years ago, there would have been a revolt, and there would have been some sort of hanging.

And yet, he stood at the cheers and the clapping and the applause and the tears flowing of many people from our nation, our representatives, our Congress, and he spoke words that were very specific for the times that we live.

Here's a little excerpt from that speech that he had.

He says, I call for courageous and responsible effort to redirect.

I'm convinced that we can make a difference.

And I have no doubt that the United States and this Congress have an important role to play.

Now is the time for not courageous thought, not courageous prayer, but courageous what?

We've seen every president has been meeting with this gentleman for the last several decades and the current president is no different.

Notice this statement from the Review and Herald.

Now when he made those statements, and I could show you more that are very, very interesting if you read between the lines.

When he made these statements, people were cheering, applauding.

And they were in great support, both Republicans and Democrats.

Independents and everything else in between and around it, they were all in support of this.

And never before had there probably been a louder applause than there was that day.

But notice this statement from the Review and Herald, June 1, 1886.

It says, "...this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor, which will eventually be united with Protestantism.

This union will not, however, be affected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes.

The adoption of the liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.

And friends, we see today multiple denominations clamoring, clamoring to join forces with this power.

All across the world, it doesn't matter what the denomination is, people are still seeking that joint unity, that ecumenicism that we were told would happen, that the book of Revelation says would happen, that the book of Great Controversy says will happen.

We are seeing it take place before our very eyes.

And yet, even though we have more evidence for the truthfulness of Our message, though we have seen more prophecies fulfilled, though we see it coming right down the pipe for this nation and for the world to embrace the mark of the beast, I would propose to you today that never before has the church been more asleep.

It seems like the more evidence we see, the heavier our eyelids get.

In 1948, Billy Graham said, the 3 greatest menaces faced by Orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism, and Muhammadism.

Just recently, just a few years ago, notice what he says.

I've found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of Orthodox Roman Catholic.

He said, Protestants as a people have a long history of heresy.

The time for reconciliation is now in order to ensure a full and dogmatic transition into the folds of the church.

Now he's not talking about Saddleback Church down there wherever he pastors.

He's talking about the Roman Catholic Church.

Just last year, there was a massive, 1 of the largest attempts to bring people together in unity was to take place near Washington, D.C.

It was called Together, a massive conference and they were going to have multiple Christian bands, music bands there and a lot of different speakers and they were all there to promote and press unity.

And just 1 of the main attractions was that Pope Francis was to deliver a speech to all the different denominations gathered there and he was to address them on the issue of unity and faith and etc.

4. A Love That Deceives

Father, we pray today that your Spirit would draw us close to you, that you would open our eyes to what is true, that you would reveal your great love to us, that we would be recipients of your kindness, your grace, your compassion, but also your truth, Father.

Those truth and loving kindness go together.

Justice and mercy kissed each other at the cross.

And Lord, we find today that we cannot have true love without having the truth, and we cannot have the truth without love.

And so we pray today, Father, that your Spirit would awaken us to a deception we may even find ourselves in today, that we would be awakened to that true love that we find in the character and the heart of You and Your Son and the Holy Spirit.

And we ask today, Father, that You'd be with us.

And You draw us closer to heaven, closer to Your heart, closer to Your ideal for our lives.

In Jesus' name, let God's people say, Amen.

That Scripture reading this morning, verse 6, this was the theme of our study yesterday.

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Series

Practical Truth for Perilous Times

2. The Adventist Atheist

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Christ In You

34m

Morning Devotional

Faith and the Final Crisis

59m

iShare 2013 Seminar: Experiencing God

Helps for Your Devotional Life

50m

Anticipation

Pt 2-The Holy Spirit and the Cross

1h 13m

What Can I Give Him?

32m

Finishing the Work

38m

Dave Fiedler: Core of the Controversy

Omega - Nothing New Here

1h 27m

The Time of Destiny

52m

No Safety In Politics

1h 1m

Running

42m

Delighting in the Almighty

2. How Can I Enjoy God?

26m

Sound Doctrine