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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Brian Hindman

Lessons From The Reformation

Our subject this morning is lessons from the Reformation.

I mentioned last time I spoke here a few weeks ago that 1 of the things that had a huge impact on my life was Generation of Youth for Christ.

And while I was at that conference though, I was asked to speak about the book, The Great Controversy.

You know, if you've ever been to GYC, they have a number of seminars.

In fact, when I was there, I think there were 21 or 22 seminars altogether.

And so, but they asked me to go through, since I used to teach world history, American history, they asked me to go through and try to highlight some of the important themes and characteristics from the Reformation that would be a benefit and value for us today.

And so I'm gonna be largely drawing on that today, and if the present, or the message today seems somewhat academic, I do apologize for that.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for what?

That there should be learning that takes place as we study the word of God.

But I like how Pastor David says we don't just read the Bible to be informed, we want to be what?

Transformed, allowing that information to change our thinking, our life, our habits, our lifestyle, and everything about us.

And so, this morning, we're going to look through and try to find some lessons from the great controversy.

And so, I want you to see something, though, in your Bible.

Open your Bible to Revelation chapter 12.

I know I'm gonna have a lot of quotes from the spirit of prophecy today, but I want you to realize it is based on what the scriptures tell us.

The principles found there are based on the scriptures, and also the time period is also based on the scriptures.

Revelation chapter 12, I don't have time to explain a lot of the details here.

I'm hoping you're mostly familiar with them, but there's a picture of the great controversy with war beginning in heaven, and the dragon being cast out to this earth.

And we're gonna pick it up in verse 14 though, and notice the dragon is angry with a woman, a pure woman, which represents a pure church.

And in verse 14, it speaks of a time that we're gonna be focusing on today.

The Bible says, and to the woman were given 2 wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent.

And so what we're going to find here, this time, times, and a dividing of times, if you study prophecy carefully, prophetic time, 1, 260 years.

What we're going to be studying is what the Bible refers to as that time period.

The time period of the Dark Ages and the Reformation.

And the book, The Great Controversy, is full of insights that are, I think, important and especially relevant for us living today.

Now I'm not sure you fully are convinced of the value of studying this, so I want you to go to another Bible verse quickly, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and we're gonna look at verse 15.

I wanna anchor this point in your mind of the importance of understanding sacred history as God has led our spiritual ancestors in the past and that he will do the same for us today.

Many of you are probably familiar with the statement which says we have nothing to fear for the future except as we forget how God has led us in our past.

And so the value of not just any history, but specifically sacred history.

The history which involves God's people and the work of God through his providence to lead them to a brighter and more perfect condition with him.

Solomon is speaking and he says, that which hath been, which is speaking of the past, is now, which is the present.

And that which is to be, future, hath already been, which is the past.

Solomon says, that which hath been in the past is now.

And that which is to be in the future hath already been." Now notice the rest of that verse, and God what?

"...requireth that which is past." God has an expectation upon us that we would understand and know how he has led and we would draw strength from that.

Does that make sense to you this morning?

And so we're gonna take that to advice as we look at lessons from the great controversy and there will be multiple lessons and we do have a lot of material to look at so I'm gonna try to go fairly quickly but not too quickly so that it can't sink down deeply into our mind, and we will understand that.

We looked at the scriptures, yes, that they give us hope as we look and see how God has led in the past.

What we have in the book, The Great Controversy, is truly need-to-know information.

God, in his great, magnanimous heart, has seen fit to give us insight which is devastating to the enemy.

We are born on a battlefield, every single 1 of us, in the great controversy that is devastating to what his plans are and His snares and traps and deceptions, especially in the book, The Great Controversy.

We are all on a need to know basis and God knows that we need to understand and know this information and has condescended to give us an extra special insight into what God has done in the past and what he wants to do for us in the future Well, why study the past a couple of quick statements first 1 volume 5 of the testimonies Satan snares are laid for us as verily as they were laid for the children of Israel just prior to their entrance into the land of Canaan.

And then it says, we are repeating the history of that people.

That's what we just read in Ecclesiastes 3.15, a biblical principle.

We are repeating the same experience of the children of Israel as they were on the borders of the promised land.

Next statement, Volume 13, Manuscript Release says, we have no time to lose.

The world is stirred with the spirit of war.

Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place.

And then she mentions the prophecy in the 11th of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment.

Much of the history that has taken place in fulfillment of this prophecy will be what?

So, are you interested this morning, what lessons can we learn from the struggles, the challenges, and the experience of God's people before us that we can draw on for strength today.

The Bible says, Matthew 24, Jesus' disciples came to Him and they said, tell us what will be the sign of the end of the world and of the end of the ages?

And he goes through and is telling them and giving them a description kind of blended together of the destruction of Jerusalem, the dark ages, and then up to the time of his coming.

And it says here, and except those days, Jesus is speaking, should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days should be shortened or shall be shortened." And it was the Reformation that cut off or shortened some of the persecution during that 1260 year time period that we're looking at.

For God's people would be handed over and would be persecuted.

The foundation of the Reformation, the great principle, which was the very foundation of the Reformation, here you can see some builders and they're working on something, they've got a solid foundation, is what?

The word of God is the all sufficient rule of faith and practice.

Everything I believe and practice and do is based on something that's stated in the word of God.

The word of God is the foundation of the Reformation.

It should be the foundation of our lives today.

The people involved in the Reformation were oftentimes very humble people.

But it says here, it is God's plan to employ humble instruments to accomplish great results.

Don't be tempted to think that God doesn't have a special work for you, that there's not something great that you can do.

Yes, it might just be ministering to your family, but there is something great that you can do if you will humbly trust God.

It says, the reason why God does this is because the glory will not be given to men, but to him who works through them, to will and to do of his own good pleasure.

And that's actually a Bible verse, Philippians 2.13.

It says, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

So that's actually just quoting right out of the scriptures, that principle.

So if we are humble, God can do great things through us.

Let's notice the morning star of the Reformation, John Wycliffe, called the Morning Star because he is the 1 that was kind of the first to begin speaking and reading and teaching out against some of the abuses of his time.

And you can see the dates up here from which he lived back in the 1300s.

John Wycliffe was 1 of the greatest of the Reformers in breadth of intellect.

In clearness of thought, in firmness to maintain the truth, and in boldness to defend it, he was equaled by few who came after him.

Continuing on, purity of life, unwearying diligence in study and in labor, incorruptible integrity, and Christ-like love and faithfulness in his ministry characterized the first of the reformers." Now, he spoke out against some of the abuses of his day, such as the mendicant or begging friars that traveled around all over Europe and had become a blight or a huge weakness upon the population because they would travel around without doing any labor and beg for money and beg for food.

And as young people were exposed to these type of religious leaders, they would become corrupted and think, oh, this is what it means to be really spiritual.

You go around and do nothing useful and beg your way to get an existence.

And he spoke out boldly against that and other things and was a faithful person for God.

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Lessons From The Reformation

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