Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Prophetic Faith

Wes Peppers

Prophetic Faith in Daniel- Part 1

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come together and to understand this theme.

And for many of us, some of these things might be review, but for others of us, Lord, we need our faith to be awakened.

We ask for a special blessing to be with us now, that you would draw us close to you and close to each other.

And Lord, draw us near to the heart of God and to your heart, Lord.

More importantly, Lord, we want to experience them.

So help us, Lord, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Alright, well let's take a look first at Revelation 14.

If I were to ask you, what is the core of Revelation 14, what would you say?

If I were to say, what's the core of the 3 angels' messages, what would you say?

If I were to ask you What is the purpose of the 3 angels' messages?

Okay, somebody said preparation, which that's close to what I was looking for.

But what is the preparation that God wants us to experience in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus?

You've got to get ready for Jesus, but What does that actually mean?

What's going to happen in the lives of God's people before Jesus comes?

So the ultimate goal of the 3 angels' message is to fit a people to be prepared for Jesus' coming.

But when we say to fit a people for Jesus coming, what is that fitting?

Actually, we're not just trying to get into heaven, but we want to fit into heaven, right?

So the fitting is that God's people will appear and look like who?

So the goal of the 3 angels' message is to cause God's people to turn to Him with all their hearts so that He can do a work within them that they cannot do for themselves.

Revelation chapter 14 and verse 12, because verse 12 is really the climax, it is really the wholeness of this message.

Revelation 14.12 says, "...Here is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Having the faith of Jesus...

Keeping the commandments of God can never go in a sentence when it's referring to God's people without the second half of that phrase.

So if you notice there, and I love bringing this out, If you notice there, it doesn't just say that they will have faith in Jesus, does it?

It's amazing how important a two-letter word is, isn't it?

Now, before you stone me, I'm not saying we shouldn't have faith in Jesus, okay?

But for the people who will stand on the earth before Jesus comes, having faith in Jesus, might I say, is not enough.

Because the fullness of having faith in Jesus Leads to what?

As I put my faith in Jesus day by day, it matures, it grows, it deepens to what?

Now what exactly does the faith of Jesus mean?

When Jesus came to earth as a man, the faith that Jesus had, the faith that Jesus lived, the faith that Jesus demonstrated while He was on this earth is the same faith that God's people will have at the end of time before Jesus returns to the earth.

Now, if I ask you this question, Is faith in Jesus more or less than the faith of Jesus?

So faith in Jesus must grow into and must mature into the faith of Jesus.

Now that does not in any way or in any shape or form or fashion take away from faith in Jesus.

But that faith in Jesus must grow to the faith of Jesus.

And that is the purpose of the 3 angels' message.

That is the goal that God has for each 1 of us, is that our faith will deepen and mature until we have the faith that Jesus had when He walked on this earth.

Prophetic Faith in Daniel- Part 2

Precious Father, today we thank You so much as we go into this lesson.

We just pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would guide and direct our thoughts and our hearts, and You would give us clarity of mind.

Most importantly, Lord, give us the Holy Spirit.

Without Him, we are just running circles of foolishness.

And so I just pray, Lord, for His presence to be more than in the room, but also in our hearts.

And we praise You and thank You, Lord, that You would lead us and guide us and teach us today.

So yesterday we talked about how can a person obtain the righteousness of God?

Does any of us have righteousness of our own?

We have no righteousness of our own, and it is impossible for us to attain it on our own.

Can the law of God give us righteousness?

It actually makes it very good because though it can't give any righteousness, it does do what?

It declares the righteousness of God, right?

How many of you were at the early morning session with Pastor Mark Howard?

So the law has no ability to give us any righteousness.

Now, what is the number 1 purpose of God's law?

Well, before it convicts us, well, before it shows us where we're at, it shows us where God is, right?

So the first role of the law of God is to declare the righteousness of God or to define righteousness as well.

Then as a following point, when it declares the righteousness of God, that righteousness is basically just kind of like trumpeted out.

And any place that there is unrighteousness, it reveals that by aligning it beside the righteousness of God.

And so, of course, we who are sinners are righteous or unrighteous?

And so that righteousness of God is naturally going to do what?

And so when it does that, it brings the sense of need, a sense of conviction, a sense of judgment that we are separated from Him, right?

We're separated from God, and we don't want to be separated from God, even though we are, but the only way to not be separated from God is to have that perfect righteousness.

But there it is, staring us in the face, the law of God telling us and pointing out all of our sins and revealing to us that we are nothing but unrighteous and your sins have separated you from God.

But God through His mercy cannot give us righteousness through the law, but He gives us righteousness from another place.

Because the beauty of Jesus is that He can both declare righteousness, well, He is righteousness, He declares righteousness, but He can also impart it.

That's the difference between Christ and the law, that they both declare the exact same righteousness.

There's so many people today that think that the commandments, the righteousness of God's law and the righteousness of Jesus are 2 separate things.

Jesus has no less justice within His person than the law does.

If he did, then you could say that Jesus came from the law rather than the law coming from Jesus.

Jesus has no less justice within him than the law does.

So we need to find, this is just slightly reviewed from yesterday, we need to find a man who had never sinned but kept the law perfectly, would allow us to have His righteousness as our own.

And if you remember we read Romans 3 And I would like to read that again today because I think it's highly important.

It says, "...but now the righteousness of God..." Let's go back up here.

It says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth should be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." And so when he says there, those who are under the law, he's not just simply talking about Jews, he's talking about those who are under the condemnation of the law, right?

The ones that have broken the law and have had the knowledge of breaking the law and now understand that they've broken the law, correct?

And he says, all the world becomes guilty before God.

Because now they have a revelation of God's what?

Character and His righteousness, which is in contrast to their character and unrighteousness.

He says, "...therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in its sight.

So he says basically, once you've broken the law, you cannot do anything to fix that brokenness.

It is just there, and you can give your best effort, you can give it your best shot, but it's still going to be broken.

Even if you get it right after that, that moment in time still is there.

But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed." So in other words, he's saying, okay, look, the law of God declares the righteousness of God, but it's not going to give you anything.

But here's another place of righteousness that's besides the law, other than the Law, where we can actually obtain it, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Which righteousness would you rather have?

If you could obtain your own righteousness from the law, if you could do that, but you can't, but if you could, would you rather have that?

Or would you rather have Jesus' righteousness?

The reality is we cannot get righteousness from doing the deeds of the law.

But even if we could, we'd still rather have His.

So why then, when we still rely upon our own unrighteous acts, do we still prefer our own rather than His?

We still trust somehow in our own efforts to do something good of ourselves when we can't.

But even if we could, even if God could go, whoo, now you can do it, We'd still rather have His, so why would we rather have His in the worst spot, see what I'm saying, than even in the middle spot?

Prophetic Faith in Revelation- Part 1

Precious Father, we thank You so much for the privilege we've had of studying and understanding these themes, very important themes.

And yesterday, the last 2 days, 3 days, we've set a strong foundation for our studies.

And now I pray, Lord, You'll continue to lead and guide our thoughts as we continue down that track today.

Alright, What was the theme of yesterday?

And we find that the entire foundation, the entire basis of All that God did through Daniel tracks all the way back to Daniel 1, verse 8.

And many of us have felt like and thought that that word literally meant that he just kind of stood himself up straight and just dug in his heels and tightened his belt, gritted his teeth, and he said, whatever they bring at me, I'm just gonna block it, right?

And in a sense, certainly Daniel had to make a sober decision, and so he exercised his will, correct?

He exercised his will to say, these things I know they're going to bring at me, and these things I'm going to refuse.

But Daniel, just like the rest of us, really had no power or strength of himself to do them, but he had to totally and completely surrender the heart to who?

And when he did that, God gave him the ability and the strength and the wisdom to resist the temptations that the enemy was bringing to him.

We also saw that Daniel was carried to Babylon, so he was surrounded by Babylonian things, wasn't he?

What that name meant, I forget what it means, but it was a servant of 1 of the gods.

And so he was given that name, his friends were given a name, they were given new clothes, a Babylonian education, they were given Babylonian food, they were given all these things to try to change their identity, aren't they?

So Daniel was essentially surrounded and saturated with Babylon, correct?

And we saw that today, it's the same case for us, isn't it?

That today we are surrounded by this concept of Babylon all around us, from food to clothing to entertainment to all these things.

And if it was possible for Daniel to have Babylon around him, but not Babylon in him, is it possible for us to do the same thing today.

And so we saw that these stories in the book of Daniel are not just stories, but they're actual circumstances and situations that God's people will find themselves in before Jesus comes again.

And you remember in chapter 3, we talked briefly, and we'll talk more about it today, but in chapter 3 you have that image that's set up, which is a representation of, in a sense, the mark of the beast, forced, coerced, false worship with a death decree if you don't do it, right?

And then we find the same thing in Revelation 13, but before Revelation 13 comes, there is this over flooding of ungodliness, correct?

And that's what we find in Daniel 1 and 2.

And that's where we find ourselves today, isn't it?

We are standing on the brink of the time when the mark of the beast will be issued.

And I believe, friends, that it's obviously, It's closer than it's ever been before, but it is most certainly the case that our world and our nation are being conditioned to prepare the people of the earth to receive that thing.

Just in my estimation, the food that people are eating, the entertainment that they're watching, the television programs, everything is specifically designed to basically make our minds mush, so that we just fall into line.

I mean, the dependency upon earthly powers, governments, and so forth, the way that we do, everybody's looking to the government to save them, and indeed the government's going to step in and make that attempt, aren't they?

And so everything is being pushed towards that direction, but God's people are called to stand how?

God's people are called to stand in a different direction.

God's people are called to depend upon Him and not upon ourselves, not upon anything else, not anything externally.

And that which is external does not have to become what's internal for us, but the only way is if Christ is inside, yes?

If Christ is living within, the living Christ is living within our hearts, that's the only way to keep the floodwaters of Babylon from coming in.

How many of you find that to be true, yes?

So real quickly, I just want to review this, and we read it yesterday, but I want to read it again.

It says here, what does it mean to purpose something in your heart?

It means to give self over to a task, situation, or idea.

And the word purpose in the Hebrew, 1 of the words is to give.

And so to say that Daniel purposed is to say that Daniel gave his heart to God.

Throughout the book of Daniel, we find the same decision being made again and again.

Every time Daniel came in conflict with a conflict, he had to make the same decision to do what?

He always had to make that decision over and over again didn't he to give his heart to God?

He never saw the conflict for conflict's sake, you know There's people out there that are all always into these conspiracy theories and they're stocking up food and all this kind of thing.

And I had this guy once, he was a student of mine in a course, and he was always trying to tell me about these conspiracy theories.

And I said, brother, let me put it to you this way.

Let's suppose that everything you're telling me, I mean, he would have every kind of conspiracy theory I've ever heard of.

Let's suppose that every 1 of them that you're telling me is absolutely true and there's even many more beyond what you already know.

And he got big, he was like, yeah, Now I'm getting somewhere with this guy, right?

And I said, what are you going to be able to do about any of it?

And he just stopped and he thought for a minute and he said, well, I guess nothing.

And I said, your time is much better invested in drawing close to Christ and telling others about Him.

And you know, he went home that day and he came back and he said, I prayed about that and he said, you're right, and he says, I'm going to get rid of all this stuff.

And so We're not putting our time and energy into focusing on those things, are we?

But we're thinking about how can we, our hearts be drawn out more to the Savior?

Because How can we have more of Christ in our lives and in our hearts?

How can we prepare ourselves by understanding His Word more so that when the crisis comes, we'll be ready?

And if we're giving our hearts to God today and the issues that we're facing, then we're gonna be able to very easily give our hearts to Him when the crisis comes.

Now, a verse I just thought about quickly, and This is not my normal Bible.

I left my water bottle, my lemon water, I left my preaching bottle, and I'm doing a strong tirade recording today, 1 of the lessons I told you about the other day.

I'm doing that, and I left All 3 of those things in my camper.

And we know this verse, very, very popular verse that we quote all the time.

Revelation 12 and verse 11, I want you to notice this.

This goes along with what I've been mentioning here.

It says, this is the English Standard Version, "...they have conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." And notice the second half.

"...and they loved not their lives till..." what?

"...till death." Now when we read that text, what do you think that it means?

And I'm not going to say it doesn't mean that.

But what I am going to say is that it doesn't mostly mean that.

If you notice and you look carefully at how it's worded, it says, they loved not their lives, what?

It means until the time that death came, they lived what kind of a life?

Prophetic Faith in Revelation- Part 2

Father, we thank you so much for the wonderful privilege of being together here.

And we just ask your Holy Spirit to guide and direct our thoughts and our footsteps.

And we pray that your Spirit would once again accompany our study today, help to open our eyes and our ears to the truths that You want us to know.

So we ask You this, Lord, now in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, I just want to quickly review our first 3 pieces of righteousness by faith in the book of Daniel.

And we looked at Daniel 1, and I want to keep emphasizing this, but what was the core thing that gave Daniel the strength and the ability and the wisdom to withstand the pressure in Babylon.

He purposed in His heart, but He was giving His heart.

And it's not just, when we talk about giving our hearts, it's not just this nilly-willy, oh yeah, I'm going to give my heart to Jesus, but it's a giving of the heart that's unreserved.

It's an unreserved surrender in which there is no thing that I am choosing to hang on to when I've given my heart to God, right?

And so many times we talk to the youth and stuff, we talk about, oh, giving your heart to Jesus as if it's just like a thing that we do that is no different than doing their homework or getting up and getting dressed that day.

But this unreserved surrender transforms and changes the entire life.

And so, this unreserved, it's only that type of a surrender that's going to really transform the life where we've emptied ourself of self and allowed God to fill us with His Spirit.

That's the only type of surrender that's really going to have an effectual, lasting change in the external behaviors of our life.

And you know, our church has at times, just like Israel did, focused on the external behaviors.

And what has happened is, because the church focused so long on the external behaviors, people got frustrated because they were doing certain things on the outside, but their hearts had no peace.

And so what has happened in the recent movements up till now is people say, well, we don't need to worry about external behaviors.

And that's the other side of the ditch, you understand.

And so what we need to have is a surrendered heart, a changed inside that leads to a changed outside as well.

Because we know from our study that if Jesus lives within our hearts, There is no way that our external behaviors are gonna be the same as they were when we were in charge of our own hearts.

I mean, He's going to live His life through us.

The great mystery of the ages, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, If Christ lives His life in you, then the life's going to change.

Now that doesn't mean that we're going to be instantly perfect, okay?

There's still the process of sanctification where Christ is changing us and transforming the image, but there will be a shift in the life, and our life will be on a continual track more and more towards Heaven and more and more towards His character.

And some people, I want to say this because I want to add this element in, some people talk about baptism and they say, Well, you know, why is it that if a person accepts Jesus, that if they said, yeah, I accept Jesus, but they're still addicted to smoking, why don't we just go ahead and baptize them and then get them off smoking later on?

Or people have asked me, well, why don't we just, when people come to the church and they believe in Jesus, why don't we just baptize them and then we can teach them the truths later and then they can become members of the church later?

I mean, it Sounds like a pretty novel idea, pretty good idea.

And many people point to the book of Acts 8 as an example of that.

How many of you are familiar with Acts 8?

And I want to make this point and then we're going to come back.

Acts chapter 8 and verse 26 it talks about Philip and the eunuch, right?

Verse 26, And Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert.

So he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, the queen of Ethiopians, who had charge over all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting on his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Then the Spirit of the Lord said to Philip, go near and overtake the chariot.

Series

Prophetic Faith

Prophetic Faith in Revelation- Part 2

Transcript

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Recorded

Prophetic Faith

Prophetic Faith in Daniel- Part 2

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