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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Lewis Walton Weekend

Lewis Walton

Our Time, Our Message

I'd like to begin with a tribute to my wife, Joellen, School of Medicine, class of 66.

After her surgery residency and surgery board, she often went with her dad, Marion Barnard, class of 44, the South Pacific Mission Hospitals and did surgeries otherwise unavailable in some rather remote locations.

And I have in my hand here, Plaintiff's exhibit 1.

Now this thing is the tip of a native arrow taken from the brain of a Solomon Islands man who was injured in tribal fighting.

This thing penetrated the right side of his skull, passed through the right hemisphere across the midline, came to rest in the left hemisphere of the brain.

And Joellen, who was once told by a male surgeon that women have no place in surgery, Skillfully removed this thing from the left hemisphere, brought it across the midline, across the right hemisphere, stabilize the cerebral spinal fluid pressure, treated the entry wound and sent the patient to recovery.

Well, the next day on surgical rounds, she found the patient's bed empty, which of course is the surgeon's nightmare.

You can begin to wonder if the patient expired during the night, but he hadn't.

She found him out on the lawn in the sunshine, sitting with his family, eating breakfast.

And a few years later, when she went back to that same hospital, that man came several miles through the jungle to thank her for saving his life.

And that is what Loma Linda is all about.

Hart's emphasis on mission service in Loma Linda's residency programs.

So did Jo Ellen, she passed away on a Sabbath morning in early April of last year and was less spared from seeing the nightmare that the year 2020 could become.

In January, we were a stable nation with a vibrant economy.

By year's end, we had seen cities on fire and the government handing out money faster than it could print it.

And federal buildings under attack from Portland to Washington, D.C.

And our topic this morning is our moment, our message.

Revelation 14, And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel, and saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.

Now in 9 mighty verses, Revelation 14 presents a series of messages that lead like a stairway from where we are now right to the advent.

And to set the stage for what we're going to be looking at.

Let's compare our world with the word pictures of an end time world described in Inspiration.

Anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law.

The spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed are tending to involve the whole world.

There's a word laden with images of societal breakdown of angry mobs and dangers, even in a quiet suburb, and she says it again in volume 9.

The spirit of anarchy is permeating all nations and the outbreaks that from time to time excite the horror of the world are but indications of the pit up fires of passion and lawlessness that having once escaped control will fill the earth with woe and desolation.

Now let's think about the world of 2020 and beyond.

A pandemic brings our economy to a tire-smoking halt.

Churches are empty while liquor stores stay open.

Meanwhile, governments that once could fight and win a two-ocean war seem incapable of anything except political speeches.

And with that in mind, let's turn to Daniel 12.

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.

This world is getting ready for something and now let's get back to Revelation 14 where we began.

And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel and saying with a loud voice.

Revelation 14 verses 6 through 12 describe a series of progressing truths.

And notice I said progressing, not progressive.

Those truths are designed to prepare an end-time world for the coming of Christ, and where do they begin?

And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the what?

Our end-time messages begin on the foundation stone of the gospel, the heart of the Advent messages, Jesus.

And if we forget that, if all we do is preach end time issues, everything else we have to say is only words.

If we preach only end time issues without keeping Jesus at the center, we're still probably able to create biblically literate, prophetically aware, and probably more healthy sinners.

So the central theme around which all of this turns is the gospel.

Now, we could at this point nod piously at each other as if we had really resolved the issue and we could move on, but the problem is I'm an attorney, and in the law, defining your terms is critical to the outcome of your argument.

So let me ask a question, a critically important question, what is the gospel?

Well, buckets of ink have been spent in books and glossy periodicals trying to explain this, I submit much of which only complicates what should be obvious.

And my thinking is if we have a question like this, The best thing to do is to skip the commentaries and the commentators and go straight to the word.

Do our research there and a really good research entry point is Calvary.

Chances are you'll find the answer there.

He's thrown down on the splintery vertical stipes beam of the cross.

His back is lacerated already from a Roman flagellum.

He hits that splintery beam, then his arms are yanked out sideways on the horizontal patibulum, a calloused Roman knee comes down on his wrist.

And somebody produces a couple of spikes.

They're about a quarter inch square, about 6, 7 inches long.

And the hammer starts to ring and then the pain really starts.

Because when the head of that spike comes down and compresses the sensory motor median nerve, That victim is going to have electric jolts of pain going up each arm.

Now you felt a little hint of that if you've ever bumped your elbow on the corner of a desk.

And crucified victims at this point just start to scream and swear.

They swear at everything and everybody, including the emperor.

There's nothing else society can do to them.

And for a while, these men are cursing even Jesus, But then 1 of them hears from the center cross some words he recognizes.

Baruch ata'vum hayal'chaynu, melek ha'lem, salach.

There's 1 of these magic moments in which he gets it.

Number 1, he confesses his own unworthiness.

Number 2, He confesses the worthiness of Christ.

And number 3, having admitted he doesn't deserve salvation, he asks for it anyway.

We can complicate it with polysyllabic theological terms, but it's just that simple.

You can preach that in Wall Street or Cannibal Valley, New Guinea, and it's equally applicable either place.

So Revelation 14 starts with the gospel where it has to start.

But notice something, it doesn't stop there.

Now in AD 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, that was the issue, that was present truth.

The Christian faith had lost sight of the fact that you can't work your way to heaven.

So that was the issue in 1517, now moved down 500 years to a world in which cities are on fire and disease shuts down the economy and raging voices urge us to rethink everything we have assumed is meaningful about America.

And in a world like that people need to know more because our world is nearing a terminal crisis.

Great events are happening not only on earth, but in heaven.

Everything is gearing up for a conclusion of a cosmic war, so now we move on to the second great truth in Revelation 14.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel, and saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come.

God's end time people will deliver a gospel message, but they'll also deliver a judgment hour message.

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Lewis Walton Weekend

Our Time, Our Message

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Our Time, Our Message

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