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University SDA Church of Los Angeles

Dwayne Lemon

Persecution Without

This is a real blessing, brothers and sisters, to be out here in the wilderness like this.

You know, Jesus himself, every time he communed with his father, as much as possible, he would find places within the wilderness that he can talk to him.

I don't know how many of you might live or reside in the city, but when you're in an environment like this, you want to take advantage of it and get that special communion with God.

I remember I was reading volume 2 and volume 6 of the Testimonies to the Church, and both of them talk about the importance of keeping the Sabbath and how to do it and 1 of the things it says is that we should not congregate for several periods of hours inside of buildings on the Sabbath day.

1 of the great objectives is that we get a chance to be out in nature where we can communicate with God.

And we have an awesome opportunity to do that today.

So I want to make sure that as important as it is for us to have the meetings where we're going to go through the word of God, I'm going to encourage you, make sure you get that time where you get to commune with Christ in a very special way while you're in this beautiful environment where heaven speaks clearest to us.

Now it was 18 years ago that I had the privilege of becoming a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church And what was interesting is that when I remember being in that area where we were outside in a tent And I remember that there was so many people who got baptized with me There were literally over 30 40 individuals who got baptized on that same day.

But what was interesting is that quite honestly, and I'm being honest with you, I'm being real straight with you, 18 years later, not 1 of those people are accounted for.

Either they're still holding on to the name SDA but they're not living the lifestyle, or they all together turned their back on the name as well as the lifestyle.

And what we have to understand is that last night when you made the decision that you made, when we realized that our hearts were broken and we saw that the truth of the matter is is that we are wretched, we are miserable, we are poor, blind, and naked.

I showed you from inspiration that Jesus himself said we are not ready for what's getting ready to come.

And therefore we humbled ourselves before God and we said, Father in heaven, have mercy upon me, a sinner, just like that publican.

And as we came to Christ and gave ourselves to Him, He took our sinfulness and He gave us His what?

And now the responsibility that you and I have is that we are to walk in that experience of Christ's righteousness day by day, moment by moment, throughout the day for as long as we live.

Now, because of this fact, brothers and sisters, You have to understand that the enemy of souls is enraged.

If ever there was a time that Satan truly has now been filled with wrath, it is because of the fact that we see clearer than we've ever seen before, our abilities are not gonna get us ready for the coming of Jesus Christ.

It's not gonna get us ready for the coming of Jesus Christ.

It's not going to get us ready for the coming crisis that comes before Christ.

And as a result of that, Satan is enraged because you realize that and now you are trusting completely in Jesus to be your sufficiency.

You see, as long as you were dilly-dallying, as long as you was trying to do the some of me, some of Christ kind of thing, Satan stands back.

Because as far as he's concerned, he says, I already got you.

But once you begin to recognize Jesus, without you, I can do nothing.

Once we get to that state, now like never before, Revelation 12, 17 comes to pass and the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.

Because of the fact that we are in this warfare, we have to pray like we've never prayed before.

We're gonna have to study like we've never studied before, and we're gonna have to live like we've never lived before.

And as a result of that fact, we must understand what is it, because I believe it's not just me.

Quite honestly, you know too that there were people who came into the movement when you came in that today you're wondering where they are.

You see there are 3 forms of attack that Satan is behind that he's using against the remnant people to unfit us for the coming crisis and the coming of Jesus Christ.

And so it is that throughout this day and tomorrow we're going to hit the hardest 1 of all, but brothers and sisters throughout this day we are going to investigate these 3 things.

And the reason why is because The only way you and I are going to be persuaded that this same 1 who saved me is the 1 who can keep me, the only way that we're going to be unmoved is we need to understand how can I stand as Paul stood?

I've learned as a being a father of 4, God has taught me that any gospel that is not practical, brothers and sisters, it's a worthless gospel.

The days of going from being an ignorant sinner to an intelligent sinner, That's foolishness.

God's desire is not to take you from being an ignorant sinner to just simply make you an intelligent sinner.

So often people want to study Bible prophecy.

They want to understand all these different things.

But at the end of the day, sin still has dominion over their lives.

Christ says, listen, if you and I study the Bible simply so that we can go from ignorant sinner to intelligent sinner, we're still going to end up in the same lake of fire.

What God wants to do is take us from being ignorant sinners to becoming intelligent saints.

And therefore, if we're gonna be intelligent saints of God, brothers and sisters, we're gonna have to study, we're gonna have to pray, and we're gonna have to live like we've never done before.

And therefore, Christ must be our all support and sufficiency throughout this process.

I don't care how much you've learned, how much you may know, praise the Lord for it, but brothers and sisters, stay humble in the sight of God.

Recognize your gift, recognize the abilities and the things that God has done for you and in you, and he will do through you.

But by the grace of God, please stay humble in the midst of your walk with Jesus.

Don't ever get to a point that you begin to think I have arrived.

Once I call myself perfect, I just proved myself perverse.

And so as we prepare to go into this discussion this morning, Persecution without.

You see, there are 3 forms of persecution that the devil's gonna bring to every single child of God who names the name of the remnant.

It is going to be a persecution without, a persecution within, and then a persecution deep within.

And you will understand that by the conclusion of this weekend.

And this morning, our first emphasis, persecution without.

And so as we prepare to go ahead and hear the voice of Jesus speak to us, I'm gonna invite as much as you can that you may bow your heads with me, close your eyes, and let us hear Christ speak to our hearts.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful, Lord, for this wonderful environment that you have sought to bring truth to our minds.

And Father, I know that the truths that shall be spoken, it'll be simply an echo of that which you have allowed your people to learn time and time again.

But Father, there are many things that we have heard that sometimes we forget.

And as a result of that, we open ourselves up to the assaults of the enemy and Lord just in my experience as I see that so many came in when I came in but there are so many today who no longer walk with thee father our desire is that we will not simply recall the times when we started the race, but by the grace of God, we will be able to rejoice in the celestial joys of heaven because we will talk about not simply how we started, but how we were persuaded to finish the race and I pray dear God that you will pour out your spirit in a marked manner throughout this place and I pray Heavenly Father help us to behold Jesus for we trust that by beholding Him we all shall become changed This is our prayer and our thanksgiving that we give and we ask it in Jesus' name.

I'm gonna invite you to take your Bibles.

We're gonna go to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1.

And I want you to see something here and this is a point brothers and sisters that we want to make sure we understand because so often you will find that it is true that there are going to be many assaults that the enemy will make against us but at the same time we can know how to stand, though the heavens may fall.

You know the greatest wand of the world is the wand of men, is that right?

Men who are as true to duty as needed to the pole, men who will stand for the right, though the heavens may fall, Is that right?

That's what God wants to establish in us.

And ladies, I want to let you know that God is not a respecter of persons.

He might say men in inspiration, but he means mankind, all of us.

God wants to have all of us to know how to stand.

Now, if we're gonna know how to do this, we need to understand this principle.

Because there's a way that you can study the Bible where you can miss a point, but then there's a way you can study the Scriptures where you get the point.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, and if you're there, let me know by saying amen.

It says in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9, and I want us to read this together.

It says, the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be.

And that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is what?

The Bible makes it clear that history has a tendency to repeat itself and therefore sometimes when we get to a point where we're saying Lord okay we're getting ready to go throughout this journey where we're gonna walk in thy righteousness rather than in my own righteousness.

And we understand, okay, because I'm going to do this, I understand that like never before this same dragon, Satan, He is gonna be wroth with me, my household, and he's gonna do everything he can to try to make war with me that I am not persuaded and that I will fail as others have in the past.

So therefore, the question is, Father, how can I make sure that I can stand and remain persuaded that you are able to keep me?

God says, well, the first thing I want you to understand, dear child, is that history has a tendency to repeat itself.

So therefore, if I really wanna know how do I stand, all I got to do is just look back through the inspired pages of history to see how did God's righteous people stand back in the days when individuals were challenging them.

And here it is that the Bible gives us 1 of the major examples throughout scripture of a very righteous man that I want to point your attention to.

In Matthew chapter 24, we get an idea of a picture of 1 whom the Bible declared as a righteous man.

In Matthew the 24th chapter, When you get there, let me know by saying amen.

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Persecution Without

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