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University SDA Church of Los Angeles

Dwayne Lemon

Persecution Deep Within

I am so grateful to God for this weekend.

It was a privilege to be out here in the scenes of nature just to be able to fellowship with God's people, to be able to hear God speak to us.

Did you hear the Lord speaking to you this weekend?

And I gotta tell you, the Lord has been very good.

Any message, I've always asked God that any message that I give, let it first touch my heart.

Because if it can reach me and help me to see something about myself, to see where I perhaps am falling short as it relates to the glory of God, then by the grace of God, as the Lord helps build me up, I'm in a better position to help build up the brethren.

So therefore I'm grateful for the things that the Lord has been sharing.

I myself have been reformed even more and I pray by the grace of God that the work that he started within me is the very same work that he will finish and bring it to its completion.

And so it is that this morning, my desire is not to spend the whole morning, you know, going over quite a bit, but there's something very important that the Lord wants us to understand.

You see, the whole focus throughout this weekend was talking about being persuaded like Paul was.

Paul did not even demonstrate the weakness that even John the Baptist at 1 time demonstrated.

You remember that John the Baptist, he actually got to a point in his experience where as much as he believed that behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, this same John the Baptist at 1 point in his experience while being in that dungeon, he said, listen, go ask Jesus.

Are you the Messiah or should we look for another?

Here it is, the great forerunner, at 1 point allowed himself to get discouraged, but God was so good to Paul that we don't find Paul uttering such words.

When Paul was in prison, he was at the point that he said, listen, I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep me unto that day.

Paul was able to say this because he understood his calling, he knew what God was calling him to do.

And even in the midst of persecution, he was still able to stand though the heavens were falling all around him.

Now, the reason why that's important is because, like I told you, as long as everything goes well, you and I are always gonna say, praise the Lord, thank you, Jesus, all is well.

But it's when persecution comes, it's when the trials of life begin to hit us.

And brothers and sisters, I don't know what those trials might be.

Those trials can come in the form of sickness, it can come in the form of disease, it could come in the form of loss of job or income, it could come in the form of foreclosures, It could come in the form of foreclosures.

Will we still be able to utter the words of God's servant?

I know whom I believe, and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep me.

This must be the attitude of God's people as we go through the final journey of this earth's history.

Brothers and sisters, I promise you time is almost finished.

Soon and very soon we are going to see all the things that we have been studying from the books of Daniel and Revelation fully come to pass.

And we will be tested to its greatest severity.

Great Controversy tells us that every individual will be severely tested.

So as a result of that we must learn how to stand with Jesus now so that when the great crisis comes to us we will know how to stand with Jesus later.

So with that in mind we're gonna bow our heads for a word of prayer as we go into the final discussion, the final phase of persecution.

We discussed persecution without, we discussed persecution within.

And this morning we're now gonna discuss persecution deep within.

Father in heaven, we are grateful, Lord, for the blessing of this wonderful weekend.

And Lord, I believe that it's not simply a scripture that we read or a scripture song that we sing, but it is the very words of the sentiments of our own heart that our hearts have been moved and we know in whom we have believed and we are persuaded that he is able to keep us.

Lord I'm asking for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

It was the final words of Jesus that was most important to the disciples as he was preparing to depart.

And so Lord as we meet for this final session, Lord I'm praying that in a marked manner you'll pour out your spirit in such a way that you have not even done so throughout the past meetings.

And I pray dear God that our hearts and our minds might be transformed into the lovely image of Jesus.

I pray dear God that you will help us to press together, to bind together, that as we prepare to go back to our separate places, that we will go forward in faith, knowing in whom we have believed, being fully and completely persuaded that he is able to keep us and to preserve us all the way unto that precious day.

Thank you, Lord God, for having heard, and thank you also for answering our prayer.

I want you to imagine that there is a minister, a man of God, someone who has been called of God to do a great work.

And I want you to imagine that this same minister, he goes around and it gets to a point that as this minister goes and from place to place, he begins to speak God's words to God's people.

He speaks God's words to God's people in such a way with such power that individuals would literally come to this minister just to ask them to pray for them because they believe that that minister had such a divine connection between himself and the Savior.

We're talking about a minister of the gospel who walks with power.

I want you to imagine that there's a minister who goes around and as he preaches the Word of God, people are delivered.

Delivered from all the different strongholds that demons put upon their lives.

I want you to imagine a minister of the gospel that has that kind of power when they preach.

A minister that comes that when individuals see them, the people will literally come before them and say, please bless my home, bless my children, because if you pray for us, we know heaven shall hear.

You know, there was a time in history where there was such a minister.

Everywhere this minister went, he touched hearts, he touched lives, and he was such a blessing to so many people.

And this minister, who went by the name of John Wesley.

John Wesley, 1 who was able to compliment the work of a former reformer by the name of Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was the 1 who was bringing forth the beautiful teachings of justification by faith.

And when John Wesley came on the scene, he was 1 that not only preached justification by faith, but he also taught sanctification by faith.

He was able to show the people that you can live holy lives, you can live above sin.

This same John Wesley, as he preached to others, as he encouraged others, as he ministered to others, it was shortly after he was ordained to the ministry that there's an experience that was recorded through history.

In the book, The Life of the Reverend John Wesley, you find this quote.

In fact, Great Controversy also has this quote in Great Controversy, page 254, paragraph 3.

It says, John and Charles Wesley, after being ordained to the ministry, were sent on a mission to America.

It says on board the ship was a company of Moravians.

It says violent storms were encountered on the passage and John Wesley brought face to face with death, felt that he had not the assurance of peace with God.

The same man who was ministering to others, the same man who people would come to and say, please bless me, bless my home.

And he would say some of the most beautiful and eloquent prayers.

This same minister, he himself did not have the assurance of the peace with God.

And the reason why that's so important is I want you to turn your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5.

You see, we are told for you and I today, now in John Wesley's day they didn't have the third angel's message yet, but we are told that the third angel's message, according to the book Evangelism page 190, we are told that the third angel's message is justification by faith in verity.

The third angel's message is not simply warning people about a beast and his mark, or calling people into receiving God's seal through keeping the Sabbath.

The purpose of the third angel's message is to bring individuals into an experience of Christ and his righteousness.

And in experiencing the righteousness of Christ, Psalm 119, 172 says, all thy commandments are righteousness.

So therefore, if I'm going to experience righteousness by faith, certainly I would keep the commandments of God and not break them.

So therefore, the third angel's message is justification by faith in verity.

But do you know that you and I can know today if we're experiencing the third angel's message.

Look at what the Bible says in Romans chapter 5.

In Romans chapter 5, you will find that God makes this thing so plain because of the fact that the third angel's message is justification by faith.

In verity, I want you to see 1 of the fruits that the Bible says comes to all who are experiencing Justification by faith it says in Romans chapter 5 in verse 1 read it with me.

It says Therefore being justified by faith we have what Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you know that most Seventh-day Adventists today do not have peace?

Most Seventh-day Adventists today have perplexity.

Most Seventh-day Adventists today do not, like John Wesley, have the assurance of the peace of God within.

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Persecution Deep Within

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