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Open Door SDA Church

Dwayne Lemon

Getting to Know God

All right, happy, happy Sabbath everyone.

So thankful to God to be here with you all, and I'm very grateful for once again, our privilege and opportunity to study.

Let me know when we can get the screen up.

We have ourselves a very nice study once again.

And as we try to do every Friday evening for our Vespers, we want to make our Friday evening Vespers something that is both beneficial to the Seventh-day Adventist as well as non-Seventh-day Adventist community.

Because there's a lot that God has given to us as a movement that I firmly believe is a blessing to those who know it not.

And so while we want to enjoy it, even if we are familiar with it, 1 thing I've learned about truth is no matter how much I hear it, I never get bored with it.

So when it's truth, as it is in Jesus, I do not get bored with it.

But I will tell you that there's a whole lot of people out there that would love to know what God has put in his words and given us an understanding to give to those, once again, who know it not.

So I'm very grateful to be here with us all this evening.

We're going to go ahead and really get into a beautiful study as it relates to something God wants to be made known in this world and it's none other than his character.

And so we're gonna be building on that throughout this study, and you'll see that it will be successive, like the other Friday evenings, we'll be able to build on it.

So why don't we go ahead and have a word of prayer.

I'm going to kneel to do that, and we're gonna get started, and then after that, we can go into the word.

Our Father in heaven, we are very grateful, Lord, for the wonderful gift of life that you continually give to each and every 1 of us.

We are thankful for the blessings that we have experienced all throughout this week.

And Lord, we are grateful for this opportunity that on a Friday evening, when the great majority of the world is out preparing for parties and clubbing and bars and all sorts of places of revelry and amusement are gonna be joined.

But here you have a group of people that are taking time to spend it in prayer, to look to your words for wisdom, counsel and instruction.

And Lord, we know that this is not an easy thing, especially to be seen amongst young adults.

And so I praise you for everyone that is here, as well as those who are on their way.

And Lord, I ask that you will grant heaven's choicest blessings to each and every 1 of us as we receive the word.

And thank you for hearing our prayer for we do ask it all in Jesus name.

I want to give us a little picture here so hopefully it's clear.

Revelation 14 is a chapter in the Bible that's very relevant to all believers in the Bible, all believers in the Bible, because it gives a picture of something that I want us to see.

In Revelation 14, I want us to notice what it says.

And we're going to consider what very well may be, at least to many of us in this room, a familiar passage of scripture.

Revelation 14, we're going to look at verses 6 through 12.

Now again, I would imagine that this is a very familiar passage to us, but it also may be something we're not very familiar with, so that's why we go over it.

In Revelation 14, starting at verse 6, John the Revelator is privileged to see in end time vision, he says in verse 6, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the what?

The hour of his judgment has come, and worship him that made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.

And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worshiped the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.

The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.

And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

What is different about these angels' messages?

Outside of, obviously, the messages, What else is different that you notice with these angels?

There's something different from 1 angel versus the other 2 angels.

1 is a loud voice, and the other 1 has a different voice.

On verse 7, it says, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, right?

And then if you look at verse 9, it says, and the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, et cetera, et cetera.

But when you look at verse 8, it says, and there followed another angel, just what?

So that was the difference, is that the second angel's message was not given with a loud voice like the other 2 messages.

Now, the reason that this is important is because we're just taking a snapshot at end time prophecy and what we're looking at is this is the last gospel message to go throughout all the world before Jesus comes.

The proof of that is in verses 14 and 15.

In verses 14 and 15 of Revelation 14 We know that this message, these 3 angels, it's the last message of love, hope, and warning to be given to a dying world and an ailing church.

And this message is what prepares the way for Jesus.

It says in verse 14, And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud 1 sat like unto the Son of man, having in his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And, Verse 15, and another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap.

For the time is come for thee to reap for the what of the earth?

Do we agree that after the 3 angels' messages are given, it prepares the world for harvest time?

Well then, what does harvest time represent?

You said it with great confidence, Nathan.

So tell me, where do we get in the Bible that the harvest time represents the end of the world, my brother.

The harvest is plenteous, the laborers are few.

Harvest is plenteous, the laborers are few.

Hey, Elder applied himself, it's all good.

Now again, we're looking at harvest time from symbolic language, okay?

So harvest time we know in the world of agriculture represents the ending of a growing process.

When you're at the harvest time, you're ready to take and gather up the fruit and enjoy it and be blessed by it.

Well, what does harvest time represent in the spiritual sense?

Because that's what John the Revelator was talking about.

Matthew 13, right there in verse 39, and keep in mind, this is the decoding of the symbolic language of the parable of the wheat and tares.

Getting to Know God

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