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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eugene Prewitt: The Spirit of Prophecy

Eugene Prewitt

The Purpose of a Lesser Light

The Faithful Testimony of Jesus and Sources of Unbelief

So Persecuted They the Prophets

The Last Adventist Deception

Turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 12.

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Then I said, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

Many shall be purified and made white and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and notice this next point, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

If we turn this down, then I can put it closer to me and it might work out better.

The first point I want to make from Daniel 12, verse 10, is that a man who knows Hebrew and other ancient biblical languages, who has devoted himself to 15 or 20 years of studying those things, if that man is still a captive to his appetites and passions, he's incapable of understanding the book of Daniel.

And that a man who is a plumber and has devoted his life to learning how to fix plumbing, but has a heart that is filled with the Holy Spirit, if he will humbly ask God to teach him, he can understand the book of Daniel.

The comprehension is a product of spirituality in Daniel 12.10, and spirituality alone.

It says none of the wicked will understand.

This weekend we're speaking about the spirit of prophecy and I'm I'm gonna dare to do something tomorrow, and I think I won't regret it, but if I do, I'll find out tomorrow.

I'm gonna dare to take questions from the floor from anyone who has encountered an objection against Ellen White on 1 of those anti-Ellen White websites or from some other source and just open the floor for anyone to bring up any 1 of them and I'm going to try to deal with whatever comes up right here and just answer those objections.

For my own purposes, this week I went to the most famous 1, Ellenwhite.org, and I just went through every page I could in a matter of an hour to see, is there something new, something I haven't seen, something...

It's rehash of all the old stuff, and there's good answers to everything.

Tonight I want to ask a question, answer a question though that I asked myself.

If you have a good light, say a bright light in the room, why would you need a lesser light?

We talk about the lesser light that leads to the greater light.

If we didn't have the greater light, it would be sensible that we could use a lesser light.

But if we have a greater light, why do we need a lesser light?

And I want to look at the answer to that by reminding you or telling you of 2 items that were called lesser lights by Ellen White before Ellen White referred to herself as the lesser light.

If you look there in your handout, you'll see there A and B and their number 1 the Old Testament and John the Baptist Elm white referred to the Old Testament as a lesser light that led to the or pointed to the greater light of the New Testament And she referred to John the Baptist as a lesser light that pointed to the greater light of the ministry of Jesus.

Look with me in your Bible at John chapter 5.

We're looking to see the Bible identify a lesser and greater light and then to try to approach this question why do we need a lesser 1?

Speaking of John the Baptist it says, He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light.

He was a bright light, but notice verse 36.

But I have a greater witness than John's.

And if I could make 1 point from John 5, 36 and 35, it is that a lesser light is not necessarily dim.

Does that make any sense to you, what I just said?

That John the Baptist was a lesser light, but he was a bright and a shining light.

If you remember from the Bible, the purpose of John the Baptist is clearly stated in Isaiah and by him.

And if I could summarize the point I'm getting to, 1 reason that we need a lesser light is that we're not prepared for the greater light.

The fact of the matter is that most of us, maybe all of us, can open up our Bible and to certain parts of it We just don't comprehend what we are reading.

But there's more than that, much more than this.

And if the great light of Daniel comes, for example, to a wicked man, and he has not been led yet to repent of his sins, he will not comprehend the great light.

There may be a lesser light that he needs very badly, and that's the light that will guide him to repentance.

He was a lesser light that pointed to the greater light, and there are many Adventists today.

Laodicea characterizes our church in general as an unconverted church that has, we're naked.

We're not clothed with the righteousness of Jesus.

If we're not converted, we're wicked, and if we're wicked, we don't understand.

And if the great light was right here for us, we wouldn't get it.

Because the lesser light points out our sins.

The lesser light was intended by Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord to make crooked ways straight by pointing to us our idols so we could turn away from them and get out of that category of those who can't comprehend.

John chapter 1 and we're looking at verse 5.

It says, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe.

He, that is John, was not that light but he was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

In this verse, if you didn't have John 5, you might even say that John wasn't a light.

But this verse doesn't say John wasn't a light.

He was a bright and he was a shining light, but he was pointing to a greater light.

It wasn't only repent and turn from your sins, That was 1 part of it, but there was something more.

And many of you have an experience with the desire of ages and understand something about a need for the lesser light.

It has a purpose to point us to the greater light.

I'd like to give a little definition of light just for a minute.

Ephesians chapter 5 and we're looking at verse 13.

But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

In a spiritual sense, that's just a simple definition.

When we talk about a lesser light or a greater light, both of these lights are lights.

And what does light do, according to Ephesians 5?

It exposes, it makes manifest the things that haven't been seen.

The point of, the first of the 3 points I want to make tonight, about why we need a lesser light or the purpose of the lesser light Is that we need a heart preparation to receive the greater light?

Some people doubtless Accepted Jesus who never heard John the Baptist It's not that if you don't have the lesser light your case is hopeless, but there are many that received Jesus because of John the Baptist that would not have received him without him.

And it would be a mistake to say the lesser light is not needed.

We need someone to give us a heart preparation so we can receive the truth that God has for us.

The second point there, it says the irony in the use of the famous lesser light statement.

Series

Eugene Prewitt: The Spirit of Prophecy

The Purpose of a Lesser Light

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Bible Study on the Third Angel’s Message

1h 14m

2. 2520 is Not the Problem

49m

Fundamentally Flawed? Considering Challenges to Truth

Trinity

49m

A History of Adventist Revivals

1h

Dave Fiedler Weekend 2004

The Mystery of Minneapolis, Part 1

1h 19m

Righteousness by Faith

Return of the Latter Rain

1h 6m

The Reformation & the Remnant: 500 Years of Protestant History & Liberty

2. The Reformers and the Word of God

59m

Sanctuary Under Siege

2. The Hijacking

1h

FYI 2009 Seminar by Dwayne Lemon

How Close is Close?

1h

A History of Dissent Regarding the Sanctuary

56m

Righteousness by Faith

Wounded in the House of His Friends

1h 8m

In Such a Time as This

Why Jesus Waits

1h 4m

Sound Doctrine