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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Daniel Binus

Shining Faces: The Third Angel’s Message and Mental Health

So grateful that we get to spend a little more time together.

You know, it's such a blessing to just see a lot of familiar faces and meet some new faces.

Being back here in Loma Linda is always an awesome experience.

And I think back to my 8 and a half years here, it's hard to believe that I was here that long.

And it just seems like they were some of the richest of my life.

So, you know, sometimes when you're going through it as a student and then as a resident, you're just like trying to slog through it and you're like, oh, is this ever gonna end?

But in retrospect, you know, I have so many precious memories here.

I met my wife, Melissa here, and many wonderful friends, and had lots of adventures, and really had, went through my own true conversion experience right here at Loma Linda.

And even, I mentioned earlier, I went out in the hills this morning and it was just beautiful because it reminded me, that's really where I was converted.

You know, it was not in a church, but actually in the hills with the Lord, spending that quiet time.

And so we have that blessing, even though there's the hustle and bustle of Southern California, there's little pockets of escape that you can make it to in the hills.

And this time of year is 1 of the most beautiful to do that, isn't it?

Because we actually can see the mountains.

When I arrived here in August of my first year of medical school, I didn't even realize there were mountains.

It took several months before there was some rain or something or the wind blew the right direction before I actually saw the mountains because it was all smoggy.

So we can be very grateful for this beautiful day today.

Well, before we delve into this afternoon's topic, which is in my mind a very fascinating 1 because it has to do with what, the reason that we exist as a church, as a Seventh-day Adventist church, which is doing what?

And then, of course, for me as a psychiatrist, I have just a little bit of bias.

I always want to connect everything with mental health, right?

So studying into this topic has been really fascinating for me and I hope that you'll find at least some degree of fascination as we go on this journey together.

But before we do so, let's just go ahead and bow for a word of prayer.

Dear Father, thank you again for this beautiful day.

I pray that you would please guide our thoughts, our minds, open us to understand the beauty and the importance of the 3 angels' messages and how practical they actually are in our lives today.

And as we understand better through the power of your Spirit, I pray that you would help us to give this message, these messages, not just weekly, but with power, Lord, because we know that it's not until this message is given with power, with the power of your love, that the gospel will truly go out into the whole world.

And we want not just a proclamation of the gospel, Lord, but we want a practical demonstration of your power in our lives.

And so that's our prayer, Lord, is that we don't just get more information, but we really allow you to transform us.

Revelation 14, you'll turn with me in your Bibles or your phones.

I embarrassingly forgot my Bible at home, but I do have my phone.

So usually, especially when I'm speaking, I like to have the solid word in my hand.

But, you know, our smartphones can be a decent backup.

So, let's read Revelation 14, 9 through 12.

This is actually, I have another talk on the first and second angels' messages and mental health, and that 1 is also fascinating as well.

But this 1 really focuses on the third angel's message.

But what we see is we see the themes and the importance of mental health woven throughout this message.

And I think you'll start seeing this with me here as we go.

And it says, And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship 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.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." So here we see in these short verses, we see the last warning message given to a world.

And on the 1 hand, the warning message of course is given to a group of people and saying don't receive the mark.

You know, God is basically saying, look, I love you so much.

I'm gonna say in a very loud voice and I'm gonna say in a very, you might say almost frightening way, in a way to wake you up because I don't want you to be lost, right?

Because sometimes we read through these verses and we think, man, these are so like judgmental and negative and condemning and it almost sounds like God is trying to scare us into serving him or something like that.

If you saw somebody, especially if they were somebody that you cared about, right?

And they were like running headlong and they were about to like fly off a cliff.

Or another example might be, they're running and they're about to go out into traffic and they don't realize this car is coming and is about to hit them.

And you would do whatever it takes to get their attention because you care about them and you want them to stop before they allow themselves to get run over or fall off the cliff and die, right?

And so when we think about this warning message and we understand that this is indeed the last message that is to be given before Christ returns, does it start to now make sense that God might use some of the strongest, maybe the strongest language in the Bible to try to wake people up?

God is not a God that tries to instill fear, but he is willing to speak loudly so that people wake up out of their stupor and might come to their senses and make a change, right?

And so It's important to understand that because some people are like, man, it just seems like God is instilling fear.

But we know that God is actually not a God of fear.

God wants to get us to make our choices not out of fear, but out of what?

But still, sometimes he has to get our attention so that we can wake up and realize the peril that we are in.

So I want to compare, of course, we see the the state of the lost here and then we also see a picture in verse 12 of the Saints, this is the other group, they are those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

But to really understand this other group, this saved, we also have to look at Revelation 14 verse 1 through 5 So I want to read that first before we go on.

So in Revelation 14 verse 1 it says, him, and hundred, 40, and 4000, having his father's name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.

And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.

And they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the 4 beasts, and the elders.

And no man could learn that song, but the 144, 000 which were redeemed from the earth.

These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.

These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.

These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

So we have the lost, Revelation 14, 9 through 11.

The saved, Revelation 14, 1 through 5, in verse 12, worship who?

And then the lost receive the mark of the beast, while the saved receive what?

The lost receive the wrath of God and the saved the approval of God.

The lost have, what does it say in Revelation 14, which exact verses it says, they have no rest, right?

And the saved, on the other hand, have rest, have peace, right?

And so we see that there's several opposites when we compare these 2 groups.

You know, 1 thing that I wanted to mention when you look at the idea of wrath of God, You know, again, we want to be careful not to think that God is kind of pleased to see his children suffer.

You know, the wrath of God was never meant for human beings.

In fact, you know, who actually, if we look at Revelation 14, it says, "...the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." Who was it that actually drank that wine of the wrath of God?

He drank that wine because he never meant, it was never meant for us to drink that wine.

But because some people have refused to allow Christ to drink it for them, and essentially they've said, no, I will not accept what you've done for me that's where they by in essence then choose to drink it themselves so again it's not that God is wanting to impose wrath upon his children.

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Shining Faces: The Third Angel’s Message and Mental Health

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