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Country Life SDA Church

Eric Walsh

Is the Wound Healed?: Assurance in Chaos

We're going to get right into God's word now for this Sabbath, a lot to cover.

Our scripture reading as was just read is taken from Amos chapter 3 and verse 7.

The scripture says, surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants, the prophets.

Our message for this Sabbath is entitled, Is the Wound Healed?

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, once again, I ask simply that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

We want to hear a word from the throne room of grace.

In the Bible, we're going to go to Mark chapter 14 and start at verse 32.

Mark chapter 14, starting at verse 32, Jesus has just had his last supper with the disciples and Peter has sworn to him, promised Jesus that no matter what happens he will not deny him.

That in fact he would fight for Jesus all the way.

The next stop they make is a familiar place to Christ and his disciples.

Mark 14 32 says, And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.

And he saith to his disciples, sit ye here while I shall pray so he takes Peter verse 33 James and John and being and began to be sore amazed and to be heavy Jesus was going through a lot Here now we sit at the fulcrum of the entire great controversy.

It is in this moment that all of the plan of salvation hinges.

Christ now goes from being sinless and spotless to now having to carry the sins of the world.

The weight of my sin and your sin begins to weigh on him and he is heavy verse 34 and he said unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death tarry here and watch Jesus says listen I'm sorrowful.

Jesus' human mortality now becomes palpable to him.

Now he is looking death in the face the uncertainty of what is next is the sacrifice he is prepared to pay is it worth what he is doing so he asks his disciple be disciples be on my side I need you to watch He left them there verse 35 says he went forward a little and Fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible The hour might pass from ever have you ever been in a situation that God has put you in and you're constantly asking God, Lord if it's possible get me out of this thing.

Lord if you can just fix it, well multiply that feeling by 10, 000 times 10, 000.

This is Jesus at the fulcrum of the great controversy and the very hinge of it.

And his prayer is if it's possible, Father if there's any other way out, if there's any other way to pay the debt of sin, or as we talked about in Sabbath school this morning, if there's any other way to pay the debt of sin or as we talked about in Sabbath school this morning if there's any other way to vindicate your character now would be a good time to let me know father Jesus said Abba father all things are possible unto you take away this cup from me This is a fascinating prayer by Jesus because what the prayer is saying is similar to the 3 Hebrew boys.

I know you can do anything, so there's got to be a way that you could rectify this without me passing through the pain I'm about to pass through.

But then Jesus submits In a way that we must echo.

He says nevertheless, not what I will, not what I want, but what you want Lord, Father.

He gets up from where he's having this conversation with his father, walks back to where the disciples are he comes the bible says and he finds them sleeping and he speaks to peter because peter was the 1 bragging that he would never betray him he says simon sleepest thou couldn't you just watch for an hour You brag all the time Peter about how you're gonna stand by me and go with me but you can't even stay awake an hour?

What kind of soldier are you gonna make if you can't stay awake an hour then Jesus gives them this admonition again watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation the spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak Good intentions does not mean appropriate demonstration.

Verse 34, thank you, the Bible says, and again he went away and prayed and spake the same words asking the father to remove from him this trial and he comes back the Bible says in verse where he finds them sleeping again for their eyes were heavy they were tired neither wist they what to answer they didn't even know what to say they weren't sure and the reason for this is the disciples were never really listening to Jesus as they should he had prophesied He told them that he was gonna have to go to Jerusalem that he was going to have to die that he was going to be Beaten that he was gonna be subjugated, but they couldn't grasp the thing So they did not understand in this heated moment and all of the great Controversy the disciples sleep when they should have been wide awake 41 says and he cometh the third time and said unto them Sleep on now.

You might as well get your rest Take your rest.

Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Lo, he that betrays me is at hand." Jesus finally says, it's alright, go ahead and sleep.

The 1 who was here to betray me has arrived.

I'm gonna be betrayed into the hands of sinners.

You guys didn't help at all, but my conversation with my father has gotten me ready.

And what I want you to get from these few verses is this.

What Jesus was facing then in many ways is what we are about to face now.

The feeling of isolation, the Lack of support from those around you.

The inability to watch if you're not really ready.

And the unfettered reality that what is in front of you, you must pass through even though it's painful.

Here's what the Spirit of Prophecy says, Testimonies for the Church, Volume 8, page 100.

The experience of the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane contained a lesson for the Lord's people today.

Many today are asleep as were the disciples.

They are not watching and praying lest they enter into temptation.

Let us read and study those portions of God's Word that have special reference to these last days pointing out the dangers that will threaten God's people she continues and says this we need keen sanctified a perception This perception is not to be used in criticizing and condemning 1 another.

But discerning the signs of the times, we are to keep our hearts with all diligence that we may not make shipwreck of faith.

Many who were once firm believers in truth have become careless in regard to their spiritual welfare and are yielding without the slightest opposition to Satan's well-laid plots.

Out of the current chaos, a time of trouble is going to come.

Church, we are at again a fulcrum, a tipping point in the great controversy.

We are at a time when if you were to look back over all of human history, we are living in 1 of the most important moments in human history.

Jesus is about to return, the systems of this earth are about to fail and we are going to be challenged in ways many of us have not really even dreamt of and Jesus speaks of it in Mark 13 7 and 8 the verse the chapter before the Gethsemane chapter he says this And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled.

I like that verse because just a few days ago, actually last week, India and Pakistan began to face off.

There was a terrorist attack, India responded, and what was frightening about the idea of a war between India and Pakistan is that they both have nuclear weapons.

I want you to think about that for a second.

Imagine them going into full-blown war and nuclear weapons going off.

It could obviously cause worldwide damage, calamity, and even theoretically end the world.

But I like the promise the Bible gives me here.

It says, you're gonna hear about these wars, but don't get nervous, the end shall not be yet.

Verse 8 says, for Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There shall be earthquakes in diverse places and there shall be famines and troubles.

Church, I want you to get, and in Matthew 24, there's just 1 verse all to it.

All these are the beginning of sorrows verse 8 of Matthew 24 this is where we are in prophetic history right now we are at the place where we are just at the beginning of sorrows.

The natural disasters we've seen, nothing.

And that means we have to be in a position where we are ready for what is next.

Let me show you that we really are there.

I was just out in California recently and my old church Altadena SDA Church, 30 of the church members there, houses burned down in the fires earlier this year.

They're worried that these fires are only gonna get worse and worse.

There was an earthquake a few weeks ago in Myanmar, a terrible earthquake, very destructive.

And these earthquakes, I sometimes show the US Geological Survey's graphs of significant earthquakes and what you find is that they are increasing over time just as is prophesied.

But what the Bible warns us about most is not to have what I call the anxiety of the expectant.

Not to become so worried about what's happening that we're not able to really fully engage God.

Luke says it like this, using the words of Christ, Luke writing, 25, he says, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the seas and the waves roaring.

And here's what Luke says is going to happen in verse 26.

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Is the Wound Healed?: Assurance in Chaos

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