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Seventh-day Adventist Church British Columbia Conference

"Tell It Again"

Eric Walsh

What We Must Know: Prophecy Update

As the young lady read so wonderfully already is found in 2 Timothy chapter 3, starting at verse 1.

The Bible says, this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come.

Our message for tonight is entitled, What We Must Know, a prophecy update for Camp Meeting 2025.

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

I thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your grace, and I want to pray once more, Lord, that you just make me a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ let me not be seen or heard instead father let us hear a word from the throne room of grace This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

We start in the book, we're gonna start in the book of Luke the 19th chapter.

We're gonna start as Jesus is riding into town on a donkey.

The people are celebrating, in fact they're laying down their clothes, they're laying down palm branches, they're shouting Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest as Jesus comes into town.

The scribes and the Pharisees, Luke tells us, are not happy with this and they actually tell Jesus that he needs to tell his followers to stop saying what they're saying.

He says If they don't do this, he says, the stones will cry out.

As this procession is happening, you can imagine that the disciples are thrilled.

Peter is just chomping at the bit, hoping to be the vice president when Jesus sets up his earthly kingdom.

James and John have already petitioned for their position, and now it finally seems to be coming to fruition.

Jesus is riding into Jerusalem, the prophecy is being fulfilled, the people have his back, it is time for Jesus to be coronated and time to vanquish the evil Roman empire so that finally Israel can be restored to what she was.

But instead of joy and glee on Jesus's face, in Luke 19 and verse 41, the Bible says this, and when he has come near he beheld the city, the Bible says Jesus wept over it.

I want you to get this church, The people are celebrating him in a way in all the years of his ministry, the 3 and a half years, he has not seen.

Now finally after 3 years of work it seems the people have accepted him.

But rather than celebrate himself, Jesus weeps.

Why is he so sad when everyone else, including his 12 disciples, Judas included, They are all on top of the hill with joy.

Well the first thing you must know is that at this point the prophecy had been fulfilled.

The key prophecy related to what Jesus was going to do in this moment had been fulfilled and and that prophecy can be found in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9.

It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey.

In fact, some say it's also a fulfillment of the prophecy found in Psalm chapter 24 where it says where David writes to the gates be lifted up ye everlasting gates and the King of glory shall come in.

Jesus knew the prophecy was going to be fulfilled and that it was being fulfilled but he also understood that he was the only 1 that truly understood that prophecy.

In Luke 19 and verse 42, the Bible says, saying, this is Jesus, if thou hadst known Jerusalem if you had known, even you at least in this your day the things which belong unto your peace but now they are hid from your eyes Jesus says in fact the prophecy is fulfilled but you missed the point of the prophecy You missed the Messiah and his mission.

You didn't understand what was really happening and now this for the city it is too late.

Verse 43, he begins to pronounce, for the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee on every side.

1 of the things we sometimes forget when we talk about prophecy is that the greatest of all of the prophets is Jesus.

Here he begins to prophesy the destruction of Jerusalem.

He says, "...and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave thee 1 stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of your visitation." He says listen, they're going to destroy Jerusalem in such a terrible way that when it's all over not even 1 stone is going to be left upon another.

You didn't know the time of your visitation.

Number 1, it shows you that God is in pain when people are lost.

Sometimes we think God relishes in folk being lost.

This story tells you — the Bible only records Jesus crying twice.

Once is in this story and the other is that Lazarus' grave.

And I just got back, I was doing a week of prayer in England and in this church there were so many deaths in a short period of time.

1 young lady came to us, she had had 9 deaths in the last year and a half in her close family.

A 17-year-old girl at the church had lost and also died an unexpected and tragic death.

And I had to change up 1 of my sermons and actually deal with that issue because many of the young people no longer really wanted to come to church or were feeling disassociated with church and I had to explain, listen, not 1 of us has suffered the way Christ has suffered.

The Bible says that the destruction of the wicked is God's strange act.

He does not want anyone lost and we see that here.

That there is danger of misapplying prophecy.

And I don't have time to get into it tonight, but I can tell you that in America right now, there is a lot of bad prophetic interpretation and it is so bad and so rampant, it actually affects American foreign policy.

There are folk who want America to fight in Middle East not for liberty or justice but so that a third temple can be built there.

The third thing that messed them up was that they did not know the urgency of the time in which they were living.

Jesus said they didn't know the time of their visitation.

That's what the third thing, and I want to warn us as Adventists that we must know the time in which we live.

Number 4, the text shows that destruction and persecution were both coming to Jerusalem.

Now this leads us to this, as we look at a bit of a prophecy update as we go through this What we need to know to endure the coming time of trial There are 3 things I want to cover That we have to know we must be rooted and grounded in if we are going to withstand what is about to come upon the earth.

Things are about to change fast and I'm going to show you at the end of the message that they're already beginning to change.

So the first thing you must know and understand and trust If you're going to stand in the time that's coming, you must understand God's character.

This is from a book published by 2, written by 2 Baylor University there in Texas, sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader.

They wrote a book America's 4 Gods, profound book, And here's what they found in the book.

And you look at the percentages of who believes what.

32% of American Christians, when asked to describe God, said that God is authoritarian.

16% said that when they asked to describe God, they said God is critical.

24%, 1 out of 4 Christians in America say God is distant.

Less than that, less than, just slightly less than that, 23 percent said that God is benevolent, that He is love.

Church, I hope this hits you the way it should.

75% of the Christians polled actually had no idea about God's character.

Let me tell you something, you can't, you will not survive the time of trouble if you don't understand God's character.

Because the reason the 3 Hebrew boys were able to stand in the face of Nebuchadnezzar, in front of a burning fiery furnace made 7 times hotter and declare that they will not worship or bow down to his image or his idol.

The reason they could do it, they said it, our God can deliver us they said but even if he chooses not to we will not bow.

They say if God sends us into the fire to die, we know he loves us, Dying is okay.

We just reread the book Fox's Book of Martyrs, my wife and I just went back through that book.

In fact, when we were in England, we went to to some of the sites.

I didn't even realize that John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, he actually was arrested twice under religious intolerance laws in England and spent 12 years in prison.

Because he would not forfeit his beliefs in certain key doctrine.

Church, if a time of trouble is coming and you don't know that you can trust God and His love, you are not going to stand for a God who you don't believe truly loves you.

I'm gonna talk more about that tomorrow, but here's the verse, 1 John 4, verse 4, 8 says, he that loveth knoweth not God, for God is love.

The Bible actually tells us that the love of many is wax cold.

Why has the love of many wax cold prophetically?

How is it that people can walk in America and you guys don't have the the pervasive number of guns in your country as we do in the States, and obviously you can argue the Second Amendment stuff all you want, what I do know is when you get a job in the United States, 1 of the trainings they give you is what to do if there's an active shooter that comes into your building.

The love of many has waxed cold." You see, our greatest weapon, our greatest weapon against discouragement and doubt in time of trial is an accurate knowledge of the character of God.

Why is it that God allows us to suffer the way he does?

God’s Love Language

I'm going to get right into God's Word for this Sabbath day.

We are going to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, I'm starting at verse 14.

The Bible says, For the love of Christ constraineth us, Because we thus judge that if 1 died for all, then we're all dead.

And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled God's love language.

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

I thank you Father God for your patience and your kindness.

Lord we ask now for an extra outpouring of your Holy Ghost.

Lord that he would lead us into truth and now Lord bind Satan in the name of Jesus and by the power of your blood bind the devil and his angels and cast them far from here.

Lord now remove distractions and Lord let us not talk pettily or look even at our phones.

But Lord let us now look into the perfect face of Jesus Christ.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

You have your Bible, you may want to go with me to the book of John.

We're gonna start in the 21st chapter, John chapter 21.

This is the third, happens during the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after his resurrection.

In fact as you read the last chapters of John and some of the other late chapters of the Gospels, you realize that it was quite, in many ways for them, anticlimactic, his resurrection.

They weren't actually there when he rose from the dead and there was still some doubt as Thomas showed.

They even, as we're about to see in this story, they actually went back right to where they were when they first were found by Jesus and became disciples.

And Jesus comes to them as they're fishing.

Remember they thought for sure Jesus was going to come and he was going to be crowned king, sit on David's throne, and vanquish forever the Roman Empire.

But Jesus had been crucified, he had risen, and for them nothing seemed to have changed, although church, don't miss this, everything had changed.

Jesus being risen from the dead meant that he took from Satan the keys to death and the grave.

Jesus coming out of the grave as Revelation 12, if you read it carefully, now Satan is banished forever to earth and can no longer go to heaven and accuse the brethren like he did Job.

But because they did not understand the prophecy, they hadn't seen it.

Defeated, they went back to fishing for fish rather than fishing for men.

John 21 and verse 14 says this, this is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples.

So when they had dined Jesus said said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?

Peter's response is, yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee.

Not a first time Jesus says this, Jesus actually says to Peter, Peter do you agape me?

Do you love me with an unconditional love?

And Jesus, Peter's response is, yes you know I love you, I phileo love you, I love you like a brother or a friend." Now remember that the last time they had this encounter, we'll read it in a second, Peter said that he basically said he loved Jesus more than everyone and that he would never deny him and that he would fight for him no matter what and yet at the accusation of a little girl Peter begins to curse and swear before the crucifixion to prove he's not 1 of Christ's disciples.

He fails the test miserably and here Jesus is giving him a redo.

Verse 16 says he saith to him again the second time Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me?

Peter sayeth, Lord thou knowest that I phileo, I love thee.

He said unto him feed my sheep don't just feed the lambs I want you to feed the sheep verse 17 he said unto him the third time Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me Peter the Bible says here that Peter was grieved he was upset now he felt in front of the other disciples that Christ was kind of nudging him a little bit too much, because he said unto him the third time love is thou me.

And Peter said unto him, Lord you know all things, you know that I love you.

The interesting thing about the third time this comes up is this.

This time Jesus says, Peter do you phileo me?

And Peter responds, yes you know all things you know I phileo you.

There's an interesting thing that happens that shows that Peter moves from his place of arrogance before the cross to now that Christ is resurrected and walking amongst them again, the Peter who was so quick to respond and seemingly braggadocious is now humble and guess what church now that he is humble Christ is ready to use him Then Jesus gives Peter this tough description of his future.

Remember Jesus the greatest of the prophets.

John 21 18 he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young you girded yourself and you walked where you wanted to but when you shall be old you will stretch forth your hands and another shall gird thee and carry you whither thou wouldest not.

This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God and when he had spoken this he said unto him follow me.

If you want to show Peter that you love me, 2 things are gonna happen.

You're going to go through a time of persecution and just as Peter described, as Jesus describes, when it comes time for Peter to die, and they offer to crucify him, you'll remember the story, Peter is crucified upside down because he doesn't feel even worthy to die in the same way Jesus died.

If you love me, Peter, you're going to go through some trial.

But If you love me, Peter, you're going to go through some trial.

But if you love me, Peter, you're going to follow me.

Here the Bible begins to give us the hint into God's love language.

There's a book that was famous, I'm sure many of you have seen this thing.

I tried to read the book, I couldn't get through it, I just couldn't do it.

It's 5 love languages, and I believe everybody's got a little bit of all of them, the way I look at it.

But this thing is a New York Times bestseller, very popular book, and here are the 5 love languages.

So if you marry someone who likes acts of service, basically they say you should bring them breakfast in bed, stuff like that.

Number 2 is quality time, that you should spend a lot of time with this person.

Now, you know, you run the risk if you're not careful that, you know, you might take time from other things, I guess.

Words of encouragement, words of affirmation.

There are people who their love language is physical touch.

I read 1 thing that said like 80% of men fall into this category.

And then the last 1 is receiving gifts, right?

And so they said, these are the 5 love languages.

You got to figure out your spouse's love language and they need to know your love language.

And if you do that, you'll speak each other's love language and good things will happen.

The book is very popular and I think it's useful even, but not scientifically, it's not like they did studies to come up with this.

If we are to love God, and let me start the sermon off with saying the difficulty of this whole message.

It's tough to preach these sermons because there are a lot of people when we talk about God's love, they really want a flimsy version of love.

That they want, they confuse agape love with the eros love, the romantic form of love.

And so when they speak about loving God, they speak about loving God in a more romantic way rather than in the unconditional way that God loves us.

Well it's not easy to talk about because many of us have an understanding of what we think that love is, but if you were to ask the question what is God's love language, The answer is overwhelming in the Scripture.

At least 1 of them, a major 1, is obedience.

If you want to show that you love God, the way you do it is obedience.

When Christ is questioning Peter, He's asking him, do you really love me?

Because Peter, when he said he loved him before and vowed to defend him and never deny him, when the time came and Peter, Jesus was to be taken and the high priest servant was there, Malchus, Peter took out his sword and chopped off the man's ear and thought that that was showing Christ's love.

Christ then shows Peter what real love is, and even though this man represented Christ's enemy, Christ reaches down, picks up the severed ear, the pin of that ear, and puts it back on and heals the man right at the time of taking Christ to be tortured and crucified.

America Rising

So let's get right into God's Word, right into God's Word.

We are going to take our scripture reading from Revelation chapter 13, starting at verse 11.

It says, And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, And he had 2 horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Our message tonight is entitled, America Rising.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word and your prophecies.

Lord, these issues and subjects cannot be properly understood unless the Holy Spirit is leading us into truth.

So Lord, right now I ask in a special way that you bind Satan.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon this place and let him lead us into truth now, Lord.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

We go to Revelation chapter 13 and I'll read that verse again and we'll read through the description of the second beast of that chapter of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 13 and verse 11 says, and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon.

If you've ever done a Revelation seminar you know that we are talking here about your neighbor to the south.

This is a description prophetically of the United States of America.

When we do those revelation seminars you will remember that it unlike all of the beasts before it, It comes out of the earth rather than out of the water, meaning it would come from a less organized, less populated part of the world.

It would have 2 horns like a lamb, meaning that at its inception, there would be characteristics about this nation, this power, that made it more Christian-like and gave it characteristics that would allow it to prosper and thrive different than the other beasts that came before it.

But the Bible gives America a very interesting twist.

It is a nation that on 1 hand said we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, while the same nation enslaved millions of Africans.

America is a conundrum when you really look at it.

It took time for what was written and I believe that the documents that established the United States, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and especially the amendments to the Constitution, all of these things, I believe, were divinely inspired.

It took America a long while to catch up with what it wrote.

Verse 12 says, and he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causes the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound is healed.

And So it throws you back to the first beast, a dragon-like beast, represents the papal power, same as the the little horn of Daniel chapter 7.

Don't have time to get into it too deep tonight, I mentioned it before, but in 1798 1 of Napoleon's generals, his name was Berthier, he came in and he took Pope Pius the sixth captive out of the Vatican, brought him to Paris where that Pope died.

I've talked to many scholars about this and there's some who think maybe that wasn't it, but it wasn't simply that the Pope was taken, it was that the legal system in Europe changed and there was a shift from monarchs who could be controlled by a Pope to republics and that was 1 of the things that the French Revolution and Napoleon spread across Europe and of course gave the United States the Statue of Liberty in recognition that America also would be a place free from the quote-unquote tyranny of a monarchy.

That it would be a different type of country.

Now, verse 13 it says that this beast would do great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men.

And there are a lot of ways this can be interpreted.

I've heard people say that in fact only the United States has actually ever dropped nuclear or atomic at the time weapons on someone, fire came down from heaven, but it fits America and its military prowess.

Verse 14, and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.

America would do things that would cause the world to be deceived.

Saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

The nation established with these 2 horns that we'll talk about in a second eventually becomes a place that is intolerant to others and forces a certain type of worship.

Verse 15, and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

It would bring this image, this throwback to the first beast of Revelation 13.

It would bring it to life and cause it to speak.

Speech and prophecy speaks to laws and their enforcement.

This would cause something to happen that would change the laws and bring them to life, which gives you the idea that the laws would have existed before and come back.

Even the Church of England, I just got back from England and found out that they had very strict Sunday laws in England.

And the United States had very strict Sunday laws, but something is going to happen to make this a global phenomenon.

And if you won't do it, it says if you don't worship the image of the beast they should be killed.

Verse 16, and he calls us all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.

The seal of God, If you read Revelation 7, 1-3, it can only be placed in your forehead.

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