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Country Life SDA Church

Eric Walsh

Even at the Doors

Our scripture reading comes from Matthew chapter 24 and verse 33.

It says, so likewise ye when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, Even at the Doors.

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

We thank you for your goodness, Lord, and your grace.

And I ask once again, Lord, that you just make me a nail upon the wall, a rusty nail, Lord, but upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, we need to hear a word from you.

And Lord, again, I ask that you bind Satan, the spirit of distraction, the demonic forces that would want us to not receive your word.

And I pray for an extra outpouring of the Holy Ghost that he would lead us into truth.

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

So we're gonna go to the book of Matthew again, chapter 24, and I'm gonna show you in a second why this sermon came about.

I'll show you in a second but let's read these verses first.

Matthew 24 and verse 42 says, Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.

But know this, if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up or broken into.

Now, I tell these stories all the time about some of the kids I grew up with, especially when I moved to Miami.

A lot of them were, I don't know what else to say, thieves.

And they used the, I never really understood when you talk about the Bible and Jesus coming like a thief in the night until you talk to people who this is what they do.

It is the act of catching people off guard that gives the thief its advantage.

But it is the fact that people are going to be caught off guard why this language is used.

He said if they had known to watch the thief would come, He would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

So then Jesus gives us this advice, verse 44 of Matthew 24, Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes.

In the hour, It's not just in an hour that you're not thinking about it.

It's in an hour where you don't think he will come.

It's in an hour where the world seems to be in a place where things are good.

And we live in a time of technology where you could argue man can solve his problems.

I just saw where NASA is going to build a nuclear reactor, or looking to build a nuclear reactor on the moon to power people living on the moon.

That would mean you could escape all of the problems of planet Earth and begin to live on another moon or planet and you can see where man could solve the problems and there's going to be I believe an overconfidence in some in some that man is going to be able to fix all his problems.

But the Bible, Jesus goes on he says this, Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing.

Jesus says, Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

When Jesus returns, he comes to make us ruler over all things.

Something we talked about at the pastor's retreat, we mentioned it again at prayer meeting, that the throne of God, first time I'd ever heard it, is not like a seat, like the British, in fact, the professor from Andrews talked about it, it's not we've got the mind of a throne we think of the British crown it's more like a couch where there's space for us all to sit so you will sit with him on his throne he will you will be made a ruler over all of his goods 48 but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delays his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, then the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and he shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The ones that is ready and doing the work of the of the of the master and gets this grand reward there's an evil servant and what does the evil servant say my lord delays his coming that is the words of the evil servant now over the years I've looked at some of these articles from Adventist Today.

This 1 is from October 2024 and this is a, they do these editorials from Aunt Seve and this 1 says, Aunt Seve, I'm still terrified when I hear of the time of Jacob's trouble in this 1.

They actually try to argue that there is no such thing as Jacob's time of trouble.

This is something made up by Seventh-day Adventists and that you should not have this fear.

I challenge you to go read Jeremiah 30 in verse 7 and read about Jacob's time of trouble and you'll see that that is a terrible amount of false doctrine.

So you read another 1 this 1 is from the same article group.

Auntie can we explain the investigative judgment from the Bible alone?

And in this 1 they make the argument that there is no investigative judgment, that all of that is basically contrived by Adventists and it doesn't really exist.

Jesus says when he comes, he comes with a reward.

In order to give out a reward, someone has to make a judgment as to who gets the award.

By definition, there is a pre-advent judgment or an investigative judgment.

But the 1 that triggered this, and I just show you that to show if you don't know what you believe, There are those who say they belong to us who will literally speak against us.

As an Adventist, 1 of the most important things is that you can defend our doctrine.

Our doctrines are based on sola scriptura, the Bible and the Bible alone.

You may not want to agree with it, but Adventists do not believe things that cannot be shown from scripture.

It is this attack on scripture, attack on our doctrine, that will help to bring about the shaking and ultimately the time of trouble.

So I saw this article, another interesting 1, and I'm showing you just the articles as they put them up.

You can look them up and read it for yourself.

This is AdventistToday.org and this 1 is get ready because Jesus is coming soon.

In fact, at the bottom, an article, I'll read you a little bit of the article here, it says, have we not learned our lesson as a church?

It makes me want to hang my head in shame every time I see 1 of our churches advertising an end time prophecy seminar.

Here's something I want you to notice, this article says, 100% of end time predictions over the last 2, 000 years, supposedly based on careful Bible study, have failed 100%.

I'm gonna show you that that's absolutely not true, right?

And then the author says, please just stop it.

In other words, Stop telling people that Jesus is coming soon.

I even heard of a sermon preached at 1 of our, I won't say where, 1 of our churches and institutions, where the preacher preached a sermon and said, and it was called Put Down the Trumpet.

But the question is, as I said this inspired my sermon today, should we be like the good servant who gets to be ruler over all or are we going to be like the evil servant who says my Lord delays his coming?

Let me read you a little more before we get into the scripture.

Here it says, I hear it proclaimed from the top of our organization right down to the pews in the local church.

And then the guy says, what bad theology.

And before you call me a heretic or unadventist consider what we are saying when we say that.

You see there's no getting ready for Jesus to come that's just plain bad theology.

In other words he's saying you can't get ready for Jesus to come.

Jesus told the rich young ruler that if he wanted to inherit eternal life, there were just 2 things to do, love God and love people.

But the rich, young ruler wasn't speaking about the end of time, he was speaking about himself, and if you read the whole parable, he has to give up everything to gain eternal life, all he has.

Notice that's left out here, because what is being presented is a very comfortable form of Christianity.

1 that requires, watch this church, no sacrifice.

1 that says you have to know change to your character, no change to who you are, that you can basically be who you've always been and not have to worry about anything else.

Let me say it clear, that is the doctrine of devils.

We are called to be different, as we'll see, To grow.

I don't want to be like the old man I used to be.

They're saying you don't have to worry about that.

And it says, it turns out that getting ready is a whole lot easier than we had tried to make it out to be.

When you love God and you love his people, it doesn't matter if Jesus is coming this year, 2 decades or 2 centuries from now.

We will be helping fulfill Jesus' desire to establish God's kingdom here on earth just as it is in heaven.

Adventist, and look at what he says, this is kind of his final argument, he says, Adventist, let's stop the insanity and let's stop the end-time prophecy seminars and focus on preaching a message of loving God and loving his people.

I know it won't draw the crowds, you see what he says?

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Even at the Doors

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