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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathan Zirkle

Citizen of Heaven or Emergent on Earth?

Dear Lord, I ask that you would come be with me now.

Lord, please let my words be your words and not my own.

I ask that you would be glorified this morning.

Well, I guess the MIND calendar ended a day or 2 ago?

You know, there's an interesting thing about that Mayan calendar.

There was a news article I read maybe about 6 or 9 months ago, you know, they found another 1 that actually goes further into the future, which really kind of holds up the idea that maybe the guy just ran out of space on the stone, maybe.

And today, we're also facing the fiscal cliff.

Does that mean we made it over the cliff?

But these are important times that we live in.

And I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the things that we're dealing with in the toenails of time.

And you'll have to forgive me, I have a lot of Ellen White quotes this morning, and we'll do some reading together.

Ellen White tells us, study revelation in connection with Daniel, for history will be repeated.

We, with all our religious advantages, ought to know far more than we know, more today than we do know.

You know, with that, let's start a little bit of study.

Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Daniel, chapter 5.

All of you know I love the book of Daniel, and let's study a little bit.

Daniel chapter 5, starting right out in verse 1.

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.

Belshazzar, whilst he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein.

When they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem, and the king and his princess, his wives and his concubines drank in them.

They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

This is the beginning of the chapter for the last night of Babylon.

This is the last night when the head of gold will rule the earth.

And you know, when we look, Daniel is a great book because it tells us about kingdoms and nations rising and falling and how God works through all of this.

It's also a type, it's a type and it's an example.

And turn with me if you will to Revelation 7, keep your finger and Daniel will come back, but turn to Revelation 17 and look at the parallel.

Revelation 17 and we'll look at verses, we'll start in verse 1.

It says, And there came 1 of the 7 angels, which had the 7 vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, in whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sat upon a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having 7 heads and 10 horns.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abominations and filthiness of her fornication.

And upon her forehead was written, mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." You see this parallel going on between Daniel and Revelation, And I would say that this is a type, the first fall is a type.

In the same hour, verse 5, Daniel chapter 5, in the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote 1 against the other.

The king cried aloud to bring in, oh, let's stop right there.

The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers.

You know, you should have learned something because if you remember, they did this back in Daniel chapter 2, right?

It's like bringing the chief liars, right?

And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.

Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied." You know, as we look at this type, I would like to invite you to see Daniel.

And these astrologers, these soothsayers, they're the false.

And we see on this, the last night of Babylon, they're astonished.

We came out of a very important historical movement.

And you know, I say historical movement, it sounds like it's maybe dead and gone.

I don't mean it that way at all, but we had an important role, and we still do today.

I'll show how, even though we're historical, we're also future.

We are Seventh-day Adventists, and 1 of the key messages that we are to give is the 3 angels' message.

If you turn with me to Revelation 14, you can see the 3 angels' message.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him that made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.

And there followed after another angel saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen that great city because she made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast in 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 or night who worship the beast in his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

When I ask this question, I ask it as much of myself.

We have this tendency to be in a little bit of an Adventist ghetto here.

And I'm not here to point fingers at you, maybe 0.1, but remember there's 3 more pointing back at me.

Who did you give this message to this week?

Who have you told this message to who doesn't already know?

I pray, I pray that in your heart, you can think through your heart and you can actually Think of a name.

Ellen White has a comment on this, I believe.

She says, We shall be judged according to what we ought to have been, but were not, what we might have done, but did not accomplish because we did not use our powers to glorify God.

Many are deceived as to their true condition before God.

They congratulate themselves upon the wrong acts which they did not commit, and forget to enumerate the good and noble deeds which God requires of them, but which they have neglected to perform.

They are to answer his expectation by bearing fruit.

He holds them accountable for their failure to accomplish all good which they could have done through His grace strengthening them." That's a sobering quote.

It's sobering to me, and I think of all the time in my life that I wasted, and I pray that I'm a lesson to everyone who's younger than me.

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Citizen of Heaven or Emergent on Earth?

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