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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Justin Torossian

When Stones Cry Out

Before we begin this morning, I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to John Chapter 12.

And I'd like to direct your attention to verse 27.

John chapter 12 and verse 27 here, Jesus said, Now is my soul troubled, and What shall I say?

But for this cause came I unto this hour.

And then he prayed, Father, glorify thy name.

And the Bible says, then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered.

1 thing happened, but the difference was not in the thing that happened.

The difference was in the hearts and minds and the ears of those who heard it.

The Bible tells us that spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

And in order to understand the Word of God, we must have the help of the Holy Spirit who inspired it.

Shall we bow our heads together for a word of prayer?

Our Father in heaven, we come before you this morning asking for the help of the Holy Spirit.

We ask that you would fill us, empty us of self.

And the prayer of John the Baptist, in John 3 verse 30 is our own prayer, that we must decrease as Christ must increase.

Lord, we pray that as We examined some powerful truths from your word this morning that you will open our hearts and minds to what you have to say to us.

And as you call us to decision, we pray that we will respond with joy and recognizing that it is a privilege to serve you and to be your children.

Thank you for the promise of your presence.

When I was about 13 or 14 years old, my parents and I were at a local flea market, a local swap meet.

And as we were perusing through some man's tools and looking for something of value, my dad spotted an old rolled-up rug up against a dresser.

Walking over to the rug, my dad examined it and looked at the back of it to see what its quality was.

He asked the man who was selling all of the things, he said, how much are you asking for this rug?

The man said, well, I'm asking for $25, but I'll give it to you for $20.

My dad looked at it again, somewhat disinterestedly, and said, I'll give you $10 for it.

And the man said, oh, come back, come back.

And he said, I'll give it to you for $15, just $15, and it's yours.

My dad looked at it again, and he said, how about $12?

So my dad gave him the money and we took our carpet with us.

Later that week, we took it to a local rug dealer who appraised it for us.

And to our surprise, mostly my surprise, the rug that we had paid $12 for was literally worth over 100 times what we had paid for it.

And this man, you see this was a genuine handmade Persian rug.

And for those of you who know anything about rugs, I'll just tell you a little bit.

Persian rugs often are worth not just thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but sometimes even in the millions of dollars.

The reason that Persian rugs are so valuable is because these handmade rugs actually get more valuable and better the more you walk on them.

You see, the more you walk on a Persian rug, the more the artist's intended design comes out, the brighter the colors actually become.

And therefore, the more you use it, the more beauty you see in it.

Because my dad recognized the quality of what this man had we received this beautiful gift this Persian rug and sadly it was to this man's loss that he did not realize what he had.

Now, while Persian rugs can hold value in the thousands and even sometimes millions of dollars, nearly every Seventh-day Adventist person has something in their homes worth infinitely more than any Persian rug or any riches that this world can have to offer.

And that is the gift of the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy.

God's messages to the world through a woman named Ellen G.

Very similarly to those rugs of the East, this gift gets better with age.

And the more that we read and familiarize ourselves with the plan of salvation, as the Lord has made clear, the more beautiful his design in saving mankind becomes.

The clearer and more beautiful the master artist's design actually becomes and appears to us.

The question that God is putting to us this morning is, do you recognize the value of the gift that I have given you?

And by the end of our study this morning, you'll be surprised to learn just how many non-Adventists are actually discovering the incredible value of the gift of prophecy and the writings of Grandma Ellen.

You know, even in this time when many, unfortunately, in our church do not recognize this beautiful gift and the value of the messages that God has given us, Many non-Adventists are coming to value the writings of Mrs.

Now before we dive into some of the stories and quotes of these individuals who have given glowing accolades to Ellen White in her writings, I want to address a common misunderstanding about the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

1 of the most common misunderstandings about the Adventist Church is that we hold Ellen White's writings to be an additional Bible.

But the answer to this has always been, will ever be, no.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not hold the writings of Ellen White to be an additional Bible or books without which you cannot be saved.

In fact, Every single 1 of our doctrines is based on the foundation of God's Holy Word.

We as a people have founded, or the Lord has raised us up, to stand as the Protestant Reformers did on sola scriptura, Amen?

In fact, listen to what 1 of our church founders, James White, had to say back in 1847 in the book that he published, A Word to the Little Flock.

He says, The Bible is a perfect and complete revelation.

It is our only rule of faith and practice.

But this is no reason why God may not show us the past, present, and future fulfillment of His Word in these last days by dreams and visions, according to Peter's testimony.

True visions are given to lead us to God and His written word, but those that are given for a new rule of faith and practice, separate from the Bible, cannot be from God and must be rejected.

Listen to this also what Ellen White herself had to say about her writings.

In 1851 she penned these words in her first publication and you can find these in Early Writings page 78.

She says, I recommend to you, dear reader, the Word of God as the rule of your faith and practice.

God has in that Word promised to give visions in the last days, not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of his people, and to correct those who err from Bible truth.

You see, as mentioned by both James and Ellen White, in order to follow sola scriptura, the Bible and the Bible only, we must acknowledge that the genuine gift of prophecy would be existent in the last days.

In fact, turn with me to 2 Chronicles 20 verse 20.

An easy way to remember this verse is that 20-20 vision is the best vision we can have, right?

20, 2nd Chronicles 20 verse 20 about prophets and the gift of prophecy.

There the Bible says, And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa.

And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established.

Believe his prophets, So here we see clearly that in the Bible, the Lord exhorts us to believe His prophets.

Therefore, if we are to believe in the Bible and all of what the Bible has to say, we must test a prophet by the Bible's test of a prophet.

And if they pass the Bible's test of a prophet, we are to believe them and accept their messages as from the Lord.

So, to refuse accepting a genuine prophet of God means that you're not really following Sola Scriptura.

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When Stones Cry Out

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