Inspire Ohio 2013: Look Up!

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Advent HOPE Kettering

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables

Mark Howard

Higher Ground

The title of the series this weekend, what I'm going to be covering is present truth or cunningly devised fables.

Present truth or cunningly devised fables.

Are we really holding and carrying the truth of God or did somebody sell us a bill of goods?

I'm going to kneel and ask God to bless our time if you'll bow your heads with me please.

Father in heaven, I thank you so much for the privilege we have of being here in your presence on the Sabbath.

Father, we understand from Scripture that You have cleared Your schedule for us.

You have invited us during these hours into your presence for a special blessing.

And we pray, I pray, Father, for each 1 of us this evening that we would receive that blessing.

And it would be a blessing that lasts far beyond just this evening.

I pray that you would guide our minds and our understanding as we turn to your word this evening, and we seek to understand your calling for us in this world at this time, how we can come nearer to you and be more united to you in purpose, and in thought, and in action.

And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name and for His sake.

I want to look at the passage of scripture in a moment that speaks to present truth.

Just making sure you're ready to go there.

Whether you're gonna turn the pages or you're gonna scroll, there's no excuse to not have a Bible with you anymore, isn't there?

I mean, because you have it, you can have it on your phones, you can have them in so many different ways, your iPads or whatever.

And As soon as I heard the theme, my mind was taken to a statement, actually, a couple statements.

In my early conversion process, I have to tell you this.

And the church that I began attending was a new company.

And its mission was to reach the young people.

Now, I was 25 years old at the time, 26 years old.

And characteristic of churches that are trying to reach the young people.

The emphasis is not the message, but the music typically.

And so we had the hyped up church service.

I just came in and I was looking I was looking for for truth.

But I had an Adventist background growing up.

And my parents had left the Adventist faith and left Christianity altogether when I was about 14 years old.

And so 1 of the things that they had an issue with was Ellen White.

And when I came back into the church, I shared that same issue.

And conveniently for me, the church that I began attending was also down on Ellen White, the Adventist church that I began attending.

I'll never forget asking the head elder at that church in a conversation as my views began to change.

And I said, what do you do with the writings of Ellen White?

He looked at me in the eyes and he said, I believe she was a plagiarist.

I believe she was inspired, which to this day, I have an inspired plagiarist.

And when I had started, that just shares with you the mindset of the church that I was attending.

I didn't want to believe in this Ellen White because, frankly, she told me I wasn't supposed to be doing certain things I did and I liked to do.

I had this real knowing desire to know what was coming ahead.

And I forget who introduced me to the book, Early Writings.

But because my desire to know about future things overrode my disdain for Ellen White, I began to read this book.

If you get nothing else this weekend, but the Motivation to say, hey, I'm going to pick up early writings and read it.

I've accomplished more than I could care to in this weekend.

I began reading this book, and I want to tell you something.

As much as I didn't want to believe that God spoke through Ellen White, I was compelled to say, this is inspired.

And in this book, Early Writings, there's a lot of things in this book, and I'll be sharing from it this weekend.

But in this book, true to the title, Early Writings, it begins with her first, Ellen White's first vision given in December 1844, which is significant.

And in the second paragraph of that vision, here's what she writes.

While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world.

I turned to look for the advent people in the world, but could not find them, When a voice said to me, Look again, and look a little higher.

At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world.

On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path.

They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry.

This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet, so they may not stumble.

Now, I'll unpack this further as we go, but that midnight cry was a part of the experience, And that experience was an anchor.

You know how sometimes the Lord does something in your life sometimes.

God has done something in every 1 of your lives or you wouldn't be here.

And in the Bible, when God would do something notable for his people, they would set up some type of memorial.

They'd set up memorial stones or something like that, and that was to keep it fresh in their memory that God had done this wonderful thing so that when they came to a point in their life where they were discouraged, they could be reminded of what God had done.

And so there was an experience that was to light up the path.

So when they came to difficult places on the path, that light from their experience in the past would remind them that God was the 1 that led them out onto that path.

This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet, so they might not stumble.

If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe.

But some soon grew weary and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before.

Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the advent band, and they shouted, Hallelujah!

Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far.

The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below." We could go the whole night on that!

But that experience of her seeing the Advent people and she's looking in the world and She didn't see them in the world, right?

And she was about to give up and the angel said what?

Look up look higher And it was some years later that I was reading a series of messages by 1 of our pioneers named A.T.

A series on the 3 angels' messages he gave before the General Conference assembled in 1893.

This was his February 3, well, I don't know that that was a date, but it was around that time period.

And it was printed February 3, 1893, in the General Conference daily bulletin.

So probably the night or 2 before, obviously, to print it.

And this is what he said, and it picks up.

He's commenting on that vision we just read, or that portion, and he's actually commenting on what another brother said about it.

He said, That is a splendid picture that Brother Porter read a while ago, that the prophet looked for those who give this message, but looked too low, said the angel, Look higher, thank the Lord, they are above the world.

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 1

Father in heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath day.

We thank you for the privilege that we have of coming into your presence.

We thank you, Father, for clearing time in your schedule for us.

And we pray that the time now that we spend with you will be a means of our understanding more of your will for our lives, of our hearts and minds being open to the working of your Holy Spirit in our lives to fulfill your purpose.

And we ask and pray it in the name of Jesus and for His sake, amen.

1 of the things, just for a little introduction for those who weren't here last night, 1 of the things I shared last night first of all was how glad I am to be here.

I didn't realize, I learned pastor Steve was an Ohio boy this morning and I'm an Ohio boy.

I was born here in Ohio and raised here and I was born again here in Ohio.

I wasn't baptized into a Seventh-day Adventist church initially here in Ohio because when I went to get baptized, I didn't agree with all that the Seventh-day Adventist believed.

And so I asked the pastor to baptize me, just baptize me.

What he told me was, and there's a story behind this that I'm not getting into, he says, when I told him, I don't agree with everything the evidence teach, he said, that's okay.

Now, I don't know how you baptize somebody into Jesus and not the teachings of Jesus.

But that's the kind of mentality that is prevalent these days.

You can't follow Jesus without following the teachings of Jesus, friends.

You can't have Jesus as your Savior without having Him as the Lord of your life.

I want to be saved by you, but don't make me follow you.

If you want Jesus, you have to have all of Jesus.

Of course, I have family that's still here in Ohio.

I pastored my first church as a lay pastor here in a little town called Fredericktown, Ohio, many years ago.

And some of you here, I know a couple of you at least remember that, as you had attended church there while I was there back in the day.

1 of the things I shared also last night was that a book that had a very powerful impact on my early experience, the very first book I read by Ellen White was this little book called Early Writings.

And it was at a time when I really had a lot of animosity towards Ellen White.

And so did my church, and so did my church leaders, and some of you may relate to that.

And yes, I went to a professed Seventh-day Adventist church.

You thought, oh, you went to the Baptist church, did you?

And when I began to read this book, because I was interested in end time things.

And I had heard that the woman who wrote this book had had these visions of the end of time.

And I was so curious that I read it in spite of my disdain for whatever I thought she stood for, and when I began to read, I knew that it was inspired.

When I read those words, and I read the visions of what was going to take place, I knew it just gripped my heart.

And I praise the Lord that He is able to get through our stubbornness and our bullheadedness and it really touched my heart and 1 of the things I read there in her first vision was as she's looking in the world for the advent people the angel tells her you're looking too low you need to look up and when she looked up there they were elevated above the world.

And I know that the theme look up is not about looking up to the advent people.

But I'm going to tell you that when we learn to look up to Jesus, we are not going to be down in this world, we're going to be elevated above the world.

The Bible says we are seated in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.

And God wants His movement of the last days to be elevated up.

He wants the people to be able to see something different in us.

And so last night we talked about the significance of God's calling on us...

And the message that He has given to us...

And I finished with a statement I want to read to you.

It's found in the manuscript releases, volume 19, page 41.

It's speaking of the message of the 3 angels that's found in Revelation 14.

And it says here, The light that Christ revealed to His servant the prophet, speaking of the prophet John, is for us.

In his revelation are given the 3 angels' messages and a description of the angel that was to come down from heaven with great power, lightening the earth with his glory.

That's the Revelation 18 angel, the loud cry angel that comes and says...

Gives that last call out of Babylon, come out of her my people.

In it, the book of Revelation, are warnings against the wickedness that would exist in the last days and against the mark of the beast.

We are not only to read and understand this message, but to proclaim it with no uncertain sound to the world.

Okay, I'm gonna read that again and I want you to ask yourself, are we doing this as a church?

Are we doing, let me ask you this question.

What was the track record for God's people with the prophets of God?

Did they generally follow the prophets of God?

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets.

Oh yeah, my people, my people, the ones who kill my messengers.

Listen to what it says and ask yourself, are we following what God has commissioned us to do here?

We are not only to read and understand this message of prophecy and revelation, these 3 angels' messages, but to proclaim it with no uncertain sound to the world.

By presenting these things revealed to John, we shall be able to stir the people.

Jordan, when you're going door to door, and I know you're running a bunch of Magga bookers out, over the summer you ran a number of the students we have at Emanuel out, and we've had them out going door to door, and are we finding that people are generally really open and receptive to spiritual things?

There are some, but the majority of people are rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing.

Okay, what are the things revealed to John?

The usual subjects on which the ministers of nearly all other denominations dwell will not move them.

I asked the question last night, I'll ask you this morning.

What are the usual subjects that the ministers of all the other denominations are dwelling on.

The grace of God, the love of God, faith, forgiveness.

But it says that preaching those things won't move the people.

Because we as human beings, you know, we're in this generation, you've got to love yourself before you can love anybody else generation.

Why would Jesus say, love your neighbor as yourself if you didn't love yourself?

No, the fact of the matter is we're not being honest with ourselves.

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-The Open and Shut Door-Part 2

Our gracious Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for the evidence of Your love and Your care that surrounds us, especially in this beautiful setting.

And Lord, the sunset this evening speaks to us again of how much you love us and long for us to be surrounded by that love in your kingdom.

Now, I pray this evening as we open your word together, your Holy Spirit would be present to instruct us, to give us understanding in spiritual things, and we ask and pray it in the name of Jesus and for his sake.

2 Peter 1 verse 12 says, For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truths.

Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, that is, in this body, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, for as our Lord Jesus Christ, or just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

And he shares his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, where they saw Jesus glorified, right before their eyes.

But then he says in verse 19, And we have the more sure word of prophecy, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." Now, My habit in the morning, I get up in the morning and my wife sleeps a little later than I sleep.

So when I get up in the morning, I go out of the bedroom and I go into the living room to study.

It's been my habit to get up, everything is dark, and I walk into the living room, and I find the light and I turn it on.

Except for a couple weeks ago when inadvertently for some reason there was a laundry basket that was placed right in the pathway.

Which is no problem when the lights are on, but when you're used to traveling that path in the dark that you know so well.

And fortunately I didn't injure myself too bad.

But this text, when he says that you would do well to heed this more sure word as a light that shines in a dark place, that, I relate to that.

It's nice to have a light when you're in a dark place, isn't it?

Especially when you're talking about spiritual things.

And Peter tells us that more sure than his experience...

He says, we've not followed cunningly devised fables, and here's why.

More sure than our own eyes is the testimony of the Word of God.

The more sure Word of prophecy, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place.

And of every or any or every age in this earth's history...

Now's the time more than ever that we need to be anchored in the more sure word of prophecy.

And as we're looking at the message tonight, That will become especially important.

The message is entitled, The Open and Shut Door.

And it's taken from the book of Revelation.

And I've got to get my notes back up here.

Now, we talked this morning about the first angel's message, and there's a lot.

There's a lot that I've wanted to share about these messages.

You know, the beauty of the first angel's message in Revelation, and really all the angel's messages, and they're built on, as we've said, Daniel 8, 14, unto 2, 300 days, which is part of the 70-week prophecy.

When you look at that prophecy of the 70 weeks and the 2, 300 days, in essence, all those prophecies were doing was pointing Daniel and every believer to the coming Messiah and His ministry.

It tells us the time of Messiah's baptism, tells us the time of His crucifixion, tells us of His ascension in the Gospel going to the Gentiles, and then it tells of His ascension into the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary to finish His work.

And ideally, the first angel's message would direct the eyes and the attention of God's people to the work that Jesus is doing in behalf of His people.

The book Great Controversy tells us this, and we'll look at this a little bit more tomorrow morning.

The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work on behalf of humanity.

It amazes me that people can say that preaching about the sanctuary is Christless when that's the very place He's working.

And the fact of the matter is, Jesus said repeatedly he would come again.

He prayed to his father in John 17, Father, my will is that they whom you've given me will be with me where I am.

He told his disciples at the Last Supper, with fervent desire, I desire to eat this Passover with you.

I won't eat of the fruit of the vine again, or drink of the fruit of the vine again, rather, until we drink it anew in my kingdom.

So all these statements where he's like, I want to be with you, I want to be with you, I want to be with you.

And then Christianity says, and it's crept into Adventism far more than it should have, that, oh, well, everything was done at the cross.

If Jesus wants to be with us so bad and it was all done at the cross, where is He?

Does He want to be with us or does He not want to be with us?

And what these 3 messages do is direct our attention to where He's working now, in preparing to come and receive us unto Himself.

Now, I didn't go into a lot of that this morning because the reality is, that wasn't understood in the early advent movement.

They hadn't understood the sanctuary yet.

When they heard the hour of his judgment has come, they weren't thinking the heavenly sanctuary.

They were thinking Jesus is coming and what it led them to do was examine their own relationship with Jesus in the light of His coming, and it led them to a deeper experience with Him, but with a limited understanding of what He really was doing.

But there's some other things that are interesting about that first message.

We're going to look at Messages 1 and 2, Revelation 14.

Revelation 14 and Verse 6, which brings to view that first angel of the 3.

And John says, I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and do what?

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Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables

Higher Ground

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Parts

Higher Ground

1h 13m

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 1

1h

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-The Open and Shut Door-Part 2

1h

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 3

1h 15m

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