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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Mark Howard

The Birth of a Movement

I don't know if any of you are paying attention to what's happening around us in the world around us.

I mean, just for instance, this came in this week from our communications director in Michigan, Justin Kim.

And if I can pull this up, this is an Associated Press article, says on September 24 this year, Pope Francis is going to speak to U.S.

Congress the first time the head of the world's Roman Catholics will address Congress.

Visit of his two-year-old papacy, a trip expected, I'm just reading from the article, including a trip also expected to include a White House meeting with President Barack Obama, a speech to the United Nations in New York, and a Catholic rally for families in Philadelphia.

Goes on to say that Francis will address a Congress that is 31% Catholic, well above the 22% of all Americans.

According to, so there's more Catholics in Congress than there are in America percentage wise.

Now, I'm not trying to create some conspiracy theory here, but when are we gonna look around us and say everything that we have talked about happening is happening.

The Seventh-day Adventist, we talk about our prophetic picture, and it's happening around us, And God's people have to be ready.

And so that's my burden this weekend is really to grasp the significance of why we as Seventh-day Adventists are here as Seventh-day Adventists at this hour in earth's history.

Of all people, we as Seventh Day Adventists can't sit back and say, well, somebody else will give the message, somebody else will say it or do it.

We're the people at this time and this hour.

And so that's kind of my burden this weekend.

I would like to ask you to bow your heads with me and I want to ask the Lord to bless our time in a special way throughout this weekend.

Father in heaven, oh Father you know better than we do the issues at stake here.

You know the experience we yet must obtain, many of us, and we just pray, Lord, that the time we have here tonight and through this weekend would be time that would allow the Holy Spirit to work in us the light of truth and the application of that truth that we so desperately need.

Not just those of us meeting here, but the many that will be listening to these messages.

And so, Father, I just pray for your blessing now.

I ask for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

You've told us to ask for rain in the time of the latter rain, and you promised to send the showers.

And so we're asking, and we're asking in faith and believing, because we ask in Jesus' name.

We put this on the tape several times and I started out with several different titles, so I was like, okay, wait a minute.

Compelling truth or cunningly devised fables.

We take that from 2 Peter chapter 1 and if you'll turn to 2 Peter chapter 1, I want you to read the words of the Apostle Peter.

Again 2 Peter, this is the last letter that he wrote.

2 Peter chapter 1, go past the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, then past the book of James, then 1 Peter, then 2 Peter.

And 2 Peter is such a powerful book, I'd love to do the exposition on this whole passage where he talks about us becoming partakers of the divine nature, etc.

But he says in verse 12, For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are what?

Established, it says in the New King James, in the present truth.

He's speaking to people who already know these things, but he says, if I don't keep telling you them again, I would be guilty of neglect.

When we know, we say, well, I've told you, some of my friends know, and it doesn't matter, who knows?

We have a message that we need to continue to give, not just for the benefit of those who are hearing, but from us, it strengthens the conviction in our own hearts.

Peter says, I'm not gonna be negligent to remind you of these things.

Verse 13, He says, yes, I think it is right, as long as I'm in this tent, that is his body, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as the Lord Jesus Christ, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

So he's about to put off the tent, the body, he's about to face his death.

What kind of things would you be telling people if you knew they were the last things you would tell them?

Peter is telling us, these are His last words to us, to the believers.

He says, I want to stir you up, I want to remind you of our faith.

Verse 15, moreover He says, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease." So he left this for us in writing.

Verse 16, "'For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

So Peter tells us here, in light of everything he's saying, look, I want you to understand that this message we hold to is not just something we concocted and came up with, something that we devised because it would sound good and itch somebody's ears.

We were eyewitnesses of His majesty, of His power.

Verse 17, for He received, for those just coming in 2 Peter, we're in 2 Peter 1, verse 17, for He received from God the Father the honor and glory of such voice, I'm sorry, from God the Father, honor and glory, when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain." He's speaking of the Mount of Transfiguration.

Now notice what he goes on to say in verse 19.

And this is how the New King James reads.

It says, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed.

Now I like the King James on this passage.

He just got done telling us that we had seen the majesty and heard this voice, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased when we were with him in the holy mountain.

When was Peter with Jesus in a holy mountain where the voice of God came and said this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased?

That was the Mount of Transfiguration, remember?

And it's 1 of my favorite passages from Peter's perspective, because that's where the Bible says Peter goes to Jesus and he says, master, I see Moses here, I see Elijah here, I see you here, let's make 3 tents.

And then it goes on in the Gospel of Mark to say he said that because he didn't know what to say.

He kind of put his foot in his mouth, but it was a moving experience.

He saw Jesus glorified and transfigured before his own eyes, but he takes that experience and he says, but we have a more sure word of prophecy.

In other words, the prophetic message of Scripture is more solid than any experience that you have or I have.

Because my eyes can deceive me, my feelings can deceive me, but the word's not gonna deceive me.

Tonight what I wanna establish is this, the Seventh-day Adventist movement was not a movement that follows cunningly devised fables.

The message of 1844 and the cleansing of the sanctuary was not a face-saving creation of the Seventh-day Adventists but it was the fulfillment of prophecy.

So we're gonna look at that tonight as we lay some groundwork.

I wanna start, a couple things I wanna share with you.

I pulled this up on the phone and you're probably familiar with this statement from the book called The Great Controversy.

It's found on page 595 and it says this, But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible and the Bible only as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms.

The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority, not 1 nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith before accepting any doctrine or precept we should demand a plain thus say the Lord in its support even now as a world church we are facing questions that are going to come up at this next general conference and the underlying question is this are our practices biblical And there's even discussion on some of the things that we are gonna be talking about along these lines.

Well, the thing is this, we're already doing or practicing this certain thing here, so let's just go ahead and keep that even though the Bible study that we do may find that what we're doing isn't biblical.

Without getting into the whole details of that I'm simply saying if there's anything that we find is Seventh-day Adventist that we are practicing that's not biblical, what should we do?

God will have a people who will maintain the Bible and the Bible only.

This article appeared in a magazine called Spectrum.

In Spectrum Magazine, I really want you to take seriously what I'm about to say.

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The Birth of a Movement

Transcript

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