<p>We are still here 171 years later. Why? </p>

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Eden Valley SDA Church

Frank Fournier

Present Truth

I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 60.

I suppose you've read a lot in the Spirit of Prophecy.

And Ellen White uses the term present truth a lot.

It means that at any given time, there is a truth special, pertinent to that time.

Now, if you were to boil all the truth that we've been given as a people, if you were to boil it all down to the 1 truth that is most important to us, what would you say?

I mean, have you got that all gelled in your brain?

What's the most relevant information that we, you and I, could be given to the people around us or that we should share with each other to keep this thing bolstered up?

Or are we spending a lot of time putting out little fires that the devil starts all over the place to keep our mind from focusing on what it is that we should be focused?

What about evolution that some people have snuck into our denomination?

What about spiritual formation or the emergent church or contemplative prayer or the 1 Project or conspiracies without end?

Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot of that I'm speaking about right now that are heresies, but are they so important or are they more important than what God would deem to be present truth?

That's the question this morning, and I'd like to get started now on this thing.

As you know, you and I, the whole church, the whole world as a matter of fact, is headed towards what we would call the mystical war of Armageddon.

Now I believe that this war might well have been fought a long time ago except that as Seventh-day Adventists we've been super passive as a church.

The Bible speaks of us as being lukewarm, lacking this intense desire to glorify God's name, to glorify God's character, or this intense desire to go out and win the souls because there are souls perishing all over the place.

Prophecy predicts that there's coming a time when we will not be so pensive in the future.

There's coming a time when we won't be phlegmatic about this thing at all.

We're going to get aggressive about this.

Now, in the little book called Early Writings on page 69, 1 of my, how should I say, the 1 person who's the greatest mentor in my life as to what preaching is all about, used to say this.

If you're going to read 1 chapter on the spirit of prophecy on your knees, it's this chapter.

So let me remind you again, this is early writing, page 69, and it's the chapter on the shaking.

And it's a very, very interesting chapter.

And you may not have read it lately, but I really would like to encourage you to read it if you haven't.

Ellen White, in this chapter, points to the future.

And everything in the chapter is future to now.

Whatever is happening in this chapter is not happening right now.

And she takes the Seventh-day Adventist church and she splits it right down the middle.

She splits it into 2 groups and it probably isn't right down the middle.

And of the first group, she says this, I saw some with strong faith and agonizing cries pleading with God.

There's a group of Seventh-day Adventists who are pictured pleading and agonizing with God.

And she uses words like this, pale countenances, deep anxiety, internal struggle, large drops of perspiration.

And then She says the evil angels crowding around them are trying to shut out Jesus, their view of Jesus.

Then she looks at the other group and she says this, the other group is indifferent and careless.

Now obviously there's an issue here and both groups are looking at the same issue, but they're having different responses.

The 1 group with strong faith and agonizing cries are pleading with God for something.

The other group look at the same issue and they are indifferent and they are careless.

This is the Seventh-day Adventist Church and she divides the wise from the foolish, the sheep from the goats, the gold from the dross, the wheat from the tares, whatever it is she's doing here, she's dividing the church right there.

1 are agonizing for something, whatever the issue is, The other ones are indifferent looking at the same issue.

Now we go on in the next page, which is 270 of early writings.

And she says the angels leave the careless and indifferent ones and they go to the help of those who, and let me read it to you, those who are struggling with all their powers to help themselves.

Now that's interesting because there's a saying, and sometimes we poo-poo the saying, you know, there's a saying that goes that God helps those who help themselves.

Well, that's true, but I think we misapply it.

We misinterpreted this thing a lot of time.

Now watch carefully how it is that we help ourselves.

They were struggling with all their powers to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance.

And all you have to do is study the life of Jacob.

Now You know who Jacob was and you know what his name means.

And he got through life successfully in a sense because whatever he wanted, he got.

Except he didn't use the Lord's ways very much.

He wanted the birthright and he wanted God's blessing.

He wanted to be the priest in the family.

He wanted the spiritual anointing of God.

Well, anyway, you know all the trouble he got into with his brother lying to his father, cheating his brother, conniving with his mother, and all the rest.

He ends up with his uncle Laban, and there's cheating both ways here at Uncle Laban's house.

Finally, 20 years later, he's sent back home.

Now, I don't know how old Jacob is at this time.

I always figured he was about 60 years old.

But some people who studied deeper than I say he may have been even as old as 90 years old.

90 years old, He's wanted God's blessing, He's wanted God's anointing, He's wanted God's birthright, He wanted everything which was right.

We always approached it the wrong way because He was not born again.

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