<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Diamond Garcia

The Intensity of Your Mission

I'm going to go to Australia soon, but praise God.

It was approximately 171 years ago when a group of Advent believers called Millerite Adventists, thank you very much, packed for a one-night campout in the New England area.

Men, women, and children who believed that a fulfillment of prophecy was soon about to occur.

They left everything behind them with their eyes and heart focused on what in their mind was about to take place, the appearance of Jesus Christ.

Days, weeks, and months before October 22, 1844, they preached their heart out.

They told everyone with whom they came into contact with about what they really believed in.

They had abandoned their property, closed their businesses and shops, shutting the entire earthly life down in the great anticipation of Christ descending in the clouds.

It was now morning on October 22, 1844, and the group of Mennonite Adventists gathered together, hoping to see Christ descend from the clouds.

Hours and hours went by and the sun eventually set and nothing happened.

Lord, thank you once again for this wonderful Sabbath day, Lord.

1 more Sabbath closer to your soon coming.

Be with us now Lord as we open your word in Jesus name.

If you have your Bibles open to the book of Malachi chapter 4.

It is the last book of the Old Testament.

Malachi chapter 4 and looking at verses 5 and 6 specifically.

When you're there you can say amen so I know you're there.

It is the last 2 verses of the Old Testament.

Alright, it says this, Behold, I will what?

I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the who?

To the children, and the heart of the children unto their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Here we find in the book of Malachi a prophecy given to us by the prophet Malachi.

We are informed that in the last days God will send unto his people something or someone that comes to us in the spirit and power of Elijah.

And whatever it may be, it will somehow turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children and the hearts of the children unto their fathers.

You see the Elijah message, beloved, is a message of reconciliation and restoration.

The Elijah message was fulfilled once before, right before the first advent of Christ, through a prophet by the name of John the Baptist.

Allow me to read from the testimonies, volume 3, page 61.

Sister White says this, John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the people to the wisdom of the just.

He was a representative of those living in the last days to whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people to prepare the way for the second appearing of Christ.

The angel Gabriel direct from heaven gave a discourse upon health reform to the father and mother of John.

He said that he should not drink wine or strong drink and that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth.

You see, John separated himself from his friends and from the luxuries of life.

She says, the simplicity of his dress, a garment woven of camel's hair, was a standing rebuke.

The simplicity of dress, a garment woven of camel's hair, was a standing rebuke to the extravagance and display of the Jewish priests and of the people generally.

His diet purely vegetable of locust and wild honey was a rebuke to the indulgence of the appetite and the gluttony that everywhere prevailed." Last paragraph, always small.

The prophet Malachi declares, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and joyful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

Here the prophet describes the character of the work.

You see John the Baptist was the first fulfillment of this prophecy in Malachi and God in these last days has raised up another movement identical to that of John.

People who eat differently, people who dress differently, people who preach differently and even preach a different message from the rest of Christendom.

A people who were looked at by the religious world as a legalistic and old-fashioned people while the sinners in the world drew nigh unto his message because there they found genuine repentance.

The people in this day that drew unto John the Baptist were sick and tired of this cheap grace philosophy that was being promoted unto them.

They yearned for the sanctifying power of God so that they could have the assurance of having victory over their sin.

And if the Seventh of the Avenues Church, beloved, is to be the second and last fulfillment of this Elijah message, our message must be that identical to that of John the Baptist.

Alright, so let's look at what John the Baptist was preaching.

It says, "...and he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the..." what?

"...the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, the voice of 1 crying..." Now stop right here.

"...the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight." The message that John was preaching to the world was simply this, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

In other words, present truth deals with something that involves the way of the Lord and if we as Adventists are to be the second and last fulfillment of the Elijah message, our message deals with something about the way of the Lord.

So the next question obviously is what is the way of the Lord?

Well we all know this quote, this verse, as said by the Adventist, Psalms 77 verse 13 says what?

In other words the only church or group of people who can effectively proclaim a message in the spirit and power of Elijah are those who have an understanding of the sanctuary.

And beloved, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the only church, the only movement, who can effectively preach in the spirit and power of Elijah because it is only we who have an understanding of the sanctuary on earth and the heavenly sanctuary that's in heaven.

This is the reason why we shouldn't send our young people to non-adventist schools to try and teach them about God.

This is the reason why we shouldn't invite non-adventist speakers to tell our people on how to effectively share the gospel.

This is the reason why our pastors shouldn't seek higher education from emergent schools that are rooted in mysticism.

This church has been set up by God in these last days to proclaim a life or death message.

It's a message that's rooted in the love of God.

God is trying to restore his character in his people on earth and until a perfect reflection of that character is being reflected off earth, he won't come.

We're told by Ellen White in Christ's Object Lessons, page 67, she says, Christ is waiting with a longing desire for the manifestation of himself in his church.

When the character of Christ to be perfectly reproduced in his people, then he will come to claim them as his own.

Our focus should not be to proclaim an ecumenical or emergent Jesus, but to proclaim the glory and the knowledge of a loving Father that the biblical Jesus shared to us while on earth.

These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father the hour has come glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee.

As thou hast given him power over flesh, over, you catch that?

Over all flesh, that He should give eternal life as to many as thou hast given Him.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Verse 4, I have glorified thee on earth, I have what?

Finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And this happened before the cross of Calvary.

Back to Menu

The Intensity of Your Mission

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine