Mark Howard

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Sons of God

Heavenly Father, again we thank you for the privilege we have of being here.

During the hours of your Sabbath, we just ask your Holy Spirit would give us a level of alertness that we may retain, that we may hear, that we may learn, that we may retain the things that we study this evening.

Oh, Father, we wanna be ready when Jesus comes.

More than that, we wanna be the means of glorifying you in your Holy name.

So Father, as you hear our prayer in Jesus name, make haste to deliver.

This morning, for those who are here, I started by throwing out that polarizing question.

All the discussions that have gone on in Adventism and the way that word comes across today.

You know, it gets people's attention, like it or not.

And people will come up afterwards and they'll say things like, man, I heard that.

But I'll tell you something that is unique to Seventh-day Adventism, And I don't want you to miss what I'm about to say.

We're going to be looking at the scripture here this evening.

You know, when I use a word like perfect, we can read a lot of things into that.

We're going to look at scripture tonight in a passage where the Apostle John basically tells us We don't know we don't have a concept what it would look like for us to be perfect.

Okay, we're gonna look at that in scripture There's a lot that can be read into it.

There's a lot that people debate into it And so I can't subscribe to any and every view out there, but I will say this.

The concept of the cleansing of the sanctuary, the concept of the finishing of the mystery, you know, whatever we're looking at, whatever terminology that we're using, implies, no no no, it more than implies that Jesus' purpose is going to be completed in His people before He comes.

He cannot return until that purpose is completed.

Jones was 1 of 2 gentlemen who according to Ellen White, the Lord used to bring the message of righteousness by faith more prominently before our church.

Both Wagner and Jones believed and taught that the last generation would be perfect before Jesus returned.

It's not the part, you're not going to hear that from everybody who claims to be promoting it today, but A.T.

The preaching of the gospel is essential.

This gospel must be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end shall come.

But he says we can preach that message for 10, 000 years, And unless God has a people who are ready to meet him at that time, we can preach that message 10, 000 years and the end will never come.

What's fascinating to me and tragic at the same time is that A.T.

Jones addressed the General Conference session in the year 1903.

I don't know what he titled his sermon then, it's been reprinted recently under the title, What it Means to be a Church Member.

In it he talks about the cleansing of the sanctuary and the work that Jesus is doing in the lives of his people.

And it's in that sermon that he makes the point that I just quoted.

We can preach that thing for another 10, 000 years and the Lord won't come unless he has a people who are ready to meet him.

That if we, and I'm paraphrasing now, if we take God seriously, then he can come in this generation.

Obviously he didn't come in that generation.

To add insult to injury, in the book Education by Ellen White, published in 1905.

She said that the highest calling, this is in a chapter called The Life Work, I've assigned it while I've been here before, if you haven't read it in a while, read it again, it's a good 1.

Education, The Life Work, And she says the highest calling that anyone can have, and I think she targets especially the youth, as she's talking about this, is to preach the gospel to the world in this generation.

Now, again, the tragic part of it is, I believe it.

I believe Ellen White was right in 1903 and in 1905, and here we sit.

Here we sit, And what's worse is we blame it on God.

God forbid we say anything about hastening the coming of Jesus and putting it on us.

And Ellen White makes a statement that I can't give you the page number in the book Evangelism, which says, we may have to remain in this world many more years because of our insubordination to God, but Let us not add sin to our sin by charging God with the results of our own wrong course of action.

We're here because we're not ready and he's merciful.

And that's what scripture says, God's long suffering.

Now I'm going to tell you here this evening, as sure as I'm standing here, He can come in this generation.

The belief of the early Adventists was that the cleansing of the sanctuary simply taught that Jesus was going to purify his people so that his character would be reflected in them, and when that was finished, he would come to claim them as his own.

A theologian in the mid-1900s, a prominent leading theologian in the Adventist Church by the name of M.L.

Andreasen wrote a chapter on it in his book, The Sanctuary Service.

That book incidentally was called by the late Dr.

Harding was a phenomenal writer in the sanctuary, that Andreas' book was the best all-around overall book you could get on the sanctuary and read on the sanctuary.

There's a chapter in that book called The Last Generation.

And he talked about that concept that Jesus would have a final generation who would reflect his image fully.

It became known, or later on, the viewpoint became dubbed, Last Generation Theology.

Now I can't expound on every aspect of what Andreasen thought about last generation theology, but I'm bringing that up even here and now because what we're going to be looking at tonight, if you share it with some people, they'll say, oh, that's last generation theology.

Something I didn't tell you earlier is, oftentimes before somebody marginalizes an idea, they label the idea.

Well, they said this and this oh those guys are Adventist regressionists Have and I'm making that term up.

I don't maybe it's out there, but I mean I'm just for a safe it So you label it?

Oh those guys are Adventist regressionists?

Yeah, I mean the reality is they make up any and here's something a friend of mine brought this point up that I think is very true, unfortunately, that if you throw a statistic on it, it sounds more credible.

Yeah, you know, the reality is they only make up 5 to 7 percent of the church.

And studies show that nearly 85% of Adventist regressionists come from male dominant homes.

Now, that's the kind of thing, so what happens, I made all that up, but what happens is when you hear that, now you just came out of a sermon, you thought it was great, but by the time you hear that you start thinking, I don't want to be associated with that, right?

All the language is trying to give credibility and downplay what you heard without ever refuting the truth of what you heard.

The Key to the Wedding and the Kingdom

We can get into a study of the sanctuary that talks about just about everything but the work of our high priest.

We can get in there and talk about the stakes and the tent, you know, the curtains and the colors and what they all mean.

But when you go to Scripture in Hebrews chapter 9, the Apostle Paul very briefly touches on the sanctuary in the apartments and he says of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Is that because Paul didn't know them in detail?

No, because that was not the burden of his message.

The burden of his message when talking about the sanctuary was the priesthood of Christ, the ministry of Christ.

And you'll find as you go in the book Great Controversies, you go to scripture, that that is the focal point when we come to 1844, that that disappointment was to lead to a renewed focus on what Jesus was doing and he is still doing today on our behalf.

So that's kind of the idea we're gonna be looking at this afternoon with the open and shut door.

I just wanna say, too, I have to interject this.

For those of us who went to Fellowship Mio, are they here, are you here?

Wow, we had a fabulous time, fabulous fellowship.

I thought, man, I would love to pastor the Advent Hope Church.

What a we had this great fellowship going on.

It was like sitting on the mountainside, you know where Jesus fed the multitudes.

I mean that's I had we had a great how many of you were there this afternoon?

And so hopefully I can return the favor this afternoon.

I'm going to kneel and ask God to bless our time in his word.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Sabbath day.

And we know that within these Sabbath hours, you have placed a blessing here that is not available any other time.

Father, we pray that you would help us to be open to that blessing this afternoon, that our ears would be tuned to what your spirit has to say to us, that our minds would be clear and the message would come to our hearts.

Father, as we look at our heritage and what it means for us today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would move on us to finish this work in this generation.

Now, I'm gonna pick up a little bit where we were last night.

Again, we talked about how that movement was a worldwide movement that crossed denominational barriers as I just mentioned.

And that I referenced, for those of you who were here and who weren't here, I referenced a quote I found just a couple years ago in the appendix of the book, The Great Controversy.

And so I, you know, occasionally I'll make a, refer to it and somehow or the other, the Lord led me to this statement by a man, do you remember his name?

George Bush was a professor of Hebrew literature in New York City University in the days of William Miller.

Bush wrote to Miller, and it's in the appendix of the Great Controversy.

And he basically told William Miller, listen, Miller, I can't fault you for any of the position you've taken, your day for your principle, your time chronology, 1844.

And basically commended him for his scholarship.

He said the problem I have, and I'm just summarizing, the problem I have is with the event that you say is going to happen at the end of the 2300 days I can't agree with that.

Well, it's interesting because we don't agree with that either this day and age and so in the reason I shared that last night was to say that the, and I made the point last night, if you work through the time prophecy of Daniel 8, 14, I don't care what background you are, don't tell me, well, I'm not an Adventist, and I'm not, it doesn't matter, you get a Bible, don't you?

Take your Bible, go through the Bible, it'll go away.

Go through the Bible and it's just to keep you awake in the afternoon, that's 1 of the things we do.

Go through the Bible, work out the time prophecy, you're gonna come to 1844 And if you use the best calendars of the time, and I know if any of you have got on the internet, there are people on the internet that say, oh they had it wrong, they said October 22, 1844, should have been September 1844 if they wanted to go to the 10th day of the 7th month.

There's all kinds of this nonsense on the internet.

What they miss is the fact that the Advent believers went by the Jewish calendars that did put the 10th day of the 7th month in September, only going to scripture, there had to be the offering of the first fruits and the barley sheaf had to be available and it wouldn't have been available in the calendar that had the 10th day on September.

And so to find the calendar that actually agreed with what the Bible said, they went to a Karaite calendar that put the date at October 22, 1844.

I'm just telling you that the facts and figures that we have that bring us to October 22, 1844 are irrefutable.

And in fact, I think Ellen White says it this way, the date 1844, the date October 22, 1844 stands without impeachment.

I mean, we've got to have confidence in that.

And people say, well, you know, the thing is Jesus didn't come.

I told you to go to Revelation 10, hold your finger there, Go with me to the book of Malachi.

He didn't come to the earth, but he did come.

And he did come just like scripture said he would come.

That's the last book of the Old Testament.

Right before Matthew, just go back a few pages, you've got Malachi chapter 3, the Bible says, Behold I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come where?

Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he is coming, says the Lord.

But who can endure the day of his coming?

For he's like a refiner's fire and like a launderer's soap, and he will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.

He will purify the sons of Levi, etc., etc.

Now this is a powerful passage, but the point is, He's coming to his temple as a refiner.

Jesus did come in 1844 and he came to his temple into the most holy place as a refiner of his people so that they could offer an offering in righteousness as it goes on to say there.

Well, when 1844, October 22 passed and October 23, obviously those believers were disappointed.

I told you last night in the words of Hiram Edson, he said the loss of every earthly friend couldn't have been harder to deal with than Jesus not coming, because when Jesus didn't come on time, what communicated their feelings, what the devil communicated their feelings in reality was this whole thing's a fairy tale.

There is no Jesus, there is no God, there is no heaven, the Bible's a fairy tale.

I mean everything that they had hoped in was pulled out from under them and yet God sustained them through that time.

Hiram Edson in fact, that into the next morning, he got up that next morning, if he ever slept that night, troubled, but sensing that God had to have an answer.

And he and some friends went into the granary in his barn, And they knelt down and they prayed earnestly that the Lord would show them what happened.

And I don't know what he totally means when he says that we prayed until the, and I forget how he words it actually, something to the point that when they had the evidence from the Holy Spirit that their prayer had been heard and God would answer it in his due time, they had a peace about that prayer.

That they got up and Edson figured that it was time to move on with his day.

And so, 1 of the thoughts that he had was to go and encourage other believers because the mockery was intense on the day after.

The last night, in fact, go to Revelation, we looked at Malachi, go to Revelation, I'm gonna work in the framework of Revelation 10 here for a moment.

We were here last night, and I wanna point out something I did not point out last night.

When you read Revelation 10 with the sweet and bitter book, there's only 1 movement that fits this description.

They took the book that was opened, was the book that was closed, it was the book of Daniel.

They ate the book, they ingested the book, they preached the message, they're told to prophesy again, which means they prophesied already.

They spoke the word of Lord to the people, based on the prophecies of Daniel.

Only that sweet experience became bitter in their stomach.

It's interesting to me in the language of Revelation 10, that it says that when the angel speaks, Verse 3, he cried out with a loud voice as when a lion roars.

Now 1 thing I know about a lion's roar in the jungle is when the lion roars in the jungle every animal freezes.

It arrests the attention of every creature.

Looking Unto Jesus

Father in heaven, Father, we are so grateful to be in your presence today.

And when we think about our busy schedules, Father, help us to realize how busy your schedule must be and yet you have cleared off a day on your calendar to spend with us every week.

And this is a special time, it's sacred time, it's holy time.

And we value it and we just pray that you would give us ears to hear now and hearts to respond to what your Spirit has to speak to us this morning.

Now I began with a message last night that this will loosely tie into because it's Visitor Sabbath, a number of you who weren't here last night.

We'll pick up on the theme again this afternoon.

This morning I'm gonna talk to you about looking unto Jesus.

And I'm gonna start with a polarizing question.

So that means I don't want an answer for it.

I just want you to think about it, stew over it, whatever you're gonna have to do.

Oh yeah, that's a polarizing 1, you know that.

Let me ask it this way, in light of our special music, can we have clean hearts?

When you think about it, you might read a difference into it.

I want you to go to Revelation with me, chapter 14.

You know, we can read a lot into what we would call perfect.

Maybe let's just put it this way, can God deliver us completely from sin?

Now we're going to build into this throughout the day today.

You'll see where we're going after a little bit this morning.

Revelation chapter 14 verse 6 is where we find the first of the 3 angels' messages in the book of Revelation.

We looked at this last night a little bit, the first angel's message in verse 6 says, I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the what?

The everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth through every nation, tribe, tongue and people.

Now there are people today who actually believe that at the end of time there are going to be angels flying through heaven and preaching the gospel.

I'm going to tell you that Jesus said different.

That Jesus in Matthew 24 said that you and me are going to go and preach the gospel, and what I believe Revelation 14 is telling us is that the angels of God will be directing the work, but human agencies will be carrying it out.

A lot of people don't understand, or maybe haven't connected, and we looked at this last night, that Revelation 14, 6 is only the fulfillment of what Jesus spoke in Matthew 24 when he said, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness unto all the nations and then the end will come.

Revelation 14, we see the gospel, the everlasting gospel being preached to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people all the world.

And if you go ahead to verse 14, the Bible says, then I looked and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud sat 1 like the Son of Man, having a golden sickle, or having a sharp sickle in his hand, wearing a golden crown, and he's coming to reap the harvest of the earth.

And so Seventh-day Adventists, if you're new to the Seventh-day Adventist church, you may be visiting here today, we believe that these 3 angels are the manifestation of this gospel message that goes to the whole world just prior to the coming of Jesus.

And we believe that giving the message is the responsibility of every Christian who knows the gospel.

But as you go through these messages, There are 3 of them, as I mentioned.

Verse 12, the third angel's message, ends like this.

It says, Here is the patience of the saints, here are those who what?

Keep the commandments of God and the what?

Now This is confusing to some people in Christianity today because I've had Christians say, well, I thought because we have faith in Jesus, we don't have to keep the commandments anymore.

These are the ones, the Bible tells us, right here at the end of time, who keep the commandments and they have the faith of Jesus.

And if they didn't have the faith of Jesus, I would suggest they couldn't keep the commandments.

Here are they, in other words, who have the character of God in them.

Here are they who obey God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Well, you know, we get into discussions and this is what people will challenge me and talk about that and say, wait, wait, wait a minute preacher, we can't be perfect.

Look, I've got all these weaknesses and I've got all these urges and you don't understand my background my history and I mean you know there's always going to be some little vestige of sin somewhere.

I haven't met a person yet who thinks we're going to be sinning in heaven.

Have not met 1 single person, Christian that is, who thinks we're going to be sinning in heaven?

I have not met 1 single person, Christian that is, who thinks we're going to be sinning in heaven.

For some reason they believe that God can somehow stop it there, but he can't stop it here.

Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, it's because I have, you understand, I got these weaknesses, I got this sinful flesh.

Maybe you've been in these discussions, maybe you've said those things.

My question to you this morning is this, who is the focus on when we talk like that?

We are limiting the Almighty by our unbelief.

I'm not talking about what you're doing or I'm doing or what we can do this morning, but we have got to ask ourselves, what can God do and what has God promised to do?

What we're talking about this morning is a faith experience, the kind of faith experience that God's people must have at the end of time.

This subject is what's summed up in that last part of the third message, here are those who keep the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus.

1 of the founders of our church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, A woman by the name of Ellen White wrote an article, wrote a letter to somebody, some people had written letters to her and said, hey, this idea of justification by faith, righteousness by faith, how does this tie into the 3 angels' messages?

And this is what she says, several have written to me inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message.

And I have answered, it is the third angel's message in verity.

It's the gospel message, righteousness by faith.

That's what we're going to talk about here this morning.

In a lot of discussions that I've been in, righteousness by faith comes out to be the equivalent of quantum physics.

And by God's grace, it will not be that this morning.

I mean, there are aspects of this plan of salvation of God that we could study throughout the eternal ages and still our mind will wrestle over how the almighty God could come into humanity and take upon himself our sin and why he'd even be willing to do so and our minds will reel at that for eternity.

And yet there are elements of it that need to be understood very clearly by us right now.

You go through the T's in the New Testament.

They're all kind of grouped together there.

Right after the T's you come to the book called Philemon and then you come to the book of Hebrews.

If you go to 1 Peter, 2 Peter or the book of James, you've gone too far.

We're going to Hebrews chapter 12 and we're going to verse 1.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Sons of God

1h

The Key to the Wedding and the Kingdom

1h 12m

Looking Unto Jesus

51m

The Birth of a Movement

1h 10m

Your way or YAHWEH?

41m

Brain Studies

1h

32. Home At Last

57m

31. Three Inseparable Doctrines

57m

30. The Sanctuary and the Prophetic Gift

57m

29. The Two Temples

57m

28. The Holy and the Profane

57m

27. The Sanctuary’s Financial Secrets

57m

Sound Doctrine