GYC SE 2016: Good News

<p>The 3rd angel warns about the final test of loyalty and the role of our daily choices in the formation of our characters and our final destiny.</p>

<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>

GYC Southeast

Plenary

Mark Howard

Wake-Up Call

Well, I'm glad to be here at Southern Adventist University.

I'm looking forward to our time together.

But before we begin our message tonight, I'd like to begin with a word of prayer.

So I'm going to invite you to bow your heads with me as I kneel and ask God to bless our time in His Word tonight.

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for all of your goodness to us, for all of your mercies toward us.

Lord, we thank you for the Word of Truth and the message you have entrusted to us as a people.

And Father, tonight and in our subsequent nights, I'm asking for a special outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

Father, give us understanding, open our understanding to receive the truth you have to share with us here, not just in an intellectual way, but in an experiential way, Lord, that we may be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

We ask it, Lord, in the name of Jesus and for His sake.

Well, we are starting this evening with our first in a series.

Now the series is entitled the everlasting gospel which in some ways sounds kind of mundane and what I mean by that is it could go any direction but what I want to speak about very specifically over our next several nights together are the 3 angels messages of Revelation 14 and I'll tell you what I mean by that in a minute.

You know I was thinking about this as a Seventh-day Adventist there's a question that we really ought to be asking ourselves today.

And that question is, what are we still doing here?

I mean, seriously, what are we still doing here at Seventh-day Adventist?

This church was raised up to proclaim the soon coming of Jesus Christ over 160 years ago.

And it's interesting to me, and don't misunderstand me, you know, you want to give kudos and credit to people sometimes for the, you know, or to the, you know, the truth or the institution or whatever else.

What I'm saying is, it seems odd to me when we have these celebrations, these centennial and what have you celebrations in the average Church.

I mean, this doesn't seem right for a church that should have been gone a long time ago, that should have fulfilled her mission, especially, well, let me back up a little bit and let me clarify something.

In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we've gotten to a point in this day and age where fewer and fewer people are really talking about Jesus coming soon.

Now I know we hear, we still hear it a lot, but I know people that'll say, you know what pastor, I thought my kids would never enter college.

I thought, I remember when just like you, I used to say Jesus was coming soon and you know, so on.

The idea is that we somehow feel that the reason we're still here is because God is busy doing something we just don't know what and when he gets around to it he's going to come and we thought it would have been sooner than this but it's not.

The problem with that thinking is that we have very clearly an inspiration and not just a rare statement hither and yon in the writings of Ellen White, but repeatedly we have statements that say that the reason we are still here is not because we're waiting on God, but He's waiting on us to finish the work He's given us to do.

1 such statement is in the book Evangelism and I don't have that on the screen, but it says this, it says, we may have to remain in this world many more years because of our insubordination to God.

That's failure to come under the leadership of your commanding officer or obey your commanding officer.

We may have to remain in this world many more years because of our insubordination to God, but let us not add sin to sin by charging God with the result of our own wrong course of action.

The point is, we are here because we have not taken hold of the work that Christ gave us to do.

So on 1 side of our mouth we're saying, oh, we love Jesus and we're just so glad to be Christians and be his servants in this earth, and yet we're not doing what he told us to do.

And so when we have these celebrations, they, oh, 160 years is the, or 100 and whatever years is a great controversy vision and we celebrate this, that, and the other.

What are we celebrating but our own mediocrity and failure to do what God's told us to do?

We have to have a new look at the mission, and again, why we're still here.

And I'd like you to go with me to the book of 2 Peter.

We're gonna look at a text that is probably familiar with you, but let's go to 2 Peter chapter 3 and just clarify this from scripture.

This is, as I said, a passage that you are probably familiar with, but maybe not in this way, I'm not sure.

It took me a while to connect these 2 texts.

2 Peter 3, verse 9, this is 1 that I had heard for a while, but I'd heard just this verse and it wasn't connected to the rest of the passage.

2 Peter 3, verse 9, the Bible says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise.

In 2 Peter chapter 3, In fact, the heading in my Bible says, the day of the Lord will come.

It's talking about the day of the Lord or the second coming of Christ.

And you can pick that up in verse 4, where it says that there are scoffers who say, where is the promise of his coming?

So there's the promise we're talking about.

So in verse 9, It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, the promise of his coming, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Now, basically Peter's saying, you know, God's not slacking off.

You might have thought he should have come sooner.

Jesus should have come sooner and he didn't.

Because God is long-suffering is the word, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Okay, so basically the reason that Christ hasn't come yet is he's giving time for people to repent.

He's wanting to give more time so more people can be saved.

Now, like I said, I've heard that verse, but oftentimes for a period of time I hadn't read on, but I want you to go to verse 10 with me.

The Bible says, in the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for, and notice that next word, hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will come out with a fervent heat.

So here it brings up a very interesting word for us today, says that we are looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, speaking again in the context of the Second Coming of Christ.

Now if you can hasten something, what does that mean?

Now if you can speed something up, what else by inference can you also do?

And so the Bible's telling us that we have the ability to speed up or slow down the coming of Christ.

Why was it that the Bible said that Christ hasn't come yet?

It's not because God's slack, but because what?

So he wants people to have an opportunity.

And then we have a few verses later where it says, we can hasten the coming of Jesus.

By implication, very clearly, the only way that we can do that is giving people, more people, an opportunity faster.

That means we've got to get the message out.

And that goes right along with what Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew chapter 24 and we're going to verse 14.

Another well-known passage at least to most to Matthew 24 verse 14 the Bible says, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and what?

So in his signs, the signs in Matthew 24 that Jesus is giving, predicting his coming, he points out 1 of the greatest signs here being the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel.

Once the gospel's preached, the end will come.

That's what it's saying in 2 Peter that God has entrusted his people with a gospel message and when they finish that work he will come but he's not going to come sooner because he wants to give people time right he's long suffering not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance So he looks to his people who should be giving the message, and if we really were on top of it, says we could have hastened the coming of Jesus.

Now I know there are gonna be people who argue this and say, You put it all on God's people.

Look, God works through His people, but let me make something plain here tonight.

If you refuse to be used by God, God will replace you with somebody who will be used.

The Lord will come and you will not keep silent, the scripture says.

Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid!

Father in heaven, Father we are thankful that we can be here tonight.

We know that we're 2 or more gathered here in our midst to guide us, to teach us.

And Father in the context of what we're looking at last night and tonight to prepare us for the times that we're living in and the times just ahead.

I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be acceptable in your sight tonight.

For I ask it in the name of Jesus and for his sake, Amen.

Now last night we started out, the theme is the everlasting gospel and we started talking about the 3 angels' messages of Revelation chapter 14.

And I believe I put a slide up here tonight that we looked at last night from the ninth volume of the testimonies and I'm not giving you everything we looked at last night but this summarizes it.

It says here in a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers.

To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world." I don't even want to try to give you the significance of that, but I'm asking the Holy Spirit that He will lay the significance of that statement on your heart and mind right now.

The last warning message for a perishing world, on them is shining wonderful light from the word of God.

They have been given a work of the most solemn import, the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages.

There is no other work of so great importance there to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

This is not the opinion of Mark Howard the pastor or of some theology professor or anybody else.

This is from inspiration and it says this is where the focus needs to be of God's people.

Because there's nobody else giving this warning message and if the world's going to hear it they got to hear from somebody and that somebody is you and me.

And so we looked last night at Jesus' prediction in Matthew 24, 14.

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.

And then we went to Revelation 14 And we saw the gospel being depicted by as an angel flying in the midst of heaven, having this everlasting gospel to proclaim to all of those who dwell on the earth, every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

The very same thing Jesus said would happen.

Now we didn't go far enough in Revelation 14 to see in verses 14 and onward the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with a sharp sickle in His hand.

This gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness unto all the nations and the end will come.

And that gospel message in Revelation is a unique message.

It includes a warning against Babylon and her fall.

And it talks about the danger of receiving the mark of the beast.

Now what I said last night, we're going to continue on doing tonight, is I wanted to try to grasp the significance, the practical significance of these messages for us today.

Just reviewing last night, we talked about the first angel's message and how it was first proclaimed in the great second advent movement of 1840 to 1844.

At that time, they didn't understand the subject of the heavenly sanctuary, and so the judgment hour to them was a message of Christ's soon coming, you remember that?

And the need to be ready for that coming.

It led them to examine their personal relationships with Christ and make a full and total commitment to Him.

And that is the same effect that that message should have on those of us today.

This is in harmony with what we would call the afflicting of the soul, that the Bible says was a part of the anti-typical day of atonement in the Old Testament times.

They were to search their heart and review their standing with God.

Because the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

And there are times when we can think we're in perfect harmony with God when we're not.

1 of the most alarming and amazing, in a strange sort of way, stories in the Bible is the story of King David's adultery.

Where King David, a man after God's own heart, got sidetracked by the enemy, slept with another man's wife, and then in order to cover up the crime, had that man put on the front lines and murdered.

Then David took that woman in to be his wife and for an entire year, walked about his palace as if nothing had gone wrong.

That's how darkened you can be as to your own condition.

And it wasn't until Nathan the prophet of God came to David, told him a parable, David was outraged at the man depicted in this parable until Nathan the prophet looked at David and he pointed and he said, thou art the man.

And after that year, where David didn't even see where he was and how far he had gone from Christ, those words of the prophet helped him to see his true standing with God.

My friends, that's the first angel's message.

That was what the first angel's message did when it was first given And it has the same effect today.

It brings us to the reality that Jesus Christ has entered into the very last phase of work prior to His coming and preparatory to His coming.

And we read last night, in fact I want you to look at it with me tonight again, in 2 Peter, remember we talked about hastening the coming of the Lord, and in 2 Peter chapter 3, I want you to see what Peter says in regard to the coming of the Lord.

We started in verse 9 and it talks about how the Lord isn't slack concerning his promise.

Verse 10 says, But the day of the Lord will come as a what?

A thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?" Peter says that if we're living in the context of the Second Coming, we ought to really be careful about how we're living.

Once again, this isn't a theology teacher, this isn't a conservative versus liberal ideology.

This is what scripture says to you and me if we believe Jesus is coming soon.

And this is the effect the first angel's message had on the people.

The message was designed to lead God's people to see their true condition and return to the true worship of Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.

And this is how it's worded in that first angel's message.

We looked at this last night, great controversy.

Says the first angel's message of Revelation 14 announcing the hour of God's judgment and calling upon men to fear and worship him was designed to do what?

Separate the professed people of God from the corrupting influences of the world and to arouse them to see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding.

And such as it was with King David and so it is with you and me and with anybody else, we can get caught up in the things of the world and drawn away from Christ.

And when we're drawn away from Christ, it's not going to be a good situation when he comes again.

And so before he comes, he wants to draw us back.

Now tonight, the message is called, Don't Drink the Kool-Aid.

Okay, How many of you have heard that phrase before?

We're going to talk about it a little bit in the context of the second angel's message of Revelation.

Of course, now the title comes from the tragic experience When cult leader Jim Jones, pictured there, on November 18, 1978, led his 900 plus member congregation to the jungles of Guyana, place called Jonestown, and led them to drink cyanide-laced flavor aid, just so that you understand that.

Wasn't Kool-Aid after all, but it's just become a phrase that we use.

It was flavor aid, grape flavor aid, and I guess there were some other flavors, and they put cyanide in it, and they had the people drink it, and again, it's the largest mass suicide in history.

Well, of course, the idea of drinking Kool-Aid didn't get a good PR after that.

The phrase, don't drink the Kool-Aid, has come to refer to a warning not to hold unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination.

Now we talked about that a little bit last night.

We talked about, for those who were here, we talked a little bit about cultural Seventh-day Adventism.

Which is different from Seventh-day Adventist Christianity.

You do what you do because that's what everybody around you does.

But it isn't out of a personal conviction.

And that can be the case in any Christianity.

And probably other flavors of religion as well.

But true Christianity is you investigate, you search out the truth, and you practice the truth because you're convicted that it's true.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid, don't just believe anything that you hear.

Well there's more to it than that that I want to get into, and I want to get into it in the book of Revelation.

The Final Exam

It was my freshman year in the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri.

And I had, unfortunately, I know most of you are not going to relate to this, but I had in high school cultivated the bad habit of procrastination.

And I did OK in high school, waiting to the last minute to do my reading assignments and turn papers in, and I thought it was going to be the same way in college.

And I remember, I don't know why I did this when I made my schedule, but I had in my, it was my psychology class and I had a psychology lab at, I want to say it was 7.20 in the morning.

And as an 18 year old, I thought that was the most ungodly hour to do anything.

And I remember that my alarm clock would go off at 720.

Well, it wouldn't go off at 720 to get me at class, it'd probably 715, right?

It actually went off a little earlier than that.

And I remember on many occasion looking at that alarm clock and thinking, you know, forget about it.

Especially in the wintertime, I thought, forget about it.

I am not getting up and going into that class today.

And once I made that decision and hit that snooze button or that off button on my alarm, I want to tell you I felt good.

And that wasn't the only time I skipped classes.

I was dating a young lady at the time who is now my wife, Stephanie, is sitting right over here.

And so there were some times that I didn't go to class because I would have rather been with her.

And I want to tell you that when I skipped class and hung out with her, I felt really good about it.

But I will never forget the end of that semester when I came into that, and we had 25, 000 people there approximately at University of Missouri.

And of course, your classes were smaller.

But final exam day comes and you go into that vast lecture hall.

And you've got all of those chairs and everybody quietly sitting at their table with their paper.

And I remember going in and sitting down on exam day, that final exam, and I remember looking at that paper and everything on it kind of starts swimming.

I don't know if you've had that kind of...

And you realize only too late that you are not prepared for the final exam.

The message tonight is entitled, The Final Exam.

I want to tell you that happy euphoric feeling I had when I hit the snooze button became an ugly red dragon on exam day.

Now, 1 thing we've been talking about this week is we've been talking about the 3 angels' messages.

In fact, I'm going to have you guys advance to the first slide for me here.

This is something I've shared and I hope you can follow along the statement here.

From the book testimonies for the church, volume 9, page 19, it says, in a special sense, Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and lightbearers.

To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world.

I really want that to sink into your ears.

When these young men from Salt came up and shared what they did, and brother, you said Daniel 2, we grow up with it, and we don't have a clue how many people have never heard these things before, totally unprepared for the coming of Jesus, says on them that is Seventh-day Adventist, a shining wonderful light from the Word of God.

Notice there is no other work of so great importance there to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

And this isn't us listening to the message, this is us giving the message.

And in case I forget to say it later, I want you to be clear on something tonight.

Most people are not going to receive the message like this, and they're not going to be receiving it in an evangelistic meeting.

And the Lord has enlisted every 1 of us and given us the ability.

I am a debtor both to Jews and to Greeks.

So we've been talking about this and I've been wanting to dwell on some of the practical aspects.

I mean we talk about the 3 angels' messages and if you talk about Adventist history and you go way back to William Miller and all of that business, for a lot of us we're far removed from it.

So I've been trying to draw out some of the practical implications of those messages.

For example, the first angel's message, the message stirred the people with the soon coming of Jesus and led them to examine their own profession of faith in Christ with their actual experience with Christ.

It's easy to say I'm a follower of Jesus, but if Jesus were here in person, would I be going where he's going?

The second message, the message of the warning against Babylon, exposed the danger of the truth and error mixture of Babylon and her teachings, grooming us, And I'm going to pick up on this in a minute, grooming us to receive the mark of the beast.

Part 1 of 6

The Final Exam