<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>

Cedar Lake SDA Church

Admonitions for the Last Days

Mark Howard

1. Admonitions for the Last Days

2. New Theology & Half-Hearted Christians

3. That Quaint Little Restaurant in Cairo

4. Look and Live

5. Itching Ears

6. A Little Leaven

Heavenly Father, once again, we are so grateful for the Sabbath.

We're grateful for the beautiful sunshine today.

We're grateful for the freedom that we have to come and worship together without having guards at the doors, without being hauled off to prison.

And Father, it's more of a reality in this world than some of us realize.

So help us to treasure our time that we get to spend now together.

And Father, I pray that as we're here in this house of worship, you would give us ears to hear and hearts to respond to the voice of your Holy Spirit.

For Father, we're asking it in the precious name of Jesus.

Now, if you go back just a little bit from 1 Corinthians 10, Paul gives us a run in and no pun intended, but you'll see why I say that in just a minute, verse 24.

The apostle has been giving instruction to the church in Corinth.

I don't want to spend much time on this, but I don't know.

Incidentally, let me just put in a plug for prayer meeting.

We've been going through our discipleship handbook.

We do it every Wednesday evening from 7 to 8.

And it's been a real blessing, but we touched on this this week.

In the beginning of Corinthians, there are similarities between the Corinthian church and the Seventh-day Adventist church that I find interesting.

And as I said in prayer meeting, that's kind of cool and then it's kind of not cool if you've ever read 1st and 2nd Corinthians because they had their challenges, but we have our challenges too.

We're all sinners who need a Savior, amen?

And so in 1st Corinthians 1, the apostle in verse 4 says this, he says, I thank my God always concerning you, he's speaking to the Corinthian church, for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus.

That you are enriched in everything by Him in all what?

The way I want to break that down is utterance is what you say.

And you're talking to a church, you're talking about the church's communication of the truth in preaching and teaching.

This church has been enriched by Jesus in their preaching and teaching.

Utterance and knowledge, their understanding of the truth.

And I believe that God has blessed the Seventh-day Heaven's Church with an understanding for special truth for the time we live in in the last days, prophetic understandings and what have you.

Now verse 6 is 1 that a lot of people can read over and part of that is due to some of the way it's translated and I'll touch on that in just a moment.

Now it depends on which Bible you're reading.

If you're reading the King James Bible or the New King James Bible, it will say the testimony of Christ.

If you're reading an ESV or an NIV or maybe a New American Standard, I'm not sure about the New American Standard, it will say testimony about Christ or about Jesus or something to that effect.

And the Greek phrase can be read either way.

You come to Revelation 12, 17 and It says that the dragon was enraged with a woman and went to make a war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have thee, and depending on your translation you can say the testimony of Jesus Christ or the testimony about Jesus Christ.

And so that phrase could be read both ways.

Now we know by comparing Revelation 19, 10, and 22, 8, and 9 that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, as it says in Revelation 19, 10, or it has to do with the prophetic gift.

Now I want you to notice here, again in verse 6, it says, even as my Bible says the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.

Now, some say the testimony about Christ.

Verse 7 says, so that you come short in what?

OK, The testimony of Christ or the testimony of Jesus in scripture refers to the gift of prophecy and this church has it so that she comes short in no gift.

Either you're sleepy or you just didn't get it.

So this church is enriched in their utterance and knowledge, their preaching, their teaching, their understanding, even as the testimony of Christ or the testimony of Jesus is confirmed in them.

Testimony of Jesus is the gift of prophecy.

We see that in verse 7 because it says, so that, because they have this testimony of Christ, so that you come short in no gift.

And Then it says, eagerly waiting for what?

The revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

So here's a church who is enriched in their understanding of truth, enriched in their preaching of truth, they have the gift of prophecy, and they're looking for the coming of Christ.

It's kind of like our sister church, if you will.

I know if you read the letters you might not want to go there, but that's what I'm seeing here in this passage.

And I love that last part where it says that we're waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus who will confirm us to the end blameless.

Can Jesus confirm us blameless to the end?

Yes He can and He will and He promises to do so.

Now this is the church that the apostle is speaking to and I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 9 with me and we're going to get the run in to the passage in 1 Corinthians 10 which will be our primary focus.

After Paul has given much instruction to this church, we're going to pick up in verse 24 of chapter 9, and this is what Paul says, Paul says, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only 1 receives the prize.

Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

Now, Paul is talking about the Greek races, which became what we would know as the Olympics today.

These are not little races, these are intense races.

You're going to see this in the language in a minute.

But he's making the point, And anybody who's ever run, how many of you run in a race before?

Okay, there's only 1 who comes in first place.

If you're in that race, you want to run to win.

Now he's gonna make a spiritual application, which we're gonna see in a moment.

And then he says in verse 25, everyone who competes for the prize, they wanna win, they wanna come in number 1, is temperate in how many things?

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we do it for an imperishable crown.

Now you know if you've won, how many of you have seen the Olympics?

You win the Olympics, you know what you get?

And he says that, an imperishable crown, the Greek word is stefanos, that's where we get the name Stephanie, my wife's name, or Stephen from.

It's a victor's crown compared to the diadema, which is a kingly crown.

Person runs in a race, they win a crown of leaves, right?

Maybe seeing a picture of the Olympic run, and they have this little thing of leaves around their head.

Back to Menu

Series

Admonitions for the Last Days

1. Admonitions for the Last Days

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

This One Thing

32m

Champion of Love

57m

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Cardiology of Commitment: The Heart of the Matter

58m

Endurance of the Saints

28m

Star Falls

01 Star Falls

1h 8m

Can You Keep Up

48m

Dunamis 2004

The Sin That Doth So Easily Beset Us

38m

Don’t Lose Heart

50m

The Forgotten Victory at Calvary

42m

Unlock Revelation

8. Revelation’s Time of the End

1h 9m

Transformed

Conformation or Transformation?

1h 17m

Living the Word

1h 12m

Sound Doctrine