Anchors of Truth

The Great Controversy Ended: Home At Last!

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000065


00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:18 The Great Controversy with John Bradshaw.
00:23 Welcome to the 3ABN Worship Center for the fifth and final
00:26 message of Pastor John Bradshaw's series on
00:28 The Great Controversy.
00:30 We were tremendously blessed last meeting as he spoke
00:33 of the great controversy and the context of how we're
00:36 nearing the end.
00:38 But this final meeting, the message is entitled,
00:40 The Great Controversy Ended, Home At Last.
00:44 Soon and very soon, we're going to see the King.
00:46 Can you say amen to that?
00:47 You know, you may have heard this story about a little boy
00:49 who had become accustom to listening to the Cuckoo Clock
00:52 that his father had bought.
00:53 He would always listen as it chimed.
00:55 And one night at midnight, he counted every time the
00:58 clock struck and he was hearing the clings and the clangs.
01:02 And he counted to twelve.
01:03 And the clock was broken and it kept on clanging.
01:06 And it went to thirteen and fourteen.
01:07 And he ran to his father's room and said,
01:09 "Dad, it's later than it has every been before."
01:12 Well friends, it truly is later than it has ever been before.
01:15 We are nearing the end of our great controversy in the world
01:17 and we can look forward soon to the coming of our
01:20 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
01:21 So stay tuned as Pastor Bradshaw will bring the final message
01:25 in this series.
01:26 We're also going to have some wonderful music by
01:28 our Production Manager, Pastor C.A. Murray;
01:31 my good friend and colleague in ministry.
01:34 And the message that Pastor Bradshaw is going to bring
01:37 is going to tell the world we're nearing
01:38 the end of the controversy.
01:40 And the song that is going to be sung is,
01:42 I Will Tell The World.
01:43 I'll tell the world that I am a Christian.
01:45 I am not ashamed.
01:46 And that's the message Pastor C.A. is going to bring us.
01:49 But before any of that, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
01:52 Our gracious Father in heaven, thank You so much for the
01:54 opportunity to come to You, not only in prayer, but to
01:58 receive the edict and receive the instruction,
02:00 and to follow it.
02:02 And to know that as these seeds are being planted,
02:05 that hearts are being fertilized for the reception of the gospel,
02:09 for the acceptance of Jesus, for the furtherance of Your work,
02:14 for the closing of Your work.
02:16 We do pray, Father, that there be an anointing on this message,
02:19 an anointing on the speaker, and an anointing on
02:24 he who will minister to us through music,
02:27 Pastor C.A. Murray.
02:28 May these meetings honor and glorify Your name.
02:31 We pray in Christ's name, amen.
02:34 Now I'd like to welcome Pastor C.A. Murray to come
02:36 and bless us with that song,
02:38 I'll Tell The World That I'm A Christian.
02:40 Following this song, the next voice you'll hear
02:43 is that of Pastor John Bradshaw.
03:01 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian;
03:08 I'm not ashamed His name to bear.
03:15 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian;
03:22 I'll take Him with me anywhere.
03:29 I'll tell the world how Jesus saved me,
03:37 and how He gave me a life brand new.
03:45 And I know that if you trust Him,
03:51 that all He gave me He'll give to you.
04:02 I'll tell the world that He's my Savior;
04:09 no other one could love me so.
04:16 My life, my all is His forever;
04:23 and where He leads me I will go.
04:34 I'll tell the world Jesus is coming;
04:41 and it may be near or far, far away.
04:48 But we've got to live as if His coming
04:56 could be tomorrow or today.
05:03 For when He comes and life is over,
05:10 for those who love Him there's more to be.
05:18 Eyes have never seen the wonders
05:25 that He's preparing for you and me.
05:35 Go tell the world that you're a Christian;
05:42 don't be ashamed His name to bear.
05:49 Just tell the world that you are a Christian;
05:56 and take Him with you everywhere.
06:06 I'll tell the world how Jesus saved me,
06:14 and how He gave me a life brand new.
06:23 And I know that if you trust Him,
06:29 that all He gave to me He'll give to you.
06:40 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian;
06:46 I'm not ashamed His name to bear.
06:53 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian;
07:01 I'll take Him with me anywhere.
07:08 I'll take Him with me anywhere.
07:29 Well thank you, thank you so very much.
07:32 Afternoon, everybody.
07:34 I have to tell you, I have a couple of CD's in my car
07:36 that I'm fond of playing.
07:37 One is by a fellow named John Lomacang.
07:39 And another is by one C.A. Murray.
07:42 And I've about worn them out.
07:45 That's the reason I've come to 3ABN this weekend.
07:47 I need to get me some more CD's.
07:51 Replace the worn out ones.
07:54 Yea, thank you. I appreciate that.
07:55 I appreciate not only the Bible centric nature of
08:00 these gentlemen, but I appreciate that they can sing.
08:02 And they warm my heart.
08:04 So I'm very, very thankful.
08:06 Well, what a blessing to be able to come back and share
08:08 once again on this series on the subject
08:10 of the great controversy.
08:12 What a blessing.
08:14 You know, I made a mistake.
08:17 I have it with me, but not here.
08:21 I brought it all the way from California.
08:24 At my office at It Is Written, I keep the copy of
08:29 The Great Controversy that I read that changed my life.
08:32 Now understand, in case you're catching this
08:35 for the first time, when I say we're talking about
08:37 the great controversy, this is not an exposé
08:39 or whatever on the book.
08:42 It's on the biblical theme.
08:43 The great central theme of Scripture is
08:45 the great controversy.
08:46 However, there was a book written about this controversy
08:50 many years ago.
08:51 And I was fortunate enough to come into possession
08:53 of a copy of that book three times.
08:57 The third time, I read it.
09:00 And I have the book, I brought it.
09:02 I wanted to show it to you. I'm very fond of it.
09:05 It changed my life.
09:06 Then I forgot to bring it out here.
09:08 Well, worse things could happen.
09:11 It's a little beat up now because I left it one place
09:13 and there was a window open and it rained on it.
09:16 It swelled up a little bit.
09:19 But that's alright.
09:20 May of us have swelled up a little bit over the years.
09:24 And we're still okay.
09:26 But it's still a book that has moved me.
09:28 I was living in London, England.
09:31 I was just there temporarily, I'm not from England.
09:33 But I was living in London, England and I came into
09:35 possession of this book.
09:37 And I read it in a bath tub and it changed my...
09:40 But the bath tub was full.
09:42 I don't just go climbing into bath tubs to read books.
09:45 I was in there having a bath.
09:46 And I read that book while I bathed.
09:50 And it helped me get clean.
09:53 It's such a wonderful book.
09:56 I would encourage you, when we consider this subject of
09:59 the great controversy, to do everything you can
10:03 to get your hands on the book, The Great Controversy.
10:10 It's not that hard to find.
10:13 And if you want to get yourself a copy of The Great Controversy,
10:17 and read that book.
10:18 If you have read it but it's been a while, read it again.
10:25 I learned something reading that book.
10:26 The Great Controversy starts back about the time of the
10:29 destruction of Jerusalem.
10:31 And then traces history down through time
10:34 beyond our time, about to the time of the
10:36 second coming of Jesus.
10:38 Well, in fact, beyond that.
10:39 Because it goes through the millennium and so on,
10:41 back to the time when the earth is made new.
10:44 The first time I read that book, I discovered the first half
10:47 of it was history, the second half of it was prophecy.
10:51 And then the second time I read it,
10:52 that history really came alive.
10:54 And about the third time I read it, I realized that
10:57 the history is prophecy.
10:59 The history itself is prophecy, because history
11:02 has a habit of repeating.
11:03 That's all history can do.
11:04 And as you read and you learn some of the lessons
11:09 that are shared in the history aspect of the book
11:12 The Great Controversy, you would see, I believe, that
11:15 God is looking forward and saying, "If you want to know
11:18 what's coming, look at what's already been."
11:20 Now don't draw too tight a bow there.
11:23 I'm not talking about every syllable and every action.
11:25 But in general terms, you will learn a lot from looking at
11:28 history that will help you know where we're
11:30 going into the future.
11:33 Well that having been said, I believe we're
11:35 going to pray here.
11:39 Well you are a scholar and a gentleman.
11:41 How about that.
11:42 Thank you very much.
11:45 I meant to bring a Lamborghini with me this weekend.
11:57 I guess your luck can only stretch so far.
12:01 This is the book that changed my life.
12:02 You know, it does look a little battered by now, doesn't it.
12:06 In fact, it's one called The Cosmic Conflict.
12:09 This book has appeared under a number of different guises.
12:12 Shouldn't say guises, but iterations, I guess.
12:15 I don't know if this is the prettiest
12:17 cover that I've ever seen.
12:18 It's pretty enough, I guess.
12:20 The Cosmic Conflict; Good And Evil Wage War For Planet Earth.
12:26 And that's what's going on right now.
12:27 And this book here absolutely changed my life.
12:30 I love to look through it now and see where I underlined
12:36 and where I marked and where I drew boxes around stuff.
12:39 You know, I was learning these for the very first time.
12:42 And I read some of this stuff and, wow, it amazed me.
12:47 It shocked me, it challenged me.
12:50 But as I read...
12:52 Oh, this chapter is The Time Of Trouble.
12:53 Evidentially, that made an impression on me.
12:56 What was that one there? God's People Delivered.
12:59 Man, great stuff. The Impending Conflict.
13:03 Great stuff.
13:04 Snares Of Satan, and so on.
13:06 Magnificent, magnificent book.
13:08 Thank you Elder Murray.
13:09 I appreciate you bringing that out to me.
13:11 This is especially special to me.
13:14 The very book I read that God used to bring me to Jesus
13:18 as He helped me understand that great big picture subject
13:22 called, the great controversy.
13:25 This afternoon; The Great Controversy Ended, Home At Last.
13:29 I'm looking forward to that. Aren't you?
13:31 Let's pray together and expect God's blessing once again.
13:34 Father in heaven, thank You we can gather
13:36 together around the Bible.
13:37 We do so confident of Your blessing.
13:40 You have said that we ought to come boldly
13:42 to the throne of grace.
13:44 And there we can find mercy.
13:45 And not just mercy, but grace to help us in time of need.
13:49 And so, now we come to You with hearts that are open.
13:52 If they're not open, please open them up.
13:54 With minds that are given.
13:55 If they're not given, please take them.
13:58 Bless this time that You will be glorified.
14:01 We come at the subject from many varied backgrounds.
14:04 Some scholars. Some, not so much.
14:06 Some experienced, some inexperienced.
14:09 Some in faith, some skeptical.
14:12 Lord, that's okay.
14:13 Your Spirit can work with all of that.
14:14 So please do.
14:17 We ask You to be honored and be lifted up.
14:21 Thank You that in this great controversy
14:23 we can be confident of victory through You.
14:27 We pray in Jesus' name. And we said as one, amen.
14:34 Years ago, my wife, Melissa, and I were traveling from one point
14:41 on the compass to another.
14:44 And our journey took us across Utah.
14:47 We were coming out of Colorado on interstate 70,
14:54 70 past Grand Junction, interstate 70,
14:58 and we saw a sign post that said "Arches National Park" that way.
15:05 And we said, "Arches National Park?
15:07 We've got to go."
15:09 And so we turned off the freeway I-70 and we went south
15:13 towards Moab, Utah.
15:16 That's about where Arches National Park is.
15:18 Arches National Park is beautiful.
15:23 I come from a place where it's green and it's lush,
15:25 and there's plenty of rain and there's ocean everywhere.
15:28 You can't get more than 70 miles from the ocean
15:31 when you're in New Zealand.
15:32 It's a wonderful thing.
15:33 And there are mountains covered in snow,
15:35 and there are fields and glaciers,
15:37 and there are rolling hills.
15:39 We don't do desert.
15:42 Somebody told me once that the desert can be very beautiful.
15:46 I thought, "Yes, anything can be beautiful from 37,000 feet."
15:52 But they meant, "No, when you're down there in it,
15:54 it can be beautiful."
15:55 And I thought, "That's not possible.
15:57 It's desert. What's there to like?"
16:00 Beautiful if you add some water and some dirt
16:04 and some vegetation.
16:06 It was probably at Arches National Park the first time
16:09 that I realized, "Wow, the desert can be really beautiful."
16:12 Not long ago while we were doing the It Is Written series
16:15 in Las Vegas, Revelation Today, my kids took off to a place
16:19 called, I forget, The Valley of Fire, or something like that.
16:22 Someone in Las Vegas remembers.
16:24 And then they convinced me that we ought to go out to Red Rocks.
16:27 Oh, beautiful out there. Gorgeous.
16:31 The desert, I discovered, is gorgeous.
16:33 So we drove around a little bit, we did not have a lot of time.
16:35 We had a shamefully small amount of time.
16:36 But we saw a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
16:39 And then we decided that we would go and see one of the
16:41 very famous arches in Arches National Park.
16:43 It is called the Delicate Arch.
16:46 And it's a very, sort of a horse shoe shaped arch.
16:49 It's not like this landscape arch that's longer and flatter.
16:52 But it's shorter and up righter.
16:55 It's really an archy looking arch.
17:00 We decided we'd go and see this Delicate Arch.
17:01 If you see the license plates from Utah,
17:04 they either still do or they certainly use to have
17:06 the Delicate Arch on them.
17:07 It's famous, it's beautiful.
17:09 Man, you ought to see it.
17:11 And so we decided we would go there.
17:12 We followed the signs and we came to the parking lot that
17:14 said we were close to the Delicate Arch.
17:18 Then began the hike.
17:20 The sign said, "Make sure you take water."
17:26 It was only a suggestion.
17:30 It also said about how long it would take us
17:33 to get to the arch.
17:34 I don't remember how long.
17:35 It wasn't the longest journey ever.
17:37 But I'm going to tell you something.
17:39 It seemed like it.
17:41 It wasn't blistering heat of summer.
17:43 It wasn't terribly hot, but it was hot enough.
17:46 And it's not a picturesque journey.
17:48 You're walking uphill, as I remember.
17:51 And my memory is subject to whatever.
17:55 It's subject to something, but I forget what.
17:58 And so we were walking towards the arch, uphill essentially,
18:02 over rock faces.
18:04 Really, you're walking over rock and stone all the way there.
18:07 And the longer we walked, the more we asked ourselves,
18:10 and each other as a matter of fact, "Is this really worth it?
18:14 Do we really need to see this thing?
18:16 Couldn't we just look at a license plate?
18:18 Maybe we don't need to walk."
18:20 And the longer we walked, the more tired we became
18:22 and the heavier our legs got.
18:24 And the more we started to say to each other,
18:26 "Why did you suggest we do this anyway?"
18:30 And we would see people coming down the hill and we'd say,
18:33 "How much further is it to this arch?"
18:35 And I remember this vividly, this is absolutely gospel.
18:40 The first person we asked that of said, "Five minutes."
18:43 "Five minutes."
18:44 So that was good.
18:46 Anybody can tough it out for another five minutes.
18:48 We walked on, and about ten minutes later
18:49 we saw somebody else and we said to that person,
18:52 "How long until we get to the arch."
18:53 What did they say?
18:55 "Five minutes."
18:56 It was like there was a conspiracy.
18:57 And everyone we saw said, "Five minutes."
19:00 We came up to the next guy, or the next after the next,
19:02 we said, "Don't tell us. Five minutes, right?"
19:04 He nodded and he said, "How did you know?"
19:07 Seriously, five minutes.
19:09 And we walked, oh we walked.
19:11 I've walked further and so have you.
19:13 There are some people who's mailbox is further
19:15 away than this arch was.
19:16 But still it felt like a long walk.
19:18 And we walked and we got there.
19:20 And we were wondering, "Man, how dumb were we."
19:24 And then we got to, what we didn't know at the time,
19:27 but what proved to be the final approach to the arch.
19:29 Now if you've walked up to the Delicate Arch,
19:32 you will recall that as you get close to it,
19:35 you walk around a bend like this.
19:37 It's around the side.
19:38 You don't see the arch.
19:39 It's not like walking towards a mountain
19:41 that you see from way off.
19:42 You don't see it until you get there.
19:45 And the final approach, we walked around this thing
19:48 and around this thing and around...
19:53 "Wow"
19:55 And there it was.
19:57 It looks better...
19:59 Well you can't call an arch, "in person," can you.
20:01 It looks better in arch than it does on a license plate.
20:07 You might have seen the photographs or the pictures.
20:10 You can look at it on your computer screen, I'm guessing.
20:12 But it doesn't look nearly as good as when you see it,
20:19 when you see it face to arch.
20:23 Beautiful.
20:25 And here's what was so interesting.
20:27 Suddenly, that long walk?
20:30 We just forgot all about it.
20:31 Suddenly, our legs didn't ache.
20:33 I got a spring in my step, "Oh, let's run down there.
20:35 Let's get closer.
20:36 Oh, this is just the best thing."
20:39 Suddenly, the long journey wasn't even remembered.
20:44 Forgot all about it.
20:46 There's probably a better example than that.
20:48 I need to talk about this a little gingerly.
20:51 I talk about everything gingerly in some senses.
20:53 But this I need to talk about with respect.
20:56 It's a little bit like childbirth.
20:58 I remember one of the great marvels of childbirth to me.
21:03 I was present, of course, for the birth of both my children.
21:07 And I remember the process.
21:13 You know, it's tough.
21:16 And you know, any man that hasn't been there
21:22 for the birth of his children has missed out on something.
21:28 Anyone who has been present for the birth of a child
21:31 will never look at a woman the same way again.
21:34 Well, will never look at a woman as anything less
21:37 than a giant and a hero.
21:40 I tell you, childbirth is woman's work.
21:43 I'm kind of glad about that.
21:45 It changed forever the way I viewed my wife.
21:49 Now please don't think I viewed her negatively.
21:52 But after that, "Wow, you're something else."
21:56 I mean, we men, we think we're something because
22:00 after you go grocery shopping, "I'll take that
22:03 heavy sack of potatoes.
22:04 Leave it to me."
22:08 "The jars that you can't unscrew the lids on?
22:11 Bring them over. I'll take care of that."
22:13 Pop.
22:15 And you think you're such a hero.
22:19 And then your wife gives birth.
22:21 And you're suddenly not such a hero anymore.
22:24 You're kind of small, kind of weak.
22:27 This was the remarkable thing about childbirth.
22:31 I thought that process was a difficult process.
22:36 But the second the midwife took my son and brought him
22:43 right up here and popped him right about on Melissa's chest,
22:45 somewhere like that, suddenly all that difficulty,
22:51 it was forgotten.
22:53 And I'm not saying that as an ignorant man.
22:56 It was just gone.
22:57 We went from...
22:59 to...
23:02 in moments.
23:05 It was a miracle.
23:08 I even said, "Have you forgotten what you've been through?"
23:13 And it was like, "Don't bother me with that now.
23:18 Here's the prize.
23:20 We've got what we worked for and waited for and prayed for
23:23 and longed for and struggled for and pushed for and strained for.
23:26 This is it."
23:28 In that moment of arrival at the destination,
23:32 the difficulty experienced along the way in the journey,
23:37 just forgotten, just gone.
23:42 Ladies and gentlemen, we are engaged right now
23:46 in a titanic spiritual struggle.
23:50 Titanic.
23:51 It says in the Bible, all who live godly in Christ
23:54 shall suffer persecution.
23:56 Paul said, "So fight I not as one who beats the air."
24:04 Paul wrote about having fought a good fight,
24:07 having run the course, having finished the race.
24:10 We're involved in something out here.
24:12 I've talked about this before, I'll say it again.
24:14 It bears repeating.
24:16 "We wrestle not with flesh and blood."
24:19 But we wrestle with principalities and powers,
24:22 with spiritual wickedness and very difficult places.
24:25 Friends, we are called to go through some stuff
24:27 down here on this earth.
24:28 We just are.
24:29 And there are some people who, at least it seems,
24:31 their lot is difficult than the lot of others.
24:34 It seems.
24:36 But here's the good news.
24:38 One day the controversy will have ended.
24:43 One day our strife will be over.
24:46 One day we will look up and we will see Jesus coming back
24:53 in the clouds of heaven.
24:54 We will say, "Lo, this is our God.
24:58 We have waited for Him.
25:00 And He will save us."
25:04 Satan, long ago, fell into sin.
25:07 He abandoned the privileges that God had reserved for him.
25:11 This foolish foray into rebellion plunged
25:17 this whole universe headlong into a crisis.
25:19 And Satan wasn't just content to go away and mind his own
25:23 business and hide in a corner.
25:24 Oh no, he couldn't do that.
25:26 He had to drag everybody down with him
25:28 into the misery he was in.
25:30 After causing such turmoil, you'd think that he would
25:33 skulk away and just be.
25:37 But no, he wasn't content to do that.
25:40 He came to the place where he openly challenged God
25:43 for the preeminent place in existence.
25:45 And we are caught up in that.
25:47 You can be resentful if you wish.
25:49 You can bemoan your lot, you can complain to God.
25:52 And it's okay to complain to God.
25:53 I had a friend and he had been through some
25:55 difficult times in his life.
25:56 And here's what he would do.
25:58 He would take a chair and pull it up.
26:00 Just put it right there facing him.
26:02 And then he would sit down in his chair and he would say,
26:04 "Jesus, please, come and sit down.
26:06 I've got some questions I would like to ask You."
26:10 And he told me there'd be times that he would
26:11 look at this Jesus.
26:13 Of course, it wasn't Jesus.
26:14 But he would look to the seat and say,
26:15 "Do You have something against me?
26:17 It seems that You don't like me very much."
26:19 Because he was going through some difficulty.
26:22 You understand, sometimes we do.
26:24 And sometimes life is tough.
26:26 But one day soon, the good news is, Jesus is coming back.
26:31 And we are going home.
26:33 We will be able to say, in the words of John Bunyan,
26:35 who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, "Heaven is cheap enough."
26:40 Thank God for that.
26:41 I wonder if you would turn with me in your Bible
26:43 to Revelation chapter 19.
26:45 Revelation and the 19th chapter.
26:47 Here, if you're familiar with your Bible,
26:48 you know what we're going to read.
26:50 Revelation chapter 19, we'll start in verse 11.
26:54 Revelation 19:11, the Bible says, "I saw heaven opened,
26:57 and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called
27:00 Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth
27:02 judge and make..." What?
27:04 "...war."
27:05 This war is going to end once and for all.
27:07 "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were
27:10 many crowns; and He had a name written
27:12 that no man knew but He himself.
27:14 He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.
27:16 And His name is called, The Word of God.
27:21 And the armies which were in heaven followed Him
27:23 upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
27:29 And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it
27:31 He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a
27:34 rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the
27:36 fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
27:38 And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written."
27:42 What's the name? Read it with me.
27:44 "King Of kings, and..."
27:46 Thank the Lord.
27:48 Jesus is coming back.
27:49 We're not talking about a two-bit dictator here.
27:52 We're not talking about someone in which we have a little hope.
27:55 We are talking about someone in whom we can trust,
27:57 on whom we can rest our lives.
27:59 Jesus is soon to return.
28:03 Friend, the challenges and the difficulties
28:06 of this earth are going to pass away.
28:07 Now not everything is bad down here.
28:09 Now I don't mean to intimate that it is.
28:10 As long as we draw breath, we have life.
28:13 As long as we have life, we can hope.
28:15 Oh, I wish people wouldn't give up hope.
28:20 You know what I'm talking about.
28:23 We read about people who say, or you talk to them and
28:26 they say, "I just don't have hope anymore."
28:29 And why would you not have hope, my friend?
28:31 Because your circumstances change.
28:35 The minute God changes, then you can give up hope.
28:39 The minute God gives up on you, then you can give up on hope.
28:44 Whether you've been hurt or injured, betrayed,
28:46 or otherwise harmed, God will never hurt you,
28:51 God will never injure you, God will never betray you,
28:53 and God will never otherwise harm you.
28:55 God will never let you down.
28:58 And I could wish that we would remember that.
29:00 That even in our darkest moments, we have hope.
29:03 Because our hope is, and can always be, in an
29:07 unchangeable God who is good.
29:12 There is hope. Jesus is coming back soon.
29:14 I just have to read this passage of Scripture.
29:16 It's another familiar one.
29:18 It's in the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
29:22 The Bible says, "For the Lord Himself shall descend
29:26 from heaven with a..." What?
29:28 "with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
29:31 and with the trump of God.
29:33 And the dead in Christ shall..." What?
29:36 "...rise first.
29:38 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
29:42 together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
29:46 And so shall we ever be with the Lord."
29:50 The Bible says, "Wherefore comfort one another
29:53 with these words."
29:54 These words might not change your lot,
29:57 but they can bring you comfort in the midst
29:59 of what you're going through.
30:00 Jesus is coming back soon. Our lives are short.
30:03 If you live a long time, your life is short.
30:06 If you make it to about 90 years old, you're not longer elderly.
30:09 You are old.
30:14 And you've earned the right.
30:16 And even at 90, in God's scheme of things,
30:21 you're just barely getting started.
30:26 There were some folks on this earth, and there are some people
30:28 who have a hard time believing, that Methuselah
30:29 lived to be 969 years old and Adam lived to be 930.
30:33 And so forth.
30:34 I have a hard time believing that too, when they were
30:36 created to live forever.
30:37 What a sad thing.
30:38 I don't want to believe that they only lived
30:40 to be a thousand years old.
30:41 I want to believe they lived forever.
30:43 But forever is coming.
30:45 And what we missed out down here because of sin
30:48 and its terrible affects, we will gain up there.
30:52 When there will never even be a fading flower.
30:56 The good news is, Jesus is coming back.
30:59 And the controversy is going to end.
31:01 Thank the Lord.
31:03 Down through time, God has had a people
31:05 who have labored faithfully, toiled on, not knowing when
31:09 and perhaps doubting at times if this battle would ever end.
31:12 I wonder if you remember the story.
31:14 World War II ended in what year?
31:16 1945, that's right.
31:18 But there was one Japanese soldier for whom the war
31:21 did not end for another 29 years.
31:25 His name was Hiroo Onoda
31:28 And he was on the island... No, he was in the Philippines.
31:32 And he was on Lubang Island.
31:33 Which, as the crow flies, is about 100 miles from Manila.
31:37 And there he was, a second lieutenant in the
31:40 Japanese Imperial Army.
31:42 He is there in the Philippines and he was a...
31:47 What do you call those? He was a guerrilla, really.
31:49 Really, he was a bit of a guerrilla.
31:50 Guerrilla.
31:52 And he and a couple of his friends found a leaflet one day
31:55 that had been dropped from a plane
31:57 saying that the war was over.
31:58 He said, "I don't believe it.
32:00 And I won't believe it until somebody comes and
32:02 relieves me of my duty."
32:04 So he carried on there in the war for another 29 years.
32:07 He didn't realize it was over.
32:08 29 years.
32:10 He was found one day by a Japanese man who came
32:12 specifically to track him down.
32:14 He said, "It's time for you to come home, man."
32:16 "No, I won't come home until a superior officer
32:18 comes and relieve me."
32:19 His commanding officer during the war was back there in Tokyo.
32:22 He was a book seller now.
32:24 He wasn't a soldier of any kind. He was a book seller.
32:27 But he agreed to get on a plane and go to the Philippines
32:29 and go to this island, Lubang Island, and find Onoda and say,
32:33 "Onoda, you're relieved of your duty, man.
32:35 You can come back now."
32:37 And he did, he came back.
32:38 The war hadn't ended for him.
32:41 It was over, but it hadn't ended.
32:42 I am glad, one day it's going to be over down here
32:45 and it will have ended.
32:47 And we won't have to labor on wondering.
32:49 We won't have to labor on hiding.
32:50 We won't have to labor on hoping Jesus is going to come back.
32:53 You will know, because the heavens will depart as a scroll.
32:56 You will know, because the angels in heaven
32:58 will be with Him.
32:59 You will know, because you will hear Him enter the earth's
33:01 cosmos with a sonic boom of some kind.
33:04 You will know, because the trumpet will sound.
33:06 You will know, because the dead in Christ shall rise
33:10 and we will go up to meet them.
33:12 What's it going to be like when gravity loses its power
33:15 on the soles of your feet?
33:18 Can you imagine?
33:19 One day we are going to go.
33:22 Think, friends, of what it has taken us to get here.
33:26 It was all okay back in the beginning.
33:28 There were Adam and Eve in the garden.
33:30 And they were pure, and they were healthy,
33:33 and they were well, and they were happy, and they were holy.
33:36 And they had everything, they had everything.
33:39 But sin came. They were separated from God.
33:41 The next minute, there was a murderer in the family.
33:44 The next minute, next minute, next minute.
33:47 And things were ruined. Ruined.
33:50 Satan was working.
33:53 What was he determined to do?
33:54 He was determine to eradicate from this earth
33:58 any of the light of the gospel.
34:00 Determined.
34:01 As a matter of fact, he would about had this thing won
34:03 except God came and said to him, "I will put enmity between thee
34:09 and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed.
34:11 It shall bruise thy head, you shall bruise His heel."
34:15 "There's going to be a way out for these people.
34:17 There's going to be a way out.
34:18 I have devised it already."
34:20 There is a plan of salvation that had been devised
34:23 before the foundation of the world.
34:24 Maybe Lucifer didn't know that.
34:26 Now he knew.
34:27 He was going to have to work even hard to eradicate
34:29 from this earth even the hope, even the possibility of
34:32 salvation for anyone at any time.
34:34 And work he did.
34:36 It didn't take too long and God's people were a mess.
34:39 We'll fast forward a little bit, and what did he do?
34:42 He got God's people hung up in slavery down there
34:44 in Egypt, hung up.
34:45 But what did God do?
34:46 God sent His man. He send a man, a deliverer.
34:49 He sent a man, Moses.
34:50 He sent a man who would face off with Pharaoh,
34:53 look him in the eye and say, "Let my people go."
34:56 Pharaoh said, "No." God worked miracles.
34:58 Plagues came.
34:59 The Red Sea opened up and out they went walking along
35:03 the bottom of the sea.
35:09 You know, sometimes when things seem the most hopeless,
35:14 that's when God is getting ready to work the most spectacularly.
35:19 What would it have been like to stand there and see the
35:22 Red Sea open up.
35:23 I imagine that some of the people said, "Wait a minute,"
35:26 while some of the others said, "Let's go."
35:29 I imagine the kids would have been playing in the water,
35:31 "No, there's no time for this. Let's go."
35:34 And off they went. But what happened?
35:36 They got out into the wilderness.
35:37 They'd been there days... ...days...
35:41 not years, days, "Why did you bring us out in this
35:45 wilderness to die?"
35:46 Oh, lucky it was Moses leading those people and not me.
35:50 I mean, not you.
35:51 I mean, not somebody else.
35:54 Moses was the meekest man that ever lived,
35:56 according to the Bible.
35:57 So when they got riled up and came against him,
36:02 he fell down on his face before God and he said,
36:04 "I need your help with these people."
36:05 And he wouldn't let them go.
36:06 When God said, "I'm going to blot them out,"
36:08 Moses got in the way and said, "No, no, no don't.
36:10 Blot me out instead."
36:11 Imagine that.
36:15 Moses stood for the people.
36:16 He led them on, he led them on.
36:18 And what I mean is, he led them forward.
36:20 He interceded between them and God.
36:22 Satan was trying to get them doomed out there.
36:26 God had signaled His intentions;
36:28 the Messiah would come.
36:30 Now imagine you are Satan.
36:32 Imagine you are the devil and you're trying to win the
36:34 loyalty of the world, perhaps that of the universe.
36:37 Now you are told there's coming a Deliverer, a Messiah.
36:39 That Genesis 3 and verse 15 thing.
36:42 "Wait.
36:43 Someone's going to come?
36:45 What?"
36:46 Now he knew he had to work with great fury and great venom
36:50 and tremendous urgency.
36:53 The Messiah must fail, else Satan be defeated.
36:56 There is a great controversy here.
36:57 This was war.
36:58 "It's me or Him," Satan said.
37:00 "If the Messiah succeeds, I lose.
37:02 If I succeed, He loses.
37:05 Or if He fails, I succeed."
37:08 He moved upon those Israelites to bicker and complain,
37:11 and complain and bicker.
37:13 He was trying to keep them from getting to the Promised Land.
37:16 If somehow he could snuff them out or prevent their survival,
37:19 he would win.
37:20 There was a controversy raging.
37:23 God then said, "Alright, alright, alright.
37:24 I'm going to help you understand the issues.
37:26 Let them make Me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them."
37:29 And they made a sanctuary.
37:31 God said, "Follow the plans, Moses."
37:33 We read that in the Bible.
37:34 He built the thing after the plans that God showed him.
37:36 "Two rooms, Moses.
37:38 It's like the sanctuary in heaven, tell them.
37:40 Here's the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
37:43 All these animal sacrifices, yes.
37:45 That's how we'll deal with the sin problem,
37:47 you are right.
37:48 Seven branch candlestick; Jesus.
37:50 This Lamb will be the light of the world.
37:52 Table of showbread; He will be the Bread of Life.
37:54 Altar of incense; yes pray.
37:56 Your prayers will ascend to God up there in heaven."
38:00 The sanctuary was given so that they could understand.
38:03 But what happened?
38:04 Ultimately when Jesus died on the cross,
38:06 the veil was torn in two from top to bottom.
38:09 The sanctuary was empty.
38:10 God's presence wasn't there.
38:13 Everything God did, Satan countered.
38:15 Satan had something on his side.
38:17 Fallen humanity.
38:18 And he can manipulate. He does it today.
38:20 He manipulates us.
38:22 God had something on His side.
38:24 Love and truth.
38:27 And the power of the Holy Spirit.
38:28 That sanctuary revealed what kind of God God was.
38:32 There was the ark of the covenant.
38:34 Up on top of the ark was the throne of God.
38:36 The throne was on the mercy seat.
38:38 God's throne was established in mercy.
38:41 Yes, He had people wandering through that wilderness
38:43 that were knuckleheads, and they were stiff necked.
38:45 But God was merciful.
38:48 And what God is really like is seen as He demonstrates
38:53 His mercy, you understand.
38:56 Satan would have said, "Destroy them."
38:59 It was Satan who said that God is
39:00 not good, God is not love.
39:01 But God demonstrated again and again and again how
39:03 merciful He really is.
39:05 Mercy and truth have met together,
39:07 righteousness and peace have kissed each other,
39:10 right there in the sanctuary as the mercy seat
39:12 rested upon the ark of the covenant.
39:14 There were the cherubim, the statues of the cherubim,
39:17 gazing intently upon the ark of the covenant.
39:19 helping us to see that the angels look intently upon
39:21 what's taking place here with this work of redemption.
39:24 A mystery; God is just while justifying the sinner.
39:28 The great controversy demonstrates that to us.
39:31 The sanctuary service showed then and now, God can take a
39:34 sinner and separate the sinner from the his or her sins,
39:38 and return that sinner to oneness with Almighty God.
39:42 Oh, thank God. This thing can end well.
39:44 You can be lost as lost,
39:49 you can be running from God, you can be spitting on
39:51 Christ's grave, and Jesus says, "But wait,
39:54 I'm not done with you."
39:57 Aren't you glad Jesus says, "But wait, I'm not done with you."
40:00 Aren't you glad?
40:02 Aren't you glad that God does suffers long?
40:04 Aren't you glad about the health series of meetings, you know,
40:07 and people have come in and someone said,
40:10 "Well, that person will never make a decision for Jesus."
40:12 And that's when I say, "Lord, oh please."
40:15 And God just loves it when He can take the unlikely ones
40:20 and transform the unlikely.
40:22 We're all unlikely, but you know what I mean.
40:24 There are some you see coming, you say, "Well, maybe."
40:26 Others, you say, "Oh, there's no way."
40:28 And God will take the "no way" ones and say, "Yes way.
40:31 Look what grace can do in a person's life."
40:34 It was a long journey through that wilderness,
40:36 but here's what I want to tell you.
40:37 It was a journey worth making.
40:39 There were people who died on the left and on the right.
40:41 You can imagine Joshua and Caleb battling their way through that
40:46 wilderness, if that's the right term to use.
40:49 And then when they get to the Promised Land,
40:51 maybe it's like my wife when the children arrived.
40:52 Maybe you just forget the wondering.
40:55 Maybe you forget the trials.
40:56 Maybe when you're in the land that flows with milk and honey,
40:58 now you say, "Deliverance.
41:01 Thank the Lord, it was worth the 40 year walk."
41:05 Maybe that's what you say.
41:07 But no sooner had Joshua died, here's what the Bible says,
41:10 "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord
41:13 and served Baalim."
41:14 Incredible but true.
41:15 There was this seesaw existence.
41:18 We're in the time of the judges now.
41:20 And a good judge would lead God's people God's way.
41:23 Gideon was raised up as a deliverer.
41:24 There was hope.
41:27 And then there were others.
41:29 The plan being that God's people would be okay if they
41:31 leaned relentlessly on God.
41:34 But they wanted a king.
41:35 "What do you want a king for? I'll be your King," God said.
41:38 "We want a king because we want to be like the others."
41:40 It's that people?
41:42 Isn't that what folks are like?
41:44 "We want to be like the others."
41:45 You see it even in church, "We want to be like the others."
41:48 "We want to be like them, we want to do what they're doing.
41:50 Because what they're doing..."
41:51 Oh, you know what I'm saying.
41:53 "We want to be like them."
41:55 They wanted to be like them and have a king.
41:57 It worked for a while.
41:59 Saul was okay until he went nuts.
42:03 And then along came David. And David was okay.
42:08 Okay... Okay is the right word.
42:10 He had his moments, didn't he.
42:12 He was okay when he was faithful.
42:13 Not okay when he was walking on the roof top
42:15 and should have covered his eyes.
42:17 David was okay in places.
42:19 And then along came Solomon.
42:21 The man wiser than any other man who had ever lived.
42:24 But not so wise as to put his foot down.
42:29 And he succumbed to the influence of his heathen wives.
42:31 Wives... That wasn't a wise move either.
42:34 And before long, the kingdom was in grave trouble.
42:38 Why? Satan was relentless.
42:43 He won't stop working.
42:46 He aren't safe for a moment if we're not yielded to God.
42:51 You've heard that phrase, "Give him an inch, he'll take a mile."
42:54 That's Satan.
42:55 If you just give him a toe hold, you let him grab hold of your
42:59 little toe, he'll keep on clawing and scratching
43:02 and grabbing until he's got all of you.
43:05 That's what happened back there.
43:07 Give him an inch, he'll take a mile.
43:10 The ten tribes were taken into captivity and
43:12 absorbed into the ranks of the enemy.
43:13 Satan was exalted, "I've almost got them.
43:16 Just two more tribes to go and this whole
43:19 Messiah business will be done."
43:21 Judah then went into captivity to Babylon.
43:24 About the worse place you could possibly go.
43:26 They were there for seven decades.
43:30 And what hope was there?
43:32 The writer of the Chronicles said this in 2 Chronicles 36:16,
43:35 "Israel has mocked the messengers of God,
43:38 despised His words, and misused His prophets."
43:43 So what hope was there for these poor struggling souls?
43:46 There was a battle raging.
43:47 God doing all He could to bring salvation,
43:50 to bring into the world the Messiah.
43:51 When the Messiah came, He was going to have to
43:53 live a righteous life.
43:54 And that was not a slam dunk.
43:56 He came and lived as a man, you understand.
43:58 It wasn't going to be the easiest thing.
44:00 It wasn't a walk in the park.
44:02 But God was not finished.
44:05 Satan had done everything he could to
44:07 frustrate the plans of God.
44:08 Remember, Herod even...
44:10 The devil, man, how desperate was he.
44:12 "Kill all the baby boys," Herod said.
44:16 Satan was just rubbing his hands, "I'm going to
44:17 get that Messiah now.
44:19 We'll just kill Him and it'll be all over.
44:22 It will be all over."
44:23 Satan was attempting to destroy Jesus.
44:25 Then he would triumph in this thing called
44:27 the great controversy.
44:28 But it wasn't to be.
44:29 Jesus lived. So Satan dogged His steps.
44:31 Can you imagine what it was like to be Jesus
44:33 when everywhere He went, there were people
44:35 trying trip Him up?
44:36 Saying things to rile Him up and ruffle His feathers.
44:39 Trying to get Him to slip here are slip there.
44:41 And for three and a half years, He never even put so much
44:44 as a thought...
44:48 ...because He was connected.
44:49 What a Savior, what a Savior.
44:51 Jesus was nailed to a cross, though.
44:53 "Ah," Satan wondered, "have I succeeded?
44:56 Have I?"
44:57 But, no.
45:00 Sunday morning, the rock was rolled away
45:05 and Jesus came forth.
45:07 I just wonder what Satan thought then.
45:12 He must have gone screaming away.
45:14 He is alive. He lives.
45:18 Satan was on his way to defeat now.
45:20 But what did Jesus have to work with?
45:22 Just twelve. No, wait. Just eleven, eleven.
45:24 I'll take Peter out; ten.
45:26 All of them forsook Him and fled.
45:28 Zero. What did He have?
45:30 But Jesus said, "Wait, get together and pray.
45:35 Because the Promise is going to come.
45:37 The Holy Spirit will rest upon you."
45:40 And by the time Pentecost came, the seeds that Jesus sowed
45:44 were watered by the Holy Spirit and were raised up to do a
45:46 great work for God's glory.
45:48 The light shown bright.
45:50 God's people had endured sufferings and torment
45:53 and afflictions and tremendous things.
45:55 But the light shown bright.
45:57 Friend, there was light at the end of the tunnel.
45:59 God was going to win this thing.
46:02 And there's a reason I'm saying this several.
46:04 But you think back over time at what God, against the odds...
46:07 If you don't mind me putting it that way.
46:09 Then take a look at where you are in your life now,
46:11 and wonder if God can ever bring you through.
46:14 If God could bring Israel through the wilderness,
46:16 He can bring you through your wilderness.
46:19 If God could bring Israel out of hardship and difficulty,
46:22 God can bring you out of your hardship and difficulty.
46:26 There was David on the run being hunted like a wild animal.
46:32 What hope was there? Maybe he just...
46:35 Maybe he wondered if he should just
46:36 surrender and get the thing over with.
46:38 But he didn't.
46:39 And who delivered David?
46:40 God delivered David.
46:41 David wasn't delivered through his craft and his might
46:43 and his guile and his skill.
46:45 He was delivered through the power of God.
46:46 Listen friend, don't give up. Don't give up.
46:48 Don't give up.
46:50 God will deliver you if you'll let Him.
46:52 Whatever your circumstance.
46:53 Some relationship falling apart; you don't have to fall apart.
46:56 Kids going off the rail; you don't have to go off the rails.
46:58 Finances melting; you don't have to melt.
47:01 God is able to hold you up.
47:03 It says in the book of Hebrews that God upholds all things
47:06 by the word of His power.
47:07 If He keeps the sun in the sky, He can keep you
47:09 where you ought to be.
47:10 If He keeps the stars in their course, He can keep
47:12 you in your course.
47:13 God is able to do this because He is God, that's His job.
47:19 There was an early Christian church,
47:20 eventually it lost its fire.
47:22 Love for Jesus degenerated into formalism and tradition.
47:26 What was left? Idolatry came in.
47:28 Eventually, the medieval church came in.
47:31 And what once looked like Christianity,
47:33 now looked like paganism.
47:34 Because essentially it was.
47:37 What was God going to do?
47:39 You know, have you ever...
47:43 My most vivid memory of this is the one
47:45 I shouldn't tell you about.
47:51 Now my son is a good boy.
47:52 So even though he's watching me right now, he wouldn't try this.
47:59 Right?
48:04 I guess I was too easily influenced as a child.
48:06 It's funny what you did as a kid
48:08 that now you'd never let your kids do.
48:12 It's funny what society kind of let go that now
48:15 you'd never let go.
48:16 I grew up on a river bank.
48:18 Big, big river.
48:19 Has a big river bank too.
48:22 Room for horses to run around down there on.
48:25 And the Ryan boys and I would take a box of matches
48:27 down the river.
48:30 For the purpose of lighting a fire, as big a fire as we could.
48:34 I'm not saying it was a sensible thing to do.
48:36 It was a dumb boyish thing to do.
48:38 And I remember getting down to our last match
48:42 and our last little piece of the striker off the match box.
48:45 Because we'd done burned up everything else.
48:48 And saying "This is it."
48:50 And getting up a little glow and blowing.
48:53 All you needed was a little glow.
48:57 It's remarkable, we would build some beautiful fires.
48:59 And the neighbors would look down, "Oh, that's just
49:01 the kids lighting a fire."
49:06 Times have changed.
49:09 But all you needed was the faintest glow.
49:13 And if there was just a little bit of fire,
49:15 and you tended that thing, and you blew on that,
49:19 eventually you could have an inferno.
49:24 All God needed was the smallest flicker.
49:28 That's all He needed.
49:30 And He had it.
49:32 The Waldenses in Europe.
49:35 They wouldn't bow down.
49:36 They wouldn't be crushed before the might
49:38 of the medieval church.
49:40 And so God was able to preserve the truth.
49:44 Maybe in that one little pocket, but He preserved it.
49:49 What then?
49:50 Their faithfulness paved the way for others.
49:53 A Catholic priest who was disturbed at the state of
49:56 the church, a man named John Wycliffe,
49:59 became known as the Morning Star of the Reformation.
50:03 He protested about what the friars were doing;
50:05 these good for nothing, lazy-boned, scoundrels.
50:09 They'd been given permission by the church to forgive sin.
50:12 And so they would hear confession and they would
50:14 take money, and they would bludge, and they would whatever.
50:19 And they were corrupt.
50:21 Wycliffe railed against them.
50:24 He said they're keeping the people in bondage.
50:26 He said the mass was blasphemous.
50:27 He said the Eucharist, that's not the real presence.
50:30 That's an emblem, you understand.
50:33 He was against confession, and all of these things.
50:36 He taught, and he preached, and he would go down to a place
50:39 called Saint Paul's Steps at St. Paul's in the churchyard
50:45 of St. Paul's Cathedral.
50:46 Not the one that's there now.
50:47 That was built by Sir Christopher Wren.
50:49 Or designed by Wren and built after the great fire in 1666.
50:52 But going back, the old St. Paul's.
50:55 And he'd go there and he'd preach and he'd tell the people
50:57 about God's grace and God's goodness.
50:59 And he said, "What they need is the Bible."
51:01 So he went back and he spearheaded
51:03 a translation project.
51:04 He didn't do it all on his own.
51:05 But he spearheaded the Bible translation project.
51:08 And now, now there was a light that shown in the dark.
51:12 It wasn't just somebody preaching,
51:13 but they had in their possession the Word of God.
51:16 They had the Scriptures.
51:17 Oh, what God could do with that now.
51:19 And what Wycliffe did was this.
51:22 Interesting, they tried to kill Wycliffe.
51:23 They didn't succeed.
51:24 After he died, though, the Council of Constance
51:26 in Southern Germany decreed that Wycliffe's bones
51:29 be dug up and burned.
51:31 They burned his bones.
51:33 Threw the ashes into the River Swift.
51:36 The River Swift isn't even a river.
51:37 You'd call it a creek.
51:39 You might call it a creek, but it's a creek.
51:41 It's a clear stream.
51:43 They threw it into the stream and the Swift took his
51:46 ashes to the Avon.
51:47 And the Avon took his ashes to the Severn.
51:49 And the Severn took his ashes to the Bristol Channel,
51:52 then out in the ocean, and around the world.
51:54 The light went around the world, you understand.
51:57 The light did go around the world.
51:59 Because some students at Oxford listened to Wycliffe
52:02 and they took his writings back to a man named John Huss
52:05 in what we would now call the Czech Republic.
52:09 We would now call it that.
52:10 And John Huss said, "Ah, this I like."
52:13 John Huss started to protest. John Huss started to preach.
52:15 John Huss shared the Word of God.
52:17 John Huss...
52:19 Satan wasn't happy.
52:21 Satan said, "I'm losing ground in the great controversy."
52:24 And he inspired the church leaders to murder John Huss.
52:28 They burned him at the stake.
52:29 The same council that said "Dig up Wycliffe's bones,"
52:32 was the same council that said, "Burn John Huss."
52:35 I've stood at the place where they reckon
52:37 John Huss and Gerome were burned.
52:41 You stand there and you breath the air, and you think,
52:44 "Ah, men of God.
52:47 What was it they did?"
52:50 You know, you could kill John Huss,
52:51 but you can't silence truth.
52:52 You can't blot it out, man.
52:54 And along came Martin Luther; that great man who taught us
52:57 that the just shall life by... What?
52:59 You mean, without paying a cent to the church
53:03 we can be justified?
53:05 Without going on a pilgrimage, without doing penance,
53:07 without the performance of any good works at all,
53:11 we could receive justification from God?
53:14 Luther changed the world.
53:19 The light was shining brighter. The light was shining brighter.
53:23 Satan was losing ground.
53:24 He tried to have Luther killed as well, but he failed.
53:27 And there was Melanchthon and there was Zwingli.
53:29 And there were Tyndale and Farel and Calvin and Knox,
53:32 and the Anabaptist and Menno Simons.
53:34 You know, today is Saint Patrick's Day.
53:37 So we ought to talk about Saint Patrick, who was a Protestant.
53:40 Now this is even long before these fellows.
53:42 He was a Protestant and he was a Sabbath keeper.
53:46 And he shed the light in Ireland.
53:48 Thank God he did.
53:49 And then there was John Wesley.
53:51 John Wesley who said, "The church needs reforming."
53:53 And he followed a method.
53:54 His method couldn't bring him holiness.
53:57 But he discovered that a change of heart
53:58 could bring him holiness.
54:00 And he founded the Methodist Church.
54:03 He traveled 250,000 miles by horse mainly,
54:06 preached 40,000 sermons, gave away 30,000 pounds,
54:09 and changed the world.
54:12 And the light was shining bright.
54:14 And Satan, who has read the Bible, knew that
54:16 his days were numbered.
54:17 Wesley died, and what he said was, "Best of all,
54:20 God is with us."
54:23 The light is shining brighter, friends.
54:25 This is an inevitability now.
54:26 Jesus is coming back soon.
54:29 And the difficulties we might have
54:31 been through are all going to...
54:32 What does it say, "And the things of this world will grow
54:34 strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
54:38 We are almost home.
54:40 We are almost home.
54:42 Hold on now. Hold on to Jesus.
54:44 Take hold of His hand now and just don't let go.
54:47 Just let God be God.
54:49 It's not a matter of trying harder.
54:51 It's a matter of being surrendered and letting Jesus
54:53 do what Jesus, and only Jesus, can do.
54:57 Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
54:59 one summers day in 1964,
55:04 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke a message;
55:09 one of the greatest speeches, you can call it a sermon
55:13 if you will, one of the greatest speeches
55:16 that the world had ever heard.
55:18 He talked about the day he longed to see.
55:21 When his four little children would be judged, and not by the
55:24 color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
55:28 "A day," he said, "when little boys and little girls will be
55:31 able to join hand with each other and, irrespective of
55:34 their race, walk together as sisters and brothers.
55:39 Dr. King dared to dream.
55:45 And he told the world about his dream.
55:48 He spoke of a day when all God's children will be able to
55:52 sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee,
55:55 sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
55:58 Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride,
56:02 from every mountainside," he said, "let..." What?
56:07 "...let freedom ring."
56:09 Martin Luther King Jr. mobilized thousands.
56:12 He mobilized hundreds of thousands.
56:14 People came to Washington D.C. from all over the United States.
56:18 These United States that was still oozing racism.
56:23 When Jim Crow laws treated people, that were supposed to be
56:27 equal, as less than human.
56:30 And people were moved by his message.
56:33 A message of hope, a message of freedom.
56:36 A message that, one day, oppression would not be.
56:38 A message that, one day, we all could be treated
56:42 as we ought to be treated; truly as God's children.
56:50 Dr. Martin Luther King looked forward to a day when we
56:52 would be able to say, "Free at last, free at last.
56:57 Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
57:01 That day is coming in its fullness.
57:05 Because Jesus is coming back to this earth soon.
57:10 He's going to set the captives free once and for all.
57:14 We're getting out of here and going home.
57:16 The hardships of our journey will be forgotten.
57:19 For we will be in a land that is fairer than day.
57:23 The great controversy will be over finally and forever.
57:27 We'll be home at last.


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Revised 2014-12-17