Participants: C. A. Murray
Series Code: 16SCM
Program Code: 16SCM000018S
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00:51 Welcome to 3ABN's Spring Camp Meeting:
00:57 Live from the 3ABN Worship Center. 01:00 This message this morning... 01:03 I would consider it an intersection message: 01:08 tying us to the past, preparing us for the future. 01:12 It is entitled What Happened in 1844? 01:15 And my pastor - I'm now his pastor - 01:19 we call each other rabbi and bishop. 01:23 I'm rabbi... he's bishop... those affectionate terms. 01:28 And he is going to impart to us a wealth of information. 01:31 He's been in the ministry for more than 30 years. 01:33 And so handling this topic I think the only 01:37 difficulty for Pastor C.A. is what to leave out. 01:41 What Happened in 1844? 01:44 You know him very well. He's a man of God. 01:48 He's a very strong staple here at 3ABN, and I know 01:52 that God is going to bless him as he imparts the Word. 01:55 He said give him a short introduction. 01:57 And then the Lord has also... I've also been given 02:01 the opportunity to pave the way. 02:03 And I've chosen the song God Leads His Dear Children 02:06 because the message of 1844 really was all about 02:09 God leading His children. 02:34 In shady green pastures, 02:39 so rich and so sweet, 02:44 God leads 02:47 His children along; 02:54 Where the water's cool flow 02:57 bathes the weary one's feet, 03:03 God leads 03:06 His dear children along. 03:15 Some thro' the waters, 03:18 and some thro' the flood, 03:23 Some thro' the fire, 03:27 but all thro' His blood; 03:33 Some thro' great sorrow, 03:37 but God gives a song; 03:41 In the night season 03:47 and all 03:49 the day long. 04:06 With sorrows before us 04:09 and Satan oppose, 04:14 God leads His dear children 04:18 along; 04:21 Through faith we will conquer... 04:25 we'll defeat all our foes, 04:29 God leads His children 04:34 along. 04:38 He'll lead some thro' the waters 04:42 and some thro' the flood, 04:46 Some thro' the fire, 04:50 but all 04:54 thro' the blood; 04:59 Some thro' great sorrow, 05:04 yet God gives a song; 05:07 In our night season... 05:17 in our night season 05:23 and all 05:29 the day 05:31 long. 05:44 Amen! 05:53 Thank you Pastor John. 05:57 God leads His dear children along. 06:07 I want to thank all of those who have gone before 06:14 for not only have you informed my message 06:19 but you have relieved me of the responsibility 06:22 of saying some things because they've already been said. 06:26 So I then can enjoy flights of fancy 06:31 and take you into a realm that perhaps you have not 06:36 thought of before and suggest some things to you. 06:40 I listened very closely to what Mollie Steenson 06:43 and Shelley Quinn had to say on yesterday 06:46 and David Shin and John Carter on last evening. 06:51 Some detracted from my burden and some added thereunto. 07:00 So I want to approach 1844 07:07 from perhaps a slightly different perspective. 07:13 I would ask you to turn with me if you will 07:16 to Revelation chapter 10 and we will pick up our reading 07:22 at verse 7. I bought on yesterday 07:27 a brand new Bible. 07:30 I have this Bible 07:32 in a size that is somewhat smaller 07:38 but I found on yesterday that 07:42 this one is much larger and much better. 07:47 You know, you wash these Bibles and they shrink. 07:58 Shall we pray? Father God, 08:01 we importune You now 08:04 and we ask, Lord, that Your Word 08:10 may be made plain 08:15 for the hour is late and Christ is soon to come. 08:21 Fill us and fit us and feed us 08:26 for we would hear a word from the Lord. 08:29 And we thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. 08:34 Revelation chapter 10 beginning at verse 7. 08:37 The Bible says: "In the days of the sounding 08:40 of the seventh angel when he is about to sound 08:44 the mystery of God would be finished 08:47 as He declared to His servants the prophets. 08:53 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again 08:56 and said: 'Go take the little book 09:00 which is opened in the hand of the angel who stands 09:04 on the sea and on the earth. ' 09:08 So I went to the angel and said to him: 'Give me 09:12 the little book. ' And he said to me: 09:16 'Take and eat it. 09:20 And it will make your stomach bitter 09:24 but it will be as sweet as honey 09:29 in your mouth. ' 09:32 Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand 09:35 and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey 09:38 in my mouth but when I had eaten it 09:44 my stomach became bitter. " 09:50 This text obviously alludes 09:54 to the Great Disappointment of 1844. 09:58 But there is so much more to be found 10:03 in this text. There are parallel scriptures 10:07 in the Old and New Testaments 10:10 aside from what we see here in Revelation. 10:13 Ezekiel chapter 3 traces the outlines of the same scenario 10:18 as does Jeremiah 15. 10:20 We see this idea of sweet 10:24 and sour or sweet and bitter. 10:29 These texts all allude to a word 10:34 from the Lord, a message from the Lord 10:38 that was rapturously pleasant 10:42 and satisfying - sweet if you will - in the mouth 10:48 when it was received yet bitter as gall 10:53 when it was accepted, internalized, and shared. 11:00 But hasn't it always been that way for the people of God? 11:06 The reality is, brothers and sisters, 11:09 that our faith, though characterized 11:15 somewhat by the Great Disappointment of 1844 11:19 in that scenario, but that has always been the lot 11:23 of faithful Christians, of faithful children of God, 11:26 in every age. It was experienced by the prophets of old. 11:32 The people of God in all ages on a micro level and a macro level: 11:38 the people of God have had this sweet and sour, 11:43 sweet and bitter experience. And I dare say 11:45 before Christ comes we will taste it yet again. 11:52 How many here have tasted the sweetness of accepting 11:57 the gospel message only to have it turn sour 12:01 when you went to share it with your relatives or your friends 12:05 or even your spouse or your parents or your siblings 12:09 or your in-laws or your out-laws? 12:15 You found something in the Word of God; 12:17 you heard something in the Word of God; 12:19 you understood something in the Word of God 12:22 and it was sweet in your mouth. 12:25 And you assumed since it was good for you 12:31 it would be good for them. 12:34 So you joyously with great pride and great love 12:41 and great care shared with others 12:44 what God had given you only to find out that many times 12:48 not only did they reject the message... they also 12:52 rejected the messenger. Amen! 12:56 My mom, bless her heart, 12:59 was a Methodist. In fact, she was an African Methodist 13:04 Episcopal member... an AME. 13:09 And when she became Adventist 13:13 she trotted back to Toronto, Canada 13:16 to share her Adventism with her siblings. 13:23 And things were never the same. 13:27 In fact, her brothers didn't even come to her funeral. 13:34 They rejected the message and they rejected the messenger. 13:37 It was sweet in her mouth; turned sour in the belly. 13:44 But God says it doesn't end there. 13:49 You've gotta prophesy again. 13:52 Whether they accept it or not you've gotta prophesy again. 13:58 You can't leave them in their state... 14:01 you've got to prophesy again. 14:06 So what happened in 1844? 14:09 In 1844 time came to an end for mankind. 14:15 Christ moved within the veil 14:18 from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place 14:23 as Pastor Kenny Shelton so beautifully illustrated 14:26 on yesterday. The antitypical Day of Atonement 14:32 and when you say antitypical it's just a long word that means 14:37 the real deal. Amen! 14:40 We moved into the read deal Day of Atonement. 14:47 Something happened in heaven and something happened on earth. 14:53 Something happened in the United States and something 14:55 happened in Europe. And Ellen White and James White 14:58 and Joseph Bates and S. S. Snow and George Storrs 15:01 and Hiram Edson and E. S. Cottrell and tens of 15:04 thousands of other people who not only wanted Christ to come 15:09 they genuinely thought that He WOULD come. 15:14 The first and second angels' messages had been preached. 15:19 Angel #3 had been summoned and was taking wing. 15:24 The midnight cry had been sounded. 15:28 The seventh month movement had justified the Spring delay 15:32 for you see the original date was April 2, 1844. 15:38 When that passed by they settled on October 22, 15:43 1844. 15:45 The message had been trumpeted from Matthew chapter 25: 15:49 "Behold, the bridegroom cometh! 15:52 Go ye out to meet Him. " 15:56 The 2,300 days were ending. 15:59 The sanctuary was to be cleansed. 16:03 We were entering as I said the antitypical Day of Atonement. 16:06 Translation: Christ is coming back to take His children home. 16:12 What could possibly be sweeter? 16:18 Jesus is coming back! 16:21 I love Him and He loves me 16:24 and we are going to get together forever. 16:27 "Behold, the bridegroom cometh! " SWEET! 16:36 We are going to be together forever. 16:40 Christ was going to present His church to His Father. 16:45 No more sin; no more sickness; 16:50 no more sorrow; no more separation. 16:55 No more... forever. 17:00 And on earth, the scorching cancerous ridicule of the world 17:05 and Babylon would be eternally silent. 17:11 Oh, that would be glory for me! Amen! 17:17 Glory for me! Glory for me! When by His grace 17:21 I shall look on His face, Oh! That will be glory for me! 17:26 Amen! 17:28 You see, if you really love Jesus 17:31 that's the sweetest news in the world. 17:33 Amen! You see, my fear is... 17:37 I have this nagging fear after pastoring for 40+ years: 17:41 I've got this nagging fear that Adventists - 17:46 some of us - aren't as excited 17:55 about the second coming as we used to be. 17:59 I mean, some of us have settled down like the Jews after the 18:02 Babylonian captivity. When the call came to go back 18:06 and rebuild in Jerusalem 18:08 some folks said: "You know, 18:13 it ain't so bad here. " 18:17 "We've got jobs; we've got homes; we've got government 18:21 positions. We're doing all right here in Babylon. 18:25 We've changed empires... we're under Medo-Persia now 18:28 but it's not so bad. " 18:35 "Now we've got to "up-group" and go back! " And I think 18:40 there are some of us 18:43 who've gotten a little comfortable. 18:50 "I want to go to heaven but I'd like to get married first. " 18:59 "I want to retire and kick back first. " 19:04 "I want Jesus to come but I'd like to 19:07 relax a little bit first. " 19:14 And as such we've lost our zeal and joy for the coming 19:17 of the Lord. The Bible says, Romans 12:2: 19:22 "And be not... be not conformed. " 19:26 You know what that means? Don't get molded by this world. 19:32 "But be ye transformed. " 19:36 Peter says don't get "overcharged with surfeiting" 19:40 which is just riotous living and drunkenness. 19:42 Don't get all caught up in the stuff that's down here 19:46 so that day slips in on you unawares. 19:54 Even William Miller, who did not originate or promulgate 19:59 October 22, but he accepted it after he was pressured. 20:04 William Miller didn't come out for October 22 till October 6 20:07 of the same year. That wasn't his date. 20:10 William Miller said: "Some time between 1843 20:14 and 1844. " And it was Samuel Snow 20:17 and George Storrs that twisted his arm. 20:20 And finally on October 6 of that year he said: "OK, 20:23 I accept it. " That was never his date. 20:26 So under pressure from Storrs and Hines 20:28 he fell in line. But it was called The Great Disappointment. 20:35 But many around the world had been given this idea 20:41 by God. You know, when God gives you something important 20:43 He rarely gives it to just one person. 20:44 He usually kind of shares the wealth. 20:49 They had thought maybe the Fall of 1843, 20:52 maybe April 2, 1844. 20:53 But when October 22, 1844 came 21:00 and passed and Christ did not come, the bottom fell out. 21:06 Henry Emmons wrote: "I waited all forenoon 21:12 on Wednesday and was well in body as I ever was. 21:16 But after 12 o'clock I began to feel faint 21:22 and before dark I needed someone to help me to my bedroom 21:26 as my natural strength was leaving fast 21:29 and I lay prostrate for two days 21:33 without pain sick with disappointment. " 21:38 Hiram Edson wrote: "Our fondest hopes and expectations 21:42 were blasted and such a spirit of weeping came over us 21:46 as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss 21:50 of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. 21:53 We wept and wept until the day dawned. 21:57 If this had proved a failure, what was the rest of my 22:02 Christian experience worth? 22:04 Had the Bible proved a failure? 22:07 Is there no God, no heaven, no golden home city, 22:11 no Paradise? 22:14 Is all this but a cunningly-devised fable? " 22:20 See, the Bible says: "If in this world alone we have hope 22:23 we are of all men most miserable. " 22:28 Most... If this, brothers and sisters, is all there is 22:34 we are in trouble. Amen! 22:38 Is this it? 22:41 Gettin' old, gettin' sick, and dying. 22:47 Gotta be something more than this! Amen? Amen! 22:51 Gotta be something better than this. I was teasing... 22:54 Danny and I are the same age. I get there a little before him 22:56 but right now we're the same age... 22:58 so he calls me an old man. 23:00 And I said to him the other day: "This gettin' old thing 23:02 is gettin' old! " 23:08 I have a friend sitting right here in the audience. 23:10 I'm not going to look at him 'cause he'll think I'm trying to 23:12 call him out. He said to me: "I hit 65 and 65 hit me back. " 23:22 If this is all there is, then we don't have any hope. 23:27 Is there no reality to our fondest hopes and expectations 23:30 of these things and thus we had something to grieve and weep 23:33 over, if all our hopes were lost and as I said: "we wept until 23:40 the day dawned. " Cried all night! 23:46 Young James White - still in his 20's - wrote: 23:48 "The thought of turning again to the cares and perplexities 23:52 and dangers of life in full view of the jeers 23:55 and reviling's of unbelievers who now scoffed as never before 23:59 was a terrible trial of our faith and patience. " 24:03 Later he wrote: "From Maine 24:07 that when Joshua Himes stated to the brethren that we should 24:11 prepare for another cold winter 24:13 my feelings were almost uncontrollable. 24:16 I left the place of meeting and wept like a child. " 24:24 On November 10th of 1844 24:28 William Miller wrote a letter to Joshua V. Himes, 24:32 his leading publicist and communications genius, 24:35 explaining his feelings. 24:38 "Although I have been twice disappointed... " 24:41 April 2, October 22... 24:44 "I am not yet cast down or discouraged. 24:48 God has been with me in Spirit and has comforted me. 24:52 I have now much more evidence than I do to believe 24:56 in God's Word. " Amen! "And although surrounded with 25:00 enemies and scoffers yet my mind is perfectly calm. " 25:04 This is William Miller talking. 25:06 "And my hope in the coming of Christ is as strong as ever. 25:11 I have done only what after years of sober consideration 25:15 I felt it in my solemn ability and duty to do. 25:19 If I have erred it has been on the side of 25:23 charity, the love of my fellow man, 25:26 and my conviction of duty to God. 25:30 I have fixed my mind 25:34 on another time... " Amen! "and here I mean to stand 25:40 until God gives me more light. " 25:44 Amen! "And that is today, and today, 25:48 and today until He comes 25:51 and I see Him for whom my soul yearns. " 25:57 It is interesting that Ellen White in speaking 26:01 of the disappointment of those believers in 1844 26:07 draws a direct comparison - and I want you to hold onto this 26:11 now 'cause I'm going to make a tie up in just a little bit - 26:13 draws a direct comparison with the disciples' disappointment 26:20 in Jesus at the cross. 26:24 After the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem 26:30 the disciples fully expected Jesus to take over: 26:36 to lift them up and push the Romans down. 26:41 Their hopes were pinned, were fastened, were fixed 26:45 on Christ standing up for His people. 26:50 She says: "I saw the disciples doomed 26:54 to bitter disappointment. 26:56 In a few days they followed Jesus to Calvary... " 27:01 This is just a couple days after the triumphal entry. 27:06 "and beheld their bleeding and mangled Savior 27:11 upon a cruel cross. Their hopes died with Jesus. 27:18 I saw... " she says... 27:20 "that the disappointment of those who believed in the coming 27:24 of the Lord in 1844 was not equal to the disappointment 27:30 of the disciples. " 27:36 That's why in II Peter 1:16 27:41 he follows the lead of John in John's gospel 27:44 and I, II, and III John he touches on it 27:47 all four times when he writes and again in Revelation. 27:50 Paul in Hebrews says the same thing 27:54 that II Peter 1:16 says: 27:57 "For we did not follow 28:02 cunningly-devised fables 28:05 when we made known to you 28:08 the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. " 28:11 "We were not kidding; we were not joking. 28:15 We were not playing. This is real and Christ is real. " 28:22 "But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty and of His glory. " 28:26 So then my thesis is this: 28:31 The drama and trauma 28:35 that disappointment causes - 28:39 the drama and trauma that characterized 1843 28:43 and 1844- were the birth pangs 28:49 of something new that God was beginning to do. Amen! 28:54 They were the birth pangs of the Seventh-day Adventist church. 28:58 And I am theorizing that any time God is getting ready 29:04 to make a mighty move in the earth 29:07 He takes His church through drama and trauma 29:14 sweet in the mouth, bitter in the belly. 29:18 And that drama and trauma 29:22 is necessary housecleaning 29:28 so that when God does His new thing 29:32 He gets saints in there - hear me now - 29:37 who are ready to work with God. Amen! 29:43 You can see it over and over and over in the Word of God. 29:48 Whenever God is about to do a mighty move - 29:51 that's right - whenever He's about to do something big, 29:54 whenever He's about to shake this old earth 29:57 the first thing He's gotta do is shake out the sloppy saints. 30:03 Amen! Huh! 30:06 Um-hmm. 30:10 He can't have you in there dragging the program along. 30:17 That's why the Bible says there is coming a day of shaking 30:22 such as never was. 30:24 Jesus is gettin' ready to come back 30:27 and there's a lot of 30:34 dross - yes! - 30:37 weeds, tares 30:43 in the church. 30:45 And bless your heart the defacto setting is 30:51 get right or get out. 30:54 Amen! Praise the Lord! 31:03 So there is a pattern of sweet and sour, 31:07 and the sweet and sour is part of the necessary shaking. 31:10 The birth pangs, if you will, for something that God is... 31:14 is attempting to do. 31:15 And the Great Disappointment cannot be seen as an isolated 31:19 incident. It must be seen as a necessary shaking 31:22 of the tree so that the bad fruit falls 31:26 and the good fruit stays on. 31:28 So that when the Seventh-day Adventist church comes 31:31 it starts out with good food, good fruit: 31:34 pure people who are on fire for the Lord. 31:37 See, a lot of people serve the Lord out of fear. 31:42 You know, it's not that you have this great love for God... 31:45 you're just too old to boogie and you're afraid! 31:52 Fear is good to get you started 31:55 but you need love to keep you going. Amen! 31:59 See, my mother got scared into the church. 32:02 Yeah. Picked up a flyer with all those dragons and that stuff 32:04 on it. Scared her half to death! 32:07 But the fear evolved into love. 32:11 Amen? Amen! 32:15 So God wants pure hearts, pure motives in the church. 32:18 You see, William Miller discovered - 32:21 and we've got to move along - discovered 32:25 that the scattered flock, the Sabbatarian Adventists, 32:28 the Seventh-day Adventists all discovered the same thing. 32:31 That is: if you have a problem with the Word 32:34 the first thing you do is go to your knees. 32:38 Amen? Don't go to your neighbor. 32:40 Don't go to your pastor... go to your knees. 32:44 Amen! That's right. 32:46 Talk to God then God will send you 32:51 right back to the Word 32:57 for truth and light and blessed assurance. 33:00 Every now and again God makes the church have a "check-up 33:04 from the neck up" and you've gotta make sure 33:06 that you are in the Word. 33:09 Now the world had just come out of 1,260 years 33:13 of darkness... extreme darkness. 33:16 Couldn't read the Bible; 33:17 had to listen to priests and prelates 33:19 and people telling you how to run your life. 33:22 You see, you don't judge the... 33:28 the Word by the church. 33:32 There's no place that says when you read something in the 33:36 Bible go to the church and ask them what that means. 33:38 You don't judge the Word by the church. 33:41 You judge the church by the Word. Amen! 33:46 So if you're in a church and they're not preaching the Word 33:49 you've gotta find some place to go. 33:52 Amen! That's right. 33:55 So that understood: that if we've got a problem with our 33:59 understanding of the Word go to our knees 34:02 and get right back in the Word. 34:05 And let me disabuse you of an awful and evil rumor 34:10 that's been circulating in the halls of Christendom. 34:13 We did not get our doctrinal package from Ellen White. 34:16 Amen! 34:20 Ellen White didn't give us our doctrine. 34:22 "Y'all got your doctrine from Ellen White. " No we didn't! 34:26 We got our doctrinal package from the Word. 34:30 And that's why God allowed that disappointment. 34:33 So from then on we didn't listen to William Miller 34:35 or Joshua V. Himes or Charles Fitch or Josiah Litch. 34:39 We went to the Word. 34:42 Prayed it out; discussed it; 34:45 went to Ellen White and said: "Does this agree? " 34:48 and she said: "Yeah. " But it didn't start with her. 34:52 Ended with her... started with the Word. 34:56 So then God was bringing to Himself through all that drama 35:00 and trauma and sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly 35:03 He was forming a new church that was based not on the whims 35:06 or will or word of any man but on the Word of God. 35:10 Amen! 35:17 There is a question that each of us have to ask ourselves. 35:23 It is the same question that James and Ellen White asked, 35:26 Josiah Litch asked, Hiram Edson asked. 35:28 Joshua V. Himes asked, Samuel Sheffield Snow asked, 35:31 George Storrs, D. R. L. Crosier, Apollos Hale, 35:34 E. A. Sutherland, Joseph March, M. C. Clemmons, 35:37 Henry Bayer, Jane March Parker, William Miller, 35:40 2,000 Adventist preachers and an estimated 200,000 35:44 to 1 million public and closet Millerites. 35:48 They asked themselves the question. 35:52 After the tears had dried 35:54 and after the weeping had ended 35:57 they asked themselves all the same question. 36:02 It is a question that has been asked down through the ages. 36:05 Cleopas and his friend asked themselves that question 36:09 on the road to Emmaus. 36:11 Anyone who has ever suffered or sacrificed for Jesus, 36:15 anyone who has ever lost a job or lost friends, 36:19 or lost family, or lost their reputation, 36:23 or suffered for the cause of Christ, 36:26 anyone or anything that has ever been sacrificed for Jesus 36:30 any one of you that has ever had someone laugh at you 36:33 or lie on you or make fun of you 36:36 or call you stupid or a fool 36:38 or mock your faith or hurt your feelings... 36:41 Anyone that the devil has used to try to discourage you 36:44 on your way to heaven, anyone who has accused you 36:48 and rubbed in your face your own sin and shortcomings 36:51 when your only sin was really that you were trying to 36:54 serve Jesus has had to wrestle with this same question. 36:57 And you've had to ask it early in your gospel experience: 37:05 "Is Christ worth it? " 37:13 Somewhere, some time, some place 37:16 you've had to answer that question for yourself. 37:19 Wife can't help you; husband can't help you. 37:22 Family can't help you; preacher can't help you. 37:24 Everybody's got to drop on their knees 37:27 and say: "Christ, I know You've given everything for me. 37:32 What am I going to give to You? 37:37 And how much? " And how you answer that question 37:43 impacts or impedes your growth in Jesus. 37:47 You've gotta be honest with yourself. 37:49 Are you going to sell out to God or are you going to 37:51 hold back a little for yourself? 37:54 And unless you answer that question you can never grow 37:57 in the Word. I Corinthians 9:26: 38:01 "I run like this... " Paul says... "not with uncertainty. 38:06 I fight not as one who beats the air. " 38:09 Paul says: "I've already determined 38:12 that Jesus is real. " 38:14 "I've already determined that I can trust my life 38:18 in His hands. " I like how the Clear Word translates this. 38:22 I love the Clear Word Bible. 38:25 I don't use it for doctrine but it is an inspirational book. 38:28 He says: "I don't run the gospel race 38:32 aimlessly as if I don't know where the finish line is. " 38:39 I like that. "I'm not just out there running. 38:43 I'm running some place. " 38:46 "I don't run like I just don't know where I'm going. 38:49 I know where the finish line is. " 38:51 "I don't fight by boxing at shadows. 38:54 I try to make every punch count. " 39:00 I like that. 39:02 Paul says: "I know what I'm doing; I know where I'm going 39:07 and I know whose side I am on. " 39:11 Paul later told young Timothy in II Timothy 1:12: 39:15 "That is why I am suffering as I am. 39:17 Yet I am not ashamed because I know 39:20 whom I have believed 39:24 and I am persuaded... " I'm convinced... 39:26 "that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him 39:29 against that day. " Paul is saying: "When I give 39:32 my heart to Jesus, when I put my life in Jesus' hands, 39:35 I know Jesus is not going to drop it. 39:38 He's not going to break it; He's not going to lose it. 39:41 He's not going to leave it out in the rain; 39:43 He's not going to give it to somebody. 39:45 He's not going to let anybody steal it. 39:47 Jesus will keep it safe until I see Him face to face. " 39:54 So every now and again, brothers and sisters, 39:57 every now and again God sends us through 40:02 a time of sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly 40:06 because He is forcing the church to examine itself 40:11 and to make sure where it is. 40:14 If it was all sweet in the mouth, 40:18 the churches would be much more crowded than they are now. 40:24 But you know what happens when you eat sugar all the time? 40:30 There's no nutritional value in sugar. 40:32 Makes you sick! 40:35 The Lord sends some broccoli in there 40:45 and kale... 40:49 so we can examine ourselves. 40:51 If you look at the history of God's people - 40:53 now I've got to move on quickly - If you look at the 40:54 history of God's people in all ages, 40:56 God periodically enjoins the church, forces the church to 41:00 examine itself and do some necessary internal auditing. 41:07 And it is warranted that we make course correction. 41:11 God says before we prepare to ascend to the clouds 41:15 we need to re-examine our foundation, our underpinnings, 41:18 and make sure that we are in the faith. 41:22 Is there anyone here that thinks for a moment 41:27 that God is going to sanction a lazy, lukewarm, 41:34 lackluster, lollygagging, 41:36 limping, lame, Laodicean church? 41:43 God's not going to bless that! 41:48 He will not allow the church to remain in the state of 41:52 spiritual atrophy. 41:55 So God makes us - forces us - to examine ourselves 41:59 by following the sweetness of the gospel with some tough 42:03 times so that we can make sure we're in the faith. 42:08 And that re-examination can often be traumatizing. 42:13 But that bitter-in-the-belly experience 42:15 can be the birth pang of a brand new spiritual reality. 42:22 "Abraham, you are an old man 42:27 but I am going to bless you 42:31 to go into your bedchamber with your wife. 42:36 And you are going to have a son 42:40 out of whom I will make many nations. " 42:45 Sweet! 42:52 But then one day the call to Moriah came. 42:56 "Take a knife, take some wood, 43:01 and take your son. 43:04 And that sacrifice will be your salvation. " 43:09 Now why was that necessary? 43:11 See, we call Abraham the father of the faithful. 43:15 But if you look at his life, 43:17 Abraham had a little, tiny problem. 43:21 Whenever he got into a pinch 43:26 he became estranged from the truth. 43:31 He flat out lied! That's right! 43:34 And before God could trust Abraham with fathering 43:39 many nations that sweet message 43:44 had to be followed by a testing time. You hear me? 43:47 Sweet in the mouth: "You're going to have a child! 43:52 Now take that child and kill it. " 43:55 Bitter... but it had to happen 44:00 so that Abraham could be purified. 44:02 So that Abraham could learn and understand 44:05 that his trust was in God and his salvation was in God 44:11 and God alone. You can see that man's life. 44:14 Girlfriend says... well, wife #2 says: "OK, 44:18 I'm old and this thing is taking too slow. 44:23 Take her... have a baby with her. 44:26 Help God out. " 44:28 Well hello... God doesn't need your help. 44:35 God needs your cooperation and your surrender. 44:41 And we've got an ontological mess to this day 44:49 because Abraham couldn't wait on God! 44:56 So God had to send him through a sweet/bitter experience 45:00 to cleanse him and get him ready for what God wanted to do. 45:08 "Children of Israel: I'm going to give you a land 45:12 flowing with milk and honey. " Sweet! 45:19 "But before you do get that 45:25 I need to let you know that that land is inhabited by giants 45:33 and when you look at them you will look like grasshoppers 45:36 in your own eyes. " 45:44 But it was necessary 45:47 for Israel to be established as a nation. 45:49 You see the pattern? 45:50 Before God is ready to do something big through you, 45:54 with you, to you, for you 45:55 He's gotta test you. He's got to make sure 45:57 that your trust is in Him and not in yourself. That's right! 46:02 So He'll give you the sweet message 46:04 then He'll prove you. 46:09 Those poor disciples with Jesus 3-1/2 years. 46:14 Slaves to their own opinions about what was going to happen. 46:18 Setting themselves up for bitter disappointment. 46:24 Christ said: "I have come that you might have life. " 46:26 Sweet! Then you've got to watch His broken, bruised, 46:32 bleeding, mangled body hanging on a tree. 46:40 Then that's followed by the sweetness of the Upper Room 46:45 followed by the untimely death of every one of them. 46:51 Yet that was the beginning, the birth pangs, of the 46:54 Christian church. 46:57 So some 14 centuries later 46:59 the light and truth of the gospel has all but faded. 47:04 The memory of God alone has faded from view 47:09 and from mind. The white horse has become the red horse 47:12 has become the black horse and finally the pale horse 47:16 of death and hell. The Dark Ages have descended. 47:19 The image of truth and a loving God 47:21 and Christ's work in the Holy Place is all but lost! 47:27 And in Germany there's a sincere Catholic monk 47:34 who wanted so desperately, so badly to know God. 47:39 He just wanted to feel the presence of God. 47:42 He just wanted to feel like God knew who he was 47:44 and that God cared about him. 47:47 He had been taught many things, 47:49 and so he did what he was taught. 47:51 He suffered because someone told him 47:55 "the only way to get God's attention, the only way to 47:57 appease God is to suffer. " 47:59 So he starved himself; he punished himself. 48:03 He beat himself; he prostrated himself. 48:06 He lacerated his own flesh. 48:09 He starved himself. He tried to work himself 48:12 into God's favor and fervor and presence. 48:15 He crawled on his hands and knees. 48:18 He made himself bleed... all this to please God. 48:24 But somehow... it just wasn't working. 48:29 He didn't feel any closer to God. 48:31 He didn't feel like God loved him. 48:34 He didn't feel God's presence. 48:36 He didn't feel God's power. 48:38 And so his only recourse was to do more of the same! 48:44 So he took pilgrimages to Rome. 48:47 And when he got to Rome he was disillusioned and depressed. 48:51 He saw very little of Christ in Christ's purported church 48:58 so he didn't know what to do. 49:02 One day God sent him to an obscure little book 49:08 called Habakkuk. And he saw something there 49:12 in Habakkuk 2:4. And he read on a little further 49:17 and he saw it again in Romans 1:17 49:21 and he saw it again in Galatians 3:11. 49:24 And he saw it again in the book of Romans. 49:28 And after so many years of self-imposed suffering, 49:33 of self-abnegation, of self-denial 49:36 the holy Word of God was telling Martin Luther 49:40 "Man... get up off your knees. 49:43 Stop trying to work your way into My favor. 49:46 Jesus has already done that for you. 49:50 Jesus has torn down the wall of perdition and Christ is now 49:55 the propitiation of our faith. " And as I said last night 49:58 I love that word because propitiation is a big old, long 50:00 $25 word which simply means that God is leaning 50:04 in your direction. Amen! 50:07 So when you come to Him He's not standing back like 50:10 you've got AIDS or the plague. 50:11 He's already leaning towards you. Amen! 50:14 And Martin Luther stumbled on that or God led him to that. 50:18 And he found out for the first time in his life 50:21 that "the just shall live by faith. " SWEET! 50:32 And then he went to tell his brethren in the church of Rome 50:38 and he nailed his 95 conclusions to the door of the Catholic 50:42 church at Wittenberg... 50:45 and it all turned bitter. 50:50 And he was hounded for the rest of his relatively-short life. 50:56 That experience was repeated by Wycliffe and Tyndale 51:00 and Hus and Zwingli and the Cathari's and the Albigenses 51:04 and the... and the ... 51:10 and the Waldenses and the Huguenots 51:12 and the men of God. The truth of God and the truth of the 51:18 gospel is sweet, but the rejection of the church 51:24 and the world is bitter. 51:27 But it was necessary 51:31 for God to bring about a new reality that we call 51:33 the Protestant Reformation. Amen! 51:36 That "bitter in the belly" experience again the birth pangs 51:41 of a new thing that God was trying to do. 51:44 God was "resetting the pylons" 51:47 for a movement that would sweep away the darkness 51:50 of the Middle Ages 51:52 and bring in the new light of the old story 51:56 of Jesus and His love. And now three centuries later 52:01 in the days of the deadly wound when it is healed 52:04 the 2,300 day prophecy has ended. 52:07 And Daniel 12:4 shall speak. 52:11 Prophecy is unsealed. 52:15 Knowledge is increased and men are running to and fro. 52:19 And God brings about another reality... 52:22 another bitter/sweet experience 52:26 or sweet/bitter experience 52:29 because He's got one more movement, 52:34 one more - dare I say - "trick up His sleeve" 52:40 before Jesus comes again. 52:43 And He wants the decks cleared 52:46 and He wants His folk in the Word. 52:49 And He wants those now who will make this new movement 52:53 to be a people of the book 52:59 who will test everything and everyone 53:02 by the Word of God. 53:06 So He called men like Joseph Wolff in Europe. 53:09 Manuel de Lacunza, 53:11 Neal Joshua Josaphat Ben-Ezra in South America. 53:16 And William Miller in the United States and a couple dozen 53:20 other men and He gave them a truth 53:22 that after 2,300 days 53:26 the sanctuary would be cleansed 53:29 and that Christ would move His work from the Holy Place 53:32 to the Holy of Holies. 53:36 That is sweet! What a sweet eventuality. 53:41 Some sold their goods; some sold their possessions; 53:44 some quit their jobs and they waited for a Jesus 53:48 that never came. 53:51 The truth is He never said He would. 53:58 They had made a mistake. 54:00 They had gotten it wrong. 54:03 But it was a bitter/sweet experience. 54:09 Again it made for a Bible-based church: 54:13 a church based on the Word of God. 54:16 And let me say in closing: the Lord didn't let us wander 54:19 in the maze of confusion too long. 54:22 The next morning - the next morning - 54:26 Wednesday, October 23rd, 1844, 54:32 a couple of men had just come from prayer 54:34 and they were walking across a field 54:38 to go encourage some of the brethren: 54:40 Hiram Edson, O. R. L. Crosier. 54:45 And all of a sudden Hiram Edson stopped 54:48 and in his own words: "It was as though I could see 54:52 into the very gates of heaven. 54:55 I saw... I saw that Christ was moving 55:01 from the Holy Place 55:05 to the Most Holy Place 55:08 to begin the work of the pre-advent judgment. " 55:14 Amen! Now did they take the word 55:16 of this sincere former Methodist preacher? 55:20 Oh no! That night 55:23 Hiram Edson, Apollos Hale, O. R. L. Crosier, 55:29 and many others went back to the Word 55:36 beginning with Matthew 25 55:39 going through the entire New Testament: 55:42 just the Word, the concordance, and the Holy Spirit. 55:47 And God showed them in the Word 55:50 Christ is now in the antitypical Day of Atonement. 55:54 Amen! He is deciding the cases of every man, 55:58 woman, boy, or girl. And one day soon and very soon 56:02 He's going to put down that priestly robe 56:06 and He's going to put on His kingly robe. 56:10 And "This same Jesus 56:14 which you saw go into heaven 56:18 shall so come back in like manner 56:21 as you have seen Him go into heaven. " 56:24 Amen! This time not as a little baby. 56:27 Not as a suppliant. 56:30 Not as a beggar. 56:32 Not as one who is in any way encumbered 56:36 or hindered or affected by sin. 56:41 "And the dead in Christ will rise first" - 56:44 Amen - "then we which are alive and remain 56:49 shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air 56:58 and so... " I said: "and so... " Praise the Lord! 57:03 Amen! "and so... " Yes! Yes! 57:10 "and so shall we 57:16 ever... " 57:18 ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever 57:21 and ever... "be with the Lord. " Amen! 57:27 Amen? |
Revised 2019-12-28