Participants: John Bradshaw
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000065
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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. |
Revised 2014-12-17