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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Stephen Bohr

Michael Shall Stand Up

Father in heaven, we come before your throne today realizing that without divine help, we cannot understand your word.

I ask Lord that you will open our minds and hearts, that we might be willing to receive your word.

We are living in trying times, troubled times.

The final movements are certainly rapid ones.

We want to be ready for what will soon explode on the world scene.

So as we study this subject this morning and this afternoon we ask for the guides of your Holy Spirit.

And we thank you Father for hearing our prayer, for we ask it in the precious name of Jesus.

The title of the presentation this morning is Michael Shall Stand Up.

This afternoon I will present part 2, so I hope that everyone will be able to come back this afternoon so you have the complete picture of what we are going to study.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church holds some unique beliefs that as far as I know are not shared by any other Christian denomination.

1 of those beliefs is in the pre-advent investigative judgment during which Jesus examines the cases of all of those individuals who have professed the name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Adventists believe that when this investigative judgment is over that the kingdom of Jesus will have been made up, the kingdom of Jesus will be complete, And then 3 events will transpire once the judgment is over.

First of all, the close of human probation.

Secondly, coming after the close of probation, the time of trouble such as never has been seen in the history of the world.

And finally at the end of the time of trouble, the second coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory to rescue his people.

The view that human probation will close before the second coming of Jesus and that God's people will be here on this earth during the tribulation is another unique belief that Adventists hold.

In contrast, evangelical Christians believe that believers will be caught up in the rapture and will spend 7 years in heaven with Jesus and then when Jesus returns at his second coming they will come back to this earth with him.

So basically most Christians do not believe that they will go through the time of trouble or through the tribulation.

Now in our next 2 studies together we are going to study the sequence of events between the close of probation and the second coming of Jesus Christ.

We're going to take a look at 10 snapshots of the close of probation, the time of trouble, and the second coming of Christ.

Now someone might wonder how is it that we can take 10 different passages of Scripture and apply them all to the time of trouble.

The bottom line is folks that the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture and scripture is self-interpreting.

In other words, when we have passages in different parts of scripture that deal with the same theme, we have the right to link together those passages or those verses.

It's known as the principle of sola scriptura, the principle that the Bible interprets itself by comparing 1 text with another text.

So we're going to take a look at 10 different scenarios this morning as well as this afternoon snapshots of what happens between the close of probation and the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now we are going to take as our primary pattern the first example of this that we find in the Bible and that is the story of the flood.

Now I'm going to summarize some of the aspects of the story of the flood because we don't have time to study the entire scenario of Genesis chapter 6 through 9.

I'm just going to say that as we know for a hundred and 20 years Noah preached a judgment message and his message of course was accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit because God said my spirit shall not strive always with man.

So when Noah was preaching the Holy Spirit was striving with the antediluvian population as Noah preached.

As Noah preached decisions were made either in favor or against the Lord and when Noah finished preaching his message, his judgment hour message if you please, the world was divided into 2 groups.

As soon as Noah finished preaching his message, we find an event that is described in Genesis chapter 7 and verse 16.

If you go with me there, Genesis chapter 7 and verse 16.

Noah has finished his message, he stood at the door of the ark making a final call and now he goes into the ark and we find this event that is described in Genesis 7 16.

So speaking about the animals, those that entered male and female of all flesh went in as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in.

Human probation came to an end, But it did not start to rain as soon as the door closed.

There was a period between the closing of the door and when destruction came.

Started raining actually on the eighth day according to the Spirit of Prophecy but 7 full days passed between when the door closed and it began to rain.

During this period the faith of those that were inside the ark was severely tested.

Imagine, 1 day passes, no rain, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, 7 days, no rain.

Now Noah and his family believed that it was going to rain because God had said so, but it didn't look like it was going to rain, their faith was tested.

And the spirit of prophecy tells us in Patriarchs and Prophets that outside the ark for each day that passed the wicked became more and more violent, that's the word that she uses, violent.

God had to protect those whom he had shut in.

And so the faith of those inside the ark is tested and the attitude of those outside the ark becomes more and more violent during this period between the closing of the door and when it began to rain.

I want you to notice that between the closing of the door and the destruction there was a delay.

But then after 7 days the Bible tells us that the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the entire antediluvian world was destroyed except for the remnant that were inside the ark, they were saved, they were delivered if you please.

Now Jesus referred to this sequence of events in the Gospel of Matthew.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 24 and verses 37 to 39.

There's a very important little word in these verses, the word until, it is used twice in these verses.

It says there in Matthew 24 verse 37, but as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and now notice, until the day that Noah entered the ark.

So what point of time is marked by the first until?

And now notice what Jesus continues saying.

They did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

What didn't they know until the flood came and took them all away?

Is Jesus saying that there's going to be a period between the closing of the door and his second coming?

Yes, because the passage ends by saying, Jesus speaking, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

The door closes, there's a period of trouble for God's people, their faith is tested, the wicked become more and more violent, at the end of the delay comes the deliverance and the destruction of the wicked.

And Jesus said as it was so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus also described this as Him coming as a thief.

You know when we think about Jesus saying that he's coming as a thief we usually think that Jesus is speaking about the second coming but he's not.

When Jesus says that he's coming as a thief he's talking about the close of probation because the coming of the thief actually has 2 stages.

Well I want you to imagine a very cold day in December in Loma Linda.

I imagine at least it gets down into the 40s doesn't it?

Anyway it's a cold day unusual you work hard you come home you have a good supper sit down to watch the news you kinda go to sleep in your easy chair say man I'm gonna go to bed I'm so tired I'm so sleepy.

So you get you know you turn the thermostat down and you get under the covers and you're nice and warm.

And when you're laying there under the covers, you say, oh no, I forgot to lock the door.

Oh, I hate to get out from under these covers.

I've lived in this house for 25 years, and the thief has never come.

And so you stay under, you're not watching.

So what happens at midnight, when you sound asleep, the thief comes.

He goes and steals your iPhone, hallelujah.

He steals your television, a double hallelujah.

He steals any money that he finds around and the people in the house are unaware that the thief has come.

When do the people in the house discover that the thief came?

In the morning when they wake up, but then it is too late.

The coming of Jesus as a thief refers to the closing of probation.

After that, life will continue on this earth.

And most people in the world will be unaware that the thief has come.

In other words, that probation has closed.

When will they discover that probation is closed?

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Michael Shall Stand Up

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