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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

A Call to Revival

Dee Casper

Building a House for My Wife

Lord Jesus, I thank you for the privilege to pray, to come into your presence, and I'm just asking that what is shared this evening would make sense, that it could be done in the time allotted, and I pray that you would minister to each of our hearts today, and that we would better understand and anticipate the second coming of Christ, and also understand the privilege we have of the marriage covenant on earth.

So what I'd like to share with you this evening is that in a general sense, as Seventh-day Adventists have generally done, when we communicate the message of the Second Coming, it's kind of important to us, right?

It's actually built within the name, Seventh-day and then Adventists, people awaiting and anticipating the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And many times when we communicate the beauty of the second coming, what we're really doing in our presentations largely is communicating what the second coming isn't.

The second coming is not a secret rapture.

The second coming is not this or not that.

And while those statements are true, do we really need to focus on what it isn't at the expense of what it is.

And this is kind of 1 of my burdens because when I'm coming to find throughout my studies and some messages that have been helpful for me, the entire narrative of Scripture regarding the Second Coming has something in mind that actually would be appealing to the human heart and is endearing.

In the Old and the New Testament, a lot of the language surrounding the topic of the Second Coming actually has a wedding in mind.

Not just this like, he's coming, look, like you see the t-shirts, Jesus is coming, look busy.

There's something more important here than just a he's coming to settle the accounts and you better be good enough by then.

The narrative that's being woven throughout Scripture is actually the narrative of a wedding.

Jesus literally is coming again to claim His bride and to take her back with him to live with her forever.

This is actually the purpose of the second coming.

And it's amazing really when you think about it, because Jesus, when he came to earth, literally was willing to suffer and to die for you as his bride.

And if there's anything that guarantees that Jesus is coming a second time, it's what Jesus did the first time.

And if he's willing to pay that high of a price for something, you better believe he's coming back to collect that thing, right?

No 1 pays $10, 000 for something or $100, 000 for something and leaves the thing in the store.

I'm not gonna pay that high a price and leave this thing to sit for someone else to take off with.

I'm coming back to get what I paid for, and that's the purpose of the second coming.

He's coming back for you, because he paid for you.

He values you, and that's why he paid that price.

So I'd like to look at some Bible texts that tell this story, but I need to do this with purpose, because I've got a few things I need to cover this evening.

Whip out those iPhones, whip out your Bibles, whatever you've got, that's fine with me, except for Android.

Alright, Song of Solomon, chapter 8 and beginning of verse 6.

You know, whenever this was, whenever the canon of scripture was being determined, the canon is like how they made a final decision of what should be in the Bible and what shouldn't be in the Bible, which happened way early, by the way, not way later.

But anyway, when that happened, there was some debate about the Song of Solomon, because it just seems strange.

For 1, the name of God isn't fully mentioned in an obvious way.

It's kind of hard to wrap your mind around all of what's going on here.

It is alluded to in the original language, but there's just kind of this mystery, like it's hard to kind of find God in here for some folks.

And like Martin Luther, for instance, thought that's ridiculous, like this should not even be here, what on earth?

Like there's this marriage language, this courtship language, even this, like, intimacy language.

Like, why is that here was the question that some people had.

Thankfully, it's here because it's teaching an object lesson about God's pursuit of us.

It's not this strange love story that came out of nowhere.

This whole thing was meant to teach you something about the love of God for you and His pursuit of you.

So, in Song of Solomon, chapter 8, let's begin in verse 6.

This is the Shulamite, the woman who's being pursued, speaking to her beloved Solomon.

"...Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm." Right?

I want to be on your heart and on your mind, right?

For love is strong as death and jealousy as cruel as the grave, and its flames are a flame of fire, a most vehement flame." And what's that got to do with the price of fish, right?

I want to pick up the Andrew Study Bible's notes here on verse 6.

It's best translated literally, a flame of Yah, literally of Yahweh.

This expression reserved the thematic, is reserved for the thematic climax of the entire song.

This is the main point of this song, that this love, this jealous and cruel as the grave, that it won't give up, it's tenacious, and its flames are as the flames of fire, a most vehement flame, literally the very flame of Yahweh.

Love in its perfectly ideal environment and at its zenith is meant to teach us something about the love of God for us, the very love that God has for you and for me, we're told.

And so, this song reveals that Yahweh is the source of human love and thus provides the basis for this whole thing.

This verse is making the whole point that this pursuit, this courting, this wooing that's going on throughout the Song of Solomon is God showing us what his experience is like, that he's going through a process of pursuing and wooing and courting us, right?

But many of us, when we think of marriage, we think in the context of the marriages that we see around us.

Or when we think of love, we contextualize the love of God to the love that we experience, and that's a problem, because the love that we experience is weak.

We say, oh yeah, yeah, I love so-and-so, but I don't really like them, right?

Like, we throw this word around and we lose sight of the fact that when we think of love, when reading about the love of God in Scripture, we should be thinking of a perfectly selfless love, a love that is ideal.

And he's hoping that through the covenant of marriage there's things that we learn about His love by learning to live selflessly, right?

He's trying to teach us that lesson through here.

It says, there's kind of unique language here.

Just go to verse 10 and skip down halfway through the verse.

There's a lot of stuff I just don't have time to explain.

But it says that, Then I became in his eyes as 1 who found peace.

When she finally chooses to surrender, to give to this love, to give into this love, she finds peace.

The interesting thing is she's referred to as the Shulamite.

How many people have heard the word Shalom?

She literally has the female version of peace.

Solomon's name is also the female, or the male version, not female, the male version of peace.

And so peace and peace have come together.

And the whole point is that, and when this pursuit is consummated, when this pursuit is allowed for, there's a sense of an abiding peace that God wants to be in the human experience.

When love is experienced as He always intended, there's a great deal of peace that's meant to be brought into the heart of those pursuing this relationship.

God's using this type of typology to awaken us to the fact that there's, you're actually being pursued, right?

These things I'm telling you about in this allegory, in this poem, it's actually communicating how I feel about you.

When Solomon speaks to the Shulamite and pursues her and woos her, That's actually the way that I feel about you.

And when she responds and reciprocates, God thinks, I wish you would respond that way.

And he's trying to communicate to us that he's safe, that his pursuit is not something to be spurned or rejected." We see this language used again in Ezekiel chapter 16.

Why Adventism Matters

Sweet Jesus, thank you for this privilege to pray, to come into your presence, and to be at a place that feels like home.

I just pray that you would bless us now with your presence, with your peace, and that you would reason with us this morning on why this movement matters, and that you would speak clearly in a way that all of us can understand and retain.

And I ask this now, Lord, in Jesus' name.

So in the sanctuary service there were 2 main things that took place, 2 main events.

There were the daily occurrences and the yearly occurrences, the daily services and the yearly service.

The daily service in the sanctuary economy involves sin being transferred into the sanctuary, right?

When you sinned, you had to confess your sin, and you had to kill the animal yourself, and the priest transferred that blood on your behalf into the sanctuary, and you could leave that sanctuary gate forgiven.

This is where Jesus's ministry is represented as a lamb.

Jesus is referred to by John, I believe in John chapter 1 in verse 29, "'Behold the Lamb of God "'who takes away the sin of the world.'" And, but he also serves the role of the priest.

So the sanctuary service in the Old Testament was not something that God just thought, how do I keep these people busy so they don't kill themselves or do something stupid?

The whole point of the sanctuary service was to teach them about the upcoming ministry of Jesus.

And Jesus not only fills the role of the Lamb, He also served as our priest, as a mediator, someone on our behalf.

So that priest was the 1 who transferred the sin into the sanctuary on your behalf and ministered for you.

Jesus actually filled both of these roles.

The yearly service on the Day of Atonement was a transference of that sin out of the sanctuary.

All the record that had kind of come in there for the first 359 days of the year, their calendar is 360, they would transfer that sin out of the sanctuary and no record would remain there on the Day of Atonement.

This is the second phase of atonement and where Jesus's priestly ministry is necessary.

And we'll cover more of this here in a moment.

But these are the 2 main ministry services that happen in the sanctuary.

The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment.

We as the Seventh-day Adventist Movement believe in the Investigative Judgment and its background is from the Day of Atonement.

Some may wonder, is this teaching even in the Bible?

Is this just something that your church founders believe or is this actually in the scriptures?

I'm just going to give some brief references on places where the investigative judgment is alluded to in scripture.

In Exodus chapter 25 verses 9 and 40, we're told that the sanctuary on earth was based upon a pattern in heaven.

These are gonna be rapid fire references, maybe you just wanna write down the reference, and I'm gonna leave my slides with Ryan and Christy to ensure that you guys can have access to them because there's more I need to do than I had time to do.

But the first, the point is the sanctuary that was made on earth was based upon a pattern of the heavenly sanctuary.

Leviticus chapter 16 explains the day of atonement, which was the type that explained what's happening in the investigative judgment.

Daniel chapter 7 and verse 10, there's alluded to, you have like the Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the division of Rome, you have the second coming that are alluded to in the beasts of Revelation in Daniel 7.

But after that situation, we see just before the second coming that the books are open and a court is seated.

There's this allusion to the fact that there's a judgment that takes place just before the second coming of Jesus.

In Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14, we're told that under 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary will be cleansed.

And to a Hebrew mind, when you heard of a cleansing of a sanctuary, the immediate thought that came into their mind was judgment, because that's what happened on the Day of Atonement.

So this is alluded to in Daniel 8 and verse 14.

In Daniel chapter 9, we're told when the 70 weeks and the 2, 300 days begin, 2 time prophecies that merge together to explain what we believe in that movement.

And then in Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 to 5, we're told that Jesus is a minister of a true tabernacle in heaven, and that the earthly temple is a copy or a shadow of this 1.

So there's actually a sanctuary in heaven.

Jesus is the minister of this, we're told in the book of Hebrews, which makes sense that the sanctuary that was made on earth was made after a pattern.

That's where the original source was, in heaven.

Hebrews chapter 9 tells us that Christ is cleansing the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood.

Hebrews 9 11 and also 23 to 24, it's alluded to here as well.

Then in Revelation chapter 10, there's this experience of John is walking through experientially what the Advent movement is going to deal with.

A tremendous, heartbreaking disappointment.

This is actually a prophesied in Revelation.

So sometimes there's this belief that Seventh-day Adventists believed that Jesus was coming in 1844, which first of all isn't true.

The Seventh Adventist Church didn't even exist yet.

So it was actually Baptists, Methodists, and other Protestant denominations who were believing that Jesus was coming very soon.

But that disappointment, People think that they were all wrong, they were dead wrong, because obviously Jesus didn't come.

But the unique and awesome thing is, this very event was prophesied in the book of Revelation, chapter 10.

This was foretold long before, and had they known that this is what was going to happen, they wouldn't be disappointed, right?

They came to find this out through further study, Revelation chapter 10.

Revelation chapter 11 verses 18 and 19 talk about the dead being judged and the Ark of the Covenant being seen in the heavenly sanctuary.

The Ark of the Covenant was the main piece of furniture that was used on the Day of Atonement that was the the piece of focus on the Day of Atonement.

Talking about a judgment and an Ark being seen.

Revelation chapter 14 verses 6 and 7, we're told that the the first angel saying to fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.

There's a current judgment taking place soon before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Revelation chapter 15 talks about a close of probation through whenever the cleansing of the sanctuary has basically finished.

And then lastly, in Revelation chapter 22, verses 11 and 12, there's this point in time in which those who have chosen to walk in righteousness will remain righteous.

Those who've chosen to walk in rebellion will remain in rebellion.

I know this is a really fast overview, forgive me for time's sake, I can't do all of what needs to be done, but this is just kind of some text in Scripture that allude to the events of the investigative judgment that we're seeing it from all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

But here's the point, even though your sins needed to be in the sanctuary on the Day of Atonement to ensure that you could be right with God when that Day of Judgment was happening, it was very important to a Hebrew to afflict their soul and to ensure that their hearts were right before God on the Day of Atonement, that their sin had been found in the sanctuary.

But the beautiful thing is, there was a morning and an evening sacrifice that was offered every day throughout the year, including the Day of Atonement.

And this service was meant to cover the sins of the people that they did not know they had committed.

And so when you committed a sin that you knew needed to be dealt with, you were the 1 that took the walk of shame from your tent all the way through.

I mean just imagine you leave your tent, you have an animal with you, and you're going towards a tabernacle.

What do you think everyone in town is thinking?

But if there were things that you did not know that you had committed, there was actually provision made for this, right?

You did not understand that you had done something in the morning and the evening sacrifice.

And this even takes place on the day of atonement.

So some people are really spooked by the teaching of the investigative judgment, because they feel like, ah, I don't stand a chance, like what are those things I don't know about?

God made provision for this, and that even took place on that day.

This is a quote from 1 of our scholars, The daily services at the tabernacle went on every day of the year without cessation, even on the weekly Sabbath as well as during the pilgrim feasts.

By God's specific command, the Tamid was never to be omitted.

The sacrifices connected with these festive days were presented in addition.

This was also true of the Day of Atonement.

The constant morning and evening services embraced the special ceremonies of the day like 2 loving arms.

So there were these 2 loving arms of mercy at the beginning of the day and the end of the day that embraced the people.

The daily was thus the very foundation of the entire sacrificial system, and nothing was permitted to interfere with it.

It pointed directly to the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it would be as sensible to omit the daily from the worship of Israel as it would to take the cross from that of Christians.

The liturgy of the morning was repeated in the evening." This still happened all throughout that time.

Now this is where we, this is just kind of a preface to where we're going this morning, But this is where our view of the Atonement and the Sanctuary sets us apart as a movement from many other Protestants.

Our understanding of a two-phased Atonement.

We'll explain why this needs to exist in a moment.

But the investigative judgment, what's basically taking place during that time is the books of life are being investigated to know who's chosen Christ, who has not chosen Christ, and to make those records clear.

Once this has taken place and finished, then of the record of the dead, then there has to be an investigation into the living before Jesus can come.

And when that time of transition takes place, it's kind of a big deal, right?

Our sins need to be in the sanctuary once that takes place.

But the investigative judgment is not just something that's happening in that sense.

It's not just Jesus cleansing the heavenly sanctuary, it's also a time in which the same high priest is sanctifying you to ensure that you can stand during that time while you're living.

When You Lose Your First Love

Sweet Jesus, thank you for this privilege to pray, to be able to come into your presence.

And I just ask that you would bless us 1 more time today, Lord, with a message that is relevant, that is pertinent to the needs in this room.

And I just pray for an extra special measure of your wisdom and your discernment as I tell the story of your faithfulness on my behalf.

So this afternoon's message again is entitled, When You Lose your first love.

What I'd like to do is just kind of give a reality check.

When we say yes to Jesus and embark upon the Christian journey, there's a warfare that we're engaging in.

We live on a battlefield and it's not always easy.

And there can be times when we make these decisions for Christ that Satan comes against us in ways that we weren't expecting.

He kind of lays us out on the mat and it just it slows us down.

It can even cripple us and it's hard to know what to do and how to move forward.

We can have these moments of difficulty in times when our experience gets dry, and in those moments we can be tempted to make compromises, to spend less time with God, and to sacrifice our beliefs for acceptance or relief.

We can find ourselves maybe watering down our experience, not standing so firmly because we just want to break, right?

We're tired of getting beat up, we're tired of being persecuted, tired of going through difficulty, and we don't want to keep fighting this fight anymore.

Satan, I believe that Satan, if he cannot get you, I talked about this earlier this morning, that if he can't deceive you, he'll discourage you.

I believe that 1 of his favorite tools is to press you and to wear you out slowly.

Some of us think that he's just 1 of these quick jab boxers.

He's willing to wear you down, and when this happens, we can end up making concessions if we're not careful.

So, I'd like to just cover some brief examples of church history, and then kind of move into my story, because I'm going to tell it differently, this message, than I normally do, just because of the significance of being in Loma Linda.

So in Revelation chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, we as Seventh-day Adventists take the belief of interpreting end-time prophecy through the lens of historicism.

We believe that things are unfolding in a historical sense, not everything's in the future or everything was in the past.

And in Revelation chapter 2, in the 7 churches, each 1 of these churches is representing a generation, not a specific generation, but a time period throughout church history, from the first century church, Revelation 2 verse 1, all the way until the current-day church, Revelation chapter 3, and in the Church of Laodicea.

So in Revelation chapter 2 beginning of verse 1, listen to this, "...to the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These sayings says he who holds the 7 stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the 7 golden lampstands." And then he says, "...I know your..." What?

"...I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and that you've tested those who say that they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary.

Verse 4, nevertheless I have this against you that you've left your first love.

Verse 5, remember therefore from where you have fallen and do what?

Repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place again unless you repent.

Wait a minute, but I thought that they have works, because he saw their works, but then he says go back and do the first works.

In Galatians, we're told that it's a faith that works by love, right?

This is the kind of the premise that God is looking for in our experience, but the first century church went through a great deal of persecution and difficulty, and somehow along the way, they lost their first love.

And so it went from a faith that works by love to just work.

And that can happen inside of the faith movements, yeah?

We can shift from this faith that works by love to just work, still doing stuff, but our hearts aren't in it in the same way.

It's not that love for Jesus that fuels the work, it's just I probably ought to, right?

The English Study Bible comments on verse 4 in this way.

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Series

A Call to Revival

When You Lose Your First Love

Transcript

Parent Series

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Recorded

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Personal Testimony: From Islam To Adventism

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