General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 59th Session

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General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Ted N.C. Wilson

Go Forward

Brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning.

And what a privilege it is to worship together today on this last Sabbath morning of the 59th General Conference session.

Young people, older people, women, men, children, all together as God's family.

We're grateful for the many things that God has done in leading His church this past week.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, my brothers and sisters, is on a heaven-directed journey, and we are almost home.

I believe with all my heart that Jesus is coming soon.

Called Ochinida, Yesu Jailay, Yesu Jeldi Aiga, Si Jesus Ay Malapit Nang Dumiting, Ha Ana Ati Serian, Yasus Kompt Balt, and in so many other languages of the world.

I appreciate the wonderful spirit and the enthusiasm of our worldwide family of faith.

And while we are all proud of our respective nations and cultures, I praise the Lord that there is a culture of Christ that binds us together and supersedes all others.

In that spirit, I humbly ask for your prayers that the message I share today is heard clearly and that the messenger will not be lifted up.

To that end, I am kindly requesting that if there is a point within this sermon with which you agree, please respond with a heartfelt amen instead of applause.

Thank you for your help in keeping the message, and not the messenger, in the center of our time together as we study God's Word.

The signs of Christ's coming are increasing in frequency and intensity every day.

Destructive events in nature, the great confusion of world politics, the pervasive and compromising activities of ecumenism, the dramatic increase and influence of spiritualism, the deterioration of world economies, the disintegration of societal and family values, the disbelief in the absolute authority of God's Word and the 10 Commandments, rampant crime and moral decay, wars and rumors of wars and on and on and on, all point unmistakably to the climax of Earth's history and the Lord's return to take us on the final journey to heaven.

What a tremendous blessing to know that even amidst the uncertainty of the world around us that we can rest with absolute confidence on the unchanging Word of God.

Throughout the course of human history and against relentless satanic attack, God has preserved his holy word.

The Bible contains an accurate account of our origins, a reliable record of our salvation, beautifully expressed in that beautiful song, a glorious glimpse of our soon-coming deliverance.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we accept the Bible as the foundation for all our beliefs and see in it, in its pages, our unique prophetic identity and mission.

With the power of His truth, God has carved out of this chaotic world the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

We are to be a peculiar people, God's remnant people, to lift up Christ, His righteousness, His 3 angels' messages of Revelation 14, and His soon second coming.

As Bible-believing Christians living in the last days of Earth's history, we are to be what the Apostle Paul calls a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous lights.

As God's remnant people identified in Revelation 12, 17, as those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, we have a unique message of hope and a mandate to proclaim God's grace to the world.

In the seventh volume of the testimonies, we read, Seventh-day Adventists have been chosen by God as a peculiar people, separate from the world.

He has made them his representatives and has called them to be ambassadors for him in the last work of salvation.

1 of the identifying characteristics of God's last day people is the fact that the members of His Church accept and believe all 10 of God's commandments, including the Fourth Commandment, which calls us to remember the Lord's holy Sabbath day.

The observance of the Sabbath is not only a sign of His creatorship in the beginning, but will be the sign of God's people in the last days in contrast to those with the mark of the beast, representing an attempt to keep holy a day which God has not set apart as holy.

The Sabbath and its significance relates to each of the 3 angels' messages in Revelation 14.

The first angel, having the everlasting gospel, the righteousness of Christ, proclaims, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

God is the creator and is to be worshiped on his Sabbath day as a sign of loyalty to his word and creative power.

The second angel in verse 8 proclaims, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

She has corrupted God's commandments and instituted another day of worship other than the seventh day Sabbath, which is the only true mark of God's creatorship.

The third angel announces in verses 9 through 12 that if anyone worships the beast and his image, He or she will be tormented or destroyed with fire and brimstone.

If you worship the beast and his image, you are rejecting the 1 sign God has proclaimed as His test of allegiance—the seventh-day Sabbath.

The third angel closes his proclamation in verse 12 by identifying God's people as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

We rely wholly on Jesus and our relationship with him for our salvation.

We do not obtain salvation through works, but through the grace of Christ that we proclaim.

Grace is the promise of God's pardon, the provision of God's power, justification and sanctification.

You cannot separate what Christ does for you, justifying you daily as if you had not sinned, from what He does in you, sanctifying you daily as you submit to Him and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to change your life to become more and more like Jesus.

This is the everlasting gospel spoken about in the first angel's message.

This is why Seventh-day Adventists should be the most powerful voices in proclaiming God's grace.

The great controversy theme is all about God's grace to save sinners and through his power to transform them into his sons and daughters.

Faithful witnesses proclaiming the 3 angels messages with Holy Spirit zeal through a living connection with Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

The atoning blood of Jesus Christ on the cross and the atoning ministry of Jesus Christ in the heavenly sanctuary have but 1 purpose, the salvation of every repentant sinner.

Thus, through His atoning sacrifice and high priestly ministry, we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may find and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

It is this marvelous, powerful, redeeming grace we have been called to proclaim to a sin-sick world.

Furthermore, only a genuine realization of the depths of God's grace can remove all ground for the opposite extremes of either self- indulgence or self-reliance.

I hope each of you has a copy of that book and you read those 13 beautiful chapters.

That book explains, We have no ground for self-exaltation.

Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us justification, and that wrought by His Spirit working in and through us, sanctification.

Read those wonderful pages surrounding this quotation for a clear view of righteousness by faith.

Now, getting back to Revelation chapter 12, verse 17, and another distinguishing mark of God's remnant people.

We read that they will have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 19, verse 10, tells us that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The same spirit that moved the holy men of old has again in these last days raised up a messenger for the Lord.

My brothers and sisters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Lord has given us 1 of the greatest gifts possible in the writings of the spirit of prophecy.

Just as the Bible is not outdated or irrelevant, neither is the testimony of God's end time messenger.

White as a humble servant to provide inspired insight about scripture, prophecy, health, education, relationships, mission, families, and so many more topics.

Let us read the Spirit of Prophecy, follow the Spirit of Prophecy, and share the Spirit of Prophecy.

There are so many wonderful books to share, including the 1 book Ellen White indicated she wished distributed more than any other, the Great Controversy.

Thank the Lord for the religious freedom in this and other countries that allows us to share truth.

The spirit of prophecy is 1 of the identifying marks of God's last day remnant people and is just as applicable today as ever before because it was given to us by heaven itself.

As God's faithful remnant, may we never make of none effect the precious light given us in the writings of L.

When we use that term Remnant Church or Remnant People, We must never use it in a self-centered, exclusive manner.

We are to be the humblest people on earth, recognizing our complete need of our Savior Jesus Christ and praising him for calling us into this mighty Advent movement.

This Advent movement is made up of humble, simple people.

Many of God's people are educated, disciplined, savvy, but yet we are to be simple people.

Our Savior spoke with us astonishing authority, yet was humble enough to be appealing to the worst of sinners.

This church is not just another denomination.

It is a unique heaven-initiated movement with an everlasting evangelistic mission of salvation to the world that must continually go forward in the humility of Jesus.

The world needs to hear the message of Christ from a people who are Christ-like.

When we are transformed by His grace, we will preach, teach, and witness to the straight message from the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy in a humble, loving, winsome manner.

When we, in all humility, lean completely on the everlasting arms of our Lord, He will work through us in a mighty way to give the final message of mercy to a dying world.

Our success in finishing this work depends on our submissiveness to the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

It depends on humbling ourselves before our Creator and denying self so that Jesus can control us and overcome sin.

It depends on whether or not we are ready to humbly ask for revival and reformation in our lives personally and corporately as a church, which will lead to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter reign.

Ellen White records a vision in Testimonies, Volume 8, entitled, What Might Have Been.

She saw that God wanted to do 2 great things at the General Conference session of 1901.

The first thing, reorganize the church structure, which did happen, giving us much of the structure that we have today.

And secondly, the great second provision that God wished to provide, to provide the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which brothers and sisters, did not happen.

Because there was unbelief within the church and God's leaders and people did not humble themselves before God.

The church missed the opportunity of receiving the latter rain.

Let us not make God wait any longer to begin the latter reign so that Jesus can come.

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