Hartland Summer Conference 2021: Revelation's Cosmic Conflict

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Dee Casper

07 In Verity

I'd like to begin with a word of prayer and then we'll close with our eighth and final presentation on the 3 Angels' Messages, giving a bit of a recap and a call to action.

I'm going to kneel and invite you to bow your heads.

Sweet Jesus, thank you that you have been so, so faithful to us as we've been looking through the topic of the 3 Angels' messages in the context of Revelation's cosmic conflict.

And we're so thankful for the fact through what we heard last night that Jesus wins, that the battle has been won, that the dragon has been cast down, and that he has but a short time to continue in his wily ways.

But as we reflect upon the big picture of the 3 and a half messages today, I pray that you would bless us with clarity, reminding us of key points that we've heard throughout this week, and giving us a call to action on how to make this message our own.

So, There's a quote, and we're going to read this quote here in just a moment, from Ella White, talking about how the third angel's message is indeed the message of justification by faith in verity.

But the more that I've studied, the more I'm convinced that the first, second, and third angels' message preach the message of justification by faith in verity.

And so I am going to be kind of highlighting that.

We'll see some recaps of some points we made throughout this week, and then we'll make a close here.

But Revelation 12 reveals the remnants, and Revelation 14 shares the message and mission of that remnant, and so we need to have a clear understanding of our marching order, so I just want to kind of give us, again, a recap of the highlights that we've had over the course of this week.

Some of our brethren have expressed fears that we dwell too much upon the subject of justification by faith, but I hope and pray that none will needlessly be needlessly alarmed.

There is no danger in presenting this doctrine as is set forth in the Scriptures, And if there had not been a remissness, a lack in the past, to properly instruct the people of God, there would not now be a necessity of calling special attention to it.

Now, maybe you've heard people today that say, well, that's not present truth, or they're not talking about what's most important, and that's, it's unfortunate that we make really judgmental statements like that, by the way, when people are laboring over messages and presenting them before the people of God, and then they get, you know, flack from the brethren because they don't think it was present truth-y enough.

That's, yeah, it's very subjective opinion, largely.

But Ellen White dealt with this in her day.

People were saying, what these guys, Jones and Wagner, are preaching about lifting up the gospel, That's not what the world needs in the closing, end-time, present-truth message.

You're dwelling too much on that, they said.

And she says there is no reason to be concerned about that.

This needs to be brought before our people.

And had we not been lacking in making this emphasis in our message up until now, we wouldn't be making an even greater emphasis of it at this stage.

It would be a steady emphasis the entire time.

But notice, there is never not to be an emphasis of the message of justification by faith.

I think this is very important for us to wrap our minds around this because that was a big issue going into the 1888 General Conference was the law in Galatians was a topic that was deeply debated.

And Jones and Wagner had their perspective on what it was.

It was speaking of the moral law, the schoolmaster, the tutor to lead us to Christ and law in Galatians.

Butler and Uriah Smith were vehemently opposed to that and said, no, it's talking about the ceremonial law.

Because if you take that away from us, if you don't, if you say that the moral law is part of that schoolmaster, you're taking away 1 of our favorite arguments against people who don't agree with us on the Sabbath.

So they were afraid of losing 1 of their prized possessions on arguing with people instead of embracing what God was trying to show us as a movement.

It is speaking of both, but mostly about the moral law.

But anyway, so there were a lot of political issues going on that led to the rejection of the 1888 message that wasn't just that.

She says, The exceeding great and precious promises given us in the Holy Scriptures have been lost sight of to a great extent, just as the enemy of all righteousness designed that they should be.

He has cast his own dark shadow between us and our God that we may not see the true character of God, which is why it's so important for us as Seventh-day Adventists to be highlighting the true character of God in everything that we share.

The Lord has proclaimed himself to be merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.

Then she says, several have written to me inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angels message.

They were saying, is this really that big a deal?

We're not really preaching the 3 angels messages when we're talking about the gospel all the time So they ask her is this really something we should focus on is the real question they're asking but it was specific Is this the third angels message and her response was I?

And I've answered it is the third angels message in Verity it is Absolutely the third angels message, But I'm fully convinced that if someone had asked her, is the message of justification by faith the first angel's message, she would say, in verity.

And if she had asked, is the second angel's message, is justification by faith fitting into the second angel's message, she would also say, inverity.

All 3 messages are highlighting this gospel Proclamation.

So let's go back and do a bit of a summary of what we covered this week.

Not everyone has been here in all those messages.

So if you were to do a poll of most Seventh-day Adventists today and you were to ask them what the first angel's message is, the majority answer you would receive is, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come.

And I would protest and say that is an incorrect answer because the first angel's message begins with the everlasting gospel to go to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, and the charge to fear God and give glory to Him is the call to action.

It's the appeal of that everlasting gospel sermon.

You wouldn't go up to somebody in a street corner and say, fear God and give glory to Him.

The response is gonna be, that person's weird, and second of all, who's God that I should care?

But if you lift before the world a suffering Messiah in the everlasting gospel, that will lead somebody to fear God and to give glory to Him and to be able to live a life that honors Him in the midst of the judgment.

So we have to make sure that we're getting our perspective correct here.

I've already kind of jumped into some of this message already, the first angel's message, you see it there.

So and when we give that answer, that it's just fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come, we miss 2 super important components of the first angel's message.

The Sabbath is also laid out in the first angel's message where it says, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.

That's a direct quote from the Sabbath commandment and it's there for a reason.

1 of our calls as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as we believe a movement, a prophetic movement of destiny, is to awaken the world to the beauty and to the blessing of the seventh-day Sabbath." So that's another thing that we need to be lifting before the world.

And when we give that very simplified answer, though it's true that's a component of the first angel's message, it would not be incorrect to say that that is the first angel's message.

It was very helpful for me to kind of contextualize what this everlasting gospel should entail.

It says, The message proclaimed by the angel flying in the midst of heaven, speaking Revelation 14, 6 and 7, particularly 6, is the everlasting gospel.

And then she says, the same gospel that was declared in Eden when God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.

So what gospel was preached in the Garden of Eden?

That the promised Messiah, the promised seed of Eve, would crush the serpent's head, but what would happen to him in the process?

He will suffer as he overcomes the serpent.

Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse 14, that this gospel will go into all the world as a witness and then the end will come Well, what gospel was Jesus because he says this gospel the 1 that he's preaching.

You're supposed to kick the Romans out of here, and we're supposed to sit on the throne next to you on the right and on the left.

When James and John come up to Jesus and they say, Lord, we want you to give us whatever we ask.

He says, well, what is it that you're looking for?

And they say, we want to sit, each of us, 1 at your right and 1 at your left in your glory.

Does anyone remember what that response is?

He says, you don't know what you're asking.

And boy, did they not know what they were asking.

Because what they were really asking was to be crucified with Jesus on the right and on the left.

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07 In Verity

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