The Coming Messiah

[music][music][music][music][music][music][music][music][music][music]I now realize what brother Ernie wasdoing was walking around with hiscamera.[clears throat]I'm never going to talk openly in hispresence ever again.Wasn't that a beautiful video?>> Yeah. Precious memories. You know, we'vebeen through a lot in the last twoweeks. Yes. And uh for the the churchleaders and the congregation here inKihei, um they've been planning this forabout a year.

They've been praying overthis. And uh for those of us who come tothe meetings or flying to speak in thesemeetings, we're just here for the veryfinal few chap few moments of thisprocess. Uh but God has been at work ina beautiful way out here. And I just saypraise God for every member of the Ki hehad in his church. We've always hadpeople here from Lahina um fromKalahoui.

Is that how you pronounce it?Kalahooi.Uh my wife keeps correcting me on mypronunciations.So um anyway, from the big church downthe road and um so it's been a greateffort and I just want to say thank youto those who came in from othercongregations to support what washappening. You know, we're all part ofthe same team. We're all seeking savesouls for Jesus Christ and it's justbeen great to see the island pulledtogether in this way. So, uh, tonight isour last time together and it's kind ofbittersweet for me. I've really beenblessed with my wife by our time here inMaui and um, you know, it's I have anice job where I get paid to go and flyplaces and talk.

It's kind of nice. Allright. Sometimes the places are not sonice as Maui, but here it's been anabsolute blessing. So, um I'm going tospeak with the pastor Villy about thisand see if we can come back next year orthe year after. Um uh see how that worksout.

But, um I want to encourage youthis isn't the end of anything that Godis going to write the next chapter hereon Maui. And if we all work together andwe pull together um as I said thismorning, there was about a 25% increasein the in the um the membership of Kihi.Um there was about a 30% reduction inthe average age of the membership inKihi today and next year if we go toKalahul Cahului Kalahoo or Kahului it'sone or the other um next year or theyear after let's pray for a 25 or 30%growth there as well that we maybe gofrom 300 to 400 something like that youknow when we set faith goals and we worktowards them it's amazing what God doesfor us. So uh tonight I'm going to speakabout the second coming of Jesus. Um weare seventh day Adventists and maybe oneof the joys in life is announcing thecoming of Jesus and because it really isthe only hope for humanity. And so I'mgoing to talk about the coming Messiahand this this topic brings me great joybecause I've traveled to many parts ofthe world and wherever I go in the worldI generally see a lot of suffering.

Iused to work for the AdventistDevelopment Relief Agency and for about10 years I floated around the worlddoing disaster response work. Um, sixweeks here, three months there, six sixmonths over there. I saw a lot of thingsuh tsunami disasters, earthquakes,famines in Ethiopia and so forth. I sawa lot of human suffering wherever Iwent. And so in my heart there's beenthis desire for Jesus to come againbecause when Jesus comes again, it's notjust that he comes in the clouds ofglory.

is all human suffering comes toan end in that moment. No more humansuffering, no more animal suffering, nomore suffering anywhere on planet earthwhen Jesus comes again. He's callingtime on all pain and suffering anddisease and sorrow and death. And so Ican't wait for Jesus to come again. Souh talking about his second coming isone of the joys of my life.

So uh thisis going to be our journey here thisevening. I'm going to start out with thefirst coming of Jesus and um just makesure this is all switched off here. UhI'm going to talk about the first comingof Jesus, then the announced coming ofJesus, then the second coming of Jesus,and um each each of these sections as alittle format we're going to work ourway through. Um you're going to see itas we go through, but this really isgood news. It really is the best news intown that there is a savior and he'scoming back for his children.

And so aswe begin, I invite you to bow your headswith me and we invite the presence ofthe Holy Spirit. Our dear heavenlyfather, uh we thank you for theblessings of this evening, of these lasttwo weeks. Father, we thank you for thephysical food. We thank you for thefriendship, for the fellowship, and thespiritual food as well. Father, we thankyou that today on on the in the Sea ofMaui that more precious souls give theygave their life to you.

We thank youLord for Sister Judy and her professionof faith in the church this morning andI thank you father for the growth of thecommunity disciples here in Kihei.Father as we spend these last momentstogether now may your holy spirit speakthrough me and for me. Uh may the wordsI say be what this audience andcongregation needs to hear. Lord whisperinto each heart that is um bowed heretonight. This is the way. Walk ye in it.So father thank you for hearing thisprayer in Jesus name I ask.

Amen. So,um, this is going to be our journeytonight. Let's start out with the firstcoming of Christ. And we're going tolook at, um, before Christ came, therewas a forerunner, someone who came toannounce the coming of Christ. In actualfact, in each of these comeings ofJesus, there is an individual or amovement called to announce the comingof Jesus to the world.

And so, we findone of the first hints of this person toannounce the coming of the Messiah, thefirst time in Malachi chapter 3. And aswe read there in the Old Testament, thisis the last book of the Old Testament.It says, "Behold, I'm sending my what?Messenger to prepare the way before me.And the Lord whom you seek will suddenlycome to his temple, the messenger of thecovenant in whom you delight. Indeed, heis coming, saith the Lord of hosts." Andso, this was a prophecy given. It's thelast prophecy in the Old Testament, butit points forward to the time where Godwould send someone or would raise anindividual to announce the coming of theMessiah. Isaiah 14:3 has a similarpassage.

It says, "A voice cries out inthe wilderness, prepare the way of theLord, make straight in the desert ahighway for our God."And so God's purpose was that when theJewish people returned from theirBabylonian exile, God's people wouldprepare the world for the coming of theMessiah. This would involve internalcharacter transformation on the part ofGod's people and also involve theproclamation that the Messiah is comingto every nation, tribe, language, andpeople. And what was the fulfillment ofthis? Who was the forerunner of Jesus?It was actually John the Baptist. Itsays, 'In those days, John the Baptistappeared in the wilderness of Judea,proclaiming, repent, for the kingdom ofGod has come near.

And then it quotesback to Isaiah chapter um 40 says, "Thisis the one of whom the prophet Isaiahspoke when he said, the voice of onecrying out in the wilderness, preparethe way of the Lord and make his pathstraight." You know, I really like thecharacter John the Baptist. He has adiet of locust and wild honey. Yes, readthat in the Bible. When I was withAdventist Frontier Missions, we hadstudent missionaries going off toThailand. It was kind of like a ritual.In their first week, they go to thenight markets in Bangkok.

Anybody herebeen to the night markets in Bangkok?All right. Um, it has as many smells asit has sights. I can assure you. And oneof they have things there. They selllike roasted house flies on bananaleaves.

Apparently, it's crunchy, butit's not clean food. So, if you've beenbaptized today, no roasted house fliesfor you. But um one of the things thestudent missionaries always eat is theyget the um the the grasshoppers and thelocusts and then they take these thesethe big grins on their faces. They takepictures and post them on social media.And sometimes you see the leg of alocust sticking out between their teeththat quite all of it hasn't gone downthe proper hole, you might say. And sothese young people, they say, "John theBaptist had a diet of locust and wildhoney.

We're going to try it forourselves." Um, actually, locusts andwild and grasshoppers are technicallyclean meat. I wouldn't encourage anybodyto be eating it tonight. Um, and itwasn't in your burger, just in case youwere wondering. So, John the Baptistcomes as a fulfillment of the prophecyof Malachi 3 and Isaiah chapter 40. Andagain, the pro the gospel writer Mark,he also identifies the forerunner of theMessiah as being John the Baptist.

Andspeaking about John the Baptist, Marksays, "As it is written in the prophetIsaiah, see your behold, I'm sending mymessenger ahead of you who will prepareyour way, the voice of one crying in thewilderness, prepare the way of the Lordand make his path straight." And whenJohn the Baptist came and he announcedthe coming of the Messiah, um, he didn'tbeat about the bush. What I love aboutJohn the Baptist is he didn't waste timeon extraneous fluff. He got straight tothe point because why? Because souls areprecious and time is short. And so hegot straight to the point.

We read thereand it says, "And people from the wholeJudeian countryside and all the peopleof Jerusalem were going out to him andwere baptized by him in the river Jordanconfessing their sins." Now John wasclothed with camel<unk>s hair with aleather belt around his waist. He atewhat and wild honey? Locust and wildhoney. And he proclaimed, "The one whois more powerful than I is coming afterme. I'm not worthy to stoop down anduntie the thong of his sandals.

I havebaptized you with water, but he willbaptize you with the Holy Spirit." SoJohn the Baptist, he had a baptism justof repentance of sins. But it wasn't thebaptism of the Holy Spirit. We find thatlater on in the New Testament. And sowhen I was in Turkey once, some Muslimscame to me and said, "We want to bebaptized." I thought, "Great." Theysaid, 'But we want the baptism of Johnthat we just want repentance for oursins. I said, 'I'm a Christian pastor.I'll baptize you as Jesus commanded usin the name of the Father, Son, and HolySpirit.

And they said, "No, we don'twant the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.We just want a baptism of repentance forsins." So, I never baptized um thatgroup of Muslims because we've moved onfrom John the Baptist now. So, not onlywas there um a forerunner, one who wasto announce the coming of of theMessiah, but there were also keyprophecies in the Old Testament thatspoke about the coming Messiah. Andthere are dozens of these throughout theOld Testament, but I've just pulled outa few here. They're kind of interesting.In Genesis 3:15, there was the promisethat the seed of the woman would becomethe savior of mankind. And we find thatthe fulfillment of that in the life ofJesus.

And Galatians 4:4-5says, "When the fullness of time hadcome, God sent his son, born of a woman,born under the law, in order to redeemthose who are under the law, so that wemight receive adoption as children." Weread in Genesis 12:3, that the Messiahwould be a descendant of Abraham. And ifyou look in the Gospel of Matthew, thevery first chapter is a long genealogyof the family line of Jesus. And itstarts out with, as you see on thescreen, an account of the genealogy ofJesus the Messiah, the son of David, theson of Abraham. And Matthew isestablishing that Jesus is a son of umAbraham because through Abraham all thefamilies of the earth will be blessed.And Jesus was also the son of David.That was the line through whom theMessiah was going to come. So when youread those genealogies, it's not boringstuff.

It's proving that Jesus meets thecriteria to be the Messiah. Then youhave numbers 24:17 it said that theMessiah would be Jacob's descendant atwhose coming a star would appear. And inthe genealogy of Matthew we read therethat in the genealogy that there wasAbraham, Isaac and Jacob and so forth.And tell me did a star appear when Jesuswas born? Yes or no? Yes, it did.

Asforetold um by Moses in Numbers 24there. Then you have Psalm 2 and verse7. It said the Messiah would be calledthe son of God. This was written almosta thousand years before Jesus comes. Andwhen Jesus was baptized in Matthewchapter 3, it says, "A voice from heavensaid, "This is my son, the beloved, withwhom I'm well pleased." Then Isaiah 7:14written about 700 BC.

So 700 yearsbefore Jesus was born, he prophesiedthat the Messiah would be born of avirgin. And in Luke 1, we read that inthe sixth month, the angel Gabriel wassent by God to a town in Galilee calledNazareth to a virgin engaged to a manwhose name was Joseph of the house ofDavid. And that young girl's name waswhat? Mary. Just a couple moreprophecies here.

Malachi chapter 4 saysthat one like Elijah would precede theMessiah. And when Jesus spoke about Johnthe Baptist, he said in Matthew 11 thatJohn the Baptist was the Elijah figurewho was to come. Zechariah 11:12says that the Messiah would betray bebetrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Veryprecise amount. And how much was Jesusbetrayed for by Judas?

30 pieces ofsilver. And that prophecy was givenalmost 600 years before the eventsactually took place. It's a prettyamazing prophecy. Psalm 22:1 begins, "MyGod, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"And when Jesus was on Calvary in Matthew27, as he was dying, he cried out, "Elo,Elohim sabaktani," which means, "My God,my God, why have you forsaken me?" Andit starts out with an expression ofdespair. And the very last phrase, thevery last words in the Hebrew of thatPsalm 22, um um you can translate it ashe has done it or it is finished.

Andwhen Jesus died on Calvary, his lastwords were, "It is finished." And so hewas working his way through Psalm 22 onthe cross, which is a a messianic psalmas Jesus was fulfilling it on Calvary.Psalm 22 says that soldiers would gamblefor his clothing. Matthew 27 tells usthat when Jesus was hanging on thecross, the soldiers took his clothes andthey cast lots. They played a card game.They wanted to see who was going to getthe robe and his clothes in fulfillmentof that prophecy. Psalm 34 tells us thatno bones would be broken in the body ofJesus. And in those days, um, when whenthe when so man was being crucified,you would hold your body up with yourwith your legs because that was the onlyway you could breathe.

Otherwise, you'regoing to asphyxiate under your ownweight. And so when the Romans wanted tofinish you off quickly, they would takea um a cudil and they would smash you inthe knees and it would break thekneecaps so you could no longer holdyour body up. you sink down and then youesphyxiate under your own weight. Thisis how they delivered the coupra whenyou were being crucified. But when Jesuswas crucified um and they the soldiersthey smashed the knees of the thief tohis right and they smashed the knees ofthe thief to his left.

But when theycame to Jesus and looked up at him theysaw that he was already dead. So theydidn't smash his legs. The prophecy saidthat no bones would be broken in hisbody. And in John 19, it says there thatwhen the soldiers saw that Jesus wasalready dead, they did not break hislegs. Isaiah 53 says that he would dieas a sacrifice.

And Romans 5 6-8,beautiful passage. For while we werestill weak, at the right time, Christdied for the ungodly. Indeed, rarelywill anyone die for a righteous person.Though perhaps for a good person,someone might actually dare to die.where God proves his love for us in thatwhile we were yet sinners, Christ diedfor us. And Psalm 16:10, written athousand years before Jesus actuallylived prophesied that the Messiah wouldbe resurrected. That's exactly whathappened to Jesus on resurrectionSunday.

And when Jesus was raised withpower and declared to be the son of Godthrough the power or the dynamites ofhis resurrection, the world has neverbeen the same ever since.So there were plenty of prophecies aboutthe coming of the Messiah and Satan knewthis and he ran plenty of sataniccounterfeits.You find one was in a man called SimonBarokba and the Barokba revolt. Um heclaimed that he was the Messiah. He leda revolt against the Roman Empire in 132to 135. Um over 500,000 people losttheir lives in this revolt. And theJewish rabbis in Jerusalem said he wasthe Messiah.

And the Romans came andthey destroyed Jerusalem a second timeafter AD.70. And they barred all Jewsfrom ever entering the city again underEmperor Hadrien. And Simon Barkba waskilled in the fighting. Then there was aman called Dossiththeio, the Samaritan.He arrived about AD50 and he tried topersuade the Samaritans that he was theJewish Messiah prophesied by Daniel andprophesied by Moses. But after a while,nobody accepted his claims and he kindof faded away.

Then there was a guycalled Theodas in AD46 and you readabout him in the Jewish historianJosephus and he claimed to be theMessiah and he led a large number ofpeople out of Jerusalem down to theriver Jordan pursued by the by theAmerican soldiers. No, the Romansoldiers. I really am kind of tired heretonight so you have to check my historyas well. He was pursued by the 101st Artin a Division. I don't know.

Anyway, hewas pursued by the Romans all the waydown to the River Jordan. And when hegot to the Jordan, he said, "I'm theMessiah." And he smoked the water withhis cloak. He said, "I can part theRiver Jordan like Elijah did." And whathappened with Jo um Joshua and we willcross the Jordan and escape the Romans.And he smoked the water and nothinghappened. And the Romans captured themall. And most of them were executed,including Theodas himself.

And thenthere was Judas of Galilee. He claimedto be the Messiah at the time of thebirth of Jesus. He led a rebellionagainst the Roman Empire, but he wasdriven off into the the wilderness southof Jerusalem. And Galial, one of themost famous teachers of the NewTestament era in the first century,Galiel, the first of Jerusalem, who wasa teacher of the of the Apostle Paul, hereferences Judas of Galilee in Acts 5:36and 38 where he says, "If something isof God, don't fight it. And if somethingis not of God, don't worry about it.It's just going to fade away anyway."and he references this.

So the point I'mmaking is that when the prophecies pointto the coming of the Messiah, Satan washad all his counterfeits out there todistract and divert people's attention.And what was the message of those whoare announcing the coming of Christ thefirst time? I'm just going to highlightthose two passages in red. This is fromJohn the Baptist. He said, "Bear fruitworthy of what?" repentance. It says hewill baptize you with Holy Spirit andwith fire.We are ourselves today to bear fruitworthy of repentance.Those that Jewish audience presumed thatbecause they were the children ofAbraham, they were automatically rightwith God.

And that wasn't the case.And we should not presume today thatjust because we have godly Christianparents, maybe Adventist or Baptist orMethodist or something, we should notassume that just because we have godlyparents that everything is right in ourlives as well. We are to bear fruitworthy of repentance in our own lives aswe wait for the coming of the Messiahthe second time. That was the message atthe first coming of the Messiah and asyou're going to see, remarkably similarto the second coming of the Messiah.Let's move on to 1844. This was theannounced coming of the Messiah. It wasa global movement.

Some people call itthe Millerite movement. And who was theforerunner? The one who announced thecoming of Christ. It was actually thisguy here, William Miller. Has anybodyhere heard of William Miller?

Yes. Um soAmerica in the 1820s, 30s and 40s umwent through what was known as the GreatAwakening. It was a spiritual revivalall across the United States. Americawas a fervent. It was filled with umeducation reform, prison reform, umvoting reform, the abolitionist movementagainst slavery, um trade reform, taxreform.

America during the greatawakening was filled with reformers ofmany different kinds. And one of thosereformers was a man called WilliamMiller. He was a Baptist. He was afarmer. He was a self-educated mad man.And he fought in the American victory inthe 1812 war at Lake Champlain on thebattle of Platsburg.

Now this guy was anavid reader and he was deeply into thewritings of the enlightenment peoplelike um Hume and Loach and he wasessentially a deist. He wasn't a theisthe was a deist. Now the difference is adeist believes theoretically in theexistence of God but God doesn'tactually get involved in the affairs ofhumanity. So God is like the watch makerand he winds up the universe and then helets the universe go and he's offsomewhere else and don't bother prayingto him. Don't bother asking himanything.

Don't seek a personalconnection with him because he's outthere but he's not interested in any ofus as human beings. Uh whereasChristians are theists rather thandeists which is we believe that Godexists. He is a God of love. He delightsto have communion with his children andhe intervenes and he responds to ourprayers, our cries for assistance. SoWilliam Miller, he was a deist.

Hebelieved in God but God was somewhereout there and he wasn't involved in thelives of humanity. But when he fought atthe battle of Platsburg there in the1812 war, he became convinced that Godhad directly intervened in that war togain the victory for the American forcesover the superior forces of the BritishEmpire. And so he started to study theBible for himself. So um he was afarmer. He he he had a nice Bible and hegot a concordanceand he started with Genesis 1and he said until I understand Genesis 1I won't verse one I won't move to versetwo when I understand Genesis 1 versetwo I'll move to verse three when Iunderstand Genesis 1 verse one 3 I'llmove to Genesis 1 verse4 so he wentthrough the Bible very verysystematically he did this in hisprivate time his family knew he wasstudying his community knew he wasstudying but nobody quite knew what hisconclusions were and finally after 13years of study he came to the conclusionthat based on the prophecies of Danielchapter 8 which we didn't cover thistime round in this series but based on acertain prophecy there Jesus was goingto come in 1843and he thought wow like that's just afew years away what am I going to doabout this he said but I'm a farmerwho's going to listen to me so he saidhe he folded up his papers.

He put themon a desk and he said, "Lord," he said,"I'm not going to tell anybody aboutthis unless you give me an opportunityto share this."Said, "I'm I'm not sure about myconclusions. I think I'm right, but I'mnot going to go and announce to theworld that Jesus is coming again." So,he said, "Lord, I'm not going to tellanybody." And about half an hour laterin August 1833, his nephew knocked onthe door and said that the local Baptistpreacher was sick and they knew thathe'd been studying the Bible for 13years. The local congre Baptistcongregation wanted William Miller thefarmer to come and explain what he'dbeen studying about for 13 years. Halfan hour after he said to God, "I ain'tgoing to do this."Talk about a direct answer to prayer.And so William Miller went off and heannounced that Jesus was coming again.And in 18 when this when this news wasgiven, it electrified North America.There was there was a spiritual revivalall across North America. And the peoplewere joining what is now known as theMillerite movement.

They came from theBaptists. They came from the Methodists.They came from the Episcopalians. Theycame from the the Quakers, the PlymouthBrethren. They came from all manner ofChristians denominations gatheredtogether. And they were studying thegood news that Jesus is coming soonbased on the prophecies of Daniel 8 13and 14.

And the news went around theworld. And in Britain, you had somearistocrats starting prophecy studies upin the north of England. and it went toScandinavia where it was against the lawto preach about the second coming ofJesus. It was against the law. And sowhat happened?

God raised an an army ofsmall children in in Finland and Swedenand they started preaching about thesecond coming of Jesus and they couldn'tbe prosecuted. And they were known asthe child preachers. And those childpreachers with no theological backgroundwere preaching for hours at a time in inin farmyards and in barns and farm homesall across Sweden and branching intoFinland and announcing that Jesus wascoming soon. And there was a spiritualrevival over there in Scandinavia. Theannouncement of the coming of theMessiah went to India through theBritish Empire and went into parts ofAfrica as well.

And what was the keyprophecy that was driving this? This wasthe key verse that was driving this guyWilliam Miller is from Daniel 8:13 and14. And um the question is for how longis his vision? That's the question readfrom the angel. And the answer is for2,300 evenings and mornings then shallshall the sanctuary be restored orcleansed to its rightful state.So you say, well, how how did he get1843 from that or 1844?Well, simply this.

Do you remember lastweek we covered the prophecy of Daniel9, the 490ear prophecy? Somebody sayyes.>> Yes. And I hope you can all explain itto somebody yourselves. Okay. We and andthat prophecy, that 490ear prophecy, the77's prophecy about the first coming ofthe Messiah, it began with the commandto restore and rebuild Jerusalem inDaniel chapter 9:25,which happened in 457 BC.

And um we findthat Jesus came on time in the fall ofAD27. He was crucified in the middle ofthe 70th week in AD31 Passover. And thenSteven was killed in AD34 after whichthe gospel went to the Gentiles. You allremember that? Somebody say yes.

Yes.Okay. All right. So uh so William Millerhe understood this that the the word 70weeks are decreed for your people isbetter translated as cut off from yourpeople and that is cut off from abroader time vision. Now we don't havetime to go into all the Hebrew here butthat the the this um 2,300year prophecyum is tied to Daniel 9 through throughthe use of the Hebrew mar or hats on.There are two words used for vision.They kind of connect with each other.But the bottom line is this. The2300year prophecy began at the same timeas the 490ear prophecybecause the 490 years were cut out ofthe longer prophecy of Daniel 8:13-14.So therefore, the 2300 years began in457 BC and it concluded in October 1844.And William Miller, he he produced thesecharts and he went all across Americaand there was an incredible spiritualawakening all across America.

Peoplewere preparing for the coming of JesusChrist. Was Satan happy about this?Absolutely not. Satan had hiscounterfeits. In in fact, every timethat the announcement of Jesus go iscoming goes around the world, Satan runsinterference every single time. Thefirst time that Jesus came, there was awhole bunch of false messiahs came onthe scene.

And when William Miller wasannouncing that Christ was coming in1844,guess what appeared on the scene at thesame time?Charles Darwin,who wrote his book on evolutionarytheory, the the origin of species.You've heard of that book? Well, there'sthe full original copy there. And thiswas he wrote a the a pamphlet called thetheory of evolution in 1844. Um but thenin 1859 he published this work here andthe everybody knows it by the origin ofspecies. Yes.But do you know what the full title is?This is the title they never tell ourchildren in public school when theyteach evolution to our young people.

Youcan kind of see it on the screen there.I'm messing with it there. It's uh bymeans of natural selection or thepreservation of favored races in thestruggle for life.That's the full title.What was Charles Darwin actually arguingfor? He was arguing that white Europeanswere more advanced than every otherethnic group on planet Earth.He argued that on the origin of speciesor the preservation of the favoredraces, he argued that the whiteEuropeans had a moral responsibility towipe out all the other ethnic groups onplanet Earth. Everybody who was black,brown, or yellow or anything else. I'mspeaking bluntly here, but that's whathe argued for.

This is what we teach ourchildren in public school today. This isthe theory of evolution. Why is that?Because if if this is the human race anduh these are the different there's onlythere's only one human race there's onehand you have different ethnic groupsaround the world and Charles Darwinargued that the Europeans were the mostadvanced therefore they should be theones with access to the resources and inorder for the human race to survive thefittest must survive the survivor of thefittest. Therefore all these groups mustbe eliminated for the resources to befocused around this group here. Andthat's the origin of what we callscientific racism.

When we teach ourchildren evolution in schools, thenatural result is racism in our society.The belief that one group is moreadvanced than another or put anotherway, one group is somehow inferior toanother group. And so Charles Darwinpublishes in 1844 when when um Miller ispreaching about the second coming ofChrist, we have the idea of of um thethe origin of species. And in in inChristianity, death is the defeatedenemy.But in Charles Darwin's theory, death isthe engine of evolutionary progress.The more people die out of the inferiorparts of the human race, the morechances the overall species has tosurvive.And so for Charles Darwin, death was ablessing. And the more death there is,the better because it ensures thesurvival of the human species. But forChristianity, death is the last enemyand it's a defeated enemy.

When Jesuscomes again, there's going to be no moredeath.And so the doctrines of Charles Darwinled to the extermination of the hot andtots in southwest Africa, modern dayBonner, Botswana. It led to child umAdolf Hitler. His idea of the Aryans,the master race, and the Russians andthe Poles and the Jews are submentioned.They're subhuman. They're further downthe evolutionary scale. We've seen inthe deaths of millions and millions ofpeople the practical outworking ofCharles Darwin's theories and so but heappears on the scene exactly the sameyear that Miller is is announcing thecoming of Christ.

Then you have SigmanFreud another counterfeit idea thatcomes out. Um he he was the founder ofpsychoanalysis and around this same timehe published his theory of how the mindworks and he argued that because peopleare repressing their true intimatedesires when we repress our physicaldesires this leads to neurosis andneurotic behavior and mental healthbreakdown. And so therefore, arguedSigman Freud, in order for people to beh healthy in their mental state, theymust have no restrictions whatsoever ontheir physical or intimate or sexualbehaviorbecause if there's any restrictionsplaced upon you, that's going to lead toneurosis. This was the the foundation ofthe modern-day sexual revolution that wesee in the streets of America. And sofor Sigman Freud, there should be nomoral restraint whatsoever because anykind of moral restraint leads to mentalhealth problems.

We are a product of ourgenes according to Sigman Freud. Thereis no room for God. But the Christianresponse to Sigman Freud is we are notpro pre-programmed automatons. We arenot slaves to our genes. When we areborn again, when we are born of thespirit and born again of water, webecome as the Bible says a new creation.And God gives us the power to break ourgenetic heritage,overcome it.

Then you also find at thesame time that William Miller waspreaching the coming of Christ, you haveanother messiah coming along called KLMarx. He published the communistmanifesto and das capital capital histhree volume work um just after WilliamMiller was preaching in the late 1840sand he argued that the working classmust carry out revolution against theowners of the factories and emancipatethe workers and the workers would ownthe means of production and then wewould create a classless society.And uh in the 20th centurymaybe 110 million people died as the theoutworking of this theory.This ideology of Karl Marx has killedmore people than any other ideology inhuman history. That's just the numbersof people who died.But when you consider the people whowere exiled for the rest of their livesto Siberia, people who were transplantedfrom one area to another, the massdeportations and the deaths that wentwith it, when you consider that MountSeong not just kills 65 plus million ofhis own people to fulfill his Marxistideology, but countless tens of millionssuffered in what we now know as thecultural revolution of China. The theconsequences of Marxist ideology havebeen catastrophic for humanity.So we find in in the political arenaSatan runs interference. Just at thesame time that M.

Miller is announcingthe coming of Christ, you have umCharles Darwin, Sigman Freud and KarlMarx all coming up with these humanisticphilosophies, godless um philosophiesthat draw humanity's attention away fromChrist. In the area of religion, um youhad the Bab who established the theBahigh religion literally in 1844 insouthern um Iran in the city of Shiraz.And you also had Joseph Smith declaredthat he was receiving revelations froman angel called Moroni in 1844 and heestablished the latter-day saints ofJesus Christ. And so just as theannouncement of the coming of Christ wasgoing to the entire world, we have thisupsurge of ideologies and theories thathave captivated the minds of men andwomen all around the world for the last200 years. Marxism, uh, evolution, um,psych Freudian psychology and the bahighfaith in Islam and the Mormonism, um,within the West here. And so just asthere were, um, there were falsemessiahs coming along when Jesus camethe first time.

So when Miller wasannouncing the coming of Christ, Satanwas running interference, he wasthrowing dust in humanity's face.Anything to take our attention away fromthe coming of Jesus Christ. And what wasthe message of 1844 that Jesus wascoming? It's simply this that thebridegroom is at the door from theparable of the the 10 virgins inMatthew's gospel. The church is thebride of Christ. The church needs to putaway sin and be filled with the HolySpirit in order to be ready for thearrival of the groom.

Those are the wisevirgins versus the foolish virgins. Theparable of the 10 virgins there at theend of Matthew's gospel. That'sremarkably similar to the message thatwas proclaimed by John the Baptist thatwe are to bear fruit worthy ofrepentance. That we are to align ourlives with the will of God when we knowthat Jesus is coming again.So then you come to the last coming, thesecond coming of Christ that we're nowlooking forward to today.So what happened after William Miller?Well, after William Miller, God raisedup not just an individual such asWilliam Miller or not just John theBaptist, but God raised up a movementaround the world. And they they whenWilliam Miller um in 1844, Christ didn'tcome, they understood that it was theheavenly sanctuary cleanse, not theearthly sanctuary.

Those sabotarianAdventists became what we now known asthe Seventh Day Adventist movement. amovement that's gone all around theworld and announces to people that theMessiah is coming again and he's comingfor his own and we need to be ready forJesus when he comes again and thismovement has gone all over the worldincluding to here in Kihei and acrossthe island of Maui. There are five coredoctrines. I mean uh much Adventism umagrees with you know with Baptists andMethodists and Episcopalians andLutherans on many many things um such asthe virgin birth and creation and soforth and so forth. But there are fivecore doctrines that come together and Icall them the S doctrines in my mind.There's the doctrine of the Sabbath, thesecond coming, the spirit of prophecy,the state of the dead, and thesanctuary.

And we've covered four ofthose. We just haven't covered thesanctuary in our time together. Maybe ina couple years we'll cover that. But yougot these four core doctrines of theSabbath, the second coming, the spiritof prophecy, the state of the dead, thatwhat happens when you die, and thedoctrine of the heavenly sanctuary. Andso this this um this movement that Godhas raised to announce the coming ofJesus Christ, we are part of thatmovement here tonight.

It is ourprivilege to announce the coming of theMessiah. To prepare a way for theMessiah, to prepare people's hearts forthe coming of the Messiah. Why? BecauseGod is not willing that any shouldperish, but that all should have eternallife. And so when you look at the um theexperience of those of the of thesabotarian movement, there's a prophecyin in Revelation 8.

And um the um asAdventists, we understand prophecy thesame way that Daniel did and John theApostle did and the reformers, MartinLuther, and so forth. We understand thatprophecy was given such as in the timeof Daniel and it works its way outthrough history through time and spaceand you can see the fulfillment and itclimaxes in the second coming of Christand that's known as historicism that theprophecy works its way out um it worksits way out in time in history and youcan see as it's being fulfilled throughhistory and so in Revelation chapter 10it speaks about this greatdisappointment experience and um you seethere in the first paragraph, the angelsays, "Go take the scroll that is openin the hand of the angel." And what thisis, if you look at the book of Daniel,the last chapter, um the prophet Gabrielsays to Daniel, "Close up the scroll.It's going to be sealed till the time ofthe end." But now in Revelation 10, thatscroll is open. So that means in the endtimes, we have incredible understandingof the prophecies particularly of Danieland Revelation. [snorts] That's exactlywhat we have today. the knowledge willincrease before Jesus comes again.

Andso then the bit in red says, so this isJohn the Apostle. He says, I went to theangel and told him to give me the littlescroll and he said to me, take it andeat. It will be bitter to your stomachbut sweet as honey in your mouth. Sowhich comes first, the stomach or themouth? The mouth.

And so what the angelis saying is that the announcement ofthe coming of Jesus is going to be sweetto the mouth. It's going to be adelicious message. You're going to wantto taste that. And that's exactly whathappened in the 1840s. People werefilled with joy with the announcementthat Jesus was coming again.

But when hedidn't come in 1844, there was a bittertaste in the stomach. Uh it was it wascalled the great disappointment. And sohaving gone through the greatdisappointment, um then then the angelsays to John, "You must prophesy againabout many peoples and nations andlanguages and kings." And so having gonethrough the the 1844 the announcement ofthe coming of Christ and he didn't comebecause we understood now he was in theheavenly sanctuary not cleansing thephysical earth that we live in today. Sothe advent movement they held Biblestudies in North America and out of thatarose the worldwide advent movement andwe're a part of that tonight.You know this is a movement of destiny.It's a movement of prophecy. It's amovement that God has called for apurpose which is to win as many peoplefor God's kingdom before Jesus comes inthe clouds of glory.

And are theresatanic counterfeits um that Satan runsin the last time? Well, the first timeJesus came, were there sataniccounterfeits? Were there false messiahs?Oh, yes, there were. I listed some ofthem on the screen. When Jesus wasannounced as coming in 1844, did Satanthrow dust in humanity's eyes and raiseup these other ideologies that havedistracted humanity ever since?Absolutely.

Marxism, evolutionarytheory, Freudian psychology, and theseother false religions. Satan's beendiverting and distracting humanity forthe last 200 years. He's an expert atit.My mother used to say, "Did you startthat fight with your twin brother?" Isay, "Yes, mom. It all started when hehit me back. I was expert at divertingattention from my own moralresponsibility as a kid.And Satan's been doing it for thousandsof years.

He throws dust in our eyes.Career, finances,godless ideologies, the politicalmovements of our time. He throws us inour eyes. Anything to keep our eyes fromfocusing on the coming Messiah, JesusChrist.He plays these games in [clears throat]the end of times. What does the Biblesay about these satanic counterfeits?Jesus says this in Matthew 24.You know, this is Matthew 24. Everygospel has its own structure.

I'dencourage you to look at the structuresof the gospel. It helps you understandit. The Gospel of Matthew is basicallyfive sermons.We all know the sermon on the mount,chapters 5-7. you know, Matthew 23 andum 24 and 25. Um that's the finalteachings of Jesus of the the miniapocalypse, you might say.

There arethree other sermons in the Gospel ofMatthew. I encourage you to go home andtake a look in your Bible and find thoseother three sermons in the Gospel ofMatthew. Matthew is basically five longsermons when you break it down. But thisis the last sermon that Jesus gives, hislast words in the Gospel of Matthew. UMatthew 24:24 Jesus says this for forhe's speaking about the time of the endbefore he returns again he says forfalse messiahs and false prophets willappear and produce great signs and omensto lead astray if possible even theelect that is the saints of God.

SoJesus says that just before he comesagain there's going to be false messiahsthat is people claiming to be Christ andthey're going to be performing signs andwonders to deceive people. Last week,somebody sent me a video of a guy inLondon claiming to be the Messiah.And he he's kind of looks like he's frommaybe the Middle East and he has a bigbeard and he says, you know, uh, on mymother's side, I'm descended from Islam.On my father's side, I'm descended fromChristianity. My grandmother was a Jew.My grandfather was a bahigh and soforth. And I bring all the religions ofthe world together and I am the Messiahof God, etc., etc. I mean, he wasliterally saying this on YouTube.It's fascinating to listen to these guysspeak like this.And Jesus says that just before he comesagain, people are going to appear andsay, "I am the Messiah.

I am JesusChrist returned to save humanity." Andthey're going to look for followers andthey're going to look for money. Italmost always devolves into sexualimmorality almost every time that youget these Messiah figures. But this iswhat Jesus speaks about. The ApostlePaul also speaks about how Satandeceives. He says, "And no wonder evenSatan disguises himself as an angel oflight." And so Satan um will actuallyimpersonate Christ before Jesus comesagain, appearing as a shining gloriousangel of light seeking to deceive thenations of the world.

My favoriteChristian writers there, Ellen White,she says this in 1889, commenting on theappearance of Satan before the coming ofChrist. She says, "Satan will workwonders before men to make the worldbelieve him to be the Christ come thesecond time to our world. He transformshimself into an angel of light. Butwhile he bears the appearance in everyparticular, as far as appearance goes,he is not Christ."And I want to ask you this. Do we in theWest like Messiah figures?Think about every election season.Whoever's running for president, they'llspeak to tens of thousands of people ina football stadium somewhere.

They'llmake all these promises and people arecheering and they're chanting saying,"Four more years. Four more years." Asif a hu one individual can solve theproblems of this world. And we putbumper stickers on and we put caps onand we have signs outside our lawns andso forth. And we we let the whole worldknow that we believe that this man orthis woman can solve the world'sproblems. And in all honesty, if you runfor president saying, "I can solve theworld's problems, you shouldn't be inthe White House.

You should be in alooney bin."In all honesty,but we like these political messiahfigures in the West. We vote for them.We give money to them. We support them.We we we have the stickers on on theback of our cars and all the rest of it.We somehow believe that in four years uhone man, one woman can take the nationin this direction or that direction isgoing to be the right direction. We lovepolitical messiah figures. And so in theNew Testament, you read in Matthew24:24,Jesus says that these false messiahswill produce signs and omens.

In 2Thessalonians 2, speaking about the theappearance of Satan before Jesus comesagain, that Satan is going toimpersonate the coming of Christ, Satanwill do power, signs, and lying wonders.And in the ministry of Jesus in inPentecost, Peter describes Jesus asdoing deeds of power, wonder, and signs.I said this the other night. Thedifference between the ministry of Jesusand the appearance of Satan, you got thesame words, power, wonders and signs ineach kind of ministry. The onlydifference is that Satans are lyingwonders. That is his wonders are deceare designed to deceive the elect ofGod. It's why our faith does not dependon miracles.

Faith comes through thehearing of the word of God. Faith comesthrough God changing our hearts momentby moment. If our faith depended onmiracles and if miracles don't happen,we lose faith. But if Satan if Satan canwork miracles and he can, then we can beeasily led astray and deceived. So ourfaith does not depend on miracles.

Sobefore Jesus comes again, there's goingto be many false messiahs claiming thatthey are Jesus Christ and then Satanhimself is going to appear and make outthat he is the returned son of God andhe's going to make his instructions tothe world. And we read about that in the2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 9. And whatis the what is the message of those whoare announcing the coming of Jesus thelast time? Revelation 18:1. You couldlook at many verses for this, but I justpicked out this verse here.

It says,"After this, I saw another angel comingdown from heaven having great authority,and the earth was made bright with hissplendor." That word splendor is docu.We get the word doxology from that. Itmeans glory or praise. And so this versesays that just before Jesus comes again,a message is going to go to the entireworld and the world is going to be litwith the glory of that message.So what is that message?Well, Moses said to God in Exodus 33, hesaid, "Show me your glory."And God took Moses in Exodus 34 and hehid him in a cleft in the rock on MountSi and he passed before him and Godrevealed his glory to Moses. It wasn'this power. It wasn't his might.

It washis character.The Lord passed before Moses and[clears throat] proclaims the Lord orYahweh. Jehovah Jehovah, the Lordmerciful, a God merciful and gracious,slow to anger and abounding in steadfastlove and faithfulness, keeping steadfastlove for the thousandth generation,forgiving iniquity and transgression ofsin. Yeah, by no means clearing theguilty, but visiting the iniquity ofyour parents upon the children and thechildren's children to the third andfourth generation. It's a beautifuldescription of the glory of God, whichis his character.So, you all know about God's character.He's mercifuland he's graciousand he's slow to angerand he is abounding inet is the Hebrewwordet.It means covenant faithfulness, mercy,gentleness, kindness. My favorite versesin the Bible is in um Psalm 117.

Itsays, "The Lord is just in all his waysand kind in all his doing." A beautifuldescription of the character of God. Andthis verse here in red says he keeps fahe's faithful to the thousandthgeneration. How often do you read in thescriptures where God sends a priest to aking and says, you know, you've been asinner and God wants to bring judgmentupon you. Then the prophet says, "Butfor the sake of my servant David, thiswill not happen in your lifetime."So what this verse says here that whenwhen you turn to God in faith, you bringGod's blessing upon your family to thethousandth generation. You change yourfamily lineage.

It's incredible thatthat family receives an ongoing blessingfrom God even though they may not knowGod for themselves to the thousandthgeneration. And then it says, "But Godvisits the iniquity of the parents uponthe children to the third and fourthgenerations." Which means if a fatherdrinks, it's going to affect hischildren, grandchildren, maybegrandchild, great-grandchildren, forthat cycle of violence can be eradicatedfrom the family. But God limits the harmthat sin does to families. But God'smercy to families that turn to him is athousand generations. We haven't gonethrough a thousand generations yet inearth's history.by how God wants to bless your familyand your children and your children andyour grandchildren, your children yetunborn.

You turn to God in faith today.And God's glory is to show covenantfaithfulness to his children. So themessage that's to go to the world, theearth is to be lit with the glory ofGod's character means that there's apeople on earth whose characters reflectthe glory of God.Their lives are filled with sacrificiallove for their neighbor. They aremerciful. They are gracious. They're notvindictive.

They're not hatefilled. Theyare spiritled. They love their neighboras themselves. They care for theirneighbor as themselves. They are a forcefor good in their community.

They are ablessing when things go wrong. Whennobody else wants to touch somebody, thesocial lepers in society, that's wherethe followers of God are supposed to be,showing his presence to them in theirmoments of need. And so this the worldis to be lit. uh the word the earth wasmade bright with his splendor. God islooking for people who will fullyreflect the character of God.And that's what's going to win humanityin the final crisis.

In a world ofviolence and a world of deception and aworld of intrigue and a world ofcynicism,God is looking for people whose livesare a demonstration of the character ofGod.And so when Jesus comes again,[clears throat]the Bible is very clear about what we'regoing to see and hear when Jesusreturned to heaven. Acts chapter 1, theangels came and spoke to the discipleswho are looking up into heaven. And itsaid they said, "Men of Galilee, why doyou stand here looking up towardsheaven? This Jesus who you who has beentaken up from you into heaven will comein the same way as you saw him go intoheaven." What does this mean? It meansthat the return of Jesus will be literaland it will be personal.

The next thingwe see in the New Testament isRevelation 1 and verse 7. Says, "Behold,he's coming with the clouds. How manyeyes will see him according to theBible? Every eye will see him, eventhose who pierced him, and on hisaccount all the tribes of the earth willwail." So it is to be. Amen.

So Jesus'return will be visible. It will beliteral. And every eye will see him whenhe comes back. You're not going to haveto be told he's in Manhattan. go toManhattan.

You're not going to have tobe told he's in New Delhi. You need togo to New Delhi to meet him. Not goingto be told he's in the deserts ofNevada. No. When Jesus comes back, everyeye on earth is going to see him.

It'sgoing to be unmistakable. Every eye willsee him. And not only that, but we willeverybody will hear when Jesus comesagain. 1 Thessalonians 4 says, "The Lordhimself with a cry of command with thearchangels call and the sound of God'strumpet, um, all of which are things youhear with your ears, will descend fromheaven, and the dead in Christ will risefirst. Then we who are alive, who areleft, will be caught up in the cloudstogether with them to meet the Lord inthe air.

And so we will be with the Lordforever." So when Jesus comes again,every eye will see him. Every ear isgoing to hear him. In fact, not just theliving are going to hear him, but thatthe call of the archangel and thetrumpet of God will pierce every gravewhere those who are waiting for theresurrection of the righteous are lyingin their cemeteries. And the dead inChrist will hear that command and theywill come forth as did Lazarus when hecame forth from the tomb. And we who arealive will be caught up with theresurrected saints to meet Jesus in theair.

Now, let me ask you this. Is thissomething you're likely to miss?No. Nobody's going to miss this.Absolutely nobody is going to miss this.It says that when Jesus comes, he saysthe son of man is to come with hisangels in the glory of his father andthen he will repay everyone for what hehas done. So Jesus will be accompaniedby an army of angels in gloriousheavenly beauty and heavenly glory. It'snot just Jesus we're going to see comingthe clouds of glory, but an army ofangels.

And we spoke in uh nights twoand three that all the demons areinfesting our world. We're going to seea manifestation of the angels of God.Legions upon legions upon legions,myriads upon myriads of glorious shiningangels coming with Christ to redeem thethe the saints from planet Earth. And wealso know that Jesus' return will catchthe world by surprise. Not going to putit in your calendar. Says, "For youyourselves know very well that the dayof the Lord or the coming of Christ willcome as a what?

Thief in the night."They will say when they say peace andsecurity then sudden destruction willcome upon them as labor pains come upona pregnant woman and there will be noescape. So Jesus return is going tocatch the world by surprise. It's notgoing to be something that CNN and Foxare saying we're projecting that nextMonday Jesus is going to come again.Okay? He's going to catch the world bysurprise. When the world is saying peaceand safety and peace and safety, we'regoing to figure out the world's problemsamong our human leaders.

That's whenJesus is going to intervene. The Bibletells us that when Jesus comes again,the heavens will disappear and the earthis going to melt. So the day of the Lordwill come like a thief and the heavenswill pass away with a loud noise and theelements will be dissolved with fire andthe earth and everything that is done onit will be disclosed. So you think Mauiis hot today? Wait till the day thatJesus comes.We talk about global warming.

I'm moreconcerned with the global meltdown whenJesus comes again. when all the elementsof the earth are dissolved by the heatof the coming of Christ. So the earth isgoing to kind of like the the heavensare going to disappear and when theheavens have disappeared all themathematical formula that make lifepossible on planet earth the forces ofgravity and all the the other forcesthat are out there you know our universeis a finely balanced mathematicalmachine to make life possible on planetearth and when it says the heavens willbe swept away means all the mathematicalformulas the architecture of theuniverse that makes life possible onplanet earth will be gone life will nolonger be possible and the earth isgoing to melt melt down with heat at thearrival of Jesus Christ. This issomething you're not going to miss.You're not going to be sleeping throughthis. When Jesus comes again, the wholeworld is going to know it.

Uh then weread that when he comes again, therewill be a global earthquake and everymountain and island will be moved, whichI guess means Maui as well.When he opened the sixth seal, I looked,there came a great earthquake. This istalking about the second coming ofChrist. The sun became black assackcloth. The full moon became likeblood. The stars of the sky fell to theearth as a fig tree drops its winterfruit when shaken by a gale.

The skyvanished like a scroll rolling itself upand every mountain and island wasremoved from its place. Are you going tomiss it here in Maui?No. You're going to see it. You're goingto hear it. The ground is going totremble under your feet.

The earth isgoing to get hotter and hotter andhotter and the elements going to meltaround us. And that big mountain behindus and these islands around us are allgoing to be moved out of their places bya global earthquake which will destroythe cities of this world. Nobody's goingto miss the second coming of JesusChrist.And when Jesus comes again, the rich aregoing to hide in their bunkers, but tono avail. As then the kings of the earthand the magnates and the generals andthe rich and the powerful and everyoneslave and free hid in the caves andamong the rocks of the mountains callingto the mountains and rocks fallen us andhide us from the one of the face of theone seated on the throne and from thewrath of the lamb for the great day oftheir wrath has come and who is able tostand Let me ask you does MarkZuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and for peoplelike that do they all build bunkers inthe world? Yes.

I've got a friend who'shead of maintenance at a the house. He'sa household name. We won't say who itis. He is one of the world's like thetop three richest men in the world andhe's built an underground city. And Iknow where it is.

I'm not telling youwhere it is. I may go there when Jesuscomes. No, I'm only joking. But they'vebuilt an underground city in a part ofthe United States. When you see wealthymen flying to the south, the SouthIsland of New Zealand, there's a reallygood chance they're there to buildbunkers.

Why? Because uh the with thetrade winds, if there's a nuclear war,nothing's going to happen to the SouthIsland of New Zealand. For the wealthyare building bunkers in the mountains orthe southern Alps as they're called ofthe South Sea in the South Island of NewZealand. And the Zuckerbergs of thisworld, they're building undergroundfortresses. And the military of theUnited States, they have that mountainin Colorado.

Yes, I forget what it'scalled. And when when Jesus comes again,the wealthy, the generals, the powerfulare going to be going to their bunkersand asking the rocks to fall upon themand hide them from the face of the lambwho is coming. Why? Because these menare persecuting the saints of God in thefinal time. So, our time is up now.

Ourtwo weeks are almost up. I've gone waybeyond time here tonight, and Iapologize for that. But this this is thejoy of being an Adventist. It's theknowledge that Jesus is coming again andhe's coming for his own and he knows hisown. And today and yesterday we saw 10precious souls born again.

Their namesadded to the lamb's book of life. Sowhat do we say in conclusion heretonight? One is this. Love the truth isthe antidote to deception.You you understand what a deception isif you know what the original articlereally is.So read the scriptures for yourselves.Read the gospels, a portion of thegospels every day. Know who Jesus is foryourself.

Because when these falsemessiahs appear, you're going to be ableto say, "No, that's not that's you'renot the Messiah because you don't meetall these biblical criteria for thecoming of Jesus, we know what the Biblesays. You are a false messiah." So thefirst thing is love the truth. Don'tjust know that Jesus is coming again.Satan knows that Jesus is coming again.The demons know that Jesus is comingagain. James chapter 3 says you believein God. He says congratulations.

Thedemons believe in God and they tremble.So say merely saying I believe in Goddoesn't mean you are saved. We are tolove the truth not just know the truth.And that comes through spending timewith our Bibles on daily basis. And Iwould encourage you particularly the newbrothers and sisters here tonight startreading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.Start reading through those gospelsevery single day. Get to know Jesus foryourselves. It's not what a pastor says.It's not what a Sabbath school teachersays.

Allow God to reveal himself to youin his word and get to know Jesus foryourselves. Love the truth. Don't justknow the truth. Secondly, share thetruth. And we saw in the first coming ofChrist that God had a man, John theBaptist, to announce his coming.

Whenthey thought Jesus was coming in 1844,there was the worldwide Milleritemovement and they announced the comingof Jesus. And we know that Jesus iscoming again. It's prophesied allthrough the scriptures. And God islooking for an advent movement. Peoplewho will announce, proclaim, and sharethe good news of a soon returningsinbearing, sinner loving, placeakingsavior.And we're a part of that movement.And if you're not part of that movementyet, then I pray that God, by God'sgrace, you will be one day soon toannounce the coming of Jesus.

Becausethe coming of Jesus is not just ablessed hope. It's humanity's only hope.And then we not just love the truth. Wedon't just share the truth, but we standfor the truth. The one who endures tothe end will be saved. Last night, wejust got we just skated very brieflylast night over the final crisis that iscoming for this world.

I'm not worriedabout that final crisis because Jesussaid in Mark 13, he says, "When you arebrought before synagogues and rulers, hesays,"O not worry beforehand what youare to say, for words will be given youat that time."The word for martyr, martusthe Greek,it doesn't mean somebody that dies fortheir faith. That's what the popularmeaning of the word means, martus. Amartus in the time of Christ in the NewTestament was somebody who testifiedthat they were a servant, a follower ofChrist in a Roman law court knowing thatit could lead to their death.Do we think as a m somebody a martr issomebody who dies for this faith? No. Amartyr is somebody who lives their faithregardless of the consequences up to andincluding laying down their life ifnecessary.

But the the blood of themartyrs is the seed of the church. Jesuswants us to be living martyrs for him.Living witnesses to the truth that he iscoming back and coming for his own. Andif you're going to stand through earth'sfinal crisis when all the powers ofearth are united against those who arefaithful to God, it's going to require acourage that only God can give. So Godis looking for people who will love thetruth, share the truth, and stand forthe truth. And our final slide is here.And when we all get to heaven, what aday of rejoicing that will be.

You Icould have picked many verses to talkabout heaven, but I chose this one here.Pro a prophecy from the prophet Isaiahsays, "And the ransomed of the Lordshall return and come to Zion withsinging.Everlasting joy shall be upon theirheads. They shall obtain joy andgladness, and sorrow and sighing shallflee away."Whatever culture you come from, whateverlanguage you call your mother's tongue,whatever the color of your passport,whatever your ethnic heritage andcultural background, this is somethingthat I think everybody could want to bea part of.God describes heaven in a way thatpeople from every corner of the globesay, "I want to be there."And it's our privilege as 7th Adventiststo announce the coming of the Messiah inKihei and across Maui and across Hawaiiand to the ends of the earth. I want toencourage you tonight if you're a memberof the Adventist movement to love thetruth, to share the truth, and to standfor the truth unapologetically,unashamedly, without any fear because ifGod before us, who can be against us?win as many souls as you can for Christ.And for for those here who are not yetpart of the Advent movement, I'dencourage you come to the Kihei or theCalahooi, is that pronounced right?Adventist church. Study, learn thesedoctrines, learn these truths fromscripture and join something that's muchbigger than any of us. A worldwidemovement that is preparing the world forthe coming of the Messiah.

John theBaptist prepared the world. TheMillerite movement prepared the world.God will have a people in these finaldays who are preparing the world for thecoming of Jesus. That's something I wantto be a part of. It's bigger than me,more important than me. It's morevaluable than anything good in my life.It's something I can give my life to.Why?

Because God is good. And this prizehere is worth fighting for. So love thetruth, stand for the truth, and sharethe truth. When Jesus comes again, myprayer is we will all have thisexperience in our own lives on thatglorious day when Jesus comes in theclouds of heaven. My prayer we'll all bethere.

Let's bow our heads for a word ofprayer. Our heavenly father, we thankyou tonight for the good news that Jesusis coming again.Father, we know that Satan's runninginterference through the ideologies ofthis world, through the ideas, throughthe politicians, through the writers,all of whom are designed to drawpeople's attention away from the Savior.But I pray tonight, Father, that oureyes, the eye of faith will be fixedfirmly and solely upon Jesus as ourpersonal savior, as our sooncomingsavior,the sinner loving savior, the placetaking savior, the guilt forgivingsavior, the sin removing savior, mysavior and our savior. I pray fathereyes will be solely fixed upon him thatwhen people talk to us what they willhear about is the good news that thereis a savior coming for those who arefaithful to him. Father may our livesalways be a witness. May there be alight on a hill that cannot be hidden.Jesus as we prayed before we ask youagain tonight when you come again in theclouds of glory and all the people ofKihei and Maui see you coming in theclouds of glory.

I pray that everyonewhose head is bowed here tonight will befound in the Lamb's Book of Life. Thisis our prayer in the name of Jesus, ourLord and Savior. Amen.Okay, before we