Waldenses II

eno no I think we're good now yesokay reminds me of the the treatmentcould you give it to me for the next 3hours soso um good evening everybody it's aprivilege to be uh coming and sharingwith you again this evening and umhasn't say been ablessing yeah so the Sabbath hours aredying in the west and uh we've beenblessed by all of our presentersstarting with um the the singing thismorning and then going through Dr HugoLeon and then sister Gwen's testimonyand then and then all the programs thisafternoon and uh it's just been ablessing to be here and the fellowshiphas been sweet yes yes and it's reallynice to come alongside like-mindedpeople who understand the seriousness ofthe times in which we live and uh totalk about things which the rest of theworld thinks are a delusion but we knowfrom scripture are true and so tonightum we're going to be continuing um withsome more lessons from what we werediscussing this morning the church inthe wilderness and um if it's possiblecould we put this up on my front screenhere as well the slides there okay thankyougentlemen so um this morning we spokeabout um the the the world denes andsome of the lessons that we can learnfor from them for today and tonightwe're going to continue the same themeum I going to be preaching up at theSheridan Meadows in June I think it isand um I've yet to write those sermonsso um I think I know in general what I'mgoing to be right talking about um soI've been doing a lot of reading aboutthe Jesuits recently if it gives you ahint as to what I'll be talking aboutbut anyway uh tonight's the church theWilderness part two and let's bow ourheads and invite the presence of theHoly Spirit to be withus dear heavenlyfather we thank you today for theblessings of this sabbath day Lord wethank you for the fellowship withbrothers and sisters who all walkingalong that road to Jerusalem Lord wewant to thank you for the spiritual foodthat you've nourished us with Father wewant to thank you for the fellowship forthe Friendship for the prayers and thePraises and I pray now once again onefinal time for today for the outpouringof your Holy Spirit upon thiscongregation and all who are watchingonline Lord you've given us prophecy asa light to guide Us in Earth's DarkestHours Lord you've given us theseprophecies in order that we might ShineYour Light to people who are lost in aworld of emptiness and pain where theydo not know the end from the beginningor right fromwrong so tonight I'm asking father thatas we discuss these matters and as wethink of what lies ahead may we neverforget that the end of the story is thecoming of Jesus Christ that we areAdventists we Proclaim the second comingof our Lord and Master and I pray Lordthat uh no matter what we may go throughtonight or in these coming days weeksmonths or even years that you willalways be with us that you will carry Usin those moments of pain and difficultythat you will be our constant companionwhen we need comfort and assurance thatyou will speak through US you'll beclose to us as the comforter you'll bethe teacher of righteousness and theguide into Paths of right Paths ofeverlasting life Lord we can't getthrough these times on our own and whenwe look back at these stories father werealize that if it were not for you thatlight would have been extinguishedcenturies ago and so I'm asking Lordthat just as Jesus is the light of theworld and He commands us to be the lightof the world that when people see usthey will see Jesus shining through usso Lord as we spend this time togetherthis evening we place these matters intoyour hands Lord we do not gather herefor information rent mment purposes butLord we're gathering tonight because wewant you to shape how we live our livesLord I'm asking that if your spiritspeaks to anybody here tonight with asense of conviction that we will notsquash the spirit or go home and forgetabout that that conviction I'm askingLord that the convictions you give eachand every one of us tonight we will putthose into practice in our lives andthat there will be less of us and Morein Jesus in each of our homes marriagesand and our Ministries so Lord we placethese matters in your hand thank you forblessing us and watching over uswatching over us this evening in jesus'name we pray amen all right so um thismorning we looked at Revelationchapter oh that's my home there I'msorry letme there weare I was in Namibia recently and thatpicture came up in inadvertently on thescreen Namibia is basically brush it'slikeArizona and people said oh how beautifulthat is what a lovely place to live Isaid it's three acres of grass that haveto be cut on a regular basis and so it'samazing what I thought was a pain in theneck they thought was an incredibleblessing so anyway so let's come back toour scripture reading for uh today andwe're going to start this we're going toagain look at this topic um from aslight different perspective and if youhave your Bibles you can follow me inRevelation 12 13-16 or you can follow uson the screen and this is what the wordof God says it says so when the dragonsaw that had been thrown down to theEarth he pursued the woman who had givenbirth to the male child which was JesusChrist but the woman was given the twowings of the Great Eagle so that shecould fly from the serpent Into theWilderness to her place where she isnourished for a time and times and halfa time then from his mouth the serpentthat is Satan poured forth water like aRiver after the woman to sweep her awaywith the flood but the Earth came to thehelp of the woman it opened its mouthand swallowed the river that the dragonhad poured from his mouth and it'sinteresting this this passage herebecause it tells me that even nature isengaged in Saving the saints of God thatjust as God saved Jonah in the belly ofthe fish and when when the when Godcommanded that fish the fish vomitedjanah out onto the dry land what we readhere is that nature itself obeys God andnature itself acts to save the saints ofGod and so as as those Ravens broughtthe food for Elijah on the Eastern sideof the river Jordan I believe we cantrust in our heavenly father that natureitself will look after the saints of Godin the final crisis so um we're going todwell uh today this is where our journeyis going to go going to look at some uhan introduction set some more contexthere uh some of these early persecutionsthe pedmont massacre and what happenedafter that and then we're going to lookat the modern day world denans what doesit mean to be an Endtime world denianand what do the end time world denansbelieve and if you have taken the timeand downloaded from this morning'ssermon uh the nobla lesson that is thethe noble lesson the wensi and Creed all10 pages of it and if you read throughit you will realize it is a summary ofthe greatcontroversy that's essentially wherethey were in their spiritualunderstanding now they didn't talk aboutthe sanctuary they didn't talk about thespirit of Prophecy we know they kept theSabbath we know that they believed inthis this the um the second coming andthe resurrection of the righteous sothat's the state of the dead and and sothey were you might say Proto Adventistsbefore we had greater light after1844 but uh we're going to set the thestage first um by looking at some ofthose uh just an introduction hereso once again if you weren't to hearthis morning this is the map of wherethe W denines were based if you go toNorthern Italy go up to Milan veryfamous City got some major um majorsoccer teams there AC Milan and InterMilan some of the best teams in Europeyou go west to Trin and then west ofchin you've got a city in France calledgryl you see it there and the TDE Franceoften goes through th those valleysbetween tyin and groby and as a youngman I used to follow in the path of theTour de France when I was younger andfitter and less wise you might say andwhen you f in the path of the Tour deFrance you go through these Alps andsome days you climb uphill for 90 Mi andother days you go downhill for 90 Mi andit's it's it's a very intense processbut anyway the the W denin lived inthose valleys those Mount those Alpinevalleys to the west of tyin before youget to gryl in France and just east ofgroby that is where the alenes lived andon the the map here of France you see inthe southwest of France city called tooand that was where um the the catharslived and the alenes as well com down tothe the Pyrenees there in in Spain sowhy am I talking about this well um thethe as paganism swept the early churchum those who are faithful to God theyretreated from The Valleys the fertilevalleys that meant they retreated fromwell-paid jobs and economicopportunities because land equals wealthin the ancient times they retreated fromthe economic opportunities of their timeInto the Wilderness that God hadprepared for them and they sat out over1200 years of persecution and duringthose 1200 years of persecution theydidn't just hunker down but they sentmissionaries out all acrossEurope like we don't care what you'regoing to do to us we're going to shinefor JesusChrist and so how did the papal thepopes respond to this so um as you lookthrough history there were multiplepaple bulls and and and denunciations ofthe wenin for their heresy they were ththere they were therefore worthy of ofextermination but it was the Church ofRome that was in fact promoting Paganrituals trampling upon Christ and actingafter upon Satan's impulse so maybe someof you are familiar with this scene hereit's from the Bier tapestry um in 1066William Duke of Normandy invaded Englandhe beat the Anglo-Saxon King Harold atthe Battle of Hastings and he did itwith his armored Cavalry um Knights atarms and this just after that um therewas a famous tapestry created that isenormous and it has the whole scene ofthe battle on it it's known as the Biertapestry and in that tapestry you seethe scene where the uh the king ofEngland dies with an arrow through hiseye that's how he died allegedly andit's captured there in the biotapestrywell uh not only did William um ofNormandy conquer England and he's knownthroughout history as William theConqueror from1066 but when he came to power thebishop of Rome appointed a newArchbishop in Canterbury calledArchbishop lanfrank and he institutedpolicies immediately upon the heels ofthe Norman Invasion and conquest ofBritain to extinguish once and for allthe Celtic Church in Scotland and WalesandIreland and so the the the the Catholicper process of wiping out all possiblespiritual competitors followed hard onthe heels of the conquest by William theConqueror in1066 and uh uh the the Roman CatholicChurch was becoming more and moremilitarized and so then um shortlythereafter um the Byzantine emperor Alexcommos I first he asked Pope Urban II umto assist him against the uh theadvancing Muslim armies and so Pope umUrban II he called for the Council ofClaremont in 1095 ad and out of thatcame theCrusades and the popular preaching atthe time was filled with the idea thatthe the the the wandering um um umpriests they said that the Millenniumhad finished because now it was 1095they said the Millennium from the timeof Christ has now finished the NewJerusalem is about to descend God isgoing to bring judgments upon the worldthat judgment involves fire anddestruction upon the enemies of God andtherefore um the the faithful of Godhave a duty to rise up to help God inthis Final Act of judgment and so umit's very similar to the arguments thatwere made um in Spain in the 1500s thatled up to Columbus coming to the UnitedStates um but they they had a slightlydifferent take on those prophecies theyalso were filled um filling Europe withstories of Muslim atrocities againstChristians and we don't know whetherthose atrocities were real or not butthe outcome of that preaching theoutcome of the council here the Councilof clemont in 1095 was the conquest ofJerusalem by the Crusader armies in 1099and the pope realized in his Heyday ofpapal power that he had the ability toput armies in the field to wipe out theenemies ofRome and so he thought if we can EXexterminate or try and exterminate theMuslims from the HolyLand what about the Heretics inEurope and so almost immediately theCrusades started not just against theMuslims in the East but the papal armieswere Unleashed within Europe on thedissenters and the Heretics and thosewho the pesy would consider schematicsand guilty of exter worthy ofextermination the first major Crusade Ipointed out just previously too in thesouth of France so you got theMediterranean in the Southeast thereyou've got the Pyrenees in the southwestthe bottom left of the pack of the themap here and then you've got too thecity um just north of that and uh it wasthe some people call them the catharsome people call them thealbigensians but the papal armies werelet loose in southern France toeliminate the Primitive or ApostolicChristian beliefs in know what is knownas The alian Crusade from 128 to 1218 itwas a scorched Earth policy nothing wasLeft Alivehomes were destroyed towns weredestroyed the crop the fields were saledthe animals were destroyed the rapepillage and plunder washorrendous and who was doing this wellthe pope discovered that if he offeredpeople plary remission for all of theirsins which means if you take part in TheCrusade that you will be forgiven forall the sins you ever have committed andever will commit and I guaranteed entryto Heaven every rapist every sadistevery murderer every man in tent onMayhem joined those papal armies and sothey the pope let loose this this Armyof of just criminals and they wiped outthe alenin in southern France here's a apicture here where they're taking tooand you see uh the papal soldiers on theright with the sign of the cross ontheir white Insignia there and they'rewaiting for the city of too to fall oneof the chaplain wrote this about the umabout the papal Crusade he was a um aCatholic priest and he said this toothat was the center of the albigensiansthe completely wretched has it isasserted from its very Foundation rarelyor never been free from the meia Asma ordetestable pestilence of condemnedheresy handing down and successivelydiffusing through generations fromfather to son its poison ofsuperstitiousinfidelity you can read that in the booktruth triumphant by Benjamin GeorgeWilkinson and so the pope realized thatif people would voluntarily submit topapal Authority then torturedismemberment death and destruction andrape were just as effective instrumentsof persuasion and bringing people intothe papalchurch and so uh after taking out thealenes the papacy turned its attentionto thewenses and um they issued um bull afterBull and attack after attack upon thewenses from the 1200s the 1300s the1400s down to the 15 and the 1600s butas we've saw earlier that God hadprepared a mountain Fortress for herfaithful Saints during those Dark Agesthe Church of the Reformation wasincubated by the waldensian church forcenturies before it was born underMartin Luther her first cradle was therocky Snowy Mountain fortresses of theAlps and God preserved Heavenly truth inthose mountain valleys for over athousand years we saw it this morninggoing all the way back to the 2ndCentury ad they didn't just start inabout a thousand ad so we look at someof those early persecutions well Popeafter Pope condemned the heresies ofthose faithful followers of Christ theyurged Kings princes and Jukes to sendarmies and inquisitors to to exterminatethe wenses and their heresies and so theinquisitors would scour the lowervalleys of the Alps looking for anybodythey could identify as being uh waldenin and they would either be summarilyexecuted or tortured to death or therewas one story where an Inquisitor calledberelli he captured 150 waldenian menplus all their wives and children and hetook them down to groby where they wereall burned alive individual W denes whencaptured across Europe were strangledburnt at the stake disemboweled beheadedraped impaled on Pikes dismembered tornlimb from limb on the rack by priestsinquisitors monks and Catholic princesit was a bloody Crusade waged overcenturies against the wenses individualwenses had their entrails pulled outthen cats were s were swn into theiropen bowels um so the cats would ripthem apart from the inside they wereterrible deaths they inflicted they werebound with chains and left to freeze todeath in the snowy mountains of the Alpstheir bodies were gashed with swords andthe wounds filled with quick lime quicklime tongues were torn out eyes wereblinded mouths were filled withgunpowder which was then explodedblowing heads off women had the skintaken off their jaws and left to perishfrom the resulting infections men weresliced systematically to pieces and witheach round of bloody persecution andtorture came demands for more painfulmore protracted more pitiful methods ofSlaughter and popular approvalgrew it's a bloodyhistory it's a very painfulhistory but the W denines lived in theAlps between France and Italy andwhenever France and Italy had a had awar or struggles the wenin occupied astrategic position and so from time totime they were able to have make a restbite of 10 or 20 years before the nextround of Slaughter would begin in 1559the general peace treaty uh occurred umbetween um the uh the king of France andthe Duke of savoo you see on the mapthere in Northern Italy and because theDuke of savoo now controlled the Thepedmont Valleys the areas of the Wdenines immediately the papal pressurewas brought to bear on the Duke ofseavoy to purge his realm of heresy heneeded to prove his loyalty to the popeby wiping out the wenses and so thefirst edict was issued in February 156and the dukee of seavoy forbade hissubjects to listen to any Protestantpreacher on pain of Exile to the gys forlife where you were chains to a an A andyou rode until youdied a second edict followed a monthlater it commanded all the wenses toattend a Catholic Mass on pain of deathonce again an army of Ruffians vagabondsand rapists was gathered and the City ofkagano just south of chin was completelyexterminated and the City wasdestroyed how did the war Wesrespond well if you read the stories yourealize that the wenin responded inthree ways generally firstly when theycame under attack they gathered cnodesand they had seasons of prayer they putthe matters in God's hands the secondthing they would do is they would rusheverybody from the lower valleys intothe upper reaches of the Alps where thepapal soldiers could not get access tothem so the the walentin became adapt atfleeing at a moment's notice up into thethe Mountain Valley the third thing theywould do is theyfought they fought quite literally andtime and time again God gave themvictory over overwhelming odds in thosenarrow mountain passes where two orthree men could hold off a whole Armybecause the only way in was a narrowledge covered with snow and ice over ahuge Abyss two or three men could holdthat position against thousands of papalsoldiers and time and again they didthis but on this occasion here in 1560they decided to send two famous pastorsdown to the Duke of seavoy begging himto pull back from the impending war ofextermination and what was theirmessage well thankfully that message hasbeing preserved they wanted to be heardbefore being condemned sounds kind ofreasonable does it not to be heardbefore being condemned they declaredthey had not departed from the faith ofthe Apostles and they had not adopteddoctrines unknown to scripture theirfaith was that which Christ and theapostles had always preached and whichthe Martyrs had Vindicated with theirblood during the Roman persecutions theyhad not turned aside from the Old Pathsof scripture they bowed the need to nostrange God and if they were Heretics sowas Christhimself they were willing at any momentto appeal their cause to a generalCouncil of the church provided thecouncil was willing to decide the matteron the only infallible standard theyknew which was the word of God and so asMartin Luther appeared at the diet ofvers just a few years to the word of Godunless I'm convicted by the word of GodI will not recant so the W denines havethe same approach show us from scripturewhere we arewrong and in these last days we need tobe able to say show me from scripturewhere I am wrong and that requires us toknow what the scriptures say forourselves they could say show us fromscripture where where we are wrong theywent on they said they would surrendertheir beliefs if they were convictedfrom the scriptures which means theywere intellectually honest regard theirCatholic Neighbors in The pedmontValleys they said we have alwaysmaintained good relationships with themwhich is true because every time thepapal armies came up into the valleysthe the the Catholics who lived side byside with with the wenin they would sendtheir women and girls with the waldenianwomen up into the mountains because thethe Catholic armies were equalopportunity rapists and they would rapewenan women and Catholic women if theyfound them in those valleys and so thewenin had acted as a as a form ofinsurance or protection for theirCatholic neighbors over centuries ofpersecution they went on to say who hadthey injured whose property had theystolen had they not been kind courteousand honest even if their Mountainpastures were more productive than thefertile valleys of the Plains of thepedmont valley down in the valley umthat was due to their industriousnessand their skill at extracting a livingfrom the mountain valleys it wasn't dueto the fact that they were stealing fromtheir Catholic neighbors they had livedat peace with their Catholic neighborswhy then should their Catholic neighborsrise against them and exterminate themas if they were a horde of evildoersthey went on to remind the Juke ofseavoy that did not the JW did not theJews and the Muslims live unmolested inthe juke's own cities were the Jews notpermitted to build synagogues and werethe Muslims not permitted to buildmosques and if the Jews could worship insynagogues and the Muslims could worshipin mosques why would why could the wenesnot worship according to theirconscience why could they not liveunmolested by the Juke could they notreceive the same religious liberty asthose Jewish and Muslim subjects of theJuke if indeed innocent wenin blood wasto be shed once again then just as theblood of righteous Abel cried out to Godfor justice after his killing by Cain sothe torrent of innocent blood that wasabout to be shed would likewise cry toGod for divine intervention against theDuke of seavoy why should theirSovereign unsheath his sword against themost peaceful the most law- abidingcitizens in his realm those who returnedthe most taxes those who had neverplotted against him were under mind thehonor authority of his throne they werethe most devoted subjects of the Duke ofseavo in his government for the morethey feared God the more they honoredtheir civilruler and if you look at the history forabout 200 years prior to this the waldenines had established um large citycolonies in the south of Italy down neardown near Eight Naples and thosewaldenian towns were the wealthiest intheir region and people recognized thatwherever the walens went taxes went upbecause they were so profitable in theirin their farming of the land and so theCatholic rulers in southern Italy kindof turned a blind eye to theirProtestant Faith because they were happyto receive thetaxes one thing is certain theysaid most Serene Prince the word of Godwill not perish but it will abideforever if then our religion is the pureword of God as we are persuaded it isand not a human invention no human powerwill be able to abolish it we say Amento that their services their substancetheir life were at the disposal of theirprince of the Civil Authority they werewilling to lay them all down in defenseof his lawful Authority only one thingthey would not surrender and what wasthat theirconscience it's quite a statementyes it was an appeal to Liberty ofconscience the dukee listened but thepressure from the papal authorities wasintense and the local um Catholic rulersrealized that a a um a war ofextermination was about to begin and sobefore it was officially announced localCivil Authorities and monks anticipatingthe upcoming Slaughter launched theirown private jihads against the W deninesin the lower valleys before the mainpapal armies arrived once again theslaughter resumed and once again asalways before the W denines fled withtheir women folk and their children thenthey gathered in small groups theyfought back and they won every battlebattle that came their way it's anincredible story shortly thereafterFrederick an elected German Prince umwho had known Martin Luther wrote aremarkable letter to the L to the dukeeof savoo that we have today and what'sremarkable about this letter is itreminds us that these evils were notdone in in the midst of Darkness theywere done in the midst of an enlightenedconscience across Europe this is whatthe elector said I get the right buttonhere he said this he wrote to the dukeeof seavoy he said let your highness knowthat there is a God in heaven who notonly contemplates the actions but alsotries the hearts and Reigns of men andfrom whom nothing is hid sounds likeDaniel chapter 2 doesn't it just likethat let your highness take care not tovoluntarily make war upon God and not topersecute Christ in his memberspersecution moreover will never Advancethe cause it pretends to advance theashes of the martyrs are the seed of theChristian church and he goes on and onand speaks else in other words to theJuke of savoo what is remarkable aboutthis story here is that God spoke to theJuke of seavoy through a German civilruler Frederick the German elector thenthe Juke uh a Juke in the south ofGermany and he appealed to conscienceand he reminded the Duke of Sao that hehimself would be weighed in the bouncesby God oneday and he said persecution will neverAdvance the cause of it pretends toadvance we've seen that in the last fouryears what we were mandated to takeParton has resulted in a catastrophicloss of confidence in the public healthsphere because we've seen what happenspersecution never ADV neversucceeds this remarkable letter showsthat these massacres and persecutionsdid not occur in complete darkness thatGod-fearing men were acting as theconscience of their era via this Nobledefense of the rights of conscience andan eloquent Appeal on behalf ofTolerance and in every generation Ibelieve God is looking for men and womento stand up for those around them seewhat we learned from this story is thatthe jke was not in in danger himselfFrederick but he stood up for others andtheir Liberty ofconscience and our appeal to Liberty ofconscience for ourself is credible tothe extent that we stand up for Libertyof conscience for All Peoples just asFrederick stood up for the wall deninesLiberty of conscience is for all peoplenot just seventhlyAdventists Liberty of conscience isimportant because um the final gospelappeal um fear God and give glory to himpre presupposes that there is enoughreligious liberty for the gospel for theseed of the Gospel to be planted in allthe fields of the world and that withinthe fields of the world there issufficient Liberty of conscience forpeople to respond in faith to JesusChrist so that is why as Adventists wedefend religious liberty because withoutreligious liberty and freedom ofconscience The Three Angels messagesdon't make any sense the presump theAssumption in Revelation is that peoplecan indeed fear God and give glory tohim they can choose for God in the faceof end timemandates that is why in our localchurches in our pulpits if you doreligious liberty Sabbath stand up forreligious liberty for all people in yourcommunity even if you disagree with whatthey themselves areconcluding and so we come then to thepedmont m M an Infamous event event thathas gone down in the annals of historyin1650 a young king called Chris CharlesEmanuel II was 15 years of age becamethe dukee of seavoy he was heavilyinfluenced by the lady on his rightChristina France she was from the deichifamily they were Infamous for theirDevotion to the papacy they hadinstigated the St barthol massacre in1572 that wiped out thousands of Hugo inFrancein January of 1655 this young man cameunder pressure from the pope and fromhis family members and so he decidedthat it was better to do the politicallycorrect thing than to stand up for hisembattled um citizens and he gave acruel choice to the W denines in thelower valleys of Italy they could eitherattend Catholic mass or they could moveout of The Valleys within 3 days now ifyouve ever been to Italy or Spain orFrance you've been to those Alps orthose Pyrenees before modern Rome roadswhere are you going to go at 3 daysnotice if you're in a mountain valleyback then you're hunkered down for thewinter you've got Cabin Fever yourcattle and your food supplies are inyour Stone House and you're waiting forthe spring melt off to arrive but hegave them three days to leave thevalleys and the wenses have beenslaughtered to such an extent that'sbelieved that only about 2,000 survivedto struggle across swollen Rivers snowyvalleys and ice covered mountains um upinto the highest parts of the Alps wherethey somehow survived but many perishedof the cold the W denines in the uppervalleys provided a temporary refuge forthem and they shared their limitedwinter Provisions with the SoutherRefuge of in Russia refugees but theworst was Yet to Come As spring broke inApril April 1655 this dukee the dukee ofseavoy sent a new Army into the uppervalleys His Holy Catholic intent wasbloodthirsty and S sadistic the Armyconsisted of Ruffians criminals rapistsand ists all intent on murder torturyrape robbery in the name ofGod once again after heavy fighting theoutnumbered wenes drove back the papalarmies from The Narrow Path narrowPathways in the mountains to their highaltitude valleys time and again atcrucial moments in the battle a heavyMist would descend upon the battle andbecause the waldensians knew themountains they knew where to avoid thecliffs and time and again the Catholicsoldiers would just walk off the cliffsand perish thousands of feet below ithappened time again one General boastedthat he would make the rivers of Thewenin Valleys run blood with wenan bloodwithin a day and it was his own soldiersthat supplied the blood a day laterbecause they hadd fallen off thoseCliffs then the waldensians made a fatalmistake1655 the papal General offered a peacetreaty enter into a covenant withRome enter into a covenant with Rome andall weask is that you allow our regiments toenter your mountain valleys and theywill stay there for 3days and then they will leave and thatis a way of you recognizing theauthority of the dukee of seavoy and wewill do you noharm and the older wise of w denin saidno way and the younger W denin who maybe tired of the fighting they wanted abreak they said let's take a chance atpeace and one of the lessons of historyis If You Dance with the Devilyou don't come off good at the end oftheprocess when we enter intocovenants with the Beast of ofRevelation the beasts of Revelationfirst and second Revelation 13 that thebeasts don't change the Protestants getdestroyed in theprocess um sister white wrote about thisI was sharing this with somebody outsideshe made um two trips to the wall densivalleys as far as we know and there wasa book being published on what she wroteafter those trips to the wal denenevalleys and and she says in one of themanuscript releases and I don't have itwith me right now but um what she saysthere is that um she's reflecting onthis this massacre and and she saysessentially that um when is it that thatthat Protestants will stretch their handover the abyss and shake hands with Romeand she said is the adoption of liberalideas by Protestants will lead to theclasping of hand with Rome because shesays Rome never changes but whenProtestants adopt their Foundation ofscripture as being the guide of faithand Rule of practice in their life livesthen they're open to anything withRome it's interesting she it's theadoption of liberal ideas amongProtestants will leads to the union ofProtestants with Rome fascinatingcomments that she makes there inresponse to this particular story hereso the waldensians theyvoted and against the advice of thosewiser older pastors the papal armiesmoved into the pap into the wenenevalleys and they were um sent to live inevery home and every Farmfor two nights all wasquiet and then on the night of the 23rdof April 1655 a signal was given and at4:00 in the morning the general Massacrebegan the horrors of this massacre areIndescribable they were not content toSimply kill their victims they inventedbarbaric tortures in the process babiesand children had their limbs ripped offtheir bodies one by one parents wereforced to watch their children beingtortured to death before they themselveswere tortured and killed fathers wereforced to wear the decapitated heads oftheir children as they were marched totheir death some Christians wereliterally plowed into their own Fieldsbehind their horses others were flayedor burnt alive many endured worst thewomen had the worst experience of allunburied bodies covered the ground allacross the wensi valleys hundreds ofwenses fled to a large cave in theTowering Mount caluso and I was chattingwith Dr Hugo about this yesterday andyou were there a number of years ago youcan go to this place today they thoughtthey were safe there but the P papalarmies followed them up those Cliffsthey found them and then they hled themoff a precipice to their death and thisis the reference in Milton's famousSonet he says to the bloody ped Monesthat rolled mother with infant downthose rocks and this Memorial here is tothose waldensians who were thrown offthose rocks the survivors of thismassacre were very few but they bandedtogether and they wrote to theChristians of Europe for help theirletters included these heart-rendingwords this is what they wrote are tearsare no longer of water but of blood theydo not merely obscure our sight theychoke our veryhearts and this appeal for assistancewent all across Protestant Europe andone ruler responded and that was as wesaid this morning Oliver Cromwell thenthe Lord protector of England now he hadfought a war against King Charles thefirst of England and he chopped his headoff uh because Charles was insisting onthe divine right of kings which was aDoctrine supported by the papacy theyapplied it to the Bishops and thepriests that nobody could question themand Cromwell was a Protestant and he'dhe had 10 years as the Lord protectorthere and um while he was the Lordprotector of England um this letter cameto his attention and he said we're goingto do something about this so hecollected a national peel across all ofEngland and the people sent their moneyto to Cromwell and he stored it in inParliament and when he died and Charlesthe first son came onto the throneCharles II he spent it on other purposesso make sure you know where your moneyis going these days all right but OliverCromwell decided as a as um he decidedhe was going to send a man on a fact-ffinding Mission and he sent a man calleds s Samuel morand from parliament inBritain to the walentin valleys and hecollected the eyewitness accounts of thesurvivors this is how we know thebarbarity of what happened out thereit's all documented within a few monthsof the event he documented theirexperience and the tragedy and most ofthat work is now held for public reviewat the Cambridge University in Englandwell Morland was so horrified by what hesaw that he went to the Duke of seavoyand he confronted him in hiscourt and this is what he said tohim he says if the tyrants Of All TimesAges were alive again they woulddoubtless be ashamed to find thatnothing so barbarous nor inhuman incomparison of these Deeds had ever beeninvented by them in the meantime theangels are stricken with horror men aredizzy with amazement Heaven itselfappears as astonished with the cries ofthe dying and the Very Earth to blushwith the gore that is the blood of somany innocent persons he confronted theJuke of SEO in his own Court he haddiplomatic immunity at the time so hecould say these things he spoke truth topower and what he said wasrecorded we have ittoday the poet Milton who wrote ParadiseLost and Paradiseregained there he is there there'sParadise Lost it's in 12 books have youever read Paradise Lost or Paradiseregained okay um we had to read it atschool in England and it's it's a hugepoem I don't know how many hundreds ofpages long but you get the general gistafter the first few pages and it'swritten in Middle English not ModernEnglish so it's hard to understand butyou can read modern versions of itParadise Lost and Paradise restored is abit like the theme of The Greatcontroversy from an English perspectivehe wrote These two some of the greatestpoems of the English language he wrote asonnet to commemorate at what happenedup there in the pedmont massacre andthis is what he wrote he said on thelate massacre in pedmont he said avengeO Lord thy slaughtered Saints whosebones lie scattered on the AlpineMountains Cold even them who kept thytruth so pure of old when all our Ffathers worship stocks and Stones forgetnot in thy book record their groans whowere thy sheep and in their ancient foldslain by the bloody ped Mones thatrolled mother with infant down the Rockstheir moan the veils redoubled to thehills and they to Heaven their martyredblood and Ashes so are all the ItalianFields where still doth sway the tripleTyrant that from these May grow a hhundredfold to having Leed thy way earlymay fly fly the Babylonian W and ofcourse as Adventists we recognize thatyou know the worldview of John Miltonwas very similar to Adventist today thetriple Tyrant you've got the the threeum the three the Papal crown with thethree tiar in it representing the threenations that were uprooted in Daniel 7to make way for the little horn and sothey celebrate those three nations withthe triple crown that they wear sothat's the illusion to it there theytalk about the Babylonian woe yes beforeAdventists ever existent Protestants inEngland recognized uh the papes as beingspiritual Babylon and uh there'shumility there when all our fathersworship stocks andstones that is while we were lost inpaganismGod had his truth shining in Thewaldenian Valleys forcenturies it's an incredible poem or asonnet by um John Milton so in Januaryof 18 1681 a couple years later underpressure from Louis the 14th the sonKing of France who was also persecutingthe Protestants he was the king of theThree Musketeers Fame you know Athos Iforget the names of the others dartanyonyou know the Three Musketeers anddartanyon yes and cardinal rlerand the wars against the Protestants inlarell on the northwest coast of Franceso that King Louis the 14th he was theKing of France and um he he pressuredthe Duke of seavoy to further persecutethe few remnants of the of the W denineshe issued an edict in January 1681 theDuke of seavo they were henceforth tocease all exercise of their religionthat is the Protestant Faith was to bebanned period they were forbidden tohave religious meetings under pain ofdeath and confiscation all their goodsall their ancient Privileges and rightswere to be abolished all Churches prayerhouses and other buildings consecratedto their worship were to be destroyedall their pastors were to submit to theCatholic faith or leave the countrywithin 15 days on pain of immediatedeath all the children were to be raisedas Roman Catholics If the parents wouldnot agree the P children were to betaken from the parents and put withRoman Catholic parents uh if not thenthe parents would be whipped with rodsor sent to die in the gleysthe wenan pastors were to publicly denyand renounce their biblical doctrinesfor the benefit of the people and allProtestant foreigners within the Duke ofsao's territory were to leave Italywithin 15 days on pain of death anyonewishing to sell their property withinthat 15-day limit was only allowed tosell to a RomanCatholic so this is uh havingexterminated most of the world endscenes this was a final attempt at likewiping them out once and for allit's interesting as we reflect on thisstory that the dukee of SEO recognizedthat wensi and parents were intentionalabout passing their faith to theirchildren and so they targeted thechildren and you will give up yourchildren to Catholic parents because wecan't trust you in the privacy of yourhome not to teach them the truegospel I had a friend she was known asthe rat lady when I was working withAdra in aaban she was was the rat ladycuz she was good at killing rats and umshe became an Adventist in uh the end ofJoseph Stalin's time in Moscow she' justhad two twin girls and the KGB thesecret police were so upset about thisthat they they legally divorced her fromher husband and they took her twodaughters who were just newborns and putthem into a KGB orphanage and theyexiled her from Moscow down to Bakuwhere they made her kill rats in theMetro for the next 40 years till theSoviet Union collapsed and she didn'tknow where her daughters were for those40 years I met her once and I stayed inher apartment with some Adra colleaguesand she would travel around all we hadlike 70 warehouses in the country at thetime we were feeding about 800,000people a month and we'd we'd bring herin to kill all the rats in thewarehouses cuz there were ratseverywhere and she told thestory about um what happened when theytook her two newborn girls and therewere tears on her face but they were nottears of anger and they were not tearsof bitterness they were tears of joythat after 40 years the Soviet Unioncollapsed and she went on a search for acouple of years to find her girls andshe foundthem and God had carried her family herdaughters through 40 Years of plus ofSeparation at the hands of thoseCommunists we see in the story of the Wdenin among other things that theirenemies recognized that a primary taskof every parent was to pass their faithto their childrenthat's a responsibility we have asparents as well amen our responsibilityis to lead our children to Jesus Christit's our responsibility as fathers tolead in Family Worship on a daily basisand if I hear one thing from Christianwomen it is this I wish my husband wouldlead the family worship on a daily basistime and again Christian women wishtheir husband would step up to the platand be the priests of the family so I'mappealing to you men particularly todayhusbands and fathers take your spiritualresponsibility seriously don't leave itto the mother to take care of all thesethings boys in particular need positiveChristian role models they need to seethat a man can be a man offaith and so the wenses they they lookedafter their children but this this ordercame out and the wenses once againrefused to obey once again the papalarmies moved in and this time the wenseswere so weakened that almost everybodywas killed and the remaining wal deninesabout 15,000 people all of them wereimprisoned in the prisons of SoutheastFrance and Northwest Italy and it seemedthat the light that shines in thedarkness had been once in for allextinguished but that's not the end ofthestory because in 1686 the worldpolitical situationchanged there were changes in Britainthere was a king called James I firstand Parliament rose up against himbecause he was a Protestant and theBritish Parliament and the German umProtestant princes were concerned aboutthe 15 or so thousand waldensians whoare now rotting in Catholicprisons and so under pressure fromInternational um governments the dukeeof seavoy released the remaining weninwho alive there were less than 3,000left came out of those prisons most ofthem had died starved to death or frozento death in the papal prisons they werereleased in the middle of winter andtold to cross the Alps byfoot which they did it's an amazingstory emaciated starving and almost deadthe first trickle of refugees arrived inGeneva on Christmas Day1686 the local Protestants opened theirhomes to these emaciated and traumatizedsurvivors and in showing kindness tothese suffering and Sorrowing Exiles forthe Savior I believe they brought God'sblessing upon their nation inSwitzerland what then happened well thewenin didn't just take this line down Imean talk about stickability these Wdenans were not going to give up theirMountain Refuge so there arose a pastorcalled onri anod there he is therethere's a statue to him he was a pastorbut he was also a general and he raisedan army of 800 men which was Tinybecause the French armies and theItalian armies were saying there's noway you're going to get back into thoseW denene valleys and he led an army of800 men and by the direct interventionof God on multiple occasions theymarched across Southern Germany theymarched over the Alps into the W Deninevalleys and they conquered the Italianarmies to sent up against them and theytook possession of some of those valleysonce again in1688 it's an amazingstory and in the process of over half ofthose mendied they were going to go back to theirancestral home where they knew how tolive and where they could think theythought they would survive for centuriesmore well they uh they kicked out theDuke of zavo troops one famous eventhappened the French brought up artilleryinto the mountain they winched them up acliff the wans realized they were goingto be blasted to Pieces so they climbeddown another cliff and they appeared inthe pedmont plains uh near the city ofTrin and to theirDelight they discovered there have beena revolution in Britain they're calledthe Glorious Revolution and thepolitical repercussions of that uh werethat the dukee of seavoy now allowedthem tolive there was just a couple of thousandleft their rights were restored to themand the world Den went back into thevalleys the F the few thousand who wereleft and they survived the rest of theDark Ages until 1798 when the pesy wasdestroyed by the re armies ofrevolutionaryFrance it's quite a story yeah it'squite astory so time is moving on and we mayask ourselves say well where does thelight of the Gospel continue to shinebecause the W denines have pretty muchdisappeared fromhistory and about 150 years ago or sothey merged with the methodists ofNorthernItaly they ceased to exist but beforethey kind of ceased to exist um about 30years after Luther was in the diet ofworms they heard rumors in the mountainsof of new theology coming out of Germanyso they arranged for a meeting a synodwas held with the representatives of thelutherans from from Germany andSwitzerland high in the mountains thereand they they both both sides explainedwhat they believed and the lutheranswere astonished to discover that theywill believed everything that theybelieved they held it firm for over athousand years and the wans wereastonished to realize that they were noton their own and then in a in an act ofamazing humility rather than theLutheran checking their faith againstwhat the waldensians taught the waldenans recognized the hand of God in thereformation and they humbly asked thatthe Lutheran preachers this is what webelieve is there anything wrong in whatwe believe there the the older Churchsubmitted to the younger church and it'sabout that time it appears appears thatthe W Denine started to turn their backon the Sabbath day and their compromisewith thelutherans but there are modern day worlddenses because when you take the timeand I want to encourage you take thetime to look again and download from thewebsite I showed you early this morningdownload their statement of belief andit's pretty much an Adventistdocument and what you find in theirstatement of belief is that Jesus is theheart and center of everything theybelieved everything revolved around thegospels so I want to show you tonightthat there is still a weny movementtoday and I believe it's the God's endtime movement the sth day Adventistswe're not a church we're amovement I want to show you tonight howwhen we talk about our fundamentalbeliefs Jesus Christ is at the heart andcenter of every one of our fundamentalbeliefs because that was what the worldan IT Christ was at the center ofeverything they did and if we are to bethe light shining in the darkness untilChrist comes again then we need to makeJesus Christ the center of everythingthat we do and everything that webelieve so I'm going to go through themone by one I'm going to put them up onthe screen there just going to show youhow I'm going to put them one by two ata time our 28 fundamental beliefs so theFirst Fundamental belief is the word ofGod the key texts that relate those toJesus are John 539 John 1 1-5 that's theprologue of John John 1:1 14-18 that'sthe prologue of John's gospel and thesummary of the word of God as relates toJesus Christ is this in our beliefs thatJesus is Central to the scriptures bothas a subject of Prophecy and as the wordmade flesh embodying God's communicationto LostHumanity then it comes to the doctrineof the godhead fundamental belief numbertwo the key passages there are Matthew 3the baptism of Christ and 1 John5:7 we say that Jesus baptismdemonstrates the unity and the distinctroles within the godhead father Son andHoly SP Spirit affirming Jesus Defineaffirming jesus' Divine sunship and hisHeavenly Mission we then come to beliefsthree and four God the father and Godthe son in the belief of God the Fatherthe key passages that tie that Doctrinewith the person of Jesus Christ are John14 6-11 and Hebrews 1 1-4 and thisPowerPoint will be shared with thechurch here and you can all downloadthis from the church later so if you cantake pictures if you want but it's ahelpful study to have at your fingertipsbut uh this will be available on thewebsite uh so God the Father the summaryof that is that Jesus reveals the fatherthrough his life and teachings if you'veseen me you've seen the father he saidto the disciples in John 14 Jesus showedus the way to the father and reflectedGod's glory as his perfectrepresentation you find that in Hebrews11-4 then the doctrine of God the son ourfundamental belief number four the keytext there is Philippians 2 5-11 whichis the the the the parabola that Jesuswent through there are two parabas inthe scriptures there is the parabola ofSatan who wanted to be equal with Godand he wanted to sit on the north of theMountain of God which means he wants tobe like God himself so he wanted toascend and then he was brought down todestruction yes and Jesus Took theopposite parab he did not think equalitywas with God is something to be graspedat but he he submitted and he becameobedient to death of a cross andtherefore he would be exalted and thathas his name every knee shall bow soSatan wanted to go up and he was broughtdown Jesus was willing to go down andGod brought the father brought him up soin the doctrine of God the son whichwhich obviously relates to Jesus Christsays Jesus though Divine humbled himselfto become human embodying obedience andsacrifice ultimately leading to hisdeath and his exaltation fundamentalbeliefs 5 and six God the Holy Spiritand the doctrine of creation well in thedoctrine of the Holy Spirit we readabout that the relationship with Jesusis in John 1425-26 John 15 26 and John 16 7-14 that'sthe upper room and the summary there isthat the holy spirit is sent by Jesus toteach remind and Empower his followerscontinuing his work and his presence inthe world the doctrine of creation findin John 1 1-4 that's the prologue and uhColossians 1:15-16 by him all thingswere made the Jehovah's Witnesses addthe phrase in their New WorldTranslation the word other have younoticed that so John 1 Colossians 1:16the witness's Bible says by him allother things weremade the implication being that Jesushimself was first created and then hecreates everything else but if you askthem to look closely what the text saysuh in in the New World Translation theword other is inparenthesis which means it'sadded it's been added there to makeJesus out to be a created being but it'snot in the original Greek so if youdon't look at the parentheses you don'trealize this has been added to twist thewhole doctrine of Christ Christ so inthe doctrine of creation our fundamentalbelief number six we see that Jesus isthe active agent in creation through himall things were made not all otherthings through him all things were madeand in whom light and life are to befound in him is life um as Ellen Whitewrites about it okay fundamental beliefnumber seven the nature of man key textthere Genesis 1: 126 and Genesis 53Romans 5:12 and Hebrews 415-16the summary there is that Humanity wasmade in the image of God that we haveinherited Adam's Fallen nature but Jesusfully God and fully human he sympathizeswith our weaknesses yet himself waswithout sin and because we have a highpriest who knows what it is to walk thethe the difficult Paths of life we cancome before the Throne of our heavenlyfather and find grace and mercy to helpin our time of need because we have aHeavenly high priest who knows what it'slike to be acquainted with grief thedoctrine of the greatcontroversy the key text thereRevelation 12 7-12 Ephesians 61-1 17that's spiritual warfare the armor ofGod and the the the summary there isthat the cosmic conflict between goodand evil is depicted in Revelation 12and Ephesians 6 with jesus' victory overSatan affirming God's sovereignty in thepromise of ultimate Redemption I justwant to remind ourselves that when weproclaim the soon coming of Jesus we areproclaiming the soon destruction of theDemons and they know that so that is whythere is always opposition when thecoming of Jesus is to be preachedbecause the forces of hell do not wantthe world to know that the forces ofhell are about to face Eternaldestruction the demons push back onJesus have you come to torment us beforethe appointed time they know there's atime of Destruction coming so when weproclaim the coming of Jesus asAdventists we should be expectingdemonic opposition to thatpreaching because the demons know andthey're not happy to hear that they'regoing to be destroyed and so then youhave doctrines 9 and 10 first is thelife death and resurrection of Christkey passages are John 11 that's the umLazarus I'm the resurrection of the lifeJohn 3:14 through1 17 we we know verse16 but verse 17 for God did not send hisson into the world to condemn the worldbut that through him the world might bewhat saved all right and acts 222- 24there PE preaching of Pentecost Jesusdeclares himself in scripture to be thesource of the resurrection and the lifewith his death and Resurrection beingthe guarantee of eternal life to hisBelievers then the doctrine of theappearance of salv the experience ofSalvation Romans 510 623 81- 2 and4Romans 10 9-13 Romans is about salvationif nothing else is that the preeminentbook in the Bible that talks about theexperience of justification Sal andsalvation and sanctification the summarythere it is through jesus' death andlife that we are reconciled to God andthus receive the gift of eternal lifeonce again Jesus at the heart of ourfundamental beliefs the growing inChrist the fundamental belief number 11key passages are Ephesians 4:1 17-24that's the doctrine of spiritual giftsEphesians 5 1-21 and 2 Peter 3:18 andthe summary there is that Believers arecalled we are called to grow in truthand love that is we are not to bestagnant in our Christian walk we are toalways to seek character transformationvictory over sin and deeperunderstanding in our walk with JesusChrist we mature In our relationreltionship with Jesus who is the headof thechurch and then the doctrine of thechurch 1 Corinthians 12 12-27 that's thespiritual gifts and Revelation 19 7-8the spiritual gifts appear in threepassages Ephesians 4 Romans 12 and 1Corinthians 12 through chapter 14 andthat Doctrine relates to Christ becausethe church is the body of Christ andevery member present here today hasgifts and we play a role in the body ofChrist and we are collectively preparingas the bride of Christ for hisreturn Then fundamental beliefs 13 and14 there's the doctrine of the remnantand its Mission Revelation 14 we'refamiliar with that the Three Angelsmessages and Revelation 18 4-5 so theremnant of God proclaims the Eternalgospel then this calls for endurance andfaithfulness to God's Commandments andto Faith in JesusChrist and then the the doctrine number14 unity in the body of Christ John 17:5that's the high Priestly prayer of Jesuspraying for Unity among his believersand Ephesians 4:11-16 Jesus prays for Unity among hisfollowers reflecting the unity foundwithin the godhead from before thefoundation of time as a witness to theworld of what God can do throughSanctified individuals our world is tornapart in every possible way we are toldby our society that we must divide alongracial and ethnic and educational andall kinds of lines lines and the body ofChrist is to be a standing rebuke to tothese lies the body of Christ is to be aplace today not just on that sea ofglass where people of every nation tribelanguage and background find fellowshipand equality before God and the Verystyle of our worship emphasized that thereason we have pews in our Protestantchurches is because we're emphasizingthat before God we are all equal we sitin the same pews side by side nobody haspreeminence or prior claim on God byvirtue of race ethnicity oreducation and so we have unity in thebody of Christ Christ that Doctrinerevolves around the prayer of Jesus forUnity about doctrines 15 and 16 thedoctrine of baptism and the Lord'sSupper when it comes to baptism Romans 6we are baptized with Christ into hisdeath because of baptism s symbolizesour Union with Christ in his death andwe are resurrected to newness of Life InChrist we have a new life in JesusChrist and then the Lord's Supper wellclearly that revolves around thedoctrine of Jesus Christ Matthew 2626-30 is the prime passage there itappears also so in in in um Luke'sgospel it also appears in John in Johnin the Lord's in in the upper room youdon't have the bread and the winebecause that appears in John chapter 5or 6 before if you eat my flesh anddrink my blood you have part of me andso forth but uh Jesus doesn't so muchfocus on the bread and the wine inJohn's gospel but it's in Matthew andLuke so in the Lord's Supper itcommemorates Jesus sacrifice itsymbolizes his his body that was brokenfor us and his blood poured out for theForgiveness of our sins and to establisha new covenant a covenant that cannot bebroken then you have Doctrine 17 and 18spiritual gifts and Ministries in thechurch and the gift of Prophecy so onthe doctrine of spiritual gifts we uh wecome to John 15 1 Corinthians 12 through14 so those three chapters ofCorinthians are focusing on spiritualgifts we end up with love being thepreeminent gift there in 1 Corinthians14 Jesus teaches in these passages theimportance of abiding in him forfruitfulness we heard about that earliertoday last night emphasizing that spiritspiritual gifts are meant for theedifying of the church that is God giveseach one of us gifts not for our ownglorification not to advance our owncause in society but God gives you giftsto bless the person sitting next to youand that reflects jesus' ongoing workthrough his followers to be the light ofthe world that people may see our goodworks and give glory to our father thatis in heaven there from The Sermon onthe Mount the gift of ProphecyRevelation 111 and Revelation 1910 thatverse 1910 particularly famous amongAdventists it was exemplified in theRevelation the apocalypse given to Johnthe word apocalypsis means the revealingit is a testament to jesus' birth deathand Resurrection is a revelation offuture events and his sovereignty overhistory intended to guide and comforthis church in the Book of Revelation ifI remember right there are four basicvisions that John sees it's broken downinto many chapters and many subdivisionsbut there are four basic visions thatJohn sees in the Book of Revelation andin each of those uh in the first oneJesus Walks among with his persecutedChurch and in the final one Jesus isglorified with his saved Church in theNew Jerusalem and there's all thehistory that goes in between so there'sthe gift of Prophecy for us revolvesaround Jesus Christ the law of God uhfundamental belief number 19 Hebrews 8is the key passage there along with 1Corinthians11:25 uh that the New Covenant isestablished by Jesus and in the NewCovenant we do not do away with the lawof God but God writes his law on thedisciples heart emphasizing a personaland an internalized faithwhen Jesus came on the sermon of themount he said it's not enough just notto look at a woman not just enough tocommit adultery but you you must noteven look with lust upon a woman soJesus focuses not just on the externalsof the law but on the internalization ofthe law so it becomes part of who we arethen the doctrine of the Sabbath wellJesus is the lord of the Sabbath in Mark2: 23-28 the Sabbath was made for mannot man for the Sabbath and Jesus speaksas the lord of the Sabbath in Mark 2 andagain in Luke 4:16 so Jesus in thegospels particularly synoptics Matthewand Luke and in Mark he highlights theSabbath's purpose for rest and worshipasserting that he is the lord of theSabbath and he modeled it his he modeledfor us how we are to observe the sabbathtoday Doctrine 21 and 22 the doctrine ofstewardship in the doctrine of ChristianBehavior Matthew 25 is a parable aboutstewardship 14-30 and Luke 12 42-44 inthese Parables of Jesus Jesus teaches usthat that we are to engage inresponsible stewardship of the resourcesthat God has entrusted to us emphasizingthat stewardship is an act of faith andan act of service and we are morallyaccountable to God for what we do withthe gifts that he's given us and when wedon't choose the gifts that he's givenus the parable of thetalents the servant that buries thetalent he's not let into the kingdomhe's cast into outer Darkness we don'ttalk about that that aspect much in theparable but in that Parable the one whohad five and turns it into 10 entersHeaven the one who had what two and andmade into five Enders into heaven butthe one who buried his talent he getscast into outer darkness that means he'slost so we uh uh emphasizing stewardshipis an intrinsic part of the Christianexperience then Christian BehaviorMatthew 22 John 13 in John 4 Jesuscommands us to love God and our neighborlove First Love for God and our neighboras ourself that is the foundation of allChristian ethics and he embodied itthrough his life and teachings in thegospels the marriage and the familyMatthew 194 Ephesians 5 Jesus affirmsthe sanctity of marriage in the familybetween a biological male and abiological female and that's itunderscored by mutual love andcommitment reflective of Christ'srelationship with the church so if Iwant to know how to be a good husband Ineed to understand in scripture howChrist treats the church hisbride and then we come to Christ'sMinistry in the Heavenly Sanctuary whichclearly revolves around the ministry ofJesus Hebrews 8 1-2 acts 10 Jesus servesas our Heavenly high priest a mediatorof a better Covenant in heaven with abetter sacrifice and a once and for allsacrifice and he is a better high priestand all those who went before him heoffered himself as the ultimatesacrifice for all sin and he mediatesthe replies the benefits of thatCovenant on behalf of his followersuntil he comes again he is also thejudge of all mankind the second comingof Christ uh John 14 acts 1 and 1Thessalonians 4 Jesus promises hisreturn to gather his father followers acentral hope of the Christian faithemphasizing the need for preparednessand faithfulness today and then thedoctrine of death and Resurrection 1Corinthians 15 this is a passage weoften read from verse 50 onwards uh youknow that that which is corruptiblebecomes Incorruptible that which isperishable becomes imperishable and soforth that's the passage there 1Corinthians 15-54 Jesus victory over death assuresBelievers of their resurrection andeternal life and if you know noticedwhen when secular families in Americalose a child you see that their grief isoften overwhelming like I'm never goingto see my angel again it'sheartbreaking and while Christiansgrieve we grieve withhope and there is nothing more hopelessthan a funeral where there is no hope oftheresurrection and maybe some of you gotfamily members who've gone through thatprocess or maybe you've got workcolleagues and you see that the depth ofDespair that I will never see myprecious child again but it is the hopeof the Resurrection The hope that oneday all things will be made new thepromise that one day every tear will bewiped away and death and disease andsuffering will be no more these are thepromises that carry us through thosetough moments of life it means thatduring the Pandemic those who had nohope of the Resurrection were terrifiedby the covid those who had the Assuranceof eternal life yeah okay you know wethose who had the hope of theResurrection got through a whole loteasier psychologically and emotionallythan those who were terrified of deathcu because there's nothing Beyond it inthis life so death and Resurrectionfocuses around the person of JesusChrist our last two doctrines theMillennium and the end ofsin Revelation the Millennium is inRevelation 20 and the end of sin soJesus reigned during the Millennium andthe final eradication of sin culminatein the promise of a new heavens and anew Earth where God will dwell withhumanity and in the doctrine of the newEarth our last fundamental belief 2Peter 3 in Revelation 21 the new Earthwhere righteousness dwells fulfillsGod's promise of eternal life with himfree from sorrow and death to theredeemed of the ages and we will dwellwith the Lamb of Godforever so the purpose of our historythe per our destiny is to dwell with theLamb of God and so what I've just gonethrough rightnow is the fact that each one of our 28fundamental beliefs centers in theperson and the ministry of JesusChrist you may not have heard themexpressed in that way before but I'vejust shown you how they are rooted inthe person of Jesus Christ when you lookat the W denines I believe what keptthem going for those thousand plus yearsof brutal and bloody persecution wastheir personal faith in JesusChrist and what's going to keep us goingin the final crisis is the personalassurance that we are saved that we havea savior who's coming to save us fromthis world of sin and therefore as 7thAdventists in all all the doctrines thatwe preach from scripture and all of ourpreaching and all of our Bible studiesand all of our Sabbath school lessons Iwant to appeal to you to make JesusChrist the heart and center ofeverything you do and in all of thesefundamental beliefs as we've just seenJesus Christ is at the center of it heis the expression of it he is the sourceof it and he is the the the window intothis truth fromscripture so what do we say inconclusion time isup it's 9:00 it's time to[Music]go there is another stormcoming Liberty of conscience and thetruths of scripture will once again beunder attack as we saw this morningRevelation 12:7 says there was war inheaven then there is an intermediate Warwe've been looking at this morning thisevening with the church in thewilderness and then we are now in thattime of the end the time of the worldDen Seas is over and God will now have afaithful end time Remnant who will shinefor him no matterwhat and that's where we're called tolive and be am so onappeal to youtonight that when this final persecutionbreaks and if you want to know what it'sgoing to be like just look at whathappened in the last 1500years all bets are off as to what isconsidered Beyond reasonable treatmentof the prisoners all bets are off butthis time the persecution will not belocalized as with the w denines it willbe Global but we are called tonight tocommit to God that we will be end timeworld dening that we will follow their mmot that we will let the light shine inthe darkness no matter how bad thatDarkness gets and that this world willsee in us the light of the world that isJesus Christ we do that with a promisethat the one who endures to the end willbe saved so again I want to appeal toyou again as I appeal to you thismorning learn the scriptures foryourself if we memorize thosefundamental beliefs and you understandhow Jesus is at the heart thosefundamental beliefs you're going to beprepared for whatever this world throwsat you there are Christians in prisontoday who are in prison cells and theydo not have access to theirBibles but they bear the name ofChrist and some of them are with jihadisand Communists who know the teachings ofmarks and teachings of Muhammad do theChristians know the teachings ofJesus can you carry that into a prisoncell in yourmind this is not an academic discussionthis kind of stuff is happening rightnowso we count our blessings it doesn'tinvolve us just yetbut it is affecting people some of usknow people in this room who are goingthrough that rightnow so feed your mind with the word ofGod be intentional about feeding yourmind and just as Dr Hugo this morningsaid that you can change the biome inyour gut in about a 3-we period so yourbiome starts wanting healthy food ratherthan junk food so as we as we feed ourmind the truths of scripture so wedevelop a yearning for moreunderstanding of the truth of scriptureGod changes our spiritual biome in ourmind and uh no matter where we'restarting for from here tonight God willchange that with you he will bring tocompletion good work he begun in you andhe will give you a love for truthmemorize the fundamental beliefs Imentioned that thismorning um we're not to have a faiththat says uh there are you know thereare four questions and one of them isthe accurate like what you call multiplechoice we to have an active knowledge ofthe scriptures we need to positively beable to describe and understand andexplain what we understand we are to beable to give a reason for the faith thatwe hold we cannot contend for the faiththat has been passed on to us if wedon't know what that faithis so as a starting point memorize thefundamental beliefs and memorize thescriptural references that go with itit's a good starting point I don't knowif anybody's going to commit to thattonight but if the holy spirit isspeaking to you maybe by next year youcould have done that yes it's not thatlong it's about like eight pages of textit's not a longdocument again live as Disciples ofJesus Christtoday base the decisions you make on theteachings of Jesus and the faith youhave in him and the promptings of hisholy spirit rather than what thelifestyle gurus on YouTube are tellingyoutonight Jesus is the source of Truth heis Truth live as disciples today letother people know that there is apeculiar people in this world Worldwhose lives are calibrated by the truthsof scripture not by what fox and CNN orYouTube are tellingthem the people of this world need toknow that following Jesus leads todifferent priorities in life differentvalues and different kinds ofrelationships prepare for persecution Imentioned again this morning this ifthis sounds familiar it is because weneed to hear this repetition is a motherof learning reorder Our Livesspiritually intellectually andemotionally so there are no other godsbetween us and our HeavenlyFather intellectually we knowpersecution is going tocome spiritually am Iready andemotionally I'm going to count every daywith my wife and children as a blessingbecause I don't know how long it's goingtolast and I'm going to be prepared forthat I heard a story today during lunchI'm not sure if the lady is still hereof a family from Eastern Europe and umthe mother had two daughtersand they were both given the right toflee Eastern Europe and to come toAmerica as refugees and the mother gotthe Visa the daughter got the Visa butthe second daughter did not get thevisa and it was a brutal CommunistRegime and the lady was sharing with medownstairs today what an awful decisionit was for that mother to decide do twoof us seek life and Liberty in Americaand leave the third one to survive or dowe all stay in Risk execution by theCommunists if it was an awful decisionthat that mother had to make and shemade a decision what's interesting inthat story is we won't go into what thedecision was but Communism collapsedjust a couple of years later and thewhole family could come together onceagain so we are often placed withimpossibledecisions but what we find is that Godis still in control and he works thingsout for the good of hisSaints so preparing for apersecution um pain rearrange es yourpriorities like nothing else and sostart rearranging them today before youhave to go through thatpain and finally shine alight and again make Mission work andevangelism the priority of yourcongregation and of your family and ofyour personal life carry glow tracksleave them in planes leave them into busstations leave them in in in um and umtrain stations let your work colleaguesknow that you are a follower of JesusChristlet your neighbors know you a followerof Jesus Christ however it is let peopleknow that Jesus Reigns in your life andthat while we are Americans our firstloyalty is to the citizen is to thekingdom of God from where we'reexpecting Our Savior the Lord JesusChrist if you can go as a missionary andif the Holy Spirit has moved upon yourheart today then speak with me go as amissionary with AFM we'd love to haveyou over 40% of the world is yet to hearthe name of Jesus Christ Jesus is notcoming back until there are no unreachedpeople groups left and there are over8,000 unreached people groups left todayin our planet so when we say Jesus iscoming soon you need to start looking atthe data and it doesn't look good rightnow so maybe God is calling you tonightto be a missionary and if so praise thelord it's a life of sacrifice it's alife where you leave your Comfortsbehind but it's a life of adventure withGod and you will come back with scarssome may be physical like on my handssome will be spiritual some will beemotional every mission comes back withscars is easy to criticize the man inthe arena but I'd rather be the man orwoman in the arena because that's whereeverything gets very real and if youcannot go yourself support a missionaryworking among an unre people groupsupport a Ministry like homood boundpublishing what they do here support amission like maratha or it is writtenchoose something and pray for that teambecause they're involved in a spiritualbattle be the Aaron and the her thatlift up the har the arms of Moses uh sothat the battle may go well in thevalley in the valley beneath us um don'tsit on the sidelines get involved inthis battle getinvolved we are to contend for the faiththat's been passed so I could rattle onlike this all night and I know I need tobring this to a close uh time is up andkids need to get to sleep and so forthI'm getting rather tired so I shouldbring this to a close because I'm notsure what's coming out of my mouth rightnow other than to saythis um polycarp the first recordedChristian martyr you can read hisdownload his his story of his marom sit's called the mom of polycarp thebishop of smura he was challenged by theRomans to give up his faith or faceexecution and he says four score and sixyears have I served my king and he hasdone me no wrong why should I now denyhim and I can say to th I've lived twoscore in 10 years and my King has doneme noharm so why should I turn my back onhim my prayer is each one of us can sayat some point in our life when we'recalled to testify for the faith that wehold dear in our hearts that these somany years I've served my king the LordJesus Christ and he has done me no harmso I'm not going to deny him no matterwhat you may do to metoday so learn the scriptures feed yourmind on the word of God memorize thefundamental beliefs reorder your livesso they are lived in harmony with theteachings of Jesus Christ preparespiritually emotionally intellectuallyfor the storm that is coming we knowit'scoming and choose to shine a light we'renot going to hide our bushels not goingto run to the mountains we're going tobe missionaries to the ends of the Earthbecause in so doing as reading the bookActs of the Apostles we can it is ourprivilege to hasten the coming of JesusChrist by sharing the gospel to the endsof the world so if the holy spirit ismoved upon your heart tonight or anytimetoday don't go home and quench theconvictions of the spirit but go hometonight and get on your knees and sayLord show me to do what you brought meconviction about today guide me in thepath that you wouldd have me live umreorder my life reorder my prioritiesrenew my thinking and change my heartand my prayer is that maybe we won't behere next year that we will be in heavenabove but if we are here next year mypray that we will be found faithful tothe Lord active in whatever portion ofthe vineyard he's called us to serve inso be faithful to him and one day hewill welcome you into our Heavenly homelet's bow our heads for word of prayerHeavenlyFather we thank you for these examp Lesfrom history painful and bloody thoughthey may be we know that they but walkedin the footsteps of Jesus on the road togolgotha and father I thank you that Jesusfor the joy that was set before himendured The Shame of theCross he endured everything for the joyof dwelling For Eternity for the withthe Saints of this planet Earth I prayLord that we will do the same for himthat for the joy of dwelling with theLamb of God forever we will endurewhatever this world pushes our waybecause father we know this world andeverything in it is passing away itcannot provide eternal life we are threescore and 10 painful years then we passaway and we're forgotten but our hopefather is in you for eternal life withyour son so Lord until we meet again mayyour holy spirit guide each and everyone of us whatever Ministry you havecalled us to do may we be found faithfulin that portion of in the vineyard Maythe gifts that you've given us shine ForYour Glory May Our Lives leave many toJesus Christ here in um the upperColumbia conference Idaho in Washingtonwherever we may come from and I prayLord that Jesus when you come againyou're going to be looking for each oneof us and you're going to be looking forus to be in the Lamb's Book of Life nomatter what this world may have thrownat us no matter what the Nebuchadnezzarand the Lions may have done to us I praythat we will be there in that gloriousday when this P this perishable thisMortal this corruptible body will betransformed and we will be we will bewith you forever more so father untilthat day may we be found faithful may weShine for you and above all else maypeople see in us that we have spent timewith the Man from Nazareth thank youFather for hearing and for answering ourprayer in the name of Jesus we ask amenthank you very much for staying by Ihave two more announcements I want toremind you of there's free books on thetable out there and there's a lot ofglow tracks and as Elder Vine haschallenged us to be missionaries take asmany glow tracks as you would like andpass them out use them make that yourministry and the health Expo do notforget it's from 10 to 5: tomorrow wehope all of you can come and enjoy whatwe have we would like toum brother Brandon andstar we'd like to finish our campmeeting with singing the song side byside westand we usually get in a circle so ifyou'd like to do that we can do that getin a circle and sing or just stand whereyou are and we'llsing all right side by side westand all rightsing us we're going to sing it ACcapella I'll pitch anote um everybody's going to want tosing when I start singing it happensevery time even when I give thisannouncement I'll pitch a note bysinging a few of the words we'll pauseand stop and then we'll start andsinging it together oh do we have aPianistokay all right we have a Pianistokay let's s together side by side westand waiting God'scommandworshiping thesaing king living by hisgrace living by his and moving out infaith moving out in faith Jesus himselfwill see us through will see meet me inheavenme me in heaven we'll join handstogether join hands together meet me bythe savior's side meet me bytheor side I'll meet you in heaven I'llmeet you in heaven we'll sing songstogether sings together brothers andsisters I'll be there brothers andsisters I'll be there soldiers all arewe soldiers all are we to go where Jesusleads we'll fight the foe when we will[Music]overcome Heaven is our goal to savingEverySoul pray that we arewill bethere meet me in heaven will join handstogether me me by thesame yourside we'll meet you inheav will sing songs together[Music]brothers and sisters I'll bethere praise the Lord we'll all be therepriseout will be[Music]there amen may God bless you is we haveany final announcements or are weexcused all right you your excuse mayGod bless you until we all able to meetagain