Victory over sin! | Dr. Conrad Vine

Good morning everybody. It's a beautiful Sabbath day. Yes. Somebody explained to me this morning why they know why they chose this hotel. I said why do they choose this hotel?

They said cuz there's a Taco Bell just around the corner. I said well I'm preaching on the overcoming sin this morning. So that's an appropriate location for a for a convention. So, um, anyway, uh, if, uh, there's going you have you all heard of LoudCry International? Yes.

So, there's going to be a convention next year in the Pacific Northwest, June 11th through 20th. Um, and there are the forms outside at LoudCry booth. I'd encourage you to take a look at that. There'll be a QR code we'll put up in my evening presentation. They have a fantastic book called The Captive Bride.

I'd encourage you to pick up a copy. uh the captive bride speaks about how we have um basically subjugated ourselves to the United Nations in all the various documents, the legal ways and it's certainly worth reading. So, um our topic this morning is called victory over sin. And for those of you who made it here on time, praise the Lord, you're heading in the right direction. And so, uh it's a privilege to come and share with you today.

The topic of victory over sin, um sometimes it gets a bad reputation. Would you agree? And because people people assume that victory over sin means that you walk around with a long long face, you have a sour character and that life is miserable for you. But I I can tell you this morning that following Jesus is one of the greatest joys of life. And when you have the assurance of eternal life, you say, "Praise the Lord." And whatever happens in this life is just a blink before we get to eternity.

And so when you have the assurance of salvation, it really is a blessed thing. And um victory over sin um is part of the process and by which God prepares us for eternity. So um as we begin I invite you once again to bow your heads with me and invite the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our heavenly father we thank you for the blessings of the Sabbath day. Father I thank you for the freedom we have to come and gather in this um hotel and to worship you and to grow in grace and in truth.

Lord uh as as I speak this morning, I humbly ask that you speak through me and for me. Uh, may my words be from your throne of grace. Forgive me for my sins, Lord. Forgive each one of us for our sins this morning. I pray that our words and meditations of our hearts and our praises um and our prayers will be acceptable in your sight on this Sabbath day.

In your holy name we pray. Amen. So our theme this uh weekend is endtime deceptions and last night um I spoke on normaly bias and I want to speak this this morning on the question of victory over sin. And the reason why this is important is because um before Jesus comes, there's something called the mark of the what? Beast.

And the mark of the beast is essentially breaking which commandment? The fourth. Now, if you believe that that you can remain in in ongoing willful sin all the way up until Jesus comes again, that means you can receive the mark of the beast and still be saved. That's a logical conclusion of that position. Would you follow?

Because if you can remain in in in committing sins and the mark of the beast is just the breaking of the fourth commandment. If you can remain committing sins, that means you can receive the mark of the beast and be deluded into thinking you will still receive the gift of salvation. So once you accept the idea that in the final crisis you can remain in active sin, that means you've you're already predisposed to saying I can receive the mark of the beast and God is going to forgive me and he's going to get me through anyway. Are you following me? So that it is an end time deception.

So many people today that argue that you can never gain victory over sins. Has anybody heard that argued in their lives? Yes. You can never gain argue over sin. Probably your mother-in-law is a is a firm believer that you can never gain victory over sin.

Um other people believe that to try and gain victory over sin is a form of legalism and it's a rejection of the grace of God. Um other people believe that we will not just remain as sinful human beings but we will engaged in we will be engaged in ongoing active sins when Jesus comes and that that is not true. When in in we are sinful we are fallen human beings and when Jesus comes we'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. Uh that that is when our sinful nature is transformed. But we're not discussing our sinful nature here.

And what we're discussing is remaining in active sin committing acts of sin. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about victory over sin. So if you believe that that God does not give us the power and he does not wish us to gain victory over sin. If you accept that basic lie of Satan, then many people will simply give up the struggle against sin. They give up the struggle.

They're gradually overwhelmed. They yield to temptation. They sink deeper into sin and they then they begin to despair of their salvation. They say things like, "God can save others, but God cannot save me. Look at all the sins in my life." So once you accept the idea that God is not concerned about us gaining victory over sin, then the uh of the um the end result for many people including Adventists and I find this as a pastor is that people come to their deathbed and they say God can forgive everybody else but God cannot forgive me.

People are sunk in their sins. So um let's talk about this this morning. This is going to be our journey here. We're going to look at start off with some common objections to gaining victory over sin. We're then going to look at the close of probation where that figures into this and the 144,000.

Then we're going to look at pathways to victory over sin and then we're going to come to our conclusions. You know John Newton who wrote the song Amazing Grace he said wrote he wrote later in his life because he was a slave trader and he came to Christ in the middle of a storm in the Atlantic and later in his life he wrote this. He said I'm not the man that I want to be but by the grace of God neither am I neither am I the man that I used to be. So he recognized that the Christian life isn't something that is static, but it's an ongoing journey. It's a journey towards Christlikkeness.

And our goal as Christians today is each and every day to more perfectly reflect our heavenly savior Jesus Christ. So the Christian life is is is not static. It is dynamic and it's in a certain direction. So let's look first at some common objections to gaining victory over sin. And I've put some of the most common objections here up on the screen.

The first is this. We cannot stop sinning because we are too weak. Has anybody ever heard that objection or a variant thereof? We cannot stop sinning because we are too weak. Well, um let's look at what the Bible says about these things rather than what Pastor Vine says about these things.

Um Revelation 3:21 says to the one who what? Conquers. I'll give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. And so we are to overcome the challenges we face in life just as Jesus Christ himself overcame in the flesh when he was here on planet earth. And Jesus was clear in this passage here um that in this the screen the passage on the screen here that he did not overcome in his own strength but he overcame in the strength of his heavenly father.

You see in John 5:30 Jesus says I can do nothing on my own. So Jesus depended on a power outside of him that is from his heavenly father. And that power is available to all of us today. Uh Sister White writes this manuscript 140. She said, "In every possible way, Satan sought to present prevent Jesus from developing a perfect childhood, a faultless manhood, a holy ministry, and an unblenmished sacrifice.

But he was defeated. He could not lead Jesus into sin. He could not discourage him or drive him from the work that he had come to this earth to do. From the desert to Calvary, the storm of Satan's wrath beat upon him. But the more mercilessly it fell, the more firmly did the son of God cling to the hand of his father and press on in the blood bloodstained path.

So the power on which Jesus depended was that of his heavenly father. And so we read later in in the New Testament, Philippians 4:13, I can do some things. Is that what it says? No. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So the first objection that we cannot stop sinning because we are too weak uh in and of itself may be viewed as correct if you exclude God from the equation. But for God all things are possible. And if I focus on myself I become discouraged. And if I focus on God and his immense power, if he spoke the universe into existence and he spoke the sun into existence and all the stars, there's nothing he cannot do in me, through me, and for me. And so the second objection we find to victory over sin is this.

If we believe that we have to be sinless, we will end up focusing on ourselves rather than Jesus. You often hear a variant of this kind of objection to victory over sin. Um, and the net result of this is that people tend to focus on their own weaknesses and their own failures and they listen to the accusations of Satan who all he does is discourage and dissuade with his false guilt and his true guilt and we end up being very discouraged in our walk with God. And so, what does the word of God say about this? Well, God gives us a promise when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we enter into the new covenant walk with Christ.

The uh prophet Ezekiel says this in Ezekiel 36, "A what I will give you? A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I'll remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my what? Statutes. And be careful to observe my ordinances." And so in this passage here, we're invited to look to God and to his promise to renew us from within rather than looking at ourselves in the mirror.

In reality, those who take this position that if we believe we have to be sinless, we end up focusing on ourselves rather than Jesus, such individuals um are so focused on themselves that they cannot see any possibility of victory. They know their frailties. They're looking at the man in the mirror all the time and they're discouraged by what they see. But in this passage here, God says,"I will put my spirit within you." So once again, our attention is drawn not from my own self and my own capabilities and my own failures, but our eyes are drawn to God himself and what he can do within us rather than what we think we can do for ourselves. As Sister White wrote about this in this passage here, she said, "In the day of judgment, the course of the man who has retained the frailty and imperfection of humanity will not be vindicated.

For him, there will be no place in heaven. He could not enjoy the perfection of the saints in light. He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that he can keep him from sinning has not the faith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom of God. There were 12 spies went into Canaan. You remember that story.

How many were faithful? Two. 10 of those spies looked at the challenges ahead and they looked at themselves and said, "We can't do this." And two of those spies looked at the challenges ahead and they said, "God can do this." And it was the two spies that said, "God can do it rather than we can't do it." It was only those two spies enter the promised land. And so once again, we have this idea here that when we look to Christ and we look to God and his immense power, our eyes are taken off our own frailties and we start to believe that God can save a sinner such as me. So the third objection that we often find uh this is a very common one is this.

We are saved by what? Grace and not by works. And it is true when we say that we are to gain victory over sin that can divulge into a form of legalism where I have a list of sins that I need to overcome and when I've overcome all those sins then I believe that I'm somehow saved. And we forget the fact that we are saved by grace not by works as indeed we read in Ephesians chapter 2 8-9. But this position appears to believe that faith in um means nothing more than than when you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are now declared righteous.

But it also believes that God doesn't have the power to make you righteous. And God has the power to do both. God has the power to do both. The Apostle Paul described this kind of attitude. He said such people in the end times as they hold to the outward form of godliness but they deny its power avoid them.

And so there are people in the church today who say you can accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and you can receive the righteousness of Christ and you can be clothed with his righteousness but they forget the fact that this is justification but there is also sanctification. And um I've I don't have that slide there. Maybe it'll come up in a few moments. So anyway, we are to avoid such people who hold this position. God has the power to make his people righteous, not just to declare us righteous.

To be in Christ is justification. For Christ to be within you, is sanctification. And Christ wants us to experience both. It's not enough just to say, "Cover me with your robe of righteousness so that um when God in the final judgment, in the pre-advent judgment, God sees the perfection of Christ." That is a good thing to have. But Jesus also wants to live within us.

It's why we sing in the song, live out thy life within me. We're inviting Jesus into us to live his life out in us in order that he transforms us from the inside out rather than just just accepting the robe of righteousness and saying, "Let me keep those sins under that robe because I kind of like them and I can't gain victory over them anyway." And the Apostle Paul describes this process of God making us holy in 2 Corinthians 3:18. He says, "And all of us with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as they're reflected in a mirror, are being what? Transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord.

It comes from the spirit." So we were created in the image of God. And the fall and the entrance of sin into this world has defaced the image of God in each and every one of us. Would you agree with me? Yes. So the fall has degraded us morally and physically.

Um I was chatting with somebody this morning and they said, "Well, when you drop a penny in the morning in your bedroom, you have to decide whether you really need that penny." Because the older you get, you have to make some hard choices. [laughter] Do I really want to bend down there or not? And you know you're getting old because when you bend down in the morning to do your shoelaces, you look for other jobs to do while you're down there. We all know about the physical degradation of age. All right?

We experience the fall in very, very personal and practical ways. Um so but this passage here says we are transformed um we are transformed um by the holy spirit. It comes from the lord and it comes from the spirit. So the fall which involves the entrance of sin into the human experience has degraded the image of god within us. And in our sinful image in our sinful condition we do not reflect the image of God.

So sanctification is the progressive ongoing process by which God restores his image within his children. And if it was sin that defaced God's image in his children, then it is the removal of the presence and the power of sin in our lives that enables God to bring about the restoration of his image in our lives. Are you following me on this? If sin caused the fall and the loss of the image of God, then it is the the image can only be restored as we progressively partner with God and gain victory over individual sins that that curse us in our lives. Uh the next objection you hear is this.

So long as Satan reigns, we still have self to subdue and besetting sins to overcome. As long as life shall last, there shall be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, "I have fully attained." Now this quote is often used to prove that we will never gain victory over besetting sins. But what exactly are besetting sins? We have to ask ourself that question. Besetting sins are sins that particularly um tempt us as individuals.

Some people are tempted to alcohol. Some people are tempted to anger. Some people are tempted to pride. Other people are tempted to greed or gossip or porn or whatever the case may be. Each and every one of us is a unique constellation of weaknesses.

And Satan knows what our weaknesses are because he's studied us our entire lives. And so Satan knows which buttons to press. Does anybody anybody agree with me on that? Okay. Um I can walk by um a buffalo wild wing that I have no interest in going in.

The smell repulses me. Okay. But I I when I came back from uh central Asia, I was like 27. I walked down a street in London and suddenly my no my nose was arrested by a smell. I [snorts] What was that?

I realized, oh, that was fish and chips. It was salt and vinegar. Cuz in England we put salt and vinegar and it's very, very strong smell. And my nose was just arrested by it. And I had a weakness for fish and chips.

You know, that's I get it like once every 10 years now. in case you're worried about that. But um you know, I'm worried about the overpopulation of the of the cod in the North Atlantic, you know. So, we have to keep the population under control. So, um but but the point is that uh when I smell um fish when I smell salt and vinegar, my mind immediately goes to fish and chips.

That's how we were raised in Britain. In World War II, every food was rationed except fish and chips. Why? Because fish and chips was is good for morale. is good for morale and so people ate fish and ships all all the way through World War II.

So um but besetting sins are sins that particularly tempt us and each one of us is a unique constellation of buttons and weaknesses because of our human nature and our human ancestry and some sins run in the family you might say and some families have a temptation to a certain kind of sin and Satan knows what they are. So a besetting sin, those are sins that particularly tempt us. But temptation is not the same thing as sin. Temptations only become sin when we yield to them. So subduing self does not mean committing sin in this passage.

It means not giving into the desire to gratify self. And the statement no point no point to the um we can reach and say I fully attained doesn't mean we will never gain victory over sin. It means that we will have to keep on resisting temptation until Jesus comes until uh because until he comes we are still fallen creatures subject to temptation. Now sister wife goes on to say this. She says no one who claims holiness is really holy.

I quoted that to my wife once didn't go well. Those who are registered as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the facts and are the last ones to boast of their own god goodness. None of the prophets and apostles ever professed holiness, not even Daniel, Paul, or John. The righteous never make such a claim. The more nearly they resemble Christ, the more they lament their unlikeness to him, for their consciences are sensitive and they regain they regard sin more as God regards it.

And o the truth is this, the more closely we resemble Christ, the more we lament our unlikeness to him. The closer we come to Christ, the closer we come to the benchmark, the closer we come to the original, the closer we come to the perfect model for all humanity, the more we realize how far short of the standard we've all fallen. I watched an interview once with um Jordan Peterson. You know who Jordan Peterson is? He's gone kind of through for the last four years, he's gone through kind of like a semi kind of a conversion experience.

And I watched an interview with him and the interviewer asked him, "Well, who is Jesus Christ?" And Jordan Pson was like he was there's tears coming down his face. He said I realize as a psychologist that there has to be a benchmark for humanity. And now I realize that Jesus is that benchmark. And he says the more I look at the stories of Jesus and the gospel he is the perfect man to have ever lived. And I realize how far short of his of his standard I've reached.

And he was crying on the on YouTube at at the realization that he how far short of the glory of God he had fallen. And I think sometimes we as Adventists, we need to recapture that sense of how perfect wonderful Jesus really is. And the closer we come to him and the more we ask God to give us victory over those besetting sins in our lives, the closer we come to the original, the more more closely we realize how faulty we really are. And so the closer we come to Christ likeness, uh you might say there is less pride in our lives because we realize how much in need of a savior we really are. the closer we come to him and see him in all his perfection.

So the holier we become, the more unholy we appear to ourselves. And objection number five is this. Gaining victory over sin is too high a standard and will drive people away. What do you think? True.

No. The Bible says exactly the opposite. The Bible says, "Arise and shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will appear over you.

Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. When our characters are changed into the likeness of Jesus, the unconverted come to us for light. I was listening to a sermon the other day by um by a pastor and he was saying he was walking through an airport and a man came up to him and said, "You must be a Christian. How do I know that?" And the the man says, "Because there's a light coming out of your face." Amen. When I was in Iraq many years ago, 2014 15, I was in an airport and and an Iraqi general, a colonel came up to me and I was sitting in the departure lounge and he said, "Can I sit down next to you?" I said, "Well, sure." And um and there was a war going on with ISIS and and he turned to me and he said, "Why are you here?" I said, "Well, I'm a Christian." He says, "I can see that." He says, "But why are you here?

It's dangerous." I said, you know, officer, I said, um, everybody here is fighting, but I serve the Prince of Peace, and if we were to accept the Prince of Peace in this nation, the fighting would go away. And in the Middle East, because both Islam and Judaism have rejected the Prince of Peace, it is no surprise they always have conflict amongst each other. But when we accept the Prince of Peace, he changes us from the inside out. And that officer came and sat next to me and for some reason he knew I was a Christian just through looking at me, sitting in a departure lounge. So the closer we come to God, when the Lord rises upon us and his glory appears over us, people are drawn to the glory of God shining out of his saints.

Um, and Jesus said this, "And I when I'm lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to myself." So God does want us to reflect the character of Christ. Um, we are to preach always, as one preacher once said, we are to preach always and only if absolutely necessary are we to use words that our life is to be a hymn of praise. Our life is to be a living sermon of what it means to be transformed um by the grace of God. What it means to be adopted into the family of God to all who believe he gave the power to become the sons and daughters of God. And I say amen to that.

And when we are adopted, when we are bought back from sin and we are redeemed, we have a story to tell of how he's rescued us from darkness to walk in the marvelous light. People are drawn to the testimony of what God has done in me, for me, and through me. And so, first John 3:2 says this, "Beloved, we are we are God's children. Now, what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this.

When he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." Which means when he is revealed that is when Jesus comes again we will be like him in that moment when Jesus comes again he will have a people who reflect his character on planet earth. Those are people who have gained victory over sin. So there are these common objections we hear to victory over sin. So let's come to the the close of probation. Now are we sent the Adventists?

Yes. I think a better name for us should be seventh day probationists. It doesn't flow so easily off the tongue, does it? And why should we be called seventh day probationist? There is a reason for this.

Because our focus in the question of victory over sin is not the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is the close of probation and the pre and the heavenly judgment. And why is that? Because when pro when probation closes, that is when the pre-advent judgment finishes in heaven above, our eternal destinies are fixed and they cannot be changed. So we go through the time of trouble either the saints go through Jacob's time of trouble and the wicked go through the time of trouble of Daniel 12:1 and2.

Everybody go after the close of probation, everybody has a rocky ride until Jesus come actually comes in the clouds of glory. But when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory, it's too late to say, "Okay, I repent. Our characters are fixed. Our eternal destinies are fixed at the close of probation, not when Jesus comes again. So as Adventists, while we proclaim the second coming of Jesus, we need to be asking God to give us victory over sin before the close of probation.

You following me on this? Yeah. So we need to be thinking about the close of probation. Sister White says this. When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of how many?

All will have been decided for life or death. Probation is entered a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. And we see closes of probation in the Bible. One of one good example is uh Genesis chapter 6 through 8. There was a close of probation before the flood.

Noah and his family were shut into the ark for 7 days before God's judgment fell on the wicked in the form of the flood in Genesis 7 9-16. And in the New Testament, God, Jesus himself announces in the book of Revelation, the close of probation just before he comes again. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:11, Jesus himself says, "Let the evildoers still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy." And so, the close of probation comes when the pre-advent judgment in the heavenly courts is finished. Now, I did a sermon on this up in uh Washington a few weeks ago called Michael Stands Up. It was a two-part sermon.

It went on for like 4 hours. So if you got 4 hours, I recommend you watch that. Um, but I just want to assure you today the message of the pre-advent judgment and the close of probation, it should bring joy to the heart of every disciple of Jesus Christ. It is not a cause for for worry because uh when the in the final judgment before in the pre-advent judgment, judgment is given for the saints of God and against the persecuting powers of this planet. It is when we are vindicated before the universe.

When God exonerates us before the universe, when God says that's that man, that woman, that boy, that girl, um, they have the character of God. Their name is in the Lamb's book of life. They're wearing the robe of Christ righteousness. They are secure for eternity. So, I'm not afraid of the pre-advent judgment.

I think it's the wonderful part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we should not be afraid of the pre-advent judgment, although even though we should take it seriously. So, uh, Revelation 6:17, uh, let's look at a question. um for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand. Now this passage is talking about the second coming of Jesus.

This is the sixth seal where where the wicked see the one on the throne that is God the father and the lamb standing next to him. When the when the wicked stand up and they see God coming in all his glory with all the angels and Jesus with him the question is who is able to stand? And the answer is given in the next chapter Revelation 7:3 it is those who've received the seal of God. So those who have been marked by God with a seal on their foreheads and this represents their sealing before the final struggle between good and evil uh truth and error, Christ and Satan, conscience and coercion. The sealing represents both salvation and protection.

And when the sealing of the 144,000 is complete, probation is over. The plagues fall on the wicked and the righteous endure Jacob's time of trouble. So you may say, well, what is that ceiling? We'll come to that in a few moments, but let's just um look at those 144,000 in a bit more detail. And this is the passage that describes them.

These are they who go through the final crisis. Now, is Jesus coming soon? Yes or no? Yes. That means that the 144,000 will be known pretty soon.

They are the ones who stand for God in the final crisis. I want to be there in the 144,000. Don't you? Sister White wrote to her mother. She said, "Strive to be among the 144,000.

I want to be in that group because I want to I want to be on that roller coaster ride before Jesus comes again. And I want to see Jesus coming in the clouds of glory. I don't just want to preach about it. I want to see it with my own eyes. I don't want to want to look in in history in in eternity past people tell stories about the second coming of Christ.

No, I want to say and I was there. And I was there. I know it. I saw it. I experienced it.

I felt the ground shake. I heard the voice of the archangel. I listened to the trumpet of God. I saw every mountain move out of its place. I saw the earth the earth melting down with the with the heat of the glory of his coming.

I'm not worried about global warming. I'm more worried about global meltdown actually when Jesus comes. I saw it. I was there. All right.

And it's the greatest sound and light show in human history. Those are the 144,000. Then I looked and there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion. And with him were 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.

The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who have been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

So who are these 144,000? Well, if you believe it's a literal number, a literal number, then if you have to apply Revelation 7, they must all be Jewish and 12,000 each come from different tribes of Israel. And we don't know the 10 tribes of Israel where they are now anymore. And they must all be male. Uh so when John is told about when he's told about the 144,000 in Revelation 7, he hears what the angel says, but then he says when he looked, he saw a great multitude that no man could number drawn from every nation, tribe, language, and people, men and women.

So the 144,000 is not a literal 144,000 bunch of of male virgins from the Jewish people. All right? Because John hears about it in Revelation 7 1-3, but when he looks to see what the angel is talking about, it's a multitude dude from everywhere in the world, including from the state of Oregon. Praise the Lord. Even from the state of Oregon, I mean, God's grace even reaches to the state of Oregon.

[clears throat] So, let's look at a bit more. Let's look at this in a bit more detail, shall we? It says, "Then I looked and there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion." Uh, do any of you watch in the Olympics when they have that moment on the podium and the winner stands there with the gold medal and there you've got the silver and you got the bronze. Yes. Well, the 144,000 are standing with Jesus Christ on Mount Zion.

This is their podium moment. This is where they stand with Jesus and Jesus identifies with his faithful few in the final crisis. Says, "We we got through this together. I went through this with my people and they let they lasted the course. They kept the faith.

They fought the fight of faith. They lasted the course. This is their podium moment before the universe. And I want to be on that podium. I want to be on that podium with Jesus Christ.

And so, um, they have made it through. They have survived Satan's last deceptions. They have survived the economic mandates of the mark of the beast. They've survived, uh, the threat of death penalty. They've survived imprisonment.

They've survived cancel culture like nothing in this world has ever seen before. They've survived being hated by all men for Christ for the name of Christ. They've survived persecution in the church and persecution outside of the church. They have survived everything that this world and Satan can throw at them. And God says, "These are my champions.

These are my champions. And I want to be on that group on Mount Zion with the lamb of God. They have made it through the final crisis. This is their podium moment." It goes on to say, "And with him, with Christ, with 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads, they were unashamed to bear the name of Christ in a world ruled by Satan that says, "We will not have this man to rule over us." Now, um, they have the name of God and they have the name of the lamb written upon their foreheads. Notice that at the very same time in Revelation 13, just three verses before in Revelation 13, um the second beast of Revelation 13 imposes the mark of the beast on people's where foreheads and upon their hands.

Okay? And the 144,000, they have the name of God, of the Father, and the name of Jesus Christ upon their foreheads. What does that mean? It means that at the end of time, there's two groups of people. One group of people, their characters perfectly reflect that of Satan himself.

And so we see an upsurge of demonic violence in our world before Jesus comes. And there's another group, the 144,000. On their foreheads is written the name of the father. God's name is his glory. It is it's his character.

So in the final crisis there, the 144,000 are known not by where they come from, but by the characters they have. And those characters perfectly reflect the name the character of our heavenly father and of the lamb of God. And so this speaks to those who've gone through character transformation before Jesus comes again. Their characters reflect the character of Jesus Christ. You know, uh when we talk about that the seal of God in Revelation chapter 7, the do not bring back the judgment until I have sealed these people on their foreheads.

In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13, um the se the seal of God is referred to as the Holy Spirit. All right. In Revelation 14:1 and2 it says on their foreheads you have the name of their father and the name of the lamb of God which means their characters reflect God's character and God's character is holy. So when we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit it's not just that God does nothing with us. God then transforms our characters through the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

So our characters reflect that of our father and of the lamb of God. And that seal of God is manifest in the first angel's message in keeping the fourth commandment. So the external sign that that you have the character of God is that you keep the Sabbath day. You following me? But keeping the Sabbath day um um assumes that you are filled with the Holy Spirit and God has changed your character through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And so the seal of God is the Holy Spirit that leads to personal holiness and personal holiness and him writing his law upon your heart leads externally to the keeping of the Sabbath day. So the keeping of the Sabbath day is an external sign of what God is doing and has done within our hearts and within our characters. And so they they um they have their father's name written upon their foreheads. They reflect the character of God. And I say amen to that.

Don't you? That uh I want my character to reflect that of Jesus Christ. I want my character to reflect that of the one who sits on the throne. Uh he is holy and he calls us to be holy. We are Seventh Adventists.

We came out of Methodism. Methodism is a holiness movement. If you study the history of Methodism, Methodism was a holiness movement. When John Wesley was was was preaching in England, England was a place of moral lentiousness, um drunken deborttery. England had turned her back on God after the civil war of the late 1640s, a war over religion, Parliament, Protestant, King Charles, Catholic.

And there was a war of religion as often happens in wars of religion. When the war is over, nobody wants anything to religion anymore. And so England descended into this lentious era under Charles II from 1660 onwards. And England was a godless place until God raised a man called John Wesley. And he preached the need for personal holiness.

And we as Adventists have come out of the Methodist movement by and large. We are our spiritual ancestry is in personal holiness in reflecting the character of God in every aspect of our lives. The the story goes on about the 144,000. Says they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. We're not going to go through this word by word today.

We don't have time. But it says no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who have been redeemed from the earth. When soldiers come back from battle in a unit, they often have um reunions. Is that right? When men come back from battle, they fought in Vietnam, they have veterans reunions.

If you weren't with them in those battles, do you understand what they're talking about? No. They have a shared experience. They've gone through a shared crisis together. When when veterans get together and reminisce, if you weren't there, you will forever be an outsider to that group.

And these 144,000, they sing a new song. And nobody can learn that song except the 144,000. The these are these veterans who've made it through the final crisis. They have a shared experience. They've gone through a shared pain.

They've gone through a shared terror and horror on planet Earth. They've seen the worst that Satan can do. And they stood tall for God in that darkest moment. And that is why they have a song that nobody else can learn. Just as veterans, when they talk, nobody else can be part of that conversation.

These are God's veterans. They sing a new song that nobody else can learn because they have had a unique experience of what Satan can do and what God can do in the final crisis. It is these, it says, who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. The women here, well, the word defiled. Defiled is used in 1 Corinthians 8:7.

This verb, it's used of the defiling of conscience. Paul is talking about food in that verse there. And in Revelation 3:4, this verb is used of of wearing of our robes of righteousness. So these 144,000, the interpretation is they've clung to Christ's righteousness as their only hope of salvation. That is, they're not looking in the mirror and saying, "I'm pretty good today.

God's going to have to save me." No, they're looking in the mirror and say, "Oh God, have mercy on a sinner like me." and they are asking for God to clothe them with his righteousness so that the world and God and Satan sees nothing except the righteousness of Christ within their characters. The word women in this verse refers in Revelation 17 to the of Babylon that is the papacy and also to her apostate Protestant daughters. And when the USA and the papacy conspire to force false worship on all humanity, the 144,000 refused to participate. They refused to join up. They refused to go along to get along.

They refused to keep their heads down. No, they stand for truth in the final crisis. I noticed in CO that the best way that the that those who stood for liberty of conscience, the best way for their message to get out was for the persecution to come on the mainstream media. When persecution comes, it magnifies the message of the persecuted. I can tell you as a preacher that the best thing for a preacher is to be banned.

I'm sorry to say, the best advert for a preacher is to be banned. When you are banned, you become the forbidden fruit. Everyone says, "Well, what's he got to say? Why is he banned? We go we want to go and listen to him." And so banning isn't nice.

Cancellation isn't nice. Persecution isn't nice. But it amplifies what you're saying like nothing else. And I believe in the final crisis, it is the persecution of those who are faithful to God, who are faithful to his commandments rather than mandates of men. It is that faithfulness to God that is going to let the whole world know that there are ten commandments.

There is a character of God and Jesus is coming for his own. It's not what we do. It's the persecution is going to spread the message. When Ahab was looking for Elijah, he sent messengers to every nation around, making them swear an oath that they were not hiding Elijah. So every nation around knew there was a prophet called Elijah.

They knew why Ahab was searching for him. They knew there was a drought in Israel because of what Elijah said. Every nation around saw an evidence of the power of Jehovah God because of Ahab's persecution of Elijah. And when we are persecuted in the final crisis, those who are faithful to God, the whole world will know what we stand for. Not necessarily because we're saying anything more ourselves or we have bigger platforms, but because the hatred of the world is going to be looking out for those hunting those hunting down those who are faithful to God.

And they'll they'll sell the tell the whole world this is who we're looking for. In North Korea today, uh teachers play games with their students. They say, "Can you go home and see if you can find a little book like this?" Maybe your parents have hidden it. It's a Bible. And the kids go home.

They have a little game of hide-and-seek without their parents knowing. Then they bring the books back to the teachers. And then the whole family, three generations goes into the camps. Okay, persecution is a terrible thing. But when that happens, when those three generations disappear into the camps, everybody around knows what the reason was.

They must have been Christians. And so the gospel goes underground, but it doesn't die when it's underground. It just spreads further and faster. And so these are people, they have not defiled themselves with women. They did not me enter they did not enter into any ecumenical movement with the papacy.

They did not enter into any alliances with the kings of this world in which the papacy was also a leading player. Says they follow the lamb wherever he goes. They know the good shepherd for themselves and they follow him. They recognize the voice of Jesus. They don't just stand up and preach about liberty of conscience.

Their consciences are subject and sensitive to the voice of God. When God says, "I want you to go there. I want you to do this. I want you to say that. I want you to pull back here." They're obedient to the convictions of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. And so they follow the lamb wherever he goes, even if it makes literally no sense. When the harvest is ripe at the close of probation, the wicked will no longer be confessing their sins. They will so harden their hearts, they no longer hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And because they have received the mark of the beast, their minds are controlled by nothing but more than demons.

And so God has to withdraw his spirit from them. Ephraim has joined her to idol. Let her alone, says the Old Testament prophets. Without any confession of sin, Christ has no mediation left for any of the wicked. But when the harvest is ripe at the close of probation, the ceiling is complete for the righteous of God.

God's character is fixed in their hearts and minds. They've yielded control to the Holy Spirit to keep them from falling. These are they who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. They are the wise virgins who've kept the oil of the Holy Spirit alive in their lives. So how then do what are the practical steps we're to take to gain victory over sin as we think about the 144,000 the final crisis which is about to come upon us.

The first thing we'd say from scripture is this and don't just receive the righteousness of Christ because that mean you talk about the merits of Christ that Catholics talk about that we are to receive Christ within us. We ask God to clothe us with his righteousness and we ask Jesus to live within us. We need not just a knowledge of salvation but we are to have an experience of salvation. When a soul receives Christ, he receives power to live the life of Christ. The Christian experience, the Christian life is not just a theoretical knowledge.

It's not just an ethos. It's not just a philosophy. It's just not it's not just an ethic of living. Is the living power of the living God within fallen sinners to change us once and for all. And so when we receive Christ into our lives, we receive the power of God to live the life of Christ.

So, what would I say to you on this? When it's talking about receive Christ and his righteousness, kneel down tonight by your bed and ask Jesus to live within you. Don't just ask him to forgive you for your sins. Say, "Tonight, Jesus, I'm asking you into my life. I want you to live out your life within me.

I want you to change me from the inside out." And you pray that prayer every single morning. And guess what? He does it for you. I know about this. You know, there are mornings I wake up and there the weeds of anger and bitterness have risen in my character overnight.

that happens. All right? And I recognize this and I don't want this, but I know I can't physically do it, get rid of it myself. So what do I do? I kneel down each morning and say, "Lord, give me your Holy Spirit.

Wash away the works of the flesh and give me today the fruits of your Holy Spirit." And I ask God to do for me what I cannot do for myself. No amount of cognitive behavioral therapy or psychoanalysis is going to take care of these profound spiritual problems that we all face. So we ask Jesus to live within us. We ask Jesus to live out his life within us. We ask him to transform us from the inside out.

We ask him to give us victory over temptation. If he gives us victory over temptation, that means we gain victory over the sins that result from those temptations. It may be may be that you have a taste for alcohol. Say, "Lord, take away that taste for alcohol so that I'm repulsed by it rather than attracted to it." If you no longer have a taste for it, you're not going to fall into that sin. And what whatever your temptation is, the temptation always leads to sin.

Ask God to deal with the temptation. And if he deals with the temptation and instead of being tempted to something, you're repulsed by something, then you have victory over that sin anyway. You no longer want to do you want you want nothing further to do with it anymore in your life. And so this is when we talk about to be in Jesus Christ is to be declared righteous. That's justification.

But as a Christian, we also it's to experience sanctification. So for Jesus Christ to be in me or to be made righteous is sanctification. And so this is how we gain victory over Christ. We don't just ask to be forgiven, but we ask Jesus to live within us and to change us from the inside out. We are to maintain a daily daily living bond with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said this. He says, "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the b vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.

Because apart from me, you can do what? Nothing. So trying to gain victory over sin without abiding in Christ is going to get you absolutely nowhere. You're just going to end up discouraged and disillusioned and disappointed. But if we ask Christ to dwell within us and we abide in Christ, God does amazing things for us.

You know, last five weeks ago, I was in Sweden at a camp meeting. There was there was there was a lot of people. There was a lot of chitchat on the internet. I was being likened to an agent of Satan, Lucifer incarnate, a council on the body of Christ, etc., etc. You probably saw some of those discussions, did you?

Yeah, some of you saw those discussions. And I was sitting in Sweden. I was preaching about some things. I don't know what it was. It was a long time ago now, four weeks.

But anyway, I was preaching about some things. And uh I read through the Bible each year and uh that morning in my devotions, I was in end of the Psalms. I came to Psalm 124. I'm saying, Lord, what am I going to do about all these attacks? Am I going to jump into the fight?

Am I going to start defending myself? Am I going to have nuance theological discussions in Facebook comment sections? Probably not. Not a good idea as a general rule. And that morning, I came to Psalm 124.

This is what it means to abide in Christ. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when our enemies attacked us, they would have swallowed us up alive when their anger was kindled against us. Then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us and over us would have gone the raging waters. But blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. And I realized when I read that that God was saying, Conrad, I'm going to take care of this. You don't need to fight this.

You just sit still and see what I do for you. And five weeks later, most of that stuff's kind of faded away. One of those people wrote to me and said, "It's kind of embarrassing." and said, "I've been receiving tithe from somebody for a long time personally." I said, "So why are you attacking me for suggesting that people send tithes to Bible faithful ministers? It doesn't seem consistent that you call me an agent of Satan for suggesting people do the very thing you've been doing for years." That person just kind of faded out of the fight. God took care of the matters.

So, how are we to maintain a living bond with Christ? Desire of Ages says this, "The principle man can save himself by his own works lays at the foundation of every heathen religion. This become the principle of the Jewish religion. Satan had implanted this principle wherever it is held, men have no barrier against sin. So if we think we can save ourselves through, you know, changing our own characters through, you know, behavioral self-help therapy and all this kind of stuff, we're not going to get anywhere with this.

We are to abide in Christ and let him abide in us and he will do for us immeasurably more than we can begin to imagine. So practical living bonds with Christ. Number one, prayer. I'm not going to go through all the quotes on the right, but Jesus had a daily life of prayer. And Sister White says, "Those who we translate at the close of time will be those who commune with God on earth." Then you have um confession of sin.

Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59, behold the arm of the Lord is not so short that he cannot save and his ear is not so dull that he cannot hear. But it is your sins have separated from you God so that he does not hear your prayers. That's what the text says. So when we when we have active cherished ongoing unconfessed sin in our lives, God does not hear our our prayers.

He doesn't hear our prayer for forgiveness. But when we confess our sin on a daily basis, we are reminded of our sins. We're reminded of our sinfulness and praise God. We are reminded of our need for a savior. And there is a savior who is our sinbearing savior.

So we confess our sins. We have life of prayer. We have meditation on scripture. Our minds are to dwell continually on the scriptures. Our time is moving to an end.

I need to speed this up if I'm not already moving fast enough as it is. We're to meditate on scripture. Um particularly on the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29. The Israelites were commanded to look at that brazen serpent.

Numbers 21. And when we look by beholding, we become what? Changed. If you read through the spirit of prophecy, you find that multiple times, dozens of times, by beholding, we become changed. You watch violent movies, you watch pornographic movies, you watch um horror movies, you will be changed away from the likeness of Christ.

But you dwell on the the life of Christ, you read the book Desire of Ages, you go through the Gospels every day, you will find yourself becoming more and more like Jesus on a daily basis. You may not think so yourself, but your spouse will see it, your children will see it, your work colleagues will see it. Meditation on scripture. In the right sense of sis white, there are three primary devotional habits. Prayer, Bible study, and meditation.

And uh meditation is the bridge that leads you from knowledge of what the Bible says. That's Bible study to application in your life. So meditation takes you from knowledge of the word of God to what does it mean for me? And it practically means taking a verse and turning it over in your mind all day long. Just as you chew on chewing gum.

And every time you chew on and chewing gum, you change the the position of the gum in your mouth. Isn't that right? And you do that because it releases new flavor. If you keep biting on the same spot, the flavor is gone. But turn over in your mouth, you it releases new flavor.

You turn over a word of a a promise from God. Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God. You turn that over in your head all day long, and every time you turn it over and think about it, God gives you new light on how you are to live your life that day. So meditation on the word of God moves you from a knowledge of what the word of God says to a knowledge of what the word of God means for us today. Faith we are to come to the maturity of faith.

Ephesians 14 4:13. Bible study. Thy word have I hid in my mind heart that I might not sin against thee. So Bible study is designed so that we might not sin against God. We know his will and we and we keep his will.

Obedience. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven from the Lord's prayer. that when I pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," I have no control over what anybody else does in this world. The only control I have is what happens in my life. So when I pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It's thy will be done in my life as it is in heaven.

We're asking for God's will to override my fallen will and God's perfect will to be manifest in my life. That's what we're saying in the Lord's Prayer. We're it's a prayer for personal holiness that my character reflects that of God. that we engage in mission outreach. We God says, "I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles.

You may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." So, as we gain victory over sin, we want to tell people about the glory of God. We're to honor the body temple where the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. And we engage in systematic benevolence to the poor. Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.

The spirit of liberality is the spirit of heaven and the spirit of selfishness is the spirit of Satan. their principles the principles there illustrated at Calvary is to give and to give. This is the true fruit of the Christian life whereas the principle worldings is to get and get and the fruit is misery and death. And then the final thing for for gaining victory over sin is to believe that God's word will do what it says. I want to quote here from Jones because he summarizes this really well.

If you want a great book to read, it's called Lessons on Faith. Take a look at that book, Lessons on Faith. And this is how he described it. [clears throat] He said, "That is why faith is the knowing that in the word of God there is power, expecting the words to itself, the things spoken of, and depending upon that word itself to do that which the word speaks." So faith is knowing, expecting, and depending. Many people just know what the word of God says, but they don't expect it to do anything in their life, and they don't depend on it in any aspect of their lives either.

So faith is knowing that the in the word of God there is power. expecting that the word of go word of God is going to do what it says in your life and then acting in faith stepping out in faith and depending on the word of God to come through for you. The centurion says only speak the word and my servant will be healed. And Jesus commended that centurion's faith. Jesus said to the woman who touched the hem of his robe.

She says if I can only just touch the hem of his robe, I will be healed. And Jesus turned to her and says, "Daughter, he says your faith has made you well, not the touching of my garment." So, knowing, expecting, and depending. Our time is up. Three minutes to go. So, what do we say in conclusion here this morning?

When the grain is ripe, says Jesus, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come. There are two signs of the coming of Christ. One is his gospel we proclaim to all nations as a testimony to them. Matthew 24:10. The second is that when the grain is ripe, he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.

We are a holiness movement. And with the light we have from scripture and from the spirit of prophecy, we are invited today not just to say, "Father, give me the righteousness of Christ, but today we're going to say, Jesus, live out your life within me and change me from the inside out day by day." It's an ongoing process. We are to be in Leviticus 20 26 a holy people. God says you shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy. I've separated you from the other peoples to be mine.

God is looking for a holy people at the end of time. We're also to be a peculiar people. 1 Peter 2:9. But you are a what? A chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people.

Then you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. They have gained victory over sins. We can say that this is who I was and by the grace of God, this is who I am today. I've still got a ways to go, but I know that God has power. He set me free from all that stuff in the past.

And I'm looking forward to working with him and seeing what he does in my life tomorrow. We are to be a holy people and we are to be a peculiar people. And today, this morning, you can choose whether you wish to be counseledled among the righteous who stand at the coming of Christ or among the wicked who will be consumed by the glory of his coming. So I want to invite you today to ask Jesus to live within you. Ask Jesus to live within you.

Ask him to write his law within your heart. Ask him to uh give you his spirit to wash away the works of the flesh. And ask his holy spirit um to yield in your character a fruit of harvest, a harvest of righteousness, the fruit of the spirit, so that every day your character more closely resembles that of Jesus Christ. on our final slide because it says I started five minutes late, brothers. All right, so I'm just we're just we're going to extend grace on this sermon here.

All right, last slide. Jude verse 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling. That means to the one who is able to keep us from sinning. To the one who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing.

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. To him who is able to keep you from falling. It doesn't say to those who can keep themselves from falling. It's to him who is able to keep you from falling.

If you want Jesus to come into your life and give you victory over sin, any will raise your hand this morning. We want this experience for ourselves. Praise God. I want this experience. My wife wants it for me.

Certainly, we all want it for ourselves. And when we recognize only God can do this in us and through us and for us, our response is to God be the glory. To Jesus be majesty and power and authority before all time now and forever. Because he because he took this miserable wretch of a sinner and made something special out of him. And he's preparing me for eternity.

That's my praise and that's my prayer. May that be our praise and our prayer today for his name's sake. Amen.