Thank you very much uh brother for the scripture reading and uh it’s a privilege to share with you on this
beautiful hot hot hot day here in Texas. I uh I I’ve noticed I’ve been sitting up
here in the pulpit that um uh there’s something restorative about the sun and the air in Texas because I’ve noticed uh
during the music um the the saxophone, Sister Souza, it was beautiful and uh
the the children and the special music, my left foot was tapping slightly every now and again. Uh in England when a
little boy like me is born, the surgeons they slice into your finger right here and they surgically remove your sense of
rhythm. And so when I come to a place and I find my feet tapping, I know the
surgeon didn’t get everything out. And I think I should come here more often cuz then maybe my sense of rhythm will come
back. So it’s a it’s a privilege to come and share with you on this beautiful day here in uh Texas. And I’d like to say
thank you to the pastor and the church leaders for welcoming me here. And so far uh my son and I have received a very
warm welcome as I know brother Jonathan Churnney our other speaker for this weekend has as well. So um our topic
this morning is entitled 11th hour workers and I’m going to be talking about those who are going to finish the
work. Those who are going to bring the gospel to every nation, tribe, language and people and then the end shall come.
And we often wonder who’s actually going to finish the work. How’s it going to get done? Because today almost 40% of
the world has yet to hear the name of Jesus Christ. And if it is so far behind and that percentage is going up year
after year, how are we going to finish the work? And my answer to you is we’re not going to finish the work. God is
going to finish the work. And God is going to do something special in this world so that all human suffering comes
to an end. And I love the idea that when Jesus comes again, all human suffering
comes to an end in that moment. All disease, all um divorce, all depression, all despair, all family breakdown, all
disputes, the environmental um uh chaos we see around us, the pain in the animal world and also the pain in the human
world. Everything comes to an end when Jesus comes again. It’s really good news. And if you ever walk up and down a
hospital ward and you see the pain and the uncertainty and the parents maybe slightly crying over a child going
through surgery, you start to appreciate what a wonderful thing will be when Jesus comes again in the clouds of
glory. So we’re Adventists. We proclaim the second coming of Jesus. That is what God has called us to do and to be. And
so today I want to discuss with you um who are those workers who are going to finish the work. It’s a good question.
Yes. who’s actually going to finish the work. So, um before we um open the word
of God, I invite you to bow your heads with me and we will ask once again for the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Our heavenly father, we thank you for this beautiful Sabbath day here in Texas. Father, I thank you for the
freedom we have to gather here and to worship. Father, we thank you for the protection of your angels. And now Lord,
as we uh break open the bread of life and we uh ponder for a few moments on the words of life, I pray that you will
speak through me and for me, I ask, Father, that you will speak to our hearts and minds, that we’ll have a
renewed love for Jesus and our witness will um shine brighter and brighter for
you because of today’s worship service. Lord, I pray that uh you’ll rebuke any
spirit not of your kingdom here today. that you drive away any foul spirits, any demons that may have come in through
these four doors. I pray Lord that you’ll rebuke them and that your Holy Spirit be the only present only spirit
present here today. So Lord, we give today into your hands. Uh we’re your people. We’re the sheep of your pasture.
And we look to you as the good shepherd that in this next hour you will indeed lead us by still waters and green
pastures. So Father, we thank you for your blessing. We thank you for your presence. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
All right. So, we’re going to start out today that by the way, there’s my website up there, AN2P. It’s short for
as the needle to the pole. And there’s my email address there. Um, if any of you write to me, um, because I meet a
lot of people and I can barely remember anything these days. Um, I suffer from uh I can’t remember where I was last
week and I’m not sure where I’m going to be next week. All I know is I’m here today. And um I’ve discovered that’s a
very good um it’s a very good um position to be in marriage as well. As a
general rule, if I know nothing or I don’t understand or I don’t remember, those are really good um responses when
I’m put on the spot. So, um but I don’t remember where I was yesterday and I’m not sure I’m going to be tomorrow, but
if you look at my website, you can see the schedule there. And if you want to write me an email, just say who you are and where you’re writing from so I have
a a modicum of a chance of actually placing you in my mind um before I respond to you on that email address
there. So this is going to be our journey today. We’re going to look at God’s grace for 11th hour workers. Then
we’re going to look at um spirit of prophecy 1 2 3 4 5. And um I’m not very
creative in how I lay out my sermon, so that’s the way it’s going to be. 1 2 3 4 5. And then we’re going to come to our
conclusions. All right. And I’m very sensitive to the fact that in about 15 minutes, we’re going to get the smell of
the potluck wafting through the back doors there. Um, so please bear with me as we as we work through as we go
through this journey here today. Okay. Thank you, sister. So, um, all right. So, that’s our journey today. And we’re
going to start out with God’s grace for 11th hour workers. And we’re going to look through this text here today. And
this is what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 20. And he says this. He says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the
laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.” When he went out about 9:00, he saw others
standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is
right.” So they went. When he went out again about noon, and about 3:00 he did
the same. And about 5:00 he went out and found others standing round. And he said
to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no
one has hired us.” He said to them, “Will you also go into the vineyard?”
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When those hired about 5:00 came, each of them received the
usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received the
usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one
hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied
to one of them, “Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for
the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this
last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what
belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.
It’s a beautiful parable. And I’ve read this parable beside people on their
deathbeds. people who uh maybe raised as as Adventists and they wandered away
from the Lord and they want the assurance of salvation before they die again or the first time in their case
and they want the assurance of salvation and you can sit and you read this parable and then you say in this parable
here we read that you can be a lifelong follower of Jesus or you can have a deathbed conversion but the the the
reward for everybody is the same it is the gift of eternal life and this is a beautiful parable to read beside people
who are going through those last moments in life. But it’s an interesting parable because the parable is in response to a
question from Peter. And if you look at the last verses of Matthew 19, Peter
asks Jesus a question. And the question leads up to the parable itself. It says
uh Matthew 19 27. Uh Peter said in reply to Jesus, look, he said, we have left
everything and followed you. What then will we have?
And so Peter and James and John and Andrew, those four brothers from the Sea of Galilee, they they followed what we
consider today the normal course of ministry. Uh they they left their secular profession. They left their
fishing boats. They left their business. They left their father’s servants and they followed Jesus and they turned
their back on their homes and they left all that was familiar and friendly and profitable. And they followed Jesus up
and down the streets of uh of Palestine around Jerusalem, Galilee, and Judea. and they’d follow Jesus. And if the son
of man had nowhere to lay his head, neither did those 12 disciples. And if Jesus lived in poverty, so did those 12
disciples. And if Jesus was facing attacks from the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, so were those
12 disciples. And so they had left everything to follow Jesus. And so Peter
says at the end of Matthew 19, he said, “Look, Jesus,” he says, “we have left everything and we followed you.” Like
what do we get in return? What’s the bargain here? What’s our prize for following you uh for these last three
and a half years? We’ve sacrificed everything for you, Jesus. What are we going to get in return? And so Jesus in
response tells his parable. And he adds a warning that we should not think that those who’ve been the first to follow
Jesus are going to receive greater rewards than those who join his kingdom at the end of time.
And in the parable of the 11th hour worker, Jesus sets forth a manner in which God deals with those who devote
their service to him and the basis on which they’re going to be rewarded. Jesus teaches in this parable that
nobody will receive more or less than anybody else because in God’s kingdom, all people are equal. Now, in this
parable of Jesus, the landowner goes to the marketplace at 6:00 in the morning. And in those days, there were day
laborers. and the day laborers would gather in the marketplace at 6:00 in the morning before the sun comes up. And
they’re all hoping that by the end of the day, 12 hours later, 6 pm, when the sun is starting to go down, they are
hoping that they will receive a silver coin known as a dinarius. One day’s wage, like a dollar a day, as we might
have said some years ago here in America. Now, it’s $1,000 a day. Yes. With inflation. But those laborers are
waiting at 6:00 in the morning. They’ve left their homes. They’ve left their families. They’ve left their children
and they know that um while they’re standing in the marketplace there’s a wife and there are children waiting in
some hut somewhere hoping that daddy’s going to come home with food for to feed them for that night. These are day
laborers in India during the pandemic when there were lockdowns the wealthy were okay because they had food in their
refrigerators. The day laborers of India starved because in the lockdowns they
couldn’t go out and earn their daily dollar and so they starved. They had no reserves of food. And so these are day
laborers. These are people living on the margins of economic survival. They’re just hoping to get enough money today to
buy enough food for tonight. And so those day laborers are standing in the marketplace and the landlord comes and
he thinks, “I have this much land to harvest today. So I need some of you.” So he picks up some of the laborers,
those he hears are the best workers. And he says, “You go and work in my fields. At the end of the day, I’m going to give
you what is due.” Then at 9:00 in the morning, the landowner is looking at the progressing things. Well, things aren’t
going quite as fast as we want them to go. So, I’m going to go back to the marketplace and see if there’s any guys
hanging around. And he goes back to the marketplace. There’s a bunch of guys still standing there hoping that they’re
going to get a job for the day. And he says, “Well, you you and you, you come with me.” And they go to the father’s
the farmer’s fields. They go and work there. And then at noon when the sun is at its hottest there in the Middle East,
the land owner, he goes back to the to the marketplace and there is guy there and he says, “We still haven’t finished
the work. I don’t have enough laborers to finish the work. The way the work is going, I’m not going to finish by the
end of the day. I need more laborers.” So he gathers up some more laborers and he sends them off into the fields. And
it doesn’t say what he promises them, but they’re probably thinking, “Okay, I’ve stood around the marketplace for 6
hours. I’m going to work for 6 hours. At least I’ll get half a dinarius for today’s labor. Half a day’s wage. Maybe
we can survive on rice and beans tonight in my family. And then at 3:00 in the afternoon, the landlord goes back. He’s
still not going to finish the work. He knows the work’s not going to get done. And he gets some more laborers and he
sends them into the fields. And then at 5:00 in the afternoon, in the 11th hour,
the landlord looks at the field and he looks at the harvest and he looks at the all the rows of day laborers sweating
and toiling in the fields in the heat of the day. And he realizes, “We’re not going to get the work done as things
stand. I need some 11th hour workers in order to finish the day’s work. In order
to finish my goal, in order to accomplish what I want to do, I need some more laborers.” So he goes back to
the marketplace probably wondering whether there’ll be anybody there because what would you do? Would you
hang around all day in that marketplace on the off chance you get a job? And he goes back to the marketplace and there’s
a few guys hanging around there. Now can you imagine what their experience through that day has been? I got a
family. I’ve got four hungry kids to feed. I need to take my youngest to the doctor. I need to pay for schooling for
that kid. I need to fix my roof. I’ve got no money coming in today. What am I going to go home and say to my wife? And
so they’re standing there all day hoping against hope that somebody would come and pick them up. They wait. They watch
men go at 6:00. They watch another bunch of guys go at 9:00, at noon, at 3:00 in
the afternoon. They’re probably thinking, “Why are we hanging around here? We’re just going to right stay off and we may just have to go hungry
tonight.” And so finally the landlord comes and there are those few laborers left and he
says I need laborers in my fields to finish the work. Would you go out there and work those laborers? Can you imagine
the joy in their hearts for 11 hours in the day? Nobody came looking for them.
Nobody brought them good news that their families were going to be taken care of by the end of the day. They’d waited
with uncertainty. They’d waited with growing anxiety. They’ve waited with with a sense that what am I going to say
to my family when I get home? How am I going to look in my children’s eyes and say, “No food for you tonight, kids.
It’s not nice to be an 11th hour worker because you’ve waited through the entire working day without the assurance that
one day you’re going to receive a reward.” And so they’re waiting, they’re watching, thinking, “Will anybody bring
us the good news that one day we’re going to get a reward? That that we can do anything to get a reward.” And so
finally the landlord comes and he sends them into the field. And those 11th hour workers, you can imagine the joy in
their hearts that somebody in this late hour has come looking for them. There is something they can do. They’re going to
take at least something home tonight. Maybe I won’t eat tonight, but at least my younger kids can eat something tonight. I’m not a complete failure as a
husband and as a father and as a provider. So I’m going to go I’m going to go and do my best for that last 11th
and 12th hour. And so they go out into the fields and they do their job. And when the end of the day comes, just one
hour later, the landlord, he gathers all the workers together and he says, “Bring the 11th hour workers to me first.” And
they come to him and he reaches into his pocket. And he gives them a full silver coin, a dinarius. It’s a whole day’s
wage. And you can imagine them thinking, well, does he know who we are? Like, did he make an did he make an accounting
mistake here? Uh maybe he’s miscalculated. I need to go and check with payroll that there’s not a mistake
in my in the calculation of my hours. But no, the landlord says, “No, you’re going to get a full day’s wage. You
haven’t worked a full days, but you’re going to get a full day’s wage.” And so then he comes to the 3:00 hour workers,
those who’ve been working till 3:00 in the afternoon, and he gives them the same wage. And he comes to the 12th hour
workers, those who started at noon, they’ve only worked for 6 hours, and they get the full wage. And then the mer
the first hour workers start grumbling. Say, “Hang on,” they say. How is it that these workers who only worked for one
hour and they didn’t carry the heat of the day and they didn’t do the bulk of the work? How come everybody’s getting
the same wage as them? This is not fair. This is not fair. These men are like the older brother in the parable of the
prodigal son. We’re working for a The more hours we put in, the more reward we expect. If
you put more hours in for God, you expect more reward from God. If you put fewer hours in for God, you expect fewer
fewer a lesser reward from God. They believe that they’re being treated unfairly. But the owner explains to
those workers and to us that when God rewards his people, it is not our just deserts. It’s a matter of grace.
That we cannot earn God’s favor. We cannot make a bargain with God. That um
um divine favor is not something we can earn. Christian workers today do not strike a bargain with God. If God were
to deal with us on the basis of strict justice, how much you put in, how much you’re going to get out, who could ever
claim the gift of eternity, if you work full-time, 40 hours a week,
that’s 2,80 hours a week a year, and you do that for 40 years, okay? There’s no
way those 40 years of full-time work could earn you eternity with God. There’s no way. And so even if you are a
first hour worker and you’ve worked the whole day, the fact that you have the promise of eternance at the end of it is
a reminder that you are you the gift this is a gift of God’s grace is not something that anybody has ever earned.
It is not learning or talent or time or position or amounts of years you put into the gospel kingdom work that counts
in the eyes of God. But it’s the spirit of willingness with which we take up our appointed tasks and the faithfulness
with which we pursue the tasks that God gives each one of us. He’s looking for willing workers, not
necessarily 12-hour workers. Workers who are faithful in whatever he asks them to
do. Those 11th hour workers were faithful. They did what they were asked to do. They were faithful in that task.
And as a result, they received the same outlook, the same reward as the first hour workers. Now, this parable, as I’ve
mentioned before, is usually used to explain um how people can have a deathbed conversion. That people can
walk with God their entire life and people can walk with God for 30 seconds before they die and they still have the
promise of eternal life. And you may say, well, that’s not fair.
But I want you to just imagine for yourself, would you rather live life with the promise of eternity beyond the
suffering of this world? Or would you rather go through this world with the idea that suffering is all there is to
existence, with no possibility of of redemption, no possibility of hope, then
find hope in the last seconds of life? Which will be a better experience of life? It’s the first hour workers. See
the first hour workers though they grumble they work all day with the promise of reward at the end of the day
and that promise of reward at the end of the day keeps them going through the challenges that they face in life. Would
you agree with me? And so the first hour workers yes they carry the burden of the work that the majority of the work but
they have the they have the promise in their heart that one day things are going to be better that there will be a reward that there is going to be a time
of joy for them and their families. And the 11th hour workers for 11 hours by definition they’ve waited in uncertainty
with without any promise of any reward and just fear of what’s going to happen at the end of the day. So I would rather
be a first hour worker in all honesty than an 11th hour worker even though it’s the 11th hour workers who are being
brought in to finish the work. So I want to um dwell now on what Sister White
says. There are five quotes in spirit of prophecy where she talks about these 11th hour workers and they’re fascinating quotes and so she talks
about this parable in a number of places and she talks about yes deathbed conversions and so forth but she also
talks about those 11th hour workers. I want to ask us the question today what
does sister white say in in the prophetic voice to us? What does she say about these 11th hour workers? Because
what she has to say is pretty amazing. And so there are five quotes we can look at and this is the first one here. It’s
from testimonies to South Africa and it’s on page 50. And so I’m going to read out mo this is the longest. Okay,
just in case you’re feeling discouraged at this moment. So the rest of them are much shorter than this. Okay. Um but
this is the first of her quotes on these 11th hour workers. And this is what she says. She says, “There are diligent
students of the word of prophecy in all parts of the world who are obtaining light and still greater light from
searching the scriptures. This is true of all nations, of all tribes, and of all people. These will come from the
grossest error and will take the place of those who have had opportunities and privileges and have not prized them.
These will work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, lest they should become deficient in doing the
ways and will of God. While those who have had great light, that’s a phrase that she used for Adventist, those with
great light, those who have had great light through the perversity of their own natural heart turned away from
Christ because they were displeased with his requirements. But God will not be left without witnesses. The one-hour
laborers will be brought in at the 11th hour and will consecrate their ability and all their entrusted means to advance
the work. These will reward receive the reward for their faithfulness because they are true to principle and shun not
their duty to declare the whole council of God. When those who have had abundance of light throw off the
restraint which the word of God imposes and make void his law, others will come
in to fill their places and take their crown. End quote. It’s quite a quite a statement here. These 11th hour workers.
So who are these 11th hours workers? For the first thing we’ll say this, they’re not stuttering at the seminary in
Andrews. These are people who are living in grossest darkness.
These are people who are living in Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam and secularism and atheism and Catholicism.
And they are they dwell among every nation, tribe and people. So in revelation 13 the first sea beat first
sea beast is given authority by the dragon over all the nations tribe languages and peoples of the world. God
has his people all around the world in all the religious groups today and they know there is something better than this
world and they’re searching for truth. There are honest seekers of truth around the world who do not sit in our
congregations but God knows who they are and he’s going to reveal himself to them and they’re searching for light. They’re
searching for truth. And he says those they will come from the grossest error. And I ask you today, are we ready for
people to come from backgrounds of grossest error? I once baptized a Catholic and I was chastised by some
brethren because I was bringing a Jesuit into the church. So, excuse me. Aren’t we supposed to call people out of
Babylon? Aren’t we supposed to call people into God’s remnant movement? And when I do, I get criticized for this.
This is absurd. This was a young lady. She’s not a Jesuit. And if we want people to come into God’s
remnant movement, we need to be willing to open our arms to people from every background. They’re going to come in
with, yes, tats on their arms and blue rinse and nose no rose rings and all the rest of it. But God is going to bring
people in from deepest darkness. I walked around Frankfurt Munich Central um train station a few weeks ago. I was
preaching a series on the three angels messages at a camp meeting in Austria and I walked through the center of the Munich central bus station and I looked
around and I thought there’s nobody who I consider normal here at all. I mean really there were people from every
nation, tribe, language and people and there were ladies and burkers and there were young young people. Their bodies
were all mutilated and all the rest of it and what I saw in eye after eye after eye was nothingness.
Just deadness of eyes. I didn’t see joy. I didn’t see happiness. I didn’t see peace. I didn’t see hope. I saw sad, sad
people. And God has his people out there. So, are we ready and willing to receive them into this congregation here
today? Are we willing to welcome them in? If it were your child who walked away from the Lord and was living in
gross darkness, would you not want a congregation to welcome their arms to your child as they come to Jesus Christ?
And so, uh, the this this passage here is is a call for us to welcome people into the body of Christ. And she says
that, um, the one-hour work laborers will be brought in at the 11th hour. We’re going to come into exactly when
that is in a few minutes. And they will consecrate their ability and all their entrusted means to advance the work.
That is, they’re going to be sacrificial workers. They’re going to give everything to finish the work because
they know how precious salvation really is. And when we have when we experience the joy of salvation and we realize that
we have the promise of eternal life, then all the treasures of this world, they take on a a lesser significance in
our eyes. God is not interested with the money in our bank accounts. He’s interested when our hearts are stored.
He’s he’s worried about where our treasure really is. Is my treasure in the bank? Is my treasure in the stock
market? Or is my treasure in heaven above? And so the 11th hour workers are going to come into the church but in
contrast to them that the workers who are existing in the church um she says they failed in their appointed task.
They’ve been unfaithful in their opportunities and their privileges. And she says that they have had great light
but they’ve turned away from the commandments of God. They have perverted hearts. She says they will make void the
ten commandments. Then she says um these 11th hour workers are going to take the crown that is the crown of life from
those first hour workers. You think about this. Those who’ve labored for the Lord their entire lives in the Advent
movement, some of them going to lose that crown of life in the last moment because they’re going to make void the
law of God. If you turn to I I haven’t got this on the screen, um but if you turn to where is it? Matthew 2014.
Matthew 2014. Uh that’s chapter 24. Sorry, my mistake. Matthew 24 and verse
9, it says there, Matthew 24:9, it says,
“Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death and you’ll be hated by all nations because
of my name.” And so in the final crisis when these 11th hour workers are coming in, the whole world is going to be
united on one issue that is hatred of those who bear the name of Christ and those who are faithful to his
commandments. So the world is polarized today. We have Iranians bombing Ira Israelis back and forth that that that
conflict goes and there are conflicts all around all around the world and we live in a polarized society but at the
end of time Jesus says that the world is going to be united around one thing. It’s hatred of those who bear the name
of Christ. So in this 11th hour the the gospel workers who’ve been faithful to
Jesus their entire lives are going to face hatred from the world. Then she he said he says in verse 10 Matthew 24:10
says then many will fall away. That word is apostasy. So within so outside the church there’s
going to be hatred and persecution. Within the church Jesus says there going to be people who are standing on the
truth. They’re going to stand away from the truth. They’re going to fall away from the truth. So there’s going to be apostasy in the church. Then he says
they will betray one another. So there’s going to be betrayal in the church. And then she says Jesus says and they will
hate one another. So within the church there’ll be apostasy, there’ll be betrayal, and they will hate you within
the body of Christ. And these are the long-standing members here, the first hour workers. Jesus goes on to say, “And
many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” That is within the body of Christ, there’s going to be schismatic
movements and people going off. And you know, I drove past Waco on my way down here some time ago, and I reminded
myself what happened there over with with David Koresh. And so there’s going to be schismatic movements within the
body of Christ. And then Jesus says in verse 12, “And because of the increase of lawlessness, the word there is
anomia, that is um without literally it means without the law.” So within the
church, there’s going to be a rejection of the law of God. We think that’s hard to imagine that um within the 7th
Adventist church, there’s going to be a rejection of the validity of the law of God. But even today we have people
proudly pushing the boundaries so we can break the seventh commandment with impunity. Thou shalt not commit
adultery, sexual immorality in the church as one example. And then Jesus
says, “And the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will
be saved.” And then Jesus says in verse 14, “And this good news of the kingdom will be
proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end shall come.” So when those 11th
hour workers are coming in, those who are faithful to Christ are going to be living in an end time movement that is
hated by the world all around the world. There’s going to be hatred of the followers of Christ. And within the body
of Christ, we’re going to have apostasy. We’re going to have the rejection of the law of God. We’re going to have hatred
towards those who are faithful to God. There’s going to be betrayal to the authorities of those who are faithful to God. There is going to be lawlessness
within the church. Rejection of the law of God. The love for many will draw cold. And in the midst of these external
attacks and internal crises, those who are faithful to God are going to focus on one thing, which is bringing the
gospel to the ends of the earth. And those 11th hour workers are going to get that job done.
So when Sister White talks that uses the phrase great light, she’s speaking of
Adventists. God wants to finish the work with the Advent movement. But until we
heed the message of the true witness of the Leodysian church, until there is heart searching and repentance and
acceptance of Christ and his righteousness today, we will remain blind to the tragedy and the extent of
our denominational failure to complete our assigned endtime role. So just
before Jesus returns, the message and the vineyard will be the same, but there’s going to be a turnover in the
workers. The first hour workers are going to fall away because they failed to heed the Leodysian message. And God
is going to raise up 11th hour workers to finish the work. So let’s come to the second quote here, shall we? The second
quote is um found in manuscript 64 1898. And this is what is written there. We
read, “At the 11th hour, the Lord will gather a company out of the world to serve him. There will be a converted
ministry. Those who have had privileges and opportunities to become intelligent in regards to the truth and yet who
continue to counterwork the work God would have accomplished will be purged out. For God accepts the service of no
man whose heart is divided. He accepts the whole heart or none. So once again
we see these 11th hour workers are not a reform movement within the Adventist church. They’re not a movement coming
out of our seminaries or our colleges. They’re not coming from our pastors or administrative teams or even from local
congregations. They’re coming from out of the world just as we saw before that they’re going to come from grossest
darkness from every nation, tribe, and people. So God is going to bring people into the Advent movements at the end of
time. And it’s going to be surprising to us at where he’s bringing them from, but they’re going to be a converted
ministry. They’re not just going to be Adventists by um social convenience.
They’re going to be Adventists by conviction. Amen. I just want to say here, you know, there are many young
people here today. When you’re looking for a spouse, find a spouse who an Adventist by conviction and not by
convenience. Don’t find a spouse who’s just happens to sit in church and looks good to you.
Find someone who maybe has suffered for their faith, who is truly converted, who is a born-again Christian, whose life
manifests the fruits of the spirit because there’s going to come a day when maybe you lose your job, for instance, over the Sabbath issue, and you need to
know that your spouse is going to stand right with you in that crisis. And they’re not going to walk away from you because, well, it’s just one Sabbath a
year, and we got a mortgage to pay for, and it’s a nice house, and this is where I want to raise the kids.
So, we’re looking for converted workers in the final crisis. people who have had a born-again experience with Jesus
Christ. And then she talks about those who are hindering the work. And those who are hindering the work in this quote
is not the world outside, but it’s those workers in the church who she says have
had privileges and opportunities to become intelligent in regard to the truth. Yet they counterwork the work
that God would do. So she says there are people within the church who’ve had opportunity, who’ve had privilege,
who’ve had time, who’ve had months, if not maybe a lifetime to study the word of God. And rather than advancing the
cause of God, they’re doing all they can to put the brakes on and say, “No, we can’t do things.”
And this happens. This does happen, brothers and sisters.
We are not to counter work that God that God would have us accomplish in our districts, in our churches, or in our
conferences. God accepts the service of no man whose interest is divided. Jesus expounds upon
this in in the sermon on the mount. You cannot serve both God and mammon.
Where a man’s treasure is, there shall his heart be also. Where is your heart today?
Do you have a divided heart? Are you storing things up for the time of trouble, a rice in the basement, or
are you storing up the word of God in your mind for the time of trouble? Doesn’t matter how many band-aids or
boxes of beans you have in the basement. That’s not going to get you through the final crisis. What’s going to get you
through the final crisis is a living connection with Jesus Christ.
And so those who’ve had privilege and opportunities to become intelligent in regard to the truth don’t be in that
group who then hold back the word of God. And the reason they hold back the word of God is because they have divided
hearts. They have divided interests. They have one foot in this world and one foot in the kingdom of God.
Jesus doesn’t accept the service of those whose hearts are divided. He wants your whole heart today. He wants your
whole heart committed to advancing and finishing the work among the unreached of planet earth today.
So we we have all had privileges and opportunities by virtue of the fact we’re sitting here today. But don’t
those privileges and opportunities to be an excuse for you to take a position of ambiguity. these days. Um, it’s a
fashionable thing for people not to know what to think about anything.
It’s fashionable. People say, “Well, I don’t want to pass judgment on that. You know, I’m not going to say this is right or this is wrong.” They say, “Well, you
know, there there are multiple perspectives on this, and this is happens to be my perspective, but I may change that tomorrow. And if it’s
politically incorrect, it almost certainly will change tomorrow.” And it seems that the more knowledge and understanding we have, the less willing
we are to take a stand for anything. It happens in almost every aspect of our western society.
We’ve become a precise society that’s professional and not knowing what is right or wrong anymore and being
unwilling to take a stand for anything. And Jesus wants us to have a a heart
that is wholly devoted to him that is not divided between the treasures of this world and heavenly treasures above.
So God is looking for 11th hour workers who will be a converted ministry.
a converted ministry with converted hearts and converted lives. The third quotes that we have is found in youth
instructor from 1902 and here it is here says at the 11th
hour the Lord will call into his service many faithful workers self-sacrificing
men and women will step into the places made vacant by apostasy and death to
young women to young men and young women as well as to those who are older. God will give power from above. With
converted minds, converted hands, converted feet, converted tongues, their lips touched with a living coal from the
divine altar. They’ll go forth into the master’s service, moving steadily onward upward, carrying the work forward to
completion. So, this is the first time where she talks about these 11th hour workers are going to bring the work to
completion. And what she says about them is it’s not necessarily going to be old gay-head men like me.
Much as we’d like to be part of that movement, it’s young men and young women she’s talking about here. To young men
and young women, as well as those who are older. That’s good to know. But primarily to young men and young women,
God is going to give power from above. Young people who are sitting listening to this today, God has a work for you to
do. Your work is significant because you’re going to be the ones who are going to finish the work, those 11th
hour workers. And those 11th hour workers are going to receive power from above. you’re going to do things that
are not humanly possible. When my when my sister was a young girl, she was about 3 years old. We were driving home
in in in a member’s car from church and he wasn’t an Adventist and he switched on the the soccer to listen to the
results and I was sitting there and I was like 6 years old and I was happy to listen to the results cuz he bore the
moral responsibility cuz he was turning the radio on and he wasn’t an Adventist and I was just having to sit and it just
happened to come into my brain as we were listening to the soccer results and I sat there in happy silence because he
was breaking the Sabbath and not me. And my little sister, she speaks up and she says, “Mr. So and so,” she says, “It’s
the Sabbath.” She says, “Turn that radio right off.” And I was stunned. I thought, “You
wretched little girl.” And this non-adventist man who was about
65 years old, he looks around at us and he reaches forward and he turns the radio off. And I looked at my young
sister with something other than brotherly love in my eyes. And she looked up at me with all innocence like,
“I did the right thing, Conrad. She did. God can work through small children. God
can work through young pe young people like you. You can say things without going to jail that old people cannot
say. Literally. When I go to a place like Britain and
and they say to me, Con, we want those sermons, but we don’t want to post them online until you’ve left the country.
Why is that? Because what I say will be construed as hate speech. If I go to Ireland with the new hate speech laws,
almost anything you say can be construed as hate speech. If I go to Canada and they say to pastors in Canada, do not
preach on LGBTQ issues or biblical sexuality because you’re going to get the church into trouble. This is ridiculous. A church in that kind of
location needs to go underground so they can preach the gospel freely. But young people like you ladies here,
you can say things that I can’t say because you can’t get sent to prison for hate speech.
So think about that. God is going to these 11th hour workers will be self-sacrificing men and women.
So, it’s going to be an equal opportunity ministry and they’re going to be young men and young women involved. They’re going to have
converted minds and converted hands and converted feet and converted tongues. That is every aspect of their being is
wholly sold for sold out for God. And they’re going to move forward into the master service. And they’re going to
step into the place going to step over the warm bodies of those who’ve left through apostasy or through death. And
so once again, we have the idea of this churn at the end of time that those who’ve been in the gospel work from the first hour aren’t necessarily going to
be those who be there at the 12th hour when Jesus comes again. There’s going to be churn at the end of time. We’re to
expect this. It’s not a sign of failure. It’s a sign that God is bringing the final workers in to finish the work. The
Holy Spirit, according to this passage, is actually going to bypass those first hour workers, those who’ve borne the
burden of ministry and labor during the heats of the day. Why? because they no longer recognize the master’s voice. It
is the 11th hour workers who are going to finish the work of taking the gospel to the world. It is through their
genuine conversions that God is going to do what he could not do through the first hour workers, through the third
hour workers, through the sixth or through the 11th or 9inth hour workers. But God is going to have those 11th hour
workers and those being the ones those going to be the ones who are going to finish the work. Let me come to quote
four here. And Sister White says this letter 431890. She says, “But I speak not my
own words when I say that God’s spirit will pass by those who’ve had their day of test and opportunity, but who have
not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of his spirit. Then thousands in the 11th hour will see
and acknowledge the truth. Behold, the day cometh, sayith the Lord, that the plow man shall overtake the reaper and
the treader of grapes, him that sweth the seed.” That’s from Amos 9:13. These conversions to truth will be made with
such a rapidity that will surprise the church and God’s name alone will be glorified. So in this passage here, we
see that yes, there’s going to be 11th hour workers. But we read in this passage that God is going to bypass the
first hour workers. Those are the longestablished workers. Those are, let me speak frankly here, conference and
union division presidents. Because you only get to that position if you’re a first hour worker and you’re giving your whole life to God. God is going to
bypass the established hierarchy. He’s going to bypass the established mechanisms. He’s going to bypass the
established nominating committees and he’s going to bring in 11th hour workers who are not known to nominating
committees who are not known to conference constituency sessions but they are known to god himself and he’s
going to bring them into his work and he’s going to bypass the existing structure and it’s and it’s workers from
the first hour on why because they have not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of his spirit.
that is they have closed themselves off so much they no longer recognize when the Holy Spirit is being poured out.
Does this make sense based on what she’s saying here? Yes. God is going to bring in people who are not so focused on
buildings and budgets and peoples and policies that they no longer recognize when the Holy Spirit is working right in
front of them. Let me put it another way. God is going to bring in workers to finish the work who recognize that
Adventists can have um convictions from the Holy Spirit that differ from government policy. Amen. He’s going to
bring them in and those workers are going to finish the work. And those who are focused on buildings and policies
and have closed their ears and have told the rest of the world, Adventists have the Holy Spirit has nothing to say to
Adventists on certain matters and are used to stifling the voice of the Holy Spirit before the the eyes of the world.
God is going to pass them by. Now, I’m trying not to speak too directly here today, but I think you
know what I’m talking about. Then he she says, “Thousands in the 11th hour will acknowledge the truth.
Behold the day come, sayaith the Lord, that the plan man shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him
that sew the seed.” That is we’re going they’re going to be falling over each other. That the early that the that
those who are doing different tasks will literally falling over each other. The work is going forward with such rapidity
rapidity. about um two years ago, a a a Bible study movement started in the
Republic of Georgia in the Caucuses. This happened when I was with AFM. It’s still ongoing. And um in Georgia, they
that you it’s almost impossible to buy a Bible because um the Bibles that they do sell are these large desk Bibles, huge
things. These are decorative versions in old Georgian. It’s like reading Chorse’s English, even before William
Shakespeare. And most Georgian people can’t understand this language. And so we we found that there was about um 10
guys studying and they found that there is a modern version of the Georgian Bible, but it’s almost impossible to
get. They don’t sell it on the in stores there. And they found a couple of Bibles. They were meeting in a cafe in
Tlisi. 10 guys. And so they connected with us and we connected with them and we discovered that they were basically
Adventists through their own studies. And one of them was um a Jewish guy, the most famous YouTuber in the country of
Georgia. And he was putting out Adventist prophetic materials on YouTube getting like 300,000 views per video on
Adventist prophetic interpretation. The most watched YouTube in Georgia it seems to us. And this was happening and there
was like the church is like 300 people officially in Georgia. There maybe 100 people in the seats on the Sabbath
morning. But this study group of about 10 group 10 men, they started studying and they said, “We need Bibles.” And so
we worked with them for 6 months. So let’s see where this goes. And 10 men turned into 30 men. And then 10 30 men
turned into 300 men. And these were all middle-aged men. There was Orthodox priests, there was
judges, there was attorneys, there were business people. And they were all meeting in cafes. They were drinking
their Georgian tea or coffee actually and eating their delicious bread that’s filled with like an inch and a half of
molted cheese. It’s why the life expectancy isn’t that long out there, I guess. And so they were reading these
things and so they said, “We need Bibles. We need Bibles.” We said, “Okay, let’s get some Bibles.” And then we
said, “Well, how much where do we get these Bibles printed?” And so we we prayed about it. And there were 300 men
who needed Bibles. So we said, “Okay.” I said, “Well, let’s buy 5,000 Bibles.
Where are we going to get these Bibles from? We’re going to get them printed in Belerusia in the city of Minsk. And then
they’re going to be trucked around around Ukraine through Romania into the Balkans into the caucuses and we’re
going to we’re going to order 5,000 Bibles as an act of faith because at the moment we need 300. We’ve grown from 10
to 300 in the space of a year. And so as an act of faith, we bought 5,000 Bibles
and it cost about $55,000. We raised the money. We paid the printers. We paid the Georgian Bible Society and all the rest
of it. And those Bibles were printed and they were delivered to Georgia just recently. But from the time of ordering
5,000 Bibles to those by 5,000 Bibles being delivered, there’s now over 30,000
people in those study groups. And so my act of faith, okay, Lord, we just need 5,000 as an act of faith. That’ll keep
them going for a few years here. Was was just a drop in the ocean. When God is at work, he’s at work.
And so we see these things happening and it it happens in different parts of the world in different times. And we see
that when the plow man shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him that seweth the seed, that the conversions to truth, as you say, will
happen with such rapidity that we can’t keep up with the supply of Bibles. It’s an incredible thing. But in this passage
here, God promises that in the last hour before Christ’s return, God is going to
bypass the first hour workers. He’s going to bypass them because
they’ve shut off their ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit for so long they can no longer receive his spirit.
It’s a solemn warning. But he he is going to have 11th hour workers who are going to work with such
rapidity that the reason they work with such rapidity is because they actually distinguish the voice of God. They
appreciate the movings of his spirit. They go through doors when God opens doors for them and they walk by faith
and they don’t know exactly where God is taking them but they walk by faith. So then we come to the fifth quote here
from the spirit of prophecy. This is the quote. She says there are many souls to come out of the ranks of the world out
of the churches even the Catholic Church whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to
proclaim the truth hereto for. For this reason the 11th hour workers will receive their penny. These will see the
battle coming and will give the trumpet a certain sound when the crisis is upon us. She’s talking here in third
selective messages about the mark of the beast and the third angel’s message is being proclaimed. When the crisis is
upon us, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front, guard themselves with the whole armor of
God and exalt his law. Adhere to the faith of Jesus and maintain the cause of religious liberty which reformers
defended with toil and for which they sacrificed their lives. Now, what can we say about these 11th hour workers from
this passage here? Number one, they don’t come from within Adventism. They come into the Advent movement from out
of the world. So, they’re not going to be, you know, sit people sitting next to us, you might say here this morning.
They’re they’re going to come out of the Catholic church. So, if somebody comes out of the Catholic church and joins the
Advent movement, don’t just say, “Ah, you’re a Jesuit.” Praise God that they’ve come into the Advent movement.
And if people think they’re just going to be criticized under a cloud of suspicion for the rest of their life, why would they join God’s end time
movement? They won’t. They’re going to pretty much pick up the vibes. Okay, I’m I’m I’m a pseudo Jesuit, so nobody’s
going to sit down and eat with me. Those their zeal will far exceed those
who are stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth here too. For that is these people will have a boldness for
God. They’ll have a courage for God. They’ll be zealous for God. They’re not just going to sit and give polite Bible
studies. They’re going to struggle earnestly for the salvation of their neighbor. They’re not going to be afraid of having a spiritual conversation.
They’re not going to be afraid of knocking on doors. They’re not going to be afraid of sharing their testimony. They’re going to have a zeal for God.
Why? Because they love their neighbors as themselves. They are 11th hour workers. They were in gross as darkness,
but they have found truth and now they’re going to share truth with their neighbor because they know how precious truth really is. They know how precious
the promise of salvation really is. And if you love your neighbor as yourself, and if you want eternal life for yourself, then you want your then you
want eternal life for your neighbor. And you’re going to do everything you can so they may receive receive the gift of
eternal life. And so these 11th hour workers will come from the world. They will come out of the fallen Protestant
churches in response to the second angel’s message. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, and from Catholicism
itself in response to the fourth angel’s message of Revelation 18. Come out of her, my people, says the angel in
Revelation chapter 18. And they’re going to come in during the time of the the crisis is upon us when the mark of the
beast is being imposed on the world when false worship is being mandated by the governments of our world led by the
United States of America. They’re going to come into that end time movement. They’re going to come to the front of
the battle. And notice it says they’re going to defend the law of God. Whereas Jesus says in Matthew 20:14 that the
church at the end of time there’ll be the rise of anomia, the rise of lawlessness. Which means Jesus says in
the visible Adventist church, people are going to be saying, you know, it really doesn’t matter whether you keep the ten commandments or not.
And honestly, we already have the seeds of those ideas today. If you believe
that when you that when you are saved by Jesus, God says it’s okay. You can remain in your sin and still be saved.
You remain in willful object ongoing sin. And many people believe that. They may not testify that but what they their
lives say this is how they live what they believe. If you believe that you can be saved by remaining in open
visible sin it means when the mark of the beast comes you’ll just accept it cuz that’s just another sin. It’s a
breaking of the fourth commandment. So once you accept the idea that you can be saved in and remain in your sin then
you’re going to you’re ready to receive the mark of the beast because that’s just another sin. But if you believe that Jesus wants us to gain victory over
sin, that includes the fourth commandment when that becomes the test of worship at the end of time, then you
can be counsel among those 11th hour workers. So Jesus in Matthew 24 when he talks about the church will see the rise
of lawlessness, the rejection of the law of God. When we’re promoting LGBTQ in
certain locations around North American division, when we’re promoting critical gender theory around certain parts of
our North American division, etc., etc. When we’re promoting modern theories of feminism at some of our colleagues, when
we’re promoting the study of of evolution in some of our colleges, we are doing exactly as Jesus said, the
rise of lawlessness, we’re turning our back on the law of God within our own movement. And in in response to that,
God is going to raise people who are zealous for the law of God that the existing workers who want the applause
of the world rather than the applause of God are slowly putting on the back shelf.
And so these 11th hour workers are going to come on. She says, “When the when
coercion of conscience and force worship is mandated in Revelation 13, these 11th
hour workers will come to the front of the battle. They will defend the law of God. They will have the faith of Jesus,
just as Revelation 14:12 says, here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God
and hold fast to Jesus, to the faith of Jesus.” And so this passage here is almost an a paraphrasing of Revelation
14:12. And in this passage here, you notice the first hour workers are no longer in the picture. There is going to
be a shaking within the advent movement. Multitudes will be shaken out by the straight testimony and multitudes are
going to be shaken in because they’re searching for truth and they find it in the advent movement. And in this final
crisis, we read that these 11th hour workers, she says, will maintain the cause of religious liberty. Now, why
would they defend the cause of religious liberty? because they they could only choose for God when the third angel’s
message was proclaimed, “Do not receive the mark of the beast.” They could only choose for God because they had liberty
of conscience to actually choose for God. And because they have had liberty of conscience to choose for God
themselves, they stand up for all other peoples to have liberty of conscience. Liberty of conscience is not just for me
or you. It’s for everybody. It’s for those we disagree with. It’s for those who remain committed to Buddhism. Well,
if that’s that’s where you what what you’re convicted of, then so be it. But I appeal to you to turn back from that.
And so this these 11th hour workers, they are champions of religious liberty. And she says they will give the trumpet
a certain sound. Now some some preaching these days is designed to send you fast
asleep. Honestly, it is. In England, we joke about vicers. The church of England
vicers. They was they say they say in the conclusion I want to appeal to you to
consider the possibility that one day this option may be an option for you if
the circumstances are all right. You think really that’s an appeal to me today
and the BBC mocks English vicers because they’re so wishy-washy
and their sermons just send you to sleep many of them. But the 11th hour workers who give the
trumpet a certain sound. That is when there is a crisis coming upon us. There is a season of calamity. You are being
forced to choose between Christ and Satan. As we said last night, the first angel’s message is essentially Jesus
revealed as our creator and as our redeemer. And the second angel’s message is Satan is exposed as the source of all
false structure in the world and the false systems of salvation. And the third angel’s message is you need to make a choice. Jesus revealed Satan
exposed. make a choice today. You need to make a choice either for Christ or for Satan. There’s no middle ground in
this battle. And so these these uh preachers, these speakers, these teachers, these 11th hour workers,
they’ll give the trumpet a certain sound. There’s an urgency. There is a clarity. There’s a no beating about the
bush about their preaching because your soul and my soul and all of our souls are precious to God and time is short
and we don’t know whether we’re going to make it home today alive on those roads out there. In all honesty, we don’t know
for certain what the next 10 minutes hold. We don’t know in the next week who’s not going to be here among us. We
don’t know these things. But what we do know is the decision we make for Christ today. And so these 11th hour workers,
they preach with a certain trumpet sound. There’s a clarion call. It cuts through the noise. It cuts through the froth of the world out there. It cuts to
all the nice I’m fine, you’re fine, we’re all fine kind of sermons and they say you need to make a decision for Christ today because you may not have
that opportunity again. And so these 11th hour workers are bold. They have a boldness for God. There’s a
courage for God. And I was sharing with someone the other day about the question of courage. Have you noticed that the
that courage is not one of the fruit of the spirit? I’ve wondered why do we not find courage
in the fruit of the spirit? Because outside the walls of the new Jerusalem, the first group that is listed are the
cowardly. So if the cowardly are outside this the new Jerusalem, why do we not
find the courageous explicitly listed as those being inside the New Jerusalem? And I thought about this, what what is
courage? And I’ve debated with my brother, he’s a New Testament professor at the seminary there. And he goes back and forth. This is what the Stoics
thought about courage. These are what the cynics thought. These are what the Epicurans thought. These are Greek forms of philosophy. I said, you know, this is
my this is my understanding of courage. If I’m standing in front of a burning building and I see my 2-year-old
daughter in the upper up upper room, I’m going to run into that building to save my daughter because I love my daughter.
That’s what’s motivating me. And a and a casual bystander who doesn’t know that that’s my daughter sees a man running
into a burning building to rescue a child and he says that’s an act of courage. Well, it wasn’t an act of
courage. It was an act of self-sacrificing love. And when you are motivated by love for the lost, God,
that that will translate into a boldness for the lost that they might know Jesus Christ for themselves. A boldness, a
courage, a willingness to speak up, a willingness to share, a willingness to step out in faith, a willingness to go
beyond the normal and expected and the ordinary and the socially polite in order that they might receive the opportunity of receiving Jesus Christ
for themselves. You know, we had um a beautiful baptism today. Yes. And praise the Lord for the baptism here this morning.
And um you know to go on your first date to a church service, I say praise the Lord as well.
And um it takes courage to ask somebody out on a date these days
really. But it takes greater courage to tell people about Jesus Christ.
And if we have no love for our neighbor, we see no need to warn them about the coming crisis or the coming judgment.
But if we love our labor, that our neighbor, that translates into a holy boldness for God, a courage for God, a
willingness to step out where we haven’t gone before, to step outside of our comfort zone. And let me tell you this,
when you step out in faith, outside your comfort zone, say, “Lord, it’s all on you now.” It’s amazing what God does for
you in that moment. He carries you through. He gives you words to say. He makes those divine encounters and divine
appointments. He brings people into your life and your sphere of influence. and they and you are changed as a result of
the work of God in bringing you together. These 11th hour workers are champions of religious liberty. They’re
not can be silent on liberty of conscience. And yes, when our general conference unites with the powers of our
world to deny religious liberty to Adventists worldwide, God will raise end time champions of religious liberty to
do the work that the first hour workers, those in the offices have failed to do for themselves.
She says about this testimonies to ministers. She says, “Let me tell you that the Lord will work in
this last work in a way very much out of the common order of things and in a way that will be contrary to any human
planning. There’ll be those among us that will always want to control the work of God to dictate what movement
shall be made even when the work goes forward under the direction of the angel who joins the third angel in the message
to be given to the world.” That’s the angel of revelation 18. God will use ma ways and means by which it will be seen
that he is taking the reigns into his own hands. The workers will be surprised by the simple means that God will use to
bring about and perfect his work of righteousness. I take courage and comfort from promises like this that God
is going to work in a way that is contrary to any human planning. God is going to take the reigns into his own
hands. that there’s always going to be on those who want to control the work to dictate the work to counterwork the work
of God to put the brakes and say whoa whoa whoa that’s not within our policy framework. No, no, no, no, no, no. Um Adventist risk management wouldn’t allow
that. That’s far too risky to do. And these days, many of our church committees are about managing risk
rather than spreading the gospel. Let’s be honest. And so God is going to say, “If that’s
what you’re going to be, I’m not I’m not just going to blow you away. I’m just going to take the reigns into my own hand and I’m going to take control of
it.” and you think you’re going to stop the work of God, just you try. Because when God gets on the case, there’s
nothing going to stop it going forward. Just as in the Republic of Georgia, we say when we had 10 men and we got to 300
men and I said, “Let’s buy 5,000 Bibles.” At the time, it was an act of faith. Now, it was an act of doubt
that we needed 50,000, 100,000 Bibles for that country. God is going to step in. He’s going to
take the work, the reigns of the work into his own hands and he’s going to bring in 11th hour workers who are going to finish the work. She says in the
second collector messages under the showers of the latter reign the inventions of man the human machinery
that is the conference structure would will at times be swept away. The boundary of man’s authority will be as
broken reads and the Holy Spirit will speak through the living human agent with convincing power. Truth is self-
authenticating. When you speak truth, truth has a ring to it. And when you speak truth, people
don’t necessarily need to ask for valid um verification or val validation. They don’t they don’t always ask for what’s
your logic behind all of this. When you speak truth, the Holy Spirit brings conviction into the hearts of the hearers that truth was spoken in their
hearing. And the Holy Spirit says will speak through the living human agent. These are the 11th hour workers with
convincing power. Convincing power. You know that the son of God was declared in
Romans 1 1-2. He was declared with power to be the son of God through his resurrection. That word power is
dunameus. We get the word dynamite from that. So when the son of man comes into
your life, when the son of god comes into your life and you accept him as lord and savior, it’s like dynamite goes
off in your life. And when dynamite goes off, nothing is ever the same again. Would you agree? So when you are a
bornagain Christian, you don’t just live the same life as before. dynamite goes off and God wants you to live a new life
according to new principles, the principles of the kingdom of God. And he’s going to wash away the work of the flesh so that you have the fruit of the
spirit. You are a new creation. We are a transformed being when we are born again in Jesus Christ. So this final work of
gospel proclamation will be done not according to human planning but contrary to human planning. It will be contrary
to man’s inventions and the humans machinery will be swept away. Why will the human machinery be swept away? Well,
um, one view is you cannot put new wine into old wine skins. True. Another view
less charitable is that the structure of the human machinery is so oified and bureaucratic that it is no longer open
to the working of the Holy Spirit. Another view is that the human machinery is actively closing itself off to the
working of the Holy Spirit and denying the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the members. Another view of this
might be that the holy that um when the holy spirit is poured out there is another spirit at work controlling the
structure and those two spirits are incompatible with one another. You can take your pick.
But the good news in this passage here is that God is going to take the final gospel work into his own hands. He’s
going to build a coalition of the willing from among the Advent movements and they’re going to join with those from outside the Advent Adventist
movement when the third angel’s message is proclaimed in the time of the mark of the beast. And that that coalition of
the willing is going to finish the work in earth’s final hours. Praise God. The work is going to be finished.
So this parable of the 11th hour workers worker, it is a profound message about
God’s grace for any individual who will answer God’s offer of mercy today.
It’s also a prophecy of the kind of worker who is going to join the advent movement in earth’s final crisis. Those
11th hour workers. There are essentially two kinds of workers that we find in these passages. If you see my sermons, I
like putting things into tables because it’s just easier for me to remember things that way. And so I want to contrast here the first hour or the
early gospel workers with the la the late gospel workers or the 11th hour workers. This is a summary of all we’ve
discussed here today. So the first hour workers, they live in the light of the gospel for much of the day. and that the
11th hour workers are living in the grossest era up until the mark of the beast is going to be imposed. The first
hour workers are gathered together in the advent movement. They’re the visible advent movement today in 2025. And the
11th hour workers are today scattered among among all the faiths of the world. They’re living in grossest darkness. The
first hour workers, however, are unfaithful in their privileges and responsibilities.
Really, we are. We have incredible spiritual riches at home, but we rarely do anything with it.
We preach sermons and people go home and though they’re vegan, they dine on the flesh of the preacher.
We come to Sabbath school and we discuss theological concepts, but for many of us, it makes not one jot or tit of any
difference in how we live our lives. We’re to read the Bible in order that we can be obedient to the teachings of God.
So that when we when we study our Bible in Sabbath school, it’s so that I may live a life in more perfect harmony with
the revealed will of God. But all too often we read the Bible, we debate some theological ideas and we go home with no
intent to ever allow to change how we live our lives. And this is not how it should be. We are unfaithful in their
privileges and responsibilities. The 11th hour workers, they search the scriptures diligently, seeking for
understanding and for light. The first hour workers counterwork the work that God wishes them to accomplish and the
11th hour workers will finish the work that God wants to be completed. The first hour workers are unconverted. The
11th hour workers are have a genuine born-again conversion experience. The first hour workers make void the law of
God. The 11th hour workers will uphold the law of God no matter the cost to themselves or to our institutions.
The first hour workers have turned away from Christ. The 11th hour workers have turned to Christ. The first hour workers
do not uphold religious liberty. They trample on it for their fellow brothers and sisters. The fir the 11th hour
workers are champions of religious liberty. The first hour workers will be purged out by God when that shaking
comes. The 11th hour workers will be brought in by God when that shaking comes. And tragically those first hour
workers who spent their whole life working for the Lord, some are going to lose their crowns of life. And the 11th
hour workers are going to gain their crown of life. It’s a stark contrast. Yes.
So, I want to challenge you today. The mark of the beast has yet to be imposed. It is coming, but it’s yet to
come. And those 11th hour workers are going to come in in that moment, in that final crisis.
But we can have the spiritual qualities of those 11th hour workers today. We may
not control where we live in the passage of time. We may die. Some of us may die
before the mark of the beast is imposed. But we can live with the qualities, the spiritual characteristics of those 11th
hour workers today in our generation in 2025
as the final crisis comes our way. I want to challenge you today to covenant with God that you’re going to live as an
11th hour worker. You may not be living in grossest darkness today. You may not be living in
in in the other faiths of the world or in secularism or atheism. But we can live today as 11th hour workers. We can
ask God today to give us the spiritual characteristics and qualities of 11th hour workers so that in 2025 in this
portion of Texas there is a movement for God that the world takes note of. There is a movement to God that the world
takes note of that the the secular media will take notice of this movement to Christ around Cleveland, Texas. We can
live as 11th hour workers today. We can’t control when we live in the flow of history as I’ve already said,
but we can ch we can choose how we live in 2025. I encourage you today, don’t be a first
hour worker. Don’t be an Adventist by social convenience.
Be a converted, convicted member of an Advent movement that’s telling the world
of a sinbearing and a place taking and a sooncoming savior. Be bold for God here
in Texas. Have a go a boldness and a courage for God that this world simply
has to take note of. Ask God to give you the heart and mind of an 11th hour worker and he will bless you. Ask him
this week to give you opportunities to share your faith, to share the good news. Maybe carry a glow tract in your
pocket, carry a steps to Christ in your car. Prepare your your personal testimony of this is how I met God. This
this is before I met God. This is how I met God. And this is what God has done for me. Every testimony has those three
portions. Before I met God, how I met God, what God has done for me. Be praying from this week onwards that you
will be counted among the 11th hour workers that God is going to work through to finish the work. I want to be
an 11th hour worker. I may not live in that historical era right now, but it is
coming soon. But I want to be counsel among those 11th hour workers. Don’t you? Yes. I want to challenge you today.
May this be the clever not just the country life but it may be the 11th hour church where people find salvation no
matter how desperate their condition no matter how early or late in life people find salvation in Jesus Christ in this
congregation because we accept 11th hour conversions and we are also a church of 11th hour workers. May God bless each
and every one of us as we stand tall for Jesus. Let your light shine in the gathering gloom and may people be drawn
to the light of the world through the ministry of this congregation. May God bless you as you shine for him. Am