Three generations | Dr. Conrad Vine

and um so the ministry I lead is called as an e needle to the pole. It’s from the book education and um what I found

these days is that if you try to be as an eagle to the pole every pressure will come your way to depart from that

direction. And there’s a lot of there are a lot of winds of false doctrine blowing out there. There’s a lot of winds of social division. Um, and so I

think it’s important that if we are to stay as true as duty as the needle to the pole, we need to know what true

north really is. We need to know the scriptures for ourselves and then we can discern what is a deception and what is

not of God and what is true. So um the name is a reminder to myself that if I’m

to be as true to duty as needed is to the pole and and so forth that um I need

to know Jesus for myself and I know need to know the truth for myself. So one of the joys of being a preacher actually is

not the preaching it’s actually the sermon preparation. Amen. So if you ever asked to preach a sermon,

say, “Thank you, Lord.” Because you have to sit down and study a topic for yourself. And um when you study the

topic for yourself, you grow. Your understanding is broadened. It is deepened. You have an encounter with the Lord, then when you stand up and you

preach, you you’re hopefully full of the joy of discovery. It’s like fresh bread in the tabernacle service. And so that’s

one of the joys of being a preacher is not the preaching. you might enjoy the preaching, it’s actually the sermon

preparation time. So, count it a blessing if you’re asked to produce a seven seven-part series on something.

Uh, it’s hard work, but you will never be the same ever after that. And if you know there’s a congregation or a church

or a Bible study group that wants someone to come and present something, don’t hide away from that. Maybe God has

given the opportunity. And when I was 13, I was in a in a church and um my dad

was the uh the pastor and the sab the adult Sabbath school teacher went sick that day and the the adult Sabbath

school class was sitting there in the church not knowing what to do. And I thought, well, I’ll teach the Sabbath school lesson for the adults. So I stood

up and I hadn’t studied the lesson, but um that wasn’t a hindrance, it seemed to me. So I stood up and I taught the

lesson, working my way through. And at the end of that lesson, I thought, “Oh, I enjoy standing in front of people. Some people do, some people don’t.” So a

few months later there was a day of fellowship and I said to the organizers could I have 10 minutes. They said what

do you want 10 minutes for? You’re not on the program. So I just want 10 minutes please. I want to say something. I had no idea what I was going to say. I

just needed 10 minutes. So I used I prepared and I prepared and I prepared and I wrote out pages and pages for you

young people. This was in the era before the internet, before cell phones. We didn’t have a TV. The telephone was was

attached to the wall with a long cord attached to it. And there was there were no powerpoints. And so I wrote out pages

and pages and pages of stuff. When I stood up there to speak, I got through all those pages in 10 minutes.

And I discovered, oh, I like doing this. But the thing I would say to young people is um ask for opportunities

and ask for opportunities to to share the gifts that God has given you. And don’t be shy about it. If there’s a

Bible study group, ask if you can go and lead up one of those studies. If there’s a baptismal um baptismal preparation

group going on, ask the pastor if you can be a part of it, maybe you can lead one of those studies. If there’s um if

there’s an evangelistic series going on, maybe ask can you give the health nuggets at the beginning and so forth.

And just ask for opportunities and you discover what gs God has given you and

uh then you you pursue that more and you thrive and you flourish. So anyway, our our talk today is entitled three

generations. There’s the title up there. There’s our website up there. my email address. Um, if you do ever write to me

an email, please say who you are and where you’re writing from because I get a lot of emails from random strangers

and I’m never quite sure who they are um and so forth. But, um, our our sermon

today is entitled Three Generations. And in our Sabbath school, um, we we were looking at the parable of the wheat and

the tears. We’re looking at the close of probation and how people can avoid going down the path of the tears. And so I

want to continue along that general theme here this morning uh with this sermon entitled Three Generations. And

so I’m hoping that in the delivering of this sermon that the Holy Spirit will speak to each of our hearts and our minds. And just reminder if if I say

something and the Holy Spirit is convicting you, go home and te test it against the scriptures for yourself. You

know, we have many ideas floating around our house, but test it against the scriptures. Uh so you know that this really is the Holy Spirit speaking to

you. I would like to give greetings to those watching from Eagle. I think they’re streaming this service here live

today. So, welcome to our brothers and sisters from Eagle. And to those of you who are watching online, um we pray that

you’ll receive a blessing today. So, let’s bow our heads and invite the Holy Spirit to bless our gathering here this

morning. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the blessings of the Sabbath day. Father, we thank you for the way

you’ve led in our lives thus far. We thank you brought us here today. We thank you that you brought convictions

into our hearts and minds that of all the churches in the valley, we should be at Middleton here this morning. And

Father, we thank you for the promise of the evangelistic series. We thank you for the so precious souls who will be

one during that process. And I pray, Lord, that they will find a home in this congregation until Jesus comes again.

Lord, now as we break the bread of life and we talk about these three generations, I pray that the choice

before us will be made clear that your Holy Spirit will impress upon us the path that we are to take. Uh that we

will know as we leave this place, the direction that you would have us walk in life. So, Father, please speak through

me. Please speak for me. And may your spirit be the only spirit present here this morning. Keep away men with

violence upon their hearts. And may you be glorified this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

All right. So I want to start out by saying this is that modern man appears to be very very lost.

We are living in a culture of despair. A culture with all kinds of movement movements and philosophies. But

ultimately in the west we are living within as a general rule we’re living within what some call a philosophy of

despair and increasingly a culture of death. We’re living in a nation where multitudes are seeking meaning and

purpose in a spectrum of ideologies. Some people are looking uh they want to become nationalists. Some people want to

become globalists. Some people they give their life over to the environmental movement. Other people talk about free

Palestine, free DC or Black Lives Matter or Trans Lives Matter. Some people get

involved in the LGBTQ rights movement and the sexual revolution and they become social justice warriors. people

across our nation, particularly the younger generations, because we live in a philosophy of despair where nothing

matters, they’re desperately seeking meaning and purpose and identity in this movement or that ideology or that idea

that’s floating out there. And so we’re also seeing um the rise not just of ideologically driven violence such as

the the shooting in Charlotte, what 2009, when that young man walked in and shot a bunch of African-Americans.

that’s driven by white supremacy and racism. So we are seeing ideologically driven violence but increasingly we are

seeing what the FBI calls um nihilistic violist nicolistic violent extremism

which means nhilism the word nickel is a Latin word. It means nothing. So if you’re a nihilist you mean it means that

you believe nothing matters, nothing has purpose, nothing is right, nothing is wrong, nothing has any goal or

objective. Nothing matters whether you live or whether you die it’s irrelevant. So if you are a nihilist and you believe

that nothing matters in the rise of nihilistic violence, we see people who who adhere to the principle that nothing

matters. They’re trying to destroy all that is good and pure and innocent and lovely in our society because they want

to take down anything that has purpose in our society and that contradicts their particular philosophy of life. And

so our western society is fragmenting before our eyes.

So, how then are we to wait for the coming of Jesus?

And uh are we going to become preppers in the Idaho mountains?

Are we going to escape into I don’t know, drugs and alcohol, porn or sex, or

NFL or NBA? That wasn’t supposed to be funny.

But many men escape from this world by spending nine hours on Sundays watching NFL.

So how do we wait the coming of Jesus? All rounds we see violence. So every week, every other week there’s another

shooting. There’s another school shooting. There’s another assassination. There’s another murder. There is despair

and addiction on the streets. We’re surrounded by family breakdown. We see the loss of meaning and purpose within

our society. So I want to talk today about three options that we have, three pathways that we can choose. And the

first one I want to talk about, there’s our three steps today. The first

generation I’m going to talk about is those who are lost in despair. We’re then going to talk about those who are

lost in the church. Then we talk about those who are lost in wonder. So that’s our journey this morning. And it’s

already 12:20. So an enemy hath done this to the clock, I can see. And um all right. So those

are our three stages today. Lost in despair, lost in the church, and lost in wonder. So we’re going to talk first

about the generation one that is lost in despair. And we’re going to be talking about we’re talking about particularly

the those who are under 30 years old today in our western society. So in the 1960s,

French philosophers articulated a new worldview. They called it postmodernism. You heard of postmodernism? Now

postmodernism is really hard to def to to define perhaps by intent and perhaps by design. It is a rejection of

modernism as an intellectual movement from the late 1850s onwards and it

rejects the possibility that knowledge is objective. It is rational. It is true. It is demonstrable and it is pro

it is provable. So postmodernism has two core beliefs within it. And there’s a

book there called cynical theories. And I would encourage every parent in this room to read that book, Cynical

Theories. It’s on Amazon. It’s by Pluck Rhodes and Lindsay. And it talks about these ideologies that are floating

around there. You may think it doesn’t affect your home. And I say, “Oh, yes it will. Your children and your

grandchildren will be embibing these cynical theories and philosophies in school, on the internet, in Hollywood,

and in music they listen to, whether we recognize that or not.” So postmodernism has two core principles. The first of

which on the screen is a radical skepticism about whether objective knowledge or truth is possible and it

prefers cultural constructivism and moral relativism. So they may say that monogamy is a cultural construct. Have

you heard that phrases like that? Um monogamy is a cultural construct. There’s nothing absolute about it. It’s

just something we’ve decided to go with because it seems to work. And in this principle here, all truth is tied to

your cultural frame of reference. And the second principle is that societies are organized into powerful identity

groups and hierarchies that only serve the the interests of the elites and those in power um and uh which define

what is acceptable knowledge within a society. So in postmodernism we start the shift from um what matters is you as

an individual to what we now call identity politics. You heard of identity politics? And so in identity politics,

what matters is the group that you belong to, not who you are as an individual. So you may be a moral

individual. You may seek to do be a blessing to your community. You may be you may be honest in all you do. You may

tell the truth at all times. You may act with love towards people rather than violence. But if you are in the wrong

identity group, then you’re forever considered evil. And you may be in the right the inroup, the the the uh the the

preferred um uh identity group. And you may be a rotty, you may be a scoundrel, you may be a murderer, you may be a drug

dealer, but as long as you’re in that preferred group, then you’re going to be okay. All right? So, a good example is George

Floyd. He was a drug dealer. He was a man of violence. He held a pistol to a pregnant woman’s stomach, but it didn’t matter

because he was in one of the preferred identity groups. And you may be a living saint,

but if you’re in the wrong identity group, then you’re considered forever evil. And this this starts with a blurring of postmodernism and cultural

Marxism. We won’t get into that too much detail today. But in this um postmodern

world in which we live, there are four implications. The first is that all meaningful boundaries must be blurred.

Why? Because boundaries only serve to preserve the power structures that exist. And so um we must blur those

boundaries so that people can cross those boundaries within society. The unjust systems of power must be eroded.

This is postmodern theory here. The second is that language is is a tool of the oppressor and it must be

deconstructed. Hence, we ask today, what is a woman? And nobody knows what a

woman is. Apparently, particularly the feminist. It’s an ironic thing these days. Feminism exists

to pursue full legal and social equality for women in society. And you ask a feminist, well, what actually is a

woman? They say, well, well, you know, I I identify as a woman, but what is a

woman? Well, nobody knows what a woman is anymore. So, if you’re pursuing the full legal in equality of women in

society, but you can’t define what a woman is, it would suggest your ideology, your philosophy has run into the ground.

And it’s thirdwave feminists that give us transgenderism, by the way. Then the third um implication of postmodern

theory is that all cultures are equal. None is superior to another. um banging on a tree or or Mozart’s um symphonies

are all equal in terms of moral value and and intellectual uh ability and and

technology to put it together. And then you have the fourth idea that the individual is replaced by the group

identity. So what matters now is the group you belong to, not you as an individual. And the the irony about this

is is that you know Martin Luther King Jr. He when in his speech in the march

on Washington he said I have a dream and one of those dreams was that one day my grandchildren will be judged not by the

color of their skin but by the content of their characters. Martin Luther King’s dream um has been rejected by the

modern theorists completely because in in in the modern world the modern way of looking at things his his grandchildren

will be judged by the color of their skin not by the content of their characters. So even though we celebrate

Martin Luther King and we have Martin Luther King Day, we’ve actually rejected in popular culture exactly what he stood

for. We we’ve inverted inverted what he said. So why did postmodernism spread?

Well, did any of you ever watch Aan Lee when you were children? An of Green Gables.

Yes. Okay. Some of you suffered through an of Green Gables. You loved it. Oh well, sister. Well,

well, in our house, we we never had a television growing up in England, and it was only when I went to college I

discovered war rationing had finished. That’s a joke, by the way. But, uh, you know, we my my we used to eat margarine

during the week because margarine was a wartime invention in World War I by the Germans. They didn’t have enough butter.

So, they invented a chemical mixture called margarine. But on Sabbath, we used to have a a real pat of butter, a

quarter pound of butter. And my mom would bring out this quarter pound of butter and all four kids would go, “Real

butter, mother.” And mom would say, “Hush children, hush children.” But we wanted to emphasize that we wanted butter all the week, not just on

Sabbaths. But when we were growing up, we had no TV. But my grandfather had a TV. It was a little black and white TV.

And every Christmas, we go and visit him. And after the Christmas meal, there would be the Queen’s speech for 15

minutes. And after that, all the men knew what was coming.

You see, there was a kitchen full of dishes to be washed and there was there was always at

Christmas day the latest James Bond movie. And on the BBC 2, there was an of Green Gables.

And you can imagine the disputes that went on in that house where all the men wanted to not do the

dishes and watch a James Bond movie and all the ladies wanted to watch an of Green Gables and we were unceremoniously

dispatched into the kitchen to, you know, clean up the mess from our Christmas lunch. I grew up loathing an

of Green Gables cuz she represented my one day in the year where I had a television. My one

day in the year I could actually see something moving on the screen and I knew that it was going to be something special. and my two sisters would tells

tales about an of Green Gables and all her escapades and adventures. I loathe that creature. But my um are there any

men who feel the same way about an of Green Gables? Yes. So when my daughter was young, we went to somebody’s house

for a summer vacation and it was raining. We got locked in this cabin somewhere and they they had they had

these Aan Lee series. So we sat and watched Aan Lee which is kind of like Adam Green Gables just a few years

later. And what you notice about the Aan Lee series is there’s a constant theme where the inhabitants of the village of

Aan Lee, they’re always wrestling with the with some new technology that’s coming to town, whether it’s electricity

or running water or indoor water closets or or a grid pattern for the road or a canning factory or something. And the

the entire Aanly series is how people in the 1870s, 80s, 90s, early 1900s, how

they wrestle with the advent of new technology in their community. And there’s always this optimistic, the young people always optimistic that this

new technology is going to make life a whole lot better. And then the series finishes, 1914, World War I begins, and

one of those young boys heads off in the Navy, and he goes off to France to fight. And you know that he’s not coming back.

And so in the modernist era, represented by the Aan Lee or Ana Green Gable series, technology brings social

advancement. And after the horrors of World War I where over 30 million people died

and then World War II where millions died as well, postmodern took postmodernism took off because people

became disillusioned with technology. They said technology brought us the atom bomb. Um democracy brought us Adolf

Hitler and Marxism brought us communism and the gulag. So all these things that

promised progress at the turn of the century, the early 1900s had turned into a nightmare for humanity by the 1960s.

So postmodernism took off. Now postmodernism believes that nothing has purpose or meaning. And it’s a

philosophy of despair at the underlying human condition. It believes that nothing has purpose or meaning. There’s

no purpose in life. And it reduces you to a state of nihilistic despair. Now in

creation, God created creation with a purpose. Creation doesn’t exist in and of itself, but there is a goal towards

creation and ultimately that goal is that we live in harmony and in worship of God. But when God created this

planet, um he gave purpose to to human beings. I want to use an example here. I

want to talk about um sexual intimacy just briefly. I’m not going to talk into any great detail, parents, so don’t worry. But in God’s original ideal plan,

sexual intimacy wasn’t the end in itself. It had two purposes. One, it was to cement an exclusive unique

relationship between a husband and a wife. And yes, between a husband and a wife and nobody else. And the second

purpose was it was to produce children with all the joy and the hope they represent for the next generation. And

so within the biblical worldview, the conjugal act is not the end in itself. It has two much greater purposes. And

everything in creation leads to a greater purpose. But in the postmodern worldview, nothing has purpose.

Therefore, the conjugal act or the physical act is the end in and of itself. And as that’s the most intimate

expression of who you are, that means that your sexual identity or gender expression, soulji, as some people call

it, becomes the most important aspect of your being. You following me on this? If that’s the most intimate part of who

you are and if it leads to nothing beyond itself, which is the Christian view, the postmodern view is that’s all

there is in life, then that expression of who you are becomes the most important part of your identity. And

that’s why we see this flourishing this smorggas board of sexual identities and gender expressions. I identify as a

chocolate cake. I identify as the seasons of winter. I mean, you see these things on Tik Tok and Instagram and

people are finding meaning and creating meaning for themselves because they live in a world that philosophically says

nothing has meaning whatsoever. And so the sexual revolution uh postmodernism

is the cradle of despair for the sexual revolution. And the search for meaning in the sexual revolution that’s in the

pride parades of America today is denied by the underlying philosophy of despair that undergurs it. And so people are

searching meanings. I I’m searching for meaning and identity. I’m in this group or I’m in this group or I’m in the other

group. I’m trans today. I’m straight tomorrow. I’m hetero yesterday. I’m not sure what I’m going to be next week. That we’re all over the spectrum on

these things. But this whole philosophy that’s seeking for meaning and purpose and identity um is is underguarded. The

foundation of it is a philosophy that says nothing matters. Nothing has any meaning. It doesn’t

matter whether you’re a rat or a human being. Nothing really matters. It doesn’t matter whether you get married or not. It nothing really matters. It

doesn’t matter whether you climb the highest mountain or run the fastest 100 meters. Doesn’t matter whether you’re a Nobel Prize laurate for medicine or

whether you’re a life a murderer in prison for life. Nothing matters in postmodern philosophy. So it doesn’t

matter who you fall in love with in the postmodern worldview. And these philosophies of despair didn’t last for

very long. They mutated in the 1990s in these critical theories that you see on the screen there. postcolonial theory,

queer theory, critical race theory, disability and fat studies, LGBTQ studies and critical gender theory from

where you get intersectionality and transgenderism. And these critical theories are essentially these are the

bitter fruit of the underlying critical theory which is the application of postmodern theory from the 60s which was

birthed out of French existentialism and is essentially a philosophy of despair.

So this is the philosophy of despair on which many of the movements in modern day America are built

and nothing matters. Nothing means anything. Humanity has no intrinsic purpose. There are no moral

absolutes anymore. Nothing is right. Nothing is wrong. Whether you live or whether you die, it matters not. There

is no possibility of significance, of meaning, of purpose, of right or wrong.

If nothing matters, neither do I. And neither do you. And this is the modern generation in

America. They are lost in despair. But at the deepest level possible,

there’s an essential agreement between followers of Jesus Christ and those who are lost in this philosophy of despair.

And what is that essential agreement? It is this. Without God, humanity has no

meaning. Without God, humanity has no possibility of purpose.

that everything is meaningless. You know, it’s important when you do evangelism, it’s important when we share

our faith with people that we try and find a common starting point. Let me give an example. In Papa New Guinea,

where the missionaries work, the people are animists. They worship spirits. They believe those spirits are the spirits of

their ancestors, but they’re actually fallen angels. And so, what’s the starting point for evangelism with

animists? Well, we recognize as Christians, as as animists, that there is such a thing as fallen spirits. We

can all agree on that. And secondly, we can agree that if there are fallen spirits, what they’re doing is causing

us pain in life. And then the third thing we can agree on is we want to get those evil spirits out of our lives. So

we can agree on those three things with animists. So then the question is what is the solution? How do you get those

evil spirits out of your lives? And the animists say you’ve got to sacrifice a pig, a buffalo or a chicken. And the

Christians say there was a once and for all sacrifice on Calvary. And that’s the blood that redeems you from slavery to

Satan, slavery to sin. You don’t need to keep offering sacrifices as you do today. You can claim the once and for

all sacrifice on Calvary. And so we agree on the first three points, but the solution is radically different as a

Christian. So that’s just an example of when you’re talking with people, when you’re sharing with people, you’re doing evangelism, we’re doing a Bible study,

you try and find a common thing that we all agree on. And then the Christian option, the Christian solution may be

different, but at least we start from a common starting point. And the common starting point we have with a modern

generation is we agree without God nothing has purpose. Without life without God your life is going nowhere.

Without God nothing really matters in your world. So do any of you remember the song u the the English pop group

called Queen? Just before they died they died and they’re still alive. One of them died

Freddy Mercury the lead singer. He was diagnosed with AIDS and he died of age shortly thereafter. And he wrote a song

called the show must go on. Some of you may know that song. Don’t raise your hand if you know it, okay? I don’t want you to admit to that. But the song is

called The Show Must Go On. And this song, you know, we think of these pop groups as being like like fluff out

there. No, the word the lyrics of some of those songs are profound. And this song here, I’m just going to read out

the lyrics. It says, um, and the the bit in red on the screen there, that’s the last line of every verse. And this is a

song from a man who knows he’s dying of AIDS, who a man who has no God in his life, and he’s searching for meaning.

And it’s a it’s this song is a tragedy. It says, “Empty spaces, what are we living for? Abandoned places. I guess we

know the score on and on. Does anyone know what we are looking for?” The second verse is another hero, another

mindless crime. Behind the curtain in the pantomime, holds the line. Does anybody want to take it anymore? The

chorus goes, “The show must go on. The show must go on.” There’s a bunch of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I won’t do that for you here. Inside my heart is

breaking. My makeup may be flaking. But inside my but my sty my sty my smile

stays on. The third verse says this. Whatever happens I leave it all to chance. Another heartache. Another

failed romance. On and on. Does anyone know what we are living for? Then the

final verse is this. I guess I’m learning. I guess I must be warmer now. I’ll soon

be turning round the corner now. Outside the dawn is breaking, but inside in the

dark I’m aping aching to be free. That song is sung today by um soccer stadiums

filled with 90,000 people. They all know the words to this. And those are the last words of each line of each verse.

Does anybody know what we’re looking for? Does anybody want to take it anymore? Does anybody know what we’re

living living for? But inside in the dark I’m aching to be free.

And we may condemn these rock groups for their sexual promiscuity and their drugs. And he claims to have slept with

over a thousand men in his lifetime. This particular singer, he died of AIDS. But in this song, you see the cry of the

human heart for meaning and purpose. It’s it’s an anthem for lost youth. And

that’s much of today’s modern generation. It’s not their fault. They’ve been born into a society that

celebrates nothing and despair and death. And it’s taught in our public schools. Yet the truth of the matter is

we all yearn to matter. We all yearn to be seen and to see. We all yearn to know

and to be known. We all learn to love and to be loved. We yearn to accept and

to be accepted. We learn to be vulnerable without fear of rejection. We learn to to we we yearn the intimacy of

love. And so the cry of the human heart for meaning and purpose and significance

is at such fundamental odds with the philosophy of despair that undergurs today’s lost generation. And this is the

tragedy of the modern generation. They are lost in despair.

And I want to encourage you today. Don’t go down that path. Don’t go down that path. The world may

glitter, but all the froth that’s out there is designed to cover up the fact that there’s nothing inside.

There’s no purpose. There is no meaning. Nothing has value. In America, we now

know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing. And so then we come to the second

generation. This is the other option we have as we wait for the coming of Christ. And I’ve called this the generation that is not lost in despair,

but this generation is lost in the church. And the passage I want to dwell on here today is taken from 2 Timothy

3:es 1-4. And that this passage starts out, it says this, you must understand

this, that in the last days, distressing times will come. So where does Paul

write this passage from? Paul writes this just before he dies. This is the last letter Paul dies before his head is

taken off by Nero in the persecutions of Rome. Paul knows he’s about to die in 2

Timothy chapter 5. He knows that he’s about to be offered as an offering to God, as a as a libation to God. He knows

he’s in prison. He’s in he’s waiting his execution by Nero. And in chapter one and verse 15, Paul talks about the fact

that everybody in Turkey has repudiated or denied him or denounced him. And in chapter two of this chap of this book

here, he writes that young a young protege Timothy and he says,”Neever be ashamed of the gospel, but take part in

the s take part in the in share in the suffering of the gospel because you’re Christ’s good soldier.” And then Paul

goes on to speak about the church in the end of days. And he’s talking about those who are lost in the church. And he

says this, “You must understand this that in the last days distressing times will come.” 2 Timothy 3 and verse one.

And so I’ve I’ve highlighted the phrase distressing times. Why have I highlighted that? Because that verb,

this is kairo kalestoy. That that that word distressing kalestoy, that word

also appears in the New Testament in Matthew 8 when it speaks of the two demoniacs. And it says they were so

fierce that no one could pass their way. And so Paul is saying that in the church at the end of time there’s going to be a

fierceness among people almost a demon possession within the church there’s going to the word itself means difficult

violent dangerous or hard to bear and so Paul says that in the last days within

the church it’s going to be difficult it’s going to be dangerous it’s going to be hard to bear there’s a threat of

demonically inspired violence within the church at the end of time when you when you parallel the Greek with Matthew 8:28

there and what is the conduct of people who are lost in the church at the end of time. Well, we find that in 2 Timothy

3:es 2-4. And Paul says there, you see it on the screen. It says, “For people

will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedience, their parents, ungrateful,

unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, proflegates, brutes, haters of good,

treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. That’s quite a list. Yes.

And that’s in the church from Paul to the end of time. That’s how

Paul’s going to describe how people are going to be within the church. Now, you notice that Paul starts, he has begins

with two phrases, lovers of. And he concludes with two phrases, lovers of. We start out that people will be lovers

of themselves and lovers of money. Then we finish with the phrase lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. So

this passage starts with those who are lovers of self and lovers of money. Um it concludes with lovers of pleasure

rather than lovers of God. So these people are loving everything except God himself. They love self. They love

pleasure and they love money. That’s what’s driving the rest of this this little passage here. They they don’t

love God. They love themselves. The self is on the throne on their hearts. They love pleasure. The pursuit of pleasure

is what drives their lives. And they love money. they’ll do anything for that extra buck. And so this passage, we

start with people who love themselves and we conclude with people who are who love anything except God himself. So

let’s look in a bit more detail. We break this passage down into what Paul says about the church all the way

through to the end of time. And this is our time today. So the first um the first um one, two, the first five um

words he uses there, this section deals in detail about what self loveve looks like. If you are lover, if you’re a

lover of yourself, there are five things that Paul says about you. The first thing he says there, and you see it upon

the screen, I’ve put the Greek on the left. On the right, I’ve put the corresponding translation into English. If you are a lover of self, um, it means

that 1 Corinthians 13:5 says that love does not insist on its own way. But if

you are a lover of self, it means you insist on your own way all the time. You’re not willing to compromise. You’re

not willing to yield. It’s my way or the highway. Then the next word he uses there is

lovers of men, lovers of money. Literally it’s lovers of silver in the Greek there. 1 Timothy 6:10. Um he

writes earlier to this young preacher Timothy. He says, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

So lovers of self engage in love. They’re lovers of money. They insist on

their own way. The next word is braggots or boastful. That is they boast of their own self-sufficiency rather than accept

the righteousness of Christ. Why? Because self is on the throne of the heart rather than Christ himself. Then

we have the word proud or disdainful. Because they’re so full of themselves, they look down on others and they’re

incredibly judgmental. They tear down and they criticize people that don’t meet their supposedly high standards.

And then the last word that Paul uses there for the lovers of self is they are slanderous. The word is blasphemy. There

it’s slanderous or blasphemous. Why are they blasphemous? Because they worship self rather than God. The first

commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. But if self is on the throne of your heart, you are a lover of

self rather than a lover of God. It means your life is a life of blasphemy. You worship yourself. You do everything

that is good for yourself. I met a father the other day and he said you know he war he said you warned me

Conrad. He said you warned me that um that there will come a time when my daughter would spend all her waking

moments in front of a mirror. I said yeah that’s true. He said, “That moment has now arrived.”

And I said, “Well, learn to say hello at meal times because you’re not going to see her for much other any other part of

the day.” Um, but it is true that in in America, we have this epidemic of narcissism and people taking selfies of

each other. And not only do they take selfies, but they have these little apps that dress them up and look make themselves look really nice. I had

somebody write to me just recently. I was on a YouTube video and and this lady wrote to me and she says, “Please, could

you advise me? Your skininc care looks really good. What do you do for skinincare?”

And and I and I I I didn’t know how to respond to this comment. So I thought, well, I’m going to be tongue and cheek.

I know this is a lady and she doesn’t know that on on my computer I’ve got like this softening filter on. So it

kind of softens the creases on your face. Some of you, if you get that on Zoom, okay, you can kind of soften the thing. Yes. And so I wrote back to this

lady and says that the the key to having good health care um um skin care is have a a wet shave every morning.

I’m not sure if she followed my advice, but that was my advice to her.

But we have an epidemic of narcissism within our society today of self-love

and self-promotion. And not only is it we have this narcissism, but people are withdrawing into their own homes because

there’s a difference between the the me on social media and the real me. And this is particularly prevalent among

teenage girls. That’s what the research shows. Teenage girls don’t want to be seen in public with other friends.

They’re withdrawing them to themselves socially because they have this ideal digital version of themselves on the

internet and they don’t want people to see the real me. And so we have this isolationism growing

in our teen community today because I don’t want people to see the real me. It’s better they just see the digital

me. The next section of this passage deals with family relationships and in

particular how young people relate to their parents. So Paul says here there’s what one two

three five adjectives he uses here. This section disc discusses how teenagers

young children relate to parents particularly in the church at the end of time. The first thing he says is their

disobedience their parents in direct opposition to the fifth commandment which is thou shalt honor thy father and

thy mother. The second thing that Paul says about them is they’re ungrateful. Now on on the screen there each of the

words there I can’t the point doesn’t work on the screen there but after the first one where it says ungrateful

without any appreciation each of the Greek words after that begins with the word ah

and that means without. So what Paul is saying is that at the end of time, family relationships will

be characterized not by the presence of that which is good, but by the absence of that which is good, without without.

And so Paul repeatedly uses the the ah the a there which is the families in the

church at the end of time will be families without that which is good and pure and noble and makes for building

up. The first thing he says is they’re going to be without appreciation. um aaristo otherwise known as ungrateful

that is young people at the end of time will be ungrateful for the blessings their parents give them

so I’m not going to ask about how your family is or your experience of being a

teenager today or your relationship with your parents or I’m not going to ask today if you’re a parent raising teenagers

but at the end of time there’s going to be an epidemic of ingratitude

or otherwise known as entitlement that you owe it to me. You des I deserve

this. I don’t have to work or earn for it. This is mine by right. I was born into a wealthy society. I deserve the

fruits of that wealthy society without putting the effort into it myself. The next verb he uses is um without

holiness. The word better translation is without piety towards God. that within

families, Christian families at the end of time, as Paul says in Romans 3:18, there is no fear of God before their

eyes, there is no respect at family worship.

There is a rejection of the call to pray and worship within the family. We then turn the next adjective that Paul uses

is without natural affection. That is as time goes on we are going to see an

increase or a decrease in natural affection between parents and children and children and parents and brothers

and sisters that the bonds of natural affection, bonds of family loyalty, bonds of I’m going to look out for you

because you are my blood. Those bonds are going to be loosened and loosened and loosened till they’re all gone.

Then we find the last the last um adjective that Paul uses here is without reason. that is they’re unwilling to

engage in dialogue. They’re unwilling to engage in un in reasonable discussion.

They’re implacable. We have to do it my way or I’m running out of the house.

And this is how Paul describes families in the church at the end of time

without gratitude, without holiness, without natural affection, without reason, without a willingness to

compromise or discuss anything. The last passage, the last few vers uh words that Paul puts in this list here of the

church at the end of time, I’ll put it up there on the screen. And this deals um less with family relationships and it

deals with more antisocial behavior. So the first thing that Paul says is in in in Christian families at the end of time

is they will be diaboloy. That’s the word diabolos means the devil. The word devil means a slanderer. That means they

are they engage in the breaking of the ninth commandment bearing false witness against their neighbors. So truth is far

from their lips. And these days we’re in living in a society where truth is far from the public square. Yes. If you tell

a lie often enough it becomes journalism these days. And so today we’re living in

a society where everybody just wants to lie. Everybody wants to push their narrative. And if the facts don’t meet

their narrative then they’re not going to report the facts. That’s where we are in a society. It

also says the next adjective is without self-control. Better interpretation is that they live only for pleasure and the

pursuit of pleasure regardless of morality. And this isn’t in the world that Paul is

talking about. Paul is talking about in the church. The end of time people will live for the

pursuit of pleasure without moral restraint, moral lensiousness.

This is the the Roman Empire collapsed because of moral decay on the inside.

and the American empire will collapse not because of external physical threat but because of moral decay within our

midst. We no longer know as our as our brother said earlier today we no longer know as a society what is right or what

is wrong. We also have the word savage there without humanity

that is within society people will show brutal violence one towards another seeking their destruction.

The next word is uh without love for that which is good or without love for other good men. That is we’re going to

be living in a church in a society where the holiness of others repulses us because it calls out the sinfulness in

our own lives. So when we’re in such a society, people naturally segregate themselves not along racial lines but

they segregate into groups that affirm their own understanding of morality and what is right or wrong. And we see that

polarization within our church. We see that polarization within American society today. People are if if you are,

let’s say, a member of the trans community or you’re a furry in the furry community, you have more loyalty and love and empathy for and affiliation

with the furer community than often with your own biological family of origin. And so we see this this division taking

place just as the apostle Paul said without love for that which is good in other men. And then the next verse is

traitors that is just like Judas in Luke 6:16. That is within the church there’ll

be people who betray Christ and the body of Christ. The last couple of verbs adjectives there at the bottom there.

Verse one there is reckless. It means entirely thoughtless of others in word and deed unconcerned for the well-being

of others. And then you have puffed up or conceited or filled with pride. We’re

coming back to the lovers of self at the beginning of the list. Then we finish out this this description of the church

at the end of time where Paul says they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

This is the church, not the world. This is the church. Somebody said, “Have

mercy.” Amen to that. Have mercy upon us. So what we have in the church are

lovers of self, lovers of pleasure, and lovers of money rather than lovers of God. God’s order is that we love God

first and then our neighbor as ourselves. And uh but in the church at

the end of time, that order is going to be reversed. No longer will we love God first, then our neighbor as ourselves.

Now we’re lovers of of oursel first. We’re lovers of God last. And when we love oursel first and God last, then our

neighbor who’s caught in the middle inevitably suffers. And so we have a a coldness, a lack of a

reduction in love towards our neighbor within our midst because we become lovers of self. And I’ll help you only

if it’s good for me. I’ll help you only if it benefits me. I’ll help you and stand by you only if it benefits me. But

I’m not going to stand by you. I’m not going to stand with you. I’m not going to stand up for you. I’m not going to help you in any way, shape, or form if

it compromises my positional standing in the church.

The Apostle Paul concludes this section by saying that in this church at the end of time, they will hold fast to the

outward form of godliness, but denying its power. He says, “Avoid such people.”

There will be lovers of self, money, and pleasure rather than God within the church. And we are to avoid such people.

It’s a sobering warning. Yes, we spoke early in our Sabbath school about looking in the mirror. And all

joking aside, it is time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether Paul’s

description of the church at the end of time bears any resonance with how I live my life today. Am I a lover of self? my

lover of pleasure, my lover of money, and is my love of God secondary to

everything else that we’ve just mentioned. Now, this phenomenon is not new. In the Old Testament, in Amos 2,

verse 8, we read there, they lay themselves down beside every altar and garments taken in pledge, and in the

house of their God, they drink wine bought with fines that they imposed. So, this is uh Amos was speaking, he was

from the Judah in the south. God called him to go north to the kingdom of Israel. Israel was living under the

reign of Jeroboam II who promised to make Israel great again. And that’s what he did is under Jeroboam II. That’s the

time of the prophet Jonah. Um, Israel became great. They conquered almost all the territory that Solomon had once

ruled over. And but during Jeroboam’s reign, there was an economic boom, but there was also a boom of injustice

within society. Then in I because of this the this injustice within society

that God sends to prophet Isaiah and prophet Isaiah says this he’s talking about the religious life of his of God’s

people he says your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates they

become a burden to me I am weary of bearing them when you stretch out your hands I will hide my eyes from you even

though you make many prayers I will not listen your hands are full of blood that’s among God’s people wash

yourselves make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your doing from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do

good. Seek justice. Rescue the oppressed. Defend the orphan and plead for the widows.

So God says, “I don’t care about your Sabbath morning services in the temple of Jerusalem

because you’re engaged in violence to one towards one towards the other all the way through the rest of the week.” In fact, not only in Isaiah 58 do you

gather for worship, but when you’re sitting in worship, you’re eagerly waiting for worship to finish so that

you can go out and hurt your neighbor. And this is in um Amos’s time. This is

in Isaiah’s time. This was before the fall of Jerusalem. You know, I um this is a side story, but

there’s a there’s a professor at Andrews who’s a recent a recent widow, and she

called me and um she’d been referred to me by some other professors, and she had on video

like like four or five big groundhogs. They dug a hole in the middle of her garden. The hole was about two in two

feet across and it went down like somebody like a drilling to the center of the earth. It went straight down. I’d

never seen anything like it before. and she called me in distress about these things and she says,”Well, please can

you take care of them?” I said to her, “Yeah, sure. I’ll do that.” And so, she texts me the pictures and there’s like a

colony of these things there. And she said, “Well, um, how much is it

going to cost?” I’m said, “It’s not going to cost you anything.” She said, “What is it? What do you mean?” I said, “Well, if you’re a non-Adventist, I’d charge you this much.” I said, “But

you’re an Adventist. I’m not going to charge you.” And particularly, I said, “Because you’re a widow.” I said, “And I

know you have one income. you’ve got a family and true religion is this to help widows and orphans in their distress.

So, I’m going to take care of this problem for free for you because I know you’re a widow. Um, she was very tearful

over that. And when my wife left Andrew’s employment just recently and they had the leaving due, this dear

sister stood up and she spoke very tearfully about how my wife’s husband

had come and killed all these groundhogs for free because she was a widow. I had no idea it made such an impact in her

life. I mean, she could restore her garden again and so forth. But true religion is to look out for the weak and

voiceless within your society. And God is not so concerned about us

sitting in church on Sabbath morning. He does want that. But he’s concerned that this changes how we live our lives and

relate to other people around us. Matthew 23:2, Jesus discusses relationship between

form of religion and the power of religion. says, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you clean

the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” And so in the last

days, people will have the outward form of religion, but they will deny the power of Christ within them to turn them

into a new creation. That is, they have the form of religion, but they don’t have the power of religion. They have

the form of religion and the practice of religion, but they don’t have the inner transformation that God wants for us in

each of our lives. that it is a religion without morals. It is faith without works. True religion combines both form

and power. It is not just external form without internal power. That’s legalism.

I I live the visible Christian life, but inside I’m untr unconverted and I’m no

long I’m not changed by the Holy Spirit. That’s just legalism. I I look good. Everybody thinks he’s a good Christian

man, but my home is an absolute mess. That’s legalism. And it’s hypocrisy. And

the opposite is also true. If you don’t have the form of religion and you just have the inner transformation, your

religion is basically sentimentalism and it’s not transforming how you live your life and how you relate to those around

you. True religion in the gospels arises from a transformed heart that leads to transformed relationships with others.

True religion is one that engages in private and public worship of God and it results in moral behavior towards our

neighbors. So you have both the the form of religion and you have the power of religion to transform from the inside

out. Anything less is worthless. It’s an abomination to God and it leads to God’s judgment upon his people. So we can be

lost in despair in the world and we can also be lost in the church.

Lost in the church. It’s a sobering thought. Yes. But when Paul describes here in 2

Timothy chapter 3 how the church is at the end of time, I’d rather not hold that mirror up to my

face and ask Lord, do I pass this test or not? Is this describing me? Do some of

these adjectives describe who I am? Am I a lover of silver rather than lover of gold? Am I a lover of pleasure rather

than a lover of God? Am I a lover of self rather than a lover of my neighbor? Where do I stand in all these questions?

I want to encourage you today to be honest with what you’re hearing today and to be honest. If the spirit is

convicting now the changes you need to make in some aspect of your life, don’t harden your heart, but listen to the

convictions as I’m speaking now. Say, “Lord, I’m going to make a change from this day forward. No longer will I be a

lover of self or a lover of pleasure or a lover of money, but I’m going to be a lover of God.” And that translates into

love for my neighbor. I want not just the form of religion sitting in church on Sabbath. I want the

power of religion to transform me from the inside out. I don’t want to be a legalist. I don’t want to be a sentimentalist. I want to be a

born-again disciple of Jesus whose life reflects the values and principles of God’s kingdom.

So, you can be lost in the world in despair or you can be lost in the church. But there’s a loss I want to

talk about. That’s that’s that is the path for us to take. And I’ve called this the third generation is lost in

worship. There we are. Lost in worship. And what am I talking about here?

Well, in our first uh sermon this morning, we talked about the wheat and the tears. You remember that? We were

speaking about how you not become part of the tears and you don’t commit the unforgivable sin and you don’t quench

the Holy Spirit in your life. And but we didn’t speak much about the wheat. And so, this kind of ties in with what we

spoke about earlier this morning. And I’m going to talk um right now about the 144,000.

And the passage we’re going to dwell on is this one here. And um this was what was read for us by our young lady there

for our scripture reading. Thank you for that. And um says, “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. Like those who receive the mark of the beast have it on their foreheads. But the 144,000

who stand with the lamb on the Mount Zion at the end of time, they have the name of Christ and the name of our heavenly father written on their

foreheads. Says, “And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters, 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.” Then we come back to a description from the 144,000. It says,

“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. They’ve been redeemed from

humankind as first fruits for God and the lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found. They are blameless.” Now, the

144,000 appeared in two places in the book of Revelation. The first is in Revelation chapter 7, the first eight

verses of that chapter. And that represents their sealing before the winds of strife are let loose in the

final struggle before between good and evil, between truth and error, between Christ and Satan, between conscience and

coercion. And that ceiling represents salvation and the protection of God in the final crisis. And when the ceiling

of the 144,000 is complete, probation is over. But if we look at this passage

here in Revelation 14, the first phrase, just well on for a few seconds in red, is up there. It says, “Then I looked and

there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion.” Did any of you see any of the World Championships recently in Tokyo? Was it

the Athletics Championships? No. All right. Um, did any of you ever watch the Olympics?

When you win, where do you stand? On the podium. Yes. You have one, two, and three. Gold, silver, bronze. And the

winner stands on the podium. And this passage here in Revelation 14 1-5, this

is talking about those who survived the final crisis, those who made it through to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And it says, “I looked and there was the lamb standing on Mount Si.” This group of people have survived the final

conflict. They’ve endured Satan’s last deceptions. They’ve survived the economic mandates and the death penalty

for those who refuse the mark of the beast. They’ve survived being hated by all men for Christ’s sake. And now they

stand victorious with the lamb on Mount Zion. This is their podium. This is the

winner’s stand. This is like the first place in the Olympics on those first, second, third place. They are taking

their stand with Christ on Mount Zion. They they are the winners on the podium.

And who are these people? With him that is with Christ

144,000 who had his name and his father’s name written upon their foreheads. These are those who are

unashamed to bear the name of Christ in a world ruled by a Satan in a world which says in Luke 19, we will not have

this man to rule over us. In Revelation 7:3, the 144,000 are sealed on their

foreheads. In chapter 14:1 here, it is the father’s name that is written upon their foreheads. They belong to God.

Their characters reflect the character of Christ. They are filled with the spirit. That is compared with those who

receive the mark of the beast upon their forehead. and their characters reflect Satan and his demons.

So, as we saw in the parable of the wheat and the tears, and we spoke about the tears earlier today, now we talk about the 144,000. If the tears commit

the unforgivable sin and pull back from the the the the the treaties of the Holy

Spirit and they yield themselves to the control of Satan. So the 144,000 are

those who’ve rejected the temptations of Satan and and asked the Holy Spirit to fill them to such an extent that now

their characters reflect that of their heavenly father. They’ve made it through the final

crisis, not because of anything and of themselves, but because their characters

reflect that of God. They perfectly represent Jesus Christ. They belong to

God. They reflect the character of Christ. They are filled with the Holy Spirit. They’ve rejected the mark of the

beast and the lies and deceptions of Satan at the end of time. And the next verse, little bit in red that describes

him, it says they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could

learn that song except the 144,000 who’ve been redeemed from the earth.

Have you ever noticed that when soldiers come back from war, they often hold a reunion a few years later?

Yes. Yeah. that that that is often what happens. Soldiers will often have a

reunion and they will gather together in some hotel somewhere and they will tell their stories and and tell stories of

the cam camaraderie and the blood, sacrifice, sweat and tears they’ve gone through and they survive that experience

together. And let me tell you this, if you weren’t in that group of soldiers in that battle, you will always be an

outsider to that group. Is that right? You’re always an outsider. But those who

went through that battle together, they have like they have their own anthem. They have their own language.

There’s a level of understanding and respect and love one for another because we made it through this battle together.

And the 144,000 made it through the final crisis. And no

one can learn that song except the 144,000. They’re brothers in arms.

They made it together. They survived the worst that Satan could throw at planet Earth. and fallen human beings. And

they’ve made it through. They’ve endured hatred by all men. They’ve endured economic mandates and persecution unto

death. They are truly brothers in arms. And they share a song that nobody else can learn because they went through it

together. It’s a shared bonding experience. And so when we go through when before Christ comes and God’s

faithful saints go through that final crisis, there’s going to be a bonding and level of intimacy and trust and

respect and love. And I’ve got your back and you’ve got my back like we’ve never seen before.

They have a song that nobody else can learn because they alone went through that final crisis. I don’t know about

you, but I would like to learn that song. Yes. All right. It is these who have not

defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. Now, some may say that based on this

passage that all the 144,000 are men. There’s no women there. I don’t think

that’s the case. Um, if you think these are literal, then they have to be

literal Jews. 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes in Revelation chapter 7. And we don’t know who 10 of those 10 tri 10. We

don’t know who 10 of those 12 tribes are anymore anyway. They’ve been lost into the midst of history after the Assyrians

took them captive in 7:22 BC. So this is not talking literally.

But those who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins. What does that this mean? Well, the verb defiled, the clues in the verb

defile, they they have not defiled themselves with women. That verb defiled

is used in 1 Corinthians 8 and:e 7 where we are told not to defile our conscience.

That verb is also used in Revelation 3:4 speak about not defiling our robes of

righteousness. So these people who have not defiled themselves, they have clung to Christ’s

righteousness as their only hope of salvation against all Satan’s attacks, his deceptions, and his pressure. And in

their conscience, they were as true to duty as the needle is to the pole. They were filled and led by the Holy Spirit

rather than by demons. And that verb defiled is in the arist sense. We don’t have that tense in in English anymore.

It’s more of a punctilar understanding. So the the what the uh John is referring

to here is the final crisis. That moment in time when the mark of the beast is imposed. These people wore Christ’s robe

of righteousness and they were as true to duty as needless pole. They would not defile the that robe of righteous. They

would not defile their conscience in the final crisis. So learn to live in harmony with your conscience today. If

you compromise your conscience today, you’re going to compromise it tomorrow. If you think it’s okay to go along to

get along, tomorrow you’ll keep on going along to get along. And you’ll never make that stand for truth. So in the

small decisions of life, the small moral decisions of life, are you going to say the truth to somebody? Are you going to

be honest with your taxes? Are you going to treat your spouse the way that God wants you to? Um follow the prompings of

the Holy Spirit and do what he and do what he convicts you of. Learn to live in harmony with the Holy Spirit and to

test that against scripture so that when the final crisis comes, you’re going to make it through. her character has been

prepared. Now, who are these women that it refers to? Women refers to the of Babylon that is the papacy and her

apostate her apostate Protestant daughters.

There’s a graphic im illustration there of the of Babylon from Revelation chapter 17. And I’d encourage you

there’s a Revelation 17 conference at Village Church and the in a couple of weeks time I think the 15th through the 17th of October. It’ll be streamed

online. There are dozens of presenters and we can we understand who the woman is. It’s the of Babylon. That is

the papacy, a fallen church. But what is this sevenheaded dragon that she rides upon? Is it ancient Babylon, Greece,

Meo, Persia, Rome, etc. as in Daniel 2? Is it the popes who lived since the Latin treaty of 1929 when the papacy was

reestablished and the deadly wound was healed? What are those seven heads of that beast that she’s riding upon? And

we’re going to be delving into a bit more detail in that in that conference. It may be two or three years of conferences before we come to any real

conclusion on that. But this woman refers to the of Babylon and her apostate Protestant daughters who

promoted false doctrine with the nations of the world. When the USA and the papacy conspire to force false worship

on all humanity, then the saints of God are going to have to stand tall.

Now, I thought the murder of Charlie Kirk was the most horrendous event. And

I was deeply sorry to see his death. I don’t agree with everything he said, but I know this. He went into the, you

might say, the heart, the lair of the beast. He went to American public sector campuses and he challenged people with

core biblical morality. That takes raw courage. He knew his life was under threat and he

still did it week after week after week. I take my hat off that kind of raw moral

courage. But what I also saw in the memorial for him was a blending of American political

power and Protestantism. I saw the president, the advisor to the

president, Steven Miller, saying, “We are of Rome and you have no idea what kind of dragon you have woken up.”

That’s what he said. We are of Rome and you have no idea what kind of dragon you’ve woken up. This is straight out of

Revelation 13. And we read in the book great controversy that the Sunday laws and the coercion of confidence will not

come because con Congress is pushing for it but it’s come it’s going to come because of popular appeal and popular

demand and the population are calling for it because we see our societies falling apart. We have godlessness and

nihilistic violence on the one hand. How are we going to deal with it? The pendulum is swinging in front of our eyes. As was said during our our prayer

time today in our praise time, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction right now. And it’s swinging to a place where we may enjoy the ride

today, but it’s going to take us to a place where we don’t want to be. Coercion of conscience.

And the 144,000, they’re not loyal to Republicans or Democrats.

They’re loyal to the Lamb. And they follow wherever he goes. And they don’t

get caught up in the politics of today. They get caught up in spreading the everlasting gospel as much as they can

before Jesus comes again. In this final crisis that is coming soon upon our nation and upon our world, God will have

a people who stand for truth. The saints here are called virgins because they kept themselves aloof from the papacy,

the of Babylon. They refused to enter into any dealings with her. Let me be a bit more blunt now.

They refuse to engage in the ecumenical movement with a papacy whose goal is reunification under Rome. They refuse to

enter into alliances with the kings of this world which is the United Nations because that United Nations will one day

impose the mark of the beast worldwide. And when the angel describes and interprets in summary form this woman

riding upon this beast says that this this woman is in is in alliance with the nations or the kings of the world. God’s

people at the end of time should not be in any alliance with the nations of this world, nor with the kings of this world,

nor with the ecumenical movement. Why? Because these these alliances always lead to compromise.

They follow the lamb wherever he goes. They know the good shepherd for

themselves. They follow where he leads. They listen for the voice of the good shepherd. They

recognize his voice and they’re obedient to his voice alone. Whose voice do you

follow today? Whose voice are you listening for? What’s driving your decision-making in

life today? Are you driven by the latest outrage on Twitter or X? Are you following

Instagram or Snapchat to tell you what to think for the day? Are your talking points given you by Fox or CNN or by

your morning devotions? Have you learned to recognize the voice of the lamb speaking to you directly and personally

or encourage you today to invest in those daily devotions? Do not neglect that time with God. Young people, you

may say, “I don’t I don’t hear God speaking to me.” Believe me, you will stick with it.

Amen. You will read little bit, little portion, line by line, precept upon precept, and you read it in the morning

and something will happen at 3:00 at school and you realize, I was reading about that this morning. God was preparing me for what was about to

happen today. And I know the right path to take because I read it this morning in my devotions. Young people, learn to

have your morning devotions. You may read it and and nothing may jump out the page at you, but God is putting the seed

of the word of God in your life, in your character, in your mind, and when the moment of test comes, the Holy Spirit will bring those words to remembrance,

even if you never intentionally reme memorize them. And he’s going to guide you in that moment. These people, it

says, they follow the lamb wherever he goes. Revelation 7 14-17 describes this

a bit more detail. Our time is up here. It says, “Then he said to me, this is the angel though.” It’s talking about

the 144,000. These are they who’ve come out of the great ordeal. They have that is the final crisis. They’ve washed

their robes and made it white in the blood of the lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God and worship

him day and night within his temple. And the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. This is a beautiful

description. Now it says they will hunger no more and thirst no more. The sun will not strike them nor any

scorching heat. For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God

will wipe away every tear from their eyes. What a beautiful promise that God sees my tears. God knows my tears. And

there’s going to come a time if I’m faithful to him when the creator of the universe rather than writing those ten

commandments on my heart, he’s going to wipe away the tears from my eyes. Amen. If I follow the lamb wherever he goes,

Revelation 13 says the the world wandered after the beast,

but we are to follow the lamb wherever he goes. And it’s in a different direction. Sister White describes this in great

controversy. And she says, “These are they which have come out of great tribulation.

They have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. They have endured anguish

at the time of Jacob’s trouble. We covered that earlier today. They’ve stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God’s judgments. But

they have been delivered. They have washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the lamb. In their mouth

was found no guile, for they are without fault before God. They have seen the earth wasted with a famine and

pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering,

hunger, and thirst. But, this is wonderful news here. They

shall hunger no more, neither thirst no more. Neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. For the lamb which is

in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto everlasting fountains of water. Here

she’s quoting Revelation 7. And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.

What a beautiful promise. So we come to our conclusions. Our time is up here.

There are three generations at the end of time. You make your choice.

You choose your outcome. You can be lost in despair

like much of modern America is today. You can engage in this movement or that ideology.

You can lose your hair or dye it pink or blue. You can confuse yourself with the pigs

and put a septum nose ring in. I don’t know. You’re going to find meaning in the

nationalists or the globalists, the BLM, trans trans Antifa, transfer, furry

movement, whatever you want to call it. You can choose the way of this world

and you’re going to be lost in despair. Or you can choose to remain in the

church, maintain a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.

You can choose to remain in the church and by yielding every day to the temptations of Satan rather than

convictions of the Holy Spirit, you’re you’re forming your character so one day you’ll be counted among the tears and

not among the wheat. Or you can be lost in wonder and you can

choose today that the focus of your life will be following the lamb wherever he leads you.

Wherever he leads you. And for some people that may be nice places and for

other people it’s not so nice events in life. I understand that following the lamb is not a one-way ticket to business

class on transatlantic. Following the lamb means standing for the right though the heavens fall.

It means being hated by all men because you bear the name of Christ. It means confessing your world, your

fidelity in the Savior, even though the world says we will not have this man to rule over us. But Sister White says this

about those 144,000. She says, “Let us strive with all the power that God has given us.” How much

power? All the power that God has given us to be among the 144,000.

Okay? We can strive today to be among the 144,000. And let us do all that we can to help

others to gain heaven. So the evangelistic series that is coming here, strive with all your power

that this event will be a success. The presence, the ministry of attendance is important for a preacher. Thank you

pastor for saying that. Turn up every night. Turn up to the prayer meetings. Uh offer to follow up with people who

have want Bible studies or whatever like like that. But follow up and be a part of God’s movement at the end of time. We

are to strive to be on the 144,000 and we are to do all we can to help others gain access to heaven. Let that be the

focus of your life, the focus of your family, the focus of your finances, the focus of where you put your time, your

talents, and your gifts from God. To be in the 144,000, it means on the downside,

you get to ride through earth’s roughest, most difficult moments, through the time of troubles such as never was since nations came into

existence. You’re going to live through the final mark of the beast crisis through coercion, hatred, and the death

penalty. You’re going to make it through Jacob’s time of trouble when satanic violence is visited upon the saints of

God. You’re going to watch the final seven plagues fall the nations around. But it will be means you’ll be alive

when the trumpet of God will sound. When the voice of the archangel will cry out. When the graves of the loved ones who

are resting till Jesus returns burst open. Till the earth is melting with heat. Till the heavens are torn apart.

Uh and the heavens the sun, moon, and stars are moved out of their places. And we see Christ riding on a white horse

and a blood stained robe riding with blooded hands are leading the countless armies of heaven to destroy the wicked

and coming to rescue his own. All who follow the lamb wherever he leads. Even today in 2025. Yes, he is coming back.

We are Adventists for a reason. And if we’re going to be Adventists, we don’t just want to be Adventists who have

maybe have the form of religion but not the power. We want to strive to be among the 144,000. I want to see Jesus coming

again. And I know that the ride the ride between here when Jesus comes is going to be a rough ride. But whether you are

among the righteous or among the wicked, the ride’s going to be rough. Whatever whatever group you happen to be among,

so if you know that the end of the ride is good, you can buckle up and grit your teeth and and cling on. My daughter

loved um roller coasters as a teenager. I loathe roller coasters.

And my daughter would we we go one day a year to the uh some park in Michigan and my my little daughter who didn’t show

any kind of aptitude for sports, you might say, would stand for hours in the melting heat for a chance to go on that

roller coaster. And I’m standing there. I’ve got a stopwatch. I’m How long was that roller coaster? 65 seconds. All

right. 65 seconds. I can last 65 seconds. I time it three or four times. It’s 65 seconds every time. Now, I’m

going to count one, two, three, four, five. Yes, I can count off 65 seconds.

I’m going to get on that roller coaster because I know there’s an end in sight. I know it’s going to come to an end. I’m going to grit my teeth. I’m going to

close my eyes and smile at my daughter gritted teeth. I’m going to hold on. I’m going to close my eyes. I’m going to

count. One, two, three, four, five. Why? Because at the end of the roller coaster, salvation comes. We come to a

shuddering halt and we get off again. And I am alive. And I made it through.

And horror of horrors, my little girl looks up to me. She says, “Let’s do it again, daddy.” You think, “Oh no, I

don’t want two times of own. One time of trouble is enough for me, not two times of trouble.” But the point is,

everybody’s on that roller coaster. And some people on that roller coaster thinks that that roller coaster is all

there is. They don’t know there’s an end. And so their hearts are failing them for fear for what is coming upon

the world. And some on that roller coaster know that there is an end to the roller coaster. And there’s a blessed moment of relief when the thing

screeches to a halt and we get off and walk on solid land again. You choose which group to be among. You

can endure the final times of crisis and you can drop into addictions and

escapist behavior of any kind this world has to offer because it’s overwhelming.

Or if you know that Jesus is coming again and say, “I’m going to strive to be that 144,000. I want to see the skies

torn apart. I want to see the dead raised from the grave. I want to hear the trumpet of God. I want to hear the voice of the archangel. I want to be

caught up with the saints with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and my grandparents maybe and my loved ones. And we’re going

to together meet Jesus in the air. What a glorious thing to look forward to.

Strive. We’re told with all the power that God has given you to be among the

144,000. I want to be there. Don’t you?

So don’t be lost in despair in 2025 America.

And don’t be lost in the church having the form but denying the godliness and

the power of God. Choose to be among the wheat and not among the pairs as we saw this morning.

Strive to be lost in wonder. Work for that moment. Live and breathe

for that moment. Share all you can that that as many people as possible can

share in that glorious day when Jesus comes for his own. I want to be there.

I know everybody here should. I hope everybody here wants to be there. Those watching online, maybe you want to

be there as well. But Jesus is coming again. He’s coming for his own. He’s coming for those whose names are written

in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And he’s bringing something that is so incredible, so amazing, we cannot even

begin to imagine what he has for us. I hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the

things that God has prepared for those who love him. So what God has prepared for his saints is beyond anything this

world has to offer. So choose today.

Don’t be in that generation lost in in despair. They’re going to die for eternity. Don’t

be the generation that is lost in the church. They’re going to be lost for eternity.

But either the generations lost in wonder and worship of the lamb. They have the father’s name on their

foreheads. Their characters perfectly reflect the character of a loving heavenly father.

And Jesus is coming for his own. He’s coming for me. By God’s grace, he’s coming for everybody here today.

Make a choice. Choose life. Choose eternal life. and see what God can do

for