Wheat and tares | Dr. Conrad Vine

privilege to be with you here today in beautiful Idaho. I was here I think last November. I said to my wife, you know, I

travel all around the country and and uh the area around Boise is is very beautiful. And we drive up to McCall um

as beautiful countryside up there. And so my wife came along this time and um

she was blessed. We went yesterday up to McCall uh just to take a look at the place and went to Camp Ida. Is that what

it’s called? Okay. And uh how how God has blessed his people up there. It’s a very picturesque

place. And uh I wanted to go for a swim. Um but I was told the water’s kind of

cold at this time of the year. And they said, “But it’s over 400 ft somewhere out in that lake. So there’s plenty of

buoyancy for you.” So I would like to give you all a warm welcome. say thank you for your warm welcome to myself and

for my wife and my son who are here today. And for those who are watching online, I think those are watching in

Eagle, Idaho. They’re watching this morning as well. Give you a warm welcome today. And um I wrote uh three sermons

for today. I wrote them two weeks ago and I I I write my sermons at my kitchen desk with my Bible, my laptop, and they

kind of kind of I grind them out. And um so I was asking Lord, what am I going to preach about in in Middleton? And uh I

had a bunch of other sermons floating around my head uh for some other events coming up. And I was looking at the news

and then um we saw the the uh the murder of Charlie Kirk and so forth and I said,

“Well, what am I going to talk about?” And so um I was praying about it and the Lord led me to um do two sermons this

morning that they’re kind of interrelated. The first one is called the wheat and the tears. It’s from the parable of the wheat and the tears. And

we’re going to be asking in this sermon, how do we not become part of the tears? Okay? Because there’s wheat and there’s

tears and we all want to be wheat, but we also don’t want to become tears. And so I’m going to be asking the question,

how do we not become tears? And then in our worship service, uh that sermon is entitled three generations. Um I’m going

to be talking there about the 144,000 and what are their spiritual characteristics and how can we be part

of the 144,000. You’ve heard of them in Revelation 7 and Revelation 14. And

Sister White says we should strive to be part of the 144,000. And so, if we are to strive to be part

of the 144,000, it’s a good thing to know exactly who these people are and when they’re going to live in the flow

of salvation history. So, um, we’re I’m preaching these sermons because time is short. Our world is coming to a close.

We see um in the in the funeral of of Charlie Kirk, we saw a mixture of a

funeral and a political rally and a new vision for America all kind of coming together. There was religion and

politics fusing together. And we also saw that this was happening by popular demand. Um there was a lot of popular

applause for this. And so we see our nation is changing in front of our eyes.

And we see where it’s likely to go. We know where it is going to go from prophecy, particularly Revelation 13.

And so I think it’s important that we talk about what it’s like to live at the end of time, what it is to be true to

God in the final crisis, and how do we avoid falling into the traps that Satan’s laying for us. So our first um

sermon today is entitled The Wheat and the Tears. And uh all the text is going to be on the screen. There’s my website

up there, ap.org. and um invite you to bow your heads with

me and we’ll ask the presence of the Holy Spirit once again. Our dear heavenly father, we thank you for this

uh blessed Sabbath day. Lord, as brother Mark said, we thank you for the freedom we have together here in Boise. I thank

you, Father, for the constitution rights we enjoy in this nation thus far. And Lord, uh while the sun shines, while it

is light, may we still be about our father’s business. Lord, as we reflect today on this teaching of Jesus, the

parable of the wheat and the tears, I pray that um the promise of the wheat and the warning of the tears will seek

will sink into our hearts and that we will covenant today that by your grace we will not be counted among the tears

but we will be f counted among the wheat in that final harvest. So Lord uh speak through me today. Please speak for me.

We pray for those in this congregation physically here today. We pray for those watching online. may your holy spirit

move upon each of our hearts as we break um the bread of life today in your holy name we pray. Amen. Okay. So if I were

to ask you the question or let’s go through this is our journey today. We’ll have a brief instruction. Then we’re going to look at the wheat and the tears

in the parable of Matthew 13. Then we’re going to look at the unforgivable sin and then we’re going to look at the

close of probation before we come to our conclusion. And so we’re covering a lot of territory here today. And um so uh

but that’s the journey we’re going to go on today. And again, the focus of this first sermon is we want to avoid being

counted among the wheat. Sorry, the tears. We don’t want to Thank you. That was a Freudian slip there. We don’t want

to be counted among the tears. We want to be counted among the wheat. But to be counted among the wheats or the tears

requires a spiritual transformation in our own lives. We don’t remain who we are just today in in 2025 in Boise, but

to be counted among the wheat or among the tears, there is going to be a spiritual transformation among God’s

people. So, um there are two signs of the coming of Christ. And the first sign

is this, and we’re all very familiar with this. Matthew 24 and verse 14, which says, “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, we as Adventists are a mission-minded people that we want to bring the gospel to every nation, tribe,

language, and people. And even though we have Adventists in about um 180 to 200

countries, there are about 8,000 active language groups in the world today. And we are present in about 250 of those

language groups. So, we have a long way to go to bring the everlasting gospel to the ends of the world world. That is why

we are called by God to be a mission-minded people. And praise God, you have an evangelistic series coming

up here in a in a few weeks. I was spoke, somebody spoke to me as I came in today, want to know how they could be a

student missionary. And I just praise God that some of the first things I encountered when I walked into this

congregation was evangelism and how to be a missionary. And I just thank God for what he’s doing in this

congregation. But there’s another sign of the coming of Christ. And it’s found in in Mark 4:29.

And the text is there on the screen. And this is um at the end of the parable of of this isn’t the parable of the sewer,

but it’s another agricultural parable. And Jesus teaches this. He says, “But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes

in with his sickle because the harvest has come.” And so this parable here talks about the

fact that when the grain is ripe, when the harvest is ripe, that that leads to the final harvest. And so the first sign

of the coming of Christ is that there is uh the gospel goes to every nation, tribe, language, and people. And that

that means we’re a mission-minded people. But the second sign is that there is a harvest of righteousness

among God’s people. There is also a corresponding flourishing of evil in the world. But there is also a harvest of

righteousness in the characters among God’s people. when God’s people are ripe, when the harvest is ripe, then

Jesus says that when the he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come. And so Adventism um arose to a large

extent out of the Methodist movement. And the Methodist movement was a holiness movement. They weren’t so much

focused on esquetology and end time events. John Wesley and his preaching were focused on the need for personal

holiness. And so Adventism, we’re a mission-minded people based on Matthew 24:14, but we’re also a holiness

movement with our deep roots in method Methodism. And that passage there on the screen, Luke 20 26 says this, “You shall

be holy to me for I am for I the Lord am holy, and I’ve separated you from the

other peoples to be mine.” So God’s people are to be a mission-minded people

and we are to be a holiness movement as well, seeking personal holiness and personal sanctification rather than

falling into the sins of this world. So before Jesus comes, there’s going to be two kinds of people. And it’s not

Republicans and Democrats. It’s not blacks and whites. It’s not rich and poor. It’s not educated and literate.

It’s the righteous and the unrighteous. The wheat and the tears. There will be a

flowering of righteousness and evil before Christ comes again. The wheat will be saved for eternity and the tears

will be lost for eternity. And so let’s focus now for a few moments on the actual parable of the wheat and the

tears itself. And we find this in Matthew chap 13 24-30.

Now, um, if my wife were here today, which actually she happens to be, but were my wife to be here today, she would

say to me, “My dear husband, she that’s way too much text to put on a single screen.” My wife is a lifelong educator.

So, what I’ve done is I’ve broken up with bits of red and bits of black in the text just to help you read it, okay?

Just for some distinction. I’m not saying there’s anything significant about the red bits or not, but I’ve just put it like there so I have an excuse

for my wife when she sees this and she says, “That’s too much text on the screen.” But anyway, this is the parable

itself, and we’re just going to read it out together. It says, “He, that is Jesus, put before them another parable.”

He said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who swed good seed in his field, but while everybody was

asleep, an enemy came and swed weeds among the sea wheat and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore

grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not

sow good seed in your field? Where then did these weeds come from?” And he answered, “An enemy has done this.” The

slave said to him, “Then what do you want us to go and gather them, that is, gather the weeds?” But the owner

replied, “No, for in gathering the weeds, you would uproot the weeds among them. Let both of them grow together

until the harvest. and at harvest time I will tell the reapers collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be

burnt but gather the wheat into my barn. So how then are we to understand this

parable here? Well later in this par in this chapter of Matthew chapter 13 the disciples come to Jesus and Jesus

explains the meaning of this parable. We learn that the swer is Christ himself in

this parable and the good seed are the children of God. The weeds are the are

the children of Satan who is the enemy who sws the bad seed within the church of God. We read in this passage that

Christ will send forth his angels to harvest the good weed the good we good seed that is the saints when the harvest

of righteousness is ripe for his kingdom. And he will also send forth his angels to collect the weeds that is the

wicked within the church when their wickedness has reached full maturity to destroy them with fire. Notice this.

Jesus is talking about wickedness within the church. He’s not just talking about wickedness within the world here. He’s

talking about righteousness within the church and a harvest of wickedness within the church. Now, across the

Middle East over the centuries, farmers would plant their crops with good seed

as anywhere else in the world. They were seeking a lifegiving harvest of a good wheat crop. And sometimes in those days

an enemy would come by night and scatter the seeds of a noxious weed in the field. And they did this to injure the

crop of the good wheat and bring loss to the owner of the field. Now in this parable here, the the goal of the enemy

is not to hurt the good wheat. The goal of the enemy is to hurt the owner of the field. And so this is a battle between

Christ and Satan. Satan plants the bad seed in the church not because he wants

to destroy the good wheat but because he wants to hurt the owner of the field and reduce his harvest. So we see in this

parable there’s a struggle between Christ and Satan that goes on even within the church of God. And now in the

Middle East throughout the centuries the farmers have traditionally planted wheat. And there is a certain kind of

ryrass called um darn we call them tears. And this ryrass looks very very

much like wheat during the early months of its growth. In fact, as the as the ryrass or the tears are growing, you

cannot tell the difference. Is this wheat or are these tears? You cannot tell the difference. But you only notice

the difference when the crop is ready for harvest. Because when is ready for harvest, normally the head of the wheat

kind of falls down like this. Yes. There there there are many grains of of wheat in there. And that the head of the the

head of the the grain, it falls down like this because it’s heavy with grain. But um but the uh the darnol or the ry

grass which looks like wheat when it is ripe, its head stands upright. And it’s

only at the harvest that you see that the good wheat is hanging down and the bad wheat that the the ryrass is

standing proud and upright. And so you can really only tell what is to be harvested and what is to be thrown aside

at the moment of harvest itself because that is when the difference appears between the two crops. And that the the

head of the darn or the ryrass is filled with black inedible seeds that can be

poisonous if eaten in large quantity. But you can only tell the difference between the ryrass and the good wheat at

the moment of harvest. That is when it becomes apparent to everybody. So what we see here in this parable is that

righteousness and wickedness both need time to mature. They don’t just happen

overnight. But wickedness and righteousness need time to come to maturity. And so the motions of your

heart and the decisions of your mind and the path you take on a daily basis, it leads you down a certain path. it leads

you to towards a harvest of righteousness or it leads you in time away from God to a harvest of wickedness

in your life. Um just as the wheat and the tears grow side by side looking very

much alike. Um so we grow in our local congregations and it’s only at the

harvest that it becomes apparent who are the wheat and who are the tears, who are the righteous and who are the wicked. If

we talk about the maturing of wicked the wicked here for a moment in Christ object lessons we read this passage here

it says sinners who make a pretension of piety mingle for time with the true followers of Christ and the semblance of

Christianity is calculated to deceive many but in the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good

and evil. those who have those then those who have joined to the church but who have not joined Christ will be

manifest. It’s a sobering warning that you may be in the church but not joined to Christ

and that you may be attending church and you may be going through the rituals and the liturgy of of of attending the

worship service and participating in all the rituals and the events of the church but you are not personally joined to

Christ. And when we are not personally joined to Christ, then we are going to be uh counted among the tears one day

rather than among the righteous. So some people sit in church by conviction because they’re here to worship God. And

some sit in church because of convenience because it’s socially convenient to do so. Or some do so

because of coercion. All right? There are those cases as well. But Christ wants us to be worshiping him in church

out of conviction, not out of coercion and not out of social convenience. And if we’re here out of social convenience

because we’re told we have to be here or because our employer expects us to be here rather than because we want to

offer our heartel heartfelt praises and worship to our heavenly father then the chances are we may be counseledled among

the tears at the end of time that Joel describes this harvest thus. He says put

in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Go in tread for the wine press is full.

The vats overflow for their wickedness is great. And so in the Old Testaments and in the New Testaments in Revelation,

the wicked are likened unto grapes um and there when they are ripe and the

righteous are likened unto good wheat. Revelation 14:18-19

describes it in the same way. It says, “Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over

fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who has a sharp sickle, use your s

sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle

over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

And so in in both in Joel and in in the Old Testament and Revelation, the New Testament, we have this idea that the

wicked will will will become more and more wicked within the church. And there is a final harvest. And God will send

the harvesters when there is a flourishing of wickedness and a flourishing of of righteousness both on

planet Earth and within his church. But just as wickedness needs time to mature,

so does righteousness. We don’t become righteous individuals overnight. God wants us to go through a process of

sanctification, being made more holy, being made more into the character of

Christ. And maybe the closest analogy in real life is marriage. You know, uh when you first get married,

you you have lots of expectations and hopes and joy, hopes and fears maybe. Um but you’re still very much two separate

beings. But after 25 years of marriage, you’ve become very very close to each other. Yes. You know what the other

person thinks, they know what you think. If somebody says to you, “Would you like to come and visit us on on Sabbath

night, you you know exactly what your spouse thinks about the matter, even without asking them, okay? And so, we’ve

reached a point in my marriage where my wife does all my clothes shopping for me, okay? Because she knows what I like

and she knows what’s good for me. Those two things aren’t always the same.” And she she does this thing for me. So as

you come closer together, as you spend time together, as you grow together in likeness, so you start to understand to

know exactly what the other person’s likely to feel about any given question or situation we find ourselves in. And

so righteousness needs time to reach maturity, a final flourishing of agape

love, moral purity, and obedience to God, of victory over sin. Now, we find

this final flourishing of righteousness among the 144,000. More on them later on

this morning, but in short, the 144,000 are those who make their way through the

final crisis of conscience. They make their way through the final crisis of the mark of the beast. They they do not

receive the mark of the beast on their forehead, but in Revelation 14:es 2 and 3, the 144,000 have the name of their

forefather upon their foreheads. They’ve not defiled themselves with any union with end time Babylon. They’ve avoided

the false doctrines of our world. They’ve not followed the first beast of Revelation 13. The whole world wanders

after the beast, but they follow the lamb wherever he goes. Uh in their mouths, there is no guile. There is no

deception. There is no falsehood. And they are found without fault before God. And Sister White’s comments on this this

process by which righteousness grows among the saints within each of our

lives. And this this tech this passage here from testing ministers page 18 um it’s a fascinating passage to me because

it talks about what Jesus is going to do for his saints in his saints and among

his saints. It says the Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of his mercy and

abundant grace. He is affecting transformation so amazing that Satan

with all his triumphant boasting with all his confederacy of evil

united against God and the laws of his government stands viewing them that is the saints of God as a fortress

impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The passage

goes on, the angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers commissioned to cooperate with human agencies, look on

with astonishment and joy that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through

the training of Christ, developing characters after the divine similitude to be sons and daughters of God, to act

an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven. I find that to be

an amazing quote because our tendency is to look in the mirror and if we’re honest with ourselves, when we look in

the mirror, things aren’t always as they should be. Would you agree with me? When you look in the mirror first thing

in the morning, you have to kind of brace yourself. Yes.

You brace yourself before all the before all the um the reconstruction takes

place in the bathroom in the morning. You look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and you think, “Man, oh man,

this is really horrific. This is a horror show.” I’m glad that when we’re asleep, our eyes are closed.

Particularly my spouse, if my if my spouse eyes were on me, when I was asleep, she’d walk away from me. And I’m

glad that when I get up in the morning, the lights are off before I go to the restroom. Okay? Because it’s just a it’s like the Rocky Horror Show. And so, if

we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t look physically good in the morning. But if we’re honest with ourselves

spiritually, we realize that we fall far short of the perfection of Christ.

And this passage tells us in that first the first um quote there that Jesus is

affecting transformations so amazing in the lives of his saints. Now notice this. It doesn’t say the saints are

working transformations in their own lives, but Jesus is affecting those transformations

uh within the lives and characters of their saints. that Satan looks on with astonishment at what Jesus does in the

lives of his saints so that they are fortresses impregnable to his sophistries and delusions and we are

developing it says there characters after the divine similitude to be the sons and the daughters of God. So when

in John chapter one when it says to all who believed he gave the power to become the sons and the daughters of God, it’s

not just legal adoption into the family of God. But when we’re adopted into the family of God, when we give our lives to

Jesus, he starts a work in us that we cannot do for ourselves. And he brings

about that transformation for us. So, I’d encourage you today to not look in the mirror because it may be a pretty

rough sight sometimes, but to turn your eyes upon Jesus and trust him that he’s

going to do an amazing transformation in your life and a transformation you cannot do for yourself. If we just look

at ourselves, we become discouraged. If we look to Jesus, we’re filled with hope because he who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion uh before Jesus comes again. And so this this

quote here from testimonies to ministers is an amazing promise. You may feel helpless against Satan. You may feel and

um helpless and powerless before temptation. You may have a deep sense of your own brokenness and sinful

propensities. We know that we’re broken individuals. But in these pastures, we’re invited to look to the Almighty

God and ask his son to turn us into a new creation, to recreate his image in

us, to fit us for heaven above. And just as we see polarization in societies

worldwide, we see polarization in America today. So we are seeing polarization within the advent movement.

Just as Christ foretold within this parable, this polarization is causing conflict. It’s causing cancel culture

and it’s lending itself to coercion of conscience. And so Jesus teaches in this parable that there is a battle with

eternal consequences going on in each of our lives. He and Satan are active in each of our lives. And so the question

we ask ourselves then is how do we avoid growing as tears? Because we all want to grow as wheat. We’ll talk about that

later on today. We’ll talk about the 144,000 and three final generations. But

how do we avoid growing as tears? Um and uh so the we’re

going to look then at the question of the unforgivable sin. Does anybody here

wonder what the unforgivable sin is? Does anybody here wonder, “Have I committed the unforgivable sin?”

Has any uh husband ever asked himself, “Have I committed the unforgivable sin?”

Maybe, maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. Some people are nodding down here. I see that. Um but what exactly is

the unforgivable sin? So, we’ll start out by talking just a couple of verses about God’s character because uh it is

God’s delights to forgive. God is a merciful God. He delights to forgive

penitent sinners. He doesn’t hold things against us. Um you know they say that when a man gets married, he should

forget all his mistakes from that moment onwards. Why? Because there’s no point two people remembering everything. And

so when but God is a a God who delights in mercy. He delights to forgive. And so

Psalm 145:8 says this, “The Lord is what? gracious and merciful, slow to

anger and abounding in steadfast love. That word steadfast love is the most important word in the entire Old

Testament is it is it means covenant faithful loving kindness, mercy,

longsuffering as it describes the character of God in one word. Give give thanks to the Lord for his love endureth

forever. And in Psalm 136 is a song of praise about God’s steadfast love. But

this passage tells us that God is slow to anger. He’s abounding in covenant faithfulness. He is gracious and he’s

merciful. And I’m so grateful for that because in general in life, I want

justice for those who’ve hurt me, but I want mercy for myself. Any of you feel the same way about life?

Nobody says, “God, I want your justice to be given to me, but I want you to be merciful to those who’ve hurt me.”

Nobody ever thinks like that. We want judgment to fall upon our enemies, poured down and and pressed down and

overflowing. We want them to know how much they’ve hurt us. But for ourselves, oh Lord, please be merciful to me

because I’m a sinner. And so, uh, the New Testament tells us that, um, how we

judge judges is important because mercy triumphs over judgment. And I want God to be merciful to me. Therefore, I’m to

be merciful to those around me. And maybe God is asking each one of us today to think who who today would you love to

hear news they had a road accident or their house burnt to the ground or they had some other misfortune in life. If

there’s somebody in your life like that today then then the word of the Lord for you today is you need to be merciful to them because that is the character of

God. And if we are to reflect God’s character to a fallen world we are to reflect that self-same mercy to sinners.

Micah 7:18 describes the mercy of God further. It says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over

the transgression of the remnants of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in

showing clemency. He will again have compassion upon us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all

our sins into the depths of the sea.” End quote. So there, Micah 7:18-19.

Micah is a prophet who was proclaiming God’s judgment upon the wicked nation of Israel. But he concludes with his

passage here by talking about God’s mercy. That God does not delight in judgment. God delights in mercy. God is

happy. He’s seeking to be merciful to us. He’s looking for any excuse to be merciful to those who are sinners. He

wants to see a glimpse of penitence within their hearts. And so he says, “You will cast all our depths, all our

sins into the depths of the sea.” Says he delights in showing clemency. What a

beautiful picture of our heavenly father’s character. And yet God is a God

who delights to forgive. He delights to show mercy. But there is such a thing as

the unforgivable sin. And Jesus speaks about the unforgivable sin in Luke’s gospel 12 and verse 10. And this is what

we read. It says, “And everyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven.” That is if you say a

word against Jesus, it can be forgiven. But Jesus goes on to say, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will

not be forgiven.” That’s a sobering thought. Yes. Whoever

blasphems against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. So many people ask

themselves, “Have I committed the unforgiv unforgivable sin? Am I close to

for to committing the unforgivable sin?” Well, the good news is this. If you worry about whether you’ve committed the

unforgivable sin, if you’re concerned about whether you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, if you’re asking,

“Have I committed the unforgivable sin?” Then no, you haven’t committed the unforgivable sin. Why? Because the very

fact that you’re asking that question shows that the Holy Spirit is active in your life and you’re worried about your

relationship with your heavenly father. So even if you’re worried that you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, you

haven’t committed it. that shows that you are responding to the prompings of the Holy Spirit upon your heart. And so

what is this unforgivable sin? Well, um we want to consider the work of the Holy

Spirit because the work the whoever blasphems against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. So the unforgivable sin

has something to do with rejecting or denying the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we figure out from this

verse here. So what does Jesus teach us about the unforgivable sin? Sorry, about the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus

teaches us, particularly in John’s gospel, that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and bring to our

remembrance that which we’ve been taught by Christ. He will testify of Christ in

John 15:26. The Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of

judgment. In John 16:8, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, and reveal

what is still to come. In John 16:13, the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. In

John um where is that? John 16:14. He will shed abroad in our in our hearts

the love of God. Romans 5:5. He will remake the image of God in us. 2

Corinthians 3:18. He is going to give us a new heart and write God’s law upon our

heart. Ezekiel 36:26-27. He helps us to pray and he makes

intercession for us when we pray. Romans 8:26. And he interprets the scriptures

for us when we read them. 2 Peter 1:es 20- 21. So clearly nobody can be saved

unless the Holy Spirit is at work within their life. We cannot be saved apart from the

presence, the power and the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. Whether we recognize him as such or not.

And oftentimes when you speak with people who are not professing Christians, but they describe the

journey of their life, they will describe things that you recognize as the work of the Holy Spirit in their

life. They just don’t recognize it as such just yet. You can work with animists or Hindus or Buddhists or

secular people and they’ll describe things happening in their lives and what they’ve been thinking and feeling and

the journey they’ve been on and they don’t recognize it yet as the Holy Spirit. But it’s clear to us as

Christians, the Holy Spirit has been very active in this person’s life, drawing them closer to God. And so when

so when you see somebody who is a Hindu, a Buddhist or an animist or a secular folk or maybe a social justice warrior

in a pride parade, don’t assume that they are automatically among the lost because you never know if the Holy

Spirit is working on their heart in a powerful way. They just don’t recognize it as such just yet. And so the nobody

can be saved unless the Holy Spirit is at work within them. where they recognize it as not. Without the Holy

Spirit, I will not be convicted of sin. We will not sense our need to repent of

sin. We will not receive divine grace to overcome sin. We will remain a lover of

self and of pleasure and of money which we will discuss later on today rather than a lover of God. We cannot receive

the life of Christ. And we cannot open ourselves to the new heart experience. So to reject the person and the per the

power of the Holy Spirit in our life leads to eternal destruction. And to

continually harden your heart against the pleadings of the Holy Spirit in your conscience to remain in willful,

deliberate, objurate um sin, it hardens the heart to the point where we no

longer hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now I I’m guilty of this in a certain

way. Um, when I’m at home, I’m always composing sermons in my head. And

gentlemen, when you’re at home, are you always thinking about things maybe?

And and and and my wife and my daughter are at home and they’re talking in the background. And I know they’re talking,

but it just doesn’t penetrate into my thoughts. And so if my wife wants me to say to pay attention, just look at me

like like I’m talking to you here. Like like zone in like I’m talking to you. come down from whatever planet you’re

floating around on right now. I need to tell you something here and then I really have to focus on this thing here.

Okay? And so, but the point is that I can go for minutes, indeed hours, and somebody is saying something to me and

I’m blissfully unaware of what they’re saying to me. And that’s not a good thing. It’s not something you’d

recommend in marriage. Okay? Um, you should be attentive to the other person. But the fact of the matter is we become

so wrapped up in our own lives, our own thoughts, our own goals, our own speculations, our own hopes and fears

that we become oblivious not just to those around us, but we become oblivious to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And

we’re so wrapped up in our own thinking that we can we’re no longer sensitive to we no longer recognize when the Holy

Spirit is saying something to us. And so when we do this,

it’s not just when we harden our hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit, it’s not just that the Holy Spirit can no

longer get through to us. We’re actually yielding control of our minds to demons.

You’re you’re either under the control of the Holy Spirit or you’re yielding to the control of Satan. We find this with

the mark of the beast. Those who have the mark of the beast um um uh they have his mark on their forehead, which means

they are sold out to doing evil. They’re under the control of Satan. And those who are in the 144,000 them, they have

the name of their father written upon their foreheads, which means they fully reflect the character of their heavenly father. So the end of time, the world is

divided between people whose characters reflect that of God Almighty and those whose characters reflect that of Satan.

And it’s no surprise today we see a rise in demonic violence in our nation of

nihilistic violence where people are just killing for the sake of killing because they’re yielding control of

their minds to demons rather than yielding control of their minds to almighty God. And so there are some

examples in the Bible of people who committed the unforgivable sin. We find the anti-oluvians in the story of Noah

and um they there’s Noah there preaching for 120 years. The antid-doluvians, the

people living before the flood, they mocked Noah’s preaching for 120 years. They refused to accept God’s offer of

mercy and his call to repentance, and thus they perished in the flood. We read in signs of the times 1899, it says,

“The judgments which God brought upon the anti-delivian world declared it incurable.” Which means that God

destroyed the world because he saw that every motion of their hearts was only what? Continually?

Evil. So when every motion of their heart is evil and there is no space for the voice of the Holy Spirit, these

people are irredeemably evil. They’re sold out to evil. They’ve yielded to evil. They’re under the control of

Satan. And therefore, God can do nothing further with them. And to allow them to continue in that way is only to

perpetuate needless human suffering. It’s an act of mercy by God to bring about the flood. Because if every

thought of man’s heart is only evil, then there’s going to be a lot of suffering on planet Earth.

And if those people can no longer be saved and they’re just engaged in senseless violence, violence, the text

says in Genesis 6, it says the world was filled with violence. And that word is kamas in Hebrew. The Arabic word is

Hamas. You know, the the Palestinian group, it means re violent rebellion against an author, a higher authority.

That’s what the word means. And so the world was filled with kamas. It was filled with violence, godless violence.

And so the flood is an act of mercy by God because if the world is filled with senseless violence, then the weak and

the women and the children, the elderly, they’re the ones who get hurt. And so it’s an act of mercy by God to

bring back the flood after they’ve committed the unforgivable sin. The next example of the unforgivable sin in

scripture is Sodom and Gomorrah. They were so set in their wicked ways that God could no longer tolerate their

wickedness. In fact, God did not send a warning message to Sodom and Gomorrah before he destroyed it. He simply

destroyed it. He went down in Genesis 18 to see whether their wickedness was really as bad as everybody said it was.

But there was no message record of a message of mercy coming to Sodom and Gomorrah. They were irredeemably wicked

and they were not going to repent of their wickedness. There were other cities in the ancient world like Nineveh where God realized that if a messenger

of mercy went, they would hear that message and they would repent. They had not committed the unforgivable sin. But

for Sodom and Gomorrah, they were so sunk in wickedness, they were not going to repent. They didn’t receive a

messenger, and they were only ripe for destruction. Then you find King Saul in the Old Testament. And um King Saul is a

picture of me. That’s an artist’s impression. He remains in willful sin even after God sent Samuel to warn him

and to point out his sin. And when Saul remains in willful, deliberate sin, we read in 1st Samuel 16 that when David

was anointed, it says the spirit of God came upon him. And two verses later, maybe the saddest verse in the

scripture, it talks about King Saul and it says, “And the Holy Spirit left him.” The Holy Spirit left Saul and the net

result was that um an evil spirit came upon Saul. So when the Holy Spirit left

Saul, Saul was no longer open to the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. The net result was that Saul yielded control of

his mind to to um fallen angels. And then you have the story of Herod. Herod

the Great. Here’s a picture of him with John the Baptist. Uh Herod would listen to John the Baptist. He was intrigued by

John the Baptist preachings. However, after executing John the Baptist, Herod hardened his heart through lentious

living and boasting of the Baptist’s murder. And when Christ was brought on trial to stand before Herod um uh in his

palace in Jerusalem, that the gospels tell us that Christ did not say anything to Herod.

Christ said nothing to Herod. You’d think that Christ could have made an appeal to Herod’s heart. Christ could

have preached to Herod. Christ could have appealed him to turn back. But no, Christ said nothing. He was silent

before Herod. Why was he silent before Herod? Well, that the uh we have this quote

here from Desire of Ages page 7:30. It says, “Christ’s silence was the severest

rebuke that he could have given. Herod had rejected the truth spoken to him by

the greatest of the prophets and no other message was he to receive.” And so

even if Christ visited Herod, Herod and Christ Herod was trying to ask Christ

questions, Herod was already a lost man because Herod had rejected the message of John the Baptist, the greatest of all

the prophets. And therefore, Christ had nothing further to say to him. Herod was

a dead man walking. He thought he was sitting in judgment on Jesus. But Jesus’ silence was a judgment upon Herod

himself. He’d hardened his heart to the Holy Spirit. Then you have Judas who rejected Jesus’ repeated offer of mercy

in the upper room. And when he when he left to complete his betrayal of Christ, we read in John 13:27 that as he left

Jesus and he went out into the darkness, that is what the text says. He went out into the darkness and it was night. It

says, “And Satan entered into him.” And once again, you have this picture of of an individual who has um rejected the

prompting of the Holy Spirit, rejected the pleadings of the spirit to turn from sin. And finally the Holy Spirit leaves

them and as in the story uh as the story of Saul and now in the story of Judas

they are filled with either Satan or an evil spirit. And so the unforgivable spin uh sin leaves you under the control

of demonic forces. We read about the Jewish leaders who had watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead in John 19

and instead of turning in faith to Jesus. So John 11 instead of turning in faith to Christ they returned to

Jerusalem to plot his murder. We read in the review and herald it says they persistently rejected the light and

stifled the convictions of the Holy Spirit. The malignity of their rebellion was intensified by each successive act

of rebellion against God. Every day in their refusal to repent, the Jewish

leaders took up their rebellion aresh, preparing to reap what they had sown.

Can you imagine if you see Jesus re raise somebody from the dead and your response is, “We got to kill

this guy.” I mean, how hard must their hearts have been even for the raising of Lazarus

from the dead? And so they go back to Jerusalem and they’re determined to kill Jesus because

they’re afraid the whole nation will follow him. They’re acting out of envy. They’re acting because they want to

defend their position and their power and their prestige in society. As then,

so today, whenever those in power feel threatened, they impose cancel culture

on truth speakers. And cancel culture is always ever only imposed by the powerful

to protect themselves. The poor have no ability to impose cancel culture. And so these Jewish religious leaders wanting

to protect their power and their position in Jewish society were determined to cancel Jesus once and for

all because what he said was was threatening their power in the Jewish nation. And so we have these examples in

the Old Testament and the New Testament. Herod and Saul and Judas, the Pharisees

and the Sadducees. We included among these people we have a king among God’s people, a disciple among God’s people.

We have members of the Sanhedrin and they all committed the unforgivable sin. These were religious and spiritual

leaders among God’s own people and they were busy committing the unforgivable sin and they opened themselves to

demonic control. And before the second coming of Christ, the majority of religious people in this world will also

have yielded to demonic control and they will commit the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. And this is a sobering

reality to to dwell on this morning. That merely sitting in church does not guarantee I’ll be found among the wheat.

Within the church, there will be the tears and the wheat. And the wheat will have yielded the control of the Holy

Spirit. and the tears will have yielded to the control of Satan within the body of Christ.

And so as the end approaches, we quote here from third selected messages,

the testimonies of God’s servants will become more decided and more powerful, flashing the light of truth upon the

systems of error, that is religious error and oppression that have so long held the supremacy. The Lord has sent us

messages for this time to establish Christianity upon an eternal basis. And all who believe present truth must stand

not in their own wisdom but in God and raise up the foundation of many generations. These will be registered in

the books of he heaven as repairers of the breach, the restorers of paths to dwell in. We are to maintain the truth.

Why? Because it is the truth in the face of the bitterest opposition.

And sister White is talking about the church here, not just the world. That the repairers of the breach will stand

up within the church and they will face the most bitter opposition because they speak the truth. And those who are

opposing them are opposed to the truth. Even within the church and because they’re imposing cancel culture and

persecution, it means they are the powerful within the church. The leaders within the church who’ve yielded to the

control of Satan, they reject the messengers of truth within our midst. So before the close of probation, many

within the church of God will have already committed the unforgivable sin. They will have yielded their minds to the control of Satan and they will visit

persecution upon the true saints of God. So wherever truth is preached, there is

always controversy. Do you say controversy or controversy here? Controversy.

Controversy. All right, we won’t have a controversy about how we pronounce controversy.

In England, we say the great controversy, but here it’s controversy. All right. Well, let me tell you this.

It is not the preaching of truth that causes controversy. It’s the rejection of truth when it is preached.

Wherever there is a preaching of truth and Satan wishes to cover up the truth, so he stirs up controversy wherever it

is spoken because he wants to divert people’s attention. Many times preachers are banned from preaching places because

they are it is alleged that they are divisive or controversial. But it is the preaching of truth that

that elicits uh a reaction is a re rejection of truth that causes that controversy. So when people are banned

from preaching as um uh this is in general here when someone is banned from preaching

now this really is a general truth here when somebody is banned from preaching because they are divisive or

controversial it’s probably because they are speakers of truth and and people don’t want the preaching of truth within

that congregation. And so Satan attaches labels to preachers that he is a controversial

preacher. he is a divisive preacher because then churches get shut down to those preachers and that way Satan holds

the truth back from the people of God. So when you hear that somebody is a controversial preacher or a divisive

preacher or a divisive figure, that’s exactly where you’re to look. Why? They

may not always be speaking the truth, but they’re saying something that matters. And we are to be convinced in our own

minds of what is true and what is not true. We are 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse

12 says this prove all things hold fast to that which is good.

So when somebody is labeled controversial or divisive then we are to

prove all things. We are to test what they’re saying against the word of God for ourselves. We are to be Berean

Christians. and Satan will often shut down a preacher of truth because they’re labeled a preacher of of of controversy

or division um by those who don’t want their power or prestige um threatened within the church of God.

So when truth is preached, there will always be controversy as in the time of Christ. So today the

rejection of truth by the counseling of truth speakers in our midst by our spiritual leaders leads to those leaders

maturing not as good wheat but as tears for they are committing the unpardonable sin rejecting the Holy Spirit and

yielding control of their minds to Satan. And that’s the truth. That is the truth.

So what then about the close of probation?

Do we ever wonder what the close of probation looks like? You’ve heard the phrase the close of probation. Yes.

Well, the close of probation is an important concept for the parable of the wheat and wheat and the tears. And why?

Because the harvest that Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 13 is not the second coming.

The harvest that Jesus is speaking about happens at the close of probation. when

probationary time for all of humanity closes just before Christ comes again.

Sister Dwight describes this in Christ object lesson. She says the wheat and the tears are to grow together until the

harvest and the harvest is the second coming. Is that what she says? No. The harvest is the close of probation.

Now, why would that be? Cuz we always think that the harvest and the angels going forward to gather the righteous

and the wicked is Jesus coming again. But that’s not what it is. The the

harvest in this parable here is the close of probation. And why is it the close of probation? Well, very simply

that the wheat and the tears must be known to God and separated in the pre-advent judgment that’s happening

right now. And the the wheat and the tears must be separated in the mind of God and known to God because the seven

final plagues only fall upon the wicked. Therefore, the wicked are already known

before Christ comes again. You following this? At the end of pro when probation closes

for planet earth, everybody is divided in in the fight in the pre-advent judgment. They are the sheep and the

goats. They are the wicked, they are the righteous, they are the wheat, and they are the tears. And that’s when the

separation takes place at the close of probation before the seven plagues fall because the seven final plagues only

fall on the unrighteous, the wicked, those destined for eternal destruction. And for the same reason, the pre-advent

judgment that’s been going on since October 1844 must also finish before the close of probation.

So God is even now inspecting our wedding garments.

You know, when you’re invited to preach somewhere, you know, you have to ask yourself, you

know, what am I going to preach about? And it’s easy to preach topics that

tickle people’s fancies. and you know are pleasing to the ears.

But the fact of the matter is we are living through that pre-advent judgment right now. And we will not see there’s not going to

be announcement on CNN that probation has closed. But if you die on the way home from

church today, your probation period is up. We don’t know when our probation closes.

What we know is it is going on. And God is separating out the wheat from the tears. And we’ve already seen in the

quotes we’ve quoted so far today that to those who yield to God, Christ will work

an incredible transformation for them within them on their behalf so they are ready for that final judgment.

And if we look to Jesus on a daily basis rather than looking to ourselves, we have nothing to fear in that pre-advent

judgment. We want to be in that pre-advent judgment because we want the watching universe to know that we are in

Christ. We are clothed with his righteousness. that the world is saved by one man’s obedience. And it’s not my

obedience, it’s the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. And so when Noah entered

the ark, it says there in Genesis 7:16,

the Lord shut him in. One week before the flood came, there was um Noah was shut in the ark.

You might say probation was shut for Noah and for the inhabitants of the earth, 7 days before the flood came. And

when Christ finishes his high priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, when the pre-advent judgment is over and he

leaves to collect his faithful children, that judgment will be pronounced in Revelation 22:11.

It says there, “Let the evildoers still do evil and the filthy still be filthy

and the righteous still do right and the holy still be holy.” So as Christ leaves the heavenly high priest, the heavenly

temp sanctuary, and he’s coming to earth, it is already known who the righteous are and who the wicked are,

that probation is closed for all humanity. When Christ comes in the clouds of glory, it’s too late to say,

“I think I’ll start believing in him today.” When Christ comes in the clouds of glory, you’re either standing up and

saying, “This is our God whom we’ve waited for.” or you’re crying on the rocks to fall and hide you from the face of the one seated upon the throne and

upon the lamb who is beside him. It is too late to turn to Christ when he’s coming in the clouds of glory.

You know next um I wrote a sermon this week called the cosmic constant and uh somebody asked me to preach on

the phrase and the powers of the heaven will be moved. that one phrase and I never preached on that one phrase

before but as I studied into it I was amazed because the the the cosmic

constants there are so many constants in our cosmic universe that have to be at a certain mathematical number in order for

life to be possible on planet earth when it says that the the the the powers of the heaven will be moved it’s the sun

moon and stars you know if we’re any closer to to the sun we fry like on

Venus we’re any further away from the sun that the solar winds will blow our atmosphere away and and and so forth.

And so when the sun, moon, and stars are moved out of their places, the the the the the mathematical unity of the

universe comes crashing down. It’s why in Revelation 6, it says the sky will be rolled back like a scroll. And it says

in Luke 21 that men’s hearts will be failing them for fear for it is coming upon the world. Because we depend, life

is only possible because of all those mathematical formula. The universe is built around those things. We call them

the cosmological constants. And the only constant that matters is God’s everlasting love for us.

The universe will be done with. When Jesus comes again, it is too late to turn to him in repentance. Today is the

day of salvation. Today is the day to say, “Yes, I accept you as my Lord and Savior. And I’m asking you to do in me

and for me what I cannot do for myself.” And so this close of probation,

we read here, when the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all who will have been

decided for life or death. Probation is entered a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of

heaven. Great controversy. Page 490. So when the harvest is ripe, the tears will

no longer be confessing their sins. They see no need to confess their sins. They’ll have so hardened their hearts

they no longer hear the voice of the Holy Spirit convicting them of sin and inviting them to receive the mercy of

God. And while they are still nominally and physically invisibly within the church from Sabbath to Sabbath, they are

now controlled by demons because the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from them. As Hosea 4:17, the same situation

the Old Testament times we read there, Ephraim is joined unto idols. Let him alone. Ephraim is another word for the

northern 10 tribes of Israel. And if they’re joined unto idols, it means that God’s people have sold themselves out to

the worship of demons. And so God says, “Let my people alone.” They’ve yielded themselves to the worship and the

control of demons. And so when the character when the harvest is ripe, when

the harvest is ripe with the when there is no confession of sin among the tears,

then Christ has no mediation left for them. There is no heavenly high sanctuary.

There’s no high priestly ministry of Jesus interceding on behalf of his saints on planet earth for the tears

because they have no confession of sin. Their prayers and our requests for forgiveness are no longer serving

heavenward. Therefore, Christ has nothing left for them to do in the high priest in his high priestly ministry.

But when the harvest is ripe among the righteous, the ceiling is complete for the righteous. God’s character is now

fixed in our minds. They’ve yielded control of their lives not to self and

not to demons like the tears. They’ve yielded control of their lives to the Holy Spirit who keeps them from falling.

And this beautiful passage from Jude. This is the last verse before you get to the book of Revelation. It’s a verse we

spend very little time on. This verse we normally read as a benediction or as a doxology in church in our liturgy. But

this is a beautiful truth from Jude. It says, “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling.” It’s a beautiful

passage just before the book of Revelation and it’s referring to how God’s people live when probation closes

and we’re going to live without a mediator. It says, “Now to him who is able to keep you from what?”

Okay. When there is no high priestly intercession anymore for God’s people, there is a song of praise to the one who

can keep you from falling. I am not worried about how I’m going to live without a mediator because this verse

tells me there is one who will keep me from falling and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his

glory with rejoicing to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be

glory majesty power and authority before all time and now forever. So these are

those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. They are the wise virgins who’ve kept the oil

of the Holy Spirit in their lamps. When the harvest is ripe, there is no possibility for the tears, the

unrighteous, to turn to God in repentance. And there is no possibility for the wheat, that is the righteous, to

turn away from God in rebellion. The difference between the wheat and the tears will be manifest to everybody

within the church. One group is controlled by the Holy Spirit, the other group is controlled by demons. One

radiates agape love for those around them. One radiates selfishness for for love of self, pleasure and money. One

trades in peace, the other trades in violence. One upholds liberty of conscience, one tramples upon liberty of

conscience. One will uphold and live out the ten commandments. One will deny the ten commandments and the ongoing

validity. In one group there is the image of Jesus seen on their faces and in the other group in the church the

people see the image of Satan. You see this most often in board meetings.

But you do. You don’t see it on Sabbath morning,

but you see that image of Satan shining through on board meetings. You see it way too often. And you also

see the image of God shining through. When you go to visit somebody in a hospital and there’s already a brother

or sister from church there sitting by their bedside praying with them, you see the image of Jesus right there. When you

go when somebody says, “I need help.” And you give them a phone call and they’re busy and when you get through to them say, “I’m sorry, but somebody had

already called me to pray for me and to pray with me.” That’s when you see the image of Jesus manifest within your

congregation. You see it in acts of loving kindness and compassion and mercy from one member to another. You see in

them the image of Jesus Christ. And so um in one group there is image of Jesus

and the other group is the image of Satan. The saints who survive this final crisis are the 144,000. And after the

close of probation, God will pour out the seven final plagues on the wicked. Now, that’s not just the wicked in the

world, but that’s upon the tears within the church. It’s not just the wicked in the world,

but those seven final plagues are poured out upon the plague, the tears within the church of God. And so their response

to God, the the plagues will show they have no fear of God. And it will confirm the validity of God’s judgment upon them

because we read in the seven plagues of Revelation 16 that when in the midst of their suffering says they will curse God

rather than confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from God. So their response to the plagues is to curse God

and to refuse to confess. which means that the validity of God’s judgment is demonstrated in those seven final

plagues after the the wheat and the righteous at this time after the close of probation are enduring what we call

Jacob’s time of trouble. You see it there on the screen. That passage is found in Jeremiah 30 6-7 which says,

“Alas, that day is so great that there is none like it. It is a time of distress for Jacob, yet he shall be what

from it? Rescued.” Jacob here is a metaphor for God’s faithful people. And

um Jacob entered his time of distress. His name was Jacob. It means deceiver.

And at the end of his time of distress, what was Jacob’s name? Israel, which means a prince of God. And

so in Jacob’s time of trouble, when the final plagues are falling upon the wicked and the final plagues are falling

upon the tears within the church, the saints of God go through their own time of trouble. And what does that consist

of? Well, the summary of what the scripture teaches is that the most terrible persecutions in at the close of

probation will be visited upon God’s faithful saints who will be blamed for the calamities coming upon planet Earth.

The death sentence of Revelation 13:15 is now pronounced and human pity and

mercy evaporates from planet Earth. The time of trouble will reveal to the world and the watching universe what human

government that is under the control of Satan really looks like. You think things are bad today, you wait

till government and society is yielded to the control of Satan himself. It will

be an orgy of violence, of immorality, of social, economic, and environmental collapse, of hatred, of strife,

devastation such as we’ve never seen before. a great controversy. The beginning the in the p the prologue says

this. All the depths of satanic skill and subtlety acquired all the cruelty

developed during the struggles of the ages will be brought to bear upon God’s people in the final conflict. So in that

time of trouble um that is when um persecution is vis upon God’s people like never before upon the wheat

there is going to be an outpouring of hatred and satanic cruelty like we’ve never seen before.

We say, “Well, how’s that going to look for us?”

As the storm approaches, a large class who professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified

through obedience to the truth abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world

and partaking of its spirit, they’ve come to view matters in nearly the same light. When the test is brought, they

are prepared to choose the easy, the popular side. Men of talent and pleasing

address, who once rejoice in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most

bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbathke keepers are brought before the courts to answer for their

faith, these apostates are the most efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them and by

false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them.

Let me tell you this, the first casualty of war is truth.

Everything you say will be misrepresented. Everything you do will be maligned.

Everything you have stood for will be cast and in the worst possible light for

society to see. This is how it’s going to be. It’s Satan working out his fury on the saints of

God because he knows they’re safe for eternity and he knows that his time is short. This is his final act of

vindictiveness against Jesus Christ to persecute the saints of God after the close of probation. Five Testimonies

says this, to stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us. To fight the battles of the

Lord when champions are few. This will be our test. At this time, we must gather warmth from the coldness of

others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason. The nation will be on the side of the great

rebel leader that is Satan. And this treachery will begin within our own

church when we face the bitterest opposition from those who’ve yielded to control of Satan rather than yielded to

the control of the Holy Spirit. During this final crisis, the good news is from the book of Daniel 12:es 9-10. It says,

“The faith of God’s faint saints will be quote purified.”

I don’t have the text there. Anyway, Daniel 12:9-10 says that the that that

the the saints of God will be purified and made white and tried.

That this final crisis will be a demonstration to the watching world of how people who are filled with the Holy

Spirit, who are whose characters reflect the character of their heavenly father, how they respond to the most vicious

persecutions visited upon them. It will be the proving ground. It would be the it’ll be like the show and tell of this

is what it means to follow God when Satan is doing his worst against you. Jesus spoke of those final convulsive

days. He says, “People will faint from fear and foroding of what is coming upon the world. For the powers of the heavens

will be shaken. Then they’ll see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin

to take place, stand up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing nigh.” End quote. What a blessed hope

for our fallen world. This is our only hope. It’s not just our only hope. It’s

my only hope. And by God’s grace, it’s your only hope as well. The promise of the second coming of Jesus when all

things will be made new again. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And you know what that promise is?

That he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. It refers to the 144,000, those who make it through the final

crisis. God sees our tears and he one day he promises I’ll wipe your tears

away from you. It’s an amazing promise from God. So what do we say in conclusion this morning for our Sabbath

school? Well, this text here,

Leviticus 20 26 says, “You shall be holy to me, for I,

the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be what?

To be mine.” God is looking for a peculiar people.

God is looking for a holy people. God is looking for men and women, boys and

girls here in Middleton, Idaho, who have separated themselves from the values and

the ways and the customs and the false gods of America in 2025,

and who’ve yielded control of their hearts and their minds to the Holy Spirit. who are looking every day to

hear the Holy Spirit, who are looking not just to hear, but who are looking in order to be obedient to the voice of the

Holy Spirit. Within every congregation, there are wheat and there are tears.

It’s a simple reality. It’s not a judgmental thing to say that. It’s the plain teaching of Jesus. But with every

congregation there are wheat, there are tears. And you cannot assume that your mother-in-law is council among the

tears. She may be council among the wheat. You don’t know. You can’t make any assumptions at this

stage because it is only apparent at the harvest who the wheat are and who the

tears are. However, if you want to grow as good wheat

and not to evolve into a rotten tear fit for eternal destruction, then today you can ask for the gift of

the Holy Spirit from Jesus. He’s promised that if you ask your heavenly father to receive the Holy Spirit, God

will give you the Holy Spirit today in 2025 in Boise, Idaho. If you seek for

the Holy Spirit in your life, you will find the Holy Spirit and you’ll be found of the Holy Spirit. If you knock, the

door of your heart will be opened and the Holy Spirit will enter in. So, I

want to appeal to you today, young or old, if you want to be counseledled among the wheat at the close of

probation, to be counseledled among the 144,000 who make it through to the second coming of Jesus. And I want to be

there for that event, by the way. Don’t you? It’s the greatest light and show event in human history when the universe

is literally torn apart in front of our eyes and we see Jesus coming with myriads upon myriads of angels.

If you want to survive through to that event, surrender your heart today and surrender your future to the one who

alone can change your heart today and who alone can give you eternal life.

That quote from Jude is a promise.

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling in the final crisis. When the

distinction between the wheat and the tears is fixed once and for all when probation has finished there is one who

can keep you from falling. There is one who can enable you to stand without blemish in God’s presence with

rejoicing. And who is that? To our only God, our savior. It is Jesus Christ our

Lord. So today, I’d invite you to lift your eyes to Jesus who is worthy of glory and majesty and power and

authority before all time and now and forever.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus and see what he can do for you. Turn your eyes upon

Jesus and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit and the spirit will fill you and will transform you from the inside out

so that God will see you not as a sinner but as a saint with a future. He will see you clothed in the perfection and

the righteousness of Christ. And no matter what Satan may do to you on this planet, there’s nothing he can do to

take you out of the lamb’s book of life. Don’t yield to the unforgivable sin. Don’t yield to the control of Satan.

Don’t think that just because you sit in church, you’re automatically saved. Personally, intentionally, deliberately,

as a matter of personal choice, every morning, yield to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Ask him to fill you. Ask

him to transform you. Ask him to bring to remembrance the teachings of Christ living obedience to those teachings and

Christ will will turn in you your character into the similitude of Christ.

Your character will represent your heavenly father and when the watching universe sees you and when Satan sees

you, they will see somebody upon whose forehead is written the name of their heavenly father.

So my appeal to you today is don’t be tears. Don’t yield to unforgivable sin.

Don’t keep those cherished sins in your life. Don’t think that that little thing doesn’t matter to God. Yes, it does.

But yield anything in your life today that you cannot give as a holy offering to a holy God. If you cannot give it as

a holy offering to a holy God, give it into God’s hands and ask him to do for you what only he can do. And when Jesus

comes again and those angels come out to collect the saints of God and he’s come

looking for those whose names are written in the lamb’s book of life, he’s coming looking for you. Let’s bow our

heads and close with a word of prayer. Our heavenly father,

we thank you that there is coming a time when evil will be done away with,

when suffering and disease and sorrow will be no more. Father, we look forward to the time when

there will be no more depression or death or disease or divorce. Will there be no more despair?

Father, we look forward to the day when all things are made new again and you’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Until that moment, Father, fill each one of us with your Holy Spirit. Father, we

yield our hearts, our minds, control of our lives to you today, trusting that

you can do immeasurably more for us than we can begin to imagine. Asking that starting from today and from this day

forward, you will so transform us that the only thing this world sees is um a

disciple of Jesus whose character perfectly reflects our heavenly father

in heaven above. So Lord, we ask that you do this miracle in each of our lives. We thank you in advance for the

transformation you will work for us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.