Pastor Joel Laswell

In the Old Testament scriptures there are 300 specific predictions concerning the Anointed, the Messiah who would be born to save the world. The prophets of the Bible deal with his birth, life and death in hundreds of instances and in different ways.

There are untold mysteries that date back to the beginning of this world but I want to speak to you about the great mystery.

I have something to ask for today that I know is the will of God. I have something to ask for today that I need much more than I currently have. I have something to ask for today because I see a great need among us as the professed people of God. I have something to ask my Father for today. I ask the Lord to give me a pure heart and a disposition imbued with thankfulness and peace.

If you stop and ponder it for just a moment, each day is the memorial of some event in history. Each day. Some are marked by man as grand events, and some barely a mention, if that, but each day is a memorial of some event in the history of mankind. But I want you to consider that there are certain events, certain dates in the history of mankind that rise even above the recognition of mankind and are recognized as great by all creation throughout the universes. I want to speak about one such day, one such event that is also the foundation of our Adventist faith, a pillar of our faith you could rightly say.

I shared some of the terrible things that are going to happen as we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ, and already, as we listen to the news, we can see the direction things are going in this land of the free and the home of the brave and the coming religious persecution that will be akin to what happened during the dark ages, only much worse. I must tell you a little more about some of these things, but then I want to share the best part wherein God’s faithful commandment keeping people will be delivered out of the hands of their enemies forever. Is that not good news? Yes!

In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the signs that will show that the end of the world and thus His second coming are near. What are these signs and are we living in that time?

Jesus is to prepare a generation of people--by cleansing them of sin--that they will then make the demonstration to all creation that mankind can be trusted to live among Creation for all eternity. To declare by their character that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain and thus vindicate the character and love of God. Those glorious events which happened almost 2000 years ago, are to be paralleled by a wonderful triumph that awaits the remnant church down here in the closing scenes. These are a generation of people who follow Jesus whithersoever He goes and they trod the winepress like their Savior. And so they will triumph like He did and they will be glorified like He is glorified.

As I have pointed out, there is much in the agony of the Savior in Gethsemane and on the cross that human beings can never fathom. But there is also much that we can understand through having an experience like Jesus and only through an experience. This is our cup to drink..... will we drink it?

We want to note the parallel in the coming crisis of the remnant church with those trials that Jesus went through so we can be prepared, or as prepared as we can be, to react as He did--with nobility and glory to the Father--and endure them. For like Jesus, we too will be seized. Like Jesus, we shall be thrown into trials. Like Jesus, we shall suffer the results of the combination of church and state uniting to inflict persecution. Like Jesus we want to endure the trials and like Jesus we want to be victorious.

Now we’re going to study the sequel of the Savior's prayer experience and the sequel to the disciple's experience of sleep. Keep in mind the parallels with His crisis experience and that of the remnant people and their crisis experience. Humanity must be so blended with and subservient to the divine will that the remnant will be prepared to give an exhibition during their trial such as Jesus gave in His trial. And as we shall see, friends, we’re going to be tried in every way that men and devils can invent.

The Bible describes two of the major identifiers and characteristics of the remnant people of God, those who will go through the end time of trouble, in Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” But there is another attribute that precedes those two, and is the prerequisite, and it is found in verse four of the same chapter, “…These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth…” Revelation 14:4. All through the universe the remnant go with Him. But before they follow Him there, they first must follow Him here.

In the great plan of salvation, there are two special crises: the crisis at the close of Christ's earthly life, and the crisis that comes at the close of the experience of His remnant people. And between these two experiences there are a number of most interesting parallels.

As we get closer and closer to the final battle the bible calls Armageddon, it becomes more and more important to know Jesus and His people. If it weren’t important, the Bible wouldn’t spend so much time describing the attributes of Christ, which will be reflected in His followers—which are members of His body, His church.

Is it just me or have you also realized that evil is considered good today, and good is now considered evil? It seems to be the norm for our world. I was contemplating the state of God's professed people in regards to the sin issue and what kept coming to my mind was how clever the devil is in using the Scriptures in such a way as to confuse the differences between truth and error. He can get us so confused that we will call the truth error and error the truth. As Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Now truth in Christ is progressive for us as individuals as well as for Gods church and if we do not keep up with the truth we will fall into confusion and ultimately have the woe of Isaiah 5:20 on our heads, all the while thinking that we are headed to the kingdom. What banner will we be lifting up before Jesus returns?

God's people had kept neither the letter of the law nor its intent. The law--which defines sin, given by angels, could have been their glory; its perversion was precipitating their shame and destruction and they recognized it not, but believed their sin of the murder of Jesus was actually doing God a favor. They had gotten to the point where they called sin, righteousness!

In order for us to be conquerors in the sin issue, and to endure to the end though we may have been segregated from family, from church and brethren, and from society, we must keep walking in the light from God. What does it mean to walk in the Light and how do we do it?

As I have contemplated and studied the sin issue, for over thirty years now, I have come to the conclusion that the real reason that we as professing Christians stay where we are even when called by Jesus to separate from sin and apostasy is because we love our independence. And Satan feeds that love of independence because he is the originator of it and so we are fooled into thinking that we can be independent and still be in the family of God. And just what is the sin of independence? This is at the heart of the Sin Issue and so it’s the topic of this study.

As I have contemplated and studied the sin issue, for over thirty years now, I have come to the conclusion that the real reason that we as professing Christians stay where we are even when called by Jesus to separate from sin and apostasy is because we love our independence. And Satan feeds that love of independence because he is the originator of it and so we are fooled into thinking that we can be independent and still be in the family of God. So naturally then there would be no reason to leave a fallen church because you can be independent of their sin and not worry about receiving any consequences. This is a lie!

When we associate with sin we leave our heart open to hardening and not the softening we need in order to be like Jesus. As the old saying says, by beholding we become changed. In case you are unaware of this, no person is going to be in the kingdom of God who has hardness of heart. That is reality. If I am hard-hearted, something has to happen to my heart or I cannot go to heaven to be with Jesus. I want you to be in heaven and I want to be in heaven. Our heart must be in the right condition for this to happen. If we want to go to heaven, we must gain victory here, because there will be no hard-hearted people there.

The Gospel Cycle is the replication process of making disciples for Christ. Please click here to download the accompanying bible study: http://www.3asdchurch.org/Sabbath-School-Lesson--Student--TheGospelCycle.pdf