Liberty Unshaken | Norman McNulty

well good afternoon and happy sabbath to each one of you can you hear me okay all right you know last night was interesting trying to speak through that driving rain and hail storm it's not the only time i've had some interesting speaking experiences my friends the sandovals may remember the time when we were in trinidad together when we were at a gyc type meeting and i was speaking and the electricity went out and i spake to a room that was in darkness i've also spoken where unfortunately the gentleman passed out during the middle of the 11 o'clock service and we had to call the ambulance and wait so you know sometimes things happen but i i anticipate that this afternoon we're going to have a clear starting point an ending point without any interruptions and the lord is going to to bless our time together before i get into the message for this afternoon i did want to mention for those of you who are still here after sundown and you're interested in a copy of my book on daniel i will be at my table in the back there i have a few copies left and we can talk about that after sundown but i also have a book on revelation that's coming out this summer that remnant publications will be putting out there so you can keep an eye out for that i'm just going to ask the lord to be with us as well and then we will start this message so let's pray father we thank you for the sabbath day we thank you for the blessings that we've been experiencing here at national family retreat the messages on family on parenting on marriage and on going beyond believing a truth and living by god's grace in that truth and i pray that you would speak through me now as i speak about the liberty that you have given to us for the time that we are living in may the message be clear and may we be prepared for what is coming upon this world so i pray this in jesus name amen the title for my message this afternoon is liberty unshaken and you know tom waters asked me to give a presentation that addresses liberty within the context of prophecy so while i realize that we are here at a family retreat this will be especially addressing how each one of us as individuals and as families should be living at this time of earth's history and it's going to address how we understand what our god-given liberties are and how we should use these liberties in this time and so this is what we will be looking at and i'll start off with some of the basic prophetic understanding of who we are as a people but i will end with some practical applications and so it's not simply going to be a talk on theory it's going to paint a picture of where we are and it's going to take us to how we should respond on a practical level as god's people you know as seventh-day adventists we are a prophetic people amen and god has given us prophecy for a reason the books of daniel and revelation are there to be studied and to be understood and when they are rightly studied and when they are rightly understood we gain a completely new experience l white tells us in testimonies to ministers page 1 14-1-16 that when the books of daniel and revelation are studied as they should be the believers will have an entirely different experience we will move beyond belief to an experience and so you know sometimes when we study prophecy we can identify the seven heads and the ten horns and the the two beasts of revelation 13 which i'm going to talk about a little bit today but then we forget that for example the book of revelation is the revelation of jesus christ and revelation 13 is one chapter identifying antichrist so we identify antichrist and then we ignore the rest of the prophecies that identify christ you know i've also heard people say i'm not worried about what is coming i just need to know who is coming but there's a fallacy in that statement because if you don't know what is coming you are setting yourself up to be deceived by the false christ and the false prophets who do come and so prophecy isn't just some abstract theory that some people find to be interesting oh yeah i enjoy studying prophecy well i enjoy studying economics or i enjoy studying this part of scripture whatever it is no prophecy is a vital aspect to who we are as seventh-day adventists because the truth is connected to jesus who is the truth and every aspect of scripture is connected to jesus who is the way the truth and the life and the reason why he has given us prophecy is so as we get to know jesus we come to understand who he is and we understand the purpose of his kingdom and the manner and the nature of his coming so that we can share that with as many other people as we can one of the reasons why these family retreats are so important is because we're not simply coming here to be better christians and us that's obviously profoundly important but we're coming here to become better families and better christians consecrated and surrendered to the lord because we're preparing our families for the final crisis of earth's history and that's not some abstract idea you know noah preached for 120 years that a flood was coming and most people yawned through most of his sermons and laughed at him but a day came when the flood came and a day is coming when the end of the world will hit and the messages that you've heard at these retreats will then have so much more meaning and value than you might even think right now and so it's so important for us that it's so important for us that when we come to these meetings that we're not just learning about how to become better families and to be become more closely connected to the lord it's a given that as you become more closely connected to the lord as a seventh-day adventist family that you are becoming connected to the lord to prepare your family for the soon return of jesus and so we're not simply coming to these retreats to cloister ourselves away from the world and avoid sharing the three angels messages and only come up so to speak when we come to these meetings and i know most of you don't do that but i'm just saying the purpose for coming to these meetings is so that we can be strengthened and so that we can do the part that god has called us to do in sharing the closing work that god has given to us as this earth is coming to an end now you know i happen to be here for the oklahoma national family retreat last year when nobody was here other than the waters and the important support staff and so forth but this is the first family retreat here in oklahoma since the world changed now you may have a variety of different perspectives about the pandemic and i'm not going to get into that but here's something that you cannot deny the world is a different place since coveted 19 hit and so we are living in a different world we are living in a different time and the messages that we have been giving that identify the fact that a day is coming when this world will come to an end certainly seems much more relevant now in the year 2021 than when we gathered as a national family retreat here in oklahoma two years ago we've always believed in these messages but certainly this message is more relevant even today than it was two years ago so what i'm going to do in the next few minutes i'm going to hit a few highlights of things that should be well understood by seventh adonis however i will say that prophetic literacy among seventh-day adventists is not exactly at an all-time high and i'm not saying that to make you feel bad i'm just saying that if you haven't been studying prophecy recently now would be a good time to get back up to speed on the prophetic messages that god has given to you so what i'm going to do i'm just going to give you kind of a big picture idea of revelation and then some of the key elements in revelation 13 and revelation 11 and then we're going to make some practical applications from the life of daniel as it relates to the type of liberty that god has given us and how we should be living in this time now when you look at the book of revelation it's basically broken and up into two halves with revelation 12 right in the middle but in the first half of the book of revelation you have the seven churches the seven seals and the seven trumpets we're not going to go through all of that but simply put the seven churches the seven seals and the seven trumpets start with christ's work in the holy place and they conclude with christ moving into the most holy place so for example when you come to the seven churches christ is standing in the midst of the candlesticks but then when you come to the seventh church it's the laodicean church laodicea means a judged people that's what the word means so now we've moved into the judgment hour message so the message to the laodicean church is a prophetic message for the judgment hour church that lives from 1844 to the second coming and that's why the message of creation is part of christ's title in that message then when you go to the seven seals it starts with god on the throne and the throne is across from the seven lamps burning with fire which are again the seven candlesticks in the holy place and by the time you get to the end of the seals you see that the four winds are being held until the sermons of god are sealed in their foreheads and the work of sealing takes place in the most holy place during the judgment hour message then you go to the seven trumpets and you see an angel with a sensor in his hand but he's standing before the altar of instance that's again in the holy place but by the time you come to the end of the trumpets in revelation 10 and revelation 11 you have a mighty angel coming down from heaven and he's moving from the most holy excuse me from the holy place to the most holy place to raise up the second advent movement a people that he is raising up for the mystery of god to be finished and the mystery of god in colossians 1 27 is christ in you the hope of glory now that's very practical because christ didn't raise up a prophetic people just to raise up a prophetic people he raised up a prophetic people who would be like him in character so by the time you look at the seven churches the seven seals and the seven trumpets what you see is god's master strategy of how he's going to defeat satan in the great controversy and how he's going to prepare a people who will be like him in character you have the seven churches the seven seals and the seven trumpets and interestingly when you come to the end of the laodicean church it's a lukewarm church and christ is knocking at the door saying let me come in it's a lukewarm church that he says if you don't change i will vomit you out of my mouth so you're like is that how god's last day church is going to end but then you come to the end of the seven seals and you say wow from god's last day church that was lukewarm and leia to see and god finds the 144 000 upon whom he places the seal of the living god and then you come to the end of the seven trumpets you say wow from that lukewarm church that receives the seal of the living god it's from that movement the second advent movement where the mystery of god is finished christ in you the hope of glory so now christ has revealed what he's going to do from the most holy place to produce a people who are like him in character that are the revelation of jesus christ now when you study the book of revelation like that prophecy becomes so much more powerful and look i like to identify the seven heads and the ten horns and five are fallen and one is that's a nice exercise but the deeper value is seeing what christ plans on doing in producing a people like him it's beyond belief going from just a theory of saying hey we're the second advent movement to allowing christ as he knocks on the door of your heart to actually let him come in so that he can clean up the sin problem in our hearts and lives and so when you get to revelation 12 you see that satan doesn't go down without a fight you see the whole great controversy where christ was born of a woman and he was caught up to god into his throne and then the great controversy goes into the wilderness for 1260 years and you come to the end of chapter 12 and the dragon targets the remnant who keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus christ which is the spirit of prophecy and it's not a coincidence that in the seventh day adventist church today there are seventh the adventists who are embarrassed by the concept of obedience and the spirit of prophecy because those are the two identifying characteristics that satan hates the most about god's remnant church and so then revelation 13 is when satan says hey god you think you're going to develop a remnant that's like you in character you want to bet look what i have i have two kingdoms a beast that comes up from the sea and a beast that comes up from the earth and while the second beast starts off with christian-like principles eventually they speak like a dragon as well and through those two powers satan is contesting the great controversy and he says i'm going to keep christ from producing the people that he says he will produce from the most holy place by the work that i do through the first beast which is the roman catholic church state power and the second beast which is apostate protestant america and this is where things become interesting because you know growing up as a seventh-day adventist i've always understood that the first beast of revelation 13 is very clearly connected to daniel 7 and you have the four beasts of daniel 7 that are a composite of the beast of revelation 13 and then you have the little horn of daniel 7 that has a mouth speaking great things four different times in daniel 7 and then the beast of revelation 13 has a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and we know the little horn of daniel 7 is the papacy and we know the first beast of revelation 13 is the papacy there's no dispute about these things and then we understand very clearly that after the 1260 years just as the first beast came up out of the sea the second beast comes out of the earth so the first beast came out of the populated areas of the world the second beast comes up out of the earth just at the time that the papacy received the deadly wound in 1798 and there's no other power on earth that could fit that description other than the united states of america furthermore the united states of america is described as having two horns like a lamb and the lamb is mentioned repeatedly throughout the book of revelation as describing christ so the united states of america is a nation based on christian principles now some people have a problem with saying that but that's what the bible says it has two horns like a lamb and whereas the first beast has seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns upon the ten horns meaning that church and state are united and the monarchy and the kings of the earth were under the power of the church the united states is a little bit different it's a lot different there's no crowns on the horns meaning that the united states is not a monarchy the united states prophetically speaking derives its power and by the way horns in scripture describe that which gives a nation its power and i'm assuming that you already believe that beast represents kingdoms but you can see that in daniel 7 17 and 23 but horns mean that which gives a kingdom its power and the united states has two horns like a lamb or two horns with christian principles and we understand what those horns are right and they're found in the constitution of the united states of america but that is civil and religious liberty and this is where we're headed with our talk liberty and shaken one of the powerful things about the united states of america is that we have civil liberty and religious liberty and these are god-given rights these are not rights that are given to us by the government these are what are called unalienable rights that are given to us by god so we don't look to government for our rights these are rights that are bestowed upon us directly from god himself and that is that we have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that's a god-given right and we have the right to worship god according to the dictates of our conscience do you realize what a privilege it is to be here this sabbath afternoon listening to this presentation there's going to be a day coming when you would give everything that you have to be back in this moment right now and there are people who have lived through tyranny in places like cuba and the soviet union in china where you can simply be arrested because you showed up to worship god and we have the liberty right now to worship according to the freedom of our conscience and here's something that is important to point out to draw a distinction between the first beast and the second beast of revelation 13. the first basically the roman catholic church state power that's indisputable the second has two horns like a lamb meaning it operates with christian principles by definition the christianity that christianity that is being described cannot be catholic because the first power is i mean i think we're gonna have to change microphones here we're going to go blue here too i'm going to match like tom did the first power of revelation 13 is the roman catholic church state power which through its history did not believe in civil or religious liberty it believed in coercion that you would worship god the way the church told you you must therefore the christian power in revelation 13 starting in verse 11 that has two horns like a lamb it's a christian-like power which by definition must be protestant because protestantism in its pure form allows for religious and civil liberty so that's important to remember so when we as seventh-day adventists look at prophecy and when we look at current events we want to remind ourselves that we are part of a nation that was raised up by god that is a land of liberty that allowed for the rise of the second advent movement right on time prophetically which then became the launching ground from which its liberty has fostered the spread of the three angels messages throughout the world now here's something that i want to mention as we move forward things are getting very complicated in our present day and here's something i want to really challenge you on what you're going to see as i outline some of the challenges that we are dealing with from a liberty standpoint is that it can be tempting to identify with certain political parties but i want to tell you right up front and i'll say it again as we go through this presentation god has not called us to be republicans and god has not called us to be democrats god has called us to be seventh-day adventists and you're going to see based on some of the things that i'm going to share and look i'm not going to get into the weeds on politics that's not what we're here to talk about today but you're going to see that the only liberty that we can trust as we come closer to the end will not be found from the republicans that will not be found from the democrats or any other ideologies it will only be found from god and so we want to understand the principles of civil and religious liberty those are principles that are worth fighting for a seventh-day adventist they are not simply worth fighting for they're worth dying for you know if you do not have civil liberty you don't have religious liberty and if you don't have religious liberty you don't have civil liberty those two horns of civil and religious liberty stand together and they fall together and so i'm going to start off by reminding us that there will clearly be loss of liberty from the right side of the spectrum so to speak here in america and revelation 13 verse 11 says that it had two horns like a lamb but it spake as a drag and then it forms an image to the beast it causes all on the earth to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed so apostate protestant america is going to form an image and by the way an image is in the likeness of that which is being described and the beast is the roman catholic church state power and that beast power represents the union of church and state so the image to the beast an image of the roman catholic church state means a union of church and state and protestant america is going to unite church and state which by definition will violate civil and religious liberty and a nation speaks through its laws and when america speaks like a dragon it will speak in such a way as satan would and in revelation 13 the first beast which has its power seat and authority from satan the dragon has a mouth of a lion speaking great things and blasphemies in daniel 7 the little horn has a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and it seeks to change times and laws so the papacy sought to change times and laws by changing sabbath to sunday and when protestant america speaks as a dragon it will pass a law speaking like satan where it tries to change god's law again by passing a law that will violate the seventh-day sabbath so we don't just make this up out of thin air it's clearly biblical but i'm going to read you a statement now from testimonies volume 5 page 450. the same masterful mind that plotted against the faithful and ages past is still seeking to rid the earth of those who fear god and obey his law satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of god wealth genius education will combine to cover them with contempt persecuting rulers ministers and church ministers will conspire against them with voice and pen by boasts threats and ridicule they will seek to overthrow their faith by false representations and angry appeals they will stir up the passions of the people not having thus saith the scriptures to bring against the advocates of the bible sabbath they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack to secure popularity and patronage legislators will yield to the demand for a sunday law those who fear god cannot accept an institution that violates a precept of the decalogue on this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error and we are not left in doubt as to the issue now as in the days of mordecai the lord will vindicate his truth and his people so there you see persecuting rulers ministers church members are going to conspire against sabbath keepers but she becomes even more specific on page 451 of the same quote by the decree and forcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of god our nation that's protestant america will disconnect herself fully from righteousness when protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the roman power when she will reach over the abyss the class hands clasp hands with spiritualism when under the influence of this threefold union our country shall repudiate every principle of its constitution as a protestant and republican government and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of satan and that that the end is near so basically when the sunday law comes we know that the end is near but here's the the key thing protestantism will stretch your hand across the gulf protestantism and another statement will be foremost so we need to remind ourselves or ourselves a seventh day adventist that we do not want to be too cozy with the powers that be that will eventually advocate for sunday legislation we're seventh-day adventists and we need to remind ourselves that protestant america outside of the seventh adventist church constitute the fallen churches of babylon so we will not find liberty from that side of the aisle just so you know okay now again we want to speak up and defend civil and religious liberty where we can but we want to make sure that we're on the lord's side not on any political party side now here's something that was interesting in that quote and i've been really thinking about things because you know we are facing some challenging times as christians and there are things that are happening in the world that definitely make us concerned about the civil and religious liberties that we have had as christians and especially as seventh-day adventists so you know what do we do for example if the government starts to try to enforce secular ideology on churches how do we respond to that and what are we going to do and so that's where where i'm going to spend some time as well because ellen white mentions in the statement and testimonies volume 5 page 451 that protestantism is going to grasp the hand of the roman power and grasp hands with spiritualism and just so that we're understanding things here we're not fighting a two-fold union at the end of the world revelation 16 makes it very clear that there are three unclean spirits like frogs that come out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the false prophet and the dragon is satan and in that instance he represents spiritualism and the beast is the roman catholic church state power and the false prophet is apostate protestant america that's the three-fold union now a lot of times i'm hearing us as seventh-day adventists saying watch out for the papacy watch out for apostate protestant america and then we say well you know spiritualism is just when like people or evil angels come back like they're coming back from the dead to impersonate dead relatives and we won't be fooled by that is that what spiritualism solely constitutes and i'm afraid that some seventh adventists are not paying attention to what's happening from the spiritualism side of things that we need to be mindful of as well because not only can we lose liberty from the right as they push for a sunday law we can also lose our liberty as it stands with god from spiritualism you know there's a reason why satan is called the dragon and that old serpent the the devil and satan because he is the dragon and he's that old serpent who deceived eve way back in the garden of eden with lies that were spiritualism i want to read to you a statement from education pages 227 and 2 28. and before i read that i'm going to mention that revelation 11 there's another beast or power kingdom that's identified as part of end time prophecy it's a beast that comes out of the abyss and the abyss in the greek means abusos which means that that is the arsenal or the power of satan and in revelation 11 prophetically that's describing the rise of the french revolution with the atheism and the philosophy of atheism that drove the french revolution and we're going to see how this connects with spiritualism here education page 227 now listen carefully to how ellen white defines spiritualism and see if some of the philosophers philosophies that you're hearing about in modern society today may fit with some of these elements that illinois identifies spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demagogues or demon gods that each mind will judge itself that true knowledge places men above all law that all sins committed are innocent now listen to this this is so important this is a philosophy of spiritualism whatever is is right now listen to me if you're not paying attention there is sweeping into this world and even sometimes into the church this philosophy called critical theory that is based on postmodernism and they get their philosophy from rene descartes who was a marxist philosopher who says whatever is is right i think therefore i am and so what postmoderns in critical theory are saying today is i believe what i believe to be truth therefore it is truth and you can share with them any objective evidence that you want but their position is unfalsifiable that's spiritualism whatever is is right and this is the type of philosophy that led to the french revolution and spiritualism is also god does not condemn the basis of human beings it represents us in heaven and highly exalted there thus it declares to all men it matters not what you do live as you please heaven is your home multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law that license is liberty and that man is accountable only to himself now have you heard such philosophies percolating society so she goes on to say with such teaching given given at the very outset of life when impulse is strongest and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent where are the safeguards of virtue what is to prevent the world from becoming a second sodom and then she makes this fascinating statement at the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law now anarchy just to break down the word and means without arc means rule so without rule without order at the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law not only divine but human the centralizing of wealth and power the vast combinations for the enriching of the few the expense of the many the combinations of the poor classes for the defense of their interests and claims the spirit of unrest of riot and bloodshed the worldwide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the french revolution all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed france and unless you're not paying attention we are living in a time now that is devolving into what we call class warfare like it did with the french revolution and a seventh-day adventist we should rise above that if we start to identify ourselves among our class that we exist within society we are no longer identifying ourselves as members of god's family where god says i've given you three messages the three angels messages to take to every nation and kindred and tongue and people whatever people group it is it's to go to every ideology and race and nation and language that's who we are as seventh-day adventists we are a diverse people of whatever background but we are united by the power of christ and the gospel of jesus christ and the three angels messages and we should not be allowing current political philosophies to divide us as a people but when we identify as republicans or when we identify as democrats then i see my friends fighting with each other on facebook over election outcomes and political philosophy and i'm like what are you guys doing this is not what we have been called to do jesus says my kingdom is not of this world our kingdom is to prepare or our work is to prepare for god's kingdom and to give the three angels messages and we are to identify what's happening prophetically so that as we see loss of civil and religious liberty and look it's coming and if you don't think that it's coming you're not paying attention because someday soon i believe we are going to be seeing churches and our schools and our institutions forced to make decisions about whether or not they are going to be true to the word of god or bend to the pressure of modern culture with respect to lifestyle issues and philosophies that groups are going to say we've been oppressed for so long and our philosophy for being lgbt or whatever else that it is has been oppressed and we're oppressed and we're going to become the oppressors and if you don't get on board we're going to cancel you and when that goes too far the right is going to say we're done with this we're tired of being told that we can't be christians in america but we like that control that the other side was using so that that's good we'll keep that part and we'll force everybody to worship on the day that we say they should go to church so we can't find safety in either party now there's a couple of other things that i want to mention here we've done well through the years as i've said to identify two out of the three elements of the threefold union the roman catholic church state power apostate protestant america and clearly we do not want to be on their side but we also need to be mindful of not being part of that third leg of the threefold union and that is atheistic spiritualism which is a satanic philosophy there are some in the church you think that as long as we do whatever is necessary to prevent the religious right from gaining power so that there will be no sunday law we are doing the right thing but at the same time we need to be mindful of the reality that god does not want us to be promoting anarchy and if we think that when we've been silent about nine commandments that somehow the world will listen to us when we speak in defense of the fourth commandment when the sunday law crisis comes we're deceiving ourselves because revelation 12 17 and revelation 14 12 doesn't simply say that they keep the fourth commandment it says they keep the commandment of god and that includes the fourth commandment so we need to be seventh-day adventists we need not be republicans we need not be democrats we are seventh-day adventists at this time of earth's history now here's the other thing you need to be mindful of this is a statement you've probably heard over a hundred times as a seventh-day adventist testimonies volume 9 page 11 which says the agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating they are strengthening for the last great crisis great changes are soon to take place in our world and the final movements will be rapid ones now listen that first sentence we often don't spend a lot of time thinking about we just talk about oh yeah the final movements are going to be rapid ones and they will be but that first sentence says the agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating now let me tell you something each agency in that threefold union spiritualism apostate protestantism and the roman catholic church state power those are the agencies of evil at the end of the world and they are going to consolidate their power the closer we come to the end of the world now we as seventh-day adventists rightly took note in the 1980s when pres president ronald reagan a conservative republican united with pope john paul ii a conservative roman catholic pope to lead to the downfall of communism and the soviet union and we said look at what is happening prophecy is unfolding protestant america is uniting with the papacy and clearly prophecy was fulfilling as we saw protestant america and the roman catholic church state power come closer together the agencies of evil started to consolidate it's interesting and again i'm saying this in a non-partisan way because i just basically said something that was critical of a republican president and a conservative catholic pope now i'm going to say something about the present day but it doesn't mean that i'm identifying with a party affiliation so i just want to make that clear but we have now a the second ever roman catholic that's ever been elected president of the united states and he's a democrat that's more liberal than reagan was that's just a factual statement and the current pope is a more liberal pope than john paul the second was and so their philosophies line up in a similar way on the left the way reagan and um john paul ii did 30 years ago does that mean that that's that there's going to be a sunday law because of that no i'm not saying that i'm just saying that you see the agencies of evil combining their forces and consolidating and now the pope is saying things that are friendly to socialist philosophy whereas reagan never would have said such things so again you can't place your trust in any party we simply place our trust in the lord realizing that satan can use whichever agents of agency of evil he so desires to use to try to move things along so civil and religious liberty are worth fighting for the agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating at some point the left and the right will unite and all of you who have been rabid republicans or rabid democrats are going to be like oh oops that's not working out because we're not on either team we shouldn't be on either team we are on the lord's side not on the side of the republicans not on the side of the democrats we should not be known as a seventh-day adventist republican we should not be known as a seventh-day adventist democrat we should be known as seventh-day adventists who are on the lord's side fighting for god's kingdom so as i come to the last section making this practical it's amazing to me when you look at the life of daniel that he maintained true liberty before god and maintained a true conscience before god as a captive and sometimes we make excuses about not being faithful to the lord because maybe somebody at school for those of you who are younger or in our work situation maybe our supervisor or whatever it may be would look down upon us if we are too true to the lord daniel maintained liberty before god even though he was a captive you could say oh he he was in bondage and you know the the one of the ironies in the book of daniel is when the handwriting is on the wall and belshazzar sees the handwriting and nobody can interpret it and the queen mother says call for daniel he can the spirit of the holy gods is in him and he can tell you what it means when belshazzar addresses daniel he's like are you one of the slaves from the jews you know daniel may have been a captive but he demonstrated true liberty throughout that whole experience of his life because he was faithful to the lord so here he is a captive in babylon here we are at seventh adonis facing modern babylon and if we think that we have too many excuses that we have to capitulate to modern society because of the pressures that are out there there's no excuses you're not even in captivity you're living a life of freedom and daniel remained true and it started with his faithfulness in diet seemingly a small thing and you know what's interesting about that story is that melzar who was his supervisor said if i do what you're asking me to do i could lose my life and you know what most of us would be like uh forget that my supervisor would lose his life so i tried lord but it's not going to work out daniel was so true to god that he wasn't concerned about whether or not his supervisor would lose his life he was concerned about being faithful to god and because of that god blessed him with a prophetic understanding he had understanding and visions and dreams and you know sometimes we wonder why we find the prophetic message to be so dull and why we don't see anything in the three angels messages it might just be because we don't have an interest in being faithful to that light which god has revealed to us so when he gives us light about lifestyle and we're not following it then we wonder when we're filling our bodies with junk why our minds are so clogged that we can't understand god's voice when he tries to speak to us true liberty comes when you are faithful to the lord and you can commune freely with god knowing that he is speaking to you and so daniel's three friends they're the only three jews that don't bow down to the image there were other jews that were there because we know that because those who came to nebuchadnezzar said there are certain jews who won't bow down you know i pray as the final crisis unfolds and unfortunately we're told in great controversy 608 that a large class who have professed faith in the third angels message but have not been sanctified by obedience to the truth will depart from the faith and they will become bitter enemies of the truth but i pray that when that time comes those who become the bitter enemies will say of us sitting here today there are certain seventh-day adventists who still believe that they need to worship god on the seventh day of the week listen there is not a power on earth that can take away the god-given liberty that god has given to you the republican party cannot take that liberty away from you the democratic party cannot take that liberty away from you the president of the united states cannot take that liberty away from you the united states of america the soviet world russia china whoever it is satan himself cannot take that liberty that god has given to you to make a conscious choice to be true and faithful to god to be faithful even unto death and when you understand that then you don't have to get so wound up about who wins or loses presidential elections because your liberty is not determined based on which political power is is governing at the present time your liberty comes from god and if you are true to him you are the freest person on earth the way daniel was free in babylon and and you know then even when the decree was made that you can only worship the king for 30 days daniel didn't change the way he worshipped he was thrown into the den of lions and was still delivered and daniel's life of faithfulness is a template for the faithfulness of god's people at the end of the world daniel's name means god is my judge while i will respect the laws of men and give to caesar's the things that are caesar's understanding as romans 13 says that the civil authority has been given authority by god to the point that god allows but the point that line of distinction comes when god's laws come into conflict with the laws of men and i'm not going to get into into any specific detail but sometimes we make mountains out of mole hills and say well if i do this i'm going to get the mark of the beast no you're not the mark of the beast is clearly defined as sunday worship but we want to make sure that we are true to god and that we are faithful to him and that ultimately we understand that our liberty comes from god it's a god-given unalienable right that even the writers of the constitution of the united states of america recognize and so i would say this as seventh-day adventists and as american citizens we will do all that we can to defend civil and religious liberty because that is a reflection of god's kingdom but we understand that loss of liberty is coming is coming from the right it's coming from the left that there's a threefold union that will unite to take away all of our liberties here on this earth but even if our so-called liberties on this earth are taken away if we were to lose our lives we still retain the liberty that god has given us and so we're going to have a time of meditation the piano is going to start playing here in a minute and i just want you to think and reflect on these things because this message is not isolated from everything else that you've heard this weekend this is very much connected to everything you've heard about parenting and marriage and being connected as a family and of making good decisions about what we allow our children to do and the devices that they're using and making sure that we're moving beyond a theoretical belief of knowing what prophecy is and the three angels messages and righteousness by faith and overcoming to advancing to being overcomers of experiencing the mystery of god christ in you the hope of glory and of being the people that god has called us to be you know listen i was talking to a fellow ministry colleague last night and i totally agree with what he said to me he's like don't you wish that more pastors brought their churches to these kind of meetings where families would be strengthened so that the churches would be strengthened so that we as a people would become prepared for the coming of jesus it's important for us to strengthen as a family and i just want to challenge you don't ignore the prophetic message if you think that it's like well as long as we just kind of know about jesus and we try to strengthen our families and you're ignoring the three angels messages now we've got to have the whole package and god has given that to us so that we can be the people that he has called us to be at this time of earth's history so i'm thankful for this week that we've had this half week that we've had where our families are coming together we're being more closely united and we've been challenged to move beyond belief to living our faith and i hope this afternoon you've been challenged to understand where your liberty comes from and to be faithful to the lord and to understand our prophetic message so let's have some time of meditation as the music plays and think about and pray about where god would have you to be as you seek to come closer to him [Music] our father in heaven we just thank you so much for the holy spirit moving upon our hearts to bring conviction we thank you for the more sure word of prophecy that you have given to us that's like a light that shines into a dark place and lord i thank you for the two horns of civil and religious liberty that you have bestowed upon the nation that we are citizens of giving a foretaste to us of the heavenly kingdom the lord as i pray right now i want to pray in a special way for each one of us on an individual level because you have given us the liberty to choose to follow you or to choose to go our own way and as the scripture teaches in romans 6 we're either servants of righteousness or servants to sin and either slaves to righteousness slaves to sin and lord right now i know in this room right now we like the idea of having liberty but too many of us have used that freedom to make decisions that have led to slavery to sin rather than being servants of christ and lord i just want to pray right now the holy spirit's impressing me to make this appeal as all of our heads are bowed there may be someone here in the congregation right now who has used liberty to make decisions that have led to bondage and so i'm going to invite anybody who has that conviction that there is an issue in my life right now that i am in bondage to you it may be an addiction it may be an attitude issue it may be lack of forgiveness it may be something that has led to perpetual strife in the home and lord i want deliverance from that right now i would invite you to come to the front and to kneel down may not be for everyone but i would invite at least that one person to come as we pray to say lord i have an issue in my life that is leading to bondage and i want the liberty that comes from christ that comes by being faithful to the lord fully and completely so lord we thank you for those who are moved by the holy spirit we've all sinned and come short of the glory of god we've all been in bondage to something at some point in our lives so lord we thank you for the liberty that you offer through the power of the gospel where we can be delivered from the bondage of sin and empowered to live lives of righteousness by faith where the life of christ can be reflected so i just pray for each one who has come forward i pray for each one of us i pray that we would live for christ that our homes would be havens of heaven on earth and that we would use the strength that we've gained and the blessings that we've gained from being here at this retreat to go forth to the world to share the messages for this time to prepare this world for the coming of jesus thank you that you love each one of us and that you've given each one of us an opportunity to be delivered from the power of satan and i just pray again for each person thank you for how you're going to deliver them and help them and work for them in their lives so we thank you for the blessings that we've experienced be with us throughout the remaining sabbath hours and throughout the remaining portion of this retreat may we be richly blessed and may we be all found faithful when you come i pray in jesus name amen you

Channel: Restoration International

Views: 1,220

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: RI, Restoration International, NFR, National Family Retreat, 2021, Family, Marriage

Id: 08cVtRXpu5A

Length: 59min 19sec (3559 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021