I want to study with you about “The Bitter Surprise.”  The Bible talks a lot about this subject.  If you have your Bibles, you might just like to turn in it to 1 Thessalonians 5:1. It says:  “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.  For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.  For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.”

This is the verse that talks about a bitter surprise.  These are people who are saying that there is going to be peace and safety.  The Bible predicts that this will be one of the great events of the last days.  The Bible predicts that in the last days there will be a great international religious peace movement.  You can read that in Isaiah 2 and also in Micah 4.

The Bible predicts that in the last days there will be a great international religious preaching movement.  And it says here, “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them.”  It is a bitter surprise.  Sometimes when we read these verses, we think that this is just talking about the world.  Actually, as we are going to see in a few minutes, this is not just talking about the world; it is talking especially about people in the church.

But I want to read some verses to you where Jesus is talking to His followers.  Turn first of all to Luke 21:34.   Now notice, Jesus is not talking about the world, He is talking to His followers, His disciples, and He says, “But take heed [or pay attention] to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing [that is feasting], drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”

Is there a danger that Christ’s own disciples, that His own followers will not be ready for His coming?  According to this verse, Is there a danger?  Yes, there is.  Is it wrong to eat?  No.  Is it wrong to drink?  Well, now the Bible condemns alcoholic beverages, but it is not wrong to drink that which God has provided for us to drink.  Neither is it wrong to work.  In fact, when man sinned, work was provided.  Work had been provided before the fall, but after the fall, work was to be one of the ways that God would use for the restoration of fallen man.  And so He told Adam, After this you are going to eat your bread by the sweat of your brow.  You are going to have perplexities in earning a livelihood.  And that has been the case ever since that time.

Now there will not be any perplexities in gaining a livelihood in heaven.  There were no perplexities, sorrows, problems, trials in earning a livelihood in the Garden of Eden before the fall.   And in heaven, all the cares of this world, that we must endure, will all be in the past.  But, Jesus said, There is a problem.  There is a danger that the cares of this life can become totally consuming.  He said, Watch out.  That is what this verse says, Pay attention to yourselves.  Take heed, lest you be weighed down with the cares of this life.

Oh, friend, if there ever was a time when we needed this counsel and when we need to be in prayer about this, it is today, because life in the modern world has become more complicated, I believe, than it ever was in the past.  I myself deal with a number of young people.  And the questions that young people have to struggle with and answer today are much more complicated than they were fifty years ago, and much, much more complicated than one hundred years ago.

We are living in a complex, technological society, and more than ever before our young people have to acquire skills in order to be able to earn a livelihood.  There is nothing wrong with acquiring skills to earn a livelihood, but because life is so complicated, it is very easy for this to become the only thing you can see.  You are totally involved in just surviving, just earning a living, or gaining the skills to earn a living.

Now it is complicated enough without you and me adding further complications.  We must pray and ask the Lord to help us so that we do not add complications to the cares of life so that we become weighed down. 

One of the ways that we make our lives much, much more complicated than they would have to be, even in our modern, technological society, is by allowing ourselves to become trapped with debt.  By the way, the Bible has a lot of counsel about it.  Just read the book of Proverbs.  This is not just a problem in the United States, by the way.  There are problems in other countries, too, and as I visit with people in various parts of the world, over and over again I find people who want to step out in faith and do God’s will in their lives.  They say, I want to do that.  I see that is what I should do, but I cannot do it because I have all these debts that I have to pay first.

Most of the older generation have already become trapped.  So many people say, I would like to be a missionary.  I would like to do this and I would like to do that in the Lord’s work, but they cannot.  They are trapped in the trap of debt.  It is one of the devil’s traps.

As a pastor, I have dealt with people in all kinds of economic conditions; all kinds of health conditions, and all kinds of family conditions.  I can tell you that, as a general rule, the lives of people who have avoided debt, even though they have less possessions, are not as complicated and they are happier than people who are trapped with debts.

That is one of the ways that we make our lives more complicated and add to our cares so that we get weighed down with the cares of this life.  Jesus said, Watch out.  That happens to you and then the Second Coming will come unexpectedly.  Unexpectedly, because you will not be ready.  Let us look at one more text where Jesus talked about the possibility of His own followers not being ready for the end of the world and for His Second Coming.

Look in Matthew 24:42.  Here again, Jesus is talking to His disciples.  He says, “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house has known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Notice, it is going to be at a time that we do not expect.  An hour that we think not, that is when He is coming.  It is going to be a surprise for everybody, but it is not going to be a bitter surprise for everybody.  For many people, unfortunately, it is going to be a bitter surprise for those who are not ready.

Let us look at Matthew 7.  Jesus is talking about this very same subject in the Sermon on the Mount.  This text explains what it is that is going to be so bitter.  He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”  Matthew 7:21–23.

This text tells us what it is that is so bitter about the surprise.  It is simply this: There are going to be many people who have been thinking, for their whole lives, that they are saved.  But when Jesus actually comes, people who have thought all the time that they were saved, confident that they would be saved when Jesus comes, find out that they are not saved. 

They are so convinced they are saved that they start to argue with the Lord.  They say, You have to have made a mistake.  I know I am saved.  I was working miracles in Your name.  I was casting out demons.  I was prophesying in Your name.  Lord, I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

We need to dwell on this point for just a moment, because my dear friends, I want to tell you something that very greatly concerns me.  I see a lot of Adventists today getting together into little study groups and people think that if they pray enough, they are going to receive the Holy Spirit.  And these people in Matthew 7:21-23, thought they had received the Holy Spirit.  And because they thought they had received the Holy Spirit, they were absolutely confident that they would be saved.

Now please do not misunderstand.  I believe that we should study and pray to receive the Holy Spirit.  But let me tell you something else, the Holy Spirit is not given to us to excuse our disobedience.  What is the problem with these people?  They say that they have received the Holy Spirit and that they were working miracles and they were prophesying, but they are going to have a bitter surprise, because they have been disobedient.  And from lips that never make a mistake they will be told, Depart, I never knew you.  “Depart from Me you who practice lawlessness.”  Ibid. 

The Holy Spirit is not given to condone disobedience.  And if we think we have received the Holy Spirit and we are living in sin, I can tell you one thing for sure, the spirit that we have received is not the Holy Spirit.  It is the wrong one.

And this is a great deception of the last days.  People will believe that they have received the Holy Spirit.  We used to think, years ago, that it would be the people in those other churches.  But, friends, it does not matter what church you are in.  If you have received a spirit and if you are living in sin, you had better go and pray, because you have received the wrong one.

The New Testament talks a great deal about this.  Peter said, You cannot receive the Holy Spirit unless you obey.  You can read that in Acts 5:32.  Jesus said, You cannot receive the Holy Spirit unless you obey the commandments.  You can read that in John 14:15–17.  Paul warned the Corinthians, in II Corinthians 11:4, I am afraid that you will receive a different spirit that you did not get from us. 

In that chapter, verses 13–15 he talks about Satan himself being transformed into an angel of light.  So people will think they are being led by the Holy Spirit, but it will be the wrong spirit.  Remember in the New Testament the receiving of the Holy Spirit is always, always, always associated with obedience.  The Holy Spirit is never given to condone disobedience.

These people thought they had received the Holy Spirit but their lives were not in harmony with God’s Law, and so, when Jesus came, they met a bitter, bitter surprise.  Every time I think about this, I cannot imagine it.  I just cannot imagine how awful it would be, when Jesus comes, to discover that you are not saved.  Is it your sincere hope that you are going to go up in the air with Him and go to heaven? 

Is being saved when Jesus comes your sincere hope?  But if He says, Depart from Me, I do not know you, you are not going to go to heaven, how would you feel?  Since you cannot make yourself rise from the earth to meet your Lord in the skies, that is something you cannot fake.  I cannot imagine it.  I do not know how to tell you.  I do not know how to describe it.  I cannot imagine how it would feel, to all of your life expect that you are going to be saved, and then to come right up to the end and be lost and realize that this is final, this is forever.  You are not going to heaven.  You thought you were, but you are not.  You are going to die and then when you die, you are never going to wake up again throughout all eternity. 

This is the bitter surprise, and what we want to study is how you can avoid it happening to you?  How can you be sure?  Do you not think this is worth studying?  Do you not think that we should know what exactly we should do, so this will not happen to us?  Well, that is what we are going to study.

I put down about nine points.  We are going to try to cover all nine, and to get us started I want to read you a rather long quotation from the writings of Ellen White in the book, Early Writings.  And then when we finish that, we are going to go directly into the Bible, because in this statement from Early Writings there is a lot of biblical language used and we are going to look right in the Bible and see what the Bible says about these things.

“I also saw that many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a High Priest in the Sanctuary through the time of trouble.  Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.  I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of ‘refreshing’ and the ‘latter rain’ to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to fit them to live in the sight of a Holy God.  Those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building.”  Early Writings, 71.

She said also, “Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter!  They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing.”  She said, concerning these people that come up to the time of trouble without the needful preparation, during the time of the plagues, “There will be no time then to do it and no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father.”  Ibid.

You see, friends, right this moment as I am talking, you have an all-powerful Mediator in heaven.  But there is coming a time when the mediation of Christ, the High Priestly ministry of Christ, which is spoken about in detail through the book of Hebrews, will cease.  You see, you cannot find a single Bible text, because it is not in the Bible, that speaks of Jesus coming back to this world as a priest.

No, Jesus is not coming back to this world as a priest.  How is Jesus coming back to this world?  He is coming back to this world, the Bible says, as King of kings.  Now, right now, Jesus is your Mediator, your High Priest in heaven.  Paul talks about that over and over and over.  The other apostles talk about it a little, too, but Paul talks about it the most in the book of Hebrews.

You have an all-powerful Mediator.  By the way, that is good news.  Paul says that He is able to save perfectly everybody that comes to God through Him.  If you are the greatest sinner in this room, or in this town, as Ellen White says it so beautifully in the book, The Desire of Ages, 259.  “None have fallen so low, none are so vile but that they can find deliverance in Christ.”

Is that not beautiful?  Why?  Because He is an all-powerful Mediator.  We do not understand.  We have no idea what the word all-powerful means.  We use all kinds of words in theology when we do not know what they mean.  But we know that it is true, even though we do not know what it means.  He is all powerful because He said so.  He said to His disciples, in Matthew 28:18, “All power is given to me.”

And because He is all-powerful, He can deliver you from whatever pit of sin you are in.  But there is coming a time when it will be too late for you to be delivered from sin.  You will already have been delivered, or it will be too late to be saved.  Now I am not making any of that up.  Let us read that in the Bible.

Turn in your Bible to Revelation 22:11, 12.  It says, “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.  And behold, I am coming quickly.”  Notice this takes place before He comes.  Immediately after He says that, He says, Now “I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work.”

You see, friends, the plan of salvation is going to come to an end.  We cannot take it in.  Ellen White used to say we are living in the most solemn period of earth’s history.  Why are we living in the most solemn period of earth’s history?  In past ages, like the saying goes, As long as there is life, there is hope.  That has been true for a person who has been a rebel against God.  Like the thief on the cross.  That man had turned his back on God and he himself said, We are here being crucified for the just reward of what we have done.  But this Man has not done anything wrong.  And when he looked at Jesus, he thought, Oh, I have wrecked my whole life, but I sure would like to be saved.

He said, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.  And you see, in past ages, as long as you were alive, you could turn around.  You could turn your back on the devil and you could turn toward the Lord and you could repent.  But when this proclamation in Revelation 22:11 is made, that will not be possible any more.  Your eternal destiny will be fixed one way or the other.

Because, when Jesus comes back, He is not coming back to save sinners.  He is coming back to take the sinner, that He has already saved, home.  He says, ‘My reward is with Me to give to every man according to his work.’  Ibid.  The decision, the final decision has been made whether you are going to be saved or lost.

Notice what Ellen White writes about this very thing in Early Writings, 71.  She says, “There will be no time then [that is during the falling of the plagues] to do it and no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father.  Before this time the awfully solemn declaration has gone forth, ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.’  I saw that none could share the ‘refreshing’ unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and every wrong word and action.  We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.  Let all remember that God is holy and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.”

Let us look at the nine points.

1.  Are you serious about receiving the seal of God?  Now this is a biblical concept.  Before the destruction comes, God’s people will be sealed.  Read it in Revelation 7:1–3.  Read it in the type in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 9.  Are you serious about receiving the seal of God?  In the last days everybody in the world is going to be marked.  Some will be marked with the seal of God.  Some will be marked with the mark of the beast.  That is the Third Angel’s Message of Revelation 14:9–12.

Everybody is going to be marked.  What mark are we going to receive?  Are you serious about receiving the seal of God?  Notice what we just read about that.  Mrs. White said, “Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.”  Does the Bible say that?  The Bible does say that, let us just read it.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 John 3:1, 2.  It says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

By the way, if you are not like Him, you cannot see Him as He is.  That is an interesting thing, but we are not going to go into it now.  The apostle John has some of the deepest theology expressed in some of the simplest language.  You cannot see Him as He is unless you are like Him.  You can study why that is so on your own.

But John does say here, We are going to be like Him.  The people who are ready to meet Him are going to be like Him.  The people who receive the seal of God will be people who reflect the character of Jesus.  John talks about that so much.  Look in chapter 2:6.  “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”  We are to reflect the image of His character.

That is what is involved in getting ready to receive the seal of God.  Are you praying about this?  Are you saying, Lord, I want to become Christ-like in character.  Notice it says in 1 John 3:3, “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  Is Jesus pure?  Jesus is pure.  We are to become like Him.  If you are serious about receiving the seal of God, day by day in your devotional life you will be praying about this.

You will say, Lord, I want to be like Jesus.  I want to be like Him.  You promised me in Your Word that I am going to be like Him, and Lord, I am choosing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  I do not want to tell you what I tell the Lord.  I say, Lord, I am determined to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, but I need You to work a miracle in my life.  God, the God that we serve, specializes in miracles.

You do not need to be discouraged because you need a miracle worked out in your life, because the God we serve specializes in miracles.  Point number one is, Are you serious about receiving the seal of God?

2.  Do you reflect the image of Jesus fully?  We have covered it.  1 John 3:1–3.

3.  Do you have enough time to be saved?  Now maybe that is not the best way to word it.  You say, What do you mean, Pastor John?  Well, did you notice in that statement by Ellen White that she talks two times about people who were neglecting the needful preparation?  Is there something required to get ready for Jesus to come?  Oh, yes!

Let us just look at a couple of things.  Look, for instance, in II Peter 3:13, 14.  The apostle Peter is talking about the day of the Lord that is going to come as a thief in the night.  He is talking about the end of the world, and he says in verses 13, 14, “Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”

Notice, Peter says to be diligent.  What does that mean?  That means that you are getting ready.  Being diligent means that you are doing something.  You are doing something with care.  You are being careful in your preparation.  You are getting prepared to be found by Him in peace, without spot.  That is, without a spot in your character.  That is what it says.  That is point number three.  Do you have enough time to be saved?

There are a lot of people who do not have enough time to be saved.  They want to be saved.  If you asked them, they would say, Oh, I want to be saved.  But they do not have enough time to be saved.  Why do they not have enough time to be saved?  Because they will not take time to be saved. 

I will just let you think it through yourself and talk to the Lord about it in your own devotional life.  Why do you not just talk to the Lord about it?  Say, Lord, the way I am living right now, am I too busy to be saved?  It takes time.  Some people do not have time for their devotions.  They do not have time to read the Bible, they do not have time to pray.  They hardly have time to go to church on Sabbath morning, let alone go to prayer meeting.

We know that in the last days people will be lovers of pleasure, and that is one of our problems among God’s people, not just in the world.  We always thought, Well, that is out in the world.  No, it is not just in the world.  It is their problem, too, but it is also our problem.

There are people who do not have time to be saved, because with some it is love of pleasure, and with some it is earning a living.  Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and you are going to have what you need in this life.  Well, that is something to pray about.  Point number three is, Do you have time to be saved?  And point number four is closely related to it.

4.  Did you notice that Ellen White said that these people who could never receive the seal of God, were not ready for the time of trouble, they were not ready for the end?  They did not realize that they were not ready until the plagues began to fall.  She said that they were not hewed by the prophets.  That is point number four.  Are you being hewed by the prophets?

Somebody says, What does that mean?  It is not complicated.  Look in your Bible in Matthew 4.  This is Jesus responding to the devil and He is going to quote from the book of Deuteronomy.  Matthew 4:4, says, “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Now let me ask you this question.  This is for your own introspection.  How is your life right now?  Is your life, your feelings, your thoughts, your words, your actions, in harmony right now with every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God?  Oh, somebody says, Pastor Grosboll, what are you asking?  I am not perfect yet!  Well, then, if your life is not in harmony with every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then your life needs to be hewed by the prophets.

And the way that happens is that when you study God’s Word and you find something in the Bible and you realize, What I am reading here is not the way I am feeling.  It is not the way I am thinking.  It is not the way I am speaking.  It is not the way I am living.  It is not the way I am acting, and that means that if I want to be hewed by the prophets, if I want my life to be in harmony with every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, there needs to be a change.

That gives me something to pray about.  Lord, I read something in Your Word.  I see that I am not in harmony with it and I want You to change my heart and my life and help me so that I will be in harmony with what You say in Your Book.  You see, friends, the people who are ready for Jesus to come, God is going to be able to point to them and say, See those people?

By the way, this is going to be public.  The Lord is going to tell the devil this.  He is going to say; Do you see these people?  They live by every word in My Book.  And He is going to let the devil try them, just like He let the devil try Job.  You have to be ready for something like that, by the way, you have to be ready.  You have to spend some time studying God’s Word.  Oh, my dear friend, are you so busy that you do not have time to study God’s Word?

How do you expect to be saved?  How do you expect your life to be in harmony with every word that is in God’s Book if you are not studying God’s Book every day?  Oh, somebody says, are you talking about a checklist religion?  You know, I do some flying.  The pilots in the plane that I fly, had to go through checklists before they took off and they had to go through a checklist again before they landed.

Would you like to fly on an airline where the pilots did not use any checklists?  Would you?  I would not.  If I got on an airplane and they told me that the pilots did not use any checklist, I would say, Let me off of here right now.  It is too dangerous.  By the way, do you know what happens if the pilots are not careful to follow every item in the checklist?

I remember some years ago when I was in Australia, a Delta plane, a 727, took off from the Dallas airport, just fifty miles from where I was living at that time.  It did not make it.  It came back down, crashed.  Fortunately, most of the people got out alive, but about eleven or twelve people died.  Delta Airlines fired the pilots.  Do you know why they fired the pilots?  Because they had not followed the checklist.  They had not been careful.  There was one item in the checklist they had not followed, so a bunch of people died. 

Somebody says, Do not worry about all this checklist religion.  That is from the devil!  If the Bible says something, and you need to write it down so you will remember it, do not worry about it.  There is nothing wrong with seeing that your life is in harmony with every word that is in God’s Book and if you need a reminder, make one for yourself.

Well, that is point number four, Are you being hewed by the prophets?  Are you studying God’s Word?  By the way, let me just remind you of something that has been true about Seventh-day Adventists for 150 years.  We do not have a formal creed.  We never have had.  Why?  Well, first of all, we do not believe that we are infallible.  We believe that there might still be some things that we need to learn from the Book, and our position has always been this.  We have said, Our goal is to live by every word in this Book.  That is our goal, but if we are mistaken about something, if you can show us something from the Book with which we are not in harmony, we are willing to change.  That is still true. 

Not only do we not claim that we are infallible, but we believe that as we draw near the end, God is going to show us more and more from this Book.  Let me tell you something.  The people to whom God shows new light from the Book are going to be people who are studying the Book.  Are you studying the Book?  That is point number four.

5.  This is so you will not meet with a bitter disappointment when Jesus comes.  Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 1:22, 23.  This goes right along with point number four, which is being hewed by the prophets.  It says, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere [The King James says, unfeigned] love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.”

Remember we read in 1 John 3:3, “Everyone that has this hope in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”  How do you purify your soul?  Notice what it says in 1 Peter 1:22, “You have purified your souls in obeying the truth.”  Oh, my dear friends, there are many people, even Adventists today, who are not going to make it.  Not because they do not know the truth.  It is not enough to know the truth, you have to obey the truth.

You purify your souls, it says, by obeying the truth.  In fact, did you know that the amount of truth that you know actually is not the most important thing?  Well, Pastor John, what is the most important thing?  The most important thing is, are you obeying the truth that you do know?  The man or woman who just knows a little bit of truth, and they are obeying all the truth that they know, that person is in a lot better position than the person who knows a lot of truth, but is not obeying it.

Well, that is something to pray about.  Incidentally, there are a lot of people who are not experiencing victory in their lives, because they are not following instructions.  They say, Lord, I cannot overcome my sins.  I cannot overcome!  God cannot give you the Holy Spirit to grant you power to overcome—and by the way, that is one of the reasons the Holy Spirit was given, it was to give you power to overcome.

But the Lord cannot give you the power to overcome, through the Holy Spirit, if you are not living up to the truth that you know.  Just think it through.  God would be giving you power while you are living in sin.  Unless you have chosen to turn your back on sin, unless you are choosing to live up to what you know, how can God give you power?  He cannot trust you, because you would not used it right.  You are not living up to the truth you know.

Something to pray about.  Peter says, you purify your souls by obeying the truth.  It is not enough to know it; you purify your souls by obeying the truth.  That is what we must do.  This is the experience we must have.  We do not want to meet with bitter disappointment at the end.

6.  Ellen White says that these people that did not receive the seal of God and they were not ready.  The plagues came upon them and they did not realize it until it was too late.  She says, They think their condition is far better than it is.  Now that is quite a statement.  And when I got to thinking about that, I said to myself, Why do people think that their condition is far better than it is?

I will tell you why.  The reason people think that their condition is far better than it is, is because they have not received the Holy Spirit.  Let me read that to you out of the Bible.  Turn in your Bible to John 16.  This is about the Holy Spirit coming and it says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin.”  John 16:7, 8.

Notice, the first thing that the Holy Spirit does when the He comes is to convict the world of sin.  And why do we think that our condition is a lot better than it really is?  It is because we have not received the Holy Spirit.  Let me tell you, when you receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit puts His finger right on the plague spot in your character and my character and we do not think so highly of ourselves any more.

We are ready to fall down on our knees and plead with the Lord and say, Lord, I see I am in a terrible condition.  Have you ever realized how bad a sinner you really are?  That is what will happen as you receive more and more of the Holy Spirit, you will begin to see your true condition.  And the reason these people, who meet with a bitter surprise at the end, are not ready and they are not getting ready is because they think their condition is a lot better than it is.  And the reason for that is that they have not received the Holy Spirit. 

Are you willing to receive the Holy Spirit?  Remember, friends, when you receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is going to point out the sin in your life.  That is the first thing that the He does.  But the world today does not want a Holy Spirit like that.  So the devil is going to give them a counterfeit.

Have you ever noticed that the charismatic movement has not led to deep repentance and soul searching and a seeking to put away all sin from the life?  That is one of the biggest signs there is, that the charismatic movement is being moved by the wrong spirit, because when the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit always reproves of sin, first thing.  We need to be praying day by day, Lord, please, give me the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit will convict you of sin.

You will not be thinking that your condition is better than it is any more.  I appeal to you,  friends, please, if you value your soul and you do not want to meet with a bitter disappointment, a bitter surprise at the end, pray day by day.

Say, Lord, whatever happens, please do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Please, I want to receive Your Holy Spirit.  I want to be instructed.  I want to be reproved.  I want to be convicted.  I do not want to think that I am better off than I am.  I want to see my real condition so that I can have true repentance and turn away from everything that is not pleasing in Your sight. 

Are you serious?  See, friends, we have to be serious about being saved, if we are going to be saved. 

7.  Because many people think that their condition is better than it is, because they have not received the Holy Spirit, they are going to have a bitter surprise.  They will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues and then realize that they are not ready.  Oh, friend, before you go to bed tonight will you not really plead with the Lord and say, Lord, I do not want to go to the time of the plagues and then realize that I am not ready, because then it will be too late. 

Do you think it would be appropriate for you and me to go to the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, I do not want this bitter disappointment, this bitter surprise to happen to me.  Lord, please!  I am surrendering my life to You.  I want to follow You.  I want to do Your will.  Please, cause Your Holy Spirit to work on my mind and heart and whatever I need to understand or know, please point it out to me.  Do not let me just go on thinking my condition is much better than it is, because I have never heard the still small voice.

8.  Because these people think their condition is far better than it is, they are not experiencing victory in their lives.  You see, when the Holy Spirit comes, it not only convicts you of sin, but the Holy Spirit also gives you power to overcome sin.  You can study that out in your own Bible in Romans 8.  It is very, very clear.  That is one of the main functions of the Holy Spirit, to give you the power to overcome sin.

But these people that think their condition is far better than it is, they are not experiencing victory in their lives.  Let me read this part of the statement again.  In order to receive the refreshing, the latter rain, “I saw that none could share the ‘refreshing’ unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and every wrong word and action.” 

Now that is exactly, by the way, what the Bible teaches.  We already read it in II Peter 3:14.  When Jesus comes, we are to be found by Him without spot and blameless.  Are you without spot and blameless if your words are not right?  No.  Are you without spot and blameless if you have pride in your heart?  The Bible says, in Malachi 4, that everybody who is proud is going to burn up.  You are not without spot and blameless if you have pride in your heart.

Are you without spot and blameless if you have the love of the world in your heart?  No, because the Bible says you are to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.  Are you without spot and blameless if your heart is full of selfishness?  Oh, friend, the people who are serious, the people who are following the instructions in the Bible, are praying for victory, and God is giving them victory.

This victory must happen before we can receive the latter rain, and we must receive the latter rain if we are going to be sealed by the Lord and be ready to meet Him.  Point number eight is so important, I hope you will pray about it.  Are you experiencing victory or not?  The New Testament religion, New Testament Christianity is a religion where people experience victory over sin in their lives.  That is New Testament Christianity.

Read John 8; Romans 8; Romans 6; I Corinthians 1; and 1 John 3.  It is all through the New Testament.  That is New Testament Christianity, and we are living in a time when many people have accepted the gospel according to antichrist.  The angel said to Joseph concerning Mary, “She will bring forth a son and you will call His name Jesus.”  Matthew 5:21.  I love that name, do you not?

That word, Jesus, means a deliverer, a Saviour, because, the angel said, “He will save His people from their sins.”  Ibid.  But the gospel, according to antichrist, is that He will save you in your sins, and there is no text like that in the Bible.  The Bible never says that He will save you in your sins.  It says He will save you from your sins.  Oh, friend, are you having victory in your life?

Somebody is probably saying, Oh, Pastor John, now I am discouraged.  I am not having victory in my life.  If there is somebody here like that, let me tell you something.  I know how that feels.  The devil hammers at us, trying to knock us down and then when he is successful at knocking us down, he says to us, See, you cannot do it.  Christianity does not work.

And what you and I need to do is to go to the Lord and say, Lord, here I am.  I have been knocked down again.  The devil sent me a temptation and I did not make it!  But Lord You promised me that You were going to save me from my sins and, Lord, I am putting my trust in that promise and I pray that You will make it come to pass in my life and that you will deliver me.  Oh, Lord, I feel just like a person who is on a toboggan run.  And I cannot keep from going to the bottom unless You work a miracle in my life.  Lord, please save me!

And, friend, if there is somebody like this here in this room, and you feel like you are on a toboggan run, if you will cry out to the Lord to save you, He will save you!  You cannot perish while you are calling upon the Lord to save you and putting your trust in Him.  If you are the weakest, the most sinful, the most discouraged and you have been knocked down a thousand times, God still wants to save you.  And He can save you, but you need to call and ask for help.

You need to keep calling and asking for help.  And when you see God working miracles in your life, then you will be able to help some other discouraged soul, who has been having nothing but disappointment and failure, find out that there is deliverance in Jesus Christ.  The gospel really does work, even today.  Oh, friend, are you having victory in your life?  You must have it.  I must have it and the Lord can give it to us if we call on His name and ask Him.  Finally, Point number nine.

9.  Are you holy?  This is something that we need to talk to the Lord about, too.  The question is simply this.  Notice the statement we read, God is holy, none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.  Now we are not talking about holy flesh.  By the way, we will get holy flesh when Jesus comes.  We are going to have holy flesh some day, but not now.

Right now the regeneration has not yet occurred.  And since the fall of Adam, we have what the Bible describes as a fleshly nature, or a sinful or fallen nature.  Paul talks about this a great deal in the book of Romans, and also in Galatians.  Even though we have this fallen nature with which we must contend and get the victory over, that is why the Bible says you have to crucify the flesh—that is the fallen nature.  It has to be put to death.

But we can still develop a holy character.  This is our last text.  I Peter 1:14–16.  He is actually quoting from the Old Testament: “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”

Oh, friend, are you holy?  Point number nine is the question, Are you holy?  Do you have a holy character?  Is your character in harmony with God’s law?  Oh, friend, if you follow this inspired Bible counsel that we have been reading, then when Jesus comes, it is not going to be a bitter disappointment, a bitter surprise for you.  It is going to be the most exciting thing you have ever experienced.

And you must have this experience.  You must be saved.  You cannot afford to have come this far and lose out.  And you do not have to lose out; you can be saved.  You do not have to have a bitter disappointment when Jesus comes.  All you have to do is when you read the Book, say Lord, by Your grace, I am going to follow directions.  The Lord will give you the Holy Spirit and He will give you the power to overcome.  He will give you victory in your life.  Your soul will be purified by obeying the truth.  Your life will be hewed by the prophets.  You will not be crying Peace and safety when everybody around is going to destruction.  And when Jesus comes, you will find out that He has saved you fully. 

Do you want that experience?  If you do, before we go, let us pray for it.