This Sunday morning we began a board meeting. We have a board meeting twice every year here at Steps to Life and certain individuals thought that it would be well for me to repeat some remarks that I made at the beginning of our board meeting. I must find a way to cut them short because I think I talked for over two hours. So I will try to cut things short, but still follow the line of thinking along the things that we were studying this Sunday morning in our board meeting.

I would like to invite you to open your Bible to the book of Ephesians, chapter 6 beginning with verse 10 and reading onward. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. . ." (or it could be translated against the world ruler of darkness) "against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you; whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that he may comfort your hearts. Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." (That's without hypocrisy) "Amen."

Let's notice a number of points in this Scripture. We cannot notice all the points, there is far too much in this Scripture to study in detail in the little time we have together, but let's notice several points.

First of all, most basic of all, it is crystal clear in this Scripture that we are all engaged in a spiritual war. Do you see that here? We are engaged in a spiritual war and human nature does not like battle or war. We want peace. God has put within us that we will want peace. Everyone in the human race would like to have peace, but you cannot be a Christian without being involved in a war. There is a war going on and you could say you don't want to be involved in a war and you can choose not to be involved if you want to. Ellen White told us one time, she said, "If we will consent to lay down our arms, to lower the bloodstained banner, to become the captives and servants of Satan, we may be released from the conflict and the suffering. But this peace will be gained only at the loss of Christ and heaven." Review and Herald, May 8, 1888

There is a war going on and the only way you can avoid the war is if you want to forfeit heaven and eternal life. If you want eternal life, if you want heaven, you have to be willing to be in this war. You see if you lay your weapons down, if one side lays their weapons down and the other side does not, who is going to win? See what is going to happen to you if you lay your weapons down? Who is going to conquer you? The devil is going to conquer you. So you cannot avoid this war if you want heaven and eternal life.

This war has been going on for six thousand years and at times there have been intense battles, such as at the time of Christ. The devil made the Saviour's life in this world one long scene of bitter, severe conflict. At the present time, I believe we are entering the last conflict. Ellen White refers to this in the book The Great Controversy. If you have read the introduction to The Great Controversy, she talks about the last conflict, the conflict at the close and she says that it is the most momentous struggle of the ages. If you haven't read the introduction to The Great Controversy recently, I will invite you to read it. It is very inspiring.

We have also been told by the Spirit of Prophecy that in this final war that it is going to look like, for a while, that the devil is winning. She says distinctly that it will look like, for a while, that the devil is going to win. By the way, it has looked like that sometimes in the past, so that is not something that is new. But it is going to look like the devil is going to win. This battle is not just something that is "out there." This battle is something that is in here. It is in the human heart, it is in the family, it is in the school, it is in the church, it is in every institution, it is in every ministry, it is in every group of workers trying to do God's work; a battle is going on. It is going on right here.

Ellen White said that in her day, she said this after 1888, the devil had stolen a march on us. Do you know what it means to steal a march on the enemy? You sneak and get yourself in a more advantageous position, secretly, you didn't even have to fight for it. The devil has stolen a march on us. My brother used to say that if he had stolen a march on us then, how many has he stolen on us since then? How many marches has he stolen on us, friends? Now if you have children, do not let them see the video Ichabod, do not let them see it. In fact, you better pray yourself before you let yourself see it. It is that evil. This did not start yesterday, the devil has stolen marches on us. It started a long time ago and this battle goes on and on.

I was not planning to bring this up at this point, but maybe this is an appropriate time. Not everybody here, but some of you here, probably ought to read this book. You will have to decide whether you think the Lord wants you to read this book, but I meet people all the time that are absolutely naive about organized religion and about the Seventh-day Adventist church even and structure. And it is time, friends, that you get your eyes open to reality because if you do not, you could lose your soul. Now this book was written quite a while ago, the author is Merikay McLeod. Ever heard of her? Her name was Merikay Silver. Now these items in this book, the main story of this book started 20 years ago, so this is not something new. Let me read to you just a little bit of her testimony. Now, I am reading this as her testimony and it is not just her testimony because this happened in court, people swore on the Bible that they were going to tell the truth. These people that swore on the Bible that they were going to tell the truth were the highest people in the Seventh-day Adventist structure. This happened clear back in the 1970's.

See what you think of this. On page 292, 293, "So Dungan,(that's the attorney for the General Conference) grinds to a stop and says, 'The Pacific Press Association is owned and operated by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists which is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. . .' " Are you listening? It says, "A gasp goes up from many of the people in the courtroom. Glenn leans over and whispers, 'The GC is not the church.' Kim agrees. I see shock on many faces in the courtroom. But Neal Wilson is nodding." Ibid., 299 "Dungan(that is the attorney for the General Conference) has been asserting that our church structure is hierarchal. Consequently, someone like Neal Wilson or the General Conference Committee would have the power and authority to order Lorna and me fired or disfellowshipped." Ibid. Is that going to happen? It is just about to happen. If they get their way, it will happen later on this year at the fall counsel. They are planning to arrange things, we already have the information. They are planning to arrange things so that what they wanted to do in the 1970's and could not do, they will be able to do. Somebody in the General Conference will be able to jerk your membership out of any local church or disfellowship a whole local church. We have the information, it has been published.

"The judge professes not to understand our church structure and so Joan,(that is the attorney for the lady writing this book)is attempting to show that it is not a hierarchy. She calls Floyd O. Rittenhouse, a retired Adventist college president, to discuss the structure of the church." Ibid. Imagine this, we are arguing over this in a court and then people will come and say, "Oh, I don't think the issue of the church is real important." Let me tell you, it is important enough that the General Conference went and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to argue this in the court. That is how important it is.

"Dungan(that is the attorney for the General Conference) asks Neal to describe the organizational structure of our church and the relationship between the General Conference Committee and the Press. 'The General Conference committee is the highest authority in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.' he says." By the way, what do you think about that? This is on page 305. "He drags out the "s" sounds at the ends of his words. . ." It sounds like he is preaching rather than testifying. Well, let's go to the end, page 317. Now I want to state that what I am reading here is her testimony, you can decide whether you want to believe it or not and if you want to see whether her testimony is credible or not, you can read the first 300 pages and see whether you think this is a credible witness or not. And you can see what the court decided and see if you think she was a credible witness or not. Here is what she says, "I feel destroyed. There is no truth or integrity in this room full of church men. They're all hoping that the court will allow them to fire us and treat the other women workers any way they please." Now she is being interrogated by an attorney whose name is John. "In answer to John's questions I say, 'Bohner. . .(that was the head of the Pacific Press) had said [to the investigator], "I'll see you in court.". . . If they wouldn't even tell the truth to the government inspector and then they are saying to me "Be patient, . . . we love you, be patient." and they won't even tell the truth,' my voice breaks. In my head the words are roaring, 'And they're still not telling the truth. Even now, even in court they lie. They'll never tell the truth. Never.' I start to sob and finish my answer saying, 'If they won't even tell the truth, I felt, you know, where can I put my trust and my hope?' "

Well, she goes on to say on the last page, page 320, "I weep, (She's in the restroom now) I weep for the end of an era--the era when I loved and believed in 'the organization and the men leading it,' when I longed with every fiber of my being to labor in 'the work,' for that special feeling of being 'part of the family of God.' I cry until I am exhausted. Until I vomit. Until there are no more tears. And then, feeling totally spent, depleted, wasted, I go back to the courtroom. By then the session is over. . . I can't tell her (that's her friend) that I was also filled with shame--(her friend is telling her that the courtroom was filled with shame when she broke down and said that these people would not tell the truth) I can't tell her I was also filled with shame--and despair, That more than just my heart had broken this week. That Merikay Silver, as she had always been, full of hope and Adventism, is no more." Ibid. And of course, if you read the book, you will find out that in the process of all those goings-on, her life, every part of her life, was destroyed. And it would be most appropriate for anyone who was a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 1970's to ask what responsibility they had in all of that.

Now notice in our text in Ephesians 6:12, so that you don't become confused by what we are talking about, it makes it very clear in Ephesians 6:12 that the battle is not with people. That is very important to understand. The battle, this battle, is not with people. Now it looked like it was with people, but that is not really who the battle is with. Who is the battle with? It is with these spiritual powers and you see, there are higher powers than human beings in the universe. There are two higher powers that are contending for the control of mens' minds and every single human mind is under the control of one of the two of these higher powers.

So, when we look at our enemies, and people say, "Oh, Steps to Life is against this ministry or this ministry is against you." No, that is not the way it is at all. There is a battle going on between God and the devil; between higher powers and that is where the real battle is. See the Bible pulls all this barrage, what you can see with your physical eyesight, aside and shows you where the real battle is. It is not with the people, it is not with these people here in this courtroom.

Some people have felt convicted to get up and preach in the pulpit from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy a very plain and straight message. And when that happens others begin to accuse not just the message, but also the messenger and they accuse that person of criticism. Have you ever heard of that? Elijah was called a "troubler of Israel". They told Paul he was desecrating the temple.

I mentioned to our board Sunday morning, how that a few years ago, I was amused when the report came to me, because I was not the director of Steps to Life then, I was amused when the report came to me and it was circulated all over the country that they liked John Grosboll's preaching, but they did not like Marshall Grosboll's preaching because he's too critical. Well why is that? It is because that as the director of Steps to Life, all kinds of attacks and charges were being made that he had to answer and when he told the truth about the situations it has always been an amazement to me how often you will be accused of being critical after you have told the truth. It has always been an amazement to me.

If you have the book The Alpha and Omega of Apostasy, look in that book, it is by Julius Gilbert White. It was written as far as I can determine in the 1920's. If you were here a few years ago, I used that book and preached about it right over here in a tent in the back of Marshall's property in 1988, at our first Steps to Life campmeeting. We called them Bible Conferences then. I preached about this very subject for about 80 minutes and showed from the life of Elijah and from the life of Martin Luther that you can never, ever have revival and reformation among God's people until the error is exposed. You can never have it. You just study sacred history. You can never have revival and reformation until the error is exposed. And as a protestant Christian, if we know that something is wrong, can we keep silent and have a clear conscience? Well I can't do it anymore. And in that book The Alpha and Omega of Apostasy, Julius Gilbert White shows that anybody who rebukes evil and error will be accused of criticism. You see the devil turns it around.

Now criticism, malicious criticism, is evil, isn't it? Should I criticize you and try to destroy you by criticism? That happens all the time, doesn't it? That is evil. But let me tell you something, if I had something bad in my character and nobody, from heaven or earth tells me about it, what is going to happen to me? I am going to lose my soul. If I have sin inside and I do not realize it and nobody in heaven or earth tells me about it, I am going to lose my soul. But if there is somebody in heaven or earth that does love me, it is going to be revealed to me some way that there is something wrong. And friend, the person that reveals to me that I have a problem is the best friend I have. Really! Most people don't think so, because it does not feel good, does it? It does not feel good when somebody points something out and I realize that I have a problem inside in my heart, in my spiritual life. So it doesn't feel good and it is very easy to rise up and say "How dare they talk like that!" But really, the truth is, the person who does that is the best friend I have. The best friend I have. Because if that problem doesn't come out, I am lost. I am lost.

Oh, I wish some way, we could all understand how dangerous it is to turn our back on reproof and say, "Oh, that person is just critical." and then try to destroy the person that brought the reproof. "Oh," somebody says, "they didn't do it in the right spirit." I always think to myself, suppose you had gone down in a plane in the Pacific Ocean and you are out there holding onto your seat that you were sitting on or you have a life vest on and you are bobbing around out there and somebody comes in a boat and they have a buoy on a rope and they throw it at you and say, "Get this." and you say, "Sir, you don't have the right spirit." The point is, friends, if I am in a situation like that, if somebody doesn't get some help to me, I am lost.

H.M.S. Richards, Sr. talked about this one time. If you are out in the ocean and about to drown and somebody throws you a line with a life buoy on it, he says, "You probably won't be really concerned whether that life buoy was manufactured in Chicago or Detroit. You probably won't care." If it will save your life, get it! And don't worry, maybe the reason the person who threw it to you was yelling in such a loud voice is because he had some concern and agony of heart that some people would be lost. Maybe your interpretation of his motives are not quite right. Have you ever thought of that?

I have said to some people sometimes that there are some people, (I have tried to understand this because I want to understand people as well as I can. I don't understand very well sometimes but) there are some people that think that if you are Christ-like that you always talk in a sweet and low voice and you always have this pleasant smile on your face and that is just the way everything will always be. And that anybody that talks loud is unChrist-like and they must be doing something wrong. I have said to people sometimes, "Now listen, if somebody's house was on fire, what would you do? Would you go up and say 'Sir, your house is on fire.'" If we then spoke words in soft low voices they would not believe us. But the devil has laid a trap for us instead of concentrating on the message which could save us, we concentrate on the faults or supposed faults of the message. I am convinced it is a trick. The devil has tricked us. Every time somebody comes to us with some plain message I hear people all over the country saying, "But it wasn't Christ-like." Listen, the gospel will save you even if the person who gave it wasn't Christ-like. The gospel, if you will accept it, will save you. So why not take it?

Do you realize that if every time a message comes to me, a rebuke or reproof, and I reject it I am hardening my heart--I am in the process of committing the unpardonable sin? You know there are a hundred excuses--the person that gave it wasn't Christ-like, he wasn't tactful enough, his voice sounded harsh and raspy, it wasn't kind. By the way, have you noticed that when people tell somebody that their house is on fire, people do not worry about things like that. They just say let's get the fire out. But if we go on the way many people are going in Adventism today, do you realize that people that do that are in the process of committing the unpardonable sin? Are you aware of that? Do you remember that Jesus said in John, chapter 16, that when the Holy Spirit comes, what will He do? He will rebuke! And if I reject the rebuke, who am I really rejecting? "Oh," somebody says, "I'm rejecting that preacher that is so unChrist-like." Oh, no. If he or she, whoever it was, if they told the truth and you are rejecting that, even if that preacher was lost, if you accepted the truth, you could be saved.

Now there will be a lot of preachers lost. I could read it to you but we are not going to take the time, but I could show you in the Spirit of Prophecy that many Seventh-day Adventist preachers could be lost. And we cannot think that we have a non-refundable ticket to heaven, just because we are preachers. Many preachers will be lost.

But now listen, let me ask you this, suppose you are on the outside of the Holy City at the close of the millennium and you see one of these Adventist preachers that wasn't really Christ-like when he presented you the message and you say, "Oh, you are here, too." And you get to talking, "You know, I would have been on the inside, but when you presented the gospel to me, it seemed to be so unChrist-like, I didn't accept it." Is that going to make you feel better if you are both on the outside? Are you going to say, "Well, Lord, I really had a good excuse for not accepting the gospel because the preacher that preached it to me wasn't very Christ-like, so I didn't accept it?" Is that going to make you feel better? I don't think it would make me feel better. And once I understood this, I said, "Lord, any way You want to rebuke me, if it is through a woman, through a child, if it is through someone who is not educated, through a brand new Christian, anybody, anyway You choose to send a rebuke to me if I need it, give me the grace to accept whatever You are sending me. And if You just come to me by Your Holy Spirit when I'm reading an inspired message and rebuke (and that happens quite a bit) help me to accept it."

I want to read this to you so that you can see that the person who chooses to reject rebuke and reproof is committing the unpardonable sin. And this is a very, very sad statement in Desire of Ages and the thing that is the saddest about it is what I am going to read to you. It's not just something that happened 2,000 years ago, it did happen then, but it is just about to happen again in Adventism, I believe.

Desire of Ages, 587, "In every age there is given to man their day of light and privilege, a probationary time in which they may become reconciled to God. But there is a limit to this grace. Mercy may plead for years and be slighted and rejected; but there comes a time when mercy makes her last plea. The heart becomes so hardened that it ceases to respond to the Spirit of God. Then the sweet, winning voice entreats the sinner no longer, and reproofs and warnings cease."

By the way, that was one of the reasons, one of the main reasons, that was given in the Keene Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Keene, Texas for disfellowshipping me last year, they said, "You said we were in apostasy." In other words, I am giving a rebuke. I cannot deny that I am giving a rebuke, because I am. And I have had to say to the people that have accused me of giving a rebuke in my messages, I have had to reply, "Just wait a little while; just wait a little while and you won't be receiving any more rebukes." Is that what it says here? Just wait a little while, you won't be receiving anymore rebukes, ever, from anybody. It says, "The sweet, winning voice entreats the sinner no longer, and reproofs and warnings cease." Ibid. They stop. I believe we are very close to the time when that is going to happen in Adventism, just like it happened to the Jewish nation.

I would like to draw your attention to a third point from Ephesians 6. In a spiritual war, you cannot tell with your physical eyesight what has happened. In a physical war, you can tell with your physical eyesight, if you are watching carefully, something about what has happened. You may not know what is about to happen, but you can see what is happening if you are there, in a physical war. But in a spiritual war you cannot tell with your physical eyesight what is happening. For instance, in a physical war you cannot put one person against a whole army, but in a spiritual war, oftentimes God chooses to take just one person and set them there and put them against a whole host of evil. Seems unfair, doesn't it? But it is the way God chooses to do it.

Now let's look at this. Where was this written from? It was written from prison. By the way, one of the most awesome things about the book of Ephesians is that it is one of the most encouraging, one of the most exhilarating books in the whole Bible and it was written from prison. It is an astounding, amazing fact that just can cause you to meditate for quite a while; that one of the most exhilarating, encouraging and exciting books in the Bible was written from a dungeon. (by the way, if you know anyone who is depressed have them study the first chapter of Ephesians. If they will pay attention to what they are reading, it will just lift them right up.) This was written by a man who was in chains. So when this was written, there was a fearful war going on, just like he is talking about and he is where? He's in a Roman prison in chains. He was winning, but it didn't look like it. You see, in a spiritual war you cannot tell what is really happening by what it looks like. When Martin Luther stood up against the whole religious world of his time, was he winning? You better believe he was winning. One man turned the whole course of human history down in a different direction. But did it look like it right then? It certainly didn't. You just read the account. And I want to tell you, friends, it will be that way again at the end. It will be that way again at the end.

Paul was in chains before Nero and he was winning. And at the end, you may be in some solitary confinement somewhere. You may be in some concentration camp or you will be under a death decree and some of us could easily lose our lives, but the General that we are fighting for does not lose. He has never lost yet, and He isn't going to lose at the end either. Now it will look like it. By the way, if you have the book Sketches From the Life of Paul, you will see that Mrs. White makes it very clear in pages 250-255 when she talks about the experiences in the life of Paul that the children of God that are living at the end of time are going to go through experiences very similar to what Paul went through. Paul was in prison for a while; a lot longer time than he expected. Some of us might be in prison for a longer time than we expect, too.

By the way, you can read the story of the life of Paul in 2nd Timothy, when he had to go to his trial. He was in chains there against Nero; he says he had to stand alone. Nobody stood with him. The elders of the church were afraid to stand with him. Now that isn't too hard to understand if you understand what was going on. Because if you know about the life of Nero, you know that he was the kind of man. Nero would sit on his throne and look around; he had lots of slaves. Do you know what he would do for entertainment? He would look around, that one right there, and they would take that slave. Do you know what they would do with him? Throw him to the sharks. He had a pool with sharks in it. He threw slaves in that pool and watched the sharks gobble them up. That was part of his entertainment. Just arbitrary, look around, take that guy and throw him to the lions. He had absolute power and they did it. You can see why Christians were afraid to stand with the apostle Paul. In fact at that time, the apostle Paul says that because of the success of his trial, he escaped the mouth of the lion. So Paul was there all alone.

By the way, do you sometimes wish you were there so that there might have been at least one person to stand with him? But there wasn't even one. He was all alone. And you might be in a situation like that sometime. Everyone in your family, all of your friends, anybody from the church you attend, they are afraid to stand with you for fear of what might happen to them. Have you seen that happen?

Are you ready to stand alone? That is what happened in World War I. There were some German Seventh-day Adventists and they wouldn't violate their consciences by working on Sabbath. They were put in prison, in solitary confinement. Then do you know what they did? They went to them one by one and said that every other prisoner had decided to capitulate to the government, what would they do? Do you think that you are standing alone when someone does that to you?

From a human point you are, but from a divine point you are not, because Jesus said He would always stay with you. Do you know what those soldiers said? They each said, "If every other one gives in, I am going to be faithful and true to my conscience."

By the way, I want you to understand a principle here. It may seem that I am spending a long time on something simple, and you may say that you knew you would have to stand alone, but let me explain a principle. That time when Paul stood before Nero and he had the strength and the courage to stand all alone and oppose the mightiest empire the world had ever seen and a prisoner in chains opposed the whole thing, and the reason that he was able to do that was because he had already had some experience at standing alone. That was not the first time he had done it. I want to tell you something, friends, the people of God in the last days that stand all alone for their faith, the reason they will be able to stand all alone is because they have had some experience standing alone. You want to read about when Paul got some experience standing alone, do you know when it was? Read Acts of the Apostles, 199, 200.

Do you know who the apostle Paul had to stand alone against first? This is inconceivable. I have wondered in my mind over and over again, it must have taken tremendous fortitude to do this. Are you aware of the fact, you can read it in Sketches From the Life of Paul also, that the apostle Paul had to stand alone and oppose the twelve apostles of Jesus, who had been with Jesus during His ministry? Are you aware of that?

Just read Acts of the Apostles 199, 200. Read it from Sketches From the Life of Paul. He had to stand all alone. He was the one who understood what had happened to the ceremonial law, that it was done away with and you didn't have anything to do with all of that anymore. James did not understand it, I can tell you that, and neither did Peter. In fact, as far as we can tell, not a single other one of the twelve apostles clearly understood that issue. Just read it for yourself in your own Spirit of Prophecy books.

Elder Larson said at our campmeeting this last summer that if you want to go to the Bible and find out the difference between the moral law and the ceremonial law, you have to go to the writings of the apostle Paul. Nobody else even talked about it. That is true. We would be absolutely stuck, by the way, without what he wrote about. And so he had to stand alone, year after year after year.

Do you suppose that ever got lonely? He had to do it. Now that does not mean he was doing it to be stubborn, he was just standing on what God said. So it is important for you and me, as we are going through life day by day to learn to stand on moral principles. Don't worry about trying to stand alone, just say, "Lord, I'm going to stand on Your word." And guess what, God will take care of it. You will find that you will have plenty of opportunities to stand all by yourself. Just try it and see. Just try it and see!

I had a member on our board the other day ask me, "Are you telling people to separate from the Seventh-day Adventist Church?" I said, "What we're telling people and what we have always told people is to just stand for all the truth you know. Then just see what happens. You won't need to worry about having to stand alone, just stand for all the truth you know and see what happens. You'll get all the experience you need."

I am too long-winded. I want to cover just one more principle that relates to this concept that we are studying, so that we can explore and understand this concept of standing alone and what it means and then we will quit. If the Lord wills for me to finish this topic, we will have to do it later. I have gotten even more long-winded than I did in our board meeting, I'm sorry. We have published in the Land Marks magazine and it is a fact, a truth of the Scriptures, that salvation is not something that happens like that [he snapped his fingers].

Salvation is a process that takes place over a period of time. Just for example, the parable of the wheat and the tares, do you get wheat or tares like that, (he snapped his fingers again) or does it take a while? It takes a while. The parable of the talents, do you just go and double your money like that, or does it take some time and some work? You can go right through the parables of Jesus and this principle is found throughout the parables. And everyone of us, day by day, heaven is not some place that you just live like the devil and then the last instance of your life you just flip around and everything is changed, that is not the way it happens. You are either preparing every day for heaven or you are preparing every day for some place else.

Something is going on in our character development day by day. And listen, friends, you are not going to just go with the crowd and compromise and be political and go down that road and then all of a sudden, when the national Sunday law comes, all of sudden, kaboom, you just flip around and jump over here and do what is right and go through to the end. Oh no, friends, that is not going to happen. It has never happened yet, and it is not going to happen this time either. It is time for Seventh-day Adventists to understand that principle.

I am going to be very specific, friends, it is not so enjoyable when you get really specific. But we are preparing day by day to either keep the Commandments or break the Commandments in the end.

The Seventh-day Adventist structure is preparing to keep Sunday. They have been preparing for decades. Listen, you do not prepare year after year to keep Sunday and then all of a sudden flip and do the right thing at the end. That does not happen.

In our News Notes we quoted from the Ellen White statement that said we are on the track of Romanism and that was a hundred years ago. People did not like that, but we were just quoting Ellen White. They did not realize that when they got upset, they were just upset with what Ellen White said. You don't just flip around when you have been going down a road for so long.

What has been happening in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine? What has been happening there for a decade, friends? We have more documentation coming in on this all the time. What has been happening is that our men in the highest places have been political and our people (we have testimonies from the people themselves) have been told and encouraged, and this is what they are practicing. The average person who calls himself an Adventist in the Ukraine is sending his children to school on Sabbath and has been doing it for years and years.

Now I want to tell you something, friend, if you yield to that kind of political pressure and year after year after year you send your children to school on Sabbath and you have to go to the military and for that little bit of time you are in the military, you go and bear arms on Sabbath; you yield to the pressure. You are not going to do that, just follow that program year after year and then right at the end of the world, BOOM, you are just going to turn around and get on the right road. No, it is not going to happen.

The reason Paul was able to stand alone in the end was because he had been standing alone for what he understood was the truth all along.

This business that has been going on in Russia and Eastern Europe regarding sending children to school on Sabbath has been going on, friends, for decades and has been covered up. But God is unraveling it and it is getting uncovered and is coming to light for a reason.

People have to understand, they have to realize what road they are going down and I want to tell you, pretty soon it will be too late to turn around. Don't think that you can keep going down that political road and yielding to whatever pressure there is in your life. "Oh," somebody says, "I cannot keep the Sabbath yet because if I do I'll lose my job." Well, friend, if you cannot keep the Sabbath because you will lose your job, what are you going to do if you are going to lose your life to keep the Sabbath? What are you going to do then? I cannot keep the Sabbath right now because if I do it will wreck my marriage. If you cannot keep the Sabbath now, what are you going to do when someone sticks a gun in your face and tells you that if you keep the Sabbath they will kill you?

You see, we are all going down a path day by day, the decisions we are making, the lives we are living, the thoughts we are thinking, the words we are speaking, our actions are developing within us a character and you do not go down the path this way and develop your character this direction and then all of a sudden when you come to the crisis of your life, slip around and all of a sudden you are going way down the other path. That just does not happen, friend. We want to be as loving and kind as we can, but we intend to tell the truth because our souls, your soul and my soul, depend on it.

The last few days in my personal devotions I have been studying from the first part of 1 Corinthians. If you have your Bible, go ahead and open it to the first part of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 3:1 says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able."

Are you able to get beyond the milk stage to realize the real issues? There are people going around making wild statements such as Steps to Life is against Hope International or Steps to Life is against Hartland or something like that. Friends, that is fleshly, that is a carnal approach to the situation. Can we ever get above that? We are not against people, that is not the point at all.

Are you ready for the truth? We are against positions, and positions have been taken at Hope International and Hartland Institute that we are opposed to. We are not against the people. We have got to get away from this carnal, fleshly way of looking at everything and see the real issues, the spiritual issue that is at stake.

People say, "We are against you." That is not where it is at. It is not with flesh and blood. That is not where it is at all. By the way, no one institution or no one person is indispensable to God's work. Don't anyone ever get to thinking they are real important, none of us are. But if we believe the truth and people resist the truth and they write to us letters as though they are resisting us, friends, we are not even important--we do not count. But if you are resisting the truth, you are resisting the Holy Spirit, that is what counts. That is what you need to ask yourself.

We may have all kinds of character defects so that our presentation of the truth is not the way it should be and I am sorry that we are so imperfect, but, friends, the point is let's get away from this fleshly business. This institution is against that institution; this person is against that person, that is not where it is at. Where is the truth? If you resist the truth you are resisting the Holy Spirit.

There is a war going on. Where are you going to be? Where are you going to be when the war is over? Will you be one of those persons who because you have been following down a path developing a character all along, when the crisis comes you can just keep right on going the same. If you have been political, if you have been knuckling under to pressure and you have not been following all that you know is true, when the pressure comes, you are going to knuckle all the way under. You are not going to flip around. It is the course of your daily life, day by day, that determines what your destiny is going to be when you come up to life's great crisis.

We are in a war. The battle is not with other people. And you are not going to follow down one road all your life and when the great crisis comes just flip over and be clear over on the other side. It is not going to happen. You are going to stay right on the road you are going on.

What road are you on right now? Are you standing, even alone if necessary, for all the truth that you know? If you are not, friends, you are not getting ready to win. You are getting ready, preparing day by day, to lose. Have you ever tried to look at your life and your character development? Now we cannot be like God, but have you ever tried to look at your life and character the way that God looks at it? And when He looks down at your life and character development and He looks at the road you are traveling down, are you getting into a position so that God can say to the devil that he can test that person any way you want, but they will be faithful to Me? That is what God said to the devil about Job. "I'm not going to let you take his life, but you can try him any way you want but he will be true to Me." And that is what the Lord is going to be able to say about the 144,000. He'll be able to say to the devil, "I'm not going to let you kill them, but you can do anything else that you want to, but they will still be faithful to Me." Are you ready for it? You are getting ready for it or not getting ready for it, day by day.