And this persecution is going to be severe, and if we have not prepared for it ahead of time, we will be overcome, we will cave in to the demands of the beast and his image and lose our souls. Before human probation closes there will be those that will have to make the supreme sacrifice in order to remain faithful, but God will see us through just as He did to others all through the ages.

Selected Messages, book 3, page 397, “The two armies (this is in the context of Sabbath and Sunday keepers) will stand distinct and separate, and this distinction will be so marked that many who shall be convinced of the truth will come on the side of God’s commandment-keeping people. When this grand work is to take place in the battle, prior to the last closing conflict, many will be imprisoned, many will flee for their lives from cities and towns, and many will be martyrs for Christ’s sake in standing in defense of the truth. (But here’s the good part) You will not be tempted above what you are able to bear. Jesus bore all this and far more.”

So, in light of this unprecedented event next month, I think it would be a good idea for us to review what inspiration says will be the order of events regarding the coming Sunday Law and how we should react to these events as they unfold.

After all, didn’t Christ warn His disciples what was going to happen to them and how they were to meet it? Absolutely! Jesus knew what their sufferings would be, what trials and hardships they were going to have to go through, and He didn’t hide it from them, lest trouble, coming unexpectedly, should shake their faith. “I have told you before it come to pass,” He said to them, “that, when it is comes to pass, you might believe.” You see, their faith was to be strengthened, rather than weakened by the coming of trials, and they would say to one another, “He told us that this would come, and what we must do to meet it.”

And so, God has warned us of the coming Sunday law crisis that we might be strengthened by the trials we will have to meet. And by the way, this will not be unlike what happened in the late 1880s and early 1890s when a Sunday law was being urged. Back then it was temporarily defeated, but the next and last time it will come to pass, and many of us who are alive today are going to see it happen, I believe.

The Sabbath/Sunday issue is the great testing truth for these last days, and it’s going to divide all the people in the world into two classes, those who obey God and keep His commandments unto eternal life, and those who reject His commandments unto eternal damnation, and it will be each individual’s attitude toward the fourth commandment in particular that will determine each ones eternal destiny.

“Oh, but Pastor Jones, all we need is Jesus in the heart to be saved; to have a relationship with Him is what really counts”, and I would agree with that. However, if one truly has Jesus in the heart and has that close relationship with Him that’s necessary to have eternal life, the fruit of their life is what will determine if that heart relationship is real or spurious.

People can say they’re Christians and that they have a saving relationship with Jesus, but the way they live will either confirm or deny it. There’s a big difference between a professed Christian and a true Christian; a professed church and the true church. Jesus said “you shall know them by their fruits”, and He also said to His disciples “if you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Do you love Him friend? If so you will willingly be a commandment keeper. So if we are producing the works of the flesh and violating even one of the commandments knowingly, then it’s only lip service, and if it’s only lip service, we are in an unsaved condition and we had better get it figured out before it’s too late.

Romans 8:13 says, “If, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body are put to death, you shall live.” That means that if you don’t you shall die, and this is not the death that all men die, but eternal death. And so, we must produce the fruit of the Spirit rather than the works of the flesh, and the Spirit never does anything contrary to the word which He inspired, plain and simple! If you think you can be saved and filled with the Spirit while living contrary to the word that the Spirit inspired holy men of old to write, you’re sadly mistaken, and many people who believe this are going to be disappointed when they wake up in the wrong resurrection, don’t let it be you.

No doubt you’ve heard about climate change and global warming and how this is being pushed by President Obama’s administration and most recently the papacy. Have you ever wondered why, and what’s behind all this talk? Well dear friends, let me tell you something: News Flash; this is all a smoke screen and a tool to bring Sunday sacredness to the front. This is all a sham and something to be used to accomplish the goals of the beast, and to be put in place by his image, and Satan is the one behind it all. So let’s put the blame right where it belongs.

Just like the theory of evolution, there is no sound evidence that there’s any such thing as “Man made global warming.” Those so-called climate change experts have been caught in all kinds of lies and have distorted data to make it look like their claims are true, but in reality it’s the devil who’s behind the changes we see happening in the weather, not man, and no attempts by man to reduce his carbon footprint are going to reverse what we see happening today. Now that does not mean that man has no responsibility to protect the environment, but his best efforts to do so will not change things significantly, because Satan has a plan for this earth and its inhabitants that will not be turned aside, and God allows it because the majority have forsaken His law.

Notice what it says in The Great Controversy, pages 589-591, “Satan works through the elements to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. . . While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations (that is large fires like we see happening all over the place today), in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan (not man) is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. . . And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. . . As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah.”

Do you remember how Ahab accused Elijah of being the troubler of Israel, and how Elijah put the blame exactly where it belonged when he told Ahab, “I have not troubled Israel; but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed Baalim.”

And friends, isn’t that the way it is in these last days? The same thing! Professed Christians have forsaken the commandments of the Lord; because remember, if you break one you’re guilty of all, and they have gone to following Baalim, the Sun God, by worshipping on his day instead of the Lord’s day.

And if you want to know which day is the Lord’s day, read Matthew 12; Mark 2; and Luke 6; you’ll find it there. By the way, when John the revelator said he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, he wasn’t referring to Sunday. The Lord did not change His special day of worship, man did, and man will have to answer for it someday soon.

The quote from The Great Controversy goes on, and notice what other agency is involved in the Sunday deception, “The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism (through what? through spiritualism) will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. (And no doubt they’ll quote Romans 13 as their authority for this, and so you better study that so you’ll know how to give an answer to anyone that should come with that argument) They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.”

Is it any wonder that Satan will use spiritualism to help promote his counterfeit day since nearly all Christians believe that when you die you don’t really die but exist in some other form or dimension? And if that were true, then why couldn’t the dead communicate with the living? And what about all the TV programs and movies that deal with the supernatural? You see, these things are all in place for the purpose of deceiving Christians and non-Christians alike to reverence a day of the devil’s choosing, and he will thereby receive the worship of those that should be worshiping the Creator and the day He blessed and sanctified on the seventh day of creation week.

What do you think most people are going to do when their dead loved one appears to them and tells them that God would have them reverence the first day of the week, not knowing that their dead loved one is still dead and it’s really the demons impersonating them? And what do you think they’ll do when Satan himself impersonates Christ and seconds the motion? They will do exactly as they’re told unless they know the Bible truth about these things.

So, here we have the three fold union of Catholicism, apostate Protestantism, and spiritualism that are at work in these last days to make the Law of God of none effect, and what’s happening in the environment will be key to their argument.

So now that we have the bigger picture of how the Sunday law crisis is to develop and the ones involved in bringing it about, let’s take a closer look at some of the details.

In the book Maranatha, page 179, we are given the following information. “A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land [the United States]. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God’s people will be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land.”

I want you to notice that this has not yet happened, and until it does, the law of God has not yet been made void in America. Now, the next few statements I’ll be reading are in the context of when the law of God is made void; and so, we want to be careful not to apply these statement to the present time, and there are some good reasons for this as we’ll see in a minute.

Maranatha, page 177, “The time will come when men will not only forbid Sunday work, but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath, and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives. But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness.”

OK, from this statement we understand that laws will be enforced forbidding work on Sunday first, and then when that doesn’t convince Sabbath keepers to go along with the devil’s program, force will be used to try to make them work during the sacred hours of the Sabbath, and if they don’t, death is the end result. The other thing we see here is that we have a work to do to present the truth so people have the opportunity to make an intelligent decision about these issues, and until that work is done, the last movements will not come about. So we must be waiting, watching, working, praying, warning the world, and hastening the day of the Lord. When this is done, then we’ll see things begin to happen.

Continuing with Maranatha, page 177, “Refraining from work on Sunday is not receiving the mark of the beast; and where this will advance the interests of the work, it should be done. (What should be done? Stop doing your regular work on Sunday! Going along with the law to not work on Sunday is not going to give you the mark of the beast) We should not go out of our way to work on Sunday. On Sunday there is the very best opportunity for those who are missionaries to hold Sunday schools, and come to the people in the simplest manner possible, telling them of the love of Jesus for sinners, and educating them in the Scriptures.”

And so you see, we will be working on Sunday, but it will be working for souls as missionaries and not our every day secular work.

Now I want you to notice something here. It is perfectly alright to have some kind of religious service on Sunday when we get to the point when we are forbidden to work on Sunday, but to do it before that time, as many Seventh-day Adventist churches are now doing, is not alright, because it’s playing into the hands of the beast and his image. Sunday meetings at this time are fine if they’re in the course of an evangelistic series, but to hold regular services on both Sunday and Sabbath before the time when work is forbidden on Sunday, will and is causing confusion about which day is sacred, and as I mentioned a couple months ago, this is how Sunday sacredness gained a foothold to begin with.

Maranatha, page 178, “To defy the Sunday laws will but strengthen in their persecution the religious zealots who are seeking to enforce them. Give them no occasion to call you lawbreakers. If they are left to rein up men who fear neither God nor man, the reining up will soon lose its novelty for them, and they will see that it is not consistent nor convenient for them to be strict in regard to the observance of Sunday. Keep right on with your missionary work, with your Bibles in your hands, and the enemy will see that he has worsted his own cause. One does not receive the mark of the beast because he shows that he realizes the wisdom of keeping the peace by refraining from work that gives offense, doing at the same time a work of the highest importance. When we devote Sunday to missionary work, the whip will be taken out of the hands of the arbitrary zealots. . .”

And this is exactly the reason lawmakers will decide to not only make a law to refrain from work on Sunday, but will also try to force Sabbath keepers to work on the Sabbath. You see, if they can’t get you one way, they will try another. And finally when every inducement fails to bring people into compliance with a man-made law that causes people to violate God’s law, a death decree will follow. When every effort has failed to cause God’s people to violate their Bible educated conscience, they will come to the conclusion that killing us will be the only way to get rid of our influence and to regain the blessing of God upon a country that is being devastated by terrible judgments. That will be the thinking of the leading men of this nation, and some, before human probation closes will be martyred for their faith.

Maranatha 178 continues, “Sunday can be used for carrying forward various lines of work that will accomplish much for the Lord. On this day open-air meetings and cottage meetings can be held. House-to-house work can be done. Those who write can devote this day to writing their articles. Whenever it is possible, let religious services be held on Sunday. Make these meetings intensely interesting. Sing genuine revival hymns, and speak with power and assurance of the Saviour’s love. Speak on temperance and on true religious experience. You will thus learn much about how to work, and will reach many souls. The law for the observance of the first day of the week is the production of an apostate Christendom. Sunday is a child of the Papacy, exalted by the Christian world above the sacred day of God’s rest. In no case are God’s people to pay it homage. But I wish them to understand that they are not doing God’s will by braving opposition when He wishes them to avoid it.”

And so, what we get out of these statements is that we should not antagonize Sunday keepers by being in their face by purposely doing secular work, but do the kind of work that will enlighten people about the truths of God’s word. That doesn’t mean we are to hide our light under a bushel, but to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The time will come soon enough when we will have the opportunity to stand in bold defense of the truth when the Sunday ball starts rolling, but until then we must be careful not to needlessly give offense when the Sunday law comes.

Now let’s talk for a minute about where God would have us to live and work for Him during the time when we see the Sabbath/Sunday issue coming to a head. We’ve known for a long time now that God would have us live in a country setting where we can be free from evil influences, right? And to be able to grow our own food.

There isn’t a Seventh-day Adventist alive today that shouldn’t know this because we were told well over 100 years ago to get out of the cities. By the way, today one can live in a very remote area and still bring evil influences into the home by being connected to the Internet by satellite or communication towers. Just a word to the wise, because the devil has something for everyone, especially if we needlessly place ourselves in the way of temptation.

We may have to work in the city, but we shouldn’t live there. We should have a sanctuary to come home to, at the very least where we can be free from the hustle and bustle and the sights and sounds of life in the city. And I would say that if you don’t have such a place, you should be working toward that while you still have time to do so, and when I say this, I’m aware that there are some who either don’t have the means or have health issues that would prevent them from following inspired counsel in this area. These people will have to make the best of their situation where they are until such time when they may have to join those who have been able to prepare ahead of time, but if we can, we should make an effort now without delay. Let me read you just a few short statements that will back up what I’m saying.

All the following quotes are from the book Maranatha. The first is from page 180, “Erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities, that those who wish to leave them will not be able. (In other words, if we drag our feet now, there is a good chance that we could very well be among those that get stuck in the cities with no way out when trouble begins to escalate regarding Sunday) . . . We are not to locate ourselves where we will be forced into close relations with those who do not honor God. . . . A crisis is soon to come in regard to the observance of Sunday.”

Page 183, “The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that hath the mark of the beast.”

We don’t yet know exactly how this will come about, but in this electronic age when things are heading toward a cashless society, it’s not hard to image how Sabbath keepers will be denied access to whatever funds they may have unless they go along with what the government tells them to do.

Page 184, “As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them. . . . The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, ‘Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God’s people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth.’”

Now, I know there are those who advocate getting way out in the boonies in order to get away from evil associations and to get close to God in preparation for the time of trouble, and there was a time when I also felt this way, and did so for about 10 years, but I know now I was getting the cart before the horse, and we want to be careful not to run ahead of God. We have a work to do, and we can’t do it if we are more concerned about saving our own skin than we are about helping to save souls that are perishing for want of the truth.

Steps to Christ, page 101 says, “God does not mean that any of us should become hermits or monks and retire from the world in order to devote ourselves to acts of worship. The life must be like Christ’s life—between the mountain and the multitude. He who does nothing but pray will soon cease to pray, or his prayers will become a formal routine. When men take themselves out of social life, away from the sphere of Christian duty and cross bearing; when they cease to work earnestly for the Master, who worked earnestly for them, they lose the subject matter of prayer and have no incentive to devotion. Their prayers become personal and selfish.” There’s a time coming when we will have to dwell in secluded places, but that time is not yet.

Notice this next statement from Maranatha, page 180, “The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation [the United States] in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.”

Now, the way I understand this council, and if I’m wrong somebody can correct me, is that when the Sunday sabbath, and that’s an oxymoron by the way, because there is no such thing. When Sunday is enforced by law, it will then be time to stop working the large cities from outposts, as we’ve been told to do while there’s still time, in preparation for doing the same thing regarding the smaller cities, and not that it’s time to stop living in the large cities and then finally the smaller ones when the Sunday law comes. By then, I believe, it will be too late to get out, because we’ve already been told not to live in the cities, and if we do we will not then be able to leave.

It will take too much time to try to sell a home in the city and prepare to move and find a place in the country when the Sunday law is upon us. I think what Sister White meant was that we might be able to live in a country setting within city limits, or on the outskirts of city limits, but we are not to live within the heart of any city regardless of its size, and that’s been true for over a hundred years, at least that’s my take.

Well, we could go on and on by quoting statement after statement after statement in relation to our preparation for the coming Sunday law crisis, because there are hundreds of them. I’ve just picked out a few in order to get us to think about how we’re going to deal with these things when they happen, and again, the time is not far distant when we will have to know what to do and how to do it before they break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

There’s no reason that these things should catch us off guard as a midnight thief breaking into our homes, because we’ve been warned ahead of time, just as Jesus warned His disciples about the troubles they would have to meet. God never does anything major without giving His people a heads up, that’s why Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets.” In other words, Whenever God decides to do something, He will first tell His prophets, and if we read what the prophets have written, we will also know what to do beforehand.

Before we close there’s one more thing I’d like to say, and it’s probably the most important point. All this information I’ve shared with you this morning won’t do you a bit of good unless you’ve been born again. Unless you’ve been converted and die to self daily. All the knowledge about the coming Sunday law crisis will not benefit you one iota unless your character reflects the character of Jesus. You may even be stubborn enough to refuse to go along with the Sunday law and be a martyr, but you will still come up in the wrong resurrection if you don’t have the heart preparation that will be necessary at that time.

There have been many people in the past that have had the conviction to die for their religious cause, but that alone will not grant them entrance into the kingdom of God. You can do everything right outwardly, but if the heart is not changed, Jesus will still have to say, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” The stony heart has to be replaced with a heart of flesh or we will never meet Jesus in peace when He comes.

There may be some of you listing to me today that have committed terrible sins, and you may be living in sin right now, but I want to tell you something, you can be forgiven and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a life of victory over sin if you will come to Jesus just as you are, in repentance, confessing your sins. The Lord has promised to pardon and cleanse you, even if all you have is the faith of a mustard seed and a willingness to do what He tells you to do.

There may be others of you who have lost your first love. You can remember when Jesus was very precious to you and you were extremely happy in your Christian experience, but something happened along the way to rob you of that experience, and I want to tell you that you can get it back if you really want it. I know, because I’ve had this experience myself, and usually it happens when we neglect our study and prayer time.

As a Christian, If you’re feeling like there’s something missing in your life, examine yourself to see if your devotional life is suffering because you’ve been focusing on the cares of this life to the neglect of quality time spent with Jesus and His word. There is no substitute for study, prayer, and obedience. There just isn’t! It’s true, we must “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” And that trust will come as we spend time with our Saviour and do what He has asked us to do, plain and simple.

Friends, this present life is all about the redemption of our souls! God wants you in His kingdom; He wants you to experience the joys of the earth made new where there will be no more curse, and you can have it if you choose to cooperate with God in your own salvation. He’s not going to wave a magic wand over you and change you into His image without some effort on your part. God’s part may be immeasurably large and our part immeasurably small, but it’s just that small part that will make the work of salvation a success.

We can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us enough to take our place on the cross of Calvary, and why would we forfeit that in order to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, suffer the fires of the judgment, and then sleep the sleep of death from which we will never wake up. Why would we exchange eternal life for eternal death? It makes no sense, but that’s what the devil offers, and he has convinced the majority all through the ages somehow, that his plan is better than the One who sacrificed His life for us.

As the great controversy heats up and the counterfeit Sabbath is urged upon us, may we really know Jesus, and not just know about Him; that way we will know what to do and how to do it in a way that will grant us entrance into God’s everlasting kingdom and thereby glorify our Father which is in heaven.