What I have to say this morning may sound a bit discouraging at first, but the prophetic story ends on a very positive note for those who are faithful, as we shall see. However, before we get to the encouraging part, we need to realize that one day in the not too distant future, the God given rights we have as seventh-day Sabbath keeping Christians now, are going to be removed, we know that, and when that happens, there will be an effort all over the world to destroy every last one of us, and there will be no escaping the persecution that will come. According to Revelation 13:15 there’s going to be a death decree placed upon those who refuse the mark of the beast, which is calculated to completely eradicate those that the world have come to hate with a passion. Fallen human nature has not changed over the past 6000 years, and it’s just as corrupt and ugly, and perhaps more so, as it has ever been, and many of the atrocities that occurred in the past will be repeated, and then some, unfortunately.

Remember the story of God’s chosen people during the time of Queen Esther and Uncle Mordecai? In one day it was the goal of that wicked Haman and his cohorts to do away with the hated sect of Sabbath keepers that refused to pay him homage. And why will they hate us so much? For the same reason Haman hated Mordecai, because of our witness to the truth and our refusal to recognize the authority of man above the authority of God. The worldly element will not be able to accept reproof from what they consider to be a small number of unpatriotic dissidents that are causing God to withdraw His hand of favor from America. But in reality it’s their own unwillingness to follow God’s 10 simple rules that He wrote on stone with His own finger, and therefore is unchangeable. That is what will cause God’s blessing to be removed from a once favored Nation. And this same scenario will be witnessed and experienced in every country around the world. In Canada, in the UK, in Africa, in the Philippines, in Australia, and in all 195 countries of the world. It starts in America first, and every country around the world will follow suit.

Allow me to read a few short statements from a little lady who wrote a lot of inspired books. The first is in Testimonies for the Church, volume 6, page 18. “As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.”

Same volume, page 352, “The Sabbath question is to be the issue in the great final conflict in which all the world will act a part.”

And again, on page 395, “Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.”

You know, the United States is much like Adam and Eve in some respects. Adam and Eve were the first human beings to sin, and as a result, every human being since that time has followed their lead, except for Jesus, but He was more than human, wasn’t He? And so, the whole world will do as the United States does. And as an American, I’m certainly not proud of that, nevertheless it’s true. What makes it so egregious is the fact that America has been favored by God more than any other Nation in modern times, but we are spitting in God’s face as it were by receiving His blessings, but not loving and obeying Him in return.

So, when church and state unite to force the conscience, they will leave no stone unturned in order to force their will. In other words, there will be nowhere to hide, nowhere to go to get away from the strong arm of the law that has gone off the rails. And it’s interesting to me that we are now on the very cusp of this happening, and what we see going on right now in the political arena is the precursor for this to happen.

Notice this next quote from The Great Controversy, page 592, “Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; (and is that not what we see today? Is that not why we are witnessing the marches in the various States over voter fraud?) “Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.” It’s going to be a “popular demand” it says, which means that the majority of people will be clamoring for it, because they want to see a united America like it used to  be, and they will have their unity all right, only it will  be unity in apostasy, and we know that national apostasy will be followed by what? national ruin.

It’s clear today that the United States is no longer united, but is more divided today than ever before, and I can see how people will be willing to go along with just about anything to see us come together as a nation. And when they are fooled into thinking that a small minority is keeping them from having it, based upon religious freedom, they will be willing to do away with religious freedom in order to achieve it. And of course, the papacy and apostate Protestantism will be right there ready to step in with their solution for the ills of America.

Never forget it, the great controversy is all about religious freedom, and once that’s taken away, there will be measures taken such as what happened when the ruling class 2000 years ago decided to do away with that trouble maker by the name of Jesus. Remember when Caiaphas explained to the questioning Pharisees that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish? Well, that same argument will be used once again when the Sabbath/Sunday issue comes to a head, and unfortunately many Seventh-day Adventists will be in agreement with that argument in order to avoid persecution. Hopefully, it won’t be anyone within the hearing of my voice.

I want you to think about something for a minute. If people can so easily cave in to peer pressure or a mandatory face mask law by some government officials in authority, like is happening in some States with threats of fines and imprisoned for not complying when there’s very little hard evidence that a face covering will keep people from spreading or contracting the Coronavirus, how difficult do you think it will be to enforce a Sunday law? If you’ll remember, about a year ago the CDC said we needed to lock down the country for about 2 weeks in order to “slow the curve”, and here we are a year later and it’s still going on. Also, at first, we were told that face masks wouldn’t make much difference, and then they changed their mind. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me that the Center for Disease Control knows what they’re doing.

I’ve spend quite a bit of time researching face masks, and the so called “experts” are definitely not in agreement, even after all this time, and yet the urging of mask wearing persists and has now become mandatory in some States. You may disagree with me about this, and that’s OK, but I believe what we have seen happening for a year now is called obedience training, and it’s a preparation for something much bigger coming soon to a town near you.

Depending upon which direction this current Presidential election goes in America, will depend upon if this country will be spared a little longer or whether we will see our freedoms taken away from us within the next few months. I don’t even want to say years, because I believe we are that close to seeing the prophecies of Revelation 13 fulfilled. One political party wants to see the United States Constitution preserved as written, and the other wants to make changes that will restrict freedom, and eventually religious freedom, and in the end we know which ideology will win out, don’t we? but what we don’t know is if now is the time.

I went back and forth in my mind about whether or not I should even mention this, but since I’ve already given my opinion about face masks, let me read a few short statements about the need for fresh air, which a person is not getting enough of when wearing a face covering. If you have experienced a smelly face mask after wearing it for just a short time, there’s a reason for that.

Ministry of Healing, page 272 says, “In order to have good blood, we must breathe well. Full, deep inspirations of pure air, which fill the lungs with oxygen, purify the blood. They impart to it a bright color and send it, a life-giving current, to every part of the body. A good respiration soothes the nerves; it stimulates the appetite and renders digestion more perfect; and it induces sound, refreshing sleep.”

Also, Page 274, “The lungs are constantly throwing off impurities, and they need to be constantly supplied with fresh air. Impure air does not afford the necessary supply of oxygen, and the blood passes to the brain and other organs without being vitalized. . .” (If we) “breathe the same air over and over (and that’s what happens to some degree when you wear a mask) (If we) “breathe the same air over and over until it becomes laden with poisonous matter thrown off through the lungs and pores, . . impurities are thus conveyed back to the blood.”

Fresh air is one of the eight laws of health, and I would say one of the most important of the eight, because impure air will cause the most damage to our bodies the quickest. Think about it. You can live many days without food, and you can go a few days without water, but if you can’t breathe, you’re dead in just a few minutes. I would say if you have to wear a mask, don’t wear it any longer than you have to, and let’s hope it doesn’t become mandatory Nationwide, but I’m afraid it will probably come to that. As I already mentioned, it’s already happening in several States as I speak. The Governors in some of those States are actually asking people to snitch on their neighbors if they notice them having too many people over to their house, or if they’re not social distancing according to the 6 foot rule, even though some of these Governors have deliberately violated their own rules, along with doctors who are pushing for the same. Because they are in authority it’s “do as I say, not as I do.” This snitching on your neighbor is one of the things that happened in Germany with the Nazis, and it led to the Holocaust.

The fact is, more people die every year from diseases other than Covid-19, but they don’t lock people down and force businesses out of business and ruin the economy because of it. So there’s got to be more to this than meets the eye. The devil is in the details here, and we will soon find out what those details are. So, just something for you to think about. Two years ago in October of 2018 I recorded a sermon titled “America’s Second Civil War” and I would encourage you to go to my website and listen to it again, because it looks like that is indeed where we’re headed. Right and wrong is striving for the mastery, not only in your life and in mine, but for the soul of America, the soul of our Nation, and we need to be praying that right will win, at least a little longer.

Now back to the statement I read a couple minutes ago about political corruption. God’s last day prophet has told us plainly that political corruption will prepare the way for a law enforcing Sunday observance. So I ask you, do we not have political corruption today like never before? What happened on election day just this past month and continues even today, should open our eyes to what’s about to happen, friends. Political corruption in the electoral process with voter fraud, journalistic malpractice, and social media’s big tech bias toward a liberal agenda has become nothing more than an extension of a corrupt political party’s plans to transform America, and it should help us understand that a Sunday law is soon to be enacted.

Whether or not we actually see evidence of that happening right now is irrelevant, because we know by faith in what we’ve been told, that it’s coming, don’t we? Whether it comes through one political party or the other in order to achieve national unity through a national Sunday law is beside the point here, because in the end they will both be united for the destruction of commandment keepers. The point is, political corruption precedes the Sunday law, and political corruption is at an all-time high right now, and it is very evident to anyone who is not blinded to the truth. Many of our politician are lying to our faces, and they know that we know they’re lying, but they keep doing it anyway. It’s quite incredible. There’s probably a psychological term for this kind of behavior, but I’m not sure what it is. I’m told that if a person lies long enough that they will begin to believe their own lie, and those they continue to lie to, will begin to question what they knew was a lie in the beginning.

Is this the time for last day events as outlined in Revelation 13 to be fulfilled? Has America reached the point of no return? We shall soon find out. But when it does, we want to make sure that we are on God’s side of the question and that we are prepared for what will soon break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise. But it should not be a surprise to us if we’ve been reading and studying what God has inspired holy men of old to write, and what he has inspired a little lady by the name of Ellen G. White to write for these last days.

When the same type of things begin to happen in our day as what happened during the time of Queen Esther and Uncle Mordecai, it’s not going to be an easy time for those who have decided to obey God at any cost. Why? because some of the people of God will end up in prison, some will lose everything they have and have to hide out in the mountains and forests, where they will be pleading with God for protection and deliverance, because men with various kinds of deadly weapons, and influenced by evil angels, will be impatiently waiting for the death decree to go into effect so they can strike in one night a deadly blow to those they consider to be rebels against the laws of the land, and they will think they’re doing God’s service as they do it, and no doubt they’ll point to Romans 13:1-7 to justify their rage. But just about the time when it looks like God’s faithful and obedient people will have to seal their testimony with their blood, and by the way, some will before probation closes, but that’s a subject for another day,  but just about the time when it looks like God’s faithful and obedient people will have to seal their testimony with their blood, is the time God will come to the rescue of those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

In our morning devotions just the other day, Cindy and I were reading the book of Jerimiah, and as we read Jeremiah 17:13, it speaks of the wicked as those whose names are written, not in the book of life, but written in the earth, and we definitely don’t want our name written there, because this earth is going to burn up, and all sinners will be burned up with it, and that’s why we must stop sinning before our probation closes.

Just as evil men are about to make sure of their prey, at the time of the death decree, a dense blackness will fall upon the earth much like what happened when Jesus was crucified, and then a rainbow will appear, shining from the throne of God, which will encircle every little praying company, we’re told. So don’t be discouraged if you are a part of a little company now rather than a large apostate church, because if you are faithful, you will be a part of a little company then as well, because the majority will forsake us before it’s all over. What we experience now is just a preparation for what’s soon to come, and if we can’t handle it now, we won’t be able to handle it then.

I’m just giving you a brief book report from The Great Controversy this morning on what it says in the chapter titled “God’s People Delivered.” So you can read that chapter for yourself when you get the time and check me out to see if what I’m saying is correct.

As the wicked see that rainbow of promise that encircles every little praying company, their murderous rage is going to die away and will be totally forgotten, and they’ll long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness, but it’s too late for them. That’s when we will hear the voice of God saying to the faithful, “Look up,” and as we lift our eyes toward heaven, we will see that bow of promise and those black angry clouds will part as a scroll when it’s rolled together, and like Stephen we’ll look up into heaven and see the glory of God and Jesus our Saviour. And as we continue looking, we’ll see the marks of His crucifixion, and hear the request recorded in John 17:24, which Jesus included in His last and longest recorded prayer to His Father, where He said, “I will Father, that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am”, and our pale, quivering lips will give a shout of victory, because we have held fast our faith until the end.

Oh friend, can you imagine these scenes as they’re described for us in The Great Controversy? What a glorious time to be on the Lord’s side, and what a terrible time for those who have been in rebellion against God’s Ten Commandment Law, and especially terrible for those who once rejoiced in the truth, but gave it up and joined the easy popular side. It’s this class we are told, our former brethren, that will become our most bitter enemies, and some of our own family members may be among our accusers.

The Great Controversy, page 636 says, “It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people.” Why midnight? It’s because that’s when the death decree goes into effect. Biblical time starts at evening according to the first chapter of Genesis, or we would say at sunset, but on sinful man’s timetable the new day starts at midnight, doesn’t it?  In other words, when the clock strikes 12, they’re on it. In fact we’re told that some can’t wait for midnight to come and they’ll try to kill us before the time. Such is their hatred for those who honor God’s seventh-day Sabbath. Let me read it to you, because it’s very encouraging when we know ahead of time what will happen.

The Great Controversy, page 631, “Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But (and here’s the good part) none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war.” And I say praise the Lord!

Now, continuing on with The Great Controversy, page 636, “The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash against each other. (and notice this last sentence) In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory.”

Do you know what that space is? It’s Orion, and that’s also the corridor through which the Holy City comes down. But just before that, the voice of God like the sound of many waters is heard saying: “It is done.” It is finally done! The great controversy between Christ and Satan is over, never again to be repeated.

This is when Revelation 16:18 is fulfilled where it says, “And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” And you know what? Those voices are going to shake the heavens and the earth. The sky is going to appear to open and shut as the glory of God is seen flashing through, and the mountains are going to shake like a reed in the wind, and jagged rocks will be scattered all over the place. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea, mountain chains sink, inhabited islands disappear, and all the places that have become like Sodom for wickedness will be swallowed up.

This is also the time when Babylon the great comes in remembrance before God, “to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath” as it says in Revelation 16:19, and verse 21 says there will be great hailstones, “every one about the weight of a talent” that will be doing their work of destruction. Those hailstones are nearly 60 pounds each, by the way. And when all this commotion is going on, prison walls will be broken down, and some, probably those who have been most vocal and had the audacity to warn the world of its coming doom, those who have been held in bondage for their faith, will be set free. This is also about the time when the graves will be opened, according to Daniel 12:2, where it says, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

There’s a special resurrection coming that will have two different outcomes. Everyone who has died in faith of the third angel’s message will come forth glorified and will hear that “well done thou good and faithful servant”, while those who pierced Him, as it says in Revelation 1:7, will be raised to see Him in His glory and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient before they die the second time. Then afterward they will receive their final reward when they are raised at the end of the thousand years as mentioned in Revelation 20:5, only to die a third time, never to live again, for they are worthy to be eternally damned for the part they played in rejecting and crucifying Jesus.

But just before that we’re told that the voice of God will be heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus’ coming, and soon afterward there will appear in the east what looks like a small black cloud, about half the size of a man’s hand, and we’ll know that it’s a cloud of angels that surrounds our Saviour, but which looks like in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. As we gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, it becomes lighter and more glorious, until it’s a great white cloud. Jesus is riding forth as a mighty conqueror. Not a “Man of Sorrows,” this time to drink the bitter cup of shame and woe, but victor in heaven and earth as He comes to judge the living and the dead.

As Jesus and the holy angels descend the sky, Jeremiah 30:6 tells us what happens next. It says, “all faces are turned into paleness”, and Nahum 2:10 says, “The heart melteth, and the knees smite together, . . . and the faces of them all gather blackness.” Even the righteous will cry out, “Who shall be able to stand?” Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying to His faithful ones: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

As Jesus descends, He will be wrapped in flames of fire, according to Psalm 50:3, where it says, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.”

And what do you suppose the wicked will say at that time? It’s recorded in Revelation 6:15-17, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Those priests and rulers who were responsible for having Jesus crucified are going to recall the events of Calvary and the part they played. With absolute horror they remember how they waged their heads in satanic exultation and the words they themselves spoke as recorded in Matthew 27:42, 43 where they said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him.”

Now fast forward. They’re no longer waging their heads and taunting Jesus, but instead will raise a cry of mortal agony, louder than the shout, “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” which sounded through the streets of Jerusalem. Now they will shout, “He is the Son of God! He is the true Messiah!”, and they will then try to flee from the presence of the King of kings, but will not be able.

Then amid all this commotion, Jesus, as in the days of Lazarus, looks upon the graves of the righteous, raises His hands to heaven and cries, “Awake, awake, awake, you that sleep in the dust, and arise!” And throughout the length and breadth of the whole earth, those who had during their lifetimes tuned their ears to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. From the prison house of death they come forth, clothed with immortal beauty, reciting the words of 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And the living righteous and the risen saints will unite their voices in one long loud glad shout of victory.

Oh friends, will you be there to see and experience one of the greatest events that will ever take place? I’m reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:26 when He said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” There is absolutely nothing else so important in this world that should cause us to miss out on that great day.

All the righteous that come forth from their graves at that time will be given immortality. You can read that in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, which means that the false teaching here and now that is so popular, of the immortality of the soul, which has fooled the masses, and which is a big fat lie, will be recognized too late that once saved always saved was a delusion, and that if the lost had studied for themselves instead of listing to their false shepherds, they could have recognized the truth, that conversion is a daily matter and not just something that happens once in a lifetime. They thought they were eternally secure, even though they had ongoing sin in their lives, that they failed, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to stop committing, and therefore weren’t concerned with taking up their cross daily and following in the footsteps of Jesus and developing a character like His, but now the opportunity is gone forever. Don’t let it happen to you.

All blemishes and deformities and defects will be left in the grave. Won’t that be something? We will be physically and mentally perfect, just like our first parents were before they sinned, and we shall truly experience Eden restored. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be forever removed, and we will appear, as it says in Psalm 90:17 in “the beauty of the Lord our God.” In mind and soul and body we will reflect the perfect image of Jesus.

Oh what a wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood, but now it’s ours, and no one will ever be able to take it away. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close. Notice what it says in Philippians 3:20, 21, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall (do what?) change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

Matthew 24:31 says Jesus “shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Can you imagine the scene?

1 Thessalonians 4 says, we shall be changed “in a moment (that is, in an atom of time. It’s going to be very quick), in the twinkling of an eye.” At the voice of God we will be glorified. Those who were dead will be made immortal and with the risen saints we’ll all be caught up together in the clouds to meet their Lord in the air. Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers’ arms. Friends and loved ones, long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness, we all ascend together to the City of God.

Are you looking forward to it? I hope so. And more than that, are you preparing for it? No one is going to be there by accident. It will be because we have had hard battles with self, and through the power of the Holy Spirit have been conquerors through Him who loved us. It’s will be because we have surrendered all to Jesus and determined to be faithful to the truth no matter what.

In the book Maranatha, page 82 it says, “One wrong trait of character, one sinful desire cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel. . . Those who would rather die than perform a wrong act are the only ones who will be found faithful.” Tall order, isn’t it? But it’s possible in Christ.

So, the question is, are we going to allow the sin that so easily besets us to cause us to lose the kingdom and the experience of the saved for all eternity that we’ve just talked about? To do that would be crazy, wouldn’t it? If you give a 2-year-old the choice between a nice shiny quarter and a hundred-dollar bill, they’ll choose the shiny quarter nearly every time, why? because they don’t know the value of a dollar. But it’s infinitely more stupid to give up heaven and the earth made new with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit and the society of holy angels for whatever sin that gets the best of us, isn’t it? I mean, we need to think this through! What are the pleasures of sin for a season compared to an eternity of bliss? Bliss is the highest degree of happiness. It’s like if you were any happier you couldn’t stand it. And yet, millions, yes even billions of people are going to exchange that for what? It’s insane to choose the temporal over the eternal, and the thing is, the temporal is going to end very shortly when you consider where we are in relation to last day events.

Oh friend, I hope you’ll think seriously about these things and pray about them and cling to the narrow path that leads to the kingdom that’s prepared for you, because time is short, and we don’t have a moment to lose in preparing ourselves for what’s just around the corner. Jesus is coming soon, I can feel it in my bones, and I want you to be ready for that blessed hope. May God help us to be ready when all the evil forces in this world are arrayed against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

Sermon Notes in pdf  DELIVERANCE AT LAST