The Last Shaking of Adventism

And it says, if you lose heaven, you lose everything.

If you gain heaven, you gain everything.

Simple.

It's a choice that all of us have to make,

and it's a choice which we are going to make,

even if you choose not to make a choice. Not

to make a choice is to make a choice. So

either way we are going to be in those that

gain heaven or among those that lose heaven. Nobody will

have an excuse if you find yourself in the wrong camp.

But getting into the right camp is so important, especially

for the times in which we live, because even as

we speak, we see sign after sign taking place that's

leading us closer and closer to how that choice is

going to separate.

You and me.

According to the SDA Encyclopedia, the shaking in quotation marks

refers to a period of intense spiritual trial and sifting

that occurs within the church before the second Coming of Christ.

It is a process of purification where the tears unfaithful

members is separated from the wheat faithful remnant. Now, theologically,

the shaking does not result in destruction of the church,

but in its strengthening. While many are shaken out, the

remnant remains and they will be a large group that

will join the remnant. So the church is not with

the shaking. The Church is not left weak, it is strengthened.

And those two groups, the remnant and the ones who

join the Remnant, who make up the Remnant, are going

to take part in what is known as the Loud Cry.

This is the final warning of the message to the world.

The Holy Spirit is going to be poured out in

a very large measure during this time, and the Loud

Cry is going to be a time of immense evangelism

for the church. What results we didn't see in this

time we are going to see during the Loud Cry,

where Pentecost is going to be manifested one more time,

and where there is one baptism today, we are going

to see literally thousands who we didn't think would ever

accept the message will at this time, just before Christ's coming.

The Loud Cry the final message to the world. Now,

the two outcomes of the shaking is very obvious. You

are either going to be shaken out or you will

be shaken and remain within the church. So each of

those outcomes places a huge responsibility on each of us

and has a huge impact for eternity. It's a choice,

just like the people of nowher's day and our day.

It's a choice. The foundation for the shaking lies in

the parable of the wheat and tears, as found in

Matthew thirteen twenty four to thirty, which was shared with us,

and Jesus explains this parable later in the chapter. Let

us briefly look at the parable and what each of

these individuals who plays a part in the parable means. Now,

the sore of the good seed Jesus, and he is

the that saws a good seed.

Now, if anybody.

Thinks that this parable is something that is just a

made up story, it's not. People actually did this in

those days, and even today in some places. It probably

happens where somebody who has a grudge against you comes

and plants the wrong crop while you have your good

crop in the field. And that's exactly what happen in

the time of Jesus. So when he was telling this story,

this was something that actually happened to people, and everybody

related to it, so his parable made perfect sense. So

Jesus is the sore of the good seed. The field

typically in the parables of Jesus is the world, but

Christ object lesson commenting on this parable makes it very

clear that in this particular parable, the field is more

than the world. It's actually the church, the end time

remnant church, so slightly different from the typical meaning that

the other parables carry. The sore of the tears is

our enemy Satan. The harvest is the second coming the tears.

Whereas we've said unfaithful members and the wheat the faithful remnant, the.

Reapers are the angels.

Now, the task of reaping, or making the selection of

who is going to be shaken out and who's going

to remain in the church is given to the angels

and not to you and me. The reason for this

is you and I are not good at judging character

or motives, and we are asked to refrain from judging

character or motives. Now that doesn't mean we don't have

any judging that we do. There is some judging that

we do. And Christ himself said we judge by looking

at the fruit. Each of us is fruit inspectors, and

our fruit can be seen, and that is the basis

on which we judge what we see and the behavior

that is shown. Now, this is the responsibility in the church.

If someone in the church is living in open sin.

It is the responsibility of the church to speak to

that person, seek them out, and try to get them

to repent and make a change. So that is the

role that's given to the reapers or the angels, and

then the burning of the tears is the final destruction

of the world. Both the Old and the New Testament

contain multiple references to various aspects of the shaking, and

all of them use the metaphor of shaking. Some Old

Testament prophet to use the metaphor of an olive tree

being shaken when the olive.

Fruit is ripe.

Just a little shake and you get the fruit to

the ground, And that's a metaphor for the shaking. Now,

the shaking is not one event which takes place at

the end before Christ comes. The shaking has always been

a part of God's Church. In fact, the shaking started

right after Adam and Eve sinned. There was a shaking,

and the shaking put them out of Eden and they

found they were in a very different world. And so

the shaking has always taken place in the history of

the church. Even when Jesus established his church, there were

shake There was a shaking that went on within his

own inner group, and even the early church that the

Apostles set up, they were shaking. So shaking is not new,

and even in our own church in the last few years,

if you look at it, we have had aspects of

shaking where people have left for one reason or the other.

So shaking is something that goes, but a great shaking

will also take place.

At the end.

So it's good to remember that shaking is not one event.

It's several events.

But the big event is the shaking that comes just

before christ coming, and that is the last shaking that

I refer to in the title of my sermon. So

the last shaking indicates that there'll be other shakings before it.

Now let us spend a few minutes dealing with what

causes the shaking. Every generation has expected has experienced their

own set of challenges that have shaken out certain believers.

The end time shaking, we are told, will be triggered

by a variety of pressure points that includes the following

and Ellen White summarizes four large reasons as causes for

the shaking, and let me spend a few minutes with

dwelling on these.

The first one is persecution. Now, if there's any.

Group that's going to have a hard time with persecution, I.

Think it's us. Am I right? We are spoiled. Am

I right? We want things when we want it.

Instant gratification is a defining feature of our generation, is

it not?

Okay?

And we have been given more than any other country

in this world. God has blessed the United States more

than any other country in the world.

And this is not my conclusion. This is a conclusion.

Of our profit And I think if you look around,

you'll see the blessings of how this country has been favored.

And the reason that it has been favored is to

provide an environment for God's Church to nurture that church,

and that church be a means for witnessing all through

the world. But that has been quite challenging for us.

You will agree. So when I say persecution, I think

we are least prepared for persecution. Now, there are many

communities outside the United States where persecution is a way

of life, and those people are much better prepared for persecution.

We unfortunately are spoiled. But it's something that we are

going to have to go through in this country. And

if you think persecution is not going to be coming here.

You are not aware of the time that we are

living in the United States is becoming more authoritarian. And

I think if you look around and if you are

observant of what has happened, we see that and that

is going to increase, and persecution is going to come

into this land when the Sunday Law comes in.

And if you and I.

Think that we will escape that we are not going

to escape that.

The law has.

Been on the books of the states for over one

hundred and fifty years. They have not been enforced, but

they have been on the books of almost every state,

with the exception of maybe one or two states, one

of them being Nevada, because their outlook and the way

they do things is a little different there than it

is in most other states. And the Sunday Law is

one of those sources of persecution that you and I

are going to have to fit. And during the time

of persecution, there are some who are not grounded, some

who don't have a good anchor, and those people are

going to be shaken out.

So that's cause number one.

Cause number two is false doctrine and counterfeit revivals. Now,

when we speak of challenge, Christ made this very clear

in his Council to us on how we should prepare

for the last days Matthew twenty four what to expect

the signs and Matthew twenty four to twenty four false Christ,

false profits will rise, the devil will use great signs

to deceive the very elect. And some of that has

already happened and is happening now. These events are going

to sweep people who are tied to an individual doctrine,

false doctrine, or counterfeit revivals.

We've seen that time and time again.

Just recently, there was in South Africa a pastor who

put forth the information and the news that there was

going to be a secret rapture in September. Many people

listened to him and gave up what they had had.

They gave away their belongings, gave away what little savings

they had expecting the secret rapture.

Did any secret rapture take place?

No, and there's no secret rapture that will take place,

because if we read the word of God, the word

of God clearly says that there's going to be a

rapture when Jesus comes, but not a secret rapture. So

if anybody talks about a secret rapture. We know that

that is not going to happen, but people didn't believe that.

So false doctnent and counterfeit revivals, even within the church,

there are going to be people who are going to

share this, and we've had some of that in our church,

where false doctrines are going to be shared and people

are going to be asked to participate or believe in

these or support these, and many people are willing to

do this because their grounding is not certain, and the

Word of God is the one that's going to ground people.

And if they are not firmly grounded, then a false

doctrine or a counterfeit revival is a vehicle for taking

people out of the church.

The shaking.

Okay, Now, the other one that Ellen White lists as

causes for the shaking is the straight testimony. Now, the

straight testimony is caused by a proclamation of the truth

that comes in conflict with false teachings and challenges behavior

believers whose spiritual fervor has cooled. During the early years

of her ministry, Ellen G. White wrote, I asked the

meaning of the shaken, of the shaking I had seen,

and was shown that it was caused by some who

will not bear the straight testimony, they will rise up

against it. Now, the straight testimony is given by the

counsel of the true Witness to the Laadisian Church, who

is the true witness Church, who is the true witness,

Jesus Christ is the true witness. So that testimony is

going to be very difficult for some in the church.

If you're lukewarm, then it's going to be difficult to gain.

So we need to certainly be very warm and be

hot when it comes to standing for our beliefs. A

call for renewed spiritual commitment is met with resistance, and

that is what shakes the church. Another reason, who shakes

the church? And then we have the fourth reason. People

of influence aposticize, and this end shape shaking will occur

because people wrap the SEMs around one individual, somebody prominent

in the church. Maybe it's a preacher, maybe it's a

pastor of a large church, or a pastor who is

considered successful. And when these people apostasize, then the followers

go along with that. And Christ's warning clearly is that

we follow the true witness, and that is the person

that we follow. Follow the game plan that's outlined in

the Bible, and that is what we need to know. Now,

if you're not familiar with these then it would be

easy to be shaken. So we need to do that now.

It's hard to do it for yourself, but we have

to do it for ourselves. We are saved as individuals.

We're not saved as couples, we're not saved as families. Unfortunately,

it would be nice if we can do it in

a group, but we have to be saved as individuals,

and the decision has to be made by individuals. So

it matters for us to know what it is now.

I know there are many people who have their favorite

preacher on YouTube, and there's nothing wrong with that, but

if you are going to be so tied into them

to buy everything, if that person makes a mistake, you're

going to be swept up in that shaking. So the

only safe guide is for us to follow the example

of Christ. Behold him and follow the advice that he

gave us in his word and stick with him.

And that is what we need to do, and that.

Should be one of our primary tasks that we do,

in addition to everything that we have to do to

live successful lives in twenty twenty six. Now, how many

will leave during the shaking? This is a question that arises,

and the short answer to this is a lot. How

many will leave a lot. So that's kind of scary

because a lot could include more than fifty percent. Now

you are not quite divided into fifty percent. I think

this side has a few more members than this side,

But just look at each half of this. Ellen White

clearly stated that a majority would leave. Large numbers would leave.

This is the remnant church that he's speaking about, not

churches in general. This is your church and my church.

There's going to be a huge group that leaves. A

majority is at least fifty one percent half or one

more added to half. Can you imagine our church with

fifty percent shaken out. It's a serious matter to consider. Now,

it doesn't have to be fifty percent that's shaken out,

but that's what she saw. So she said that when

the test to stand for truth comes, the majority will

forsake us. Sad Now, she made another shocking statement, which

I think every adventist has heard. But I don't think

that impact really has registered, and we don't act on

that impact. This is the solemn statement that she made.

She said, not one in twenty of the church members

were prepared for the end. How much is one in

twenty five percent. That's a very small percentage. So there's

a lot of preparation that has to be made for

that number to get right. She noted, as the final

storm approaches, a large class, large class who are not

sanctify the truth will join the opposition. Now it's one

thing to be shaken out, it's another thing to be

to join the opposition. Now here's another scary thought. And

all of us should remember the biggest opposition for people

who are going to be in the church is going

to come from former church members.

This is not my conclusion. This is the conclusion of

the prophet that the.

Church has our own brethren, and this is not unusual.

Paul had the same thing happened to him, and in

the perils that he listed that he was confronted with

in his ministry, the saddest one that he lists is

the persecution that he suffered at the hands of his brethren,

people in that were in the church formerly. So there's

something that happens after people are shaken out and fall

into the hands of the devil that leads to very

severe persecution of their brethren. Ellen White described a significant

departure of the church from members during a period of shaking.

And this is what we are to be. Only those

who are grounded, only those who are prepared to face

persecution today.

And you know in your heart will you be able

to face persecution today?

It's not just saying it, it's knowing it and be

able to follow it. It's a difficult question that's asked,

and most people, I think have difficulty with answering that. Truthfully,

when your life is on the line, would you be

willing to stand with Christ and say with his church

and say, even though that be the fate, I'm going

to choose that stand Lord of people have chosen it

up to now. In our church during the early Christian era,

thousands thousands of Christians, millions in fact, we're put to

death because of their beliefs. And some of that is

going to be repeated. And can we stand and say

that we are prepared to go through persecution wherever it leads,

but to stand firmly on the side of Christ. Many

people who have spent years in the church will suddenly

find themselves in a crisis they never imagined. So anticip

anticipating these challenges ahead of time is going to be

something that will prepare us spiritually. Now, one important distinction

to remember in the parable. In the parable, the tears

were separated from the wheat. The opposite does not take place.

And you need to remember that the wheat is not

separated from the terars. Only the terrors is separated from

the wheat.

Now, we had some time back in.

This church somebody who said that this church is Babylon

has reached the stage of being called Babylon.

That is wrong.

This church never reaches the state of being classified as Babylon.

Christ is going to see to that this church will apostasize, yes,

but it will never reach the stage where it will

be classified as Babylon. So if anybody tells you that

it's time to leave God's Remnant Church because it has

reached a stage of Babylon, don't believe it. Don't follow

that this church will never reach the state of Babylon.

That's why the tears are the ones that are removed

from the wheat. What are the tears again, the unfaithful

in God's Remnant Church, And what is the wheat the

faithful members, So it's the tears that are separated from

the wheat, not the other way around. So those who remain,

those who go through the shaking and remain, will be

a part of God's remnant Church. So calling God's remnant

church Babylon is false because the Lord is not going

to allow that to happen. As we shall see, Ellen

White viewed God's church as his special city of refuge.

This is why God set up his church.

His church is weak, it's enfeebled because it's made up

of people like you and me, but it's still it's

the apple of his eye no matter how weak it is.

He has placed his special regard only on this church

and that will never change. And it's never going to

get to the point of being Babylon. So if anybody

calls this church Babylon, you can be sure that you

have an issue with them. It's not going to be Babylon.

This is God's bride, and he is very protective of

his bride, the church, and he is not going to

allow the enemy to ruin this church because it's never

going to get in. Ellan White makes it clear that

God will not allow the denomination to apostasize so fully

that there's going to be a call to separate from

this church. There's no call like that, No call like

that will be given, because no matter how bad it gets,

we are still people that Christ loves and cherishes and

he wants us. She makes very clear in prominent statements

in her writings that He Jesus has a supreme regard

for this church. What does supreme regard mean to you?

A very high estimate. He places a high estimate on

his church, and he places a high estimate on you

and me. Yes, we are flawed. You and I are flawed,

we readily admit it. But we are still valued greatly

in his eyes. And even if one of us was

left as a sinner, Christ would have come and gone

through everything that He did to save.

That one person.

So you and I should be valued and feel that

we have great love that has been shared with us

that we cannot even understand on a human basis, but

we can certainly accept it. It's a divine fortress. Here's

another metaphor that he uses for his church, a divine fortress.

How many of you like to be in a fortress

when the time of trouble comes, I do, and that's

exactly what the church is going to be. It's an

investment of authority, eternal protection. Why would we want to

leave a church which has the notion of being called

eternal protection. I want eternal protection because I know difficult

times are going to come. I won't be able to

withstand those by myself. My strength is not adequate for

the challenge. But with Christ, with his Church, with the

people in his church, I know I will be protected.

Gods will guide us to the end.

And it is not the church that's going to be replaced.

People may leave the church. But so let us look

at some of the key aspects of God's view of

the church. We've already talked about some object of supreme regard.

I mentioned the fortress, divine agency, light to the world,

and in all of these Christs places his protection and

his care over this. He is never going to abandon

this church, and you and I will be safe as

long as we are in the church, and especially when

the hard times come.

Now.

Ellen White describes in her writings faithful survivors of the

Shaking as a group, and I want to paint a

picture of how these people are going to be looked

at what characteristics are going to define these people who

survive the shaking and remain in guards, I mean in church.

Characteristics of the survivors they're going to be They're going

to share a deeply anchored faith. The deeply anchored faith

means it's a faith that's not going to be shaken

very easily. How many of you have faith that's easily shaken.

My hand goes up. I have a faith that's weak,

and I know it. But it's only by tying my

faith to God's, to the faith of Jesus Christ that

I can have anchored faith. But this is going to

be one of the characteristics of the survivors, and you

and I need to have that robust, deeply anchored faith.

How do we develop that faith? Luke eighteen the story

about the persistent widow. She was persistent. We have to

be persistent in our faith and on our faith waivers,

reach out and lean for the robust faith that Jesus provides.

An intense prayer life. Here's a second characteristic, intense prayer life.

How many of you would characterize your prayer life as intense?

Mine is not there, But that is what I need

to get and how do I do it. It's by

continual praying. So that is what happens with the examples

that we have. And in the example in Luke eighteen

of the persistent widow, she did not stop praying, and

finally the judge changes his mind. She said, because this

woman is not going to stop pestering me for justice,

so I am going to change and give her that justice.

That's the kind of prayer we need, intense prayer, life

life resilience to persecution. When you are made fun of,

when people make fun of you, when they insult you,

when they belittle what you do as a church member,

that you worship on the Sabbath, when the whole Christian

world worships on Sunday, how does that criticism affect you?

You know?

But if you are willing to take that persecution. I'm

willing to take those insults and even imprisonment and punishment

that may come during persecution, then you will build that resilience.

So it's something that we have to practice. It won't

just come on day one. It has to be you

have to grow into it. And this is another characteristics

obedience to the truth. Obedience is the best form of worship,

and each of us needs to have obedience to the

truth that we share, especially the third Angel's message reflection

of Christ's image. When this church reflects the image of Christ,

then he is ready to come and claim his people.

So we have some work to do, but that's something

that needs to be done.

Spiritual vitality. We are not lukewarm.

We have a vitality and a consecration that makes us strong,

self help and perseverance, resist evil angels. We are ready

to defend the faith. How many of you are prepared

to give a reason for what you believe in? The

Bible asks us to do this in all things. We

are to ask to provide a reason. How many of

us can do that? But that's exactly something that we

need to develop. We are ready to defend the faith.

Trustworthy householders, men and women who follow the true Christian

principles that is advocated in the Word of God and

spiritual discernment.

This is not an.

Exclusive list, but this is just a list of these

ten characteristics. There are others I'm sure we can add,

and so those are some of the characteristics that people

who survive the shaking the wheat are going to exhibit.

Now.

In her writings, Ellen White also identified another source of

great help. She said, the Seal of God is the

final spiritual settling that's going to occur after the shaking,

which will identify those that survive the shaking. What do

you mean, what do we mean by the Seal of God?

What is the Seal of God church sadak? What is

the Seal of God the Sabbath?

Okay?

And our commitment to the Sabbath. What is the opposite

of the Seal of God mark of the Beast?

Okay? So we are living.

In the time of the Seal of God and the

mark of the Beast one or the other, and the

Seal of God is what is something that we need

to get and that will give us protection during the crisis,

during the shaking. The Seal of God acts as a

spiritual anchor the Sabbath once every seven days. If we

follow the example that Christ set for us on the Sabbath,

Where was Jesus when it was on the Sabbath? He

was where worship was taking place. He was where believers

got together, worshiped together, encouraged each other, built up each other,

strengthen each other for the crisis.

And so That is how the Seal.

Of God is going to protect us during crisis. Intellectual

and spiritual settling. Ellen White uses this a great deal.

She talks about the settling of the truth, both intellectually

and spiritually. And once we are settled in the truth,

it is hard to shake that person away from the truth.

It's that settling. Once you know it, you know it

and nothing is going to change that connection to.

The character of Christ.

People who have the Seal of God will show this

resistance to deception. So these are some of the characteristics

that the Seal of God will provide for us as

spiritual settling, spiritual growth that each one of us needs

great port Now, as I wind down, I'd like to

give you some sources for further study. We are constantly

growing and we need to read, learn, practice and grow

and continue that. So I'm going to give you some

sources there up on the slide here Great Controversy, Chapter

thirty eight, The Final Warning, is a great chapter to

read and in preparation for the shaking Last Day Events.

How many people have this book Last Day Events? Every

family should have this, and every family should read this

faithfully and know what's in it. Now there's a whole chapter,

chapter twelve, that deals with the shaking, but the whole book,

the Final Last Day Events, is a very good book

for Christian's Seven Day administ Christian three and then in

early writings, pages two sixty nine to two seventy three

have Ellen White's thing. Now, a lot of information was

shared with you. None of that is going to make

be of any help unless you have a desire to

take it, use it and change what needs to be changed.

Only you can make that decision. The Holy Spirit can

place that desire in your heart. But if you and

I don't act on that, it's not going to help

us a great deal. We need to do this as individuals,

and we need to do this at church now, the shaking,

where we know a large group is possibly going to

leave the church, I don't think that necessarily. Nowhere in

the research that I did did I find that it

has to be that large number. Any church can make

up its mind to have one hundred percent people who

are shaken but.

Remain in the church. And that's this decision the church

has to make. Now.

We as a church, at our right I have always

said that we want every family, every child, every person prepared,

but it can't happen unless there is that cooperation that

all of us are going to hold hands with each

other and with our heavenly Father and be led by.

Him to do it. So I hope that in our church,

when the shaking.

Comes, we'll have all of us who withstand that because

we have taken the time to prepare. Now in a

slogan for two thousand and twenty six, I am making

this my slogan in what I want to achich in

this year and in my life. If we lose heaven,

you lose everything. If you gain heaven, you gain everything.

Do you realize that this is the only thing that

you can be a loser at everything?

But if you gain heaven, you gain everything.

So I hope that that will be your experience and

my experience as we prepare for difficult times beginning in

twenty twenty six and going forward. The good times, unfortunately

are over, but better times ahead if we get through

this rough spell.

Thank you Church.