| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX7qsYKbqvA |
| The Truth About the Final Generation (It’s Not What You Think) |
| The Bible makes a stunning prediction. At the end of time, God will have a group of people that are totally completely loyal to Him. A people whose hearts are undivided. A people whose lives reflect the character of Christ fully. When that happens, the earth will be lightened with the glory of God. This will be a loyal people, an obedient people right here on this sinful planet. |
| Now, some people call this concept last generation theology. But is it biblical? And what do we mean by that? Can grace so transform us that we live loyal lives? When we use the term perfection, what does that mean? We’re going to probe that in this presentation. |
| Let’s be honest, it almost sounds like it’s impossible to live obedient, godly lives in this sinful world. We look around, we see compromise in the world. We see weakness in the church. We see inconsistency in ourselves. We believe in grace but complete obedience. And then we wonder, can Jesus only pardon our sin? Or can Jesus deliver us from sin? And if He can, can He only deliver us from grosser, larger sins? Or can He deliver us from sins of of attitude and disposition? |
| In Revelation 14:12, we find these words, Revelation the 14th chapter and the 12th verse. And the Bible says, “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.” So the question isn’t will God have such a people? The question really is how will that people be revealed and how will they be enabled to keep the commandments of God? How actually is this going to happen? How can broken people like us reflect the character of Christ? How can a generation raised in weakness become a generation that walks in victory? |
| To answer that, I want to tell you a story. Many years ago, there was a sculptor. And this sculptor was chiselling away at a block of stone. As he chiselled away at that block, somebody asked him, “How can you carve such lifelike images from something like that block of stone?” “It’s simple,” the sculptor said. I just chip away at everything that doesn’t look like the man I’m trying to reveal. The beauty was hidden in the stone. His job was to set it free. There is beauty in every single one of us as we come to Christ. And that’s exactly what God is doing today. He’s sculpting us. He’s patiently, lovingly, and sometimes painfully chipping away at everything that doesn’t look like Jesus. Every trial, every difficulty, every disappointment, every valley we walk through, every mountain we climb, they’re all part of this divine craftsmanship. |
| And here’s the miracle. He’s not just shaping a person, He’s shaping a people. an end time generation, a generation that will stand faithful when the world falls apart. Revelation, chapter 14:12 says, “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.” |
| Not though, not it doesn’t say, “Here are those that try to keep the commandments of God.” It doesn’t say here those that wish they could keep the commandments of God. It doesn’t say here those that hope they could keep the commandments of God. Now notice also it doesn’t say here is the perfection of the saints. It says here is the patience of the saints. |
| The final generation will be calm when the world is chaotic. The final generation will be faithful when others are compromising all around them. The final generation will be loyal when loyalty cost them everything. They keep the commandments of God because they have the faith of Jesus. What is this faith of Jesus? It’s a commitment to Jesus so strong that nothing can break it. It is Christ’s faith living in the heart that transforms the life. When Jesus hung on Calvary’s cross, bearing the sins of humanity, and He cried out, “Father, into Thy hands, I commend My spirit.” That’s the faith of Jesus. A faith that trusts when it cannot see. A faith that is so deep and so committed – that faith of Jesus that the Holy Spirit implants in our hearts enables us to be victorious and overcomers. They trust in Jesus to do for them what they could never do for themselves. They depend on His pardoning, empowering, life-changing grace. |
| Now, some people say, “But but isn’t that legalism?” They say, “Pastor, this idea of a of a of of an end-time people, a final generation that reflects the beauty of Christ’s character sounds like we’re earning salvation. This is just legalism.” No, friends. Legalism says if I obey God, God will love me. The gospel says because God loves me, I choose to obey. Legalism works for approval. Faith works from approval. Obedience is not the price of salvation. It’s the proof of our salvation. It’s not the root of faith. It’s the fruit of faith. When you love somebody, obedience becomes a joy. The last generation doesn’t obey in order to be saved. They obey because they are saved. |
| Let me ask you, what motivates your obedience? Is it fear of punishment or is it love for the person of Jesus? because only one will get us through the final crisis. Fear is not going to get us through the final crisis. Clenching our fists and gritting our teeth to try to obey God’s not going to get us through the final crisis. What is going to get us through the final crisis is a love for Jesus that is so deep that we respond to His commandments through the power of grace and live obedient lives. The gospel does not say try harder. It says trust deeper. |
| I once a met a man at a prophecy seminar who said, “Pastor, I’ve tried so hard to obey, but I keep failing. I keep falling on the same sins again and again and again. I said something like this. You’re trying to do God’s work without God’s power. You’re trying to obey in your own strength. You don’t overcome sin by trying harder. You overcome sin by trusting deeper. |
| For many, this is a life-changing revelation. When I understand that Christ leads me to Himself and that as I choose to submit my life to Him and commit my life to resist the power of the enemy, He will provide the strength to enable me to do that. As Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things. How many things? A few things. Some things I can do. How many things? All things. Through whom? Through my strength, through my willpower. Because I desire to. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Victory begins not when you do more for God, but when you let God do more for you. |
| You see, a number of years ago in the book Christ Object Lessons, page 69, I read, “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Many people have misunderstood this statement. They think that means we must reach some kind of sinless perfection before Jesus can return. But then you ask, what is this sinless perfection? It is the depth of love that God has? Is it the breath of love He has? What is this reflecting the character of Christ? What does that mean here? |
| This statement, I believe, is a promise, not a performance standard. It’s a promise of what God is going to do in and through and for His people before the end of time. That they will understand the power of love. They will be transformed by His grace. And the result of that is not only pardon for sin, but the result of that is the empowering of a people who will reflect the love, the purity, the humility, the compassion of Christ in their sphere and His love will be reproduced in His people. |
| The world will see a living demonstration of the gospel. It’s not about achieving some kind of perfection. It’s about reflecting Jesus by grace through His power, reflecting His love. Does this mean we’ll be sinless? What do we mean by that? Do we mean sinless in nature? These natures will never be changed until Jesus comes. We’ll have a fallen nature in the sense of the weakness of the flesh. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. When we talk about a sinless nature, what do we mean by that? |
| Our flesh is weak. Look how Paul puts it in First Corinthians chapter 15. He talks about the time that our natures are changed. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And there in verse 51, it says this, “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible. For we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption.” This mortal must put on immortality. So when the corruptible has put on incorruption and the mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought past the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. |
| So we have fallen natures. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9. Our natures are not changed until Jesus comes. But when we come to Christ, we receive the divine blessing of God. The Holy Spirit enters into our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:17. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. So God creates within us a new heart. Ezekiel 36 and 37. So God gives us this new heart. We have new longings. We have new desires. |
| So, we can choose to follow Jesus and be loyal and obedient to Him and live lives of victory and overcoming while we live in the frail humanity of these weakened bodies of ours. The Bible never says that we have we will have sinful natures. It does say that we can be over-comers and live victorious lives. Look, Revelation chapter 2 and 3, you remember the events of the seven churches. And you recall in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, in the events of the seven churches, those messages all end the same way. He that overcomes, he that overcomes, he that overcomes. |
| In Ephesus, when you lose your first love, you can overcome. In Smyrna, when you’re being persecuted all around you and oppressed, you can overcome. In Pergamos and Thyatira, where there is compromise, you can overcome in Sardis, where there’s wealth all around you. In materialism, you can overcome in Philadelphia. When the door is open before you to go and witness, you can overcome your lethargy and witness for Jesus. In Laodicea, where there is complacency, you can be an overcomer. See what Revelation 2 and 3 are saying is this. Wherever you find yourself, whether it’s in persecution, whether it is when compromise is all around you, what Jesus is saying to the churches is that by My grace and through My power you can overcome. It is like a re-echoing refrain it comes again and again and again; we’ll always have fallen nature until glorification but the Holy Spirit changes our hearts so that our loyalty is completely with Christ. |
| Think of a mirror. If a mirror is covered with dust, the image is blurred. You can’t see the reflection. But when it’s cleaned, the image shines brightly. That’s the spirit’s work. wiping away pride, wiping away fear, wiping away lust, wiping away selfishness until the light of Christ shines through. The goal isn’t to make the mirror impressive. The goal is to make the image visible. |
| And that’s the goal of the gospel, to make the image of Christ visible in us. A farmer once said this, you can’t make plants grow by tugging on them and tugging on them. He said, you just water and you feed the plant. You give it light and growth happens naturally. And that’s what happens to us as well, friends. When we behold Christ, we stay connected to Jesus. The fruit’s going to appear. |
| Jesus says in John 15 verse 5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.” The key to spiritual growth is not trying harder. It’s abiding longer. |
| Ask yourself, when people see me under pressure, do they see patience? When I’m mistreated, do they see Christ’s kindness? When I’m misunderstood, do they sense his compassion? The world is not simply waiting for more sermons. As important as the preached Word of God is, it’s waiting for more living sermons. And that sermon, my friend, is you. |
| Where do we find this power for life transformation? We find it as we reflect upon Jesus in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18. The Bible puts it this way. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 18. We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image. |
| Transformation comes not by our willpower. It comes by God’s power. It does not come by merely trying harder. It comes by drawing closer. It is a law of the mind that the mind gradually adapts itself on the subjects that it’s allowed to dwell. You become like what you look at. If you dwell on your problems, you’re going to grow anxious. If you dwell on your sin, you’re going to grow discouraged. If you dwell on your weaknesses and you believe that you can never overcome some besetting sin, you won’t. But if you dwell on Christ, you will grow like Him day after day. We are shaped by what we stare at. |
| Have you ever seen a sunflower? Out here in our garden, we’ve had some sunflowers. And I’ve had the opportunity to walk by these sunflowers day after day as I’ve walked up here to the studio. These sunflowers, they don’t strain or groan to turn toward the sun. They simply respond to light. And I’ve seen these sunflowers as they’ve grown. They they shift to the sun. They respond to the light. The Christian life works the same way. Victory is not about straining. It’s about turning. Turn your face to Jesus every morning. His light will change your life. There’s nothing that changes us like looking at Jesus. spending time contemplating His Word. |
| Somebody asked a well-known evangelist, “What’s the secret of your spiritual power?” And his response was simply this. “Every morning before I meet the world, I meet with Jesus until my heart is warm with His love and until my mind is filled with His Word.” |
| Friends, if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. So busy that you fail to study the Word. So busy that you fail to spend time in the presence of Jesus, kneeling there every morning. A distracted church is never a transformed church. Stay in the Word. Stay in Jesus presence. Stay in His love. That’s the power of reflection. |
| Revelation 18 verse1 tells us that one day the earth will be filled with the glory of God. And what is God’s glory? According to the book of Exodus chapter 33, it’s His character. Revelation 18:1 After these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with His glory – the earth illuminated with the glory of God. |
| Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.” The earth, what is that glory? It’s the glory of Christ working through an end-time generation, revealing God’s love, revealing God’s goodness, revealing God’s grace. The glory isn’t some physical light. It’s the radiance of His character. Before the world sees Jesus coming in glory, He must see the glory of Christ in His followers. The final message is not just proclaimed. It is lived. God is not looking simply for people that tout His goodness. He’s looking for people that display His goodness. |
| Isn’t this exclusive? Somebody says some worry that this makes God’s end time people sound superior. Are they some kind of spiritual elites? But that’s not the message at all. |
| Every generation has been called to reflect Christ. The final one simply does so as a corporate hole at Earth’s darkest hour of history. They’re not better than anybody else, but the times demand a deeper surrender. The crisis over the mark of the beast and the seal of God. Leading up to that crisis, God’s people sense the need for a deeper commitment, a deeper surrender, a fuller commitment to Jesus Christ our Lord. They don’t boast of their strength. They lean on Jesus’ strength. |
| Wouldn’t it be amazing if the people in the community said, “I don’t know what that church is teaching, but I can tell that those people love one another.” That’s the kind of light that changes communities. Not argument, but affection, not pride, but love. |
| What about doctrine? Every doctrine rightly understood is a window into God’s love. Doctrines are important because they reveal what love looks like from heaven’s perspective. The Ten Commandments, for example, are codified love. And when by God’s grace, we live out the principles of God’s law, we reveal what a loving God is like. So, how can we live this message today? |
| There are three simple steps. First, behold Jesus daily. Begin your morning not with your cell phone, but with the word of God. Let the first voice you hear every day be Jesus’ voice. Open the Gospels and study how He loved, how He forgave, how He prayed, and how He obeyed. |
| Secondly, believe the Word of God fully. Make a decision that you will have an undivided heart. That whatever Jesus asked you to do, you can pray like Jesus did in Gethsemane. Not My will, but Thy will be done. Tell Jesus that you want to pray like He prayed in John 8:29. I do always those things that please Him. When you feel unworthy, remember the promise. If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Embrace that promise. Ask God through His Holy Spirit and the creative power of the Word to create within you this sense of forgiveness, this sense of peace, this sense of no condemnation. Ask Him for His grace, not only to pardon your sins, but to empower you when you feel weak. Cling to the promise in 2 Corinthians 12:9. My grace is sufficient for you. Faith says, God said it, I believe it. That settles it. When Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient,” I believe the power of God’s grace is greater than the power of sin. Where sin doth abound, grace does much more abound. And Paul says in Romans 1:5 that it’s the grace for obedience. |
| Thirdly, commit your life to His mission completely. When you share your faith, self dies. Witnessing doesn’t just save others. By witnessing in the power of the spirit, God works in our life to starve selfishness to death. And witnessing is all part of His process in our sanctification. We pray, we study His Word, we share His grace with others, and we grow in Christ. Behold Him daily. Believe Him fully. Belong to His mission completely. That’s how God finishes His work in His people. |
| My friends, the final generation isn’t some group of spiritual superstars. They’re men and women, just like you, just like me. Sinners saved by grace. Sinners moulded by mercy. Sinners transformed by love. They’ve simply allowed the Sculptor’s chisel to do His work. The chiselling sometimes hurts. Remember, the Master never wastes one blow of the chisel. Maybe you feel God’s hammer right now. Maybe it’s been through trials. Maybe it’s been through loss. Maybe it’s been through discouragement. He’s not punishing you. He’s polishing you. |
| Would you like to say today, Lord, make make me one of those who reflect your image fully? Chip away everything in my life that hides your image. Shine through me so others may see you. If that’s your desire, would you just say “Yes, Lord”, wherever you are right now? |
| One day soon, Christ will return and the glory of Jesus will fill the heavens. And as He looks across the Earth, He will see in the time of our greatest difficulty. In the time of grief’s greatest trials, in the darkest moments of life, He will see a people whose faces shine because they reflected His grace. Because they lived godly, obedient lives and revealed His love before a waiting world in a watching universe. He will look at them and say, “This is My masterpiece of grace in a sinful world.” |
| And the earth will be filled with the glory of God. If you would like to say, Jesus, I can’t, but you can. I’m weak, but you’re strong. I’m frail, but you’re almighty. I’m ignorant, but you’re wise. I’m sinful, but you are the one altogether righteous. So cover me with your righteousness. Transform me by your grace and help me to live a godly life through your grace and by your power. If that’s your desire, bow your head with me right now as we pray. |
| Father in heaven, we’ve heard the call of Jesus. The call to live godly lives in this generation. The call to live lives with undivided hearts. Lives of complete loyalty to you. My Father, come as we surrender our lives to you. Fill us with your love, transform us by your power and may we reveal your character to the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen. |
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| [A message given by Pastor Mark Finley. |
| Pastor Mark Finley and the rest of the HopeLives365 team are based out of the Living Hope Seventh-day Adventist church in Haymarket, Virginia.] |
