Participants: Pr. Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000536A
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00:05 536 The Great Disappointment
00:11 [BREATH OF LIFE THEME Music] 00:20 PB: Matthew, chapter 24 and verse number 36. 00:25 If you have it, let me hear you say amen. 00:28 Come on, if you have it, let me hear you say amen. 00:30 All right, the Word of God says, 00:31 "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, 00:34 no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father"- 00:36 -what everybody? Aud.: Only. 00:37 PB: But as the days of Noah were, 00:39 so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 00:41 For as in the days that were before the 00:43 flood they were eating and"--what, everybody? 00:45 Aud.: Drinking. PB: Come on, eating and what? 00:47 Aud.: Drinking. PB: "Marrying and giving in"--what? 00:48 Aud.: Marriage. PB: "Until the day that Noah 00:50 entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, 00:54 and took them all away; so shall also the coming 00:56 of the Son of man be." Go down to verse number 42, 01:00 "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your 01:04 Lord doth come." Verse 44: "Therefore be ye also"- 01:11 -what, everybody? Aud.: Ready. 01:12 PB: Come on, "Be ye also" what? Aud.: Ready. 01:14 PB: "For in such an hour as ye think not 01:16 the Son of man cometh." Today we challenge you 01:21 on the subject, "The Great Disappointment." 01:24 Father, bless us now as we worship You through Your Word. 01:28 Hide us behind Your cross. Forgive us of our sins. 01:31 Speak to Your people this day, we pray. And God, 01:34 we give you now all the glory, all the honor, 01:36 all the praise. It belongs to You. Not to 01:38 me but to You. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 01:42 Have you ever been disappointed? Anybody? 01:47 Ever been disappointed. [Aud. reaction] 01:50 PB: I mean, really, really, disappointed. 01:52 All right, you're not feeling it, 01:55 maybe not feeling so let me try this way. 01:56 You applied for a job, but you didn't get the job. 02:01 You studied, and you didn't study on the Sabbath, 02:07 and somebody who studied on the Sabbath, 02:12 they passed the test. But you didn't study 02:15 on the Sabbath, but you didn't pass the test. 02:18 [Aud. reaction] PB: You tried out for the team, 02:21 but you didn't make the team. You confided in a friend, 02:27 but they told your business. You went out on a limb 02:32 for a family member, but a family member let you down. 02:37 Call the roll today, go down the list, all of us at 02:43 some point have been disappointed. But I'm learning, 02:48 you've got to get to the point where you say I'm not 02:51 even going to get mad anymore. I'm just going to 02:54 learn to expect the lowest out of the people 02:57 I thought the highest of. I don't know if 03:02 you realize it, but 172 years ago to this date 03:09 the greatest disappointment in Earth's 03:13 history occurred. Now, we come to the search, 03:17 we go to this institution, we watch by 03:19 television, but I don't really know if we 03:21 know what really transpired on October 22. 03:25 It wasn't individual disappointment, 03:27 it was collective disappointment, affecting 03:31 thousands of people. This date is probably 03:36 one of the most important dates in our church's history. 03:42 A gentleman by the name of William Miller, 03:45 a farmer turned Baptist preacher, coming from 03:50 upstate New York, predicted that Jesus would 03:54 return on October 22, 1844. William Miller 04:01 studied Daniel chapter 8, verse number 14: 04:05 "After 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary 04:10 be cleansed." He became convinced that the 04:14 cleansing of the sanctuary meant the cleansing 04:17 of the Earth. It meant the cleansing of the 04:20 Earth by fire at Christ's Second Coming instead 04:23 of the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven. 04:26 Applying the prophetic "one day for one year" rule, 04:30 as recorded in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6, 04:34 Miller became convinced that the 2300-day period 04:39 started in 457 B.C. with Artaxerxes of Persia's 04:44 rule and his decree to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, 04:49 and it would end 2300 years later with the coming 04:51 of Jesus Christ. Just as the time of Christ's first 04:56 coming had been foretold in Daniel 9, Miller 05:00 believed that Christ's Second Coming had been foretold 05:04 in the 2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8. Miller preached 05:09 with passion across the United States, "Repent, 05:13 for the hour is at hand. Jesus is soon to come. 05:17 Quit playing church. Get your house in order." 05:22 Miller's popularity and his methods grew like wildfire. 05:26 So great was the people's desire in major cities 05:29 at the time--Bostin, New York, Philadelphia, 05:32 Baltimore, Washington--so great was their desire 05:35 to hear him that they couldn't find auditoriums 05:38 large enough to accommodate the crowds. 05:41 Each of his followers were known as "Millerite." 05:44 Everybody say "Millerites." Aud.: Millerites. 05:46 PB: And they were challenged to win at least 05:48 one soul for Jesus Christ during the last year 05:52 of Earth's history, because Jesus was soon to come. 05:56 Because the Jewish year began in the spring 06:00 rather than in January--listen to me now--Miller 06:03 believed that Jesus would come sometime after 06:06 the spring began in 1843, exactly 2300 years 06:11 from 457 B.C. So then, Christ was supposed 06:14 to come between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. 06:21 But Jesus didn't come. So Miller and his associates, 06:25 they went back to work, did some more calculations, 06:30 and discovered that they had believed they had 06:33 the right event but they had the wrong date. 06:37 That new date was October 22, 1844. Why this date? 06:45 Another Millerite preacher by the name of Samuel Snow 06:49 was convinced that Jesus would return at the time 06:53 of the Jewish Day of Atonement, which according to 06:57 Old Testament Scripture was on the 10th day in the 06:59 seventh month of the year. Because they believed that 07:04 mid-March was when the Jewish year began and April 07:08 was the first full month of the Jewish year, 07:10 they counted down seven months and 10 days, 07:15 and when using the calendar of the Karaite Jews, 07:19 they determined this date to be October 22, 1844. 07:25 This seventh-month message spread with rapidity 07:29 unparalleled in Miller's earlier experience 07:32 among the people. Just before October 22, 1844, 07:38 Advent believers believed and were convinced that 07:44 Jesus was coming and the Earth would come to an end. 07:48 Notice, it was Advent believers, not necessarily 07:52 Seventh-day Adventists. Crops were unharvested, 07:57 potatoes undug, shops closed, people quit their jobs. 08:05 Nothing was more important to the people than 08:07 the fact that Jesus was coming in a few days. 08:11 People needed to be warned, sins confessed, 08:15 debts repaid, wrongs made right. 08:19 Millerite churches and meeting places hosted 08:22 almost continuous religious services. 08:25 In many parts of the United States, 08:26 on the morning of October 22, 1844, Advent groups 08:31 and believers were gathered in homes or meeting 08:33 houses to wait on the final hours of Earth's history, 08:37 perhaps as many as 100,000 people, back in 1844, 08:42 waiting in expectation that Jesus would soon appear. 08:47 Some were on mountaintops, hoping for a head start into heaven. 08:53 Some were in graveyards, planning to ascend to heaven 08:58 with their departed loved ones. Some ladies of high 09:02 society clustered together outside of Philadelphia 09:06 to avoid entering God's holy kingdom among common animals. 09:11 Some people dressed in white robes, hoping to 09:16 rise into heaven. But Jesus didn't come. 09:23 Jesus didn't crack the sky. Jesus didn't appear. 09:29 The people were crushed. The people were devastated. 09:33 The people were saddened. The people were frustrated. 09:36 The people were disappointed. This was the 09:40 Great Disappointment. But what they didn't 09:42 realize was that this time they had the right date, 09:48 but the wrong event. Jesus wasn't coming to 09:54 cleanse the Earth. Jesus wasn't coming back to the Earth. 09:59 Jesus wasn't moving from heaven to Earth, 10:03 but Jesus was moving from the Holy Place in 10:08 heaven to the Most Holy Place in heaven, 10:11 typical of the movement of the Old Testament, 10:15 high priests in the earthly sanctuary, 10:17 where He moved from the Holy Place to the 10:19 Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement. 10:22 Jesus, our High Priest; Jesus, who's seated 10:27 at the right hand of the Father, according to 10:29 Hebrews 9, moved from the Holy Place in the 10:32 heavenly sanctuary to the Most Holy Place 10:35 in the sanctuary, where He is right now. 10:38 This is important, and I had to preach this 10:40 today because I'm discovering in my travels 10:42 that young people and older people alike don't 10:45 know the distinct message of the Adventist church. 10:48 It is not the Sabbath. There are other people 10:52 who are not of our faith who keep the Sabbath. 10:55 It is not what we put in our bodies; it is not 11:00 the state of the dead. The distinct message of 11:03 the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the doctrine 11:06 of the sanctuary, and we don't know it. 11:09 [Aud. reaction] PB: So Jesus is in the 11:13 Most Holy Place. What is He doing right now? 11:17 He's engaged in the investigative judgment, 11:21 where He's reviewing the book of us right now, 11:25 looking over your name, looking over my name, 11:29 looking over our names. Why is this important? 11:34 This is important because it's for the benefit 11:36 of the angels. Remember, Satan deceived one-third 11:42 of the angels into thinking that God was a hard God, 11:45 that God was not a kind God, that God was a 11:48 straitjacket God. So during the investigative judgment, 11:52 Jesus and the angelic host are looking over our names, 11:56 seeing in essence who's been naughty and who's been nice. 12:00 But understand, there are three judgments: 12:04 the investigative right now, then when we get 12:07 to heaven there will be a millennial or white 12:09 throne judgment. It will be for the benefit of 12:12 the righteous, because the righteous will be able 12:14 to look over the books and see how everybody got 12:16 their just reward. At the end of the 1,000 years 12:19 when the wicked are resurrected, there will be 12:21 a third judgment, the postmillennial judgment, 12:23 where the wicked will be able to look at the books 12:25 and they too will see why they're getting their 12:27 just reward, because everybody will see that God 12:30 was a just God, that God was a fair God, 12:33 that God was a loving God, that God was not 12:36 willing that any should perish but that all should 12:38 come to repentance, because in that great day at 12:41 the end of the 1,000 years, the prophecy must come 12:44 to pass that a day must come where every knee shall bow, 12:47 every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 12:53 [Aud. reaction] PB: But the good news, friends of mine 12:55 is this: Jesus, my High Priest, Jesus is seated at the 13:01 right hand of the Father. Jesus right now is in the 13:05 Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. 13:07 Jesus is my intercessor. Jesus is my mediator. 13:13 Jesus is my go-between. Jesus speaks for me 13:17 when I can't speak for myself. Jesus is 13:21 pleading my case before the Father. 13:24 [Aud. reaction] PB: Go with me to the courtroom 13:26 of heaven, because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 13:30 that we all must appear before the judgment seat of God. 13:35 Go with me to heaven's courtroom. If you will, 13:39 I am the defendant. Understand that Satan is 13:44 the prosecuting attorney. Understand that 13:47 Jesus is my defense attorney. But also understand 13:52 that my God, the Father, is the judge that sits 13:56 on the throne. I don't believe I've got some 13:58 witnesses in here. The good news is the fight is fixed, 14:02 because the same God that pleads my case is the 14:06 same God and judge that sits, that will decide my case. 14:10 [Aud. reaction] PB: Satan says Carlton Byrd is a liar. 14:14 Carlton Byrd is a cheat. Carlton Byrd is this, 14:18 Carlton Byrd is that. I rest my case. But the Father 14:24 looks down and He asks the defendant to rise. 14:28 Me and Jesus, my defense attorney, stand up. 14:32 [Aud. reaction] PB: God the Father says, 14:34 Carlton Byrd, how do you plead? Well, 14:38 I can't plead not guilty, because everything 14:42 Satan is saying is the truth. I can't plead 14:46 I'm innocent, because if I'm found innocent, 14:50 I'm not telling the truth, and if I plead guilty, 14:53 I'm going to have eternal damnation. I don't 14:57 know what to say. Satan says, come on, 15:01 Mr. Judge, we need to hear how he pleads. 15:04 God says again, Carlton Byrd, how do you plead? 15:08 I'm shaking. I'm nervous. My feet are moving. 15:12 I don't know how to plead. I can't plead innocent. 15:15 I can't plead guilty. I can't plead not guilty. 15:18 Carlton Byrd, how do you plead? 15:22 All of a sudden, my attorney-- [Aud. reaction] 15:25 PB: My Jesus, He leans over and He whispers to me, 15:31 Byrd, plead the blood. [Aud. reaction] 15:35 PB: Byrd, plead what can wash away my sin? 15:40 Nothing but the blood of Jesus! [Aud. reaction] 15:44 PB: What can make me whole again? 15:46 Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 15:48 Miller had the right date, but the wrong event. 15:56 But Miller wasn't the only one who has 16:00 had the wrong event. If we call history today, 16:04 history says that in 236 a church leader 16:07 named Hippolytus predicted that Christ was 16:09 sure to return by 500 A.D., but Jesus didn't come. 16:13 The year surrounding 1000 A.D. there were still 16:15 predictions of Christ's coming, but Jesus didn't come. 16:18 In the 1500s, the great Reformer Martin Luther 16:21 said we have reached the time of the right 16:23 force of the apocalypse. This world will not 16:26 last any longer than another 100 years, 16:28 but Jesus didn't come. A little well-known 16:32 fact is the fact that Christopher Columbus was 16:34 a student of Bible prophecy. He wrote a volume 16:37 called "The Book of Prophecies" in which he 16:39 predicted that the world would end in 1556. 16:42 But Jesus didn't come. The year of 1666 saw an 16:46 explosion in end times speculation. 16:48 One pastor wrote in his journal, 16:50 "Every time a storm has hit this year, 16:51 the church was full of people waiting for Jesus." 16:54 But Jesus didn't come. In 1936--some of the 16:57 older folk may remember this name--Herbert Armstrong. 17:00 He was founder of the Worldwide Church of God. 17:03 He told his members that the Second Coming of 17:04 Jesus was to take place in 1936 and that they only 17:07 would be saved. They should have known that was not true, 17:11 because the Bible says John looked down and saw a 17:14 number that no man can number. So even as an 17:19 Adventist Christian, don't you get the big head 17:21 and think you're going to be the only one in heaven. 17:23 I wish I had a witness in this place. [Aud. reaction] 17:25 PB: After this prophecy failed in 1936, 17:27 Armstrong changed the date three more times: 17:30 1943, 1972, 1975. But Jesus didn't come. 17:37 In May 1980, a tele-evangelist, Christian 17:40 Coalition founder Pat Robertson, startled 17:44 and alarmed many when he informed his 17:46 700 Club viewership that he knew when the 17:49 world would end. He said, "I guarantee you, 17:52 by the end of 1982 that there is going to 17:56 be judgment on the world." But Jesus didn't come. 18:01 January 1, 2000, drew near. The beginning of a new year, 18:07 a new decade, a new millennium. Many people grew 18:11 concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. 18:15 The perceived problem was that many computers 18:18 would not be able to tell the difference between 18:20 the year 2000 and the year 1900. No one was really 18:23 sure what to do, but many suggested catastrophic 18:25 problems ranging from blackouts to nuclear holocaust. 18:29 Gun sales jumped. Survivalists prepared to live in bunkers. 18:35 My wife and I even bought, we even bought something- 18:40 -not thinking the Lord was going to come--but my wife and I, 18:43 we bought a gas heater, because we said in January, 18:47 if something goes wrong, we can't be cold. 18:48 Do I have a witness in this place? 18:51 [Aud. reaction] PB: But Jesus didn't come. 18:56 A preacher by the name of Harold Camping predicted 19:01 that Jesus would come on September 6, 1994. 19:05 When Jesus didn't come, he revised the date 19:09 to September 29th and then to October 2nd, 19:13 but Jesus still didn't come. Camping then 19:18 predicted that on March 31, 1995, Jesus would come. 19:23 But Jesus still didn't come. Camping's final 19:27 prediction was that a devastating earthquake 19:30 would occur on May 21, 2011, with God taking 19:34 approximately 3 percent of the world's population 19:38 into heaven and that the end of the world would 19:41 occur five months later, on October 21, 2011 19:44 When his original prediction failed to come to pass, 19:47 Camping revised his prediction and said that on 19:49 May 21, a spiritual judgment took place, 19:53 and that both the physical rapture and the end 19:56 of the world would occur on October 21, 2011. 20:00 But nothing happened. Jesus still had not come. 20:06 But all of these people had one thing in common: 20:11 They all had the same problem. Even though they 20:16 were preachers, even though they were Bible scholars, 20:20 even though they were professors, even though they 20:24 had read the Bible, they must have missed the text 20:30 that we read today, that no man knows the day 20:36 nor the hour, not even the angels of heaven 20:41 but My Father only. So if someone is walking around 20:45 Huntsville, New York, Atlanta, London, 20:48 wherever you might be, talking about Jesus 20:50 is coming on January 1, 2017, we know that's 20:54 a lie from the pits of hell. Because Jesus 20:58 said no man knows the day nor the hour but 21:01 My Father only. So then, what was Jesus 21:03 trying to tell us in the text? What He's 21:06 trying to tell us is simply this: 21:08 Just be ready at all times. [Aud. reaction] 21:12 Now yes, at other times Jesus says to 21:15 watch for the signs, earlier in Matthew 24. 21:17 But not so that we can put off being ready, 21:20 but so that we will ever be expectant of His return. 21:25 So today, October 22, commemorating the Great Disappointment, 21:30 I'm not going to tell you a date. I'm not going to 21:35 give you a precise date of when He's coming. 21:38 I'm just here to let you know that 21:41 Jesus is coming soon, and we've got to be 21:45 ready at all times. It's in our name. 21:49 We are Seventh-day Adventists. 21:53 We are looking forward to the Second Advent, 21:56 the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We worship 22:00 God on God's Sabbath, the seventh day, 22:02 Because we love God. So because I love God, 22:06 I'm a seventh-day, keeping a seventh-day Sabbath Adventist, 22:10 looking for the Second Advent or 22:12 Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We've stopped preaching it. 22:15 We've stopped teaching it. That's why we're here. 22:21 Jesus is soon to come. The signs tell it. 22:26 [Aud. reaction] PB: Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, 22:31 hurricanes, pestilence in diverse places. In the text, 22:38 Jesus then compares His coming to Noah and the Flood. 22:43 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the 22:47 coming of the Son of man be, for as in the days 22:49 before the flood they were eating and what, everybody? 22:51 Aud.: Marrying. PB: And marrying and giving in what, everybody? 22:53 Aud.: Marriage. PB: Until the day that Noah entered the what? 22:55 And knew not until the flood came and took them away. 22:58 So shall the coming of the Son of man be. 23:01 Just like it was in Noah's day. 23:03 That's just like it is today. People eating and drinking, 23:10 eating any and everything they want, 23:14 drinking any and everything they want. 23:18 Marrying and giving in marriage. 23:22 Some people change marriage partners like 23:24 they do magazine subscriptions. Marrying and 23:29 giving in marriage. Noah preached 120 years. 23:34 Only eight people got in the boat. 23:37 If only eight people are going to get in the boat, 23:40 Noah just could have had family worship. 23:42 You all don't hear what I'm saying. 23:43 [Aud. reaction] PB: But only eight people got in the boat. 23:47 Now, did Noah believe the flood was imminent? 23:51 Did Noah believe the rains would come at any moment? 23:56 Yes, that's why he spent every waking moment building a boat. 24:01 But did anybody else think the flood was coming? 24:04 Did they believe God? No, they were partying. 24:09 They spent their time with scoffers and with 24:11 people who mocked Noah, and because they 24:13 didn't think God would do what He promised- 24:15 -listen to me--because they didn't think 24:18 God would do what He promised, 24:19 their bad theology led them to bad behavior. 24:23 [Aud. reaction] PB: When judgment came, 24:26 they perished. They lost everything. 24:31 Oh, but Noah, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 24:38 Noah believed God. Noah knew God was coming 24:43 down in judgment, so Noah did what God told him to do. 24:47 He built a boat. Noah preached to anybody who would listen. 24:52 That's why I can't worry about big crowds anymore. 24:55 When I go do revivals across the country and the world, 24:57 I can't worry about big crowds. God said in His Word, 25:00 wherever there are two or three gathered in My name, 25:02 I shall be in the midst. Noah preached to anybody 25:07 who would listen. He worked to make sure his 25:10 family went in with him. But we need to realize 25:13 that Noah didn't do what he did because he was afraid. 25:17 The ark--listen to me--was not a work of fear. 25:22 The ark was a labor of love. Noah was driven by a promise. 25:29 The promise was Noah, if you do what I tell you to do, 25:34 you will be saved. And because Noah believed in God's 25:40 promise and did what God told him to do, when judgment came, 25:45 Noah was going to be safe. Noah was saved because Noah did 25:51 what God told him to do. But God--listen to me good, church, 25:56 'cause you got to say amen, but you've got to say aha--Noah, 25:59 God didn't need a boat to save Noah and his family. 26:04 God didn't need a boat. It wasn't the boat that saved 26:10 Noah and his family. It was God. He's CEO of the universe. 26:18 You didn't vote Him in and you can't vote Him out! 26:22 Once they stepped in the boat, God closed the door 26:28 and God watched over them. It was because Noah 26:32 did what God asked. Noah had access to the 26:38 promise of salvation. As it was in the days of Noah, 26:43 so shall it also be in the coming of the Son of man. 26:47 And just like Noah, I'm driven by a promise. 26:54 You are driven by a promise. We're driven by a promise. 27:01 God is not a man that He should lie nor the Son of man 27:08 that He should repent. We should be driven by a promise. 27:13 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word 27:17 of our God shall stand forever. I'm driven by a promise. 27:24 Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, 27:28 believe also in me. In my Father's house are many what? 27:32 Mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. 27:34 I go and prepare a place for you, and if I go and 27:36 prepare a place for you I will come again and receive 27:39 you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be--what, everybody? 27:42 Aud.: Also. PB: I'm driven by a promise. 27:44 For the Lord himself shall ascend from heaven with a shout, 27:48 with a voice of the archangel and the trump of God, 27:51 and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which 27:55 are alive and remain shall be called up together with 27:57 them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, 28:00 and so shall we ever be with the Lord. I'm driven by a promise. 28:06 Behold, I show you a mystery, that one day we shall 28:10 not all sleep but we shall be changed. In a moment, 28:15 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last -- 28:17 >: Thank you for joining us for another exciting 28:18 Breath of Life television broadcast. 28:20 Tune in next week at the same time, 28:22 as Dr. Byrd will deliver another dynamic message 28:25 from the Lord, just for you. 28:27 Until next time, may God bless you. 28:30 END |
Revised 2016-10-27