Participants: Bill Knott
Series Code: POFCM
Program Code: POFCM000001
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01:03 In the beginning of creation when the world
01:15 was full the Lord in his splendor. This world he 01:26 had rendered. Still the best was yet to come 01:37 God's greatest glory. The world's life story. 01:53 Written just for me, Jesus is God's greatest glory. 02:29 From his birth in a manger to his death on 02:35 Calvary He fulfilled the Father's pledge Jesus 02:48 Christ loves sacrifice Giving hope to every man 03:04 God's greatest glory. The world's life story 03:19 Written just for me, Jesus is God's greatest glory 03:46 Jesus is God's greatest glory. 04:09 Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you Melody. 04:15 Well, Melody is still singing beautifully. 04:18 Ever since I first met her and first saw her 04:21 was many years ago when the two of you 04:24 before you ever even built this ministry you 04:27 were traveling around telling people about the 04:29 dream and Melody was just a young teenager. 04:33 Oh, yeah 13-14. Yeah. 04:35 Its been a long time and God gives you just 04:38 just what you need and Melody has been such 04:40 a support over the years to this ministry not 04:42 just to me personally. Of course I love her 04:44 and Greg all the grand kids but I am 04:46 saying in just in general to have her and she is 04:49 willing to travel, she is willing to sing. 04:51 Yes. And so thank you 04:52 Melody I love you and appreciate you honey. 04:54 Wow! Well it's so great to see all of these 04:57 people with us here in Thompsonville. 04:59 Amen, alright. They have come from 05:00 all over the United States, Costa Rica and 05:04 some other places that. Yeah. 05:06 That have arrived here and it's quite a crowd 05:09 for a Wednesday night and I am really 05:11 impressed. Impressed with you all. 05:13 Yes. I know we were going 05:14 to have a lot of people because I saw all the 05:15 motor home places were being taken up we 05:17 have those Camp grounds on both sides and I see people 05:21 coming in and people put up tents and people 05:23 do all sorts, so we are happy. Yes. 05:25 It's a great time of year to be here in Southern 05:27 Illinois, this is God's country in case you 05:29 didn't know. Yeah. 05:30 And the weather is always perfect; 05:32 year around the weather is perfect. 05:34 That's right. And that's what I 05:35 told Jim Gilley. Yeah. 05:36 When I asked him to come up, he said how is 05:38 the weather? This is perfect all the time. 05:39 Yeah, it's always prefect. Don't worry about it. 05:41 No, you get just what you want, 05:42 you understand. Yeah. 05:44 And it went from winter to summer so we 05:47 skipped spring and we've got really nice 05:50 weather out there. So, if you are camping 05:54 you will be nice and comfortably warm 05:56 at this time. That's right. 05:57 Sure, sure, and we want to, want to 06:00 thank all of our viewers at home also for your 06:02 love and your prayers and financial support 06:04 and all of you here at 3ABN. And we are 06:07 going to be this weekend instead of we have 06:09 had a Ten Commandments weekend camp meeting 06:11 last two, three years or so, but this weekend 06:14 we literally it's The Pillars of our Faith. 06:16 Right. Pillars of the Christian 06:17 Faith weekend and we are inviting everybody, 06:21 we told the audience here. At home a little 06:23 while ago, it's like we are drawing a line in 06:25 the sand as Christians in the sand, you know 06:27 what we have this book called Pillars of our 06:29 Faith I'm picking it up. But if I had the Bible 06:31 here I would do the same thing, the Pillars 06:34 of our Christian Faith are its not one 06:37 denominations, belief it's what the Bible 06:39 says. Just happen to be that some folk agree 06:41 with it. That's right. 06:42 We espouse it and so we decided to have a 06:44 weekend and have preaching on nothing 06:47 except the pillars of our faith and its all Bible 06:51 preaching and I can't wait myself, I don't 06:53 know about you, some of you I know that's 06:54 true those of you here to hear all the 06:57 preaching, all the music. Music has been 06:59 written, the pillars of our faith. How many 07:01 have heard the CDs or DVDs here? Well, 07:03 most of you. That's right. 07:05 And that's probably why you are here; 07:06 you have heard some of that. Absolutely, 07:07 we will talk a little bit more about it 07:09 tomorrow night how the Lord blessed to put 07:11 this thing together and songs that are written, 07:14 that literally from the pillars of the Christian faith. 07:18 What we believe is Seventh Day Adventist put to 07:21 music and then to have the preachers coming 07:24 here is incredible Jim. It really is and as we 07:27 have started to look at these pillars, we have 07:31 seen that they been eroded in most of the 07:34 churches and starting to be eroded even in 07:37 some of our own churches. Yeah. 07:39 And so it is time once again to say this is 07:44 what we believe, this is where we stand and 07:48 we are not going to be moved just like that 07:50 song, I will not be moved, just like that 07:53 that we find, like a tree planted by the waters. 07:57 I will not be moved and we must take that 08:00 position folks in order to stand for truth 08:04 because there are so many people today that 08:06 are willing to say well, what difference does 08:08 it make whether you believe this or whether 08:11 you believe that. But you can take the Bible 08:13 and go from cover to cover and you'll never 08:17 find that phrase what difference does it make, 08:21 its not in God's word, it has always made a 08:25 difference to God where we teach, 08:28 what we teach and how we live. 08:32 There is a friend of mine who is always using 08:35 the statement when we talk about something 08:37 he will say true and also correct and you 08:41 know I have thought about that statement so 08:43 many times and it is so good because if something 08:47 is true it is correct and somehow today 08:52 there has been a premium on things that 08:55 are not true, people taking something that 08:57 isn't true and trying to make that a doctrine or 09:02 a teaching or something of that nature. 09:04 And the devil has been doing that from the 09:06 very beginning but with God's word it is 09:09 true and it is also correct. Amen. 09:13 The trouble with deception is you don't 09:15 know you are deceived, right? 09:16 Right. Think about it, we don't 09:18 know where it is, people if we knew we were 09:21 deceived we wouldn't be deceived probably 09:23 we would change, but that's the problem. 09:25 So, with 3ABN hitting our 25th year. 09:28 C. A Murray said last year, what are we going 09:29 to do? We need something really big, 09:31 something special. We didn't have anything 09:33 planned until I met David Huntsinger and 09:36 Kris Wilkinson down in Nashville and they 09:39 told us how excited they were about the truths 09:43 they were learning studying Adventists 09:45 beliefs which is again just Bible beliefs and 09:48 doctrines they say these were so unique. 09:50 They are very well known creative musicians 09:53 and songwriters and they said, David said I 09:55 would love to write some songs on these, 09:58 what do we call it. And it just kind of popped 10:00 out I said you are talking about the pillars 10:02 of our faith and he said that's got to be it, 10:04 lets do a pillars of our faith project. 10:07 Now, what's so important about it is because 10:09 after 25 years we know what the Lord 10:12 impressed us to do, build a television 10:13 station that would reach the world with an 10:15 undiluted 3 Angels messages. One that would 10:18 counteract the counterfeit. You all 10:20 jumped on that vision and made it possible 10:23 3ABN what it is today, reaching literally 10:26 every continent and the world and hundreds 10:28 and hundreds of millions of potential people 10:30 can watch at any given time or listen on radio. 10:33 But after 25 years when we look at our 10:36 churches and we say it seems these pillars 10:38 have been so eroded, how do we know its 10:41 not happening at 3ABN. How do we know 10:43 that our preaching, how do we know that our 10:45 teaching is still solid. The only way you can 10:48 do is go back to the Bible. Is to go back and 10:50 reexamine what God gave us in the beginning 10:54 of this church when it was raised and see are 10:57 we deviating from that, are we eroding the 10:59 pillars. Have we forsaken some of these, 11:01 if so we need to make a change and we don't 11:04 care what the rest world does, we've got to 11:07 change. So 3ABN is determined and our 11:09 board is determined, we had a meeting today. 11:12 I can speak for every board member, 11:13 they are determined the 3ABN gave an 11:15 undiluted Three Angel's Messages one that 11:18 would counteract the counterfeit. 11:19 They are not people followers, they are not 11:21 excited about this preacher or that preacher 11:24 or have them on at any cost. The idea is if the 11:26 man is given truth we want him on, 11:28 we support him. If he isn't we don't care what 11:30 his name is, we don't support it. Amen. 11:32 And it's that straight forward and that's what 11:34 we want to be now. All of us have sin in 11:36 our lives none of us are perfect, we're not up 11:38 here saying that, we are all struggling but 11:40 we all need to look to the cross for those of 11:43 us, Christians wanting to go to heaven we 11:45 need to look to the cross of Jesus to Calvary 11:47 and say Lord what is it? First of all submit or 11:50 commit our lives to him and then go and tell 11:52 what he has done for us. But if we don't know 11:54 what we are supposed to go and tell 11:55 we are in trouble. How do we know? 11:56 We go to the Bible. Amen. 11:58 And the Bible defines and tells us what is 12:00 truth and what is error. And so by God's grace 12:04 3ABN continues. We want to make sure 12:07 we've invited our viewers if you hear us 12:09 saying something that's not true, 12:10 our preachers are preaching things that are 12:12 not according to the Bible, you let us know 12:14 we will take them off. That's right. 12:16 We surely will. Right. 12:17 You agree with that, shall we take them off. 12:18 I don't care who they are right. 12:20 Be the greatest named preacher 12:21 you know if they are not telling the truth 12:23 we should take them off 3ABN. 12:25 Yeah, that's right. 12:26 Because we just simply want the truth out 12:27 there. But every single program 12:29 that comes out on 3ABN goes through our 12:32 pastoral staff, we have a group that reviews 12:35 these programs. if they find anything that they 12:39 do not think is according to God's word then 12:42 they pull that program, that program doesn't 12:44 go on until we clear on the fact that this is 12:48 supported by God's word. So we are trying to 12:51 be very careful about that but occasionally, 12:53 you know we are human beings, some thing 12:55 will slip through that really it might not be 12:59 exactly according to God's word. And so if 13:02 that happens you be sure to let us know. 13:04 We will make corrections. And a lot of times it is 13:06 a matter of interpretation and some things we may 13:09 never know till we get to heaven. 13:11 But there are certain pillars of truth 13:12 that we know, the Sabbath would be one, 13:14 the state of the dead, right. Those are the 13:16 things that we may seem different from the 13:18 rest of the world but it really doesn't make us 13:21 any difference because we are not trying to 13:23 get the alms of the world. Are you? 13:24 I mean really you are not trying to get the 13:26 alms of world; we just want to get the truth 13:28 out so to, for you all to be a part of this 13:31 movement, we call the movement this church. 13:33 We have made a decision already; we are 13:36 different a little bit than a lot of folk, 13:38 right. Everyone of you are here you are a little 13:40 different; I mean you have to be, Jim Gilley 13:42 said one day to be an Adventist you got to be 13:44 different, you got to be willing to stand up 13:46 and tell the rest of world, I don't think 13:47 you are right on some of these points 13:49 That's right. Not everybody has got 13:50 the personality or will to do that. 13:52 As I look at our audience, some of them 13:54 are more different than others, 13:55 rightly. It's alright. No comments. 13:59 We are God's children aren't we? 14:01 I think you are all beautiful and perfect. 14:02 Amen, that's right. But you know something 14:05 standing for the truth will not ever be popular 14:09 and if it's popular you probably are not 14:12 standing for the truth. We have an 14:15 outstanding presenter that is going to be 14:19 presenting the message tonight on the Bible, 14:22 the inspired word of God and this is Dr Bill Knott, 14:26 he is the editor of the Adventist Review, 14:29 he is well-known. He has been in this 14:33 message all of his life, he has the advanced 14:36 degrees that some of us don't have and at the 14:40 same time he is humble and wonderful 14:44 person. I know him personally and I know 14:47 that you are going to find him to be the same 14:49 way. God has given him a gift of writing and 14:53 the gift of speaking and tonight you are going 14:56 to be blessed as he brings you the message. 15:01 If you like to know more about Pastor Bill Knott 15:04 you can look him up on the Internet, 15:06 you go to the Adventist review and when we 15:09 were talking back there he said don't give 15:11 them one of these long introductions, 15:14 you just tell them that I love the Lord and I 15:16 want to talk about Jesus. So that's what we 15:19 are doing tonight. And then before that 15:21 happens we have some music. 15:23 We have some special music, we have Nathan Young 15:25 and those of you that have seen the 15:27 CDs and heard the CDs and have the DVDs 15:31 and we get to say Nathan, thank you for being 15:33 here tonight. You come all the way from? 15:35 Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville, Tennessee, 15:38 we are so glad that you are here tonight. 15:39 Glad to be here. What song you are going 15:40 to be doing tonight? Written in stone. 15:42 Written in stone, thank you so much and God 15:44 bless you and we want to be praying for you 15:46 and also praying for Brother Knott. 15:48 And as Brother Nathan finishes, Pastor Bill Knott 15:53 will be the next for us here. 16:08 The Law is just and the law is right. 20:02 Amen. Thank you Nathan 20:11 and thank you for the chance to talk this 20:13 evening about the importance of the word of 20:15 God in our lives together as believers. 20:19 I am going to invite you to take your Bibles 20:20 with me tonight and turn to a passage of 20:23 scripture you may not have heard read in a 20:25 while. One of the historical books of the 20:28 Old Testament, Second Chronicles, chapter 20:31 34, we are going to begin to reading at verse 20:37 14. Story about finding the book of law. 20:48 Second Chronicles 34:14-21 20:55 While they were bringing out the money that 20:57 had been brought into the house of the Lord, 20:59 the priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Law 21:03 of the Lord given through Moses. 21:06 Hilkiah said to the secretary Shaphan 21:09 "I have found the Book of the Law in the 21:11 house of the Lord. " And Hilkiah gave the 21:13 book to Shaphan. Shaphan brought the book 21:16 to the King and further reported to the King 21:19 all that was committed to your servants they 21:22 are doing. They have emptied out the money 21:25 that was found in the house of the Lord and 21:27 have delivered it into the hand of the 21:29 overseers and the workers. " The secretary 21:31 Shaphan informed the King, "The priest 21:34 Hilkiah has given me a book. " Shaphan then 21:38 read it aloud to the King. 21:41 When the King heard the words of the Law, 21:46 he tore his clothes. Then the King 21:49 commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of 21:51 Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, the secretary 21:54 of Shaphan and the King's servant Asaiah: 21:57 "Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for 21:59 those who are left in Israel and Judah 22:02 concerning the words of the book that have 22:03 been found. For the wrath of the Lord that is 22:06 poured out on us is great because our 22:09 ancestors did not keep the word of the Lord; 22:12 to act in accordance with all that 22:14 is written this book. " 22:19 Often when I finish reading a passage of 22:21 scripture like that before starting a message 22:23 I say what I am going to say tonight. 22:26 You have already heard the most important 22:28 words you are going to hear this evening and 22:30 they are not mine. This evening I want to 22:34 to talk with you about recoveries, 22:38 three of them in fact. One of them a few years 22:43 ago, one of them long, long ago and one of 22:48 them by the grace of God soon to be. 22:55 And uncle Henry's homemade pretzel store 22:58 near Adamstown, Pennsylvania, 23:02 you can satisfy just about any pretzel whim 23:05 you may have. If you like your pretzels extra 23:09 dark and salty, Uncle Henry's has the stuff for 23:13 you. And if you have been talking with your 23:16 doctor about reducing salt intake, 23:20 Uncle Henry's can offer you your 23:22 favorite mouthwatering snack in a low sodium 23:25 variety. As you tour Uncle Henry's bakery 23:31 reveling in the warm aroma of all that baking 23:34 wheat and those seasonings you can munch 23:37 on whole wheat or sesame or low protein or 23:40 regular or even low protein extra salt. 23:45 And, if you haven't quite gotten the victory over 23:48 chocolate yet, you can buy a tin of Uncle 23:53 Henry's chocolate covered pretzels and sneak 23:55 them into the car when no one else is looking. 24:00 There are many reasons to visit Adamstown, 24:03 Pennsylvania on a lazy summer day 24:07 and Uncle Henry's handmade pretzel store is 24:11 just one of the better ones. Thousands, 24:13 actually tens of thousands of people flock 24:16 to this small town in the Amish countryside 24:20 every year, they come there to tour the pretzel 24:23 factory. To eat at all the charming restaurants 24:27 and most of all to browse through the antique 24:32 stores and the flea markets that line route 24:35 272, those antiques and flea markets that have 24:39 caused this town to be known as 24:42 The Antiques Capitol of America. 24:46 An hour North West of Philadelphia in the 24:48 midst of the rolling green acres of the old 24:51 order Amish, Adamstown and its many 24:55 antique markets have capitalized on the fact 24:58 that city residents want to get away. 25:00 They want to escape to some place where the 25:03 dominant color is green instead of gray. 25:08 They wanted to go some place where you can 25:09 cross the street without taking your life in 25:11 your hands. It doesn't hurt that one of the 25:14 most important documents in the history of 25:17 American antiquities was found in one of 25:20 those antique markets in Adamstown a few 25:23 years ago. Though you probably can't get 25:27 very many of them to admit it, some hundreds 25:30 of people who come there every summer to 25:33 paw through the old clothes and look at all 25:36 those chip kerosene lamps and study those 25:40 fading portraits of someone else's relatives, 25:44 they come there because they're secretly 25:46 hoping that they will be as fortunate as one 25:51 other very fortunate man who came there 25:54 more than 20 years ago. 25:58 In the summer of 1989 a Philadelphia stock 26:01 analyst who's remained anonymous to this 26:04 day. He was combing through the piles of 26:07 stuff in one of the antique stores in 26:09 Adamstown. His eye laid on a wooden frame, 26:15 caught his fancy and he picked it up to look at 26:17 the price tag, at four dollars. The frame was 26:22 what you might call as sort of a medium fine, 26:26 pretty good bargain, not great. Something he 26:31 might be able to use to put a better picture in, 26:33 when he took it home. 26:36 He certainly didn't have any use for the 26:38 picture that was already in the frame, he has 26:41 quoted as calling it a dismal country scene, 26:45 probably by some armature artist who had 26:47 painted a hay stack or a barn from the late 26:50 neighboring countryside. The analyst put the 26:53 frame after he paid for it in his trunk and 26:56 drove home to Philadelphia. 26:59 It was only when he took off the wooden 27:01 backing behind the canvas that he began to 27:03 think he might have bought more than he 27:06 knew. The old frame literally fell apart in 27:11 his hands as he tried the work the backing off, 27:15 but instead being disappointed that he had 27:17 bought four dollars worth of junk his eye lit 27:19 up when a crisply folded yellowing document 27:23 fell out from between the canvas and the 27:26 broken wooden back. 27:29 Tucked between the canvas and the wooden 27:32 back of that old frame was a sheet folded 27:37 carefully, that had been undisturbed for 27:41 decades, maybe even centuries. 27:47 I am sure his eyes widened a bit and his 27:51 heart began to beat a little faster as he 27:54 read these words. In Congress, July 4th 28:01 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13 28:06 United States of America when in the course 28:10 of human events it becomes necessary for one 28:13 people to dissolve the political bands which 28:16 have connected them with another and to 28:17 assume the powers of the earth, the separate 28:20 and equal station to which the laws of nature 28:23 and nature's God entitled them, a descent 28:25 respect to the opinions of mankind requires 28:29 that they should declare the causes that 28:31 impel them to this separation. 28:33 We hold these truths to be self evident. 28:38 That all men are created equal, that they are 28:42 endowed by their creator with certain 28:44 unalienable rights. That among these are life, 28:49 liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 28:52 That to secure these rights governments are 28:54 instituted among men deriving their just 28:57 powers from the consent of the 29:00 government. There in his hands lay one of the 29:06 most important documents in America history. 29:10 What he later learned was one of the first 25 29:15 copies of the declaration of independence printed 29:18 on the evening of July 4th 1776 by a 29:22 Philadelphia printer named Don Bayer. 29:27 All the other 24 had long since been 29:29 accounted for, 21 of them in institutional 29:33 collections and archives, three of them in 29:35 private hands, his was the last and arguably 29:40 the most precious copy of what one expert 29:44 has rightly called the cornerstone document 29:49 in the history of world freedom. 29:53 When that anonymous Philadelphia stock 29:56 analyst sold that incredible document at 29:59 Sotheby's auction house two years later, 30:01 it netted a cool 2.42 million. 30:07 The very fortunate and very wealthy man 30:10 who bought it certainly realized what he was 30:13 buying. The words in this document he said 30:17 the words in this document are the words 30:21 that knocked down the Berlin war. 30:26 Nine years later a Hollywood producer out 30:28 bid another rival and paid 8.14 million for 30:32 that same folded piece of yellow paper. 30:37 So if you're ever at a flea market in 30:40 Adamstown, Pennsylvania and you notice that 30:44 people seem to be paying special attention to 30:46 old wooden frames, now you'll know why. 30:50 In the back rooms of our lives and the piles 30:56 of stuff we have inherited from our 30:58 ancestors and ourselves. There are treasures 31:02 that still make the heart beat quickly, 31:05 Make the eyes light up. They burn into our 31:09 imagination the possibilities of a world 31:14 we can only glimpse, perhaps like me you 31:18 were also a treasure seeker in your youth. 31:22 Oh, yes I made the usual runs of collecting 31:25 stamps, you know gluing all those little 31:28 plastic squares to the back of the stamps and 31:31 mounting them on the appropriate pages. 31:34 And for a while I used to walk through the 31:36 children's wing of the town library looking at 31:39 old books hoping that I might find some 31:42 treasure map there that would lead to a vast 31:45 golden orb, but mostly I collected coins, 31:50 American coins, mostly copper, occasionally 31:55 silver. I learned how to spot 31:58 the markers of condition that the coin 32:01 collecting guides told you would fetch the 32:03 highest price on the market. As a 12 year old 32:06 I would walk the three mile round trip to the 32:09 Worcester County Savings Bank to trade 30 32:12 wrapped rolls of Lincoln pennies for another 32:16 30, hoping as I combed through them that I 32:21 would find something really precious. 32:25 As every Lincoln penny collector of the 32:27 1960s knew, there was one penny above 32:31 others that collectors sought, coveted even. 32:36 A 1909 SVDB, a Lincoln penny produced by 32:43 the San Francisco mint that bore the initials of 32:46 Vincent D Brenner, the designer of the 32:48 Lincoln penny. Only 484,000 of those were 32:52 ever struck by the mint and when I was 12 32:55 they were fetching a $100 a piece, 32:59 10,000 times the face value of the penny. 33:04 Today on Internet auctions they fetch 33:08 at least $ 6000 each, 600,000 times the face 33:14 value of the coin. I use to imagine stumbling 33:18 into an old abandoned house near where we 33:21 lived and finding behind the ripped wall 33:24 paper an entire wrapped roll of 1909 33:29 SVDB pennies all in mint condition. 33:34 Oh, the dreams of treasure waiting to be 33:37 discovered. In the backrooms of our lives, 33:41 in the stuff we have inherited from our 33:43 ancestors and ourselves there are treasures 33:46 that still make the heart beat quickly that 33:49 make the eyes light up, that burn in to our 33:52 imagination possibilities that we have only 33:55 glimpsed. And you know its not 33:58 just economic hard times of the last several 34:02 years that have turned us into a nation of 34:04 treasure seekers. We all would like a 34:08 little extra cash I am sure if we discovered 34:11 something great in the backyard. 34:13 But everywhere you go people seem to 34:15 looking for a lost treasure, on civil war 34:18 battle fields, in camps grounds, middle aged 34:21 men with metal detectors go around 34:23 trying to find coat buttons and insignia and 34:28 bayonets and canteens from that huge struggle 34:32 150 years ago. Genealogists assist 34:37 thousands of American families every year 34:39 who are trying to discover if they might be 34:42 related to someone who left a fortune that's 34:45 been unclaimed? We pour through documents 34:50 of the registry of deeds at the country court 34:52 house. We are wondering if maybe there is 34:55 something yet undiscovered in one of 34:58 those land titles we hold, deep within our 35:02 collective mind is this primal belief that 35:05 something, something near at hand, 35:09 something within reach. Something close to 35:13 where we live and work and cry and play, 35:18 it might hold the key to a future so much 35:22 better than this moment. 35:25 In the midst of deadening routine our minds go 35:29 go treasure hunting. In the middle of baking 35:32 bread and picking up after children and 35:35 stamping out electrical components and even 35:39 writing editorials, we begin to imagine what 35:43 our lives could be like if we found just that 35:46 one thing, that one thing that would make us 35:50 happy. Why, we would be free, free from our 35:56 debts, free from worry, free from care, 35:59 if we just had that one thing and it's 36:03 somewhere not far away. 36:08 Our story, you see is really a very old, 36:13 old story. As long as there has been a people 36:18 of God in this world there have been 36:20 moments when the drifts and the confusion 36:25 and the worry and the pressures got so 36:28 pervasive that they could only be arrested by 36:30 a dramatic movement of the spirit of God that 36:33 brings clarity, that brings light, that brings 36:36 restoration and brings recovery, that's what 36:38 we read about in Second Chronicles 34 36:41 tonight and that's what we are here to talk 36:43 about tonight, finding God's word again 36:48 For 60 years the nation of Judah had been 36:52 sliding down that slippery slope that always 36:55 occurs when men and women have a form of 36:57 Godliness but they deny the power. 37:02 After the great revivals of Hezekiah's reign, 37:06 the nation under Manasseh, the nation 37:08 under Ammon had slip back into apostasy with 37:11 an ease that must have surprised even the Lord. 37:16 When you read around Second Chronicles 34 37:20 you discover that even in the temple of the 37:23 Lord at Jerusalem there was an amazing array 37:26 of pagan idols and pagan practices that 37:29 weren't only tolerated, they were actually 37:31 welcomed. Vessels dedicated to the 37:36 Canaanite fertility God 'Baal' were used in the 37:40 worship of God. His female consort 'Asherah' 37:47 she had her own fertility pole right there in 37:49 the temple. Royally appointed priests, 37:55 they were offering incense to the sun, 37:57 the moon, the stars and all the high places of 38:00 the land including in Jerusalem. 38:04 Male cult prostitutes were applying their trade 38:09 in the very temple of the Lord. 38:14 There was an age of the what these 38:15 sociologists of religion like to call syncretism, 38:18 it's just a fancy word for blending. 38:22 It was an age of consensus; it was an age 38:27 of cheap unanimity and causal agreement. 38:30 It was an age when almost no one stood up to 38:32 proclaim their loyalty to the God of heaven 38:35 almost always required separation from the 38:37 things of earth. Yes, you are already thought 38:42 it tonight; there was an age very much like 38:45 our own. And even though King Josiah had 38:51 made some early righteous attempts to 38:53 straighten out some of the corruption in the 38:55 land everything I just told you about was still 38:58 in place 18 years under his reign. 39:03 The boy King, the one who had inspired the 39:07 repair of the temple, well he was now in the 39:10 grip of young adulthood and things looked a 39:13 little differently. Maybe even as the King, 39:16 maybe even as the head of the nation he had 39:19 got discouraged that all the work it was going 39:22 to take to take clean up not only the temple 39:24 but the whole nation. Perhaps Josiah like a 39:28 whole lot of us step back behind the 39:34 glittering image of organized religiosity. 39:40 While his inner man, his inner man got 39:43 increasingly sick and diseased, may be he felt 39:47 helpless, may be he felt he couldn't do 39:49 anything to effect great changes in the nation 39:52 when he himself lacked a clear vision of what 39:55 revival and recovery and reformation might 39:57 need. Then friends the Spirit of God began to 40:04 move. The Spirit of God began to move as he 40:09 always does just when the darkness gets most 40:13 intense. 150 years ago the great English 40:17 writer Thomas Carlyle wrote a line that I have 40:20 written on the walls of my life, when it gets 40:23 dark enough the eternal stars shine through. 40:28 When it gets dark enough the eternal stars 40:32 shine through. No, the spirit of God didn't 40:36 need to send a dream to the King in the 40:38 middle of the night to tell him what needed 40:40 reforming and when and no, God didn't send 40:43 down a lighting bolt to consume the altars of 40:45 Baal and to sizzle all those cult prostitutes 40:49 in the middle of their debauchery. 40:53 Oh, my friends all that the Spirit of God had 40:55 to do to begin the time of healing and 40:59 recovery and restoration and reformation, 41:05 all the Spirit of God had to do was to open 41:07 someone's eyes. We can't even be sure 41:12 of just who that someone was. Maybe it was 41:16 one of the day laborers who was working on 41:19 rebuilding the dilapidated portions of 41:21 the temple. It might have been of the Levites 41:25 who went into the backrooms and started 41:27 moving the dust around. 41:31 It might have even be as he claimed that it 41:33 was Hilkiah the high priest himself who made 41:37 the discovery. Maybe he was the one who had 41:40 his eyes open, maybe in fact Hilkiah picked 41:45 up this old wooden frame that sort of fell 41:48 apart in his hands. But whoever it was, 41:52 whether it was a carpenter or a Levite or 41:55 the chief priest himself. When the Spirit of God 42:00 opened his eyes to see that forgotten and 42:02 ignored book of the law lying there in all 42:05 the dust and the cobwebs in the backroom that's 42:08 when you can date Judah's recover from, right then. 42:13 All the good things that happened, everyone 42:15 of the good things that happened during the 42:17 next four months came about when God 42:21 managed to get one man's eyes open. 42:27 There in the darkness covered with trash, 42:31 lost in the debris, there was the hand written 42:35 scroll called the book of the covenant. 42:40 It was the solemn agreement between Judah 42:42 and God that it was recorded in the book of 42:45 Deuteronomy. It bound them together as the 42:48 people of God. That old book of the law had 42:53 been written almost 700 years earlier just as 42:57 the people of Israel were preparing to cross 43:00 the Jordan and enter the land of promise. 43:03 But for the last century no one had said a 43:04 word about it, for almost 100 years no one 43:10 had gone looking for it, almost three 43:13 generations had passed and no one even knew 43:17 it was there anymore. Hilkiah the high priest 43:22 read it first, I don't think it requires much 43:27 imagination to guess that his heart began to 43:31 pound and his hands began to shake just like 43:37 that Philadelphia stock analyst I told you 43:39 about. And Hilkiah the high priest gave it to 43:43 Shaphan the King's secretary and then it was 43:46 Shaphan's turn to tremble here in this old 43:49 dusty scroll, here in this forgotten piece of 43:53 literature, here in this relic of the past, 43:56 here was the living and active word of God. 44:01 And you know my friends that living and 44:03 active word of God did its old faithful work 44:06 on Shaphan's heart that day as it will do on 44:08 any day of any week of any month of any 44:10 year in your life and mine, it appears to the 44:13 division of soul and spirit. And it discerned 44:17 the thoughts and the intentions of his heart. 44:21 Just like that man whom Jesus told us about 44:23 in the parable who found a treasure out in the 44:26 field. Pretty soon the knowledge of that book 44:30 of the law began to pound in the mind of the 44:33 King's secretary until all that he could think 44:35 about was that book of the law they had 44:38 found out there in the debris in the backroom 44:42 and he knew, he couldn't keep it from the 44:45 King. And when Shaphan told the King about 44:49 the scroll and when he read it in the hearing 44:51 of King Josiah, the scripture tell us that 44:53 Josiah rent his clothes. 44:59 That's an old custom that probably doesn't 45:01 mean so much to us anymore. In the ancient 45:05 world if you wanted to express profound grief 45:09 or sincere repentance you tore your clothes, 45:16 when I think if the cost of even a modest suit 45:22 it would certainly have to be something fairly 45:24 powerful to get me to start ripping these 45:26 threads. But Josiah he was so overcome with 45:33 a deep and powerful sense of just how far he 45:36 and his people had wandered away from the 45:38 word of God that he began ripping his royal 45:40 robes from top to bottom and lets just he 45:43 wasn't picking up the threads, 45:48 clear word of God, the undiluted word of 45:54 God, the unadulterated word of God. 46:00 It did what God promised it would do when 46:03 ever it was read, whenever it was paid 46:05 attention to, whenever it was cherished, 46:07 it cut through all of those decades of 46:10 compromise, it cut through all of those 46:13 stages of accommodation. It cut through all of 46:17 that blending and that unanimity that 46:19 everyone was seeking, it turned a search light 46:22 of the wickedness of that syncretism they like 46:25 to talk about, it shot a laser beam of light and 46:27 truth on the mind of that King and it made a 46:30 new King and a new man out of him. 46:34 And my friends what began with one man's 46:38 pounding pulse, what began with one man's 46:42 shaking hands soon had the whole nation 46:46 shaking. The throne itself, the symbol 46:51 of that Judah was, of that line of Kings from 46:55 whom the Messiah would come that throne 46:57 began to shake, that throne began to rock. 47:00 It began to vibrate, it began to resonate with 47:03 the rhythm of repentance. 47:07 It began to tremble. But the thought that there 47:11 was a God high and lifted up, whose mercy 47:15 seat had used to be in that temple and who 47:18 was offended by all the wickedness and the 47:21 blasphemy and that the debauchery that had 47:23 been going on in his own house. 47:29 And all the gold leaf that had been hammered 47:32 on to that throne, all of the ornate gold 47:37 leaf that had been put there carefully by the 47:40 craftsmen I think it began to crack off, 47:43 and it began to slough off and it began to 47:45 shake off when someone started opening the 47:48 leaves of the word of God. 47:52 Friends the results of finding that old 47:54 forgotten book of the law were nothing less 47:57 than revolutionary in land of Judah. 48:01 And it all began when someone's eyes were 48:05 finally opened, out went that sacred vessel 48:11 dedicated to the worship of Baal, 48:13 down went the Asherah pole in the heart of 48:17 the temple, crash went all of the high places 48:22 where the alters worshiped the sun, moon 48:24 and stars. Smashed were all of the chariots 48:27 dedicated to the worship of the sun. 48:31 From one end of Judah to the other and even 48:33 we're told in regions beyond Judah wherever 48:36 Josiah had influenced the work of recovery 48:40 and reform went on and on at an unstoppable pace. 48:47 Inspired by a good example, a whole lot of 48:49 timid believers found their courage and found 48:52 their consciences again. 48:56 They were accelerated to discover that they 48:58 had a leader who would take them in a 49:01 righteous direction and families, the building 49:06 block of God's righteous people, 49:08 families began to worship together again; 49:11 they began to pray together again. 49:13 They began to repent, they began to reform, 49:16 they were delighted to learn that the Spirit of 49:18 God could shake things up and make things 49:21 possible that they couldn't have even 49:22 dreamed about a few weeks before 49:26 Believers all across the land of Judah they 49:28 stepped forward and they said believe it, 49:33 that's me, that's me. Lord God you can count 49:37 on me, I am done with the tawdry in my life. 49:41 Lord God I only want what's eternal. 49:46 Lord God plant your word in my heart. 49:48 Lord God; make me something more than I 49:52 am. Make me something more than I am. 49:57 The recovery that began with the rediscovery 50:00 of the word of God, it kept going until all 50:03 of Judah was ready for a great day of 50:05 redemption and rejoicing again, the scripture 50:08 tells us that the whole nation came back to 50:11 celebrate the Passover again. 50:14 What a confidence building time it must 50:16 have been to be a believer. What a great 50:18 time to belong to the people of God, I wish I 50:21 could have been there; I wish you could have 50:23 been there too. Well, I've told you this 50:27 evening about two recoveries, one a few 50:32 years ago and one a long time ago. 50:38 Now, I want to tell you about the recovery 50:43 that by the grace of God it soon to be. 50:49 It would begin my friends when the Spirit of 50:52 God manages to get someone's eyes open. 50:58 It will begin when people like you and me 51:02 start going to the backrooms of our lives 51:04 with an honest prayer that God will help us 51:07 clean out what's there and turn over to him 51:11 whatever is there for consecration and 51:13 rededication. It will begin my friends when 51:17 we start shutting off a clean house and do a 51:20 little house cleaning of our own. 51:23 The recovery that's going to begin soon in 51:25 this church, the recovery that's going to begin 51:28 in this movement of destiny will happen 51:30 when ordinary average regular people like 51:33 you and me start brushing away all the 51:35 dust and cobwebs that have been obscuring 51:38 the word of God in our lives for way too long. 51:42 You know in a odd sort of way we were right 51:44 all along it really was something close at 51:46 hand; it really was something within reach. 51:51 It was something close, close to where we 51:54 live and work and cry and play. 52:00 The recovery that's going to happen in these 52:02 people of God will start when one by one, 52:06 one family at a time, one apartment at a time, 52:10 one house at a time, one classroom at a time, 52:12 one Sabbath school class at a time, 52:14 one church at a time, one conference at a 52:17 time, one union at a time, one division at a 52:19 time, we come back to the word of God with 52:22 a sincere prayer that our lives are going to be 52:24 reshaped, our lives going to changed, 52:27 our lives are going to be molded, our lives are 52:29 going to be transformed by what's still in this 52:32 great old book. Amen. 52:36 I suspect that some of you maybe thinking 52:38 this is a rather strange message to be 52:40 preaching as the lead off message at a 3ABN 52:44 series on the pillars of our faith, whether you 52:47 are sitting here in this auditorium tonight or 52:49 you are watching from any number of 52:51 thousands of locations around the world and 52:53 across the country. You may be wondering 52:55 why I am bothering to remind you that 52:58 of something you have already taken for 53:00 granted perhaps. Seventh Day Adventism has 53:05 always believed that the Bible is the inspired 53:08 word of God. Amen. 53:11 Oh, its true in recent years a few voices had 53:15 been raised to challenge the historicity of the 53:19 account of creation in Genesis. A few voices 53:22 have been raised to challenge the story of 53:25 God leading his people in the Exodus and 53:27 there are even a few Adventists who dare to 53:29 say that Jesus might not have existed. 53:35 But the vast, the vast majority of believers in 53:37 this faith have always cherished the belief, 53:41 the idea, the truth that the Bible is God's 53:43 inspired word. Amen. 53:45 Every week we open this word, we open it in 53:49 thousands of Sabbath school classes and 53:51 classrooms, five days a week thousands of 53:54 Adventist school children around the world 53:57 study in Bible classes. At elementary schools 54:01 and academies and colleges and universities 54:04 and so some of you may be thinking well, 54:07 why make such a fuss about it then. 54:10 Its part of our lives, it's like the wall paper 54:12 on our lives, its just there all around us. 54:16 Of course we believe that the Bible is the 54:18 inspired word of God, there may be even 54:20 some of you who are summoning up your 54:22 nerve to come talk with me in the foyer after 54:24 this ceremony and tell me that you didn't 54:26 really need to preach that we have a 54:28 that done. And so lest any of you leave here 54:33 tonight troubled only by the man and not by 54:37 the message. I want you to hear that what 54:41 God is saying tonight is not about a criticism 54:46 of anybody who stands in your pulpit or any 54:50 teacher in any classroom, those people bring 54:53 value because they open the word, 54:55 they talk to us about it, they show us what 54:57 meaning there is there. But as much as those 54:59 teachers and those pastors and those friends 55:02 can advice us and coach us and plead with us 55:05 to study this word, they cannot be changed by 55:09 that word for us, they can only be changed for 55:12 themselves. Amen. 55:15 The recovery that's going to happen here by 55:16 the grace of God is going to happen when one 55:19 family at a time, one home at time, 55:22 one student at a time, one grandparent at a 55:24 time, one grandchild at a time. 55:27 We put ourselves in front of this word of God 55:29 and we invite his Spirit to make it something 55:32 more then a document of dead antiquity in 55:35 our lives. The recovery is going to start when 55:38 you and I each take our 10 minutes and our 55:42 30 minutes and better yet that thoughtful hour 55:46 and we open this word and we say to God 55:48 Lord Jesus I believe, I believe this is your 55:52 word and more importantly I believe its your word 55:55 to me. And these pages Lord God you've 55:58 revealed yourself, open my eyes, turn on the 56:02 lights, I want to see what you have for me 56:04 here not my parents vision of you and not my 56:07 teachers vision of you and not even my 56:09 preachers vision of you. Show me yourself as 56:11 only you can show me yourself in these pages 56:14 Lord Jesus. Let me hear you are speaking to me 56:17 through this word as clearly as if you were in 56:19 the same room with me because you know 56:21 come to think of it you actually are. 56:24 Give me the grace; give me the strength to let 56:27 your word change me by the power that is 56:30 still in these pages. Amen. 56:35 The line that ended the story for King Josiah, 56:40 the word is very near you, in your heart and 56:44 in your mind that you may do. I remind you 56:48 tonight the word is very near you in your 56:51 heart and in your mind that you may do it. 56:56 You see you were right all alone; it really is 56:58 something within reach, it's something near at 57:01 hand, but it will change our life together as 57:04 people when we start opening it and praying 57:07 over it for ourselves. So pray with me now. 57:10 Lord Jesus, make this word come alive in our 57:14 lives with unusual power and strength, 57:18 don't let us go back to our old ways of 57:20 reading it, just doing time, just turning pages 57:23 Lord. Let it become about living and active 57:26 word in our lives that puts us on fire for your 57:29 kingdom. May the kingdom be always before 57:32 us and let us Lord believe in things thought 57:35 impossible by others, we ask these things in 57:38 the name of the one who inspired these words 57:41 even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17