Participants:
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP180017A
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00:01 The Bible tells us,
00:02 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 00:05 and the Word was God." 00:07 It says, "To receive with meekness 00:10 the implanted Word 00:11 which is able to save your souls, 00:13 and to be diligent to present yourself 00:16 approved to God, 00:17 rightly dividing the Word of truth." 00:20 Join us now for the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:25 Our study today is 00:27 "Preparation for the End Time". 00:31 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:34 This is our weekly gathering together to study 00:37 the Word of God. 00:38 And we invite you to join us as together 00:40 we dig deep into the Word of God 00:43 and bring forth nuggets and treasures that will be, 00:46 dare I say meek in due season for our lives. 00:48 I am so very, very happy to have fellow students 00:51 and fellow travelers with me. 00:53 Yvonne Lewis, 00:55 Pastor John Lomacang, Mollie Steenson, 00:57 Shelley Quinn. 00:59 Lord and ladies, good to have you here. 01:01 And we are happy that you have joined us. 01:04 And should you want to follow along with us 01:07 to take some notes, 01:08 let me suggest that you go to ABSG.Adventist.org. 01:13 There you will find a Bible study guide, 01:16 an adult Bible study guide similar to the ones 01:19 that we all have in front of us. 01:20 And that will allow you to share with us 01:22 to join in your own personal study, 01:24 and to take notes. 01:26 And I dare to say that if you take these notes, 01:27 you will use this material 01:29 if you are a Sabbath school teacher, 01:30 or if you are one 01:32 who give some talks and lectures 01:33 from time to time, you'll get good information, 01:35 things that you can use 01:36 and that you can share with your friends 01:37 and your fellows, 01:39 as together we walk this road that leads to glory. 01:42 Our subject for this quarter is "Preparation for the End Time." 01:47 And I dare to say there is not a more timely subject to study 01:50 as we get closer and closer to the end of this world, 01:54 to the time when Jesus Christ will put in His appearance 01:57 to gather together His saints. 01:59 This particular lesson is salvation 02:02 and the end time. 02:05 And, pastor and ladies, 02:08 our memory text comes to us from 1 John 4:10. 02:13 But before we go into that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. 02:16 And I'm going to reach all the way down 02:17 to the end of the panel to Shelley, 02:19 and ask you to pray for us as we delve into this lesson. 02:22 Heavenly Father, 02:23 we come once again in the name of Jesus praising 02:26 You Father for Your everlasting gospel 02:28 for salvation by grace through faith. 02:31 And, Lord, we thank You for Jesus 02:33 and Your Holy Spirit in Your word. 02:35 And we pray as we open this Word, Lord. 02:38 You will send Your Holy Spirit to be our teacher. 02:41 And, Father, let us learn from Him 02:44 and from one another. 02:46 We thank You for each of the dedicated members 02:49 of this panel who have studied Your Word in depth 02:53 so that they might bring to the surface 02:56 those crystal clear diamonds of Your truth, 03:00 in Jesus' name, amen. 03:02 And let me ask, add rather that our posture is the posture 03:06 of learners and seekers. 03:07 When we come and give you 03:09 sort of the digest of our studies, 03:11 we don't know it all, we don't have it all. 03:14 The Lord has given us some things 03:15 that we want to share with you. 03:17 The lesson has some things 03:18 and we want to add to those things. 03:20 And hopefully 03:21 as you're gathering and studying, 03:23 you are learning new things also 03:24 that will enrich your life and your walk with Jesus. 03:27 Our memory text is from the NIV. 03:31 It is 1 John 4:10. And let's read that together. 03:35 The Bible says, 03:36 "This is love, not that we loved God, 03:40 but that he loved us and sent his Son 03:44 as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 03:48 The first part of the lesson and I'm just going to read it. 03:51 I could not say it any better, 03:53 though I do want to comment on this. 03:56 It says one of the fascinating 03:58 but crucial differences between Christianity 04:01 and non-Christian religions 04:04 is that while the others emphasize 04:06 what their founders have taught them. 04:09 They do not emphasize 04:11 what their founders have done for them. 04:13 And I think that's very crucial 04:16 as the difference between what Christianity is 04:19 and what the vast majority of non-Christian religions are. 04:24 And that's because their founders 04:27 may have done for them... 04:31 I'm sorry whatever their founders 04:33 may have done for them, it cannot save them. 04:36 So their founders can teach them, 04:38 they can talk to them, 04:39 they can explain to them how to be saved, 04:42 but those founders could not save them. 04:44 And that's a very, very big difference. 04:47 All these leaders could do was try to teach their people 04:51 how to save themselves. 04:54 In contrast Christians emphasize 04:57 not only what Jesus taught, but praise God what He did. 05:01 And may I add what He is still doing. 05:03 Because what Christ did provides the only means 05:06 by which we are saved. 05:09 Christ incarnation in human flesh, 05:12 His death on the cross, 05:13 His resurrection, and His ministry in heaven. 05:18 So we serve not an active God who is waiting to be pleased, 05:22 not a passive God rather who is willing to be pleased, 05:25 we serve an active God, who is actively searching, 05:28 and reaching, and teaching, and saving, and blessing, 05:31 and ministering to us the benefits 05:34 even now of His sacrifice. 05:36 So vast difference in what we undergo 05:41 and understand as Christians. 05:42 The wonderful truth is especially important for us 05:45 amid the perils and deceptions of the last days. 05:49 We move now into Sunday. 05:56 Not too long before the Christ, 05:58 Christ spoke with His inner circle. 06:00 And of course Philip said, "Show us the Father." 06:04 And I want to diverge here 06:05 just a moment to move into a little something else. 06:10 Gerrit Cornelis Berkouwer is a theologian, 06:13 a Dutch theologian. 06:14 One of the most more famous Dutch theologians. 06:17 In the German tradition, 06:19 born in 1903, died just in 1996, 06:21 not too long ago. 06:22 He was a giant in the Reform Church 06:24 in the Netherlands. 06:25 He wrote two books, 06:26 they combined them into one book 06:28 that I had to read 06:29 while in the seminary called simply Sin, 06:31 799 pages on sin. 06:36 I loaned the Sin to Johnny Dinzey 06:37 about a year ago. 06:38 He kind of came back, 06:40 a week later his eyes were kind of glazed over. 06:42 He said, "Thank you very much." 06:44 But Berkouwer wrote this book on sin. 06:48 One of the things that he dealt with early on in the book 06:52 were what he called rational arguments 06:54 for the existence of God. 06:56 Now by rational 06:57 he did not mean rational versus irrational, 06:59 he meant there are arguments that you can give 07:04 to a secular mind outside of the Bible 07:08 which are rational, they're rational arguments, 07:11 there are many, many biblical arguments 07:14 for the existence of God. 07:15 But what if you're dealing with a person 07:17 who has no Bible knowledge, 07:18 no Bible conscience, has not really heard about God, 07:20 and is very, very secular. 07:22 How do you begin to move him into a God consciousness 07:26 since he has no consciousness of God or the Bible? 07:29 So he says there are rational arguments, 07:31 secular arguments that move this guy. 07:34 There are four, 07:36 I'm only going to deal with two. 07:37 One is the teleological argument 07:39 which basically says, 07:40 if you've got a car which is a complex entity, 07:44 then somebody more complex had to put that thing together. 07:47 You don't get complexity from by chance. 07:50 So if you've got an engine that works and a transmission, 07:52 and brakes, and lights, 07:54 somebody had to think that out and put that together. 07:56 So when you look at the world, 07:58 the sheer complexity of the world bespeaks 08:02 that somebody had to put that together. 08:03 There's no way you can get the kind of complexity 08:05 we have in this world 08:06 without a designer, a master designer. 08:09 Call it what you want, 08:10 but somebody had to put that together. 08:12 The second argument is the ontological argument. 08:16 That argument is simply this. 08:18 Every culture regardless of who they are has some idea 08:23 that there's something bigger than them. 08:26 Wherever you go on planet earth, 08:28 darkest Africa, Europe, 08:30 Australia, New Zealand, the Aborigines, 08:32 everybody's got this idea 08:34 that there's something out there. 08:37 And if you study every culture, 08:39 he says, "Every culture has 08:41 that something in three elements 08:44 a creator, a destroyer, and a preserver." 08:50 Every culture's got that. 08:51 We call it God the Father, Satan, 08:54 and Jesus the Redeemer. 08:55 But you will find elements of that in every culture. 08:58 And he says the fact that everybody knows 09:01 there is something there, 09:02 means there's got to be something there. 09:05 Because everybody has an idea, they may have different names, 09:08 different ways to deal with it, but everybody knows that. 09:11 So that's the ontological argument 09:13 for the existence of God. 09:14 If you could find a culture that doesn't have it, 09:16 you may have an argument, but every culture's got it. 09:19 And everybody believes 09:20 there's something bigger than you and I. 09:24 So we've got these rational arguments 09:26 for the existence of God 09:28 because they all have these same elements. 09:31 The problem is depending 09:33 on the teachings of that culture 09:36 you can get a correct view of who God is, 09:41 or you can get a very distorted view 09:43 of who God is. 09:44 Some pastor say, 09:46 you've got to please God by sacrificing your children, 09:48 or taking trips to a certain place, 09:51 or crawling up steps on your knees. 09:53 So you get this distorted image of God. 09:57 He says the thing about Christianity, 09:59 Christianity gives you the correct image of God 10:02 because it shows a God 10:03 who loves with an everlasting love. 10:06 Most cultures dealing with who the lessons says, 10:11 have a God 10:12 that we have to sacrifice to meet His commands. 10:15 Every culture says that there is a dissonance 10:18 between the Creator and His created, 10:22 and Christianity says that too. 10:23 The difference is, 10:25 I don't have to sacrifice to please Him, 10:28 He has already, as the memory text says, 10:31 "Shown His love by coming after me. 10:34 I don't have to go running after Him, 10:36 He comes running after me." 10:38 God is a God of love. 10:41 And that's the basic difference, 10:42 I don't have to cut myself, 10:45 I don't have to go to a certain city, 10:47 I don't have to flagellate myself, 10:50 I don't have to make myself perfect 10:52 before I come to Him. 10:54 In Christianity, this God accepts me as I am. 10:58 And then through His grace and mercy begins to make me 11:02 into what He wants me to be. 11:03 So the sacrifice is not mine, 11:07 the sacrifice is coming from God. 11:10 God so loved the world, Pastor, that He gave. 11:13 So God's doing the sacrificing. God's doing the giving. 11:16 And that's the beauty about Christianity 11:20 that He loves so much that He is not comfortable 11:24 with the distance or the dissonance. 11:28 God wants to bridge the gap. 11:30 And I cannot run too far, I cannot run too fast, 11:34 I cannot sin too much, I cannot outlast Him, 11:37 He will out love me. 11:40 His love will supersede my sin. 11:44 So where sin abounds, 11:48 grace does abound much more. 11:51 So it turns this whole thing on its head. 11:53 I don't have to beat myself up. 11:55 I've simply got to present myself to God 11:59 and He that cometh unto me, the Lord says, 12:03 "I will in no wise cast out." 12:07 So Christianity is such a marvelous religion 12:09 because the truth is, 12:12 Shelley, Mollie, Pastor, and Yvonne, 12:14 God's doing it all. 12:16 And if I just stop fighting and surrender, 12:20 He will save me, He'll get me in. 12:23 The key for Christianity is God 12:27 is not trying to keep you out, 12:29 He's trying to get you in. 12:32 And if we will just work with Him and surrender to Him, 12:35 He will indeed save us 12:37 because He has loved us with an everlasting love. 12:39 And I got two, three pages to follow, 12:41 I will never get to. 12:44 Christ then, to get back to lesson. 12:48 Christ is an expose of who God is. 12:51 Philip said, "Show us the Father." 12:53 Well, duh, you know... 12:57 Have I been with you so long and you don't know 12:58 that you're looking at the Father, 13:00 if you've seen Me, 13:01 you've seen the Father, the love I have for you, 13:03 that the Father's love. 13:05 The care I have for you, that the Father's care. 13:07 The grace and mercy I'm showing, 13:09 the way I deal with my Father and how I'm dealing with you, 13:12 that's all God working through me 13:14 so that you can see God in everything that I do, 13:18 and everything that I say, and everything that I am. 13:21 So our view of God is filtered dare I say 13:26 through the lens of Jesus Christ. 13:29 So when you see Christ, you see God. 13:33 And then when you see in retrospect 13:36 the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus who was obedient unto death, 13:40 even the death of the cross. 13:41 We know that the love God 13:45 has for us is an everlasting love, 13:48 and eternal love, and a love 13:50 that will stop at nothing to get His children back home. 13:54 God wants us back home with Him. 13:56 And He has provided every means to make that happen 14:00 for which we can say hallelujah and praise the Lord. 14:04 Yvonne? Amen. Wow. 14:07 You know when you think about the love of Christ 14:10 and that's my, my lesson is on the love of Christ. 14:14 There is so many places you could start. 14:17 You could start with the things that He did, 14:20 the way He cared about people, 14:22 the way He healed the woman who had an issue of blood 14:26 or the way He talked to the woman at the well, 14:28 or the way He dealt with the widow of Nain 14:33 and raised her son, 14:34 and there are just so many places to start. 14:38 And when I first got this assignment I was thinking, 14:41 the love of Christ, I mean you can... 14:44 That's just so amazing. It should be easy. 14:48 But where do you start with that 14:50 because there's so many ways that He demonstrated His love. 14:56 So the lesson, I'll go back to the lesson 14:58 because the lesson started 14:59 actually with the plan of salvation and sin, 15:05 and how sin has created 15:07 such a huge chasm between mankind and God 15:12 that God in His fore knowledge knew 15:17 that there was going to be sin, 15:18 and made a plan of salvation even before there was any man. 15:22 So before man was created, before earth was created, 15:27 God the Father, and the Son, 15:29 and the Holy Spirit sat down and talked about 15:32 what provision was going to be made for mankind. 15:38 And so, here we have this chasm 15:42 that is so huge that nothing could bridge it 15:47 except a perfect being taking 15:51 on sinful man's nature 15:55 and dying for us. 15:58 So it's like how could this bridge be closed? 16:04 It had to be something miraculous. 16:07 It had to be something extraordinary. 16:11 And that was someone and it was Jesus Christ. 16:14 Amen. 16:17 Ellen White says that in Christ 16:20 we become more closely united to God 16:23 than if we had never fallen in taking our nature the Savior 16:27 has bound Himself to humanity by a tie 16:31 that is never to be broken 16:33 through the eternal ages He is linked with us. 16:37 And as Pastor CA brought out and this is a text we all know, 16:42 "God so loved the world 16:44 that He gave His only begotten Son, 16:46 that whosoever believeth in Him 16:48 should not perish but have everlasting life." 16:51 He gave Him not only to bear our sins 16:54 and to die as our sacrifice, 16:56 He gave Him to the fallen race. 17:00 So God became man. 17:03 Christ was both fully God and fully man. 17:07 He was Immanuel, God with us. 17:11 So let's look at John 1:1-3. 17:15 Because these scriptures kind of let us know in essence 17:21 who Jesus is. 17:26 And it says, "In the beginning was the Word, 17:30 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 17:35 And this is from the, in KJV, The New King James, 17:39 "He was in the beginning with God. 17:41 All things were made through Him 17:43 and without Him was nothing made, 17:47 nothing was made that was made." 17:49 So let's start with, first of all, 17:51 if we want to understand Jesus, 17:54 we have to begin with the relationship shared 17:58 between Him and the Father, between Father and Son 18:02 before the world began according to John 17:5 and 24. 18:07 And this relationship is the central revelation 18:10 of this gospel and the key to understanding 18:13 all that Jesus says and does. 18:17 In the beginning it says, 18:19 now just taking that first phrase 18:21 "In the beginning" 18:22 we can compare that with Genesis 1:1, 18:24 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 18:29 This John 1:1 says, in the beginning. 18:34 Genesis 1:1 is talking about the creation of the earth. 18:39 But John 1:1 is talking about the beginning of all things... 18:44 That's right. That's right. 18:46 Of all things, not just in the beginning of creation, 18:50 but in the beginning of all things. 18:53 And when John says 18:57 in the beginning was the Word. 19:01 The Word is in the Greek is logos. 19:05 And logos actually can be divided into two things, 19:10 utterance and thought. 19:13 Jesus Christ was actually the utterance and thought, 19:19 the intelligence of God in human flesh. 19:24 So I mean, it's amazing to me 19:27 that the Father and the Son are one in essence, 19:33 they are one in purpose, 19:36 but yet they are manifested in these two different beings. 19:41 They have the same essence. 19:43 And so, when it says that, 19:46 "Jesus Christ in the beginning was the Word, 19:51 and the Word was with God," 19:54 this whole idea of to be with God means 19:56 that the Word is distinct from Him. 20:00 In other words, they have the same essence 20:03 but the Word with here 20:07 in the Greek 20:09 it's used to indicate a personal relationship, 20:12 not mere proximity. 20:13 So we're with each other, that's proximity. 20:18 But this with from the Greek here 20:22 it indicates a personal relationship, 20:26 they were with each other, 20:27 they had this personal relationship. 20:32 And so it says, "He also was God." 20:37 So, you know, there are a lot of religions 20:38 that teach that Jesus 20:43 was a prophet, 20:45 He was a God. And some of the... 20:49 There's a particular version of the Bible 20:54 that says that He was a God. 20:55 They put an article before it making, 20:58 diminishing who Jesus was. 21:00 But John is letting us know, 21:02 "No, He wasn't a God, He was God. 21:06 Jesus Christ is God. 21:09 Jesus Christ was with the Father 21:12 at the beginning, 21:13 in Him was life unborrowed and underived." 21:17 So Jesus Christ is God. 21:20 And I think that, 21:23 you know, when we diminish 21:26 who He is, 21:29 it's such a detraction from His love for us. 21:34 So we really, if we just think about what Jesus has done 21:39 and who He is, 21:41 His relationship to the Father and His relationship to men, 21:44 He decided He was going to come, and give His life, 21:49 and sacrifice, total sacrifice 21:53 for humankind. 21:56 Now, if we go to Philippians 2:5-8. 22:01 Philippians 2:5-8. 22:07 It says, "Let this mind be in you, 22:10 which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, 22:16 did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 22:19 but made himself of no reputation, 22:22 taking the form of a bondservant, 22:24 and coming in the likeness of men. 22:27 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, 22:31 and became obedient to the point of death, 22:34 even the death of the cross." 22:37 Amen. 22:40 It's amazing to me that Jesus would leave 22:45 His heavenly home paradise. 22:47 You know, well, think about places 22:49 that you've been on the planet that are just gorgeous. 22:53 We can't even compare that to heaven. 22:56 He left there as King of kings and Lord of lords, 22:59 left there to come here as a servant, 23:03 to come here to live as men. 23:07 That means He got hungry, He got tired, 23:12 you know, all the things that we endure, 23:15 He went through for us. 23:17 And I can't imagine that kind of love. 23:23 And so it says... 23:26 Paul doesn't say when he says, 23:28 "Let this mind being you 23:30 which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God 23:34 did not consider it robbery 23:36 to be equal with God." 23:40 In the form of God means 23:44 He was clearly an eternity past. 23:48 And Paul asserts 23:50 that Jesus Christ existed eternally 23:53 in the form of God. 23:54 The English word form is misleading 23:56 because it suggests shape. 23:58 You know, we think of form as shape 24:01 but it actually means... 24:04 It's the Greek word morphe, 24:06 which refers to the essential nature 24:08 of something or someone. 24:10 So Jesus Christ had 24:12 the essential nature of the Father. 24:16 Jesus' nature and character corresponds with God. 24:20 In Paul's day, the word morphe was used like a rubber stamp. 24:25 So back in that time 24:27 if you had like an important document 24:30 they used a stamp, 24:32 dipped it into wax and like a ring, 24:36 dipped the ring into a hot wax, and sealed it with that stamp. 24:41 Well, that's what Jesus Christ is to God. 24:44 He represents God. 24:47 He represents the image of God. 24:51 And has given His life for us. 24:55 There is no way to cover the love of God, 24:59 one of Christ when you think about what He's done for us 25:05 and what He's going to do. 25:07 He's coming back. 25:09 He's coming back to take us all with Him. 25:12 One day soon we're going 25:14 to be able to look in His eyes and say, 25:17 "Lo, this is our God, we've waited for Him. 25:20 And He has come to save us." 25:22 Amen and amen. Thank you, Dr. Yvonne. 25:26 Thank you, Pastor CA. Mine is the love of the Spirit. 25:30 And mine is what day, am I Tuesday? 25:33 Tuesday. I'm Tuesday. 25:35 Now when you talk about the Holy Spirit, 25:36 this topic excites me to a great degree 25:39 because I look at the whole total work 25:42 of redemption. 25:44 You have in the very beginning you have God the Father, 25:46 the Son and the Holy Spirit in Genesis. 25:49 Then in a nutshell you have the fall of man, 25:53 then the Father sends the Son for the work of redemption. 25:58 The Son leaves and sends 26:00 the Spirit for the work of sanctification and sealing. 26:03 So to deny the legitimacy of the Holy Spirit is to say 26:07 that we are not being sanctified 26:09 and we will not be sealed. 26:11 Because Jesus is not the one doing the work, 26:14 He's working through the ever-present person 26:19 of the Holy Spirit. 26:21 So when he said it is expedient that I go 26:24 it is expedient that I go in John 16:7, 26:28 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth, 26:30 it is to your advantage or expedient..." 26:32 in the King James, "that I go away. 26:35 For if I do not go away the help or the Comforter 26:38 will not come to you, 26:39 but if I depart, I will send him to you." 26:43 So the Father sends the Son for the work of redemption. 26:47 The Son sends the Spirit 26:49 for the work of sanctification and sealing. 26:52 So to deny the personage of the Holy Spirit is to say 26:54 we're not being sanctified and we will not be sealed. 26:58 Because there's a process of a complete work, 27:02 they're all in the very beginning, 27:04 they will all be there in the very end. 27:06 So I want to walk through a couple of passages 27:08 in the Bible. 27:09 You cannot deny the legitimacy. 27:13 And because this lesson is about the end time, 27:15 you know, we're talking about the last days, 27:17 events leading up to the coming of the Lord. 27:20 The very last book of the Bible refers to 27:25 "He that has an ear let him hear 27:27 what the Spirit says." 27:29 So the Spirit is talking, 27:32 "He that has an ear to hear, 27:34 let him hear what the Spirit says." 27:35 And seven times in Revelation you hear the phrase 27:38 what the Spirit says. 27:40 Now, is the force speaking. 27:43 I've been aware of the fact that I'm speaking right now, 27:47 I'm speaking with my mouth. 27:49 The Holy Spirit as the person of the Godhead speaks 27:53 with his mouth in the absence of Christ. 27:55 So he's not a force that's impressing in, 27:59 and just molding, and guiding 28:01 which are components of His work also. 28:04 But in order for the church to hear, 28:08 he has to speak. 28:09 In order for us to be able to hear, 28:12 someone has to speak. 28:13 So as we are hearing and from Ephesus all the way 28:16 to Laodicea, 28:18 the issue was hear what the Spirit is saying. 28:21 Now when we go through one of the first points 28:23 that were brought out in the lesson 28:24 is that the work 28:26 of the Holy Spirit is diminished. 28:29 Almost to the point where people make it appear 28:31 as though that there is a relationship, 28:33 the Holy Spirit is the emotional relationship 28:37 between the Father and the Son. 28:39 And so in other words it says, 28:41 well, you know, Mollie, you have such a nice spirit. 28:44 Well, I'm recognizing 28:46 your character, your personality, 28:50 but I'm not recognizing another force with you. 28:53 However, when people use 28:56 that analogy that the Holy Spirit 28:58 is just the way the Father feels about the Son 29:01 or rather Son feels about the Father, 29:03 they're talking about a Spirit 29:05 that exists between the two of them. 29:07 There is a love that always exist 29:10 because God is love. 29:12 But that's not what the Bible is referring 29:14 to when it speaks about the Spirit of God 29:17 is simply an emotional feeling between 29:19 the Father and the Son, 29:20 it diminishes the work of the relationship 29:23 of the Holy Spirit to the work that is being carried on now. 29:26 So let's look at a few things. 29:28 One of the ones that jumps out at us Matthew 28:19, 29:32 Christians are baptized in the name of the Spirit 29:37 along with the name of the Father and of the Son. 29:40 Now the word there name is the word 29:43 'cause some people may say, "What is His name? 29:44 What is His name? What is the name of the Father? 29:46 What is the name of the Son? 29:48 What is the name of the Holy Spirit?" 29:49 The word there in the Greek is the authority of. 29:54 So how could a force have the same authority 29:58 as the Father and the Son? 30:00 Because the word is not saying 30:02 in the authority of them separately 30:04 but in the authority of them unitedly. 30:08 So the Father has authority, the Son has authority, 30:11 the Spirit's authority is not stepped down, 30:14 it's a continuation of the same authority. 30:16 Matter of fact, the authority 30:17 is so high in the work of the Holy Spirit, 30:19 that if you grieve Him, 30:22 your sin may be forgiven 30:24 against what you said about Jesus, 30:25 but it will not be forgiven 30:28 if you speak against the Holy Spirit, 30:30 not in this life nor in the world to come. 30:32 So the Bible is talking about the importance 30:36 and the high authority that the Spirit possesses. 30:39 But it's not a force possessing this, 30:42 but a personage of the Godhead. 30:43 So when the Bible says baptize them 30:45 in Matthew 28:19, 30:47 "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, 30:50 and of the Holy Spirit." 30:52 You cannot baptize a person in a force, 30:57 you can only baptize them into a relationship. 31:00 That relationship is so strong that Jesus talks about it. 31:04 Let's go to John 16. 31:06 Jesus talks about this relationship 31:08 in a very candid way. 31:11 John 16 and I think it begins 31:15 with verse 8 down to verse 16. 31:19 And notice the many ways 31:21 that Jesus legitimizes the work of the Holy Spirit 31:24 in the personage of the Holy Spirit 31:27 starting in verse 8. 31:28 I just read verse 7 so I'll go to verse 8. 31:32 "And when he has come, 31:35 he will convict the world of sin, 31:37 and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, 31:40 because they do not believe in me of righteousness, 31:43 because I go to my Father, and you see me no more, 31:45 of judgment, 31:47 because the ruler of this world is judged. 31:49 I still have many things to say to you, 31:53 but you cannot bear them now. 31:54 However when he, the Spirit of truth has come, 31:59 he will guide you into all truth, 32:01 for he will not speak on his own authority, 32:04 his own authority, but whatever he hears, 32:06 he will speak, 32:08 and he will tell you things to come. 32:10 He will glorify me, 32:11 for he will take of what is mine 32:13 and declare it to you." 32:15 Now, I don't want to be facetious 32:16 or condescending about 32:18 that which is holy 32:20 but He, He, He, He, He, He... 32:24 The word there is a recognition of an authority, 32:30 a recognition of a person, not a recognition of a force. 32:34 To go very quickly, Ephesians 4:30. 32:39 The Spirit by the way 32:41 does not have his own authority. 32:44 But the Spirit has the authority 32:46 that each one of the persons of the Godhead share. 32:51 He doesn't have an authority separate 32:52 from Jesus or an authority separate 32:53 from the Father. 32:55 That's why Matthew 28:19 says, 32:56 "Baptize in the name of the authority of..." 32:59 They all share the same authority, 33:01 none greater than the other. 33:02 Here's another one, 33:04 Ephesians 4:30 showing that you cannot grieve a force. 33:07 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit 33:09 by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption." 33:12 You cannot grieve a force. 33:14 Amen. Amen. 33:16 When the Bible talks about how God was grieved 33:18 at His heart that He had made man. 33:20 That's a real Greek, 33:22 the same word grieved one in Hebrew, one in Greek. 33:25 If God was sorry, 33:27 He was grieved when He saw the sin of man. 33:29 The same word is being used here. 33:32 So one is being used for force and the other for the person? 33:35 No, both are being used to identify 33:37 the person of the Godhead. 33:38 Another one, John 14:6, 33:42 "The Spirit is a helper and the comforter. 33:44 Jesus said, "I will pray the Father, 33:46 and He will give you another helper 33:48 which means Jesus is a helper. 33:51 But another one is coming 33:54 that he may abide with you forever. 33:57 Jesus, three and a half years of ministry 34:00 from His childhood to 33 years old. 34:02 But I'm leaving now. My work is complete. 34:05 But the work is going to continue 34:07 through the person of the Holy Spirit, John 14:6. 34:12 Luke 12:12. 34:14 The Holy Spirit also teaches, forces don't teach, 34:18 a person teaches. 34:20 "For the Holy Spirit will teach you 34:21 in that very hour what you ought to say." 34:25 Not only that Romans 8:26, the Holy Spirit intercedes. 34:28 "Likewise the Spirit also helps, 34:30 that is the helper in our weaknesses: 34:33 for we do not know what we should pray 34:35 for as we ought: but the Spirit himself," 34:38 there is that word again, 34:39 "makes intercession for us with groanings 34:41 which cannot be uttered." 34:43 The Spirit sanctifies. 34:45 The Bible speaks about 34:46 the sanctification of the Spirit 34:48 in 1 Peter 1:12. 34:49 A force cannot sanctify. Only a person can sanctify. 34:54 John 16:13, 34:55 "The Spirit leads into all truth." 34:59 If I'm following somebody that's a force, 35:04 then I'll not know where he's going or it's going. 35:08 But the Bible never refers to the Holy Spirit as it, 35:11 always says he. 35:14 And finally, the greatest evidence 35:16 that the Holy Spirit is a person 35:17 of the Godhead is the incarnation of Christ. 35:20 When He said to Mary 35:22 that which is conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit. 35:27 Amen, and amen. Mollie? 35:29 You know, the love of the Father, CA, 35:33 you made that so clear. 35:37 And, Yvonne, the love of the Son. 35:41 And, Pastor, the love of the Spirit. 35:43 You know what we see in that, 35:45 all power of the Godhead bodily. 35:48 God the Father, God the Son, 35:49 and God the Holy Spirit are doing everything 35:53 they can to assure us of salvation, 35:57 to draw us, to help us. 36:02 And I've got Wednesday's lesson. 36:06 And that's the assurance of salvation. 36:08 And I'm just thinking 36:10 how encouraging 36:13 for every being in heaven, 36:17 all of the Godhead is pulling 36:21 for us there. 36:23 And I was so pleased when I saw that what was assigned to me. 36:28 Thank you, Shelley. 36:29 Was the lesson on the assurance of salvation 36:31 because to be honest 36:33 I struggled with that for some time. 36:36 And something that I came 36:41 to the realization of was for us 36:44 to be prepared for the end time 36:46 and that's what we're looking at, 36:47 preparation for the end time. 36:49 And today we're looking at salvation and the end time. 36:53 For us to be prepared, 36:56 we've got to have an assurance of our salvation. 37:00 And here is the reason 37:02 why how can we proclaim something 37:05 we're not even sure of. 37:08 And how can we face great tribulation? 37:13 Do we know what is out there? 37:16 You know read the end of the book. 37:18 Now, the end of the book tells us what? 37:20 What does Danny always tells? We win. 37:23 But you know to get from here to there, 37:24 there are some things 37:25 we're going to have to go through. 37:28 And to have the courage to stand in these end times, 37:33 we've got to have an assurance of our salvation. 37:36 But now just speaking for myself, 37:38 before the Lord took me on a journey, 37:43 in reading scriptures alike... 37:46 I'm going to have you turn to Matthew, Matthew 7. 37:51 And we're going to look at other scriptures. 37:53 But I want to read a scripture like Matthew 7:13-14. 37:59 And the scripture says, "Enter by the narrow gate. 38:03 For wide is the gate and broad is the way 38:06 which leads to destruction, 38:08 and there are many who go in it, go in by it." 38:12 And I'm thinking of myself. 38:13 I look at the character of the Lord Jesus Christ 38:17 and I look at me. 38:18 And I'm thinking 38:20 I'm on that broad way, you know. 38:22 I'm not on that... 38:25 But here's what I had determined, 38:27 here's what I had said to myself. 38:30 You know, I'm going to give it my best shot 38:32 because this is something that I believed 38:35 that some get beaten with many stripes 38:38 and some get beaten with fewer stripes. 38:41 And so I'm thinking, 38:42 you know, I'm going to do the best, 38:43 I know to do so maybe I won't get it as bad 38:45 as, you know, of some... 38:47 This is thinking that is not godly, 38:50 just understand that but this is where I was. 38:53 I was really going to try to be good. 38:57 Well, let me tell you something, 38:58 you can't be good enough. 39:00 So see my thinking was, I'll askew. 39:03 But thank God for His Word. 39:05 Through God's Word, 39:06 your arrow can get straightened out. 39:08 And so again, today, 39:09 I'm looking at the assurance of salvation. 39:12 I want to continue in Matthew 7, 39:14 I read verse 13, 39:16 "Because narrow is the gate, 39:17 and difficult is the way which leads to life, 39:20 and there is few who find it." 39:22 So see I'm sealed, there's my doing. 39:26 And I was raised in an environment 39:30 that taught once saved always saved. 39:33 Now even in that environment I knew that wasn't the truth. 39:38 Now see what that teaching was that once you're saved, 39:43 there's nothing you can do so bad 39:45 that you can lose your salvation. 39:47 Now, I am convinced that you, 39:49 that what can separate us or who can separate us. 39:52 What can separate us from the love of God? 39:54 That's Romans 8:35. 39:56 I am totally convinced 39:57 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. 40:00 And as long as we walk up rightly 40:03 in our obedience to God, our salvation is so sure. 40:08 But if we choose to walk away, 40:11 do you know we get to walk away, 40:12 don't we, Pastor Lomacang? 40:13 That's the freedom. We do. 40:16 If we stay faithful, 40:17 then I'm going to tell you something, 40:19 I decided that I'd believe in once saved always 40:21 saved as long as you are faithful to God, 40:24 as long as you stay obedient to God's Word 40:27 because I agree with Romans 5:35, 40:31 nothing can separate us from the love of God. 40:34 But I want you to turn to Matthew 7. 40:39 I want to show you something here 40:40 because even when we have the assurance of our salvation, 40:44 I don't want us to become presumptuous. 40:47 Romans 7... 40:49 Matthew 7. Yeah. 40:51 Mathew 7:21, and it says, 40:55 "Not every one that saith unto me, 40:58 Lord, Lord," this is written in red, 41:00 and so this is Jesus. 41:03 "Not every one that saith unto me, 41:06 Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, 41:10 but he that doeth," what? 41:13 "The will of my Father which is in heaven." 41:16 So then it goes on in verse 22, 41:20 "Many will say to me in that day, 41:24 Lord, Lord, have we not done stuff in your name? 41:28 Have we not prophesied in thy name? 41:30 And in thy name cast out devils? 41:33 And in thy name done many wonderful works?" 41:36 But listen at what Jesus says, verse 33, 41:41 "And then I will profess unto them, 41:45 I never knew you..." 41:48 Verse 23, "And then I will profess unto them, 41:51 I never knew you: depart from me, 41:55 ye that work iniquity." 41:57 Now here is what I see in that in verse 23. 42:02 He doesn't say 42:05 that depart from me 42:09 you who are not perfect. 42:12 He doesn't say to me, to say to us depart from me, 42:17 you who don't have any faults. 42:20 What does He say? 42:22 Depart from me you who practice lawlessness. 42:27 That is not saying you have to be perfect. 42:30 Oh, thank God for 1 John 1:9. 42:33 If Jill was here, she would say, 42:34 I knew she was going to get that in there somewhere 42:37 because there is no one sitting at this table 42:40 that doesn't have to run into 1 John 1:9 ever so often. 42:44 Let me quote that for you. 42:46 "If we confess our sins, 42:48 He is faithful and just to forgive us." 42:51 For number one, He forgives us of our sins 42:55 and then He goes one step further, 42:57 cleanses us from all unrighteousness. 42:59 Hey, if we are cleansed 43:01 from all unrighteousness, Yvonne, what does that make us? 43:06 It makes us righteous. 43:07 So He doesn't say, 43:09 "Depart from Me, you who have faults, 43:13 you who aren't perfect." 43:17 He says and this is what lawlessness. 43:20 He says, "Depart from Me you who were practicing 43:25 as a habitual life style lawlessness, 43:29 who were outside the law. 43:32 It was a way of life." 43:33 Thank God for 1 John 1:9, 43:36 that should give us so much assurance. 43:38 Now, remember the scripture that says, 43:41 "Faith comes by hearing 43:43 and hearing by the Word of God." 43:45 And I want us to look at some scriptures very quickly 43:49 about the assurance we can have, not in ourselves, 43:54 but in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 43:57 1 John 5:11-13. 44:01 1 John 5:11-13. 44:07 "And this is the testimony: 44:09 that God has given us eternal life, 44:13 and this life is in his Son. 44:16 He who has the Son has life, he who does not have 44:21 the Son of God does not have life. 44:24 These things I have written to you 44:26 who believe in the name of the Son of God, 44:28 do you believe in the name 44:30 of the Lord Jesus Christ listeneth this 44:33 that you may know that you have eternal life, 44:37 and that you may continue to believe 44:39 in the name of the Son of God." 44:41 One more scripture. I think Joel 2:31-32. 44:46 Let's go to the Old Testament. 44:49 Joel 2:31-32. 44:53 "The sun shall be turned into darkness 44:56 and the moon into blood, 44:58 before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 45:02 And it shall come to pass that whoever..." 45:07 I'm a whoever, John, are you are whoever? 45:08 I'm a whoever. Pastor John's a whoever. 45:11 "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." 45:16 Well, let me just do one more word. 45:18 John 10:27 and 28. Got you jumping back and forth. 45:22 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, 45:25 and they follow me: and I give them eternal life, 45:30 and they shall never perish, 45:32 never shall any one snatch them out of my hand." 45:35 John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, 45:37 that He gave His only begotten Son, 45:39 that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, 45:42 shall not perish, but have everlasting life." 45:45 Let me give you one last quote. It's from Martin Luther. 45:48 Do we do like the teachings of Martin Luther? 45:52 The great reformer, here is what he says, 45:56 "And this is where I am when I look to myself, 46:01 I don't know how on earth I can be saved. 46:04 When I look to Jesus, I don't know how I can be lost. 46:09 All we do is look to Jesus." Sister Shelley? 46:12 Amen, Mollie. 46:13 Thank you so much, that was beautiful. 46:15 I just love, you learned so much 46:19 and you reminded of so much as we get together. 46:21 My lesson is Thursday. 46:24 And as Thursday is the ever lasting gospel. 46:28 In Malachi 3:6, the Lord says, 46:32 "I am the Lord, I change not." 46:35 Hebrews 13:8 says, 46:38 "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." 46:42 So let's open our Bibles to Revelation 14. 46:48 And when we get to Revelation 14, 46:51 we want to look at the beginning 46:54 of the proclamation of the three angels' messages. 46:58 And in that three angels messages, 47:01 it begins in verse 6 saying this. 47:05 "Then I saw another angel flying 47:08 in the midst of heaven, 47:10 having the everlasting gospel to preach to those 47:14 who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, 47:18 and people saying with a loud voice, 47:21 Fear God, that's to honor, to respect. 47:26 Fear God, hold Him in awe, give glory to Him, 47:30 for the hour of His judgment has come, 47:34 and worship Him who made heaven, 47:36 and earth, the sea, and the springs of water." 47:41 All right, what is the everlasting gospel? 47:44 We've already talked about it here in Revelation. 47:48 Let's just turn there, Revelation 13:8, 47:51 that's just a little bit back. 47:53 Revelation 13:8. 47:56 It says, 48:00 "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, 48:02 whose names have not been written 48:04 in the Book of Life," 48:06 and that's talking about 48:07 those who reject Jesus will worship the beast. 48:11 But the Book of Life is where Jesus 48:14 has written down everybody's name 48:16 who has accepted Him. 48:18 And it goes on to say, 48:19 "The Book of Life of the Lamb slain 48:23 from the foundation of the earth." 48:26 From the very beginning, 48:29 God has had before He ever laid the foundations of this earth, 48:34 God had the Calvary plan in mind. 48:37 That's right. Let's turn to Hebrews 13:20. 48:40 We've got not a whole lot of time. 48:43 Mollie kind of touched on something 48:45 that I was going to speak on, 48:46 so I can stretch mine out just a little bit. 48:49 But look at Hebrews 48:51 13:20. 48:56 The scripture reads, "Now may the God of peace, 48:59 who brought up 49:01 our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, 49:03 that great shepherd of the sheep," 49:05 that's our Lord Jesus, 49:06 "through the blood 49:08 of the everlasting covenant." 49:13 So we see this lamb who was slain 49:16 from the beginning of the world 49:18 or before the foundation of the world. 49:20 His blood was the blood of the everlasting covenant 49:24 which gives us the everlasting gospel. 49:28 And this is the covenant of redemption 49:32 by grace that God started 49:34 before He ever created 49:37 a human being. 49:40 The plan was that He would come, 49:42 He would redeem us, He would restore us to God, 49:46 and that we might 49:47 have unbroken fellowship with Him again. 49:51 So this everlasting gospel of Revelation 14 49:55 in the first angel's message, 49:57 this is the gospel 49:59 that was preached beginning back in Genesis 3:15. 50:03 Let's turn there, Genesis 3:15. 50:08 Genesis 3:15. 50:14 When God says, 50:17 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, 50:21 and between your seed and her seed, and he..." 50:26 When it's talking about your seed the little "s" 50:29 and then the capital "S" seed, this is Jesus Christ. 50:32 He the capital "S" seed, 50:35 "He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." 50:40 So Jesus from the very beginning, 50:44 all of the covenants were about Jesus. 50:47 It's all of the everlasting covenant. 50:49 In John 8:56 Jesus said this, 50:53 he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced 50:56 to see my day, he saw it and he was glad." 51:02 Question is when did he see Christ day? 51:06 I'm going to tell you what I believe. 51:08 If you all want to correct me later, 51:09 you can correct me. 51:10 What I believe is in Genesis 15, 51:14 "When God covenant with Abraham, 51:18 put him into a deep sleep 51:20 and then we've got the smoking pot as God 51:23 passed between the sacrifices as they were cutting covenant." 51:27 I believe that is when Abraham saw Christ day 51:31 because just a few chapters later 51:34 in Genesis 22:8, 51:37 "When God asks Abraham 51:40 to bring and sacrifice your only begotten son." 51:46 "Oh, are you kidding? 51:48 I've waited a 100 years for this kid to be born, 51:52 this child of promise." 51:54 But listen in Genesis 22:8, 51:57 "Abraham said my son God will provide..." 52:02 I mean he's got his grown son now 52:03 that he's taking up there to sacrifice. 52:06 He says my son God will provide for himself the lamb 52:09 for a burnt offering. 52:12 So the two of them go up to there together. 52:15 See, I believe that Abraham had already taught Isaac 52:19 about the day of Jesus. 52:21 And here's what I based 52:22 that belief on Hebrews 11:19 says that, 52:26 "By faith Abraham took Isaac 52:30 to sacrifice him, 52:34 concluding that God 52:37 was able to raise Isaac 52:41 even from the death." 52:43 So he had already seen the day of Jesus. 52:48 He knew that God was going to provide 52:50 His only begotten son as the offering 52:54 and that He would raise him so he said, 52:56 "Okay, all of my seeds going to come through Isaac, 53:00 then God's got to raise him." 53:02 "So yes, Lord, I'll obey. 53:04 I will sacrifice my son 53:05 because I know you're going to do that. 53:07 But I know that you're a man who keeps your word. 53:10 So you're going to raise him up 53:11 just like you've raised Jesus up," 53:13 that's my personal belief. 53:15 So the point is that when we look 53:20 throughout the Old Testament, 53:22 we see the everlasting covenant. 53:25 When God said, "Make me a sanctuary 53:28 that I might dwell among them." 53:30 He created this sanctuary just as it was on the pattern 53:33 as it was in heaven. 53:35 This was theology in physical form, 53:39 they could see the pictures of salvation 53:41 'cause these people didn't read. 53:43 Now, Moses could read, 53:44 but the Hebrew slaves didn't know how to read. 53:47 So everything you see in the sanctuary 53:50 is a picture of God's plan of salvation 53:54 and each covenant including the old covenant, 53:57 each covenant builds on the last covenant. 54:01 And it's a progressive revelation, 54:04 an unfolding of the plan of salvation. 54:08 But in the old, and there's one eternal plan, 54:11 it's the eternal gospel. 54:14 In the Old Testament, 54:15 righteousness has always been by faith. 54:17 Jeremiah 33:16, he says, "The Lord our righteousness." 54:23 And then in Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah says, 54:27 "Hey, the best that we can offer up, 54:30 our best righteousness is like filthy rags before Him. 54:34 It is always been salvation by grace through faith. 54:38 It has always been that we cannot save ourself. 54:42 That salvation in the Old Testament, 54:45 in Psalms 3:8 says, 54:46 "Salvation belongs to the Lord." 54:48 And in the New Testament, Revelation 17, 54:50 it says, "Salvation belongs to the Lord." 54:53 So the point is, 54:55 an unchanging God has an unchanging gospel. 54:59 And we need to look at all of the Old Testament 55:04 through the lens 55:06 of this everlasting gospel. 55:10 Because the fact that it is an eternal gospel 55:14 that gives us assurance. 55:16 As you said, for those who are willing to accept it, 55:20 we can have absolute assurance of our salvation 55:23 as long as we are in Christ. 55:27 Ephesians 1:4-5 says this, 55:30 "Just as he chose us in him 55:34 before the foundation of the world, 55:36 that we should be holy and without blame 55:38 before Him in love, 55:39 having predestined us to adoption 55:43 as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, 55:46 according to the good pleasure of His will." 55:50 Before He created the world, 55:51 He had the Calvary plan in mind. 55:55 And here's what the quarterly ask. 55:58 How could salvation come from anything that we could do 56:01 if we were elected to have that salvation in Him 56:05 even before we existed? 56:07 Our choice is simple. CA, you said it earlier, 56:10 it is just a matter of we have to surrender, 56:14 He does everything, we just yield to His control, 56:18 we just say, "Lord, save me 56:21 and accept as you pray 56:23 to be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 56:26 Accept His love and walk 56:29 in the power of the Holy Spirit. 56:31 That right. Amen. 56:33 How very, very powerful. 56:34 Thank each one of you for adding your little bean 56:39 to the soup, 56:41 you put your little bean in the pot, 56:42 just really, really well done. 56:44 A couple of things... 56:45 A couple of weeks ago, 56:46 I was watching 3ABN on a Thursday night. 56:48 Shelley, you were on, Pastor, you were on, 56:50 I don't recall who else, and bear me, Mollie, 56:52 but a woman send in a question, 56:54 she said, "I don't feel saved." 56:56 Remember that, I don't feel like I'm in Christ. 56:59 I don't feel close to God and I have got so little time." 57:02 What we established here today 57:04 is that all of heaven is intimately, intricately, 57:08 and inextricably bound up in our salvation. 57:11 All heaven is working for our salvation. 57:14 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us." 57:20 So you don't have to earn it, you don't have to work, 57:22 it's there, that love is there waiting for you, 57:24 that love is there. 57:26 It's there, just accept it. 57:28 And remember feeling is not faith. 57:31 Trust God, He is faithful. We'll see again soon. 57:34 Bye-bye. |
Revised 2018-04-23