Welcome to Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist church. We look forward every week to studying with you our Sabbath school lesson and this week is no exception. A very special welcome to those of you who join us faithfully from across the country and around the world every week to study God's Word together. And I've been gone for a while and I am so glad to be back but I just wanted to say a special welcome to those that faithfully join us every week at Connecticut valley adventist church in hartford, Connecticut - actually, it's in windsor - they're my extended family and there are so many that join us every week and I just want to say happy Sabbath. Our first song this morning is 'wonderful words of life' - hymn #286.
This comes as a request from kara in australia, ian in bahamas, gina, elisenda, leon and David in California, arnz and wayne in Canada, ocian in england, felix in finland, lincoln, maureen, elaine, margaret, and tryMaine in florida, maisie and karl in France, laural and barbara in Georgia, bob and Paula in Idaho, corrine and cheryl in india, william in nigeria, hanna, gabriele and David in north carolina, and Samuel and zipporah in Utah. Hymn #286 and we're going to sing all three verses of 'wonderful words of life'. If you have a favorite hymn you'd like to sing with us on a coming study together, I invite you to go to our website at 'saccentral.org'. It's very easy, just click on the 'contact us' link and you can request any hymn in our hymnal and we will sing that with you coming up soon. Today we are learning - as you know, if you are tuning in regularly, and for those of you that don't, we are going through the hymnal and we are learning - picking out all The Songs that nobody has ever heard of and so we're just kind of making our way through and it's a long progress.
And I'm hoping we're done - I hope - in twelve years, but I'm hoping Jesus comes long before that and we learn them in heaven together. Hymn #62 - 'how lovely is thy dwelling place'. And this is a strange little song. It is a scottish psalter and it has an American negro spiritual tune to it and so we're going to sing all five verses. It's very short and by the end you'll know it and you can sing it all week - hymn #62.
Oh, and this also comes as a request from joyce in kenya, maisie and karl in France, melissa in suriname, brad in Pennsylvania, sandie, vern, jenny and jamie in North Carolina, and greg in ArKansas. So it's not brand new to everybody. Hymn #62. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we humbly come before you as we study together, anxious to hear your words, open with our hearts to hear what you have to say to us today through Your Word.
Lord, they are words of life and they are the only thing that brings us life in this cold dark planet and so we open our hearts to you this morning. Lord, just fill us with your spirit that as we leave this place and as we leave this study, we can be shining lights for you with those we come in contact and they will see Jesus living in us. Please help us to do our part that we can wrap up life on this earth and that we can see you face to face and worship together forever. Lord, we're so looking forward to that day. Please just keep us faithful to the end.
I pray these things in your precious and holy name, amen. Our study today is brought to us by pastor mike thompson and he is the health and the visitation pastor here at Sacramento central. Thank you very much choir and Jordan, we're glad you're on the team. Is he listening to me? Welcome to central study hour. It's good to be with you today.
Before I begin we have a free offer. It's called, 'is obedience legalism?' And this is offer #706 and if you live in the continental United States of America you can receive this free if you call -788-3966 - Offer #706. So 866-788-3966 or -866-study-more. Well it's good - by the way, you know, there's a question that sometimes comes up - it's directed against those who believe the law of God as being - as having been done away with, especially the Sabbath and I found some people say, 'well, you're legalists, you know, Jesus did away with the law. You just have to believe.
You just have to believe in the cross.' I'm all for the cross, by the way, but through the blood of Jesus which we'll be looking at this morning. His blood is not just to justify us, it's to sanctify us, which means simply to give us the strength to obey his law. So we're on with lesson 5 this morning with our theme 'revival and reformation' and the theme is 'obedience: the fruit of revival' and it's a very, very good lesson. In fact, as you might guess, I won't get to the end. I just can - kind of undisciplined in some ways.
I get into a section and there's so much stuff in there and I never really get to the end. But we'll try. We'll do our best. So this week we've been studying the theme 'obedience: the fruit of revival' and I'd like to say this right from the get-go, a spiritual revival is not a spiritual revival unless it's equally yoked with its twin sibling of reformation. And I hope you got that.
We hear a lot about revival, even in our own conference, but we don't always hear a lot about reformation. And unless you're willing to be reformed, you'll never have a revival. It's just as - it's just as simple as that. So, in other words, a revived life will bring forth a changed life. There'll be a change that is seen or, to put it another way, you become a converted person.
And a converted person, if they're converted, there should be a change in their behavior, which can be seen. Not that they go around saying, 'hey, look at me. I'm converted. Look at me.' No, you don't do that. The more converted you are, the more humble you are with it.
But there should be a change that can be seen. People look and say, 'what's the difference with this person?' Like with the disciples, people looked and said - they could tell they'd been with Jesus and it should be the same with us. Where once they or we may have not found God interesting, kind of disliked religion, disliked God's law and preferred to obey the devil, there's a change. And suddenly we find ourselves eschewing evil - we just feel uncomfortable with it - and we find ourselves hungering and thirsting for righteousness and we - lo and behold we've fallen in love with God. We've fallen in love with Jesus.
We've fallen in love with His Word. And when you love something or somebody you want to do their will, right? You gentlemen who have ever been in love, you should know what I'm talking about. You're slow this morning. Ladies as well, by the way. So there should be an absolute change in the life.
Now in Sunday's section 'the transformed life', it cites the example of Peter and we see Peter before he had this spiritual revival and this conversion and he brought forth the fruits of obedience and we see the contrast of afterwards when he had actually gone through a change when he was - became a different person. But it's interesting when we look and realize that here was this disciple - and we can read ourselves into this very easily - here was a chosen disciple of Christ. He'd been rubbing shoulders with Jesus for three and a half years. He'd been out there preaching the gospel - he'd even cast out demons - and would you believe it? That was the grace of God that worked in his life in spite of his - what should we say? - His limitations, spiritually. He wasn't actually where he needed to be spiritually.
He wasn't actually fully converted. And yet, here he is. He's been in the presence of Christ for all this time. And yet he was blind to some major flaws in his character, which the only way they could be brought out was through a crisis. Now in Jeremiah, it says 'the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?' And you've heard me use this many times and very often we're the last person, perhaps, to know what our heart is really like.
But God sees it all the time. It's like an open book. So what God does, in his infinite wisdom, and in his mercy, he brings along a crisis and what does that crisis do? What's inside, as you hit the wall, it comes out. So crisis reveals character and that's what happened with Peter. I'd like us to go to Matthew chapter 26 - Matthew chapter 26.
I sound a bit hoarse this morning because yesterday I was giving my precious little grandsons that I love like crazy, an impersonation of a fire truck when it sounds it's airhorn. You know that - honk? Well, I'm paying a price today. But we had fun. Anyway, I'm glad my voice is back. So, Matthew chapter 26.
Here is the night of Jesus' betrayal and, you know, Jesus is taken into custody and Peter's there kind of hanging around on the periphery and he gets confronted here. Matthew 26, verses 69 to 74. Now, let's have somebody read all those four verses and we'll come back and take another look at them and my good friend here, Michael, is all ready to go. Okay, Matthew 26, verses 69 through 74, "now Peter sat outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying, 'you also were with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied it before them all saying, 'I do not know what you are saying.' And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw and said to those who were there, 'this fellow also was with Jesus of nazareth.' But again he denied with an oath, 'I do not know the man.' And a little later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, 'surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.' Then he began to curse and swear saying, 'I do not know the man.' Immediately a rooster crowed." Yeah, imagine how he felt. Thank you Michael.
But I'd like you to notice there's a progression here. Here's Peter, a few - just a short time before - he's drawn a sword, he's cut off the ear of the high priest's servant and he's ready to die - he's ready to die like a man, you know? The one and only Peter. But now, where's his manliness? It's turned to cowardice. And there's a progression here of denying Jesus. In verse 70 it says, Jesus denied him - he denied Jesus before them all.
And then in verse 72 it says, 'and again he denied with an oath.' Okay, so he denies in the first place, now he denies with an oath. In verse 74 he began to curse and swear saying, 'I know not the man.' Denies him, denies with an oath, then he denies him with cursing and swearing. You see, there's a progression when we start descending down into evil. I'll pause a moment just to say we can weave this little lesson into here. You might say, 'I'll never deny Jesus.
I'll be faithful.' Well, you start playing around with fire - with sin - and you go a little further and you might find yourself denying him and also with an oath and the further you go, you'll deny him one day with cursing and swearing. You might think, 'oh, I could never do that.' Oh yes you can. We're all perfect - we're born perfectly capable of doing that. Not born guilty of sin - I'll talk about that later on, but we're all born perfectly capable of doing that with our fallen natures because the hearts we have are desperately wicked and deceitful. Peter's no different.
Here we see this progression. So the falseness of Peter's profession of Jesus and the hidden hypocrisy of his heart began to spill out here during this crisis. But here's the thing as well, that just nailed Peter - I don't want to say 'nailed' - I don't mean anything sacrilegious there or funny, but right at that moment, as we read 'Desire of Ages' - let me hold a moment. Jesus had told Peter before time - do you remember? - 'Peter, you'll deny me tonight.' He said, 'I won't do that, lord.' He says, 'you will. You will.
' And I want to go to 'desire of ages' - 'Desire of Ages' 712 and I'm sorry this looks like a porcupine but it's a well-researched book. - Just bear with me - 712 and the last paragraph, yes. It says, "while the degrading oaths were fresh upon Peter's lips and the shrill crying of the cock was still ringing in his ears, the Savior turned from the frowning Judges and looked full upon his poor disciple." - I've read this before but it's powerful - "at the same time, Peter's eyes were drawn to his master. In that gentle countenance he read deep pity and sorrow, but there was no anger there. The sight of that pale suffering face, those quivering lips, that look of compassion and forgiveness pierced his heart like an arrow.
Conscience was aroused. Memory was active. Peter called to mind his promises a few short hours before that he would go with his lord to prison and to death. He remembered his grief when the Savior told him in the upper chamber that he would deny his lord thrice that same night. Peter had just declared that he knew not Jesus.
But he now realized with bitter grief how well his lord knew him and how accurately he had read his heart, the falseness of which was unknown even to him." Shall I read a bit more? It says here - well, I'll read it - it says, "a tide of memories rushed over him; the Savior's tender mercies, his longsuffering, his gentleness and patience toward his erring disciple all was remembered. He recalled the caution, 'Simon, behold satan's desire to have you that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." You know that even in the agony of Gethsemane Jesus was praying for good old Peter. "He reflected with horror upon his own ingratitude, his falsehood, his perjury." What is perjury? It's lying, right? He confessed Christ but it was a lie. That's perjury.
And this came home to him. "Once more he looked at his master and saw a sacrilegious hand raised to smite him in the face. Unable longer to endure the scene, he rushed brokenhearted from the hall. He pressed on in solitude and darkness. He knew not and cared not whither.
At last he found himself in Gethsemane. The scene of a few hours before came vividly to his mind. The suffering face of his lord stained with bloody sweat convulsed with anguish - it rose before him. He remembered with bitter remorse that Jesus had wept and agonized and prayed alone while those who should have united with him in that trying hour were sleeping." And Peter was one of them. "He remembered his solemn charge, 'watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.
' He witnessed again the scene in the judgment hall" - and I want us to catch this now - "it was torture to his bleeding heart to know that he had added the heaviest burden to the Savior's humiliation and grief. On the very spot where Jesus had poured out his soul in agony to his father, Peter fell upon his face and wished that he might die." Something, isn't it? So on that crisis night, Peter's world was brutally rocked and shaken as he came to see, through the kindness of his suffering lord, that forgiveness when he'd been so false - his perjury, his lying. And Jesus had used this crisis as a tool in his merciful hand to gravely wound his servant's heart. But that, my friends was the beginning of the transformation that made this brash disciple a different man. And you consider this event at Gethsemane and at the judgment hall and afterwards and between that unforgettable night and pentecost just fifty-plus days later when Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, it was a different man - surrendered, obedient, humble and prepared to actually receive the Holy Spirit because - because God, in his infinite mercy, had not given him what he deserved, but God gave Peter a chance at what it was to have a revival and a reformation in his life.
And you and I individually and you and I as a corporate body of this church and you and I as a corporate body of the northern California conference and of the pacific union and of the north American division and the world conference of seventh day adventists, all of us singly or corporately, unless we go through this experience of allowing God to reveal to us the rottenness and the planks in our infrastructure of our fallen hearts - painful as it might be - unless we're willing to go through that and honestly accept and say, 'lord, you were right, I was wrong. I'm in need. Help me. Forgive me. I don't ever want to disobey you again, but I'm weak.
You're going to have to give me the strength.' And God will say, 'I'll give you the strength.' And lord, I cast away these gimmicks about how to have a church service and how to bring people into the church. There is one gospel. And it's that gospel that calls for the crucifixion of self and unless you and I are willing to experience that - are willing to go through that, we can hold preaching services til the cows come home. I don't want the cows - I don't want to be waiting for the cows to come home. I want Jesus to come home and I want to go with him but unless we submit to this we will have - never have a revival and a reformation.
So I make an appeal this morning to everybody here and to all that - which camera am I on? To all the leaders in the seventh day adventist church - locally, worldwide - we are your people. I beg you - I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to lead your people and know what it really is to initiate a revival and a reformation. Okay, let's move on here. So the point I want to make is this - and I think I've already made it - I get ahead - I write notes sometimes. I wonder why I bother but it does help my poor little mind once in awhile.
Monday: 'the high cost of obedience' - and again, obedience is the fruit of true revival and this can only come as we're willing to have a reformation with it and be changed. Okay - and so somebody - we're on - about the high cost of obedience - the fallout can be persecution and opposition. And somebody who becomes a brand-new Christian and they're washed from their sins and Jesus comes into their heart and they're changed - I remember I was changed. I won't go into that. I'll get side tracked.
But I remember the change Jesus brought into my life when I was in a rock n roll band. I've got to stay on track here. But you go through this experience and young Christians - and I know what this was like - your friends, they look at you and they think you're screwy. They say, 'what's the matter with you? You don't drink anymore. What's the matter with you? You don't cuss anymore.
What's the matter with you? You don't laugh at filthy jokes anymore.' It's not that I don't want to. I don't like to. Why? Because Jesus has come into my heart. When Jesus comes into your heart he changes things. And so you go out there and you're strange.
And so what happens? You get opposition. You know, snide remarks. Just expect it. Christian life is not a bed of roses. You're in a warfare.
Just expect it. Get used to it. And if it comes, get over it. That's how it's meant to be. And if you're getting opposed you must be doing something right.
So don't seek the easy path. And so we get opposition and maybe then finally outright physical persecution - people want to take us aside and rough us up. In fact, it was only three and a half years after the cross in a.d. 34 Stephen became the first Christian martyr. And we can read about that in acts chapter 7.
I want to keep moving on this morning. So we should read the word of God but I'm sorry if I skip a little bit today, but I want to give the references. I wish we had more than the time we have. Then a little further downstream, as the early church went forth, as the white horse in Revelation - conquering and to conquer - started making these huge inroads into society and especially, of course, where it was initiated and that was in the roman empire and so for a little while they were able to go and sow the seed and preach the word. But then, finally, the roman state got all riled up because they were pagan.
And then what happened? Then persecution broke out. Many Christians were martyred - even the disciples - all but John - they tried to do away with him but he came out the boiling oil and God had determined that this one's staying alive. And so he did. But we're familiar with this. But the more they slew those Christians - as one person said at that time or a little afterwards - the seed of - the blood of martyrs is seed.
The more they slew them and threw them to lions and burned them at the stake, the more their testimony, so powerful, inspired other pagans and they came forward up to the plate and they took a stand for the truth. And so satan looked on and he thought, 'you know, this outward stuff - just throwing people to the lions and such just isn't working.' So, obviously, he had a powwow and he came up with another idea, 'well, let's join the church' which supposedly he did. He joined the church to introduce a perverted gospel which taught the people that salvation came through a human priesthood through the worship of saints and relics and penances and all those kinds of things. You know what I'm talking about. That's when we had the 1,260 prophetic days - literal years - from 538 to 1798.
But nonetheless, during that time, as Jesus himself had been slain through the instigation of the religious leaders of his day, and as stephen had been slain through the instigation of the religious leaders of his day, through the dark ages it was the religious leaders yoking up with the powerful arm of the state that caused many to give their lives and to become martyrs. That was the opposition and that's our theme at this point. Oh, I'm trying to think when it was, but let me suffice to say it was a long time ago, when I was a student at newbold. London wasn't too far away and we went one day on a trip and there's a place called smithfield. Thirty-something years ago it was the wholesale meat Market in london.
I don't think it is anymore, but there's an old hospital there - saint guy's hospital or bartholomew's, but there at smithfield there was kind of a pretty big square and the teacher took us out and on the ground there, there was a little kind of a brass plaque and it says that here smithfield, on this spot, in this area, where many martyrs were burned to death while testifying to Jesus Christ. It's right there. I've seen it. And there's many other places where you can see those things. Why? Because these people brought forth the fruits of revival - it was obedience.
And the devil and those who threw in their lot with the devil didn't like it. I have at the house a big old volume of 'fox's book of martyrs' - it's about 200 years old. Some of you have seen it. I nearly brought it this morning but I thought it would be too distracting. But you read that - it smells old, it looks old, and there's some stories in there, I tell you.
But it seems, again, ironic that so many of God's people were opposed by the so-called religious bodies of the time. But, you know, that will be seen again. If you want true revival and reformation we have to be broken at the cross. We have to be born again. We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus will send us out and if we had a revival of primitive Godliness - and you can read this in 'Great Controversy' - Ellen white says - the servant of the Lord says, 'we would immediately see, or thereabouts, a rekindling of the fires of persecution.' So why do we sit in such comfort and ease today? Because we ain't doin' much, that's why. We're not much of a threat right now. But there's going to be a faithful remnant of God that will have a true revival and reformation, that will be obedient and will stir up a storm of opposition such as really hasn't ever been before. And those who are part of that, they're going to find themselves opposed by apostate protestantism who will champion the cause of the papacy and enlist the arm of civil government here in America to enforce certain religious principles which, morally, in themselves may be very good, but you can't - you can't enforce morality. But along with that, which at first may look pretty good, you know, who knows, they may be against certain kinds of marriage and they say, 'we need to get back to this.
We need to outlaw gay marriage.' They may do that. I don't know. I can't speak for them. They may do that. But, you know, along with that what's going to come? The push for Sunday observance.
Very often perhaps first, just for the sake of a common day off - like is already the situation in europe - a lot of europe. But then it's going to go from something that looks kind of civil on the outside for civil/social reasons like constantine's first law in 321. But then it's going to move along to become for religious reasons and that's when the nitty gritty of this real spiritual face-off will begin to take place. And it will all boil down to two days - the seventh day Sabbath of the Lord thy God - who recognize God as their creator by keeping the seventh day, according to the fourth commandment. And the other the first day - Sunday keeping, which is an invention of man - the child of the papacy.
And which day you keep will determine which God you serve. And when that happens and everybody is going to be brought to face this test. Nobody is going to be sitting on the fence like some switzerland. We're going to be on one side or the other when God's finished. Don't sit on the fence - God's going to have to force them to have to take a position.
In Revelation 13, if you want to turn there, I'd like somebody to read Revelation 13:15, please. Revelation chapter 13 - just raise your hand and we'll give you a microphone. Revelation chapter 13:15 - we have a microphone over there? Okay, somebody over here. Thank you jolyne - Revelation :15, please jolyne. Revelation 13:15, "he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
Yeah, thank you jolyne. Oh, did I miss one? Oh, well, we should know the gist of this. So that's what it's coming to here. And, you know, many of God's professed people, when it comes to this, they are going to cave in. They're going to cave in to such demands to preserve life and livelihood.
Instead of obeying God and keeping the fourth commandment, they'll switch sides and obey a human enactment and offer allegiance to the man of sin. Now you might say, 'well, how come? Why would they do that?' Well, I do want to read from 'Great Controversy' - we should all know these words, by the way, we should know 'the Great Controversy' but, nonetheless, here we go. "As the storm approaches" - this one here, Revelation 13 - "as the storm approaches" - and those who have had revival and reformation are rendering obedience to God brings opposition - "as the storm approaches a large class who have professed faith in the third angel's message but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light. And when the test is brought they are prepared to choose the easy popular side.
Men of talent and pleasing address who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter" - what? - The most bitter - you know these words - "enemies" - who becomes the most bitter enemies? Former Sabbath keepers. "They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbath keepers are brought before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates" - apostates, now - "are the most efficient agents of satan to misrepresent and accuse them and by false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them." Okay, so my question was how come - what was my last little comment there? Instead of obeying God and the Ten Commandments they will switch sides and obey the man of sin. How come? Well, we read this here and it says the reason why - here's the answer - because they had the truth, okay, but they had not been sanctified through obedience to the truth.
We're talking about obedience, today, as a fruit of revival and reformation, okay. They have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth. So there's no sanctification and there's no obedience. In other words, they had not been part of any genuine revival and reformation. As I say again, a true revival and a true reformation brings conversion to those who sincerely invest their heart, their mind, their everything in seeking God and his truth.
But also, a truly converted person who is sanctified through faith in Christ, will render obedience to the law of God, including the fourth commandment. But again, in the testing time it will come to light who are like this. Now, there's something I want to share with you as to why - it says in here they become - what is it now - it says become sanctified for the truth. 'By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit they have come to view matters in nearly the same light.' So these people who are Sabbath keepers - or were - they've come to unite with the world and see things in a very worldly way. How come? I have - I want to mention something which I think is a real serious threat to any sincere Christian today and a real serious threat to seventh day adventists.
It is - it's the - yeah, okay - it's evangelicalism. Now you might say, 'you know, pastor mike, I've heard that - what do you mean 'evangelicalism'?' Well, let me try and kind of define this in as few words as possible, but hopefully in a way that you'll catch it, okay? Let me explain. Evangelicalism, to put it simply, kind of springs from one of the reformers called John calvin and calvin, in turn, had been a catholic and he brought some baggage with him and it was introduced - he was one of the main ones who introduced it into protestantism - and it's like this: we're dealing with the issue of original sin, actually, and the fallout because of that. Sin - this is evangelicalism - now try and follow me. This has a tremendous effect on how you view the gospel and where you're going to allow your gospel that you adopt to take you.
We start with sin - sin is not an act. The Word of God tells us that sin is the transgression of the law - that is an act. They say that sin is not an act, it is a state of being. Sin is not something you incur as a result of violating the law of God, sin is something we already are when we are born because we are born guilty because we not only inherit a fallen nature, we actually inherit the guilt and condemnation of adam's sin. You follow me? This is why a little baby that's born into a caring catholic home - and I want to say again, there are some wonderful catholics out there who are honest in heart and they are going to be some of God's greatest champions before Jesus comes.
I really believe that, I do. In a good catholic home - the little baby when he's born, they're taught to believe - a little baby is born but he's/she is guilty because my little child has inherited adam's sin. So I need to get my baby baptized. And so if your baby falls sick within an hour of being born and it's on the icu there at uc davis somewhere or sutter general, that good catholic mother and father will call the priest and say, 'please, come and baptize our baby because our little one's getting ready to pass away and the priest will come and he'll, you know, Christen the baby and what that does - that atones for that little baby's sin and guilt which, by the way, a baby is born innocent. Sin is a choice.
But if you believe that sin is not a choice but it's a state of being that you're born in, well, I'd be on the phone to the priest, 'please, please, please'. So he Christens the little baby and the little baby dies, 'oh, thank you so much. My baby is - my baby is safe.' Okay, so this is what is thought to be sin in the evangelical gospel as well. And I'll try and pick up where I was here. And so because we're all born with what's known as this total - in this totally depraved state - we're born with a fallen nature, we're born sinful, we're born guilty, then how can we ever perfectly keep God's law? I can't live a perfect life, but this I know I can do: the preacher told me that Jesus was crucified on the cross for my sins.
Do you believe that? Praise the Lord. Every day we should go to that cross. We're told that in the inspired writings and contemplate the last scenes of Jesus' life. The cross is where your heart is broken so I'm all for the cross. So the preacher says, you know, it's the cross, it's the cross, it's - absolutely it's the cross - and the cross is where you come with your sin and you ask Jesus to forgive you.
Praise the Lord he does. But that time you are forgiven you've made a profession of Christ and so you're saved now. And you just keep making that profession that I believe in Jesus and have eternal life. Now as for keeping the law as God wants us to do - and God wants to give us the grace to develop those characters which are perfectly moral when Jesus comes so that when he comes we are like him, but if you don't buy into sanctification and it's just justification, it's just the cross, the cross, the cross. And if you sin, go to the cross and you'll be washed.
And, you know, that's good - very good in its place, but the gospel is not just that. When you look at the sanctuary service, praise God there were the little lambs and they typified Jesus who was crucified, if you like, symbolically in the outer court of the temple. Little lamb, his blood was shed, the rest was burned and there's the saving blood of Jesus. But, you know, the sanctuary just doesn't bring to light the sacrifice, it brings to light the priest as well. And what did the priest do - he would take that blood and take it into the sanctuary and with that blood he would make an atonement - sprinkle it on the veil, put it on the horns of the altar and once a year on the day of atonement go around there and, you know, cleanse the sanctuary - make an atonement for the holy place and the people and all their uncleanness.
That typifies the other half of the gospel. Actually, it's one gospel but for explaining purposes we can split it, but that's the gospel. Righteousness by faith is justification and sanctification but we split them in two just so we can describe them. But when you hear the term righteousness by faith, it's justification and sanctification. But there's this role that the high priest plays - that the priest plays.
Now seventh day adventists, we very much are into that side of it, which takes us into the sanctuary, which takes us, as we're studying the prophecies, to Daniel 8:14 unto 2300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. We believe that Jesus went into the most holy place in the sanctuary in 1844 to begin the investigative judgment to begin the final work of his mediation on behalf of his people. And as in the old day of atonement, the people were to afflict their souls - that was search their hearts and confess their sins and make sure there was nothing in their lives that they were clinging to because if you clung to it, it couldn't be cleansed. They invested their hearts and at that time, by faith, on the day of the atonement, the priest would make the atonement and then they were clean. That was a picture book - the sanctuary is a picture book of salvation - of how God deals with sin - of what would happen at the end of time when Jesus would cleanse the heavenly sanctuary and as we're waiting in our probationary time, this is the time to be coming to him as he ministers to us before the throne of God to dispense grace, to forgive us, and also to cleanse us and sanctify us and give us strength to overcome.
That's what's happening now and this is why, as seventh day adventists, we believe 'let's lift up the crucified Savior but let's lift up the risen intercessory priest.' But in evangelical gospel, he's not there. So how do you remedy this? It's just the cross - just the cross - just stay forgiven. As for being - overcoming, don't worry. Do the best you can. God understands.
He's merciful, yes, but he's not indulgent. He's given a gospel - a full gospel - and, unfortunately, there are certain seventh day adventists today who have bought into evangelical adventism and this is why they will be among, I believe, among a large group that will leave when this crisis hits. Why? Because it says here 'they haven't been sanctified through obedience to the truth.' By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit - if you are fully invested in the true sanctuary message, your mind and your desires and your affections are going in the direction not of the world, but of righteousness and holiness. But if you don't believe in the sanctuary and you just have this thing about just the cross, and there's no challenge, through the grace of Christ, to overcome - and it's only through the grace of Christ but it will work. You push that aside where's your mind going to go? Well the world, with this weak, wishy-washy gospel you have - this weak, wishy-washy gospel doesn't put a bulwark around your brain or your heart.
It doesn't protect you and you're a sitting duck for worldliness. The world comes along - the pied piper comes - and he just takes you down the track. 'I'm a Christian but hey, let's rock n roll in the sanctuary. Let's have a drama up here. Let's get all the laser lights out.
Let's bring in the neighborhood. Yeah, let's dance!' You might as well dance around the golden calf and have Moses come down the mountain and just smash those commandments in front of you. Because that's all that kind of religion is worth. You get the point? I'm a bit wordy sometimes. I'm not the best at explaining things but this is why - you throw that aside and so you're wide open to the world.
And why? Okay, 'as the storm approaches a large class who have professed faith in the third angel's message but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and uniting with evangelicalism - and let me say something now - there's going to be people in evangelicalism who will come and stand upon the platform of present truth and they will be champions for God. So I'm not putting down catholic individuals, and I'm not putting down evangelicals. They're going to be firebrands for Jesus, they are. He accepts them as his children because they're honest in heart and he knows when they see the truth they'll accept it.
So pray for these people. 'By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit they have come to view matters in nearly the same light and when the test is brought they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side.' Why? Because the religion they adopted through evangelicalism is an easy, popular religion. There's no cross. Right? And no sacrifice to make. So when you hear of people in the church preaching the cross, praise the Lord, but how full is your gospel? If the sanctuary is not brought in there - if the cross is not planted in the courtyard of the sanctuary, then you know it's not going to be planted - the atoning blood is not going to be brought to you within the context of the most holy place.
I believe that that's why we're in the state we are today - because of listening to these things. We need to get back to the book. We need to get back to tHis Word. We have not followed cunningly devised fables. God has blessed us with truth.
He's blessed us with a prophet and we pooh-pooh the prophet and we become progressive and all this kind of stuff. Well, that's all stuff at the peril of our souls. I - I'm going to conclude with this: Hebrews chapter 13 - just to conclude - I've got a minute and 30 seconds left - sorry jim. Hebrews 13:12 and 20 and 21. This is what we believe and you won't get this in an evangelical gospel but you will if you stand by the old landmarks of adventism.
Hebrews 13:12, and 21, "therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." - Jesus died that he might justify us outside the gate when he shed his blood, but that blood was also shed to sanctify us, which means what then exactly? Verse 20, "now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant" - that's the covenant - that's the Gospel. Here's what it is - verse 21¬¬ - to be sanctified - "make you perfect in every good work to do His will." Is that keeping God's law or not? Absolutely - including the Sabbath. In our own strength?
No, it says Jesus will make you able - "make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen." That's where it's at. Didn't get far, did we? But I think we covered some important ground so I'll try and find our special offer - it's this one here, offer #706 'is obedience legalism?' And you can have this free if you call 866-788-3966 or -866-study-more. If you've missed any of our Amazing Facts programs, visit our website at 'amazingfacts.org'. There you'll find an archive of all our television and radio programs including Amazing Facts presents. One location. So many possibilities. Amazingfacts.org.