Anchors of Truth

Not Letter, but Spirit

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Ty Gibson

Home

Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000149


00:13 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth
00:15 live from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:22 Alright, thank you for joining us.
00:24 Happy Sabbath to those of you here
00:26 and to those of you watching around the world at 3ABN.
00:30 I'm always amazed that we can stand in a
00:32 former little corn field and realize that signals are
00:36 going up 22,300 miles to space, going from nine different
00:41 satellites literally circling planet earth,
00:45 coming back down into homes of potentially hundreds of millions
00:49 of people around the world in a split second.
00:52 I would say, when the Bible says the last events will be
00:56 rapid, knowledge shall be increased, men shall run
00:58 to and fro, I would say we're there.
01:00 How about you?
01:01 Any time this gospel of the kingdom can go into
01:04 all the world so rapidly, it's amazing.
01:07 People say, "How do you know Jesus is coming soon?
01:09 People have been saying that for hundreds of years."
01:12 And I say, "But it hasn't been for hundreds of years
01:15 that the gospel can get literally around the world
01:18 in a split second."
01:19 If the world lasts another hundred years,
01:21 how much could you improve on a second or two, right?
01:24 Wouldn't make any difference.
01:25 So folks, we are living in the closing moments
01:27 of earth's history.
01:28 I'm very thankful that we have been associated
01:31 with our speaker for today, Brother Ty Gibson.
01:35 Ty and his co-director of Light Bearers Ministry,
01:38 James Rafferty, started coming here in either the late 80's
01:42 or maybe right around 1990.
01:44 We were talking about it, and I'm not sure,
01:46 but it's been a long time.
01:48 I know they were young guys in their 20's.
01:50 Of course I was a young guy in my 30's.
01:52 And all of that has been a number of years back,
01:54 but I praise God that we're still here, we're still able
01:58 to work for the Lord.
02:00 Aren't you glad that God has a plan for you?
02:02 You're not here by accident.
02:04 Those of you watching, when Jesus was hanging on the cross,
02:06 you were on His mind.
02:08 Isn't that amazing?
02:09 He could look down the stream of time and see a people
02:11 that would be willing to give their lives unto death
02:14 if necessary for the cause of God.
02:17 And what a privilege it is to serve the Lord.
02:20 What I'm going to do today, we're going to bypass the music.
02:23 Somebody said I could either sing or do something else.
02:26 And I said I'll do something else.
02:27 I won't bore you all, I've got something more exciting.
02:29 I'm going to ask Pastor Ty to come out, because
02:33 I have something in my hands that he gave me
02:36 that is really exciting.
02:38 And I think the whole world needs to
02:39 know about what's happening.
02:40 Tell me about this literature that I've got here.
02:44 Danny, this is a brand new set of Bible studies called,
02:47 Truth Link.
02:49 And this is a unique set of Bible studies in this regard:
02:52 It brings together in one 27 part series
02:57 two extremely important factors.
02:59 Number one, absolute doctrinal biblical integrity.
03:04 And number two, a very Christ-centered, cross-centered
03:08 approach to every single biblical doctrine.
03:11 So it doesn't matter what it is that you're looking at,
03:14 whether the study is on the Sabbath or the judgment
03:17 or the first, second, third angels' message,
03:19 it doesn't matter what the topic is, the topic is
03:22 always Jesus in every single lesson.
03:26 So that's the key to these lessons.
03:29 Combination, beautiful fusion, between doctrine and Christ,
03:34 the love of Christ in every single lesson.
03:37 Amen, praise the Lord.
03:38 I have found in over 30 years of ministry
03:40 that people really don't care how much you know,
03:43 how much Bible you can recite.
03:45 They want to know where's Jesus in it.
03:48 If they see Jesus in us; He says, "I, if I be lifted up
03:51 from this earth will draw all men unto Me."
03:54 But thank you for this, because sometimes
03:56 we as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we get so
03:59 focused on this message, sometimes it seems like
04:02 we leave out Jesus.
04:03 Now maybe we're thinking about it, but we don't know
04:06 how to always convey this to others.
04:08 So thank you that this is going to keep us
04:10 centered in on Christ.
04:14 Because that's really what the gospel is.
04:15 Danny, they're called, Truth Link.
04:17 And the reason we have that title for them
04:19 is because we're pointing out that the truth is in fact
04:23 a series of linked ideas that all form a composite picture
04:28 of the beautiful character of God.
04:31 How is this going so far?
04:32 It's only be out a couple of months.
04:33 It's only been out just a few months.
04:36 We didn't know how it was going to go, so we printed
04:38 700 of them.
04:40 And the first 700 of them were off the shelves in two hours.
04:44 So we printed another 2000, and they were gone in two days.
04:49 So then in the two months that followed, we have already
04:54 sold 6000 sets of them.
04:56 And we're now going to the third printing
05:00 of this series of Bible studies.
05:02 We have conference presidents who are ordering them
05:05 and putting them in the hands of everyone of their pastors
05:07 and Bible workers, and saying, "Make this the new standard
05:11 for Bible studies in our conference."
05:14 We've got guys at the General Conference
05:17 of Seventh-day Adventists who've gone evangelistic
05:19 with these things, and are themselves giving them out
05:22 in the General Conference office.
05:24 You know what I'm going to do?
05:25 I'm going to take theses because you gave them to me,
05:27 and I'm afraid I won't get them back.
05:30 I'm so excited about them now.
05:31 You might want to be re-baptized after you read them.
05:33 Well maybe so. You know, hopefully so.
05:35 All of us, every day, it's coming back to the Lord
05:38 and acknowledging who He is and who we are.
05:41 And of ourselves we can accomplish nothing;
05:43 but through Christ, all things.
05:45 - Let me pray with you, okay? - Thank you.
05:47 Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your many wonderful
05:50 blessing that You have given us.
05:52 And Lord, thank You that You have given us a message
05:55 to give to a lost and dying world;
05:58 this undiluted three angels' messages,
06:00 one that would counteract the counterfeit.
06:02 Thank You that You have raised Ty and James,
06:05 and Light Bearers Ministries, and for the hundreds of millions
06:08 of pieces of literature that have gone around the world,
06:11 and that lives are being changed.
06:13 And we thank You for the new Truth Link
06:15 that, Father, that this thing, we pray that this will go
06:18 to the world literally, that we can be renewed in You.
06:22 Because we realize nothing matters except our relationship
06:27 with our Creator God.
06:28 Thank You for loving us.
06:29 Thank You for Your plan of salvation.
06:31 Thank You today that Brother Ty is here.
06:34 And we pray now for a special anointing of the Holy Spirit
06:37 on everything that is said and done in this service.
06:40 - In Jesus' name I pray, amen. - Amen.
06:42 - God bless you brother. - Thank you, Danny.
06:44 I think we forgot to tell them where to get them.
06:46 - Can we tell them that? - Absolutely.
06:47 You can get the Bible studies, if you'd like to get a set
06:50 for yourself, at lightbearers.org.
06:53 The name of the ministry I represent; lightbearers.org.
06:57 Sorry I wasn't thinking about it; I had mine.
07:01 Thanks, Danny. You want that?
07:03 - Okay. - You can have that.
07:05 Well good morning, everybody, and happy Sabbath.
07:08 We are in the middle of a series of presentations
07:11 on the law of God.
07:12 And we have prayed repeatedly from Psalm 119 and verse 18,
07:19 "Open our eyes, open our eyes, God, that we may see
07:25 wondrous things in Your law."
07:29 Now I am fully aware that when you say you're going to do a
07:32 series of presentations on the law of God,
07:36 some people go into intellectual neutral,
07:38 or even resistance.
07:40 Because who wants to study the word, the concept,
07:44 the idea of law.
07:47 It sounds so restrictive, doesn't it?
07:50 But we're discovering that God's law is unique.
07:54 God's law, in fact, is called in Scripture,
07:58 the law of liberty, the perfect law of liberty.
08:02 We've been discovering in this series of presentations
08:06 that God's law isn't restrictive really at all.
08:10 God's law is actually a vast horizon of freedom
08:15 that God is inviting us into.
08:17 A kind of freedom, a level of freedom, a quality of freedom
08:22 that is not available anywhere else in human experience.
08:27 So I want to just begin by calling your attention
08:31 to the experience of a particular woman
08:34 in the form of a parable that will help us to access
08:38 our subject for this morning.
08:41 The woman's name is Linda.
08:43 And Linda is the kind of woman who, as far back as she could
08:47 remember as a little girl, all she wanted to do
08:50 was to grow up and get married.
08:52 She was that kind of girl.
08:54 She didn't want a career.
08:55 She didn't want to pursue anything else but getting
08:59 married to Mr. Wonderful, to just the right guy,
09:03 and having children, and a home, and a garden, and property.
09:08 That's all she wanted.
09:09 She just wanted to grow up and get married.
09:12 So Linda, next thing you know, she was a teenager.
09:15 And her aspirations for meeting the right guy were growing.
09:19 Next thing you know, she was 19, and then 20.
09:22 And sure enough, she met an incredible man.
09:27 And as they got to know one another, their friendship
09:30 blossomed and flowered into something beautiful.
09:33 She felt as though he was the most wonderful person
09:37 she had ever met in her life.
09:40 And then the day came, as their friendship developed,
09:43 the days and the weeks and the months went by,
09:48 and their hearts were growing toward one another.
09:51 Finally the day came when Herman...
09:55 That was his name, Herman.
09:57 Which was, by the way, very convenient, because
09:59 she could refer to him as her man.
10:02 Don't you like that?
10:04 The day came when Herman dropped to one knee
10:07 and he popped the big question.
10:10 He said, "Linda, will you..."
10:12 And what's the question?
10:14 "Will you marry me?"
10:15 And what do you think Linda said?
10:17 Linda said, "Yes, Herman. Yes I'll marry you."
10:21 And the day came when their wedding
10:23 came off picture perfect.
10:25 They videotaped the whole thing,
10:26 modern people that they are.
10:28 And as the wedding day came to a close,
10:34 and the final friends and relatives said good-bye,
10:37 they drove off for the honeymoon into the sunset.
10:42 And then came the morning after the honeymoon.
10:48 Oh, Linda woke up in a start at 5:30 am
10:53 to find Herman standing at the end of the bed
10:58 with a piece of paper in his hands.
11:01 She thought, "This is strange.
11:03 Why are you up so early?"
11:05 And he said, "Up, up.
11:07 The honeymoon is over."
11:10 Maybe you've heard this story before.
11:13 "The honeymoon is over," Herman said.
11:16 "And Sweetie Pie, I have prepared for you the first
11:20 of many lists of your daily duties.
11:25 Aren't you excited that you married such an organized guy?"
11:30 She had difficulty smiling in response.
11:34 And I just happen to have one of these authentic lists with me.
11:39 Herman stood at the end of the bed and he read
11:41 to his bride, "Linda, every two weeks
11:46 I'll update the list and make a new one so you never
11:50 have to wonder about what you're doing throughout your days."
11:55 And he smiled again.
11:56 She sat up in the bed amazed at what she was encountering
12:01 as Herman read the first of many lists to come.
12:07 5:30 am, rise and shower.
12:10 6:00 am, breakfast preparation.
12:14 6:15, awaken Hermy Cuddles...
12:17 That's what he liked to be called.
12:19 ...awaken Hermy Cuddles with a gentle kiss,
12:23 and turn the shower on for him.
12:27 6:45, serve breakfast.
12:29 Don't forget the grapefruit juice.
12:32 7:15, breakfast clean-up.
12:35 7:25, meet husband at front door with appropriate
12:40 jacket in hand.
12:42 In parentheses, pay attention to the weather.
12:45 7:30, 7:30, free time.
12:50 7:45...
12:53 7:45, household duties.
12:56 See attached list.
13:00 11:00 am, balance the checkbook for my review.
13:05 12, lunch.
13:07 Anything you'd like but marked items.
13:10 12:30, general household duties and duties throughout town.
13:15 On Mondays, car washing and cleaning.
13:18 On Tuesday, dry cleaning and windows.
13:21 On Wednesday, shopping.
13:24 See attached list.
13:26 On Thursdays, wash and clean everything in the garage.
13:33 Fridays, yard work.
13:35 3:30, dinner preparations.
13:37 See attached menu.
13:39 4:30, meet husband at the door with a smile and a kiss.
13:43 5:00, serve dinner with cheerfulness.
13:48 You can kind of feel the cheerfulness
13:50 draining out of this, can't you.
13:52 5:45, dinner clean-up.
13:54 6:15, free time.
13:56 6:30, draw bath for husband.
13:59 7:45, hand husband towel as he exits bath.
14:04 8:00, massage on the neck and shoulders for husband.
14:10 9:00, lights out.
14:12 Pleasant dreams, Sweetheart.
14:15 Wow.
14:17 You didn't expect a list like that, did you.
14:22 Pleasant dreams, Sweetheart?
14:25 More like nightmares.
14:30 Linda and Herman were married, not for days,
14:36 not for weeks, not for months,
14:41 but for years.
14:43 In fact, ten years went by with lists coming
14:49 updated every two weeks.
14:51 Ten years went by as the life and the joy was drained
14:59 from this woman's heart.
15:02 And then the day came, ten years into the marriage,
15:05 when suddenly out of nowhere, for unexpected reasons,
15:09 and from unknown causes, Herman dropped dead.
15:15 Praise God.
15:20 Linda didn't know, she was so conflicted emotionally,
15:24 she didn't know whether to rejoice or to mourn his passing.
15:29 It was so difficult, this last ten years.
15:34 But once the mourning was over, and Linda began to mend,
15:41 the days and the weeks and the months went by
15:46 with Linda repeating to herself over and over again...
15:50 What do you think?
15:51 "I will never get married again."
15:57 Can you blame her?
15:58 I'm asking you a serious question.
16:01 Can you blame her?
16:02 No.
16:04 But after all, this was Linda.
16:06 Linda was the kind of girl, you remember, who,
16:09 all she wanted to do was grow up and meet Mr. Wonderful
16:13 and get married and have a family.
16:15 This was Linda, after all.
16:17 And so sure enough, the day came when she met another guy.
16:23 And in so many ways he was just like Herman.
16:30 Polite and kind and patient.
16:36 But she was a little nervous.
16:38 As they got to know one another, the day came
16:41 when Michael now dropped to one knee and said,
16:44 "Linda, I love you.
16:45 Will you marry me?"
16:48 And her first impulse was to jump into karate position
16:51 and say no.
16:54 But after all, this was Linda, and she wanted to be married.
16:57 And so she said, "Yes."
17:01 And they were married.
17:03 And there came the honeymoon.
17:05 And she woke up in a start at 5:30 am to see...
17:09 What do you think?
17:10 Michael standing at the end of the bed with a
17:12 piece of paper in his hands.
17:15 She was so blown away.
17:17 "Not again," she said. "Not again."
17:20 And she yanked the paper from his hand,
17:22 she tore it in two, she threw it to the ground.
17:25 She said, "No way."
17:28 And Michael said, "Baby, I was up for two hours
17:31 writing that poem for you.
17:35 Don't you want to read it?"
17:38 Oh, she felt so bad.
17:40 She put it back together and she began to read the most
17:43 beautiful love poem she had ever read
17:46 as Michael served breakfast in bed.
17:51 Hmmm.
17:54 And the days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months,
17:57 the months turned into years.
18:00 And after being married to Michael now for ten years,
18:04 one day Linda was in the attic rummaging through some
18:09 old boxes of belongings.
18:13 And what do you think she came across,
18:15 but an old shoe box full of Herman's lists.
18:22 Her hand trembled as she opened the box.
18:25 And she pulled out one of the lists.
18:30 And she began to read.
18:33 And it was in that moment that something astounding
18:39 dawned on Linda.
18:42 She said to herself, quiet and all alone in that attic,
18:48 "Wow, I do these things.
18:52 Well, not all of these things, but these kinds of things.
18:55 I do these very kinds of things for Michael,
19:01 and he never asks or demands or hands me a list."
19:09 It was in that moment that Linda realized
19:12 the difference between the old covenant
19:17 and the new covenant.
19:20 Or is it you and I who are realizing the difference
19:24 between the two.
19:26 Now yes, I made the story up.
19:29 But I got it from the Bible.
19:31 Turn to Romans chapter 7.
19:35 It was Paul who actually gave us this analogy.
19:40 You know, don't you, that the Bible is full of parables
19:44 and visions and stories.
19:45 In fact, there's one passage in the book of Matthew,
19:48 in the gospel of Matthew, where Scripture says
19:51 of Jesus, He said nothing to them, to the people,
19:57 without using a parable.
19:59 Do you know why?
20:00 Because no matter what Scripture we break down right now,
20:06 a year from now you will not remember
20:08 the Scripture that we look at.
20:09 But you will never forget the story of Linda
20:12 as long as you live.
20:13 Well barring Alzheimer's or something like that.
20:15 You will remember the story of Linda
20:19 and the powerful truth that is in the story.
20:23 I got it from Paul.
20:25 Paul, in Romans 7, shares with us what can only be regarded
20:30 as one of the most difficult passages, not difficult
20:35 because Paul himself is making it difficult.
20:39 But listen carefully now.
20:41 One of the most difficult passages of Scripture
20:44 because we tend not to get it.
20:47 There's something going on in our fallen humanity
20:52 where we find it difficult to understand what
20:56 Paul is explaining here.
20:57 And we need to revisit it over and over and over again
21:01 to re-enforce this truth in our thinking
21:05 and in our experience.
21:07 It is contrary to our very nature.
21:10 There really are only two religions in the world,
21:13 by the way.
21:15 There aren't a thousand or two thousand religions in the world.
21:17 There are only two religions in all the world.
21:20 There is the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings,
21:24 the happy message of Jesus.
21:27 The liberating truth of the gospel of His grace
21:32 that works from within outward, that changes the heart.
21:37 And in changing the heart, changes the life.
21:41 The gospel, the good news of Jesus.
21:43 And then there's everything else.
21:46 All the other philosophies and religions of the world,
21:49 that all of them with so many different configurations
21:54 equate to various forms of legalism or salvation by works.
22:00 So there's only really two religions in the world.
22:02 And the reason why the salvation by works paradigm,
22:06 the salvation by works view is so popular in our world...
22:11 The Bible, by the way, calls it Babylon.
22:14 Confusion.
22:16 An ego-centric, self-centered, focus hoping to be saved
22:21 by what I do.
22:22 Whether I have a long list legalism;
22:26 I'm a conservative legalist,
22:27 or a short list legalism; I'm a liberal.
22:31 Doesn't matter. It's all the same thing.
22:33 Expecting to be saved, expecting to somehow
22:37 on some level by some means to purchase, to merit,
22:41 to earn the favor of God.
22:43 Not realizing that in Christ we already have the favor of God.
22:48 That grace is by its very nature and definition free,
22:53 and therefore, God so loved the world...
22:56 That is, every man, woman, and child.
22:58 ...that He gave for the whole world His only begotten Son,
23:02 that whoever believes in Him should not perish
23:05 but have everlasting life.
23:07 The gospel is universal in its embrace of the human race.
23:11 The gospel says God already loves you and me and
23:18 everybody else in the world.
23:20 There's nothing you and I can do to make Him love us
23:23 more than He already does, because He already loves us
23:26 with all of His love.
23:29 And there's nothing you and I can do to make God love us
23:32 any less, because God is love.
23:36 He doesn't change according to the circumstances
23:40 of our successes and failures.
23:43 God is love.
23:45 And that love that is in God, apart from me and apart
23:49 from you, is the attractive force of the gospel that
23:54 draws us back to God in repentance.
23:57 That's why Paul says the goodness of God
24:00 leads to repentance.
24:02 The goodness of God is the vision we need to have
24:05 if genuine repentance is going to occur at all.
24:08 So the apostle Paul begins to break down this truth
24:13 for you and me with the illustration of marriage.
24:17 And he talks to us about being married to one kind of husband
24:21 and then getting married to a different kind of husband.
24:24 Watch it. Chapter 7 of Romans verse 1.
24:29 He's addressing a particular group.
24:30 "Or do you not know, brethren..."
24:33 And then in my version, parenthesis,
24:35 "...(for I speak to those who know the law)..."
24:39 So pause right there in verse 1.
24:42 Who, or what kind of audience is Paul addressing
24:47 in what he's about to break down and explain?
24:50 "I speak to those who know the law."
24:53 Is he talking to secular atheists?
24:57 No, no he's speaking to those who know the law.
25:03 Okay, so come within the scope of those who believe in God.
25:07 He's not talking to atheists.
25:08 He's talking to people who believe in God, no doubt.
25:11 But within the realm of those who believe in God,
25:15 what particular group of people might he be addressing?
25:19 Those who know the law.
25:22 Is he talking to Baptists?
25:26 I don't think so, because Baptist theology,
25:29 as we as Seventh-day Adventists understand, is what's called,
25:32 antinomian.
25:33 It's a theology that takes the law of God and says,
25:37 "No, there's the Old Testament and the New Testament.
25:40 And the law of God in the New Testament is done away with.
25:44 It's nailed to the cross.
25:45 It is abolished."
25:47 You're familiar with that concept, okay.
25:49 He's not addressing people who don't know the law.
25:53 He's addressing people here who do know the law.
25:58 Who might that be in a modern setting?
26:02 Seventh-day Adventists.
26:04 Seventh-day Adventists, among some other
26:06 few denominations, are those who know the law,
26:10 who believe in the law, who believe that it is perpetual,
26:14 that it is eternal, that it is immutable.
26:17 Those of us here who are Seventh-day Adventists...
26:19 And by the way, if you're not a Seventh-day Adventist,
26:21 thank you for being here, and thank you for joining us
26:25 through the airwaves.
26:26 We're glad that you can sit in on this little bit of an
26:29 in-house Bible study.
26:30 Right now, as a preacher of the Word,
26:33 I'm addressing my own people.
26:34 I'm addressing Seventh-day Adventists.
26:36 If you're not a Seventh-day Adventist, just kind of
26:38 listen in, because this is going to get interesting for you.
26:41 Okay, so those who know the law, you and me, what does Paul
26:47 have to say to those who know the law.
26:49 Well, he goes on and he says, "...that the law..."
26:53 I'm in verse 1.
26:55 "...has dominion over a man as long as he lives?"
26:59 Notice that he describes the law as having dominion
27:04 as long as the person who knows the law lives.
27:07 But then he goes into his illustration.
27:10 He says, verse 2, "For the woman who has a husband
27:17 is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives."
27:23 That makes sense, right?
27:24 Do you get the gist of his premise?
27:26 If a woman is married to a man, she's bound by the law
27:30 to her husband, right?
27:31 She made vows, he made vows.
27:33 She's married.
27:34 She's bound by the law of covenantal agreement
27:40 to her husband.
27:41 Got it so far?
27:43 But then Paul says this, the second half of verse 2,
27:46 "But if the husband..." What?
27:50 "...if the husband dies, she is released from the
27:54 law of her husband."
27:56 His reasoning is cogent.
27:58 He's making sense, isn't he?
28:00 A woman is married to a man;
28:01 she's bound by the law to her husband.
28:04 She can't marry somebody else.
28:05 She's married to this guy.
28:07 Right?
28:08 For better or for worse, isn't that what we say in the vows?
28:11 That's what we use to say in the vows.
28:12 I don't know what we say now.
28:14 For better or for worse, she's married to this guy.
28:17 So she's bound by the law to her husband.
28:18 But then Paul throws out a hypothetical situation
28:22 in order to get at some deep theology.
28:24 He says, "But what if her husband dies?
28:27 What if the husband dies," Paul says.
28:30 So then go on to verse 3.
28:33 "So then," Paul reasons, "if, while her husband lives,
28:38 she marries another man, she will be called a..." What?
28:42 Yeah, you can't be married to this guy and then also
28:45 marry another guy, can you?
28:46 That's called adultery.
28:48 So then Paul reasons farther forward in our thinking.
28:53 "But if her husband dies, she is..." What?
28:57 What does it say?
28:58 "...she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress,
29:05 though she marries another man."
29:07 Do you hear Paul's reasoning?
29:09 If her husband dies, is she free?
29:12 She's a widow now. Okay?
29:14 He dies.
29:15 Now can she marry somebody else, yes or no?
29:17 Yeah, now she can get married to somebody else.
29:20 Now in the case of Linda, she didn't plot
29:23 the death of her husband.
29:24 He just dropped dead one day, probably of stress.
29:26 The guy was way too anal and obsessive and compulsive
29:30 in his list writing.
29:31 The list writing itself probably killed Herman.
29:34 That's my guess.
29:35 And I came up with the story, so I can kill him any way I want.
29:38 But here's the point.
29:40 Here's the point.
29:43 This guy, if he dies, in Paul's reasoning,
29:47 the whole point is that it frees the woman
29:49 to marry somebody else.
29:51 Okay?
29:53 So let Paul reason with us further.
29:55 Verse 4, "Therefore, my brethren..."
30:00 That is verse 1, "you who know the law."
30:03 "Therefore my brethren, you also have become dead to..." What?
30:10 "...dead to the law through the body of Christ..."
30:13 Now right there, those who know the law,
30:15 my fellow Seventh-day Adventists, we're uncomfortable.
30:17 There are certain things that Paul says about the law...
30:20 Come on, let's just be honest.
30:21 Some of the things Paul says about the law, we don't
30:24 quite know what to do with.
30:26 So what we do is, we stack up additional verses.
30:29 We read this verse and we say, "Oh, but wait a minute."
30:32 We'll run back to chapter 3 and say something like,
30:36 "Well, well, the fact is, 'Do we make void the law through faith?
30:39 Certainly not.
30:40 On the contrary, we establish the law.'
30:41 Whew, that was close.
30:43 Paul almost led us away from the law."
30:46 But stacking up proof text against what Paul is saying here
30:51 won't help us wiggle out of the beautiful reality
30:54 that he's about to unpack.
30:56 Paul is not an antinomian.
30:58 He's not against the law.
31:00 He's about to put the law in its proper perspective.
31:04 And once we get it, we will find that we will grow
31:08 spiritually on an exponential level.
31:11 We will come to know the gospel and know God's love
31:14 in ways that we've never known God before.
31:17 And we will be changed from the inside out.
31:21 And joy and peace and love will flood our experience
31:26 with Jesus.
31:27 So Paul reasons with us.
31:29 He says, "Okay, okay.
31:31 Follow me," Paul says.
31:33 Therefore, he says, if, verse 3, the husband dies,
31:39 she's free to marry somebody else.
31:42 Right?
31:43 And then verse 4, "Therefore, my brethren,
31:47 you have become dead to the law through the body of Christ..."
31:53 Now watch it. Here's his point.
31:55 "...that you may be married to another..."
32:00 You have died to the law...
32:03 We'll see what that means in just a moment.
32:05 ...so that you can be married to another.
32:08 And who's the "another" that Paul is suggesting
32:11 we get married to?
32:13 "...to Him who was raised from the dead,
32:18 that we should bear fruit to God."
32:21 This is Jesus.
32:22 Paul is saying to you and me, he's saying, "Listen,
32:25 there is some sense..."
32:28 We're about to definite what that "some sense" is, okay.
32:31 But there is some sense, Paul is saying,
32:33 in which we need to die to the law
32:39 so that we can be free to get married to Jesus.
32:45 It's that simple, what Paul is saying.
32:49 What in the world is Paul getting at?
32:52 Well, it gets so, so clear now when we read
32:57 verses 5 and 6.
33:00 "For when we were in the flesh..."
33:03 Oh wait a minute, pause right there.
33:05 I thought he was talking about those who know the law.
33:08 Well yes, he is talking to those who know the law.
33:11 Let me ask you a question.
33:13 Is it possible to "know the law" intellectually, theologically,
33:21 to know the law, to know the Ten Commandments,
33:24 to know the law, even to have it memorized,
33:27 and to be spiritually bankrupt, to be yet in the flesh?
33:32 Let me ask you the question from another angle.
33:34 Is it possible to be textually aware of what the Bible teaches,
33:40 but spiritually dead to what it means?
33:44 Is it possible to be raised, as it were,
33:47 in a Christian home, in a Seventh-day Adventist home,
33:52 in a Seventh-day Adventist church, and to know
33:55 the doctrines of Scripture and the law of God
33:57 backward and forward and up and down
34:01 and to yet be in the flesh living our natural carnality?
34:07 And let me ask it yet from another angle.
34:09 Is it possible to be intellectually a believer
34:15 in the law, but spiritually to yet have not
34:20 fallen in love with Jesus?
34:24 To know, and yet to not know.
34:28 To know on one level, and to not know on another level.
34:33 I mean, come on. You know as well as I do.
34:35 You've either had this experience or you've
34:37 witnessed people who are married who don't seem to actually
34:42 be in love with one another.
34:43 Come on, you've seen these people sitting
34:45 in Denny's, haven't you.
34:47 Just staring at the menu.
34:49 Not a word to say to one another.
34:51 There's no flirtation of the feet going on under the table.
34:55 That's so sad.
34:56 There's nothing going on.
34:58 There's nothing, nothing, nothing there.
35:01 But legally they're hitched.
35:04 They're married, right?
35:05 When I do a marriage seminar, in my marriage seminar
35:07 I point out that five out of ten marriages end in divorce.
35:13 That's just off the bat in American culture.
35:15 Five out of ten end in divorce.
35:17 Of the five that remain, we're told that three of those five
35:24 will settle in to what's called, cold co-existence.
35:28 You know what that is?
35:29 Do you know what cold co-existence is?
35:31 That's kind of like, "Take the garbage out."
35:34 "Okay. What's for dinner."
35:35 "Spaghetti."
35:37 "I'm going to be out for a while.
35:38 Don't wait up for me."
35:39 "Wouldn't think about it."
35:43 "What'd you do today?"
35:44 "Oh, nothing to speak of."
35:47 Cold co-existence. Cold co-existence.
35:50 Three out of the five that remain.
35:52 And then what I teach in the marriage seminar
35:54 is that only one or two out of ten marriages
35:58 ever actually achieve intimacy in marriage.
36:02 I don't mean physical intimacy in and of itself.
36:05 I'm talking about the full orbed kind of intimacy
36:09 where heart meets heart.
36:10 There's the physical dimension, of course.
36:12 But that's just one dimension of biblical love.
36:15 Biblical matrimonial love involves the intersection
36:19 of two persons.
36:22 If you read, Song of Solomon, you'll discover that
36:25 friendship is the better part of marriage.
36:28 You have the woman, representing the church, by the way,
36:32 prophetically, you have the woman, the Shulamite
36:35 in Song of Solomon, speaking to her beloved, Solomon,
36:40 who represents prophetically Christ.
36:43 And the woman in chapter 5 verse 10 says to her beloved,
36:49 "You are my lover and my friend."
36:52 Isn't that beautiful?
36:54 That is probably one of the most beautiful lines,
36:56 not only in Scripture, but in all of human literature.
37:00 "You are my lover and my friend."
37:03 This is more than merely a physical relationship.
37:07 "I actually like you.
37:10 And you like me.
37:12 And we enjoy one another's company."
37:16 Out of the ten marriages, five end in divorce,
37:20 three settle into cold co-existence,
37:23 and one or two ever achieve actual friendship in marriage.
37:28 It's a sad commentary on the state of marriage,
37:31 but I don't share it with you for that purpose.
37:34 This is not a marriage seminar.
37:36 Or is it?
37:37 It is, it's a spiritual marriage seminar.
37:40 Because what I want to say to you is this:
37:43 That it is entirely possible that we could comprehend
37:46 that of every ten people that we baptize,
37:52 let's just say we lose five out of ten.
37:54 They just go out the back door.
37:55 They got it intellectually for a brief period of time,
37:58 and then, you know, the seed fell on stony ground
38:01 and the cares of this world, and whatever else is going on
38:04 in their life, and they're out the back door.
38:06 Are you with me?
38:07 Five out of ten, boom, out the door.
38:09 Of the five of us that remain, there are a bunch of us,
38:16 maybe three out of the five that remain, let's say...
38:19 These aren't precise numbers.
38:20 I haven't taken a poll.
38:22 I'm speaking hypothetically, but fairly accurately.
38:24 Of the five that remain, let's just say three of us
38:30 simply settle in to cold co-existence
38:32 with the Lord and His church.
38:35 We just occupy the pew.
38:37 We pay our tithe.
38:40 We show up, we occupy a church office if somebody asks us to.
38:44 And we go through the dead motions of a spirituality
38:49 that involves no passion.
38:52 It involves no friendship with God.
38:55 God is an idea, God is a theory.
38:58 God is a series of theological tenants to argue and to
39:01 banter about.
39:04 But is God the beautiful irresistible attractive
39:07 person that ravishes our hearts with love?
39:13 That's the question.
39:15 Maybe only one or two of us ever actually get married,
39:20 spiritually, to Jesus.
39:22 And I'm here this morning to urge you to make haste
39:26 and to pray that whoever you're married to right now...
39:29 Spiritually, not your actual husband.
39:32 Ladies, don't get any ideas here.
39:33 ...to pray that Herman dies
39:38 so that you can get married to Jesus.
39:40 So that you can come alive to a whole new spiritual
39:45 experience unlike anything you've ever known before.
39:47 Paul says to you and me that we are to have an experience
39:53 in which, in some sense, we die to the law
39:57 so that we can get married to Jesus.
39:59 Okay, now he's about to explain what he means.
40:01 Verse 5, "For when we were in the flesh..."
40:07 That is, living our natural carnal existence
40:09 even though we were church members and we know the law.
40:13 "...the sinful passions which were aroused by the law
40:19 were at work in our members to bear fruit to death."
40:23 Now this is Paul being complex the way Paul sometimes is.
40:26 Even Peter said, "Wow, Paul, you wrote some things
40:29 that are very difficult to understand."
40:31 Okay, but we can understand this by the Holy Spirit
40:35 right now upon our mind.
40:37 Sit up, take a deep breath, oxygenate your frontal lobe.
40:40 We can get this even though it's a little bit hard.
40:44 What is Paul saying?
40:45 Very, very counter intuitive to us and our theology
40:50 as those who know the law.
40:51 He says here that the sinful passions were aroused
40:57 by the law.
40:59 What?
41:00 Well he goes later on in the same chapter to say
41:04 the law is holy, just, and good.
41:06 Is there anything wrong with the law in and of itself?
41:09 Yes or no, those who know the law.
41:11 No there's nothing wrong with the law.
41:13 He says later on in verses 12, 13, and 14
41:17 that the law is good, holy, just, and good,
41:19 and the law is spiritual.
41:21 The law of God is eternal.
41:23 It's not going anywhere.
41:25 The law of God is immutable.
41:27 The law of God is, in fact, as we discovered in our
41:30 first presentation, the law of God is, in fact, merely
41:34 an explanation of what God's love looks like in action,
41:38 vertically and horizontally, in all our relationships.
41:43 It's the essence of the character of God.
41:45 You can no more do away with the law of God,
41:48 the Ten Commandments, than you can do away
41:50 with God Himself.
41:52 Okay, but yet Paul is saying that the law stimulates,
41:59 or the word he uses here, arouses the sinful passions.
42:03 In what sense?
42:04 Now think this through very carefully.
42:07 When we're in the flesh, when we're in our natural
42:11 carnal state, even though we're religious and we know the law,
42:16 the law can, listen, can only be perceived by us
42:20 as restriction.
42:23 It can only be perceived by us as,
42:26 "Thou shalt," "Thou shalt not."
42:28 But what did we discover on night two of our
42:30 series on the law?
42:31 What did we discover is enfolded in, is embedded in
42:37 even the law of God?
42:38 Does anybody remember, those of you who were here?
42:40 The gospel, that's right.
42:42 The gospel is in the law.
42:44 I asked you before we even turned there,
42:47 what is the first commandment?
42:48 And some of you said,
42:49 "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
42:51 And you're right and you're wrong, I pointed out.
42:53 The law of God does not begin with "thou shalt"
42:57 or "shalt not" anything.
43:00 The law of God begins, on the tables of stone,
43:04 "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house
43:09 of bondage, out of the land of Egypt.
43:12 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
43:14 Etcetera, etcetera.
43:16 So in other words, the law of God does not begin by
43:19 telling you and me to get her done.
43:23 The law of God begins by declaring to us
43:27 what God has already done for you and me.
43:30 "I delivered you, I set you free.
43:33 I, Myself, by My mighty power and My outstretched arm,
43:37 I, by the blood of the Passover lamb,
43:41 delivered you from Egyptian bondage."
43:43 Pointing forward to the literal fulfillment of
43:48 the symbolism of the Passover lamb's blood;
43:50 Jesus on the cross.
43:52 God in Christ achieved our salvation for us on
43:58 an objective level in order to give us something to believe in.
44:03 We're not pagans.
44:04 God is not a vending machine.
44:06 You don't put in the appropriate coinage and get the goodies
44:09 that you want.
44:12 God is a God of grace.
44:15 He saves by His grace.
44:17 And any salvation that we experience on a subjective level
44:22 is responsive to what He's already done for us.
44:28 And knowing that He has done this for us,
44:33 we become very responsive to Him.
44:37 Or to use the language of Paul in Romans 6,
44:39 we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.
44:44 We're no longer responsive to the things of the flesh,
44:48 and we become sensitive to the things of God.
44:51 Our very tastes, our orientation to life,
44:55 all of our relationships, begin to change
44:59 to reflect the image of the very love with which
45:02 God has loved us.
45:03 That's how it works.
45:05 And if it doesn't work that way, it doesn't work at all.
45:09 We just end up occupying pews, paying tithe,
45:12 and going through the motions of cold dead religion.
45:17 Knowing all the facts and figures, knowing the law,
45:21 and yet not knowing Jesus as a husband.
45:25 Paul says, "Wait a minute.
45:27 Let's just pause here for a moment."
45:30 The law of God is good, it's holy, it's spiritual,
45:35 Paul will tell us.
45:37 But the law of God to the unregenerate carnal mind
45:42 can only appear to be restrictive.
45:46 And as such, it stimulates our rebellion all the more.
45:51 It's like saying to a little boy, "I'm going to go out
45:55 and work in the front yard for a little while, Michael.
45:59 And whatever you do, do not open that cupboard door
46:03 where all kinds of yummy fresh baked cookies are.
46:06 I'll be back in a few minutes."
46:08 And you go out into the front yard to work,
46:11 and he can't take his eyes off of what is forbidden.
46:17 He's got to have it.
46:19 And he finally yields to temptation,
46:22 and there is gooey chocolate all over his fingers
46:25 when his mom comes in the door.
46:29 The law of God, Paul says, Ty doesn't say it, Paul says,
46:33 the law of God has the potential to simply stimulate
46:39 more rebellion out of us.
46:42 To be told, "don't," when you're not in love,
46:47 is very oppressive.
46:49 That's Paul's point.
46:50 But here's the thing.
46:53 Once you come to know the love of Christ,
46:58 once you center your spiritual experience
47:02 on Him, once you begin to realize that Jesus,
47:09 by His great love for you and me, by His grace,
47:14 has set you free, gratitude and adoration
47:21 begins to arise in your heart spontaneously.
47:25 And you begin to love God on a level
47:26 you never thought possible.
47:29 So Paul reasons with us.
47:31 Again verse 5 for the sake of clarity.
47:34 "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which
47:38 were aroused by the law were at work in our members
47:41 to bear fruit to death."
47:43 Spiritual death.
47:44 In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6,
47:47 Paul is dealing with the same idea.
47:49 And he simply says there, and I quote Paul in
47:51 2 Corinthians 3:6, "...the letter kills,
47:56 but the Spirit gives life."
47:59 The raw letter of the law, as a code of moral ethics
48:03 that must be complied with in order to gain God's favor,
48:07 cannot save.
48:09 The law of God, according to Paul in Galatians chapter 3,
48:13 and actually throughout the whole book,
48:15 the law of God is, to quote Paul, "a schoolmaster to
48:20 bring us to Christ."
48:23 The law of God, in its proper sphere, its proper function,
48:30 is to show us our need of a Savior.
48:33 To point us to Jesus because of our need.
48:37 The law of God does not occupy the position of Savior.
48:42 Salvation is in Christ alone.
48:46 And the law simply speaks into our situation
48:49 and tells us of our need for a Savior.
48:53 Romans chapter 3 says it this way,
48:55 "By the law is the knowledge," or the consciousness, "of sin."
49:00 Right? Chapter 3 of Romans, I think verses 19 and 20.
49:03 Right in there.
49:05 By the law is the consciousness of sin.
49:08 So the law, Paul will say in another place,
49:11 the law is good if it's used correctly.
49:16 What's the correct use of the law?
49:20 As a challenge to measure up to in order to be saved?
49:25 No, you'll be, to use Paul's language again,
49:27 as one that beats the air for the rest of your life.
49:30 You'll just keep striving and failing, striving and failing,
49:33 and you'll only be able to go in one of two directions.
49:36 You'll either end up becoming a Pharisee
49:40 or you'll end up giving up in despair.
49:43 If you use the law wrongly.
49:46 If the law is a standard that you strive to measure up to
49:51 in order to be saved.
49:53 But flip it around.
49:55 If the law shows me my need, and I go to Jesus, I run to Christ
50:01 as my Savior, what happens with my relationship to the law?
50:05 I begin to obey the law on a heart level,
50:10 on what the Bible calls a new covenant level.
50:13 "I will write My law in your heart and in your mind.
50:16 You've had a heart of stone."
50:18 And what do we know about stone?
50:20 It's hard and it's cold.
50:23 But the Bible promises, "I will write My law
50:26 in the fleshly tablets of your heart.
50:29 You will begin to know Me on the inside in such a way
50:34 that your obedience will take on an entirely different flavor,
50:38 an entirely different quality."
50:40 It won't be a Pharisaical obedience in order to be saved.
50:44 It'll be an obedience of gratitude and adoration
50:47 because by His grace He has saved me.
50:50 It's all the difference in the world.
50:54 It is the difference between the real authentic genuine
50:58 good news of the gospel of Christ and everything else.
51:01 Even our Adventist version of the "everything else."
51:04 It is possible to know the law and to be out of Babylon
51:10 physically, but to have Babylon in our thinking.
51:17 To whatever degree the salvation by the works of the law paradigm
51:25 is present in our experience, we are partakers of the Babylon
51:30 that the Bible says is fallen.
51:31 And we may have come out of Babylon,
51:33 but now we need to get Babylon out of us.
51:36 We need to be delivered from every vestige
51:40 of that approach to God.
51:42 This is fascinating.
51:43 Ellen White says in a fascinating statement
51:47 in the book, Desire of Ages...
51:48 For those of you who are not Seventh-day Adventists,
51:50 I'm not using this quotation to prove anything.
51:52 This is a commentary on the life of Christ that is
51:54 just brilliant and inspired.
51:57 And in that book, Ellen White makes the statement
52:00 that wherever the doctrine of salvation by works
52:04 is held, her words not mine, there is no barrier against sin.
52:13 Now that's counter intuitive to us.
52:16 We think as along as a person knows the law and
52:18 is trying hard to obey it, that's the right frame of mind,
52:23 that's the right spiritual experience.
52:26 But may I suggest to you that legalism keeps us
52:32 in the cycle of defeat.
52:35 It keeps us...
52:36 Old covenant relationship with God, Paul says,
52:39 keeps the flesh stimulated.
52:42 Because rebellion is not resolved
52:45 at the foundational level.
52:48 The sin problem is not resolved at the heart level.
52:52 We're simply trying to resolve it on the
52:55 outward behavioral level.
52:57 Not letting God get into our hearts to write
53:00 His law on the inside.
53:02 So we come to his climactic point here.
53:06 And this is fascinating.
53:07 "For when we were in the flesh," verse 5, "the sinful passions
53:10 which were aroused by the law were at work in our members
53:13 to bear fruit to death."
53:15 With me so far?
53:17 Now Paul's climactic point with this little parable
53:20 about marriage.
53:22 Verse 6, "But now we have been delivered from the law..."
53:31 I'm going to put in parentheses there
53:32 so we know what Paul is saying.
53:34 Not delivered from the law in the sense that the law
53:37 is done away with and has no place in Christian experience.
53:41 No, we're delivered from the law as a means of salvation.
53:47 Our theology, our belief system, has shifted off of the center
53:54 being on self to the center being on Christ.
53:59 That's what Paul's point is.
54:01 He says very clearly here that we have been delivered from
54:04 the law as a mechanism of salvation.
54:08 "...having died to what we were held by,
54:11 so that we should..."
54:13 Notice his positive affirmative language.
54:16 "...so that we should serve in newness of Spirit
54:22 and not in oldness of letter."
54:25 What did Paul just tell you and me?
54:28 Did he just wholesale delete the law from
54:32 Christian experience? No.
54:34 Did he do away with the law? No.
54:36 Is he contradicting what he said earlier that the gospel
54:39 actually establishes the law?
54:41 No, he's not contradicting himself.
54:43 He's explaining it now.
54:45 He's saying that if we come to Christ in all His irresistible
54:49 beauty and we, in seeing what He has done for us,
54:56 we cease to approach God for salvation through the law,
55:02 and rather we approach God for salvation through Christ...
55:07 What does Paul say?
55:08 ...you'll end up serving in newness of Spirit.
55:13 You won't become a licentious liberal, "Hey, whatever.
55:17 It doesn't matter," cheap grace kind of Christian.
55:20 You'll begin obeying on a level and with a quality of obedience
55:25 that is on the inside, and then manifests itself
55:30 in the way we interact with people.
55:32 You will, we will, Paul says, serve.
55:36 Yes we will.
55:38 We will serve God.
55:41 But in newness of Spirit.
55:43 From the inside out.
55:45 Not in oldness of letter approaching God
55:50 through the law for salvation.
55:52 No, approach God for salvation through Jesus,
55:57 and the law of God will take on its proper place
56:01 in our experience, and we will begin to obey
56:05 the law of God from the inside out.
56:07 Very quickly in the minute that remains,
56:09 I want to demonstrate this further by going back
56:11 to chapter 6.
56:13 Chapter 6, notice what Paul says, this is so good.
56:19 I can hardly stand it. I wish that I had two minutes.
56:21 Watch this.
56:23 Chapter 6 verse 16, "Do you not know that to whom you present
56:28 yourselves slaves to obey, his slaves you are to whom you obey,
56:31 whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"
56:35 Got that so far?
56:37 He says obedience to righteousness is necessary.
56:42 Now watch this though.
56:43 What's the first word of verse 17?
56:46 "But..."
56:47 So grammatically, there's a qualification.
56:50 He says in verse 16, obey righteousness.
56:53 And then he says, "But God be thanked
56:58 that you have obeyed from..." Where?
57:02 "...from the heart that form of doctrine
57:05 which was delivered you."
57:07 What did Paul just tell you and me?
57:09 Yes, he says, obedience. Obedience, yes.
57:13 But obedience from the heart.
57:16 One day, maybe today for you, you're going to find yourself
57:19 rummaging around in an old box full of lists.
57:24 And you're going to have it dawn on you with force
57:28 that you're married to Jesus now.


Home

Revised 2015-10-08