Participants: Pr. John Dinzey (Host), Jill Morikone, Molly Steenson, Pr. Tom Ferguson, Shelley Quinn
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP000021S
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00:01 The Bible tells us
00:30 Hello and welcome to our Sabbath School Panel 00:33 We thank you for joining us and we are praising the Lord 00:37 for this opportunity to study God's word with you. 00:40 I would like to tell you that we have a distinctive panel of 00:44 participants today, students of God's word. To my left is 00:48 Sister Jill Morikone, Assistant to the President, our President 00:51 Danny Shelton, and we have Pr. Tom Ferguson. He is one of 00:56 the District pastors in the area in Southern Illinois. How many 00:58 churches do you pastor? There are six in the District. 01:02 Six in the district, Praise the Lord. And to his left 01:05 is Sister Shelley Quinn our Program Development Manager 01:09 and finally we have Sister Molly Steenson, Vice President 01:13 for 3ABN and General Manager for 3 Angels Broadcasting Network 01:17 and they have been studying and praying for God to use them 01:21 during this study and I'm sure you've been blessed in the past 01:25 We'd like to hear from you. If you've been blessed by these 01:28 programs let us know. Send us a note and let us know how this 01:32 program has blessed you. As a matter of fact if you have been 01:34 blessed we encourage you to tell other people to watch the 01:37 Sabbath School Panel so they also can be blessed. 01:39 We are studying during this quarter the 13 Sabbaths from 01:44 April to June, this study that is called Feed My Sheep 01:49 A Study on 1 and 2 Peter and if you do not have one, you can 01:53 now go to the internet and get one for free and to do that you 01:58 must go to a website called absg for Adult Bible Study 02:04 Guide. absg.adventist.org. I'll repeat that: absg.adventist.org 02:12 and there you can download this Sabbath School Quarterly 02:15 and follow along and it will be your very own because you 02:18 downloaded it for yourself! And so this of course is based on 02:23 God's Word without which no person should be without 02:26 Amen. And we praise the Lord that now you can even carry 02:29 it with you wherever you go and if you don't have it on 02:32 your phone or tablet device wherever you go, download your 02:37 Bible because it's good to have God's word with you all the time 02:40 And so before we continue we'd like to go to a prayer and we'd 02:45 like to ask Pr. Tom Ferguson if you'll lead us in prayer please 02:49 Dear Heavenly Father thank you for the opportunity to be here 02:53 today. We thank you for this lesson and we invite you to give 02:57 us understanding through Your Holy Spirit. We realize that You 03:00 have inspired these words, the authors. You are speaking to 03:05 this generation through these words and Lord may we hear Your 03:09 voice clearly, individually and corporately. May those on the 03:13 Panel be anointed with Your Spirit so that we speak the 03:16 things that those that are either viewing or listening 03:19 need to hear and see. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 03:25 Well we'd like to encourage you to follow along with us 03:29 We are studying during this hour the lesson called Be Who You Are 03:37 Be Who You Are. Now that maybe an interesting title to you and 03:39 I hope you will stay with us to find out, We're gonna be 03:42 studying about precious faith, the love, the goal of every 03:46 Christian virtue, be who you are, shedding the tent and 03:49 faith in the face of death. During this hour we are going to 03:54 look even into the righteousness Righteousness in Jesus Christ 03:58 what the power of God can do for you. And so you also will 04:02 hear like a ladder. A ladder of Christian virtues and 04:07 we encourage you to stay by, As a matter of fact from the 04:11 previous studies that I've participated in I am blessed 04:14 as I hear our Panel share. So you will notice that they're 04:20 sharing somethings that are not in the Sabbath School Quarterly 04:23 so they've gone beyond the Sabbath School Quarterly to 04:26 bring you a blessing. So we encourage you to listen and 04:29 even take notes if necessary. And if you want to share a copy 04:32 you can call 3ABN to get a copy of this program to share with 04:36 other people because I think that they will also be blessed 04:38 So let's move right on to Sunday's lesson 04:41 And Sunday's lesson has a title called "A Precious Faith" 04:47 So for this we go to the book 2 Peter, 2nd epistle of Peter 04:53 chapter 1 and we are going to read verses 1-4. And Sister Jill 05:00 if you'll read that for us. Simon Peter a bondservant and 05:03 apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained like 05:07 precious faith with us for the righteousness of our God 05:11 and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you 05:15 in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord as His divine 05:19 power has given to us all things that pertain to life and 05:23 godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory 05:26 and virtue. By which have been given to us exceedingly great 05:30 and precious promises that through these you may be 05:34 partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption 05:37 that is in the world through lust. 05:40 Amen. Thank you very much. And wow! You read these verses 05:46 and taking them in you say Praise God. amen. Praise God 05:50 because they're just full of information, really. 05:53 We're gonna look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 1-20 and 05:57 there are treasures of blessings here. So we encourage you to 06:02 stay be. So here in 2 Peter 1 we see some things that we 06:08 need to understand. Simon Peter is calling himself a servant 06:12 and an apostle of Jesus Christ. And now he mentions something 06:17 to them who have precious faith in other words faith that is of 06:22 equal value, the same precious faith and I like the word 06:26 precious faith, like precious faith which is a faith that 06:34 every day helps us understand that we are only passing through 06:39 this earth. We are pilgrims, strangers in this world because 06:43 Jesus Christ has rescued us from the corruption that is in this 06:48 world through lust and we praise the Lord for Jesus Christ. Now 06:53 it says, with us through the righteousness of God and our 06:59 Savior Jesus Christ. And so the only way, the only way 07:04 we have salvation is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 07:07 And for this reason as we look into the next verse we have 07:14 these words, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the 07:20 knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. And when you think of 07:25 grace, when you think of grace what do you think of Sister Jill 07:30 when you think of the grace of God. 07:32 To me without grace we don't have salvation. By grace you are 07:38 saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift 07:41 of God. So I think of, I know they say God's unmerited favor 07:44 but to me grace gives us salvation and then grace 07:47 works in us to transform us into the image of Jesus 07:50 Amen, amen. And Sister Shelley when it says here grace and 07:54 peace be multiplied, it's wonderful, multiplication 07:59 so when you hear grace and peace be multiplied to you, what 08:02 does that bring to your mind? You know I think the three 08:04 greatest gifts of grace as being Christ our Lord, the Holy 08:08 Spirit and the Word. And as, when you understand the gifts of 08:13 grace you understand the effects of grace as you said, so I think 08:16 of it as God's divine assistance and supernatural power to 08:19 salvation. So the more we get to know the Lord and the more 08:24 we get the word in us, the more we open our hearts to let the 08:27 Holy Spirit fill us, then grace is being multiplied. It's just 08:31 grace upon grace and praise God His grace abounds. Amen. 08:37 And so as we consider God's great amazing grace and there 08:42 have been hymn after hymn that talk about God's amazing 08:47 grace and one of the most famous is Amazing Grace 08:51 because really, can you really find words to describe God's 08:56 amazing grace? And so grace and peace be multiplied unto you 09:02 and this is what we wish also for you that are listening and 09:05 watching this program, grace and peace be multiplied unto you 09:08 just as the apostle Peter is saying grace and peace be 09:11 multiplied unto you we also say to you. How? It says here 09:15 through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 09:21 And so we want to bring this grace and peace unto you, and 09:25 we hope that as you watch 3 Angels Broadcasting Network 09:29 you will notice that we believe that we are saved by grace 09:33 the amazing grace of Jesus Christ. By grace through faith 09:37 And that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God the Bible 09:41 tells us in Ephesians 2 and verse 8, that's right 09:46 in verse 8. Ephesians 2 verse 8 so we want to encourage you 09:50 to continue studying God's Word because it says here through the 09:55 knowledge of God and how do you get the knowledge of God, 09:58 Pastor Tom Ferguson, pastor for many years, how have you found 10:02 that you get knowledge of God. Well the number 1 place to get 10:06 the knowledge of God is right here, His Word and I also 10:10 find that being around others that know Him. You see it 10:16 evidenced in their lives. And gaining a knowledge of God 10:20 is a life journey for everyone of us and I also find that 10:26 gaining a knowledge is asking Him to reveal Himself to me in 10:30 my personal prayer life and devotional life. 10:34 And I also, I find that when I see people with different gifts 10:39 in different roles in a church I find a knowledge of God 10:45 that I never saw anywhere else That's good, that's right Amen. 10:48 Very interesting, very interesting insights from 10:51 Pr. Tom Ferguson and I believe that God has worked things out 10:55 in such a way that as we study God's word, different people 10:59 are studying different things and some understanding that 11:03 you may get Sister Shelley, Sister Molly and as we hear 11:06 them sharing in this panel you will notice that God has 11:12 given to each of them a little treasure, nuggets to share 11:16 with us and so as we share together we are drawn close 11:20 to Christ. And this is really the blessing that we have here 11:24 through the knowledge of God and so we all need the knowledge 11:29 of God. It's amazing when you consider God's amazing grace 11:32 Sister Ellen G. White said something that really all of us 11:37 should come to the realization, to think about the great and 11:44 indescribable gift of God giving His Son. This is something 11:49 that we can study throughout eternity and we will not be able 11:52 to say, well I think we've exhausted this theme, let's 11:56 move on to another. This is gonna be a theme that even 12:00 angels desire to look into. We have to move on to verse 3 12:04 according as His divine power has given unto us all things 12:08 what kind of things? Things that pertain unto life and 12:12 godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us 12:16 to glory and virtue. And in other verses in the Scripture 12:19 you will find He has called us out of darkness 12:23 and into His marvelous light. And so I praise the Lord for 12:28 that and I'd like to move into verse 4 really quick because 12:31 we have very little time. It says whereby are given unto us 12:35 and I like the wording, exceeding great and precious 12:39 promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 12:44 nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world 12:47 through lust. I'd like to ask Sister Molly, have you found 12:50 exceeding great and precious promises in God's Word? 12:53 Oh yes and Shelley's written books on this subject. 12:57 Holding on to God's promises and proclaiming those promises 13:01 and you know the Scripture will speak to you when you're in a 13:07 situation and you have God's word in your heart and you hold 13:10 on to those promises and you can be in a difficult situation 13:13 and the word will come forth and you start just quoting that 13:18 Scripture and holding on to those promises and you see that 13:22 God will move on your behalf every time. Amen. 13:25 So the Bible says they are exceeding great and precious 13:29 promises and I encourage you, we can probably ask each one 13:32 here and they can quote to you one of their favorite promises 13:35 and they know many promises by memory. I know several 13:38 promises by memory as well but we encourage you to find 13:41 in God's word precious promises that to you, they minister to 13:45 you. And at different times in your life you find that maybe 13:49 this promise will speak to you maybe this promise will speak 13:52 to you. One of the promises that has really blessed me 13:55 is Romans 8:28. And it says, And we know that all things 14:01 work together for what? for good to them that love God 14:05 to them that are called according to His purpose 14:07 And so as you're going through life through life's difficulties 14:11 and problems you can take assurance. You can rejoice in 14:14 knowing that whatever difficulty you're going through because 14:17 when you get to the book of James chapter 1, he says 14:20 count it all joy when you what? face diverse tribulations 14:24 and temptations and trials. How? Because you have exceeding 14:28 great and precious promises in God's word, that all things 14:31 will work together for your good In here in this verse 4 is 14:36 something, these things we have talked about so far are able 14:41 to help us so that we can become partakers of the divine 14:46 nature and this is why as you continue to study you will 14:50 Sister Jill building up on these Christian virtues as we become 14:54 partakers of the divine nature and what is being partaker 14:58 of the divine nature? You become like Jesus. You become 15:01 like God and so in order for this to happen in your life 15:06 you must continue digging in God's word, you must continue 15:10 coming to the Lord each and every day and as you do this 15:13 you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and 15:16 Savior Jesus Christ. Amen 15:18 Beautifully done Brother Johnny Verse 4 builds into what I have 15:23 which is Peter's ladder, the Christian graces, the Christian 15:26 virtues that God wants to work into our lives and I like 15:30 verse 4 because through the promises in the Word of God 15:33 through the Word of God we are transformed. We become partaker 15:39 of His divine nature and as a result of that transforming 15:43 process, the graces that we see here are manifested in our 15:48 lives. You know philosophers in the ancient world listed 15:51 different virtues. We know in the Word of God Paul lists in 15:56 Galatians 5, 9 fruit of the Spirit. James talks about the 16:02 testing of your faith and then he lists patience and wisdom 16:06 grow as a result of that. In Romans 5 we have through trial 16:11 we experience perseverance, character, hope and then love. 16:15 Now this list of 8 virtues is also called Peter's Ladder 16:19 growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior 16:22 Jesus Christ. So let's take, I'll ask Molly, are you there 16:27 would you like to read that for us? We're in 2 Peter 16:30 chapter 1 and why don't you read verses 5-7 Molly 16:38 And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith 16:41 virtue and to virtue, knowledge and to knowledge, temperance 16:44 and to temperance, patience and to patience, Godliness 16:47 and to Godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly 16:51 kindness, charity or love. Yes So we're going to take a quick 16:54 look at the 8 virtues, the 8 graces that are mentioned here 16:58 It starts out with faith. Add to your faith, virtue. The 17:02 first virtue mentioned is faith. This faith is belief, trust, 17:07 confidence. Faith is always a gift from God. It is never 17:12 produced by myself or never produced by people. However, 17:16 any gift once it is received it becomes the possession of 17:20 the recipient. If Shelley were to give me a gift for Christmas 17:23 now I possess that gift. It's no longer Shelley's but it's 17:29 mine and I think when God gives us the gift of faith, we know 17:33 to every man is given a measure of faith. And when He gives us 17:37 that gift we now possess it, as it were. Faith is given 17:44 to the redeemed. It is not a virtue that we work up by any 17:48 human effort but it's a gift of God. Faith is God's work 17:53 It comes as Christ speaks His word in our hearts. 17:58 Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the 18:02 Word of God. How do we develop faith? We receive and accept it 18:09 as a gift from God. Then we exercise it and practice it 18:15 Like a muscle. When you first start lifting weights it hurts 18:19 terribly but after a few days you can lift the same weight 18:23 and it doesn't hurt as bad because that muscle begins 18:26 to grow. Just like that, God wants to grow and develop 18:31 as we exercise our faith, as we spend time in the Word of 18:34 God our faith grows. As we exercise and reach out by faith 18:40 it grows as well. And then we reflect on what God has done 18:43 in our life in the past and in that reflection, that grows 18:47 our faith. Wow, God answered a prayer here. I saw what He did 18:51 in the past and that gives me faith, confidence that He is 18:55 going to come through here. The second virtue is actually 18:58 virtue. Add to your faith, virtue. This word is used often 19:03 in Greek writings and it's any virtuous course of thought 19:06 feeling or action. Moral vigor. Faith leads to a changed life 19:13 One in which virtue is expressed If we really possess the gift of 19:17 faith, I'm not going to stay just living in my sin filled 19:21 life. That faith is going to God's word, is going to work to 19:25 transform my life and work in me His virtue. 19:28 The third virtue is knowledge. Add to your faith, virtue to 19:32 virtue, knowledge. And the word for knowledge in the Greek comes 19:37 kind of like you think of a Gnostics, what they believe 19:40 cause it's actually gnosis, it means knowledge, doctrine or 19:43 wisdom. It is something gleaned from firsthand, personal 19:48 experience. Now the Gnostics boasted of their own knowledge 19:52 that was not accurate. We're not advocating that here 19:54 but it's something that would be faith on firsthand experience 19:58 So when you and I have a first hand experience with the Lord 20:04 Jesus Christ, I have something to base that on and that will 20:09 in turn grow and develop. When I experience Jesus, when I get 20:14 to know Him personally that grows and develops that 20:17 knowledge. The 4th one is self-control and if I'm honest 20:21 with you this is probably the virtue that stresses me a little 20:26 bit the most but we'll see that it's not our work here again 20:29 It's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ working in us 20:34 The word proceeds out from within oneself. not by one's 20:39 self-meaning that God is the one who does the work in us 20:43 It can be accomplished only by the power of the Lord 20:49 Self-control can be as simple as saying no to a piece of 20:52 chocolate when I want a piece of chocolate. Or, no I'm gonna 20:55 turn off the TV and open up God's word. 20:59 It could be saying no to a sensual or sexual desire 21:04 or it could be walking in sobriety. 21:10 They did a marshmallow test they call it. This was what early 21:14 1960s and I think they continued some of these tests into the 21:18 early 1970s. A man by the name of Walter Mischel and he did 21:22 the test and I'm sure you've all heard of it with 5-year olds 21:25 Preschoolers, maybe 4, young and they sat there and they 21:29 gave them a marshmallow, I mean in front of them on the 21:33 table. And they told them you can have this marshmallow 21:37 now but if you wait 15 minutes you can get a second marshmallow 21:43 if you don't eat this first marshmallow for 15 minutes 21:46 you can get a second marshmallow And they followed these young 21:51 people. You know some of them covered their eyes, some of 21:54 them turned around, some of them kicked the table and some 21:58 of them stroked the marshmallow just little things we do 22:02 internally to try to resist the marshmallow and some of them 22:05 ate it right away. And they said the children with the longest 22:09 resistance, they followed them over the years. Now these 22:12 children are in their 50s, they followed them and they said that 22:16 they had higher SAT scores out of high school. Later in life 22:20 they earned more advanced degrees, they dealt with less 22:23 stress, less drugs, they were more successful. So how do I 22:27 develop self-control? It's not Ok, I'm not going to reach out 22:31 for that marshmallow, I'm going to grit my teeth. No. 22:34 True self control is not about bringing ourselves under our own 22:38 control, it's about bringing ourselves under the power and 22:41 anointing of Jesus Christ. The battle between the self and the 22:45 spirit. We want to deny ourselves and take up our cross 22:49 daily But it's not saying no in my own power and strength. It's 22:53 submitting my will to Jesus, being under His control 22:57 and letting Him work His control in my life. He alone gives us 23:00 the strength and the victory. He alone gets the glory. 23:04 The next virtue, to self-control perseverance or endurance 23:09 To endure under the challenges of life. We've discussed this in 23:12 previous lessons that the Christians that Peter was 23:16 writing to were experiencing persecution, severe trials 23:20 they were needed this grace of endurance and I know today 23:24 we need the grace of endurance as well. The next one is 23:27 Godliness. Godliness in a pagan world the word here means 23:34 ethical behavior that results in a belief in God 23:37 a god, small g, little g. But as Christians in the New 23:43 Testament and you and I as believers in Jesus, it carries 23:46 the concept of that behavior that results in belief in one 23:50 true and only God. Next we have brotherly kindness. 23:54 Philadelphia referring to that brotherly love for Christian 23:58 brothers and sisters and finally we have love. Charity as Molly 24:02 read it. Agape love. Seeking the highest good of someone else 24:07 So what part do we play in this ladder of grace? 24:10 We could be listening and saying, I'm discouraged. 24:13 I don't possess faith, nor virtue or knowledge 24:17 self-control. All we do is come before the Lord Jesus. We 24:21 give Him ownership in our life. We surrender to His control 24:27 to the control of the Holy Spirit. We choose to abide in 24:30 Him. John chapter 15, as the branch cannot bear fruit 24:33 unless it abides in the vine, no more can you unless you abide 24:37 in Me. So we choose day by day to remain connected to the vine 24:41 to Jesus. Let His life giving sap and power flow into us 24:46 and work the graces here, the virtues here in our lives 24:51 and finally we feed the spirit the word of God 24:56 behold Jesus and we starve the flesh. Shunning those things 25:01 that would pull us from Jesus and spending time looking at 25:05 Jesus, beholding Him, spending time in His word. 25:09 Amen, praise the Lord. 25:11 Thank you for sharing that, you know I, as you were talking 25:14 I was thinking wherever there's a new convert they might have 25:18 been really into big sin, I mean their life might've been a real 25:21 mess and then they find the Lord. And they say you know what 25:25 I used to swear all the time and I no longer swear. 25:29 They'll say I used to drink and the Lord took that away 25:33 just like that and the list goes on of things where people have 25:36 victory as they're converted. And I notice that and they're 25:41 even on fire to work for the Lord and it seems like every 25:43 thing that this series is instructing they're actually 25:46 experiencing. But after two or three or four years, 25:51 there tends to be, because you notice to the Lord just keeps 25:55 taking things away, keeps taking things away but after 25:58 a while I think as Christians we have a thermostat 26:02 we realize that everyone around us is here, they're struggling 26:06 we're struggling and no one's going anywhere 26:10 So the call for today is be who you are. So the question 26:14 is who are we? So let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 26:23 Because I really believe that if the church can break through 26:27 this barrier that tends to be there in our Christian growth 26:32 where we have to remind our selves "It is Christ in you 26:36 that does this". 2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore if anyone is in 26:43 Christ he's a new creation. Old things have what? passed away 26:49 passed away, behold all things become new. So this is the 26:54 calling that we have is if we're in Christ we are a new creation 26:57 because we're actually re-created by Him through His 27:01 Spirit. And that is an experience that is not just for 27:05 the beginning of your journey, it is to be a life long 27:08 experience as we go through the sanctifying process 27:10 but then let's turn to Ephesians chapter 3 27:15 Ephesians the 3rd chapter 27:23 and there's verses 14-19 that I'm going to be looking at here 27:30 Ephesians 3 beginning with verse 14. For this reason I bow my 27:34 knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole 27:37 family in heaven and earth is named. I think that is really 27:41 something because when God is through redeeming humanity, 27:45 all of creation will be in His name. And He would grant you 27:49 according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened 27:52 with the might through His Spirit in the inner man 27:56 that Christ may dwell in your hearts, how? through faith 28:01 that you being rooted and grounded in love, which is God 28:06 right? may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the 28:10 width, the length, the depth, the height to know the love of 28:14 Christ which passes knowledge and what is the purpose? that 28:18 you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen 28:23 Just think about that. Being filled with the fullness of God 28:26 Whenever I see a new convert they may be brand new in their 28:29 journey but they're filled with the fullness of God. 28:32 And that is an experience that God wants us to continue to have 28:36 throughout our journey. Not something we think about in the 28:38 past. And I really believe that we go through this process 28:42 of hanging on to things that are of the flesh and not 28:48 surrendering those things and as a result our growth is 28:52 stagnated. Let's continue as we look at Colossians, actually 28:58 let's not turn there. Colossians 1:27, Christ in you is the hope 29:04 of glory. That is how we have this victory, that's how we have 29:07 journey that Jill so eloquently unpacked. But I'm gonna share 29:11 something that I was impressed to go to as I was doing my study 29:14 and I thought you ever have something that you really don't 29:17 wanna share? does it make anyone feel good? 29:21 but at the same time you realize the Holy Spirit's saying this is 29:24 what I want you to share. And it's actually out of Christ's 29:28 Object Lessons, page 330. It says, In each true hearted 29:33 endeavor to work out His plan, that's God's plan, God chooses 29:37 His agents not because they're perfect but because through 29:41 a connection with Him they may gain perfection, completeness 29:45 and be like, remember full of God, the fullness of God 29:48 and you know if you think about it, that is His goal. 29:52 Is that all of His creation is filled with Him. 29:56 With His presence, and His Power. 29:58 God will accept only those who are determined to aim high 30:05 He places every human agent under the obligation to do his 30:08 best, uh oh salvation by works? is that what we're talking about 30:12 here? moral perfection is required of all. Hmm 30:17 Really what it is, is we're playing with sin. We're playing 30:20 with self and pretending that we're filled with the fullness 30:24 of God. Never should we lower the standard of righteousness 30:29 in order to accommodate inherited or cultivated 30:31 tendencies to wrong doing. We need to understand that 30:34 imperfection of character is sin All righteous attributes 30:42 of character dwell in God as a perfect harmonious whole, 30:45 and everyone who receives Christ as a personal Savior is 30:48 privileged to possess these attributes. I'm gonna share 30:52 a little bit here from another paragraph then I'm through 30:55 with this. A noble character is earned by individual effort 30:59 through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talent 31:03 the power of mind, we form the character. 31:07 And it's the only thing we're taking to heaven, is our 31:09 character. It is formed, how? by hard, stern battles with 31:15 self. Self. That is my battle. You think about Christ sweating 31:21 great drops of sweat, blood. What was He agonizing against? 31:28 Taking on the sin of the world but it was operating in self 31:34 instead of taking on those sins He was looking at the cost, 31:38 counting the cost and the struggle, that commitment 31:44 that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have had throughout 31:47 eternity was the struggle of His lifetime. 31:50 Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary 31:53 tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely 31:57 and not allow one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected 32:02 Ouch! Ouch! Could I add, yeah go for it. I just want to say 32:07 because to me it ties your lesson with hers and that is 32:15 It says may the Lord make you so God's doing the work, yeah 32:19 abound in love, which is that ladder leading to that love 32:23 to one another and to all so that, the purpose of that, He 32:28 can establish your hearts blameless in holiness before 32:32 our God and Father at the coming of our Lord and Savior 32:35 Jesus Christ. So it's that surrender to God, letting Him 32:39 put His love in your heart and He is the one that helps us 32:44 overcome all these things. Too often I've seen people actually 32:47 look to others for their litmus test as to what is God calling 32:52 them to instead of looking to Him and as a result they are 32:57 stagnant in their growth. And we must strive against inherited 33:02 and cultivated tendencies that self has in us. I want us to go 33:06 go to 2 Corinthians 3:18 33:19 Jill would you be so kind as to read that? Sure. 33:20 But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the 33:24 glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image 33:28 from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 33:31 So it is by beholding Him, that is my hope, that is my, that is 33:36 my work to behold Him and what's happening is He's transforming 33:43 my character. He reveals what needs to change 33:47 and He gives me the power over that. So these inherited and 33:52 cultivated tendencies, too often people hang on to them and think 33:57 they're on a journey with God but they've left Him a long time 33:59 ago. They're playing church. I would like us to go to 34:07 1 John chapter 3 34:09 You know as we're turning here I was just thinking I hadn't 34:11 seen someone, I went to my father's funeral several years 34:14 back but I hadn't seen someone for 20 years and the first thing 34:18 he said to me when he saw me is, what happened to you? 34:23 And I thought, Yeah! What happened to me? 34:27 It's Christ in you. The transformation is something 34:30 There's another thing too. He does this work in us. 34:38 Beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been 34:42 revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed 34:45 we shall be like Him. He's doing this work, we don't 34:50 even know where we're supposed to go. He knows where to take us 34:54 For we shall see Him as He is and everyone who has this hope 34:57 in him purifies himself just as He is pure. 35:01 So as we have the hope of Christ in our hearts there's a 35:04 purifying process that takes place but we must, if we're 35:08 hanging on to sin we must address it and surrender it 35:12 as we behold Him and He gives us the victory. 35:16 Very well presented, thank you. 35:18 Well I have Wednesday's Shedding The Tent, and this is gonna be 35:23 fun because there are people who misunderstand this 35:27 So let's turn to 2 Peter chapter 1 and we're gonna begin with 35:32 verse 13. 2 Peter 1:13. And Peter says, Yes I think it is 35:41 right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding 35:46 you knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord 35:52 Jesus Christ showed me. First of all I just wanted to 35:56 comment, in verse 12 he's telling them that you know he 35:59 knows that they are established in present truth he says 36:02 but now he feels this obligation to constantly, his solemn duty 36:09 to constantly stir them up. Literally that means to rouse 36:14 them from sleep by stimulating their future hope of entrance 36:19 into the kingdom of God. So but what is he talking about this 36:24 tent. This tent is our human body. This is our temporary 36:30 dwelling place. In John 1:14 where it says the Word became 36:35 flesh and He dwelt among us. He's talking about Jesus. 36:39 In the beginning was the Word, the Word became flesh, the Word 36:43 dwelt among us. That word is tabernacled or pitched his tent 36:50 So what he's saying, it's about time for me to put off this tent 36:54 Peter is feeling the urgency of his soon death, he was martyred 37:00 in about AD68 I believe it is. And you know tradition says 37:05 that he was crucified upside down. He actually asked for that 37:10 because he didn't feel worthy to die as Jesus died. 37:14 But now turn to John chapter 5 we'll look at verse 28 37:18 When the New Testament is talking about death it does so 37:24 in the terms of resurrection, not in terms of immortality 37:29 of the soul, that is so important. So John 5:28 37:34 Jesus is speaking. We're gonna read verses 28 and 29. 37:38 And Jesus said, do not marvel at this for the hour is coming 37:43 in which all who are in their graves will hear His voice 37:48 and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of 37:54 life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of 37:59 condemnation. And if you look at, we don't have time to go 38:03 there today but if you study in Revelation it talks about these 38:06 two different resurrections that are actually a 1000 years apart 38:11 In the Bible, in 1 Timothy 6:15 and 16, the Bible teaches that 38:18 only God is immortal. Let me read this to you. In 1 Tim 15 38:25 Paul says, which He will manifest in His own time 38:28 He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and 38:35 Lord of Lords who alone has immortality, dwelling in 38:40 inapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see 38:45 to whom be honor and everlasting power, amen. 38:51 I grew up believing, I was taught that man had an immortal 38:56 soul and that when you died you went straight to heaven. 39:01 So I come on this Scripture and say what do you mean? Only God 39:06 has immortality. What does Jesus mean, all who are in 39:10 their graves will hear His voice and then as I researched 39:16 what I had learned is that the doctrine of the immortal soul 39:20 was introduced into the church by a pagan philosopher who had 39:25 converted to Christianity. His name was Tertullian, he was 39:29 from Tunisia, he had been a student of Plato who was a 39:33 student of Socrates. Socrates is the one who came up with 39:35 this idea of an immortal soul. Well what happened when he 39:39 became a, when Tertullian became a Christian? He became 39:43 an ecclesiastical writer and now he introduces this whole 39:47 idea of the doctrine of immortality which led to the 39:51 eternal burning hell as an unending torment. So, I mean 39:56 just from the one incorrect belief it's just got a domino 40:00 effect on what it has done for so many different people 40:05 but in the first 175 years of the church, the early church 40:10 fathers always said there's only two paths. There's the 40:14 path of eternal life or the path of eternal death. 40:17 So it wasn't until after Tertullian's writings became 40:21 popularized that people even started accepting this. 40:24 But our quarterly had an interesting paragraph that says 40:28 1956 Oscar Colman wrote a short study called Immortality of the 40:34 soul or resurrection of the dead the witness of the New Testament 40:37 He argued that the concept of the resurrection is quite 40:41 incompatible with the concept of the immortal soul. 40:45 Wouldn't you agree with that? I mean why do we need to be 40:48 have a resurrection if we're already up in heaven? 40:51 Furthermore, he said, the New Testament lies squarely on the 40:54 side of the resurrection of the dead. And then he's quoting this 40:58 author, Oscar Colman, "no other publication of mine, Oscar 41:03 Colman later wrote, has provoked such enthusiasm or such violent 41:09 hostility." I'm going to try something on the air 41:13 turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 41:17 If we're talking about putting off the tent, people will 41:22 and anytime you talk about you know the idea of dying 41:26 and going straight to heaven, where people usually take me 41:29 to is 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to look at what 41:34 Paul implies happens when we die. 1 Corinthians 15 41:38 we're going to, we don't have exactly 12-57 but we're going 41:44 to look at and I jumped ahead but anyway, we're going to 41:49 look at what Paul says, let's just read verse 17 and 18 41:55 If Christ is not risen your faith is futile, you are still 42:00 in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in 42:05 Christ have perished. Through out the Bible it says fallen 42:09 asleep, falling asleep, sleeping that's the state of death 42:13 Then he says in verse 22, for as in Adam all die even so in 42:18 Christ all shall be made alive but each one in his own order 42:23 Christ was made alive first, He was the first fruits 42:27 afterwards those who are Christ's win at His coming 42:31 it's at His second coming. And then he says in verse 51 42:35 Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep 42:38 but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling 42:41 of an eye, when? at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall 42:47 sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be 42:49 changed. For this corruption must put on incorruption 42:53 and this corruptible must put on immortality 42:56 So I mean he's mortal he says He's saying again we're mortal 43:00 we must put on immortality at the last trumpet. So when this 43:07 corruptible has put on incorruption and the mortal has 43:09 put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying 43:14 that is written that death is swallowed up in victory. Now 43:17 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is my challenge and I have a very 43:20 short time to do it. So I've got to go there, this is what 43:24 I was referring to, people always, when you're talking 43:27 about putting off the tent, here's where they'll take you 43:30 2 Corinthians 5, we'll look at verses 1-8. Paul describes here 43:37 3 conditions of mankind. And if you just read it superficially 43:44 you'll miss it and you'll think that when you're absent from 43:47 the body you're present with the Lord, immediately. 43:49 But let's look at this because there's three conditions. 43:52 Now I want you to watch for them One is that you're clothed with 43:55 the earthly house or tent. The 2nd condition is that you're 43:59 naked on unclothed and the 3rd condition is to be further 44:03 clothed with the house that's been fashioned in heaven 44:05 in a glorious body like Christ. So let's read this 44:10 2 Corinthians 5:1, For we know that if our earthly house, 44:14 this tent-what condition is that that's your first one, you're in 44:17 the body, is destroyed we have a building from God that's the 44:23 final, the 3rd condition. A house not made with hands 44:27 eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, in our current 44:31 earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is 44:35 from heaven-again this is referencing that 3rd condition 44:39 the final, ultimate goal. If indeed having been clothed, we 44:44 shall not be found naked. Now that's the second condition 44:50 in the middle, you're clothed you're found naked or you're 44:53 clothed with further on high. For we who are in this tent 44:57 the current condition in your body, groan being burdened 45:01 not because we want to be unclothed, what's that? The 45:05 2nd condition, you're naked, but further clothed-that's the 45:10 3rd condition. That mortality maybe swallowed up by life 45:15 So Paul is saying you can either be in your body 45:17 you can be naked without the body which is the death 45:20 state of death, or after you're resurrected you're gonna have 45:24 this glorious body. He says, now He who has prepared us 45:28 for this very thing is God who has also given us the Spirit 45:31 as a guarantee so we're always confident knowing that what 45:34 while we're at home in this body (first condition) 45:36 we're absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith not by 45:41 sight. We are confident, yes well pleased rather to be 45:46 absent from the body and he's saying I have absolute 45:50 confidence that I'm going to be present with the Lord 45:53 and get that 3rd condition. Amen and amen. 45:57 Well on Thursday we look at faith in the face of death. 46:01 And we find that Peter is aware that he is facing imminent death 46:09 Now our whole subject matter for lesson 9 is, Be Who You Are 46:15 And I just look at the apostle Peter. Jill, in light of what 46:20 you taught and Pr. Tom, in light of what you taught 46:23 has there been a change in Peter? Has Peter stood up 46:28 and is he who he should be? Be Who You Are 46:33 We as Christians are called to a high standard. 46:37 We are to be what God has called us to be and Peter 46:41 is such a great inspiration an example for all of us 46:45 So I'm in 2 Peter chapter 1. We are going to look at verse 12-15 46:53 Again, Peter has been made aware, we're gonna look at 46:57 that Scripture by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that he 47:01 is about to die. And so we're going to see what's in his heart 47:07 because what he's doing now is writing a letter that contains 47:14 his last message or his last testament to those believers 47:19 that he's writing to, thank goodness we all get the benefit 47:22 of this. So we're in 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 12-15. 47:30 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always 47:35 of these things though you know and are established in the 47:40 present truth. So he's saying to those he's writing to, you are 47:45 established in present truth. But it's important to me 47:48 I will not be negligent to write to you, to give you something 47:53 to hold on to. Verse 13, Yes I think it is right as long as I 47:59 am in this tent, that tent which Shelley was talking about 48:02 this tent, as long as I'm alive here with you to stir you up 48:07 by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must do what? Put off 48:13 my tent. When you put off your tent honey, you ain't no more 48:17 you put off your tent, he knew that he was about to die 48:21 Just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be 48:27 careful to ensure that you will always have a reminder of these 48:33 things after my decease. So he's saying I'm gonna give you 48:38 something that will always be, even after I die I'm going to 48:43 give you something that will always remind you. It's vitally 48:47 important to Peter that these believers and for you and me 48:51 who are currently established in present truth to continue to 48:56 hold fast to these truths. Hence he tells them the purpose of 49:00 his letter. Now the purpose of his letter that the Lord Jesus 49:03 Christ has shown him that he will die shortly and to ensure 49:08 that they always have a reminder of these truths even after his 49:13 death he's giving them something that in this case will last 49:20 forever. Will this word last forever, I almost want to tell 49:25 you to turn to Psalm 119:89 but it's such a short Scripture 49:30 what I'm going to tell you is memorize this Scripture 49:36 Forever O Lord Your Word is settled in the Heavenlies 49:44 That word "settled", I shared this once before - NATSAP 49:49 Greek word, it means to be established as a fortress or 49:54 a garrison. God's word is settled in the Heavenlies 49:57 So Peter is saying I'm going to give you something that's 50:01 gonna last forever so that you will continue to be established 50:06 in present truth. And Shelley, nothing in Peter's language 50:11 in any way indicated that he was going to, his soul was 50:17 going to survive. He made it very clear that once he is no 50:23 longer alive that he would not be with them. So he had to do 50:29 something on this side of death He in no way claimed immortality 50:35 He was doing something now that would be there for them 50:40 and he passed away. Now there is another example in God's Word 50:45 about someone that knew that they were about to die 50:51 And I wanted to share that message with you. I want you 50:54 to go John 13. John chapter 13 51:00 and we're going to look at verses 33-35. 51:07 John 13. Now this is written in red, so who do you think I'm 51:11 about to share with you? Jesus. Now just as Peter, knowing he 51:18 was about to die shared a message with those believers 51:22 that he wanted to be, and that would be for us too that he 51:26 wanted to ensure that they would continue to be established 51:29 in present truth. Just before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 51:34 went to the cross He was with His apostles and He shared a 51:38 message with them. And it would seem to me that this would be a 51:43 mighty important lesson Pr. Tom a message that He wanted to 51:47 share with them because knowing that His time was short I'm sure 51:52 to Him, He was sharing the most vital and important thing 51:57 Look at this. John 13 verse 33 Little children yet a little 52:03 while I am with you, knowing that it was just a little while. 52:07 You shall seek me and as I said unto the Jews whither I go you 52:12 cannot come. So now I say to you a new commandment I give 52:19 unto you. He's giving them a new commandment. One time we 52:22 had a pastor here, Dwight Nelson He did camp meeting with us 52:28 and the title that he gave this was the 11th commandment 52:32 Jesus said a new commandment I give unto you that you love 52:38 one another as I have loved you that you also love one another 52:43 By this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have 52:48 love one for another. And I was thinking about this in the 52:51 context of what Peter has done here. Did he love these 52:55 believers? Amen. Oh Pr. Tom, he had grown in all these 52:59 virtues that Jill was talking about. Peter who at the very 53:04 beginning, remember how he was when, he rebuked the Lord 53:09 did he not? He was impetuous he was quick to cut off the ear 53:15 of the Roman soldier. Peter! But oh look at him now 53:20 he has grown so much. 53:25 In the light of the fact that Peter says the Lord Himself 53:28 had shown him that he would die shortly, he shows no fear 53:33 no worry, no foreboding, but rather his concern is for the 53:39 well-being of those whom he's leaving behind. That same love 53:45 that Jesus was saying we must have one for another, that was 53:49 in Peter's heart. He had love for those that he was sharing 53:53 with and he had love for us those that would read it because 53:58 that word was forever. He wants them to be established and he 54:04 admonishes them in faith. Now again, Peter knew that he was 54:09 gonna die. I'm not going to turn to that Scripture but let me 54:12 tell you where that Scripture is It's John 21:18. So read that 54:17 Scripture and what I want you to see is that we are to be 54:23 who we are, are we not? That was your topic. Be who you are 54:27 And what Peter did was he practiced what he preached 54:32 and I think that what we need to do, this growth that we have 54:37 in us, this word that we are learning, these virtues that 54:40 are coming to us as we study God's word, we just need to 54:45 practice what we preach. We need to be who we are. Now I 54:48 want you to read this. Shelley you alluded to it, but I want 54:52 you to read this concerning Peter, that Sister White wrote 54:55 Peter as a Jew and a foreigner was condemned to be scourged 55:00 and crucified. In prospect of this fearful death the apostle 55:04 remembered his great sin in denying Jesus in the hour of his 55:09 trial. Once so unready to acknowledge the cross, he now 55:14 counted it a joy to yield up his life for the gospel, feeling 55:18 only that for him who had denied the Lord, to die in the same 55:22 manner as his master died was too great an honor. As a last 55:27 favor he entreated his executioners that he might be 55:32 nailed to the cross with his head downward. The request 55:35 was granted and in this manner Christ so died the great apostle 55:42 Peter, that's how he died. He is such an inspiration. Such a 55:46 great example for us. We should be who we are. Amen. 55:52 Amen. Praise the Lord. It's marvelous to read First Peter 55:56 and Second Peter. There are so many wonderful things there 55:59 and as Peter is instructing us we see that he has learned 56:04 many things from Jesus Christ and he continued to follow 56:07 Jesus Christ until the very end of his life. Molly you were 56:11 talking about Peter as he knew his death was coming he remained 56:18 faithful. He remained faithful until the very end. 56:21 Now it's very interesting that as he was about to die 56:27 he's encouraging other people. What did Jesus do when He was 56:32 about to die. He said to them Let not your heart be troubled 56:37 And so as we look at Peter what inspires you about the 56:41 life of Peter, would anyone like to say? 56:44 I like the transforming grace and power of God. You see what 56:48 Peter was and what he became under the anointing of the 56:52 Holy Spirit. Amen. When I think of Peter I think of Stephen who 56:56 was stoned saying don't hold this against them, he had the 57:01 same forgiveness that Christ had for humanity. When I read 57:05 the epistles of Peter I realize, Wow God will complete that 57:10 work if we hang on to Him in faith. It is the journey 57:13 that we all need to be on and experience what a joy, 57:18 experience the peace and the victory that Peter experienced. 57:22 Amen. And we see Peter here that he's instructing us. He's 57:26 letting us know that to study God's word, to be faithful 57:31 he says go from one step to another as you come close to 57:35 Christ and as Pr. Tom said that we behold, this is something 57:41 we must do every day. Behold the glory of the Lord. Behold 57:45 the character of the Lord as revealed in His word and we 57:48 all can, as it says, be all that we can be through Jesus Christ 57:53 and we are blessed to know that it is by grace that we are 57:57 saved, it is not of ourselves it is the gift of God. 58:00 I encourage you to give your heart to Jesus Christ today 58:02 We will see you next time on Sabbath School Panel |
Revised 2024-06-03