ARME 2: Canby, OR - May 2010

Stephen Bohr

Martin Kim

Ivor Myers

Taj Pacleb

Lisa Quade

Daniel Vis

ARME Bible Camp

Question and Answer Session

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to pray the prayer of Moses for these speakers this morning in Exodus 4.12 that you would be with their mouth and you would teach them what to say.

We got a lot of good questions from you folks.

We'll get through as many as we can in the next half hour.

I want to begin with the first question, the only question we got about Army's secret weapon.

Is there more power when 2 or 3 are gathered for prayer, or where a whole church or conference prays for an issue?

Certainly, there's no limit to the power of even 1 person's prayer because God is the power behind prayer.

Whether it's 1 person or a group of people, there's no limit to God's ability to answer that prayer.

But in a special way, God is looking for unity among his people.

And so when 2 or 3 people come together in agreement, as it describes there in Matthew 8, I think that's the verse he was talking about, that question, There's special power because the people come together in unity.

If you remember on the day of Pentecost, when they were praying in the upper room, they all came into agreement and won a court, and God was able to pour out his power in even greater measure.

And so part of the answer to that question is the unity that we experience as God's people that enables God to pour out his power in special ways.

How do you explain the way God worked in the Old Testament times using war and bloodshed of so many in order to advance his cause?

Would we not cringe at the thought of God working in this way today?

How can we understand the God of the Old Testament with the life of Jesus?

Or maybe another way to say it, why does God, you know, it almost seems as God is violating His own commandment, thou shalt not kill.

I actually just did a presentation on this in Michigan.

And it was looking at the issue of how God dealt with, or how God was seen to be in the Old Testament.

And if you look at the issue of the flood, for example, you might look at the flood and say, you know what?

God killed innocent children in the flood.

That God actually provided a way of escape for those who are willing to take it.

Now remember this, that the Bible says all have sinned, and if we believe that premise that all have sinned, then all are worthy of what?

It would be like a criminal on death row arguing, how dare you put me to death?

So God has the right to wipe us all out, period, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

However, God manifests mercy and grace, amen?

And what you will find is that very often we will read stories in the Old Testament and take those stories and not realize that in these stories that were written, very often all the detail of that story may not have been included in that story.

We know that if God, the Bible lays out the principle that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

If we see, look at the principle of how God acted and apply that principle across the board, we will see that God was actually indeed just in everything that he's done in the Old Testament.

In the flood, did God provide, let me put it this way, Did God provide a public option?

Those people said, we're not getting on the ark.

We are going to choose to go against the word of God, and they defied God.

And as a result, they were wiped away of the flood.

Did God provide a way, an opportunity for people to escape Sodom and Gomorrah?

People chose to stay, and as a result, they perished.

If you look at how God, I know I'm doing a long answer here, but this is 1 of those kind of questions.

If you look at when God spoke to Israel and told Israel, I'm going to lead you into these lands and displace the people there because of the abominations that they were doing, God said, this is how I'm gonna move them out before you.

Now if you're in a city or a country where it becomes infested with hornets what are you going to do?

The very fact that these people remained in the places that they were, showed their defiance against who?

How many opportunities did God give Pharaoh through these plagues to repent of his ways?

Many, and Pharaoh chose not to take any of those opportunities.

So as we begin to pull these characteristics of God and see how he dealt with nations around him, you will read, Again, I did an extensive study on this and I would recommend it to those of you who wanna look at it.

God always gave the people an opportunity to escape before he brought the sword of punishment, always.

Just to add on to that, the Bible teaches that God is a God of mercy and a God of justice.

And many people try to divorce those 2 characteristics from each other, but they're 2 sides of the same coin.

God can be just and merciful at the same time.

And the greatest demonstration of that is the cross.

The death of Christ on the cross showed the mercy and justice of God simultaneously.

The justice of the law said that the wages of sin is death.

Death needed to happen because the law was broken.

He had to be consistent with that characteristic.

But at the same time, he was also merciful because instead of letting us die, he died in our place.

And so we see this justice and mercy also in the most holy place of heaven sanctuary Which is where God wants us to go by faith And so I believe that we as God's people in the last days We will have the true picture of God's character that we might be able to demonstrate it throughout the world because we will have a most holy place experience.

I just wanted to mention that if someone wants an excellent resource on this issue, the best book that I've read is available from Steve Wahlberg's ministry.

It's called The Character of God Controversy.

And he deals with all of these stories of the Old Testament, the destruction of the Canaanites, the flood, the Sodom and Gomorrah, at the foot of Mount Sinai, the apostasy and making them drink the gold and all of these things.

And it does it in a way that is very Christ-centered, very cross-centered.

So the book, The Character of God Controversy is an excellent resource.

I think it's important to know that the results of sin will lead to death.

It's not a question of if, it's just a question of when.

So I don't know why we're so offended God does it sometimes now versus waits till the end.

Can I just add something to that very quickly?

Remember this, that hellfire, the final punishment of the wicked, the same question could be asked, why is God destroying the wicked?

And the reason will be, as Taj pointed out, is because they rejected the opportunity that God had given them at the cross of Christ.

The fact is the wicked are going to beg God to destroy them.

When I pastored in Wyoming many years ago, I went to visit this lady who hadn't been to church for many, many years.

We got to talking and I was wondering why she wasn't coming to church.

She says, well, At church they showed this movie on John Hus, and they showed how this faithful man of God was burnt at the stake.

She says, and I just cannot understand how God could allow something like that to happen.

Sacred Responsibility for Bible Memorization

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for the Bible, the power it has in our lives, the wisdom and instruction it gives us.

And we pray, Lord, as we study the scriptures this morning, that you would grant us a rich measure of your Holy Spirit, that you would make things simple and clear, that you would make just the right impressions, make the right influence on our hearts.

And we thank you and pray this in Jesus' name.

I would like to talk about Bible memorization.

I suppose in some ways I'm kind of preaching to the choir, so to speak.

If I were to ask most of you whether you thought Bible memorization was a good thing, I'm sure most of you would probably raise your hands and say, yeah, Bible memorization is important.

You know that when we have the Word of God internalized, it helps us be able to make decisions.

We're faced with a choice and a verse just flashes right into our mind at just the right time.

Or maybe someone will ask us a question and the Holy Spirit has a beautiful way of doing it, just flashes the verse that answers their question right into our mind.

Or maybe we're praying and as we're wrestling with God, a promise will come to our mind to strengthen our faith.

Or maybe we're dealing with some temptation and a verse will just flash into our mind just exactly the words that we need to resist that temptation.

Probably all of us recognize that memorization is a positive and a helpful thing.

But what I'd like to suggest this morning is not just that Bible memorization is a blessing, that it's beneficial, but that it's actually commanded in Scripture.

And so what I'd like to do is trace the path right down from the beginning to the end of the Bible and just look at various places where the Bible talks about the importance and the need for the memorization of Scripture.

I'm hoping that our commitment to memorization will be deepened.

It's 1 thing to say, yeah, it's a good idea.

It's another thing to be committed to memorization.

You know, sometimes I think we have in the back of our mind this idea that it's just 1 good activity among many and you sort of pick and choose which 1 you want, which activity you want to be involved in.

Or maybe sometimes we'll say something like, well it's good for those that have a good memory but if you're like me, my memory's no good, well it doesn't apply to me.

Or maybe we'll say it's something I'd like to do 1 of these days, maybe I'll get around to it, or maybe I started in the past, but I've kind of drifted away, and 1 of these days I'll get back to it.

You know, what would happen if we treated another commandment of God, like say the Sabbath, the same way?

Oh, Saturday's a great day to keep the Sabbath but if you want to pick another day or do something different that's fine too.

Or yeah if it's convenient for you if it's easy for you to keep the Sabbath then you keep the command but if it's not then well you know that's okay doesn't apply to you.

Or 1 of these days I'd like to keep the Sabbath, but right now it doesn't fit into my life, or it doesn't work for me.

So 1 of these days, what if we treated the Sabbath the same way?

I'd like to suggest that if we, when we come to the place where we understand what the Bible really teaches about Bible memorization, the importance of hiding God's Word in our heart, all of these excuses and things that we use for not memorizing will just vanish away.

If God asks us to do it, then we can have every confidence He'll supply the power that we need to be successful in our memorization.

Well, I want to give you a few reasons why I believe Bible memorization is actually commanded in the Bible.

First 1 is that in the Old Testament we see repeatedly instruction to hide God's Word in our heart.

Follow me, I hope you have your Bibles, I hope you didn't come to Army without a Bible.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy.

There's many, many verses we could look at.

Don't have time to look at all of them, but we'll cover a few maybe.

Deuteronomy chapter 6, starting with verse 4.

You may remember Jesus was once asked which commandment in all the law was the most important.

And this is actually the verse that he quoted, Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 and 5.

Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.

And in fact it goes on to say in the next verse, I now shall teach them diligently to your children.

Talk of them when you sit down, when you rise up, when you're walking, when you're constantly talking about how can we constantly teach the Word of God to others unless we have it first internalized.

So it says if you really wanna love God with all your heart, the way we do that is to take the things He's given us in His Word and to hide them in our heart, lay them up in our heart.

And then we can talk about them constantly, every situation, every opportunity, the Word of God is just constantly coming into our minds.

The command to memorize scriptures actually directly linked with what Jesus said was the very most important command in the entire Bible.

To love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our might, and the words that he gives us, we're going to hide in our hearts because we love God so much.

Another verse just a few chapters later, Deuteronomy chapter 11.

Look at Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 18.

Therefore, the Bible says, shall you what?

Lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

Take my word and lay it up, lay it up, hide it inside.

It's not just a suggestion, it's a command.

God says, I want you to take my word and hide it in your heart.

And notice that the language here, when it talks about binding them on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, does that ring any bells in any of your thinking?

Think about in the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, we have the seal of God in the hand and in the forehead.

God wants His Word in our thoughts and in our actions.

This is a picture, really, with end time implications.

At the very end of time, God's going to have a people who have allowed the Word of God to sink so deep down into their experience that they cannot be moved.

And if we had time to study the context of the passage, It's in the context of obeying God so that we can receive the latter rain.

Just read a few verses up, it's talking about the latter rain, receiving the latter rain, coming into such oneness with God through His Word that he can pour out his spirit.

I like this particular book, Joshua 1 verse 8.

Again these are all familiar verses but sometimes we just sort of skim over them and we're not really taking them at face value, what they're saying.

There's a wonderful promise here, Joshua 1 verse 8, This book of the law shall, what?

What does it mean, not depart out of thy mouth?

It means to have it so internalized that it's always there on the tip of your tongue.

So that anytime you need it, the verse is right there.

It's just right there in your mouth, fitted in your lips, like it says in the book of Psalms.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein, how often?

Now, we can meditate for a few moments in the morning when we study our Bibles and we have its pages open.

But many times we study and then we go away and we completely forget what we read about.

We go through most of the day without really thinking about scripture.

But Joshua says if we'll internalize His Word, if we'll keep it inside, then we'll be able to meditate on Scripture constantly all through the day.

We meditate on it day and night, we'll be able to do according to all that is written therein, and God will make our way prosperous and we'll have good success.

How many of you want good success in your life?

If we'll take His Word and internalize it and meditate on it constantly, applying it to every situation as we go through the day-to-day situations and the challenges that we face.

If we're constantly meditating on the word through all of those situations.

And God says, I'm gonna give you the wisdom you need to make the right choices.

In fact, it says in Psalms 1, a similar passage, if we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it, we'll be successful, prosper, in whatever we do.

Fantastic promises to those that will take the Word of God and internalize it, hide it in their hearts.

Lots of verses, look in the book of Psalms, chapter 119, another few verses very quickly.

By the way, 1 of the most familiar verses that talks about memorization, probably most of you already have it memorized.

Hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Here David is saying when we hide God's word in our heart, it gives us power to resist temptation.

The Moral Machinery

Have you been enjoying the meeting so far?

Wow, it's amazing how much you can learn passages you've studied before, just like new insights.

I'm thankful for the Word, and I'm thankful that we have opportunities like this Army Bible Camp to be able to study it together and learn new things that we haven't seen before.

But I have to tell you just on a little personal note that I kind of have a little quirky way of thinking.

That in the Adventist church, it seems like there's A very strong desire or drive to know theological truth.

I think it's partly because we have such a powerful message, a powerful doctrinal message, a powerful prophetic message.

And because we've gotten a taste of that, We want more of it.

And we're driven to understand these things.

But somewhere in the back of my brain, there's been this, and again, I feel like almost from another planet sometimes, in my brain, there's a desire and a drive and a longing for practical truth.

For how to make the Word of God actually work.

Not just more information as beautiful as it is, as much as I love that and value that, but how do we actually make it work?

And this is 1 reason that I enjoy Bible memorization so much.

It's 1 thing to hear new insights, but it's a whole other experience to memorize some verse, and then maybe even weeks later that verse flashes into your mind, and you see new insights into it you've never seen before.

It's like an experience, it's practical, it works.

In the workshop this afternoon I talked about evangelism just a bit, and it was the same kind of question, how do we make evangelism actually work?

Why is it that it just doesn't seem to be working?

What's the New Testament really have to say about how to do it?

Well, that's kind of where I want to go today.

I'm not talking about evangelism, I'm not talking about Bible memorization in this presentation, but I want to talk about something that Ellen White calls the moral machinery.

Have you ever seen that expression in the spirit of prophecy?

She says God would have his servants become acquainted with the moral machinery of their own hearts.

In other words, there are faculties within the heart of man that function and work.

There's pieces and they interact with each other in very specific ways, specific faculties, specific functions.

And what she's saying is that God wants us to understand the machinery, how it works, the practical sides of Christianity.

And I think sometimes we throw around, again, theological terms, but we don't really understand maybe even what we're talking about.

We talk about conversion, we talk about sanctification, we talk about the nature of man or the nature of Christ, if you want to get into a good hot potato, something like that.

And we're throwing around theological terms, character development.

You know the word character is not found in your Bible, at least not in a King James Bible.

And yet, we know how vitally important character development is, but how does it actually work?

What's the process by which we resist and overcome temptation?

Well, we sort of have little cliches, little hints, little suggestions, little tips we tell people, but we don't have a good picture many times of all the moral machinery, how the different parts of the nature of man work, how They interrelate with each other, and as a result, we don't understand what's really happening deep down inside.

Well, I've been studying this for well over 10 years.

This is actually the first time I've ever tried to do this presentation by itself.

It's usually in a longer series of about 20 meetings, 15 or 20 sessions, but I'm going to try and cram down the, or like Ivor said, juice it down to 1 basic presentation at least to cover some major points, okay?

So anyway, let's begin with a word of prayer.

I ask the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our thoughts, and then we're going to dive into this topic.

Father in heaven, we want to thank you that we have opportunities like this to come apart and to study your Word.

We thank you for the knowledge, the information that you're giving us.

But in my heart, and I'm sure many here, we have a longing for even more.

We want practical, life-changing Scripture.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Daniel Vis

5 Teachings

ARME 2: Canby, OR - May 2010

Question and Answer Session

28m

Sacred Responsibility for Bible Memorization

49m

The Moral Machinery

43m

The Heart to Understand The Word

48m

The Engine of Evangelism

50m

Sound Doctrine