Norman McNulty

SWYC 2015: Christ Our Righteousness

Plenary Meetings

Doug Batchelor

Douglas Houghton

Daniel Laredo

Dwayne Lemon

Lisa Santos

Virna Santos

Keala Thompson

GYC Southwest

Q & A Session

Thank you all for submitting your questions.

No offense if your question is not asked.

Except the question about what the Wi-Fi password was.

Could we have 1 of you pray before we begin?

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to answer questions.

Father, you know that each 1 of us here is human, and we need your wisdom to answer according to your Word.

So I pray that we would give answers that are biblical and that will guide the minds of all those who are honestly seeking to know what the Bible says.

So I know usually it's easiest and then it gets harder.

I don't know that that'll be the case tonight.

Do we have to be baptized in order to go to heaven?

If it's alright, I'll jump in for an easy question.

Well, that's a trick question because everyone who can be baptized should be baptized.

Jesus said, unless you're born of the water and spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

First thing Peter says after they say, what must we do?

He said, repent and be baptized, every 1 of you, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Last thing Jesus said before he sends to heaven, go therefore teach and baptize.

So baptism is very important, But some people obviously will be in heaven that were not baptized.

There are a lot of people in the whole Old Testament dispensation.

So, but it's a command that tells, it's as important to a Christian as a wedding is to a marriage.

It's the turning point where you publicly declare Christ.

Obviously, the thief on the cross, we're closing tonight talking about him, was not baptized and he'll be in heaven.

I think Jesus was baptized, not for his own sin, but for those who couldn't be, they get credit for his baptism.

I know God has called me into ministry, and after years of serving faithfully, I have fallen back into a sin I had overcome in the past, have I been disqualified from ministry?" And I realized that what they've fallen back into is not specified.

Laughter I mean, as I'm listening to the direct question, the person was in ministry, and then at some point, an old sin became a reality in their lives once again, and they are now asking the question, can I still minister?

All right, well, I mean, David is an example in scripture.

He was 1 who God had called, used mightily to do his will and to speak his words, and he fell into sin.

And he did receive ramifications for that, but yet God was still able to work through him to be his manservant.

David had true repentance, we read that in Psalms 51, which is key.

And that is what I would say to that minister, because it also kind of makes it seem like ministers don't sin, or ministers at some point, you know, we just stop sinning per se.

And while we don't want to make an endorsement for sin at all, we know that by the grace of God, we don't have to fall back into it.

But if we sin, the Bible is very clear that we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If I'm cleansed from all unrighteousness, then I am righteous.

God can reinstate me through the merits of his son, and I can now go forward and do his work.

I know that there are sensitive situations.

You know, there are certain sins that people have fallen into, you know, examples of a pastor molesting a child.

You know, once we start getting into those sensitive, very specific things, then there may be a very different answer.

But when we're dealing Just generally with that, that's how I would answer it.

This next question, I think it came up because of the session here in the tent.

So we were talking about some of the arguments for our stances in the Bible.

And some of our stances in the Bible come from Leviticus.

And we as Christians, it appears to others that are not Christian that we pick and choose what we want to stand for, particularly in Leviticus.

So, the question is, how do you determine whether a law from Leviticus applies to us today or not?

I know some are ceremonial laws, but why is it that we, for example, don't get tattoos, And the reference here is Leviticus 1928, but it doesn't matter how our how we shave our beards Leviticus 1927 The There are 2 verses in Leviticus Well 1 may not be Leviticus and someone will have to help me look it up.

But when it says, you're not to make any cuttings in your flesh and neither shall you mar the corners of your beard.

People have said that means you're not supposed to shave.

You read further on in the Bible, it says you're not supposed to mar the corners of your beard for the dead.

And they had a practice back then that when you were in mourning, the pagans would mutilate themselves.

You read about what the prophets of Baal did.

They cut themselves, and they would, sometimes they'd cut off a finger.

They would shave off part of their beard so they would look like they were just all disheveled and mourning.

And God said, you're holy, you're not supposed to do that.

That had nothing to do with whether you should grow a beard or shave.

You'll notice that when Joseph comes to meet before the pharaoh and God fills him with the spirit to interpret the dream, he shaves.

And so I look right at a guy with a beard when I said that.

Sorry, there's nothing, that didn't mean anything by that.

So when Mephibosheth was in mourning, you remember when David fled because of Absalom, he said, I have not trimmed my beard because I've been in mourning.

So they used to trim their beards He used to shave their beards and that verse really is no command about never shaving or growing a beard Okay, so before any more any more answers that that was just an example And So I'm glad that we addressed it, but at the same time, I think that how do we determine which is which?

So the thing about the beard was an example, for example, the beard, but how do we determine if we are picking and choosing?

I'll jump in, anybody, I'll just keep talking because no one's saying anything.

But can I ask, how many questions do we have so we can pace ourselves?

All right We go quick slow Well, I believe Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, including Leviticus.

And the things in Leviticus that would not be specifically applicable right now is 1, if you're not living under theocracy, there are certain laws about a person caught in adultery or breaking the Sabbath, you stone them.

And the other things would be those related to the ceremony, which is no longer circumcision in the flesh, but circumcision of the heart.

But all the other social laws, much of the civil laws in the world today come from the laws of Moses, and they're very good.

You know, 1 of the things we're told in the book Education, page 189, is when we study the Bible, we should study the scripture as a whole, which again goes back to the point that Pastor Doug just shared with us.

You got to look at the whole of scripture and don't build a religion, a practice, or anything off of just a passage here or there.

The Apostle Paul, as an example, there was a time, of course, God's people would wear veils.

They would cover themselves and cover their heads.

And of course, especially the women would do it in a certain way, and the hair was the glory and a covering, but when you read in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 16, when Paul talked about this, he would then say in verse 16, but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." So there would be other verses that you would use to help clarify a practice that may have been done in times of old, but this custom is no longer applicable.

You know, again, leaning back to the point made earlier.

So study the scripture as a whole when we look at some of these statements that are made in relation to civil laws, sanitary laws, and other type of laws in the Bible.

And then when we look at the scripture as a whole, we can see what is still applicable today versus what may not have been applicable because it was under a theocracy, pertained to various customs, et cetera.

Breakout Session #2

The High Priest and the Second Advent Movement

We're going to shift gears here from the science of how the brain works to developing in more detail what we talked about this morning in Sabbath School on the sanctuary theme of the book of Revelation.

So this afternoon what we're going to do in this session is the title of the message is The High Priest in the Second Advent Movement.

So we are going to look at Christ's work as High Priest, especially as it relates to the Second Advent Movement.

And I am going to give you some detail that I didn't have time to get into this morning.

So, let's go ahead and bow our heads for prayer and we will get into this session.

Father in heaven, thank you so much that we have this opportunity to be at this meeting and to study your word And I pray that you will guide us through this session, and may we have a clearer understanding of what Jesus is doing for us right now as our great High Priest.

Okay, So, when we look at Jesus in the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And 1 of the things that really jumps out at me when I study the book of Revelation is that Jesus is revealing himself based on his titles in the book of Revelation.

Okay, so that's okay if you weren't there this morning, but basically what I shared this morning is that Jesus has a variety of titles in the book of Revelation.

And in the 7 churches, he's the son of man.

In the 7 seals, he's the lamb who was slain.

In the 7 trumpets, he's the angel with a censer in his hand, he's revealing himself, and those titles describe functions that he has to produce something.

Now what we saw is that as the Son of Man, He came to seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19, 10, Matthew 18, 11.

And He does that work of salvation because He's the Lamb who was slain.

And He also does the work of salvation as our high priest who's the intercessor whoever lives to make intercession for us and he's in the midst of the church is doing the work of salvation and in the seals there are all the martyrs for the faith but there's the promise that Jesus was slain and He'll be resurrected and He's also interceding on our behalf.

But then there's the next layer that I showed you this morning that not only is Jesus Son of Man, Lamb that was slain and the angel with a censer in his hand.

Revelation chapter 1 verse 5 shows that he is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

And if you study that out carefully, he is especially the faithful witness in the churches, especially to the lay to see in church where he's the faithful and true witness giving testimony in court about the judgment in our church.

And he's the first begotten of the dead and the seals because there's the promise of the resurrection.

And he's the prince of the kings of the earth because when he finishes his work as our great high priest, he's coming back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Now, Jesus especially does his work as faithful witness, first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth from the most holy place.

And remember the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus finishes that work in the most holy place, he has a special group of people known as the 144, 000 who are the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So when Jesus is the Son of Man, and the Lamb who was slain, and the angel with a censer in his hand, who's also the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

All of those are job titles that reveal who Jesus is so that he can produce a group of people who are a revelation of himself.

And he especially produces that production of himself from the most holy place through the second Advent movement.

So that's what we're gonna 0 in on this afternoon.

Sometimes you just look at the book of Revelation and it's like, oh okay, so now I understand the message to Pergamos better.

They hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, oh that's bad.

And yet you still don't see the big picture that Jesus is the faithful witness, and he's especially doing the work of the faithful and true witness to the Second Advent movement, the Laodicean church from the Most Holy Place.

And when Jesus does that work as the faithful witness to the Second Advent movement from the Most Holy Place, he produces a group of people who overcome as he overcame.

And so we're going to develop this a little bit further now.

So the high priest and the second advent movement.

The first half of the book of Revelation is really describing Jesus as our High Priest, so that even though He's the Son of Man and the Lamb He was slain, and yes He's the angel with the censer in His hand, yes He's the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth, it's describing Jesus in the sanctuary in heaven where he is our high priest.

So when we come then to the Laodicean message, and I'm going to take some time now to give more detail to the nature of the work of Christ as our High Priest to the Second Advent Movement.

And now, you know, I just kind of hit it in passing, the message to Laodicea this morning.

Now we're going to look at the Laodicean message a little bit more specifically as it relates to Christ as our High Priest.

Now remember, Jesus is our intercessor, whoever lives to make intercession for us, but in the churches he is the faithful and true witness, the creator, the beginning of the creation of God, and what he says to us, as he says to every other church, I know thy works.

Now it's amazing to me, and this may have been an issue in other prophetic churches down through time, but Jesus actually is interested in our works as our high priest, as the faithful and true witness in court.

And it's interesting to And it's interesting to me that Adventists today consider works to be a four-letter word.

People are like, oh, that sounds works-based.

And look, I'm not here to advocate a works-based religion, mind you.

But I believe Adventism should pay attention to works more than what they do.

Because Jesus says, the very first thing he says as a high priest, as the faithful and true witness, giving testimony in court in the judgment hour, he says, I know thy works.

And when we say, oh, works don't matter, well, we're contradicting the most important witness in the court.

And the only court that really matters, Jesus says, I know thy works.

Now again, you can't save yourself, you can't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and earn your way to heaven.

But Your works are an evidence of where your heart lies.

So if you're a Seventh-day Adventist and you're having a problem robbing banks on the side, Chances are, in fact I'll be stronger than that, you are not going to heaven.

If you're robbing banks, you are not going to heaven.

If you're unrepentantly robbing banks and continuing to do it, and that's just the way you live your life you're not going to go to heaven.

So I'm just giving an extreme example because I don't know of a single person I've ever met that has a problem with robbing banks, but you get the point that's 1 of the 10 Commandments.

So Jesus speaking to the Second Advent Movement, speaking to the church, which by the way when you look at this, the Laodiceans, the church of the Judgment Hour, and he says he's the beginning of the creation of God, he is the creator, that connects to the first angel's message, fear God, give glory to Him, the hour of His judgment has come, worship Him that made heaven and earth.

So you have the concept of judgment in the first angel's message, you have the concept of creation in the first angel's message, and in the Laodicean church You have the concept of judgment because it's the church of the judgment hour and Jesus identifies himself as the creator.

So he says, I know your works, and he says you're not hot or cold, and because you're lukewarm I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth." Now it's a bit discouraging to me that when we really get our first description of the Second Advent Movement in the book of Revelation, when Jesus describes the Second Advent Movement, He says, you make me want to throw up.

Just think about that, because I shared this morning in Sabbath school, we're the second advent movement and Jesus is going to cleanse us and he's going to come in and change our heart and change our life and that's where it ends up.

But the reality is when you start talking about the Second Advent movement, when Jesus the High Priest, the faithful and true witness, who's our advocate, who's our intercessor, when he first describes the Second Advent movement in the book of Revelation, he says you make me want to throw up.

So sometimes, and I think I've been guilty of this, sometimes we can have triumphalism, we're going to be the 144, 000 sealed with the seal of the living God, and we are the second advent movement that the mighty angel came down from heaven to raise up, so that the mystery of God can be finished, and we are going to give the 3 angels messages, and we are going to stand on Mount Zion with the lamb, and that's all where the Second Advent Movement is heading, and praise the Lord for that.

But just remember, the first thing that we see about the Second Advent Movement is that Jesus says, you make me wanna throw up.

Just, That's where we start, that's our starting point.

The way Jesus feels about the average Adventist, we make him want to throw up.

Hate to say it, but that's the way it is.

You know what everybody says about the Laodicean message?

I mean, we have people that are into drums and rock music, and they're like into all this contemplative prayer in the emerging church, and look how bad they are.

I pay tithe, and I still read the spirit of prophecy.

You know I've given this message several times on Audioverse so I'm trying to put a new emphasis on it.

For those of you listening on Adiverse it's not going to be exactly the same about Laodicea because I've rightly gone after Adventists who think they're on their way to heaven but don't believe any of the truths of Adventism, and that certainly applies to the Laodicean message, certainly.

And I'm not here to say, oh yeah, go out and do the emerging church, no, no, no, no, no, please stay away from that toxic stuff, you get me.

But We can be like that Pharisee that looks at the people in the church that are clearly going against God, they're not following the Bible, they're not following the spirit of prophecy and because we have the right externals, we are at least turned off by error that we use that as our excuse for not having a living relationship with Jesus that produces a transformed life that leads to soul winning.

So I'm going to show you a few things here.

You know, He says, you make me want to throw up, and then He says, the reason why you make me want to throw up is because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

Now Jesus defines what it means to be rich in verse 18.

He says, I counsel thee to buy me gold, trident, and the fire, that ye may be rich.

And in 1 Peter 1, verse 7, Peter says that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be trident with fire, might be found unto praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So to be rich, according to Jesus, is to have faith.

And I don't know why it adds to it, it's faith and love.

So you have faith and you have love, you're actually a nice person.

So you have faith in Christ and you're a loving person.

So in other words, here's Laodicea's problem.

And this is what the high priest, the faithful and true witness is saying to Laodicea.

Revelation’s Sanctuary Theme

Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

We thank you that we can still come and worship in freedom.

And I pray that you would speak through me this morning.

Give me a message that will be what each 1 of us needs to hear.

And may Christ be lifted up is my prayer in Jesus' name.

The title for my Sabbath school message this morning, and it's going to be a Bible study, is entitled Revelation's Sanctuary Theme.

Before I get into some of my slides here, you know, at Seventh-day Adventist, we have a very special, unique message.

We have a message that we should not be ashamed of.

We have a message that God has given to us to take to the world.

And when I look at the world that we are living in now, undoubtedly our message has become more relevant than ever.

Now is the time for us as Seventh-day Adventists to be challenging our fellow church members and friends to study this message as never before, to accept this message and to incorporate this message so that we can go forth to meet the Bridegroom because Jesus is coming soon.

And when we study the Bible, when we study the book of Revelation, we find that the sanctuary message that we hold very dear as Seventh-day Adventists is found very clearly in this book.

So I'm going to get into my slides now, and I believe that you can see them over here on this side, hopefully the projector on this side will start working at some point.

I'm going to start with a quote from Testimonies to Ministers page 116.

�Those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God will bring from the books of Daniel and Revelation, truth that is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

They will start into action forces that cannot be repressed.

Now when I read that statement, the statement says those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God.

In other words, you have a living relationship with Jesus.

So if you have a living relationship with Jesus, you're not going to be saying, you know, we need to stop talking about Daniel and Revelation so much.

If you have a living relationship with Jesus, inspiration tells us that we will bring from the books of Daniel and Revelation truth that is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And I want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, amen?

And I want to be part of a movement that starts into action forces that cannot be repressed.

If you want to be part of Earth's final movement to usher in the Second Coming, study the books of Daniel and Revelation.

As we start to look more at the sanctuary, I want to talk about the sanctuary in the 2300 days of the Great Controversy, 423.

The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844.

And I notice this, it opened a view, a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God's hand had directed the great Advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of His people.

Friends, if you want to understand the Adventist message, you understand it on the basis of the sanctuary message.

The sanctuary message is a message that is a complete system of truth that is connected and harmonious.

And what we're going to see today is that the book of Revelation is actually a study through the sanctuary.

And this is 1 of my favorite statements that Elamite has about the sanctuary.

And over the next 3 slides we're going to look at this statement.

Here it says, The great plan of redemption, as revealed in the closing work of these last days, should receive close examination.

The scenes connected with the sanctuary above should make such an impression upon the minds and hearts of all that they may be able to impress others.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Norman McNulty

All Recordings

Q & A Session

36m

The High Priest and the Second Advent Movement

1h 14m

Revelation’s Sanctuary Theme

54m

When The High Priest Leaves the Temple

1h

The Science of the Mind of Christ

1h 19m

High Time to Wake Up

55m

Healing and Hope in His Wounded Hands

58m

Our Great and Urgent Need

54m

Remember Lot’s Wife

39m

Pilgrims and Strangers

35m

Waiting For the Wrong Messiah

47m

The Holy One of Israel

45m

Sound Doctrine