WYC 2008: Something Better

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GYC West

WYC 2008 Plenary Sessions

Doug Batchelor

Better Hope

I've been praying about priorities this week, and what I would be sharing with you tonight, you know, the theme of better in Hebrews.

Take your computer and a Bible program and look that up.

You'll be surprised how much it talks about better.

And Paul there in Hebrews is making a comparison.

He's exalting the benefits of Christianity, the reality of Christ over the shadows that you find in Judaism.

I kind of feel some of that in my own life, because mother was from Jewish background.

He'd send me to Christian school to go live with my mother.

At military school, they required me to pick a service to go to.

They said you either go to Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish every Sunday.

Sunday, interesting, even Jewish services.

And they'd say, wait a second, last week you were at the Catholic service.

I said, well, I don't want to make my mother mad, so I'm at the Jewish services today.

And it would give me a kind of a broad spectrum.

But Christianity certainly is superior to the shadows, the reality of Christ.

As I've thought about what's better in the priorities, you think about a lot of the greatest things in the Bible.

What does it tell us in 1 Corinthians 13 is the greatest thing?

And if you were to ask Malachi, what's the most important thing, he'd probably say, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.

And as I thought about that, I'm going to talk to you tonight what I think about, what I believe is the most important thing.

I was 17 when God got a hold of me and the enthusiasm potential in this group, if you could become infected with the potency of the good news.

I want to begin with a quote and it's from the Spirit of Prophecy.

I'm going to read you a couple of quotes.

The spirit of god as it comes into the heart by faith is the beginning of life eternal the spirit of god what promises less fulfilled in the church than that of the endowment of the Holy Spirit here is our greatest need whether you knew it or not I'm telling you now your greatest need is the Holy Spirit The teacher must be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Then the mind and the spirit of Christ will be in him and he will confess Jesus as a spiritual and holy life.

He will give evidence that the truth has been received, that it has not been merely a theory, but it's been sanctified through the truth that he has been sanctified through the truth he can talk of christ and him crucified in a language that savors of heaven I want to read something else you're familiar with first selected messages page 121 a revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs to seek this should be our first work there must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord not because God is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us but because we're unprepared to receive it our Heavenly Father is more willing to give here's the greatest thing His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than our earthly parents to give good gifts to their children but it's our work by confession, humiliation, repentance and earnest prayer to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant his blessing a revival need be expected only in answer to prayer while the people are so destitute of God's Holy Spirit they cannot appreciate the preaching of the Word but when the Spirit's power touches their hearts then the discourse is given will not be without effect now you're going to hear some wonderful discourses this week you're going to hear some men of God open the word of God and share some very important truths.

What is it that's gonna prepare us for everything that we might receive?

Now as my custom is, I'd like to use a story in the Bible as a springboard for that principle.

So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the second book of Kings, chapter 2.

And I've got a timekeeper here, so I'm going to have to pace myself.

This is the story where Elijah is taken up into heaven.

And Elisha is present for that experience.

I think it's relevant for us for a couple of reasons.

1 is, before this is over, Elisha gets a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Another reason is, it's talking about translation, and we're on the verge of that.

We want to know, what does it mean to live a life that can be translated from this world to the next without death?

Also, it's a picture of Christ, and you'll understand that as I go on verse 1, and it came to pass, 2nd Kings chapter 2 verse 1 when the Lord was about to take Elijah up into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

Elisha is the apprentice prophet of Elijah, their names are similar, and it's, I'll mess it up before we're done you just watch I'll get them mixed up Elijah means my God is Jehovah Elisha means my God is Savior very similar but of course different individuals Elisha was called by Elijah when Elijah came back from his Mount Sinai experience.

And you remember Elijah placed his mantle on the shoulders of young Elisha, who must have been a wealthy son because he was plowing among servants that had 11 other yoke of oxen.

And in Bible times, if you had a yoke of oxen, you were middle class.

If you had 12 of them, you were doing very well.

And he walked away from all of that to follow a poor prophet that had to live by a creek, was fed by birds and widows to be the servant of that man then Elijah said to Elisha stay here please for the Lord has sent me to Bethel Bethel means the house of God and Elisha said as the Lord lives and as your soul lives I will not leave you now don't miss this God is preparing to fill Elisha with a double portion of Elijah's spirit How many of you would be content to have at least what Elijah had?

I mean, I would never have the audacity to ask for twice of what Elijah had.

1 secret is, he said, I'm not staying here, I'm following you.

And when Elijah, there I did it, when Elijah went to the house of God, Elisha went with him.

We need to be willing to follow our Lord when he goes to the house of God.

If you missed the point, if you don't have enough faith to get you to church once a week, you probably don't have enough to get you to heaven.

And the sons of the prophets who were with him at Bethel came to Elisha and they said to him do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?

He said yes I know it, hold your peace, keep silent, now they were saying you know word is out through the prophets that God is going to take away Elijah to heaven And he was going through the circuit of the schools of the prophets, trying to encourage them before he ascended.

Now, Elijah in this story is something like Jesus.

What did Jesus do before he ascended to heaven?

After his resurrection, he spent 40 days meeting here and there with the apostles for what purpose?

To open the scriptures, to encourage them, because he was going to go up.

And when he went up, he sent the Spirit, didn't he?

The sons of the prophets were saying, you're going to be the resident prophet when he ascends.

And Elijah was saying, as the Father has sent me, Elisha, so I'm sending you.

I've trained you to complete the work of revival that I've started.

As Jesus said, as the Father sent me, so I send you.

And in the same way that there were schools of the prophets back then and Jesus had the apostles, I believe God wants to have schools of the prophets in the last days where people come together with a common love for the truth.

That's what we want Weimar to be, way more.

And when they said he's gonna be taken away, he said, hold your peace.

Was he happy that his boss was going to be gone?

Matter of fact, 1 time when Elisha was being introduced to the king of Israel, that he said, this is the 1 who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

The same way Jesus poured water on the feet of the disciples, to be a servant.

In heaven, will you be pleased to be a Gibeonite, a gatekeeper?

If I can just be there, watching the door, praise the Lord.

Eugene Prewitt

Better Sacrifice

Our Father in heaven, I ask that you would join us here this evening, that you by your Holy Spirit would help us to understand your Holy Bible, that you would make it clear to us We don't deserve to have you as a teacher, but we need to have you as a teacher.

And so I ask for this gift in the name of Jesus.

The book of Hebrews contrasts 2 sets of sacrifices.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11.

Chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, and we're looking at verse 4.

By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaks." The first better sacrifice in the Bible was that of Abel.

And what was it about the sacrifice of Abel that was better than that of Cain?

You know, Ellen White comments about the work of evangelists in her day.

She talks about ministers whose labor was chiefly in explaining the prophetic.

Ministers whose sermons were primarily doctrinal in nature.

And she speaks about many of them as a class and says that the offering of their services was like the offering of Cain, Christless.

What was better about the sacrifice of Abel was that his gift had in view the gift of Jesus.

By keeping in his mind the sacrifice that Jesus would make, the offering that he was giving was made acceptable.

The good gifts that I give, the services I give to God.

Why don't you turn 2 pages to chapter 13.

But to do good and to communicate, forget not.

For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

If you took the verse itself, you could think that God is well pleased whenever someone does good to someone else or anytime someone is careful to share.

But verse 16 is only half of a passage, verse 15 is significant, the first 2 words say, what are the first 2 words?

By Him, therefore, Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.

That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

When I put 15 and 16 together, I understand that when I do good, when I share, if I do it with Jesus, with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

And if I'm doing it by him or through him, he wants to work through my lips.

It's the sacrifice of praise to God continually.

If I could even try to put these thoughts together more.

It's not when you give a cup of water to someone that you receive a reward, but it's when you give a cup of water to someone in the name of Jesus.

So much in the Bible is built around honoring the name of Jesus.

I remember as a canvasser when I learned this principle, you can find this in Call Point of Ministry.

Elmwight says that when you're at the door, if you will speak the name of Jesus with love and tenderness, the angels will draw near.

You know the atmosphere is charmed, it's changed, and people remember what they never would have paid attention to before.

How much we miss how hollow our work is when our sacrifice is like that of Cain.

And if we would bring our savior into the work that we're doing for him, if we would do it with him, it would be acceptable to him like Abel's was acceptable.

I think that when this session was planned, that the better sacrifice in mind was not the sacrifice of Abel.

Turn with me in your Bibles to chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9.

Hebrews chapter 9, we're looking at verse 23.

The Bible says, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these.

Probably you know that for some people they can't understand how something in heaven would need to be purified.

And for some people this has been a perplexity about why Adventists would talk about the cleansing of a heavenly sanctuary.

But do you see it's as clear as the day in Hebrews 9.23 that things in the heaven need to be cleansed?

It says, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." On the day of atonement, and maybe it would be worthwhile for us to spend 5 minutes on the idea of atonement.

Did you all know that atonement happened on the day of Passover?

That atonement happened at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and also at the Feast of Pentecost?

That in the Bible, Atonement happened any time a leper was cleansed, according to the Levitical laws.

That any time a man would confess his sin and a sacrifice was offered, the Bible indicates that that was an atonement.

And more than that, if a man would sin unknowingly, when the sin would come to his mind and he would make a sacrifice for that previously unknown sin, that was an atonement.

In short, atonement happened all through the year of the Jews.

It wasn't reserved for the day of atonement.

But there was a special time of atonement.

That idea shouldn't be difficult for us as Adventists.

Friday is a special day for cleaning for us.

But does that mean that it would be wrong to dust or clean or vacuum a spill on Monday?

We clean whenever there's a need, but do we have a special time for cleaning?

There is a special time for cleaning because there's a special time when the cleaning needs to be done.

That's analogous to the idea of atonement.

Atonement in the Bible doesn't mean sacrifice.

And when you think day of atonement, I hope from now on, well first I hope that you would study to see if this is true.

But when you do your search and the idea of atonement, I hope that you would realize that you live in the great day of cleansing.

A special time of cleaning when God is doing a work because a time is coming when the cleaning needs to be done.

On the Day of Atonement, there were 3 types of atonement or cleansing that were done that didn't happen throughout the rest of the year.

1 of those was the Atonement for unknown sins.

I don't mean like I just mentioned a moment ago, when I discover that I sinned yesterday and I confess it.

Do you know when a man is obligated to confess his unknown sin?

If you ever read Leviticus 4, you'll find great comfort there.

You're obliged to confess an unknown sin when it comes to your mind.

And if you've been surprised in the sin, when it's brought to your attention, that's when you're required to make it right.

But you know, most people in the history of this earth have died with many unknown sins that never did come to their mind.

And when in the Jewish symbols were those kind of unknown sins atoned for?

It's even in Hebrews 9 where it says, for the errors of the people.

On the day of atonement, there was the cleansing for unknown sins.

Then there was the cleansing of the building itself.

Just thinking about that showed you that, that atonement can't be synonymous with forgiveness because Buildings don't need forgiveness.

Even a fungal infested house needed an atonement in the book of Leviticus.

But on the day of atonement, there was a cleansing of that sanctuary and that represented what we can't demonstrate tonight, the cleaning up of the books of record, so that in heaven from some records the entire record is removed.

I mean the man's name is removed from the book of life, his sins are retained in a book of sins, and for others, their sins are blotted out and their names are retained in the book of life.

That's the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary.

Those are not the only 2 special cleansings.

It's not the cleansing of unknown sins only and the cleansing of the sanctuary.

The third type of cleansing that happened only in the day of atonement was the cleansing of the priest's family.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi, we're looking at chapter 3 and verse 3.

Speaking of Jesus, it says, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver.

The Greek word, excuse me, the Hebrew word translated atone in the Old Testament is quite a number of times translated purge.

This isn't the same word, but it's the same idea.

He will purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Don Mackintosh

Better Covenant: What’s New About the Old Covenant

Let's just ask the Lord to bless us this morning.

Father in heaven, we're thankful today that we can come to this place.

And what better place to be than with your people studying your word, preparing for your kingdom.

Today, I'm unable to know how to go out or go in.

I have some things written down, but you have some things planned that we should look at.

And I ask that you would, in spite of me, because of me, in spite of us, and yet because of us, be here.

Hebrews, something better, something better.

I can remember my mother, when she'd give me just a little piece of a dulcetza, a little piece of cake, a little piece of, what do they say, postre, a little piece of something sweet.

And she'd say, there's a lot more where that came from.

And then I can remember driving my bicycle and thinking that was the best thing until I noticed that some others had little motor scooters and then they had little cars and then they had jets and I realized there was something better, always something better.

Are you glad that the Christian life is dynamic and not static?

And the book of Hebrews is certainly like that.

He's better than the angels, he's better than Moses, he's better than the prophets, he's better.

And I have an idea that heaven is something better.

And these conferences are kind of like that.

They're just a little piece of something better.

Now, if you want to have something better, Then you have to be prepared to go to the next level.

You want to kick it up a notch, you got to be able to go up.

And that little phrase in the Psalms, that little word, sila, It doesn't just mean think about it.

It's a musical note for those people that are pianists here, like yourself, already know this.

You know, they modulate up, and they go up just a little half note, a little bit more.

There's those songs of ascent where you're going higher and higher and higher with the Lord.

But you can't go to the next level if you haven't gone to the level before.

I mean, it's kind of like last year's conference, you know, you're climbing the rounds of that ladder by the grace of God, right?

And so when we look at Hebrews chapter 8, we can see that Jesus had took a quantum leap up.

It says, now this is the main point of the things we're saying.

We have a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

He is seated, he's at the right hand, and he's a high priest.

He's a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.

So this is the sanctuary actually of the new covenant.

The heavenly sanctuary is the sanctuary of the new covenant.

And so he's gone away from the tent and he's become even more intense.

Every priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifice.

Therefore it's necessary that this 1 have also something, something to offer.

For if he were on earth he would not have been a priest, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law." Of course he wasn't of the right tribe or a lineage to be a priest on earth, and yet he was.

And, who serve as a copy and as a shadow of the heavenly things.

As Moses was divinely instructed when he's about to make the tabernacle, he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry in so much as he's a mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises." So you have this whole idea of Christ, our forerunner.

He's gone further, and he wants his people to as well.

He touched me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father." Remember that?

And then he went there into the presence of the Lord and he was accepted.

You know it says in Hebrews 1, 8 and 9, he was accepted because he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

And so he was anointed with the oil of gladness more than all his brethren.

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Series

WYC 2008 Plenary Sessions

Better Sacrifice

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

Better Hope

45m

Better Sacrifice

37m

Better Covenant: What’s New About the Old Covenant

41m

Better Promises

46m

Better Resurrection

53m

Sound Doctrine