SWYC 2008: Looking Unto Jesus

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GYC Southwest

SWYC 2008 Breakout Sessions

Dennis Priebe

What Is Sin?

Father in Heaven, I pray that as we discuss these subjects that are very important to an understanding of the Gospel, I pray that Your Holy Spirit will enlighten our minds, help us to understand, and may we see clearly for ourselves what the Bible says on these subjects.

I'm going to suggest to you that the subject we are considering this meeting may be the most important subject you will ever think about in your Christian experience.

And that sounds strange because we're addressing the question, what is sin?

How can that be the most important question?

The reason it is, is because once you have decided what sin is, if you're logical and if you're consistent, you will have every other aspect of the gospel defined automatically.

Once you have defined what sin is, justification is decided, sanctification is decided, perfection is decided, whether it is possible or not and how it can happen.

Once you've decided what sin is, you're locked into a certain way of thinking about righteousness by faith and salvation.

That's why I believe this is the most important subject you will make a decision about in your entire religious experience.

Because my friends, no matter how much we know about the doctrines and about prophecy and all of the other things that relate to end time events, if we don't have a genuine, saving relationship with Jesus Christ, we're not going to be in heaven.

There will be a lot of people in heaven who will be in kindergarten class learning things they never knew about doctrinally.

But there will not be 1 person there who has a bitter spirit or an un-Christlike spirit.

And so that's why I believe this is 1 of the most important subjects we will address.

All right, you have the outlines in front of you.

What is the nature of that sin for which I will be condemned and lost for all eternity.

I don't want to know about definitions of sin as the Bible might have them for this or that or the other, about extended effects and things.

What is the kind of sin that I will be lost for, for all eternity, if it's found in me?

I want to know how to get that sin out of me.

Well, you have 2 different definitions there as you see them.

And as I said this morning, sin as nature means that we are condemned and lost, not because of what we do or say or think, but we are condemned and lost because we inherited bad equipment from our parents.

We are condemned because of our nature, the nature that is within us.

And if We all think honestly about our nature.

Our nature is a nature that pulls us the wrong way, and we know that.

And that nature, it is said, by those who believe in definition A, that nature is what condemns us.

And remember, all of the statements that I read this morning and the ones I will read today are all from Seventh-day Adventists.

This is not an issue of Adventist versus Baptist.

This is an issue that you will face in your churches.

This is an issue you will face in your schools, in your families.

This is an issue which is very muddy throughout the Adventist world.

Here is what is said by 1 who believes definition A.

Sinful man is not lost because he has committed sins, but because he is born of Adam, and therefore stands condemned in him even before he commits sins of his own." That is definition A.

We're lost because Adam sinned, And we are still paying the penalty for Adam's sin.

Another person said it this way, We make sinful choices because we are already sinners by nature.

Because you got within you that proclivity, that tendency, that inclination.

It's just a natural result of being a sinner.

And that's where the very familiar phrase comes from, We are born sinners.

Here's a way I think maybe we can illustrate what we're talking about.

We all know how volcanoes operate, that volcanoes have within them a magma chamber.

And in this magma chamber, pressures build up.

And suddenly, there is no longer any ability to withhold, withstand it.

The block comes off, whatever it is, and the eruption occurs.

Visualize that magma chamber which is down here, deep down in the volcano.

And I put it in capital letters because that's the way it is referred to.

Sin, the real sin, the sin for which we are condemned and lost, the sin for which we stand responsible from the moment of our birth.

Now, when the pressures get too great, this magma chamber may find its way up to the surface and may erupt into various eruptions of various kinds.

That's when you say something unkind about someone else.

That's when you are selfish and show that selfishness.

So the sin which is in you deep down in your nature erupts and produces various acts of sin.

And the bottom line is that this is the real problem.

The magma chamber of sin is what we are guilty and condemned for.

Now, theoretically, let's just say theoretically that this is capped off.

And you no longer erupt in temper tantrums, that you no longer are proud and selfish, and that you no longer are doing the things and saying the things you should have.

So you've got this, which means you are still condemned for your nature, even when you are not exercising that nature anymore.

Those things aren't coming out anymore, theoretically, if that could happen.

So that means, if that's the real truth, and that's definition A, we're referring to definition A, which is the standard definition of sin throughout the Christian world, that means for this sin down here, we need a constant covering of justification.

Because you are constantly condemned, you need to be constantly forgiven.

And so constant justification must cover this magma chamber of sin.

Sometimes it's called the umbrella covering.

Because you must have the umbrella of justification over your head for your entire life.

And that is the way it has to be, even though you are no longer sinning anymore.

But really what it boils down to is because you have this magma chamber of sin, it's just inevitable that some sins are going to erupt now and then.

So I gave you the theoretical possibility that it would stop, but in their real understanding, it's not really going to stop.

And it'll still erupt now and then, And so the justification covering will be up here as well.

And justification will cover this as well throughout your lifetime, even after the close of probation.

And that's crucial to this understanding.

You need forgiveness after the close of probation as much as you need it today.

Randy Skeete

Change Your Plans

And of the covenant which the Lord made with our fathers saying unto Abraham saying what?

It shall all kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12 3 It's the same statement Paul quoted.

Now Paul says that was the gospel God preached to Abraham.

Now Peter gives us some additional information.

Now he's about to explain the central feature of in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed look at verse 26 unto you first God having done what raised up his son Jesus sent him to do what bless you in doing what turning away every 1 of you from what his iniquities Isn't that the gospel?

Now, you heard Elder Priby earlier today.

All Adventists are either intimately or passingly familiar with Revelation 14, 6 and 7.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Pray God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.

And worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters, the everlasting gospel given to us.

Way back God told Abraham, this treasure I'm giving to you and you must do what?

God said, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

I'm giving it to you that you might do what?

Can anyone be saved outside of the gospel?

The gospel is God's response to the crisis of sin.

For sin not only affected the world, it affected the universe.

The sacrifice of Christ was not just for this world.

What I'm stressing to you is that way back God told our Father, why do I say our Father?

Abraham, Galatians 3.29, if ye be Christ's, Then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

We are the descendants of Abraham, so that statement in Genesis 12, 3 applies to us.

And in thee and thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed.

My brothers and sisters, there is something the world needs desperately and it can only be found in this church.

This church, not necessarily the Pine Springs Ranch Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In last day events, well before I go to last day events, let's go to Matthew 5.

You read from verse 1, And seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain.

But Christ's remarks were directed to the disciples.

Here again He divides the earth into 2, the salt and that which needed to be preserved.

The light of truth is housed in God's people.

I don't believe we as a people understand that life and death is involved in how we handle this sacred responsibility.

Many people will be lost and their blood will be required at our hands.

The Bible says in John 1.10, he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not.

Verse 11, he came unto his own and his own received him not.

Now the world did not even know when Jesus came, except a few shepherds and some wise men thousands of miles or hundreds of miles to the east.

Because Israel of that day did not carry out its function to prepare the world to receive Christ at His first coming.

Seventh-day Adventists have been chosen by God as a peculiar people separate from the world.

Which means we should dress separate from the world.

Our eating habits, separate from the world.

Our recreational activities, separate from the world.

Our romantic behavior, separate from the world.

Our educational pursuits, separate from the world.

It is only when we are separate from the world that we give the world something to aim at.

But when we are like the world, the world is robbed of an opportunity to see a different lifestyle.

Listen carefully to the words, by the great cleaver of truth, and I may or may not identify that today.

By the great cleaver of truth, he has cut them out from the quarry of the world and brought them into connection with himself.

He has made them his representatives and has called them to be ambassadors for him in the last work of salvation, the greatest wealth of truth ever entrusted to mortals.

The most solemn and fearful warnings ever sent by God to man have been committed to them to be given to the world.

Now let me go over that again since you really didn't get the import.

The most sacred, the greatest wealth of truth ever entrusted to mortals.

How Did Christ Live?

While they're getting the handouts out to you, I want to mention that my website, dennispreeby.com, is available and it's spelled right here for you so you can spell it right.

If you want to dig deeper into these subjects, a lot of material on these subjects is available on my website, including a Bible study course that you can take online or download on these very subjects.

So if you haven't visited my website in a year, that's the new thing.

All right, dennisprevey.com is the website.

All right, let us quietly begin by asking God to be with us 1 more time.

Father in Heaven, as we discuss 1 of the most sacred topics we can possibly touch, our Lord and Savior and His coming down to this earth, may we be humble, may we be reverent, and most of all, may we want to know everything that will help us to be like Christ.

Friends, the only reason I tackle this subject, you know that this is a bombshell subject, you know that it causes all kinds of controversy and everybody argues about it.

The only reason I deal with this subject in my seminars is because I don't know how to talk about righteousness by faith without talking about the 1 who was righteous by faith.

And remember in Peter Gregory's message this morning, he read the text in Revelation chapter 3, that we overcome as Jesus overcame.

There is never any way that we will know how to overcome unless we understand how Jesus overcame.

And that's the point of this study this afternoon.

So try to divest yourself of all of the controversial arguments that you've heard here and there and let's just find out what this can tell us about how to be saved.

Alright, go directly with me to Philippians chapter 2.

Make sure those of you who are coming in, you get a copy of the outline as you come in.

Philippians 2 verse 5, if there were 1 verse I would choose for everything I want to say today and tomorrow, it is Philippians chapter 2 verse 5.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

If we could experience that verse, my friends, we would have smooth sailing.

I don't mean we wouldn't be free from trouble, but we would know how to make good decisions.

We would always have the right attitudes.

We would always be making Christ's decisions after Him.

"...who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

There it is, my friends, all in 1 paragraph.

When every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord?

It's over a thousand years in our future, my friends.

This plan of God in salvation is a complicated plan.

God is taking care of every possible objection and problem so that sin will never arise again.

Because you and I will have just as much free choice a thousand years from now as you do today.

And you can do anything you want to a thousand years from now.

There are no buttons pushed in your brain to stop you from sinning.

And the only way that will be prevented is if God answers every issue in this world before He finishes it up.

Every being that God has ever created will have to see that God is just.

Including those who have turned against Him.

Including those who went to their graves thinking they were saved.

Because they believed in a false gospel, because they believe in this or that or the other.

And they need to know why they would not be happy in heaven.

They think they'll be able to get along in heaven just okay.

And they will have to know why if God let them in heaven, it would be a miserable hell for them for all eternity.

Have you ever wondered why He brings them up again to put them under the grave, under the, you know, to death again?

Because they have to know that they are getting the most merciful sentence that God could give them, an end to their existence, because they are miserable, they would be miserable in the presence of God.

And you know I'm waiting for that day when Satan himself comes walking up before the throne of God, lifted up before that city, gets on his knees voluntarily and says in the presence of every being that has ever been created, I am wrong and you are right.

The most merciful thing you can do for me is to end my existence.

When that sentence comes out of Satan's lips, this universe will be safe to live in again.

That's what this is talking about right here.

Jesus Christ, He is in the form of God, but He made Himself of no reputation.

That's what the King James language says.

It actually is simpler in the original language.

What did Christ, of what did Christ empty Himself?

And we're going to take a very quick trip through the things that He emptied.

Would you turn to John chapter 5, verse 30?

These are some strange statements that Jesus makes.

I, Jesus says, can of mine own self do nothing?

What was His name in Old Testament times?

What is His preferred name in the Old Testament?

That is an English mistranslation of the Jewish name, and we're not sure how it's even pronounced.

I, Yahweh, can of mine own self do nothing.

Do you ever read in the Old Testament, I, Yahweh, can of mine own self do nothing?

You find that text for me, it's rarer than the Sunday text.

But Jesus, the same being, when He's a human being, the Son of Man says, I, as a man, can of mine own self do nothing.

And then He even says, I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." I would have expected Jesus to say, I seek my will and the will of my Father because they're both the same.

We'll see what that means in a little bit.

But right now, and again, we're going to go back and forth quite a bit between the Ellen White statements now and this first page.

So if you'll go directly to the Ellen White statements, it's on the back side of the first page.

Jesus is in the little boat on the Sea of Galilee.

The disciples are afraid it's all over for them.

Jay Gallimore

Studies In Galatians Part 1

You have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Galatians.

Now this is a seminar, I'm not preaching this afternoon, so you've got to get into this and I'll even entertain a question.

They said that they wanted you to be reminded that they are recording this for audio, so you can keep that in mind.

But I'd like to get, now I'm not going to probably get through in 2 sessions, I'm not going to get through the entire book of Galatians, but I want us to catch its power.

And so I want to start, quick background, it's 1 of the earliest books that the Apostle Paul wrote early in his ministry.

It was also written to what we think are Celtic people that were inhabiting Asia Minor there.

And We know the gospel penetrated Scotland and Ireland very early.

Patrick, by the way, all due regards to my Catholic friends.

He was not, from what we can tell, a Roman Catholic.

He was a Sabbath-keeping early Christian, probably handed down.

And Columba, who also from that little island of Ionia helped spread the gospel, established a mission station.

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