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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty

Justification and The Third Angel’s Message

As some of you know, my wife and I, Joelle, will be leaving Loma Linda probably in a few months and I'm sad to think about it, but the Lord has called us to do Mission Service.

And I will be serving as a neurologist at the Adventist Hospital in Port of Spain in Trinidad.

And I will finish my training here in Loma Linda at the end of June.

It's hard to believe that that will be the end of 9 years here in this town.

It seems like I just came here and before long I'd been here longer than a lot of my friends.

But with the thought that I'll be leaving soon, and I'm just a human being like anyone else, I do wanna share the few remaining times I will be up front here, things that are dear to my heart that I believe are important for each 1 of us as Seventh-day Adventists living at this time in Earth's history.

Before we start our message, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, We thank you for this day.

We thank you for this special Sabbath when we can come together and we pray that your spirit would come into this room right now, that you would speak through me and that we would be open to the message for this morning.

How many of you believe we are living in momentous and awesome times?

We are so privileged to live at this time in Earth's history.

And it has never been this late before in Earth's history.

We really need to be awake to what is happening in our world.

How many of you pay attention to the news?

I mean, I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.

And it's a reminder to us that if there was ever a time that we needed to have a close walk with the Lord, now is that time.

It's too late in Earth's history to be walking on the fence trying to have it both ways with God.

And if we ever needed to have an experience of righteousness by faith right now, this is the time.

And right now God is looking down with love and pity upon us, His people, and He wants to come and take us home.

But in His love, He will only take home a group of people when they are ready to meet Him.

So we can be thankful that He has delayed His coming this long, but yet we want to see him come soon, amen?

You know, I have to, I'm speaking to myself here, but I think so many of us are trying to have things both ways, We like to come here on Sabbath and hear good messages that point to the second coming of Christ and then we go home and hardly think about Jesus' second coming the rest of the week.

And if we're not thinking about the second coming during the week, What makes us think we'll be ready for it when He comes?

That should be the driving motivation that motivates us every day of our life.

Because if He is truly our best and dearest friend, we will want to see him sooner rather than later.

We would be thrilled if he came before we got our MD or finished our residency or finished whatever other education program or career plans that we have because he's our best friend and in fact, We would be thrilled if he came before we got married because we are more in love with Christ than with anybody else here on this earth.

That is what it means to be looking forward for Jesus to come.

And my burden for us as a people is, let's not just be hearers of the Word only.

We hear a lot of good messages from week to week, but are we living it in our life?

And I want to read a quote from Testimonies Volume 9, page 19.

Notice what Ellen White says, in a special sense, Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers.

To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world.

On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God, they have been given a work of the most solemn import, the proclamation of the first, second, and the third angels' messages.

There is no other work of so great importance.

They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

Nothing else in this life should absorb our attention besides the proclamation of the 3 angels' messages.

And an interesting correlation to the 3 angels' messages, In Review and Herald, April 1, 1890, Ellen White says, several have written to me inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message.

And I have answered, it is the third angel's message in verity." Now let's think about this here.

If the 3 angels' messages are the messages that we should give everything in our lives for, that nothing else should absorb our attention, and if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message in verity, that means that we should allow nothing else to absorb our attention besides the message of justification by faith.

So the message of justification by faith is at the heart of righteousness by faith.

And it's also at the heart of the third angel's message.

So what we are going to look at today is What is that connection between justification by faith and the third angel's message?

And when we see that connection, are we allowing that to be the driving force in our lives in preparation for the second coming of Christ.

A lot of times we like to preach about the nearness of Christ's coming, but the message of Christ and his righteousness, the message of justification by faith, is not as closely connected to that message as it should be.

When we preach the third angel's message, the third angel's message is so powerful that it doesn't need any help to give it extra force.

And Ellen White makes this point in page 75 of early writings.

She says, the Lord has shown me that the message of the third angel must go and be proclaimed to the scattered children of the Lord, but it must not be hung on time.

I saw that some were getting a false excitement arising from preaching time, but the third angel's message is stronger than time can be.

I saw that this message can stand on its own foundation and needs not time to strengthen it and that it will go in mighty power and do its work and will be cut short in righteousness.

So you see what Ellen White is saying here?

What she's saying is the third angel's message doesn't need things like, the Sunday law is gonna come by September of this year so you better be ready.

What she's saying is the third angel's message which is justification by faith is so powerful that it will do the work of bringing the second coming of Christ.

And so what we want to look at today is what is the power of the third angel's message?

And if justification by faith is part of that, what is justification by faith?

Let's open up our Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 4 starting in verse 5.

And I invite you to join us for a Roman study every Wednesday night where we're going through the whole book.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Verse 6, even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without work saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

We see that righteousness is counted to us.

When we have justification, our sins are covered and forgiven.

That's a very good thing because the Bible also teaches in Romans 3 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

If we don't have justification we are not saved.

So justification is to be counted righteous and to have forgiveness of sin.

And in Romans 4 verse 3 and in Romans 4 verse 22 we also see the same concept.

Abraham believed God, it was counted to him for righteousness.

Verse 22, it was imputed to him for righteousness.

So synonyms for being justified means to be counted righteous, to be imputed as righteous, or to have righteousness put in our account.

Now is justification merely a judicial act that covers us from our record of sin.

Let's read Titus chapter 3 verses 5 through 7.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now notice the work that takes place with justification here starting in verse 5 of chapter 3.

First it's not according to our own works, it's according to His mercy, but notice this.

Notice the words that are used, washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

This describes regeneration and renewal, which describes an inward experience that is associated with justification.

Now notice this in Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing page 114 Ellen White gives us an even clearer picture of justification.

She says, God's forgiveness, which by the way, forgiveness is justification.

God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which he sets us free from condemnation.

It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin.

It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart." So there's the word transformed.

David had the true conception of forgiveness when he said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

So with the idea of forgiveness and justification comes the concept of transformation and having a clean heart created in us.

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Justification and The Third Angel’s Message

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