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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dennis Priebe: The Real Gospel

Dennis Priebe

Will the Real Gospel Please Stand Up?

Well, special greetings to the Advent Hope group on campus.

We've been talking about doing this for quite a while, and the time has finally arrived.

So the weekend is here, and we're looking forward to a nice weekend together with you.

And thank you for the kind words, Norman.

And I was ordained to the ministry in the university church just a block or so away.

So we have spent a fair amount of time down in this area in our past experience.

We're going to get right into the meeting for tonight.

I'm going to ask that we have some help maybe in passing out the outlines that we want to place in your hands.

These tonight will just be very brief summary outlines.

Tomorrow we'll have more in-depth, detailed outlines for you to study and take home to continue your own study in this area.

First, How can we have a reasonable hope that we will be alive to see Jesus come?

And the word is reasonable because you see my parents had that hope and my grandparents had that hope And my great-grandfather was a delegate to the 1888 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

So I have a long history of hope in the second coming of Jesus Christ within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

But every 1 of them has been laid to rest.

Every 1 of them sang the same songs that we're singing right now, lift up the trumpet and all of the others.

And here we are still singing, still praying, still believing that Jesus is coming soon.

And of course that has caused a good number to lose that faith in the urgency and the nearness of Jesus coming.

We have been saying it for a hundred and 50 years now and we're still here going on about our business, carrying out our careers, getting ready for whatever God leads us into, and then going to our graves.

Will my son have to say the same thing about me that I am saying about my parents?

They had a hope that Jesus was coming soon.

I have a hope that he's coming soon, and you do too.

How can that be turned into a reasonable hope?

Something that we can really kind of count on.

Not just a wish, not just a desire, but something that really becomes very, very concrete in our lives.

You know there's 1 thing that has to happen, you all know it, before Jesus comes, the gospel to all the world, and you Think about that for a minute and that is about the most daunting thing you can imagine.

There are 24, 000 people groups in our world, each with their own culture and their own language and their own background.

8, 000 of them have never heard about Jesus Christ ever.

A third of the world and with all the satellite and and and technology we've got the shortwave programming and all the rest a third of the world has never heard about Jesus Christ.

Here is what they broke it down just for 1 country, India.

600, 000 villages in India For every thousand villages you would visit, 950 would have no Christian church or pastor from any denomination.

They said if you had 1, 000 evangelistic teams and each team visited a new village each week, never visiting the same village twice, it would take 10 years to get the gospel to the villages of India.

Do you see the problem that we're facing?

The gospel to all the world in 1 generation, in any generation, how can that possibly be with the population explosion of our world today?

How can we have a reasonable hope that Jesus is coming in our lifetime?

I'm not going to say any more about that, we'll come back to it later.

The second question, What is special about Adventism?

What makes Adventism worth being a part of?

What makes Adventism worth having evangelistic meetings and Bible studies and doing all the things that we Adventists do?

If you were to travel within 50 miles radius of this area, I wonder how many Sabbath-keeping churches we could find.

You would not have to be a Seventh-day Adventist at all and you could keep the Sabbath for every day in your life.

The Sabbath is not unique to Seventh-day Adventists.

And you go down the list of our other doctrines and they are shared.

We didn't come up with new doctrines by and large We borrowed baptism from the Baptists and other doctrines from other groups We just put them together So what is unique and what is special about Adventism and here comes the most strange thing if you've never heard me say this before, I believe it's the gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

Now how can that possibly be true when if you want to turn on the radio or the television on any given Sunday morning, what are you gonna hear the preacher talking about?

That is the common denominator of Christianity.

That is the 1 thing we share in common with all other Christian denominations.

2 gospels, the 2 that are right in front of you.

2 trees, 2 gospel trees producing fruit as the result of that.

And we're just going to go through these 2 trees tonight.

I'm not going to try to prove anything tonight.

We'll open the Bible tomorrow and look at the Bible evidence tomorrow.

Tonight I just want to share some concepts with you.

We're going to examine what each 1 is all about and how it all works out and what the issues really are.

What is unique about Seventh-day Adventism?

Now I'm gonna put the same thing up here on the easel.

You've got it right in front of you, but this way you'll be able to follow along exactly where we are at each point.

We will start with the 1 that looks like this On the left-hand side of your page.

What is the sin that the gospel is supposed to save us from?

All right, this gospel says the sin for which we are condemned is not primarily what we say or what we do or even what we think.

The gospel for which we are lost, the gospel for which we are lost, the gospel for which we are condemned, is the sin, I'm, did I say gospel, the sin for which we are condemned is the sin of being born into the human race.

And Adam made a decision and because of Adam's decision the race was kind of turned over to another master.

He had legal rights now that he didn't have before.

And because of Adam's sin our world is not so good anymore and our natures are even worse.

Have you noticed that your nature is not your friend?

And what happens about an hour into that day?

Somebody gets on your case and all your good intentions go right down the drain.

What is Sin?

Are you ready to study the Bible this morning?

We're going to put some outlines in your hands so that will be facilitated.

We'd like to have each 1 have an opportunity to at least look on with someone else in this outline.

So let's hand them out as expeditiously as we can.

I've heard a good deal about Advent Hope over the past 3 or 4 years, and I have to say that it has all been true and beyond what I have been told.

I'm really appreciating my weekend with you folks here, And I'm very, very glad this group exists on this campus.

While they're handing that out, just 1 brief announcement.

If you would like to be on the mailing list of amazing facts, for whom I work, If you would like to receive the magazine, the inside report in your home, my wife will be at the doors of the auditorium as you leave today with some little white cards, some 3 by 5 cards.

Just ask her for 1 of those cards and put your name and address clearly on it and give it to us sometime today and we'll make sure they get passed on to Amazing Facts.

So that is if you wish to be on the mailing list of Amazing Facts and receive the little magazine that is put out every couple of months called the Inside Report that is our gift to you from Amazing Facts.

Now our subject for this morning, what is sin?

Why should we talk about that when what we want to talk about is how we can have victory over sin?

It's a little bit like going to a doctor's office.

When you go to visit the doctor you go because something isn't quite right and you're not sure what it is.

What is the most important thing the doctor can do for you as you visit his office?

Diagnosis is all important in treating problems.

And guess what, it's just like that in the gospel.

If the diagnosis of the problem is wrong, the solution to the problem will automatically be wrong because it won't fit the real problem.

The real question is what is the nature of that sin for which I stand condemned in the sight of God?

That sin for which I am lost, that sin for which I will go to hell.

I'm not interested in defining words or terms, I want to know why I will be lost.

Because if I know what condemns me, then I can apply a remedy to that problem.

Last night as I mentioned there are 2 different Gospels.

They are both built on 2 different definitions of sin.

2 different ways of defining sin produce 2 different solutions to the problem of sin.

And so you see those 2 definitions at the top of your sheet.

I've subtitled it sin as nature That says that we are not condemned Because we say wrong things or do wrong things or even think wrong things we stand condemned in the sight of God because we happen to be born into Adam's world and Adam happened to pass on to us a nature which is all messed up.

The nature we have inside us pulls us the wrong way.

It is full of all sorts of things that I think if we're honest we would all wish wouldn't be there but there our natures are we're born with them we live with them our entire lives we can't do a thing about it would be with that's just the way we were made because of Adam's sin 6, 000 years ago and definition a says that's why we're condemned.

That's why we're going to hell because we were born with bad equipment.

That is the orthodox definition of sin throughout the Christian world.

That is what most Christians believe sin to be, the sin for which we are lost.

I'll give you a couple of samples of those who believe this particular definition of sin.

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's you have there is definition A in its simplest form.

Another person put it in a similar way, we make sinful choices because we are already sinners by nature.

We make sinful choices because we're already sinners.

We're already condemned, we've already started out on the road to hell, then we make sinful choices in addition to that.

That is definition A and that is the position that you will find in Orthodox definitions of sin throughout the world in Christian circles.

That is what the bottom line is for most Christians now definition B Definition B sin as choice says everything the definition a says We are born into a bad world Adam made a terrible decision.

We inherit a fallen nature Our fallen nature is ugly.

It is bad But it says 1 thing differently We are not automatically condemned because we inherited bad equipment We are not automatically condemned because we happen to be born on the wrong side of heaven's railroad tracks.

You think any angel wants to trade places with you right now?

This is the slums of the universe and The definition B says we are not automatically condemned because we happen to be born there We are condemned before God We march on the road to hell when with our own free will we say I want to do it my way I don't like your way I'm going to do it the way I please that's definition B so you get the difference between the 2 in definition a sin is as automatic as breathing and we do it constantly Can't help but do that because we have this nature within us.

Definition B, sin is a choice of the will, a decision that we make.

And this morning I'm going to share with you my convictions for believing a very much minority view.

Not just a minority view within the Christian world, but it is becoming a minority view within the Adventist world as well.

And I'm going to share with you my convictions for why I believe it, and then ask you to make up your own mind.

Not because of anything I say, but decide for yourself what God's Word says, and then decide for yourself.

Because this will make the difference between 2 different Gospels that you choose to believe, 2 different ways of salvation, 2 different solutions to the problem of sin.

You notice in your outline I've said that there is a difference between evil and guilt.

Well some of you have in your own homes or maybe I can even say in your parents' homes, some of you have a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about, the difference between evil and guilt.

Because some of you have an animal in your home that if you think carefully about it, you really wonder why you chose that animal for a pet.

Because if there ever was a schizophrenic animal, this 1 is it.

It has 2 widely separated sides to its personality.

There is 1 side that just rubs up against your legs every chance it gets goes to sleep on your lap Just enjoys your company That's 1 side to its personality and your little cat even learns the rules of the house It learns where to jump and where not to jump where to sleep and where not to sleep where to eat and where not to Eat and as long as you're watching it obeys every 1 of those rules But you just open the door to the out of doors and you watch the change that takes place in your lovable sweet little pet Whiskers are at full attention tail at full alert.

Why it's going out into its world the world from which its ancestors came and Inside its little brain it's going out into the world.

It's a mind gets all cluttered up It can't remember them all but outdoors the rules are very simple.

Number 1, you run from anything that's bigger than you.

You catch anything that's smaller than you.

Your cat is not going out there to admire the sunset.

It's not going out there to smell the roses.

It's looking to take care of its life business and it catches that little animal, that little mouse, that little gopher out in your backyard and have you noticed?

It doesn't dispatch it quickly humanely painlessly Instead it plays it plays with that little critter It catches it, but that's not enough.

It throws it over its shoulder and hopes it'll run off again, so it can catch it all over again.

And then throws it over its shoulder again and watches to see if there's a little life left so it can catch it all over Again until some bad things start happening to that little mouse It isn't able to run too well anymore things start to hang out and all sorts of ugly things are happening You're watching the whole thing from your backyard.

What do you do when your precious lovable little pet comes marching up to your back door, feathers sticking out of all sides of its mouth, waiting to be praised for the good job it has done in your backyard.

Do you hold a little trial right on your back porch?

Have a little jail cell all ready to go just in case the verdict is guilty.

You don't do any of that, you brush away the feathers, you scold your cat a little bit, And you welcome that little killer back into your house.

You've made a distinction between evil and guilt.

Right there on your back porch, you did it.

What you saw in your backyard was evil it was 1 animal torturing another animal to death with no compunction no mercy and no thought of kindness because in that little brain of your cat that's fallen nature that's what it got wasn't the way Adam created was when Adam was created that isn't the way your cat was created, but it's a fallen nature now.

And you have decided that in that fallen mind of your cat, there is no room for a conscience.

There is no knowledge of right and wrong.

Your cat is not making distinctions of moral values.

How did Christ Live?

I'd like to say first that you may not realize how important a meeting like this is to some of us.

Sometimes it seems like when we visit some of the little churches around the country it seems like there's a sleepy attitude and you wonder if anything will ever happen and will, my wife often asked me, will we really be the generation that will actually see Jesus come or will it have to pass to another generation?

You really wonder sometimes is it a hopeless task and if I were to characterize the 90s I would say that we were just kind of going along and doing the duty that the Lord called us to do and wondering what would happen in the future.

When the last, well I'd say since about 2000, All of a sudden there has been a change and it is largely been in this age group This was not happening in the late 80s and early 90s This has been a recent phenomenon to have a group like this right here to have GYC all over the country, young people getting excited about what Adventism is really about, the real fundamental values, not the peripheral glitz and glamor of what we are being told is Adventism, but the foundation stones of Adventism.

To see young people organizing those meetings, pulling them together, having what we have, 2000 at the last 1 at Sacramento.

I've spoken at 2 regional conferences, 1 up near Seattle, 1 down near Atlanta, Georgia.

We will be going to New York to speak at a youth conference up in that area.

Regional conferences all around the country.

This has not happened in my lifetime and you just don't know because you're right in the middle of it right now, you just don't know how unusual this is for some of us who have been around a while to see this phenomenon breaking loose in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Now maybe I can have a little more courage that this could be the generation and this could be the time.

Number 1, 2 meetings this afternoon as announced, little break in between.

After the second meeting, we will take a little time for question and discussion.

If you want to stay by and talk a little bit, we'll have a little time for that after the second meeting.

And we'll probably go to sundown or somewhere around then if you want to.

After sundown now, if you would like to take a look at the materials we have with us We have a number of books and some tapes the materials for this weekend are in 3 formats They're on audio tape there in in 2 different formats extended much more than this and also this size and they're in videotape and they're in book written form.

So there are various ways to access this if you want to continue to study this on your own.

Those will be available after sundown on a table back there somewhere so you will be able to look at it if you wish.

Also I bring with me little pamphlets and booklets, small little things that if you would like to take something home with you from today all you need to do is just come up and ask me at any time that's convenient for you and I'll be delighted to share a small item or 2 with you to take home.

And lastly if you want to pursue these materials more in detail this material is not on my website because it is available in these other 3 formats, but more in-depth materials on what is really going on in the gospel and other issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is available on my website.

That is easy to access if you spell my name right.

And you're welcome to browse around and see what you can find.

It is not an amazing facts type of website with all sorts of interesting things to do and click on and interact and all that.

This is a study website and you're welcome to log on if you want to dig into some of the cutting-edge things that are in the ad going on in the Adventist Church today.

All right I think we're ready does everybody have an outline that want 1 raise your hand if you got missed Here's 1 that got missed up here let's make sure and where is 1 or 2 more?

Would you turn with me to Philippians chapter 2?

By the way, the reason for this study is not to solve the nature of Christ, even though that's the title of the outline.

The reason for this study is to understand how Christ's life can enable us to understand how to be righteous by faith.

That's the only reason, to understand how we can experience what he showed, how he showed the way.

Philippians chapter 2 beginning with verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

May I suggest that if there were 1 verse I would choose out of the entire Bible to summarize everything I want to say this afternoon, this is it.

Not just need it, we desperately need it.

If we could have the mind of Christ to think like he thought to make decisions like he made decisions It would cut short a thousand problems that we have if we could think in the way he thought and this text says that can happen We need to pray on this text.

We need to spend time with this text, putting this text before the Lord and praying for this mind to be in us so that we can have his spirit and his attitudes.

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 now there is the crucial text every knee And the next verse says that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

What is this thing that we call the great controversy?

It of course is the ultimate battle of the universe in which Satan challenges God, he challenges Christ, he challenges God's way and his government, and it is God's way of solving this problem, sending Christ down to this earth to reveal the character of God to the point where finally Every being that has ever lived will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I'm waiting for the day when Satan himself will walk down before the sight of all who have ever lived on this earth assembled at 1 time, will get on his knees voluntarily, and will say in the presence of everyone your way is right my way doesn't work the most merciful thing you can do for me is to end my existence when the universe sees that it'll be a safe place to live in once again.

We will have peace, but of course that's over a thousand years in our future.

It's taken almost or maybe more than 6, 000 years.

It is yet a thousand years to go before final decisions will have been made on God's way of governing because we will spend some time asking God the same questions that the angels are asking God today about his decisions regarding who's saved and why and will they be safe for all eternity.

We want the day when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The King James says he made himself of no reputation.

It says he emptied himself And that's the basis for my question of what did Christ empty himself?

The first is omnipotence, John chapter 5, verse 30.

Jesus makes some very strange statements.

Does Yahweh ever say in any verse you can find in the Old Testament, I can of mine own self do nothing.

That's the text you would pay a lot of money to find, just like that missing Sunday text, right?

So right here, Jesus is saying something totally opposite than he ever said as Yahweh.

And then he says something even stranger.

He says, I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

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Series

Dennis Priebe: The Real Gospel

What is Possible for Us?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Will the Real Gospel Please Stand Up?

1h 14m

What is Sin?

45m

How did Christ Live?

1h 25m

What is Possible for Us?

1h 42m

Sound Doctrine