Hartland Summer Campmeeting 2017: Abiding in Christ

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Stephen Bohr

Metamorphosis

Anyway it's good to see all of you this morning.

It doesn't matter where the camp meeting is.

Well this morning we are going to study a topic that I consider to be absolutely vital to the subsistence of our own personal lives as well as the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Before we study this topic metamorphosis we want to have a word of prayer so I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray.

Father in heaven thank you for the wonderful spirit that we've felt here at Camp Meeting.

What a blessing it is for your people to come together to sing praises to your name, to have corporate prayer, Lord to open your word and freely study and assimilate the message you have for us.

What a joyous privilege this is, we know that that it's going to come to an end sooner rather than later, so help us to enjoy these times of fellowship.

We ask that as we open your word that your spirit will be with us through the ministry of the angels to guide our thoughts, give us understanding, keep us awake and alert, and Lord plant your word in our hearts that we might not sin against you.

We thank you for hearing our prayer for we ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

I'd like to begin by reading a statement that was written by Ellen White approximately 130 years ago.

It's found in Review and Herald March 22, 1887.

It's also quoted in other books, compilations, but I went to the original source in Review and Herald.

There she wrote a revival of true godliness, now if there's true godliness there also must be what?

The devil has a counterfeit for everything that God has true.

So a revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

And then she finishes the statement by saying.

To seek this, that is a revival of true godliness, is or should be our first work.

So our first work is to seek a revival of true godliness among God's people.

Now there's a second statement where she amplifies what she means by true godliness.

This 1 is found in the Review and Herald February 25, 1902.

This was written approximately 115 years ago, and here she's going to speak about revival but she's going to mention another word as well, this is a little bit longer statement this is how it reads.

A revival and a reformation must take place under the ministration of the Holy Spirit.

And then she's going to explain what revival and what reformation are.

First of all she's going to talk about revival and then reformation.

Revival and reformation are 2 different things, they're different but they are linked, they're connected, 1 does not exist without the other, but they can be distinguished.

So she says revival and reformation are 2 different things, and then she defines revival.

Revival signifies, she's going to use 3 phrases now to explain what revival is.

Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of the mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death.

It signifies renewal of spiritual life, quickening of the powers of the mind and heart, number 3 a resurrection from spiritual death, that's revival.

Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, that's on the level of thinking isn't it?

Once again, she says reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, that happens in the mind, but then she explains of habits and practices, that's conduct or behavior.

So Reformation means a way a change in our way of thinking and a change in our way of acting, behavior.

Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit.

Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work and in doing this work they must blend, so they have to go together.

Now revival without reformation is not genuine revival, Reformation without revival is not genuine reformation.

Revival without reformation is emotionalism, and reformation without revival is legalism.

Let me put it differently, Reformation without revival is like a dead person acting as if he were alive, and revival without reformation is like a living person acting as if he were dead.

So revival always leads to reformation, true revival, and that's what the church needs most of anything is a true revival of godliness.

In other words when there is revival in the life, when there is a resurrection from spiritual death, our way of thinking and our way of acting will change.

The danger is to try to make a change without revival and that is legalism.

The other danger is to say that we have revival and there's no change in the life, there has to be both.

Notice Romans Chapter 6 and verse 4, Romans Chapter 6 and verse 4, this is referring to revival that leads to reformation.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

By the way when the Bible speaks of the word walk in a figurative sense not physical walking with our legs, but when the Bible talks about walking in a spiritual sense it has to do with conduct or behavior.

The Bible says that we need to walk even as Jesus walked, it's not talking about using our legs, it's talking about the fact that we should behave as Jesus behaved, our conduct should be like the conduct of Jesus.

This is the reason why Ellen White, and we're going to focus primarily on reformation, revival that leads to reformation, in the book The Great Controversy page 462 she wrote.

There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation.

In other words, repentance is never true unless it works reformation.

And then in this same chapter, it's called modern revivals by the way, the chapter in Great Controversy, you need to read that chapter because it speaks about genuine and counterfeit revivals in Great Controversy, modern revivals.

The quotation that I just read, there's no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation is from that chapter.

At the end of our talk today we're going to refer to a couple of other statements from that same chapter.

She wrote also on page 462 the same chapter, she's talking about people who have experienced revival and the change in their lives.

She wrote, The things they once hated they now loved, and the things they once loved they hated.

The proud and self-assertive became meek and lowly of heart.

The vain and supercilious became serious and unobtrusive.

The drunken sober, and the profligate pure.

The vain fashions of the world were laid aside.

So basically true revival leads to a change in the life.

The danger is to try and get a change in our lives without revival, and that's the problem that Jesus faced while he was on this earth with the Jews and particularly with the Jewish leaders.

They were very moral people, they talked about the need to live moral lives, but it wasn't because it came from inside, it was because of legalism, they wanted to do it themselves, they wanted a corpse to behave as a living person which is an impossibility.

So the question is, How is it that we can understand this issue of revival leading to reformation?

How does revival and reformation take place?

I want to invite you to go with me to Exodus Chapter 33, and we're going Chapter 33 and we're going to read verses 18 and 19 Exodus 33 verses 18 and 19.

Here Moses is at the top of Mount Sinai and he makes a special request of God.

And he said, I beseech thee, I like that word beseech doesn't it sound pretty?

We don't use that word much anymore, it's a good King James word.

Moses says I want to see your glory, and then God responds in an interesting way.

We would expect God to show him a radiant light, His glory, that's the way we think of glory, but notice what God showed him in verse 19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

By the way goodness, graciousness, and mercy are character qualities, in other words what God is showing Moses as Moses is at the top of the mount is a reflection of his character.

Go with me to the next chapter Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7, Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7.

Here we're going to find once again an explanation of what it means for the Lord to pass before Moses, because it says that the Lord passed before Moses and He showed him His graciousness, His goodness, and His mercy.

Now that thought is going to be amplified in Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7.

And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Notice all of the character qualities that are mentioned here.

God is merciful, He is gracious, He is long-suffering, he is abundant in goodness and truth, he keeps mercy for thousands, he forgives iniquity, and then there's a little quality that we don't like to talk about very much, and that is that he also is a just God and He will not clear the guilty, that is also a character quality of God.

So what God shows Moses is His character, that is God's glory.

Now the New Testament picks up on this, on this particular experience.

You know there's a verse that we've read many many times, sometimes we ignore the context of where this verse comes from.

I'm referring to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 3 and verse 18.

I know that we've read this verse many times and probably we can recite it from memory.

If you read the previous verses it's talking about the experience of Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, it's referring to what we just read from Exodus 33 and Exodus 34.

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Metamorphosis

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