Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary

Sabbath School 1

Stephen Bohr

Church - God’s Great Week

The Marriage of the Lamb

Israel’s Guardian Angel

Revelation’s Sanctuary Message

Jesus is Coming Again

John Bradshaw

The Writing on the Wall

Friendly Fire

Occupy

Sabbath School 2

Church - Committed

Soul Winning Hour

Good Enough

Sue Gilmore

How Can You Make a Big Difference in Children’s Lives When You Teach Sabbath School in a Small Church

In the presentations that I will share with you here at Michigan Camp Meeting, I want to focus on 3 distinctives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

These 3 distinctives are found in the 3 Angels' Messages.

The first distinctive we are going to discuss this morning, the seventh day Sabbath.

And then we are going to discuss the investigative judgment.

And Finally, we will take a look, another look, at the second coming of Jesus, which occurs immediately after the third angel's message.

An angel is sitting in a cloud with a sickle in his hand to harvest the earth.

Before we open God's word this morning we do want to have a special word of prayer so I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray father in heaven we come before your august and glorious throne in humility realizing that our wisdom is so limited.

Therefore we plead for your wisdom, for your guidance as we open your holy word.

We ask that the spirit that inspired that word will be with us to explain it to us this morning.

We claim the promise of your presence through the ministry of your holy angels.

And this we ask in the precious name of Jesus our Lord and Savior.

In September of the year 2015, Pope Francis the first made a historic visit to the United States of America.

During his stay here, he was present at 4 main events.

The first of those, of course, was meeting with President Barack Obama in the White House, where they discussed certain issues for about 45 minutes.

Then the Pope moved to the United States Congress where he gave a speech to a plenary session of the Congress of the United States, the House of Representatives and the Senate was present there.

Then the Pope moved on to New York where he gave a speech for the 70th anniversary of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

We had a group from Secrets Unsealed present there, giving out great controversies and a special DVD that we prepared for the occasion.

He spoke in front of Constitution Hall, where the 3 founding documents of the United States were ratified.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

In virtually every contact that the Pope has had, every speech that he has given, he has highlighted 3 main topics.

First, the need to address and resolve the serious issue of global poverty.

Second, the need to save the disintegrating family.

And third, the need to resolve the grave issue of climate change.

Now it's no secret that the Pope has linked these 3 issues with the need to observe Sunday as the day of rest and his argument runs something like this.

Poverty is due to the fact that capitalist overlords abuse their workers.

They make them work 24-7 And so the capitalist overlords need to give their workers at least 1 day a week to rest.

And of course, you know which day that is, Sunday.

When he addresses the family, he also states that the family is stressed out.

The family is busy 7 days a week, working, going to school, shopping, etc.

The family needs a time to get together where they can go to church and they can strengthen the family roots.

And of course, the day of choice, Sunday.

When it comes to climate change, the planet needs a day to rest because the environment is abused 7 days a week and so 1 day needs to set be set apart to allow the environment to rest of course that day is Sunday So this leads us to ask the question, has the Pope focused on the right day to address these causes?

And of course, as Seventh-day Adventists, we know that the answer to that question is no.

So I invite you to go in your Bibles with me to see what the Bible has to say about this.

Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 will be the central part of our study this morning.

Now there's something that's very interesting as we examine the Genesis story, particularly when it comes to the Sabbath.

And that is that there is no direct command of God in Genesis 2 for Adam and Eve to keep the Sabbath.

The story tells us that God rested the seventh day.

But there's no place where it says that God told Adam and Eve to rest.

And so this has led many theologians non-adventist theologians to say that the Sabbath is not a creation institution where God commanded Adam and Eve to rest Now in our study this morning I want to address that particular issue why is there no command in Genesis 2 for Adam and Eve to keep the Sabbath.

Why does it say that God rested the seventh day?

By the way, there's an individual, I'll mention his name because undoubtedly you receive his journal now and then, Dale Retzlaff, who used to be a Bible teacher in 1 of our educational institutions, he has declared war on everything Seventh-day Adventist, and he has stated that the Sabbath is not a creation institution because there is no command of God in Genesis for Adam and Eve to keep the Sabbath.

Sometimes for many years I thought how wonderful it would have been for God to have placed there in Genesis Adam and Eve keep the Sabbath that would have settled the issue.

Why didn't God tell Adam and Eve keep the Sabbath?

I struggled with that question for many years.

I believe that the Sabbath is a creation institution.

All my life I've believed that but I've always had the question why didn't God just settle the issue in Genesis and say Adam and Eve keep the Sabbath.

1 thing that we notice as we examine the creation story and That is that the creation story is centered in God.

God is the subject of the creation story.

More than 30 times just in chapter 1, we find expressions such as God created God sent God saw God called God made God set them God blessed More than 30 times just in chapter 1.

Which tells me that this story is centered in God.

God is the subject of the creation story, not man.

Now let's take a look at the first 6 days of creation week.

The first 6 days are all about God and not about man.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31.

Then God saw everything that he had made and Indeed it was very good.

So the evening and the morning were the 6 days.

Who created everything during the first 6 days?

It says the Lord saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good.

Because God did all of the work of creating the first 6 days everything that came into existence belongs to God go with me to Psalm 24 and we'll read verses 1 & 2 Psalm 24 verses 1 & 2 here in this very well-known section of scripture we find the following words the earth is the Lord's and everything in it now why is everything in the world the Lord's here comes the explanation for that it means because he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

To whom do the animals belong to whom do human beings belong but the Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Jews.

If everything that God made is His because He made it, then the Sabbath must be His as well.

And so we find that the first 6 days of creation week are centered in God God did all the work God did all the creating but the seventh day is also all about God let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 2 and verses 2 & 3 Genesis chapter 2 verses 2 & 3 and we're going to notice that 10 times in these 2 verses we're going to be told that everything is about God.

It almost sounds redundant when you read this passage.

In Genesis 2 verse 3, it says, On the seventh day, God ended his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made Somehow I get the impression that the 7 days of creation are all about God.

God worked 6 and God rested on the seventh.

The Bible tells us that God did 3 things with the Sabbath.

And number 3, he sanctified the Sabbath or made it holy.

So the first 6 days of creation week are all about God God works 6 God rested on the seventh there's no reference to man working 6 or resting on the seventh God works 6 and God rested on the seventh don't get nervous on me now we need to take a look at the word rested in Genesis chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 the word rested is used twice it's the Hebrew word Shabbat where we get our word Sabbath from now we need to understand what the word Shabbat means the word Shabbat does not describe how God rested on the seventh day it does not describe the quality of God's rest on the seventh day it does not describe the manner of God's rest on the seventh day the word Shabbat in Hebrew simply means to cease it means to quit in other words on the seventh day God stopped creating God ceased from creating on the seventh day so the word Shabbat means to cease it means to stop the seventh day God created no more in other words.

Now we use the word rest in a similar way these days.

When there's a trial and the district attorney finishes presenting his case, We say the prosecution rests.

Are we saying that the prosecutor is going to go to Hawaii on vacation?

And that he's going to have a great time there?

It means that the district attorney has ceased presenting his case because his case is complete that's the meaning of the word Shabbat it means to cease let me give you 2 biblical examples I have everything written down in my notes here all of the Bible verses to be able to deliver the sermon more quickly if you want you can write these down I'm simply going to read 2 other verses and there are many more I might say where the word Shabbat is used in the sense of ceasing.

Nehemiah 6 verse 3, Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall, the enemies wanted him to come down from the wall so they could talk about the project and Nehemiah told them listen I can't come down now I'm too busy building the wall.

This is what Nehemiah 6 verse 3 says so I sent messengers to them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down why should the work cease while I leave it to go down to you the word cease there is Shabbat Why should I stop building the wall to come down and talk to you?

In Psalm 46, 8 and 9, we find a description of the time when wars will come to an end.

Back to Menu

Series

Plenary

Church - God’s Great Week

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

The Power of God Unto Salvation

When God Is on Our Side

1h 1m

The Blood Sacrifice and Blood Applied

1h

Jesus On Prophecy

Prophecy and the Eternal Gospel

51m

Shipwrecked

31m

Prophetic Turning Point

43m

Balaam, Balak and the Nicolaitans

46m

Remembering

20m

Community Health

Sorting Out Fact From Fiction

45m

GoTential

Producing a Reproducer

44m

Revelation Today Crusade

13. America In Bible Prophecy

50m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Is the Relentless Redeemer

1h

Sheep Among Wolves

46m

Sound Doctrine