Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Christ our Righteousness

Royce Snyman

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 1

Father in Heaven, we are grateful for the opportunity to come to Camp Meeting and to fellowship together, to learn, to study, to pray.

We pray that You will be with us in this place today.

We handle sacred things when we handle the Word of God.

When we talk of things of righteousness, we know not of what we speak, but we can only search the Word of God and seek to understand it from what is revealed to us.

We pray that your Holy Spirit will be present in this place, that you will speak and that you will be heard, and not this humble vessel that stands in front of these dear people today.

For we are only human beings who need to learn from Jesus Christ.

Pray that your Holy Spirit will teach us now.

When I was pastoring in a church back in the early 80s, sharing the message a little bit of what we're sharing here.

And in that time there, 1 of the young men came to me after the sermon that I spoke, and I was talking about some of what we'll talk about today and what we'll talk about even the rest of the week.

And he was just overwhelmed and he just had this sense that there was like no hope for him, which is ironic because That's not what the message is about.

And I actually had that happen even here last year.

So during this week, I hope that it will be very, very, very clear.

And the message of hope is in Jesus Christ.

Christ is the answer to the problem and the situation.

What we're gonna be talking about today, and I'll start by setting that tone, we will never be talking about what I can do or what you can do.

We'll be talking about what Jesus can do, what Jesus is about.

Please keep that in mind because without Jesus, what I'm gonna tell you today and during this week is totally and completely impossible.

So I want you to keep that in mind with what I want to share with you today.

Here's a statement from Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G.

This is what she said, it's in your notes.

At this time the church is to put on her beautiful garments, Christ our righteousness.

There are clear decided distinctions to be restored and exemplified to the world in holding aloft the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

The beauty of holiness is to appear in It's an amazing statement.

Darkness of the disloyal, those who have revolted from the law of God." It's, that's a, that's an amazing statement.

The church is to put on her beautiful garments, Christ our righteousness.

I don't think the church really grasps this, I say the grasp, I don't, the church, I don't think we as people understand this yet like we should.

I'll tell you simply I don't, but slowly I'm learning and seeking to understand it better.

You and I need to realize that Christ has something amazing that He wants to give us.

Now I know the text is small on the screen, and I understand that, but I do have it in the notes there.

I hope you can read it in the notes, even that's there, but at least you can bring out a magnifying glass and look on your notes, right?

By the way, some of you have come in, there's a sign-up sheet, there are some folders coming around, and we've got some extra notes being printed.

I thought I had plenty, but for some reason I seem to be short.

In this class we will survey the Bible and the spirit of prophecy teaching on the theology of Christ our righteousness.

What or who is the source of righteousness?

And what should be our relationship to that righteousness?

Ellen White said the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people.

It invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ which is made manifest in obedience.

This week's study is meaningless without this basic foundation.

But with that foundation we also need to be able to put this all into perspective.

Our teaching on Christ our righteousness and justification by faith has fluctuated over the last 130 years.

We need to review this fluctuation to be sure we have a clear biblical understanding of this message.

In order to review the fluctuation, we will review the early Adventist history until about 1900.

Though we did this in detail at last camp meeting's session, We need to do a quick review in order to see the progression beyond 1900.

Our theology on Christ, our righteousness changed little from 1900 to 1950, but that fact is significant and a survey of our teaching during that time will clarify this doctrine making our next study even clearer.

Beginning about 1950 and carrying on until now, our church has gone through some of the most painful and confusing times in regard to the theology of Christ our righteousness.

For some people, And I dare say for the vast majority of the Seventh-day Adventist church, they don't even know that.

And I've got to tell you honestly, as a Seventh-day Adventist minister, it's only in the last 2 years that the lights have turned on in my mind.

And I'll explain that more as we go through this week.

It's far more important than we have all realized.

And Christ is slowly leading us back where He wants us to be.

Because he said through Ellen White that his church needs to put on his robe of righteousness.

But if unless we understand it, we don't know what we're talking about.

Beginning about 1950 and carrying on until now our church has gone to, didn't I just read that?

It is critical that we review the history and the theology.

This most important class of the week will take place on Thursday.

We are working our way, we're going to be combining theology with history, but we're headed toward a direction.

This is not the same of what we did last year.

What we did last year was to speak about what God was doing in His church up until the 1900s and we spoke about the significance of the latter rain and the work that Jesus was doing through the Holy Spirit in the church.

But we need to speak in this class first of all about the theology of Christ our righteousness again to have that solid foundation behind us, but then we need to talk about the progression and where Christ has been trying to lead us and some of the challenges that we've had along the way.

The purpose of this is not to look for fault with anybody or any whatever.

Simply to find out where we as people need to be, where I need to be in my relationship with Jesus, what Jesus wants to do in my life, not what I can do for myself, but what Jesus wants to do for me and for you, and what he wants for us to be ready for the return of Christ.

So finally on Friday, we'll need to answer the question, what now, and what difference does it make?

Some may see this as the most important class of the week and I would not try to argue with that conclusion.

I want to mention to you what our tools and our textbooks will be.

But I am so grateful for the spirit of prophecy.

Ellen White is so clear as God identified for her what we needed to know.

First of all, God's church had to study for themselves from the word of God.

But once the word of God had been studied, Ellen White helped people to understand, God's people to understand the parts of the truth that needed clarity.

And it's for the very reason that we haven't followed that instruction.

And in some quarters today, people moving farther away from Ellen White that we're bringing in even greater confusion, not greater clarity.

And I'm so grateful for what Ellen White has to say.

To assist us along this journey, especially with the angles of history, we'll consider the writings of 4 individuals.

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 3: From 1900 until 1950

Father in heaven, as we continue our journey in time, reviewing some history today, we do so in the light of the Word of God, asking that you will give us understanding once again.

Pray, Father, that you will remind us of your Word and the fact that you do not change.

We human beings may be confused, but we know that God, our Father, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit are not confused.

So we pray, Father, that You will be with us today.

Enlighten our minds, and We thank you for hearing our prayer.

We're going to be focusing again on some history.

But the history that we're going to look at in the next 2 days is going to be something that we need to look at very, very carefully.

I wanted to remind you that the caution that I have given you is that though we're talking of time, we're especially concerned about the Bible.

And it may be the teaching of the Bible, but it is the Bible that determines whether it is or it is not.

Somebody may claim to be teaching the Bible.

The only way you know is by comparing scripture with scripture.

There is a lot of confusion in Christianity today and some of that confusion is also in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

You and I will only know for sure what truth is when we for ourselves study the Word of God.

Today we're going to be focusing on teaching, on the teaching of the early Adventist church about Christ our righteousness from 1900 until 1950.

Now when I say early Adventist Church, it's going to be a little later than what we have been talking about more recently.

I want to make a couple of observations as we start.

Come on in, there are more chairs and there are ways of us being able to adjust that as well.

So Chuck, I really appreciate your help and if you see that we're running out of chairs or anything like that, be sure and let us know.

And even fill in some, there's some down there as well.

I wanna make 2 observations as we get started today.

1 is that we tend to focus on differences.

You know, I am truly grateful to be part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I am truly grateful to be part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't grown up where I did.

I had to make decisions along the way just like you did, but it's easy to get confused and into the stream of life and not take the time to figure out where we're supposed to be, but we can't afford to do that forever.

We have to be very, very careful, but I am so thankful that there is so much in the Seventh-day Adventist Church that we agree on.

And even though in the next couple of days we may be talking about some of the things that we have differences on and where there is discussion going on, don't lose your focus on Jesus, and don't lose your focus on the fact that we may talk about something here or something there and then forget about there's so much that we all agree on and there's no confusion on.

Secondly, we must be students of the scriptures.

We, you notice that I've emphasized it in bold, we, that is you and me and all of us, must be not only students of the scripture, but we must have a personal relationship with Jesus.

The scriptures are our only safeguard in these last days.

I want to place some emphasis on that today, so I'm going to take a section out of the book Great Controversy and we're going to read through it today.

It's in your notes and it'll be on the screen.

It is vital that you and I recognize that in these last days if we're not students of the Scriptures, we are likely, and very likely, will be deceived.

It's going to take me a little bit to do it.

As I get a little farther in it, I may just hit some highlights.

But on the first couple of sections at least, I want to read here from Great Controversy, page 593 and paragraph 2.

All right, I don't want you, I mean when I said together, don't read it out loud with me, follow in the notes, we'll come to places where we'll read it out loud.

But here's what it says, those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will be opposed and derided.

In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in his word.

They can honor him only as they have a right conception of his character, government, and purposes, and in that act in accordance with them." Now read this sentence with me please.

None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand throughout the last great conflict.

I'm reading now, to every soul will come the searching test, shall I obey God rather than men?

The decisive hour is even now at hand, are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable word?

Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?

Revelation 12, 17, Revelation 14, 12, and don't forget that the 2 are connected, and I don't mean the 2 verses, I mean the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

There's a lot of confusion out there in relationship to the faith of Jesus.

Going on a little farther, I'm gonna read, here we are, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Ignorance, that's from Psalm 16, ignorance is no excuse for error or sin.

When there is every opportunity to know the will of God.

A man is traveling and comes to a place where there are several roads and a guide board indicating where each 1 leads.

If he disregards the guide board and takes whichever road seems to be him to be right, he may be ever so sincere, but will in all probability find himself on the wrong road.

Now folks you and I are going to have to face a reality.

Tomorrow it will become crystal clear what that reality is.

There is, There are 2 roads out there today within the Seventh-day Adventist church.

And you and I will see as we begin to discuss this today that As you look at these roads, it's very clear that 1 of those roads is the road that will lead to the kingdom of heaven, but they both don't lead to the kingdom of heaven.

That's where you have to be a student of the Word of God and get it figured out.

But you and I have to realize that just like I believe that the Bible teaches that when Jesus comes again, We are going to be caught up together with Him in the clouds of glory and we're going to be taken to heaven.

What a wonderful day that's going to be, I believe that.

But there's a lot of Christianity today who believes in the secret rapture and that some people when Jesus comes the second time are going to be whiffed off to heaven when everybody's going to be left behind.

I'm going to tell you that you can believe both of those sincerely, but 1 group is going to be tremendously surprised, Worse than surprised, they're going to be left behind, excuse the pun, intended.

So you and I need to understand how challenging this really is to you and to me today.

Going on, she says, we should exert all the powers of the mind in the study of the Scriptures, should task the understanding to comprehend as far as mortals can the deep things of God.

Yet we must not forget that the docility and submission of a child is the true spirit of the learner.

Scriptural difficulties can never be mastered by the same methods that are employed in grappling with philosophical problems.

We should not engage in the study of the Bible with that self-reliance with which so many enter the domains of science.

But with a prayerful dependence upon God and a sincere desire to learn His will.

We must come with a humble and teachable spirit to obtain knowledge from the great I Am.

Otherwise, evil angels will so blind our minds and harden our hearts that we shall not be impressed by the truth.

If you have been listening to Brother Sliger in the morning, this morning he made it very clear that we must be connected with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must understand that we are in a war and this war is for us to be destroyed, that's Satan's goal, to be saved, that's God's goal.

He wants to save us because we're living in the last days.

Now we have chairs in here that people can sit up there, we can bring chairs down here so people can see the screen, and even come down here in front if we need to.

So I just want to make sure that anybody can see the screen and participate and gets the materials as well.

Yeah, the sign-up sheets, so sign-up are around here as well.

So is anybody who hasn't gotten the sign-in sheet yet?

So I'm just going to set it up here in case we need it.

I'm going to let you read the next paragraph on your own except for the last sentence I'm going to read it that begins, an understanding.

An understanding, and I'm down here by the way, of Bible truth depends not so much on the power of intellect brought to the search as in on the singleness of purpose, the earnest longing after righteousness.

She says, we are living in the most solemn period of this world's history.

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 4: From 1950 until Now

Father in Heaven, we are grateful to be able to join together again today to study together.

Lord, we have been praying that you will guide this class today.

What we're going to be talking about, as you well know, is sensitive.

It's really easy to get mixed up in humanity and human thinking.

Father, please help us, because we don't want to confuse your work.

And we know that the only source of clarity in sorting this all out is your holy word.

We thank you for it, and we thank you that we can talk together as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guide us now through the presence of your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name.

Somebody turned on the sun, so now we got that along with everything else.

You may be hidden, but you actually may be more focused.

Today is a day where I'm venturing underground I've somewhat feared to launch upon.

But when I first discovered a very important little piece, which was only a couple, 3 or 4 weeks ago, a lot of lights turned on in my mind, and I'll try to explain that today as time allows for us.

And it helped me to understand why I've been confused.

I just said I now know why I was confused.

And but it's a very serious discussion we need to have today.

I'm going to focus on some recent history today.

I want to remind you that we will focus on the teaching of time, not necessarily the teaching of the Bible.

Now I caution you with that, and I place the emphasis of my prayer on the Word of God.

And tomorrow we will take a look at the word of God again, but there comes a time when we do have to compare some of the journeys in history along the way and our more recent history.

And the Bible does not record recent history, but it does correct recent history to make sure that we're on the right track.

Today we're going to be focusing on a major event which has had significant impact on our church and seek to understand its impact on us today.

But we really want our eyes and our ears to be open to the Word of God and His truth.

I don't know how many of you, how many of you, quote, grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist church.

How many of you came to the church later through Bible studies, evangelistic meetings, that kind of thing?

Okay, maybe there are even some here who have not yet made that decision, and that could be too.

I'm not going to put you on the spot today, but I want you to realize that all of us are on a journey.

You are on a journey, I'm on a journey, and that also reminds us that I'm part of a church made up of people who are on a journey.

And along this journey, it's easy for us to get off track on our journey without us realizing we're off track.

And the only way we know for sure is to come back to the Word of God.

The Word of God is full of stories and examples of the church wrestling with the journey along the way.

We got a real devil out there and Brother Sligar keeps reminding us we're in a war and in this war there is an enemy and the enemy is real and the enemy has a goal and his goal is to destroy God's church.

I know that there are some people here who have not been here all along.

And I want to make sure that we're all together on this.

First of all, as we tend to focus on the differences.

Folks, we're very blessed to be part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Our differences are far outweighed by what we agree on.

And by the grace of God, the Lord will help us sort out those differences.

That's why we must be praying together that God's going to help us figure out those things.

We must have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Each of us individually must know the Word of God ourselves and through our relationship with Jesus, be learning what he's trying to teach us there.

We talked a lot about what Ellen White says in Great Controversy yesterday.

Those quotations are in the notes from yesterday.

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Series

Christ our Righteousness

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 5: In these Last Days

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Recorded

Parts

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 1

54m

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 3: From 1900 until 1950

58m

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 4: From 1950 until Now

1h 6m

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 5: In these Last Days

1h 2m

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