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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Being True to Our Trust

Mark Howard

The Law of the Lord is Perfect

What the Law Could Not Do

Countdown to Glory

Welcome back to Advent Hope, a Sabbath school of the Loma Linda University Church.

We are happy that you guys are here with us today for the final message from Pastor Mark Howard for the series titled, Being True to Our Trust, and the message for today is titled Countdown to Glory.

So in case you missed it this morning, Pastor Mark Howard is the Associate Director of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department of the Michigan Conference.

He and his lovely wife Stephanie are empty nesters.

His son Caleb is in his last year of law school at the University of Alabama and his daughter Annalise is in her second year at Southern.

She's studying for the physical therapy assistant program.

And so before we hear from Pastor Mark, let's have 1 word of prayer.

Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for the rest that we found today in you, Lord.

Thank you so much for your love towards us.

Thank you for giving us such a beautiful day.

I pray that as Pastor Mark comes forward to speak, that your Holy Spirit may fall upon him and that you may speak through him, to him, to us, that the message that you have for us today, that we may apply it to our hearts, Lord, and that it may draw us closer to you.

We pray these things in Jesus Christ, precious and holy name, amen.

I trust you had a pleasant Sabbath so far.

And I hope and pray that this afternoon won't change that.

I mentioned to and I'm hoping, hoping that you're returning.

Hoping you're returning because what we did last night and this morning was laying groundwork for what I would like to cover this afternoon, really, which is the heart of this series.

So before we go any further, I want to ask the Lord to bless our time in His Word.

I invite you to bow your heads with me and pray as we do that.

Gracious Father in heaven, again we are thankful for the Sabbath.

We are thankful for the beautiful day you've given us.

We Thank you for the privilege we have of knowing you, Father, and your son, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

A privilege that you've entrusted us to share with others.

And Lord, as we gather here now this afternoon, we pray that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, would guide our understanding.

And Lord, may it not just be a theoretical lesson that we learn, but a practical 1 that will find its way into our lives so that the people that we come in contact with in this coming week will take note that we have spent time with Jesus.

Okay, I want to briefly review what we have talked about so far.

Last night we studied how the law, how law in general is the determining factor between right and wrong.

And just Again, 1 of the reasons I think that's so important is that nobody is going to go through life on the fence, despite their claims.

Everybody has to subscribe to some rule of life.

Now, as a Christian, somebody may say, oh, you're a Christian and you do this and you can't do this and you can't do that.

And the reality is we all have laws that shape us.

And the final outcome determines whether the law you've chosen to follow is the right 1.

There will be a final outcome for everybody's opinion.

The people who don't believe in God, this is my conviction, are going to face him, whether they think so or not.

And whatever path a person has chosen, today we have this, sometimes this mindset that hey, nobody can judge me and the way I choose and live and what have you.

I'm going to do things my way and you have your way and that's fine for you.

But we're all going to have to come before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for the things done in the body.

And the reality is, it's not just as we've touched on already, this is not just an arbitrary thing like, well, we got to answer to God, I had a great life, but now I've got to face Him.

No, there are consequences to living in any other way.

Everybody has an idea of right and wrong, but God has told us, in fact that's our next point, I believe God's claim is that His law is the only 1 that will bring true happiness here and hereafter to those who obey.

However, our fallen natures, we looked at this this morning, are incapable of rendering acceptable obedience to God.

The purpose of the gospel is to restore humanity to obedience to the law of God.

Because as I mentioned this morning, nobody's going to heaven who doesn't obey God.

And we can talk all day long about how we don't have any strength to obey.

And it puzzles me sometimes that there's this mindset, even among Seventh-day Adventists, that, well, I'm just gonna go through life sinning all the time, we don't have ability to obey, but somehow some miracle is going to happen in heaven and I'm going to be able to obey.

But God can't do that miracle here in the minds of some people.

Let's go to Romans 8, and I want you to see this in Romans 8.

That this purpose of the gospel is to restore man, mankind, to obedience to God and His law.

I'm reading in the New King James Version here.

The Bible says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For the Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

It's the same law from a different standpoint of experience.

When I'm not in Christ Jesus, all the law of God can do is condemn me to death as a sinner.

But when I've accepted Jesus and been crucified with Him, now it becomes a law of liberty to me.

And this is exactly what the Apostle is saying.

Once we're born of the Spirit and our hearts are changed, and our desires are brought more in harmony with the law of God.

And more than that, Jesus' righteousness stands in our place.

Verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, and that it was what?

What is the only problem the Bible brings up with the law?

So again, Christians get in these discussions and especially if you get it with the evangelical persuasion but it's crept its way into Adventism's like yeah I know but you know the law you know we can't keep the law and why talk about it and why waste your time with it and the reality is the law of God is holy and just and good in the words of the Apostle Paul, the problem is it's weak through the flesh.

God knowing this, and this is what the passage is saying, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, and notice what it goes on to say, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled.

God is saying this is why Jesus was sent.

The Apostle Paul is telling us God sent Jesus for this very reason.

What the law couldn't do, God did by sending His Son.

He sent Him in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin to condemn sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who no longer walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Being able to walk in the Spirit is God's way of bringing us back into harmony with the law of heaven.

In the book, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 363, it says, Adam and Eve at their creation had a knowledge of the law of God.

They were acquainted with its claims upon them, its precepts were written where?

When man fell by transgression, the law was not changed, but a remedial system.

Fallen humanity can no longer keep the law of God.

Now if it wasn't important to keep the law of God, then who cares?

Back to Menu

Series

Being True to Our Trust

Countdown to Glory

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Invitation

45m

Let God Do the Working

1h 22m

Going the Distance

5. Identifying Your Superpower

54m

When the Dress Code Means Life or Death

26m

Plenary Meetings

When The High Priest Leaves the Temple

1h

Heaven’s Wardrobe

39m

Nothing to Wear

51m

Steps to Christ

Growing Up Into Christ

41m

Righteousness by Faith

41m

Dennis Priebe Weekend 2008

Current Issues In Sanctification

1h 42m

The Great Object of Life

52m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Individual Conflict: Victory Over Sin

06-Closing Arguments

1h

Sound Doctrine