This week’s Sabbath School lesson talks about “The Good News of the Judgment.” What’s so good about the judgment? As it turns out, the good news is that God is good.

Hartland Spring Convocation 2023: Righteousness by Faith and its Impact on Religious Liberty

<p>This week’s Sabbath School lesson talks about “The Good News of the Judgment.” What’s so good about the judgment? As it turns out, the good news is that God is good.</p>

<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>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Jim Howard

Justice and Mercy

I'm glad to be able to see the dear president of Heartland, Norbert Restrepo.

He's a new friend over the last several years, but somebody that I've gained great respect for.

And of course, it's wonderful to see old friends like my dear friend, Pastor David Grams, who is more than a friend, but has been a mentor for many years.

So that makes Heartland a really special place along with many other things that make Heartland special.

And this morning we're going to be talking more on our theme.

Our theme which is righteousness by faith and its impact on religious liberty.

And just before we dive into that topic, I wonder if you wouldn't mind bowing your heads with me once more for prayer.

Our loving Father in heaven, we come to you thanking you for a new day of life, for your mercies that are new every morning, and for the Sabbath.

And we pray, Lord, that you would give us spiritual rest today, that we would see you, Lord Jesus, high and lifted up, and that each 1 of us would have that which would minister to our souls and meet the very needs that we might have.

Bless us today, Father, we need you, and we pray for the presence of your spirit.

May we each know when we leave this place that we've been in the presence of Jesus.

So the strongest connection between righteousness by faith and religious liberty is found in the 3 angels' messages.

I'm going to read to you a quotation by Ellen White.

By the way, I hope you're not disappointed already, but I'm not using PowerPoint.

I hope a few of you brought your Bibles because we'll have a little bit of time there, but yeah, I am going old-school today, so if you will allow me.

I'm going to read a quotation to you from the pen of Ellen White from the Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.

She says, several have written to me inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message and I have answered it is the third angel's message in verity." Of course we can draw that from the message itself in verses 9 through 12.

When you get to verse 12 you'll recall it says, here is the patience of the saints or the perseverance of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive His righteousness which results in keeping the commandments of God no matter what.

That means even when our liberty is taken away and laws are enacted to prevent us from obeying God.

This is why Righteousness by faith and religious liberty are so closely tied together because of this third angel's message.

Now today, this morning, is not just any hour, it's the Sabbath school hour.

I don't know if you heard but I serve at the General Conference as the director for Sabbath School and Personal Ministries and I don't like to go places and ignore Sabbath school.

Wait a minute, aren't we going to talk about the topic?

And so I made sure that I crafted my message this morning to be in harmony with the topic of Sabbath school.

You'll remember that we're studying this quarter in the adult Bible study guide the 3 cosmic messages so hey it fit pretty nicely.

I don't know what I would have done if it had been on stewardship.

But regardless, this particular topic is perfect for what we need to be talking about this weekend.

This particular week the lesson is on the good news of the judgment.

And what do you suppose the memory verse is?

Revelation 14 verse 7, saying with a loud voice, fear God and Give glory to Him.

Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.

According to this verse, why are we to fear God and give glory to Him?

For the hour of the judgment has come." And of course it's true that we recognize this because He is our Creator.

But just to think on this for a moment, what do we mean by fear God and give glory to Him?

Well fear God is, it's too exhaustive for us to try and put it in concise words, but we'll try, is His profound respect for God.

And to give glory to Him means to obey Him, to reflect His character, to please Him in the things that we do.

What motivates you to show respect for your spouse or your parents?

What motivates you to want to please him or her or them?

Well, for most people, if we're being honest, what motivates us to respect and want to please someone is love.

When someone shows a deep, unselfish love for us, that begets respect, it begets love.

And so we need to recognize that if the text says that the reason that we are to fear God and give glory to Him is because the hour of His judgment has come, then we must be able to see in the judgment not just something that brings fearful anxiety which when we stray from God it should but not only this but fundamentally and primarily it's something different.

I'm gonna read directly from the lesson today Can I do that?

This is from the Sabbath, the lesson that is on the day of the Sabbath.

Ultimately, the judgment reveals the goodness and the grace of God and that He is both just and merciful in how He deals with the saved and even with the lost.

The good news of the judgment is that God is good.

Remember, it's by the goodness of God that we're led to repentance.

It's by the goodness of God that we are motivated to fear God and give glory to Him.

And of course, this is the primary issue in the great controversy.

The love of God, His character, His goodness was challenged by Lucifer in heaven.

After questioning the goodness of God and causing a third of the angels to question him also, Lucifer deceived Eve into sin by insinuating the same doubts.

This was insinuating that God had some selfish motive, some other purpose besides her best interest.

And when Eve began to doubt the goodness of God, this is how it all began.

Sin began when the goodness of God was doubted and sin will not be banished until every possibility of doubt is removed.

The entire universe must be sure that God was, that He is, and that He always will be blameless and perfect in love.

The judgment vindicates God's character before the universe.

You see, for every person, sin is a problem because the wages of sin is death.

But when we confess that sin to God and God freely forgives us, that responsibility transfers to God because God is the 1 who now is making the decision to justify us, to say we're innocent.

Now in the eyes of the universe the responsibility, the explanation needs to come from God.

Remember they would confess over the sacrificial animal and that would be the transfer of the sin to the innocent animal.

When the animal was slain, symbolizing the death of Christ, the blood of that animal was carried into the sanctuary.

Leviticus says the blood represents life.

Because sin was transferred to the animal, that blood represents the sin, the sinful life that is transferred into the sanctuary.

When we confess our sins, they're not obliterated forever, but they're transferred into the books of heaven in the sense that there is a forgiveness that still is recorded there but still the sin remains And that's why at the end of the sanctuary year, on the Day of Atonement, it was so important, so special, because on the Day of Atonement, which we understand to be the Day of Judgment, The high priest went into the most holy place and he sprinkled the blood of the Lord's goat over the broken law of God.

In this case, there was no sin confessed over this goat.

So it represented the perfect life of Christ, the sinless life of Christ, and this symbolically as he came out of the sanctuary cleansed the sanctuary.

Now this is of course a picture of judgment because the high priest represents who?

He comes into the most holy place and what's in the most holy place?

So there's the law of God, the judgment, Jesus, the Son of Man, the high priest is coming in before the Ancient of Days for this judgment scene?

You have overshadowing that Ark of the Covenant at the center of this scene.

Now these cherubim, these angels, why are they there?

Because they represent, as do the angels weaved into the curtain all around the most holy place.

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Justice and Mercy

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