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It Is Written

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

Mark Finley

Eric Flickinger

01 The War Behind All Wars

02 The Central Issue: Love or Selfishness?

03 Light Shines in the Darkness

04 Standing for the Truth

05 Faith Against All Odds

John Bradshaw

Money, Money, Money

06 The Two Witnesses

07 Motivated by Hope

08 Light from the Sanctuary

09 The Foundation of God’s Government

10 Spiritualism Exposed

11 The Impending Conflict

12 Earth’s Closing Events

13 The Triumph of God’s Love

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are looking this week at the great controversy and looking at our second installment, our second episode, this 1 on the central issue, love or selfishness.

A fascinating subject and we're going to dive into some of the greatest questions that people have about God and about Christianity in this week's lesson.

But before we begin, let's start with prayer.

Father we thank you for being with us again as we take a look at this significant subject of the great controversy.

And this week as we take a look at love or selfishness, help us to understand better the character of love that you have so that we can better understand your plans for us.

We are grateful once again also to have back the author of this quarter's study guide, and that is Pastor Mark Finley.

He is an international author, speaker, and evangelist, and much-loved friend here at It Is Written.

Always enjoy working with you to share God's word.

Absolutely, and that is what we are doing this quarter, a significant subject.

And this week in lesson number 2 the central issue love or selfishness.

Now you begin this week's lesson by taking a look at the destruction of Jerusalem and thousands of people were were slaughtered in the destruction of Jerusalem.

It's kind of a, it's an interesting way to start a week that talks about love.

Help us to understand that a little bit more.

Well, you know, a lot of people ask the question, if God is love, why is there so much suffering in our world?

We talked a little bit about that in lesson number 1, but when you look at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, God had borne long with his people for millenniums, sending prophets, sending messages of appeal, sending messages of love.

He sent his own son, Jesus Christ, who ultimately was crucified.

So the destruction of Jerusalem shows that God himself is a loving God making appeals for generations and centuries.

And then in addition to that, the lesson on Monday for a on Sunday, for example, a brokenhearted Savior.

That lesson reveals that Jesus weeps over the destruction of Jerusalem.

And there's a wonderful Bible passage in.

Matthew Chapter 23 verse 37 and 38, but I think comes to the very heart of the answer to your question.

You can almost hear the pathos in Jesus' voice here.

You almost can hear the love in his tones and you could almost see the tears rolling down his cheeks when he says, Matthew 23, 37, 38, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the 1 who kills the prophets and stones those that are sent to you.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, but you were not willing.

See, your house has left you desolate, for I say to you, you'll see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." You know, Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, my love for you is endless, limitless.

I've sent messages of rebuke and messages of repentance to you.

You saw him when he touched the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf and you saw his miracles, but you would not.

Here we find a God that has done everything he could to save Jerusalem.

And you know, actually the destruction of Jerusalem is a symbol.

It's a symbolic portrayal, although it really happened, of course, but it's a symbol of destruction of the world at end time.

And this same God is appealing to humanity today to accept his love and grace and be saved from the destruction that's to come.

You know, this idea that God allows bad things to happen because he doesn't care is popular outside of Christendom and it's often used as an argument against Christianity.

But what we see as we read the Bible is that that's not the case.

It's not that he's heartless, that he's a tyrant.

He does care about his children and he's doing what he can to help them make the right decisions, to make the right choices and head in the right direction.

And even though the destruction of Jerusalem was terrible, was horrible, there was a silver lining, if we can call it that, in that there were some who escaped, some who did not meet destruction.

You know, Jesus gave the morning, and that's another aspect of his love.

Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 24, verse 15, when he says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, that's the approach of the Roman armies to surround Jerusalem, spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, but those were in Judea, flee to the mountains, but him who's on the housetop not come down to take anything, but him who's in the field not go back to get his clothes.

And then he says, pray that your fight be not in the winter on the Sabbath.

In other words, Jesus pointed out that the Roman soldiers would surround the city, But as they were approaching, Jesus said, when you see this, it's a signal that the city is going to be destroyed.

Now, the interesting thing about it is that Sestius, the Roman general in 69 AD came to destroy the city and as he came for some reason he pulled back and didn't destroy it.

The Christians knew that that was a sign that the city would be destroyed.

They fled and we are told that not 1 Christian lost their life in the destruction of Jerusalem.

So again, you see 2 things on God's love.

1, the repeated warnings that he gave to Israel and the Jewish nation that the city would be destroyed and the appeals in his love.

But secondly, he said when you see the Roman armies come, so this was not something exclusively for Christians only, but it was for anybody who wanted to flee, who heard the word of God, and Christians did, and they fled.

So in other words, you see God's love trying to protect his people from the destruction.

So God in Old Testament times, as well as New Testament times, has given warnings, he's given promises of his watch care for people.

What kind of promises are there in the Old Testament that help us to understand that God's presence is there with us, even when we are in times of trial today.

Oh, there's some wonderful promises that I think 1 of my favorite, Eric, is Isaiah 41, verse 10.

In Isaiah 41, 10, It is a very, very precious promise.

In other words, don't be confused, for I am your God.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Then of course you take a Psalm like Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear that the earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea.

So you have these wonderful promises in the Bible, Psalm 91, a thousand will fall at your side, 10000 at your right hand, but it will not come nigh you.

For he'll give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

So you have these promises that as we're faithful to God, he is there with us in the trials, the difficulties, the challenges of life.

Now, some people misunderstand that to mean that if God is there with you, that he will automatically preserve your life or keep you from getting sick or miraculously heal you if you happen to become ill.

But we read the New Testament story of the New Testament church.

They went through trials, they went through persecution, they experienced death, yet the church grew rapidly.

How did that happen with that kind of persecution?

As Christians, we are not playthings of the devil.

So the devil doesn't have free access to us to do whatever he wants to do.

If God, because of natural causes, allows suffering, it can accomplish the purpose of deeper faith, deeper trust, deeper dependence upon him.

And so it's not that a Christian will never get sick.

It's not a Christian that will never have deformities.

It's not that a Christian will never die in a car accident.

It is rather in the controversy between good and evil, God allows natural processes to work out, but he promises, Matthew 28 verse 20, Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the Earth.

Hebrews 13, I'll never leave you, I'll forsake you.

So God is there with us in every challenge of life to strengthen us.

But those challenges in the context of suffering, being in a very real world, those challenges deepen our faith and they can draw us closer to Him.

Now that's a pretty deep subject and perhaps a subject that somebody might want to dig more deeply into.

We've touched it, we've scratched the surface as it were, but it's an important 1.

There is a companion book to this quarter's Sabbath school lesson that's called The War Between Good and Evil.

It's a supplement, a companion to what we're studying in this quarter's lesson.

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Series

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

02 The Central Issue: Love or Selfishness?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

InVerse 1st Quarter 2026: Apologetics

12 Doomsday Cults

29m

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

02 The Central Issue: Love or Selfishness?

29m

Born of One Blood

42m

Eric Walsh Weekend

01 Purified in Persecution

1h 1m

Acts

Persecution, Prayer, and Power

53m

InVerse 1st Quarter 2024: Jesus & Liberty

06 The Coalition Against Christ

28m

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

43m

What Will You Do at Midnight?

1h

Seminars

Like Cats and Dogs: Navigating Differences of Opinion in the Remnant Church

1h 19m

The Tides of Change Part 1

53m

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2021: Romans

08 Inseparable Love

27m

Sound Doctrine