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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Randy Skeete

Harboring A Fugitive

Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus.

We ask you, dear God, to look upon us with mercy, with favor, not for our sakes, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Father, if we've offended you, forgive us.

Grant to us, dear God, a revelation of your will for us.

Grant us a clearer view of your love for us, dear God, because as we view your love for us, our love for you grows.

Bless all of us, particularly our guests.

Speak to our hearts, I pray, but not only us, dear God, wherever people are worshiping you on this holy day, Bless them with your presence, I ask.

In Jesus' name, let all God's people say, Amen and Amen.

Our subject for today, Harboring a Fugitive.

Acts chapter 4, reading from verse 13, and I'll be reading from the King James Version Acts is book number 5 of the New Testament Do you have it Not yet.

All right, my brother's honest not yet Acts chapter 4 what verse did I say?

The Bible says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men?

For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

But that it spread no further among the people let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name and they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, judge ye.

But for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." I like that statement in verse 20.

We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

Now this passage reveals to us an unsettling truth.

The agency that is most active in suppressing truth is the church.

Now when I say the church I don't mean the church necessarily as the formal structure.

I'm not saying the church has passed a resolution at the highest level at the GC session to say we will suppress the truth.

The most active agent in suppressing truth resides within the church.

Please don't leave this space and say that Randy Skid said the SDA church is suppressing truth.

I am saying the suppressors of truth are among us and they're part of us and so the Sanhedrin said to the disciples of Christ or they in an attempt to deal with the spread of truth they said a notable miracle have been done by them is manifest it is clear to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it 1 of the purposes for the proclamation of the gospel is not only the baptism of men and women but to make it impossible for anyone to deny having heard the truth so that no 1 is without excuse now having admitted that a notable miracle was performed having confessed that it was so obvious they could not deny it, they proceeded to lay strategy to suppress it.

But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name." man in this name I repeat the greatest damage to truth is done by elements of the church not the world 3 times the Romans said of Christ, I find no fault in him.

Every attempt Pilate made to release Jesus Christ, the church said crucify him.

For the third time at the risk of being tedious, the greatest danger to truth comes from those commissioned by God to proclaim the truth.

That's 1 thing I want you to keep in mind.

Let's go to see something else that we need to keep in mind Matthew chapter 23 reading from verse 29 our subject is harboring a fugitive Matthew 23 reading from verse 29 a very familiar passage in the Bible.

If you don't have a Bible and you sit against to someone who has 1, I think it's safe to assume the person is nice, so you can lean over and read with that person.

It would be tragic if I were wrong in my assumption.

Warn to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the supplicants of the righteous and say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the righteous they're saying if we had been alive hundreds of years when our fathers slaughtered prophets we would not have done that now Jesus says to them be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which kill the prophets fill up therefore the measure of your fathers what Jesus Christ is saying that while you may not physically have slain anyone because your mind is similar to the minds of those who physically killed you are no different from there and you are similarly held guilty And so he tells them in verse 32 of Matthew 23, Filly up therefore the measure of your fathers.

God gives to all men and women a certain portion of probationary time.

And God perseveres and he perseveres until that container is filled to the brim with iniquity and so when God spoke Abraham in a dream in Genesis 15 he said to him in verse 16 but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and God gave them 400 years to fill up the iniquity or to do what was right and so Jesus is telling the Pharisees in his day there is still a little time left you might as well fill up the measure of the guilt of your fathers because you are as responsible for the death of the prophets as they were even though you did not do it physically now in law and I'm not a lawyer but this is called being an accessory and I thought of giving this sermon accessories to murder what is an accessory an accessory is someone who while not being physically present in the commission of a crime, is still regarded as guilty.

By either advising, commanding, instigating, or concealing the chief actor in the crime and therefore is held guilty whether the person commits that act before or after the commission of the crime.

In other words, if you have contributed in any way to a crime, hiding the criminal, advising the criminal, even though you did not commit the crime physically, you may not be regarded as the chief actor, but you are a participant in that crime in the eyes of the law.

Now this is also a biblical principle because the Bible says that those who have pleasure in unrighteousness will be damned, not necessarily committed but simply have pleasure.

By the way, let me say to you, there are many Christians I've heard them say, I don't believe in a homosexual lifestyle, but if you do that's okay.

On any issue with which the Bible has a problem, I don't drink but if you want to drink it's okay.

Sin is not okay in you or in anyone else.

You and I must be offended by sin whether that sin is located in us or in someone else.

And so the Bible pronounces judgment on those who have pleasure in the sins of others.

And so we've looked at Acts chapter 4, we've looked at Matthew 23, in Acts chapter 4 we discovered that members of the church, elements in the church are most active and aggressive in suppressing the truth.

We saw in Matthew 23, 29 to 32 that 1 can be held guilty before God not necessarily because of a physical commission of a crime but by simply having the same mindset.

There are people who will be condemned before God for slavery who never kept a slave because they had the same mind.

There are people who will be guilty of genocide who never slit anyone's throat, but who had the same mindset.

And there are people who will be guilty of aiding and abetting 1 of the greatest enemies of God's people simply because they have a mind that is not contrary to what this enemy does but essentially supportive of.

And I'll explain that in a few minutes, and who the enemy of God's work is.

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, reading from verse 3, come on in those of you who coming in I think they are 1 or 2 isolated seats somewhere second Corinthians second Thessalonians chapter 2 we shall read from verse 3 the Thessalonians had believed that Christ was soon to come and Paul is trying to correct their thinking on the issue of the second coming of Jesus Christ I can still hear the pages turning.

It's good to see children in the house of God.

Alright, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 reading from verse 3, For that day shall not come, except there come be a falling away first, and that man of sin be what?

The son of perdition, who exalteth and opposeth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.

Now it is interesting that Paul says Christ will not come until there's a falling away and that man of sin be revealed.

Why does the man of sin have to be revealed the man of sin has been in power since 538 AD from 538 to today that's 1474 years Let's round it off and call it 1500 years this power has been in the world.

Yet the Bible says he has to be revealed, meaning that while for 1500 years this awesome power has been operating in the world and operating with frightening success yet he has not yet been fully revealed to the world and so they must come a time of revelation but that revelation will come after there's a falling away let me suggest something troubling People in the world don't fall away.

You're well-dressed but you're not listening.

So that the falling away must have to do with people who are in the church.

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Harboring A Fugitive

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