GYC Conference 2024: Wherever He Goes

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The Everlasting Gospel for These Last Days

Norman McNulty

01 Earnestly Contending For the Faith

It's great to be with you here at GYC, and I appreciate you coming out to this seminar on contending for the faith.

We're going to be looking at the gospel issues for these last days.

So I'm going to have a prayer and then we are going to get started.

Father in heaven I just thank you so much for bringing us to GYC.

We thank you for the blessings that we've been receiving already.

And Lord, I just pray in a special way that you would speak through me now that What is shared would be clear and that you would be glorified through what is presented So I pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Norman McNulty.

I'm a neurologist practicing in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, I graduated from Loma Linda about 20 years ago.

And I went to the first GYC's way back in the day and now I'm old enough that I'm bringing my oldest daughter to GYC.

And we have some important things to be looking at over the next 5 sessions, because we are living in very momentous times.

And The reality is we are living in unprecedented times.

And as Seventh-day Adventists, we want to be standing with God for what he wants us to be standing for.

And so we are going to be talking about what it means to earnestly contend for the faith.

Now I'm going to start, this is a picture of the San Joaquin Valley, and I got this from a book by a good friend of mine, some of you may know Lewis Walton, I have this book here in my hand, it's entitled In Name Only.

Lewis Walton is a family friend, he wrote this book, it was published this year, and I have a special appreciation for him and his family because his father was responsible for bringing my father into the Adventist faith.

So I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Brother Walton's father-in-law.

And he tells this story of flying home from doing a set of religious liberty meetings up in northern California way back in 1986 when I was 9 years old.

And he's flying back over the San Joaquin Valley And he writes this in his book of some of the thoughts that are going through his mind.

He's thinking about how the 4 angels are holding the 4 winds, but how sometime soon Jesus is going to come back and he gets this sense of inspiration.

And I'm going to put this quote up on the screen from his book, pages 8 and 9, where he has this sense of urgency where he says, maybe the time has come when we can finish the work.

And notice what he says, but we won't of course.

We will find ourselves in a new century, so we get to the year 2000.

In a time of uncertain food supply of once beautiful cities, a wash and use needles embracing crime, of a resurgent right that urges a mixture of religion and politics opposed by an angry left we're seeing as believing leaving themselves vulnerable to the supernatural." Now notice what he says next.

He's like, in us we will find ourselves questioning the spirit of prophecy, the 2300 year prophecy, our role in the 3 angels' messages, even an imminent advent.

And that's the question that we should be asking ourselves this morning.

It's the question that we should be asking ourselves going forward.

What has happened to God's last day church?

Are we as Seventh-day Adventists any different than the world around us.

You know, sometimes I wonder if we fight amongst ourselves as much as secular politicians are fighting with each other.

Are we committed to the real message that God has given to us as Seventh-day Adventists, or have we become so mixed up with the secular world that the secular world influences how we relate to each other in the church.

So we're going to be talking over the next several sessions about earnestly contending for the faith.

And the question is, what are we fighting over and what should we be fighting for?

And so we go to this very famous verse in Revelation 12 17.

I think we probably all know this verse by memory.

If you have your Bible I invite you to open, but Revelation 12, 17 says, "'And the dragon was wrath, or enraged with a woman, "'and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, "'which keep the commandments of God "'and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.'" Now, a lot of what we are going to be looking at over the next 5 sessions relates to what is in this Bible verse because the terms of engagement in this battle that Satan is fighting against God's last day people has to do with the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

If you want to know what the war in heaven was about, it was about the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And if you want to know what the war is about in God's last day church, it's about the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And as Seventh-day Adventists, these are the things that we should be willing to die for.

The commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Because Satan is targeting the woman, the church, that keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ.

I want to read an interesting statement to you, Review and Herald, May 6, 1909.

Ellen White says, I have been shown that evil angels in the form of believers will work in our ranks to bring in a strong spirit of unbelief.

Let not even this discourage you, but bring a true heart to the help of the Lord against the powers of satanic agencies.

Now we have to remember, yes, Satan is a powerful supernatural being, but You know how much power Satan has against the faithful child of God who's connected to the Lord?

We can, by the grace of God, through the power of God, defeat every device of Satan.

But we have to realize that Satan is working through people in our ranks.

And we see how he works through people in our ranks when we see what Satan is targeting.

And what Satan is targeting are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The subject of this great controversy war.

That Greek word for war in Revelation 12 17 is the word polemos.

Those of you who have studied these things know that know about this, but it's an important point.

This is the root word for the word polemical, or being argumentative.

Yes, there may be, in some sense, physical conflict as we get towards the end, But this war is a war of words.

And it's the same word, this word war against the remnant is the same word when it says in Revelation 12, 17, there was War in heaven.

Now remember, we're earnestly contending for the faith.

When we see that there's war against the remnant church, you know, it's interesting, you look at Revelation 12, 17, it says there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels.

The word is war, it's a polemical war, it's a fight, it's a war over words, but if you just kind of casually read Revelation 12 7 you might think that it was a physical conflict in heaven.

Now the speaker last night, Cameron DeVasier, did a beautiful job painting a picture of what the war in heaven was about.

And you don't see specifically or explicitly what the war was over until you get to Revelation 12 17 where God has a people and you see Revelation 12 17 is this grand climax where we start off with a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and then she brings forth Christ, who is this man-child who is caught up to God and to his throne, and then the woman flees into the wilderness.

Well, the woman who is the church who birthed Christ is the woman that Christ came to save, and she is the object or the the battlefield where Christ has a people on the earth who stand for what the government of God stands for in heaven.

So it would make sense that if there was a war in heaven and there is a war against the woman, the remnant, in Revelation 12, 17, that the battle or the terms of the engagement would be the same.

And what the war in heaven was about was the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Now, we don't have Jesus, other than the 33 years and his teachings in scripture, we don't have him here on this earth in person.

The angels had the testimony of Jesus in person.

Satan fought against the law of God and the testimony of Jesus in heaven, and that's what he's fighting against on this earth.

So we have the privilege of being God's end time remnant church, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

It also should make you realize that we then become a target of the dragon.

I'd rather be a target of the dragon than to be his ally.

And if God is on my side, Satan, you can come after me all day long, I've got Jesus with me.

Because the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus are the identifying marks of the people who Satan targets and they are the identifying marks of the woman, the remnant of her seed that represent the body of Christ.

Now let me say something very clearly, When you study the book of Revelation, there are not 8 churches.

We are the end-time remnant church and we are also laity see and you know I've been a Seventh-day Adventist my entire life.

And I could tell you plenty of stories of the enfeebled and defective aspects of the remnant church.

We could have a field day if we wanted to, but you know why I don't do that?

It's because this is the body of Christ and this is the object upon which Christ bestows his supreme regard.

02 The Righteousness of God Revealed

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for bringing us to GYC.

Thank you that you have given us the good news of the everlasting gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ for these last days.

And I pray that as I share on this topic, that you would speak through me and that the message would be clear.

I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

You know, the purpose of the gospel as defined in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, the Apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Now verse 17 goes on to say, why does the gospel have power and why is he not ashamed of it?

Verse 17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith.

So and it's revealed from faith to faith.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has power because the just who live by faith, or the righteous who live by faith, have the righteousness of God revealed in them." Now, the evangelical world today says, oh, the gospel of Christ is the righteousness of God declared.

But the Apostle Paul says, yeah, it's a declaration, but it's a declaration because of a revelation.

God declares that which He has made to be so.

And so that's what we're going to look at today, the righteousness of God revealed.

Revelation 14, 6 and 7, we have been given a commission to preach the everlasting gospel for these last days.

And we have been given a commission to preach the everlasting gospel.

We have been given a commission to preach the everlasting gospel, the good news in which the righteousness of God is revealed.

The gospel is to be preached as a witness and when the gospel is preached as a witness the earth will be illuminated with the glory of God's character." You know the Gospel is not simply a proclamation.

What gives the Gospel power is the demonstration of the Gospel in the lives of those who proclaim it.

You know when I read Hebrews chapter 8 in the previous presentation where God writes His law into our hearts and minds and then Hebrews 8 verse 11 goes on to say, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord.

For all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest." You know why all know the Lord?

Because God's law written in the heart and mind becomes a demonstration for the world to see.

1 of the reasons why we have to work so hard to preach the gospel right now, is that we're not so much a demonstration of that which we preach.

So we preach truth, but then we have inconsistencies in what we say versus how we live.

And so people are attracted to the truth, but they're like, well how come if you believe this, that you live like this?

But at the end of time, when the latter rain is poured out, and the latter rain is poured out upon those who obey, and obedient people who have the law of God written in their hearts and minds will be a living witness of the Gospel.

So, the everlasting Gospel is at the heart of the 3 angels' messages.

It is the same Gospel from Genesis 3.15 and Genesis 15.6 as it is in the New Testament.

God puts enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman.

In Genesis 15 6 Abraham believed in the Lord and God counted it to Him for righteousness.

But we see that story in the New Testament.

It's a Gospel that saves us from our sins, not in our sins.

What kind of a Gospel would we have if we went to prison and talked to those who had committed grievous crimes, good news, Jesus saves you.

And the prisoners say, praise the Lord, we also want to be delivered from this prison and go and live for Him.

And we said, that's okay, if you go out from prison, you're gonna live the life that you lived before.

But Jesus saves you as long as you believe.

We not only want to be delivered from the penalty of sin, we want to be delivered from the power of sin.

The other thing is we want to have assurance that God truly forgives us.

So, we believe in forgiveness and deliverance.

This is a different Gospel than the mainstream Christian Gospel that comes from the fallen churches of Babylon.

Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3, verses 3 and 5 that 1 must be born again to be saved.

He said, except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

And as I said, Jesus, Matthew 121 teaches that Jesus will save us from our sins, yet the mainstream Christian gospel teaches that we can be saved in sin.

Yes, our life improves, but there is still sin in the life.

Now we're going to talk about this tomorrow morning especially, But there was a book that came into the Adventist Church in the 1950's called, Questions on Doctrine, which tried to meld, or merge, Adventist theology with the evangelical gospel.

And then we're going to talk about Desmond Ford tomorrow in greater detail as well.

He took the next step and the thought is that if we're sinners by nature we will be sinning till Jesus comes, therefore mediation cannot close at the end of probation and the investigative judgment.

And so he said 1844 doesn't make sense how could there be in an investigative judgment if you're a sinner by nature?

I mean probation closes and you're still a sinner by nature and the Bible clearly teaches that we don't put on an immortal body until we're changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump when Jesus comes.

So Jesus stops his work of mediation when he stands up and says he that is unjust let him be unjust on he which is filthy let him be filthy still.

He that is righteous let him be righteous still.

He that is holy let him be holy still." In the 7th Adamas we clearly understand that's when the work of Jesus ends in the most holy place and there is this period of time between the close of probation and the Second Coming where the righteous go through Jacob's time of trouble and the wicked go through the 7 last plagues and God produces a demonstration of what His power has produced in sinful human beings." But if you believe that you are a sinner by nature you'll be like, well you're still sinning, because your nature is sin.

And so Desmond Fort said in 1844 in the investigative judgment makes no sense.

So his Gospel teaches that by nature we will sin till Jesus comes, thus we can only be saved by a gospel that covers us, but that can only partially change us.

Now the reason why I'm mentioning this is because some of the gospels that we deal with today that are deceiving especially some of our young people, accept these premises at their foundation.

And when you accept these premises at their foundation, then you start to take things to their logical conclusion, well if we're going to be sinning until Jesus comes, then why does it matter how I live?

And what they say is, yes, our life is improved by following Jesus, however, sin remains but does not reign, and I talked about this in the last session.

This gospel teaches that we are saved only by a legal justification.

It is only a fruit and it will never be complete.

So, we're going to look at what the Bible says.

Now remember, we're here to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

How do we contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints?

Through the word of God and through the testimony of Jesus.

This gospel that promotes forgiveness with only partial transformation is incomplete.

It leads to a lowering of standards in the church.

Now I'll be quick to add, standards do not save us.

But our attitude about standards can cause us to be lost.

Well it's like, okay I'm saved by grace through faith, so if I'm saved by grace through faith, so if I'm saved by grace through faith, then we can start asking bad questions.

They're not always the wrong question, but a lot of times they are, and the question goes like this.

So we ask the question, is this a salvational issue?

Now let me just do something kind of extreme.

And then we go down and then we say, well, we won't say pork, what about if it's something less than that?

And then before you know it, the standard gets lowered so that we were just only talking about this minor issue and then a generation later A false gospel has led the church completely away from Jesus because here's the deal.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Every truth in scripture is related to Jesus.

You can make standards into a legalistic set of rules where you don't ever talk about Jesus.

But if you know Jesus and you love Jesus, then every part of your life is going to be surrendered to Him.

So if you ask the question, is this a salvational issue?

It raises the question whether you are surrendered to Jesus.

Now if you honestly come to Jesus and say, Lord, do you want me to give this up?

But when we come to the church board meeting and we're like, come on, is that a salvational issue?

If you're honestly in your heart of hearts saying, Jesus, do you want me to give this up, or is it okay?

I'll surrender this to you, I'm just not sure.

03 From Questions on Doctrine to Desmond Ford

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us to GYC.

We thank you for the powerful blessings we've been receiving.

Thank you for the message we just heard from Charissa Tarosi in the main hall.

And I just pray now that as we go through this seminar presentation that you would guide my mind as I speak.

I pray that things would be clear and understandable, and that we would continue to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

So for those of you who have come, and for those who have not, just to summarize where we've been so far, we started off with an overview yesterday morning in our first session, talking about the need to earnestly contend for the faith, that we are in this controversy, this warfare with the dragon who is targeting the remnant church who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.

And those 2 items, obedience and the spirit of prophecy, are under attack.

And as Seventh-day Adventists, we should be contending for the faith in the grace of Jesus that we understand that by the grace of God, there will be a people at the end of time who keep the commandments of God, as there have been obedient people since the gospel has been given.

And then in our second message, we went through a description of what the gospel is, how the gospel works, how Jesus saves us, how he forgives us, how he cleanses us, how he empowers us.

And what we're going to look at in our next 2 sessions are how the devil has made war against the commandments of God, against the concept of obedience.

And we saw yesterday that the word for war in Revelation 12 17, it's also in Revelation 12 7, is the Greek word polemos, So it's a war of words, it's a war of arguments, and the devil uses arguments to attack the concept of obedience.

And what we're going to look at in this first session is a historical study of an attack that came into the church that has paved the way for an understanding of other false gospels since that time, where you had a bit of a dip and there's been further dips that have gone down the line so that by the time we get to our next session, which we're going to be talking about love reality in the next session this morning, we're going to see how the foundation was laid for us to get to the point where we can say, you know, we don't even have to worry about forgiveness or obedience or anything.

I mean, so that's kind of the path that we're headed this morning.

But this morning, this first session this morning, We're going to look at the history of Questions on doctrine now and then we're going to end up with Desmond Ford.

So on the picture you see maybe not the greatest pictures, but you have the original version of Questions on Doctrine in the green cover, and then there's the reprinted edition in the upper right-hand corner, which is the annotated reprinted edition, which was published in 2007.

It was like brand new seemingly yesterday to me.

It was published in 1957 by Representative Seventh-day Adventists.

It was republished, I guess, in 2003 by Andrews University Press as an annotated edition, and it was reprinted ahead of the 50-year anniversary.

That was the idea behind the reprinting of it, was that it would come out, So I misspoke earlier when I said it was 2007, it was 2003 that it was reprinted.

And here's what we see on page X113, of the introduction of the annotated edition, which says, Questions on Doctrine easily qualifies as the most divisive book in Seventh-day Adventist history.

A book published to help bring peace between Adventism and conservative Protestantism, its release brought prolonged alienation and separation to the Adventist factions that grew up around it.

And the reality is there are different versions of Adventism that have existed since this time.

So let's go through the history a little bit further.

Unruh, who was president of the East Pennsylvania Conference, this was back in the time where there was the East and the West Pennsylvania conferences, now they just have 1, but back in that time, it was the East Pennsylvania conference and the president of that conference was listening on the radio to a series of presentations on righteousness by faith by Dr.

Donald Barnhouse, an evangelical, he was editor of Eternity magazine and leader of American Protestantism's conservative wing.

So you know for a lot of us today we would consider this version of Christianity to be a version of Christianity that we would largely identify with when it comes to values and things of that nature.

So it becomes attractive when you hear somebody from that type of a background sharing messages on righteousness by faith, and seemingly there seems to be points of agreement.

Elder Unruh, the president of East Pennsylvania, reached out to Donald Barnhouse commending him for his sermons on righteousness by faith.

Now in 2024 it's not so surprising if you hear Seventh-day Adventists say, wow, I heard this Christian pastor from such-and-such Sunday church, and I've just never heard a better gospel presentation.

Because a lot of Adventists see the gospel very similar to first day Christians now, but back in 1957, that was kind of surprising.

In fact, Barnhouse himself was astonished to be commended by an Adventist minister as he believed it to be a well-known fact that Adventists believed in righteousness by works.

So in Barnhouse's mind, wow, a Seventh-day Adventist thinks that my view of righteousness by faith is commendable, those guys are legalists.

Unruh invited him to have lunch and also sent him a copy of Steps to Christ as a launching point for discussion.

Now, how many of you have read the book Steps to Christ?

How many of you have been blessed by the book Steps to Christ.

It's the best extra-biblical source on righteousness by faith that's out there.

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Series

The Everlasting Gospel for These Last Days

01 Earnestly Contending For the Faith

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

01 Earnestly Contending For the Faith

1h 1m

02 The Righteousness of God Revealed

59m

03 From Questions on Doctrine to Desmond Ford

56m

04 The Latest in New Theology

57m

05 Christ in You: Illuminated With His Glory

1h 1m

Sound Doctrine