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Gateway Adventist Centre

Bible Weekend

Eric Walsh

04 Cursing the Culture

So, again, this is going to be maybe the most challenging session for today, maybe even for the whole weekend.

And it is something that is a necessary topic for us to discuss as we are dealing with prophecy in the end time.

Our scripture reading comes from Job chapter 31 and verse 1.

The Bible says, I made a covenant with mine eyes, Why then should I think upon a maid?

Our message this Sabbath afternoon is entitled, Purity and Prophecy, Cursing the culture.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word and to go deep into this challenging subject.

I pray now Lord for an extra outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

Specifically Lord, I pray now that you bind Satan, bind his demons, cast them far from this place, Lord.

Send angels that excel in wisdom and strength to be given charge over us now.

And Lord, let your Holy Spirit do his work among us now.

So if you have your Bible, we're gonna go to Genesis.

Sorry, I meant to pick this back up, but I was holding this.

And just some background, so you remember the story of Joseph.

Joseph was the son of his father's favorite wife.

Therein lies the first part of the problem in the story.

Now, my wife and I have an ongoing joke about Leah and Rachel.

The Bible says she was cross-eyed, and so wasn't as desirable for Jacob.

Now, that doesn't mean some other man might not have loved her.

He wakes up after his wedding day, thinking he's married to the presumably prettier sister, and finds Leah in bed.

But the Bible tells us she has trouble having children.

The sisters go into a war of children, literally, with Leah having children, then Rachel giving her handmaid, Leah giving her handmaid, and before long, he's got all these kids, 10 of them, 10 boys.

Finally, Joseph is born to Rachel, and he favors Joseph.

Joseph gets the designer coat of many colors and his special instruction with his father in the tent and his brothers do not like it.

They become so jealous that his brothers actually plot to kill him.

And I believe it was Judah who stopped it and said, why kill him?

We'd be better off selling him to the Ishmaelites, their cousins.

And so he sells them, they sell him to the Ishmaelites, he's taken to Egypt and do you remember whose house he winds up in?

Here Joseph goes from being the favorite child to a slave.

I know we don't have time to go through the whole story but we'll go through the story here.

The Bible says, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him off the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was prosperous, he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

Joseph was so in touch with God that even enslavement in Potiphar's house did not stop God's blessings from flowing to Joseph.

Here's what's deep, The blessing doesn't just flow to Joseph.

It flows through Joseph To the point where Potiphar's house is blessed because Joseph is a slave in it.

Somebody here does not like their job But guess what if you are in Christ God's blessings ought to flow through you into your workplace Now verse 4 and Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had he put into his hand.

In other words, Joseph had access to all of Potiphar's checkbooks, he had all of his passwords to all of his online banking, everything that Potiphar had, Joseph had access to it.

So much so that in verse 5, it says, and it came to pass from the time that he had made him oversee in his house and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake.

And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house the Bible says and in the field and he left all that he had in Joseph's hand and he knew not all he had he did not know how much he had Save the bread which he ate and Joseph was a goodly person and well-favored.

Potiphar trusted Joseph so much he didn't even know how much was in his bank accounts.

And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph.

All of a sudden all of the prosperity, all of the good we was reading about, it gets a little bizarre here.

And all of a sudden his wife casts her eyes upon Joseph and she says to Joseph, lie with me, sleep with me, is what she says.

But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master wadeth not what is with me in this house.

In other words, my master doesn't even know how much he has in the house under my control.

And he has committed all that he has into my hand There is none greater in this house than I neither have he kept back anything from me, but thee because you are what?

Because you are his wife here's what Joseph says that is profoundly the groundwork for our talk today He says how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against who?

And sin against God Here's the first lesson of the afternoon Sexual sin is a sin against God.

You see Joseph had he slipped and fell or slept with this woman, you could argue he would have sinned against Potiphar and against his wife, maybe even against his family and his tradition, Joseph's family, Jacob and all.

But like David in Psalm 51, David after he has slept with Bathsheba, had her husband killed, David in Psalm 51 says, against thee and thee only God Have I sinned?

There's something different about sexual sin In fact, the Bible says it is the only sin that you commit and you do it with your own body.

He says, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

And this is a challenge, especially to men, but I would argue it's to everyone.

And I like this picture because the woman is wearing this big thick coat and the man is still Checking her out as if he has x-ray vision You see there is a war for your mind young people There is a war for your mind.

The great controversy that we talk about is not simply fought in the heavenly realm.

It's not that demons and angels are going back and forth against each other, but inside our minds, in our heads, in the frontal lobe of our brains, there is a battle for eternity going on for each and every 1 of us.

This is why Job said, I made a covenant with mine eyes.

Job says, look, I made a covenant with my eyes that I, in some Bible translations read it this way, that I would not look lustfully upon a young woman.

Matthew 5 says it like this, you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not commit adultery.

Jesus says, but I say unto you that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And then he says, if they I offend you pluck it out, cast it from you, for it is profitable for you to for the for that 1 of my members should perish and not that whole body should be cast into hell verse 30 and if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee.

For it is profitable for you that 1 of your members should perish and not the whole body should be cast into hell.

Jesus is saying, listen, if the problem is your thoughts through what you're looking at or the actions of what you're doing, that must be cast away.

And he's not saying cut off your hand or cut out your eye.

Jesus seems to understand some of the principles that have now arisen in our understanding of how the human brain works and develops.

There's something in our brain called mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons means that when you watch something happen, there's a part of you that thinks it's participating in that thing.

It comes, and there's some good research articles on it, mirror neurons and their clinical relevance.

And it comes from an experiment where they were, they had the monkey, they had him hooked up, the brain hooked up so they could see what parts of the brain activated.

When the monkey was holding the banana, a specific part of the monkey's brain lit up.

When The handler of the monkey held the banana, the same part of the brain lit up.

And scientists began to figure out that there are neurons in our brain, especially when we're little and we're growing up watching people and watching things, that when we see things, it's as if we're participating in what we're watching.

Because when you look at Hollywood, and I don't know if this show ever played in Australia, but these shows were shows that showed womanizing.

01 After the American Election

We have some very serious talks we're going to be doing this weekend.

And so I hope by God's grace we all grow in him because of it.

A little bit about myself for those of you who don't have never heard of me or don't know me.

I graduated from the University of Miami in Florida in the United States after going to 1 of our Adventist schools, Oakwood University in Northern Alabama where I heard some of the great preachers of our day, men like C.D.

If you've never heard those names, write them down, YouTube them.

They're old sermons, but they're very powerful that you can hear.

From there, I went to residency at Loma Linda University, our Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital and Medical Center in California.

And then did family medicine residency with the University of Alabama.

1 of my brothers used to beat Australia up all the time in cricket.

A guy named Courtney Walsh who played for the West Indian cricket team.

Him and guys like Viv Richards and Brian Laura used to have a field day here in Australia and New Zealand.

I told, what's the name of the New Zealand pastor that punched me when I told him?

Yeah I told him who my brother was and he punched me because he beat New Zealand so many times.

But I tell you all that to tell you, I come, I actually really come from a very humble beginning.

But God will take care of you if you put your trust in him.

1 of my favorite Bible verses, since we just sang such a beautiful song about the Sabbath, is the verse that says that if, God says, if you call my Sabbath a delight and turn your foot away from doing your own thing, he says he will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth.

And I come from very simple beginnings, single mom, and I've sat with Chinese dignitaries in Beijing from the Chinese Department of Education when I was working with the Bush administration, President Bush's administration in Washington, D.C.

I have been able to sit on committees at the top levels in the United States.

And the 1 thing I will tell you is nothing has brought me more joy than being able to represent Christ in every circle I enter in.

And that's why some of you young people are here, because God is going to send you into circles where your influence is going to reach people for Christ.

You'll hear more about me I guess as we go on through the weekend, but I do want to talk about the recent election and I haven't, this is not even a talk I did, I've done in America yet.

I've done some other talks post-election, but this was such a big deal that I believe it warrants us looking at what are the prophetic ramifications of this last election.

So we'll go to Daniel Chapter 2, and I'm going to use a lot of prophecy this weekend I think it's important as I'll show you that you understand Bible prophecy and we'll come back to why that is in a second but Daniel chapter 2 verse 20 and 21 the Bible says Daniel answered and said blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his.

Then he says this, and he changes the times and the seasons, He removes kings and what does he do?

He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.

So our talk tonight as we adjust before the Sabbath hours, after the American election, prophetic ramifications, and specifically, how do I apply all of this to my life?

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, I ask once again that you just nail me onto the wall, use your Holy Spirit as the hammer and like a nail Lord nail me nail me into the wall and I ask that you just hang a portrait of Jesus Christ on that nail.

I ask for an extra outpouring of your Holy Ghost and ask that he lead us into all truth.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

So I normally start with a Bible story, but tonight I want to just show you why this is so important prophetically.

Before the election, this is 1 of the polls that was done.

It says, Americans are more likely to say, upcoming presidential election is a significant source of stress.

And if you were in the United States in the months leading up to this election, it was chaos.

1 of the allegations made after the terrible hurricanes whipped through parts of America that 1 of the people who worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA in the United States, actually directed people that if they saw Trump signs in people's yard, not to help them.

There's a government employee that is alleged to have done this.

And they were saying things like democracy is in the balance and da, da, da.

They say that every election, but they said it again.

What America can expect after Donald Trump's election.

We were told that it was going to be neck and neck, that it was going to go right down to the wire, and it was a blowout.

People started telling, saying they're going to move to another country.

Nobody believed it would happen the way it happened.

Overall, there's a modest uptick in public satisfaction with the state of the country driven by Republicans.

So, if you guys know in America, the Democrats are kind of like the ones that lean to the left.

The Republicans lean to the political right.

The Republicans won, and they're so happy that overall the whole country looks a little happier.

Republicans are overwhelmingly excited and relieved about Trump's win, while Democrats are disappointed and angry.

And this is all on TV, you watch the news, there are people really angry, calling people names, it's really bad.

Whole groups of people, It is a shocking thing to see kind of this devolution almost of societal norms and this Thanksgiving, his was crazy.

Now I can tell you I'm an independent, I'm a registered independent voter in the United States.

1 of the ladies on a network called MSNBC actually told people if their relatives voted for Trump, don't have Thanksgiving dinner with them.

Don't have Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner with them if they voted for.

She said to tell them to go make their own food if they voted for Donald Trump.

And as Christians, I think we have to realize that when you see vitriol like this in the public arena, understand that prophetically, we are told that vitriol will 1 day come against us.

So never be too happy, as a Christian you're smarter than to be like this side won, I'm going to cheer for them, or this side lost and I'm sad with them.

You've got to understand, as we're going to talk about tonight, your role as a Christian is very different than that.

Here's how US presidential elections work.

This is from the World Economic Forum, an article from November 6th, the day of the election.

And they say here, ideological and cultural divisions, The US presidential vote came in a historic year for elections.

So around the world, more than 2 billion people are set to vote in 50 countries this year.

The vote also came as experts are increasingly sounding the alarm on political and societal, listen to it, polarization in the United States and where else.

02 Answering False Doctrines

And we really do want to turn our eyes towards Jesus.

And we're going to just talk a little bit about, there's so many different things I could have talked about in this session.

Our scripture comes from Romans 6, verse 23.

The Bible says, for the wages of sin is what?

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And this session is more of a Bible study for Sabbath school time and it's entitled Answering False Doctrines.

Father God we thank you for this opportunity to study your word and I ask Lord now that you send your Holy Spirit lead us into truth And Lord we ask that as we study the Bible the words of Scripture will not only convict, convert, but Lord they would also encourage.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name, amen.

All right so I'm gonna go to Matthew, I'm gonna go quick because I know we're a little behind.

Matthew 19 verse 16 and 17 the Bible says and behold 1 came and said unto him good master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

And if you are in a secular setting, this is a question a lot of people ask.

They want to know what happens after they die.

How do they secure a good place after they die for eternity?

Verse 17, Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

But if you will enter into life, do what?

And you have to ask yourself, why does Jesus push back on him a bit and say, hey, don't call me good.

Some people try and turn this into a false doctrine and say, because Jesus said this, he can't be divine.

There's 1 great false doctrine that's circulating now.

And that 1 is there is a move towards kind of removing the deity of Christ.

But the Bible says in John 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word what?

Verse 14 says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus is God made audible, he's the word.

Hebrews 1 tells us that he is also God made so that we could behold his, behold him.

He is that aspect of God that mingles among men, Emmanuel, God with us, that we can see him, hear him, touch him, and the reason for Christ's incarnation and manifestation on earth is so that we would see God's character in action on earth among men.

So when you study, I always tell people the first book of the Bible if you've never read the Bible The first book of the Bible to read is the book of John it reveals God's character through the life of Christ Right.

So here he is he says if you if you will enter into life keep the commandments.

Now there are people who will tell you that you can enter into life and ignore the commandments of God.

That is 1 of all the false doctrines going around.

Verse 18, he said unto him, which Jesus said, he said to him, which, so Jesus says back to the guy, you shall do no murder.

Obviously don't kill people and that doesn't, I wish I had more time, Not committing murder isn't simply the physical act of taking someone's life.

It is also the act of insulting and belittling and destroying a person's essence or being.

You can murder with your tongue like you can murder with a gun.

Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Jesus speaks to this man the last 6, the second half of the 10 Commandments, which is the part that says love your neighbor as yourself.

This shows you, sure, but there are people who say You don't have to keep the commandments anymore.

Jesus said there are only 2 great commandments.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and your neighbors and yourself.

And they say, that's all the commandment you need.

But Jesus here is good at defining the commandment.

And so he says, thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself.

He summarizes it to show you that it is the last 6 of the 10 Commandments in that statement.

Verse 20, the young man said unto him, the young man is happy now.

All these things have I done, have I kept from my youth, what lack I yet?

I mean you could see the the kind of the arrogance the bravado on this young man he says ah it's good stuff I've never been upset with my parents haven't killed anybody never stole anything I've done it all what do I lack Jesus verse 21 Jesus said unto him if you will be what isn't that a profound statement It speaks to the doctrine we're going to talk about today if you're going to be perfect Go and sell that you have give it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven and then do what?

And come and follow me He says separate yourself from worldly things, allow what you have to help other people, give it to the poor, and follow me.

And what is the result of that Jesus says?

But this is a word, perfect, that when Adventists use it sometimes we have abused the use of the word perfect but Christ is speaking to character perfection if you want a perfect character now let me just spoil alert and plug this in early in the talk There are those who will say perfection in a very works-oriented way.

When Moses was about to die, or not long before Moses died, God told him to speak to the rock and what did he do?

And because of that, Moses was not allowed into the promised land.

He could see everything, but he had to die there on the mount.

Moses messed up and was not perfect in that last little phase of his life.

But the Bible teaches us that still because he was repentant and asked for forgiveness and it was not a something that Moses did all the time, God forgave him and Moses still had character perfection.

How do I know he had character perfection?

Because the book of Jude tells us that when Moses died and was buried, Michael the archangel came and contended with the devil over his body.

Because Moses had made that 1 mistake, he can't go with you.

But Satan was rebuked by Michael, who is Christ, and Moses was taken to heaven.

What we are after is character perfection.

It does not mean that you will not stumble sometime.

But a just man falls 7 times and does what?

He's not made unjust because he fell, but he's just because he gets up like Moses did and keeps moving towards God.

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