GYC 2013: Before Men and Angels

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Individual Conflict: Victory Over Sin

Kameron DeVasher

01-Questions Angels Ask

This message was presented at the DYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.dycweb.org.

We only have an hour worth to get many, many hours of content done, so we're just going to start with a word of prayer and we're going to be off to the races.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and we're gonna go.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this beautiful, sunshiny, foggy day here in Florida.

And thank you for the safety that you've given us in bringing us together in this place.

And thank you for the opportunity to study these great themes in Christian fellowship together.

And Lord, I would ask now that you would bless our time together.

Lord send out every distraction, help our minds to be clear and focused, help our our thinking to be sharp, and Lord where it needs to let our hearts be softened by your truth.

Help us to understand our role in this and your role in us as we look to hasten the soon coming of Jesus Christ.

Session 1 is entitled Questions Angels Ask.

And to give you a context of what we're doing, I know that the entire theme of this seminar series is victory over sin, the individual conflict, and I don't want to start off with just talking about sin and here's some tips to not sin and do these kind of things.

What I want to do is set the stage and we're going to take some time and understand the great controversy in its larger context so that you can see where you fit into this.

So we're going to start with a big funnel and then bring it down to your particular situation now, relevance to today.

But we're gonna start with the broad context and we're gonna look at it from the biblical perspective and then continue to hone down in the practical application.

So to begin, let's go to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, questions angels ask.

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is having a day of parable giving and teaching.

And there's multiple parables, just a list of parables in a row.

In fact, it's in Matthew 13 that he talks about the purpose of parables.

But in starting with verse 24, we find the parable of the wheat and the tares.

And we're going to find out that this particular parable was especially poignant, was almost, I don't know, disturbing, but it definitely was interesting for his disciples because it touched on a topic apparently that they wanted some more clarity about and it happens to be this great controversy theme.

Matthew chapter 13 starting with verse 24, another parable he put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way." Now I don't think that Jesus ever just shot from the hip or just kind of mouthed off some stuff he hadn't thought about.

Every word here is important so there aren't any extemporaneous words or superficial themes.

Every word in this he's having a very important meaning to so keep that in mind as we keep reading.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

So they are loyal, they work for him, they're his employees, they do his bidding, but they're the ones asking the questions.

Now we know because we've already just read the first part of the parable that the enemy has done this, right?

Did those servants, those men who worked for him, see and understand what was going on with the enemy and when he came in and the seed that he sowed, no.

What they knew is they work for a guy, he's a good guy, good field, nice owner, And he apparently told them that he sowed good seed in his field.

And they look at the field, okay, we trust you.

And I'm guessing the next day, still trust you, still trust you.

But notice how the language says, but when the, verse 26, but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop.

So it starts coming up and they might notice a little and then it gets a little bit more and a little bit more, and finally they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

There's a contradiction between what we see and what you said.

Okay, now we're still loyal, but we have questions.

Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

Notice The implication is, we see this, but you said this, we need a clarification on what you said because it doesn't harmonize with what we see.

Does he say, oh, look, here's the thing, you know, I didn't get it, I just, I messed up this 1 time, but look, we'll work it out.

His very, his only words, an enemy has done this.

How much responsibility does the owner of the field take for the presence of the tares in his field?

First of all, you're asking the wrong, now you can ask me the questions, but I don't like the implicate, I reject the premise of your question.

Now you didn't see it, you're going to have to trust me about that too.

The servant said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up?

We'll work for you." And look at his answer.

Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

Critical, important, cannot be overstated.

What is his reason for not uprooting the tares in that moment?

Because the wheat, it's his concern for the wheat that lets him continue in allowing the tares to grow.

Now this is a radically weird thing when we start making the application in life.

His concern for the wheat dictates his action.

Let both, he says, verse 30, grow together until when?

And at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers Because does the owner of the field do it himself?

Does he do all the hands-on manual labor himself?

Then I will say to the reapers, first gather the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." Now skip over to verse 36.

Of all the parables that Jesus taught that day, 1 they ask a question about, and it's this 1.

Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, "'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.' And he answered them saying, "'He who sows the good seed is the son of man.

And repeatedly in Jesus' ministry, son of man was a self-used moniker for himself, right?

And of course, as it goes on it says, the field is the world.

02-More Questions Angels Ask

This message was presented at the GYC2 thousand 15 conference before man and angels in orlando florida for other resources like this business online at WWW dot DYC web dot org just a quick review and I'll previous session we're talking about the casting out of Satan and the origin of the great controversy within his heart and all of that.

Basically what we said to boil it down in a very, very quick thumbnail.

Lucifer had this war raging in his heart that other people couldn't see, but God could see it, of course, because God can see the heart.

He physically removes him from the courts of heaven instead of destroying him from existence, not because God didn't know what was right or wrong or that He needed to see, but other people needed to see, those other sentient beings, according to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, those who knew you might gaze at you and consider you.

It was not until Calvary when what Jesus and God the Father, what God had seen from the very beginning in the heart of Lucifer manifested itself fully on the outside at Calvary, Right?

And so what you see in Calvary, when Jesus died on the cross, when Jesus died on the cross, there was a full manifestation of the character of God, who would give everything, even his own life, for the sake of others whom he loved, contrasted sharply against the character of Satan, who would take everything, even the life of God, were it possible, to suit his own desires.

And So the heavenly being, those onlooking sons of God, all those intelligences up there, watched Calvary and saw the righteousness of God revealed and they saw the character of Satan unmasked and revealed as well.

White makes statements that say, that even parallel and say, for the second time he was cast out of heaven.

1 from the courts of heaven physically and the other from the sympathies of the heavenly beings who are watching it go on.

Now, I want to share with you this statement.

You won't find it in your notes, but if you want to write it down, it's a good 1.

A friend of mine reminded me of this statement.

If you have the book Truth About angels, you'll find a truncated version of this on page 205, or if you have the Bible Commentary series, it's in the 5th Bible Commentary, page 1132.

White writes, The death of Christ upon the cross made sure the destruction of him who has the power of death, who is the originator of sin.

So it didn't destroy him, but it guaranteed that he would be destroyed.

And we're going to come back to that in just a minute.

But when Satan is destroyed, looking down to the farthest end of it, there will be none to tempt evil, to tempt evil, the atonement will never need to be repeated, and there will be no danger of another rebellion in the universe of God.

That which alone can effectually restrain from sin in this world of darkness will prevent sin in heaven.

We'll come back to these ideas later, but I want to lay the groundwork for it.

The significance of the death of Christ will be seen by saints and angels.

Fallen men could not have a home in the paradise of god without the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and she asked rhetorically shall we not then exalt the cross of christ right so exalting the cross of christ is in the context of the great controversy according to this What's its significance not just to us but to the rest of the universe?

To make this explicitly clear she continues, the angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, now notice this language, for even They are not secure except by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God.

Is it because God has taken away their freedom of choice?

Because they've seen the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure, except by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God.

It is through the efficacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apostasy.

Did you ever think about the death of Jesus on the cross was for them too, even though they had not sinned?

The death of Christ, the cross event, the Calvary, is not just about us.

But we're not the big issue necessarily in the universe.

We're just a part of God's universe, right?

Anyway, again that was signed to the Times December 30, 1889.

So just wanted to segue on the back of that before we launch into stages 3 and 4.

So step 1, Christ physically cast Satan out of heaven, out of the courts of heaven.

Step 2 was cast him out of the sympathies of heavenly beings by demonstrating, by revealing the character of Christ.

Now he could have said, God had by the way proclaimed his character before, hadn't he?

To Moses, it's like, long-suffering, impatient, and have mercy for the...

But they needed to see it, not just hear him say it, right?

Because Satan's a liar and the father of it so Christ reveals it on the cross and in the same act you see the character of Christ revealed to the character of Satan revealed and from that point on The angels of God, those unfallen beings, the sons of God that populate heaven, basically could say, alright, we're with you.

With our consent, Not that you needed it and certainly not by our power, but with our consent we're with you you can kill Satan We get it We understand This makes sense now Which launches us into our next section?

If they understood the character of the enemy at that point, why didn't God kill Satan the instant Jesus died as well?

Why didn't they both die at the same moment?

So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can come together and study these great themes.

Lord, I ask that you bless our time together, sharpen our minds to understand your word and by the power of your Holy Spirit to make application in our lives so that we can find our place in this great controversy scheme before we pray it all in Jesus' name.

Now, if you go back to that original statement by, well let's pause, we'll just go there for a second.

Again I hope that you have notes, they're available.

Okay, we're going to be following this script pretty closely.

If God's only objectives in the great controversy were the revealing of Satan's true character and his resultant destruction, if his only aim was to show people what was really inside of Satan and then kill him as a result of them seeing it, Satan could have been executed immediately after Calvary.

However, praise God, it's not called the plan of destruction.

Something has to be redeemed, something has to be saved for it to be complete.

If it was the plan of destruction, it could have been over 2, 000 years ago.

He doesn't want to just uproot the tares, he also wants to save the wheat.

So, that goes back to Matthew chapter 13.

Again, he allows the tares to continue to increase because he cares about the righteous, right?

So God's ultimate goal, let's take a look at this.

Colossians chapter 1, what's the end game that he's aiming for?

If it's not the destruction of Satan, what is his objective?

And can we demonstrate this from scripture?

Colossians chapter 1, what's the goal of the great controversy if it's not just the destruction of Satan?

Colossians chapter 1, let's go to verse 19.

For it pleased the Father that in Him, again that's Jesus Christ, all the fullness should dwell.

And of course he revealed the character of God.

Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've what?

He's a spitting image, if you want to say.

03-Repopulating Heaven

This message was presented at the gcbc 2015 conference before men and angels in orlando for other resources like this business online at WWW dot g bc web session 3 repopulating heaven what I have on there now I believe this seminar was titled the group that gives in life if I'm not mistaken it's a good title but this is a better time So I just want to switch that out, that's fine.

Honestly, the title I wanted to go with was Life in Satan's Old House.

But maybe that's a little too confusing, too on the nose.

And just Before we have prayer, before we launch into it, let me do a quick review of 1 and 2.

This is a quick 30, 000-foot survey of what we covered in the morning sessions.

Basically, Matthew chapter 13 is the parable that Jesus told that speaks directly to the great controversy of the other parables don't but specifically to the entire spectrum of how did sick people originates with its and again howell it and then what's got the awareness and process of handling it in inside the parable it was revealed that number 1 God takes no responsibility for the existence of evil.

He says an enemy has done this I didn't do it basically but now that it has begun we need to let it run its course don't go pluck up don't go to take up the tares or the weeds we have to let both grow together until the harvest, and then at the time of the harvest, he'll say to the reapers, go and gather all the defense out of my field.

And so of course the reapers are the angels, the harvest is the end of the world, so there is a time coming when God will separate and destroy the wickedness, but now the issue is you have to let them grow together.

And the reason he gave inside the parable of Matthew chapter 13 for this process instead of an event, why not just take care of it in a moment, is because you can't take care of it in a moment.

The nature of the problem itself requires time and maturity and demonstration.

The nature of the problem requires this solution.

It's not just 1 of several solutions, it's the only 1.

In fact, the reason He allows the tares to grow with the wheat is for the sake of the wheat.

He says, lest while you gather them up, you also uproot the wheat with them.

So it's His concern for the wheat, which of course in the interpretation of the parable Jesus says the sons of the righteous 1, or the righteous, it's for the his concern for the redeemed that he allows wickedness to continue for a season, for a time.

Okay, now the reapers are the angels they're the ones who would distinguish between which ones go to the burn and which ones go to the barn.

And if they did too early, they might get it wrong.

They need a time to see the whole thing play out.

And then at the time of harvest, you can say, all right, go gather mine for the barn and go gather the other ones for the burn, bundle them together and throw them in the fire.

So there is a process and it goes back to the great, those great passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel 28 that the reason Satan was simply cast out instead of being blotted out of existence was so that according to Scripture others might see Him, those who knew Him would gaze at Him and see Him for what He was, because Christ can see inside, but we can only see the outside.

Created beings can't look in on the heart, but God can.

So what God knew all along and why he kicked him out physically he had to give him time to produce it externally so that others could see too and in stage 2 by the way stage 1 he was kicked physically out of the courts of heaven step 2 stage 2 and casting out the devil was the removal of him from the sympathies of heavenly beings.

White makes this patently clear, that did not happen until the cross.

4000 years after the fall, there was still some level of sympathy for Satan, even in the unfallen beings.

But when they saw Jesus on the cross, in 1 event, you had the complete revelation of the righteousness and character of God, and at the same time the complete revelation of the wickedness and vileness of Satan and his character.

Christ would give everything, including the life of God Himself if it were possible, to save others for others.

Where Satan on the other hand would take everything, including the life of God itself if it were possible, to suit his own ends.

It was not just for the fallen, but also for the unfallen.

That Jesus demonstrated his love because this was the first time in all of the universe's history when the claims of Christ and the claims of Satan were made manifest.

And people could see for themselves the contrast in character between Christ and his adversary and in that moment People made their final decision.

Ah, aha now they weren't gonna be going over there were loyal to the Lord But they had questions thus the title of the seminars questions angels ask and more questions angels ask So steps 3 and 4, of course the question is why should any of his followers be allowed to live?

And we go through all this exhaustively and of course at the final analysis, at the final step 4, at the end of the millennium, Every being who the Lord ever created, sentient, created intelligences, fallen or otherwise, everyone will have an opportunity to see for themselves the entire great conscience, the entire plan of redemption, everything Christ has done contrasted with the character of the 1 they have followed and the character they have personally developed by following him and See that even if the Lord let them in They wouldn't want it Okay Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Very quickly that was steps 1 and 2 and I see the people are coming in so I'll remind you if you were here for the morning seminars we did run out of notes but those notes have been available so they will be available at the at the desk at the end of the time.

Other than that You should have a session 3 put in your hand right now, and that's what we're about to launch into.

We're going to be looking now at, you know, step 1 happened in the courts of heaven, you know, probably 6, 000 plus years ago now.

And At the end of the thousand years, way off in the future, the millennium will have come to a conclusion, we'll have step 4.

Our life is now that Jesus Christ has revealed who He really is and has given us the power of salvation that Paul says the gospel is.

That's what we're going to pick up today and this afternoon.

Before we get started with that, we'll just briefly bow our heads for the word of prayer and then we're going to go off to the races again.

Heavenly Father, thank you, thank you so much for this opportunity, for this time that you've carved out, this precious little moment in time.

Please be with us now as we study your Word.

Send the same Holy Spirit who wrote it through those gray men of old to now write it in our hearts.

Help us to understand it and more than just intellectually grasping it, Lord help us to have spiritual application so that we may live the truth as it is in Jesus for we pray it in Jesus' name.

Alright, More than merely the destruction, of course, the rest of the mission.

If you have your notes, we're gonna start right here, and this is gonna be our outline.

Jesus says, well, you know, I tell you what, let's start with 1 John chapter 3 and verse 8.

Let's start there, that's not in your notes but it is in your Bible.

We ended on this passage towards the end of the last seminar.

We're going to dovetail into it right now.

Just so you know, I see some seats are available here.

I don't know if we can crowd in and let people have them, but there are people in the back looking for seats and we don't want to, we want to make it, yeah, if we could scooch together, if that's at all possible and make the end available or make sure that they're accessible for those coming in.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning." And notice this statement, for this purpose, and notice the beginning of sin was before the beginning of us, right?

Sin started in the courts of heaven, in the heart of Lucifer, not with the creation week of this earth.

So this is talking about before us, and notice it says, and it is for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

So notice that Jesus coming to the earth, becoming a human, going through his ministry, life and death, all of that he did, had primarily the first step.

Now of course it does involve saving us, that's the very next thing we're getting to, but it had a universal application.

It's for something that started before us, okay?

But it does include us, Thus we go to Luke chapter 19.

Luke chapter 19, Jesus makes this very simple declaration which is good news to all of us.

He says, for the Son of Man has come, for what purpose?

If only destroying Satan was the entirety of God's plan, if merely destroying Satan, I believe it could have happened at the cross.

Jesus revealed his cards, and so by doing, revealed Satan's cards, everything was clear.

Now the heavenly universe could say, all right, now we understand why our old friend Lucifer needs to be ended.

But of course, in my sanctified imagination, I believe the Lord turned around to him and was like, good, Took you 4, 000 years to get on board, but good.

Okay, now what I wanna do is bring some of them, his followers, right back here.

If you bring them here, how will that have solved anything?

Won't we just go through it all over again?

If Gabriel heard that I'm going to be coming and living in heaven in the mansion next door to him, he's going to say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We believe that you're right, but we need to see evidence that this is wisdom, that this plan makes sense.

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GYC 2013 Seminar: The Individual Conflict: Victory Over Sin

02-More Questions Angels Ask

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Recorded

Attachments

Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

04 Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

1h 3m

Plenary

Know Your Enemy

56m

Dennis Priebe Weekend 2007

God On Trial

46m

God is Love?

11-The Day the Devil Dies

1h

GYC 2012 Seminar: Revolutionary Apologetics - The Adventist Edge

Terminating Eternal Torture. Where Adventism and Atheism are Friends

1h 14m

Adventist Apologetics: Complex Issues, Adventist Answers

4. Worst Decision Ever: Why God Permits Evil?

47m

Salvation and the Sanctuary

Salvation and the Sanctuary #4

57m

A Better Way to See Yourself

1h 9m

Repairing the Breach Caused by the Doctrines of Devils

01 The Horrors of Hell

56m

Sound Doctrine