How the message of Christ our righteousness saved me and transformed my evangelism ministry.

ASI 2014: Lift Him Up

<p>How the message of Christ our righteousness saved me and transformed my evangelism ministry.</p>

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Seminar: Lift Him Up

Dave Fiedler

Don Mackintosh

Health Message & Righteousness by Faith

Okay, well, our topic today that we were asked to speak on is twofold.

Don't look at the size of the type and assume that 1 is more important than the other.

Either 1 without the other is pretty much dead.

I'm going to have to cover some ground rather quickly.

If I start to rattle and you can't understand what I'm saying, wave a hand at me, and I'll try to slow down a little bit, but we do want to move rather quickly.

We're just going to start off, since we have 2 topics, we're going to start with the health message.

I'm going to assume a considerable level of understanding.

I'm not going to explain what we normally think of as the health message.

I'm not going to tell you what you should and shouldn't eat or how many hours you should sleep.

I do want to start off by pointing out that it was kind of interesting that the health message came to the church just a couple of weeks after we finally got ourselves organized and formally organized as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And it's kind of like the Lord was saying, OK, cool.

Now we're ready to take another step forward.

You finally got your act together and here we go.

And so here's this famous quotation you've probably read this at some time or the other.

Hilliard at Otsego, Michigan June 6, 1863 that the great subject of health reform was opened before me.

It was a big deal at that time, and it remains so today.

It took some time for the church to collectively kind of wrap their minds around this instruction that had been given to them.

I rather suspect there are still things that we need to understand better, but you know, whatever.

Probably though, the central idea, the 1 thing that most people kind of took away from their contact with or their exposure to the health message at that time would be something along the lines of this statement here.

That's because we believe in creation, right?

And as the property of God, it is our duty, as far as possible, to keep our bodies free from disease.

That seems to have been kind of the take-home message, and so we began working on that.

Fortunately, God gave us some instructions so we would have some idea of how to keep our bodies free from disease, because nobody was doing a very good job of that back in 1863.

So the Lord included some of those things that I'm not covering, a healthful dietary and all these other topics.

And so we began to work on keeping our bodies free from disease.

And to a very significant degree, we've succeeded.

We've actually done so well that the world has noticed us.

Adventists in California had a 31% lower risk of developing any cancer when compared to other Californians.

And the studies keep piling up, the Adventist Health Studies.

Adventist Health Studies pointing out interesting things.

I try to follow that and keep up to speed on it reasonably.

I'm not a health professional as such, but I try to keep informed, and it's great stuff.

I do want to point our attention, though, primarily to, oh, 1 more slide.

This came out last month, I think, or something like that.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

But that's not what we're talking about today.

That's not the health message that we're angling towards, let's put it that way, okay?

There's another aspect of this health reform thing that we have not paid nearly as much attention to.

And it's summed up nicely in this statement, the light God has given on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the world.

I get really tired, just to be honest, I get tired of this, yeah, well, you know, what you eat and what you drink is not a salvational issue.

If you want to have a big discussion as to the propriety of eating Linkets instead of Big Franks or something like that, then go ahead.

I don't know that that would be salvational in my book.

But there is something about health reform which is for our salvation.

And that's what we've not paid as much attention to.

But even more interesting to me is the last cause, the salvation of the world.

There's something in health reform for the salvation of the world.

And we've not paid a lot of attention to that.

Okay, well, that's what we're gonna be looking at because it's that aspect that ties health reform to the, I forgot my title, righteousness by faith, there we go.

Okay, it's this aspect that ties health reform to righteousness by faith, okay?

Now if you just go to a good Adventist library and you say, I would like to learn about righteousness by faith.

I don't know how many books there are, how many sermons have been given, how many seminars on this, that, the other aspect of righteousness by faith.

But, you know, as I was actually, wasn't until I was putting this particular talk together that I learned something new.

Ellen White doesn't use the phrase righteousness by faith very much.

That's just not the way she spoke of it much.

If you go looking for things, you'll find that that phrase shows up 56 times on the Ellen White CD ROM.

If you just, you know, righteousness by faith in quotation marks, you get 56 hits, okay?

But 27 of those are in titles or comments written by compilers, so they're probably not her words anyhow.

14 more are occurrences in compilations, little devotional books and things, where it's just coding from an original source.

So that leaves 15 original occurrences of the phrase righteousness by faith.

But only 7, only 7 of those are, those original occurrences are actually noun phrases.

The rest is used by faith as a prepositional phrase.

Now maybe you're not a grammarian, and that's fine, I'll forgive you.

Even though you did have 12 years of English class.

So you may not recognize the difference, but here's the difference.

Steven Grabiner

The Uplifted Lamb

So as I was saying, when we look as Seventh-day Adventists at Revelation, oftentimes, usually, we look at it in a fairly narrow sense, you know, what does this symbol mean in a prophetic way?

There's really a much broader way we can look at Revelation.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were discussing how Ellen White deals with, for example, the 7 churches.

She makes reference to the church of Ephesus in a historic context.

She talks about the first, the church in Ephesus, Revelation 2 in verse 1 and following, and she talks about how Paul founded that church.

But she also talks about the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 in a prophetic way, that they represent the church throughout successive time periods in history, ending of course with the last church, which is Laodicea, which represents us today.

But she also looks at the 7 churches in, let's call it a spiritual or personal way.

For example, the message to Ephesus, you have left your first love, applies to me as well.

And so she looks at the text of Revelation with these 3 levels.

So it's very important for us, particularly as Sempte Adveniste, movement of destiny, to understand our prophetic foundations in Revelation.

But I wanna do something different this morning, this afternoon.

And that is I want to look at Revelation, particularly Revelation 4 and 5, from the angle of what is the story John is trying to tell us.

Now, I like Revelation as a story because we know how it ends and it ends in a good way, right?

And I don't like stories that don't end in a good way, because really, in God's plan, there is a final good ending.

So we're gonna look at Revelation, and I wanna try to get our attention In terms of the setting, what's kind of the background in Revelation 4 and 5?

Who are the actors on the stage, if I can use that perhaps uncomfortable analogy?

As We read Revelation and we see scenery and then different individuals come on the scene.

So what's the setting to Revelation 4 and 5?

What are the main players that come to view?

What's happening in the storyline in these couple of chapters.

And just in the very beginning, it's my argument, my contention, my belief that rightly understood Revelation in its largest sense is talking about the great controversy.

And there's a great issue that needs to be resolved, not just for humanity's sake, but for the universe.

And John, as he wrote Revelation down, clearly John had a vision and he saw and he heard all the things that he wrote.

But we understand from our conception of inspiration that inspiration works on the person.

And so Isaiah writes differently than Ezekiel.

David writes the Psalms differently than Solomon.

And when John wrote the book of Revelation, really it's an amazing composition.

Hardly any part of the book of Revelation is chosen in isolation from another part.

So if I can maybe move away from the metaphor of stage scenery and actors and use the metaphor of a tapestry and think of Revelation as a verbal tapestry and that the words that John uses are verbal threads that connect the entire tapestry together.

So that's what I want to explore this morning, is how John uses this imagery, what's the tapestry picture he's putting together, and what's the underlying story that John's trying to bring out?

And so the question, again, how should we understand the setting, the characters, and the plot in Revelation 4 and 5.

And again, let me just say that as we look at these 2 chapters together, within Seventh-day Adventism, there are different views concerning some of the details.

I'm going to leave some of those detail questions aside and if we get through everything and we have time for questions and answers, we may look at some of those details in greater length.

But you may have a question that comes to mind, well how does this fit?

Just lay the question, write it down, hold it off to 1 side as we kind of go through this.

So Revelation 4 and 5, I like to say, another metaphor, that these 2 chapters form a literary diptych, a two-paneled picture which provide the interpretive key to the book of Revelation.

Revelation 4 and 5 really is the fountainhead of the entire book of Revelation.

So, in Revelation 4 and 5, We have this heavenly scene, we have a scene with a book, the scroll, the scroll begins to get unfolded, which leads us to the seals, which leads us to the trumpets, which leads us to the opening of the sanctuary in Revelation 11, and all throughout the book of Revelation, John draws us back to Revelation 4 and 5.

If you look carefully, the characters, the actors in Revelation 4 and 5 continually reappear throughout the entire book.

The setting continually reappears throughout the entire book.

So how we approach these 2 chapters impacts the interpretation we put on the entire book of Revelation.

I've got a visual illustration for you of an actual diptych.

This is from the, I forgot the year, if it was Jan van Eyck who wrote it.

And then the other half of this panel is a picture of judgment.

So it's a two-paneled picture, it goes together.

There are two-paneled picture, if I can again use that expression.

Let's turn, if you have your Bibles, to Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4, and we're going to read through verses 1 through 6, and then we're just going to kind of ask some questions, I'm going to post some ideas, and then we're going to come back and look a little deeper, and then step back and then look a little deeper throughout our time together.

So Revelation 4, starting in verse 1, and I'm reading from the New American Standard.

Revelation 4, 1, after these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.

Immediately I was in the spirit and Behold a throne was standing in heaven and 1 sitting on the throne.

And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardis in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.

Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.

And there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 7 spirits of God.

And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

And in the center and around the throne, 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

Then John continues and he describes these 4 little creatures, 4 living creatures.

Chapter 4, verse 1 starts with, after these things, after what things?

Throughout the letters to the 7 churches are encouragements.

I know your poverty, but you're really rich.

I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.

There are these encouragements and there are also cautions.

There are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, teaching my people to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit acts of immorality.

And within the 7 churches are also appeals to be overcomer.

To him that overcomes, I will grant to eat some of the hidden manna and I will give him a new name, a white stone rather, and a new name in the stone which no 1 knows except he who receives it.

So, you know, the 7 churches are really dealing with situation here on earth.

And that's 1 of the big themes in the book of Revelation is that there's an earthly view and a heavenly view, an earthly perspective and a heavenly perspective.

And so when John sees this heavenly perspective, our first reading of Revelation 4 and 5 is like, wow, we've been taken out of the turmoil of the world and all of a sudden we're in heaven.

And so when we read that, we come to this conclusion.

And I'm going to quote a few Bible writers, commentators.

He wrote a well-known commentary at the beginning of the last century.

And he said, when you come to Revelation 4 and 5, you have a movement from the failures, troubles, and darkness of this world into an atmosphere of perfect peace.

Leaving the turmoil of the 7 churches and now you're in this heavenly situation.

Another writer, probably mispronounce his name, Laszlo Galus, He's just recently written a book called The Throne Motif in the Book of Revelation.

I'm some of the Adventist he teaches in Bulgaria, I believe.

Ron Duffield

History of God’s Intervention to Bring the Latter Rain

As we begin then today, let's bow our heads and ask the Lord to bless.

And we really want him to be here as we talk about the Holy Spirit.

Father, today we're starting this meeting as others are as well, asking that your Holy Spirit be here.

And Lord, we're not doing that just as tradition.

We truly want you to be here, not just in this meeting, but in this whole weekend with ASI.

Lord, we desire your presence and your guidance.

Help us to understand, I pray, and Lord, especially, I pray you'll guide my words that I will say that, which only you want me to say in Jesus name, amen.

So we're going to start out where I mentioned this last night in introduction to the speakers.

Christ the great teacher had an infinite variety of subjects from which to choose, but the 1 upon which he dwelt most largely was the endowment of the Holy Spirit.

What great things he predicted for the church because of this endowment." And that's really been an interest, I think, to Adventists, is the Holy Spirit, the latter rain.

If you look at Ellen White's index, there's 30 some pages just alone on references for the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit, the subject that Christ liked to dwell on has been an important subject for Adventists since the very beginning.

Now I'm going to tell you, I forgot to tell you, put on your seatbelt because we're going to whip through this program and hopefully we'll make it through as far as we can.

Now I want to spend just a little time as we start talking a little bit about the latter rain and loud cry.

I'm not going to go through the Bible verses.

But I do want to emphasize this 1 point and that is how the loud, latter rain and the loud cry are really closely connected.

Now, Sometimes we talk about them separately.

We say, you know, the loud cry is a message, the latter rain is the power that sends that message.

But like justification and sanctification, you can talk about them separately, but really when you talk about righteousness by faith, They go hand in hand.

You really cannot separate them when it comes to the practical experience of righteousness by faith.

And I believe that's the truth about Lateran and loud cry.

They go together so closely that sometimes those lines are even blurred.

And I want us to maybe see that we move beyond the idea that the Lateran is just this nebulous power.

That it's really connected so closely with this loud cry that it has to do with truth and light and illumination.

Revelation 18.1, even though it doesn't use the word latter rain or loud cry, it's the verse probably that Adventists look at when it comes to talking about the latter rain and the loud cry, describing that time in which the Holy Spirit is poured out and this final message goes to the world.

Revelation 18, 1, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority or power, the King James says, and the earth was illuminated or lightened with his glory.

Now you'll notice other texts in the Bible, we'll just look at this 1, Deuteronomy 32 verses 1 and 2.

This is from the Song of Moses right before Israel crossed over into the land of Canaan on the banks of Jordan.

Give ear, O ye heavens, And I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

My doctrine shall drop as rain, and my speech shall distill as dew, as the small rain, or we would say early rain, upon the tinder herb, and as the showers upon the grass, latter rain.

So again, the early and latter rain is connected, not just to a nebulous power, but it's connected to doctrine, to truth, to illumination about that truth.

So when the louder rain and the loud cry come, they come as a package is what I'm saying.

Now Ellen White talks about this throughout her writings and we could spend the whole hour just looking at some statements on that.

By the way, before I go, I should mention, you know, Joel chapter 2, verse 23, the former reign is referred to there.

The marginal reading is teacher of righteousness.

So the concept there again in Joel that this early latter reign is more than just power, it's the Holy Spirit comes as a teacher of righteousness to illuminate.

Now notice this Elmite writing about the early reign experience.

The Savior knew that when the Holy Spirit should come upon the disciples in full measure, their minds would be illuminated and they would fully understand the work before them and take it up just where he had left it.

So again, the disciples spent 3 and a half years with Jesus.

Somehow, because of their unbelief, some of those things didn't come through.

But after that prayer and upper room experience and the early rain was poured out, it wasn't just power, their minds were illuminated to understand those things which Jesus had been trying to tell them for 3 and a half years, plus much more that he was trying to teach them.

Another statement from Ellen White, when the latter rain comes upon the people of God, you must have a preparation to press right on because those whose vessels are clean, whose hands are free just when the latter rain comes, get the power.

Notice it's get the light that comes from on high and their voices are lifted up, 1 to proclaim the commandment of God and the testimony of Jesus.

So again, The latter rain and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has power, but it's because it's connected with light and illumination.

We have now the invitation of mercy to become vessels unto honor, and then We need not worry about the latter rain.

All we have to do is keep our vessel clean and right side up, prepared for the reception of the heavenly rain, and keep praying.

Let the light of the glorious angel which unites with the third angel shine upon me.

So again, you notice that connection here.

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Series

Seminar: Lift Him Up

Lift Him Up: Evangelism’s Last and Only Hope

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Health Message & Righteousness by Faith

1h 22m

The Uplifted Lamb

1h 17m

History of God’s Intervention to Bring the Latter Rain

1h 15m

Lift Him Up: Evangelism’s Last and Only Hope

1h 20m

Sound Doctrine