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University SDA Church- East Lansing

David Shin

The Great Controversy

1. The Origin of Evil

2. Behind the Curtain

3. The Lamb and the Law

It was the early 1950s during the Korean War. My grandparents were north of the 38th parallel, and my mom was born during that time. I have a map here on the screen of the famous MacArthur push up toward the northern part of the Korean peninsula. Some of you in this room may remember the Korean War, and you'll remember that the Chinese were concerned that MacArthur was going to push north further into China. And it was during this time that my mother and my grandparents were in the northern part north of the 38th Parallel, which at the time was occupied by the allies. And my mother got sick. She had a symptom that was not able to be treated in the place that they were at. And so called it a miracle, or I believe that it was God's divine providence that through a series of connections, my grandparents were able to connect with the US Army and go to the south southern part of the Korean peninsula. You remember what happened? The Chinese came by the thousands and pushed the allies all the way back down toward the south. And eventually the 38th parallel was locked. No one is able to go north or south. And my grandparents never went back to their home again. I think back, I would not exist cuz my parents met in America. My mom would be in North Korea right now. Who knows if she would be alive? And this is part of the casualties or the collateral damage, I guess you could say, of being born in a war zone. To this day, the 30th parallel is the most militarized area on planet earth. You and I have all been born into a war zone. It's called the Great Controversy. And if you want to understand why we experience so much suffering, so much heartache, so much sin on planet Earth, it is because we are all not by choice. But all of us have been born into the midst of a great controversy between Christ and Satan. Amen. Between good and evil. And we study this in our first presentation, revelation chapter 12, verse seven. I have it there on this screen. And war break broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought. And you remember from our first study we studied that Michael Mickael means one who is like God. And we came to the conclusion by a Bible study that Michael is none other than Jesus Christ. And this war was not a physical war. That's not the way it started. Now, I believe that there were dynamics of a physical war, but if you look at the war word war there in the Greek, it comes from the Greek word PMOs, where we get the word polemic. It was a war of ideology. Satan, Lucifer claimed that he had a better way and he attacked the government of God. He attacked the character of God. And the point of controversy came to be, remember from our first presentation, the law of God, the law of God became the central issue in the controversy between Christ and Satan. Great controversy 5 83. From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven, it has been Satan's purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this, that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven, he continued the same warfare on earth. The controversy centered on the law of God. Have another quotation here, signs of the times, August 27th, 1902. In this controversy much was to be involved. Vast interests were at stake before the inhabitants of the heavenly universe were to be answered. The questions. And notice the nuances of these questions. Is God's law imperfect in need of amendment or abrogation or as, or is it immutable? Is God's government in need of change or is it stable? Satan sought to make it appear that he was working for the liberty of the universe. He was determined to make his argument so varied, so deceptive, so insidious that everyone would be convinced that God's law was tyrannical. This was the central issue in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. And you'll have to remember that never before had anyone known of sin, never before had there been an argument like this before, presented in regards to God's government and God allowed Satan to work out his principles. This was a very difficult decision and you and I have been caught in the midst of this. And we want to pause for a moment and discuss why the law of God was so central to the great controversy between Christ and Satan. You remember back in the Old Testament, the law of God was written on stone, not on paper, not written by man, but by God's own finger onto tablets of stone. And the location of this tablets or these tablets was to be in the arc of the covenant. We'll come back to that in a moment, but the very foundation of God's government was the law of God. Now, why is this so important? In our first presentation, we said that God is love, amen. We're also told in the Bible that God's law is love. Jesus summarized the 10 commandments into two cogent ways of saying it, love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. And these two summarize God's 10 commandments. If you love God, you're not going to have anything else in place of God. If you love your neighbor, you're not going to steal, you're not going to kill, you're not going to lie. And so this is the central aspect of God's law. It is a transcript of his character. So Satan knew that in attacking the law of God, he was really attacking God's character. He was attacking God's foundation of government. Moving quickly on, we know that the infections spread to planet earth. When Adam and Eve sinned, it cast the entire human race into a trajectory of sin and of death. None of us chose to be born, but all of us because of Adam sin are predisposed to make the same decision in rebellion against God very quickly. What is sin? This has been something that has been debated down through the ages. The Bible gives us one definition of sin. Verse John three, verse four, sin is the transgression of the law. Very simple. Sin is breaking God's law. And we know this from salvation. Classes all have sinned. Every one of this, one of us in this room are guilty of sinning against God's law. And the wages of sin is death. So here, Jesus had to make a decision. He could have written off planet Earth as collateral damage and just said, you know what? Tough. And he would not have owed us a single thing. It is in this moment that the universal is able to witness the character of God as never before. And it's in this time that character was revealed. I'd like to illustrate it this way. In a few weeks, I'm going to be at Michigan Camp meeting, but many people don't know that prior to Michigan Camp meeting, there's a time that is required. It's not optional that all of the pastors and administrators are given the pleasure of camp pitch. To put it simply, we have to do manual labor, something that we are not accustomed to be doing. And for whatever reason, since I have been in the Michigan conference, which is going on 11 years now, don't let this baby face fool you. All right? 11 years I've been a pastor, and for the past 11 years, for whatever reason, every single cap pitch, I am put on the state crew, which involves driving six foot stakes. I'm five foot six, so six foot stakes into the ground with a steak pounder. And this is grueling work for hours upon hours, hundreds of stakes. And if you do not put them in straight, they will be all uprooted and you will have to do them again blistering. And they are so loud that you have to put earplugs in your ears hour after hour, steak after steak. And it's every single year that I go to bed and I cannot wake up the next morning and have to go and do the same thing. It seems that on a regular basis that Jay Gallimore, our conference president, who doesn't have to do this, comes down from his golf cart. And I was floored when I saw this 60 year old man grab a steak driver and with us peon pastors Drive those stakes shoulder to shoulder. It was at that point where I said, in prior to ordination where you go, I will go right where you die, I will die and there will I be buried. But I, it communicated a lot. It communicated character that this conference president, the most grueling task during campus, she was willing to come down and drive stakes with us. And it was a huge revelation of character to this poor unordained minister that was just starting out in ministry and in an exponentially greater sense, Jesus came down, amen. The infection spread from heaven down to earth. And he could have just said, you know what? Tough, and he could have walked away, but this is the beauty of the character of God. In the midst of the great controversy, heaven came down and as desire of Asia says, all of heaven was poured out in that one gift of Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter two, verse seven of eight, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is what I want us to recognize here today, and this is the thesis of my entire presentation. That the very fact that Jesus had to die shows how much the law is still binding. Because if the law was not binding, Jesus could have changed the rules, right? The very fact that Jesus had to die in order to meet the claims of the law proves that the law is unchangeable. It cannot be changed. So much so that the penalty of D death has to be paid by none other than the law giver. In order for pardon and forgiveness to be possible, Jesus could have said, you know what? I'm gonna change the rules. You're forgiven. But he didn't do that. The only way to meet the claims of the law was for him to die. We've used this illustration many times in our evangelistic series. It's been a while since I've gotten a speeding ticket. Praise the Lord. A number of years ago when I was a Bible worker in Texas, I went into a construction zone and didn't recognize that the speed limit had changed. I saw a police car passing in this direction and you know you're in trouble when he pa he crosses the median and, and the lights go on. And every time this happens, my heart is pounding. Am I the only one that this happens to? I may be just innocent, you know, I like to think myself, but I, my heart is just pounding. And he pulled me over and this was one of the few times he had me get out of the car, so I'm really scared by this night. He said, please get out of the car, walk to the back of the vehicle. And I didn't bring my insurance papers with me. So I walked to the back and he said, where's your insurance papers? And I said, oh. And in a moment of nons discretion, I ran to the driver's side of the car and he ran with me with his hand on his gun. He ran back with me and he was watching my every move and I was just shaking. And I pulled out the insurance papers and I kid you not, I was going like this and I handed it to him. He went back, checked my record, I was clean. And he said, David, I'm gonna give you a warning. Your ticket is forgiven. Said, praise God. Got back into the car. Now I thought about this. How much did this forgiveness cost? Nothing. Right? The, I've never heard a police officer say to me, David, you are forgiven. I'm gonna pay your ticket for you. Right? Ha. Has anyone ever heard a police officer say that? No. And I came to the conclusion that a speeding ticket in the grand scheme of infractions is not a great thing like murder. Okay? So forgiveness is cheap. In other words, the police officer can forgive you without having to pay the ticket, without you having to pay the ticket. But if you're caught in guilty of murder, the judge is not going to say, I forgive you. Someone has to pay. And it's in the same way that we must recognize that when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty. And that forgiveness is nothing but cheap. Now, if the judge gets up front and says, you know what? You're guilty of sin. You're guilty of the sin of murder and I'm going to serve your sentence for you. He upholds the law while at the same time granting forgiveness. And what Jesus did at the cross is uphold the law while at the same time granting us pardon and forgiveness. I've heard many times in even the Christian community, people will say that the cross did away with the law. It's quite the contrary. Friends, the very fact that Jesus had to die shows that the law is established. The way that we know this is through this passage. Psalms chapter 85, verse 10, mercy and truth are met together. And so in the plan of salvation, Jesus establishes the law justice while at the same time granting each one of us mercy. And we can see this in the sanctuary. Remember from our series, the Cross and the sanctuary. This is a model in kindergarten form of the plan of salvation. You can see it there on the screen and you will notice that there are three compartments in the sanctuary. The most holy place. The holy place, and the courtyard, Adam and Eve, back in iden perfection were right here, face to face, open communion with God. That is where the entire human race comprising of two individuals were in igenic perfection. And the law was right here. The law of God was written in their hearts. It was something that they did naturally. By the grace of God, because of sin, all of us have been placed on the outside. And the plan of salvation is illustrated in the sanctuary. In that God brings us back to God in three distinct stages. The courtyard justification, God delivers us from the penalty of sin. The holy place sanctification. God delivers us from the the character of sin. And then the most holy place glorification. God delivers us from the presence of sin. He does this in three distinct stages. And I want you to notice that when you come into the courtyard, we are outside here. The first thing that we meet is the altar of burnt offering. And this is where the lamb is slain. That is the first thing that we all meet. Now, there's something interesting about all three compartments of the sanctuary that when the lamb is slain, depending on the time of year and depending on the service, the blood is always placed in the courtyard, in the altar, burnt offering. The blood is placed on the altar of incense. And then once a year on the day of atonement, the blood is placed in the most holy place. And this is the lesson that we can bring from this, that the path back to God is through the blood. Amen. It's through the precious blood of Jesus. And that provision has been paid and is freely offered to you and me. Jesus is the second Adam, friends, and it is my appeal to you this morning that none of us will choose not to accept Christ's sacrifice in our behalf. Each one of us can walk out of this room knowing that you are saved, knowing that you have the assurance of eternal life. I wanna invite you to stand with me every head bound and eyes closed as we prepare to pray at this time. And I just wanna make a simple appeal here this morning. My first appeal is this. If there's some area in your life that you want to ask the Lord for forgiveness, and you wanna say, Lord, please cover me by the blood, please pardon my sin. And you wanna say, Lord, please forgive me, please cover me. And you wanna say, Lord, I accept your sacrifice on my behalf. You can walk out today with that assurance. I wanna invite you to raise your hand here this morning. God bless you, friends, we all need to be forgiven. Amen. Amen. My second appeal is this. If you have not been baptized yet, you wanna prepare for baptism, you wanna say, Lord, I wanna study. I'm not perfect, but Jesus is perfect. Amen. Amen. And through his righteousness, we can be saved. And you wanna say, Lord, I wanna prepare for baptism. I wanna invite you to raise your hand. God bless you, friend. God bless you. Is there someone else I wanna say? I wanna prepare for baptism. God bless you. God bless you there in the back. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the sacrifice that you made for us on Calvary. We thank you for the blood that is the path back to the throne of God. And we pray that you would be with every person in this room. Lord, we all have been born into a war zone. None of us ch chose to be born, but each one of us can choose to be saved by your grace. Help us Lord to accept you as our savior. And Lord, I praise you for the hands that went up accepting you and the power of forgiveness. I praise you for the hands that went up desiring to be to be baptized. And we pray that you'd seal every decision with your Holy Spirit, but we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about Audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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Series

The Great Controversy

3. The Lamb and the Law

Parent Series

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Other Teachings in Series

1. The Origin of Evil

2. Behind the Curtain

3. The Lamb and the Law

Sound Doctrine