Randy Skeete

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Drunk and Drunker

It's a privilege for me to be with you this weekend.

I say that from my heart and I thank God for it.

And I believe that God will bless us through his word as we listen to it, not simply with our heads, but with our hearts.

I just came back yesterday actually, we got in last night from the Philippines where we had a mission assignment on the island of Boracay.

We enjoyed ourselves at every possible level.

When I say we, I mean myself, the Dela Cruz family and others who joined us from the Philippines itself.

So we're happy to be back home, and again, I thank God for this privilege.

Anyone with us who is not a Seventh-day Adventist?

All right, maybe we'll see them tomorrow morning at the service.

And I ask, I always ask because it is our sacred duty to try to invite others to listen to God's word.

You know, the Bibles are not the Bible, but Eloi tells us in Last Day Events, page 45, paragraph 2, the most solemn and sacred warnings ever sent by God to men have been given to us to be committed to the world, committed to us to be given to the world and if we are aware of that we should always be eager and willing and ready to invite others that they may learn what we presumably know so that their lives may change and So I hope tomorrow we shall see those whom you invited.

Before I begin, I'll ask you politely to do 3 favors for me.

Favor number 1, if you have a cell phone, I would like you to turn it off completely until it is dead.

So no noise disturbs the worship of the Holy God.

You're looking at me, I don't see you turning off anything.

But perhaps you're so skilled at turning them off you don't have to look.

Favor number 2, 0 they're already off, I see.

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking I want very much for you to pray for me.

And what I want you to say is, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

That request I always make with extreme seriousness because My words have no power to help.

They have a lot of power to hurt, but none to help.

And so it's essential that I only speak the words of God.

So if you pray, God will hear your prayer.

He'll put His words in my mouth and you will come off the winner.

Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together.

Thinking is that capacity that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank you so much, dear God, for the gift of life that you have preserved in our nostrils.

Father, as we bow in your presence, we return that life to you in service, in commitment to the cause of the gospel, to the work of your kingdom.

Where we have offended you today, we ask you on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ that you would forgive us fully and freely.

Now God, as I humble myself in your presence, I ask you to take possession of my mind without reservation.

Speak through me, dear God, first, for your glory to be shared by none other, and secondly, Father, for the blessing of your people.

Thank you for the freedom to worship you.

Our subject for this evening, drunk and drunker.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 9, we shall begin reading at verse 20.

I know you're doing an audio recording, are you also doing a video recording?

So if I fiddle around it won't be recorded visually, okay.

Reading from verse 20, The Bible says, And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.

And he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent.

And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and told his 2 brethren without and Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father and their faces were backward and they saw not the nakedness of their father.

Knew what his youngest son had done unto him.

This verse 24 is full, rich with lessons for us.

The Bible says, Noah awoke from his wine.

Using the principle of opposites, which I tirelessly refer to when I preach.

If he awoke from his wine, what condition was he before he awoke?

He was asleep or he was in a stupor or he was in a state in which he was unaware entirely of the goings on about him.

Nor will the Bible says, awoke from his wine.

Point number 2, it was only after he awoke from his wine that what happened, that he knew what his younger son had done unto him and so in this state of sleep, in this comatose condition, if you'll permit me to use that expression, Noah was aware of nothing.

Nothing beneficial to him or nothing harmful to him.

He awoke from his wine, having awakened, then he became aware of what had been done unto him whatever that was and it has mystified and puzzled Bible teachers for hundreds of years.

Point number 3, whatever it was that Ham did to his father, He did it while the father was drunk.

If 2 fully drunk people enter each other in the state of drunkness, each 1 can claim ignorance.

Each can claim, I had no clue what I was doing and it does not require the brightest lawyer in the land to argue successfully that case.

Ham, he knew exactly what he was doing because he was in control of his faculties.

Noah was unaware entirely, And so what we have was someone who was fully aware of his doings, inflicting those doings upon someone who had no clue.

We have the first 1 who was drunk, that is Noah.

Let us look at a second case of drunkenness in the Bible.

Genesis chapter 19, we shall begin reading at verse 30, this is in the life of Lot.

Genesis 19, reading from verse 30, and I'm reading from the King James Version.

The Bible says, And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, for he feared to dwell in Zoar.

So he dwelt in a cave, he and his 2 daughters.

And so Lot, contrary to what God had said, asked to go to Zoar.

Having gone to Zoar, he realized God's recommendation was always the best, so he subsequently followed God's recommendation and went to the mountain.

And the firstborn said unto the younger, verse 31 of Genesis 19, our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth.

What they're saying is everyone has been consumed in the blaze that burned up Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zoboah, and Bela, the cities of the plain.

Consequently, the only man who can assist us in that is our father.

It's amazing the degree to which sinners will go to get what they want, including children.

And I say that because I've had to talk to a council, young people, particularly young ladies, who were offered recommendations that you would not believe.

1 member of the church, a lady, said to her, why aren't you married?

Harboring A Fugitive

Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus.

We ask you, dear God, to look upon us with mercy, with favor, not for our sakes, but for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Father, if we've offended you, forgive us.

Grant to us, dear God, a revelation of your will for us.

Grant us a clearer view of your love for us, dear God, because as we view your love for us, our love for you grows.

Bless all of us, particularly our guests.

Speak to our hearts, I pray, but not only us, dear God, wherever people are worshiping you on this holy day, Bless them with your presence, I ask.

In Jesus' name, let all God's people say, Amen and Amen.

Our subject for today, Harboring a Fugitive.

Acts chapter 4, reading from verse 13, and I'll be reading from the King James Version Acts is book number 5 of the New Testament Do you have it Not yet.

All right, my brother's honest not yet Acts chapter 4 what verse did I say?

The Bible says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men?

For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

But that it spread no further among the people let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name and they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, judge ye.

But for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." I like that statement in verse 20.

We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

Now this passage reveals to us an unsettling truth.

The agency that is most active in suppressing truth is the church.

Now when I say the church I don't mean the church necessarily as the formal structure.

I'm not saying the church has passed a resolution at the highest level at the GC session to say we will suppress the truth.

The most active agent in suppressing truth resides within the church.

Please don't leave this space and say that Randy Skid said the SDA church is suppressing truth.

I am saying the suppressors of truth are among us and they're part of us and so the Sanhedrin said to the disciples of Christ or they in an attempt to deal with the spread of truth they said a notable miracle have been done by them is manifest it is clear to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it 1 of the purposes for the proclamation of the gospel is not only the baptism of men and women but to make it impossible for anyone to deny having heard the truth so that no 1 is without excuse now having admitted that a notable miracle was performed having confessed that it was so obvious they could not deny it, they proceeded to lay strategy to suppress it.

But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name." man in this name I repeat the greatest damage to truth is done by elements of the church not the world 3 times the Romans said of Christ, I find no fault in him.

Every attempt Pilate made to release Jesus Christ, the church said crucify him.

For the third time at the risk of being tedious, the greatest danger to truth comes from those commissioned by God to proclaim the truth.

That's 1 thing I want you to keep in mind.

Let's go to see something else that we need to keep in mind Matthew chapter 23 reading from verse 29 our subject is harboring a fugitive Matthew 23 reading from verse 29 a very familiar passage in the Bible.

If you don't have a Bible and you sit against to someone who has 1, I think it's safe to assume the person is nice, so you can lean over and read with that person.

It would be tragic if I were wrong in my assumption.

Warn to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the supplicants of the righteous and say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the righteous they're saying if we had been alive hundreds of years when our fathers slaughtered prophets we would not have done that now Jesus says to them be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which kill the prophets fill up therefore the measure of your fathers what Jesus Christ is saying that while you may not physically have slain anyone because your mind is similar to the minds of those who physically killed you are no different from there and you are similarly held guilty And so he tells them in verse 32 of Matthew 23, Filly up therefore the measure of your fathers.

God gives to all men and women a certain portion of probationary time.

And God perseveres and he perseveres until that container is filled to the brim with iniquity and so when God spoke Abraham in a dream in Genesis 15 he said to him in verse 16 but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and God gave them 400 years to fill up the iniquity or to do what was right and so Jesus is telling the Pharisees in his day there is still a little time left you might as well fill up the measure of the guilt of your fathers because you are as responsible for the death of the prophets as they were even though you did not do it physically now in law and I'm not a lawyer but this is called being an accessory and I thought of giving this sermon accessories to murder what is an accessory an accessory is someone who while not being physically present in the commission of a crime, is still regarded as guilty.

By either advising, commanding, instigating, or concealing the chief actor in the crime and therefore is held guilty whether the person commits that act before or after the commission of the crime.

In other words, if you have contributed in any way to a crime, hiding the criminal, advising the criminal, even though you did not commit the crime physically, you may not be regarded as the chief actor, but you are a participant in that crime in the eyes of the law.

Now this is also a biblical principle because the Bible says that those who have pleasure in unrighteousness will be damned, not necessarily committed but simply have pleasure.

By the way, let me say to you, there are many Christians I've heard them say, I don't believe in a homosexual lifestyle, but if you do that's okay.

On any issue with which the Bible has a problem, I don't drink but if you want to drink it's okay.

Sin is not okay in you or in anyone else.

You and I must be offended by sin whether that sin is located in us or in someone else.

And so the Bible pronounces judgment on those who have pleasure in the sins of others.

And so we've looked at Acts chapter 4, we've looked at Matthew 23, in Acts chapter 4 we discovered that members of the church, elements in the church are most active and aggressive in suppressing the truth.

We saw in Matthew 23, 29 to 32 that 1 can be held guilty before God not necessarily because of a physical commission of a crime but by simply having the same mindset.

There are people who will be condemned before God for slavery who never kept a slave because they had the same mind.

There are people who will be guilty of genocide who never slit anyone's throat, but who had the same mindset.

And there are people who will be guilty of aiding and abetting 1 of the greatest enemies of God's people simply because they have a mind that is not contrary to what this enemy does but essentially supportive of.

And I'll explain that in a few minutes, and who the enemy of God's work is.

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, reading from verse 3, come on in those of you who coming in I think they are 1 or 2 isolated seats somewhere second Corinthians second Thessalonians chapter 2 we shall read from verse 3 the Thessalonians had believed that Christ was soon to come and Paul is trying to correct their thinking on the issue of the second coming of Jesus Christ I can still hear the pages turning.

It's good to see children in the house of God.

Alright, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 reading from verse 3, For that day shall not come, except there come be a falling away first, and that man of sin be what?

The son of perdition, who exalteth and opposeth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.

Now it is interesting that Paul says Christ will not come until there's a falling away and that man of sin be revealed.

Why does the man of sin have to be revealed the man of sin has been in power since 538 AD from 538 to today that's 1474 years Let's round it off and call it 1500 years this power has been in the world.

Yet the Bible says he has to be revealed, meaning that while for 1500 years this awesome power has been operating in the world and operating with frightening success yet he has not yet been fully revealed to the world and so they must come a time of revelation but that revelation will come after there's a falling away let me suggest something troubling People in the world don't fall away.

You're well-dressed but you're not listening.

So that the falling away must have to do with people who are in the church.

Leaves From the Tree of Life

Our Father in heaven, spiritual things are spiritually discerned and we are not naturally spiritual.

And so God, I ask you in the name of Jesus to help us through the agency of the Spirit of truth.

Let Him, dear God, open our understanding that light may flood our minds, that the love of God seen in His Word may soften our hearts.

I humble myself in Your presence, dear Father, and I ask You to use me according to Your will.

At the end of this presentation, dear God, let your name alone be glorified and your people blessed.

The Bible says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and There he put the man whom he had formed.

Verse 9, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

When God created mankind, God arranged for man to eat in order to survive.

God arranged biologically, physiologically, that this brand-new species called mankind would have to eat in order that that person's life might be prolonged.

And so God said he provided trees of the vast variety, But the 1 that sustained life was the tree of life.

And so the verse says, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

So Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 49, paragraph 1, Ellen White writes, obedience, perfect and perpetual was the condition of eternal happiness.

On this condition, they were to have access to the tree of life, or he was to have access to the tree of life, referring to Adam as a representative of the human race.

And so access to this tree was contingent upon obedience.

But notice how the obedience is described, obedience, perfect, and perpetual.

Some English major defined the word perpetual, continual, unending, eternal, forever, everlasting.

On this condition, they would have access to the tree of life.

Now, we know that sin entered into the world because man disobeyed God.

God had said in Genesis 2, 16, 17, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." God issued a warning, He issued limitations, and he gave the consequence for the violation of the limitations.

Adam and Eve disregarded God's Word and they went with Satan's Word.

It is important what word you allow to enter your mind.

You cannot go wrong studying Daniel and the Revelation as our previous speaker urged us and encouraged us.

The word that enters your mind will determine the quality of your mind.

Like the body physically is what we eat, the mind intellectually, non-physically, is what we study, what we read, what we hear, what we watch.

And so there was the Word of God and there was the Word of Satan.

God said, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.

Satan said in Genesis chapter 3 verse 4, he shall not surely die.

And there was a choice between God's Word and Satan's Word.

Any word different from God's Word is Satan's word.

Listen to God as He speaks to Adam in Genesis 3, verse 17, and unto Adam He said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife.

Her voice was Satan's voice because it wasn't God's voice.

If it is not thus saith the Lord, It is Satan's voice.

Now Satan's voice may come through your congressman, may come through your fiancé, may come through your spouse, may come through your pastor, may come through the guest speaker.

If it varies from God's Word, it is Satan's Word, regardless of the agent through whom that Word comes.

And so God said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, what God is saying, because you listen to someone other than me.

The words that we receive affect us for good or for ill.

Sin entered the world, And God, of course, allowed the eating of fruit trees.

When the flood came and destroyed the world, He allowed the eating of certain clean animals.

In the new world, Let's go to Revelation 22.

Revelation 22, reading from verse 1, do you have that?

The Bible says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree, " finish the verse, were for the healing of the nations.

Now, we see that when this earth is made brand new, new heavens, new earth, it will be the case again that those who are redeemed will eat from the tree of life.

Now why is it necessary for people who are immortal to eat from the tree of life?

Presumably an immortal person cannot die.

But it could be we have the wrong view of immortality.

Let me bring in some light from Ellen White, Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 1, page 69, paragraph 1.

In order for man to possess an endless life, give me another expression for endless life, everlasting life, eternal life.

In order for man to possess an endless life, he must continue to eat of the fruits of the tree of life.

Deprived of that tree, his life would gradually wear away.

You see, you cannot live independent of God.

Whether mortal or immortal, no 1 lives independent of God.

And so in the new world, those of us who can no longer die, so we say, We will live and our lives will be preserved by constant consumption of the tree of life.

Before sin, Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life.

And the life of the tree of life is the life of God.

The life in the tree of life is the life of God Because God is the fountain of life.

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, page 61, paragraph 2.

And we can have life only as we are in communion with God.

Separated from God, existence may be ours for a little time, but we do not possess life." Now, why am I saying this?

What is to happen between these 2 idyllic periods?

Do we still have access to the tree of life?

Answer me carefully because I will rebuke you if you're wrong.

Right now, do we have access to the tree of life, yes or no?

All those who say no, raise your right hand.

All those who say yes, raise your left hand.

And Again, this is in support of what Peter said, studying Daniel and Revelation.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Randy Skeete

All Recordings

Drunk and Drunker

41m

Harboring A Fugitive

51m

Leaves From the Tree of Life

49m

The Great Exchange

53m

Who Is Your God?

1h

Numb and Dumb

1h

Heart To Heart

48m

How Are You Living?

54m

No Law, No Life

48m

Who Issued Your Passport?

52m

Skin for Skin

40m

The Opposites

54m

Sound Doctrine