GYC 2008: For This Purpose

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Steve Wohlberg ~ The Shaking in Our Heads: Current Issues in the Church

Steve Wohlberg

No Compromise

Dear Father in Heaven, Father, you are so good to us.

And we're just thankful to be here in this building, in a warm place, to have a chance to study the Bible with a whole group of people.

And Lord, we sense that we are in the final days, and as I think about our house closing, I think about your providence and how it's not an accident that this is happening today.

Thank you for this and we think about history closing and the need to hear your voice.

We really need to hear your voice, and I need to hear it.

We're all sinners in need of a savior, and we're all on our knees, and we all meet together at the foot of the cross.

And as we begin our 4 talks together, at least my talks, we just pray for the Holy Spirit.

Please, Lord, speak to us, teach us lessons from your word.

May it be a blessing that we're here, may we hear your voice.

Please, God, talk to our hearts and bring us closer to Jesus as a result of being here and inspire us to be your faithful people in these last days.

Okay, alright, We're going to look at Daniel chapter 3.

And as I've been thinking about this, I've thought about how the number 3 is important in the Bible.

In the book of Genesis, God told Noah to build a boat.

And God called them in to that three-story boat.

Jesus had 3 close disciples, his closest disciples, James, Peter, and John, that were in the inner circle.

And in the book of Revelation, we have a message in Revelation 14 that is represented by how many angels?

By 3, that's right, 3 angels flying in the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel.

And in Daniel chapter 3, we have lessons from 3 men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And as I just ponder this, it just impresses me that God wants us to be like these 3 men in these last days.

And I really believe that this hour that we spend together focusing on this, that the Lord is calling us.

As I kneel and pray, and as I think about standing here to talk to you, God speaks to me in my heart.

And he says, Steve, I want you to be 1 of these 3 people, like these 3 people in these last days, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

So consider this time together as a time where God is speaking to you and calling you, calling you higher and higher and higher to stand for Him in these final hours.

The title of this talk is called No Compromise.

And we certainly live in a time of compromise all around and God wants us not to compromise as we stand for Jesus.

We're just gonna go through and I'm gonna try to keep track of my time here.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was three-score cubits and the breadth 6 cubits.

And he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

So here's the king and he sets up this big statue.

The context of this really has to do with Daniel chapter 2.

If you remember in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream.

He woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

He knew he had an important dream, but he couldn't remember it.

So he gathered around him all of his wise men.

And those wise men were magicians, and astrologers, and sorcerers.

And our ministry, White Horse Media, has done a whole series dealing with magicians and astrologers and sorcerers in these last days.

That witchcraft is growing rapidly, it's in the mainstream, it's on television, it's in Hollywood and these are just, you could say a resurrection or an increase of the kind of things that were going on in Babylon.

And so anyway, Daniel chapter 2, we have Nebuchadnezzar having this dream, he wakes up, he gathers his magicians around him, and they're completely clueless, they can't, they don't know what the dream was, they can't interpret it.

And so finally, Nebuchadnezzar brings in Daniel, or Daniel comes in before the king and Daniel interprets the dream and says that you saw this big image of a man.

Gold, right, And it goes down, gold, silver, brass, iron, and then the feet of iron and part of clay, and then the rock comes down from the sky and the rock crushes the image and fills the whole earth.

1 of the big lessons we can learn from Daniel 2 is that we cannot trust in the things of man.

You've got a big image of a man, and then the rock comes down from the sky and crushes the image of man and fills the earth.

And the rock represents the kingdom of God.

And boy, that is a lesson we need to learn today, that in this world around us, there is nothing secure, nothing solid.

We're all back in California, I don't know if you live in California or not, but California's prone to earthquakes, and I've been in many earthquakes, grew up in Los Angeles, and even the ground under our feet is not solid.

The only thing that's solid is Jesus and God's Word and His rock.

So anyway, Daniel explained the dream to Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom represented the head of gold or was represented by the head of gold and it goes down through the image to the return of Jesus Christ.

And by the time you get to Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar evidently forgot the dream, or at least he didn't like the fact that the head of gold was to pass away and to be followed by another kingdom.

And so in Daniel 3, he builds an image and it's all of gold.

And that shows that he wanted his kingdom to go on forever.

It also gives us a window into the nature of Babylon, that Babylon seeks to change God's prophecies.

Babylon today is twisting God's prophecies, perverting God's prophecies, changing God's prophecies, and so the people don't really understand what they're really saying.

And it's our challenge to understand what God is saying and to interpret these prophecies correctly and to stand for truth in a time of compromise all over the place.

So anyway, Nebuchadnezzar sets up this golden image.

And it's an image of himself, which shows his pride and his need for humility.

And when I think about the word gold, I think about the economy right now.

I don't know if you're tracking this or not, but the price of gold has gone up about $100 in just the last 2 or 3 weeks.

And some people are saying that it's gonna go up from, it's right around the 800s, 860, 870 right now, it's probably gonna go up to 2, 000 or more in the next year or less.

And the reason is because the economy is in trouble, the dollar is failing, and people are trying to find something of substance, something solid to put their money in, so they're putting their money into gold.

Gold is king when it comes to the world's economy.

But when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to God's economy, God has a different kind of gold that he is most interested in having us get a hold of.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 3, Jesus talks to the Laodicean church and he says, I counsel you to buy of me, and what does he ask us to buy?

Nebuchadnezzar has this big image of gold.

But God is calling his people to have a different kind of gold.

Now I'm not saying you should never invest in gold if you've got the money, you know, it may not be a bad thing to do, but that's not my focus.

And what does, when Jesus said, I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, what kind of gold is he talking about?

That's right, he's talking about our characters.

It's interesting that when you look at the sanctuary service, the outside of the sanctuary was very plain when they were carrying it in the wilderness, but on the inside it was full of gold.

And the gold was all on the inside, not on the outside.

And that's very, there's a big lesson for us in that.

That God wants us to have the inner gold.

The gold of a pure character that is full of faith, faith in Jesus, faith in God, and love.

We're told that the gold of character is faith and love.

And when everything falls apart, I tell you, if God has a people that have the inner gold of faith in Him and love for others, that is more valuable than all the gold of this world.

We can't take the gold of this world with us.

There's only 1 thing that we can take with us, And that is our characters.

The Character of God Controversy, Part I

Somebody asked me a little while ago if I knew what was going on with Doug Batchelor and his meetings that were supposed to be here in this room but now I think are not.

And anyway, my response was I have no clue.

All I know is that I'm here to give 4 talks.

Okay, so Anyway, you'll have to talk to somebody because I'm not the man.

I used to work for Doug, a long time ago.

I used to be 1 of Doug's bachelors, before I got married.

I no longer am 1 of Doug's bachelors, and I don't know what's happening with his speaking appointments.

All right, so let's open our Bibles up to the book of Revelation, chapter 14.

I was so blessed by sensing the Holy Spirit in our last meeting.

It's just thrilling to know that Jesus is with us, And I thank the Lord for that.

Even when we fall, He is still faithful and good.

And He picks us up and tries to put us back on the narrow road.

This is my second talk, but it's really the beginning of a new little mini-series.

I wrote it, but I was actually the writer, but Dr.

Chris Lewis and Loma Linda, we co-authored it together.

We just felt that it would be better for the reader to just read 1 person's style instead of 2 people's styles.

But this is a co-authored book, and it's called The Character of God Controversy.

And the subtitle is A Close Look at the Intense Love and Justice of God Almighty.

This book is different than a lot of the other books that I've written, which are mostly written for the world at large.

I try to write my books for a broad audience, not just for people within the church.

But this particular book is 1 that we shifted gears to deal with an issue that is happening within, among us.

Lewis, both of us feel very strongly that it's a big issue, it's a growing issue and the issue has to do with God, with his character, with what he's like or what he isn't like.

The more you read the Bible, when you read the spirit of prophecy, it's very clear that we are in the midst of a controversy concerning the character of God.

And so that's what our focus is in this book.

It seemed like during the last meeting, when I started actually getting into the meeting, the volume went up.

I don't know if anybody turned it up or not, but it went up.

It was a series of meetings in Fort Worth, Texas.

And opening night, we didn't find out until after the evening was over that the speakers were not connected.

So all right, well, we're on a time schedule, so we're gonna get started right away.

Let's bow our heads and pray and ask the Lord to help us.

Dear Father in heaven, Father in the name of Jesus, we pray for the Holy Spirit to be here as we talk about you and about the battle that is going on about you that is happening within our church and around the world.

And I just pray, we pray together that you will take charge of this meeting, that I'll just be a channel for your thoughts, for your voice, and for your heart.

Please God, help us, we commit this time to you, in the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Alright, Revelation chapter 14 is a chapter that we know well, Verses 14 to 16 describes the return of Jesus.

In verse 14, the Bible says, I looked, and behold, a white cloud.

And upon the cloud 1 sat, like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

Here is a picture of Jesus coming on a white cloud.

Our ministry is called White Horse Media.

We like that name from Revelation 19 describes Jesus coming on a white horse.

Here he's described as coming on a white cloud.

Before I'm done here and then head back home to Washington, I want to talk about the white robe of Jesus Christ's righteousness, which is what is going to prepare us for Heaven.

And anyway, these verses describe the Lord's coming.

In the verses right before them, in verses 6 to 12, we have the message of the 3 angels.

And the messages of the 3 angels are designed to prepare us for the coming of Christ on the white cloud.

And when you look at the verses before those, in verses 1 to 5, Revelation 14, 1 to 5, it describes a people.

The people that are produced by the messages that are prepared for the coming of the Lord.

When you look at verse 1, there's a key characteristic of this group.

Verse 1 says, I looked and lo, a lamb, and the lamb represents Jesus, stood on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred 40 and 4000, having his father's name written where?

This is a key characteristic of this final group of people.

Now, when it talks about their foreheads, does this mean their skin?

Something written on their skin, above their noses, between their eyes?

What does the forehead represent in the Bible?

God is going to write something in the minds of His people.

Now, based on this verse, what is written there, in their minds?

The name of God is written in their foreheads.

And I'll prove to you in a little bit, and probably most of you already know this, that when the Bible talks about the name of God, it is talking about His character.

And this verse tells us that God is going to have a final people prepared for His coming who have His character, the attributes of His character, written inside of their heads and also their hearts.

The Character of God Controversy, Part II

Let's open our Bibles up to Matthew chapter 26.

I imagine some people will continue to straggle in.

This is part 2 of a little series within a series called The Character of God Controversy.

I've mentioned this in the last meeting that Dr.

Chris Lewis and I have co-authored a book called The Character of God Controversy.

This book is available at our booth, at White Horse Media booth.

And I believe that my associate, Gilbert Navarro, should be here in a little while with a stack of these in case you want to just pick 1 up while you're here.

We've discounted them for the seminar or for the convention.

And it's just a very powerful book that deals with issues that are facing Seventh-day Adventists and the world, but especially within our church.

I want to just clarify something that I mentioned in the last 1 hour period, that I mentioned the name of Dr.

He was a Sabbath school teacher at Loma Linda University and is quite influential still today, even though he's not teaching like he was before.

The book that we've co-authored does not mention his name or anybody's name.

We felt that that would be the better way to go.

But in this seminar, I did mention it in the last meeting, and somebody came up to me and said that she had read 1 of Graham's books, Can God Be Trusted, 5 times.

And I want to clarify that there is a lot of good in his teachings.

I'm not saying that everything is wrong, but from my experience, which I shared with you when I first became an Adventist, I became exposed to his teachings, especially the little book called Can God Be Trusted.

I read that book and there are good points in there, but there are other things that I found to be woven in that I found to be really just wrong, to be straight out and open with you.

And I see a lot of what is in that book and other books like it to be a mixture of truth and error.

Our conclusions are in the book, The Character of God Controversy.

Of course, we all have to make our own decisions and wrestle with the issues ourselves.

Who knows who's listening to this CDD, the CD or who will listen to it.

But these are all issues that we have to pray and study and compare Scripture with Scripture and then seek to know God correctly, because that's what life is all about, is knowing the Lord and knowing Him aright.

And Satan's goal is to lead us away from God, and 1 of the ways that he does it is by deceiving us about who God really is and what his attributes are.

And so he can lead us step by step in the wrong direction.

So why don't we pray, let's bow our heads and pray and then we'll look up a couple of texts.

Before we get to Matthew 26 I want to show you a couple more verses.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this conference here in San Jose and thank you that I can be here.

And we pray that the Holy Spirit will take charge of this meeting and all the meetings, and just inspire us and teach us truth, and reveal Jesus to us in a way that will melt our hearts and help us to really know you correctly and to follow you with everything that we have and are.

Okay, before we get to Matthew 26, a couple verses.

This is a simple statement of Jesus Christ but it has profound implications and Jesus is talking about eternal life.

John 17 verse 3, Jesus said, this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

So Jesus says eternal life is knowing God.

And obviously we need to know him a right and it says knowing the only true God knowing the true God must be based upon his revelation of himself in Scripture and I mentioned that in the last last meeting that is just vital 1st John chapter 3 verse 2 also talks about God's people and the Lord and at the second coming we're going to see him.

1 John 3, verse 2 says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him, how?

And that should be our goal is to see him as he is.

Not just at the second coming, but right now.

We need to see God as he is based upon the Bible.

And if we see him in the wrong way, it's going to affect us.

It's going to affect our personal experience.

It's going to affect our relationship with other people.

Now, in the last meeting, we talked about God's character being a blend of mercy and truth and justice, right?

Now we also talked about, we analyzed a little bit about the nature of God's justice and talked about how in the church 1 of the big controversies concerns God's justice and his wrath and whether that justice is entirely passive or whether it's active or whether it's both.

And I mentioned that my belief, and I can support this from Scripture, it's inside the Character of God Controversy book.

To me, it's very, very clear that God's justice, as it is manifested in the Bible, is a combination of both.

There are times when God does withdraw and allow natural consequences to run their course.

It just in natural life, God lets people reap what they sow.

And that's the principle that we reap what we sow.

If you plant evil seeds, you're going to reap evil seeds.

If we live a life of sin, we're going to reap a harvest inside of us.

And sin does carry within it built-in consequences, no question about it.

But beyond that, there are times in the Bible, and we looked at the golden calf, that was 1 event, and there are many others where God goes beyond just allowing natural consequences to take place.

That there are times when he does himself act directly to punish sin.

And the biblical teaching is that God does do that, and when he does it, he's good in doing it.

And that's part of the controversy these days, is does God punish sin directly sometimes and if he does is he good in doing it?

If you're taking notes, the book Patriarchs and Prophets, I believe it's page 94, it's the chapter on the flood.

Patriarchs and Prophets page 94, and I'm going by memory, it says that 1 of the arguments of the anti-Diluvian wise men, while Noah was building the boat, and while Noah was saying that a flood is coming to destroy the world, 1 of the arguments of the philosophers against Noah was they said that it was, quote, contrary to the character of God to punish sin.

And sadly, there are many today that have adopted that philosophy.

That it's just, it's contrary to the way God is to directly punish sin.

He won't do that, but that's not what the Bible says.

I mentioned this also in the last program and I wanna clarify that another example of God directly punishing sin is in the book of Acts.

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Steve Wohlberg ~ The Shaking in Our Heads: Current Issues in the Church

The Character of God Controversy, Part II

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