Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary

Jay Gallimore

The Love of the Truth in the Age of Deceit

The title of our subject tonight is, The Love of the Truth in an Age of Deceit.

Deceit that has become almost honed to perfection.

Jesus Himself looked down at our time and said if it were possible, deceive the very ones that were going to be saved.

The love of the truth in an age of deceit.

If you raise it, I want to talk to you after the meeting." And yet, you know, we smile at that, but yet there are billions of people that are going to be deceived, not only about some money or a product, But they're going to be deceived about eternal life.

You have your Bibles and I asked them not to put the text on the screen because I want to make you work for it tonight.

Now there's a reason to my madness, not just how you look it up.

Maybe it's on your phone, maybe it's on whatever, maybe you have it here this way.

I want you to be able to look at the context.

And so I think you should test your preachers.

You ought to test them by the Word of God.

That's a good Adventist mindset, by the way, is that You can preach, preacher, but we're watching.

We have the Word, and we want you to make it sound.

Chapter 4 and I want to look at verse 16.

Adam and Eve are brokenhearted at this raw evil that was already the fruit of their disobedience.

And the Bible says that Cain, verse 16, went out From where?

The terrible thing about being lost is to lose the presence of the Lord.

That's why Jesus cried out on Calvary's cross Those awful, emotional, passionate words that I cannot reproduce in the passion that He said them, in the solemnity that He said them, in the agony that He said them, as He suffered for every human being on planet earth and drank the cup of that separation so that we don't have to drink it.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

I hope by the grace of God that no 1 in this room will stand in the great day of judgment outside the walls of the new Jerusalem and say those words.

And if you look at verse 26, I'm sorry, if you look at verse 25 and Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and they named him Seth.

For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.

You know that when all your dreams have been laid in the dust, God still has another plan.

And he had another plan for the salvation of us.

Seth was important because Cain started a race.

I don't mean race in an ethnicity sense, but a race in the sense of loyalty to God, disloyalty to God.

He started a race of human beings who would not be loyal to God.

Who wanted to seek their pleasure in this world.

But they were going not to focus on an eternity.

They were going to focus on getting all the pleasure they could out of this world without God's guidance and direction.

That's why he left the presence of the Lord.

Seth started another race, put that in quotes, of men and women who said, no, we believe that this world is not everything that we have.

We believe that there is a world to come that God can give us Eden again.

They could go to the gates of the Garden of Eden and see that angel with that sword that turned in every direction guarding the tree of life.

They believe that someday, Jesus would return.

The New Testament tells us that Enoch preached the coming of the Lord and would restore to them once again the tree of life.

But time went on and this great controversy between the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Seth reached a climax.

I want you to notice in chapter 6, verse 2, Chapter 6, verse 2, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men.

The sons of God were the descendants of Seth.

There's a lot of confusion out there in the world about who those people are.

And the daughters of men are the daughters of the descendants of Cain.

And up to this time, they had kept their lines distinct.

They were not intermarrying between 1 another.

And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Now I've had and have, praise the Lord, some pretty important women in my life.

And I told her I was coming to camp meeting that I wouldn't be able to see her this coming week.

She started taking me to camp meeting as a little guy and we just didn't miss camp meeting.

That's just the way it was going to be and we loved it.

And so I read a chapter of Scripture with her, had prayer together.

It's hard to see this beautiful woman who is my mother, is my mother, and to see age make its inroads.

And that's why we need to do everything we can with the present.

And I thank the Lord for our godly mother.

A lot of The blessings that I have today in my life are because of her.

And I have a wonderful wife that blesses me in many, many ways.

You don't see her so much because she's always fulfilling all the needs of all the divisions.

So please don't misunderstand anything that I'm going to say.

When God created Adam and Eve, He created Adam very handsome, wouldn't you ladies agree with that?

By the way, you can ask an evolutionist sometimes, where did all the beauty come from if evolution is supposed to be just functional?

And I think no 1 would argue today, I went back, I think it was 1887, I didn't bring it with me tonight, I started to, but it was a beautiful article on beauty, written by a godly person, they didn't give their name.

But when God created Adam and Eve, Adam was not only created handsome, he was also created with good character.

So the beauty, not the beauty, but the handsomeness of his form reflected the character of his heart.

The same was true with Eve, that the beauty of her being simply reflected the beauty of the character that God had given her.

When sin entered, a struggle came, because many times the character doesn't match the outward, which means that you can't always look at a person and determine that they have a noble character or otherwise simply by the way they look.

Sabbath School #1

Father in Heaven, we're so grateful for this time now in the study of Scripture.

And we pray that as we study, divine enlightenment would be given us by the Spirit of God.

Lord, this is no ordinary book, and we are not sufficient to handle it.

So we pray that you would speak to us, give us wisdom, give us humility, and reveal yourself to us through your word we ask.

All right, Matthew, I'm going to ask you to turn to Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew chapter 23, and the first few verses read like this.

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.

Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do.

But do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do." Now here he's laying the groundwork for what he's about to do.

And he goes through a succession of woes.

Woe to you Pharisees, hypocrites, on a variety of different areas, does he pronounce these woes.

And Ultimately, Jesus is here teaching for the last day in the temple, so the setting is very important.

But the directness of his speech is something that we can't pass over.

I wonder if 1 of our panelists could give us some insight as to why you think Jesus is being so direct in this particular instance.

I was reviewing this this morning and As a former Catholic, this chapter just jumped out at me.

Jesus isn't just speaking to them, he's going through the stream of time.

And there are 2 things that I think are very important here.

First of all, he sees through the stream of time that many of these very same priests are going to be converted at Pentecost.

And that gives clarity to the reason that he's doing this.

But also, he is addressing the taproot of a pagan system here.

And in every 1 of those 8 woes, there is a doctrinal error that is the root system of Catholicism.

So the ecclesiastical authority, call no 1 father, priestly power, let he who is greatest be your servant, keys of the kingdom.

Jesus said you take away the key of knowledge and the keys, the words of life, the word of God is the key of knowledge.

Tradition versus the word, verses 16 through 18.

Righteousness by faith and obedience by faith, verse 23.

Worship of saints, relics, and indulgences, verse 28.

And long prayers, the claim of auricular confession, verse 14.

So in this chapter in particular, I see Jesus looking through the stream of time, helping us to deeply address the false system that is going to cause misery and defeat and agony in the lives of so many.

And our Catholic friends need to understand, and this is a launching place for deep study in these areas.

I think it's important for us to understand here, Jesus is getting ready to die on the cross.

And the price that Christ paid for sin is the greatest price anyone could ever pay.

I mean, he paid his eternal life for our eternal life.

And so I think if there's anything that this text shows us is how seriously Jesus takes the salvation of humanity.

He doesn't want people to mess with the salvation of souls.

And what Jesus is expressing here is that when he has paid such a great, or when he's about to pay such a great and hefty price for the salvation of an individual, It's important for the church and for church leaders to take this responsibility seriously.

Jesus says, look, I've paid with my own life, and he says, don't dare take these souls that I've labored for, that I've died for, and treat them casually.

Don't make them worse than when they first came to you to lead them to salvation.

Don't make them worse after they've met you than before they've met you.

And over and over and over again, Jesus is addressing this very same thing.

I've paid for the salvation of these souls, I've entrusted them to you and it is your responsibility to make sure that you assist me in the work of leading them to the place where they get a clear picture of who God is and who Jesus is instead of a warped 1.

And So this is why I think that Jesus speaks so strongly.

He's speaking strongly against people who are messing up with the work that Jesus himself is doing.

You know, the passage says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, over and over.

But if you look at the first verse it says then Jesus spoke to who?

So he wasn't just speaking to the Pharisees there was something in here he was also wanting the multitudes to hear as well I think.

Yes, as you have mentioned when you look at verses 1 through 12 he's talking to the multitude and the disciples and the reason why he's very direct with them is that he's he's showing the condition of the people and as you go through these 8 woes you will see that he were referred to the Pharisees and the scribes as blind guides or blind fools or blind and The reason is that is that even Paul alludes to that in Romans chapter 2 verse 19 Where he says that you were supposed to be the guide for the blind Gentiles, but yet they felt that their duty So here he's speaking to the multitude and making sure they understand that they cannot be like them.

That we are supposed to be guiding the people to the truth as Israel has mentioned of the truth of salvation the truth of the gospel and here as we even go further from verse 13, he will tell them that, look, you will hide righteousness from the people, which is the righteousness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ and his salvation.

So he's just warning them not to continue in the same path.

Yeah, I was just, you'd mentioned like verse 1 through 12 addresses the people, but he's addressing the people about the leadership.

And then verse 13, so the first 12 verses goes to the people about their leaders and then specifically he goes directly to the leaders in the next 27 verses, the rest of the chapter.

And I believe the reason he's addressing this has already been touched on a little bit is that People, and this is no different today, put a lot more confidence in their leaders than they should.

These people were so influenced, they had such a blind trust in their leadership that Jesus himself wasn't able to have the impact that he needed to have on their understanding of truth.

And so, in fact, up to this point in his ministry, and this is right before the cross, had he denounced his leadership like this, he probably would have lost a lot more of a following because of the, at this point they had seen his working and now there were questions in their minds and I think his strong denunciation was to try to prepare them for what he saw coming that they didn't see coming so that they wouldn't be shaken when he saw those leaders completely abandon him to the cross of Calvary.

You know, I think about many times I've preached a series of evangelistic meetings, and somebody will come under conviction about some truth that's new to them.

And it will be just resounding in their hearts and they'll just see the clarity of it.

And then all of a sudden, you see a bit of perplexity, some cognitive dissonance going on in their head.

And then they talk to you afterwards and say, you know, it makes sense, but Pastor Bob, he's my pastor.

I mean, If anybody would know this, it would be my pastor.

And then they start thinking about the people on TV and others that they have trusted and put confidence in, and it creates a major problem.

That's why faithfulness of leadership is so important.

That's why God holds to a higher level of accountability leadership, because there is a desire, a natural desire, and a natural way of things where you should have confidence in your leadership.

But they have to gain that confidence through the Word and through their faithfulness to the Word.

And so we can run into the same trap here.

You know, whenever I sit in a Sabbath school and I visit churches around the conference, nobody likes the Pharisees.

I mean, nobody thinks they're a Pharisee, nobody wants to be a Pharisee, we run from the Pharisees, we talk about the other Pharisees.

I mean, everybody is upset at the pharisaical attitude that other people have.

And we are sure that if there's 1 thing we don't want to be, it's a Pharisee.

Should we just skip over chapter 23 since none of us are Pharisees?

Or is there anything at all that we can glean from these 8 woes on the Pharisees that we should apply and be careful of and cautious of in our own lives here in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, part of the Remnant Church, here at the end of time, how should we apply these passages to our own lives and to the church?

It's interesting to me how over and over, along with those woes, the words that keep coming up, which repetition is the way in which the Bible emphasizes the importance of a point Over and over again you find words like fools blind etc.

Etc And as I was reading this passage, there's another verse that came to mind and it's found in the book of Revelation.

And in Revelation chapter 3, Jesus is speaking to the church of Laodicea.

And it says in verse 17, Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, he says, I offer you to buy of me gold, trident of fire, et cetera.

If there is a definition of foolishness to me, it's a person who does not understand the condition that they're in.

And here you have a rich church that has need of nothing.

You have a church that is completely self-deceived.

You have a church that doesn't understand the reality of what's going on.

I look at this church as an insane church and a church that is foolish, people that are foolish.

And it says that this church in Laodicea, it is a blind church.

And so as often as we and as much as we hate the Pharisees, I think it's important for us to understand how much of that Pharisee spirit is in each 1 of us.

I mean if it hadn't been, Jesus would have come by now.

And so I think that more than anything, Matthew chapter 23, it speaks, yes, it speaks about the people out there, it speaks about, you know, the ministers out there, it speaks about the church, the churches and the people out there, but it also speaks about us, It speaks about me, it speaks about us individually, people who are in the church of Laodicea.

Before your next comment, let's just look at verse 16 because we've had a couple of references to it, but I want you to see it right from the scripture.

Sikhu Daco

Young Adult Sabbath School #1 - Panel Discussion

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this beautiful Sabbath day, for the sunshine, and this opportunity for us to all be together.

We pray now that as we open your word that you would send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to guide us, that we would hear what the word has to say to us today, and Father, that we might also put that into practice.

We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake, amen.

Matthew chapter 24 and we'll read together from verse 1 to 8.

So starting with Kiran, if you could, let's take 2 verses each, Kiran and then Autumn.

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple and Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things?

Assuredly I say unto you, not 1 stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.

Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

And Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no 1 deceives you.

For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

Now, for those of you who looked at the lesson study guide, You'll know this is 1 of the chapters that we were talking about, but it's not the only 1.

And I don't know if any of you had this experience.

You know, you're going through the study guide and you're like, how do these thoughts connect?

What does chapter 23 have to do with chapter 24?

Was Matthew just kind of rambling on, and why did the study guide put these together?

Did you see, or do you see any connections in looking at the study now?

Like, how does this relate to the other stuff?

Actually, that's exactly what I thought when the lesson said read chapter 23 and then 24.

And I was like, 23 seems to have nothing to do with 24.

And you know, we always jump to 24 and we look at the end time events and the signs that Jesus is coming and the destruction of Jerusalem.

But then when I was reading through chapter 23, it's just like, woe be Pharisee this and woe be Pharisee that.

And it's just like all of these just kind of really strong rebukes that Jesus is giving to the Pharisees in all of chapter 23.

Ironically, this is the last address Jesus has to the Pharisees before his crucifixion, or I should say before they plot to kill him.

So this is kind of like his final word to the Pharisees.

And when you get through the whole of the chapter 23, it just sounds very, very dismal, until you get to verse 37.

And when you get to verse 37, it's almost Jesus...

You know, he's been saying all these woes to the Pharisees, but then all of a sudden you hear Jesus in almost this tone of lament that he's weeping over Jerusalem.

And he says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the 1 who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

See, your house is left to you desolate." And then he says, you won't see me again until you say, blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.

I thought it's interesting because this conversation of Jesus talking to the Pharisees and then he says, your house is left to you desolate.

Immediately, I thought back to 2 chapters previously in Matthew 21.

In Matthew 21, Jesus uses a very similar phrase.

He's just been cleansing the temple and in 21.13, he says, he's just been, you know, Driving out the money changers out of the temple and he says it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer But you have made it a den of thieves in chapter 21 Jesus refers to it as my house his abode which is the temple But then in chapter 23, he said this is your house.

You have rejected me, and because you have rejected me, this is no longer my house.

This is your house, and it's left desolate.

And then you can just imagine for these disciples, they're listening like, okay, what does this mean?

And they don't really get it, and they walk out of the temple, Jesus walks out.

When you see the language that's here, Jesus walks out of the temple.

And I think that's not only literally Jesus walks out, but in a very figuratively sense, he's leaving them to their own devices.

He's like, you rejected me, I'm walking out of the temple.

And when he walks out of this temple, the disciples and Mark actually- We're in 24 verse 1 now, right?

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