Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Christ our Righteousness

Royce Snyman

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 1

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 3: From 1900 until 1950

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 4: From 1950 until Now

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 5: In these Last Days

Father in Heaven, we are grateful for the opportunity to come to Camp Meeting and to fellowship together, to learn, to study, to pray.

We pray that You will be with us in this place today.

We handle sacred things when we handle the Word of God.

When we talk of things of righteousness, we know not of what we speak, but we can only search the Word of God and seek to understand it from what is revealed to us.

We pray that your Holy Spirit will be present in this place, that you will speak and that you will be heard, and not this humble vessel that stands in front of these dear people today.

For we are only human beings who need to learn from Jesus Christ.

Pray that your Holy Spirit will teach us now.

When I was pastoring in a church back in the early 80s, sharing the message a little bit of what we're sharing here.

And in that time there, 1 of the young men came to me after the sermon that I spoke, and I was talking about some of what we'll talk about today and what we'll talk about even the rest of the week.

And he was just overwhelmed and he just had this sense that there was like no hope for him, which is ironic because That's not what the message is about.

And I actually had that happen even here last year.

So during this week, I hope that it will be very, very, very clear.

And the message of hope is in Jesus Christ.

Christ is the answer to the problem and the situation.

What we're gonna be talking about today, and I'll start by setting that tone, we will never be talking about what I can do or what you can do.

We'll be talking about what Jesus can do, what Jesus is about.

Please keep that in mind because without Jesus, what I'm gonna tell you today and during this week is totally and completely impossible.

So I want you to keep that in mind with what I want to share with you today.

Here's a statement from Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G.

This is what she said, it's in your notes.

At this time the church is to put on her beautiful garments, Christ our righteousness.

There are clear decided distinctions to be restored and exemplified to the world in holding aloft the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

The beauty of holiness is to appear in It's an amazing statement.

Darkness of the disloyal, those who have revolted from the law of God." It's, that's a, that's an amazing statement.

The church is to put on her beautiful garments, Christ our righteousness.

I don't think the church really grasps this, I say the grasp, I don't, the church, I don't think we as people understand this yet like we should.

I'll tell you simply I don't, but slowly I'm learning and seeking to understand it better.

You and I need to realize that Christ has something amazing that He wants to give us.

Now I know the text is small on the screen, and I understand that, but I do have it in the notes there.

I hope you can read it in the notes, even that's there, but at least you can bring out a magnifying glass and look on your notes, right?

By the way, some of you have come in, there's a sign-up sheet, there are some folders coming around, and we've got some extra notes being printed.

I thought I had plenty, but for some reason I seem to be short.

In this class we will survey the Bible and the spirit of prophecy teaching on the theology of Christ our righteousness.

What or who is the source of righteousness?

And what should be our relationship to that righteousness?

Ellen White said the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people.

It invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ which is made manifest in obedience.

This week's study is meaningless without this basic foundation.

But with that foundation we also need to be able to put this all into perspective.

Our teaching on Christ our righteousness and justification by faith has fluctuated over the last 130 years.

We need to review this fluctuation to be sure we have a clear biblical understanding of this message.

In order to review the fluctuation, we will review the early Adventist history until about 1900.

Though we did this in detail at last camp meeting's session, We need to do a quick review in order to see the progression beyond 1900.

Our theology on Christ, our righteousness changed little from 1900 to 1950, but that fact is significant and a survey of our teaching during that time will clarify this doctrine making our next study even clearer.

Beginning about 1950 and carrying on until now, our church has gone through some of the most painful and confusing times in regard to the theology of Christ our righteousness.

For some people, And I dare say for the vast majority of the Seventh-day Adventist church, they don't even know that.

And I've got to tell you honestly, as a Seventh-day Adventist minister, it's only in the last 2 years that the lights have turned on in my mind.

And I'll explain that more as we go through this week.

It's far more important than we have all realized.

And Christ is slowly leading us back where He wants us to be.

Because he said through Ellen White that his church needs to put on his robe of righteousness.

But if unless we understand it, we don't know what we're talking about.

Beginning about 1950 and carrying on until now our church has gone to, didn't I just read that?

It is critical that we review the history and the theology.

This most important class of the week will take place on Thursday.

We are working our way, we're going to be combining theology with history, but we're headed toward a direction.

This is not the same of what we did last year.

What we did last year was to speak about what God was doing in His church up until the 1900s and we spoke about the significance of the latter rain and the work that Jesus was doing through the Holy Spirit in the church.

But we need to speak in this class first of all about the theology of Christ our righteousness again to have that solid foundation behind us, but then we need to talk about the progression and where Christ has been trying to lead us and some of the challenges that we've had along the way.

The purpose of this is not to look for fault with anybody or any whatever.

Simply to find out where we as people need to be, where I need to be in my relationship with Jesus, what Jesus wants to do in my life, not what I can do for myself, but what Jesus wants to do for me and for you, and what he wants for us to be ready for the return of Christ.

So finally on Friday, we'll need to answer the question, what now, and what difference does it make?

Some may see this as the most important class of the week and I would not try to argue with that conclusion.

I want to mention to you what our tools and our textbooks will be.

But I am so grateful for the spirit of prophecy.

Ellen White is so clear as God identified for her what we needed to know.

First of all, God's church had to study for themselves from the word of God.

But once the word of God had been studied, Ellen White helped people to understand, God's people to understand the parts of the truth that needed clarity.

And it's for the very reason that we haven't followed that instruction.

And in some quarters today, people moving farther away from Ellen White that we're bringing in even greater confusion, not greater clarity.

And I'm so grateful for what Ellen White has to say.

To assist us along this journey, especially with the angles of history, we'll consider the writings of 4 individuals.

Series

Christ our Righteousness

Christ Our Righteousness - Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Righteousness by Faith

130 Years Later

1h 8m

01 Where We Are Now and What to Expect in the Future

59m

Being True to Our Trust

What the Law Could Not Do

50m

Seminars

Is Righteousness by Faith Possible for Me?

1h

Righteousness by Faith

Revival and Reformation in the Last Days

1h 11m

Bryan Choi Weekend

02 Appropriating the Righteousness of Christ

52m

Righteousness By Faith: The Rest of the Story

03 Righteousness by Faith and Sanctification

1h 1m

God’s ROI

51m

The Missing Truth of Present News

55m

Power of the Everlasting Gospel

The Covenant’s Promised Blessings!

1h 18m

The Power of Perspective

Two Covenants

57m

Seminars

Your Problem Solved

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine