GYC Africa 2024 Conference: ONE

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GYC Africa

The History of the Church and The Reformation

Kristen Sam-Sike

01 At the Core of the Reformation

Our dear Father in heaven, we thank you Lord for bringing us together to fellowship with you and to study your word.

We ask father that as we study you grant us graciously of your Holy Spirit that we may rightly divide the word of truth and that our hearts may be touched as we go through this topic you've given to us in Jesus name I've prayed amen okay so we are going to be looking at the history of the church and the Reformation this is going to be the first part and it is titled at the Core of the Reformation.

You know, as we've been here, we see GYC Africa, and the response is what?

What was the response when we say GYC Africa?

That's the part I'm actually interested in.

So when we talk about the history of the church and the Reformation, in connection to being 1 in the doctrine, there is something really important there and that's what we're really going to look at.

When we talk about the Reformation, many people think about the Protestant Reformation and how it led down to what we have today in Seventh-day Adventism, But I want us to understand that the word reformation was from the time sin came into this earth.

You know when God created Adam and Eve, we know the story.

He gave his word and said to them that they should not eat of any, that they should eat of every 3, but except the 1 that was in the midst of the garden.

Now, after he gave them that word, someone came and gave them another word.

That they can eat of it and nothing would happen to them.

The history we know is that sin came into the world.

But when sin came, that is when the Reformation started.

So I want us to understand that when we talk about the reformation, don't let your mind dwell on what happened during the dark ages down to when we have Seventh-day Adventism.

No, that's not the actual understanding of the Reformation.

Because when you understand what Reformation means, it is a change in principles and ideas.

And before you can have a Reformation, there has to be a revival.

Let's read something as to what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned.

When Adam and Eve sinned, I'm reading now from Education, page 15, paragraph 2.

It says, through sin, the divine likeness was marred.

So I'm reading Education, you can write that down.

It says, through sin, the divine likeness was marred and well nigh obliterated.

Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision deemed.

By infinite love and mercy, the plan of salvation had been devised and a life of probation was granted to restore in man the image of his maker.

So what does it mean when you are restoring something?

That means that thing was there initially.

And the image of God, is it sin or righteousness?

So the purpose of the reformation is what I'm reading here in Education, page 15, paragraph 2.

To restore in man the image of his maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created to promote the development of body, mind, and soul that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized.

This is the object of the education, the great object of life.

So when we talk about the Reformation, let us look at it from that perspective.

That God is trying to restore in each and every 1 of us, his what?

To bring us back to the perfection that he created man in.

So that's the purpose of the Reformation.

And this is the perspective I want us to look at it from.

Now we know this quote from Life's Sketchy Speech 196 paragraph 2 which is the basis of what we are studying.

We have nothing to fear for the future except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and his teaching in our past history.

And I'm starting from Adam and Eve because when we talk about the way the Lord has led us and his teaching in our past history.

And I'm starting from Adam and Eve because when we talk about the way the Lord has led us, it's not just that what she meant here is not about just the way the Lord has led Seventh-day Adventists.

Because if you say that, that means you're just going to study books about 7 day adventism, isn't it also?

But when we talk about the way the Lord has led us, we're talking about God's leading since creation.

So we have nothing to fear except as we forget the way the Lord has led us, and the second thing, his teaching.

Now today we're gonna talk about how the Lord has led us.

So here's what I was reading earlier, but I'll just skip through it.

That says, This, I want us to get it, this is the purpose of the Reformation.

So what's the purpose of the Reformation?

To restore in man the image of his maker.

To bring him back to the perfection in which he was created.

To promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized.

This is the object of education, the great object of life.

Now, before we have a reformation, there must be a revival.

There must be a revival before a reformation.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually and they needed to be revived.

You know, that was why God said, I will put what?

Now let's look at what we have here from Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 4, page 324, paragraph 2.

It says, God declares, I will put enmity.

This enmity is not naturally entertained.

When man transgressed the divine law, his nature became what?

And he was in harmony and not at variance with Satan.

There exists naturally no enmity between sinful man and the originator of sin.

The apostate is never at rest, except as he obtains sympathy and support by inducing others to follow his example.

So here as we have seen, God puts that enmity and it is in putting that enmity that man has a chance to be reformed.

God put that enmity through his Holy Spirit and that is how man has an opportunity to be reformed and that is what I call a revival.

02 Light Through Darkness

Our dear Father in Heaven, we thank you Lord for bringing us here together to study.

Lord in Heaven, spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and without you we cannot make any sense of your word.

So Lord, please grant us of your spirit, May your holy angels be with us as we study.

Impress on our hearts the truths that you have for us, that we may be reformed in our own lives.

Okay, so I'll share the slides with you later if you want it, yeah.

So I'm still reviewing what we saw yesterday.

So basically what we saw was what I've just talked about.

Today we are going to be looking at light through darkness.

It says, to restore in man the image of his maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized.

And this is what the Reformation is about.

Adam was created, you and I, the purpose, what's the purpose for your life, by the way?

You know, as children, what do you want to be in future?

I want to be a doctor, I want to be an engineer, I want to be this, I want to be that.

You don't need to be looking for a purpose.

Your purpose is to reflect the image of God.

Every other thing are just means to an end and if you don't see how they will take you to that end should you follow it?

You shouldn't so if you are looking for purpose in life there you have it Your purpose in life is to be in the image of God And this is what the Reformation is about, to bring us back to that image of God.

So you write also, last day events, page 189, paragraph 3.

Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices.

Change in ideas, theories, habits, practices.

Yes, last day events, page 189, paragraph 3.

It says, Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the spirit.

So what, yes, they look at the core of the Reformation.

When you say something is the core, in other words, everything centers around it.

And without that, the reformation cannot take place.

What was it that brought the deformation of Adam and Eve, first of all?

That sin came by them listening to someone, is it not so?

They listened to the devil's word and neglected whose word?

Great Controversy, page 478, paragraph 3.

Great Controversy, page 478, paragraph 3 says, it is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among his professed people.

Only when the law of God is restored to its rightful place.

Where is the rightful place of the law of God?

So if the law is restored to our hearts, then there can be a reformation.

Take note, it's not when the law is restored to the mind.

The reformation does not take place when the law is restored to the mind.

And by the way I'm saying mind and heart, it doesn't mean the organ, the heart.

The heart simply means your affections, the part of you that has that desire to follow the law, not just the intellectual understanding, that's your mind.

So you may know what it means to keep the Sabbath, you may know about health reform, you may know about the law of God and what it says, don't kill, don't steal, but if your heart has not been touched you will disregard all those laws and you will not have any desire to do what it says.

So only when the law of God has been restored to your heart and we saw yesterday when Pastor Conway was preaching there's only 1 thing that touches the heart and was that the cross.

The story of redemption of how Jesus died on the cross for us.

And when you understand what he did on the cross of Calvary for us, you will be touched.

He said, if I'd been lifted up from the earth, I would draw all men unto me.

But if you are trying to do a reformation in the sense of I just want to be a good seven-day Adventist to follow everything that the church is saying, you'll see yourself falling short.

But when you are connected with Jesus and we are doing it for his sake, Not for mommy and daddy's sake, not just because I want to go to heaven, but because I love Jesus.

You will not have a problem with making the changes that the Reformation requires in your life.

So the law of God needs to be restored in our lives.

That's the core of the Reformation is the Word of God.

But then I've just been talking about something now which is our heart.

At the core of Reformation in our lives there has to be a preparation in your mind.

Do you know that Ezra at the time when he heard that his people were married to unbelievers?

Ezra heard that his people were married to unbelievers.

The Bible says that Ezra sat down on the floor from morning till evening, he would rent his garment and tore his beard and his hair.

But that was a heart that was touched by the iniquity of his people, that he tore his beard, his hair, and he rent his garments and sat down on the floor till evening when he was told about that how many of us will feel any compunctions in our conscience to hear that your brethren are married to unbelievers doesn't mean anything to us that's what I'm saying now you can find in Ezra chapter 9.

Now when these things were done, the princes came to me saying the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the Holy See have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.

Here, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass." Now look at verse 3.

03 So, Send I You

Our dear Lord in heaven, open our eyes that we may see wondrous things out of your law.

Impress on our hearts the truths that you want us to learn as we study in Jesus' name, amen.

So I was giving a review of what we have studied in the first part and the second part of the history of the church and the reformation.

And I just said that the first point of the reformation is the gospel.

The gospel that tells us that we have a savior that will deliver us from our sins.

And God did not just stop in telling them that there's going to be a deliverer for them to believe in, but he also changed their dress and he changed their diet.

He changed their dress and changed their diet.

And the whole purpose of the Reformation is to bring us back to the image of God that we lost.

Because through sin, the image of God was marred in man.

And God wants to restore his image in us.

We know of the Dark Ages and what happened with the Roman Catholic Church and the reformers that did a lot of work in that time.

But we have to understand in Review and Herald, June 1, 1886, paragraph 14, it tells us, the Bible is presented to us as a sufficient guide.

But the Pope and his workers remove it from the people as if it were a curse because it exposes their pretension and rebukes their Idolatry now this was during the days of Martin Luther that this was written At the spirit of Christ was referring to here that the Roman Catholic Church took away the word of God.

And because the light was taken away, what came upon the Church of God?

Because when there is no word of God, there is darkness.

And in the midst of that darkness, a lot of errors came into the church.

But it is only as the Bible was restored that the reformation took place.

And that's why we read from Great Controversy, page 478, paragraph 3.

It is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among his professed people.

Please, if you can't, if the seat is exhausted, I'll say you should just stand, please.

What we want to talk about today is so important for us at Seventh-day Adventist that even if it has inconvenienced you, I'll say just bear it, please.

Just you can find you can find a way in and I think there are some seats in there, just just go in.

The next thing we looked at in the Reformation is this.

You know the Reformation is not just about doctrines and beliefs and the things that people did and the dates.

If you want to experience the Reformation, you need to have the mindset of the Reformers.

It's in the Bible, in the book of Ezra, chapter 7, verse 10.

Ezra himself was a Reformer and this is the mindset that we are to have.

He says, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Now I don't have those quotes here because of our previous discussion, but those of us who were here, remember in our first discussion, Do you remember what the Puritan said and what we read is the principle of reform?

The principle of reform to walk in all the ways made known and to be made known to us Do you remember that?

So the principle of reform, if you want to experience the reformation and to complete it, you have to have that mindset.

It's to prepare your heart and say, I'm gonna pick up this Bible.

Don't think that I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.

That's just Laodicea talking, coming out of you.

I am rich and increasing goods, I have need of nothing.

This is how Martin Luther studied his word and he was able to make changes in his life because that's what the Reformation is about, to change your ideas, your habits, and your practices and make sure they align with the Word of God.

It's not just to change it for changing sake.

Some youths today just want to remodel worship services.

Yeah, if it's boring, then bring it back to the word of God.

Don't just change things for changing sake.

You have to be sure that whatever change you are bringing in is in harmony with the Word of God.

Don't just say, I want to reform things for reformation sake.

The reformation is dependent on the Word of God.

This was what they usually say, sola scriptura.

Show me in the Bible where it says whatever you are saying.

That was the mindset of the reformers and here's some of them you have here William Farrell, John Calvin, Theodore Beezer, John Knox.

It's not all of them there are many of them that helped in that time.

So they had like what we call the 5 solas, sola gratia.

Now the Catholic church will teach that you are saved by works, but they said, no, you are saved by what?

Were they just arguing or did they study it in the word of God?

They will also say sola fide, that's faith alone, not by works But we are saved by faith alone and they will say solus Christus The Catholic Church will teach that there is no salvation outside what?

The church and we need to be careful as Seventh-day Adventists because sometimes we say that that as far as you are in this church that's how you make it to heaven.

Jesus said other sheep I have that are not in this fold.

Some of them will die in the fold they are in and they will make it to the kingdom of God.

It is not the blessings of any minister that saves you, but it is Christ alone who forgives us our sins.

Most holy reverendess, Add all the holiest names to yourself.

There's a man in Nigeria that calls himself Jesus Christ.

He says that Jesus told him, sat down from his chair and told him, sit down on my chair, you are Jesus.

And he says that he is Jesus of the whole world.

And his people think that they are saved by him.

Solidio gratia, that is glory of God alone.

And in the Roman Catholic Church, glory to who?

And then the greatest of them all, because it is only through sola scriptura that you get the other 4, is it not so?

The Reformation can only take place when the Word of God is restored to its rightful position.

It is only when that Word is restored that you have sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, soli deo Gloria.

You can't get those teachings without the Word of God.

Series

The History of the Church and The Reformation

02 Light Through Darkness

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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