FYI 2013 - The Great Controversy: Against All Odds

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Florida Youth Initiative

Michael's Winning Role in the Great Controversy

Norman McNulty

War in Heaven

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for bringing us here this morning.

I just ask for a special blessing as we study from your Word that we would understand the things that you would have us to understand.

Okay, so when you think of the great controversy, sometimes you tend to think of something that's going on between Christ and Satan, But sometimes we don't think about the fact that we are the ones that are at the very middle of that conflict.

That our lives, the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis are a reflection of this ongoing struggle between good and evil.

And I'm going to start off by giving you an outline of where we are headed.

So we are going to do a 4 part series on the role of Michael in the Great Controversy.

Michael is found in 4 chapters in Scripture.

Revelation chapter 12, the book of Jude, Daniel chapter 10, and Daniel chapter 12.

Now I think you know who Michael is right?

You can prove that from the Bible, it's pretty simple.

Revelation 12 Michael fights against Satan, the book of Jude Michael is described as the archangel.

Then in 1 Thessalonians 4 we see that the voice of the Archangel will cause the dead in Christ to rise first.

And it's in the book of John, Chapter 5, that Christ says that the Father has given to Him the power to resurrect the dead.

So clearly Michael is the Archangel, and he is Christ.

So that helps us to understand who Michael is.

Now the question is why is Christ described as Michael in these 4 chapters?

Because there are many different names for Christ, right?

So apparently, in scripture, when Michael, the name Michael is used for Christ, it is conveying a specific idea about who Christ is and what He is doing in the particular context that He has mentioned.

That's right, Michael means, who is like God, which means He is God.

And with that name, he is identifying himself as being a divine power, and he is coming up in each of the 4 chapters that we are going to see, he is in conflict, in warfare with Satan.

So whenever you see Michael, that means that there is some kind of great controversy struggle going on.

And what we're going to see, and as you look at these 4 chapters, it's very fascinating how this great controversy plays out between Christ and Satan, between Michael and Satan.

And I'm going to read to you a statement from Ellen White as we get started here describing this great controversy.

Because we talk about how Jesus came to this earth and he died for our sins and he's made a way of salvation for all who will choose to follow after him and that is very important.

There is more to the issue than that though, believe it or not.

The plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man.

Do you realize that we talk about salvation and as important as that is, that wasn't the only reason that Jesus came to this earth?

It says, it was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth, it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded.

But notice this, but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe.

So you realize that when Christ came here to this world, He came here not only to save man, and that was a huge part of why He came, but He also came to vindicate the character of God before the universe.

That's right, it means to clear their name, it means to prove that they were right all along.

Someone has made a charge against them saying, so and so did this and we're going to prove that they were wrong.

And you come to court and you're not only found not guilty, you are found that you never did anything wrong.

Your character or your name is vindicated.

And so when Jesus came to this world, He came to vindicate the character of God.

And I understand Pastor Skeet, when he talked last night, he said that the whole controversy started over the law of God.

And the law of God is a transcript of the character of God, right?

Romans 7 says that the law is holy, just, and good.

And so, anyway, that's Patriarchs and Prophets, page 69.

That Christ came not just to save man, but to vindicate the character of God before the universe.

Now, let's go to Revelation chapter 12, and this is going to be our first study here.

Revelation 12 and we are going to start off in verse 7 and then we are going to come back and look at the whole chapter.

Revelation 12 starting in verse 7 and it says, and there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels, and prevailed not.

Neither was their place found any more in heaven, and the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him." So here we see here's the 2 key players in the great controversy.

And clearly the dragon is defined as being the old serpent, the devil, and Satan.

Now why is the dragon described as the old serpent?

He shows up in Genesis chapter 3 and he causes Eve to fall into sin.

That's part of the great controversy right there.

So clearly we see that the dragon is Satan and then Michael we've proven is Christ.

So this is the controversy between Christ and Satan.

And notice here in the very first, and as far as the timeline the reason why I'm doing Revelation 12 first is because that's the first place in the timeline.

Then we're going to go to Jude 12 that's going to be the second place in the timeline.

Then Daniel 10 is the third place in the timeline and then Daniel 12 is the conclusion of the battle between Christ and Satan.

But this battle goes all the way back to heaven and what this first passage teaches us is that from the very beginning in heaven, Michael defeats Satan.

And specifically, you will see when you get to verse 10, that Satan is described as the accuser of our brethren and we're going to get into that.

But notice when someone's the accuser of the brethren they go around and they say things and Satan is the 1 who started this.

Satan was saying things against God that was not true.

He gained sympathizers, but he's eventually cast out.

Now, where does, after Satan gets cast out, where does the war come to?

And what is Satan going to do here on this earth?

He is going to be the accuser of the brethren.

And we're going to see, and I'm going to give you some verses to look at, we're going to see how Satan continues his work as the accuser of our brethren.

But what we want to see is What vehicle does Christ work through here on this earth, and how does Satan work here on this earth to continue this controversy?

Because the controversy starts in heaven, but now it's continuing here on this earth.

Let's go to Revelation 12 and let's go back to verse 1.

It says, There appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

So we have this woman, and I'm not going to draw, so I'm just going to write words.

And you have the sun on her head, the moon under her feet.

She's clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet, and she has a crown that has 12 stars.

Okay, now you have to know when you're looking at Revelation chapter 12, after you look at verses 7-9, that Revelation chapter 12 is describing the great controversy, right?

So what does this woman have to do with the great controversy?

How do we know that the woman is the church?

Because by the time you get to verse 6 you see that the woman fled into the wilderness and she was there for 1260 days, which is the 1260 years.

This is describing God's people who were under persecution.

So clearly this woman represents the church and then you see a different woman, a corrupt woman in Revelation chapter 17, she's described as the mother of harlots.

So here's the pure church in Revelation chapter 12, and what are her characteristics?

Earnestly Contending For the Faith

Let's have a word of prayer and we'll get into our next session.

Father in heaven we thank you so much for the privilege we have of being here today of studying your word and I pray that as we get into the book of Jude that we will have a better understanding of what it means to earnestly contend for the faith.

So be with us now I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Alright, so our second presentation we are going through the book of Jude and the title for this message is, earnestly contending for the faith.

Do you think there needs to be a few more people earnestly contending for our faith?

So again we're looking at the role of Michael in the great controversy And we're going to pick it up in verse 9 and then we're going to come back to the start of the chapter.

So verse 9 says, 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, darest not bring against him a reeling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuketh thee." So, verse 9 starts off with a word, yet, so it's drawing a contrast, and it says, Michael contended with the devil over the body of Moses, meaning there was warfare, there was contention, there was a contending between Christ and Satan.

So, the book of Jude is describing Great controversy warfare again between Christ and Satan.

So what is the book of Jude talking about?

Is the book of Jude talking about the resurrection of Moses?

Is that what this book is really based on?

And I think you're going to see very quickly, that that is just an illustration to describe the contending that needs to be taking place.

Christ, or Michael, is the example given to us of how to contend for the faith.

He contended with the devil over the body of Moses.

So let's pick it up in verse 1 of the book of Jude.

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied." So notice, when Jude addresses the believers, he says to those who are sanctified by God the Father.

So the early Christian fathers of our faith, so to speak, they believed in sanctification.

He's addressing those who are sanctified by God the Father.

Now you're going to see why he addresses those who are sanctified.

Because what you're going to see is that there are teachers that are going to come into the church who attack the doctrine of sanctification.

And this becomes part of the contending that is going to take place.

So Jude, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, addresses them who are sanctified.

It doesn't say who will be sanctified, it says to them who are sanctified.

By God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied." So here's just an initial greeting and we're sanctified by who?

God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called.

Ok, now he gets into his message starting in verse 3.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." So Jude, he was going to just write an epistle to the Christian believers about common salvation, righteousness by faith, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

He was just going to give them some encouragement about the way of salvation.

But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he found that it was needed that he should write them and exhort them, meaning give strong encouragement.

If you exhort someone, that word means to give strong encouragement.

It's just not like, hey, I'm just kind of giving you a suggestion that you might wanna think about possibly contending for the faith.

Jude is saying, you need to earnestly contend.

That's the spirit that this epistle is written in.

It's not just like, oh yeah, you might want to think about being a Seventh-day Adventist in the last days of Earth's history.

No, if Jude were alive today, he would say, please be a faithful Seventh-day Adventist.

Contend for the faith that was once delivered to the pioneers?

It is needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

You know, sometimes I run into people and they say, I see all this bad stuff coming into the church, but I'm just gonna pray about it and leave it with God.

That's not what The Bible teaches us to do.

The Bible teaches us to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

Listen, Satan is fighting with all out warfare to destroy the woman.

He's gonna do whatever he can to tear this church down.

And the last thing God needs is for his faithful servants to sit idly by while they see the church being destroyed.

In fact, and I didn't plan on using this quote, but Ellen White says, "'Neutrality in a crisis is the greatest form "'of hostility that we can show to God.'" Earnestly contending for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints.

Now the question is, Jude, why are you telling us that we need to earnestly contend for the faith?

I mean, this is still in the first century.

Shouldn't everything be fine and well in the church?

I mean, we still have people alive who saw Jesus when he was on this earth.

I mean, why would there be any problem in the church?

The church is just going to sail right on through, is it not?

The church is going to go through, don't worry, the church is going to go through, we don't need to worry about it.

Listen, just because the church is going to go through doesn't mean that there doesn't need to be a contention, to be a battle, a warfare.

For there are certain men crept in unawares, which means unnoticed, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ." Okay, there is a lot going on here.

Certain men crept in unnoticed, undetected, and they are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the question is, Who are these certain men?

Do you think these are just some peer warmers in the church who might raise their hand and sabbical and say, I'm not sure if I believe in Ellen White, and everyone just kind of like, oh, forget them.

I mean, would Jude, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, feel compelled to write an entire epistle that would become part of the canon of Scripture if he was concerned about a few warmers that most of the church wasn't taking heed to?

This is addressing an issue that would become pervasive in the first century church and will be a problem in the professed church of God to the very end of time.

So the very first issue that we see, we have certain men corrupt and unawares.

And a good description for these are going to be false teachers.

These false teachers are turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.

You turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.

And this word, yeah, it can mean lust, licentiousness.

In other words, The grace of God covers you.

You have license to keep sinning and the grace of God will continue to cover you.

And you know Paul even addresses in Romans 6 he says, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

In the very verse before he had said where sin abounded grace did much more abound.

And so people would take that and say where there is more sin there is more grace.

If we just accept Jesus as our Savior, if we sin and if we sin more, we're going to have more grace.

You can, in theory, accept Jesus as your Savior, and your heart might even be touched and have some cords of sympathy with the sacrifice that Jesus has made for you.

And then you turn right around and say, boy I'm so glad that he did it all and I don't have to surrender, I don't have to change.

Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.

Is that an issue just of the first century church?

Daniel’s Great Controversy Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for the blessings that we've been having this weekend already and I pray that You would bless me in a special way this coming hour as we go through our next section on Michael.

May it be clear and may it help us to see how Michael is fighting on our behalf.

Okay, so again this is our continuing series on Michael and the great controversy.

There's 4 chapters in scripture that describe Michael in great controversy warfare.

In scripture We have Revelation 12, the book of Jude, Daniel chapter 10, and Daniel chapter 12.

And as far as chronology goes Revelation 12 gets us back to before the world was created.

The book of Jude gets us to the point where Michael was contending with Satan over the body of Moses, which was, you know, well before the time of Christ.

Then we get further down here in Daniel chapter 10 where we're gonna see Daniel's prayer and Michael fighting on behalf of Daniel, so that's even further down in history and then we are going to finish up our next presentation when Michael stands up at the very end of time at the close of probation.

So these are the 4 chapters that describe great controversy warfare with Christ and Satan.

Okay, so we've looked at Revelation chapter 12, we've seen the great controversy, sort of the big picture, it started in heaven, it moved here to this earth, and the vehicles through which the controversy is now being fought are the 2 women, the woman that Christ raised up and the woman that the great red dragon, or Satan, raised up.

You have the remnant church and you have the harlot.

And that controversy plays out till the very end.

And what we looked at in our last section in the book of Judas we see that false teachers have crept in unnoticed into the Church.

They're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, licentiousness, teaching that grace gives us license to sin, that leads to a mentality of people in the church that are like Cain, who are like Balaam, and who are like Korah, bringing in false worship, going into ministry for false motives, and Korah seeking positions of leadership that God has not ordained us to do.

And 1 thing I didn't say in the last presentation, what happened after the earth swallowed up Korah and his followers?

The people came back and said, you have killed the people of the Lord.

So, there were still sympathizers even after that.

And so, and then again you see that these leaders speak with great swelling words.

It's like a foreshadowing of how the papacy would arise and speak great words against the Most High.

And then it concludes with the prophetic foreshadowing of God raising up a group of people where it says, Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you fall-less before the throne of God.

That's the 144, 000 who will stand without fault before the throne of God.

And we've done some pretty heavy hitting.

This third session will bring in a practical element to our personal lives that will see how we can especially be part of Michael working on our behalf.

So that's what we're going to see here in Daniel chapter 10.

So, let's pick it up and again I always start each chapter by reading the section that describes Michael and then we go back through the chapter from there.

So, Daniel chapter 10 starting in verse 12, this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel, "'Then said he unto me, fear not Daniel, "'for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart "'to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, "'thy words were heard and I am come for thy words.

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 1 and 20 days.

But lo, Michael, 1 of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days." Okay, so Gabriel says, hey I've come for your words, and I actually was trying to come from the very first that you started praying, but I got held up by the king of Persia.

Gabriel has a lot of power, he is next to God in power, and he got held up by the king of Persia, this is Gabriel speaking.

Gabriel has a lot of power, he is next to God in power, and he got held up by the king of Persia.

Do you think a human king alone had the power to hold up Gabriel?

No, there was something else going on here.

Satan was again working through the heart of the king of Persia to hold up Gabriel and finally Michael had to show up.

Once Michael showed up then things could take place and we'll get into all of that.

So that's just the introduction to this concept of Michael in Daniel chapter 10.

Now when you look at Daniel chapter 10, Daniel chapter 10 is the introduction to the vision of Daniel 11, you understand that?

Daniel 11 starting in verse 1 all of a sudden you just pick it up and if you don't read Daniel chapter 10 you go to Daniel 11 verse 1 and it says, also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him.

And immediately you're lost, you don't even know what it's talking about because you didn't read Daniel chapter 10.

Daniel 10 is the introduction to the vision of Daniel 11.

And Daniel 11 is a chapter in Scripture that people like to talk about, they like to study and we're going to get into that.

Series

Michael's Winning Role in the Great Controversy

Earnestly Contending For the Faith

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

God is Love?

19-The Mark of the Beast

1h

Dare to be a Daniel

09 Final End

57m

Last Day Events

The Mark of the Beast and the Sunday Law Explained

1h 6m

It's Time Someone Finally Told You the Truth About...

The Human Nature of Christ - Part 2

51m

Prophecy Seminar

The Mark of the Beast

43m

Presumption: Counterfeit of Faith

49m

Summary and Conclusion

39m

Servants in the Fire

43m

Being Adventist

The Terrifying Tyranny of Adventist Eschatology

1h 7m

Alistair Huong: The Virus of Spiritualism

1. The Speaking Serpent: A Pandemic of Spiritualism

52m

Righteousness By Faith

4. Saving Faith

1h

The Prince and the Pauper

1h

Sound Doctrine