Lesson 5. Curse the Day

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Job

Lesson 5. Curse the Day

 

What is the "curse" for Job? What is the "curse" for Christ? If we can understand the latter "curse," we will be closer to appreciating the 1888 message as a shared atonement with Christ rather than a vicarious atonement (as if He were like us, apparently but not in reality). Understanding Christ's shared atonement is the key to why we suffer; this theme will be developed into next week's lesson.

Job did not curse God as Satan said he would and as his wife exhorts him to do, but he comes right to the brink and "cursed his day" of birth (Job 3:1).

At the root of Job's existence is a God-forsaken day that is night. Life is so painful that Job wishes the roots of his existence had been recaptured by death and darkness, that he had never existed in the presence of God. He wishes God would rewind the tape of creation and undo the part that led to his existence (vs. 5).

The deep reason for Job's unrest is that he cannot understand his sufferings. He cannot understand why a believer, a man of godliness and piety, suffers with such mind-numbing intensity. This inexplicable trouble shakes the foundations of his moral and ordered universe. It is for this reason he cannot and will not rest until he has found some resolution to this cosmic question (vs. 20).

Job feels instinctively that he ought to matter, but everything about his sufferings suggests that he doesn't. His assumption, indeed his past conviction, is that he lived life in covenant relationship with the Almighty, whom he feared with loving reverence. And he believed that the Almighty looked on him with love. If this is so, Job deduces that he ought, as a human being in the image of God and a believer in relationship with God, to have a derivative significance (Job 7:12).

Job considers himself a penitent sinner who understands the meaning of the sacrifices that he performs. He believes in a God who forgives those who repent and believe. Job thinks that he should not be punished for his sins since the sacrifices he performs have taken away his sin (vs. 21).

Rest is predicated on cosmic order, a creation in which there are proper boundaries, in which virtue is rewarded and vice punished, in which there is justice, and in which goodness triumphs. Job longs to share that rest with God. At the moment his experience is the polar opposite.

Job feels like a man on a life-support machine who longs for it to be switched off. In Sheol at last would be peace. Job is obsessed with death as the only way out of trouble because life is so futile.

Job cannot rest with things as they are. He will not rest. In his weakness, misery, and distress there is yet an energy within Job that surges and drives him to discover the God who has treated him like this. Although he says he has no hope, his restlessness betrays him. A restless man is not a defeated man; a troubled man is not a hopeless man resigned to his fate. If there really is no hope, there is no point asking "Why?" (vs. 20).

Job is protesting that the Almighty is attacking him as if he were the personification of supernatural evil. A terrible picture of God that follows, as the hostile Watcher from whom Job cannot escape (Job 7:12).

Even when Job does manage to get to sleep, he cannot escape. He goes to bed thinking he can get a moment's rest, but God sends him nightmares (vs. 14). The pressure is unbearable. Job would prefer to be strangled to death (Job vs. 15). If I am as insignificant to you as I appear to be, why will you not leave me alone? (vs. 16).

"If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?" "Sure, I sin, I am not perfect. But does my sin really justify this constant unrelenting 'hostile attention'? Why are you to me like Big Brother, picking on me, making me 'your mark'?" (Do you wonder sometimes if you are insignificant in God's great economy of salvation?)

Because there seems to be no answer from Heaven, Job goes on to a desperate and paradoxical plea to be God-forsaken. He says to God in essence, "Leave me alone!" (vs. 16).

Have you ever read a book, How to Get Along with Someone Who Lives in Hell? No, I haven't either; but I wish one were written. There are miserable people who make everyone around them unhappy (spouses, neighbors, relatives). They don't understand how God loves them personally. Therefore they feel like God has forsaken them. That's what it means to "live in hell," for hell is God-forsaken-ness. Naturally, their feeling dark and miserable gets expressed in their orneriness.

They are not in hell, for since the world began only one Man has ever been there. The real thing hasn't come yet. Hell comes only at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20.

Job's loneliness foreshadowed a greater loneliness. His darkness likewise anticipates a deeper darkness. Two thousand years ago another blameless believer was in deep darkness, hanging on a cross at midday. Deeper than the darkness of night. Deeper even than Job's darkness. And from his lips the cry of dereliction, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34). In some strange way, because Job's darkness of soul foreshadows the darkness of the cross there is within it hope of rescue.

The bottom-line root of all fear, even beneath the conscious surface, is that of being "forsaken" of God, of being lost, of "hell" itself, what the Bible calls the ultimate "curse of the law" (Gal. 3:13).

It's our universal problem. But, as the Son of God, Christ has endured and conquered that same fear, delivering us from it, "being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." That is from Deuteronomy 21:23, where Moses said that anyone who ends up on a tree is "accursed of God." Jesus was utterly sinless, but He was "made … to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).

His sufferings on the cross were not merely physical pain. In total reality (no mind-numbing anesthetic) the Son of God, divine yet human, felt the ultimate horror: "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That's why Peter said He went to hell to save us (Acts 2:31). No greater pain of soul was possible. He suffered one hundred percent "the wages of sin, [which] is death," the real kind (Rom. 6:23).

So tell whoever thinks he or she is in hell that it's not true. No matter how miserable one may be, there is a way to get out of that and into the sunlight of heaven on earth.

Realize that when Jesus cried out in His agony on the cross, "Why have You forsaken Me?" He was not mouthing some empty phrases that His script called for--He was telling the truth. He felt totally forsaken by God. His heart was broken.

He felt to the full what it means to be cursed by God, for Galatians 3:13 tells us He totally felt the curse: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."

When a depressed, unhappy person can grasp the reality of what Christ experienced for him or her, a bond is established between the two souls--Christ and the sinner. In that bond, one identifies with Christ. Then what happens is, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

Welcome to heaven on earth. Faith is a heart-identity with Him. We become corporately one with Him by faith. His concerns become ours; His experience becomes ours by oneness of heart with Him. Thus we "receive the reconciliation" (Rom. 5:11).

Sinful human beings learn to believe, to "overcome even as [He] overcame" (Rev. 3:20). They identify with Him as a bride identifies with her bridegroom, become "one" with Him in heart. "Love [agape] casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). So, in all the bad news of our day we find an avenue to good news.

--Paul E. Penno

Notes:

Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson will be posted on the Internet later this week. Please check his YouTube channel.

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 4. God and Human Suffering

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic The Book of Job  Lesson 4. God and Human Suffering   The opinions expressed in the book of Job are not necessarily shared by the Management of the Universe. Job and his three friends use human reasoning to explain the actions of God. The arguments of the three friends can be summarized as Job must have done something wrong so God sent or allowed terrible calamities to cause him and his family suffering. Job himself failed to get it right when he relied on his good works to try to meet his friends' arguments. The book gives a rare glimpse into the interactions between God and Satan where human beings are the subject of the conversation. From it, we know that God looks at suffering from an entirely different perspective. Does God allow suffering? If He merely allows Satan to cause it, why doesn't He prevent it? Does God see something positive in human suffering that we don't always see? We gain insight from an unusual place. John relates an interesting vision in chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the book of Revelation. It has become known as the vision of the open door. In chapters 4 and 5 John relates that he sees God sitting on a large white throne and there is a scroll or book in the right hand of God, or the scroll is lying on the throne. The better translation is that the scroll was on the throne rather than in God's hand. A crisis has arisen because heavenly citizens are concerned that there is no one qualified to take and break the seals of this scroll. John joins in the concern and begins to weep. He is reassured and told that there is one qualified to open the scroll, "the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David." We must understand some historic detail to realize the significance of this event. When a king was crowned in the nation of Israel, his first duty, as stated in Deuteronomy 17:18-20, was to write for himself a personal copy of the law. This law was evidently the book of Deuteronomy. Its contents had been written by Moses on a scroll which was placed in the sanctuary in the custody of the Levites who carried the ark (31:9, 24, 26). The King was to study it and use it to guide his governance. In fact, it was to be read to all of Israel every 7 years during the feast of booths or tabernacles. During most of Israel's history this law was ignored and forgotten with just a few exceptions. We remember that Hezekiah instructed the priests to clear away the rubbish in the temple, and they found this scroll. In 2 Kings 23, we see good king Josiah take and learn from the scroll. That revival was short lived and finally the kings abandoned any pretext of serving God. Before Israel was captured by Babylon, God instructed Isaiah to "bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples" (Isa. 8:16; see also Dan. 12:9 and 8:26; 12:4). This was done because Israel had become unable to discern and comprehend the revealed will of God. Was heaven concerned that there might be no king entitled to take the scroll on behalf of earth? Is it possible that Satan claims to be this king? From the first part of the book of Job, we know that Satan attended the "Sons of God" conference (Job 1:6). When God asked where he had come from, he said he had been roaming and walking around on the earth. Satan was implying that he had the right to do this and God did not challenge it. Satan could point to the choice made by Adam and Eve to follow him rather than God. By this choice, Adam abdicated the dominion he was given over the earth. By implication, Satan claimed the allegiance of all of earth's inhabitants but God pointed to Job saying that he was blameless, feared God, and turned away from evil. So God could point to at least one person who had decided against Satan's regime. From this conversation, we can infer that even though Adam did sell out the human race, God had a way of escape to redeem and bring together the entire universe and establish his eternal kingdom. Jesus told the disciples before He ascended to heaven that "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth," therefore they were to go to all nations of the earth with the gospel (Matt. 28:18). At the cross, Jesus won back the right to govern the earth in his role as the second Adam (Romans 5). As the Lamb slain, He had the right to claim dominion, so He rightfully was entitled to take the scroll and open its seals. Thus, each human being was given the opportunity to choose between Satan and Christ. A choice between God's law of love and Satan's self-centered chaos, that has eternal consequences, must be tested for its validity. How does Christ accomplish that testing? Each seal that is opened results in terrible calamity happening on the earth. Why would a calamity be considered a "seal"? This is where our friend Mr. Job provides illumination. He experiences overwhelming tribulation with the loss of his possessions, his health, his wealth, and most of his family. Yet his faith prevails. He may not understand why these terrible things happened, but in all this, Job did not sin or charge God wrongfully (Job 1:22). He also made one of the most profound statements of faith in the Bible: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth" (Job 19:25). Instead of giving up on God as his wife advised him to do, the trials were a means to settle him into the truth about God so that he could not be moved. It is clear that God looks at human suffering entirely differently than humans do. God allows trials to refine the characters of His children so all the defects are removed and He can seal them for eternity. Sealing is a means of preserving the contents of whatever is sealed. Where Adam and Eve defied God's law, His sealed children have completely submitted their wills to His law, the only thing that unifies the entire universe. By maintaining their faith in spite of terrible trials, the redeemed allow Christ to declare to the watching universe that their choice is trustworthy. We know that Jesus warned that at the end of time a great tribulation will occur that is so much worse than any other that it must be shortened or no one would live through it. In order to have a remnant that can stand through this time, each individual must have gone through trials even worse than Job suffered. The disciples went through a "trial" experience during a storm while they were sailing on the sea of Galilee. When they found Jesus peacefully sleeping in the bottom of the boat, they asked, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4:38). Ellet J. Waggoner, one of the 1888 "messengers" shines the "light" of the message on this event when he wrote: "Their thought was only of themselves, and they did not stop to consider that He was in the boat with them. In their faithless fright they did not think that if the boat went down with them, supposing that it were possible, it would take Him down too. If they had but allowed this thought to come into their minds, it would not only have checked their selfish reproach of the Master, but it would have calmed their fears; for surely He who made the sea, and to whom it belongs, who 'hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm,' could not perish in the stormy waves. The creature could not destroy the Creator. So the fact that Jesus was in the boat was the surest protection that they could have. It was safer in the storm with Him than in the calm without Him" (Christ and His Righteousness, p.128; Glad Tidings ed.). What His children go through, He goes through. If we remember that, there will be no confusion and we can say with James that we count it all joy when we go through trials, and also with Job, that we know that our Redeemer lives and that He will stand as our Redeemer and king at the last day. --Arlene Hill Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGVKFdhLGkU "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 3. "Doth Job Fear God For Nought?"

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic The Book of Job  Lesson 3. "Doth Job Fear God For Nought?"   Does Job love God for nothing? asked Satan. God had raised the issue of Job's authenticity of character describing him as "perfect and ... upright" and God-fearing, hating "evil" (Job 1:8). God defended Job. Satan accused Job of tainted motives for service. Job's love is corrupted because You bless him with prosperity at home and in his business as well. Remove that and see how Job will cuss You out. It is absolutely the case that God has promised and does "bless" His people (Gen. 12:1-3). His blessings not only are spiritual but also material. But what happens when God's people fall upon hard times and experience suffering, financial reversals, and even family tragedy and death? Who do they blame? It's the age-old question. It's the question raised by Satan in the controversy with Christ at the end-time in the mark of the beast issue. The people who proclaim the three angels' messages are described as those who "fear [love] God" for "the hour of His judgment is come" (Rev. 14:7). Finally, at the end of the history of the gospel, those "angel" messengers not only proclaim the clearest everlasting gospel, but their character thoroughly represents what they preach. As such, they "give glory to Him" and help God win His trial for "His judgment is come." It is the essence of the 1888 message that Christ produces a corporate body from "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (vs. 6) who are motivated by a deeper appreciation of what led Jesus to die for them on His cross. Jesus was seemingly abandoned by His Father when He bore the sins of the world on the cross and experienced the fullest condemnation of God-forsaken death--in truth the second death. This was all because the faith of Jesus was motivated by His love for the Father in doing His will, and His love for a lost world of sinners who needed a Saviour. Satan maintains that he has invented sin, which at its root is self-indulgence, rebellion, and enmity against God's person and law. He accuses God that it's impossible for sinners to truly serve God either by actions or for altruistic motives. And Satan points to observable facts on the ground as to the reality of continued rebellion in the lives of God's professed followers on earth. The issue in the great controversy with Satan is not only could the Son of God endure the ultimate test of loyalty to His Father on the cross, but can Christ produce a victory over sin in the hearts and lives of a sample from earth's people groups. Anything less than this will mean a defeat for God and Christ in the great controversy with Satan, and a failure of our High Priest's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. Might does not make right. God could force His people to obey Him. Their service would then be out of fearing a tyrant or dictator. These are the very principles of Satan's government in which he uses fear, intimidation, coercion, and yes, even death threats. Satan's accusation, "Doth Job fear God for nothing?" (1:9) is ultimately directed against God. His followers are bought and paid for by the "goodies" that He hands out. Satan accuses God, "put forth Thine hand ... [You] touch all that he hath" (vs. 11). Satan sets God up to take the blame for Job's catastrophic losses. And it really does seem as though God is responsible. Does He not tell Satan, "all that he [Job] hath is in thy power"? (vs. 12). Why does not God continue His defense of Job? Why does God withdraw His protection and turn Job over to the whims of Satan? Doesn't this make God ultimately responsible for suffering? This is the way it seems. For Job this was his reality and theodicy. Why does God permit evil? But what Job did not know is the "back story" we know from the Book of Job. It was "Satan [who] went forth" (vs. 12) to perpetrate all the suffering which befell Job. It was evil men, "the Sabeans," who rustled Job's cattle (vs. 15). It was the reporter's perception that the lightning which struck Job's sheep and shepherds (vs. 16) was an "act of God." It was bad "Chaldeans" who plundered Job's camels (vs. 17). It was a tornado (an act of nature) that destroyed Job's house and killed his children (vs. 19). Here Satan exhibits his fear tactics by using evil forces and "acts of nature" to coerce Job's will in disavowing God. But God cannot resort to such measures. If He did so, He would be no better than Satan--a malevolent dictator. So God demonstrates the principles of His government in the only way that is consistent with His character of agape. God's love is strength in weakness. God takes the blame for all Job's calamities--"thou [Satan] movedst Me against him [Job]" (2:3). God even goes further. He demonstrates weakness by permitting Job to be exposed to Satan's maliciousness without divine protection (vs. 6). I say, without divine protection, but there is a limit. God will not permit Job to be tempted above that which he is able (1 Cor. 10:13). God sets the boundary sparing Job's life. God spared Job's life, but He did not spare His Son's life. The experiences of Job may be a type of Christ's sufferings in prolepsis for the Old Testament church, but what Christ went through on His cross is far beyond what Job endured. And this is what the 1888 message helps us to see. It resolves the problem of theodicy for us today,--why God permits suffering in our lives. God is Sovereign and in control. He is Almighty and all powerful. But the God of the cross reveals His strength in weakness. This is the reason for the incarnation. The God of the whole universe had to become weak in order to defeat evil. Only with the frailties of humanity could He defeat Satan. On the cross of Calvary, the Creator God demonstrated His love, truth, and justice. The suffering God, hanging on the cross, is a victorious God! Only the Lamb can overcome the dragon in the book of Revelation. What a paradox! Sin started with pride, but was overcome by humility (Isa. 14:12-15; Phil. 2:5-11). The cross reveals God as vulnerable. He opens Himself to experience ultimate pain and suffering. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). He is the suffering, crucified God. And why? In order to win our hearts by such suffering love. There are those who say that Christ defeated Satan in the great controversy at the cross. Yes, absolutely He did. But it would be an anti-law gospel of the cross to teach that the cross is a sufficient demonstration of the defeat of Satan before the world and the universe. For the fact is that sin has continued for 2000 years after the cross. Christ's High Priestly ministry of the cross in the heavenly sanctuary must produce overcoming victory in the character of His professed followers. Anything less than this will be a victory for Satan with which he can accuse God of perpetuating evil unending with his lawless government. But I am persuaded otherwise. God needs us in order for Him to win His case; just as He needed Job, when Satan accused God before "the sons of God" (Job 2:1). Only Job himself, who is weaker than the devil, can refute Satan's argument, defeat him, and thus prove that God is right when He is justifying him and standing on his side. Job overcame the devil not because he was so good or strong (he knows he is a sinner--Job 7:21; 10:6; 14:17), but because of full confidence and faith in the God who gave him strength and victory (Job 13:15; 19:25-27; 42:5). When Job was weak, he was strong. Paul says eloquently: "When I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). "... We can glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world, with its lusts, is crucified unto us, and we unto the world" (E. J. Waggoner, "The Power of Christ," The Present Truth, July 16, 1891). The sanctuary in heaven will be cleansed when the hearts of God's people are cleansed on the earth. "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth"! (Rom. 1:16). --Paul E. Penno Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson will be posted on the Internet later this week. Please check his YouTube channel. "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 2. The Great Controversy

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic The Book of Job  Lesson 2. The Great Controversy   Most of us have lived our lives serenely unaware of the great cosmic war raging unabated just this side of the threshold of "the door in heaven" (Rev. 4:1). Some like to speak of it as the "great controversy between good and evil," but it is far more than that: it's a battle between two great personalities--Christ and Satan. And more is involved than even this little planet's destiny; ultimately, according to the book of Job, the fate of the universe itself. Our little planet has become the battleground arena on which these cosmic issues are to be decided. Job is the first Christian book ever written; there are links that bind him on his dung heap wailing out in despair, "Why?," with Christ on His cross in total darkness wailing the same "Why?" God was forced to stake His throne and the stability of the universe itself on this one poor, weak, human man, Job. God had claimed that Job was true and righteous. Satan ridiculed the idea; he wagered that if God were to permit enormous affliction to come on Job, he would turn traitor and "curse God." And God couldn't back out; one human being in supreme wretchedness was holding the line in this great conflict with Satan, and the universe had to hold their breath in anticipation of what Job would do. Job's problem was not that he had rebelled against God; he had rebelled against Satan, and that's what made God proud of him. Job just hadn't known who was who; it was a simple case of mistaken identity. He really wanted to haul Satan into court; his whole soul was enlisted in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" and he was totally on God's side. Our fundamental problem is the same as Job's--we don't know who's who in "the great controversy." Of all the books in the Bible, Job is the one that most vividly reveals the problem all of us face in life: how to understand suffering. And that problem always resolves itself into one great, perplexing, painful question: Who is this who hates me? Who is bringing on me this undeserved calamity? Is it God, or is it Satan? Your mind may have the correct answer, but what about your heart? Our heart in its natural, unconverted state is "enmity against God" (Rom 8:7). "Why me?" is the universal question we ask when calamity strikes us. Job is us; he is standing in for us. He couldn't figure out what "sin" he was guilty of that provoked God to curse him so terribly with the loss of everything he held dear, even his basic health. "But while Satan has usurped the dominion which God gave to Adam, he does not have unlimited control of this earth. God did not give unlimited and supreme authority over the earth even to man in his uprightness; and so when Satan overcame man, it was not possible for him to get control of the earth to an unlimited degree. This fact Satan acknowledged, when he said to the Lord concerning Job: 'Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?' Job 1:10. It still remains true, that 'the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will'" (Ellet J. Waggoner, Signs of the Times, March 10, 1888). Satan challenged God. In his walking "to and fro," he was looking for something he did not believe existed. Of all God's professed people, none served Him from motives of disinterested piety and genuine love. All were "motivated" by a selfish concern and love of reward. Poor Job is suddenly bereft of his calm security, and thrust rudely into the cosmic arena to fight as a gladiator for the honor of God and for His vindication. Is it possible for a man living in the weakness of sinful human flesh to be motivated by pure disinterested love? The conflict behind the great controversy for nearly two thousand years has been between two ideas of love. Christ's enemy infiltrated the early church with the idea of eros in an effort to displace apostolic agape. Plato's idea had been a "heavenly eros," a noble, uplifting concept that he hoped would lift the world out of its swamp of sensuality onto a path leading upward to heaven. It is equivalent to what is usually considered now to be Christian love. It's the same self-centered insecurity that is compounded of fear of hell or hope of reward In contrast, agape is a love that dares to step down lower. Christ took seven steps in condescension in revealing to us what agape is (Phil. 2:5-8). The last step, "the death of the cross," is the most profound revelation of agape that the universe has witnessed. The 1888 problem was that to talk about the law without understanding agape "worketh wrath" and actually contributes to sin. The brethren did not know what true obedience is, and that only "agape is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 4:15; 13:10). It follows that the remnant church who "keep the commandments of God" will be a people virtually obsessed with agape. "The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory" (Ellen G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 415, 416). That message is not "soft-soap." Today there are "144,000" individuals of "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people," each of whom is so important that he or she is holding that same line all alone, like Job did. And, as with Job, there is a link that binds each one to Christ on His cross asking, "Why Me?" They await that message and that Voice from heaven when the earth will be "lightened with the glory" of "the everlasting gospel" at last made totally clear (Rev 18:1-4). God must have "144,000" to honor Him in the last great trials of faith (Rev 7:1-4; 14:1-5). If He has only 143,999, His word will fail and He will be embarrassed in the great controversy with Satan. Perhaps you are that last one who is so important. Hang on! --From the writings of Robert J. Wieland Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogg1uugD9yg "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 1. The End

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic The Book of Job  Lesson 1. The End   Why must the Jobs of this world suffer a virtual (or real) death before someone comes to "console and comfort" them? Why must the Jobs of this world live and die as persons who are abandoned and ignored? Why must they cry out for comfort to "friends" who remain so oblivious to their pain? Why must their stand for justice and redemption be a post-mortem victory? Is this what God desires? Sally and her husband took a vacation Europe. They visited a village where they happened upon a fresco of the resurrected Christ. Sally's husband stopped casually to look at the painting and then moved on to the next picture. Sally lingers behind, staring at the face of Christ. Despite the golden halo over Christ's head and the flag of victory in his hand, she sees that his eyes are staring into the foreground with a look that seems to be remembering the pain of crucifixion, as if to suggest that "if resurrection had taken place, it had not yet been comprehended." Sally's husband sees her staring at the painting, but he cannot at first figure out what has so captured her interest and imagination. He looks at her intently. She is standing there, propped up on the crutches she has needed to walk since a childhood bout with polio crippled her with a lasting lesson about what pain and loss means. His eyes return to the painting and gradually, but with increasing clarity, he sees what Sally sees in the eyes of this One who until moments ago had been horribly dead. The truth and the promise of resurrection, he now understands, is that "those who have been dead understand things that will never be understood by those who have only lived." I do not know of any statement that provides more profound explication of the last words in the biblical text of Job. The final words concerning Job amount to an epitaph: "So Job died, being old and full of days" (Job 42:17). In Job, the expression "full of days" becomes an invitation to a larger understanding of what it means to live in fellowship with God. It is fitting that the end of the book of Job effectively returns us once more to the beginnings of his story. When considering who belongs among the models of faith that best exemplify God's hopes and expectations, the journey begins with the question that God poses at the outset of this book: "Have you considered my servant Job?" (Job 1:8). The epilogue clearly invites us to return to the prologue of this story in order to find its conclusion. "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1). "So Job died, being old and full of days." Job's restoration holds the promise that there is life on the other side of the ash heap. For that, we give thanks, even though we do not fully understand why he has been required to make this journey. Despite the promise of this all's-well-that-ends-well ending, we must wonder if Job or we can ever find the way back to that faraway place where life was once untroubled and God's blessings were unquestioned. Perhaps such wonderment is part of the journey with God that faith requires. Perhaps those who find themselves sitting with Job on the ash heap of suffering "for no reason" should know more about life in relation to God than they did before. Suffering like Job's changes everything in heaven and on earth. What might have changed in heaven and on earth after Job prayed and the Lord accepted Job's prayer? Central to the 1888 message is that "things"--houses, lands, cars, furniture, clothes--lose their appeal when we see the glory of the cross of Christ. So do sensual pleasure and love of ease. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). When you see His cross, you grasp the reality of life. You sense that nothing is yours by right: "If one died for all, then were all dead" (2 Cor. 5:14). A new purpose for living took over: if you believed this self-propagating gospel, you just had to live "for Him who died" for you, and it wasn't fear or hope-of-reward that moved you. Materialism, sensuality, all self-centered motivations, were transcended by this phenomenal new reason for living. You saw yourself eternally in debt to the Son of God. What you see is yourself crucified instead of Christ. He died in place of you. Had He not died, you would be dead. It follows that your life is not your own; "And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him" (vs. 15). Understanding this, no one can live selfishly if he believes Christ died in place of him. Henceforth, he is "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). In this way "the love of Christ constraineth us" (2 Cor. 5:14), and living for Him becomes a joy. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5, 6). "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "Look to Me, and be saved," is what God asks us to do (Isa. 45:22). Looking is a favorite pastime. News magazines capitalize on this desire to "look" at something new. Millions spend their idle hours just watching the parade of humanity passing by their doors or their TV screens, or poring through picture magazines. If there is an accident on the freeway or anything unusual, we have an urge to "behold." All have this built-in yearning to feast our eyes on some sight yet unseen. There is an unsatisfied longing to see something ultimate. Upon that cross of Jesus my eye at times can see The very dying form of One who suffered there for me. And from my smitten heart, with tears two wonders I confess: The wonders of redeeming love, and my unworthiness. I take O cross your shadow for my abiding place! I ask no other sunshine, than the sunshine of His face. Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.                                                             --Elizabeth Clephane What we long to see is that cross of Jesus. No other sight can satisfy. And once we have seen it, like Paul, we will "glory" in nothing else. It will become our passion. If we "behold the Lamb of God," we will see a sight that has power to dissolve all idolatry into the nothingness that it is. Money, possessions, careers, fame, sensual pleasure, all lose their charm for the person who has seen what Calvary means. Life begins. --Paul E. Penno Note: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOVBz3hKAh0 "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Sabbath School Lesson # 13 |" How Shall We Wait?"

Lesson 13. How Shall We Wait?

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic The Role of the Church in the Community  Lesson 13. How Shall We Wait?   After studying about the role of the church in our communities, we might be left with the impression that we are the ones who must revive ourselves. If we were just more consecrated, we would be reformed. If we will really get more serious and creatively witness our faith, then God can bless us. Most importantly, if we were more obedient to God's will, then we would experience the blessings of the Spirit. We tend to think that our revival will produce the reformation of thought and life that is so desperately needed. Rather than speculate on what we will do with the church, let us inquire what the Lord says He will do. He is the Head of the church. Not all the demons in hell can stop what He purposes to do. He will send revival and reformation. As surely as His character is love, He will visit His people: "The times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). [1] He will accomplish this objective through a special message. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). [2] As surely as day follows night, such a message will come. Repentance for the 1888-era rejection of such a message will bring a whole-hearted acceptance of its renewal. This message will be the outpouring of the latter rain. It will bring spiritual refreshment and prepare the church for the final issue of the mark of the beast: "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain. ... And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten" (Joel 2:23-25). [3] The latter rain will be a clearer revelation of the gospel of righteousness by faith than we have yet discerned. The meaning of the Hebrew phrase in Joel 2:23 is "a teacher of righteousness," linking the latter rain to the message of righteousness by faith. [4] Here is the key truth that is almost totally overlooked today--the initial showers of the latter rain were manifested in the "most precious message" of righteousness by faith which the Lord sent to this people in 1888. [5] Further showers of the latter rain must include a recovery of that message, because Heaven's intent can never be defeated. It's obvious that after a century or more of evangelism calling for individual repentance that this has not hastened the coming of Christ, but delayed it. We have misunderstood the nature of repentance that Christ gives to Laodicea. Christ's remedy for "lukewarmness" is both an individual and a corporate repentance. Herein lies the secret to lasting revival and reformation. Sin is a corporate disease of the human race. "In Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22). "All have sinned" following the footsteps of our father Adam (Rom. 5:12). Instinctively we recoil against this, for we feel that surely we have something good in us. But Scripture reminds us: "In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). This means that the sin that another human has committed, I could commit if Christ had not saved me from it. We need the imputed and imparted righteousness of Christ 100 percent. This was the stumblingblock in 1888 and still scandalizes many today. Apart from the grace of a Saviour, the sins of the whole world could be mine if I had the "opportunity" to be in the shoes of other people, to be tempted as they in their circumstances. This idea is impressively stated by Ellen White: "God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity." [6] There is indeed abundant forgiveness and heart-cleansing with Jesus, but He cannot "cleanse us from all unrighteousness" unless we "confess" it with understanding; and we cannot confess it unless we realize it. We have something yet to learn. How can we be guilty of sin as a church or corporate body? "There is a terrible amount of guilt for which the church is responsible." [7] The great gospel commission could have been completed before the horrors of the wars in the 20th and 21st centuries were unleashed on the world. [8] The reason is that the 1888 message was the "beginning" of the latter rain and the loud cry; she says it was "to a large degree" rejected by the leadership of the church. Thus those who fervently believed in the doctrine of the second advent actually delayed it for generations. The sorrow of "what might have been" filled Ellen White's soul with anguish. [9] If we were to have another 1888 Session where the Holy Spirit manifested Himself as the latter rain, would we again insult Him? Unless there is repentance for doing it the first time, the answer has to be yes. What is denominational repentance? It is a "body" of believers individually experiencing corporate repentance. As surely as the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is the "remnant church" of prophecy, the Laodicea of Revelation, so surely will such repentance permeate that "body" in the time of the "final atonement." This is Christ's gift to His church. "Unto two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed" (Dan. 8:14). The books of heaven cannot be cleansed of the record of our sins until our hearts are cleansed. The righteousness by faith issue thus comes into focus: justification by faith is more than a mere legal declaration; it makes the at-enmity soul to be at-one-with God. Is such a repentance possible? Will God ever have a people who have so learned contrition that they feel that all the sins of the human race could be theirs but for the grace of a Saviour, and who thus stand before the throne "cleansed"? Will He have a people who recognize their 100 percent need of the imputed righteousness of Christ, who fully realize what they would be without it? Some sadly say no; ancient Israel failed, and so must modern Israel. But the bottom line of Bible prophecy says: "Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." Zechariah foretells an experience of corporate denominational repentance, followed by a glorious experience of cleansing (Zech. 12:7-14; 13:1). Such an experience permeating the church is denominational repentance. Christ calls for it in His message to Laodicea. Isn't it time for us to respond? --Paul E. Penno Endnotes (From Ellen G. White's writings, unless cited otherwise): [1] "In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God's people. ... A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. ... Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. ... The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence ... there seemed to be a reformation such as we witnessed in 1844" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 126). [2] "Amid the confusing cries, 'Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is Christ!' will be borne a special testimony, a special message of truth appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon" ("The Closing Work," Review and Herald, Oct. 13, 1904). [3] "I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. ... All fear of their relatives was gone, and the truth alone was exalted to them. ... I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, 'It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the loud cry of the third angel'" (Early Writings, p. 271). [4] See King James Version margin, "the former rain moderately" "a teacher of righteousness according to righteousness" (Joel 2:23). [5] "Some felt annoyed at this outpouring, and their own natural dispositions were manifested. They said, 'This is only excitement; it is not the Holy Spirit, not showers of the latter rain from heaven.' There were hearts full of unbelief, who did not drink in of the Spirit, but who had bitterness in their souls.      "On many occasions the Holy Spirit did work; but those who resisted the Spirit of God at Minneapolis were waiting for a chance to travel over the same ground again, because their spirit was the same. Afterward, when they had evidence heaped upon evidence, some were convicted; but those who were not softened and subdued by the Holy Spirit's working, put their own interpretation upon every manifestation of the grace of God, and they have lost much. They declared in their heart and soul and words that this manifestation of the Holy Spirit was fanaticism and delusion. They stood like a rock; the waves of mercy were flowing upon and around them, but were beaten back by their hard and wicked hearts, which resisted the Holy Spirit's working" (Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, pp. 19, 20). [6] The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1085 (Signs of the Times, July 31, 1901). [7] Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 457. [8] General Conference Bulletin (1893), p. 419; Evangelism, p. 696. [9] "A Call to Repentance," Review and Herald, Dec. 15, 1904. Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpJgSAdWLE0 "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz