Lesson 5: Violating the Spirit of the Law

Lesson 5: Violating the Spirit of the Law

 

Nehemiah unselfishly helped the poor and opposed the corrupt leaders. The underprivileged were being enslaved as cheap labor for the rich and powerful. Unable to work their own land and provide for themselves, they were forced to sell their children into slavery in order to survive. They had no money to buy food and were crying for help. When Nehemiah heard that they had to mortgage their fields, vineyards, and homes to pay taxes, he "was very angry" (Nehemiah 5:6).

In light of social injustice and exploitation, it is appropriate and important for Nehemiah to speak openly and directly to the nobles and officials. He rebuked them strongly and publicly (5:8). He called them to walk in the fear of God and stop the injustice. He went so far as to command them to return all the confiscated fields, vineyards, and houses, along with the interest they had charged.

Godly leadership is crucial to restoring justice in life. It can influence for good, even in the face of powerful exploiters.

Our lesson is concerned with motives in our actions of obedience to the law. Ellen White writes: "The Searcher of hearts weighs the motives, and often deeds highly applauded by men are recorded by Him as springing from selfishness and base hypocrisy. Every act of our lives, whether excellent and praiseworthy, or deserving of censure, is judged by the Searcher of hearts according to the motives which prompted it."[1] Every deed of our "lives is judged, not by the external appearance, but from the motive which dictated the action." [2] Everything depends on the motive, and this involves what it means to be justified by faith.

Rightly understood the Bible idea of justification by faith addresses our motives. E. J. Waggoner, one of the 1888 messengers, writes: "What is it to be justified [by faith]? ... substitute for real righteousness. They think that the idea of justification by faith is that if one will only believe what the Bible says, he is to be counted as righteous when he is not. All this is a great mistake.

"Justification has to do with the law. The term means making just. ... The just man, therefore, is the one who does the law. To be just means to be righteous. Therefore since the just man is the one who does the law, it follows that to justify a man, that is, to make him just, is to make him a doer of the law.

"Faith brings Christ into the heart, and the law of God is in the heart of Christ. And thus 'as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' This One who obeys is the Lord Jesus Christ, and His obedience is done in the heart of everyone who believes. And as it is by His obedience alone that men are made doers of the law, so to Him shall be the glory forever and ever." [3]

In a very practical sense, faith is not merely to trust the Lord like you trust the bank or the insurance company. You can do that and still remain as selfish as you were before, because such trust is a self-centered concern. The John 3:16 idea of faith solves the problem and lifts our naturally self-centered hearts out of a dark cave into the sunlight: faith is a heart-melting appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to save us.

We know this from several texts that tell us what faith is. Those two things that God did in John 3:16 are: He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Those two trigger: we believe. God's loving and giving come before the believing! If your heart says "Thanks!" for God's love and gift, then you've already begun believing. But just begun, for one's selfish heart only begins to come alive; you grow; the hardness is melted day by day. And that kind of faith "works through love" (agape). Your motives and your conduct are transformed from the inside out. Don't get discouraged if progress seems slow. The Holy Spirit is working!

In other words, faith couldn't even exist unless first of all there was the revelation of that love at the cross (agape). All of this is just another way of saying that salvation is by grace, "not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:9).

If faith "works through love," then there is no end to the good works that it will continually motivate us to do. Here is the victory over every kind of evil the devil tempts us to do. Faith is itself a change of heart. It reconciles an alienated, selfish heart to God; and since no one can be reconciled to His holy law, such faith immediately makes the believer become obedient to all ten of the joyous commandments of God. The love of Christ supplies an infinitely powerful motivation.

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 275.
[2] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 507.
[3] E. J. Waggoner, Signs of the Times, May 1, 1893.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aX_Bqy4Ccc&list=PLsjY9Yfwx9Nx1uiXLl_c49fae41rrkgPO

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 4: Facing Opposition

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 4: Facing Opposition

 

It seems like anything good in this sinful world can't happen without someone opposing it. Sometimes it's because they don't understand, other times there are people who are jealous of someone else being successful, and they enjoy making trouble for others.

Ezra and Nehemiah were faced with just these kinds of people in their mission to rebuild Jerusalem. In spite of their God-given task, He didn't smooth out all the details even though He provided the financial backing and approval of several different kings back in Babylon. There was opposition from Jerusalem's neighbors almost immediately. You know the story: Ezra, Nehemiah, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah had to refuse help from the mixed group in Samaria. Because of resistance, they needed a police force to protect the construction workers. They even placed families who were willing to protect the wall that was being built to live in the wall for night protection. Naturally, the result served to frighten and discourage the people doing the building.

We consider these men to be heroes of the Bible. We admire their courage and fortitude in resisting a group that wanted to insert themselves into the people of God, the Jewish nation. The Samarians would have introduced their pagan ideas about God to a nation that had just come out of heathen captivity and might have been easily influenced to compromise. Paganism always finds it easy to influence God's people if there is a "mixture" of pagan ideas with the true gospel.

We as the Seventh-day Adventist Church have been specially warned by the third angel's message to avoid compromise. Unfortunately in the events that lead up to and especially after the 1888 General Conference the disagreement among church leadership confused people and they didn't know what to believe. Nehemiah as part of the leadership had the confidence to firmly believe that he was doing a "great work." Therefore, the people stood behind him and could do their part in restoring Jerusalem. The confusion after 1888 continues to this day.

How will this confusion be cleared? "How can a worldwide lethargic, lukewarm church be transformed into the living fulfillment of those prophecies and prepare to receivethe multitudinous 'woman at the well'? Ellen White has said the Lord will only 'work to bring ... in' His 'My people' of Revelation 18:4 when the church is beyond infecting them with the popular disease of lukewarmness." [1]

"The cleansing of the sanctuary can never be complete until the 1888 incident of our history is fully understood and the underlying spiritual problem solved. That particular segment of our history is specially significant. This is implied in a statement Ellen White wrote to the General Conference, O. A. Olsen, four years after the Minneapolis conference: 

"The sin committed in what took place at Minneapolis remains on the record books of heaven, registered against the names of those who resisted light, and it will remain upon the record until full confession is made, and the transgressors stand in full humility before God." [2]

"Her later writings indicate that 'full confession' was never made and the experience of 'full humility before God' eluded most of them. Those brethren have all died, but that does not mean those 'record books of heaven' are automatically cleansed. They record corporate sin as well as personal sin. The foundation truth that has made Seventh-day Adventists a unique people is that death does not cleanse the heavenly record books. The cleansing must occur in 'the investigative judgment,' a corporate and final Day of Atonement. ...

"The body is lukewarm, ill with spiritual disease that can be traced to 1888. A new generation must now correctly interpret what happened in a past generation because of the profound implications for our spiritual state today. Christ's message to His last-day church implicitly demands a re-examination of our history which underlies our 'rich-and-increased-with-goods' complex (Rev. 3:14-21).

"A failure to do so invokes upon ourselves the guilt of previous generations. We are being tested as truly as they were. Like Calvary, 1888 is more than a mere historical event." [3]

Like Ezra and Nehemiah, the 1888 messengers were given "divine credentials." Speaking of Jones and Waggoner, Ellen White warned that "These men whom you have spoken against have been as signs in the world, as witnesses for God. ... If you reject Christ's delegated messengers, you reject Christ. [4] The present message ... is a message from God; it bears the divine credentials, ... [5]

"Some may feel tried over the idea that Minneapolis is referred to [in these meetings, 1893]. ... But let it be borne in mind that the reason why anyone should feel so is an unyielding spirit on his part. Just as quickly as we fully surrender, and humble our hearts before God, the difficulty is all gone. ... If we fail at one time, the Lord will take us over the ground again; and if we fail a second time, He will take us over the ground again; and if we fail a third time, the Lord will take us over the same ground again. ... Instead of being vexed over the idea that the Lord is taking us over the same ground, let us thank Him, and praise Him unceasingly, for this is God's mercy and compassion. Anything else than this is our ruin and destruction. [6]

The argument is often made that the concept of corporate repentance is unfair. After all, how can we repent of the sins that other people committed long ago. Ellen White explained that "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." [7] Those sins "that would have been committed had there been opportunity," which we have not repented of, represent our unrealized guilt.

Often, we look at some leader that committed horrible atrocities and are thankful we have not been pressured sufficiently by temptation to do such things. But Luther wisely says that we are all made of the same dough. At heart we are all sinful by nature, and if sufficiently pressured, we would do the same. That includes the crucifixion of Christ. It therefore follows that corporate repentance is repenting of sins that we would have committed had we had the opportunity. This goes rather deep. It takes God given humility to accept this concept

It doesn't matter if it is ancient Israel trying to rebuild after captivity or our church trying to return to the most precious message given to us in 1888, God remains patient with His church. Let us praise Him for His patience with us.

--Arlene Hill

Endnotes:
[1] What Is the 1888 Message? Is It Biblical?Ten Bible Studies, Nov. 1998 & May 1999, p. 73; cf. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 371; vol. 4, p. 68.
[2] Ellen G. White, Letter O19, 1892; quoted in Robert J. Wieland, 1888 Re-examined, p. 92.
[3] 1888 Re-examined, pp. 4, 5.
[4] Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers,p. 97.
[5] Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Sept. 3, 1889.
[6] O. A. Olsen,1893 General Conference Bulletin, p. 188.
[7] Ellen G. White, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1085.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-G-3aqwro

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 3: God’s Call

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 3: God's Call

 

Our lesson theme is on "God's Call," discovering and fulfilling God's purpose for our lives, individually and corporately as a church. Let's give this some consideration in terms of how it relates to the 1888 message.

There are those who say that Ellen White never called for denominational repentance of the church or its leaders--not even once. Whether she did or not, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who calls for it.

What are we to do with Ellen White's repeated statements that the 1888 message was rejected? Should all these statements be ignored? If Seventh-day Adventists accept the record found in The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials (the following abstracts are taken from this source), how can they escape the truth that the message was rejected? The fact there was rejection led to her persistent calls to consider the path that they were on, repent, turn around, accept the message.

Clearly and repeatedly her counsels are directed to "leading brethren," "men in high positions of trust." "Leading brethren" in that day amounted to the General Conference. The tone of these many pleas is serious in the extreme. Every call to heed God's voice is based upon the need for repentance. Terrible judgment-day expressions are used such as: "Men in responsible positions have manifested the very attributes of Satan" (p. 1525). Solemn calls are the norm of her letters containing the overtone of repentance:

"The false ideas that were largely developed at Minneapolis have not been entirely uprooted from some minds. Those who have not made thorough work of repentance under the light God has been pleased to give to his people since that time, will not see clearly, and will be ready to call the messages God sends a delusion" (p. 1010).

But the counsel for repentance was not just in letters to individuals. There are serious compelling words calling the entire church to repentance. This is clear in her written message read to the General Conference assembled in Battle Creek, March 12, 1890:

"In the fear and love of God I tell those before whom I stand to-day that there is increased light for us, and that great blessings come with the reception of this light. And when I see my brethren stirred with anger against God's messages and messengers, I think of similar scenes in the life of Christ. ... The leaders of the people to-day pursue the same course of action that the Jews pursued. ...

"The Lord has been calling his people. In a most marked manner he has revealed his divine presence. But the message and the messengers have not been received but despised. ...

"In rejecting the message given at Minneapolis, men committed sin. They have committed far greater sin by retaining for years the same hatred against God's messengers, by rejecting the truth that the Holy Spirit has been urging home" (pp. 906, 907, 911, 913, 914).

Could any call for repentance be more specific? How could the church be more included than in a call made at a General Conference session?

Similar pleas for repentance went to the church through the Review:

"Since the time of the Minneapolis meeting, I have seen the state of the Laodicean Church as never before. I have heard the rebuke of God spoken to those who feel so well satisfied, who know not their spiritual destitution. ...

"Those who resist the messages of God through his humble servant, think they are at variance with Sister White, because her ideas are not in harmony with theirs; but this variance is not with Sister White, but with the Lord, who has given her work to do." (p. 695; RH 8-26-90).

Can anyone deny that this is a call to repentance given to the church as a whole through the Review?

The average reader must conclude that these do seem to be "authoritative calls from Ellen White." Over the next decade these calls were repeatedly made with reference to Minneapolis and the terrible loss God's people sustained. Indeed, the very message of 1888 has a built-in call for repentance. No one can be "misled" to heed this call (p. 152).

And so--Who calls for repentance? The Lord Jesus is the One standing at the door making the call to "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, ... be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:14, 19).

--Paul E. Penno

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY24WsYvEjw&list=PLgl7ryoHplacS_A0eUQXIeqxrfkZIsuDj&index=4&t=0s

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 2: Nehemiah

Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 2: Nehemiah

 

Nehemiah was a wonderful man, if for no other reason than that he has a book in the Bible named for him. That's an honor for anyone!

The Lord blessed him wonderfully; everything he did was a success. It was his job to direct the rebuilding of the broken down walls of Jerusalem, walls that the Babylonians had broken many years before when the Lord's people had been punished for their idolatry and exiled to Babylon.

Tobiah and Sanballat were Nehemiah's enemies who opposed him relentlessly. Nehemiah stood firmly for the law of the Lord, no compromise. He led the people in the straight path of obedience to the law of the Lord. He was successful in leading them to re-build the walls of Jerusalem; he re-instituted the Feast of Tabernacles that had not been kept by Israel for hundreds of years since the days of Joshua the son of Nun.

And Nehemiah clearly perceived the deceit of those enemies of Israel. Nehemiah begged the Lord repeatedly not to forget how wonderful he (Nehemiah) had worked. For example, "God, remember this to my credit, and do not wipe out of Your memory the devotion which I have shown in the house of my God and in His service!" (13:14, The Revised English Bible). He ends his book with this plea to the Lord, "God, remember me favorably!" (vs. 31, REB).

Nehemiah worked so hard for the Lord. And the Lord was "not unrighteous to forget [his] work and labor of love, which [he had] shewed toward His name" (cf. Heb. 6:10). The Lord gave him a book in His Bible! We are inspired by his devotion.

A thoughtful view of Nehemiah's story demonstrates Old Covenant thinking. He desperately desired to bring about revival and reformation in Israel's experience. But he presided over an Old Covenant revival. He never recovered New Covenant justification by faith. He was sincerely blind to the faith which Abraham had experienced. The problem was not that they had an "organization;" it was their heart-alienation.

Nehemiah in his devotion to the Spirit of Prophecy--zealous in following every detail as he knew it--especially Deuteronomy. Nehemiah meticulously obeyed the written word.

Like Nehemiah, is it possible for us as Seventh-day Adventists to think we are super-loyal to "the Spirit of Prophecy" while at the same time rejecting its living demonstration? That actually happened in 1888; our brethren were replaying Nehemiah's example. In rejecting that "most precious message" "sent from heaven" they imagined they were loyal to Ellen White's past writings while setting aside the Lord's living message. [1]

Are we replaying Israel's Old Covenant revivals and reformations? Sober reflection forces an answer: as a body we are as lukewarm now as we were a century ago. When "we" "in a great degree" and "in a great measure" rejected that "most precious" New Covenant truth that came in the 1888 era, "we" locked ourselves into "many more years" of an Old Covenant detour as surely as did Israel at Sinai. [2]

The faith-experience of the New Covenant was the main focus of leadership-opposition to the 1888 message. While they opposed Jones and Waggoner, they actually preferred the essential motifs of the Old Covenant. Ellen White was shown in vision that these revered leaders were wasting their time trying to urge a view different from Waggoner's, for she was "shown" that he was right. [3] Especially in 1890 and on until 1907 the opposition to the 1888 Good News view of the two covenants won the day. [4]

Old Covenant ideas have continued to predominate in our experience. Our revivals and reformations have followed the pattern of those of Israel, including the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Not yet have we as a church body truly recovered the New Covenant message which "we" largely rejected a century ago. The famine predominates alike in both orthodox and "independent" ministries.

Who can estimate the confusion and tragic apostasies that have come because of the unsatisfied hunger within the church (and the world) for that "most precious" gospel?

When that New Covenant message is rescued from the oblivion of the archives, God can feed it like heavenly manna to our famishing world.

We are blessed by the knowledge of the New Covenant: we are not even thinking of any reward the Lord will give us; we don't beg Him like Nehemiah to remember all our "good" works; we are constrained by the love (agape) of Christ "henceforth" to realize that if Jesus died for us "all," then we all died "in Him," so that we can claim nothing for ourselves but to share that grave with Jesus, and then in sheer joyous gratitude devote all our lives to Him. If some angel someday should try to give us a crown of glory, we will throw it at Jesus' feet.

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:
[1] See, for example, Uriah Smith's and G. I. Butler's letters to Ellen White of Feb. 17, 1890, and Sept. 24, 1892; Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis 1888, pp. 152-157, 206-212 (Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1988). The Lord not only sent "prophets" to Israel, but "messengers" also (2 Chron. 36:16).
[2] See Letter 184, 1901; Evangelism, p. 696.
[3] See Ellen White Letters 30, 59, 1890; also George Knight, Angry Saints, pp. 75, 76, 92, 93.
[4] See Sabbath School Lessons, Third Quarter, 1907; letter of A. T. Jones to their author, R. S. Owen, Feb. 20, 1908.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvT8SmAmU18

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 1: Making Sense of History: Zerubbabel and Ezra

Lesson 1: Making Sense of History: Zerubbabel and Ezra

 

The memory text for this week's lesson tells us that the Persian king Cyrus commanded Ezra "to build Him [God] a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah" (Ezra 1:2, NKJV). The return of Israel from exile was about the restoration of God's sanctuary truth. The same is true of the 1888 message.

The 1888 message as brought by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner and endorsed by Ellen G. White, was the beginning of a profound and glorious revelation of the gospel as the fulfillment of truth, in harmony with and parallel to the unique doctrine of the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Seventh-day Adventists, rejoice in the truths that made us a people distinct from the Sunday-keeping Evangelicals and the Seventh Day Baptists.

Then why are so many Seventh-day Adventists today giving up the sanctuary message?

Why, for example, does an editor of our very fine Commentary now repudiate it? The sanctuary truth is said to be a "liability." Many of our pastors and church leaders also inwardly doubt it, even though they stay in the closet as church employees.

What they have understood as the sanctuary message has always been only a cold theological doctrine. It never became a heart-gripping, heart-melting truth. They never learned to love the message. It left them cold, and probably in many cases, worse than that, the Investigative Judgment left them dominated by nightmarish fear.

They saw Christ's ministry in the Most Holy Apartment as a court trial where our very existence is jeopardized. A rejection slip in the Investigative Judgment was a consignment to hell. So this distorted view of the doctrine was not mere theological trivia; its side effect to them was spiritual terror.

But the issue could not be more important to understand.The most disturbing statement Ellen White ever made makes simple common sense. It is a brief passage [1] where she says that if we reject a change in Christ's sanctuary ministry in 1844, we lay ourselves open to a deception of the false christ posing in place of the True One, putting on a show that is complete with miracles. By now, the counterfeit has become extremely sophisticated.

Yet we face the influence of former prominent Seventh-day Adventist thought leaders who repudiate these insights about a difference in Christ's high priestly ministry. It may not be their fault that they feel this way. Ministers and leaders in our past generally have taught them the sanctuary message divorced from the special enlightenment of the 1888 message. The most precious message was hijacked when the Lord "sent" it.

Ellen White told us in 1896 that "by the action of our own brethren [the light] has been in a great degree kept away from the world"and "from our people." [2] So let's be charitable to these current sanctuary message rejectors, and "consider others lest we also be tempted." These people among us who today are rejecting the sanctuary message very likely never grasped the 1888 message. They grew up and went through academy, college, and university without anyone teaching them either the message or its history. To this day none of our schools offers a course in the 1888 message. Anyone who gets it does so by accident.

The message lifts the unique Seventh-day Adventist sanctuary message out of confusion and perplexity and clothes it in the bright garments of Christ's righteousness, that is, the gospel seen as very good news.

There are two books that warm the heart through unique sanctuary ideas in the 1888 message:

Waggoner's The Glad Tidings is where you can learn the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. It's the discovery that the Gospel is very good news. It grips your heart. You can see justification by faith as far more than a cold theological formula. It's good news far beyond pastors and leaders who don't see the Sabbath truth, nor the sanctuary doctrine, nor the truth about sleeping saints awaiting the resurrection "in Christ."

God has many people in the Sunday-keeping churches living up to all the light they have. They simply don't see the 1888 idea of justification by faith because they don't see that in death man sleeps until the resurrection, and they don't know how to follow Christ in His closing work of atonement in the Most Holy Apartment. Both ideas are essential to justification by faith as it is "present truth" today.

There's also Jones's The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection with a new perspective. The main idea is that the heavenly sanctuary can never be "cleansed" until first of all the hearts of God's people are cleansed. That's simple! And it's far more than a legalistic accounting trick whereby God looks the other way while we continue sinning. The missing factor is supplied by a new and clearer grasp of justification by faith, which Ellen White saw makes the 1888 message become "the third angel's message in verity." [3]

How does the 1888 message lead us to fall in love with the Seventh-day Adventist sanctuary message?

The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary makes a difference in practical day-by-day living.If it's impossible for the sanctuary in heaven to be "cleansed" or "justified" or "made right" (Daniel 8:14) until the hearts of God's people on earth first are cleansed, then that has an important conclusion: Christ as our High Priest is specializing now in convicting His people of previously unknown sin. As sin each is seen and forsaken for His sake day by day; the special work of cleansing goes on. The High Priest plans for it to become complete. And He wants it to be soon. He'll do it if His people don't resist Him.

You can get your Old Testament history lesson from the Quarterly. But let's make these lessons on Ezra and Nehemiah practical by viewing them through the beauty of the 1888 message!

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 55, 56. It is developed further on pages 260, 261.
[2] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book one, p. 235.
[3] Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muSitzTjdPg

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz