Willits Aug. 18, 2012 Fort Bragg, Sept. 1, 2012 WHEN WILL THE PROMISES BE REALIZED?

Willits Aug. 18, 2012Fort Bragg, Sept. 1, 2012

WHEN WILL THE PROMISES BE REALIZED?

WHERE WE’RE GOING….

• God made great promises to his people• We will examine several to see what happened of them• Instead of being a blessing; they turned out to be a horrible

curse• What went wrong?

• Was it God’s will?• What was the problem?• What does this say to the Adventist Church today?

• Will the promises ever come true?• When?

THE PROMISE• Abraham

• At 75 (vs. 4) he was promised he would becomea great nation, great name, blessing to all (12:1-3; 22:18: 24:1, 35); at 99 he was renamed Abraham (father of a multitude) multiplied exceedingly (17:2,4-7). Sarai was renamed Sarah (princess), the promise was confirmed again (18:10-14). At 100Isaac was born (21:1-6).

• He would give him the land (12:7); from the Nile to the Euphrates (15:18) forever (13:14,15,17; 15:18; 17:8) • Ishmael’s descendants would prosper (16:9-12; 17:20)

• His descendants would be as the dust of the earth (13:16), stars of the sky (15:5; 22:17)

• God pledged himself to Abram as his surety (15:1)• He died at age 175 (25:7,8), the father of Isaac (lineage of the Jews) &

Ishmael (lineage of the Arabs)

THE PROMISE OF BEING A GREAT NATION:

•ISRAEL (via Jacob) rarely approached the promise• Egyptian exile• Abraham went into Egypt due to a famine in Palestine

immediately after first receiving God’s promises about the land (12:10-20)

• God promised Abram his descendants would be exiled in a strange land for 400 yrs. (15:13) 4 generations would grow up in Egypt (15:16)

• Due to an extended famine in Palestine, through an amazing seriesof events, God gave Jacob permission to go to Egypt assuring his he would still be a great nation. (46:3)

• Toward the end of the 18th century B.C. an intrusion of foreigners, known as Hyksos took over Egypt becoming the 15th & 16th dynasties. They imported the horse & chariot, superior military apparatus, and they were hated by the Egyptians.

THE PROMISE OF BEING A GREAT NATION:

• Self rule• Sinai – 40 yrs.• Joshua/Judges – (1400 BC to 1000 BC)• Conquest of Palestine took 6-7 yrs. yielding • Monarchy (1,000 BC to 586 BC) • Assyrian deportation• 10 northern tribes brutally slaughtered or deported

and became lost• Babylonians deportation• 2 southern tribes deported to Babylon. Jerusalem

completely destroyed in 3 waves of attack

THE PROMISE OF BEING A GREAT NATION:

• Vassal Country (586 BC – 70 AD)• Israel subject to Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome • Roman destruction (70 AD & 135 AD) • During which almost 2.5 million Jews were

slaughtered, starved to death or sold into slavery.In 135 AD the Bar Kochba rebellion madeJerusalem off limits to Jews. • They were allowed to return only once a year on

the anniversary of the Temple destruction.• Various attempts were made to rebuild the temple and city. In the

7th c. 4,500 Christians were offered the choice of renouncing their faith or death. • Around 700 AD the Dome of the Rock mosque was built on the

Temple grounds.

THE PROMISE OF BEING A GREAT NATION:

• Christian intolerance• During the Crusades (1099-1291) • Christian kings attempted to free Jerusalem from

barbarian control by killing both Jews and Moslems• The period that followed left 1-2 million Jews killed

followed by a spirit of intolerance. • Jews were forced to wear badges or they fled to

Poland, Netherlands, South America. • In the 16th c. they were isolated in ghettos in Italy, Germany and central

Europe. • In Poland and Russia during the 18 th & 19th c. they were drafted into the

military at 12 and forced to serve 25 years.• During one 10 yr. period the Czars killed over 100,000 Jews. • Jewish women were forced to were prostitute badges. • Many fled to the US and Britain. • During WWII Hitler killed 6 million Jews throughout Europe.

• The original 70 persons* (Ex. 1:5) had grown to 600,000 adult men + wives and children (Ex. 12:37)approx. 2 million• Currently their world population is 13.4 million, 2% of the world’s

population• Israel is the only nation where Jews are the majority – 42.5% live in Israel;

39.3% in US; the rest live in Europe and Canada.• ARABS (via Ishmael) had 12 sons they lived between Assyria and Egypt,

and are projected to become 26% of the worlds population 2.2 billion by 2030.

THE PROMISE OF INNUMERABLE DESCENDANTS:

• 3 great religions springing from Abraham• Christians 2.18 billion – 31% of world’s population• Jews 13.4 million – 2% of worlds population• Muslims 2.1 billion – 30% of the worlds population

• Abraham was highly regarded • Modeling a religion based upon faith (a personal/intimate connection

with God) (15:6; 17:1)

THE PROMISE OF A GREAT NAME/BLESSING TO ALL:

THE PROMISE OF PALESTINE BECOMING JEWISH:

• The only property he owned in Palestine at the time of his death was the family burial place – the cave at Machpelah which he bought for 400 shekels of silver (Gen. 23)

• Israel’s population today: 5.3 million Jews; 5.1 million Arabs

INTERNATIONAL LOATHING OF JEWS:• Jewish xenophobia: labeled rogues, hated by society, because… • Jews were: • wealthy, stingy, greedy, manipulative financiers, scurrilous, desiring control • corrupting, supplanting other cultures, while remaining aloof from them • despised by all men, forced to live in ghettos, excluded as aliens, limited to

certain professions, genetically flawed, beyond redemption• Philo of Alexandria (38 CE) described an attack on Jews in which thousands

died (violence triggered perhaps by their separateness). • stubbornness of the Jews exasperated the Romans resulting in putting the

Temple to flames and the annihilation on Masada.• peaceful, tolerant coexistence was frequently harshly interrupted by forced

conversions, expulsions, massacres. • First Crusade (1096) Jews along the Rhine & Danube killed• Second Crusade (1147) Jews in Germany subject to several massacres • 1290 English Jews were expelled• 1396 French 100,000 Jews were expelled• 1421 Jews expelled from Austria fled to Poland

INTERNATIONAL LOATHING JEWS CONT. 1

• Jews were used as scapegoats when the Black Death devastated Europe in the 14th C. Rumors suggested they poisoned wells. AlthoughPope Clement VI tried to protect them, 900 Jews were burned alive in Strasbourg

• During the Colonial Era, the American government limited the political and economic rights of Jews. It was not until the Revolutionary War that Jews gained legal rights, including the right to vote.

• In the 19th century the position of Jews worsened in Muslim countries. Muslim children threw stones and spit at them. To retaliate would result in worse than death for them.

• In Europe they were characterized as villains. • Hitler’s repressive legislation against the Jews started in 1931. Out of that came:• Kristallnacht (1938) when Jews were killed, their property destroyed, and

synagogues burned • Propoganda fueled by antisetiment forced (in the east) Jews to be gathered

into ghettos. • In 1941 a campaign of mass murder started culminating between ‘41-’45 the

genocide of 6,000,000 Jews.

INTERNATIONAL LOATHING JEWS CONT. 2

• America:• Between 1900 and 1924, approx. 1.75 million Jews immigrated

(mostly from Eastern Europe) to America, more than tripling their numbers. In America they faced:• discrimination in employment, where they could live, membership in clubs

and organizations, quotas in teaching positions. • renewed vitality in the Ku Klux Klan• Henry Ford promoted antisemitic ideas in his newspaper• Father Coughlin, through his radio speeches accused the Jews of fostering a

financial conspiracy by convincing Pres. Roosevelt of switching away from a gold standard (believed horded by Jews) leaving everyone else with worthless paper.

• A 2009 study found that nearly 25% of non-Jewish Americans blamed Jews for the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

WHAT WENT SO HORRIBLY WRONG?

• Their numbers have been decimated• During the Roman empire Jews accounted to 10%

of the population. • Without the widespread revulsion against the Jews

it is possible their numbers today could have equaled the descendants of Ishmael (2 billion) Instead of just (13 million)

WHAT WENT SO HORRIBLY WRONG?• How come the Jews became hated by all mankind?• Throughout their history their own prophets railed against

them• Jesus’ scathing rebuke against their leaders (Matt. 23)

• Hypocrites, blind guides, fools, whited sepulchres, serpents,

• Straining at gnat while swallowing a camel; cleaning the outside while the inside was full of extortion and excess

• “upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel…” (23:35)

• “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (23:37,38)

• The apostle Paul also was conflicted about them• Although he was hounded and persecuted by them (Acts 9:23,29;13:50;14:2,5,19; 17:5-

9;21:27-32;23:12-14;24:1-9) • Yet his love for his Jewish kinsmen was without limit (Rom. 9:3)• He came to believe the Jews & Gentiles were equal before God (Rom. 2:11; comp. Ex. 32:32 )

and the only true Jew is one inwardly changed in heart and spirit (Rom. 2:29)

THIS WAS NOT GOD’S PLAN…

WITH A POWERFUL HAND HE RESCUED THEM

1 monthHe

providesfood

3dayslaterwater

TAKING THEM DIRECTLY HOME

Results of lack of faith - 40 yrs. in the wilderness

“IT’S TIME TO GO HOME!”

Wandering around in the wilderness was neverHis plan. • Dt. 2:3ff “You’ve been going around in circles in

these hills long enough… God, your God, has blessed you in everything you have done. He has guarded you in your travels through this immense wilderness. For forty years now, God, your God, has been right here with you. You haven’t lacked one thing.” (Message)

• Dt. 2:24 “On your feet now. Get started”• Get along with you neighbors• I have given it all to you “Take it. It’s practically yours!” 2:31• “not a single town proved too much for us; God, our God,

gave every last one of them to us.” 2:36 (Message)

THEY DIDN’T WANT GOD, HIS FOOD, OR HIS LAWS

SO THEY SPENT 40 YRS. IN DESOLATION

2+ million people for 40 yrs. in 50 different encampments

The Apostle Paul explains why it went so bad:

My dear Christian friends • take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe… • don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,” that time of wilderness testing! • Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do

it my way; over and over they tried my patience. • And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God; they

refuse to walk down my road.” Exasperated, I vowed, “They’ll never get where they’re going, never be able to sit down and rest.”

• So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it’s still God’s

• Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

• These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

• For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed. Heb. 3

THE PROBLEM WAS… NOT HEARING!

• “faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10:17• Hearing & obeying are the same word in greek (hupakoe)

• When you hear, you will obey…• Faith allows you to get past your defenses

• Not hearing and disobeying are also the same word (parakouo)• Jesus made this very clear to the Jews:

• “Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell [you] the truth, ye believe me not… He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.” John 8:43-47

• Isaiah invites: “Incline natah [stretch] your ear and come to me; hear that your soul might live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant.” Isa. 55:3

THEIR STORY – OUR STORY“It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God

did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, happy people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in ‘because of unbelief.’ Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them. {Ev 696.1}

“For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.--Manuscript 4, 1883. {Ev 696.2}

Application to us…“We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more

years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.” Letter 184, 1901. {Ev 696.3}

IN OTHER WORDS…

“I know that if the people of God had preserved a living connection with Him, if they had obeyed His Word, they would today be in the heavenly Canaan.” (EGW, General Conference Bulletin, March 30, 1903; Ev. p. 694.4)• Researcher LeRoy Edwin Froom located over 50 statement like this from EGW

• They didn’t want a LIVING CONNECTION WITH GOD! • Sinai (the mount of God) was scary to them (lightening, thunder, shaking,

gloomy clouds) • Although Moses lived on the mountain in the presence of God• They said: “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with

us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:18, 19)• a wall was erected against God in their hearts by unbelief making it necessary

for God to command that a fence be erected to keep them apart (Ex. 19:12,13) The God of Sinai terrified them.

BECOMING INTIMATE WITH GOD IS SCARY

• God & his people had nothing in common• God had to start by teaching them the elementals…• I don’t want you to go after other gods…• I want all that immorality to stop…• And the same for murder, stealing, lying…

• It is terrifying to fall into the hands of God – Heb. 10:31• Moses at burning bush told to confront Pharaoh• Paul on road to Damascus told he had become an enemy to God• What did Paul do?• He "determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus

Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2

THE RESULTS OF PRETENDING

• “The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely--because he is required to do so--will never enter into the joy of obedience. He does not obey.” (EGW, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 97.3)

• “A sullen submission to the will of the Father will develop the character of a rebel. By such a one service is looked upon as drudgery. It is not rendered cheerfully, and in the love of God. It is a mere mechanical performance. If he dared, such a one would disobey. His rebellion is smothered, ready to break out at any time in bitter murmurings and complaints. Such service brings no peace or quietude to the soul..” (EGW, Sings of the Times, July 22, 1897 par. 11; compare: 12 Ms. Release 236.1; That I May Know Him, 120.4)

• Without knowing it, Adventists had become enemies of God, while thinking themselves his most ardent defenders!

WHY WE ARE STILL HERE• “By exciting that opposition (at Minneapolis) Satan succeeded in shutting away

from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them.” (EGW, 1 Selected Messages, pp. 234, 235) in 1888.

• “The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world.” (EGW, 1 Selected Messages, p. 234.6)

• 120 yrs. have passed since then…• Are we any closer to the promised land?• Or, are we, like they, cowering in fear of around the base wanting to be as far

away from God as possible? • Are we ready to join Moses and God on the mountain?

EARLY ADVENTISM• Became umbilically connected to the law• The law became the reason for their existence• never leading them to Christ (Gal. 3:24; Rom. 10:4)

• Therefore at Minneapolis in 1888, they couldn’t see beyond the law.• When the question came up about what law was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14) they

became very uncomfortable – how could anything holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12) come to an end?

• Perhaps, they reasoned, it could be the ceremonial law since those services pointed to Christ and he fulfilled all of them, therefor they ended at the cross

• the moral law however was forever binding because it was written by God and handed down to us at Sinai. It represented the character of God

• HOWEVER Jones and Waggoner believed both the moral and ceremonial were nailed to the cross• The delegates reaction was similar to the Jews with Christ (they wanted to stone them)• Ellen White wrote: “I am asked concerning the law in Galatians. What law is the

schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? I answer: Both the ceremonial and the moral code of ten commandments.” (1SM 233.1)

THE MISSING LETTER…• In 1896 (while she was in far off Australia) she wrote to

Uriah Smith the clearest explanation to God’s use of law that has ever been written. And Elder Uriah Smith didn’t tell anyone that he had it. He filed it away, and for 56 years nobody knew it existed.

“The law of ten commandments is not to be looked Upon as much from the prohibitory side, as from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in obedience. As received in Christ, it works in us the purity of character that will bring joy to us through eternal ages. To the obedient it is a wall of protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness, seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression.

THE MISSING LETTER…

“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish thesinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts uponthe sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. [2 Cor. 3:18] By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.

“The law is an expression of God's idea. When we receive it in Christ, it becomes our idea. It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above temptations that lead to sin. ‘Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them’ (Psalm 119:165)-- cause them to stumble.” (EGW, 1 Selected Messages, p. 235)

THE PROBLEM WITH LAW• EGW confronts a legalistic church: “As a people, we

have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain.” Review & Herald, March 11, 1890, par. 13

• “It is the province of the law to condemn, but there is in it no power to pardon or to redeem. It is ordained to life; those who walk in harmony with its precepts will receive the reward of obedience. But it brings bondage and death to those who remain under its condemnation.” (EGW, 1 Selected Messages, p. 237)

THE PROBLEM WITH LAW• We must preach Christ in the law, and there will be

sap and nourishment in the preaching that will be as food to the famishing flock of God. We must not trust in our own merits at all, but in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth.” EGW, Review & Herald, March 11, 1890, par. 13

• “So sacred and so glorious is the law, that when Moses returned from the holy mount, where he had been with God, receiving from His hand the tables of stone, his face reflected a glory upon which the people could not look without pain, and Moses was obliged to cover his face with a veil.

• “The glory that shone on the face of Moses was a reflection of the righteousness of Christ in the law. The law itself would have no glory, only that in it Christ is embodied. It has no power to save. It is lusterless only as in it Christ is represented as full of righteousness and truth.” EGW, 1 Selected Messages, p. 237)

ADVENTISTS AREN’T THE ONLY CHURCH WITH PROBLEMS OVER THE LAW

• Evangelicals, who deplore Adventist legalism, are much more legalistic than we.

• Grace, for them, is a thing to take away their legal problems. That’s legalism - a preoccupation of one’s legal standing.

• No matter what you offer God to improve your legal standing, even the blood of his Son, you are a legalist. All you want is your rights.

• On the other hand: The man preoccupied with healing the damage done sees salvation as healing, not an adjustment in legal standing. He’s wanting Christ in his heart so that a million years into eternity God won’t have to insist “I want all this immorality to stop.” He wants an end of sin, not just a pardon.

• Charismatics and Catholics believe there is power in the blood to the point of making the blood magical. No, God has the power. It’s the relationship with him that has healing power. He wants to be our friend. He shed his blood, he died, and the meaning in that death, when brought into the soul, changes us from the inside out.

THE ONLY WAY THE LAW WORKS!

• "When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in his will, the mind becomes one with his mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness.” EGW, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 312

• "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." Psalm 40:8.

• The robe of Righteousness given us has “not one thread of human devising.” EGW, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 311

BECOME GOD’S FRIEND

• “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” Jas. 2:23 [see also Isa. 41:8]

• Abraham “thy friend forever” 2 Chron. 20:7

• “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend ... And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.’” Exodus 33:11, 17

• “If there be a prophet among you, [I] the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, [and] will speak unto him in a dream.”

• “My servant Moses [is] not so, who [is] faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches;”

INVITED INTO FRIENDSHIP

“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” John 15:15

“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you” John 16:25-27

THE END!

JOURNEYS TO THE PROMISED LAND

The Condition:

1. Prosperity in Egypt

2. Captives in Egypt

3. Armed Giants

4. Exiled to Sinai with God

5. In Canaan but under Rome

The Solution:

The Temptation:

1. Love of the world

2. Loss of Hope

3. Lack of Faith

4. Servant Mentality – Fear

5. Resist upsetting status quo

Don’t stand apart from God. Always move towards Him. Trust Him in all things. Open your heart to Him. Allow Him to mold you into what He wants you to be.

The promise of…

A FRUSTRATED FULFILLMENT CONT.7

IT’S A GIFT• “Being justified freely by His grace” Rom. 3:24

• Given in love with hopes of love being returned

• “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7 (1 Tim. 1:14)

• “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” 2 Corinthians 9:8

• "You searched the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. But you are not willing to come to me that you might have life." John 5:39

• “…it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Deut. 9:5, 6 NIV