Anchors of Truth

The Inward Outworking - Part 2

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. Stephen Bohr

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000030


00:12 Welcome to Anchors of Truth,
00:15 from the 3ABN Worship Center and the Fresno Central Church.
00:19 Truths that Matter with Stephen Bohr.
00:22 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth.
00:24 And this is the third in a series by Pastor Stephen Bohr.
00:29 The series is entitled, Truths That Matter, Danny.
00:32 And last night, he talked about Wiping Out The IOU's, part 1.
00:38 And tonight, Wiping Out The IOU's, part 2.
00:43 And we're excited about this message.
00:45 Pastor Bohr always has something interesting.
00:48 You've known him a long time, haven't you Danny.
00:50 You know, I have. We actually...
00:51 I only went to Academy one year.
00:53 I went in 1967-68, I was a Junior.
00:56 My cousins talked me into going to Wisconsin Academy.
01:00 Though I loved Academy and I loved Academy life,
01:03 I didn't realize how cold it was in Wisconsin.
01:05 And I worked on the farm.
01:07 So I got up at 2 o'clock every morning and went to the farm.
01:10 But I met Stephen Bohr there.
01:11 Stephen, I think, was a Senior.
01:13 May have been a Junior, but I believe he was one year
01:15 ahead of me there.
01:16 And I want to tell you something about Stephen Bohr.
01:18 Even as an Academy kid...
01:20 Like, I got into trouble.
01:21 Now I didn't do mean things, but I was always...
01:23 - Mischievous. - Yea.
01:24 Always doing stuff when I shouldn't be or suppose to
01:26 be in my room, and I'm outside pole vaulting
01:28 or something with my cousin.
01:29 You know we do those things.
01:30 But Steve was very studious, very kind, made really
01:34 good grades, concentrated, knew where he wanted to go in life
01:38 even as a 16 and 17 year old young man.
01:41 And so I always had a great deal of respect.
01:43 And then later, Stephen Bohr actually would preach
01:45 for a little while here in West Frankfort at the
01:47 West Frankfort Seventh-day Adventist Church years later.
01:51 But during that time, that was in the 70's, I was in
01:54 Michigan for four years.
01:55 And so I've known Steve for a long time.
01:57 I have a great amount of respect for him.
01:59 And as you know, as far as viewers from around the world,
02:02 with Steve, we get more comments, positive comments,
02:06 about his preaching and standing for truth
02:09 as many or more than almost anybody we have on 3ABN.
02:12 Very, very true.
02:13 And he has continued to be the kind of person
02:17 that stands for that which is right.
02:19 I understand about that being mischievous
02:21 when you're in Academy.
02:23 I've got a feeling you didn't have any of those.
02:26 Some of my friends actually remember it as worse than I do.
02:30 But usually it's just cranks and pranks and things like that.
02:35 You know, as young guys, you like playing.
02:37 And so sometimes when you're suppose to be in sleeping,
02:39 in bed sleeping, you're outside or you're up in
02:42 somebody else's room.
02:43 Right, or you're short sheeting somebody's bed.
02:45 Or you're doing something like that to have fun in school.
02:51 Well we did, we had a good time.
02:53 And Steve is a great guy, Pastor Stephen Bohr.
02:55 And you know, some people wonder about these speakers.
02:59 Are they in full time ministry? Does he travel?
03:01 He actually has a church, he pastors a church.
03:04 Yet, he's able to do work around the world.
03:07 And he also doesn't just preach in English.
03:09 No, he speaks in Spanish.
03:11 In fact, this series is being presented on 3ABN Latino
03:15 in Spanish without translation because he's able to preach
03:19 in Spanish as well as he does in English.
03:22 - An amazing gift. - It really is.
03:23 One I don't have yet.
03:25 Well, he's the speaker and director of Secrets Unsealed.
03:29 And he is much sought after all around the world.
03:34 Because people are very anxious to find out what he
03:37 understands on a subject.
03:38 He's a great student.
03:40 He really does spend a lot of time in the Word.
03:43 And he knows the Word backwards and forwards.
03:47 And he always has something very interesting to present.
03:52 A new approach to something, a new idea,
03:55 something you haven't thought of before.
03:57 Even when he's dealing with truths that matter,
04:01 or in other words, these are truths that are extremely
04:04 important for these last days.
04:06 They're old familiar truths to us, but they have a special
04:10 emphasis in these last days that it is so important to bring out.
04:15 My Aunt Mildred use to say, "I want to hear somebody
04:19 tell me something I didn't already know."
04:21 She was a great student of the Bible,
04:23 "I want somebody to tell me something
04:24 I didn't already know."
04:26 And I think Pastor Stephen Bohr fits into that because I've
04:29 heard him tell me, teach me several things,
04:31 many things in fact, that I didn't already know.
04:34 Well, he will do that.
04:35 And Danny, right now I'm going to request that you sing a song
04:39 that I love, All My Praise.
04:42 Thank You.
04:58 All my praise, I give You all my praise.
05:10 That's all I have to offer You.
05:21 I now build a sanctuary deep within my heart,
05:32 and all my praise I offer up to You.
05:45 I love You Lord, oh how I love You Lord.
05:56 I bare my heart and soul to You.
06:07 I'm and empty broken vessel filled with hurt
06:15 and pain inside.
06:18 Still I offer up all my praise to You.
06:30 Fill me Lord, oh please fill me Lord
06:43 with Your Holy Spirit.
06:47 Fill me now.
06:53 For I long for Your anointing
06:59 that I may work for You.
07:05 Fill me Lord, touch me Lord just now.
07:16 And all my praise, I give You all my praise.
07:29 That's all I have to offer You.
07:39 I now build a sanctuary
07:46 deep within my heart,
07:51 oh and all my praise I offer up to You.
08:02 And all my praise I offer up to You.
08:23 Now, Stephen Bohr.
08:26 Shall we pray.
08:29 Loving heavenly Father, once again we approach Your throne
08:32 boldly in the name of Jesus,
08:35 knowing that when we pray in the name of Jesus,
08:39 You hear and You answer.
08:43 Father, as we conclude part two of this very important
08:49 presentation on the seal of God, we ask for the guidance of
08:53 Your Holy Spirit.
08:55 Once again Lord, I ask that You will open minds
08:58 and You will open hearts.
09:00 Help us to see the truth as it is in Jesus.
09:04 Help us, through Your power, to remove all
09:07 preconceived ideas and notions.
09:10 And help us, Lord, to hear only Your voice
09:13 speaking through Your Word.
09:15 And we thank You before hand for hearing our prayer.
09:18 For we ask it in the precious name of Jesus, amen.
09:25 In our last study, we were discussing the issue of the
09:29 seal of God in Scripture as compared to what is stated
09:34 by Ellen White in her writings.
09:37 And we noticed in our study that the Bible explains
09:41 that the seal of God is the Holy Spirit.
09:46 But in the writings of Ellen White, we find that she
09:48 states repeatedly that the seal of God is the Sabbath.
09:54 And so how do we resolve this apparent discrepancy?
09:58 Well, we used three models in our last study to try and
10:02 explain that there is no contradiction.
10:05 We used the model of circumcision,
10:07 we used the model of baptism, and we used also the story of
10:13 the phylacteries, if you remember.
10:16 That was the last example that we gave from Scripture.
10:19 And we noticed that simply you have an internal
10:23 and an external.
10:25 In the writings of Ellen White, she is discussing primarily
10:29 the external manifestation of what the Bible refers to
10:34 as the internal work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart.
10:39 Now we're going to apply what we've studied
10:42 in our last lecture, and apply it to the Sabbath
10:46 commandment, today, more specifically.
10:49 And so I invite you to open your Bibles with me to
10:51 Exodus chapter 20, and we are going to read
10:55 verses 8 through 11.
10:57 This is the fourth commandment of God's holy law,
11:00 the law that God wrote with His own finger there on Mount Sinai.
11:06 Now notice it says there, "Remember the Sabbath day,
11:11 to keep it holy.
11:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
11:16 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
11:21 In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter,
11:27 nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle,
11:32 nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11:35 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
11:38 the sea, and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.
11:42 Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
11:48 Now, does God command us to keep the Sabbath holy outwardly?
11:56 He most certainly does.
11:58 Does He prescribe what is allowable and what is
12:02 not allowable on the Sabbath, in terms of our outward behavior?
12:07 Absolutely.
12:09 Was He serious when He said that we must keep the
12:12 Sabbath day holy outwardly?
12:15 Absolutely.
12:16 The text says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
12:20 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
12:23 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
12:26 In it you shall do no work."
12:28 That is referring to secular work.
12:31 So God expects His people to keep the Sabbath day
12:36 holy outwardly; to rest on that day and
12:40 abstain from secular work.
12:42 Now was God serious about this external
12:45 observance of the Sabbath?
12:47 Was He serious about it?
12:48 Notice Exodus chapter 31 and we'll read verses 14 and 15.
12:56 This was a serious matter.
12:57 As we noticed last night in our study, when Moses failed to
13:02 circumcise his son, God appeared to him, through an angel,
13:06 on the road and threatened to... What?
13:08 ...to kill him.
13:09 It was a serious matter.
13:12 It's no less serious when it comes to the outward observance
13:15 of the holy Sabbath.
13:17 It says there in Exodus 31 verse 14,
13:19 "You shall keep the Sabbath,
13:22 therefore, for it is holy to you.
13:26 Everyone who profanes it," listen carefully now,
13:31 "shall surely be..." What?
13:33 "...put to death; for whoever does any work on it,
13:36 that person shall be cut off from among his people.
13:40 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the
13:44 Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord.
13:48 Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day,
13:51 he shall surely be put to death."
13:55 And you know what some people say,
13:57 Christians who don't observe the Sabbath, they say,
14:00 "Well, if you apply that principle then,
14:03 if people today don't keep the Sabbath, then you have to
14:06 kill them, according to what the Bible says.
14:10 But today we don't live in a theocracy.
14:12 Today we live in a democracy.
14:15 And it makes a big difference."
14:16 For those who say that, they're saying it's not really serious
14:19 to break the Sabbath anymore because we don't kill people
14:22 for breaking the Sabbath.
14:23 Well, the law also said that whoever committed adultery
14:28 was suppose to be stoned to death.
14:29 So I suppose that because we don't stone people to death,
14:31 then it's okay to commit adultery.
14:34 It doesn't make any sense.
14:36 These are arguments that appear to be plausible,
14:39 but they're not plausible when you look at them carefully.
14:42 But now I want you to notice that there's a deeper dimension
14:46 to Sabbath observance than just the outward keeping
14:49 of the Sabbath; abstaining from work, abstaining from certain
14:53 endeavors, secular endeavors on the Sabbath.
14:56 In fact, the observance of the seventh day Sabbath
15:01 is an external sign that we have been made holy by God.
15:08 Notice what we find in Exodus 31, we're there,
15:12 and verses 12 and 13.
15:14 Exodus 31 verses 12 and 13.
15:18 "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak also to the
15:22 children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths
15:27 you shall keep, for it is a...'" What?
15:31 See the Sabbath observance is a, "...sign between Me and you
15:36 throughout your generations, that you may know
15:40 that I am the Lord who..." What?
15:42 "...who sanctifies you."
15:44 In other words, "You keep the Sabbath so that you may know
15:47 that I am the Lord who makes you..." What?
15:50 "...holy."
15:51 In other words, the observance of the Sabbath was
15:54 a visible evidence that God had separated Israel for Himself.
15:59 And that Israel was to be... What?
16:01 ...was to be holy.
16:04 Notice also Ezekiel chapter 20 and we'll read verses 12 and 20.
16:09 Ezekiel chapter 20 and verses 12 and 20.
16:13 Here once again, God is speaking and He's says,
16:15 "Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign..."
16:21 See, there it is again.
16:22 "...a sign between them and Me, that they might know that
16:26 I am the Lord who..." What?
16:28 "...who sanctifies them."
16:30 In other words, that makes them holy.
16:32 And then it continues saying in verse 20,
16:35 "Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me
16:40 and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God."
16:47 In other words, the observance of the Sabbath was a visible
16:51 sign that Israel belonged to the Lord.
16:55 The observance of the Sabbath was an evidence that God
16:58 had made Israel... What?
17:00 ...that God had made Israel holy.
17:04 In other words, the Sabbath did not make Israel holy.
17:07 The Sabbath revealed that they had been made holy, or separated
17:12 for holiness, by God.
17:14 The external observance of the Sabbath did not make
17:18 Israel holy, but rather was to announce to the world
17:23 that God had made Israel holy.
17:26 In other words, it was a sign of holiness.
17:29 It did not confer holiness.
17:33 Now here is a very important question.
17:36 Who is it that makes our heart holy?
17:42 Because the eternal observance of the Sabbath is a sign that
17:45 God has made us holy.
17:47 Now the question is, who is it that makes our heart
17:50 or our internal being holy, of which the observance
17:54 of the Sabbath is the external sign?
17:57 Actually, it is the Holy Spirit who changes and transforms
18:02 the heart and makes us holy.
18:05 And the observance of the Sabbath is simply the visible
18:08 announcement that the Holy Spirit has made our heart,
18:12 has made our inner being holy.
18:15 Now let me share this with you.
18:18 In Exodus 31 and verse 18, we are told that after God
18:23 wrote the Ten Commandments with His own... What?
18:28 ...with His own finger, He gave the tables of the law to Moses.
18:33 Now, this is the only thing in the Bible that God wrote
18:36 with His own finger.
18:37 Because it was the watchers that wrote on the wall
18:40 in Belshazzar's palace.
18:44 That was not God; it was a watcher, it was an angel.
18:47 The only thing in the Bible that God wrote with His own finger
18:50 was the Ten Commandments.
18:53 Now the question is, what is the finger of God that wrote
18:56 the Ten Commandments?
18:58 Well, I'm just going to mention these verses.
19:00 In Matthew chapter 12 and verse 28,
19:04 we are told that Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God.
19:10 In Matthew chapter 12 verse 28, we're told that Jesus
19:13 cast out demons by the Spirit of God.
19:17 But Luke expresses it differently.
19:20 In Luke chapter 11 verse 20, the good doctor, Luke,
19:26 tells us that Jesus cast out demons by the finger of God.
19:33 So what is the conclusion?
19:35 If Matthew says that He cast out demons by the Spirit of God
19:39 and Luke says that He cast out demons by the finger of God,
19:43 what is the finger of God?
19:45 The finger of God is the... What?
19:47 ...is the Holy Spirit.
19:49 So who wrote the Ten Commandments
19:51 on tables of stone?
19:53 It was the Holy Spirit.
19:55 And now I'd like to ask you the question,
19:57 who is it that writes the Ten Commandments
20:01 on the tables of our hearts?
20:04 It is the same Holy Spirit that wrote them on tables of stone.
20:09 Because in Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 to 33,
20:12 we're told that the Holy Spirit will write God's commandments
20:16 and laws in our hearts and in our... What?
20:19 ...in our minds.
20:20 That is the internal.
20:22 But the external is the observance of the Sabbath
20:25 as a sign that God has sanctified
20:28 or made our heart holy.
20:30 Are you understanding what I'm saying?
20:31 Now notice John chapter 17 and verse 17.
20:35 Let's pursue this issue of who is it that makes us holy,
20:40 of which the Sabbath, the external observance
20:42 of the Sabbath, is a visible sign or a visible announcement.
20:48 Notice John chapter 17 and verse 17.
20:51 Here Jesus is speaking and He says,
20:53 "Sanctify them by Your truth.
20:56 Your..." What? "Your word is truth."
21:01 So here we're told in John 17 and verse 17 that the Word
21:05 of God is truth.
21:07 Now the word of God is whose sword?
21:11 I think you know this.
21:13 Whose sword is the word of God?
21:15 In Ephesians 6:17, it says that the sword
21:19 of the Spirit is... what?
21:20 ...is the word of God.
21:22 Now, so what does the word of God do?
21:25 The word of God... What?
21:27 ...sanctifies us. Right?
21:29 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
21:33 And who is behind the Word sanctifying the heart?
21:36 It's the Holy Spirit, because the Word is the sword
21:40 of the Holy Spirit.
21:41 Now John 16 and verse 13 amplifies this point.
21:46 It says, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth..."
21:52 What is the Holy Spirit called?
21:53 The Spirit of what? Truth.
21:55 And what is God's word?
21:56 God's word is truth.
21:58 So it says, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come,
22:01 He will guide you into all truth;
22:04 for He will not speak on His own authority,
22:08 but whatever He hears He will speak;
22:11 and He will tell you things to come."
22:13 So who is it that sanctifies the human heart,
22:17 or makes the human heart holy?
22:20 It is the Holy Spirit.
22:21 The Holy Spirit who wrote the Ten Commandments
22:24 on tables of stone is also the agent that writes
22:28 the law of God on our human hearts.
22:32 Now go with me to Ezekiel chapter 36 and verses 26 and 27,
22:37 amplifying this point of the internal experience
22:41 and the external obedience that comes as a result
22:45 of that experience.
22:46 Ezekiel 36 and verses 26 and 27.
22:51 Here, God makes a beautiful promise.
22:52 And notice what He says.
22:58 God says, "I will give you a..." What?
23:02 "...a new heart and put..." What?
23:05 "...a new spirit within you."
23:08 Does God promise to change the inside?
23:11 He most certainly does.
23:13 He continues saying, "I will take the heart of stone
23:17 out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
23:22 I will put My Spirit within you..."
23:25 And now listen to what the consequence is.
23:27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to..." What?
23:33 "...to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My
23:38 judgments and do them."
23:39 What is the external evidence that the Holy Spirit
23:42 has worked upon the human heart and sanctified the human heart?
23:46 It is what? Obedience.
23:49 In other words, after saying, "I'll give you a new heart,
23:51 I'll put a new spirit within you,"
23:53 and once again He says, "I will put My Spirit within you,"
23:57 He says, "and I will cause you to walk in My statutes
24:00 and you will keep My judgments and do them."
24:03 So what is Sabbath observance?
24:05 Sabbath observance is simply the external experience
24:10 of what has taken place in the human heart.
24:13 It kind of reminds me of what Jesus once said.
24:17 He said, "You can't see the Holy Spirit,
24:20 like you can't see the wind.
24:23 But you can see the effects of the Holy Spirit."
24:26 You can see the effects of the wind, because the wind,
24:30 for example, moves the leaves of the trees.
24:32 You can't see the wind but you can see that which
24:34 the wind causes.
24:36 In the same way, the Holy Spirit comes and sanctifies
24:39 the human heart, makes the human heart holy.
24:41 And the visible evidence of that, the seal or sign of that,
24:46 is the observance of... What?
24:48 ...the observance of the seventh day Sabbath.
24:51 Ellen White, in the devotional book, In Heavenly Places,
24:55 page 66, had this to say.
24:58 See, she understood also that the Holy Spirit
25:02 is the sealing agent.
25:04 She understood that, and that the Sabbath is the
25:07 external visible manifestation of that.
25:10 She says:
25:34 Is she talking about the seal? Yes or no?
25:36 Absolutely.
25:37 But now notice her explanation.
25:54 Is she saying here that the seal is the Holy Spirit?
25:58 She most certainly is.
25:59 I thought she said that the Sabbath was the seal.
26:02 Well you see, she understood the same thing
26:05 that the Bible describes.
26:06 And that is, that the internal invisible experience
26:10 is exhibited by the external observance of God's Sabbath.
26:14 The external is the evidence of the internal, in other words.
26:18 In another statement that we find in Selected Messages,
26:21 Volume 1 and page 336, she compares the sealing with wax.
26:28 She says this:
26:43 So once again, she identifies the seal with the Holy Spirit.
26:46 So is Ellen White talking out of both sides of her mouth?
26:49 Is Ellen White just confused on this, and sometimes she says
26:53 that the seal is the Holy Spirit and sometimes she says that
26:56 the seal is the Sabbath? No.
26:57 You see, the Sabbath is the external sign that the
27:01 Holy Spirit has made our heart holy.
27:04 Are you following me or not?
27:06 Now Ellen White constantly, in her writings,
27:10 makes it very clear that the Sabbath is not an end in itself;
27:16 that observance of the Sabbath does not confer holiness.
27:20 Observance of the Sabbath does not make us holy,
27:23 it does not earn us salvation.
27:25 It is an outward sign of an inward experience
27:29 produced in our life by the Holy Spirit.
27:32 I'm going to read now several statements where Ellen White
27:34 makes this clear.
27:36 She, like the Bible, says that the Sabbath is a sign,
27:40 it is a token, it's an evidence, it is a visible manifestation.
27:46 In other words, it's simply the outside announcement
27:50 of inward holiness.
27:52 Now in the book, Patriarchs And Prophets, page 307,
27:56 Ellen White stated this.
27:58 And I'm going to read several statements because they're
28:00 very very meaningful, and they show that Ellen White understood
28:03 that the Sabbath was only a sign, the Sabbath was a token.
28:07 It was not an end in itself.
28:08 It was an exhibition visibly of the fact that Israel had been
28:13 separated as holy to the Lord.
28:16 Patriarchs And Prophets, page 307.
28:28 Why does the Sabbath distinguish the true God
28:30 from all false gods?
28:32 Because the Sabbath points to God as what?
28:34 The Creator.
28:35 Is that the distinguishing mark between the true God
28:37 and all false gods?
28:38 Absolutely.
28:40 So she says, "Pointing to God as the Maker of the heavens
28:43 and the earth, the Sabbath distinguishes the true God
28:46 from all false gods."
28:47 And now listen to this.
28:54 Signify comes from sign. Right?
29:17 What is the Sabbath?
29:18 The Sabbath is a sign.
29:22 Another statement we find in The Great Controversy,
29:25 page 605, she's talking about the Sabbath as the final test,
29:29 the final issue that will separate humanity on earth.
30:04 So what is the observance of Sunday?
30:06 It's an avowal of allegiance to the power that changed the day.
30:10 Are you following me or not?
30:11 In other words, the issue is not the day.
30:14 The issue is; by keeping the wrong day, we're following
30:17 the authority who changed the day.
30:19 She continues saying, once again, going back a little bit,
30:25 "Contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an
30:27 avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God..."
30:32 She says, on the other side...
30:44 What is evidence?
30:46 It's something you can see. Right?
30:48 "...the evidence of loyalty to the Creator.
30:50 While one class, by accepting the sign of
30:54 submission to earthly powers..."
30:55 What is that visible sign of submission
30:57 to the earthly powers?
30:58 The observance of Sunday.
31:00 She says, "...receive the mark of the beast, the other,
31:03 choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority,
31:08 receive the seal of God."
31:10 So what is the Sabbath?
31:12 The Sabbath is a token.
31:14 The Sabbath is a sign.
31:16 It's an avowal of allegiance to God.
31:21 Now there's another statement that we find in the
31:23 Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 7,
31:26 and page 970.
31:28 She says:
31:51 Is it visible to the world, the mark of distinction?
31:54 Absolutely.
32:02 It's that simple.
32:04 In another statement, this is a short one,
32:06 The Great Controversy, page 438, she says:
32:14 Let me ask you, when you pledge allegiance to the flag of the
32:17 United States of America, is that an external act?
32:21 What is that manifesting?
32:23 It's manifesting that in your heart, you have patriotism.
32:26 Right?
32:28 Is that a visible manifestation of patriotism when you
32:32 cross your heart and say, "I pledge allegiance to the flag
32:35 of the United States of America."
32:36 It's an external act.
32:38 But really, it's revealing something that's in your heart;
32:41 your patriotism.
32:43 The flag is simply a symbol, an external symbol,
32:48 that you are loyal to the country that you belong to.
32:52 Now she continues saying in Selected Messages,
32:55 Volume 3, page 256:
33:26 In other words, when they kept the Sabbath, they were
33:28 announcing visibly to the world, "We serve the Creator
33:32 of the heavens and the earth."
33:34 Manuscript Releases, Volume 5, page 86.
33:37 See, she constantly says that the Sabbath is just a token,
33:39 it's a sign, it reveals what power we follow.
33:44 It's not an end in itself.
33:46 Manuscript Releases, Volume 5, page 86, she says:
34:04 What does it mean to demonstrate?
34:06 It means to... What?...to show.
34:08 What is it that shows that we are God's people.
34:12 Keeping the sign of God's seventh day Sabbath.
34:16 Manuscript Releases, Volume 11, page 18.
34:19 I could read statements from Ellen White all night
34:21 where she says this.
34:29 One final statement, Spirit Of Prophecy, Volume 2, page 193.
35:01 You know, when we leave our homes real early on
35:04 Sabbath morning dressed up fit to kill, to use the expression,
35:09 the neighbor's look out the window and they say,
35:12 "Where in the world are these people going on a
35:14 Saturday morning all dressed up?"
35:17 It gives us an opportunity to tell them,
35:20 "I serve the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
35:22 And the external visible evidence of that is I keep
35:25 God's holy Sabbath.
35:27 He has separated me as one of His holy followers."
35:32 Is the visible evidence extremely important?
35:34 It most certainly is.
35:36 Ellen White understood that the Sabbath is a deeper experience
35:41 than just keeping an external day holy.
35:44 She did emphasize that keeping the day is a sign or a token,
35:49 a visible outward manifestation, that we have been made holy,
35:53 that we are God's people.
35:54 But she understood that the Sabbath has also
35:57 a deeper dimension.
35:58 Let me read you three statements from the pen of Ellen White
36:01 on the deeper dimension of the Sabbath as the seal of God.
36:06 This statement is found in Signs Of The Times,
36:08 February 13, 1896.
36:31 Notice, she understood that this commandment cannot be fulfilled
36:34 without something happening in the heart.
36:47 So if you keep the Sabbath, what is the motivating
36:50 factor of the Sabbath?
36:51 Love for God and love for our fellow human beings.
36:54 And who plants that in or hearts?
36:57 It is the Holy Spirits that plants the love of God.
37:00 The Bible says that the Holy Spirit has poured the
37:02 love of God into our hearts.
37:05 In another statement that we find in the Review And Herald,
37:08 May 21, 1895, Ellen While says:
37:22 Isn't that interesting.
37:24 Just the mere external observance of the Sabbath
37:26 is not going to get you the seal of God.
37:29 In order to have the seal of God, she says what?
37:32 That we must have likeness to Christ in... What?
37:36 ...in Character.
37:37 And that's something that happens internally
37:39 in our hearts.
37:40 Now I want to give you a statement before we go to
37:43 the times of Jesus to understand this a little bit better.
37:46 I want to give you one final statement where Ellen White
37:48 relates the two ideas together; the internal and the external.
37:53 This statement is found in Testimonies For The Church,
37:55 Volume 8, page 117.
38:12 The seal is... What?...revealed.
38:16 So where is the seal placed?
38:19 Before we observe the Sabbath as the seal of God,
38:22 where is the seal of God placed?
38:24 It is placed in the heart.
38:26 By whom?
38:27 By the Holy Spirit.
38:28 So she says, "The sign or seal," that's the external,
38:31 "of God is revealed in the observance of the
38:35 seventh day Sabbath, the Lord's memorial of creation."
38:38 Now in order to understand this better, this idea of
38:41 the internal work of the Holy Spirit and the Sabbath as
38:44 the external sign of that work of the Holy Spirit,
38:47 we need to go back to the times of Jesus Christ.
38:50 The greatest controversies that Jesus had in His day
38:54 with the Pharisees was over Sabbath observance.
38:58 And unfortunately, many Christians look at the
39:02 controversies of Jesus with the Pharisees
39:04 and they believe that Jesus was attacking the Sabbath,
39:07 or Jesus was doing away with the Sabbath.
39:11 That is a misconception because Jesus was not doing away with
39:14 the Bible Sabbath which He made, because He was the Creator
39:16 according to John chapter 1.
39:18 He wasn't doing away with His own commandment.
39:20 What Jesus was doing was, He was trying to restore the Sabbath
39:24 to its original meaning that had been ruined by the scribes
39:28 and by the Pharisees.
39:31 You know what the problem of the Pharisees was?
39:33 They had everything outside right, but it did not
39:37 come from a good inside.
39:40 They kept the Sabbath holy, but their hearts were not holy.
39:44 Let me read you a passage that expresses the problem.
39:47 Matthew 23 verses 25 to 28.
39:50 Here, Jesus is pronouncing the woes on the
39:53 scribes and Pharisees.
39:58 Here Jesus says, "Woe to you, scribes and
40:01 Pharisees, hypocrites!
40:02 For you cleanse the..." What?
40:05 Ah, notice, "...the outside of the cup and dish, but..." What?
40:11 "...inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
40:15 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish,
40:21 that the outside of them may be clean also.
40:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
40:27 For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed
40:31 appear beautiful..." What?
40:33 "...outwardly, but..." Where?
40:35 "...inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
40:41 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men,
40:46 but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
40:51 What was the problem that the Pharisees had?
40:53 Were they Sabbath keepers?
40:56 They kept the Sabbath much more strictly than any of us,
40:58 I can assure you that.
41:00 They only walked a certain distance.
41:03 They didn't look into a mirror on Sabbath.
41:05 Especially a woman because she might find a
41:07 gray hair and pluck it.
41:08 That was the sin of plucking.
41:09 I kid you not.
41:12 If there was a fire in their household, they could only
41:15 save enough food for the meals that remained that very day.
41:19 You couldn't jump over a brook on the Sabbath
41:22 because if you fell in the brook you might
41:24 fall into the sin of wringing your robe.
41:27 I mean, they had all kinds of rules and regulations.
41:30 If you had a prosthetic leg, you had to remove it on the Sabbath
41:33 because you couldn't bear a burden on the Sabbath.
41:36 You couldn't even have a pin on your shirt, or on your robe,
41:41 on Sabbath because that was bearing a burden on the Sabbath.
41:44 Now where does the Bible say those things?
41:46 Nowhere.
41:47 These were traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.
41:50 The Pharisees were strict Sabbath keepers.
41:53 But their observance of the Sabbath was worthless
41:55 because their hearts were not sanctified,
41:58 their hearts were not holy.
42:00 You see, the inside has to be in harmony with what?
42:03 With the outside, and vice versa.
42:06 Let me give you an illustration.
42:09 Mark chapter 3 and verses 1 through 7,
42:11 so you see what's going on here.
42:13 Mark chapter 3 verses 1 through 7.
42:17 This is one of the Sabbath miracles of Jesus.
42:20 It says there, "And He entered the synagogue again,
42:24 and a man was there who had a withered hand.
42:28 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him
42:32 on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him."
42:35 No sin in accusing on the Sabbath,
42:38 but it is a sin to heal.
42:42 Notice verse 3.
42:43 "And He said to the man who had the
42:46 withered hand, 'Step forward.'"
42:47 In other words, "I'm going to show everyone
42:49 what I'm going to do."
42:50 "Then He said to them, 'Is it lawful on the Sabbath
42:54 to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?'
43:00 But they kept silent."
43:01 They were smart.
43:03 "And when He had looked around at them with anger..."
43:06 This is the only reference in the gospels where it says
43:08 that Jesus got angry.
43:10 This is not anger like we have.
43:12 This is called righteous indignation.
43:16 So it says, "And when He had looked around at them
43:18 with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts..."
43:22 Where was their problem?
43:24 Their problem was with the heart.
43:27 "...He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.'
43:30 And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored
43:33 as whole as the other."
43:34 And now notice the irony.
43:37 "Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted
43:40 with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him."
43:46 It was a sin on Sabbath to heal someone,
43:49 but it's okay to plan to destroy someone and kill them.
43:54 You see, they had the external right,
43:57 but the internal was wrong.
44:00 You see, you have to have both; the work of the Holy Spirit
44:03 in the heart that leads you to love God and your
44:06 fellow human being, and then your Sabbath observance
44:09 will be acceptable in the sight of God.
44:11 You have to have both.
44:13 Ellen White, in the Desire Of Ages, page 286,
44:17 speaks about the manner of the observance of the Sabbath
44:20 by the Pharisees.
44:21 She says:
44:31 In Desire Of Ages, pages 283 and 284,
44:35 and I'm going to read extensively now,
44:36 Ellen White is discussing how the Pharisees kept the Sabbath
44:40 and how it was not acceptable to God.
44:42 She says this:
45:07 Because it's the sign of Christ as Creator and Redeemer.
45:11 She continues saying:
46:05 So was Jesus doing away with the Sabbath by healing on Sabbath?
46:09 No, He was restoring the Sabbath to its original...
46:12 ...meaning.
46:14 Now she continues saying on page 284 of Desire of Ages.
46:37 What does that mean, "designate them as His worshipers"?
46:40 That people could... What?...could see it.
46:43 That's right.
46:45 She continues saying:
47:03 That's profound.
47:05 So what comes first; keeping the Sabbath holy,
47:08 or the Holy Spirit making your heart holy?
47:10 The Holy Spirit making your heart holy.
47:13 Or else your Sabbath observance is worthless.
47:15 She says:
47:44 You see, the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's righteousness,
47:46 to glorify Him, had become a sign of their own righteousness
47:51 to glorify them.
47:52 Their Sabbath made them mean, intolerant,
47:55 spirited, judgmental, and arrogant.
48:00 As if they were holier than everybody else.
48:03 You know I find it interesting today, that there are
48:06 enemies of the Sabbath within the Christian world,
48:09 and more particularly, people who have left the
48:11 Seventh-day Adventist church.
48:13 There's one I'm thinking of in particular who's name
48:15 I'm not going to mention.
48:16 And basically, he says, "You know, I don't have to keep
48:19 the Sabbath holy.
48:20 I don't have to go to church on Sabbath
48:22 and keep the Sabbath holy."
48:23 He says, "Because Jesus is my Sabbath.
48:27 You see, Jesus said, 'Come unto Me all you who labor
48:31 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
48:34 So Jesus gives me His rest in my heart."
48:38 Would you agree with that?
48:40 So only the internal is important, not the external?
48:43 Have we found that the external visible manifestation
48:46 is just as important as the internal?
48:49 You know, I'd like to ask this particular individual;
48:51 Do you believe people really need to get baptized in water?
48:56 Or is it enough just to say, "Oh, I believe in Jesus
48:59 and Jesus has cleansed my heart."
49:02 I know that he would say, "Oh no, God expects your heart
49:05 to be clean, but He expects you to be baptized in the water."
49:10 I'll bet if you asked this individual today,
49:12 "Do you really think that it's necessary to gather together
49:15 for communion and to eat a little piece of bread
49:18 and to drink a little cup of grape juice?
49:20 Do you really think that's necessary
49:22 when you really understand in your heart what the
49:24 bread represents and what the grape juice represents?
49:28 Why go through the external form
49:30 if we understand in our hearts what Jesus did?"
49:33 And if you went a step further and said,
49:35 "Do you really think that somebody has to get married
49:37 in an official visible ceremony?
49:40 Isn't it enough to love each other in their heart?"
49:43 I'm sure that he would say, "No way, you have to have
49:45 the external ceremony."
49:47 But when it comes to the Sabbath, they say,
49:49 "Oh now, Jesus is my Sabbath. Jesus is my rest.
49:52 He has come into my heart to give me my rest."
49:56 Does that exonerate us from keeping the external day
49:59 of the Sabbath to announce to the world that Jesus
50:02 has given us His rest?
50:04 Absolutely not.
50:07 Do you know that Ellen White says that some people
50:09 who externally keep the Sabbath are going to be lost?
50:13 Because some people say, "Oh Ellen White, she was a legalist.
50:16 You know, she believed that by keeping the Sabbath,
50:18 you would be saved."
50:19 That's what the Christian world accuses Ellen White
50:22 and Adventists of believing.
50:23 We've never believed that by keeping the Sabbath
50:25 we become holy, or God is going to save us because
50:27 we keep the Sabbath.
50:28 We believe that God has made us holy,
50:30 He separated us for Him, and therefore we keep the Sabbath.
50:34 The Sabbath is the fruit, it's not the root of salvation.
50:38 In other words, faith that does not work is not true... What?
50:42 ...is not true faith.
50:44 Ellen White said this about the mere external
50:48 observance of the Sabbath.
50:50 Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4, page 95.
51:16 Was she right?
51:17 Absolutely.
51:19 She relates the internal with the external.
51:22 In another place, Letter 191, 1899, she says:
51:50 Did she understand the internal and the external?
51:52 Did she understand that it's not having the rest of Christ
51:54 in the heart and not keeping the Sabbath,
51:56 or keeping the Sabbath and not having the rest in the heart?
52:00 Did she understand the proper relationship between
52:02 the internal and the external?
52:04 Absolutely.
52:05 You see, external observance without the internal
52:08 experience is unacceptable.
52:10 And the internal experience, so called, and saying,
52:14 "I don't have to keep the Sabbath,"
52:16 is also unacceptable to God.
52:19 The observance of the Sabbath is the visible evidence
52:21 that God has made my heart holy through the internal
52:25 work of the Holy Spirit.
52:27 So was Ellen Write right when she said that the Sabbath
52:30 is the seal of God or the sign of God?
52:32 Was she also right when she said that the Holy Spirit
52:35 is the seal or the sign that impresses God's
52:38 character in our hearts?
52:39 Yes, it's not either or. It's both and.
52:43 Allow me to end by telling you a story.
52:46 A few years ago, there was this individual that was driving home
52:50 and it was raining torrents of water.
52:54 And when he was right near home, he ran out of gas.
52:59 And it was just raining so hard and he had to get home.
53:03 And so he got out of the car, you know, and kind of
53:05 covered himself with a newspaper and pushed his car,
53:07 there was a gas station nearby, and pushed his car.
53:09 Somebody else helped him push his car to the gas station.
53:13 And when he got to the gas station and parked there
53:15 in front of the place where you pump the gas,
53:18 he saw a sign that said, "Closed on Saturdays."
53:22 "Oh have mercy," he says. "Oh no, after getting wet."
53:26 But then he noticed that there was a house
53:27 next to the gas station.
53:28 So he said, "Oh, maybe the owner of the gas station
53:31 lives in that house."
53:33 So he goes, it's about 9 o'clock in the morning,
53:35 and he knocks on the door.
53:37 And this individual comes to the door nicely dressed
53:41 in a suit with a tie, white shirt, nice shiny shoes.
53:45 And he says, "Can I help you, sir?"
53:47 He says, "Yes, you know, I ran out of gas
53:50 and I'm wondering if this gas station belongs to you."
53:53 He says, "Yes, yes I'm the owner of the gas station."
53:56 "Do you suppose that it would be possible for you
53:58 to sell me a little bit of gas so that I can get home?"
54:05 Where do you think that individual was going
54:08 all dressed up?
54:09 To Sabbath school. That's right.
54:13 And this individual, he straightened himself out,
54:18 and he looked at this man and he said, "Sell you gas
54:21 on the holy Sabbath?
54:24 Don't you know the Bible says that we're not suppose to
54:27 buy or sell on the Sabbath?
54:31 I'm a Seventh-day Adventist, I keep the Sabbath."
54:34 And he shut the door in his face.
54:39 The only way that we found out about this story
54:42 is because several years later, two Seventh-day Adventist
54:45 literature evangelists...
54:48 Literature evangelists are people who sell books.
54:51 ...visited his home.
54:54 And they introduced themselves as Seventh-day Adventists.
54:57 And he looked at them and he said,
54:59 "You're Seventh-day Adventists?
55:01 Well I want you to know that I wouldn't buy
55:03 a book from you whether it was the last book in existence
55:06 in the whole wide world."
55:07 And then he told them the story of how this gas station owner
55:12 who was a Seventh-day Adventist had said, "I will not sell you
55:15 any gas because it's the holy Sabbath."
55:19 You know, if I had been that gas station owner,
55:21 I would have said, "Hey, I'll give you the gas
55:25 on the Sabbath day."
55:26 Would that have revealed the character of Christ
55:29 much more clearly to this individual?
55:31 Absolutely.
55:32 It would have shown that the love of God
55:34 and the love for your fellow human beings
55:36 was in the heart.
55:38 But this man was a legalist.
55:40 He kept the law to a T, externally.
55:44 But he had no love; no true love for God
55:47 and no true love for his neighbor.
55:50 So folks, the bottom line is that if the Holy Spirit
55:55 has come into our hearts and has changed our hearts,
55:58 transformed our hearts, and made us holy,
56:02 made our character like the character of Jesus,
56:05 it will be our delight to keep the Sabbath.
56:09 To keep the Sabbath as God has indicated we should keep it.
56:13 Keep it like Jesus did.
56:14 Let me ask you, what did Jesus use the Sabbath for?
56:17 It was the special day that Jesus used to bless humanity;
56:22 to bring healing and to teach the word of God
56:26 and to reveal the beautiful wonderful character of God.
56:29 Because Jesus had the internal work of the Holy Spirit
56:33 in His heart, and His Sabbath observance exhibited that.
56:36 And the reason why the devil hates the Sabbath
56:39 is because the Sabbath brings honor and glory to Jesus.
56:44 And that's the reason why the devil twisted the
56:46 meaning of the Sabbath.
56:47 He ruined the Sabbath through the work of the Pharisees
56:51 because he knew that the Sabbath, correctly kept,
56:55 is a revelation of what God's character is really like.
57:01 So I pray to God that God will give us, first of all,
57:05 the internal experience of the work of the Holy Spirit
57:09 upon our hearts.
57:10 And that when that takes place, that we will keep the
57:14 Sabbath day according to the commandment.
57:17 Not because we have to, but because we love Jesus.
57:21 And love flows in Sabbath observance from our hearts.
57:26 Let's pray.
57:27 Father, we thank You for Your holy Sabbath.
57:33 And we thank You for the work of the Holy Spirit
57:35 who seals our hearts and makes us holy,
57:39 separates us as Your people.
57:43 I ask, Father, that You will come into our hearts,
57:46 that You will pour, through Your Spirit, the love
57:49 of God into our hearts.
57:51 That when we go out on Sabbath, that people will not only say,
57:55 "Oh, these are those people who go to church on Saturday."
57:58 But they'll say, "These are the most loving and kind people,
58:01 and they bless humanity on the Sabbath."
58:04 I thank You, Lord, for having been with us during this series.
58:07 And we thank You for hearing our prayer,
58:09 for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17