Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. and here is today's presenter, Matthew Bloomfield. Let's open with a word of prayer today. Heavenly Father, as we open your word now we just pray for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Lord, you have said in your word that you are more than willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Lord, we are here asking, Lord, I pray that you would give us, as it says in Isaiah 50, the ear of the learned that we might hear. And Lord, I pray that you would give me the mouth of the learned that I might speak a word in season to him who is weary. Lord, we also pray for the ministration of your holy angels round about this place. Lord, we know that the angel of the Lord camps about the saints and so Lord, we just claim that now. Lord, please, if I need to change anything in my message, I ask please that you would inspire me, Lord, and inspire us. As we hear, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. It was a peaceful Sunday morning in Hawaii. December 7, 1941. The sun was just rising over Pearl Harbor. You can probably see where this is going. The U.S. pacific Fleet was sitting quietly at anchor in that safe harbor. The sailors and the soldiers stationed there had no idea that in a matter of minutes the course of history would change forever. The base was considered secure. America wasn't officially involved in the war yet. Although tensions with Japan had been rising. No one expected an attack, especially on a Sunday morning. Especially not here. They say there's a photograph of Pearl Harbor a month before the attack. That morning, some officers were sleeping in. Others were attending chapel services or eating breakfast. There was no heightened alert, no urgency. The enemy, it seemed, was far away. But the Japanese military had been planning their assault for months. They studied the harbor's layout. They knew the fleet's schedule and trained relentlessly. They knew exactly how to strike for maximum devastation. At 7:02am there were two radar operators working, and they saw something unusual pop up on the radar screen. On their oscilloscope, some blips popped up on the screen. A large formation of aircraft heading toward the island. They reported it to their superior officer, but he dismissed it. You see, they were expecting a delivery of B17s Flying Fortresses to come to the island from the mainland. So they just thought it was those coming after all the blips were coming from the northeast of Hawaii. What country is to the northeast of Hawaii? The United States. That's right. They had every reason to believe that it was their own group of planes heading towards the island that were scheduled to arrive there later that morning. They had these radar trucks situated around the island and they'd have men in them operating them during the night hours. Normally, I think at this stage, they were operating from between three and seven in the morning. Their job there's about, I think, five or six of these trucks around the island was to report to the radar information centre where they gathered all the information together. That morning, Lieutenant Kermit Tyler was on duty at the radar information centre. He had minimal training and as I said, he assumed that it was the American bombers coming in. And do you know what he told the men when they rang up with this report? He said, don't worry about it. Words that would go down in history. I listened to an interview with the guy who said that, and he said it was as if fate was operating in those moments, which was interesting. So no further action was taken after he said, don't worry about it. And the radar operators followed these blips until 7:39am that morning when they lost the echo. They lost the radar echo because of the interference of the surrounding mountains there in Hawaii. What happened next? Well, shortly afterward, a truck arrived to take them to breakfast. They did try several times to alert others about these blips on the radar, but the truck came to take them to breakfast and they returned to camp and they looked over towards Pearl harbor and they noticed oily black smoke rising up from the harbour. This is actually a photo taken from one of the Japanese planes. Amazing they had time to take a photo, but this is a photo taken from one of the planes. You can't see it quite so well on the projector, but you can sort of see it on that screen. You can see big splashes of water coming up as the first torpedoes hit the first ships. 748. The first wave of Japanese planes had hit. Torpedoes streaked across the harbor. Bombs fell, bullets rained down on unprepared soldiers. And in just under two hours, the attack was over. But the damage was catastrophic. Over 2,400Americans were killed, 21 ships damaged or destroyed, and more than 300 aircraft ruined. The mighty Pacific Fleet had been crippled before it even had a chance to fight back. What made it even more tragic, this is one of the memorial walls of all the men who died just on one of the ships, USS Arizona, all the men that died that were on that ship that day. What made this whole thing even more tragic was there were warning signs. Intelligence had intercepted suspicious messages. There were reports of Japanese ships moving about in the Pacific. And even on the morning of the attack, they had that response on the radar. But because the threat wasn't taken seriously, the base was left vulnerable. Pearl Harbour became a turning point in history, but it also stands as a powerful reminder to us that when the enemy is preparing for war and you're not paying attention, the consequences can be devastating. Welcome, brother. Good to see you back down here. Now, usually our messages here at Mastodon consist of encouraging one another in our relationship with Christ, delving deeper into the life of Christ. We have Bible studies exploring the Word, exploring doctrine. But occasionally I have to give a more pastoral type of message, a message of warning, not to bring fear, because we know that when we are in Christ, perfect love casts out fear, Right? And Christ gives us all the solutions that we need to the warnings that are coming, but instead, because to be forewarned is to be What? How do you know that? To be forewarned is to be forearmed? Also because the Bible gives me a clear warning that I'm to take seriously my role as a watchman. The Bible says, but if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. It is my job to point out the things that I see happening in the world and around us as we explore some of these warnings and some of these forthcoming dangers. I want you to know that I'm not addressing anything in Mastodon Church, not addressing any person or anything that's taking place in Mastodon Church. In fact, although we have our quirks, although not all of them are here today. I'm joking. Some of them are also joking. Although we have our quirks, we have a wonderful family. We do here at Marston Church. It's unlike other churches that I've been to. We have a family who love each other very much, who all want to serve Christ and emulate him, and so I'm grateful for that. However, as I look out at the horizon, I see storm clouds forming. As I look at what's happening in the world, and as I look at what's happening in the church, I see storm clouds forming. Some of these storms are not new, but they're becoming more pressing. One place in The Bible where the devil's tactics are on full display is in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. We read about that in Matthew 4, 1:11. It's probably one that we've read and studied extensively. But I want to try and bring a few extra points out of it today that I think are particularly relevant to us. I invite you to turn in your bibles to Matthew 4 at the beginning of the chapter. Let's start from the first verses. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he. He was hungry. Now, when the tempter came to him. When did Satan come to tempt Jesus? When he was weak. After he'd been fasting. Right. When he was weakened and weary. Although no doubt he would have been trying to harass Satan. Jesus throughout this whole time. He came especially at the end of those 40 days of fasting when Jesus was physically exhausted and alone. Satan strikes when people are weakest. He tempts us when we are weakest, emotionally, physically and spiritually. He times his attacks for maximum vulnerability. It was in the time of greatest weakness that Christ was assailed by the fiercest temptations. Thus Satan thought to prevail. By this policy, he had gained victory over men. When Moses gave in to temptation and struck the rock instead of speaking to it. How was Moses doing physically and emotionally at that point? What had he been doing for the previous 40 years? Leading the people. And were the people appreciative of his work? Don? No, they weren't. Satan tempted Moses when he had been wandering 40 years in the desert, harassed by these people, when he was weakened and he was worn out and he failed just on the borders of the promised land. What about Elijah? When did he give in to doubt and fear? That's right after his emotional time on Mount Carmel. This is Elijah who stood undaunted before King Ahab. He had faced the whole nation of Israel, the 450 prophets of Baal and was it 400 of Ashtoreth. Terrible day on Mount Carmel, this highly emotional day, this taxing day where. Where so many people had returned to the Lord. He was wearied. He ran ahead of the chariot, physically worn out. And that's when Satan came through Jezebel to threaten him. That's when he gave in to doubt. There's an interesting quote in the book Desire of Ages. It says whenever one is encompassed with clouds, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, Satan is at hand to Tempt and annoy. He attacks our weak points of character. You ever experienced that? So be forewarned when you are tired, when you are weary, when you are hungry, when you are bothered, when you are frustrated, when you've just had an argument with someone from church or with your spouse or a church leader has said something wrong that you don't agree with and all of a sudden a thought pops into your head. Maybe I just won't do my devotional today. Or, you know, I remember. I remember Colin said something to me five years ago that really annoyed me. And all of a sudden it comes back into my mind. Colin hasn't said something to me horrible. Or maybe I don't need to go to church this week. Consider when those thoughts pop into your head when you're tired and you're weary, it just might be the enemy. Prompting you to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Let's carry on in verse three. Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Now do you suppose that Satan appeared to Jesus as some red mutated gargoyle and red leotards with a pitchfork? No. No. In fact, we read in the Bible how he likes to appear to people. Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Right. How does Ezekiel 24 and Isaiah 14 describe Lucifer? Beautiful. A covering, cherub arrayed in jewels and musical instruments. He appeared as an angel of light pretending to be sent from God. Think about would be absolutely no temptation to Jesus if this horrible figure appears to him. Outright denying everything that God has said, that wouldn't be a temptation. Instead he appears as if sent from God. Satan operates on deception. The Bible says when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. He most certainly would not have approached Jesus in an obviously nefarious manner. Right. He likes to disguise himself as a heavenly messenger. I imagine that Satan claimed as he arrived there with Jesus that he had a commission from God. Don't you remember Jesus when Abraham was about to kill Isaac, that an angel was sent to stop his hand? Well, I'm just here to say that your fast is done. Well done. Well done, Jesus. I imagine it would have gone something like that. Satan will present his temptations in such a way that won't be obviously wicked. He knows that we are, for the most part Too smart for that. He might operate. He might tempt people in the world with obvious wickedness. But he doesn't work the same way with the church. Might be something like, I know you felt impressed to call Peter the other day from church to check on him. Or maybe you were going to read your Bible at the end of the day. You decided in the morning. Oh, I didn't have time this morning. I'll read it tonight. But you know what would be equally good? Maybe I'll just turn on the tv. But I'll watch something good. It won't be something bad. I'll watch something good. Maybe like a sermon or some sort of commentary video or a news video. That'll be just as good as reading my Bible, won't it? This is how Satan operates, how he puts thoughts in our minds. You know that preacher you really like, he's addressing some important issues that you really resonate with. Therefore, everything he says must be correct and of God, right? These are the sorts of thoughts that Satan likes to put in our minds. Do we base our religion on what our favorite preacher says? Do we put people on a pedestal because we're impressed with their intelligence? Because they're conservative? Because they speak boldly? Friends, we need to study our Bibles for ourselves. We need to read the spirit of prophecy for ourselves. Even if your favorite Bible worker says something, you need to check it against what God's word says, right? The Bible says to test how many things, all things. Just like with Pearl harbor, the Japanese attack planes were approaching from the north, northeast, which is the same general direction as the US Mainland. This is in fact one of their maps. And you see, that's not going to be any good. But you can see how they came from Japan and then they went around the islands and then back to deliberately look like they were coming from the US the enemy was coming in a way that mimicked something friendly and expected. It appeared familiar, safe. But in reality, it was a cleverly disguised attack. This reminds me of a story from the Old Testament. Catherine actually pointed this out to me. I didn't think of it myself. God sent a young prophet from Judah to deliver a message to King Jeroboam in Bethel. The prophet was given specific instructions directly from God, for so it was commanded me, he says, by the word of the Lord, saying, you shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor. Nor return by the same way you came. So he was to go and deliver his message. Then he wasn't to stop for anything or anyone, and he was to go back By a different path. Right, that's clear. God couldn't have said it any clearer. After delivering his message and performing a miraculous sign, the prophet set off to return home by a different way, just as he had been told. But then an old prophet who lived in Bethel heard what had happened, who went out after the young prophet. Resting under an oak tree, the old prophet invited him to his house to eat and drink. Now what had the young prophet already been told? Don't do it. Don't do it. The young prophet refused. And he repeated God's command, saying, no, no, God has already told me this. And then the old man said to him, I too am a prophet as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water. But what was he doing? I think that's pretty neat. The Bible includes that in parentheses. There he was lying to him. Just so we're not confused about what was happening. Tragically, the young prophet believed the lie and went back with him. After they had eaten, a real message came from the Lord to the old prophet, rebuking the young man for his disobedience. And on his way home, the young prophet was killed by a lion. It was a sign of divine judgment against him because he had ignored the word of God. The young prophet was clearly warned by God about what to do and what not to do. But he let his guard down because the lie came from someone who was sincere and shared his calling. This guy was a conservative Seventh Day Adventist as well. Let's carry on. Then the devil took him up into the holy city. Different story. Back to temptation of Jesus. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Now, what had God the Father said to Jesus when Jesus was baptized? What did he say? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. God had said it already. Right? Did Jesus know he was God's son? Yes, he did. Did Adam and Eve know that eating from the tree would cause death? Yes, they did. They did. Satan will attempt to get you to doubt what you already know to be true. This is how he operates. Notice how he does it when he's talking to Jesus. What does Satan appeal to? What does he use to emphasize his point? The Word of God. He appeals to Scripture. And herein is an important lesson generally to the Christian, especially to the Seventh Day Adventist Christian. Satan doesn't outright deny the Bible. That's not how he operates with us. Because he knows that our alert would go up and would be instantly put off. Instead he appeals to the Bible. Instead, he will twist and misquote the Bible and he'll try and take advantage of any ignorance we have of scripture. Now if Jesus didn't know the scripture that Satan was quoting, he might have had a difficult time here. He might have been confused perhaps. I don't think he would have been. But you understand my point, right? But because he had studied scripture and committed its principles to memory, he was ready for this. He was able to respond by saying, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. He understood the principles of Scripture. Jesus understood Psalm 91 where Satan was quoting from. He had it memorized. I believe he remembered the section that Satan had left out. He shall give his angels charge over you, which is what Satan had said. But then he left out a bit, didn't he? He said, to keep you in all your ways in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. God's protection is to keep us in harmony with his word, not to presume on his protection when we're in rebellion against him. I think I've shared this before here. I apologize if I have, but I think this is a real neat thing. I imagine that as Jesus brought to mind these scriptures that Satan was quoting, I think Jesus mind would have gone to the next verse, 11 and 12 and then 13 which says, you shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Now who in the Bible is described as a roaring lion and who is described as a serpent, a cobra? I like to think at this point Jesus would have been encouraged by this promise as his mind went back to those scriptures. Who wants a scripture memorization class now, eh? It's important. It's very important. Make sure you know why you believe what you do. Otherwise Satan will pick on your points of ignorance and mislead you by them. I see this happening. Church members not from here recently, but people around the world, they don't understand what they believe. And so Satan picks on their points of ignorance and pulls them away. People who you think would be wiser than that. Now you might think I can't possibly have an answer to every single objection that someone might throw at my beliefs. Well, you don't have to, you don't have to know everything. I mean, it's helpful if you do, don't get me wrong, but what you need to have is a firm foundation. You need to have a firm foundation for what you believe. Let me explain. We know that the Bible is God's word and rightly understood it has no contradictions in it, right? The Bible says God is not a man, that he should lie, so there can be no contradictions in his word. So you need a firm foundation. That means for each point of your belief. It's not sufficient to have just checked one or two verses on the topic. There is safety in knowing 10, 20, 30 passages that line up with what you believe. In this way, if someone comes along with part of a verse or a verse taken out of context, seemingly saying the opposite of what you believe, you're going to do a mental check. You say, Well, I know 20 passages that speak crystal clear on this topic. So you're not going to be thrown when someone brings part of a verse or something taken out of context, just like Satan did. I know I've checked these 30 passages on this topic. So what's more likely, do I have these 30 passages that are crystal clear? Have I understood all those wrong? Or is this part of a verse wrong, misunderstood? You need to have a firm foundation in the word of God for why you believe what you do. If, however, you've only checked one or two verses on something and, and even those verses you're a little bit hazy on and someone presents something to you that seems contrary to those one or two or two and a half verses, all of a sudden the percentages are not so favourable. All of a sudden, oh, a full 25 or 30% of what I know on this topic now doesn't line up and you don't have a firm foundation. Some topics that are especially important to us that we need to understand are those that make us unique as Seventh Day Adventists. Now, not all these topics are unique to us, but these are just some that I was thinking about this week that we need to make sure we understand why we believe what we do. The Sabbath. Now, we're not the only church that keeps the Sabbath, but it is a particular point of contention and will become more so. So do I have a firm foundation on the Sabbath? What about the work and the person of the Holy Spirit? That's a popular one today. Do I understand that? Have I studied that for myself? The gift of prophecy in Ellen White, Death and hell, the prophecies of Daniel 8 and 9, the 2300 days and the 70 week prophecy, the 10 commandments, righteousness, what that is and what that does for us. The remnant church. Who are we and what are we called to do? Creation. I'd add to that freedom of choice. God gives us freedom of choice. We need to understand that part of the great controversy so we're not caught up in things of this world that, that attempt to take that away. Make it a point to study these for yourselves. Don't rely on what you studied before you were baptized. Pull out those studies. Go through them again. Go through them often so that you have a firm foundation. Because keep them fresh in your mind. Because Satan can quote scripture now, just as he did when he was there with Jesus in the wilderness. He can pervert its teachings just as he did then. Let's carry on verse 8 to 10 again. The devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Now there's lots of things that we can pull out of this passage, but what relationship is Satan trying to damage here? Who is he trying to get Jesus to doubt God the Father? He's trying to damage this relationship between Christ and his Father. He's trying to bring disunity between them. Not only is he trying to get Christ to doubt His Father's words, but Satan is also seeking that worship. That's only due to God. It's interesting today that there are groups that go around trying to distort the Godhead, the Trinity. And this is exactly what Satan is trying to do here. Trying to bring disunity between them. But this is another way that Satan likes to attack, bringing disunity between the brethren. Divide and conquer, right? This is why Jesus prayed. He says, now I'm no longer in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to you, Holy Father. Keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. That's how united Jesus wants us to be with each other, just as he is with the Father. There's an interesting quote from the book Second Selected Messages. Unity is the strength of the Church. We might think it's a lot of other things, but it's unity. Satan knows this and he employs part of his force to bring dissension he employs his whole force to bring dissension. This is how serious it is. He desires to see a lack of harmony among the members of the Church of God. Greater attention should be given to the subject of unity. This is the fourth and final point. Satan attempts to bring disunity among brethren. So if someone is sharing news with you that causes you to distrust another member. If you find your mind ruminating on what some church member did a week ago, a year ago, five years ago, if something causes you to isolate yourself from the church, if something causes you to isolate yourself from the body of the Church, contrary to the clear command of Scripture, Hebrews 10, 24, 25, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, clear command, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more, when, as you see the day approaching. That's the fifth lesson in the Scripture memory class, by the way. If someone is causing you to isolate yourself in that way, maybe it's a video that you're watching is causing you to isolate yourself from the church. Consider just maybe that it might be the enemy who's playing you. Again, I don't share any of this to make you suspicious of people or fearful. Just as an extra thought, we're not fighting against people here. When Jesus rebuked Peter, when Peter said, it shall not be so for you, you know you won't go to the cross, Jesus turned around and rebuked him and says, away from me, Satan. He wasn't having a go at Peter. He was talking about the person who was working through Peter. Peter and Jesus went along to have a close relationship. We're dealing with powers beyond what we have here. I find being aware of this is the first step. If you can be conscious that these things are taking place, it makes all the difference. This is the first step in thwarting the enemy's plans. And Catherine and I have become very aware of this. We've become very conscious of this. When we're tired and we're weary and we're hungry, inevitably the temptation is to get short with one another. I mean, you guys probably don't have that in your relationships, but it has happened to us before. But just knowing that this is a tactic of the enemy, this is how he operates, and that when we're especially vulnerable, he will try and attack us. Just knowing that makes all the world of difference if we're aware of that. Sometimes I'll even say this I'll say we're both worn out. Let's just be careful with one another. And just by acknowledging that, all the tension gets sucked out of the room. Of course you have to be careful with how and how you say that to the other person. But all the tension gets sucked out of the room. It's like we've pulled back the curtain and we can see what the enemy is doing and all of a sudden it's exposed and he runs off to try something different. What about when someone tries to start an argument with you on a point of belief? The temptation is to always get your back up and to get agitated. Someone presents something to you that is contrary to what you believe. But if I. Then instead of responding immediately, if I take a moment to pause and reflect on what I know to be true in scripture, if I realize that I already have a firm foundation on this topic, then all the power, all the antagonism of that argument is sucked right out. But the most important lesson, one more quote, one more verse. The most important lesson that we can take from Jesus, Temptation in the wilderness is this. From Desire of Ages. It says Satan could not lead Jesus into sin. Isn't that wonderful? Couldn't do it. Wasn't able to. He could not discourage him. Wouldn't that be wonderful? To not be discouraged for it not to be possible to be discouraged or drive him from the work he came on earth to do? What if we couldn't be discouraged from the work that God has given us to do? From the desert to Calvary, the storm of Satan's wrath beat upon him. But the more mercilessly it fell, the more firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of his Father. Isn't that amazing? We know that there was nothing in Christ that responded to Satan's temptations. That's wonderful. The more firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of his Father and press on in the blood stained path all the efforts of Satan to oppress and overcome him. Notice what they did, only brought out in a purer light his spotless character. I want that this can be our experience as well. This is why Jesus came to show us. This can be our experience as well. This is why we are to spend precious golden moments every day at the foot of Jesus. This is what I know all my sermons end with the same point, but this is what it all comes back to. We have to spend precious golden moments each and every day reflecting on the life of Christ. This is why we're to spend a thoughtful hour on the life of Christ. Each day we're given the formula. We're told what we need to do. He is to be our study. Beholding Jesus will make all the difference. Final Verse but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's our experience as Christians. That experience of Jesus may be ours. I pray that that will be your experience. This week, this message was made available by the Masterton Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit mastertonsda.nz. this program has been brought to you by 3 ABN Australia Radio.
