Sanctification vs False Revival: Why God’s Law Matters

Speaker A 00:00:12 - 00:00:36 Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 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 And here is today's presenter, Pastor Aymond Burdett. Speaker B 00:00:36 - 00:28:44 Let's pray, saints. Father in heaven, we just want to thank you this morning for your love and for teaching us temperance, for the children's story. We just want to thank you, Lord, that when we're sick, not only do we have doctors, but we have Jesus, the Great Physician, that we may pray to. Lord, we just want to thank you for the Holy Spirit this morning. Amen. I pray that you touch us, that you encourage us. We live in this time when the world is changing so much and rapidly. The world is changing around us, Lord. We thank you for the Word of God, for the faith that we have, for the safety in resting in Jesus, in trusting in him, that we might have this relationship with him, that we know that his law is just and true and good. And Lord, I'll just pray for the Holy Spirit to impress upon our minds and our hearts the importance of this sermon this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I believe that we are living in the time of the end that the Bible teaches, the age of the Holy Spirit. And we see the Holy Spirit— when you think about the In the 2nd verse of Genesis chapter 1, the Bible says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And the 3rd person of the Godhead, he has moved upon God's people, when you think about it, in a marked manner throughout history through the Bible. And but today, I believe he longs to pour out his fullness upon God's people. Amen. Amen. And I believe that He's preparing our hearts and our minds for this very event in the future. But before this former and latter rain is poured out upon us, just before the Second Coming of Christ, the enemy of souls, Satan, he designs to cut this off and to hinder this work of God. And before such a movement shall come, He will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit revival into every church that he can bring under his deceptive power, and he shall make it appear that God's special blessings are being poured out all around the world. I believe this time is not far away. Amen. And there will be seen what is thought to be a great religious interest or awakening around the world. Multitudes will result that God is working amazingly for them around the world when the work is that of another spirit. We will see this emotional excitement, a mingling of the true and the false which is well adapted to mislead Christians around the world. And if the foundation has truth and error mixed together, it can only lead Christians into a false revival. Amen. Amen. Let none— how many saints? Not one needs to be deceived in having the light of God's Word. Not one of us needs to be deceived. And as we read and understand and apply Isaiah chapter 8, verse 20, if they do not speak according to this Word, the Bible says it's because there is no light in these people. Amen. In the light of God's Word, as we rightly divide the Word of God, it's not hard to determine the nature of these movements. Whenever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from a fuss with the Lord, as Bible believers, we cannot turn away from the soul-testing truth of divine inspiration, which demands self-denial. How many sermons do you hear about self-denial these days? There's not many, is there? Crying out to us, the cross before us and the world behind us. The world behind us. And if the fruits of the Holy Spirit are not seen then we know that it's not God's blessings being bestowed upon these people, that this movement is not the work of the Spirit of God. None of us saw COVID coming. None of us were ready. We were shocked and surprised, and COVID today is still affecting our world in a very big way. Not one of us would ever dream that a seventh-day Sabbath keeper, Charlie Kirk, would— his event of his assassination would have worldwide impact around the world. Not one of us would believe that a seventh-day keeper of the Sabbath would be part of this worldwide impact. a major turning point for the United States of America. I remember hearing some of the people speak at his memorial. I don't think I've seen a funeral so big for a person. He's not even a politician. In fact, I'd never heard of Charlie Kirk, I should say, until his assassination. And I couldn't believe how these defense of war and the Secretary of State and those, these people, these Christians spoke about Charlie, the connectedness of this religious right, the Republican Party, I didn't realize how deep and connected it really was. The religious right, Christian nationalism, are now even more determined and galvanized to change the United States of America and the world around them through Congress, and the church militant. And this modern revival that has already underway, according to Ben Carson, he talks about the— this revival is already underway in the United States of America, but he's worried about the moral law being crossed over. As we know as a people of God, that this is prophetic inspiration, that one day in the future they will cross over the laws of God. Wow. I believe that this modern revival, it's happening in England as well, that was already underway will soon explode, sooner or later. Other events will probably happen. I don't know how long it would take them to form an image to the beast, but as a student of Bible prophecy and one who loves history, I can tell you that we have never seen a superpower like the United States of America. Its reach And its influence over the nation is unper— it has never been seen before as what we're seeing today. This power, this power according to the Bible says that he has all the authority of the first beast. I was thinking about Revelation 13. It teaches us that nothing catches Jesus by surprise. Amen? Amen. There is no event, there is nothing coming that Jesus has not prepared for or knows. And this power will cause or force people to worship. This will be a global push and you can actually see it happening very easily today. Remember, there will be great signs and wonders and miracles. We talked about this just recently, even making fire come down from heaven in the sight of men. According to verse 14, this is deception. A great religious revival by signs and miracles which are done in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell upon the earth— this is, in other words, this is global— to make an image to the beast that was wounded by the sword and lived. You know, when you think about the Bible, making an image or bowing down to the image is very clearly forbidden in the Bible. Amen? Amen. It's right embedded there in the Ten Commandments. And so it's giving our allegiance to a man-made image or to worship the coming image of the beast. And so where is our place as Seventh-day Adventists? Are we to watch these events and to be spectators of the Second Coming that soon will happen? Waiting and watching. Waiting and watching for the Second Coming. Because God does something beautiful before Jesus comes. Amen? Amen. Before the final visitation of God's judgments— I was actually in the car park, I'm a bit crook and I was resting and I was watching people walking past our church or past the car park down the road there and I'm thinking, are these people prepared for what's coming? Do these people know what's coming? Before the final visitations of God's judgments upon this earth, the Bible says that there will be among— or inspired writer says that there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness. In other words, the book of Acts will come alive again in this modern time. Praise God! since the time of the apostles. The Spirit and the power of God will be poured out upon His children at that time. And many inside and outside of our church will separate themselves from the false teachers, from the fallen churches. They will leave these churches who love this world and who— they will separate from them and those churches that love this life, this world more than God and His Word. Amen? Amen. Many ministers who are not Seventh-day Adventists and members who are not Seventh-day Adventists will join the ranks of God's people. Awesome. And that God will be proclaiming the truth that needs to be heard to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. Amen? I want to be ready for Jesus Christ. In my heart, I know that Jesus is coming soon. In the truth of God's Word, God has given a revelation of Himself, and all who accept the Bible and the Bible alone, they have a shield against the deceptions of Satan. Psalms 91 says, He shall cover you with His feathers, Under his wings you shall take refuge, and his truth— what, saints? His truth will be your shield and your buckler. It is neglecting Bible truth that opens the door to the evil that we're now seeing right around the world. In the religious world, the nature and the importance of the law of God has been to a great extent lost sight of by many Christian churches. A wrong conception of God's moral perpetual law or divine laws has led errors— has led to errors in Christianity, especially when it comes to conversion and sanctification. You see, this has led to the lowering of the standard of holiness in churches. Here is found the secret of why there is a lack of the Holy Spirit and the power of God amongst our churches, amongst all churches. In the revivals of our time, the book of Acts is abundantly clear that the Holy Spirit is given to them who obey God. Amen. Amen. We cannot disobey God and expect the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us. A man who does not love the law does not love the gospel. For the law, as well as the gospel, is a mirror that reflects the true character, the beautiful character of God. Amen. Without the holiness of God's law, there is no gospel. Why did Jesus come to die? If the law could be broken and we could continue to live in our sins, if we believe in just the gospel without keeping God's commandments, that's a false gospel, saints. Christ came to fulfill the law. It's there in Matthew 5. He's made it clear. He always obeyed His Father's commandments. He lived a perfect life without sin, and He gifted to us a perfect and complete sacrifice that no one else could give us. Then the claims of His holy law were satisfied. Mercy and justice met and they kissed at the cross. And only God Himself could die for us and satisfy His holy law. And I was listening to a sermon on the way down here. An angel could not be upon that cross to forgive us for our sins. The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It's a revelation of his will and the character of its author. God is love, the Bible says, and his law is love. The great principles are to love God and to love those all around us. Amen. Amen. It's right there in the Ten Commandments. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. The character of God is righteousness and truth. Such is the nature of the law. And Psalm 119 says that the law is truth and thy commandments are righteousness. The law— the Apostle Paul declares that the, that the law is holy, the commandment holy, and that it's It's just and it's good. The first steps in reconciliation between God and man is the conviction of the sin. I was brought up in this church and it wasn't until I left the church at the age of 30 that I realized that personally Jesus Christ died for me personally. Amen? Amen. The conviction that I'm a sinner and I'm in need of a Savior. Sin is a transgression of the law, and by the law comes the knowledge of sin. And for many people, the greatest need is to see their need. You see, people can sit in church on Sabbath or on Sunday morning in their glad rags Singing I Love Jesus, thinking in their minds that they're doing God a wild favor by coming to church, just by being in church. It's true, saints, we can be egomaniacs, thinking that we are too good to be lost or to be bad. It's not till the conviction of sin that we have this in our hearts that we need to change and that we need a Savior. Amen. There must come this personal discovery. And you know how that discovery comes? The discovery comes when we see who God really is. You think about the Bible stories, when we catch a glimpse of his glory, the holiness of his law, and that's then when we understand who we really are. And it's the same for Job. It was the same for Isaiah, for Daniel. It was the same for the Apostle Paul and John the Beloved. When they saw the holiness of God and who he was, they realized who they were. In order to see his guilt, the sinner must test his character against the law of God, God's great standard of righteousness. It's a mirror that shows perfection of a righteous character. The law reveals to man his sin, but it provides no healing or remedy. While it promises life through obedience, especially when you obey your mother and fathers, it declares death to the transgressor. Only the gospel of Christ can save us from our sins. Amen. There needs to be a true repentance before God, becoming dead to sin. And John declared that this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. Because in the new birth, the heart is brought into harmony with God, brought into agreement with His law. Amen. When this mighty change has taken place in a sinner, we have passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from rebellion to obedience. The old life that is separated from God has come to an end. Amen? Amen. The new life of faith and love has begun. We walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit of God. The language of the soul will be, how, oh, how I love By law. You know, we're talking about the Ten Commandments. It's a protection of our families, our relationships, our society, and all those around us. It is my meditation all the day, says the psalmist. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Without the law, there is no conception of the purity and the holiness of God or our own guilt. How unclean we really are. There will be no conviction of our sins and that we would feel that we have this— we have no need of repentance. Not seeing our lost condition as transgressors of God's laws. Not realizing our great need, not realizing our great need of the atoning blood of Christ. Amen. The problem is, saints, that the hope of salvation can be accepted without this radical change in our lives, without this change of the heart. The Bible says— what did the Bible say about the heart? That the heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Nobody. And so when this doesn't happen, there comes in this abundance of nominal conversions, people who are not really converted to Christ, multitudes joining the churches who have never truly been united to Jesus Christ. False theories of sanctification abound all around us, coming from the neglect or the outright rejection of God's Lord, his divine Lord. In the great religious movements of today, false doctrines is all too common in modern Christianity. There is not enough fuss, says the Lord, There is one golden rule in life. Oh man, I read this this week. There is one golden rule in life: obey God and live. Amen? Amen. And then you shall live a victorious life. Just obey God's Word and you will live and be saved. True sanctification is a Bible doctrine that has been given to us. through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And he prays that the very God of peace may sanctify you wholly or completely. That was Paul's prayer to us and for us. Our Lord prayed for His disciples, remember, in John 17, sanctify them through Your truth, Your word. is truth. Jesus is praying for His disciples. He's praying for those who believe in His Word. That's us today, 2,000 years later. Romans 15, the Bible teaches us that the believers are to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I'm looking forward to that time when the Holy Spirit will sanctify us through His power. Christ said to His disciples, When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into how much truth? All truth. He will guide you into all truth. Psalm says, Thy law is truth. By the Word and the Spirit of God are open to men the great principles of righteousness embedded in His law. And I can't wait till we start preaching Christ and His righteousness as a movement of God. The last message that the world needs to hear. Amen? Amen. Since the law of God is just and holy and good, a transcript of his divine perfection, Christ, our perfect example, said, I have always kept my Father's commandments. I always do those things which my Father teaches me, and I please him. We can become like Christ through the grace of God. Amen. We can come into harmony with His holy laws. And as Seventh-day Adventists, we believe in keeping how many commandments? All 10 of God's commandments. Amen. Amen. This is Bible sanctification. This work can only be done through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Amen? And when human weakness unites with, with divine strength, faith cries out to God. Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Bible sanctification. will make us humble like Moses. We'll begin to see how majestic God is, how unworthy we are in the sight of God. Daniel is one of the greatest examples in the Bible of true sanctification. And it's interesting that he was a man who was greatly loved in heaven, the Bible tells us. And he's praying for himself and he's praying for his people. He knows that the 70 years is coming to an end, and instead of claiming to be pure and holy, he identifies himself with the really sinful of Israel. In his prayer, bowed before God, he said, Lord, we have sinned. We have done wickedly. It wasn't, they have sinned, they have done wickedly. He counted himself amongst those who had sinned. He was speaking and praying and confessing his sin, the Bible says, and the sins of his people. We cannot exalt ourselves, claiming to have freedom from sin. And as we walk in the shadow of the cross, we need to feel that it was our sins that nailed him to the cross. That, that nailed our Savior to the cross. The closer we come to Christ, and I love that little book Steps to Christ, the more sinful we see ourselves. How frail and how sinful humanity really is. Our only hope is in the merits of our crucified and risen Savior. The problem with modern Christianity, saints, Is that there is a desire for an easy religion. It's almost like 2-minute noodles religion. It's quick, it's efficient, but it's useless. It requires no striving or self-denial, no divorce from the fallenness of this world, making the doctrine of faith and faith alone as the most popular doctrine that you can see around Christianity today, that we just have to have faith to believe in God. But James says, But what does it profit, brothers and sisters, though a man says he has faith but has not works? Can faith save him? No, because without faith works is dead. And now Father Abraham, when you think about it, he was justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac, and he knew that Isaac was the son of promise. He didn't understand it, and you can imagine as he's slowly making his way up to the mountain, his son of promise who took so many decades to come, and God says, I want you to sacrifice him. But Abraham believed. that God had an answer. Abraham's experience teaches us that God does not desire human sacrifice. Abraham's faith was grounded in his trusting relationship with the Promiser. Not just the promise itself, It gave Abraham a glimpse into the ultimate sacrifice of God's own Son, Jesus Christ, which was the greatest sacrifice that the world had ever seen. Abraham was able to keep his son of promise, Isaac, and Jesus, the great sacrifice, was the one that shed his blood for our sins. Amen. Yes. For the salvation of sinners. What a message we have to share with people. How much Jesus loves his people. How much God loves the stranger. What a message we have. The righteousness of Christ, the only one who can save us from our sins. May you be sanctified by the God of Israel, by the Holy Spirit, as you prepare for the Second Coming and as you help others be prepared for his soon coming. May God bless you all. Speaker A 00:29:02 - 00:29:14 This message was made available by the Victoria Park Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page, Vic Park SDA Church. Speaker C 00:29:14 - 00:29:44 This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio. To listen to our Australian programs on demand, visit both of our YouTube channels, 3ABN Australia Radio and Creation Conversations, or search for us on your favorite podcast directory.