The Great Character Controversy– Sermon Audio 2614

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 speakers And here is today's presenter, Kaysie Vokurka. SPEAKER B Before we dive right into the topic, I would like to just have another word of prayer, so I invite you to bow your heads with me. Dear Heavenly Father, as we are about to look at this topic, The Great Character Controversy, I pray that you would fill this place with your Spirit and your angels. May they alone be allowed here with your people. And I pray that you would enlighten us, that this message would be clear, and that it would draw us closer to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we are gonna go straight into it because there's a lot to cover. So turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12. And we're gonna look at verses 7 to 9. So Revelation, right at the end of the Bible, chapter 12 and verse 7 to 9. And this is like a snapshot of what we are talking about, this controversy. So it says, and there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was there place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So That is a little picture. This is the controversy we are gonna dive into right now. And what it is saying here is there's a war between someone called Michael and there's another being called Satan who's also named the great dragon and the serpent and the devil. So he has a few names. So let's think about it first. Michael, who is Michael? Well, We could go into a very in-depth study to flesh that one out, but for the purpose of this discussion, let's just remember what Michael's name means. His name means "who is like God." So he is a representative of God because Michael is like God. Alright? So that's his position in this controversy. And then we have Satan. What is this controversy all about with Satan? Well, we find more answers in the Old Testament. So let's go back through the Bible into the Old Testament to Isaiah. Actually, no, to Ezekiel. We'll go to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 28 is where we'll look, and we are gonna discover some very interesting things. Ezekiel chapter 28, and we are going to look at verses 12 to 15. Ezekiel 28, verse 12 to 15. It says more in the context, it says, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, in the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. So, this is talking about a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus. Who is the king of Tyrus? What has that got to do with the other person we learnt about just before who was Satan. And is the king of Tyrus literally the king of Tyrus or Tyre, which was a city back in the Old Testament? Well, this is a metaphorical passage. And how do we know that this is not actually talking about a literal person, right? So it's got references that correlate to the person who was the king in Tyrus or who was ruling in Tyrus, but it's not actually about him. So let's have a look at some of the criteria in the passage. This person is full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. I don't think we could say that any human being would fulfill that criteria. There's no human being who was around at this time who had been in Eden. He was likely not covered with every precious stone and he definitely wasn't an anointed cherub or angel in a God-given position. He was a human being ruling at that time, so it's not about him. He had not been upon the holy mountain of God, God's dwelling place, and he had not been born— he had not been— he had been born, not created, and he was definitely not perfect. So all of those things, if it was a person, it wouldn't count. So it can't be that. It's someone else. So let's continue. Verse 16 and 17. What else can we learn about this person? Can we connect it to Satan that we read about in Revelation? Verse 16: By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Okay, so what did we discover in this chapter? We learned before that he is a created being. He's an anointed covering cherub or an angel. He has a a position that's close to the throne of God, and we know that because of studying into the sanctuary. He lived with God's dwelling place or in God's dwelling place, and he was highly honored of God. Imagine what would it be if God declared you perfect, the fullness and epitome of wisdom and beauty. What a compliment! This was God's estimation of this being. So that's what we know he is, and let's see what else. In verse 16 and 17, we notice something. He had a problem with God, and the problem was to the point that God cast him out of heaven to the ground. When it says ground, that also can mean earth. This is the same story as in Revelation 12:7-9 because There we saw an angelic being who had a problem with God who was cast to the earth. So we have the same story. Okay, well, what happened to him? Well, let's examine these verses a bit more. Let's look closely at verse 15 and 16 which we just read. So, This person, this being, Satan, had a heart problem. It says in verse 15, "Till iniquity was found in thee." Right? It started within him. And then it says that he was involved in a few things. He had iniquity that led to him merchandising, that led to violence, that led to ultimately sin, which required him to be cast out. And it's very interesting when you look at what these different words mean because as you can see on the screen, iniquity means things like injustice, unrighteousness, wrong, perverse, but I want you to notice that this word comes from the root which means to distort morally. So this started with a moral distortion and then he went about Trading or peddling. Peddling, it just means you're going from place to place sharing something, and it could be physical merchandise, or it could be, as indicated there, something like gossip or slander, sharing ideas. All right, and then they proceeded to injustice, unjust gain, cruelty, wrong. All of these things is what we is what the word violence means. Now we often think of violence as something physical, right? But this is more than that. This is injustice, unjust gain. This is what's considered to also be violence. And it resulted in this being completely missing the way, going the wrong direction, and incurring guilt such that he forfeited his right to be in heaven. Well, the question comes to mind, how did he become morally distorted? Verse 17, right? This is what explains it. He became morally distorted because it says, "His heart was lifted up because of his beauty." Pride of his beauty and splendor destroyed his wisdom. Okay, there are actually some more details in another passage. So we're gonna have a look at that. This is in Isaiah 14:12-14, so I invite you to go across to there and have a look. Isaiah 14:12-14, and this gives us some more detail. So let's have a read. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. So this is a person who has a lot of ambition. But first we need to establish who was Lucifer. We've been talking about Satan, we've been talking about a being that metaphorically is referred to the king of Tyre but has the same story as Satan, and now we're talking about someone called Lucifer. Is this the same person? Well, let's have a look. This person also fell from heaven, and in Luke 10:18, Jesus said that Satan fell from heaven. This person also, it says, was cut down to the ground, and that's exactly what it just said about the king of Tyre, who we linked with Satan. It said he was cut down to the ground, and that word also can mean the earth, and that's what it says in Revelation 12. that he was— Satan was cast to the earth. Why? Because he had pride. This person— I don't know how many I's are here, but there's an awful lot. He was very focused on himself and where he was going. So this is the same story as Ezekiel 28 and Revelation 12. So pride was the problem and he, as you can see in this passage, he was aspiring to a lofty position. He had a position that was quite high currently. We already read that, didn't we? He already had a high place near God's throne. That means he's seeking an even higher place. He's already at the top as we would consider consider, but he is wanting for more. He's wanting more than that, and he wanted to have authority over all the angels. Where it says, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God— stars is representative of angels if you compare it with other biblical texts. So he wanted to be in a position that was very, very high. And this was a position that God had not given him. Otherwise, why would he want it? So, as a result of aspiring to this, he was cast out of heaven and all the angels also who bought into his merchandise, bought into his ideas, became his followers, they also lost their place. And this comes— this brings us to some very important questions. Here they are. 3 questions about Satan's fall. Why was his pride so corrupting? What about it led to his downfall? Why was aspiring to a position that God hadn't given him so bad? What's wrong with that? We, as humans, ambitions for all sorts of positions in our lives. So what is wrong with this? And what was the problem with wanting to be like God? It says there in verse 14, "I will be like the Most High." Why is that a problem? Well, before we can answer those questions, we need to switch sides. We've been focusing on Satan and his side of the story. We gotta switch over and learn more about God's side of the story. So, who is God? Well, the Bible gives us many different definitions, many different, uh, attributes of God, and you can see there's a number of them here, um, and some references as well. God is eternal. He is the creator of all things. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. He's all-wise. He's a union of three distinct persons. These are some general characteristics, but there's another thing the Bible says about God, and that's found in 1 John 4:8. So turn with me there, right across the other side of the Bible again. 1 John 4:8, we are looking towards the end near Revelation. That's where 1 John is. 1 John 4:8 says, loved not knoweth not God; for God is love. Okay, God is love. What kind of love? What kind of love? We have many different ideas of love today. You know, we say we love our spouse, we say we love our cat, we say we might love a certain hobby, we might say we love food like mangoes or pizza, curry, ice cream, cream. You know, the list can go on. We love all sorts of things. And all of these words are different uses of the word love, and they widely differ in depth and in meaning as well. So what kind of love are we talking about here? Well, the word there is agape, and agape means two things: affection and benevolence. Now, what does that mean? Well, Benevolence means the person is well-meaning and well-intentioned. It means they have goodwill towards others. Affection is an attribute that's like fondness, warmth. It's feeling of liking or caring for someone else, tender. It's just that warm fuzzy thing that you have for someone else. Affection, right? And so love is a blend of both of these. According to that, in the New Testament, the definition of love, God's love, agape, that is what it is. It's a blend. Okay, so what else can we learn about God's character of love? Well, in verse 9 in that same chapter, it says, in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. So He sent His Son and we know the story of the atonement, that it was to die in our place. So God's love is fundamentally, foundationally selfless, right? So we've got 3 things here and we can actually show this in a diagram to help imprint it in our minds. God's character of love is a blend, benevolence, affection grounded in selflessness. This is what we've learned from this passage. But there's more to it. So that was agape love. There's actually more to it because there's another passage in the Bible that actually explains a bit more about God's character. And it is— I think we'll have to go to it so you can get the idea. So it's in Exodus 34. So turn with me there again, right across the other side of the Bible. Exodus 34, second book of the Bible, and we are looking at verses 6 and 7. And in this passage it says, "And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation.'" Now, just for a little bit of context, God gave this statement because Moses asked God that he would be able to see God's glory. And in response, God gave him a statement that described who he was as a person. He described his own character. But notice in this passage there's no reference to love. There's no mention of benevolence. We just learned God was love and His love was, you know, benevolent and affectionate and all of these things. There's nothing mentioned about that in here. So how does all this fit in? Well, we can do an expanded study on this another time, but if you take the different attributes there and you line it up against the diagram we have up here, here already, we can see something very interesting. We find there's a collection of tender, lenient qualities, and these stem out of God's affectionate side. There's also a collection of absolute, unchanging, and stable qualities, and these stem out of God's benevolent side, the side that is wanting the good of all in His domain. And so what we have here, God's name, God's character, this is a picture of God's character. It's love that's manifested to us in, I like to call it, a duality or two streams of complementary opposite characteristics. They support each other, they harmonize with each other, but they're different. This is what I love to call the marriage of God's character. It's a very fascinating thing to discover in the Bible, how this plays out. There's so many applications of it, but basically it's like this. Here's a little illustration. Clothes peg. We all know what this is, right? We've all seen one, we've all used one. Very familiar household item, right? Yes? This is a giant one so you can see better. So we have a clothes peg, should hold like a heavy thing maybe. So you imagine, right? We've just seen there's two attributes. You imagine that one side is one lot of attributes, so it may be God's affection, tender, lenient qualities. The other side is God's absolute unchanging Stable qualities, right? And together they are linked like this with a spring. They are like in a relationship with one another. There's lots— there's verses that show that in the scripture. They're in a relationship, which means they're inseparable, right? They always like to be together. They don't like to be pulled apart. And if you pull them apart, things go very wrong, right? If you distort it or if you divorce it, there's a problem. And so you look what happens, of course, I'm sure you've all done this before with a peg, you pull it apart. Now what do we have? Two useless pieces of wood that don't help you, right? They cannot do their job. They have lost the connection, you have lost the picture. If you just gave someone that and they'd never seen a peg before, they wouldn't know what to do with it. These are important attributes to stay together. And you know what? Understanding the marriage of God's character can help us with many things. Again, there's many studies that can be done on this, but it helps us to gain a clearer picture of God. It can help us have a closer walk with God and develop better character like Him. It can help us even understand differences between men and women. That sounds interesting. It can help us understand marriage and its dynamics. It can also give us examples and guidance for parenting, would you believe? And helping to develop God's character in children. It helps us even find balance in church teachings and in Christian living. Even outreach approaches. There are many, many ways that the principles of this can be applied in our experience. So this is what we're talking about. We're talking about God's character, this beautiful blend of attributes which in summary can be called love. Now, because of who God is, because of all of His goodness, because of His power, He actually requires something of His people. And let's have a look at this— oops, skip through that— in Deuteronomy 10:12-13. So if you're still in Exodus, Deuteronomy is just a bit further along. Deuteronomy 10:12-13. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says, "And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good?" So what does it show here? God requires His subjects to fear and reverence Him, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve Him with all the heart and soul, to keep His commandments, to keep His statutes. Why? For thy good. He wants this for His good, for our good, which means He is giving all of this out of benevolence, out of the good of all His creatures. And notice also that this was spoken to the Israelites and they were in a system which was a theocracy, which meant God was basically the governor. And so this gives us a glimpse into God's government. You know, this is what He requires of His subjects and that is basically also selflessness. Goodness, because it's not about Him. You would think if, well, earthly rulers, there's often a selfish element, you know, in their power and in what they want. But in God's case, there's no selfish element. It's all about us, all about God's creation. Okay, so now that we have all of that in our minds, we've had a close look at God's character and how He manages His government and who He is. And so now let's go back to the questions we asked before about Lucifer, right? Remember the first one was, why was pride so corrupting? Well, what kind of pride was it? It wasn't just a pride in the definition where if you do something and you're happy with what you've done, you feel that sense of achievement or pride. There's nothing wrong with that. It wasn't about that. His pride was excessive. It was a distortion of reality. He thought himself far greater and better than he actually was. Even though he was so great, even though he was such an honored person, he had an excessive opinion of himself and his own importance and what he deserved. And therefore, this pride was actually It was actually a lie. It was a lie. It wasn't true. And as a result of this, he actually forgot that his greatness was a gift from God. He became ungrateful. If he realized all this and remembered all this was a gift from God, he would have been praising God with his whole heart and soul and worshipping God with more fidelity than ever before. But he didn't. He thought all of this was about him, and that led him down a path where he had aspired to a position. And so why was aspiring to a position that God hadn't given him— why was that so bad? Well, he thought because of his greatness, which we learned was a distortion, he thought he deserved more than he was given. Right? So because he wanted something else that he didn't have, it meant in his mind he deserved that thing he wanted. Which means God hadn't given him that thing which he wanted. Which means because he thought he deserved that, God saw him— he thought God was unfair to him. Right? God wasn't there. So, because he thought he deserved greater status, he felt wronged. He felt unjustly treated because he didn't have the status he thought he deserved. This is where the distortion of pride led him. And it took him one step further because our third question is, what was the What's the problem with wanting to be like God? Notice that it says he wanted to be like God. In Isaiah 14:14 it says that he wanted to be like the Most High. It doesn't say he wanted to be the Most High. He said he wanted to be like the Most High. In other words, it wasn't quite the same. What he wanted wasn't going to be quite the same as God, but it was similar and it involved something which God had which he didn't have now, right? So back in Isaiah it talks about how he dwelt close to God's throne which means he would have reflected God's character. This wasn't enough. He wanted a throne above the stars of God. It says he wanted a throne. He obviously didn't have a throne so he wanted to be a ruler and he wanted to be a ruler over all the stars of God, which also means all the angels of God, and he wanted some of the homage and worship that being a ruler would bring, which is what God had. Now this was a big problem because he wanted a god-like position. What does that mean? That means he's making himself a god, right? And if he's making himself a god and he wants the homage of others, that means he wants to be a god in the minds of others, right? Because he wanted some of the worship which belonged to God. So this was not something which God could grant him. Why? Because it broke His law. It was totally against who He was and so He had to deny it. Satan couldn't have it. And how did that make him feel? Well, he was proud so he felt humiliated. He felt God was very unfair. He thought God was too strict. Why should He be so firm about His law? You know, We don't need that law. It was getting in the way of his ambition. It was stopping him from getting where he wanted to go, so he didn't want the law. And he even thought that God was selfish because God said all the worship should come to Him, but he wanted it too, and God wasn't gonna share it. So that means God must be selfish. So you can see what happened to Lucifer and his character. Lucifer— this was God's character. God was affectionate, benevolent, and selfless, right? And Lucifer originally had this stamp of character, but watch what happened. Because of pride, He became selfish instead of selfless, right? Because he felt God was unfair, it dried up his affection for God. He began to dislike God and he had a problem with God and he had a problem with God's law. He became dissatisfied, that means he had disaffection and then He had a problem with the law, which means he didn't like the law or the benevolent side of God, and so he became lawless. And he had a complete change of heart. Jesus said that Lucifer, who with this character change, you can see he's completely in opposition to God now, completely different motives here. And with that he became Satan and Jesus said he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. He was a murderer because murder is the fruit of anger and he was angry with God because God didn't give him what he wanted. And he was a liar because all of the distorted pictures he had about God he shared with everyone else and so the lies spread through heaven. Now, We've just said that Lucifer became lawless, right? But did he really become lawless? What evidence do we have that he became lawless? Well, let's have a look. Here's a summary of the Ten Commandments. These, of course, were given to humanity, but you can see— cannot see? I don't know what happened there. Oh, there we go, it's back. That's good. You can see this is just a summarized version so it all fits on the screen. These are the commandments. So let's see, what did Satan do? Well, first he made himself a god in his own estimation. Why is it doing that? So he made himself a god, so he broke those ones. He coveted God's position and honor. He misrepresented God. And he thought he knew better than God. He dishonored his Maker. Now in principle, this is the same as honoring our parents, right? Because honoring those who gave us life, basically. And God gave Satan life and he dishonored God. Same principle. He despised God's given position and his gifts. Everything he gave, God gave him, he despised. He stole God's loyal subjects through deception and lies. And ultimately later in the controversy he killed God in Christ. Now what's left? The only things that are left is the seventh-day Sabbath, which was a commandment that was given to man, and Satan was not a man, he was an angel that existed before man, so this wasn't so applicable. And angels don't marry, and you will not commit adulteries related to marriage, that's also for men. Everything else he broke. The principles of God's law he broke. So by his actions he didn't believe the law was necessary or binding because he went against them all. He believed it was too restrictive, it got in the way of his ambition and success, so the law was to him a problem. Now, the question is, is the law really a problem? Is it indeed, as the Bible says, holy, just, and good? It says that in Romans 7:12. Is it fair? Or is it arbitrary? And is it really in harmony with God's character and therefore a fitting requirement of His government? I'm sure you've heard it said, God's law is a transcript of God's character, well, how? Well, let's have a look. We learned before about agape love and the 3 principles embedded in it, which are benevolence, affection, and selflessness. So let's take these one at a time and compare them to God's law. Is God's law— does it foster selflessness? And is it based on selflessness? Well, we have looked at these before and we'll notice here that the first 4 are all about how to love God and the last 6 are all about how to love others. So in other words, they are God-focused and they are others-focused. They're not self-focused. Okay, what about benevolence? Is benevolence in God's law? Is God's law motivated by benevolence and does it foster benevolence? Let's have a look. The Bible says that the Lord is good to all, so we must remember that the Lord is good to everyone and as a result of that our response should be goodwill to God and goodwill to others because we want to do Him good because He's done so much good to us. And so we can see then that it actually fosters a cycle of benevolence. God gives, and then we give back to God and to others, and He gives to us, and it just keeps going and going and going. And so there's a cycle of benevolence that the law encourages. And what about reflection in God's law. Well, I've rewritten these words in the positive because you know that the Ten Commandments are written as thou shalt not, so you will not. But what does it look like if we say this is what you will do instead? Well, it says you will make God supreme, you will worship and serve him in the way he's revealed, you will respect You'll respect His reputation and honor, adore His character. You'll make the seventh day a delight. You'll honor your parents. You'll nurture life. You'll love your own spouse. You'll be generous. You'll be truthful. You'll be content. Now just me saying all of that, does that make you feel warm inside? You imagine that you are living out those principles, what kind of person you would be? You would be a lovely person to be around. And Jesus has told us he made us and redeemed us. And so as a result of that, as a result of what God has done, by honoring these, it's like a love response to God and also to others. And so we can see that the law actually fosters perfection. Okay. Now, caught in the controversy. This comes down to us now. How did humanity get caught in the controversy? Well, I think you will remember this. You can turn if you want, Genesis 3:1-6, but I'm gonna assume you know it, alright? This was when man fell and Satan had a three-pronged approach in his attack. In his temptation. Firstly, he said, "Did God say you will not eat of every tree of the garden?" What was he doing here? Well, he was actually distorting God's goodness because he made it think that, "But God didn't give you everything. Why not?" But instead, God gave everything except one. Very different, isn't it? Just twisting it, it gives you a different idea of what God's character is. The next thing he says, Eve told him what God said, "If we eat, we will die." God said, I mean Satan said, "You will not die." Hang on a minute, what did he mean? And then he elaborated, and so he encouraged distrust in God's Word. And then he put the idea out for a higher existence, a better, better life, something that, that was better than what they had already been given. This was a selfish desire. He put it in there and Eve took it. Satan actually led Eve down the same path that he had just— that he had been himself. So Eve also was created in God's image and represented His character. But what happened to her? Well, he led her to distrust God's goodwill in giving His commandment to not eat from the tree, and he made her think God was holding back good from her. That meant the commandment was a problem because it got in the way of good. That meant that she was tempted to be lawless. Instead of being content with and grateful for what God had given, Satan encouraged her to take and go and seek after what she didn't have. And he made the tree and the fruit look really good. And so this led her to be— to have disaffection. She was dissatisfied with what God had given her. He wanted what Satan was offering, and he told her she could have a higher state of existence if she indulged herself and ate from the tree. She would gain wisdom as a result of that, which means that she was tempted to be selfish. So you can see she went down the same path. Satan got her on the same points, and she had a change of heart. So In forsaking God as a result of this, she let go of her loyalty and she indulged herself and then he had him on her side. That means she let go of God and she followed Satan's ways and his path. Satan had suggested to her that she was She— Satan had suggested to her some wrong pictures of God. So you remember the peg illustration, right? So he suggested that God was stingy and strict because he didn't allow her to eat from all the trees. That means he was overemphasizing and distorting God's law-focused strict side, if you know what I mean. But In order to do that, he minimized God's generosity. So you can see how he made it look wrong. And then after that, he weakened her confidence in the truth of God's Word. So that means he was trying to undermine her confidence in that side of God's character. And then implied that he would be rather lenient. He's not gonna make you die. Come on! He's not gonna do that, he loves you too much, right? So he distorted it that way. And he encouraged her to play on this lenience and in the process enjoy great pleasure and enlightenment. So these were the distortions. He diminished the true side, he overemphasized the grace side, like all of this, he just messed it all up and tried to create to create different perspectives so that they would go his way. The distortions were his tactics. What about today? Do we have those kind of things today? You know, throughout the history of the human race, if you look at these principles, you'll find many examples. But let's just quickly run over a few examples from today where we can see some false pictures of God. And a lot of these are in terms of our beliefs about God. So here's God's character and so let's run through these. Cheap grace, that means the idea, God is so loving He will cover all of your sins, no need to stress yourself about obeying His commands, it's all too hard. Eternal hellfire, God is like a tyrant He has exaggerated and extreme punishment towards those who are disobedient. What about the idea of life continues after death? Well, that's just an example of God didn't mean what He said. You will surely die. God didn't mean that. And so that's a distortion. Then there's legalism. God won't look upon you with favor unless you do everything right. What about, "God's commandments were nailed to the cross"? This suggests God's law isn't binding, we're all under the grace and free. Salvation by works? God requires you to be perfect, good, and obedient, so you must keep trying with all your might. We'll keep sinning till Jesus comes? God's requirement of obedience is impossible and unfair, and His grace is going to cover everything. Do the right thing or you will be punished. God watches your every move and can't wait to punish you when you slip up. Once saved, always saved. God's salvation is a free ticket to heaven. Just accept and you don't have to do anything else. And then this one is one that really, ah, people can easily stumble on. Well, how could God let bad things happen? People can think, "He's so lofty, He doesn't care about us." "He might be a God of love, but He can't help me in my trouble." "If He's so powerful and just, why didn't He stop this from happening? He is weak." So all sorts can be connected with that. The list goes on. So why is this important? Well, it's all about loyalty. Satan uses these distortions to take away attraction that we may have for God and turn people from their loyalty to God. And for these false pictures can change how we relate to God, and they often— the distortions, you would have noticed, they often actually end up revealing Satan's attributes instead of God's. And this can mean people turn away to they become discouraged in their Christian walk, they might lose interest and motivation in their faith, and by acting on this they can fall into Satan's power. How important is our picture of God in our relationship with Him? Well, here is just one quote that really highlights it. That I May Know Him, page 262 and 263, by Ellen White. It says, we are not to think of God only as a judge and to forget him as our loving Father. Nothing can do our souls greater harm than this, for our whole spiritual life will be molded by the conceptions of God's character. We dishonor God when we think of him only as a judge ready to pass sentence upon us and forget he is a loving Father. The whole spiritual life is molded by our conceptions of God, and if we cherish erroneous views of his character, our souls will sustain injury. We should see in God one who yearns towards the children of men, longing to do them good. Isn't that beautiful? How we need to keep this picture of God in our minds and not let it fade, that we can stay close to him. And this is where we come to the verse which which was read for our Scripture reading. Deuteronomy 28:14 says, Thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. God has given us a plain path. If we go down some of the tangents that Satan puts for us that have distortions, He can lead us down his paths instead of God's. And it's like another text in Deuteronomy which says, "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you might keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." And we've already seen that God's commandments represent his character and they're like his character. And so these are some of the things we need to remember and going forward to the future future. There's another quote here. This reminds us of where we are today and where we need to be. This is Great Controversy, page 593.2: Those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will be opposed and derided. They can stand only in God. In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed revealed in His word. Notice this: they can honor Him only as they have a right conception of His character, His government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them. None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable Word? Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? Now that speaks for itself, doesn't it? With all that we've looked at— God's character, government, purposes— we must have a clear understanding of this in order for us to make the right decisions when Satan comes to us with distortions, and they are going to get worse and worse as time goes on towards the end. We must hold on to this picture of God. Now, the great character controversy culminated in a dramatic showdown at the cross. There's a cross picture on the screen. You can Imagine it in your eyes, it'll probably come up. Why the cross? Because the cross revealed character. At the cross Satan was unmasked. He killed his maker. He killed his maker, the incarnate Creator. He killed him. And he had— the Creator had done him no wrong. He thought he had done him injustice, but Christ had done him no wrong. What Satan did was unjust and unfair, and all because God did not give him his own way, because that was selfish. This was inexcusable rebellion, and all heaven saw Satan's character for what it was and for where it led. But the cross also revealed something else. The cross perfectly revealed the marriage of God's character. You know the Psalmist, how he writes, "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other"? That was a picture referring to the cross. God upheld the requirements of His law and at the same time showed His breathtaking grace and mercy. And the cross confirms that God's law didn't change, which means His character didn't change. This is why Christ had to die. There was no one else who could make the sacrifice. Just think about it. If a created being, if a created being or anyone other than the eternal God made the sacrifice, God could be accused of being selfish. God was selfish because He wasn't willing to deny Himself to solve the problem. But when the eternal God subjected Himself to the punishment that we deserve, He put to death forever any thought that God was selfish. It showed that God would obey the principles of His own law no matter the cost. It showed that the law the law along with His character which it represented would not change. So the question that comes home to our hearts today are: What pictures do we have of God? Are they accurate? Are we seeking a true and clearer picture of God every day? And who are we following? Who are we obeying? And where is this leading us in our own character. Let's just have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we have been amazed as we have seen your character clearly put out in your word, and we, we praise you for what you have done. We praise you for being transparent, and we praise you for the way that you have led in this controversy, the way that you have provided an escape for us who got caught in this controversy. For those of us who have been born on earth, we didn't have a choice about that. But you have given us a choice. You denied yourself and gave us a way out. And you have promised to restore in us your image, and we praise you for this. We pray you'll fill our hearts today with your Spirit and draw us nearer to you, cleanse Cleanse us from any distortions that might have lingered in our minds and let us see you day by day more and more as you truly are, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. SPEAKER A This message was made available by the Waitara Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit waitarachurch.org.au. SPEAKER B This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio.