See And the surrounding See The news to see Pinky maybe [Applause] Basta we’re marching Great swing years before we raised inside [Applause] We’re marching through scrubs The next song we’ll sing is we shall meet beyond the river another one of our songs from a hundred and fifty years ago Forever as the king of righteousness we should be We shall solve our songs of Bye-bye We shall say we surely traverse departed from this world brokenhearted We should meet We shall sing his praises We should round First our Savior [Applause] We should be To come Are Savior’s I’m a pilgrim and I’m a stranger and that’s what all of us are here on this earth isn’t it Terry button Oh here in this country I can’t I can’t – a charger There is no sorrow I’m I can tell They will service car I can’t Time now for our theme song I’d like to invite all of you to stand with us and sing together you will see your cover Music Sounds is mine See Shall we bow our heads for the invocation Oh Heavenly Father we thank you for this camp-meeting season we praise you that we have been able to praise you in song and now as we worship you in the study of the word and the proclamation your Holy Spirit would come
Very close control of this place and each heart each mind that is here as we talk about the precious subject of the humanity of our incarnate Lord lord help us to be able to break it down so that not only the giraffes can feast on it but the common sheep and pine rich
Province oles bless us and strengthen us and we thank you for the promise of your spirit being with us in Christ’s name we invoke that presence good morning and welcome to Minnesota camp meeting 2019 our 150th anniversary at camp meaning and the Lord is blessed again this week we’ve had an awesome
Camp meeting together those who are just coming today welcome we hope that you will find this to be a blessing we hope that your spirits will be revived and that when we go home we will be a blessing to others we do have a few announcements Kathy Park come on up
Share with us Thank You Justin how many of you know what’s special about this year 150 years since our first camp meeting and we’re going to be having something very special this afternoon you don’t want to miss it we’re going to first of all start out with a little
Presentation by dr. Michael Campbell that gives us a little bit of history about camp meetings and then we are going to have a reenactment of the 1869 camp meeting how many of you were there last weekend when we did it in Wasi OSHA a few so there are a lot of you that
Missed what we did last week because last week we were actually on the original farm where the very first camp meeting was held and it was a very special time there we actually were there for a couple hours and did several reenactments of camp innings and then we
Went over to Medford and did some reenactments there of the camp meetings in Medford and then we spent some time up at Northfield too so we are going to repeat that first act from 1869 because we know a lot of you missed it last week
So you don’t want to miss it this week and and then I’ll follow up with a few thoughts after that so it’s a very special afternoon program make sure you’re here Thank You Kathy we have a few more announcements everybody should have received a program bulletin inside of there is a card that
Looks like this we want to remind you of the Ministry of the gift planning and Trust Services Department there’s also a drawing that’s taking place tonight and if you want to be included in the drawing process the table is in the administration building we have hearing assistance available in
The back here at the sound booth if you are struggling to hear what we’re saying we offered that service and we also have live streaming if you’re not aware or there you’re having trouble in the audience feeling anything that happens in this auditorium is being live-streamed okay and the address is
There in the bulletin we do encourage parents to keep track of their children while they’re here on the campgrounds there are a lot of people we don’t know who everyone is in this setting and we want your children our children to be safe so please keep an eye on the kids
Parking we would ask if you’ve parked in the boys dorm dorm parking lot and you’re not a senior citizen and you don’t have a handicap tag on your card we’d really like you to move the car because people are still coming and we’ve reserved those spaces for people
Who may not be able to walk from the field our young adult group is meeting in the Hutchinson Church today if you’re a young adult and wondering where that is because the program doesn’t say so it is in the Hutchinson Church I think that’s it for announcements welcome again to Minnesota conference
Camp meaning the Lord has been blessing this week he’s been blessing the Minnesota conference and most of that he’s doing through people like you and me and we pray that God will continue to work through his people god bless you good morning happy Sabbath isn’t it all
Of this week we have been focused on talking about evangelism and today is a special day because we’re going to pick up an offering for evangelism my name is Duane mock I’m the treasurer for the midst of the conference and I usually kinda get stressed out sometimes when
People come in want to spend money that I don’t have in the book and I wish I was the type of person that I could go out and really you know rouse every bite to just open their wallets and put in you know hundreds of thousands of dollars names of things but my
Personality is just you know I just think the facts and hope that people understand so I’m gonna read something that comes from Spirit prophecy and maybe that will say it better than me says here Christ method alone will give true success in reaching the people the Savior mingled with man is one who
Desired their good he’s so just sympathy for them ministered their needs won their confidence then he bade them follow me the minister of Conference Board of Trustees believes in this type of ministry so much that we have put our focus on evangelism with non-traditional methods and we are leaving the door open
To local churches as to how they want to use advances and funds they can submit those type of requests to the committee and most the time it gets approved everything from chip programs to 3d seminars to stewardship on our principles on stewardship you name it if
The church is willing to give it a go we’re willing to consider it the other thing that we’ve noticed is that the best type of evangelism is friendship evangelism the type where you have created friendships with your neighbors your workers your friends your family those come into the church
Quicker than anything and we have spent in 2017 we spent three hundred and seven thousand dollars on evangelism in 2018 we spent two hundred seventy-one thousand and for 2019 we have budgeted two and forty thousand and have already spent through May one hundred sixty thousand dollars I would love it if I
Could go to Justin and say stop telling people to bring money in to elder lions that’d be so cool if we could do what happened at Mount Sinai where we have so much money they came in we didn’t know what to do with it today yeah I would
Like you to pray about it as the Deacons come forward to pick up the offering and give what you can because the work there’s so much to get to be done and if you’re not able to give of yourself by helping help financially so we can pay
For others who do and also for materials as the Deacons come forward let’s pray father we thank you so much for allowing us to come here and to enjoy a camp meeting father it is is enjoyable to be able to enjoy the 150 years of camp meeting but it’s also sad that we’re
Still here and father there’s much work yet to be done we know that and so we know that time is short and so help bless our people and those who receive the assistance to learn about you that we will be able to go home quickly Lord
And that we’re not here for a more longer time and the father would praise you for being our God and may this can mean be a prerequisite to heaven who asked this in Jesus name Amen It’s nice to see so many of you here for camp meeting Sabbath we are blessed by your fellowship and the spirit is here and we pray that your experience here would be a spark in your walk with Jesus Christ I would ask now that we all stand up and
Sing our theme song and let’s sing it so very well it’s a song it’s a heart beat it’s a song of hope very soon our suffering will be over and the NGOs will usher us into the presence of the Lord so let’s sing together we will let the
Musicians guide us as we sing let’s sing it with joy you see you come and you ser to come and you will see you coming feet a few more days music here the baby of music a future son Is my topic [Applause] Quentin sorry Would you bow your heads with me in prayer our Eternal Father we come now in thy presence to hear your weight we pray a special blessing upon the man that thou hast appointed to speak to us this hour we ask that you may cover him with a special garment of your righteousness
And that you would touch his lips with the call from the out of heaven we pray Lord that you will give him the ability to articulate your word loud and clear we ask that your enjoyment surround this place and your holy spirit may be poured
In a might way that all of us here seated to hear the word may be convicted of the truth but above all Lord we pray that each and every one here may be covered in your righteousness so that when we live this worship hour we would
Say like David said I was glad when they said let’s go into the house of the Lord for worship may we live this place celebrating in the salvation that has been given to us so free and so complete prepare us for that time when the sound
Is sounded and the sense of old and are brought forth and we come home to be with you now as we sit to listen we ask that you may strike a responsive chord in our hearts because we ask for these favors in Jesus name Amen good morning and happy Sabbath I have
The privilege of introducing our speaker for this morning he’s been with us for the last couple of days dr. Woodrow Wilson affectionately known as woody by his students and those who know him and befriend him I had the privilege of getting to know him a little bit at when
I was at Andrews University I didn’t take any classes with him he taught in the undergraduate department there while I was in seminary but I would hear him speak from time to time and meet him and something that’s always really impressed me about dr. Whitten is that he exudes
The love of Jesus amen he you know it’s it’s one thing to preach about salvation in Christ it’s another to really live it out so that your life really just shines with the love of Jesus and so thank you for being here dr. Whitten he was a
Pastor for two decades there in the 70s and 80s and then of course taught it and roost and then most recently at is the Seminary in the Philippines and now he’s retired but not really retired because you’re still traveling around and doing special speaking engagements here around
The country and around the world so so thank you again for being here dr. Whitten at this time the pilgrim singers from the South view church are going to minister to us in music There’s no disappointment in heaven nowhereness or oh no baby rockin no soul without mine our new friend we’re never a believer scar Oh I’m bound for that beautiful city – Miguel 44 we’re already in the dance Signori around the white throne sometimes homesick for heaven oh what a joy that will be when my Savior I see the beautiful city Oh I’m due Oh This side if I children we share ah bound for that beautiful to me my Lourdes me bad for his home Before what I do that’ll be when my second I say beautiful city I don’t know no Transformed in a moment of time That feel difference to me I’m honestly bad for these we already know I say Oh You guys are hot you’re explosive is this thing working it appears to be okay all right it’s still morning so good morning but it will be afternoon in about two to three minutes so good day to you it’s been a real privilege to be here this is
Not first time we’ve been to Minnesota camp meeting we were here two or three years ago we popped in here on sob that the president of the North American division was speaking and it was right before an important thing was going to be done on women’s ordination it was
That two or three years ago so we’ve been here my wife and I were traveling the United States at that time trying to go to all of the national parks in lower North America in other words we weren’t at that time aiming to go to Alaska or
Hawaii or the ones that are down in the Caribbean we were just trying to see all of those that were in continental North America the American national parks and so we had been up to whatever this one is up in the north well what is this one that hardly anybody knows about what
Voyagers yeah we had been up to voyagers and so we we decided to come and we also had of course been out to the island what’swhat’s that call the Big Island National Park well royal so and we want I want you to know we knocked off all of
Them in the lower 48 now we didn’t go to every thing that the National Park System controls but we went to the National Park National Parks okay that’s what we did so that’s our bragging rights on that and we did have a wonderful Sabbath here and saw many old
Friends and made many new friends now we’ve been talking about issues having to do with Christ and His righteousness and one of the reasons that I was asked to come here is because I have gained some notoriety for having written the definitive biography of elet Joseph Wagoner EJ Wagoner along with 80
Jones were the legendary purveyors of the Christ our righteousness revival that erupted out of the 1888 Minneapolis Minnesota General Conference and George night in his wisdom and creativity asked me to write the biography of Wagner he knew that I’d had a longtime interest in all things that Wagner was interested in
And he knew that I have a love for a story and Wagner is quite a story quite a story quite a bit of it I wish I didn’t know about that’s what I call the sad bad side of Wagner and Jones by the way let me just say here they were he
And his wife and Jones were deeply committed people but they were all hopeless workaholics and let that be a lesson to all you workaholics pray to God that He will give you the Burrow the victory over your workaholism to at least the extent that you will take time
To be with the Lord and take time to really serve the Lord but you know you can go to hell in a handbasket serving the Lord and not taking time to nurture your own soul and to care for your marriage and your children and so on okay Honey I I can’t preach over you there god bless you okay I did that myself when I was a camp-meeting one time so I’ve got to be patient god bless you parents you know I’ll get a little saying you just can’t go to heaven unless you’ve been married raise
Kids and pastored an Adventist Church those are all venues of sanctification and privilege but they also test our souls at their very core right because they all work on the principle of self-sacrificing love not me me me Wow if I don’t get my way now I was advertised to speak on at this
Particular slot on the Humanity of Christ and I had the conference office copy off copies for you of my article that appears in the Ellen White encyclopedia on this subject the humanity of Christ in seventh-day adventists history and particularly as it related to the ministry and the testimonies of not only scripture about
Ellen White and so I was my first inclination was to read through this thing but I want to tell you it’s very thorough but it’s quite technical and I don’t think it is fit for this venue necessarily maybe a classroom but the subject is absolutely central and
Important and it does have an important history coming out of the Minneapolis General Conference that did involve both Jones and Waggoner okay and this subject of the humanity of Christ is very important even though it is challenging even though it has had a long history of controversy in the seventh-day Adventist Church but
Controversy surrounding the issues of the deity and the humanity of Christ have been with us since day one of Christianity as Christians have sought to come to terms with the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ and the divine nature and personhood of the Holy Spirit we
Haven’t had a whole lot of debates over God the Father most of our debates have been over whether the Holy Spirit is divine and one of the Holy Spirit is personal the major debates over the person of Christ have been over whether he was fully divine because many of our
Pioneers were not Trinitarian they were in fact many of them were anti Trinitarian but officially trinitarianism has triumphed in the seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide but over the last decade or so we have had a real revival of very forceful anti trinitarianism all in the name of Ellen White Jones and Waggoner and our
Pioneers now let me share some things with you about that historically it is true historically there was a strong strain of anti trinitarianism including clear opposition that Jesus was the possessor of a full and eternal deity that he shared Co eternally with the father and the spirit there’s no doubt
About that we have a strong that in our history because many of our pioneers were what we call restorationist Christians restorationist Christians rose in American 19th century revivalism on the basic idea that we need to restore New Testament Christianity and even better biblical Christianity and let’s get rid of all of
These traditions and one of those traditions that they thought was part of the great catholic protestant apostasy was the trinity but you know what god raised up a prophetess among us and even though she never used the word Trinity she was 20 and in fact to the court and
It was her testimony that pretty much carried the day and forced the Brethren and the cisterns to go back to their Bibles and really study this out and then when she particularly came to the time when she wrote the book desire of Ages she had some stunning things in
Their presence that in Christ is life original unborrowed under I’ve now jerry moon john Reeve and I’ve we co-authored the book the Trinity was originally published by the review and Herald I don’t even know whether they still have any of those in stock but what we did is I covered the biblical evidence
I made the biblical arguments cherry moon took care of the early Adventists history on this and the backgrounds of our anti trinitarianism in other words we were not clear on the full personhood of the holy spirit and we were not clear on the Co eternal Co eternity of the Father
The Sun and the Sun with the father and the Holy Spirit with the father and son has three Co eternal divine beings okay and again it was the steady testimony of sister white that kept our theological noses to the grindstone but again more recently we have had this crazy revival
Of anti trinitarianism and I want to say to you that even those that hold that sincerely I want to say to you you are sincerely wrong I’m not here to question anybody’s sincerity but I am here to question heresy but more important than that I’m here to try to
Exalt the truth now let me tell you one thing about the truth of the Trinity and let me just say this sin is so antithetical to what it means to be human that it would take a god to get it corrected and it would take a triune God
Who is Father Son and Holy Spirit because without the Holy Spirit we will not be able to understand the scripture revelation without the revelation of the son and the power that is in his life in person and the power that emanates from his great sacrifice we will not be able to get right
Spiritually theologically whatever so this is important central stuff and I believe that seventh-day Adventism because of the problems it’s had with the atonement I think in other words the atonement is the ID yeah that in Christ ordained by the father ministered to us via the Holy Spirit there is full salvation in a
Completed atonement that was fully made at the cross now there’s more to the atonement than everything that led up to the cross and the cross because none of that will amount to anything if it is not communicated to us in other words what we call as theologians and
Christian thinkers the benefits of the life death burial resurrection ascension and intercession and soon return of Christ if we do not have a powerful Holy Spirit to communicate all of that through our study through our preaching through our teaching through our publications and want them out to a hill
Of beans spiritually to anybody nothing will really happen here today that amounts to anything unless the Holy Spirit who is intensely divine and intensely personal is permeating this place nothing will happen unless Jesus is uplifted and that is the work of the Holy Spirit to uplift Christ and to draw
Our hearts to him so that we can get the full treatment of all the facets of God’s atoning provision for our eternal salvation and the eternal final settling of the great controversies between good and evil between Christ and Satan by the way this is one of the reasons that I
Have remained a seventh-day adventists there’s only one argument that really solves the problem of evil and that comes out of the plot of the great controversy theme now we’re never going to be able to understand the origin of evil it will remain a mystery throughout all eternity because it’s impossible for
Us to plumb the depths of God’s love it’s impossible to fully explain the depths of creaturely sin and rebellion it will always remain a mystery that will leave us shaking our eternal sanctified heads but standing and awe and praising the glory of God that he worked out the atonement through the son
And the spirit with him and over all talk about the father over all control now one of the big problems that we’ve had as seventh-day adventists is getting clear the right relationship of calling convincing grace converting grace justifying grace transforming Grace and how all of that coordinates would
Glorifying grace and that’s what we’ve been talking about here this week now what I want you to do is concentrate with me a few moments and we’ll try to have a little bit of reflection on the issue of the humanity of Christ now before I that I do want to make a
Couple of plugs it’s also been mentioned here by dick Davidson and his presentations by the way dick Davidson is the smartest seventh-day adventists I have ever met him he makes me and Michael Campbell look like a couple of preschoolers alright ai-ai-ai-aight I tell you dick is bright but I tell you
He is also one of the ambles man I’ve ever met but he passionately loves truth and he’s on Michael and my’s team always cheering us on about what we’re doing as historical theologians and for that we’re intensely grateful and so in the light of all of the debates that has
Gone on and all of this on last generation theology that was cranked out by particularly EJ Wagoner and along with its false Christology we have produced the book called God’s character in the last generation now what I did I contributed chapter this on the history of last generation theology
That’s what I did but let me tell you we’ve got some heavy-hitter articles in here we’ve got one by one or two by Davidson we’ve got one by Darius Jankovic I don’t think you guys know anything about Darius but we just lost him at the seminary he and his wife are
Going back home to Australia to take care of their aging parents I mean they’re they’ve got jobs there but we just lost him but I want to tell you we’ve got some real bright smart guys at the seminary that faculty is an amazing faculty but one of the best articles in
Here is the one by Davidson on justification now let me tell you it’s a gospel beefsteak so get your dentures out and grow some really sharp teeth given by the Holy Spirit but follow it patiently now I have written a book and this is in George Knights library of Adventist
Theology series and he and I are the co-editors of the series but he commissioned me to write on the issue of assurance and I took it as an excuse to do a volume on all of the key aspects of the doctrine and experience of salvation so although my theme was Christian
Assurance I pretty much went the whole nine yards of trying to introduce people to what’s here now the reason this book is readable is because I spent the first half of my career feeding the sheep rather than comb the giraffes okay in other words I tried
To break it down so that the average layperson in a Sabbath School class would at least have a fighting opportunity to grasp what the issues of righteousness by faith are in the seventh-day Adventist Church this book thankfully and I don’t say this in any bragging way because I wouldn’t have
Been able to do it without the help of a lot of people but this book has become the key textbook for almost all of the seminary doctrine of salvation classes and reason for that is it’s comprehensive but it’s accessible and readable now on today’s subject I have two books these
Were my first book length publications that erupted out of my PhD dissertation which was done as an analysis of the doctrine of salvation in Ellen White and so what I decided to do once I got my job at Andrews where I was expected and demanded that I publish the first book
That I wrote was Ellen White on salvation and then successive to that came its library ten twin Ellen white on the humanity of Christ now you don’t have to buy my argument I will respect you taking exception to my position on this but one thing I did put in this
Book in an appendix is all of the really important statements from the spirit of prophecy on the humanity of Christ okay so you can argue with me all day but whatever you do argue with sister white in these appendices here okay and I think that her testimony is really
Powerful now the subject again is very complex and not the easiest thing to understand but I do think it is practically and sensibly accessible so one last thing I want to mention as far as books are concerned both Michael Campbell and I we have been swimming along in the wake of our mentor
George Knight now sometimes as we beau found out that can be stormy waters because George is a very demanding mentor and he doesn’t suffer our foolishness very gladly but he and I are the beneficiaries of this and George has written this little book which is to me recently released called the end time
Events and the last generation the explosive 1950s and for any of you that are interested in theology and these particular controverted issues this is a must read you know George bless his heart he keeps saying woody I’m gonna quit I’m gonna quit but he just can’t help himself
He gets in that office down there in this house out there in Southern Oregon and all of a sudden he sees a pencil his eyes light up his brain comes along and he starts writing he literally writes he doesn’t know how to use a computer but his wife does so she’s his
Transcriptionist all right but anyhow those are some recommendations that I think will prove helpful to you now I don’t know that Ellen White on salvation and Ellen white on the humanity of Christ I don’t know that there anything there’s anything left and the publisher stock but I placed about how many was it
Peggy that we placed here at the ABC III I think it was about fifty of Ellen White on salvation and about twenty of Ellen White on the humanity of Christ and I only make a little bit off of this and plus the ABC needs to get a cut but I
Want you to know there are a number of these on available ok if you want to give them and again I think that the best thing about this one Ellen White on the humanity of Christ is the appendices where you can gather conveniently all of the key statements all right so enough
For all my book recommendations did I did I talk to you about selected messages book 1 I did what’s the key pages on righteousness by faith in here 300 to 400 don’t forget that if you forget anything I say today don’t forget that go do your own reading
Know what’s the issue with the nature of Christ there are basically two key issues one is what was the nature of Christ humanity the other one was Christ fully divine or was he a semi-divine being now you’re probably saying dr. Whitten what do you mean by semi-divine well there
Are people who do not believe that Christ existed from all eternity Co eternally with the father and the spirit in other words we have had this history of anti trinitarianism but I want you to know that in this history that if you do not believe in the full deity of Jesus
Christ you will be power challenged when it comes to spiritual power to overcome the great adversary and you will not have a correct understanding of righteousness by faith if it doesn’t flow out of the Trinity in other words the eternal deity and power and leadership of the Father the eternal
Deity of Christ that he was Co eternal with the Father and that Christ was incarnate and took the full human organism sin accepted now he was had that sin imputed to him at the cross so he bore it to the cross vicariously for us but his sinful nature was affected by
Sin but not infected with it and so when we talk about the nature of Christ we must be clear on his full coitus be clear that his incarnate existent was in a real human frame otherwise Christ could not be tempted it was only his humanity that was tempted and you know
What the greatest temptation was it was to depend upon his inherent deity and his inherent sinlessness do you understand that does does that does that settle in on you a little bit but you see the big debates have been over mainly the humanity of Christ and whether he felt real temptation real
Temptation well again I want to make it clear that his deity was not tempted but he sure was tempted to use his inherent deity rather than identify with us and depend every day upon the Ministry of the Holy Spirit and the angelic powers that were sent to aid and abet his ministry
Because he could not draw upon his own inherent deity or divine power that would have done us no good well you can say sure Christ could do it because he’s fully God but being fully man and sin affected mind you not sin infected he had to depend upon the daily
Outpouring of the holy spirit and the Ministry of the angelic powers to aid and abet him in his own battle with temptations and by the way Christ was tempted more than any man or woman ever in the history of the universe so here’s what the big debate has been about over
The humanity of Christ let me see if I can simply break it down for you here a little bit the question was is whether Christ’s humanity was totally sinless when it comes to propensity Xand tendencies to evil in other words the big question was you know you and I if you haven’t
Learned this yet we have a natural tendency to be selfish to want our own way and we’re more likely to do the wrong thing than we are to do the right thing I mean we are sin messed up now that will vary from person to person as
Far as degrees but the Bible says all have sinned and have continually come short of the glory of God I think that’s Romans 8:3 all right all have sinned and so we’re all in this mess but the issue of the humanity of Christ has been a real conundrum and
Most of our pioneers were what we call post-fall in other words they believe that Jesus was born with a nature just like ours in which he had natural propensities and tendencies to do the wrong thing but in the 1950s we had the powerful rise of what we call the so-called
Pre foo pre-fall school of thought which says that while Jesus was sin affected he was not sand infected okay so while his humanity was weakened and he had to depend upon the continual imparted power of God in his incarnation to aid him in battling the temptations and the salts of the devil
Just because he didn’t have a natural propensity in tendency to do the wrong thing doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be tempted and he was tempted more than any man I believe number one now I’m gonna be a little repetitive here to draw upon his own sanctified humanity but more
Importantly to draw upon his own inherent deity rather in concert with us to learn to trust the imparted power of the father mediated to us through the Holy Spirit now I want to get to a key point here and again I want to urge you to read carefully my article by the way
At the end of that article I have given all kinds of suggestions for reading including the publication’s of my most severe opponents in other words those that would disagree with me and my position so this was one of the features that we did in The Ellen White encyclopedia was each article was to
Have references for further research and study so you know you you can go there and you will see who all of the major partisans are on the either side of the pre-fall versus post-fall debate over the humanity of Christ now let me make a suggestion to you and I’m hoping my brain works
Michael if my brain falters feel free to get up out of your seat and run up here and help me and say woody move over my brain is working on that one okay my wife is praying for me all right now Ellen White is very clear that Jesus did
Not have natural propensities and tendencies to sin well how then could he be tempted if he did not have natural propensities and tendencies to do the wrong thing he was tempted more than anything else to draw upon his own inherent divine power to aid and abet him in his battles with the
Devil do you follow what I’m saying okay all right in other words his great temptation was to draw upon his own inherit divine advantages and then he was also tempted to draw upon his incarnate advantages that in his humanity he was affected by sin but he wasn’t naturally infected with it in the
Sense that he had a natural tendency to do the wrong thing now he was weakened by history of 4000 years but he did not have these natural propensities or tendencies to do the wrong thing now let’s think about his temptations for a moment try to imagine yourself there in
The wilderness and the devil comes to him after he has been fasting 40 days and 40 nights and he said I have some good news for you I want to remind you that you can turn stones to bread and I know you’re really hungry and I know that hunger is natural why
Don’t you turn these stones to bread and eat and satisfy your hunger do you think that was a temptation to Christ you better believe it was I can’t even fast for four days without getting desperately hungry okay I’m not a good faster I’m faster getting to the icebox
Than I am fasting all right so one of the first things that I think we ought to recognize is one of the basis of Christ’s great temptations no matter what the occasion was was to depend upon his own inherent divine advantage all right now did Jesus ever
Commit an act of sin or have a thought of sin spirit of prophecy is absolutely clear he did not he was completely victorious and I can give you reference after reference from the spirit of prophecy on this manner regarding the complete victory of Christ over every temptation that beset him well there was
A temptation to sexual appetite a temptation to food appetite a temptation to self exaltation he overcame them all by the imparted power of the Holy Spirit he did not once draw upon his inherent divine advantage I suggest to you that that became a huge disadvantage for him to win a quick
Victory by trusting his own inherent powers okay so now the question comes up how can Jesus help us who have all these propensities and tendencies to evil to call upon his name and ask him to impart his divine power through the mighty Holy Spirit okay alright again let me ask you
The question what was the great temptation of Christ it was not to go to that cross why because the spirit of prophecy says he could not see through the portals of the tomb let that sink in a moment now I’m gonna be quiet here for
A few seconds and I want you to really think about was Christ tempted absolutely and what was his great temptation not to go to that cross remember he’s there in gas M&E and what is his prayer Oh father if possible let this cup pass from me and what was the answer
Keep going go to pilots judgment hall go on to Calvary go submit yourself and be nailed up I will sustain you each step of the way but go walking by faith alone that was the greatest temptation in the history of the universe to not be able
To see through the portals of the tomb and yet go to that cross that’s the hell of hell pardon my language I don’t mean to sound profane I’m just laying it out and why is that the hell of hell because the ultimate moment of reckoning will be the
Last thought that any of us will ever have who might sadly end up in the lake of fire it will be it didn’t have to be this way if I just could have taken the work of the Holy Spirit more seriously in my life and have laid my all on
Christ who went through this for me paid the price for me that I could spend eternity with the Holy Trinity and the redeemed of all ages and the populations of the vast illimitable universe Wow what a deal don’t tell me that Christ had to have natural propensities and tendencies to evil his greatest
Propensity was to do what the father told him to do in the agreement of the Great Council of peace so that full provision could be made for the vindication of God the reconciliation of the lost human race and the reconciliation of an entire universe of beings that were created in the image of
God that inhabit other planets and worlds you see God had to think about an entire universe not just us but we became the showcase of the love of God in Christ for the entire unit folks I cannot think of a bigger vision for Christian theology to contemplate
And this of course arises out of the great controversy theme now one of my questions that I asked my post-fall partners in dialogue is how can Jesus help us with cultivated tendencies to evil since he had none this is what I asked them how can Jesus help us would
Cultivated tendencies to evil since he had done what would you answer to that question what would you answer that question I would say thank you very much you win the argument I’m going to walk off the field this is the bankruptcy of the post-fall Christology not that sincere people have not sincerely held
This and God well in probably many ways overlook that but the greatest temptation of all transcends and permeates everything when it comes to righteousness by faith Jesus won a complete victory for us therefore his obedience becomes our obedience his sin bearing death becomes our sin bearing death we will not have to face
The terrible terrors of the lake of fire the thoughts of eternal loss for an eternity that there that the Damned pardon my language that the lost the rejecters of God’s mercies will have to face that’s really something now not only was Jesus tempted to trust in
His own divine power what else was he tempted to do hmm hmm he was tempted not to trust the imparted power of the Father all right so can Jesus help us with all of these temptations no he can’t help us if you do not trust his imparted divine power through the Holy
Spirit you see what we’re talking about here you see this very deep deep stuff but to know that he took our humanity and was tempted to go it alone tempted by his own inherent powers and his own inherent human perfections you see Jesus was affected by sin but he wasn’t
Infected with it he was a rather normal-looking first century Jewish man okay spirit of prophecy is very clear on this that there were no imperfections about the physical person of Jesus and that he was in many ways perfection Pravana thong even though he was diminished in stature and was in many
Ways like his fellow first century human beings so my question is this Jesus had a great temptation to trust himself but he also had a great temptation not to trust the imparted power of the Father and folks here’s where the great identities come and this is where he can
Really help us okay all right now I want to close with a couple of exhortations here again continue to study this issue again in my appendix here in the book Ellen White on the humanity of Christ Appendix A I’ve got this all pretty well together here appendix a has Ellen White on depravity
And sin and then of course appendix B is all about the deity of Christ okay Ellen white on the humanity of Christ particularly the great testimonies regarding his full deity now let me just sum up this way and it’s time to quit conference presidents getting nervous wearing out the Saints can Jesus help
You yes how can he help you can he be your example yes your example to do what to trust the imparted power of the Holy Spirit in every occasion of witness and temptation every challenge that’s in your life every challenge that may come
As a husband as a wife as a parent as a church member as we get along seek to get along with each other if we would all be thinking more how the power of Christ mediated to us through the Holy Spirit could help us to be overcomers rather than overwhelm ursin you know
What we have in the Adventist Church is a lot of overwhelming I’m talking about people that like to win their theological arguments by what I call specious presuppositions let’s use the correct presuppositions all right and I invite you to continue to ponder this subject Ellen White has commanded us to do this
She has given us rich resources scripture is filled with many great resources on this issue let’s pray dear lord I want to thank you for the Incarnation I want to praise you and Jesus I want to shout out a praise to you thank you for coming to be one
With us thank you for taking yourself from your high estate in sharing the throne with the father and to come and be subject as a human being incarnate subject of the mighty Moving’s of the Holy Spirit and Lord we want to thank you for leading a powerful life under
The guidance and sustaining power of the Spirit we want to thank you for your example of importunate prayer and Heavenly Father we want to dress you now and we want to thank you for sending Christ and we want to thank you for sending the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit
We would like to speak to you and thank you for coming thank you for being with Jesus strengthening him in his humanity and thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit that we may be your more able servants in all of the key roles in our lives in our families in our communities
And especially in our community of faith oh lord help us in Jesus name we do pray it give us mighty portions of your spirit Oh
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