17. Worship Service - 04/24/2021 - Pastor Stephen Bohr and Pastor James Rafferty

[Music] good morning and happy sabbath thank you so much for joining us for secrets unsealed some tv sabbath school and worship service we're glad that you decided to join us today we're going to study about the everlasting covenant and then we are going to take a look at the book of job so please stay tuned i want to remind you to please um send your tithes and offerings to your church if you're not meeting in person if you are don't forget to support the lord's work once again welcome may god give you a blessed sabbath day opening song great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness is [Music] is is my faithfulness [Music] is [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] thy faithfulness morning my morning new messes i see [Music] is [Music] strength [Music] [Applause] i great is thy faithfulness thy faithfulness [Music] faithfulness [Music] well good morning good friends we're glad that you decided to join us for our sabbath school discussion today we have a title an everlasting covenant and i have with me elder melvin blue and i have pastor james rafferty here as well they will be fellow discussers and we're glad that you joined us and i trust that it'll be a blessing we want to begin as we always do with a word of prayer and then i want to have melvin read the memory verse and we'll jump right into our discussion so let's pray father in heaven thank you again for this opportunity to study and for the picture that you're giving us of this everlasting covenant and we just ask that our hearts will be in tune with heaven that your holy spirit will be our instructor that you'll be with every listening ear and every yearning heart that we can grow in our understanding of who you are and what your name means and how it takes on new meaning as we grow in experience and see you enter into new aspects of the plan of salvation so guide direct and teach us we pray in jesus name amen amen okay our text the memory text this week comes from the book of genesis genesis chapter 17 and verse 7 and here the lord is speaking to abraham and it says here and i will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be god to you and your descendants after you amen all right i'd kind of like to frame the start of our discussion with the note that we have immediately under the memory text meanwhile if one of you can look up joshua 24 verses 2 and 3 which is not specifically in the lesson maybe we can have pastor rafferty look up that those two verses uh joshua 24 verses 2 and 3 and i'm just going to read this note just so in a figurative human sense god sat by the bedside of a sin-sick world as moral darkness began to deepen the centuries after the flood in other words the world was becoming very very wicked for this reason he called out abram and planned to establish through his faithful servant a people to whom he could entrust a knowledge of himself and give salvation now here's the question why did god call abraham to come out of ur of the counties to take him to the promised land was it because the world was becoming increasingly wicked before the flood let's read uh joshua 24 verses 2 and 3. all right joshua 24 2-3 and joshua said unto all the people thus saith the lord god of israel your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even terra the father of abraham and the father of nacor and they served other gods and verse 3 i took your father abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him isaac so where did where is ur of the caldis by the way babylon in babylon and abraham lived there and the text tells us that even tara his father and others were serving other gods so god took abraham out of there and took him to canaan because god did not want the earth to become totally corrupted so they would he would not have a holy line from which to bring the messiah into the world call them out of babylon his people that kind of rings a bell doesn't it you know the relationship between genesis and revelation you know is very close indeed yeah so anyway um you know god calls abraham out obviously he saw in abraham some special qualities that he could make a covenant with him so let's go to sunday's lesson uh the title is yahweh you know it's mispronounced jehovah but yahweh and the abrahamic covenant now in this section of the lesson we need to deal with the name yahweh but before we do let's read genesis 15 and verse 7 and that will frame our discussion of the meaning of the name yahweh so melvin you want to read genesis 15 verse 7 then he said to him i am the lord who brought you out of er of the chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it now even though the word lord as it is found in the lesson uh only has the cap initial capital it's not uh l-o-r-d all letters being capitalized it is the word yahweh okay and so uh it is yahweh god is saying i'm yahweh that brought you out of earth the caldis to give thee this land to inherit okay uh so uh the lesson brings out the idea of the meaning of the of the name yahweh which is god's special name it's over used over 6 000 times in the old testament so what is the meaning of that sublime name yahweh um well typically it's known as the eternal one the existent the self-existent one self-sufficient one the one who lives eternally the one for whom there is no past present or future who maybe lives in an eternal present yes maybe we can go to exodus chapter 3 and there you have an amplification of what the name yahweh means so let's go to exodus 3 and we'll read verse 6 and then verses 13 and 14. okay exodus 3 verse 6 moreover he said i am the god of thy father the god of abraham the god of isaac the god of jacob and moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon god okay verses 13 and 14. and moses said unto god behold when i come unto the children of israel they shall say unto them and shall say unto them the god of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say unto me what is his name what shall i say unto them and god said unto moses i am that i am and he said thus shalt thou say unto the children of israel i am has sent me unto you so it seems like yahweh and i am are interchangeable now who was it that appeared in the burning bush because this is dealing with the burning bush episode who is that i am specifically it was jesus we know that for at least one reason and that is in the new testament jesus emphasizes that he is the i am i think it's in john chapter 8 around verse 50. so maybe 52. so we know from that that this is christ of course we're also told in first corinthians 10 that the rock that followed them was christ so we know from first corinthians as well as from john that this is christ yeah in exodus chapter 23 uh calls him uh you the angel of his presence you know he's the one that was uh that led israel in the cloud and the pillar of fire so the person in the burning bush is none other than jesus christ you know as a as a as a as a child when i would read this passage in exodus i always thought that there was a grammatical error here oh really yeah yeah you know i am you know no you just give a name yeah yeah i am say what you are yeah yeah what's your name and um when when the question when moses asks the question he says well it's kind of in a future tense when they ask me this who shall i tell them has sent me you know and he he responds giving a present tense um title i am and so it doesn't matter you know if it's at creation or if it's in the new jerusalem god lives in that present reality you know i am right here right now yeah if you were in school and you said to your teacher before abra before melvin was i am right she was excuse me that is not proper grammar it is before melvin was i was right but of course this is making a point ellen white is an interesting comment about uh the meaning of i am in volume 14 of manuscript releases 22 and 23. this is an amazing statement i am means an eternal presence the past present and future are alike to god he sees the most remote events of past history and the far distant future with as clear a vision as we do the things that are transpiring daily so god lives an eternal present it doesn't say i was or i will be right it is i am he lives in an eternal present it's an amazing thought there's another statement in desire of ages page 606 ellen white is commenting about you remember when jesus had the discussion with the sadducees and he said to them you know he spoke about abraham isaac and jacob god is not a god of the dead but of the living so some people have taken that to mean that at that time the souls of abraham isaac and jacob were alive but really ellen white explains what jesus meant god counts the things that are not as though they were he sees the end from the beginning and beholds the result of his work as though it were now accomplished the precious dead from adam down to the last saint who dies will hear the voice of the son of god and will come forth from the grave to immortal life god will be their god and they shall be his people there will be a close and tender relationship between god and the risen saints this condition which is anticipated in his purpose he beholds as if it were already existing the dead live unto him it's just a mind-boggling thought that we cannot understand logically we accept by faith and it makes sense out of a number of verses in the bible that we sometimes struggle with when it comes to the state of the dead you know like the spirits of just men made perfect in hebrews chapter 10. you know when when god when we realize that god this is the way god sees things then some of these bible texts make sense yeah you know another interesting verse is jesus is the lamb of god slain from the foundation of the world well for us jesus died in the year 31 on a friday afternoon not the foundation of the world yeah but for god because god lives in the eternal present i think that the po the main point that i want to make of this is that when god says something we can take it to the bank amen i also like the idea that you said in that statement that he anticipates he anticipates it and i think about that in relation to the lamb slain from the foundation of the world there's an anticipation there that allows god to experience in the present that reality that is not yet and which makes god's suffering much greater than that moment on calvary because when you are anticipating something i'll just say for example abraham was anticipating the death of isaac for three days so three days of suffering not one moment of suffering when you're anticipating something as god does you're living in that experience it's affecting you right now so you can imagine now how god felt when they took those sacrifices and they were sacrificing those animals that they were nothing but all the time god was seeing himself his son in that sacrifice and jesus himself when he came and saw the sacrifices he saw himself and so for god to realize how indifferently they treated that at times you know through the apostasy of israel must have really hurt his heart yeah you know somewhat of a limited analogy uh when does a person on death row suffer the most is it when they're laying on the right on the bed and they're about to be given the lethal injection right or is it the the years or months before where they're looking forward and not in a positive sense right to the moment when they're going to suffer death that's the entity you know the agony and suffering is much worse leading up to it than at the precise moment especially if they're in solitary because they have nothing to distract the mind yeah suffice it to say that when it comes to the to the construct of time god is not locked into time like we are exactly you know and as you as humans we are locked into time and space and god doesn't have those parameters which is a kind of a mind-boggling thought but yeah and that's why we need to have faith yes because there are certain things that we can't explain logically they're beyond logic how can you explain the incarnation you know where god embraced another nature two natures and one person how can we logically grasp it we can't right and so we can simply accept it by faith because we know the lord personally now in order to trust someone we have to know that person and so the only way that we can trust that god's way is the best way is because we know him if not we're going to be questioning everything that god does we're questioning what the bible says and god has to do some pretty questionable things in relation to us in relation to planet earth that makes it vital for us to know him in order to trust him i think nebuchadnezzar came to that experience you know where he says you know you can you can you can ask god what is he doing but you know you don't need to i mean who can ask god what he's doing basically and he's not saying we shouldn't he's simply saying that god is doing whatever it takes to humble us you know those that are pride he's able to abase and i praise god for everything he's done in my life type of thing it's a vital thing because john 17 3 says and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true god in jesus christ whom you have sinned it doesn't mean just know intellectually that jesus existed at some point and that he died on the cross the word no here has to do with personal relationship and so knowing god in christ is a matter of eternal life or eternal death and jesus brings out in john 3 you know to be born again you know when when adam knew eve they had a child and when we know god there's a born-again experience that takes place a new birth that takes place a new creature that comes forth in this old shell amen here's an interesting statement another statement from ellen white which is kind of mind-boggling in the mind of god the ministry of men and women existed before the world was created that's from her diary march 15 1891 so in the mind of god the ministry of men and women doesn't say would exist says the ministry of men and women existed before the world was created logically impossible to fully understand but i think going back to the lesson why is it important to to understand that god identified himself to abraham as yahweh or as the i am why what would be the significance of that particular name uh being used at the moment when god uh confronted abraham well you know god is is speaking with abraham and he's to move him from where he is he's going to dislocate him so to speak and the circumstances that abraham is is that he is in jeopardy of being contaminated by surrounding people who worship other gods even in his family and so god speaks to him saying you know i am the existent one the self-existent one i am the only one and i am going to covenant with you to to move the program forward so the name actually gives abraham confidence that god not only will be able to do what he has said he has done but that it's a done deal because god lives in an eternal present right okay um maybe we can move on to another point before we move so i'm going to tag that okay by saying as we look in scripture when god speaks it's not always so that the people he speaks to understand fully what he's saying okay they understand some of it but as time goes on the understanding broadens of what god is saying you know and you know so we can mention john the baptist when he says behold the lamb of god he has an idea about what that means but he doesn't fully understand because he doesn't really understand fully the ministry of christ and that is revealed to him as time goes on right and so when god says to abraham i am i am the only you know abraham has some idea about what he's saying because there are of these this pantheon of gods around him that people are worshiping so-called gods but doesn't really understand the whole picture right but as time goes on god is going to reveal more to him right good point yeah i thought that was really good in the way the lesson brought it out you know there's a statement in here on sunday's lesson that says that he was always thought of a name as indicating either the personal characteristics of the one named or the thoughts and emotions of the one giving the name or attendant circumstances at the time the name was given that's from the sda bible commentary and you know i thought about that quite a bit i thought this is really interesting because for example uh the personal characteristics of the one named you know jacob is eventually named israel because his characteristics went from a supplanter one who deceives and supplants he had the heel of esau when he came out of the womb to one who uh prevails you know one who has uh victory and prevails with god and so there's this enlarging of his experience and his name is changed because of that i'm just paralleling this a little bit to god in a sense because i think this is going to help us with with god's names and then uh the thoughts and emotions you know when rachel was dying and giving birth to benjamin um she named him ben onei which is son of my sorrow that was her those were her emotions and feelings at the time but you know you know her husband jacob said no no no benjamin son of my right hand because that's what he his emotions and feelings were you know he and then the other one was um the attaining circumstances so for example when when joseph was in egypt and he had his first son in genesis 41 he named him nasa manassas manasseh which means he means causing to forget those were his circumstances he had been you know sold into slavery and and he'd gone through some terrible experiences even in egypt but fought the father his father the heavenly father god finally delivered him and caused him to forget all of his trouble and so because of his circumstances and situation he named his firstborn son manasseh which means causing to forget and so these experiences that we go through and i think that god goes through with us introduces us to god's names and helps us to see how god's names have meaning in our circumstances or our feelings or or in the the triumphs that we have just like our names uh have meanings and change all through the bible we have all these i mean there's first after verse after verse but there's one verse that i think really hits it and that's matthew chapter 1 verse 21 thou shalt call his name jesus for he shall save his people from their sins and really that takes in every part of this it takes in this personal circumstance it takes in the thoughts and the feelings god was his thoughts and feelings towards us it's the circumstances and it takes in what he was going to do his his um personal characteristics jesus his name takes in all three of those aspects that we've talked about because he's the deliverer he's going to deliver and god wants to deliver us and i just thought that was kind of beautiful how god takes a name that denotes these characteristics these thoughts and feelings the attaining circumstances and gives us names that do the same thing good points uh okay now let's deal with a certain little issue you know people say that there's contradictions in the bible we know there are no contradictions the contradictions are simply in our brains right not processing things correctly but you know in exodus chapter 6 if we can go there for a minute exodus chapter 6 and verse 3 says something that seems to contradict what we find in the book of genesis genesis tells us that god introduced himself to abraham as yahweh you know in chapter 12 and chapter 15 god says i'm yahweh but exodus 6 3 which is being written by moses also says that the patriarchs did not know god by the name of yahweh let's uh let's have melvin read verse 3. in verse 3 it says i appeared to abraham to isaac and to jacob as god almighty but by my name lord that's in all caps i was not known to them so how do we understand the fact that it says in in the book of genesis that god spoke to abraham i am the lord i am yahweh and yet here in exodus 6 and verse 3 it says i spoke to them as el shaddai and this is all transitioned us into the next section of the lesson but i did not introduce myself to them as yahweh so how do we understand the relationship of those two concepts i wonder if it has something to do with what we just uh read in here about the chant the transitioning experience the the relationship that god is having not just a name singular but an experience that goes with the name yep so so basically theoretically the name is known but it's known as the god who is promising to form a covenant and to give abraham the privilege of being the father of many nations which has not taken place yet okay but in the book of exodus god now is going to do what he said he did there's a new manifestation of the name yahweh that you do not have when god is the promiser it's the promiser versus the uh the the implementer of the promise and you know there are parallel situations to this when jesus comes seated on the white horse in revelation chapter 19 it says he has a name that no one knows except himself um does that mean that we theoretically are not going to be able to see the name well we don't know the name the name is he's called the word of god it says in the context but but this is a new manifestation of the character of christ that has not been seen before in fact ellen white says that yahweh is the name that that god has given to christ so the father gave the name to christ the name jesus means yahweh saves right and when jesus goes to heaven he's given the name not a name definite article he is given the name that is above every name and when he comes he has a name that no one knows it's all the same name it's all the name jehovah saves or yahweh saves but each step is a new manifestation or revelation of the meaning of the name that's good in essence we haven't experienced fully that part of his name right but when he reveals it then we then we then we will know it right right up until now he hasn't revealed that part of the name to us in terms of how he interposes how he interacts with with with humans history or with human presence yeah yeah there's another way another example of this in the new testament with the words of christ and the words of john they use this phrase many times in the new testament a new commandment i give unto you a new commandment right well it's not a new commandment right it's the same old commandment you go all the way back to the old testament you know loving god and loving our neighbor it's the same commandment but there's new meaning right there's a whole new meaning a whole new understanding or the new covenant the new covenant is not really a new covenant it's actually the old covenant it's the everlasting covenant it's always been but it has a whole different meaning now it's been ratified by the blood of jesus christ and it takes on an impact that it never had before of course for moses the name yahweh had a much deeper significance than for abraham because he saw what god had promised david so he experienced it so there's no contradictions in the bible it's simply in the minds of people that they don't process things in the bible correctly the seventh-day adventist bible commentary volume 7 page 874 referring to the name that no one knew except himself in revelation 19 explains the name written that no man knew but he himself represents the heretofore unknown role in which he now appears as the avenger of his people in the performance of this strange work he acts in a new in a role new to both men and to angels so and regarding exodus 6 3 the commentary volume 1 523 states god was about to reveal himself more fully than in the past delivering his people with a strong hand actually taking them to himself for a people established in his covenant with them and giving them the land of canaan this being true it seems that in verse 3 god must refer to the new meaning that the experience of deliverance would bring to the name rather than to the name itself yes so and we just don't understand the emphasis that was placed upon names in the old testament today in our western civilization some people do they look at their child they won't name them for a while or even their pet and they say i'm not going to name them until i figure out what kind of personality they have and then they name them and that's what we're talking about here it's it's what god is how god is manifesting himself what is he he is doing for his people etc that that correlate with it's not just a name it is actually an experience so in essence then god talks to abraham and he says look i'm yahweh i'm i'm the self-existent one and as a self-existent one the self-sufficient one the eternal one i'm telling you that if we coven it together if if you accept the covenant that i make with you then i'm going to make you a father of a great nation sands of the sea won't even compare to what i'm going to do with you and i'm going to give your your prodigy this land of canaan and before that happens they're going to be in bondage for 400 years but i'm going to deliver them you know and so as as this so abraham hears all this but god reveals himself in each stage more fully yeah and fuller yeah he tells abraham this but abraham hasn't experienced this right and so as the experiences come then the name yes broadens it takes on greater significance if you would to the individuals who are experiencing yahweh and you know it's interesting abraham understood that god was not only speaking about the land of canaan and a multitude of people living in the land of canaan in little jerusalem abraham understood that you know it says for example in romans 4 13 for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith abraham saw christ's day and rejoiced according to john chapter 8 and verse 50 i think it's verse 56 so so these patriarchs understood that canaan and jerusalem was a miniature of something far greater yes and when you go to hebrews 11 it says that they waited for a city whose builder and maker is god the heavenly jerusalem so the problem with much prophetic interpretation today is that all of these prophecies are going to be fulfilled in literal jerusalem over in the middle east with with the literal jews right but even abraham didn't believe that right abraham believed that this was much broader than we were dealing with typology earthly canaan is a type of heavenly king and earthly jerusalem is a type of the heavenly jerusalem all right i you know which i i don't want a leapfrog but it just happens to just segue in right here okay and that is when uh the covenant includes circumcision it wasn't just abraham's blood lineage that was included in that it was anyone in his household anyone bought with his money you know it went on and on it wasn't just his bloodline right that were included in that covenant relationship right yeah all right let's look at this verse again i just want to read it one more time with all of this understanding okay just gleaned okay so exodus chapter six and verse 3 and i appeared unto abraham unto isaac and unto jacob by the name of god almighty but by my name jehovah was i not known to them right that is so clear no one is clear it's so it's critical when you when you read it again now with everything we discussed it's just clicks you see that just clicks i wasn't known under them by that name they knew the name but i wasn't known by the name right now you know my parents decided to call me stephen paul so i have the name of the martyr and the martyrizer [Laughter] why did they call me those names oh we like those names they're pretty that's not the reason many times they told me because we want you to have we want you to be a preacher like paul and we want you to have the faith and trust in jesus like stephen and so as i've lived i said hey i better live up to the name that's the reason why in the bible parents gave names to their children because they wanted their children as they reflected on the meaning of their name to live up to their name and then of course sometimes names were changed depending on the character of the person so names are much more important than in the bible at least than what we really realize let's transition now because uh you know you kind of gave us a smooth bridge into the next uh actually monday and tuesday's lesson uh in verse 3 it says god revealed himself to abraham as el shaddai so the big question is what does the word what does the name el shaddai mean which is the next two uh sections of the lesson so the almighty one okay yeah the almighty one omnipotent common lipitin uh-huh yep so so why is that important it's dealing with chapter 17 verse 1 and following why would it be significant for god to reveal himself to abraham as the god omnipotent for whom nothing is impossible well it says here the crucial idea of the use of this name seems to be that of contrasting the might and power of god with the weakness and frailty of humanity and of course this makes sense when you think about abraham because abraham was given a promise that he himself tried to fulfill partly you know when he got together with hagar at his wife's wishes and then eventually he came to the place you know according to romans 4 where he's 99 years old not only is sarah dead but he's dead also and so this really is going to impact him if he'll believe this that god is el shaddai in comparison with his own weaknesses so roman says romans 4 says that abraham did not consider his own flesh now being 99 years old nor the deadness of sarah's womb but by faith he believed the promises of god let's read those verses those are criticism you want to read that hebrews 11 11 and 12. that was the next thing i had in my notes i was i was going to hebrews i was quoting romans 4. but he was 11 that works and by the way we don't collude hebrews 11 11 11 and 12. this is not honor roll of faith 11 verses 11 11 and 12. okay here we go by faith sarah herself also conceived received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead that was born sexual terms yes was born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sands which is by the seashore so now we understand why god used the name el-shaddai right because he's the omnipotent one nothing is impossible for him you know sarah was being beyond child bearing age and so was abraham and abraham is wondering you know come on in the previous chapter he'd kind of helped god chapter 16 of genesis and god says no no that's that's not the plan i'm the el shaddai i'm the omnipotent one and i can do what appears to be impossible for human beings and to make this you know more even more significant if that's possible to say you know when god talks to abraham he tells him look come out of her of the chaldees i'm gonna you know and i'm gonna make you the father of this great snake this great nation so he starts off with that but the years go by and abraham still has no has no son right to make this real and and and it continues when god meets with him and talks with him he tells him you're going to be the father of a great nation you're going to be the father of great nation he says well how how can you say this and i don't even have a son you know and here god is saying you know i am el shaddai because i can make this happen i can do it so so i exist yes none of those other gods exist in the land of earth they don't they're not they're just fabricated they're not real i exist so follow me and i am almighty so but abraham has to wait because there's still a little bit of him left he has to come to the end of himself first before he can completely trust in god in the one that's almighty because he still trusts a little bit in himself and and a lot in in in the almighty you know the last part of the lesson which uh time is really flying by uh deals with obedience to the conditions of the covenant and you know that that's an extremely important part of the lesson because a covenant means a relationship between two individuals right god is the one who promises but but the condition of the covenant is that human beings render him obedience and in the case of abraham god saw something special in abraham even when he was in her of the counties that he would respond to god's covenant but of course he had several detours you know abraham was one of the heroes of faith of hebrews chapter 11 but you know a couple of times he lied about who his wife was we told half truths really which is a full lie and you know he also manifested a lack of faith by having taken hagar and yet you know when you look at the trajectory he trusted the lord and the bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness and it's harder to trust god when you fail in trusting god in other words if we could just go from victory to victory our faith would be stronger and we would have left less difficulty so our failures make it more difficult when we come to that trial of our faith and that's what happens i think with abraham not only does he go through this you know trial in the end of time but that trial becomes even more intense and in a sense i'm just going to say this it's not you know biblical necessarily but in a sense it makes up for his previous failures when we fail to trust god in those moments of test that trial comes around to us again but it's going to be a little bit more difficult the next time because that failure is there in our background because we have the guilt of the history or whatever it is and yet abraham finally puts his full trust his full weight of trust in god and it's really interesting how this this these verses we are connected with his final trial of sacrificing isaac because the bible tells us in the old testament three times in the new testament three times that he did it he sacrificed his son not in act but in in in heart in mind because he knew that because isaac was born from nothing right yeah that god could bring him forth from the dead he was because he was born from the dead in likeness anyway god brought him forth from the dead a dead woman a dead man so obviously god could bring him forth again absolutely that's what motivated him so the trials that we the experiences that we have in the past are what motivates would help us what strengthen us to to face those larger trials ahead it's interesting that the apostle paul in galatians 4 would draw a contrast between hagar and sarah you know hagar represents the jews of christ's day and the day of the apostle paul who tried to work things out themselves whereas and this is the strange thing sarah represents the mother of all the free people who believe the promise and respond by obedience to the promise they don't earn the promise by their own works but they actually obey after god has done his work so it's a contrast between salvation by works and salvation by faith okay now let's uh go to genesis 17 4 and 5. genesis 17 verses 4 and 5. actually monday and tuesday's lesson deals with chapter 17. so so let's uh go to verses 4 and 5 and there's an interesting nuance here that i want us to notice um do you want to read that as for me behold my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations no longer shall your name be called abram but your name shall be abraham for i have made you a father of many nations now here's the interesting nuance in verse 4 god says to abraham you shall be a father of many nations yes in verse 5 he says i have made you yes a father of many nations so for god it was already an accomplished fact amen for abraham it was future the apostle paul picks up on this let's go to romans chapter 4 verse 17. i think the the gist of the lesson is that when god says something you can take it to the bank right uh so let's read romans 4 and verse 17 where the apostle paul is noticing this distinction that we find in genesis 17 verses 4 and 5. who wants to read that as it is written i have made the father of many nations before before him whom he be before him whom he believed even god who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which are not as though they were okay so paul is quoting genesis 17 right he said as it is written i have made you the father of many nations but uh of course when uh god said that uh he was not the father of many nations right father at all that's right and then it says he is our father in the presence of god whom he believed the god who makes the dead alive that's probably referring to abraham's body and sarah's body and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do so when god says i have made you the father of many nations for god it was an accomplished fact for abraham it was still future [Music] let me read you a statement by albert barnes the great presbyterian bible commentator he's commenting on romans 6 4 17. that is those things which he foretells and promises are so certain that he may speak of them as already in existence thus in relation to abraham god instead of simply promising that he would make him the father of many nations speaks of it as already done i have made thee in his own mind or purpose he had so constituted him and it was so certain that it would take place that he might speak of it as already done what did he remind you of doesn't that remind you of daniel chapter 2 you know in daniel chapter 2 there's this dream this vision that's interpreted as all of these various nations four of them coming through to the toes of this image and that image is finally you know hit on the toes on the feet with a giant rock who that fills the whole earth which is god's kingdom and and when daniel comes to the end of that he says the the dream is certain and the interpretation is it's going to happen and so prophecy really buttresses what we're talking about here in god's plan because prophecy as we look at it uses the same kind of terminology this is sure it's certain it's going to happen and we can actually see that it happened i mean we can see this too but we've got some things yet before us that is just as sure just as promised as everything behind us and now we can look at all this history look at all this prophecy and it can give us the faith that we need faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god to believe god for the future abraham didn't have that necessarily you know you didn't have all of this history and everything that we have today right we have a lot more information we have a lot our faith should be much stronger yes okay and it will be in a sense won't it because we've got a final generation experience that no previous generation has had to experience you know hebrews 11 talks about they without us shall not be made perfect or completed because we're going to be doing something in the end of time that that is a culmination of all of these heroes you know of the past years of amen amen that in that sense hebrews 11 is a big help a big encouragement uh okay so why did god change his name from abram to abraham [Laughter] do you think it would make a difference that it would make a difference for abraham every time that everyone said to him abraham abraham you know kind of would seek in father of many nations father of many nations even though it has a father many nations yeah it's like you know uh you know when someone calls you a pastor you know if you're a pastor and someone calls you a pastor it has that impact where you're a pastor you're a pastor hey pastor hey pastor and you think in your mind okay they're referring to me as a pastor that means there's an expectation there that they're bringing to the table that they have when they call you pastor and i think it's the same as you said with abraham you know reminding him even your name indicates that i'm going to fulfill my problems yes yes all right let's go to thursday's lesson wednesday is just basically the different stages covenant stages of god in his relationship with abraham but let's talk a little bit about covenant obligations and pastor rafferty would you read genesis 18 verse 19. all right genesis 18 verse 19 for i know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the lord to do justice and judgment that the lord may bring upon abraham that which he hath spoken of him so were there conditions for the lord to bring upon abraham what he had promised yes because it says that the lord may bring upon abraham so what kind of individual was abraham well for example he was one that knew god and another is that he commanded his children and his household after him to keep the way of the lord he did justice and judgment all of that is in the verse you know there's a lot there that seems to rest upon abraham but i think that the key here is this phrase for i know him because that phrase knowing him is the key to our success as followers of god and it what god is saying is is that there's a level of intimacy you know he's my friend yeah my friend he's my friend and i and so i know that he will follow it's not that he doesn't have issues [Music] but his heart's in the right place amen yeah what did what did jesus say you are my friends if you do what i command you so there you have the covenant relationship idea you know probably the best way to explain this the relationship between law and grace between faith and works is using your book the book of james james chapter 2 the one luther struggled with right james chapter 2 and verse 21 through 23 shows the proper relationship between faith and works who wants to read that james you want to read that sure was not abraham our father justified by works when he had offered isaac his son upon the altar see thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which saith abraham believed god and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of god so when was righteousness imputed to abraham when he believed god when he believed and he acted on that belief well the assumption is that the belief isn't you know leads to an action i mean they're they're yeah yeah they're pounds they're bound together right it's a package deal something that's really interesting here and i'm not sure we always catch it is the works that are given as an example the works that are given an example are not the works of keeping the statutes of the lord or the commandments of the lord even ordering us out the works that are are com are commanded here that he follows up with is a complete sacrifice of himself a complete surrender himself and all of his hope which was in isaac to god and a lot of times as christians we try to fulfill the works of the law as a checklist without surrendering the heart without surrendering the life and that's what we see abraham here completely surrenders his life and then out of that comes this imputed imputation of god's righteousness you know when you look at the expression in the writings of paul works of the law by definition those are bad works because they are works that we perform with the intention of saving ourselves earning brownie points with the lord right so people will use a text from paul that says we're justified by faith without works of law and they're assuming that works of law are good works i can be justified without any good works no because by definition works of the law are bad works because they're works that we perform in order to earn salvation but paul in other places in his writings clearly says that god created us for good works but those are those are not works of the law those are good works because we have no righteousness all of our righteousness is as filthy rags we're incapable of performing acts of righteousness works of righteousness so it has to be the spirit working in us that performs these things when we try they turn out to be works of the law right but when the spirit works in us then there are acts of righteousness and the spirit works in us when we have full surrender which is what abraham had right here these were the works that he had full surrender jesus said in john 6 7 48 you know this is the work of god that you believe in him and abraham believed god it was encountered him for righteousness so i guess the summary of the lesson is that god takes the initiative in establishing the covenant and we respond we respond by faith faith that is manifested in obedience takes two in other words the lord takes the initiative in salvation we respond because we love him because he has taken the initiative well you know time flies by when you're having a good time studying god's word amen uh time is just about up thank you for being with us god bless you and we hope you'll be with us next week when we study the next lesson in this wonderful series on the covenant hello friends we're so thankful you could join us again for our worship service here at some tv we hope you enjoyed the sabbath school lesson that we just finished and we're going to be moving into our worship service and as we do that we want to remind you to support your local churches with your tithes and with your offerings and we want to pray that the holy spirit will be with us in the worship hour with the message that is spoken of course with the rest of the program the children's story and the special music so let's pause right now and ask god's spirit to be with us father in heaven we just want to thank you again for the many blessings you give us in your word i want to thank you for the message you've communicated to us through the sabbath school lesson we want to pray for each part of the worship service that is remaining that you will bless that your spirit will be present and you'll guide and direct in those that are speaking and sharing and singing and those that are listening now may your spirit be with us we pray in jesus name amen hello boys and girls i'm auntie louisa have you ever seen a miracle like something you know could be nothing but a miracle well i have we my family my husband and i and our three boys we were moving from michigan to here in california and we were taking our two dogs and our cat moonshine well moonshine and one of our dogs she's a big irish setter she does not like cats at all and she hated moonshine anytime she would see our cat she would just chase after her and the cat would go running under a bed or like into the forest or wherever the cat just wanted to get away as fast as she could so that's not unusual for moonshine and polly to hate each other and for moonshine to run away um but right before we're moving we didn't want them to be fighting and unfortunately moonshine did run away um she would often run away she wasn't super friendly and she'd come back after a week no big deal but you know when you're moving you need your family and you need your pets you need to keep them close but moonshine just she was just gone so the day we were moving the day we had our cars loaded up we were ready to go we had a couple more things to do and there was no moonshine there was no kitty anywhere we were loading up the cars and we got in a circle and we prayed and we said dear lord we need our kitty please send your angels to find our kitty and bring her out to us you sent your angels to noah and helped the animals load the ark and you sent your angels to help daniel and you kept those lions mouths shut so that daniel wouldn't be eaten or hurt by those lions send your angels send them to moonshine you know where she is bring her back to us lord thank you amen and so my husband finished loading the car we had some stuff to take to the curb for the garbage and my middle son and i were walking around the house calling for the kitty and she just wasn't coming wasn't coming we were really getting worried and the last my husband loaded the last thing in the car and it was time to go so our oldest son took the empty litter box and the big bucket of cat litter because if you don't have a cat you can't there's no point in taking the cat litter with you so he was hauling that to the curb and um right as he was about halfway down our long driveway my husband said look there she is and coming running up our hill was our moonshine kitty and it was we were so happy we picked her up grabbed her held her close we were so happy moonshine had come back it was a miracle we prayed lord thank you so much for bringing back our kitty and i put her in her carrier but sometimes cats they don't like to be in boxes so i closed the door i thought i secured these lid these little latches but she did not want to be in the box and you know what she did she did a big karate chop and haha the door flew open and out she ran into the forest again moonshine was gone oh so we prayed again lord you literally just gave us a miracle don't take that away give us a miracle again i'm sorry i didn't close the door tight enough but please send your angels we need our kitty please bring her back to us so my middle son and i he's really good with pets he came with me we where we saw her run into the forest and i saw her but she was under this really prickly bush and i couldn't reach her so my son went in under the bush and grabbed her and carried her back up to the car my husband had been laying in the grass just praying my oldest son was in the driveway on his knees praying my younger son was in the car with the dogs praying we were all just so worried about our cat and then she finally showed up and um we brought her back to the car but this time instead of putting her in this horrible little box i put her in a harness that went like around her back and put her on a leash and that's she was happier on the harness and we got her in the car closed the doors the dogs were in my husband's car and we were ready to go we said so many thankful prayers to jesus on that day and on that trip moving from michigan to california so i want to remind you that jesus does love you god loves you and he cares about the little things in your life even your cats thank you our scripture reading this morning is found in the book of job job the 42nd chapter and verse 10 and the lord turned the captivity of job when he prayed for his friends also the lord gave job twice as much as he had before may the lord add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] some tv is a worldwide christian ministry providing christ-centered programs with clarity and power on topics such as bible prophecy in time events bible interpretation tips for helpful living cooking demonstrations and much more our programs provide practical counsel for daily life and assurance and these uncertain times download the free some tv app or watch online at some tv.org you will be blessed hello friends and welcome to our worship hour here at some tv we are continuing our series of the everlasting gospel and our message this morning is entitled forgiveness 1.4 our scripture reading is found in job chapter 42 and verse 10. it says there and the lord turned the captivity of job when he prayed for his friends also the lord gave job twice as much as he had before so this is the fourth part of a continuing series on the everlasting gospel the three angels messages in revelation chapter 14 and we're going to see some amazing parallels between revelation 13 and 14 and the book of job specifically job chapters 1 and 2. in our first message we looked at matthew chapter 18 the servant that was forgiven a great debt but never actually realized that forgiveness because of the way he treated his fellow servant that owed him just a little debt and we emphasize that it's so important for us to understand the gospel to understand the forgiveness that god gives us so that we can manifest the fruits of that gospel in our lives as it says in revelation chapter 14 and verse 12 the gospel produces a people who keep the commandments of god and have the faith of jesus and the commandments are the basis of god's character of love how we treat our fellow man and how we relate to god and worship him in our second meeting we looked at matthew chapter 5 and verse 48 which says be therefore perfect as your father in heaven is perfect and we noted the context of that it revealed that god sends his reign on the just and on the unjust and makes his uh sun to shine on the good and on the evil and we looked at a parallel to that in luke chapter 6 and verse 36 which identifies perfection as being merciful as our father in heaven is merciful and we sought to understand that that is the essence of the gospel that jesus christ on the cross in luke chapter 23 and verse 34 said father forgive them for they know not what they're doing in fact christ hanging on the cross is the gospel the everlasting gospel because jesus christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and so the essence of the gospel is to to produce a people who are like jesus who follow the lamb wherever he goes and that's the context of the everlasting gospel message in revelation chapter 14. in our third meeting we looked at ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26 and the encouragement there that paul gives us to be angry and sin not and not let the sun go down on our wrath we explored what it means to be angry and sin not and we parallel that to david's experience with saul who was seeking to destroy david and how david was able to manifest forgiveness towards saul because he processed his anger in his relationship with god and that paul is admonishing us in ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26 to do the very thing that david did throughout the psalms we see in the psalms a man after god's own heart in david because david processes anger toward god and when he engaged with human beings who mistreated him like saul did he was able to manifest mercy or be perfect as his father in heaven was perfect he didn't seek to ring the neck of his fellow servants because he recognized the great debt that had been given forgiven him by god and now we're going to look at the experience of job in job chapter 1 and chapter 2 we are introduced to an experience that parallels very clearly the experience that god's people are going to have in the end of time you know sometimes the the hurt that we experience from people who are closest to us is the hardest for us to forgive when we look at the story of job in job one and two we realize that job lost all his beloved children all of his servants he lost all of his wealth he even lost his health and eventually he was dealing with a wife who was losing faith and in all of this job reached a low point when his friends quote unquote came to convince him that he must be harboring some kind of secret sin for all this stuff to happen to him at this low point job wished he had never been born his friends piled on the guilt if you will the condemnation if you will and job had to wrestle through that but through it all through those 42 chapters of wrestling with all of the discouragement that job felt and experience job maintained his integrity by the time we get to the end of job he is a humble man who's seen god face to face and he finds himself in a place where as we read in job chapter 42 and verse 10 our scripture reading joe prayed for his friends his miserable comforter worthless physician friends so we're going to pick up the story in job chapter 1. and we're going to look here at a man whom god calls perfect let's start here in job chapter 1 and beginning with verse 1. there was a man in the land of us whose name was job that man was perfect and upright one who feared god and eschewed evil so right away we see a connection here between job chapter 1 and verse 1 where god identifies job as perfect and matthew chapter 5 in verse 48 where god calls us to be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect we see here a connection also in the way that job relates to the calamities that he's about to experience so let's continue reading and it says here in verse two and there was born unto him seven sons and three daughters and his substance was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camel and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred chiasses in a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east and his sons verse 4 went out and feasted in their houses every one on his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them verse five and it was so when the days of their fasting were gone about that job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all for job said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed god in their hearts thus did job continually so now we have the context of job's perfection god calls job perfect in job chapter 1 and verse 1 but then he describes the context of that perfection what makes job a perfect man in god's eyes well it's how he relates to other people to people around him not people that are necessarily good because he's worried that his sons and daughters are actually cursing god in their hearts job's perfection is exemplified in the way he relates to people who aren't so great or may not be so great people that are close to job and people that job is worried about what does he do when he hears about his sons and daughters partying together on their birthdays that's the inference here on certain days well job worries about them and he intercedes for them he gives himself and his stuff he sacrifices his time and his material possessions to intercede in their behalf he rises up early in the morning and he prays for them and he makes sacrifices for them and it says this is what job did continually in other words this was his consistent attitude his consistent spirit toward his possibly wayward sons and this is why god calls joe perfect because god is looking down on this planet and he's recognizing job a person who is perfect in his sphere as god in god is in his fear because you see god job gets up early in the morning but god he never slumbers or sleeps he's always watching over us even the wayward of us job offers his stuff his animals in sacrifice the bible says that god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life job gave some of his stuff god gave all of his stuff job rises up early in the morning god never slumbers or sleeps job is doing this continually we have according to hebrews a mediator that continues always to make intercession for us we have a friend in heaven who is continually seeking to draw us to himself to forgive us of our guilt of our sin and to renew us and transform us into his image and so god is looking down on planet earth and he's seeing job as a representative of his character a representative of his love a representative of the way god relates to human beings who air who may be faulty who are falling away from the lord then it goes on to say here in verse six now there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the lord and satan came also among them so here we have a big picture of the great controversy and it's really significant that we would understand what's going on here because the book of job is probably the first book that was ever written it was written by moses in the wilderness of midian when he before he delivered god's people we're understanding scholars are understanding that probably job and genesis were both written during this time and the re the thing that's significant about job being written there is that job the book of job the saga of job gives us a picture of sin and suffering in the context of the great controversy you could say that this book answers the question why sin and suffering because what this book does for us it didn't do it for job at the time but of course he must have understood it later what we're understanding now what this book does for us is it shows us the the it draws the curtains back and gives us a glimpse behind the scenes it shows us what's actually going going on what's happening behind the scenes in this great controversy and that's what we pick up right here in job chapter 1 and verse 6. let's continue to verse 7. and the lord said not said unto satan once cometh thou then satan answered the lord and said from going forth to and forth through the earth and from walking up and down in it so here is a a picture of this um universal the universe the great carnival is taking place in the entire universe here's a picture of the sons of god the representatives of of of the universe coming to present themselves before the lord and satan comes what is satan doing there now i love this because god challenges him what are you doing here i love the fact that god challenges satan not only in heaven but even in our own lives god has put a challenge in front of satan he's put a promise in front of satan he's promised to put enmity in our hearts he's promised to send a savior for us he's promised to give his son jesus christ the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth he's promised to put a check on satan if we will just run to that refuge and this is what we see job doing in his character in the fruit of his life he is exhibiting the fact that he trusts in the sacrifice he trusts in a savior and he wants that sacrifice to be applied to his children because he's afraid they're going wayward and so when god questioned satan satan says well i've come from the earth you know jesus called satan the prince of this world i've come from the earth i've gone up and down and to and fro through the earth and from all appearances the planet is mine everyone's serving me and then jesus god says wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute have you considered my servant job verse 8 there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that fears god and ensues evil and then verse 9 satan says to the lord doth god doth job fear god for naught have you not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he has on every side having you blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land but put forth thou not put forth thine hand now and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face and the lord said unto satan verse 12 behold all that is that he that all that he hath is in thy power only upon himself put forth not by hand so satan went forth from the presence of the lord so here's a picture of the great controversy and it's not a pretty picture what we have is a conflict taking place behind the scenes between light and darkness between good and evil between god and satan the accuser the one who's seeking to destroy us the one who's led us into sin from that garden of eden and satan is basically saying you bribed job the only reason he serves you is because you bless him and you protect him but you take all of that blessing away you take all that protection away and he'll curse you to your face and god knows the heart of job and god knows that the reason why job is serving him is because his heart is knit with gods job loves god and god does protect job and god does bless joe because that's god's ideal for us god longs to protect us from evil god longs to bless us with material possessions with wealth and with family and with friends but in spite of all of that god knows that job's heart will not waver will not turn from him even if he loses all those blessings because god knows god believes by faith god recognizes that job's heart is knit with gods that all of those blessings are not the motivation for job it's not the the reward of heaven or or the fear of punishment that motivates job job is motivated by his love for god and so god allows satan to step in and to test his servant job and that's what we see taking place in the verses that follow and there came a messenger verse 13 and there was a day when the sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elders brother's house now i want to parse here for just a second and notice something that is very evil about satan satan waits for a day when the sons and daughters of god are eating and drinking wine they're celebrating the day when he knows that job will be the most anxious the most fearful the most concerned about his children and if you're a parent or a grandparent you know what it feels like to be concerned about the salvation of your children you know the anxiety and the fear that you can experience about your children or your grandchildren or people that you love and so satan waits he waits for that day when he knows he can inflict the most uncertainty the most pain into job's mind and on that day he begins his attack but he doesn't begin with the children he begins with job's wealth it says here in verse 14 and there came a messenger unto job and said the oxen were plowed and the asses were feeding beside them and the sabians came and fell upon them and took them away and they have slain thy servants with the edge of the sword i only am escaped alone to tell thee so we have people here that are that are working satan is working through to bring affliction to job and then it says in verse 16 that while that servant was yet speaking there came also another and said the fire of god has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and i only am escaped alone to tell thee and then in verse 17 and while he was yet speaking they came also another and said the chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and carried them away yay and have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and i only am escaped alone to tell thee and then comes the clincher verse 18 while he was yet speaking there came also another and said thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elders brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young man and they are dead and i only am escaped alone to tell thee so here is the affliction that job experiences initially there's still more to come initially and we have some parallels here with revelation chapters 13 and 14 because you'll notice a couple of phrases here the first one is the kalbians the word chaldeans is the root word for the babylonians the chaldeans and the babylonians are synonymous and we know that the babylonians or babylon is a code word in revelation chapter 13 in revelation chapter 14. so we have a connection here we have the babylonians we have the chaldeans afflicting job taking away his wealth in revelation 13 we have the babylonians we have babylon making it so god's people cannot buy or sell unless they receive the mark of the beast the mark of the authority of that beast and worship him so we have a parallel there then it says that fire the fire of god came down out of heaven we know this isn't the literal fire of god but that's where the servants picture it we have the same thing in revelation chapter 13. the false prophet the lamb-like beast that speaks like a dragon calls fire down from heaven to deceive those who dwell upon the earth and so we see a parallelism there taking place and then of course we see the parallelism between job losing all of his wealth so that god's people in the end of time are going to have every earthly support cut off they're not going to be able to buy or sell so job speaks specifically to our experience in the end of time but there's still another parallel parallel and we're going to see this as we continue on in the book of job but let's note here for a minute exactly how job responds because we want his response to be our response in the midst of calamity and trial job chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 21 20-22 excuse me and then job arose and rent his mantle he shaved his head he fell down upon the ground and worshipped and he said naked i came out of my mother's womb and naked i shall return through that the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord and in all this job sin not nor charged god foolishly now this is key right here because job is immovable when it comes to worshiping god and that's the key issue in revelation 13 and 14. you know the everlasting gospel calls us to worship god that made heaven and earth and the seas and the fountains of waters the counterfeit to that is to worship the beast and receive his mark his image his name and the number of his name and so we see job here immovable he does not stop he does not cease he does not desist from worshiping god even though he loses all his earthly support all his wealth is cut off and this is a parallel to god's people in the end of time although all earthly support is cut off and we cannot buy or sell our focus is to continue worshipping god in spirit and truth worshiping him who made heaven and earth and the seas and the fountains and waters a direct quote from exodus chapter 20 and the fourth commandment exodus 20 verses 8 through 11. so we see some tremendous parallels here but let's continue job chapter 2 again there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the lord and satan came also among them to present himself before the lord and again verse 2 the lord said unto satan from whence cometh thou now god knows where satan's coming from but he's challenging him from whence cometh thou and satan answered the lord and said from going to and from the earth and from walking up and down in it so again satan is being challenged by god where are you coming from satan is seeking to claim the earth as his and indeed he is called the prince of this world but god challenges that claim god never allows satan to take control full control of this earth god points to his servants as the reason why satan cannot have this planet praise god for that because all those servants who are faithful to god are putting their trust in that sacrifice in the lamb and it is a lamb that actually redeems planet earth and everyone in it who will believe and trust in his blood for salvation and so we see here in verse 3 the lord said unto satan has thou not considered my soul or hast thou considered my servant job there is none like him in the earth perfect not right man one that fears god and eschews evil and still he holds fast his integrity although thou has moved me against him to destroy him without cause now this is amazing because basically god is taking responsibility for what we know satan did in other words god is saying you've moved me against him but what god actually did was allow satan to step in and many times in the bible god is seen as doing that which he allows so this is really important for us as we see this picture this curtain drawn back and this picture of what's taking place behind the scenes in the book of job again this book was written by moses in the wilderness of midian it's kind of like our introduction to why sin and suffering we get to see the big picture job doesn't see the big picture so that's why god says you've moved me against him because god is speaking from job's perspective god is basically saying job's a perfect man he still fears me he still shoes evil even though he thinks that i've been moved against him without cause because that's the way job thinks and we're going to see that as we continue on with this story of job job thinks that god has moved against him but still job maintains his integrity and satan answered verse 4 the lord and said skin for skin yea all that a man has he will give for his life but put forth thine hand now verse 5 and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face and the lord said verse 6 unto satan behold he's in thine hand but save his life so satan went forth in the presence of the lord and smote job with sore boils from the soul of his foot unto his crown and he took him a pot shirt to scrape himself with all and he sat down among the ashes now this again parallels revelation chapter 13 because not only are god's people not going to be able to buy or sell but they're also going to come to a place where their lives are going to be threatened there's going to be a decree that is going to be sent forth that they should be killed job came to the place where he felt like his life had ended his health completely failed he had boils all over him and of course this parallels the first plague of revelation chapter 15 and 16. he had boils all over him he's scraping his flesh he's at the point he has the brink of death and that's the way god's people are going to feel in the end of time this death decree is going to go forth we're not going to be able to buy or sell and then it should be it's going to be decreed that we should be killed because we're not receiving the mark of the beast and so you can see the parallels here in job chapters 1 and 2 with revelation chapter 13 and 14 where we see god the everlasting gospel calling us to worship god and job of course maintaining his worship of god now we move into a very significant part of the story of job a very challenging part for all of us in the end of time because i believe in the end of time one of the most one of the greatest challenges we're going to have is not necessarily to get our theology right not necessarily that we understand the day of worship and the the difference between the two but also that we're able to resist the coldness of others matthew chapter 24 talks about how the love of many will wax cold in this time of universal hatred and many people are going to turn away from the truth and we're going to have to gather warmth from the coldness of others and courage from their cowardice this gospel is going to have to go as a witness not just as an intellectual assent to the truth but as an actual witness to the whole world so that we live out the principles of the gospel and again christ dying on the cross luke 23 verse 34 father forgive them the romans who are crucifying him the pharisees who are crucifying him father forgive them for they know not what they're doing that needs to be our battle cry in the end of time only the everlasting gospel can produce a people who have that experience and the book of job is going to help us now notice what happens here as we continue on in job chapter 2. it says then in verse 9 then said his wife unto him dost thou still remain to retain thine integrity curse god and die this is job's wife verse 10 job responds but he said unto her thou speakest as one of the foolish women speakest what shall we receive good at the hand of god and shall we not receive evil and in all this job did not job sin with his lips so here we have a faltering if you will of job's wife she's struggling as you can imagine she's just lost all of her children all of her wealth she's seen her husband's faith completely fail to the brink of death you can imagine how overcome she is with emotion and of course many times women are a little bit more emotional to men at least initially it takes us a little longer to gain those emotions and so initially she she she speaks out of her or of her broken heart and i can see job consoling her i can see joe putting his arm around her i can see job drawing her clothes and saying you're speaking like a foolish woman don't speak like a foolish woman shall we not receive good at the hand of the lord and also evil in other words he's encouraging her faith and we know that job and his wife stay together and in fact god re restores them completely and gives them 10 more children seven boys and three girls but we're getting ahead of the story right now so here job is still of good courage and encourages his wife not to speak as a phil as a silly woman and then we have the final onslaught if you will we have job's friends in job chapter 2 beginning with verse 11. now when job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him they came every one upon him excuse me they came from his own place illiphaz the timinite and bildad the shuite and so far the name matha knight excuse me naap methite for they had made an appointment together to come and to mourn with him and to comfort him verse 12. and when they lifted up their eyes of far off they knew him not they lifted up their voice and they wept and they rent everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven and they sat down with him verse 13 upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very great if you want to know how to comfort people who are bereaved who are struggling who have lost everything who are who are overwhelmed just follow the uh example of job's three friends in job chapter 2 verses 11 12 and 13. they saw him they were grieved they afflicted themselves they wept they rent their mantles their clothes they threw dust upon their heads they humbled themselves they sat with job for seven days and seven nights and said absolutely nothing follow that counsel if you want to know how not to to to console and to help and to encourage people who've gone through great affliction then you need to read job chapters 4 all the way to job chapter 32 and see how these friends treat job in these following chapters because they start out well and then they completely stumble and trip over and fall all over the place in relation to job and the reason they do this is because of their theology so we want to look at this because this is really important for us job in chapter 3 begins to curse the day that he was born he he wishes he was never born because of all the affliction that he's going through and as he does this elephants the temanite begins to respond to him and he basically says in chapter four that's eliphaz responding to job who's just so low that he wishes he was never born and he says basically you know what about your religion you know you've comforted others you know what about all your theology what about all of your you know relationship in other words he begins to kind of try to persuade job you know you should do better than this you can do better than this see he starts talking that's his biggest mistake and then he starts saying words that actually are hurting joe rather than helping job and job responds basically and says well you know why did god do this to me in job chapter 5 and he begins to to struggle with what he's going through his wife had voiced her struggle earlier and job encouraged her you know not to speak foolishly but now job needs someone to encourage him and there's no one there to encourage him the way he courage encouraged his wife and so he begins to ask this question why why is this happening and and and why has this you know these calamities come upon him and then bildad the shui answers in chapter 8 and he says well because you're a wicked sinner that's why i mean nothing happens to people like this unless they've done something wrong there's got to be some evil there's got to be some wickedness in your life there's got to be something that you're hiding job there's got to be some reason why god is doing this to you and then job in chapter 9 he repeats his wish i wish that i was dead basically you know and and it's really interesting to see how job is just humbling himself even before uh his friends and yet his friends aren't picking up the cues they're not there really to comfort him they're there to convict him that he's doing something wrong in secret in fact or so far responds in chapter 11 to job's repeated wish that he were dead and basically says well that's your only hope your only hope is that you would die because you know there's no way out of the situation you know unless you confess your secret sins and so job responds in chapter 12 and basically says you know what wisdom is going to die with you you guys have so much knowledge and so much understanding here but the problem is they don't have a heart there's no heart to their intellect they're not they're not empathizing and sympathizing with job because they really can't understand they can't get past their theology in their minds if you are right with god if you're walking with god god's going to bless you and if there's a problem in your life if you're experiencing sickness if you're experiencing ill health if there's some struggle that you're going to it's because god is absent from your life you are committing some kind of sin openly or secret and god is chasing you god is afflicting you to get you to repent of that sin that's all they know and of course that's the same theology that job has known up until this time and so they keep on hammering him until finally he comes to the place where he says you know you guys are miserable comforters and worthless physicians you're not helping me at all that's what we find here as we continue on in job chapter 16. job says in job chapter 16 beginning with verse 1 then job answered and said i have heard many such things miserable comforters are you all and it's in this context that job is recognizing that his friends aren't helping him whatsoever he's he's trying to he's trying to process all of this and trying to understand as none of them can why is god doing this to me because of all the people job himself knows that his relationship with god hasn't changed you know illithaz and and zofar and bildad they might be questioning job because they don't know his innermost heart they're not there on a daily with job they don't know what his relationship with god really is but job does job is examining himself and job knows that nothing has changed in fact job can as he goes on through these chapters interacting with his friends job eventually says you know i've done everything that god would ever want me to do you know i've taken care of the fatherless i've taken in the strangers i've i've taken care of the widow i mean i you know i've just i've done everything that god would ask me to do i'm in harmony with the principles of righteousness i put my whole trust in him and so he's struggling with all of this as his friends berate him and attack him and bombard him with all of these accusations so that finally he basically says to them you know what you're lying and you're wrong and if you know if you would just be quiet you know if you just stop talking that would be comfort for me if you can imagine them coming to that place and that's that's exactly what we wrestle with that's exactly what we struggle with many times in our um interactions with our friends who don't understand perhaps uh what we're dealing with or where we're coming from or what's going on in our lives we struggle with this and this is the struggle that's going to be facing us in the end of time we're going to be a people who are keeping god's commandments when the whole world is telling us that what we're doing is bringing god's judgments on the land we're going to be a people who are going to be hated of all nations matthew 24 and verse 9. and the whole world is going to see us as the reason for the continued suffering perhaps the death of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people because of all these judgments and we're obstinate and we're stubborn and we're not going to detract we're not going to turn we're not going to be moved from keeping god's commandments and we're going to be blamed for all of these calamities and finally it's going to be you know people are going to justify kings rulers presidents uh governments are going to justify themselves in putting us to death in ridding the earth of these stubborn worshipers of god who believe that the seventh day is the sabbath according to the commandment of god according to creation and according to the example of jesus christ in the new testament and the apostles in the early church and and down through history god has always had a people who keep the sabbath and it's not just about that day it's about our relationship to god and our love for god and a desire to honor god and to worship god and of course in the context of all of that god is calling us to forgive god is calling us to turn the other cheek he's calling us to go the extra mile with those who are accusing us and this is the experience that job went through and he nearly lost his footing he struggled as he moved through this experience he struggled to maintain this attitude you see the book of job begins with a man who's praying and it's going to end with a man who's praying in the beginning of the book of job job is praying for his sons his daughters his flesh and blood people that are close to him people that are family by the end of the book of job his prayer circle has enlarged now he's praying for his friends not his family not his kids of course we want to pray for our family and our kids we're connected with them but now he's praying for his worthless comforter miserable miserable comforter worthless physician friends and that is what god is calling us to through trial and tribulation he's calling us to broaden our christian experience to grow in our sphere of intercession and our sphere of love not just to love those who we ought to love those who are close to us those who are friends those who are family those who are flesh and blood those who are we are connected to but to pray for the world to pray for the bildads and the illiphases and and the the zofars of the world those people that are out there those people that may misunderstand us those people that are are of similar belief in the sense that you know they're theological they believe in god but they may misunderstand why we're doing what we're doing and so god broadens our horizon just like he broadens the horizon of job and and job is struggling he's he's struggling with his friends he's calling them names and they're calling him names and it's going back and forth i don't know if you've ever had that experience but it happens and then finally god shows up god shows up now before god shows up a lie here a young man named eli who shows up but eventually god shows up and when job sees god everything changes and that's why it's so key for us to understand the parallel between job 38 through 42 and revelation chapter 14 1-5 because in revelation 14 1-5 we are given the remedy we are given the solution we are given the the way it is that we can stay true to god and still love other people who may hate us how we can turn that other cheek how can we go that extra mile revelation chapter 14 tells us it's by following the lamb wherever he goes the lamb symbolizing christ on the cross symbolizing the lamb who gave his life for the world symbolizing luke 23 and verse 34 father forgive them for they know not what they do god's end time people are going to sing the song of moses who also had this experience of being willing to be blotted out of the book for the forgiveness of his people who had apostasized from god who were mistreating him and aaron and jesus had this experience of course we see jesus christ having the same attitude and spirit toward the pharisees and the romans and toward the whole world and his disciples who who forsook him in the end of time and yet his love was there he promised them i will go before you to jerusalem even though you forsake me matthew 26 i will not forsake you this is the experience that god is calling us into as an end time people as a last day people as the last day remnant and this experience is the experience job has but he doesn't have this experience without being connected with the lord in job chapter 42 it says verse 1 then job answered the lord and said i know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee who is he that hides counsel without knowledge therefore i have utter things that i understood not things too wonderful for me which i knew not verse 4 here i beseech thee and i will speak and i will demand of thee and declare that unto me i have heard of thee by the hearing of mine ear verse 5 but now my eye sees thee wherefore verse 6 i abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes some key thoughts here as we close out this message on forgiveness 1.4 job sees god he's heard about him but now he sees him and when he sees god he is led to repent in dust and ashes why because god knows job's thoughts not just his actions but his thoughts god says uh job says here that i have uttered uh excuse me verse 2 i know thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholding from thee so are there two key issues here in verse two first of all job believes that god can do everything we need to believe that we need to have faith that god can do everything in other words god can give us victory over every failure every fall every defect in our lives and at the same time no thought is withholding from thee in other words we can conform outwardly we can act religious we can act pious we can put up a good profession but god knows what our thoughts are god knows what we're thinking up here and god wants to cleanse the inner sanctuary not just the holy place but the most holy place he wants to get right into the very thoughts into the very character that we have that we possess and he wants to cleanse it so that we have a character that is like his and that's what job is experiencing here job is seeing god he's repenting he's opening his heart to god's grace to god's blessing and that's exactly what he experiences in the conscious of job chapter 42. god takes issue with job's friends god says you know you haven't spoken of me that which is right as job has you you haven't you haven't represented me correctly and then he tells them in verse 8 to to take seven bullocks and seven rams and and to go to job and to offer up this offering and he says god says of job job is going to pray for you and that's where god exercises faith toward job god knows the bitterness the struggle the difficulty that job's been through with his professed friends you know with his miserable comforter worthless worthless physician friends god knows what job's been experiencing but god wants that out of job's experience and so god shows job more of himself and as god shows job more of himself he job humbles himself and his job humbles himself he makes a place for god to pour in more of his spirit he opens his heart to a fuller revelation of god's love and allows that spirit to influence him and that's exactly what we see take place here god by faith says to job's friends that job is going to pray for you because god believes that job's heart has enlarged his capacity to love to forgive his enlarged and now he's going to be able to intercede and pray not just for his children his flesh and blood but for those friends who have mistreated him misrepresented him and spoken so so badly about him in his time of trial and hardship and that's exactly what happens in verse nine elif has the team of night bildad the shoei so far the name a knight that the mathite went and did according as the lord commanded them and the lord also accepted job and here's the key here's our key verse here's our scripture verse right here and the lord turned the captivity of job when he prayed for his friends also the lord gave job twice as much as he had before now this is key because we too are going to be facing a gigantic trial in the end of time revelation chapter 7 gives us an insight to this trial revelation chapter 7 is the sealing chapter it's the time where we see this the seal of god being placed upon the foreheads of the 12 tribes of israel now those 12 tribes represent god's people specifically god's end time people and in those 12 tribes we see a change take place in relationship to these 12 tribes versus the original 12 tribes in revelation chapter 7 there is a tribe that is not part of the original 12. the original 12 are outlined for us in genesis 49 and there's a tribe there the tribe of dan specifically that is not mentioned in revelation chapter 7 and the reason for this is because dan means to judge danielle means god is judged but dan means to judge and dan is described in genesis 49 15 and 16 as a serpent in the way an adder in the path that bites the horse heels so the writer falls backwards dan is a backbiter dan is like the serpent dan is like the accuser dan is a judge and that character that personality that character trait cannot be sealed with the seal of god and so what we find in revelation chapter 7 is a hidden message for god's people that correlates with the experience of job that correlates and parallels the experience that god wants us to have in the end of time because dan that critical backbiting judgmental spirit is going to be replaced by the tribe of manassas now manassas means to remit it's the root word for forgive in the new testament and it comes from from the experience that joseph had when he forgave his brothers joseph was sold into egypt by his brothers they did a terrible thing to him his flesh and blood and yet god was gracious to job to joseph and before joseph's brothers even came to egypt god put it in joseph's heart to forgive them that's what the grace of god can do and yet he tested them but he he had this spirit of forgiveness and that's why he called his first son his firstborn son manassas which means to forgive because he said god has made me to forgive all the things that have happened to me in my father's house and this is the experience that we need in the end of time that's why revelation chapter 7 is pointing out this amazing connection between forgiveness versus bitterness revelation chapter 7 is reminding us that if we hold on to bitterness if we become judgmental and critical and backbiting and accusatory we're not going to receive the seal of god no matter how people treat us we've got to let go of all of that but the only way we can let go of it is to embrace jesus christ to see him on the cross to see the great debt that he's forgiven us so that we will not go out and choke our fellow servant for the measly debt that they have against us so that we'll be able to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile we've got to be learn how to process our anger how to to be angry and sin not to not let the sun go down on our wrath as david did so we can give it all to the lord we're going to have to be in earnest prayer day and night at times we're going to have to be earnestly praying and giving to god all of the the trials and tests all of the the hate that is going to be heaped upon us by this world and by people that might be very close to us uh we may have family members that that act this way toward us people that we've been very close to in these last days and we're going to need to be in earnest prayer with god that he can pour into us that spirit of um grace and that spirit of forgiveness that is promised in the context of the everlasting gospel so forgiveness 1.4 calls us to an experience that was very similar to job's experience and it adds to us the the in an insight to the everlasting gospel of revelation chapter 14 and verse six an insight that hopefully will cause us to continue to keep god's commandments that is to love god with all our heart mind and soul and love our neighbor as ourselves and to have that faith of jesus to exercise the spirit of forgiveness to gather warmth from the coldness of others and i pray this will be your experience and i pray it will be my experience and may god continue to bless you as you seek to serve and worship him our song jesus is all the world to me jesus is all the world to me my life my joy my all this is my strength from a day to day without him i would fall when i am sad to him i go [Music] he makes me climb he is my friend [Applause] jesus [Music] i go to him for blessing and he gives them [Music] sunshine and rain [Music] he's my friend jesus is all of our world to me i want no better friends [Music] shall beautiful life with such a friend beautiful life that has known [Music] he's [Laughter] [Music] friends amen we hope you have been blessed by the worship service here we're so thankful you could join us at secrets unsealed again for the sabbath worship and let's just close out with the word of prayer and ask god to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves father in heaven we want to thank you again for the message from your word we want to thank you for blessing our hearts with music with everything that involves the worship that we've experienced today we want to ask that your spirit will guide and direct us as we think about the experience of job and we think about its parallels to revelation 13 and 14 we recognize that you're calling us to a higher walk with you to prepare for this end time crisis and we just ask that you will do that work for us as the author and finisher of our faith and we ask this in jesus name and thank you for hearing us [Music] amen [Music] you

Channel: secretsunsealed

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Keywords: SUMTV, SUMTV Latino, Secrets Unsealed, Secretos Revelados, Pastor Bohr, Pastor Stephen Bohr, Pastor Steve Bohr, Worship, Worship Service, SUMtv Worship Service, Sermon, sabbath school, Bible, undefiled, when your world is falling apart, falling apart, Pastor Rafferty, Pastor James Rafferty, James Rafferty, Matthew 18, Matthew, Forgiving, forgiveness

Id: 5WPeiuL8i1c

Length: 118min 30sec (7110 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021