Q&A with Dr. Walter Veith: Victory Over Sin (2021)

welcome and good afternoon and happy sabbath one and all welcome to the official third episode of the feel the pillar series with the word inspired i'm your host denisha mccurchin and i'm joined with special guests dr walter weith brother robinson altino sister stacy ann brown sister chelsea jack sister christian cattle sister alana kwashi and cousin errol henry as we discuss victory over sin let us pray dear heavenly father we come before you and we thank you for this privilege to be in your courts even now dear lord although we are in a virtual platform we thank you that your holy spirit is omnipresent so we ask that you forgive us of our sins and abide with us today make yourself real to us and i pray that our minds would be open to the impressing power of your spirit and that we would leave here transformed guide the proceedings of this program and let your name be praised in the name of jesus christ amen a christian means a follower of christ but we know that jesus lived a perfect life as he walked this earth in humanity are we expected to be perfect like christ what does that perfection entail stay tuned for a q a segment with dr walter vice as we answer these questions by the grace of god so please do not keep this word to yourself but take a moment press the share button like subscribe and comment and by god's grace we'll be monitoring the chat and maybe your question will be posed now last month we were blessed to have virtuoso pianist robinson altino minister amazing grace today he will be ministering his arrangement of abide with me so so hey [Music] you [Music] this one [Music] so [Music] so [Music] praise the name of the lord praise the name of the lord thank you so much brother robinson altino for ministering that peace abide with me friends don't we want the lord to abide with us today for his spirit to dwell in our midst praise the name of the lord we will now be blessed with a poem by a teacher a counselor a medical missionary mother and poet sister stacy ann brown please welcome sister stacey ann brown thank you amen thank you so much sister denisha brother that was a powerful instrumental it blew me away that you could play it so amazing inspired by god this poem is entitled do you really okay do you really i once knew a guy who'd be like oh baby i love you but then he would go against my will and although he did things that were kind and courteous my answer was no still so you could imagine we got in lots of arguments because he couldn't understand that my yes means yes and my no means no and that is what i meant kind of like how we treat god outwardly we profess loyalty but inwardly we act so selfishly god says if you love me then do what i say we say we would love you but let us love you our way then it begins the other kind of sin so the story goes david's coming back with the ark of the covenant the glory is returning so the people are loving and you know what so they got excited and forgot that the priest was to carry it and i don't know how it happened but the ark tipped over and azza with his kindness tried to save the ark with his shoulders but once his hands touched the ark his life was over some have concluded that god was harsh and not sympathetic but read between the lines because surface reading only tends to ruin you here we have a man who was given explicit instructions that only the priests were allowed to touch them they were carrying an ark as a symbol of worshipping the one true god king of king hello he but once he touched the ark his worship was defiled instantly because we cannot give god what we want and expect him to be pleased in love jesus counsels us to do like him because he does what the father does and is known by him so again he says if you love me then do what i ask do not divert from the task do not presumptually assume that it was an error that i had asked for god is god and he sows only what he knows can be reaped and the deepness of our roots depend on how obedient we will be faith in god will strengthen our roots obedience to his word will only produce many fruits because if we are either a mustard seed because we are either a mustard seed or a barren fig tree so let's put self to the side and run to the most high humbly bow down and he won't judge you if you cry and again when god says if you love me then do what i say prayerfully respond lord help me to love you the right way today god bless you thank you amen amen thank you so much sister stacy ann indeed we need to pray to god to help us to love him the right way to love him with nothing between our souls and our savior thank you so much to all of you that have tuned in thus far i think i saw elder randy skeet was on thank you very much for tuning in elder skeet and we look forward to having you again april 24th and thank you to all of you that have tuned in and as elders keith would say especially those of you that are not seventh-day adventists we are so grateful that you are here worshiping and learning with us today now we are joined by dr walter julius vice and he received his phd in zoology and taught in the zoology and medical bioscience departments at the university of cape town of cape town in south africa his life story includes transitioning from being a roman catholic to an atheist to a roman catholic again and finally a seventh-day adventist he is the founder of amazing discoveries ministries and also amazing discoveries ministries international and is renowned for his lectures on the bible's eschatological doctrine spirit of prophecy and health he has hundreds of scholarly publications and has authored and co-authored at least four books to name a few the genesis conflict putting the pieces together truth matters escaping the labyrinth of era diet and health scientific perspectives please welcome dr walter j bythe thank you that's very kind of you i have one or two little corrections i was at the university of the western cape i did teach at cape town for one year but i was at the university of the western cape and i was not the founder of amazing discoveries there were other people that did that but i've been associated with them from the beginning ah well thank you for those corrections dr vai thank you we are so blessed to have you join us today and as you said we are discussing a topic that is quite controversial in some ways there are lots of views on it the topic is victory over sin and our first question is what is sin well when we look at the bible and we study it together with the spirit of prophecy then we have a statement i mean there are a number of definitions of sin in in the bible but the one that we have as a definitive is sin is the transgression of the law and the spirit of prophecy tells us that that is the definition that applies in terms of what the meaning of sin is if you if you look in the new testament then just the new testament there are 90 verses that talk about sin and the one that really defines it is of course john where he says it is the transgression of the law now do you want to go a little bit deeper into that question uh i think i think you we've covered good ground there i think we've covered good ground there um the next question dr vithen thank you for that is what does matthew 5 verse 48 mean when it says be ye therefore perfect even as your father which in heaven which is in heaven is perfect and i have a couple questions after that like what is perfection is that possible and i guess we can get to that other part of the question a little later on but what does matthew 5 48 really mean when you have a bible verse such as this one which says be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect and you have a another counter verse as i see you mentioned some of them he who says he is without sin is a liar and the truth is not in him then on the surface it looks as if you have two irreconcilable verses they seem to be diametrically opposed to each other and there are many that will say and accuse that two statements such as these cannot stand side by side but this is the beauty of the gospel so when you have two statements like that then the only way to reconcile them is in christ so in christ i can be perfect like the father is in heaven and i can acknowledge that i am a sinful human being and have need of the righteousness of christ so those verses are absolutely true in the context of being in christ so thank you thank you for explaining that and i i know i had put the verse down there first john 5 verse 8 specifically as you mentioned so what does it really mean to be perfect well there are a number of statements in the spirit of prophecy that can help us one that crops up time and time again is the concept of in your sphere we must be perfect in our sphere as he is perfect in his sphere if i can get back to the concept of sin where this entire debate actually originated is in the early christian church and then of course in catholicism and catholicism bases its view on righteousness and sin on augustine and augustine was basically the father of predestination in other words god predestined certain people to be saved and predestined others not to be saved and calvin and to re-lesser extent martin luther embraced this theology now in this concept god is the author of everything therefore god is also in control of evil and this theology has shaped man to the point where he comes to the conclusion through the augustinian thinking that man basically is doomed and has to be predestined or chosen to be saved and those that are not chosen are rightfully discarded and this doctrine of course clashes with the the doctrine of the definition that sin is the transgression of the law because if sin is the transgression of the law then there is a certain accountability that we have and this is very important god cannot hold you accountable for something that you are not capable of and this brings the whole question to mind to what extent is humanity fallen is it fallen to the state of total depravity so that you have no choice whatsoever or is there a capacity to choose now when we read the bible you can see over and over and over again that god requests his people to choose righteousness choose thee this day whom you will serve if you do well then this or that or the other turn turn from your evil ways for why will you die o house of israel the element of choice is everywhere in the bible therefore the theology of predestination which marginalizes the law because it defines man basically as incapable of any choice in terms of doing what is right that choice is left in the predestination thinking entirely to god and you are totally excluded from the process this excludes basically the law and when this matter was really addressed is in the late reformation when wesley was the one who started addressing it and wesley wrote something like the following he said we know that the sun shines but that does not cause it to shine in the same way god knows that we are sinners but that does not cause sin he knows who believes and who does not if we were not free to believe or if we were not free to believe or we could not then we could not be held accountable for the thoughts or words or actions that we have then we could not ascribe virtue of vice to him just as little as you can to a tree if you had no more freedom than the sun moon or stars we would be no more accountable than them the stones on earth would then be as capable of reward so the point is this do we have a choice in the matter the answer is yes the big question that you want to address tonight is can we do this in our own strength given the fact that we have fallen natures and the answer to that is an absolute no so perfection is something that you strive for with the capacity that you have in your sphere and christ the sinless one is the one who imputes and imparts his righteousness which is in his sphere to us and therefore we are declared perfect hallelujah what what what a complete response i really like that last sentence the fact that god gives us the ability to make the choice to strive towards doing what he calls us to do the information that he's given us the knowledge the truth that is within our sphere we through christ have the ability to do it through christ's strength and that his righteousness is imputed unto us and we are counted worthy not that we are worthy but god himself is worthy thank you so much for that answer dr vice there's another point you see people tend to choose one of two camps there are those with the view that you have a fallen nature and you are incapable of keeping the law and that is the one group that we have in the world the other group goes to the other extreme and says yes we will be able to keep the law perfectly just as jesus kept the law perfectly and the two parties never meet but somewhere in the middle there is the concept yes we must overcome sin and we must strive in our sphere for perfection and this is the work of a lifetime and if you accept the righteousness of christ by faith and in your sphere and in his sphere you are working towards what we call the sanctified life then you are perfect in the sight of christ in the sight of the father because his righteousness covers you so it is not true that if you believe that you have a fallen nature which we have that in the same breath you are saying we cannot keep the commandments no we have to keep the commandments it is a duty to keep the commandments and we can perfectly keep the commandments in our sphere we have to talk about and i see it as one of your question what is perfection and what is sinlessness and the two are not one and the same wow doctor vladimir would you like to give us the difference between the two sinlessness and and perfection all right now when you when you talk about perfection of character uh ellen white makes it quite clear that perfection requires a constant striving to overcome a constant striving she says we must strive daily against the outward evil and inward sin if we would reach the perfection of christian character that's in the review and herald strive for perfection every soul has a character to form for everlasting life the christian is the christian life is a constant warfare against the slavery of passion we must be perfect christians we must deny ourselves all the way if we want to be final overcomers and so this one is very very important to me it is he who endures to the end that shall be saved it is they who patiently continue in well doing that shall have eternal life and the immortal reward so perfection is something that we strive for in our sphere we do have a sinful nature but that doesn't mean that we must act upon our sinful nature let me give you an example of the alcoholic the alcoholic can make a cognitive decision that he will no longer drink and he can exercise his will to do that that doesn't make him any less an alcoholic than he was before but he doesn't act upon it so he has the propensity but he denies his propensity the upper hand does that make sense yes it does in the same way we have a sinful nature but that doesn't mean that we must allow the sinful nature to control us we must control the sinful nature in our sphere and because we are not capable in and of ourselves to totally overcome sin we must in the power of christ and with his help overcome sin so it is always a shift to him he must increase i must decrease there's a statement in the spirit of prophecy which is very very powerful and it states the following no deep-seated love for jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize its own sinfulness did you get that i think no deep-seated love for jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize its own sinfulness the soul that is transformed by the grace of christ will admire his divine character but if we do not see our own moral deformity it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of christ that's a very powerful statement and if you think that you can stand in your own perfection then you haven't caught a glimpse of the beauty and the character of christ so let us just go to what sin actually is or sin listeners when ellen wright writes about sinlessness because the bible clearly says he who says he is without sin is a liar right indeed when she talks about sinlessness she invariably talks about sinless angels sinless worlds the sinless one he is perfect he had a sinless life and so she goes down the list she said he had no propensity for sin he could have sinned he could have fallen but not for one moment was there in him an evil propensity we should have no misgivings in regard to the perfect sinlessness of the human nature of christ so the only ones that she says are sinless are the angels adam and eve before the fall and jesus those are the sinless ones and the ones from the unfallen world so he who says he is without sin is a liar i have a sinful nature but that doesn't mean that i must be a slave to sin and this is where people become confused they say okay i have a sinful nature so are you saying i cannot stop sinning no sin is the transgression of the law and you have to keep the law nobody who sins willfully will get to heaven so this is the balance that we must find and we find this balance only in christ i have been accused many many times that i appear to say that we cannot keep the law never have i said that we must keep the law of god by the law is the knowledge of sin and the lord asks us quite categorically go and sin no more in other words don't transgress the law of god so as i have said i'm i have a sinful nature but i don't have to act upon it and i can see the perfection of christ and i must strive towards that perfection and i'm and i must strive with all the power in my sphere to reach it and to attain it and christ in his sphere living inside me must empower and enact me in order to keep the law perfectly and that is human perfection in as far as we can achieve us so those are the points to ponder and i hear another few statements to show you know some people say we must we must be exactly as perfect as christ was have you heard that before yeah well i can't really say that i've heard maybe i have not too sure well she says here for example that he made sacrifices that will never be required of man as man can never attain to his exalted character that's in three spirit of prophecy page 77 man can never attain to his exalted character but he can constantly strive towards that exalted character god is as much higher than i am as the east is from the west so for how long will i be able to grow in christ forever amen forever in other words it's not something that is completed here on this earth and then is no longer needed i will be constantly learning about the character of christ for all eternity and have the capacity to grow in him but here is the other question when must i break with sin here or do i have still an opportunity to do it on the other side of of this world no i must break with sin here nobody can come to go to heaven unless he has been declared by decree sinless and therefore i must not confuse the sinful nature with sinlessness nobody can say they are without sin this is a very important point she says those that are in christ will never boast of sinlessness if we say says john not separating himself from his brethren say that we have sin we deceive ourselves and have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness when christ forgives you your sin then how sinless are you well if he cleared it away that it's gone then you're absolutely perfectly sinless right now are you sinless in your own strength or are you sinless by his decree by christ's decree covered by his blood so this is the dichotomy that everybody is struggling with i have a sinful nature i don't have to act on it i can be perfectly sinless by decree when christ forgives you your sin then you are declared sinless when he removes the record of sin from the heavenly sanctuary then you stand before god as though you had never sinned now that to me is the most mind-blowing part of the plan of salvation and we can only understand the issue of sin and overcoming sin in the light of the sanctuary now if you are in an earthly court and you have been accused unfairly of some crime and eventually they find you guilty and throw you in jail but you know that you are innocent eventually you manage to convince them that you are innocent and they release you from jail then you must still get rid of the record of of that transgression until you are perfectly cleared by the state again that's how it happens in an earthly situation now the same thing happens in the heavenly situation right now i am if i have confessed my sins then he is faithful and just and he has forgiven me my sins i am basically standing before god as a sin free individual but there is a record of sin so i cannot say i sinless there's a record of sin where's that record written it's written in the sanctuary right yes yes it's recorded it was placed there in that blood onto the horns of the altar and there is a record of sin which means that i am a transgressor if there is a record of my sin that i have confessed it still doesn't change the fact that i was a transgressor and so my righteous punishment is death but the blood of christ paid that price for me and when he comes out of that sanctuary then that record of sin is removed and placed onto the head of the scapegoat and i stand before god as though i had never ever sinned it is the most sublime most beautiful plan ever conceived in the entire history of the universe and alawite says that when we get to heaven one day we will enter it as though we had a perfect right because you are standing before god as though you had never sinned wow of course we will we will see the marks in his hands and we will see the marks on his brow and we will know what the price was for freeing me from the record of sin which must instill an act of gratefulness which is incomprehensible to us at this stage we cannot even enact it with our fallen nature but as we grow in the heavenly realm it will be the most glorious the most wonderful study of eternity this plan of salvation amen amen thank you so much dr wright for answering that and you touched on so many things you tied the sanctuary into it as well and i think uh some questions came up in the chat that i think you perhaps answered while you were speaking but i'll still name them um so auntie marcia acts so if she is constantly striving to be perfect does that make her perfect her striving can never make her perfect because the bar is so high that to us it is not attainable without the intervention of christ only by adding his righteousness to my striving can i clear the bar so no matter where i am in the christian walk it is never a time to become what i call a shirt button popping individual i cannot stand before god and say ha ha i finally made it look at me lord i've become righteous and i push out my chest that my buttons pop off from my jacket that is the pharisee that did that the one who stood in the back and realized what what sin really entailed and what it did and i look at the spotless character of jesus christ and i say to him if it weren't for the spotless son of god and the price that he paid i would still have no hope of salvation and uh this is the christian walk the christian walk is to keep your eyes focused upon jesus if you focus upon yourself you will stumble and you will fall when you are confronted with temptation do you have the capacity to say no yes you do have the capacity to say no in fact you have an obligation to say no and when you exercise that will and the temptation becomes overpowering how far is help away right there right what is it lord i have exercised my will but my flesh is weak add your strength to my weakness and we will walk through this valley of temptation and come through the other side unsolid when a thought enters your mind that is not sin because anybody can plant a thought in your sight if you're walking past pornography and your eye catches it is that sin no but dwelling upon it no when you start dwelling upon it and gratifying your sinful nature by by dwelling upon it then it becomes sin right absolutely so if you if you've made the decision i do not want to have any part in this whatever the situation is and you say i will not give in to this and you start walking and that inner voice tempts you to turn and have that second look or to do whatever you want and you say that prayer lord add your strength to my weakness then it is his strength working in you empowering you to exercise a choice which you have to make because god will not make it for you he honors your choice and if it weren't so he couldn't hold you accountable if you were not capable of making the choice then he could not hold you accountable and this is where adventism differs well let me put it this way where true adventism differs from all other religious systems on the planet the law of god is the mirror the law of god is the standard of righteousness the law of god is what tells us what sin is and the law of god is the standard of judgment and therefore the law is so prominent and why is the sabbath so important because the sabbath is the law that governs the authority of god to proclaim law in the first place the authority of god is vested in the fact that he is the creator and that he is the re-creator of that which was lost and therefore the sabbath becomes the perfect commandment to test your loyalty not only to the sabbath but to the entire law amen thank you so much for that answer dr vipe now we have some other questions here and i'll ask one of them and one or two of them and then i'll bring chelsea on to ask the rest um brother raul has acts last generation theology what is that and does it apply to us today last generation theology is an incredibly controversial issue and uh i'm going to tell it as i see it and there will be many that differ from me and that's fine people can differ because do we understand the intricacies of all these things absolutely or are they so so divine in their in their conception that it is not always possible to understand everything but what has been revealed to us we can understand my first premise is this jesus christ the same yesterday today and forever would you agree with that amen hebrews 13 8 exactly so jesus christ has never changed has the plan of salvation ever changed no no he was the lamb slain from the beginning right correct adam and eve adam and eve were saved exactly the same way as anyone else abraham was saved the same way he believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness but did he have works to back up the fact that he actually believed absolutely god asked him to sacrifice his son did he hesitate no no because he had faith that god would raise him up again from the dead if he was to fulfill his promise so that's where james says faith without works is dead so the plan of salvation has never changed so when a martin luther or an abraham or an adam or a jacob or an isaac or a paul or a john or a peter or a stephen when they come out of that grave how perfect are they well fully the lord the lord has declared them to be perfect they've been striving after it will they have any sin well in order to yeah no no yeah no the sin must have been cleared right they must have come up before the records and the decree must have gone out that they have been declared sin free and the disputation with the devil over their bodies has already taken place just like there was a disputation over the body of moses so the devil will have had a dispensation disputation with christ over the body of every individual that has ever been saved by the grace of christ would you agree absolutely yes okay my question how perfect how much more perfect than any of those could you become well then christ no any of those that have been declared righteous that will come out of the grave one day all those that have been translated and have gone to heaven before us how much more perfect than they do you have to be oh no none other we're on the same playing field okay all right so this is my premise this is where i start off i believe that the plan of salvation has never changed now people that say the last generation will be different because we are going to stand without a mediator right yes correct let me read you something that someone wrote once about this and it he said the following to live without a mediator does not mean to live without the righteousness of christ or without the holy spirit or the saving grace of our lord since all cases are decided for wheel or for woe the work of our divine advocate is concluded no further charges by satan can be brought against the saints for christ has answered them all the cases of the saints have all been called to the bar of heaven christ has successfully pleaded our cause and secured a judgment in our favor nothing can now reverse that verdict there is nothing more to say accepting satan and his host there is perfect agreement throughout the universe as to the christ's verdict in favor of the saints all questions have been answered regarding the future of the saints no member of the godhead needs to make any further defense on their behalf all the rep that remains is for christ to return and for the saints to live and reign with christ a thousand years and that is where we stand if the decree has gone out let the righteous be righteous still and let the unrighteous be unrighteous still that's the close of probation right yes the decree let the righteous be righteous still means there where they stand at that moment there where they have been declared righteous that is where their mindset is ellen white says quite clearly to be sealed is to be so settled in the truth that you cannot be moved and yes you will stand without a mediator you will be without a mediator because christ has stood up from the judgment seat but he has declared let him that is righteous be righteous stone he has sealed your decision in your forehead so by whose power are you standing there in this moral perfection that god has decreed to enable you to go to heaven it is in his and i am always careful let me put this very carefully i'm always careful to ascribe any such power to any inherent strength that i have within myself because the path of presumption lies very very close to the path of faith in fact the spirit of prophecy tells us that presumption is the counterfeit of faith i'm very scared when people say i have now arrived or i will be in this state of perfection and have a ride because the bible says be careful lest you think you stand and then you fall so my personal view is i don't know exactly how it's going to work and i don't think anybody knows exactly how it's going to work all i know is that it is going to work i am going to stand one day without the mediation of christ and i will stand through the time of trouble without his mediation but in my opinion it is by his decree that has cemented my choice that i will remain righteous still no matter what because he has decreed it it is always the emphasis on him i'm very very scared to place the emphasis on myself amen amen thank you dr vice now the time is 2 58 p.m and we have some other questions do you have more time to take the questions that persons have posed or i mean it's all up to you dr vike i'm happy to speak to you and if you have questions we can talk about them okay and we can clear up many misunderstandings i believe we must obey god i must i we must walk in righteousness and we can stand in the power of christ before god and uh it is it is a magnificent plan a plan of salvation and the price that it cost just that price that it cost must must warn me from the path of presumption thank you thank you so much dr vike now i'm going to access one question and then i'm going to bring on sister chelsea to take care of the rest that are in the chat sister sheena asks how can you address preachers who preach that we will sin until jesus returns sin is the transgression of the law isn't it correct and uh why were adam and eve removed from the garden of eden because of sin correct so a theology that says that you can sin and go to heaven is contrary to the very beginning of the story of the great controversy but the fact of the matter what is often what is often the case is as soon as you say that you must strive as the spirit of prophecy tells us to overcome sin and as we have discussed it they will say you're a legalist now a legalist is someone who says that you must obey the law even an earthly government requires you to obey the law how much more so a heavenly government so i would i would say to those people that say that you uh cannot keep the law or that it is impossible to keep the law well then the whole plan of salvation and the whole question of choice becomes impossible as well doesn't make any sense whatsoever there must be a reconciliation but again reiterate that you are not doing it in your own strength you are doing it in your sphere and you are doing it not by you living the perfect life but by allowing christ to live the perfect life in you and adding to your sphere what he is doing in his sphere so people do not have to be afraid of the concept of people being in harmony with the law of god you can indeed you must be in harmony with the law of god and the the law was written on tablets of stone which means they are immutable they cannot change we say it's written in stone it can't change it's like the law of meads and persians but the difference is christ writes it on your heart and then he says i stand at the door and knock where is he standing at the door of your heart isn't it yes and he's saying allow me to come in and if you allow me to come in then i will live my life within you don't we sing that hymn live out your life within me yes do we mean it or do we just mumble it we should mean it right absolutely that is the christian walk there is no other way anything else is either capitulation or presumption amen thank you dr vai thank you dr vadis making us want to sing live out that life within me but let me call on sister chelsea jack to ask the rest of the questions there are so many that are flowing in from youtube zoom and the other platform so sister and we have questions that we have written uh so sister chelsea you can come on and ask the rest of questions for us please and thank you so much dr weitz for giving freely of your time [Music] thank you uh um we can go no no it's fine okay hello again um you brought up so much wisdom oh my gosh and i know like i listen to people and they're on as you said we could be called legalists and but there are people very legalistic and as you said are striving for perfection which we can never reach without jesus but you have a balance and and i love that you even said something about when denisha said earlier she brought up two texts that look like they juxtaposed each other but you said that jesus was the answer and for all of our questions he is the door so that is so amazing um there's a question from joan jack and she asks um first john 5 to 16 it mentions a sin that leads not unto death what is that sin doesn't the bible say that we have an advocate with the father yeah so he says i do not want you to sin but if you do sin we have an advocate with the father and normally when we when we have decided to walk the christian walk and in that walk we become despaired it's not right to become despaired but it is part of human nature that we do become despaired have you ever been without despair no i don't think anybody has been without despair if you try to walk the christian walk and you despair and you fall you despair to the point where you lose hold of that hand of god that is reaching out to you and your despair that in itself is a sin it's a sin of human despair and that little voice elijah is a perfect example he despaired and he sat in that cave and he said to god i don't care what you do i don't care whether you have an earthquake out there and i don't care if there's a storm that blows the rocks away leave me alone i've had enough and god was not in the fire and god was not in the storm and god was not in whatever he threw at him but what got him was that still small voice and that still small voice is the one [Music] that tells you all is not lost and then you go out and while he's going out having heard this little small voice he's still grumming grumbling he's still saying i've done everything and i'm the only one left in grumble grumble grumble but that little voice got to him so if you sin we have an advocate with the father those sins don't lead to death jesus says that the sins against him don't lead to death here's the scenario let's say you know the truth and you say to jesus i want to party i want to have fun in this life i know that you exist i know that this is the truth but leave me alone i want to have fun that's a sin against jesus christ and that is a sin when you come to your senses one day because the holy spirit won't leave you alone and he'll give you all the opportunities that you can possibly wish for and a mother's prayer will give god the opportunity to work in the children for for as long as it takes and hope does not decline or go away until the last breath is breathed none of those things no matter what you have done no matter how bad it is no matter what depth you sank to no matter whether you ended up with the pigs those are all sins against christ and they can be forgiven no matter how filthy they are no matter how depressed they are they can be forgiven there's one sin that cannot be forgiven and that is when you get to the point where you say that the voice that speaks to your heart is from the devil then you have come to the point where you are calling light darkness and darkness light to say i know it is the truth but i don't want it leave me alone that's not the sin against the holy spirit that is not a sin unto death it can't be repented of it can't be corrected and god can swing your life around but when you say you are from the devil because you are trying to get me on the right path then you are on very dangerous ground that's the sin against the holy spirit amen and i know like there's many people who are probably just enlightened now and just relieved because i know for me i used to believe that blasphemy in the holy spirit was like cursing him and i heard people preach this i'm like oh my gosh like what if one day i do this by accident but god forgive me and we'll go to heaven and so thank you for that um dr v um so let me tell you something i've had so many young people come to me in tears and say to me i'm lost i've committed the sin against the holy spirit i told god to get lost and i say to them so you feel that you're lost and they say yes i feel that i'm lost i say okay do you feel sorry about the fact that you feel lost and they say yes and i said well that's great news that means you're not lost there's hope for you but go and sin no more that's what jesus said go and sin no more that woman had fallen to the very depth of depravity and he said where are your accusers she said that they've left lord i mean he didn't write their sins in the in the sand and that's why they left but they were self-righteous but she had a full knowledge of her standing and then he said to her neither do i condemn you that is salvation but he sends her back to the law don't do it anymore go and sin no more and that is the same with us god calls and god calls and god calls and some refuse forever and some grieve the holy spirit but even if you've gone to the pigs and or eating the pods that means you're down to the dope and whatever else there is that's wicked that little voice will get to you and you say i will go to my father and say give me the lowest position and he'll put a ring on your finger and his arms around you and have a feast and all the other adventists will be angry amen um so the next question is how do we know that we have forgiveness and what is the jacob trouble from stacy and brown by faith you accept that you are forgiven and the devil will read his list to you and he has a list he has a list of more things than you can remember about yourself and have you ever seen or read pilgrim's progress no ella white says everyone should read pilgrim's progress and in the book pilgrim's progress he writes when the devil accuses him and accuses him and accuses him he says you're right and so much more but i'm covered by the blood of the lamb and by faith i must believe not only that he is exists but that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and if he says if you confess your sins he is just and will forgive you your sins then you must say god cannot lie and by faith you accept it irrespective of how many whisperings the devil places in your ear amen we have an advocate in jesus christ we just have to claim it and some of us are so bad at claiming the promises of god and that's the part of what what you know feeds our sin nature the bible says there is no condemnation in jesus christ actually condemnation makes a sin and what you brought out today just helps us to see the mercy of jesus a lot of us see him as someone he's not he's very merciful loving as you said you brought up the woman who was thrown at his feet and he says where are your accusers i accuse you not either a lot of us think that jesus is the accuser okay so the next question you guys could keep posting you just brought up a very important point what is your motive because you want to keep the law of god is your motive i want to go to heaven therefore i must keep the law of god then you are in great danger of becoming a legalist if your motive is i have seen what jesus has done for me and i have fallen in love with his character then i keep the law not by compulsion but because of love and then i will always look at his beauty and his righteousness and my own will fade into nothingness by comparison then your motive is the one that places you in the correct relationship with god amen and again i know so many people are just doing it off of the wrong motive we have to believe as you just said like god has already given us everything we just have to believe he loves us and when we receive it then we are equipped to live a sinless life um i'm not sure i don't see any more questions in the chat please continue to post them if you have them but i'll just go ahead and ask one of my questions so one of them was what exactly as you touched on it before is justification by faith and what component does the law play in this key factor of salvation because i know a lot of us get in mixed up like law work works um vein works or works as you said to get into heaven and then works based on faith justification is a legal concept it has to do with law so justification is a decree which places you in a position of salvation in christ in other words if you repent and ask forgiveness for your sins and you accept the atoning sacrifice of jesus christ as your atonement then you are declared righteous in other words the righteousness of christ is imparted to you so justification is by faith in the atoning blood of jesus christ it's forerunner is repentance and conversion in other words peter said repent and be baptized and call on the name of the lord and you will be saved so that is justification all right now justification is imparted righteousness what is righteousness simply put righteousness is doing what is right in other words being in harmony with the law so what will be the fruit of justification keeping the law so how do i know that someone has been justified if he keeps the law or she keeps the law in other words to say that i have been justified and i am not striving in my sphere to keep the law of god is proof that i have not been justified at all so justification is a legal decree it's not a process and following justification there must be sanctification because the bible says without sanctification no one will see god now here's a question for you the thief on the cross did he experience sanctification i would say no well you would say didn't have a lot of time for it right yeah but he not only accepted justification because he said remember me when you come into your kingdom right and he accepted justification now he was a thief and the other thief was mocking wasn't he he was mocking jesus he said you're hanging there on the cross if you really are who you say you are then save us get down from the cross and save us. and the thief on the right hand said to him you know what this man has no sin at least we are being punished for the things that we have done and he ceased mocking right he probably ceased swearing the other one was probably swearing ten to a dozen right so did he have the fruits of his justification even on the cross yes he didn't have the period of growth and introspection that someone that has a long walk with christ has but he must have experienced justification and he displayed to the extent that he could even sanctification he stopped doing what he used to do before and that is proof that you had a real conversion anybody who says that he has found christ and carries on living like he did before calling himself a christian is blaspheming because when you take the name of christ and the name stands for character it means that you want to put on the character of god you want to die to self you want to clobber the old man to death and you want to live a new life in christ that's why you must die and you must have a resurrection in him and paul said the life i now live i live by the life of the son of god who lives in me so again the power for sanctification is an extraneous power and it is called imparted righteousness the first one justification is called imputed righteousness so again even my sanctification is something that i make a decision and to the best of my ability in my sphere exercise but the power to perform comes from him lest i should boast amen and this just also reminds me of the scripture um jesus was telling a parable and he he was telling the parable about a king who's sending out people sending out his servants to call both batting good into the wedding after the first set of people did not accept the invitation and this man came in he wasn't he wasn't um wearing the right attire at first i was like the man is gonna throw him out for not wearing the right clothes after you accepted bad and good into the wedding but he was missing jesus's robe of righteousness his imputed robe so thank you for that and it's so beautiful i have to agree with you just what jesus has done for us on the cross okay so the next question is and it's an interesting one where were fallen angels why weren't fallen angels given a second chance of redemption but humanity was humanity was deceived the angels were not deceived they were living in the presence of the glory of god face to face they had eons we don't know how long to walk and ascertain the character of god they had absolutely no excuse for what they did they decided against christ in the blatant light of the opposite of what satan was saying humanity was deceived humanity was hoodwinked into accepting a lie and therefore there was salvation for man but not for the angels amen are clear and concise answer and also um if you want to know more about this ellen d white actually i think goes over this in the book um the truth about angels and the bible also is very clear the hell fire that final destruction was prepared for the devil and his angels the bible says it quite clearly it wasn't prepared for humanity the fact that humanity is going to partake in it to a large extent is based on their choice yes and not on the decree of god as predestination would say because that would make god a monster wow that's great knowledge um another question is i was trying to speak to a black israelite or a hebrew is what i think it is about salvation how can i hit home when it comes to his faith well it is the fact of their religion that they believe basically a predestination they are chosen race and a chosen people and they have a one-way ticket to heaven and there are many groups that believe that and in every nation and tribe and creed there are people that believe that they are chosen to go to heaven by whatever criterium they have managed to define for themselves some define that they have certain rituals which enable them to go to heaven others define that their race determines whether they go to heaven or whether they don't go to heaven and you have the israelite movement where you have british israelitism for example where the british race is the chosen race that will eventually inherit the promises and so you have all of these groupings that for some reason or other have defined themselves as the chosen saved race now the bible is very clear that uh all of humanity he has by one blood created all the nations the tribes the races we were all in adam that's why racism is uh is a totally illogical phenomenon because we were all in adam when we were created and the genetic variability that we have is not a means for defining our salvation in adam the only way to be saved was by the blood of the lamb and therefore anything that comes thereafter has exactly the same criterium so it is very hard to talk to people that believe that they have been particularly chosen to be the only ones with the right ticket to heaven and you will have to do a bible study with them and they have to will have to be willing to do a bible study because many of them are never willing to do a bible study in our country we have this israelite movement and we have white israelites and we have black israelites and both of them think that they are the only ones that go to heaven the ones that go to heaven are the ones that are covered by the righteousness of christ and that is a choice and the black hebrews do not have christ because they they don't believe that he is the messiah unless they have become messianic jews and then they still don't believe in the same jesus that we believe in because they are looking for a national deliverer whereas we are looking for a deliverer from this thing that is called sin thank you for that i mean that explains it itself okay so we have a question from brother roger who who can answer it now yeah good afternoon happy sabbath uh the question is for dr walter vit i would like you to explain to me uh romans 5 verses 12 to 14. i can read it but i really wanted to explain verse 14 verse 12 says wherefore as by one man sin enter into the world and dead by sin and so dead pass upon all men for all have sinned that is very clear for until the law sin was not in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law but verse 40 said nevertheless that reign from adam to moses even over them that has not sinned after the semitude of adam's transgression who is figure of him that was to come i really want to explain verse 14 because verse 12 and 13 is very clear but verse 14 i like some explanation on that thank you verse 14 is actually a magnificent verse death reigned from adam to moses moses was the first one to be resurrected from the dead and taken to heaven so death reigned from adam to moses moses was resurrected and taken to heaven and he became a type of all that will have died and will be resurrected at the end of time and will go to heaven in actual fact this verse is one of the clear verses that confirm the resurrection and that is why it was so important for the devil to dispute over the body of moses because moses had sinned and because of it he suffered the wages of sin and he died in a typological sense now we all have sinned and have to pay that price but he had a resurrection and was taken to heaven therefore death reigned from adam to moses and that is proof of the fact that there will be a death and a resurrection and it is the guarantee that the righteous that have died will have a resurrection it's a beautiful verse and only in the context of adventist theology can it be understood amen brother roger are you uh content with that answer okay it's disappeared i don't think he cannot mute himself but amen amen okay so the next question is personal question for this speaker from avery jones how did you advance your scientific career while while studying the theory of evolution or the big bang and stay true to your religion were you forced to adhere and write about what you disagreed with well i taught evolution before i became a believer when i became a believer i refused to teach the theory of evolution and i went to the head of the department and i told him i would not teach the theory of evolution anymore and so i was called into the rector of the university and the rector had a long talk with me and that was a rather interesting conversation i became i was a brand new believer and i said to him i can only no longer reconcile the fact that i have this faith and teach evolution at the same time because the university where i was at required that every single course had to be taught in the concept of evolution and director then asked me okay is there no way that you can compromise and i said to him no and he said why don't you just teach it here and don't believe it and i said no the price is too high i would be a hypocrite and then he asked me who has the truth and i said to him christianity and the bible he said no no no i don't want to know that i want to know who specifically do you say has the truth and i was very young in adventism and i didn't want to say adventists so i said the people at this and that college referring to an adventist college he says no no no i want to know who has the truth and spiritually i heard in the back of my head the crowing having denied twice already so i said the adventists and he said thank you i wish you well in your future and uh i left the university then when i was approached to come to another university a year later which was a very tough year because i gave up a very good career because of my conviction they asked me to come and teach the physiology courses at the university because someone had gone on leave and i said yes but i want you to know i don't teach evolution and they said that's fine you can just teach the science of physiology and i said thank you very much so i that's how i started off with the university again and what was a temporary job became a permanent job and then in a very short while after that i was promoted to become the head of the department and a professor in zoology first i was made a professor then the head of the department because the professor had died so that's how i got back into the university and whenever the students used to ask me they would say to me what does this and this mean in evolutionary terms or something like that and i would say according to the theory of evolution this is what they say and then the students would ask me why do you always say according to the theory of evolution why don't you just say it like everybody else this is how it works i said because i don't believe in evolution and then they would say to me but why not and i would say that's not part of the curriculum but if you want to know then arrange a lecture after hours and i'll tell you and that's what they always did and then i would give a lecture after hours and then there would be big trouble because the students would get back to their classes and say no no no it wasn't like this it was like that and then there was a huge wall so i was always in trouble wow and i actually watched a bit of your testimony on youtube i have to say it's very interesting but definitely when we humble ourselves god will exalt us and he always has a way a path made for us all right would you like to take one more question okay okay so the last question will be what does first peter 4 18 mean when it says the righteous are scarcely saved if justification works yes if it's hard for the righteous to be saved how much more so for the unrighteous you know there are people that promise you a broad path in the christian world but the christian world is a narrow path it is a path of self-denial you cannot have a christian walk and continue business as usual in fact when you become a christian in a non-christian family your own mother doesn't recognize you anymore when you have made a decision to follow christ and to pick up the yoke and to walk behind him you will lose your friends you will lose many of your family members but you will gain others it's not an easy road and these people that tell you that christianity is simply accepting salvation by christ and continuing to live as you did before are lying to you if it's hard for the righteous to be saved how much more so for the but unrighteous balance that jesus says my yoke is easy but now you must remember one thing even though it is easy because he carries you it's still a yoke he doesn't take the yolk away he doesn't say okay i'll strew your path with roses off you go there's no yolk on you no there's a yolk on you my yoke is easy you can keep the law of god you can do what is right you can stop swearing you can stop drinking you can stop taking drunks drugs you can stop breaking the law of god you can stop doing adultery you can stop doing all of those things in your sphere and you will be mocked and you will be ridiculed and the trouble that peter had was he was ready to go to war he was ready to cut off ears but when he was mocked he fell and that's why he's not being presumptuous here he's saying listen i thought i was the bee's knees i thought i could do it but let me tell you i fell i want to warn you it's not so easy when people mock you when people turn the spear around and say you are the enemy of the state you are against the common good you are a thorn in people's sides if they write all kinds of things against you and let's face it they write all kinds of things against me and i've had many many things written against me and then you must learn to have the spirit of christ and it's not always easy because sometimes you want to be like peter and you want to pick up the sword and get rid of an ear or two but like jesus said to the sons of thunder you do not know what spirit you are so peter is quite right is warning you of the path of presumption wow definitely um yeah what more to say after that okay so i will turn it back over to denisha and thank you so much dr v it was truly a pleasure i've gotten so much out of this and i know but everyone else on this line has as well thank you indeed thank you so much dr vice and you know doctor let me get this right is your name dr vice is it dr veath what is the correct pronunciation of your last name i have so many pronunciations i've almost forgotten what the right one is myself actually it's actually fight like right good old but yes ah dr fight all right thank you so much for that thank you thank you thank you we thank you for your time thank you for your humility and for answering all of these questions thank you so much sister chelsea for facilitating for that about 30 minutes or so and thank you for all of you that have tuned in dr fight we are so grateful that you took the time out of your day i know where you are it's a it's almost 10 o'clock p.m in south africa so thank you so so much for sacrificing and giving freely of your time may the lord continue to bless you your family and your ministry and thank you to all of you and uh a big hug to randy skeet too yes yes thank you thank you thank you all right friends so we're going to continue on we have a 16 year old young lady who loves the lord and the spirit of prophecy and i believe she's mature beyond her years and she has a warmth that inflames everyone even strangers that she meets and she uses this gift to tell others about jesus please welcome sister christiane cattle as she ministers ministers to us in song sister christiane amen plus sabbath everyone again wonderful ministry again and the lesson that was brought today it was really nice and i prayed right before we started and to pray for confirmation for everyone in this and those who weren't able to make it so right before i sing i'd love to do a quick prayer if you guys don't mind okay dear heavenly father lord we ask for a special blessing over dr viet if that's correct and all the people who is in this award the sister denises so chelsea everyone who's in here and those who weren't able to make the lord help us to see beyond our audio lord help us to see we aren't the human realm of the lord but the spiritual realm of the lord give us his breath of lord in jesus name precious name amen and amen amen please let me know if the audio cuts in and out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] family [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] just what it's like [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] this is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen amen amen thank you so much sister christiane for ministering that song what if the trials of this life are just god's blessings in disguise we thank god for his working today and i extend special thanks to dr fight for answering the questions through the quickening of the holy spirit thank you brother robinson altino for ministering abide with me thank you sister stacy and for that paul reminding us to ask god to help us love him the way he wants us to thank you so much sister christian cattle for that song thank you sister chelsea jack for asking the questions and for also adding personal experiences to your comments and thank you in advance sister alan akashi for the prayer i also extend thanks to cousin errol for ensuring that reverence was preserved by muting persons and spotlighting persons and so forth and i thank god for my mom for her prayers support and counsel and thank you to all of you who have taken the time out of your schedule to join us to share it's a comment to ask your questions and to pray on the behalf of this ministry and thank you also for subscribing now i encourage all of you to join us sabbath april 24th as we have another q a session with elder randy skeet on righteousness by faith i know sister chelsea asked a question about justification by faith we have an entire session dedicated to righteousness by faith so feel free to submit your questions feel free to also share the flyer and tune in we'll be asking you know what does it really mean to be righteous how do we learn righteousness and also feel free to join us and i should have put the flyer up here and share the canva feel free to join us by god's grace may 8th at 2 o'clock p.m we'll have a q a session with pastor steven boer on the state of the dead and there will be answering questions like what happens when we die when will the dead be judged when will the living be judged do ghosts exist feel free to save the date and i'm gonna see if i can quickly pull up this flyer yes here we go yes yes let me move this here yes so god willing may 8th will be talking about the state of the dead but april 24th elder randy's feet has been so kind to join us for the third time i mean we'll be talking about righteousness by faith so thank you all for tuning in and thank you so much dr fight for giving so freely of your time we will now have and thank you to all of you that have tuned in i see sister ken daisy sister karel sister sheena sister shea pastor emmanuel so many persons we had over 100 persons on on zoom alone so thank you so much i'm now gonna turn it over to sister alana kwashi as she closes us off with a word of prayer thank you thank you assistant misha i just want to say again thank you to everyone who participated thank you to dr white for his presentations and his answer to his questions and i just ask that everyone um be put in a state of reverence right now as i am about to pray to close off this evening service daily father thank you for this day thank you for everything you have done for us thank you for keeping us safe today throughout the sabbath we thank you for allowing us to see another week we thank you for allowing us to see another sabbath again lord we ask that we take into heart everything that we have learned here throughout this program lord we ask that you bless dr wright we ask that you bless all the participants and that helped to make sure that this program went smoothly and went well lord and we thank you for those that saying those that play the piano please help them and continue to be with them as they continue to use their talents for you lord and lord as i said again help us to keep in mind what we've learned here lord help us to not only help us to not give up lord help us to understand that you are always there for us help us to learn that you will always be there for us and each and every step of the way lord and as we go through these rough times these last days will help us to stay fervent and faith towards you lord and as we finish off this habit help us to stay reverent help us to do what is right throughout the rest of the day lord and we thank you for allowing us to see another week in advance lord jesus pray amen and amen amen thank you so much alana for that prayer and my mom brought to my attention that elder skeet is still here thank you so much elder skeet for staying on for the duration of this program and dr fight sends a big hug for you and and we are so blessed that you took the time out to tune in i know you'd mentioned you're in virginia preaching the word i pray that the lord continues to put his words in your mouth thank you again dr fight and all of you for tuning in may the lord grant a rich blessing upon your life and all those that will listen to the replay of this message as we seek to live a life according with the word of god thank you all and may the lord bless you thank you thank you thank you

Channel: Denisha McCurchin

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Length: 116min 6sec (6966 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021