| Author | Message | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 13 Registered: 9-2006 |
I said before that I have been working on a way to witness to Adventist. Now I think I must do it without argument and also meet him/her on familiar ground. What is that familiar ground? Well, one cannot talk to him of soul sleep, Sabbath keeping, the Adventist church, Ellen G, White, new and old covenants and so forth because I think one will end up in a big old hairy argument thus losing the battle. So I have tried to break it down to what affects us all. That leaves us with the Ten Commandments. I will try to explain my thinking. A good military general will attempt to pick the best ground for a battle and he will try to contain the battle within that battle ground. Now, we are in a spiritual battle here, and I donít see why we cannot pick the ground on which we will fight. If I do not pick the ground, I give the enemy the high ground. So I will pick the battlefield and of course, take the high ground and I want to contain him within that battlefield of my choice and not let him get into the rocks and boulders of false doctrine. Once he gets there it is almost impossible to route him out again. Now we know the enemies name, his name is false doctrine and we know what he looks like and how to identify him. Now what do I have to fight with? Truth, faith, righteousness, salvation, for protection, feet shod with preparation to carry me and my sword (word of God) to kill him with. Now I do not want to wound him and leave him to fight another day I want to plunge the sword deep into his heart and kill him. Now if I pick the battle ground of the Ten Commandments he will think, ìah, I have the high ground, Sabbath keeping is my dishî when in reality it is me that holds the high ground, the cross of Christ being the highest ground. Being an educated and well prepared leader, I know that he is going try too break for the boulders of false doctrine but I will keep him pinned down to the Ten Commandments. Why? The Ten Commandments is where we all fought and lost. It is the great leveler of us all. Rom 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. I really cannot see a difference in one who depends on Sabbath keeping for his righteousness and one who depends on his own self righteousness, pride and ignorance for his righteousness. It seems to me that both will stand before a Holy, Just and Perfect God with the filthy rags of failure enshrouding him and the sentence will be carried out. Actually I am becoming convinced that I should use these tactics on all sinners/lawbreakers in general, to my way of thinking the church has gone long enough in promising health, wealth and prosperity in order to try to | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 2143 Registered: 3-2005 |
Hi River, I agree with you that using the law as a standard to measure the failings of the human race is a necessary means to preaching the gospel to all, because, if one doesn't realize their need for a Savior, and why they are condemned, then the gospel will not have meaning. As a former SDA, I thought I kept the law pretty good especially the Sabbath, but when I came to realize my need for Christ, and realized how holy the eternal demands of the Law really were, then I would run to the cross. Alistair Begg sums up the purpose of the Law in evangelism by the following discussion: Quote "People ask me all the time, 'What are we to do with the Old Testament?' And the answer is, you are to read the Old Testament in light of the fact that God has made himself finally and savingly known in Jesus. The arrival of Jesus is a watershed event in the unfolding panorama of God's purposes. And therefore it is not that the Old Testamentóthe Law and the Prophetsóare somehow or another from a bygone era, and we can set them aside over in a room somewhereóperhaps put them in a glass case and say 'Oh there were people who paid attention to the Law of God, you know.' No, rather they are foundational to all of our discovery of who is this suffering Servant to arrive? That's why we've said time and again, in hope that the penny may drop for some, what we say to our kids in Sunday School, that the way to understand the Bible is to keep your eyes on Jesus. Because in the Old Testament, he is expected. In the gospels, he is revealed. In the Acts of the Apostles, he is preached. In the epistles, he is explained. And in the book of Revelation, he is anticipated. So, when we come to an understanding of who Jesus is, the Law is part and parcel of that process. A few months ago I worshiped in another church far from here, at least a thousand miles from here for those who are always trying to find out where it was. And in the course in the worshipÖthe gentleman who was a well-meaning gentleman did a credible job of explaining to the congregation and to me that God loved me. And on the strength of the fact that God loved me, which he tried to make as much of as he could, he then exhorted me to give my life to God, in response to God's love. And he explained that the extent of God's love was so vast that Jesus died on a cross. I was sitting there thinking to myself, 'Imagine that I wasn't a believer and I'm listening to this message. How am I supposed to put two and two together here and get four? How do I get from the fact of God's love, to the death of Jesus, to the fact that I'm supposed to give my life to him?' You see, if Susan (my wife) comes to me and says 'I love you with all my heart and as a result of that I'm going to jump off a ten storey building to the ground below to show you how much I love you.' I'd say 'What possible value would there be in that? That's a strange way to express love.' But if she was to say, 'I love you with all my heart, and your need is so vast physically that I'm prepared to give a part of my life to you in order that in your potential death you can find in me your life,' I'd say, 'I can understand why you'd give yourself away because there is a need.' But until men and women are confronted with the Law of God, which shows them to be sinners, the idea of a savior dying on the cross doesn't really make sense. 'What is he doing up there?' 'Well he loves you.' Yeah I understand that, but wasn't there another way he could have done this? Why die on a cross? Because without the shedding of blood there will be no remission of sin. Of what? Of sin. Like what? Like stealing, lying, lusting, not loving God with all your heart and so on. You mean like breaking some of the ten commandments? Yes! So the Law of God is proclaimed to the well-healed middle class suburbanite in Cleveland who grades himself or herself on the curve. Driving in my car away from service I say to myself, 'Well I do have a few little things that probably need attention,' but I looked along the road and I saw old Billy boy there and frankly he is a disaster zone compared to me. So presumably however he gets graded, I'm gonna be OK. 'Because [God] will bring [the curve] way down and I'll be somewhere where I'll get through.' No you see, none of us can get past the first oneó'you shall have no other gods before me.' Now when I realize then that I have broken God's law and that I cannot get myself in a right relationship with God by playing catch-up in my external religion, then I say 'How in the world do you get out of this predicament?' When a man or a woman has reached the point where they say 'How do I get out of this predicament?' then they are ready to hear about the fact that the love of God extended to death of Jesus upon a cross because it was by his death upon a cross that he bore the punishment for the sin that I deserved to bearóthat he died in my place and he took my penaltyóthat the filthy rags of my rebellion are more than matched by the wonder of the robe of righteousness which is a royal robe that I don't deserve, which he gives to me, not because of anything in me, but on account of his exceptional grace." ------------------------------------------------- We need a lot more sermons like that preached by Alistair Begg. Stan |
