Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 23: The Lord's Vineyard

Pastor David Asscherick is joined by Sarah Lane to discuss Chapter 23 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, which examines the parable of the tenants. Ellen White traces Israel's history from Abraham through the Exodus and the promised land, showing how God privileged His covenant people to represent His character to the nations. David and Sarah explore how the religious leaders rejected Christ and misrepresented God's chesed—His mercy, loving-kindness, and compassion. The chapter's second half applies these lessons to the church today, emphasizing that believers should focus on something better: not what we're against, but what we're for. Through praise, gratitude, and service, God's goodness should ooze naturally from His people, creating an atmosphere of grace that drives back Satan's power and draws all people to Him.

Guest: Sarah Lane
Scripture References: Matthew 21:33-46
Birds mentioned: Red Crossbill
Covers: Chapter 23: The Lord's Vineyard
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw_CNy1ydUg
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody, and welcome to with DA. And I already forgot. Wait, don't tell me. SBSL. Got it. Got it. Nailed it again. Welcome to With DA and SBSL. We are doing a month-long study through the parables of Jesus. And we are on chapter 23 tonight of our secondary textbook, Christ's Object Lessons. Tonight we're in Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21. We're looking at the parable of the tenants. That's right. And we've had a big day. Sarah, big day. What did we do today? Give us a breakdown of what you and your husband and me and my wife did today.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Yeah, so we had a wonderful worship service with lots of beautiful children.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Oh definitely at the highlight.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

And David preached a fire sermon in Little Shit, Colorado.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

So you could probably look that up. I'm guessing it's on their YouTube channel. Probably. Probably. And then we had some amazing food, thanks to our incredible spouses. Yeah. That are both awesome chefs.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

So you didn't really do the cooking either, did you?

SPEAKER_03 1:02

No, I'm not the chef. That's so funny. Brent made spring spring rolls and peanut sauce that were yummycious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

And then I like the name tur curry. Curried tofu. Curried tofu.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Oh, so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

And then afterward, you went for a walk.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

And I took a nap.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Yeah. And Violetta and Brent and I all did uh a lap together. It was lovely.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yeah, we have a little 1.6 mile loop in front of our house. So this is my understanding. Brent did one with everybody. Yep. And you and Violeta then did two. Yep. And then Violetta retired, and then you did three and a half. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

It was so beautiful out there. That's a lot. Good for you. It was hard to come in.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

All right. That's been our day. And I took a nap. I just laid down in the sun on the couch. I did not plan to take a nap. That wasn't my plan.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

It looked like a little cat sleeping in the sun.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Oh, it felt amazing. You know how you get in the sun. Yeah. And I was just tired. Yeah. I was tired. We had a big day. Preaching takes a lot out of me. Uh, welcome everybody. We are super duper glad that you were here. Look at Audie says hello from Thailand. Nice. God bless you, Adriana. We love you. Terrible Terry Golden Girl says, Hi, Sarah and Brent.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Hi, Terry.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Deb says, that's a good walk. I did it too. Yep, Deb made it way throughout the uh loop. Um, welcome everybody. Gerald Wayne says, Amazing Sabbath today. We had a great day today. In fact, the the kids, uh, it was like a Pathfinder's, what are they called? Adventure Sabbath. And uh they sang some really great songs. And the last song they sung was the song I Trust in God. I trust in God must say your one. He will never fail. So I've been singing it all day. And I just sing it. And I was just blasting it on my little Bluetooth speaker. Violeta's like, I think we've heard that song enough times today. I'm like, not even close. So anyway, that song is in my head, and it really goes along with the chapter. Yeah. I think it's not fail. But God does not fail. That's right. By the way, just a quick heads up to those of you on YouTube. Um, I am way, way, three ways, way, way, way behind on answering, responding to the comments, because I've just had guest after guest after guest after guest after guest. And tomorrow, when these guys leave, you guys leave tomorrow morning, right? Correct. You're welcome to stay. You're welcome to stay as long as you want. You have jobs and lives.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Um, and then the next day I go to pick up our final guest. So I know I'm behind on answering and responding to the comments on YouTube, but I will make an effort over the next several days to catch up. Also, we were a little behind on the uploads. We had two uploads. One of them, the one with Brent and myself, your husband, didn't upload. And then I re-uploaded it and it went slow as could be, but it's now uploaded. And then the one that Sarah and I just did yesterday literally just finished like 10 minutes ago. So we're all caught up. All caught up. And by the grace of God, tonight, uh, when we do this one and I do the editing and upload it, it'll be we'll be all caught up. Perfect. So um, you guys fly home tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow morning. Back to your life.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Okay. We've got a big chapter here today. It's over 20 pages. And even though it's long, it's actually I think it's kind of easy to get your hand around, get your head around to understand it. So we're gonna do that in just a moment. But Sarah, first, why don't you have prayer for us?

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

And then um

Prayer

SPEAKER_01 4:26

we'll get right into this.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Sounds great. Dear kind Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you have given us this time and this place right now. And Lord, we just want to come before you again as we open your word. Please send the Spirit here, send it to each person's home as they're participating and joining in, and be here with us as we share the words that you have put in the book, um, most of all in your holy book, and also in our textbook as well. Lord, we're so grateful for the additional understanding that you've given us.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

And how it paints this beautiful picture of your character.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

And Lord, I just pray that we be faithful servants, that you can grow

Discussion

SPEAKER_03 5:04

your fruit right out of us.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

We love you so much, Jesus. Thank you for being with us. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Amen. Beautiful. You know, I was thinking when you were praying there, Sarah. Some people might be wondering wait a minute, Brent and Sarah are both here. Who, how did you win the arm wrestling match? Like, how did you decide who got to do the third one? Because Brent did one, then you did one.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

And then now here you are.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah, he's the introvert and then the extrovert.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

So it's just that.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

No wrestling match, no arm wrestling match, no tickle match, no pillow fight, just he's the introvert, you're the extrovert.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Okay. He didn't even want to do it. No.

unknown 5:39

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Did he want to do the one he did?

SPEAKER_03 5:41

Yes. Was he like, uh, and he prepared, and that's very much Yeah, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

He had he had a pile of notes.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

He did.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

They were typed up, typed up all beautiful. So this would be a little lot of notes, but I don't, but yours are handwritten. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

They're not as nice. So it was just too much. Like, and this is a huge chapter. It is. By the way, we toyed with trying to do the three of us. And even when Tanya and Deb were here, we thought we could maybe do three, but it's really hard. It's not hard on YouTube. There is room. Like if if you screw the code, sure, there's probably. Yep. But okay, here's half. I mean, where would you put the other person? Doesn't work. It doesn't work on Instagram because of the vertical orientation. So, Sarah, we are we are glad that you are back. Thank you. Or in Matthew chapter 21, the parable of the tenants. Yeah. This is a great big, it's a really meaningful, in-depth, important, pivotal parable, but the chapter itself in Christ's object lessons is like it's like 24 pages or something. So why don't we get started by are you do you have it right there in the Matthew 21? So we're gonna read it in the NIV, Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 33. And just read verse 33 all the way to the end. Read it all the way to chapter 22. Okay. And then I'll read it as well. But first let's read it in the NIV.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Okay. Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers, and he went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants, they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all he sent his own son to them. They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone? The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd. There they are again, afraid of the crowd, because the people held that he was a prophet.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Okay, that's uh the parable of the tenants in the NIV. We're going to read it now in NT Rights Translation, again, beginning in verse 33. Listen to another parable, Jesus went on. Once upon a time there was a householder who planted a vineyard, built a wall for it, dug out a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to tenant farmers and went away on a journey. When harvest time arrived, he sent his slaves to the farmers to collect his produce. The farmers seized his slaves, they beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves more than before, and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them. They'll respect my son, he said. But the farmers saw the son. Ah, this fellow is the heir, they said among themselves. Come on, let's kill him, and then we can take over the property. So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now, when now then when the vineyard owner returns, what will he do to those farmers? He'll kill them brutally, those wretched the wretches, they said, and he'll lease the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the produce at the right time. Did you ever read what the Bible says? Jesus said to them, The stone the builders threw away is now atop the corner. It's from the Lord, all this, they say. And we looked on in wonder. So then let me tell you this God's kingdom is going to be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the goods. Anyone who falls on this stone will be smashed to pieces, and anyone it falls on will be crushed. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was talking about them. They tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds who regarded him as a prophet. Okay, a lot of similarities there. And this is, as we mentioned yesterday, the third of three parables that Jesus tells in succession. We did yesterday the parable of the two sons. And then just on the heels of the parable of the two sons comes this parable, the parable of the tenants. And then in chapter 22, there's the parable of the wedding banquet. So one, two, three. But even after the second one, Sarah, they are already picking up. Oh, wait a minute. Wait, we're one of the sons. Wait a minute. We're the tenants in the vineyard. So they're starting to put the pieces together. And this is, as we've mentioned, right toward the end of the ministry of Jesus, things are heating up, and Jesus is not now speaking in these kind of veiled parables that he had more at the beginning of his ministry. Now he's just laying it out.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

He's running out of time.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

He knows. There's an urgency, there's a timeliness here, and Jesus is giving it to him straight.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Now let's go to Christ's object lessons, chapter 23, The Lord's Vineyard. We're on page 342 of the types and symbols, and then 284 of the original pagination. And Ellen White breaks this up into two sections, right? The first section is the Jewish nation. That's roughly the first half. And it's really a history. It's exactly what it is. I'm so glad you said that. And then the last section is the church of today, where she starts saying, okay, there was an historical application, but now here is ways that we, as people living in the church age, and then at the end of time, can think about the application of this parable. It has a lesson for us. There's a lesson for us in there. So let's start, obviously, with the initial application, the Jewish nation. And I'm going to do this. I'm so glad you mentioned that it's basically a history. And let me just I actually wrote all of this down. I read the chapter several times today, even though it's long. And here is the highlight. She basically gives a tour de force of the highlights of Israel's history, beginning with Abraham. Okay, now here's the highlights that she hits. We're not going to hit on all of them, but here it is in summary: Abraham, Moses, Exodus, Mount Sinai, the wilderness wanderings, the promised land, the temple construction, the surrounding nations, the promises of prosperity and distinctiveness to the Jewish people, God's covenant people, the dispossession of the nations who rejected Yahweh, the eventual downfall of Israel, the adoption of the surrounding nations' practices, prophets are sent and killed. At last, the arrival of the Son, his ministry of mercy and grace, the rejection of the sun by the leaders of the nation, Jerusalem is destroyed with the temple. So that there, and I didn't count how many sort of parts that is, but it's like 12 or 14 or something. That's like the first 10 pages. She's just retracing the story that Jesus is telling when he tells the story of the parable. When he says, for example, um there was a man, he had a vineyard, he rented it out, he built a watchtower, he dug around it, he dug a wine press. All of these things that are done are analogues or analogies, illustrations of the way that Jesus was taking care, God was taking care of Israel, and she then goes and unpacks that.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

She unpacks that. Now it's not going to be possible, obviously, obviously, for us to go through all of the details here, but she does a really great job of tying in Isaiah 5, which we probably should read at least parts of Isaiah 5. So let's just get started by if you can read. Now just start right here. Because she's going to quote it. Why don't you read for us the first paragraph?

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Of the chapter?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yep. Okay. Just read the first paragraph of the chapter 342. We'll read a little bit and then we'll sort of see which way the road takes us.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Okay. The parable of the two sons was followed by the parable of the vineyard. In the one, Christ had set before the Jewish teachers the importance of obedience. In the other, he pointed to the rich blessings bestowed upon Israel, and in these showed God's claim to their obedience. He set before them the glory of God's purpose, which through obedience they might have fulfilled. Withdrawing the veil from the future, you can just see it, right? Being pulled back. He showed how by failing to fulfill his purpose, the whole nation was forfeiting his blessing and bringing ruin upon itself. That summarizes the whole chapter.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Captures everything that I just read there, all captured in that same in that first paragraph. And something that's extremely important, and if you didn't detect this, I'm going to point it out right now. You'll notice that in the very first sentence, second sentence, excuse me, she says, in the one, so the first parable was the parable of the sons, and then the parable of the vineyard. She says in a second sentence, then, in the one, Christ had set before the Jewish teachers the importance of obedience. Now listen to this. If you didn't pick this up, then you really missed kind of the point of the first half. Okay, these are some of the phrases that she uses the Jewish teachers, the priests and teachers, priests and teachers, the Jewish rulers, the priests and rulers, the priests, the Jewish leaders, the priests, the priests, the priests and teachers, the priests and elders, the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders, and the religious teachers.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

So who is she talking about?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Exactly right. It's very important to bear in mind that for the first half of this, the lion's share of what she is describing is directly traceable to the people he was speaking to specifically and directly, the religious leaders. Exactly. It's very important to bear this in mind. In fact, she's going to have a paragraph that we'll come to eventually where she talks about how the ignorant mob, do you remember that? Yep. The ignorant mob goes along with the priests and elders, the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders, etc. Okay. So the reason for this is that these were the people that occupied this important mediatorial, educational, leadership role in Israel. And again and again and again, Ellen White points to them, points to them, points to them as the primary culprits in what's going to happen to Jerusalem. Now, were the people completely innocent? They were not. I mean, they had their own minds, they had their own agency, they went along with it, but the leader she points to over and over and over again, and she does it right there in the opening paragraph. She does. You pick that up.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Yeah, and it's just so interesting to me because you're right, David. She makes it crystal clear in this chapter that each of us, and throughout the whole book, each of us has a choice. Correct. God gives us all the information that we need, right? Sufficient evidence and information, but she really comes down hard.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

On the leaders. On the leaders. And she uses lots of different languages, and that'll come out. We'll see that again and again. Because obviously in the parable, the leaders are the people to whom the vineyard has been entrusted. Correct. Right? Like it there would be other laborers there, but these are the people when the landowner goes away to a far country, he leaves people in management. Right. He leaves in management. And the people that were left in management, they can have subordinates, no problem. But he's addressing those that were in management the priests, the rulers, the leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees. And Jesus has been in ongoing, escalating conflict with the religious leaders, and this is now coming to an unambiguous head. Yeah. Right? Okay, now let me read uh the page, top of page 343. Uh there's a short little paragraph there. It says there was a certain landowner, Christ said, who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. And he leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country. There's the vine dressers. Now, Sarah, the next section is Isaiah 5, 1 and 2. I see that. And she brings that to bear. Isaiah 5 is brought to bear on Matthew chapter 21. So why don't you read that for us? Do you have me to read it out of this chapter? Yeah, yeah. Just read it right there, a description.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Yep. A description of this vineyard is given by the prophet Isaiah. Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and also made a wine press in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

That's a reasonable expectation. If you put that much work into a piece of land, you have the reasonable expectation that you're going to get some fruit.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Okay, so notice she's using Isaiah 5 here. If you don't mind, Sarah, you read so well. Could you read the next paragraph as well? The vine dresser chooses.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Thank you. That's kind of you. The vine dresser chooses a piece of land from the wilderness. He fences, clears, and tills it, and plants it with choice vines, expecting a rich harvest. It is. Again, reasonable expectation, right? This plot of ground in its superiority to the uncultivated waste, he expects to do him honor by showing the results of his care and toil in its cultivation. Expectations, right? So God has chosen a people from the world to be trained and educated by Christ. The prophet says, the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the host of Israel, or sorry, is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plants.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Quoting from Isaiah 5 again.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Yeah. Upon this people, God had bestowed great privileges, blessing them richly from his abundant goodness. He looked for them to honor him by yielding fruit. They were to reveal the principles in his kingdom. In the midst of a fallen, wicked world, they were to represent the character of God. Boom. Good writing.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Great writing and a lot of really helpful. She lays down a lot of groundwork here for the rest of the chapter. Okay, you mentioned it while you were reading there. Twice she says there is this expectation.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Right? Everything has been set up. He fences it, clears it, tills it, plants it with choice vines. So there's the reasonable expectation of a rich harvest. A rich sauce. Okay, number one. Number two, notice that she uses the word privileges. Yeah. Privileges. Upon this people, God had bestowed great privileges. By the way, I looked it up. I counted seven uses of privileges, but then I actually went back and looked in the computer version, and there's eight. And it's more than any other chapter in Christ's object lesson. So this is a major theme in this chapter. Privilege or privileges, people, the the Jewish nation occupied vantage ground. They had a privileged situation because they had, as she will say later, the oracles of God. They had the truth about God, they had Torah, they had Moses, they had the Exodus, they had the sanctuary, they had the prophets. So they were uniquely positioned to represent the character of God, as she says there, uh and the principles of his kingdom to the world.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Okay? So far, so good?

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

No. Go ahead, you go.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

No, I'm just thinking about how we have that privilege today.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Exactly right. That's and that's what we're going to get to. Yeah.

unknown 21:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Don't run it. Yeah. Something you want to write down here in your margin. Three times, this is fascinating. Three times in this first half of this chapter, she uses the words reveal and represent in the same paragraph. So they were to reveal God and thus represent him. So these are two key ideas to reveal and represent.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

To reveal and represent. To reveal and represent. Okay, now we're turning the page. We're going to read quite a little bit of this first bit.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

If that's all right. Yeah. Okay. Then now that Israel is had the character of God, the goodness of God revealed in all of the history that we've talked about, and the expectation is representation and fruit.

SPEAKER_04 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Um, that's where she goes to next. Page 344, top of page 286 of the original. As the Lord's vineyard, they were to produce fruit. Altogether different from that of the heathen. Nations. These idolatrous people had given themselves up to work wickedness, violence, and crime, greed, oppression, and the most corrupt practices were indulged without restraint. Iniquity, degradation, and misery were the fruits of the corrupt tree. Now, in marked contrast was to be the fruit uh born on the vine of God's planting. She likes contrast. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

And just paint a picture.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Exactly right. So so so that you're supposed to be able to go, uh, and uh and go this one, not this one. And so God raises up a people, the descendants of Abraham. And she quotes, she talks about Abraham, she quotes from Genesis 12 the call of Abraham over and over again. The Abrahamic promise, the Abrahamic call, the Abrahamic covenant was supposed to be a situation in which Israel was again uniquely positioned and privileged, not for themselves only, but to be a vehicle or a conduit through which the nations could be blessed. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

You know, another word that I picked up again on a couple read-throughs today is all, all, all. And that's exactly what that you're just made up.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

In other words, God wasn't small. He was thinking everybody. It was always universal, it was always inclusive. And the way I sometimes like to say this is God didn't just give the truth to Abraham's descendants, but he was giving the truth through Abraham's descendants to the world. Not just to them, but through them. Okay, now this next paragraph is really important because guess what? We're gonna see the world with the words reveal and represent. And privilege. Okay. And we're gonna see the word privilege. Okay, go ahead. Why don't you read us the next paragraph? All right.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Excuse me. It was the privilege of the Jewish name of the Jewish nation to represent the character, my word last night. The character of God, and it's characters throughout here, this chapter too. The character of God as it had been revealed to Moses.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

So right there on the first sentence, you get privilege, represent, revealed.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

End character.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

And character, of course. So you gotta tack those down. You gotta tack these ideas down. The character of God, privilege to represent, because God revealed himself. That's right. She's driving at these points. Okay, keep reading.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

In answer to the prayer of Moses, show me your glory, the Lord promised, I will make all my goodness pass before you. Exodus thirty-three, eighteen and nineteen. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Exodus thirty-four, six and seven. This was the fruit that God desired from his people. In the purity of their characters, in the holiness of their lives, in their mercy and loving kindness and compassion, they were to show that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalm 19:7. You'd go home right there.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

That's right. It's so good. It's exactly right. And notice that she launches off from the first sentence to represent the character of God. And then in the last couple sentences, she lets you know what that character is, quoting from Exodus 33 and Exodus 34, but she just lays it out.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

She says, in their mercy and loving kindness and compassion. Now the Hebrew word for this in the Old Testament is Hesed. Yeah. Right? So that they have a God of Hesed, and then they are they are privileged and they are commissioned to go and show to the surrounding nations who don't have a Hesed God, they have a capricious God. All the things that we've talked about there violence, crime, greed, oppression, corrupt practices, idolatry, immorality, and the list is a long one. So then you have this contrast these people, this people, these people, this people. And then she goes straight to the Abrahamic call and the Abrahamic covenant, which is the next paragraph. Through the Jewish nation, it was God's purpose to impart rich blessings to, here's your world, all peoples. Through Israel, the way was to be prepared for the diffusion of his light to the whole world. Same idea. So everybody. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter one. Yet his in his mercy, God did not blot them out of existence. No. He purposed to give them opportunity for becoming acquainted with him. How are they going to do it? Now she says here through his church, by which she means Israel. The Jewish means, yeah. That's exactly what she means the people of Israel. He designed that the principles, here's our word, revealed through his people, should be the means of restoring, and this is very interesting, the moral image of God in mankind. Yeah, light bears. I like it. Right? Light bearers. Exactly right. Because Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden to bear the image of God. That image of God had been lost in large part. And so now God is going to raise up a people, the descendants of Abraham, to advertise God's mercy, compassion, loving kindness, His has said to the world. They, in that transaction of representing, will themselves be transformed. And then the nations will be like, hey, that seems like a better way. Yeah, there's something different about those people, right? That's better. That's a better God, that's a better system, those better crops, better, better something.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

What are they doing? That's what the people were supposed to ask, right? Like, what's going on with those people? What's up?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

And not and and then she actually makes the point that in Exodus, when the when the children of Israel were were brought out and all of the gods of Egypt were overturned, that the nations knew about this, and they're like, Whoa, don't get offside with the God of of Israel, Yahweh. This is a God that means business. But then when they would have exposure, firsthand exposure to the Jewish people, they were supposed to go, wait a minute, he's not capricious, he's not arbitrary, he's not cruel. He is, again, filled with mercy, loving kindness, compassion, and has said. Okay, so now we're starting to get the picture is filling out here, and she does a It's being revealed. It's being revealed. She does a great in fact, I'm so glad you mentioned that. The next paragraph says, Yep, it was for the accomplishment of this purpose that God called Abraham, circle it, out from his idolatrous kindred in Mesopotamia, and bid them in to dwell in the land of Canaan, the promised land. And then she quotes Genesis 12, too. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Okay, now watch this. Next paragraph. Sarah, read it. And look for the words reveal and representation.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Yep, they're both there.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

They are there.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

The descendants of Abraham, Jacob, and his posterity were brought down to Egypt that in the midst of that great and wicked nation they might reveal the principles of God's kingdom. The integrity of Joseph and his wonderful work in preserving the lives of the whole Egyptian people were a representation of the life of Christ. Moses and many others were witnesses for God.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

And she highlights here specifically Joseph because in the story of Joseph, we see God's wider view of the world. It wasn't just Israel, it wasn't just Jacob and his sons. When there was an opportunity to save Pharaoh and all of these Egyptians, God did it through Moses, or did it through Joseph. And she's like, that's like Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

God always had this wider lens, this wider view, because his goal here is the nations to bring in the nations, to minister to the nations through his chosen covenant people, the descendants of Abraham, who would later come to be called Israel.

SPEAKER_03 29:34

You know, I think that used to bother me, David. Yeah. Um, to think, well, God is, you know, he's got these special people. And what's interesting in this chapter, she talks about how these the people, the leaders of this time, they thought they were the special people.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

The special person with the special blessing. And they really were. Yeah, totally. But as you said, Genesis 12 shows us it was to be through these people that those blessings were to flow out. And it reminds me of your sermon today, which was awesome, talking about once God ascended to the throne, once Christ ascended to the throne in heaven, and the olive oil is poured over the head, that beautiful song.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Isn't that amazing?

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Just slipping down to earth in the Holy Spirit. So yeah, I mean, this this is what it's supposed to be doing is oozing out of the people that were God's people.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Oozing is exactly the right thing. To be a blessing because all they have so immersed themselves in the presence of God under the tutelage of the prophets and the priests. It was just in the same way that it is for us today, Sarah. We're supposed to be so immersed in God and his goodness and his word and his son that we don't have to think, oh, you know what? No, I'm gonna witness. Right now I'm gonna witness that. Sometimes we do have to be intentional and active, but it's just kind of I love your work. It just loses. That's a great word. It's organic, it's natural, it's real.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

I loved later in the chapter when she talks about um that are just the gift of praise, the praise of what God has done. I love that how important it is for us to give us praises. That's what it made me think of when he's oozing out of us, his boot is.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

I'm gonna write the word ooze down in here. I'm gonna write ooze.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

How do you smell that? O-o-z-O-O-Z. I-N-G, I think.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

But just ooze is E. O-O-Z-E?

SPEAKER_02 31:17

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

I'm gonna go with that. Ooze. So, okay, so now we're we're we're we're in the first half of the chapter and the stage is being set. God has a purpose in the call of Abraham. That purpose is to advertise his plan for the world. Yeah God promises to Abraham, I'm gonna bless you, you're gonna be a great nation. In you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That's the final verse of the Abrahamic call in Genesis 12, 1 to 3. And the way, the primary way that's going to happen is through the arrival of Messiah. But even before the arrival of Messiah, there were the prophets, there were the oracles, there was the Exodus, there was the sanctuary, there was the law, there, there were supposed to be the blessings, agricultural and other blessings on the children of Israel. So God is, as it were, preparing the runway for the arrival of Messiah.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

And he was, yeah, it was it was to be obvious that God's blessing and hand was upon these people.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

You've got it. So if you look at the next paragraph down, in bringing forth Israel from Egypt, now she's talking specifically about the Exodus experience, in bringing forth Israel from Egypt, the Lord again manifested his power and his mercy, his wonderful works and their deliverance from bondage and his dealings with them and their travels through the wilderness were not for their benefit alone. Exactly. These were to be as an object lesson. This book is called Christ's Object Lessons, to the surrounding nations. The Lord, here's our word, revealed himself as a God above all human authority and greatness. And then she goes on to sort of itemize and talk about how the ten plagues, the plagues, the deliverance, was overturning the gods of Egypt, the nature itself, and people were supposed to go, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. This God seems real. Like this God actually does stuff. We're gonna go with this God. And Pharaoh and his armies and all of the gods were left smoldering in the dust, and uh not just Israelites, but a great number of a mixed multitude, Egyptians and others, went with Israel. Exactly. With Israel to Mount Sinai to find out more about this God. Because of this God, because of their witness, yeah. Okay, so then now go to the bottom of page 346. There's a paragraph that begins, Christ was the leader. Christ was the leader. If you go to the next page, she says Christ was their instructor, right? So so the idea here is that the Jesus that's speaking to the religious leaders in Matthew chapter 21 and giving the parable of the tenants is the very God, Yahweh, who was responsible for the overturning of Egypt, for their deliverance in the Red Sea. He was their leader, he was their instructor. She says he was their teacher and guide. And then I love this paragraph right here. God desired to make. 288-347 of the original. Why don't you read that for us, Sarah? Christ was their instructor or God desired. God desired to make. Actually, if you don't mind, read the paragraph before because I love the last sentence.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

Okay. And I'm going to just read one sentence from the paragraph before. Yeah, let's take it because I love this story. But I'll go quickly through it. So did the people were commanded the oracles of God, as you pointed out. They were hedge hedged about by the precepts of his law, the everlasting principles of truth, justice, and pure purity. Um, and then jumping down. No, keep reading, keep reading, keep reading. Obedience to these principles was to be their protection, for it would serve them from destroying themselves. It would save them, I'm sorry, it would save them from destroying themselves. Which is a point.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

In fact, today when we were cooking, yeah. Well, we I used that for me. In my house today, you might remember I was sitting there at the table reading, and I just blurted out I love Ellen White's theology of the destruction of the wicked because it's a separation that is brought on by themselves, by their own actions. It's not arbitrary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

And she says that here.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

It would save them from destroying themselves by sinful practices. And she has made this point over and over again. You might remember back on page 98, she literally says, God destroys no man. That's a direct quote. Okay, keep reading.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah. And as the tower of the vineyard, God placed in the midst of the land his holy temple. Christ was their instructor.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

There you go. Good teacher.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

As he had been with them in the wilderness, so he was still to be their teacher and guide. In the tabernacle in the temple, his glory dwelt in the holy Shekinah above the mercy seat. In their behalf, he constantly manifested the riches of his love and patience.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Constantly. There's the I said, right? The characters. Okay, now this paragraph.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

God desired to make of his people Israel a praise and a glory. Every spiritual advantage was given them. God withheld from them nothing favorable to the formation of character that would make them representatives of himself.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

You got it. Good stuff. Yeah. He who could give them wisdom and skill in all cunning work would continue to be their teacher and would ennoble and elevate them through obedience to his laws. If obedient, there's a contingency here, and if obedient, all of this is going to happen, they would be preserved from the diseases that afflicted the nations, and would be blessed with vigor of intellect, the glory of God, his majesty and power were to be revealed in all their prosperity. They were to be a kingdom of priests and princes. God furnished them with every facility for becoming the greatest nation on earth. We talked about this today in my sermon. We talked about how the promise in Revelation is that Jesus said to him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. The idea that the followers of God will be kings and priests. Well, this promise goes all the way back to Exodus. Yeah. That God was looking not just for a kingdom with priests, but a kingdom of priests. It's powerful. Powerful. Absolutely powerful. And the idea here is that everybody stands in right relationship to God. Everybody is an intermediary. You don't have a priestly class. You don't have those that go up and no, you everybody was to go into the presence of God. Everybody was a priest. Everybody was a king. Now eventually you're going to say, well, the Levites ended up as the priest. Yeah, but that was not God's first plan. God's plan was that they would be a kingdom of priests.

SPEAKER_04 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

And only in their unbelief, and after the rebellion at Sinai with the golden calf, was then it relegated exclusively to the Levites. But God's original plan was a nation of priests, not just with priests, but of priests.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Okay, now she quotes extensively in this opening section from Deuteronomy. We're not going to read all of this. But in 348, 349, 288, 289 of the original, she quotes at length from Deuteronomy 7. I'm going to turn the page unless you've got anything there.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. Here at the bottom of page 348. I had to circle those words. Love it. Love. What are the words? Love. He will love you and bless you and multiply you. Right. And descendants.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

This is all from Deuteronomy 7.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Turning the page 350. She quotes from Deuteronomy 4. So she quoted there from Deuteronomy 7. Here's a bunch of promises from Deuteronomy chapter 4. Then she does a very cool thing. She gives examples of how this was supposed to work. And this is the paragraph that begins the children of Israel were to occupy. No, let's see. Should be page 350. Right here. The children of Israel were to occupy page 350 to 90. Sarah, why don't you read that for us?

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Okay. The children of Israel were to occupy all the territory which God appointed them. Those nations that rejected the worship and service of the true God were to be dispossessed. But it was God's purpose that by the revelation of his character, she has certain words she just loves. Character. Yep, yep. Here's another one coming up. Yep. Through Israel, men should be drawn to Him.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Drawn to Him.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

So notice what she's saying here. That's very important. She's like, look, nations that flatly rejected Yahweh, they would be dispossessed, right? Not destroyed. God's original plan was there would be dispossession. They would be pushed out of the promised land. And these people had taken the promised land themselves. It's not like it was to it. I actually have a whole sermon where I deal with the legality of the Canaanite conquest, but I'm not doing that right here. But notice what she says. She says, for the nations that insisted on rebellion, dispossession was the only alternative. But but his real hope was not dispossession, but what? That through Israel the nations would be drawn to him. So God is not trying to push people away, he's trying to draw people toward him. Not dispossession, but drawn to him. Okay, and then who was supposed to be drawn to him?

SPEAKER_03 39:52

To all the world. The whole world. The gospel invitation was to be given. Through the teaching of the sacrificial service, Christ was to be uplifted before the nations. There you go. And all who would look to him should live.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

There's your word.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Yeah, and that's a good reference back to Moses, right? All who like Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moab by Tess turned from idolatry, idolatry to the worship of the true God, were to unite themselves with his chosen people. As the numbers of Israel increased, they were to enlarge their borders until their kingdoms should embrace the world.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

You got it. Beautiful. Let me read you one of the great promises, one of the great promises about this very thing that she's describing here. She's talking about Ruth, she's talking about Rahab. And she says that the borders of Israel were never supposed to be constrained by rivers and mountains and geography. That's how it started. But then the idea was that nation after nation after nation would voluntarily align themselves with Israel and most importantly with Israel's God. Listen to this. I'm just going to read a little bit of Isaiah 54 here. Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy, you who never were in labor. Because more are the children of the desolate woman than her who has a husband. Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Don't hold back. Lengthen the cords, strengthen your stakes, for you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your descendants will dispossess the nations. Ah, here we go. And settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid. You will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace. You will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth, and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. Your Maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. He is called the God of all the earth. Amen. Jumping down to verse 10. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you. Afflicted city lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli, I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

And that's exactly where she heads. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

And the point here is that what Isaiah saw in vision was like, no, no, make the tent bigger. No, no, no, no, no, it needs to be bigger. Lengthen the cords, strengthen the stakes, enlarge the And that's what she's talking about here. The idea that that and Jesus, what Jesus was his plan for Israel is that there would just be this growing, outward growing, and then it would start to take on kind of a life of its own, right? It would just cascade people would be aligning themselves to compound interest. Compound interest. Aligning themselves enthusiastically and voluntarily with Israel and with Israel's God. That was the plan.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Yeah. But what a beautiful picture of embracing Israel.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

It's a great picture. I'm going to read the paragraph at the bottom of page 350. God's desire to bring all peoples. Underline it. All peoples under his merciful rule. He desired that the earth should be filled with joy and peace. Amen. He created man for happiness. Woo! I said that to Brent just because I said, Brent, God created you for happiness.

SPEAKER_03 43:13

And that's why he gave us maple syrup.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Oh, yeah. I was gonna say that's why God gave Brent.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

He gave you to Brent. Yeah. Okay. Just pause here. Just pause here. So as we've mentioned, Sarah and Brent are from Minnesota. That's right. Which, for those of you that are not uh who are listening who are not familiar with the geography of the United States, that's in the northern United States. Correct. It's cold there.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Very cold in the winter, but beautiful in the spring and summer and fall, I imagine. Every season's beautiful. Every season's beautiful, but it's not as cold. Correct. And you have on your property maple trees. We sure do. They have maple trees. And Brent taps into those maple trees and sucks out the maple syrup. Yep. The sap. He just told me today that you he was walking me through the process of how you turn it in. Maple syrup. And he told me it's 40 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup. Yep. It was amazing. So, anyways, Brent had I should have brought it. Hey, Violeta, if you're listening, if you could bring me that little bottle of maple syrup as a prop, that would be amazing. Violeta, I know you're listening. Please bring me that prop of maple syrup. So, so today, I I don't know what you guys were talking about, something. Honey, or you were talking about something, and it just dawned on me that I think Violetta asked if we'd ever had honey dry out.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Oh, that's what it was. You were talking about Flammy here is so dry.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

And it occurred to me, wait a minute. Brent, just recently, like what, a month ago or less?

SPEAKER_03 44:35

I brought it to you at the Arise Intensive.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

The Arise Intensive just a couple weeks ago had brought a bottle of your own maple syrup. Yes. And I was like, I have that bottle sitting in my pantry and I haven't tasted any. I'm glad you waited. I I I waited. I hadn't I had any. And I was ravenously hungry today. Because I hadn't eaten breakfast and you guys were cooking food and all the smells were wafting into my nose. It was like one, I haven't eaten at least. And I'm just like getting very hungry. Have you heard the word peckish? That's what Australians say. Like when you're getting hungry, they say, oh, I'm feeling a bit peckish. So then I'm like, oh, the maple syrup. So I went in the pantry and I got out the maple syrup that says like, what does it say? Matissa made made by Brent Lane.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Yeah. And Brent didn't come with me, so I have to tell that quick part of the story. Okay, let me hear it. Let me hear. So you were saving this maple syrup. And I'm so glad that you did because Brent is in the kitchen this afternoon, and David walks into the pantry.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Walk in the pantry, and I get out the maple syrup. And I show it to everybody, and then I poured myself a teaspoon of it. I poured myself a teaspoon of this maple syrup. And I put it into my mouth, and I went straight from ordinary human existence to complete worship in like one second. This stuff tastes so good. It's the best. I was like, I literally just raised my hands in praise. I was like, thank you, Jesus. And then Brent said, right? Right? That's how I feel when I eat it, right? Right? And then we just ended up talking about maple syrup. And then Violet said, I want some, I want some.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

So I poured her a teaspoon. And anyway, the reason I say all of this is It's gold. See, there's somebody here that knows what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Exactly, Rebecca. And I'm telling you, this specific maple syrup, yeah, harvested by my friend on their property, was superlatively delicious and sweet, and it's got this flavor, and it's got these like vanilla notes, and it was just all I wanted to drink the whole bottle.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Taste and see.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

I wanted to drink the whole bottle. Okay. So the the idea here is simply that that I said to Brent right after I did this, took the maple syrup, I said, Brent, God has made you and me and the world for happiness. And I was having some very worshipful happiness today with that maple syrup in my mouth. I'm thinking about it right now. I actually had it for dessert as well. I got yogurt, Greek yogurt, and I just poured maple syrup all over the Greek yogurt with walnuts. I'm getting hungry right now. Why don't you keep talking to the people? I'll be right back. Okay, now listen to this again. Read this paragraph again. Same paragraph. God desired to bring all peoples under his merciful rule. He desired that the earth should be filled with joy and peace. And peace. He created mankind for happiness. Amen. To fill human hearts with the peace of heaven and a mouthful of maple syrup. He desires that the families below shall be a symbol of the great family above. Amen. And the next word. But there's her translation. So she has spent how many pages here? She has spent a lot. Let's do this. One, two, three, four, five, two, eight, seven, eight. You're right. Eight and a half pages. Setting the what could have been, what should have been, what might have been, what God hoped for, what he longed for, what he desired. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

But it's really sad and tragic, this part of the story, but for the fact that someday we know from the back of the book what happened in Genesis before the fall is going to be restored. Amen. Amen. So he has created us for happiness and for that peace of the right.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

But in the context of the parable, in the context of this parable, when Jesus says, let me just read it to you here. Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, he put a wall around it, he dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. She says the watchtower is the temple. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time came, when the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. He has a plan. It's going to be a great plan. The problem is that the tenant seized the servants, they beat one, they killed another, they stole the third. And that's the but.

SPEAKER_04 48:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

That's the but on page 351-291. But Israel. Israel did not fulfill God's purpose.

SPEAKER_04 48:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Right? And we can spend as much time or as little time as you want to, because this is the sad part of the story, and I don't like this part of the story. I don't like it at all, actually. In fact, I'm happy to skip over all the way until page 354. And you're welcome to say anything you'd like to.

SPEAKER_03 49:13

Just what I wrote on page 353. Tragic.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Tragic.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

Yeah. The priests and the teachers were not faithful instructors of the people. They did not keep before them the goodness and the mercy of God. There's your test it again and his claim to their love and service.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 49:28

Yeah. And it talks about their privilege again, too.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Yep. She uses now. What I do want you to do, though, is join me on page 354. 354. Yeah. Come to 354. This is 293 of the original. Love this. She talks about the arrival of the prophets in the middle of page 354. Then she talks about the arrival of the sun. Yeah. Okay, now here. I'm gonna I'm gonna read this. I want you to do what I did. Okay, so if you've got your pen, get ready. Here we go. 354 paragraph begins. The Jewish the Jewish rulers did not love God. Okay, then Jewish rulers. We've already made this point, right? Jewish rulers, priests and rulers, priests and elders, Jewish leaders, the priests, the priests and teachers. We've made this point. Now walk through this paragraph with me carefully. Here we go. You ready? Yep, I'm ready. The Jewish rulers did not love God, therefore they cut themselves away from him. This isn't something that God did. This was God honoring their choice to separate separate themselves from him. Jesus has been in ongoing conflict with the religious leaders of his day. They have the veneer of godliness, they have the clothing, the wardrobe, the fashion, we might say, they have the vocabulary of righteousness. But Jesus says, you know, you're like you're well decorated on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. That's what he's talking about. She's talking about here. And rejected all of his overtures for a just settlement. So you have to bear in mind this paragraph begins with the Jewish rulers. The Jewish rulers. Now let's keep reading. Christ, the beloved of God, came to assert the claims of the owner of the vineyard, the son. He arrives at the vineyard.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

But the husbandmen, that's the Jewish leaders, treated him with marked contempt, saying, We will not have this man to rule over us. So underline us. Okay? Underline us. Now watch this. They underline it. They, who? The religious leaders. Right? The religious leaders, the husbandmen. They envied Christ's beauty of character. His manner of teaching was far superior to theirs. Yeah. Every time she's going to use this plural pronoun, it's going to be a reference to the Jewish leaders. We're going to keep reading. And they dreaded his success. He remonstrated with them, unveiling their hypocrisy, showing them the sure results of their course of action. This stirred them to madness, which I thought was fascinating. You do kind of get the word of exasperation. I just want to pull their hair out. They smartened under the rebukes. They could not silence. They hated the high standard of righteousness, which Christ continually presented. They saw that his teaching was placing them and their selfishness would be uncloaked. They determined to kill him. They hated his example of truthfulness and piety and the elevated spirituality revealed in all he did. His whole life was a reproof of their selfishness. And when the final test came, the test which meant obedience unto eternal life or disobedience unto eternal death, they who are they? The religious leaders. They rejected the holy ones of Israel. When they were asked to choose between Christ and Barabbas, they cried out, or at least to us Barabbas, Luke 23, 18. When Pilate asked, What shall I do with Jesus? They cried fiercely, Let him be crucified. Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. And just so we're clear who we're still talking about, from the priests and rulers came the answer. So she that's who she's talking about. This whole paragraph. We have no king but Caesar, John 19, 15. Oh, this is so important. When Pilate washed his hands, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, the who? Priests. The priest joined with the who. Ignorant mob. And this is so crucial. Notice what she calls the rank and file. The ignorant mob declared passionately, his blood be on us and our children. Now, the importance of this cannot be overstated theologically and historically. She takes great pains to show that these were the religious leaders, the religious leaders, the religious leaders, the religious leaders, the religious leaders. This is why Jesus' contempt and hostility toward the religious leaders was so burning in his heart, because he could see that the mob was largely like most mobs, most groups of people, they follow the leaders. Clueless. They're clueless. So what Jesus, what she's describing here is, and she uses this fascinating modifying word, the ignorant mob. What does ignorant mean? They don't know better.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Now, are they completely innocent? No, they are not, because they're going along with this bad leadership. But she, I just can't emphasize this strongly enough. She makes a sharp distinction between the culpability of the religious leaders over and over. She just pounds that point. And then she says, at last at the crucifixion of Jesus, they got the ignorant mom who up to this point has been following Jesus. I mean, just the two days before, three days before, they're waving both branches and they're saying Hosanna to the Son of David and the highest. They capitalized on the whimsical uh uh uh uh what's the word I'm looking for here when something just just uh is is unstable. They just the the the capricious, ungrounded, unintelligent, ignorant mob, they captured them and they basically led them astray. And she makes this point, and it's so important that you bear this in mind. Then at the next paragraph, she says, Thus the Jewish leaders made their choice. Now look at the next paragraph. Then she says the Jewish people cherish the idea that they were the favorites of headed. So she's not completely screening the the Jewish people of that day from all responsibility and culpability, but there's no doubt she is placing, as Jesus himself does in the parable, the lion's share of guilt, responsibility, and blame on the religious leaders because they were the ones responsible for leading, no, misleading the people. They were the literate ones, they were the ones that had Torah, they were the ones that were the religious leaders, and she drives at this point, and it's important that we understand it.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

Yeah, they were blessed with his riches, right? And they spottered up and instead of representing his character, they did the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

You've got it right.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

But I love one thing on page 354 that we skipped over, which was his approach in contrast to kind of his anger and frustration with the people, as you just read through all of that, where yeah, where she starts this paragraph, with a father's heart, God bore with his people.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

So his patience for his people who were the ignorant mom.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Very patient. And he even shows patience, and we've mentioned that. The door was still open. The door was still open. Spare it one more year. We've mentioned Acts chapter six, verse seven several times. I've quoted it, I've mentioned it. Let me just read it to you here. I've just briefly mentioned it, but I'll just quickly cite it here for you, just so you can hear it. Acts chapter six, verse seven. It says, So the word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

Yeah, she does mention it, doesn't she?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Exactly right. So it was not possible for them right then, before the resurrection, before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, before the they're like the sons. Yeah. Some of these priests when it starts off, they're like the first son. Exactly. But then they actually become, or they they're like the second son, but they actually some of them become like the first son, right? Where they say, no. This isn't for us. Nah, not gonna do it. But then after the resurrection, the accumulating evidence, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of their heart, they're like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

People like Gamel and others are like, he was the Messiah.

SPEAKER_04 57:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

He but but at this point, pre-resurrection, pre-outpouring of the Holy Spirit, pre-Pentecost, they're hardened. And Jesus is trying anything and everything to reach through to them, including telling an extremely pointed parable and unmistakably clear parable directed right at them.

SPEAKER_04 57:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

And this is why it records here, when the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, I'm reading in Matthew 21, 45, they knew he was talking about them.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Yeah. And that's the way it is kind of today, too, actually.

SPEAKER_03 57:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Okay, now, unless you have anything. Well, we're really here right at the end of chap of part one. And it looks like you've got a bunch of things.

SPEAKER_03 57:43

I did have a little note here. The paragraph, the last one on page 357, the original was 295. Christ would have averted the doom of the Jewish nation if the people had received him.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 57:53

But envy and jealousy made them implacable. So I looked up that word. Implicable because I wasn't familiar with it, David, at all. Maybe you were.

SPEAKER_04 58:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

And it said in the British dictionary, oppose to someone in a very angry or determined way that cannot be changed. Right.

SPEAKER_01 58:10

Stubborn.

SPEAKER_03 58:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:11

So if they kind of. Or they harden. Sounds like Pharaoh. But even I just can't emphasize enough. These religious leaders look perfectly hopeless in this moment. And when they were saying, no, we don't have a king of Caesar, they looked perfectly hopeless. But according to Acts chapter 6, verse 7, many of them eventually became followers of Jesus. So let this be a lesson to us. No one is too far gone.

SPEAKER_04 58:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

No one is too far. We just have to keep praying. We have to keep believing. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. We just, I actually Jennifer just told me this beautiful story. Jennifer Schwarzer, who was here. She sent me this uh uh story about this um uh woman who had been raised in a Christian home and she had wandered away from God, no interest her whole life. She'd been raised Christian, nothing, wants nothing to do with it, antagonistic, hostile, disinterested, all of it. But then her mother in her early 90s became quite unwell, as you do when you age. And so her sister, her the daughter moved in to take care of her aging mother. I think the daughter's like in her late 60s.

unknown 59:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:23

So mom goes to church every Sabbath, mom prays, mom worships, mom reads the Bible. And so, you know, the daughter moved with compassion for her mother, said, Well, I'm not gonna not let I'm not I can bring my mom to church. There's no way in her last years of life, her last months of life, I'm not gonna get her dressed, get her ready, and we're gonna load up the car and we're gonna go to church. And guess what happens? She gets converted. Yeah. She heard the good news gets converted. So the point is, is that this mother went through decade upon decade upon decade of thinking, will my daughter ever come around? Will she ever fall in love with Jesus? Will she ever return to the principles and the beauty of the God that she was raised to believe in? And it happened. And it happened in caring for her aged mother. What a story of redemption. So we can never think, no, they're too far gone. No. Dig around it, put the fertilizer, and spare it one more year. And keep praying. Keep praying.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

Yeah. I'm thinking about the story Jen shared when she was here. About her dad.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

About her dad. Oh, when she told me that. When she said that to the group, I just was like, Okay, so then she gets to the first one.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:32

One last thing. I have to say one last thing because it's such beautiful imagery that Alan White writes at the bottom of page 357, original 295. They rejected the light of the world. And from that time forth, their lives were surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The darkness of the midnight. This is good. This is good in Korean writing.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

The the destruction, we should say this, by the way, just in the kind of wider prophetic theological picture here. Jesus is getting this whole idea of the parable. Because if you you can boil the parable down to this basic idea. Sun rejected, put place destroyed. This is straight out of Daniel 9. This is exactly what's described in Daniel chapter 9 from like the last seven verses of the chapter, 24 onward, is that the Messiah would be rejected, and the consequence of that rejection would be the destruction of the of the city. Messiah rejected, city destroyed, Messiah rejected, city destroyed. So that Jesus is Jesus isn't inventing this out of whole cloth. This is coming straight from his understanding of Daniel. Okay, so having said that, when Jesus Jesus does the same thing in the parable that he did yesterday with the with the sons.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

He says to them, Now which of the sons did the father's will? Remember? Yeah. He asked them that question. Which of the sons did the father's will? And they said, The first. Yes. And look at this. In verse 40. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? You remember that line that you told me? Yes, exactly. Getting themselves. Exactly. Here they say, Well, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Exactly. They replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the share who will give him the share of his crop at the harvest time. Jesus said, Have you never read in the scriptures? And then he quotes Psalm 118, the stone that was rejected by the builders became the chief cornerstone.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

Then verse 43 is one of the most important verses in the New Testament. And that's a big statement, but it's true. Matthew chapter 21, verse 43, is one of the most important verses in the New Testament. Jesus says, Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. You can see the transition. Something is being taken away and something is being given. And then verse 44. Anyone who falls on this stone, Jesus is the stone. He is the cornerstone. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. What's that? What does that sound like? Does that sound like any passage of scripture that you're familiar with where a stone crushes something?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

Daniel chapter 2.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:08

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

You got the head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, long legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. This is Daniel 2. Yep. The stone smites it and destroys the Jesus is saying. The stone falls on us, or we fall on the stone. And what we want to do, and what you want to do, is fall on the stone. We want to be broken on the stone. We don't want to be those that harden our hearts, end up in midnight darkness, and have the stone grind us to powder. And when Jesus finishes the parable, the religious leaders look at one another and they go, Shoot, that's us. He's talking about us. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. Yep. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. And then look at this, 22.1, Jesus spoke to them again in a parable, saying, And we'll get to the parable of the wedding banquet. So these three parables, the two sons, the tenants, and the wedding banquet, all go together in a sequence, and they form Jesus' last message of mercy prior to the crucifixion to the religious leaders.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

Now, we get to the second part here, which we're not going to spend nearly as much time on. In fact, I really only have one thing to say about this, if you can believe that. I want to read one paragraph and I want to make one observation, and you can say as much as you want.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Mercy. I got a lot in this. You got a lot. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:31

Because I I find it um self-explanatory.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:35

Yeah. But there's so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:37

I just find it so self-explanatory. It's like just read it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

She's like, look, this wasn't just for the people of Jesus' day. It wasn't just for the religious leaders. There's application to us. And I have two things I want to say, and then you literally have the floor as long as you want. And I'll interact with you. Okay. So the first thing I want to say is go to page 361. Okay. Page 361, 299 of the original. Okay. There's a paragraph that begins, so it should be now. You got it? Little paragraph. Read it for us.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

So it should be.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

This is 299 of the original.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

Yep. So it should be now. The people of the world are worshiping false gods. They are to be turned from their false worship, not by hearing. Denunciation of their idols, but by beholding something better.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

Put a box around something better. Right here, Eleanor White is giving us the methodology for the proclamation of the three angels' messages and the gospel.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:29

100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

She's saying, not what we're against, but what we're for.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:32

That's right. Something better.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

Something better.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:35

God's goodness is to be made known. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:39

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

I mean, methodologically, that's what that's what I'm about. That's what the Seventh day Adventist Church should be about. That's what you should be about. That's what your local church should be about. Not what we're against, but what we're for. Not strong denunciations of everybody else and all the things they're doing wrong, whether the atheist or the agnostic or the Catholic or the Muslim. No, no, no. We're for. It's what we're for. Jesus did not spend that much time railing against things he was against. He spent a lot of time talking about his father, what he was for. That's what we want to be. And she says here, by the way, you look at Paul. But look at Paul when he goes to the Athenian philosophers there in Acts chapter 17. He could have railed on them for their idolatry, their immorality, their foolish philosophy. No, he builds bridge after bridge. I was walking around some of your grounds and I saw one of your idols and to the unknown God. I bring a message to you from the unknown God, as some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. I understand that you were very religious. Paul could have excoriated them for their paganism, their immorality and idolatry, yet he builds bridge after bridge after bridge because Paul was preaching what he was for. Christ in him crucified, not what he was against. Now there will come times where we will have to say, not that, but our ministry and our witness should largely be a positive ministry and a positive witness advocating what we're for, not exoriating and railing against what we're against.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:07

100%. Same page? I agree. No, I'm backing up to 358 for just a minute. Again, just some a beautiful image by her talking about the costly ransom of a redemption, and she says, On this earth, the earth whose soil has been moistened by the tears and the blood of the Son of God, are to be brought forth the precious fruits of paradise.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:26

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:27

In the lives of God's people, the truths of his word are to reveal their glory and excellence. Through his people, Christ is to manifest his character and the principles of his kingdom.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

Yeah, character and principles. I wrote down these are the words that kind of capture the chapter. Obedience, represent and misrepresent, character, reveal, fruit, praise, robbery, principles, and I put ooze. And privilege. Oh, privilege, that's over.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:58

Privileges is in the other.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

I put privilege over here as my main one. It's actually not my word, I don't think. It could end up being my word, but ooze. Now here's my second thing that I'm gonna say, and then I literally am yielding the floor to you. So the first thing was methodologically, we should be far more enthusiastic about what we're for and not what we're against.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

Here's my second observation. Yep. Did you notice that in the second section, she asks question after question after question? I'm sure your lawyerly mind detected this. Twenty-two questions she asks. The whole thing is question after question. Look at this, I circled here. Question. What returns are made to the great giver? How many are treating the claims of God this way? To whom are the masses of mankind uh giving the service of their lives? Turning the page. In this crisis, where is the church to be found? Are its members meeting the claims of God? Are they fulfilling his commission and representing his character to the world? Are they urging upon the attention of their fellow men the last merciful message of warning? Again and again and again. Are they less guilty than was the Jewish people? The Lord says, Shall I not punish them for these things? If these two prove unfaithful, will they not in like manner be rejected? In our day are not the same influences at work of the vine dressers and the Lord's vineyard, who uh are not many following in the steps of the Jewish leaders, are not religious teachers turning away from the plain requirements of the word of death. Over and I just read you like twelve of them. There's twenty-two questions that I count. And that's really my understanding. I think what's happening in the second half of this chapter is Ellen White saying two things. Number one, methodologically, it's what we're for, not what we're against, primarily. Number two, here is 22 diagnos cross-examination questions. Yeah. Not just for people that lived two millennia ago, but what about you?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

What about this? Question for you, question for you, question for you, question for you, question for me, question for us, so that we can have those introspective, reflective moments and say, wait a minute, is it possible that I myself have been caught up in the same miasma and self-deception that the religious leaders were caught up in, so that we don't just think as of this as only applying to those kinds of people. It doesn't apply to me. This couldn't possibly apply to me. She asks all of these reflective diagnostic questions, 22 of them in the second half. Go through the second half if you already haven't already done so. Circle every single question mark, and then ask that question of yourself. Not of them. We already know how it turned out with them. She's inviting us to reflect on these questions ourselves diagnostically to be sure that we don't fall into that same trap, that self-deception, that miasma of sin, and find ourselves going, Hey, wait a minute. I thought we were the chosen people of God. I thought we were the favorite ones. Right. Is it Island? That's my point. Yeah, is it Island? Okay, now I literally that's all we have to say about the second. Wow. And I'm super interested in what we have to say.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:00

All right. Well, I just love a couple of things in here. I'll try to be brief, but uh top of page 359, which is 297, just that she refers to Satan as the accuser of brethren. And I just think that that's one of the best names for him.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:12

Agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:13

Um, and just a reminder again that that's that's his favorite death. Yeah, exactly right. And then near the bottom of that page when she says that the Jewish leaders looked with pride upon their magnificent temple and the opposing rites of their religious service, but justice, mercy, and the love of God were lacking at Micah 6.8. Same thing I was thinking of last night. Yep. All right, then moving on to page 360. Um, she says the church is very precious in God's sight.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:40

Yep. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

I just think that's yeah, it it just touched me thinking about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

It should be precious on our side too.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

Today when I was in the Littleton church there, all the kids were singing and that was the exact word that came to mind is precious. Oh, it was a literally sweet. The kids were singing the song that we sang at the beginning. He will never fail. I was just like, I mean, I that song is pressing my head all day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:04

And then things are getting more up. But they're singing, smiles.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:10

I was just like, then Jesus. Yes. Okay, keep going. So good. So yes, children are precious in his sight for sure. So Christ hungers to receive. This is halfway down page 360. Christ hungers to receive from his vineyard the fruit of holiness and unselfishness. Yeah. He looks for the principles of love and goodness. Not all the beauty of art can bear comparison with the beauty of temper and character to be revealed in those who are Christ's representatives. It is the atmosphere of grace. That was one of my favorite phrases in this chapter. It is the atmosphere of grace which surrounds the soul of the believer, the Holy Spirit working upon mind and heart that makes him a savor of life unto life and enables God to bless his work.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

Yeah. Did you is Brent listening? I think so. Okay, so Brent, did you pick up, if you read this chapter, did you pick up that here she uses the phrase atmosphere of atmosphere of grace? But in Brent and I's chapter that we did, right? Uh Great Gulf Fixed, look at this. She talks about an atmosphere of sin. Yeah. That's page 321. So she uses this language, page 321, an atmosphere of sin, page 360, an atmosphere of grace. It's very interesting because an atmosphere is like where we live. It's it's it's the it's the it's the thing that surrounds us. Exactly. And we can choose to live even in a fallen world, a sinful world. That's the choice. We can say, I'm not gonna live in an atmosphere of sin. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

I'm gonna live in an atmosphere of grace. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:43

Something better, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:44

Exactly. Something better. That's the watchword of the Christian. Something better. Something better.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:50

Yeah. So then she's describing the church uh and says, if the members possess the principles of the character of Christ, they will have his joy in their souls, and it will ooze out. I'm at the bottom of page 360. Angels will unite with them in their worship. That's what happened at church today in Littleton. Those little voices, the angels were singing with them. The praise and thanksgiving from grateful hearts will ascend to God as a sweet oblation, which is an offering.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:16

Love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

I thought that was really excellent. Um, okay. You had already talked about this on page 361. So we'll, yeah. Let's see. He longs to see gratitude welling up in our head. You underline the whole page. I know. That's a problem, isn't it? When you just love the whole page.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:33

I don't think it's a problem, but it's like uh when everything's underlined, effectively nothing is underlined.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

I'm not gonna read the whole page, David, trust me.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:40

No, you could.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:40

But I love this.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

How many stars do we have here? I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven stars. Eight, nine stars. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

Yeah, I that's why I'm like, we don't have any like else in this chapter, David.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

Look at this. Look at this. Can you see that? It's so much it's just covered. No, I'm not saying there's not more. I'm just saying that for me, yeah, the the you can reduce the whole second half to what we're for, not what we're against, what we're against, and diagnostic question after diagnostic question after diagnostic question. Okay. I'm not saying there's a lot in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:10

A lot. And I'm happy to sit here at your feet.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

So when I came in with you and Brent two nights ago to do the rubric at the end, I talked about how I like to start each morning with ten gratitudes at least, and things I'm grateful for for to God. So this is probably part of the reason that it just really resonated and spoke to me that says he longs to see gratitude welling up at our hearts, because our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, because we may cast all our care upon him who cares for us. He bids us rejoice because we are the heritage of the Lord, because the righteousest of Christ is the white robe of his saints. Because we have the blessed hope of the soon coming of our Savior. Like all of this put together is just so amazing. So that's where there was all this little stars.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:51

I love the stars, and I love the idea that he loves to see us express gratitude.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:57

For star, so there's something so beautiful about just living a life of thankfulness. Yeah. And an attitude of gratitude.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:05

Exactly. And the next sentence is perfect. To praise God in fullness and sincerity of heart is as much a duty as is prayer. Prayer.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

To praise. Woo!

SPEAKER_01 1:16:15

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

So if we if we ever are forgetting to be thankful, I've been praising God all day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:22

I've been praising God with the Psalms this morning in church, praising God with the fact that the sermon went well. We can see the mountains on the drive-through. Praising God for the mountains, praising God for the maple syrup. Did I mention the maple syrup? And I didn't even mention the spring rolls. Or you mentioned briefly the spring rolls. And the peanut sauce. But Brent made his spring rolls with his own homemade recipe peanut sauce.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:44

Peanut sauce. With fresh ginger and all the good stuff. And then I took a nap in the sun. I mean, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:51

And then, oh, I forgot to mention I forgot to mention this. When we were eating our meal today, you saw this. We have two, we have a very special species of bird that shows up to our feeder only a few times a year, and they're called crossbills. And two male red crossbills showed up at our little water fountain. We put out a little bird bath, and they sat there for about five or six seconds each. And when the red crossbills show up and they were in there, they were they're starting to get red. Like it's it's like we're not at spring yet, but it's heading that direction. I have so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:28

And now we're sitting here with my friend Sarah. Yeah. And this is amazing. We have to read it again. I have to read a little bit more because it's just so good. So I'm still on page 362. You can praise God. 300 in the original, talking about praising God in fullness and sincerity of heart. It's a duty as much as prayer. Love it. We are to show to the world, this is what the chapter is about. We're to show to the world and to all the heavenly intelligences that we appreciate the wonderful love of God for fallen humanity, and that we are expecting larger and yet larger blessings from his infinite fullness. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters of our experience. After a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our joy in the Lord and our efficiency in his service would be greatly increased by recounting his goodness and his wonderful works in behalf of his children. And then the next sentence. I love this sentence. These exercises drive back the power of Satan.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:33

Slamming the door in his face. I can't handle all this joy.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

I can't handle all this thanksgiving. I'm out.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:44

Yeah, this is good. All right, such a testimony.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:46

By the way, the tempter doesn't lose ground when we spend all of our time watching television or commiserating about the state of the world or you know, thinking about things that are inconsequential. Yeah. It's like I said to Brett today, I was like, Brent, we are living just before the return of Jesus, Christ as King of Kings and Born of Lords. And many of our people are just caught up in foolishness. Drifting. This is what we should be doing. Yeah, praising God together. Praising God with such consistency, such enthusiasm, and such passion that the devil's like, I'm out of here. I can't get through to these people. This is an impenetrable fortress to me. I'm gonna go work on some people who are not busy praising Jesus. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:27

Such a testimony will have an influence upon others.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:30

You can read the rest. I can read the rest of the chapter. You can read the whole chapter.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:34

But I have to read a little more, so no more effective means, no more effective means can be employed for winning souls to Christ. Praising Him. We are to praise God by tangible service, by doing all in our power to advance the glory of His name. God imparts his gifts to us that we may also give and thus make known his character to the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:52

You would be a force to be reckoned with in the courtroom. You're like, Your Honor, just one more thing. I just have one more thing. No, just one more quick point.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:59

All right, somebody says, please do read it. It's too good to leave out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:04

Just one more thing, Your Honor. Your Honor, I just have one more point to make. Yes, Your Honor, and I just want to make one more point. By which you mean keep going, sister. I'm not complaining.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:12

So then on page 363, original 300, again, this beautiful picture with Tide. And I I talked to our friend briefly on a walk, on the walk. I talked to Earl of Sunna for a few minutes. Okay. And he he read from this today at church. This focus. Because he was doing the call for offering. And this is so beautiful talking about returning. He was on here this morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:33

Maple syrup from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan is quite phenomenal as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:36

I'm sure it is. Why don't you send me some? Send it over.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:39

I'll be the judge.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:41

All right. Okay, so we tithe. Yeah, we tithe, we return our offerings. It's all his. The whole earth is his, it says. So that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:49

I'm afraid to see the next page.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:52

I'm not going to read the book, but there's a few more stars.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:55

Come on. That's the next page. There it is. Can you see it? Yes, of course you can. Let's go. All right. So just a few sentences. Just tested. How many stars here? One, two? Only three. No, four. Four stars. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:07

But just listen to them. Their hearts will throb in unison with the heart of Christ. Oh, I love that idea. The same longing for souls that he has felt will be manifest in them. Not all can fill the same place in the work, but there's a place and a work for all.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:25

You love the word all. That's your word. All is your word. It's not my word.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:28

No, not at all. It really isn't. Okay. But I think this needs to be preached all the time in churches that not all can fill the same place in the work, but there's a place and a work for all.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:40

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:41

Because I think sometimes we think we don't. And then she goes on to explain that and do different things. I missed the music of Miriam. That is.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:47

Yeah. Not all can fill the same place in the work, but there are different things.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:52

It's a great wording. It's almost like a haiku. It's almost like good wording, good writing.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:56

Yeah, good writing.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:57

Talking about the different people, the music of Miriam, the courage and piety of Deborah, all these different people in the Bible. Okay. Um, they all were needed, and all upon whom God's blessing has been bestowed are to respond by actual service. Every gift is to be employed for the advancement of his kingdom and the glory of his name. Amen. Preach. All who receive Christ as a personal savior are to demonstrate the truth of the gospel and its saving power upon the life. God makes no requirement without making provision for its fulfillment.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:25

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:26

I love that promise. I think that was promised today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:29

Until the Red Sea was walkable.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:31

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

And he's like, walk through the Red Sea and they're like, uh, and then he opens it up. He's like, now walk through. Yep. So the invitation and the power to complete that invitation are embedded in the in the same command.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:44

I I think it'd be really overwhelming to think about working for God if we didn't have these promises.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:49

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:49

Huge. Because if I think, oh man, I'm not capable of doing all these wonderful things. But we don't have to be. He's the one who gives us the provision for its fulfillment. Come on now. So through the grace of Christ, we may accomplish everything that God requires. Everything. All the things and all the riches of heaven are to be revealed through God's people. Again, the point of the chapter is right there. Again.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

Revealed.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:12

Yeah. God claims the whole earth as his vineyard, though now in the hands of the usurper, this was your sermon today. It belongs to God by redemption no less than by creation. It is his.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:26

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:27

Daily the whole world receives blessings from God. Am I reading on page 365? And then just this ingratitude to God, the neglect of opportunities and blessings, a selfish appropriation of God's gift. These were comprised in the sin that brought wrath upon Israel. And they are bringing ruin upon the world today. And I love when she just marries the two concepts.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:46

And this is where the questions start, by the way, on page 365. Exactly. This is where she starts in with the diagnostic reflective questions.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:53

Yep, exactly. So I'm not going to go over because you covered the questions. But yeah, talking about drawing, we talked about that earlier. How he's drawing humidity. Not driving, but drawing. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:05

And then you're right, we hit the questions. And yeah, it restores.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:09

You get back to a a little more uh okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:13

I like it. I calm down. And there you are. And now now we're done. I think we've covered it. I think we're ready for the rubric

Rubric

SPEAKER_03 1:24:18

unless there's anything that I said that kind of conflict.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:20

The takeaway here is for me. Well, let's do the rubric, but I was just going to say the takeaway for me here is to not whenever you're reading a passage like this, it's very easy to distance yourself from the application. And this is what Ellen White does so masterfully in this chapter. She beg the first half is basically the theology, right? Walking through as we talked about, Abraham, Moses, Exodus, Sinai, wilderness wanderings, promise temple, all of that. And then she starts saying, here's the application. Here's possible points of access to the application. Here's a question, here's a question, here's a question, here's a statement about the nature of praise, here's a statement about the nature of service. So that she's really facilitating personal application. She's inviting us to think about this not just as something that applied back then to a specific group of people, the religious leaders and the ignorant mob, but how does it apply to David? How does it apply to Sarah? How does it apply to Brent? How does it apply to you? And she does a marvelous job of it. Yeah. You ready for the rubric? Absolutely. Okay, for you, Sarah, what was the point of this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:24

All right. Not all can fill the same place in the work, but there is a place and a work for all. That's what I registered.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:31

Yeah, that's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:32

And all the riches of his, I can't remember Henry, all the riches of heaven are to be revealed through God's people.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:39

Okay, got revealed. Good. Yeah. I put to tell the long, promising, sad, and tragic history of God's covenant people, Israel, and to draw out timely and essential lessons for us who are living in the church age and in the last days. Okay. Person. What have we heard about God?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:57

So God is our provider. Provision for its fulfillment.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:04

Love it. I put here, you know, you could have chosen a lot of other words, but God is patient, God is merciful, God is kind, God is loving, God is fair, God is just. You know, that's the point with the creation of the vineyard, the setting up of the vineyard, the all of the things that went into the vineyard, sending the prophets, sending more prophets, sending his heart. I just feel the throbbing of the Father's heart over the vineyard. And so we see God is patient, he's kind, he's good, he's merciful, he's fair, he's just, he's righteous. Hasid. He's Hasid.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:38

Yeah, Hasid, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:39

Okay, how do we what's the prayer? How do we pray this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:42

Lord, show me the work that you would have me to do, and then equip me so that my fruits will reveal your character.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:51

Love it. Father, may I be asking myself these crucial diagnostic questions and others like them. Please be patient with me and with my family, and may we not deceive ourselves like the religious leaders of Jesus' day.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:03

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:04

Yeah. Okay. Okay. How do we practice?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:07

Seek him and his righteousness, praise him, and let his fruits be a blessing to others.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:12

Yeah. I love the emphasis on praise. And you know what I really like? And this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I I like that she talks about praise as a lifestyle. Oh. Like the way of life. And my pet peeve is just like prayer. Yeah. I don't like when we go to church and we are led to believe that this, and I know I've made this point before, but I'm gonna make it again. We're led to believe that the saints, the worshiping, that the singing is the worshiping. So you'll sometimes hear worship leaders say really clumsily, they'll say, Okay, everybody, let's get ready to worship. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I think what you mean is let's get ready to sing. Right. Because I was already worshiping. I was worshiping this morning when I woke up. I was worshiping this morning when I read scripture. I was worshiping this morning when I ate good food. I was worshiping this morning when I got a call from my son. Our life is a life of worship. Worship is not just do we something we do when the band is there and the guitar is there and the lights are there and the fog machines. I don't like all that stuff, by the way. I love guitars. But like all of the kind of accoutrements of worship.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:15

I'm not against it. I'm simply saying if we reduce worship down to that, we have massively failed. 20 minutes a week. 20 minutes a week of worship? As opposed to all day, man. Our life is a life of worship. You eat the maple syrup and you're just straight into worship. You see the red cross fill, you're straight into worship. You walk the loop three and a half times, you're straight into worship. You get a call from a friend, you're straight into worship. Yeah. Today we got the most lovely little uh message today from our youngest son, Violeta and I. Straight into worship. So I love the idea here that worship is a lifestyle. By the way, I love singing. I've been singing all afternoon. He will never fail. I've been singing, but but that's not synonymous with worship. Singing is a way to worship, but it's not the only way to worship.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:04

Aw, Maria King, that's so sweet. Thank you for those kind words.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:07

What did she say?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:08

She said, I think you're one of my favorite guests. I love your brain and insights.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:13

Thank you, sister. You're so sweet. You are in the top like 50 guests that I've ever had.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:18

You're in the top 50. Um I put one here for we are. I mean, I let's for me it's a tie for first. You know my favorite guest that we ever had on? My wife. Yeah. She came on one time. She's about to be your badger come on before.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:32

And then do you know who my favorite guest was that you had on?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:35

Probably your husband. Yeah, exactly. Um, here we go. Are we doing the practice? Yeah, we're on to I say to hold one's religious leaders. This is me. I want to hold one's religious leaders to account. My religious leaders and myself, humbly, fairly, lovingly, yet also consistently and firmly. That's number one. And number two, to live a life of praise.

unknown 1:29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:57

Because that's what happened with the ignorant mob, is they just let their religious leaders get away with murder. You can't outsource your thinking. No. You can't outsource your thinking. You can't let the religious leaders, the pastors, the preachers, the evangelists, the administrators, the experts do your thinking. We have to be thinking about these. This is what I love about with DA. We're reading these chapters together over and over again. We're doing our own thinking. We're doing our own. This is what we have to be doing.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:23

Yeah. That reminds me. In my conversation with our friend Earl this afternoon, we were talking about just what a blessing this DA program has been. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:32

To him, to me, to all of the DA family. Just what a blessing to come and to draw closer to Christ and to draw closer together. So thank you, David, for following God. I love it. When we laid this on your heart five or six years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:46

It's so fun. It's literally one of my favorite things to do. I love it. I look forward to it every day. I never am like, oh, I have to do it with DA. I'm like, oh, I can't wait to share chapter 23 tonight. Okay, the promise.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:58

Yep. All right. So the promise. God imparts his gifts to us that we may also give. And you, let's see, something. May Anarchy's poor sometimes. And us give thanks. I got to give thanks. I think it's and may give, maybe. Give thanks. Make known his character to the world. I'm going to think about that correctly. God imparts his gifts to us that we may also give and thus make known his character to the world. Okay. Thus. I'm going to rewrite that so you can read it.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:26

I said God will yet have a global church, a people from every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue, and people to accurately represent his name on the earth. In fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise and covenant. I want to be among that number. And by God's grace, I am.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:41

Amen. Sister Callie says we need a meetup at the beginning of the millennium.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:44

Yeah, that's a very good idea. Let's all get together at the beginning of the millennium. Spend some time, the with DA family.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:50

Yeah, let's see your words.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:51

Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Let's do our word. Let's see what everybody's got here. So what do we have? First one. It's a little lag. There's like intentional.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:08

Oh, okay. I was like, man, nobody's brought their words in. Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:12

Okay. Terrible Terry says, I'm filling in for Stephon. If number one, misrepresented. Number two, symbol. Okay, symbol's good. Provision, fruit. I had fruits. Maple was virtuous. Diffusion, because diffusion will happen. We determine the direction it flows. Who I like that. Desire robbed, Deb. I picked up on that too. Through, mark, or marked represents better. I thought about better. Better is me. A better option. A being photogue, that's me. Something better is the watch word. I have like 12 words. Obedience. Choice, says Cassandra. Love it. If says Debbie, all. Hey, there you go. Says Dream CM 11. Hesed says Stu Paul. Represent through and desire, says Gay Main 44. Love it. Gerald says sharing. CR Marshall says oozing. I like oozing as a second word. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:06

Marked purpose. Purpose. Testimony. Praise.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:10

Different. I know right where that comes from, Marco. Good job. Entrusted. Reveal. Um privileged. Privilege. Yeah, a lot of privilege here for sure. Terrible Terry's laughing about oozing. Render is my first word. Oh, I love it. Dashy Dash 707. Reveal. Bird girl 89 says yield. By the way, I love your uh title, your name, Bird Girl. Purpose. Nice drawn. Drawn, says Rebecca. Wilhelm, very good. Minka Wiseman says reveal. Della says prayer can go long. My kids. My kids. You always have a problem with the dogs here. I'm sensing a thing here. Object lesson. Yeah. Praise and tell, says uh Sherry. Brady, great to see you, sister. Uh good words. David Ashrik. Oh, Marco gives me a couple emojis. I thought about what with choice. Myths all good. Yeah. Are we splitting up chapter 24? It's long. Yeah, chapter 24 is extremely long. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that yet. It's like 40 pages. It's like 40 pages. Um, praise, character. Yeah. Could definitely be. Randall family forces. There's there's just too many great words. You couldn't pick just one.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:27

What the fuck? Same problem. These are all my words here, and it's a whole section, whole paragraph.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:32

Nobody next twices. That's a few. 53 pages. Apparently it's 53 pages. The chapter? The chapter on the talents. I'll figure out what we're going to do with that. Fortunately, it's not tomorrow. I think it's the next day. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:43

I haven't seen my other word, which was the first one that I chose, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:46

So we've got without a wedding garment, which is tomorrow. And then we have the talents, 50 pages. I will announce tomorrow what we're going to do. We might have to break that up into two parts. Um, but I don't have a lot of days.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:00

Expectation. That was a good one too. Yeah, in the first section.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:04

Yeah, I went with better. I also really liked represent. I like better. I really liked um robbery, I thought was good. I liked ooze. But for me, it's all about something better. Something better. Jesus was offering them something better.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:21

So I went with atmosphere.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:23

That was my first Oh, atmosphere. An atmosphere of grace. Well, that's a great word. That's a really good word. Um, Sarah, it's been awesome to have you.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:32

Thank you. It's been great tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:35

You guys have been great hosts. Um so you got the pizza. We did the spring rolls, I got the maple syrup, you had a nice walk. You got the full Asherick experience. It's been awesome. It's been great to have you. God has been so good. It's been great to have you. Uh, you and your introverted husband. Um, thank you, everybody. We love you so much. Tomorrow night, uh, just me. Just me tomorrow night, so you'll have to suffer alone with me. Then we have another guest. I don't think I've announced who that is, so I'm not gonna say. It'll be a surprise. Our final guest, actually. Um, and that guest will be here for a couple days. And so let's close with prayer. And I know you had the opening prayer, but I did. Why don't you have the closing prayer too?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:16

I'll be happy to.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:17

Thank you for everybody putting kind comments in there. It's been my privilege and joy to be here with all of you, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:22

Everybody's saying nice things. Thank you, Pastor David and Sarah. Another amazing lesson. Blessings to you both, safe travels. Thank you both. Thanks, Sarah. What was David's word? Tennessee quilt. Bug says, My word was better. Better.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:34

That was a serious contemplation to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:37

We're happy to suffer from it.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:38

Thank you, Tanya.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:39

And to all of you. Delicious lentil soup, lentil soup. Yes. Deb saying she she got the lentil soup. Okay, let's. Very nice. We've got to pray. We we got work to do. I have to actually I'm we have a dog to let out.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:50

No, we do not have a dog to let out.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:52

All right, let's pray. Okay. Dear kind uh heavenly father, we come to you again and we just have rejoicing and praise in our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:58

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:59

You've been so, so good to us. And we're just grateful for each moment of worship today and the songs that you put in our heart. And as we just have paused tonight to think about this chapter and the story, the parable and the lessons it's taught, I just pray that it will carry us through. As we start a new week tomorrow, be with each person here and the other folks they're going to come into contact with. Lord, make us your light bearers. Help your goodness and your grace to just ooze out of each one of our poor. And so that as we come into contact, people will say, This is something better. And I want that in my life. We want people, Lord, to just um have that happiness and that joy that comes alone from you. We love you so much, Father. Come soon, please. Please. We miss you. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:47

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:49

Good night. Love y'all.