Expressing Gratitude
Pr Adrian: It's really, really nice to be with you. And on the first day of unleavened bread, it was. It was just a Sabbath, wasn't it? So Sabbath, gap, Sabbath. We're going in for the double barrel. So tremendous blessing. I come to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit. Do you need the Holy Spirit. Yes. Yes, exactly. It's a real, real blessing. But [I have] something very exciting to share with you. The Sabbath school lesson quarterly.
Audience Wow.
Pr Adrian Produced by our brothers and sisters in South America with a bit of assistance from the guys in North America and a little bit of help from a young man in Thailand, who you know well. And they're going to keep producing these quarterlies, which will go through all of the key teachings that we have been studying together over the last number of years. This is the second one. It's called the Divinity, which speaks about the Father and Son relationship, the divine pattern. It's very well put together. Jeff and Robin very graciously put 100 together for us at very late notice. Thank you very, very much for doing that. So if you'd like one there, over there on the table.
Audience: Do we have the first one printed.
Pr Adrian: We don't have the first one printed yet because it wasn't formatted as nicely as this one. But we will get that available and these will be great to share with people that are still learning and getting used to what we're talking about. Hint, hint. So [it is] good introductory material. I've been talking to the guys for quite some time and they are starting to put these together. And just make a donation, they cost around $5 to produce these. So just keep that in mind. But they'll be good to hand out to people as well. It will be a tremendous blessing.
Audience: Do you know what the first one was?
Pr Adrian: First one is on the Word of God. So it follows loosely, I suppose, the 28 [fundamentals], but not the 28. Did I hear an amen out there.
Well, I would like to share some thoughts with you, some key thoughts that have been a tremendous blessing. As quite a number of you will be aware, the last 6 to 12 months has been quite challenging. We've faced quite a number of challenges and over the last, particularly last few weeks, I've been feeling quite discouraged. But I thought, no, you can't stay in this place for very long because that's not really helpful to anyone, least of all yourself, but most of all your Saviour. And so as I think about my Father in heaven, as I think about his wonderful Son, my heart starts to grow warm and I'm encouraged. And the trials that I experience in this life are nothing compared to the love that I see in my Father's face through His Son. And that's what I wanted to talk about tonight as we go into our communion service. And I'm so glad we have some new friends to join us. Thank you for coming. Wonderful. I could hear your voices. Very good. Getting into the words this is a real blessing. So before we go any further, I'd like to. kneel, if you're able, you can join me. If that's fine, I'm going to pray.
Opening Prayer:
Pr Adrian: Father in heaven. It's such a joy to kneel before you, to know you are our Father and to know that you love us with an everlasting love. We will never truly understand how much you have sacrificed for us. But we come tonight to remember your love, your kindness and your grace towards us. And to have our hearts filled with gratitude. Fill us with your Spirit. May our hearts begin to overflow with that ointment that Mary placed upon the feet of Jesus and guide us now as we spend this time together. In Jesus name. Amen.
I bring greetings from Poland. We have a group of 20 or 30 people in Poland keeping their first Passover together. And I was able to share with them yesterday, as well as about 50 or 60 people in Germany who are celebrating a Passover and in many other locations. And so the scattered flock is growing amidst conflict and trial and challenge.
I'd like us to turn to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 17. We look at verse 11.
It came to pass as He went to Jerusalem, they went through Samaria in Galilee, and He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus master have mercy on us." Luke 17:10,11
Leprosy. Most of us know what leprosy is, does everyone knows what leprosy is? Does anyone not know what leprosy is? Do you know what leprosy is? You don't know what leprosy is? Debbie, are you going to tell us what leprosy is?
Debbie: You lose the feeling in your limbs or eyes or ears.
Pr Adrian: You lose the feeling in your limbs. And they will drop off or they can roll in the fire. All things like that. Sin is like leprosy, isn't it? Because what does sin do? It causes you to lose feeling. Your heart becomes hardened. It can become hardened to the point where you are even willing to cut someone off and never want to see them again. And in God's kingdom, that's unthinkable. It's unthinkable that you would cut anybody off or that you would ever stop showing them mercy or grace or kindness. Sin brings you to that point of being willing to cut people off, to become desensitized, to speak things out of your mouth that pierce other people, and you don't care anymore what the impact is of your words. And often people get to that point because they're in so much pain themselves. And in order to deaden that pain, they may take substances, they may take it out on other people. And the leprosy just keeps growing and growing in the mind and in the heart so that they cannot feel anything so that they can get to the point where they can kill another person and they don't feel anything at all.
All of us to some degree have leprosy, spiritual leprosy, where we can say and do things without thinking, Oh, what a thoughtless thing to say. But if you have [thought] what a thoughtless thing to say then maybe you get in your feeling back. And it says in verse 13.
And they lifted up the voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Luke 17:13
Do you see yourself in that position? Jesus, have mercy on me. Give me back the feeling in my heart and in my mind that I would never want to cut anybody off.
And when He saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourself unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14
Cleansed. What was it like to have leprosy in a community? What happened to you when you had leprosy? Outcast. You had to be thrown out of the community. [It was] like death. Cut off from your family and your friends. You had to live with other lepers and try and subsist somehow. You could not come near anyone that you once knew before, you were completely cut off from society. And wherever you went, you had to ring a bell or call out to people "unclean, unclean," announcing your identity as a person.
So when these men were cleansed. What did that mean for them? They could go back to their families. They could embrace and hug them once again. They could go to their friends. They could take up the jobs that they had before and they could continue the lives that they had to leave behind. What should come into the heart of such an individual.
Audience: Gratitude.
Pr Adrian: Gratitude. Thanksgiving to God. But what happens?
Audience: Only one, 10%.
Pastor Adrian:
One of them, when he saw that he was healed turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God. Luke 17:15
Loud voice! "Thank you, Father."
And fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Luke 17:16
“He was a gay, he was a transgender.” He gave thanks to God.
And Jesus answered and said were there not ten that were cleansed. But where are the nine? Luke 17:17
Why does Jesus say this? Is he offended that the other nine left. Is He offended? No. He's trying to teach them something.
There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise and go thy way by faith that may be whole. Luke 17:18-19
In giving thanks to God, a joy and exhilaration came into his soul that would ensure that the healing would remain permanent and that he would recognize the One that had blessed him. He would live his life differently. He would not go back into the former lifestyle that had led him to this place where he had received his sickness because he gave thanks to God. It is gratitude to God that enables the heart to change and to go into a new direction. It is gratitude that brings about the change in the human heart.
To receive blessing, to receive truth without gratitude means ultimately you will lose it. You will give it up. You will go blind. That's why Jesus said this. And so what about us? The leprosy that we have had 20 years ago, ten years ago. My understanding of my Heavenly Father was such that He could get to the point where He could lose patience with my sinfulness or the sinfulness of wicked people, and He could put them into a fire and burn them alive. Isn't that what we were taught? The Bible tells us that sin is the transgression of the law. And as you do the Bible study, and you put the pieces together as the Spirit of Prophecy tells us, the law is a transcript of God's character, which means sin is a transgression of God's character. If you have a wrong understanding of God's character, you are sinning. You are blaspheming the name or the character of God. What a revelation has come to us to know that our Father never destroys anyone.
How many times have you knelt beside your bed as you've thought about this and you've put tears onto your pillow as you thank God saying, Oh, Father, thank you for healing me of this leprosy. This leprosy of believing that you would kill your own children. Do we? Do we thank God. If we do not give thanks to God like this Samaritan, we are not changed. We are not changed. Gratitude. Gratitude. Giving thanks to God. I remember after three or four years of Bible study, as I looked into the face of Jesus in 2014, and the thought struck me as I read a particular book where it says, [quoted from John 14] If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. And the light dawned in my mind that Jesus never killed anybody when He was here on earth. And the light dawned into my mind saying, surely this is what the Father must be like. He must be like His Son because the Son is the express image of His Father. I wanted to believe it. I had light in my mind that said it must be true, but I had to prove it to myself. I had to go through the Old Testament Scriptures, all of ones to do with the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah and all of the stories, one by one; is it possible? Some of the stories, my heart trembled as I read them, and I’d go to my Father and I'd say, “Father, when I read this, it looks like you killed them. Can you help me understand this? Because when I look at Jesus, I don't see this. Please help me. I don't want to twist the Scriptures. I don't want to turn them into something that they're not. Because only the truth sets you free. Lies don't set you free.”
I remember taking some meetings in Montana with a group of Baptists. I started to share my testimony of what Jesus had done in my life. And then one missionary, this beautiful Baptist missionary, had been through China and many other places. He suddenly caught wind of the idea that this man, [me,] doesn't believe in eternally burning hell. And he stood up and he challenged me from the floor. “Tell me whether there is an eternally burning hell or not.” I said, “Malachi 4:2, the wicked shall be ashes under the feet of the righteous.” And we went back and forth, back and forth, until my friend down the front, beautiful man, he said, brethren. He said, “I see Jesus in the face of this man. We may not agree with him, but I want to hear him out. I want to hear him out.”
Well, that gentleman did not want to hear me out. He stormed to the door and slam! Got the Montana slap. And I talked to them [those remaining] about the love of Jesus who reveals to us a Heavenly Father who does not kill His children. I remember after the presentation, a young man by the name of John, he came up to me and he said, “can I hug you? I want to believe what you're saying. It's so beautiful. But there are so many things in my mind that say that can't be possible. It cannot be true.” But the light was going on in his mind. And there was a great war in his mind. Could it be true that His Heavenly Father is not a killer? That His Heavenly Father is tender merciful, gracious, long suffering, abounding in goodness and truth.
Another young person came up to me [and said], “But if there is no compulsion for the sinner what will make them come to Christ?” “Oh, bless you, sister. What would make them come to Christ? Could it be love?” The love of Christ constrains me. It draws me and pulls me to Him. Not the threat of a whip. Not the threat of death, threat of punishment. You study the statistics. How many countries in the world where they have corporal punishment, when the threat of death exists on certain crimes in the society? How much does it stop the crime? Not a bit. It doesn't change it. The threat of death does not prevent the sinner from committing his sin. It is only the love of God as manifested in Jesus Christ that can change the heart.
And why is that so? Because if you believe that God looked down upon you at some point and suddenly in His mind make a decision, “You know what? I've grown tired of you. You no longer please me. And so now I'm going to kill you.” How much would that person feel worth at that moment? You are worthless. And this is the tragedy of believing in hell, as in God, burning His children in hell. Whether it's three days or three billion years, it makes no difference. The point is that God would be willing to destroy His children in the flames and be done with them, which means that He no longer values you. And if you have the idea that God no longer values you, why should you stop sinning? Because you are worthless anyway, and worthless people continue to sin. Don't they? You have to be worth something to feel worth stop sinning? Does that make sense? You have to know that you have some value to God in order to want to please Him, because if you are worthless, nothing you can do can change His mind. Nothing you can do can impress him. So why try?
Do we realize how we've been blessed over the last number of years as we've gone text by text by text, and God has revealed to us and given to us a beautiful picture of our Heavenly Father and the things that at first that we wondered if it could be possible, that it could be true. Now we know for sure that it is true, and we wonder, aghast that our friends and our families should not see this. Why don't they see it?
Is it because they still feel worthless? They want to believe in a God of death. They want to believe in a God that kills people. Maybe they want to believe in a God that kills people because there are people they want to kill. They can project onto God that which they wish to do to those that hurt them.
I've been healed of my leprosy. My mind no longer believes in a God of death. My God is life and life only. And this is worth celebrating. I wake up many mornings saying “Father. I just love you.”
And this is where this story's important. And this is the point that Jesus is getting to. It's very important for us because we can be spoon fed. And we've listened to sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. And, you know, it's like, wow. This is amazing. Quick get the popcorn. Let's just keep this [going]. This is awesome. We're just listening to this and just drinking it in. But where's the gratitude? Where is the gratitude and thanks to God? Do you think this message has come to you through human flesh? Do you think flesh and blood could reveal these things to you? If you do, your [falsely] dreaming. Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father in heaven. He is the One that has revealed this unto you.
And He has sent unto you, men and women to reveal to you the truth of the Father's character. Do you know how long the world has waited for the revelation of the sons and daughters of God? Do you know how long?
Under the fifth seal in Revelation, it talks about the souls under the altar crying out How long, oh God, do you not judge and avenge us of our blood? Not yet. Not yet was it understood in the dark ages of who God really is. They are calling out for vengeance. Vengeance? What is God's vengeance? If thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst, give him something to drink. In so doing, you/he calls a fire upon his head. This is the Lord's vengeance. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. [Rom 12:20,21]
Gratitude, gratitude in the soul. But there's one thing that captures me more and more. And I thought about it. I've been thinking about this over the last number of weeks. It says in the book Desire of Ages, that when Jesus was coming up to the crucifixion, the disciples are busy working out who is going to be on His left hand and who's going to be on the right hand. They're doing all the political backroom deals to get themselves into the best positions so they can be there when Jesus takes control of the kingdom.
And in the midst of all that, Jesus is telling them, I'm going up to Jerusalem to die. “What? No, this is the plan. We have a plan!” Jesus didn't actually fit into their plans. Can you imagine? He didn't fit into their plan. They can see something in Him that was beautiful and powerful, and they wanted to take it and mould and shape it in their own image. But we wouldn't do that. [would we?]
And then there's this one woman. This one woman. She listened to Jesus. She thought that by what He said, He's going to die. And so she takes all of her life savings and she puts it into this ointment. Spikenard in an alabaster box. This beautiful box fit only for kings. And she pours it out on His feet. Is that gratitude? 300 denarii, a whole years salary. What's that today for us? Depending on which level. Blue collar, grey collar, white collar, whatever. 60, 80, 100 thousand dollars of ointment poured out on the feet of Jesus.
Judas. Hmm. Connoisseur of fine smells. “We could have sold that for 300 denarii and given it to the poor.“ “But he cared not for the poor because he was a thief.” And he was challenged by the gratitude that Mary showed to Jesus. That's why wherever this Gospel shall be preached, what this woman has done will be told as a memorial of her. Why? Because she showed gratitude.
It says in the book Desire of Ages, that Jesus longed to hear the words of tenderness and sympathy from His disciples. And this is the thing that we forget. [Many think] “Jesus is God. Jesus can do anything.” “He can leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel in His bare hands. He can take it.” This is the beauty of the Son of God, as we've come to know Him, is that He is sensitive, He's tender, He's gentle, His feelings can be hurt, He can be pierced by words. Can you be pierced by words? Or do you get so hardened you don't feel it anymore? Every word spoken in hate and anger and retaliation pierces the heart of Jesus. He longed, He longed for sympathy from the disciples.
That's why when he was sweating great drops of blood in the garden, why did He bother to get up and stagger over to the disciples? What did He want to hear from them? Sympathy. Someone to put their arm around Him and say, Lord Jesus. Thank you for what you're doing for us. We love you. To take Him by the hand and kiss Him on the hand. “Oh that's girly stuff!” Is it? To kiss Jesus on the hand. Do you want to hold the hand of Jesus? I want to hold the hand of Jesus. I never want to let go of that hand. It's the most beautiful hand. I want to tell Him that I love Him. And that is precious to me. Shouldn't we say these words? “Oh, I love you, Jesus.”
What did the prophet say? "Oh, how I love him, I love him, and I see in Him such matchless charms." [Manuscript 7, 1888] Do you see in Him matchless charms? Is heart your heart moved at the thought that in order to break the leprosy of our minds, of thinking that our Father is a killer, He came to this earth. He endured contradiction of sin as against Himself. He showed us what the Father is like. That is the atonement. On the night before He died, He says “Father I have finished the work you give me to do. I revealed to them your character. I have shown them what you are like.” What a joy to know these things and what a perfect privilege to be able to write these things out systematically, piece by piece and to show from the Scriptures that our God is not a killer. And He did not kill His Son in order to satisfy His wrath. We killed him in order to satisfy our wrath. We were alienated from God against Him, and He gave His best Beloved Son for us. And you know, the most amazing thing about all of this, and this is the thing that I cannot get my head around, and this is what I call the foolishness of God.
First Corinthians chapter 1:25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Is God foolish?
Colin In some people's perspective.
Pr Adrian How do you read? What is foolish about what God has done? But His foolishness is wiser than men. It says the weakness of God. Is God weak?
Colin According to some.
Pr Adrian According to some. What is God's weakness and what is His foolishness? And this is the thing. This is the most amazing thing. And this is why believing that Jesus is the only begotten Son is life eternal. It is because in the fact that He is the begotten Son of God, when He took upon Himself our human form, it was possible for Him to die. He could lay aside His divinity. He could give it back to the Father who gave it to Him, and He could die. And He not only could die in human flesh, He could choose to sin and join Satan and be lost. All of this was known to the Father in the beginning as He looked down into the future. And He could see what would happen, potentially. He could see the potential of what could come. And He needed to make provision for us. That somewhere in the future someone could believe a lie about God's character and that that would require death for atonement. And so our Father entered into a place "Could I give my Son, if needed, to die? Could I risk? Could I risk losing my Son forever?
The begotten Son of God is not God the Son. God the Son who knows the end from the beginning in terms of knowing absolutely everything. Along with the Father they knew, see. They knew that when Jesus came to earth that it was a done deal It was a chess game. Just moving pieces on a board, reciting lines for our entertainment and apparent salvation.
But in the Begotten Son, there was a risk, Christ came to this earth at risk of eternal loss. In coming to this earth He staked His eternal existence. This is the thing that I can't get out of my mind. And this is where my heart says to God, “You are foolish.” That's what my natural heart says. “You would give up the most treasured possession in your heart for someone like me, full of darkness and sin? That is foolishness.” That's why the majority of the human race are not going to be saved because they say exactly those words.
“You cannot be that good. You could not do this. Let us frame for ourselves a doctrine of God that covers this truth and prevents us from seeing how beautiful you really are. Because if we would believe this, we could not stop ourselves from being drawn to you.” That's why the world is going to be lightened with ... glory.
And this is at the very heart of it, the risk, the divine risk of God. I say to my Father, “You were willing to lose your Son to save me.” What do you say to your Father? What can you say to Him? It's like a wave that's 500 million feet high. It just washes over you. You don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. Do you think about God's risk? I think about it. I think about the risk. Because if He was willing to lose the most treasured possession in heaven in order to save me and you, what does that make us worth?
We are equal in value to the Son of God. How is this possible? We continue to sin because we don't believe this. We don't believe that we are that valuable, yet. I'm coming around to it. I keep thinking about it. And in my darkest moments, people that I've loved and walked with, and cherished, that now walk a different path. My heart is pierced. And I say to my Father, “Father, this is hard.” And each person that walks away there is this door that opens and another door opens. It just keeps going back and back and back and back and back. The hundreds of people that I have had to be separated from that I never wanted to be separated from. Why not to stay in the church? Why not just believe in the Three in one God? Why did you have to make such a big deal about all of this? Why did you have to lose all of your friends? What kind of moron are you? Is this the same foolishness as the foolishness of God? Why would you give all this up? You had all your future in front of you!
And each time I lose another friend in the present, I never surrender to forever. I never give in to that thought. But for the present, I come back to this thought and what my Father has done in order to purchase my soul and to bring me to His presence and to give me the assurance of eternal life. And the light, the light returns. The light goes on. The strength comes back into the sinews and the body, the energizing comes back. And the determination to continue comes because of the divine risk of God. If He was willing to risk everything to save me, what right do I have to be discouraged?
And then I think…, I often cry in the car when I think about it. A few weeks ago, on a Sabbath afternoon, I'm driving. It's a beautiful, sunny day in the north part of Gympie. There it's a beautiful part of the world. I am a bit biased and I'm enjoying this beautiful surrounding and I'm thinking about Jesus as He's there with 128,000 children that got aborted that day, the 3000 people that committed suicide that day, for the drug overdoses.....And he is watching and enduring all of this. While He gives to me a beautiful Sabbath afternoon. And I say to Him, why do you do this for me? Why do you make my life so beautiful? And you have to suffer all this garbage?
That's what motivates me. You can't turn that down. You can't turn away from that. He's doing all this for me. Do you realize the cost?
As I've said in previous presentations, you know, every time you breathe in that breath, do you know how much that breath cost? Do you know how much that breath costs the Son of God in that instant, in one second that you take in that breath how much gory detail does He have to endure so you can continue to breathe that breath.
But when we get to this level. It's like “Enough Adrian!” It's like, “come on, man, this is...can you stop laying it on. Too heavy.” So bright! The cross of Christ is infinitely bright. But I have this hope that this truth that we are talking about tonight is going to lighten the earth with its glory.
It cannot be hidden. And the thing that gives me great joy is that the books have been written. They are translated into many of the languages around the world. Satan can't stop this. And I rejoice. I rejoice. It cannot be hidden. It's there. All we need is the Spirit of God to bring this material, these sermons, to people, so that they can comprehend and see how much their Father in heaven loves them. And to know that He would never destroy them under any circumstances.
As Paul said about his brothers, “I could wish myself accused for my brothers that they could know this truth.” I think of my brethren in the church that I came from, and my heart bleeds for them. “Can't you see? Can't you see?” Nothing there. It hurts. “I just want you to see.” “I have to go now.” Oh, Lord. How do you put up with this? How do you deal with this? Your own people. They turn away from this beautiful light.
Some of my friends say to me, “you know, Adrian, you know, like you're kind of part of this puny little group. But like, you know, you could have been a president. You know, if you had the credentials and you gave all that away to be a peashooter.”
I count all these things, but dung save for the excellency, the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And I say with a little bit of trembling, for which I am willing to suffer the loss of all things because the love of Christ constrains me. And it's such a joy to be with you, my brothers and sisters. And I think maybe you're indulging me a little bit as I regain my canter ready for gallop once again. I fell off my horse. I'm a little bit bruised in the head, but I'm back on that horse and I'm here by the grace of God.
Audience Pass the peas.
Pr Adrian And so it's in this context of gratitude that we enter into the communion service. This is what I wanted to share with you tonight. Will you tell Jesus tonight that you love Him? Would you tell Him in your mind? Will you take Him by the hand when you kiss Him on the hand and say, Do you know how much I love you for what you're doing for me? Are you willing to do that? [It] can't be forced. [It] has to come from an actual belief that He's worthy of doing this for Him. He needs your affection. He needs to hear you say it because it strengthens him. Because today He had to watch another 128,000 abortions. He's had a rough day today. You telling Him that you love Him and that you appreciate what He's doing. It gives Him strength. It lifts Him up. It makes Him go yes, my children, they love me. They appreciate what I'm doing.
Don't let all this omniscience, omnipotence nonsense beguile you into thinking that Jesus isn't strengthened emotionally and relationally by the love of His children. Are you strengthened by the love of your children?
I remember my son, when he was three years of age, he jumped up on the bed and he threw his arms around me and said, Daddy, I love you. It's still right there. Still right there in my heart. It really encouraged me tremendously.
Am I the son of my Father in heaven? Did He make me like this? To desire these things and to express love and to experience love from another? I pray that you will say this. And of course, this is the challenge. Maybe I'll talk more about this tomorrow that if you are worth this much. How much is your neighbour worth? Just as much as you are. If he's worth just as much as you are, then how could you cut them off? If you cut them off, you're actually saying I'm not worth anything. You can only cut people off if you yourself are not worth anything. Only a worthless person can cut someone else off. That's the take home point, isn't it? Well, thank you for listening. I pray you've been blessed.
Can we just say a prayer before we separate?
Father, We just want to tell you that we love you so much. Thank you for healing us of our leprosy. We want to be like that Samaritan and give glory to God and say, Bless you, Father. Thank you for sending your Son. Thank you [Jesus] for showing us what the Father is really like and that you are a tender father. You don't kill your children and help us, Father, to be fully healed of this disease, that we may go out and touch others with leprosy and they'll be healed as well. And we thank you. In Jesus name, Amen.
