Pastor Joel Laswell

In the Old Testament scriptures there are 300 specific predictions concerning the Anointed, the Messiah who would be born to save the world. The prophets of the Bible deal with his birth, life and death in hundreds of instances and in different ways.

There are untold mysteries that date back to the beginning of this world but I want to speak to you about the great mystery.

I have something to ask for today that I know is the will of God. I have something to ask for today that I need much more than I currently have. I have something to ask for today because I see a great need among us as the professed people of God. I have something to ask my Father for today. I ask the Lord to give me a pure heart and a disposition imbued with thankfulness and peace.

If you stop and ponder it for just a moment, each day is the memorial of some event in history. Each day. Some are marked by man as grand events, and some barely a mention, if that, but each day is a memorial of some event in the history of mankind. But I want you to consider that there are certain events, certain dates in the history of mankind that rise even above the recognition of mankind and are recognized as great by all creation throughout the universes. I want to speak about one such day, one such event that is also the foundation of our Adventist faith, a pillar of our faith you could rightly say.

I shared some of the terrible things that are going to happen as we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ, and already, as we listen to the news, we can see the direction things are going in this land of the free and the home of the brave and the coming religious persecution that will be akin to what happened during the dark ages, only much worse. I must tell you a little more about some of these things, but then I want to share the best part wherein God’s faithful commandment keeping people will be delivered out of the hands of their enemies forever. Is that not good news? Yes!

In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the signs that will show that the end of the world and thus His second coming are near. What are these signs and are we living in that time?

Jesus is to prepare a generation of people--by cleansing them of sin--that they will then make the demonstration to all creation that mankind can be trusted to live among Creation for all eternity. To declare by their character that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain and thus vindicate the character and love of God. Those glorious events which happened almost 2000 years ago, are to be paralleled by a wonderful triumph that awaits the remnant church down here in the closing scenes. These are a generation of people who follow Jesus whithersoever He goes and they trod the winepress like their Savior. And so they will triumph like He did and they will be glorified like He is glorified.

As I have pointed out, there is much in the agony of the Savior in Gethsemane and on the cross that human beings can never fathom. But there is also much that we can understand through having an experience like Jesus and only through an experience. This is our cup to drink..... will we drink it?

We want to note the parallel in the coming crisis of the remnant church with those trials that Jesus went through so we can be prepared, or as prepared as we can be, to react as He did--with nobility and glory to the Father--and endure them. For like Jesus, we too will be seized. Like Jesus, we shall be thrown into trials. Like Jesus, we shall suffer the results of the combination of church and state uniting to inflict persecution. Like Jesus we want to endure the trials and like Jesus we want to be victorious.

Now we’re going to study the sequel of the Savior's prayer experience and the sequel to the disciple's experience of sleep. Keep in mind the parallels with His crisis experience and that of the remnant people and their crisis experience. Humanity must be so blended with and subservient to the divine will that the remnant will be prepared to give an exhibition during their trial such as Jesus gave in His trial. And as we shall see, friends, we’re going to be tried in every way that men and devils can invent.

The Bible describes two of the major identifiers and characteristics of the remnant people of God, those who will go through the end time of trouble, in Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” But there is another attribute that precedes those two, and is the prerequisite, and it is found in verse four of the same chapter, “…These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth…” Revelation 14:4. All through the universe the remnant go with Him. But before they follow Him there, they first must follow Him here.

In the great plan of salvation, there are two special crises: the crisis at the close of Christ's earthly life, and the crisis that comes at the close of the experience of His remnant people. And between these two experiences there are a number of most interesting parallels.

As we get closer and closer to the final battle the bible calls Armageddon, it becomes more and more important to know Jesus and His people. If it weren’t important, the Bible wouldn’t spend so much time describing the attributes of Christ, which will be reflected in His followers—which are members of His body, His church.

Is it just me or have you also realized that evil is considered good today, and good is now considered evil? It seems to be the norm for our world. I was contemplating the state of God's professed people in regards to the sin issue and what kept coming to my mind was how clever the devil is in using the Scriptures in such a way as to confuse the differences between truth and error. He can get us so confused that we will call the truth error and error the truth. As Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Now truth in Christ is progressive for us as individuals as well as for Gods church and if we do not keep up with the truth we will fall into confusion and ultimately have the woe of Isaiah 5:20 on our heads, all the while thinking that we are headed to the kingdom. What banner will we be lifting up before Jesus returns?

God's people had kept neither the letter of the law nor its intent. The law--which defines sin, given by angels, could have been their glory; its perversion was precipitating their shame and destruction and they recognized it not, but believed their sin of the murder of Jesus was actually doing God a favor. They had gotten to the point where they called sin, righteousness!

In order for us to be conquerors in the sin issue, and to endure to the end though we may have been segregated from family, from church and brethren, and from society, we must keep walking in the light from God. What does it mean to walk in the Light and how do we do it?

As I have contemplated and studied the sin issue, for over thirty years now, I have come to the conclusion that the real reason that we as professing Christians stay where we are even when called by Jesus to separate from sin and apostasy is because we love our independence. And Satan feeds that love of independence because he is the originator of it and so we are fooled into thinking that we can be independent and still be in the family of God. So naturally then there would be no reason to leave a fallen church because you can be independent of their sin and not worry about receiving any consequences. This is a lie!

When we associate with sin we leave our heart open to hardening and not the softening we need in order to be like Jesus. As the old saying says, by beholding we become changed. In case you are unaware of this, no person is going to be in the kingdom of God who has hardness of heart. That is reality. If I am hard-hearted, something has to happen to my heart or I cannot go to heaven to be with Jesus. I want you to be in heaven and I want to be in heaven. Our heart must be in the right condition for this to happen. If we want to go to heaven, we must gain victory here, because there will be no hard-hearted people there.

The Gospel Cycle is the replication process of making disciples for Christ. Please click here to download the accompanying bible study: http://www.3asdchurch.org/Sabbath-School-Lesson--Student--TheGospelCycle.pdf

I want to look at is the effects of influence in relation to the Sin Issue. As those who profess to be Christians, we want to have a positive influence upon those within our sphere, right? But we also need to realize the effects that influence has upon us, and the source of that influence--whether it is good or bad... this is needed in order for any change to take place in our walk with the Lord.

In most cases when this is talked about more time is spent showing how Saul behaved toward David than David toward Saul but we can learn a lot by looking at David's reactions toward Saul and how the true church should react toward the professed. What always starts the process of apostasy is when sin is not dealt with as the Lord says it should be and that little leaven then pervades the entire church.

Now lets say that in your personal situation you have pointed out sin in your church, your church turned against your call for repentance of sin and you have obeyed the Lord and separated from that assembly--that organization. What is your attitude now to be toward that church organization?

I learned a life lesson from my coaches when I was young and participated in sports and that is the fundamentals are what will get you through the tough spots. So I was drilled every day in practice with the fundamentals of the game and found by experience that my coaches were correct. God teaches the same thing in the Bible about fundamentals. If we understand the fundamental principles of God's word, they will get us through the tough spots in our life. And this is important for us to believe because this particular topic is a very hard one for many to hear and if applicable to their church, to accept. And sad to say, it is applicable to most all church organizations today.

There are a couple of other things to consider in regard to these principles in Matthew 5 and 18. The first deals with the ‘time’ element involved… such as ‘when do you take witnesses with you?’ and ‘when do you take it to the church?’ etc… The second has to do with ‘how’ you contact the one who sinned against you. How to start the process outlined by Jesus.

What do you do if someone sins against you? How do you deal righteously with such an issue? We are to do as God has done towards us who have sinned against Him, and Jesus tells us how that is to be done. So I want to start by looking at the biblical principle we are to use when someone trespasses against us personally, and not necessarily in public though it could be. It is found in Matthew 18, and Matthew 5...

So what are the Biblical checks and balances in God's word that are to protect the church from the ravages of sin and apostasy, and promote the welfare of its members and the corpus itself? That is the topic of this study. How do we deal with the sin issue in the corpus--the body, the church? What are the principles and right motivation needed to rightly handle the Sin Issue in the church?

Twelve basic Bible study principles that can and should be used by the first time reader to the scholar.

Jesus gave several warnings to His followers concerning their future and the closing scenes in the great controversy between good and evil. One such warning is found in Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Now we could spend a lot of time just on this verse but what I want to bring to your attention is the part of this verse that concerns the reaction to perception. Is what we perceive necessarily the truth? Are we seeing what we are seeing or is it a skewed perception? And do we jump to conclusions upon that perception before it is verified?

Not until we can see the sin of someone else as our sin too can we learn to love him as Christ has loved us. The reason is that in loving us Jesus took our sin upon Himself. When He died on His cross, we died with Him—corporately--in principle. If this seems to be bad news, there is also good news: Christ forgave His murderers (see Luke 23:34), and that means He also forgave us..... those who have become a part of His corporate identity!

In part one I asked a very important question about this succession of the corporation of Christ and it was this: is this succession organizational, or is it the succession of truth? In other words, do we find the truth by submitting to the Church, or do we find the Church by submitting to the truth? The concept as to what constitutes succession in the Corpus Christi--the body of Christ--the church of Christ, whether it be organization, or whether it be truth, is vividly contrasted in the confrontation between Paul and the lawyer for the hierarchy of Jerusalem in his arraignment before Felix. Let's see what the Bible says......

A few studies ago I had put a little bug in your ears about this subject and said that if we understand this issue better then it would make some of the decisions of God that we read about in the Bible make sense to us. Like causing a worldwide flood to destroy man, His destruction of wicked nations, of entire families, and His decision to leave the people He had first chosen to be a nation of priests in order to begin a "new" church. Understanding this topic will help us to see that these decisions by God were not just arbitrary acts from an offended God. Understanding this topic correctly will also help us to see the reason we must remove ourselves from fallen rganizations and especially Babylon. So I hope this will open a lot of eyes to God's order of things as we go along.

Some more questions have arisen during this series concerning the different types of sin the Bible talks about and errors associated with those types, so I want to spend some time looking at that. These errors mainly deal with sins of ignorance, which the church rarely addresses, and errors dealing with the unpardonable sin. I want to look at the four categories of sin that the Bible addresses with some detail.

As we begin, I want to invite you to open to the book of Revelation. The last chapters in the Bible are chapters that we should all take special time to study. Right at the end of the book God gives final and closing instructions to His people. Some of the most important instructions and commands in the Bible are found in the last three or four chapters.

We’ve talked about the first and second steps in the salvation process in order to be justified in God’s sight, and how these steps relate to the third angel’s message of Revelation 14:9-12; and these first two steps are repentance and confession. But what do we do once we’ve been made right with God through these first two steps? Is that all that’s required in order for us to be assured a place in heaven? Because the wages of sin is eternal death, and God wants us to live eternally, there has to be a way for us to stop sinning or all life here is pointless.

Step one to Overcoming Sin is repentance and you can’t be justified by faith without repentance, and neither can you be justified by faith without confessing your sins. The two steps come very close together. What does it mean to confess? The Greek word means to: admit the truth of an accusation. Essentially you are saying that the accusations against you are true. But it implies more than just a mere admission. Confession is meant to be more specific than the mere admission of sinfulness. The recognition of the precise nature of a sin and an understanding of the factors that led to it are essential to true confession and to building up strength to resist a similar temptation if and when it reoccurs. I want to share with you the need to confess and why God wants us to confess our sins.

The subject of this particular study is one that nearly all Christians and non-Christians alike think they understand, but many really don’t when you see what the Bible teaches. There are many people today who have false ideas about the nature of true repentance, and I’d like to take some time to talk about it with you.

I want to share something with you that is very practical when it comes to our battle with sin. Not some speculation or abstract theory, but something we can actually use to help us become more like Jesus and thus be ready to meet Him in peace when He comes, and isn’t that what we want?

Our God is loving and merciful but He will not wait on us forever! There has to be a reason that involves this issue of sin that prolongs the finishing of The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. What about secret sins? Have you ever heard about secret sins?

We have been studying how Jesus walked when confronted with the temptations of the great deceiver so we may learn to do likewise when tempted. What was the third temptation and how did Jesus overcome it?

We studied the first wilderness temptation of Jesus the last time we were together. And as we look into this second temptation experience of Jesus we will see that within every human heart the great conflict through which Christ passed in the wilderness of temptation is repeated.

How is Jesus our example, especially when it comes to battling temptation? Jesus went through the same attacks that we go through beloved yet He overcame these temptations by constantly drawing on that same power that is available to us. I want to concentrate on this example of Jesus on how to deal with temptations for that is the way Satan tries to convince us into choosing to sin--to be lawless.

A question arises very often when I speak about the sin issue and in particular, these truths about the will and conscience and educating the conscience and that question has to do with temptation--namely: what is temptation and is it a sin? Let us get an answer from the Bible to this question.

There are no material things that we can take with us out of this world, but there are some things that we can take with us out of this world. I want to talk to you about one of those things, and probably the most important of all. It is something that we use commonly in our every day speech and yet there are many people, if you ask them, they could not define exactly what it is. It has a great deal to do with the plan of salvation and it is the conscience.

So I finally looked at this flower bed the other day and it is a real mess. This pervasive plant has really taken root and is choking out the beautiful flowers. It is going to be a lot of work for me to uproot this plant from the flower bed without destroying the flowers. I have to be sure that I remove it at the root or it will continue to be a terrible problem. Sin is the same way in our life. Once it takes off it will keep growing and it will pervade your life and by your influence, that of others too. And if it is not uprooted, it will keep coming back. If we want to be ready when Jesus returns, we must have the root of sin removed from us. I wish to talk about being ready for Jesus by uprooting sin in our life.

Adam and Eve were created with a perfect mind that was in complete control of the passions of the heart—the higher brain was in control. Because the higher brain was in control, and they were wearing a robe of righteousness provided by God Himself, they would hit the mark every time in every choice they made. But something changed.

Paul states in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." In Romans 6:23 he says, "For the wages of sin is death..." And in Ezekiel 18:4 it says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." From our previous studies we know that the Bible is speaking in these references about the second death in the lake of fire which consumes the sinner completely, turning them into ashes, never to exist at all anymore for eternity--see Malachi 4, Revelation 20. So if all have sinned and the end result of sin is eternal death, and if we want to stop sinning so that we can receive eternal life.... well we better be sure that we know exactly what sin is, don't you agree?

Knowing that the consequences for sinning is eternal death, we better be sure what sin is so that we can choose not to commit it and thus lose eternal life. Where is the only place we can rightly estimate the exceeding sinfulness of sin? In the light, the truth, of the cross! By looking at the truth about the cross--the death of Jesus, we will learn how terrible sin is--we will then see the sinfulness of sin.

We must get to the point where we see sin as God sees sin. In order to see the true sinfulness of sin as God does, one must come to the cross of Christ and look upon the One Who sinned not, yet died because of our sins so we may have life!

This is the conclusion of the series I have entitled Spiritual Possession and what I want to do is summarize what we have learned. I hope that this series has helped to educate you to the power and limitations that demons have, as well as remove doubts and give you the confidence that every believer may have that we can possess the strength to resist and help others to resist these foes of Christ. Jesus can give us victory over sin and the devil!

I want to share with you how to be protected from becoming possessed of devils or demons. There is only one way, one defense against falling under the control of these evil powers of darkness and that one defense is.........