The Life That You Are Giving God

Introduction

This is the second of a two-part series based upon the “two questions” of CSDA Evangelism.

We recently had a wonderful camp meeting in Tennessee, the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a blessed time, and all who attended testified that they learned quite a lot. We did not have a set plan for many of the studies, although we did have a theme, and the Spirit worked there to bring about a renewed sense of ministry for some, and encouragement to those who could do more.

One of the studies given by Brother Abraham, the pastor of the Canadian CSDA congregation, was called something like, “A cause to rejoice.” This was an important talk, for as we go into very dark times, and a lot of uncertainty about the future, we must remember that the God whom we serve is one of love, and great power, and that all things are firmly within His control.

The people of Yah are to have a spirit of thanksgiving; this is something we must never lose track of. This is something to keep firmly in mind as we go into today’s study, which is entitled “The Life that You are Giving God.”

As you may recall, there are two questions we ask in CSDA Evangelism, and they are:

1) Are you happy with the life that Yah is giving you?

2) Are you happy with the life that you are giving Him?

I have actually heard the second question asked a number of ways. It is either the way it appears above, or somewhat differently, “Is He (Yahweh) happy with the life you are giving Him?” For the Bible-believing Christian, there should be little difference between those two questions, however.

One of the things the Victory message teaches us is that the converted Christian will always have a clear conscience. They may have questions in their minds about certain specific things, but once they are convinced something is a “sin,” they do not have a long, painful “struggle” with it as is the consistent testimony of most within Christendom. We must come to understand that Yahshua is the CURE for sin, not the TREATMENT. This is a concept, the idea of a “cure,” that is foreign to many people.

We are told:

1Tim 1:5

This was certainly Paul’s consistent testimony, as we read:

Rom 9:1

Acts 23:1

What this means is that for the converted Christian, with a trained conscience, the life that we are happy to give Yahweh is the life that He is pleased to receive.

So what we will do in this study is to examine the question of the life we are giving to Yah, and in the following sections we are going to see how this and the previous question of being happy with the life that Yah has given us ties in to the Three Angels’ Message, which is the everlasting Gospel.

The Sanctified Life

We read in Genesis, and it’s an idea repeated several times:

Gen 1:11

Gen 1:24

This even works for humans:

Gen 5:3

We read that Christ is the “last Adam,” a final antitype of humanity:

1Cor 15:45

And then we read a section of a Psalm that is speaking of king David in the letter, but of Yahshua in a spiritual and more complete sense:

Psa 89:26-34

Heb 2:11 reads:

So to summarize all that, we see that creatures bring forth after their kind, both on a physical and spiritual level. We see that those who are in Christ are all sons of a common Father, Yahweh. That being the case, we should easy come to a deeper understanding of the “born again” experience.

We read, for example, of Christ’s conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus:

John 3:1-12

If this is true, if we are “born again” by accepting the sacrifice of the Son of Yah, then we can understand in a different way our commonly-used verse:

1John 3:9

We read in John’s account that the continuous abiding of Christ within the convert is what keeps us from sinning. This is certainly true, however, from another perspective, the reason why we do not commit known sins when we are converted is because, as sons of Yahweh and co-heirs with Christ, we are born from Yahweh – taken as adopted sons through a “new birth” process, and therefore come forth after His kind.

This is an extremely powerful statement. We read a similar one some studies ago:

2Cor 5:21

In the same way that we are made the righteousness of Yahweh in the earth, so we are also born in His image, in His likeness, just as Seth was born in Adam’s likeness as that verse in Genesis records.

Of course, it is always and entirely possible to take this reasoning too far, and there are many who have come to identify themselves with Christ to the degree that their individuality is lost, and they believe that they ARE Yahshua. This is not the desired effect. We are to become Christ-like in terms of our personalities, our characters, but our identities remain our own, in the exact same way that a woman who takes a husband does not become that husband. She becomes “one flesh” with him, and we certainly become “one Spirit” with our Savior, but this unity, this union, does not destroy either individual’s self.

It is in the understanding of these things, on a heart-level if not intellectually, that we can begin to honestly and knowledgeably answer the question, “Am I happy with the life I am giving Yahweh?”

When we look at the decisions we make – because everything from lifestyle, to diet, to dress reform etc. comes down to decisions – the relevant question to ask is, “Is this compatible with the life of Yahshua lived out in me?” Or, using this alternative viewpoint, which is really the same on a spiritual level, “Am I acting in a way that one born-again in Yah’s image always acts?” That is as simply as I can put this week’s matter.

The First Angel’s Message

Now as we examine the practical applications of this concept, it is important to explore, although we don’t need to take a lot of time to do it, the way that the questions from this week and my last study relate to the 3 Angels of Revelation 14.

The questions again are:

1) Are you happy with the life that Yah is giving you?

2) Are you happy with the life that you are giving Him?

In a number of previous studies we saw that the First Angels’ Message boils down to a declaration of victory over sin. To refresh you on that, the message is found here:

Rev 14:6, 7

As a number of different passages point out, only those who are “living” can offer praise to Yahweh. To respond accurately to the first angel is to have accepted a life that is free of what the Scriptures describe in just this way: “Dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph 2:1, Col 2:13)

But there is another way to prove that this concept of praising Yahweh for His hour of judgment is related to the Victory over Sin doctrine, of the idea of Righteousness by Faith. We read:

Zeph 1:14-17

In verse 12 above he basically warns some, “Why are you rejoicing at the coming of the judgment? For you, it will be destruction!”

To rejoice at judgment, a coming judgment, one of two things needs to be true. Either you have made yourself ready for the judgment, or you have a false sense of security. This is one of the reasons why a trained conscience is necessary; because it prevents us from thinking that something is acceptable when it isn’t.

Any follow-up questions applied with the basic two I mentioned before will give you a clear view of which of those it is.

But here we see the living, not only alive spiritually as well as physically, but being told to rejoice in the coming of judgment. The angel is obviously not telling them to be deceived, therefore it is merely saying, “Judgment is coming soon.” How we respond to that tells us much about the answer to the two evangelism questions.

The Second Angel’s Message

This is a short section, and if the above is understood, it will be easily grasped. The Second Angel declares:

Rev 14:8

How do we deal with that knowledge? Similar to the angel before it, the second angel speaks of judgment, but this time because of the errors, the “Babylonian” condition of most organizations and gatherings that claim to be of Christ. So the judgment is a more generally understood one.

Even so, if we are truly content with the life that Yahweh has given to us, then discovering that some of the things we have been taught were in error does not shake our confidence in Him. It may, and should, raise a flag about the fellowship we are in, and the believer should hopefully begin to seek out the Church that was raised up to help bless and sanctify them.

If we are truly content with the life that we are giving Yahweh, we will want to continue to do so, growing in grace and knowledge. The declaration that “Babylon is fallen,” and the acceptance of the translation that this applies to false, erroneous Churches, should inspire us to truly question, truly investigate the relevant matters concerning our current place and style of worship. At the end of this process, then, the individual who is not satisfied where he or she is when Babylon falls, but who is happy with the life they are giving to the Almighty, by the grace of Yahweh will find themselves with us,

The Third Angel’s Message

The Third Angel says:

Rev 14:9-12

What does this have to do with the two evangelism questions? Much.

In fact, the Mark of The Beast is truly the ultimate, the final, test of one’s Sabbath rest. When the spiritual, and possibly physical, conditions are as bad as they can get, when earthly help seems distant, then is the quality of our faith truly revealed. As Brother Abraham explained during his talk over the course of the Feast, even in trials we are told that there are reasons to rejoice.

If we are not happy with the life Yahweh has given to us, we will not have Sabbath rest. Some temptation, some enticement, will draw us off the path during the time of trouble. If we are not happy with the life that we are giving Him, then it is certain the demons will plague the soul with guilt, and guilt that cannot be denied as a falsehood. This will prevent the sanctification of the individual.

Only those who are confident in Yah’s protection of them, and I mean TRULY confident, will be able to stand. There are too many who say, “I believe in Yahweh,” but they are, on a practical level, atheists. I speak of those who claim that they are Christ’s people, who speak at length of a wonderful relationship with Him, but they cannot seem to understand, or do not choose to understand, how they reject Him by seeking out unsanctified means of getting their way among men.

Seventh Day Adventists have many and powerful statements regarding, for example, the use of mediums… spiritualism. Divination and witchcraft were all practiced in the ancient world, and are still being practiced today. Those who employ these means seek knowledge of the future, and control. Of course, knowledge of the future is not bad when it comes from a sanctified source… a prophecy, or an inspired writing. Similarly, control is a good thing when it is applied to the self.

But to seek knowledge simply for the purpose of alleviating a lack of contentment with the present, or to seek control in order to dominate the actions of others, this is an employment of force.

There are many more modern, much more subtle examples. We know the Mark of The Beast will involve a law. We as CSDAs know that the mark will be a law that directly affects the people of Yahweh. We see in the Trademark of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the numerous lawsuits they have brought against little churches, little fellowships, and finally our movement, the very same Satanic power that sought to control the religious observances in Babylon, and in Rome. It is the same power, exercised “for the good of the people,” or the Church, that motivated the High Priest Caiaphas when he said that Yahshua ought to die. It is the same power that motivated the Sunday keeping Churches, “for the good of the people,” to try to get Sunday Laws passed. It is for “the good of the people” that Christians are now under persecution by those who can no longer tell the difference between darkness and light.

These are they who cannot, honestly and knowledgeably, answer “Yes” to the two questions of CSDA Evangelism. But this is not true for those who resist the unjust laws, who stand firmly against those who wish to control religious duties through human laws. We read:

Isa 60:1-3

It is the glory of Yahweh within us, that same glory that allows us to discern evil and gives us courage and will to resist it, that allows us to be pleased with both the life we receive, and the life we give.

Conclusion: The Fourth Angel’s Message

With all three angels’ above, it is entirely possible to respond in the “proper” way to the idea that judgment is coming, that the churches are filled with false doctrines, and that a Church once raised up to be a beacon of light has become a terrible monster to be resisted.

At the recent feast, one of the things that was discussed was the importance of effective evangelism. We saw that communication also consisted of feedback, so we could know what the recipient of our information does with it, at least at first. We talked about the importance of educating others for, while it is true that if one diligently follows the principles of Christ, even if they never had opportunity to know of His coming to the earth for our sakes, the Book of Romans indicates that there is yet hope for such people.

But the problem is, how do people know that they are diligently following the principles of Heaven unless they are told what they are?

The Scriptures say:

Rom 10:13, 14

This, above, is the ideal. If we care about humanity, we are not going to simply wait and see if they decide to follow the path of righteousness. That is taking chances with eternity. We are going to try to educate them, so that they can make the right decisions for themselves.

The power of the fourth angel, the Scripture says, enlightens the entire earth.

Rev 18:1-4

This fourth angel gives the people who live here knowledge; it allows them to make themselves ready. It also prepares the messengers for coming to understand how to ask, and how to deal with the response to, the two common questions in CSDA Evangelism.