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Sabbath, April 24, 2004 Pastor Tom Hughes
Romans 5:18, 19 Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church


“ONE MAN’S OBEDIENCE”

Introduction

As you can tell, I’m a wee bit on the informal side. I’m not very formal, or stuffy, or any of that.


I went by the school and was able to have worship this week with the kids and, of course, Clyde and Gloria (Whitling) were there—and what a blessing they are to your church! I’ll tell you, to have two tremendous people like that who love those kids so much and do so much for them. If you’ve never been by that school and seen what they do, you’re missing something because they do a lot for the kids, and we had a wonderful experience. We had worship together, and I’m really looking forward to building a relationship with the children: learning their names and beginning to interact with them. I just wanted to warn the parents. I told them in private when we’re alone I would give them the privilege of calling me “Tom” and we could be friends, but in public it would be “Pastor Tom.” So, don’t have a heart attack if you hear them chit chatting with me off in a corner somewhere. But we’re friends and we’re gonna build a good, friendly relationship. You have a beautiful school.

I congratulate you for spending money on the school. Sometimes schools are expensive and people sometimes will think, you know, “Well, we’ve only got a handful of students and is it really worth it?” The answer to that question is Yes! It’s worth it, every dime you spend on your church school. Church school is the greatest evangelistic outreach that you’ll ever have and I congratulate you for your beautiful school and taking the time and the effort and the expense to have one.


Romans 5:18, 19…

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation; even so through one man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.i




Our sermon today, “One Man’s Obedience,” we kind of touched on it last week, but as we read the verse today:

“…one man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men…by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”


It is by one man’s obedience that we are made righteous. There is not room in this text for two people—only one. Jesus earned the right to have eternal life because He lived a lifetime, absolutely flawless obedience. Have you ever thought about that? People sometimes wonder how God can save them, and they just try to figure out “How does this work?”

The Bible says that Jesus lived an absolutely perfect, and flawless life. Have you ever thought about what it took to do that? Your child is testing your patience; so you get a little bit aggravated and, in a slightly harsh tone of voice, you say “Stop that!” You just sinned. You were impatient.

You see someone with a new car, or a new home, or a new dress, and for just a second you think, “Boy, I wish I had that!” You just coveted.

Somebody says something you don’t like and hurt your feelings, and you get angry, and you think “Well who do they think they are!” You just broke the law that says: “Thou shalt not kill.”

You see a beautiful woman or a handsome man and, for a moment, you think what it would be like to be with them: and you lust. For even just a second, for just an instant, one time, just once, and you blew it, and you’re lost for all eternity.

When Adam sinned, it says, “…condemnation came to all men.”

Do you know what condemnation is? “How could you do such a stupid thing! That is the dumbest thing I’ve every seen anyone do! Shame on you! Shame on you for doing that! Shame on you!”

How does it feel when someone talks to you like that? When someone says,

“You’re evil.”
“You’re wrong.”
“You’re stupid.”
“You’re foolish!”

When someone condemns you and says that you’re no good, how does it feel when someone condemns you and says things about you that are maybe a distortion of the truth and hurts your feelings?
It says, “By Adam’s sin, condemnation came upon every man.”

It’s a horrible thing to be condemned! How about, even worse, condemned to death because you committed murder or treason, and now you have to be condemned to be “hung by the neck until dead.” How does it feel to be a condemned man?

Do you know what it’s like to be sinful?

Perfectionists will often Husbands, all those times
say that “Sin is when when your wife was on
I do something wrong.” her feet all day and you
Sin is when you don’t do didn’t rub her feet or
something right! To know didn’t rub her neck, or
to do good, and not do, it didn’t give her a kind
is sin. It’s not going be word. All those meals
the sins of commission she made for you and
that are going to hang you, you didn’t say,
it’s going be the sins of “Thank you, honey,
omission. All those kind for all the hard work.
and loving things you Thank you for
could’ve said to ease preparing me that
someone’s pain or share food.”
someone’s burden because
you were self-centered.

Oh, you didn’t even think about that, huh!

“To him who knows to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Do you know that you should be thankful and grateful to people when they do something for you? Yes you do. Are you always grateful? Are you always thankful? Are you always loving?

If you want to talk about the law of God, let’s not “dumb” the law down to the point where we say, “Oh, I’m keepin’ the Sabbath as long as I don’t go in to work!” Jesus spent His Sabbath day doing good works for others and helping other people! Every Sabbath He was out there: teaching, sharing, lifting the heavy burdens, and the heavy loads off the people’s backs! We think we’re keeping the Sabbath if we just don’t go to work!



How many of you here (and I have Seventh-Day Adventists here, I’m sure, who have been Adventists for 30, 40, 50 years) have ever kept an absolutely perfect, flawless Sabbath? Can I see your hand? Not one hand? I’d better get mine down!


Now we’re out there telling the whole world that “You’re goin’ to church on the wrong day!” and that “You need to keep the Sabbath holy,” and yet not one of us have even kept one Sabbath perfect! Doesn’t the law demand absolute, perfect, flawless obedience? The law says that you are to remember the Sabbath, and to keep it holy, and to keep it perfectly for your entire life! And yet we haven’t even kept one! What does that mean? Are we saved or lost—apart from Christ? We’re lost! Even with Christ in our heart, none of us have kept it perfectly. None of us have kept it holy. And yet we go around telling people they need to keep it. We tell our young people they need to keep it and keep it holy—or else! And we give them the impression that, unless they live up to everything we tell them and teach them, they’re not good enough. Guess what? We’re not good enough! They’re not good enough, and neither are we. And you know what? We leave that part out.

I don’t know if you’re like I am, but with my kids, I left that part out. “Now you need to do …this, this, and this, and this.” And I didn’t add, “Now, I want you to know, Daddy doesn’t do it either! And it’s only by grace that Daddy’s gonna be saved too!” Oh, no. Daddy was just fine! “You’re the one who needs to do …this, this, and this!”


And (we) give them the impression that we’re holy and perfect, and we’re all vegetarians. Are you all vegetarians? You know they just did a survey: Seven out of ten Seventh-Day Adventists eat meat. Only thirty percent (30%) are vegetarians; about five percent (5%) are vegan. Now, that’s a standard we all want to strive for but let’s face it; let’s get real! We’re not all vegetarians, are we. Even Jesus ate fish; we have to admit that, don’t we?

So in the Seventh-Day Adventist subculture, we have kind of had this attitude like, “Well we’re all supposed to be… this way and this way,” and “Let’s all act like that when were around each other.” And so, “Let’s all be phonies and we won’t tell anybody what we really eat” or “the way we really act, and we’ll all go to church and just act like we’re all perfect little vegetarian; holiness people.”

And I would like to suggest to you that we get real—that we stop being “phony” and that we get a little bit honest with each other.


The Bible says to “confess your faults one to another.” And some of you would rather die than to admit that there’s anything wrong with you. Matter of fact, I could say 99 out of 100 of you people are hypocrites, and I wouldn’t offend one person in this church. Do you know why? Because you would all think you were the one person that wasn’t! You know it’s true! (chuckle) We pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves:

“We’re the elite.”

“We’re the special ones in the church.”

“We’re the ones that study.”

“We’re the ones that have developed our characters.”

“We’re the ones that are going be translated.”

Do you remember the story of the Pharisee and the Publican? The Bible says, “…by one Man’s obedience we are made righteous.”

Is there room in that Bible text for two people? You’re either saved by grace through Christ and His righteousness or you’re not saved at all.

Hebrews 10:14…

“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”ii

We are being sanctified. We are in the process of sanctification. Sanctification is something we do over a lifetime, where we grow in grace, and we become more loving, more Christ-like: more holy.

It always amazes me when you have those who are liberal condemning those who are conservative, and those who are conservative condemning those who are liberal. You might as well throw out those labels because they don’t apply in the Twenty-first century, the technological age in which we live. We have to come up with some new paradigms. The old ones don’t work.


You have the conservatives standing there saying, “Oh, I thank God I’m not like those liberals! They do (that), and they do (this), and they do (that), and I’m thankful I’m not like that!” And, then, you have the liberals thinking that they’re better than the conservatives. They say, “Oh, those Pharisees, they’re so judgmental! They judge everybody and they’re always condemning everybody ‘cause they don’t do everything the way they think! Oh, aren’t you glad we’re not like them!” And they’re doing the exact same thing.

You know, the devil doesn’t care whether your car goes off the road into the ditch on the right side of the road or onto the left side, as long as your car’s off the road and in the ditch. He doesn’t care.

What was Jesus? Well, He was pretty conservative about some things; He was pretty liberal about some others! When He fished, He would hang around the bikers, and the prostitutes, and the tax collectors, and the thieves, and the crooks! He was very conservative in some ways and you would consider Him a liberal in others.

You know, I want you to be conservative. When it comes to keeping the Sabbath and preaching the message of Seventh-Day Adventism, I want you to be theologically conservative. When it comes to your offerings, I want you to be a liberal! I want you to be as liberal as you can be! And when it comes to your diet and the way you eat, I want you to be moderate. I guess none of this makes any sense! But if you look at Jesus, you see a person who was loving, and kind, and balanced. And we all have to admit we’re saved by His obedience, not by anything we do. Our works do not save us, and that is the bottom line.

Now does that mean we can do whatever we want? There are people who go around and preach that you can live in sin, you can do things that the Bible says are evil, and you can still be saved.


The Bible says those who practice iniquity shall not enter into the kingdom of God. If you’re practicing fornication, homosexuality, adultery, anger—if you’re practicing these things you shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That’s what it says in 1 Corinthians. What does it mean by practice? Well, practice is something you do over and over again. If you’re preaching that you can practice something that’s evil and still be saved, you’re not preaching grace. That’s disgrace.

Grace might be free but it’s not cheap. It cost Jesus His life to buy your eternal life, and the Bible says to repent and to turn from your sins so that you can be saved.

One of my favorite authors said that, “Because of Adam’s sin we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey God’s Holy Law, we have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the Law of God. But Christ made a way of escape… If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Savior, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous.



Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.”

Isn’t that beautiful! Christ’s character stands in place of our character, and you are accepted before God just as if you’d never sinned! When you accept Christ, you receive, by grace; a perfect character credited to your account. So it’s not Jesus plus my character development that saves me, it’s JESUS PLUS NOTHING! You can’t add anything to what Christ has done for you, and you can’t take anything away from it. All you can do is say, “Thank you” and accept it.

In the 27 fundamentals of our faith, the Seventh-Day Adventist position on perfection is that: perfection is something we only receive when we’re glorified; when Christ comes. It says, “Some incorrectly believe the ultimate perfection that glorification will bring is already available to humans.” Then it says, “Perfection now is ours only in Christ. But the ultimate, all-comprehensive transformation of our lives into the image of God will take place at the Second Advent.”

The Apostle Paul said that he was not perfect. He said, “…not that I have already attained or am already perfect…” but he said he pressed forward and tried his very best to be as much like Jesus as he possibly could.

I have many, many things I’d like to share with you but I’m going to just skip to some of them. We can, as we move toward perfection, find that perfection that we all seek. In a wonderful book, That I May Know Him, it says, “Christ is our righteousness. In His humanity, He has gone before us and wrought out for us perfection of character.” He is our righteousness. He wrought out a lifetime of perfect obedience. Have you thought about it? Jesus Himself never sinned once! He’s called “that holy thing” in Luke. It talks about Mary, when she had a baby (Jesus) and it says, “that holy thing shall be born unto you.”

When I was born, my mother didn’t call me a holy thing! She might have called me a holy terror!


Two weeks from today, I’d like to share my testimony with you, and I’ll tell you a couple stories about how, you know, they say some kids had A.D.D.? I had A.D. double D! I mean I was really, kinda wild. I escaped when I was a little under two years old, went down the street, and climbed a three-story building on a ladder, and ended up on the top of a roof. My mother didn’t even know I was gone. I’ll tell you about it in two weeks.

Then we’re going to have a little series throughout the summer called “Adventist Wedge Issues,” and we’re going to talk about issues that divide congregations and that cause congregations to look at themselves. You know: “I’m a conservative,” “I’m a liberal,” “I’m in this camp,” “I’m in that camp…” These are all phony, divisive issues that the devil likes to get us to talk about.

Like, for instance, I had one person tell me that, “I only use the King James Bible. Any other version God wouldn’t approve.”

And I said, “Well, my favorite version of the Bible is the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.”

And he thought about that for a minute and he says, “Oh.”

I said, “Those are the original languages that the Bible was written in. Are you telling me that the King James is better than the original language?”

“Well, uh, well, maybe not.”

I said, “Do you realize that the original Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew had over 11,000 words in the translations and the King James only has 6,500 words? Do you think, maybe, you lost a little bit in the translation?”

I’ve probably read 15 different versions, from Genesis to Revelation, all the way through, and every single one of them gave me a great blessing. I learned things by reading it in a different version that I couldn’t have learned in the other version.
How many of you have ever read the Bible all the way through from Genesis to Revelation? Let me see your hands. Most of you have not raised your hand. I would like to challenge you: If you’ve never read your Bible all the way through,

I’d like to challenge you to get a new version. I recommend the New American Standard Bible. It is the most literal to the Greek and Hebrew. It’s very, very closely translated to the original meaning.


Now, you’ll get upset because some texts that are in the King James aren’t in the New American Standard Bible. Because they only use the two oldest manuscripts and many believe that some texts were added later. However, what they do is, they put a footnote and they put the text in the margin for you. Okay? But it is very literal. They stick only to the earliest manuscripts and they don’t add in anything that was added in, in The Dark Ages, when the Bible was translated and “amended” if you know what I mean.

Did you know in the Bible, in the book of Romans, there was a female apostle in the church? Did you know that? In Romans 16. Her name was Junia (Gr. Iounian), the female apostle. She was commended by the early Church Fathers for her tremendous work as an apostle in the Church. The Roman Catholic Church, later, when they translated the Bible referring to this, it was translated “Junias” as a male name. They make no mention of the female apostle in the Dark Ages during all their commentaries on the Scripture.


(John) Chrysostom (c. 347-407)iii remarked (the early Church Fathers—several of them remarked) about what a tremendous job this female apostle did in our Church. Now I don’t think any of you, maybe, knew that there was a female apostle, and that she was of great note among the other apostles, and did a fantastic job in the early Church in the days of the Apostle Paul. So there are all sorts of things that you can learn by studying the Bible that you’re not getting; that you’re not reading; that you’re not finding.

There are all sorts of Adventist “wedge issues” that the devil loves to talk about: First, of all, we’re going to agree that the most important thing is our relationship with Jesus, and that that is what our church was founded on. Christ is the Solid Rock. We need to make Christ and His righteousness the center of every doctrine. Whether we’re preaching the Sabbath, the state of the dead, whatever we preach, Jesus Christ has to be lifted up as the great Savior of the world and He has to be the focus and center of our church.

And I want people when they say, “Oh, have you ever heard of the Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church?” I’d like people in Newark to say (and I want to remind you again, I was raised in Newark, Delaware—that’s where I grew up! So if I revert and instead of pronouncing it like N-e-w-o-r-k, if I revert to my childhood memories, you know, you’ll have to forgive me because I’ve got news for ya: All you’all don’t say it the same way either!)



But anyway, I want everybody in Newark to say, “Oh yeah! Those Seventh-Day Adventists, they’re the people that love Jesus! They’re the people put Christ first! They’re the people that lift up Jesus!”

I don’t want them to say, “Oh, aren’t you the people that don’t eat meat?” or “Aren’t you the people, aren’t you the ones that can have more than one wife?” or “Aren’t you the ones that don’t believe in blood transfusion?” No! I want them to remember us as the people who love Jesus, and lift Jesus up, and put Christ first. That’s what I want them to remember us for.

You know, the Apostle John said at the end of his life, “…‘I am only a weak, sinful man, but Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” John the apostle said he was a weak and sinful man.

One of my favorite authors wrote this:

“Never can we equal the goodness and the love of Jesus…”

We can never equal the pattern, but we may imitate and resemble it according to our ability. We need to strive to be as much like Jesus as we possibly can. We need to be as perfect as we possibly can. But we need to recognize that only Christ has absolute perfection.

I like this quote: “The divine beauty of the character of Christ, of whom the noblest and most gentle among men are but a faint reflection…”

Did you catch that? That means Enoch, Elijah, Jonah, Noah, Paul, Peter, James, John—they were all but a faint reflection of Christ’s character. If they were but a faint reflection, I must be a very dim bulb. You will never hear me say I’m perfect or anywhere near it. As a matter of fact we’re told that when we say things like that, it is considered blasphemy by the angels; that we are to always acknowledge our sinfulness and ever be thankful that we’re only saved by the grace of God and not by our own works.

“As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen man, through faith in Christ, is to be holy in his sphere…”



Then she explains that (people have gotten confused), “They will be in sympathy with Christ, and in their sphere, as they have ability and opportunity, will work to save perishing souls as Christ worked in His exalted sphere for the benefit of man.”

She talks about how Jesus has His “exalted sphere.” We have our little tiny sphere. And we are to be as perfect as we are able according to our ability, but we will never even come close to matching the righteousness of Christ.

She says,

"…No one is perfect but Jesus. Think of Him and be charmed away from


yourself, and from every disagreeable thing, for by beholding our defects faith is weakened…”

“If we could in our own wisdom and strength pray aright, we could also live
aright, and would need no atoning sacrifice. But imperfection is upon all humanity…”

“No one but Jesus is perfect. “We may commit the keeping of our souls to God
as unto a faithful Creator, not because we are sinless, but because Jesus died to save just such erring, faulty creatures as we are…”

When you think of yourself, do you recognize that you are erring and faulty or do you have that greatest of all sins, self-righteousness, lurking in your heart? That is the sin of Laodicea. That is the one that’s hardest to understand and the easiest one to overlook. That’s when we’re strict with others but easy on ourselves. We need to be easy on others and strict only with ourselves.

And then finally, “ ‘…The true penitent learns the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect character, he says only—

‘In my hand no price I bring;
Simply to Thy cross I cling.’”
____________________


My beloved, our Savior has died on the Cross for you after living an absolutely perfect life of holiness and obedience. By His obedience we will be made righteous.

Even though we are sinful,

Even though we have sinful blood flowing through our veins,

Even though not one of us has anything to be self-righteous about,

Even though we are all under the condemnation of the Law,

in Romans 8:1, it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Do you want to be in Him today?
Father in heaven, as we bow our heads…

× If you would like to work on your relationship with God and improve it,

× If you would like to have a closer walk with Jesus, if you would like to recommit yourselves to reading the Bible and praying every day,

× If you would like to say, “Write my name down in the in the Lamb’s book of life, forgive me for my sins, give me credit for Christ’s perfect life of obedience. And please, God, forgive me for my sins and take away those sins and nail them to the Cross.”

× If you would like to say all those things, and have God write your name down in His book and save you when He comes, would you raise your hand even now?


…Father, write their names down in Your book. We recognize that we are sinners and that only Christ is righteous. We recognize that once we love You, it is our duty to try to keep Your commandments but not because we want to earn anything. But simply to show our love for You and our gratefulness, and our thankfulness for the free gift of eternal life. Wash away our sins in the blood of the Lamb. Write our names down in His book, and save us when You come. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Closing Hymn: “Were You There?”
(No. 158, Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, Review and Herald Publishing, 1985)

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