72 Virgins & Salvation | Dr. Conrad Vine

Uh, are we all feeling wide awake after our long day so far? Yes. Yeah. So, um, it’s a privilege and a joy to come and

share with you here again today. And, um, I’ve just been blessed by all the presentation so far. I’ve been blessed by the fellowship and the warmth and the

friendship. And I just praise God for dedicated brothers and sisters up here in British Columbia um who are who love the Lord and who love their people and

and who want God’s will to triumph in our nations. So um I’m going to be speaking this afternoon. The sermon is

entitled 72 virgins and salvation. And um so I I I wrote this a couple of weeks

ago because it’s kind of topical and um it’s it’s it’s really talking about um the forgiveness of God.

And and I think that when you look at stories of people who suffered immensely, uh the number one way that people get

through um uh imprisonment and in torture and exile is through practicing forgiveness.

Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian message.

You don’t find forgiveness um upheld particularly in in Islam, in Hinduism or Buddhism per se. Um, forgiveness is really a uniquely Christian doctrine.

And yet, if a society does not have people who receive forgiveness, willing to give forgiveness, that society degenerates into cycles of violence and

vendettas and feuds that go on for generations. And so, forgiveness really is the heart of the gospel. And if we are to have religious liberty, we must

be able and willing to forgive those who have hurt us or persecuted us. Um, otherwise, and I’ll tell you this from my own experience, you may be engaged in

a righteous battle, but in the process of engaging in a righteous battle, you become hardened on the inside.

And the only way you can engage in a righteous battle is if you practice forgiveness on a daily basis.

And you may be right, but you become like a clashing symbol.

And so, you have to have, as Jesus said, um, love your enemies, maybe the hardest thing he ever said. So I want to talk today about 72 virgins and salvation.

And uh before we begin, invite you to bow your heads with me and we will ask the the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

Our dear heavenly father, we thank you that once again we can gather here. We thank you Lord for the blessings thus far of this day. Father, we thank you

for the ability to meet and worship you on this your day according to our conscience. And father, I pray that these these freedoms will remain long in this land.

Father, as we now um dwell on the question of forgiveness and the assurance of forgiveness, I ask Lord that your Holy Spirit who inspired these

passages of scripture will speak to me and for me that you will work through me upon every heart that is present here today and those who are watching online.

Father, Lord, I ask that we will indeed be willing to walk in a new path. I ask Lord we’ll be willing to think new

thoughts. We’re asking Lord that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That you’ll take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.

And I pray Lord that um people will see in us and our daily experience men and women for whom religious liberty means

that you give us liberty from the problems of the past and you enable us to transcend our human situations uh through the practice of forgiveness. So

Lord, as we share these moments together now, may you be glorified. This is my prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right.

So, um this is our journey this afternoon. I’m going to look at the question of after a brief introduction of um Islam and salvation, Christianity

and salvation, and then we’re going to come to our conclusions. So, um I’m I’m preaching this here today because I’ve learned that you have a large Muslim

influx here in British Columbia. You’ve had violence um in from some members of the Muslim community. um some some

violence attacks on the metro or the railroad systems or the trains and I I think it’s important that uh we start to understand what is going on within the

Islamic faith and how we as Christians can share our faith in a winsome and a and a winning way. So by way of introduction um this guy here met his

faith just a few weeks ago. Um he died um on the February the 28th. Ayatollah Ali Hamei um he was the supreme leader

of the Islamic Republic of Iran and he died in a US and Israeli air strike in um February this year. And that marked

the latest upsurge in the hostilities between the Islamic Republic and the West. And so immediately after he died,

you saw posters like this appearing in downtown Tehran where you have um Ali Hamemeni passing on the the flag to his

son Majaba, who we now discover is actually dead himself as well. And so that they put up posters like this emphasizing that the transition was

complete and the Islamic Republic had a new leader. And so in the current conflict uh the news may show pictures

of aircraft carriers and stealth bombers and cruise missiles and submarines. But the reality is both sides for this conflict are understanding this conflict

in spiritual terms. For the Islamic Republic, America is the great Satan that must be destroyed. For the Islamic

Republic, um the word ayatah is two words put together. Ayat is the Arabic word for a word or a verse. So the verses in the Quran are called ayats.

The the chapters are called suras. So the verses of the Quran are called ayats and the word Allah is the Islamic word for god as they understand him in the

Quran. And so ayat Allah means that they are the word of God. And so the ayatollah when they speak they are

speaking for God and that is why they are the supreme leaders within the Islamic regime. In the same way that the pope claims that when he speaks ex

cathedra that is in his official teaching capacity um he is infallible.

So the Ayatollah have the same understanding. They speak for God. They are therefore the supreme rulers. And the Ayatollah of Iran um they are part

of the Shia faith the Shia branch of Islam. And uh they are 12vers. There are certain groups in the Shia. There are the fivers the seveners and the

twelvers. And the twelvers believe that the 12th IM went into hiding. they call it occlusion in a cave near Kbler in

southern Iraq and uh while he is in hiding uh in occlusion as they call it um the Ayatollah they they lead God’s

people but one day that 12th I imam or the mechi is going to return and that’s going to bring about the final crisis

they believe the world is going to be bathed in fire that the Jews are going to be killed the Christians will be subjugated the cross will be broken and

they will establish a global caliphate so you see why their pursuit of nuclear weapons is somewhat problematic if they believe that bathing the world in fire

is going to bring about the return of the 12th of the Mechi or the 12th Imam and that would also usher in the return of Christ. Meanwhile, on the other side

of the coin, the US Secretary of War Pete Hegsef, he is explicitly bathing the conflict in the language of Christian dispensationalism and

apocalyptic theology as a battle against the forces of evil. and he released on Tik Tok a video of the Lord’s Prayer

last week. And in that video, um it says, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Um, “Thy kingdom come.” And you got B2 bombers dropping

bombers on Iran in in the imagery. And um thine be the kingdom, the glory, and the power. They got the American flag

over Congress and um F-18 fighter jets and tanks. And it’s basically celebrating American military might in a

blasphemous way. And so you’ve got the secretary of state for war um secretary of war Peter Hegseeth who sees this

language that this whole conflict in religious terms and so do the Iranian rulers.

So it’s not just a battle between militaries. This is actually a battle between two competing paths of salvation

because every religion ultimately talks about some kind of paradise, some kind of salvation. Whether it be paradise or

janna uh for Muslims, whether it be Nirvana for Buddhists, whether it be a new heavens and a new earth um from the scriptures as Adventists see it there.

Every religion today points ultimately to a greater reality or claims to and claims that it offers the pathway to

paradise one way or another. And the word paradise is a Persian word that means a four-walled garden itself. And so let’s talk first about um Islam and

salvation. And so Islam rose in the Saudi Arabian peninsula um in the 7th century AD. And it started you see on

the west so west coast there of Saudi Arabia you’ve got the city of Mecca and above that you’ve got the city of Medina. So Muhammad was raised in Mecca.

He was driven out and went to Medina as is the story as it goes. He established an Islamic state in Medina. Then he returned to Mecca um to establish Islam all across the Saudi Arabian Peninsula.

And then the Islamic um faith um erupted out of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula and it spread um west all the way across

North Africa and it came up into Spain and um then it spread all the way up into southwestern France. And in 732,

you see on the map there up in just where it says Frankish kingdoms. The battle of Tors was won by Charles Martell against the invading Muslims.

And had Charles Martell lost that battle, Europe would probably become Muslim.

It was one of the turning points of human history. And then the Muslim armies went east. They went all across the what we now call the Middle East

down into modern day Pakistan and up into modern Afghanistan. And so um after Muhammad died um there were c the the

leadership of the Muslim community fell to what they called um califfs. And the first califf was Abu Bakr. And after him

came another califf called Uman. And he collected all the sayings of Muhammad that they considered holy and they produced the Quran. And then 200 years later um um Islam had split into two.

There were the Sunnis and they were the Shiites. And the Sunnis are the majority in the Muslim world today. They believe that prophecy stopped with Muhammad and

that now the Muslim community is led by scholars, shakes and uh then the Shia they believe that the line of prophecy

continued after Muhammad all the way down to the 12th Imam. And so the Shia are actually more open to say the ministry of sis Ellen White than the

Sunnis are because they believe that prophecy is a continuing thing. But the the Shia were the small minority. And because the Shia were the minority, they

had to fight asymmetric warfare in their continual fighting against the the Sunni Muslims for centuries. And of course,

Muhammad issued a hadith. Um he went out to battle from Medina. And um some of the soldiers didn’t want to go, so he stayed home. And when they returned

victorious, the soldiers who had fought said to Muhammad, “What are we going to do with these guys that didn’t want to fight?” And his response was to kill the hypocrites.

And that instruction of Muhammad to kill the hypocrites is why most Islamic terrorism today is Muslim on Muslim. It

is not Muslim on Christian. But the killing is mostly Muslim on Muslim because Muslims believe that that expression to um kill the hypocrites

gives them license to kill fellow Muslims who don’t agree with them. So that if Jesus had said um kill the

heretics then um Methodists will be turning on Baptists and Baptists turning on Presbyterians and so forth. And that is maybe part of the tragedy of the

Islamic history where there is so much fighting within the Muslim world. But um within the the Muslim world um the Shia

world in particular um in the last 50 years suicide bombings have become um very popular particularly in the in the

Shiite world. In the Lebanese civil war in the 1975 to 1990 period, um Hezbollah, they were the largest Shia

party in Lebanon. Um they perfected the art of suicide bombings, including in 1983 suicide bombing at the US and

French barracks killed 241 US and 58 French personnel. So why is the why are

suicide bombings why are they so popular in some parts of the Muslim world? Well, the answer to that is the question of

forgiveness. And so, uh, if you are in in the Muslim faith, you believe that forgiveness um, the the Quran and the

Hadith teach there are certain ways that you atone for your sins and you find forgiveness. And they call it talba. And

those are the six um steps necessary for you to receive the forgiveness of Allah and for your, you might say, for your

debts to be cleared um, with Allah. So the first step is you must show genuine remorse for having caused the sin including you must say certain words at

the moment of tabba. The second stage is a desire not to repeat the sin. So that’s what we call say repentance from

a Christian perspective. The third you there must be a commitment to perform certain religious duties. Uh the fourth is to apologize and ask for the

forgiveness of the person you’ve wronged. Then you must make restitution for any harm that you’ve done. And then you must perform ongoing obedience to

Allah. And so um in Islam, this is this is the stepby-step method of finding forgiveness from Allah. The problem is

is that there is no guarantee of forgiveness in the Quran or the Hadith.

If you if you say you’re sorry and you perform Talba, um it is suggested that it may be possible you’re forgiven, but

there is no guarantee of forgiveness. uh in the Quran chapter 6:8 it says, “Oh ye who believe, turn to Allah with sincere

repentance in the hope, not in the certainty, but in the hope that your Lord will remove from you your ills and admit you to gardens beneath which

rivers flow.” The Quran also states in chapter 4 verse 116, “Surely Allah does not please that anything should be

associated with him.” That might be trinitary thinking, “But and he forgives what is beside this to whom he pleases.

And whoever associates anything with Allah, that would be the the false trinity of the um of the Eastern Byzantine Empire, he indeed strays off

into a remote era. And so this this verse of the Quran here, despite being viewed by some and many, I think, as a

anti-trinitarian um text and the trinity in those days, wasn’t um father, son, and holy spirit.

It was more God the father, God the son, and Mary was theotocos, the mother of God. That’s how the that’s how the Byzantine Empire was pushing the idea of

the trinity. So this verse of the Quran is actually pushing back against a false concept of the godhead. So this is not

not something we wouldn’t reject this verse um because because of saying it’s anti-trinitarian. This is rejecting a

false concept of the trinity here. But the problem with this is that in tabba the believer tries to get the forgiveness of sins from Allah but the

believer can never be sure that they are forgiven. How in Islam can the believer find the assurance that God indeed has forgiven them? And you see it in in

Albukari. Um Sahi al-Bukari. So um Albukari is the most revered book of the

hadith in across all of Islam. And sahi means that this is like genuine or reliable. And so sahi alkari this is

this is like desire of ages to Adventists. Okay. Um it says the person who participates in holy battles in Allah’s cause and nothing compels him to

do so except belief in Allah and his apostles will be reconcileed by Allah either with a reward or booty if he

survives or will be admitted to paradise if he is killed in the battle as a martyr. And so what this um alleged saying of the prophet of Islam,

Muhammad, says is that if you participate in jihad um for the cause of Allah, and you did so of your own free

will, um if you live, you may win booty, and if you die, you’re going to go to paradise.

Now, that’s a pretty good deal for a young man. This the uh Quran chapter 357 says this.

If you are killed in the cause of Allah or you die, the forgiveness and mercy of Allah are better than all that you amass. That is you have a greater reward

from Allah if you are dying in the cause of Allah than anything you may earn on this world here. So it is commonly taught both in Sunni Islam and Shia

Islam that martyrdom known as isadi will automatically save Muslims from hell and grant access to paradise no matter the

sin committed. It’s a bit like in the crusades the popes were incorrectly saying to people if you come and fight

in the crusades you’ll have plain remission for all of your sins you ever committed and all the sins that you ever commit. And so what Islam teaches

regarding jihad is almost identical to what the papacy taught regarding the crusades. Come and fight for us and you’re guaranteed all forgiveness for

all your sins you ever committed and ever will. A paradise through martyrdom including suicide bomble bombing actually circumvents the requirements of

tabba. It erases all the sins of the believer and guarantees you access into paradise. Another um hadith um teaches

that the seven benefits of death by martyrdom. First of all, you receive forgiveness for all your sins. Secondly,

um you get a place in paradise. Thirdly, you get protection from the torture of the grave. And fourthly, you get safety from the terror of the judgment day.

Fifthly, you get a crown of honor.

Sixthly, you get 72 hurries or the 72 virgins. And seventhly, and this is really interesting, you get the right to

intercede to bring salvation to 70 of your relatives. So if you die in jihad

and and you get the right to intercede for all of your relatives. Now, I can’t name 70 relatives of mine that I know of.

Okay? Some I’d want to exclude. All right? But there are there are there are some I won’t say who, but uh I don’t

have 70 relatives that I that I could possibly intercede for if I in this situation. And yet you have the right to intercede on behalf of 70 relatives. And

those 72 hurries are the 72 virgins that people talk about when you die in jihad.

You get your 72 virgins in heaven. Now the number 72 doesn’t actually appear anywhere in the Quran. It appears in the

hadith. What the Quran does contain is repeated references to the huralain which is a term often interpreted as the

dark eyed ones. Some some people call them the hurries. They are described as companions with lowered gazes.

Companions untouched by men or by jin fallen angels who live in garden pavilions. Islamic tradition also holds

that these 72 virgins rene renew their virginity on a daily basis. They’re presented as an eternal perpetually

renewing gifts to those who die in jihad or in martyrdom. And the same traditions holds that the elderly women from this

world when they die are recreated in paradise as perpetual virgins.

Now the implications of this for Muslims who come to let’s say Britain or Spain or France is that if you’re a young man

in Britain today, Muslim man, and you choose to lead an immoral lifestyle of partying and drinking or taking or dealing in drugs, womanizing and so

forth, death by martyrdom, such as a suicide bombing in London, offers you the guarantee of paradise. It erases

your family shame. It um it uh it restores your family’s honor. It guarantees eternal pleasures with 72

virgins. And this really is a miracle because there are no 72 mothers in this promise. For young Muslim, that’s a joke. For young Muslim women

in the West who suffer shame because of maybe um premarital sex or having an affair, maybe they’re infertile. Maybe a

you young woman has been raped and she suffers shame within the Muslim community. death by suicide bombing or by martyrdom erases her shame. It

cancels her guilt. It restores her family’s honor and it guarantees her eternity in paradise. So you see the attraction of death by martyrdom.

So strictly speaking, suicide is strictly forbidden within Sunni and Shia Islam, but death by martyrdom is not.

And so today when we read when you hear the news of a suicide bomber in Iraq or in Indonesia or in the West Bank or wherever it may happen to be these are not strictly suicide bombings at all.

These are the assurance of salvation bombings. People are trying to find eternal life the only way their their

religion guarantees it to them. And this is the tragedy of suicide bombing. So young men when they are told about jihad

they like the they like the opportunity to go in foreign conquest. They get to kill and rape and steal at free will and if they die they go to paradise.

But for a young women young women aren’t so interested in going into battle. But if they put on a vest and walk up to a checkpoint and press a button, all their

shame is gone. Their family’s honor is restored and they get guaranteed admittance to paradise.

So, a large proportion of suicide bombings are actually by women rather than by men.

And when it comes down to it, they’re not they’re not acting to kill. They’re acting to they’re acting to gain eternal

life. And what person in this room here does not want to find eternal life?

So, we’re starting from the same starting point.

And the question is, Islam offers eternal life through a certain path.

What does the Bible say about God’s forgiveness? Because in Islam, you are never guaranteed forgiveness from God.

Um, even if you perform the six or seven stages of Taba, forgiveness is always a possibility, but it’s not a guarantee.

So, it’s important when we have these discussions to recognize that people who engage in these actions, they’re not crazies, they’re not wicked, they’re not

evil. They have the same desire in their heart that everybody in this room has today, which is the assurance of salvation.

and they’re finding the assurance of salvation the only way that their faith guarantees for them.

So what does the Bible say about actually forgiveness?

So what I’m going to do here is I’m going to show a series of questions on the screen and then I’m going to give some scriptural answers to this because

when we read the Bible, what the Bible says about forgiveness and God’s forgiveness for us, it is truly beautiful. is truly beautiful. The first

question is this who are called to repentance. The answer is Jesus says I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

So God Jesus has come called to uh Jesus came to call sinners to repentance.

According to Romans chapter 3, how many of us are sinners? All of us. That means Jesus came in order that we might find

repentance. Uh the next question, what accompanies repentance? Well, in Matthew 28:18-20,

you have the first of three gospel commissions. You have another gospel commission in Mark 16. And the third gospel commission, which we rarely talk

about, is in Luke 24:47, which says Jesus said, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed

in his name to how many nations?” All nations. That is, as far as God is concerned, no nation is to be left

behind. No people group is to be left behind. No people group is to be forgotten. It is God’s desire that repentance and forgiveness of sins that

is by God is to be proclaimed in the name of Jesus Christ to every nation under planet earth. And that is why we as Adventists are a missionary people.

We are called to repent to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations. The next question is who

needs to repent? Well, the answer is found in Romans chapter 3 9-10 and verse 23. says, “What then? Are we any better off?” No, not at all. For we have

already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written, there is no one who is righteous, not even one, since all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, according to this passage here, everybody on planet earth needs to repent. Everybody needs to repent. We

all have something that we need to repent of. And then the question is, by what means is sin is sin made known to us? The answer comes in Romans 3:20. For

through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

So, how many people got up today and never looked in a mirror before they came to hear this building? Did anybody here not look in the mirror?

Well, sir, you have no hair. I’m sorry.

I’m sorry. You can brush your teeth and you don’t need to worry about what’s up there. Okay. So, if other than those who are bald, did anybody here not look in

the mirror this morning? No. Every Did you look in the mirror, brother? Yes.

Okay. All right. So, uh, every You had to comb your bald hair, you know. So, everybody looks in the mirror in the morning. Why? Because we want to see our imperfections.

You don’t look in the mirror to see what’s good. You see, look in the mirror to see what’s bad. So, you can, you know, fix it up.

Isn’t that right?

Yes. And the law of God function has the same function. When we look in the law of God, the ten commandments, we realize

how much of a sinner we really are and how much we need somebody to fix us up.

And so by what means is the is sin made known? It is through the law of God.

What who awakens our conscience to our sinful condition? John 16:8 says, “When he that is the Holy Spirit comes, he

will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” So it’s the Holy Spirit’s role when we look into the

law of God. The Holy Spirit brings conviction upon our hearts that we are sinners and there is a coming judgment but there is a possibility of righteousness for us.

Sometimes Satan puts those words in our ears. It’s called false guilt. And he says, “Conrad, that thing you did last

year, um, God could never forgive you for that.

God can forgive everything else, but God can’t forgive you for that.” And it’s known as false false guilt because you’ve already confessed that sin to God

and he’s already forgiven you. The when Satan whispers those those words of false guilt into your ear, the the best thing to do is to respond with a ver a

promise of scripture. To get thee behind me, Satan, it is written, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us and cleanse us from all

unrighteousness.” Satan also whispers into our ears, “True guilt.” True guilt is when you have a secret unconfessed cherished sin in your life and you’re

living the visible Christian life, but you’re indulging in private sin in private and Satan comes to you and says, “Conrad,” he said, “I I I know you’re a

professing Christian, but look how rotten your life really is. Like, you’re a complete hypocrite.” And the desire when Satan does that to you, it’s not

because he wants to drive you to Christ for forgiveness. He wants to drive you into discouragement.

But when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, the Holy Spirit says, “Yes, you’re a sinner, my my son or my daughter, but there is a savior willing to forgive you

today.” What does the truly repentant sinner do? Psalm 38:18.

I confess my iniquity. I’m sorry for my sins.

So, we confess our iniquities. Is it hard to say we’re sorry?

I am I have leed over the years of 26 years of very happy marriage how easy it is to have a non-apology.

I am very sorry if you felt upset at what I said is not an apology.

I am very sorry that you have negative emotions right now.

I am very sorry that you’re going to be upset for the next few days with me.

Um, it’s like the man who said to his wife, “I’m going to watch a ball game.

Can you give me the silent treatment for the next three hours, please?” So, the truly repentant sinner, has none of you ever done that?

Well, now you know.

I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sins. See, I’m confessing my iniquities this afternoon. All right. How specific should confession be? Now, this is

really important. Leviticus 5:5 says this. and you realize your guilt in any of these things, you shall confess the sin that you have committed.

That is when I I I have I have a young boy and when we have family worship and the family knows I’ve messed up and if I

kneel down and said, “Dear Lord, we’re all sinners. Please forgive us all here today for our sins.” That’s not going to

cut it. But if I say, “Lord, today I sped in the car and I was stopped by the police and I got a speeding ticket and

I’m sorry.” My little boy hears me saying out loud that what I did was wrong. And I model for him, this is what righteous living

looks like. So when you commit a sin, we give a specific confession to that sin.

And if we do it in the hearing of others, it means that um those people now know that this is not acceptable Christian behavior. This is not moral

behavior. So if you’re going to confess your sins or when you confess your sins, we are to confess the sins that you have committed. Oh Lord, forgive us for all our sins. Doesn’t it doesn’t cut it.

Lord, forgive me for losing my temper with my son today.

Y my son needs to hear that that I’m saying it out loud that what I did was wrong. What promises made to those who confess their sins? Very famous verse

here says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And that phrase cleanse uses from all

unrighteousness. In the gospels um Jesus there are three words for healing. Um there is therapeut therapo um that means

to heal. So in the gospels Jesus heals the sick of their diseases.

And there’s another Greek verb I forget on the top of my head here. There’s another Greek verb where Jesus cures them of more serious diseases. But the

most serious disease that had to be um treated by Jesus was leprosy. And lepers lepers were never healed. Lepers were

never cured. Lepers were always cleansed. A caththero is the verb. We get the word cathartic from that. Lepers were cleansed.

And so when when first John 1:9 says he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It’s not just saying that God will heal us. It says that sin

is a deathdealing disease. And when God forgives us, he cures us of that deadly disease. That’s what the verb cleanse

means here. It’s like you go to the doctor and they say your cancer is you’re cancer free. No signs of cancer.

Can you imagine the joy? Somebody’s cancer free. And then the joy you feel when God has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. God doesn’t just

forgive us. He he takes away that disease called sin that if if left untreated is going to lead to our certain death. And what should we ask

when we are convicted of sin? Acts 2:37 says this. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles,

“Brothers, what shall we do?” So when we are convicted of sin, we don’t just sit on it and stew on it. We

need to say, “Lord, what would you have me do?” It calls for a response. It calls for a response, an honest response. And God’s response when we are

convicted of sin is in Acts 238 through39 says repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus

Christ so that your sins may be forgiven and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you for your children and for all who are far

away everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him. And so when we are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, God doesn’t just forgive us, but if if if

conviction of sin means repentance means I’m walking in this way and the Greek verb is meto or metanino and repentance means you turn around and now you walk

in exactly the opposite direction of life. But repentance doesn’t just mean I stop what I was doing. It means I’m walking away from what I was doing.

So, for instance, I’ve never touched alcohol in my life, but I’ve got friends if they walk by Buffalo Wild Wings, which is a sports bar in America. The smell of the beer and the alcohol coming out of that door, it just draws them in.

You know, it’s just like you can smell like it just hooks their noses. And so, I what I say to them is if you’re going to walk by a buffalo world buffalo wild

wings, go to the other side of the road where you can’t smell it and just walk on by, but do something different.

Because if you say, “Lord, I’m sorry for what I’m doing, but you continue in the same path.” Guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to keep falling into the same sin again and again and

again. So, we are to repent. We’re to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. We are to be baptized.

And that promise is for you and for your children, for all who are far away.

The character of God in Exodus 33:6 and 7, so that God is merciful to a thousand generations to those who love him and

fear him. There haven’t been a thousand generations from Adam till today.

That means one man’s act of one woman’s act of righteousness today and turning to God um opens up their their family

lineage for generations to come to the blessings of God. You can change your family line through turning to God

today. And you open up your children and your grandchildren, your great great great grandchildren to the blessings of God that they have no idea. How many

times were kings of Judah unfaithful and God would send prophets and say, “You have been a wicked king, but for the sake of my servant David, I’m going to

deal mercifully with you.” You see that all the way through um 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. And so God is a

merciful God. And when we repent and we turn to God in faith and in baptism, um we don’t just receive blessings ourselves, but God says, “I’m going to

make a deal with your children as yet unborn, and they’re going to receive my blessings as well.

Is God ready to forgive? Well, unlike Allah in the Quran, the Bible says, as the psalm says, “For you, oh Lord, are

good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.” It’s a beautiful verse. And that

word steadfast love is maybe the most important verse in the entire Old Testament. It is I have to clear my throat when I say this. I mean, it’s You’ve heard of that.

It means covenant faithfulness. It means mercy. It means long-suffering. It means compassion. It means everlasting love.

It’s a word that has so many meanings, but it’s one word that maybe summarizes up the character of God more than anything else. God is not just um

doesn’t his character is not justed, but he is abounding in in all who call upon him. That God is overflowing in covenant

faithfulness. He is overflowing in mercy and longsuffering and kindness and compassion. And so when David confessed

his sins before God um about his sin with Ba’ath Sheba um in his prayer prayer of penitence he said have mercy

upon me oh God according to your according to your blot out my transgressions. And so when David asked

God when David confessed his sins to God he didn’t say listen God you need to forgive me because I’m basically good guy and I only messed up once. So you need to overlook that one mistake.

He said, ‘Lord, I’ve messed up here.

I’ve got no excuses. My hope for forgiveness is your character, and my hope for forgiveness is not based

on anything I’ve done. It’s not based on my performance. You don’t owe it to me.

I haven’t earned it. Um, uh, I’ve got no brownie points with you. If I’m to be forgiven by God, God’s forgiveness is

purely a result of his character of towards me. And how full is God’s forgiveness? The psalmist Isaiah says

Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked forsake their ways and unrighteous their thoughts. Let them return to the Lord that he may have mercy upon them and to

our God for he will abundantly pardon.” To receive a pardon is one thing, but to

receive an abundant pardon. Like God’s forgiveness is overflowing. That it’s not nothing’s going to escape his

forgiveness. His pardon isn’t just yes, I’ll do I’ll forgive you this time, but don’t you dare do that again.

It’s it’s a restoration of a relationship that was broken. And when you’ve been married for many years, you understand that when when there’s a

break in the relationship and then you reconcile and and with appropriate apologies and confessions are made, the relationship is stronger as a result of

that reconciliation and forgiveness and confession than it was without it.

reconciliation and forgiveness and naming and recognizing that certain things are unacceptable and this is we’re not going to do this again that

makes relationship stronger going forward and God’s forgiveness is such that he will abundantly pardon us for

our sins and why is God ready to forgive Micah 7:18-19 says who is a God like you pardoning iniquity and passing over the

transgression of the remnants of his possession he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in showing ing clemency. He will tread our

iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins out into the depths of the sea.

I love this expression. He delights in showing clemency. What do you What do you delight in doing? Do you delight in holding a grudge? Do you delight in

letting them know? Or I used to fight with my brother a lot. He’d hit me like this. I’d hit him like that. He whacked me like that. And I smash him to the ground like that. That was how we

forgave each other. That’s how boys fight. Yes. Like I’m gonna show you.

Yeah. You hit me back, I’m gonna hit you back with a 20% gain on this. Okay. And so that’s how we act as human beings.

But God, he doesn’t delight in exacting retribution. God delights in showing mercy to his children. He delights. It doesn’t. It’s not just something he

does. He delights. It’s something he celebrates. It’s something he eagerly looks forward to doing because we are his children. And so why is God

long-suffering towards us? Second Peter 3:9. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

We’re all the children of God, and I don’t want any of my children to perish.

And every day is a new day when you have children. Every day you hope for something better. I know the problems of yesterday, but tomorrow can be better.

We’re going to work on this. I’m seeing some parents nod their heads in here.

And God’s attitude towards us is I’m not he’s not willing that any of us should perish. He’s not willing that anybody in this room should perish. And so he is

not slow concerning his promise. That is his second coming. But he’s patient because he wants as many people as possible to be saved.

Next question is what part does Calvary play in our forgiveness? Says he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross

so that free from sins we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

It’s a beautiful passage. Jesus died not so that we could remain in our sins, but that we could be free from the presence

and the power of sin in our lives and we could live for righteousness.

We have the ten commandments. If it were not possible to take to keep the ten commandments, but um sin is the breaking

of the law of God. And if you break the law of God, you are condemned to eternal destruction. But if it’s not possible to keep the ten commandments, then God is a monster.

because he condemns us to eternal destruction for failing to keep a law that’s impossible to keep. So therefore, it must be possible to keep the ten commandments.

And so Jesus died so that we might be free from sins. There’s a difference between individual sins and being a fallen human being.

Like I I’m I’m still aging now. I’ve got gray hair as you can see. Um I I actually made a joke in the church

recently. I said, “I I I dress I normally wear a gray suit and every morning I put on a gray wig.” And my wife knew that I wasn’t telling the

truth with that one. But um I’m a sinful I’m a sinful being. I’m a fallen being.

Um and so even if I were to sleep for the next 20 years, I’d be slowly dying.

I wouldn’t be committing sins, but I individual sins, but I would be slowly dying.

And so Jesus died that we might be free from sins and that we might live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have

been healed. Jesus died so that if we ask him to live within us, we can gain victory over sin. That we are not held

as prisoners of our past. We don’t need to be held in the chains of addictions and so forth. And what about our shame?

You know, the book of uh Hebrews or the the whole Bible is written with the Middle East mindset in view. We think of the gospel as saving us from the guilt

of sin. The Bible also talks about the gospel in a shame honor perspective.

This is one of those verses says we look to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the

cross disregarding its shame and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. So on Calvary Jesus bore

my shame. Now that may not mean much to a western mind but to a Muslim mind or middle eastern mind living in a shame

and honor society where many young Muslim men men and women don’t have any sense of sin but they have a sense of shame before God and how can they stand

before God without shame that is how can they stand before God with honor they can stand before God with honor because

on the cross Jesus in on Calvary Jesus endured the cross disregarding it shame Jesus carried their shame as we in the

say that he bore our sins. And what was the Messiah’s death to accomplish? John 1:29 says, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and said, behold

the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” What good news. Yes.

Um he takes away the sin of the whole world. I’m grateful that Jesus came for that particular purpose. And then does

Jesus offer of mercy extend to the peoples of the Middle East? Absolutely. The gospel is not just for westerners.

The gospel story started in the Middle East. And the book of Jonah, we see that the people of Nineveh in northern Iraq of today, the city of Mosul, it says

when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he said he would bring upon them and he did not

do it. So God’s offer of mercy is not just to Westerners in the West. God’s offer of mercy is also to people in the middle of the Middle East. And if you go

to Iraq today, um the northern city of Mosul is the ancient city of Nineveh.

And that province of Iraq is called the plains of Nineveh. That’s what it’s called, the plains of Nineveh. And the largest Christian group in Iraq today

are the ethnic Assyrians, the descendants of the Assyrians to whom Jonah preached in the book of Jonah.

like Jonah had a Jonah’s had an impact that’s lasted 2400 years from his or 2600 years from his preaching and almost

all the Adventists in Iraq today and there’s like 20 of them most of them are in Linda these days but almost all the Adventists in northern Iraq or anywhere

in Iraq are Assyrians ethnic Assyrians and they trace their lineage back to the prophet Jonah

and so God’s offer of mercy isn’t just for westerners God’s offer of mercy is for all the peoples of the Middle East as well. We see that in the story of

Jonah. And is the Messiah coming again to our earth? Well, yes, he is. My favorite verse from the book of Hebrews.

So Christ having being offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for

him. And you know we say many of us say we’re Adventists. I’m an Adventist pastor. Um uh does Satan know that Jesus

is coming again? Yes, he does. He knows that his time is short. Do the demons know that Jesus is coming again? Yes, they do. They know about the appointed

star of their judgments and their destruction. Um, and do do the occultists know that Jesus is coming again? Oh, yes, they know that Jesus is

coming again. Um, across almost all of Islam, there is a belief in the descent of Issa, that is the second return of Christ. Most Christians have some idea

about the coming of Jesus. Um, in the Jewish faith, there’s certain traditions there, but by and large, they still have some idea of a return of a Messiah

figure. So these days um maybe 60 to 70% of planet earth is expecting the arrival of a heavenly figure when you add it all

up across all the religions. But Jesus is coming for those who are eagerly waiting for him. Not just waiting, eagerly waiting. So if you’re waiting

for Jesus, you know he’s coming. If you’re eagerly waiting for Jesus, your heart is yearning for him to come.

So is your heart yearning for Christ to come today?

The older I get and the more pain I see in this world, the more I long for Jesus to come again. Because when Jesus comes again, all human suffering comes to a

sudden end. No more death, no more disease, no more divorce, no more drugs, no more despair, no more depression.

Everything comes to an abrupt end. The suffering in the animal kingdom comes to an end as well. So how can we be ready for that glorious day? John 3, this is

Nicodemus and Jesus. Jesus said to him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again or born from above.” He goes on to

explain, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.” So,

you must be born by baptism and you must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It’s why when we baptize people, we offer a special prayer after baptism, asking the Holy Spirit to fill them and to come upon them. And it says, “And

just as Moses lifted up the serpents in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believeth in him may have eternal life. For God so

loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send

his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.” So if we are to be ready for the coming of Christ,

people say, um, I need to be ready for the coming of Christ. The way to be ready for the coming of Christ is to be born again, to be born of water and of the spirit.

And you’re not to worry about your salvation after that. But you are to partner with God in the process of sanctification. That’s the fit fitting

or preparing a character for heaven above.

But we are not as Adventists to have no assurance of salvation. All too often I I work and visit with people who are

dying. They say, “Pastor, um, I don’t know if I’m saved.” that you’re a lifelong Adventist Christian. I don’t

know if I’m saved. Why don’t you know that I’m saved? Well, pastor, I led a really bad life. Said, “Yeah, you did.

Yeah, you’re a rotten sinner. You led a really bad life. God cannot God will not save a rotten sinner just like you.” They look really depressed. Even more

depressed. I say you know if you go to the book of Romans chapter 5 says that by one man’s act of disobedience sin entered the world and the stuff came

death thus death came to all but by one man’s obedience righteousness came to the world and so life has come to us all

we are saved not by our own righteous lives but by the righteousness and the perfection the obedience of Jesus Christ and if I look to my own if I look at

myself in the mirror I have no hope of salvation but if I look to Jesus I have hope of salvation to be found in Christ

is justification. For Christ to be found in me is sanctification. And I need to have both of those realities in my life.

What does the Messiah promise sinners today? This is a beautiful promise. He says, “And anyone who comes to me, I will what?

Never drive away.” Have you noticed in the gospels, Jesus never fired a disciple, not once.

He never dysfellowshipped anybody.

He worked with Judas all the way through the Lord last supper. The last supper was a dialogue between Jesus and Judas.

Jesus was trying to save that last disciple all the way through to the end of the la the Lord’s supper. But Jesus never fired a disciple.

He never dysfellowshipped anybody. He says, “If you come to me, I will never drive you away. No matter how imperfect you may be, no matter what mistakes you

may make, I will never drive you away.” And so when we hear these promises from God of his forgiveness and the abundance

of his forgiveness, the fact that he delights to forgive, that his character is one that is covenant faithful and compassionate and long-suffering and

kind and merciful, and that he’s coming again to save his own, and he will never cast anyone aside who comes to him in faith. This is an awesome God that we

serve. And I want to encourage us today, if that is the God we serve and we are to reflect his character in our communities and in

our world, then that’s the kind of characteristics we need to be showing the world. I had a friend of mine um we still chat and we he met he came to us

for a camp event camping event and we sat down over um Sunday afternoon and um we started just a discussion and he said

well this group I think I’d probably probably put them in prison and that group I think should be hanged and that group over there should be deported and that group over there um should should

you know maybe face castration. I mean, by the time he’d finished, like who was left standing? And then the conversation

turned to marriage and and I said, “Well, yeah, yeah, you’re not married yet.” He said, “Yes.” He says, “It’s probably because I’m just too soft-hearted.”

I thought, you know, there’s a disconnect here. There’s a disconnect here. You’ve just wiped out half of planet Earth in your comments, and now

you’re thinking you’re married because you’re so soft-hearted. And the problem here is that is that we often have an intellectual knowledge of God, but God

is looking for a manifestation of his character in his people before Jesus comes again. God is waiting for a movement to spread around the entire

world, a manifestation of God’s character of love, so the world can truly see who God is and all the things we’ve been talking about in the last 20

minutes um about God’s forgiveness and his abundance of forgiveness, his delight to forgive, his mercy and his clemency and his patience so that

sinners might come to salvation. That is the kind of heavenly father that we are called to reflect to the world around us. I want to encourage you, don’t just look in the mirror for your own sins.

look in the mirror and say, “Am I faithfully reflecting my heavenly father?” When people see me, do they see the character of God? Do they see mercy?

Do they see compassion? Do they see forgiveness? Do they see a willingness to wipe away the sin and the shame of the past? What do they see? And so we

say with the psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” That is, God, I can’t manufacture this myself, but you can do

this for me. You can change me from the inside out. And I’m confident of this as the apostle Paul that the one who began

a good work among you that is the process of character transformation will bring it to completion by the day of

Jesus Christ. So our time is up. I need to my time up.

So I put up there a chart between Islam and Christianity.

As I’ve answer I’m asking some questions. The first questions is will a penitent sinner always be forgiven? And in Islam the answer is maybe. In Christianity the answer is yes.

Can a penitent sinner have the assurance of forgiveness? In Islam the answer is no. In Christianity the answer is yes.

Does someone have to die for me to be saved? In both Christianity and Islam the answer actually is yes. Not necessarily the same person, but the

answer is yes. Does that death have to be voluntary? Yes, it does.

Does the believer have to die? In Islam, the answer is yes. But in Christianity, the answer is no. Who has to die? In

Islam, the answer is the believer. And in Christianity, the answer is Jesus Christ on Calvary. The price was already

paid. And the result in Islam, when you die, well, we’re speaking here from a Christian perspective, then you

are dead. But from a biblical perspective, when you are born again, you are baptized of water and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit and you

receive Jesus Christ and his righteousness into your life, God makes you a new creation. He removes just the the shame and the guilt of your past to

be replaced with Christ’s righteousness so that we can stand with honor without shame or guilt before God in the final judgment. You know, there is a war going

on today. is not just in the Middle East, but there’s a war going on inside every heart in the human race. And that

war is for the eternal loyalty and love of every human being. And the prize is eternal life. And how we respond to that

conflict within our own hearts brings us either the assurance of salvation, which gives peace with God today and hope for tomorrow, or it brings us fear and

forboding today for what lies ahead, which is either nothingness or the final judgment. So on Calvary, the penalty for

our brokenness and our mistakes, our sin was paid in full. Jesus created us in the Garden of Eden and he took

responsibility for recreating us on the cross of Calvary.

And so I love and follow today Issa al- Masi as he’s called by the Muslims, Yeshua Hamashiach as he’s spoken of in

Hebrew, Yesus Christos as it’s spoken of in the Greek language and New Testament or Jesus Christ as we plainly say in the

English language. And why do I love Yeshua Hamashiach Isa al- Masi Yestos?

The answer is this. Because on Calvary he bore my guilt. He carried my shame.

He paid the price. He bought me back. He reconciled me to God. His blood was

spilled, not mine. He died for me. And he died for you. And in him, all will

find forgiveness for their sins. All of our shame is removed. Our guilt is gone.

His righteousness covers our shame. And we can stand before God with honor. For as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore no condemnation for

those who are in Christ Jesus.” The Greek word for judgment is crisis. We get the word crisis from that. We come into crisis, the final judgment. But if

you’re in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. The word for condemnation is crimmer. We get the word criminal from that. So we come into judgment, but

we have the assurance if we’re in Christ Jesus that we won’t come out of that judgment as a criminal. So we are not afraid of the final judgment if we’re in

Christ Jesus. It’s a chance for us to be vindicated before the watching universe.

So what does the Messiah say to us? Our last slide here. I think my time is up.

I’m still working on Eastern time here, brother. So, what does Messiah say to us today?

He says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and

learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I don’t know what burdens you came to this house today with. I don’t know what shame and could ofves, would you walked

through the door with. But if you’re a normal human being, you probably came in here with some regrets. You came into

this building with a sense that maybe I’ve wandered away from the Lord at some time in the last recent past. Maybe I’m

I’ve hiding some cherished sins. Maybe I need to be reconciled with somebody.

Maybe I lost my religion getting the kids ready for church today. And they’re kind of smarting as they walk into church. They see dad going from a raging

monster getting me ready for church to an angel walking into church. And something isn’t right.

Some of you are smiling. You know what I’m talking about. And Jesus says to all of us today, “Come unto me all you that

are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” everybody who is weary and heavy laden.

And Jesus will give us rest. I love Jesus and I follow Jesus because of what he’s done for me, for what he is doing

for me, and for what he’s going to do for me in the future.

And I can’t think of anybody else I would rather follow in my life.

As I said, I may be British by birth and Irish by birth and American by choice, but what’s most important is I’m saved by grace. And this is a religious

liberty Sabbath. I want to encourage you. Um, we live in a land where you can choose for Christ. Choose for Christ even today.

Don’t put off this decision, but choose for Christ today. Ask him to be the Lord of your life and ask him to be your

savior from sin. And uh, learn of me, he says, and uh, learn my commandments, learn my teachings. I’ll tell you this, when you follow the teachings of Christ,

it’s amazing how he makes straight the paths before you.

And I can look back as with Joshua and say all of God’s good promises that he made to Joshua in Joshua 1, they’ve all come true in my life as well.

So whether you’re young or old, whether you’re Adventist or not Adventist, the Messiah came for you and his promises are for you as well. Why not choose God

today? Use your religious liberty and make the best decision you’ll ever make.

And one day when we get to heaven, we’ll meet the one who loved us and who saved us and who died for us and uh who’s

coming again for us. I can’t wait to meet Jesus face to face. Let’s bow our heads and close this with a word of prayer. Our heavenly father,

we thank you today that you delight to forgive, that you you abundantly pardon,

that you are not willing that any should perish, that you will never drive away any who come to you, that you say unto us, come unto me all you who are heavy

laden, and I will give you rest. Father, I thank you for these precious promises of the promised Messiah. And Father, I

pray that when Jesus comes again in the clouds of glory, each one of our names will be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I pray, Lord, that we will use the

liberties we have as yet today in Canada to choose for Jesus on a daily basis. I pray that in choosing for him, we’ll be

so filled with his spirit that our lives will be a walking testament to your goodness and your mercy and your faithfulness. Oh father, I pray that

people will see Jesus in us day after day. or as John the Baptist said, “Christ must increase and I must decrease.” Lord, we ask today that there

be less of us each day and more of our Lord and Savior. And Father, we thank you in advance that you will bring to completion the good work that you’ve

already begun in each one of us. So, Father, we’re in your hands. And Jesus, when you come again, please come looking for me. In your name we pray. Amen.