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2023-Q4-L13: The End of God's Mission

Read for This Week’s Study: Rev. 1:1–7, 1 Pet. 2:9, Rev. 14:6–12, Luke 11:23, 1 Tim. 2:4, Rev. 21:1–4.

Memory Text: “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God . . . ?” (2 Peter 3:11, 12, NKJV).

Scripture

  • Revelation 21:1–4 (ESV): 21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Notes

  • M

SABBATH Afternoon

From the lesson: The epicenter of the book deals with the cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan. Satan has lost his legal hold over the earth, and now he pursues those who remain loyal to God.

EGW: DA 129.4: When Satan declared to Christ, The kingdom and glory of the world are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it, he stated what was true only in part, and he declared it to serve his own purpose of deception. Satan's dominion was that wrested from Adam, but Adam was the vicegerent of the Creator. His was not an independent rule. The earth is God's, and He has committed all things to His Son. Adam was to reign subject to Christ. When Adam betrayed his sovereignty into Satan's hands, Christ still remained the rightful King. Thus the Lord had said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.” Daniel 4:17. Satan can exercise his usurped authority only as God permits.

DA 22.1: The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, “with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2.

DA 466.4: In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.

Blood (death or life)

  • Blood represents life not death. "Shed blood" represents death.
  • Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.
  • It is the "life of Christ" that makes atonement for the "life of man." Life for life. We are atoned by Christ' life, not his death.
  • Satan uses "power" to harm us. Satan's wrath is the use of power.
  • God uses "power" to restrains harm from Satan and evil consequences from our lives, particularly when we plead for mercy or when it interferes with God's purposes. God's wrath is the cessation of the use of power.

Notes

  • The pecking order: God --> Christ --> Adam. But Satan usurped Adam's authority, not Christ's as the Son of God. When he came as the Son of Man, he recovered Adam's authority as the new Adam.
  • Satan never had a "legal hold" but a usurped hold. There is nothing legal about it.
  • Can someone do illegal acts to obtain legal holds?
  • We are slaves to sin, but it is an illegal hold on man's minds.
  • We are held captive by deception, and it is an illegal attack.
  • On DA 466.4: Effectively, the spirit of God equips man, gives man the power to resist evil. That power to resist evil, man had lost in the Fall.
  • The Law is that of cause and effect. A broken law of God results in its own effects, which is ultimate death. If you break the law of health, you will exercise sickness.
  • Galatians 6:8: For he who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but he who sows to the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.

SUNDAY. Revelation: God’s Last-Day Mission.

Scriptures

  • Revelation 1:1-7
  • 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV): 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

MONDAY. The Three Angels’ Messages and Mission

Scriptures

  • Revelation 14:6-12
  • Luke 11:23 (ESV): 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Notes

  • Why is it the everlasting (or eternal) gospel?

TUESDAY. The Final Crisis

Scriptures

  • 1 John 4:8 (ESV): 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
  • 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV): 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
  • 1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV): 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
  • Genesis 12:3 (ESV): 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
  • Revelation 14:12 (ESV): 12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
  • Romans 1:18–21 (ESV): 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
  • Romans 2:11–16 (ESV): 11 For God shows no partiality.
    12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

WEDNESDAY. Success in Mission

Scriptures

  • 2 Corinthians 11:2 (ESV): 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
  • Isaiah 30:21 (ESV): 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
  • John 10:27 (ESV): 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
  • John 16:12–13 (ESV): 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:9–11 (ESV): 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,
  • Hebrews 3:12–13 (ESV): 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
  • 1 John 1:8 (ESV): 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
  • 1 John 1:9 (ESV): 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
  • Revelation 7:14 (ESV): 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
  • Revelation 19:8 (ESV): 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

THURSDAY. Mission Complete. Revelation 21:1-4; 21:22-22:5

FRIDAY. Further Thought:

APPENDIX