Laurelbrook Academy SDA Church

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Clifton Brandt Talks About "Love, Liberty, and Law"

The church service in the Laurelbrook Seventh-day Adventist Church on December 16, 2017 began with Elizabeth Castle talking about the ten days of prayer (January 10-20). This year staff families will be able to host prayer groups in their homes. Please notify Elizabeth Castle or Ricardo Reid if your family is interested. Dyaine (senior) welcomed everyone and made a few announcements. 
 
Samantha (sophomore) played an introit. The congregation had a silent invocation.  The congregation then sang “Trust and Obey”. Rodney Herra then called for the people going on the Mexico mission trip beginning tomorrow to come to the platform for prayer. Rodney Herra then had the Morning Prayer; the congregation sang “Hear Our Prayer”.
 
Josia (senior) then called for the offering.  Mark (sophomore) and Daryll Ellis then collected the morning offerings; the loose offering went to the local church budget.  The congregation sang the doxology, and Dyaine prayed for the offering. 
 
Sarah (senior) then told the children a story about a boy named Tommy, who was given a special backpack packed by his mother. He then went on a long hike with his family. The backpack got heavier by the hour. Finally, he asked his mother to carry his backpack, but she had her own. The backpack is like our loads of sin, which seems attractive for a time. Eventually, sin becomes a huge burden, but it is a burden that Jesus can relieve us of.

Citlali (senior) then read Psalm 119:97 “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Jissel played her flute and Moises his violin for special music. They were accompanied on the piano by Jeremy Westcott.

Clifton Brandt discussed the topic “Love, Liberty, and Law”, issuing an altar call at the end of the sermon. The congregation sang “So Send I You”.   Clifton Brandt had the closing prayer.

Personnel Other Than Students:
 
Clifton Brandt – works with Laurelbrook’s boiler, sewer, and water systems
Rodney Herra – works with the auto body and farm programs / church treasurer
 
Following are some notes on the sermon by Clifton Brandt: 

1. The talk was on the great principles of salvation.

• There has to be a penalty for disobedience to God’s Law – eternal separation from God.
• God stepped in with a plan of salvation without doing away with God’s Law itself.
• Psalm 89:14-16 “14 Justice and judgment [are] the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 15 ¶ Blessed [is] the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. 16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”
• Psalm 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed [each other].”
• Genesis 9:12-16 “12 ¶ And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth.”
• A rainbow takes light as well as moisture.  Around God’s throne is a rainbow. This symbolizes the union of justice and mercy.
• Note the references to the Ten Commandments in these verses. Psalm 119:89-96 “89 ¶ LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 90 Thy faithfulness [is] unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all [are] thy servants. 92 ¶ Unless thy law [had been] my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. 93 ¶ I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me. 94 ¶ I [am] thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts. 95 ¶ The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: [but] I will consider thy testimonies. 96 ¶ I have seen an end of all perfection: [but] thy commandment [is] exceeding broad.”
• Precepts refers to a written moral law.  The Ten Commandments are ten precepts.
• What is a testimony?  Exodus 31:18 “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
• The commandment broad? It goes beyond perfection and takes in more than it appears, taking in all our inactions with God and fellow human beings and reveals the principles of the character of God.
• In Genesis 41, it shows us that when God repeats something it is established. Genesis 41:32 “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; [it is] because the thing [is] established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”
• Deuteronomy 5 is a repetition of the Ten Commandments, making it established and important. The first commandment says that we should have no other gods before God.
• Deuteronomy 5:1- “1 ¶ And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, [even] us, who [are] all of us here alive this day. 4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, 5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, 6 ¶ I [am] the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 8 Thou shalt not make thee [any] graven image, [or] any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the waters beneath the earth: 9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me, 10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 11 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold [him] guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.”
• Deuteronomy 5:23-27 “23 ¶ And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, [even] all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 24 And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. 25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die. 26 For who [is there of] all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we [have], and lived? 27 Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear [it], and do [it].”
• Deuteronomy 5:28 “And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.” Note that the Lord doesn’t call Israel “his”. God was offended.
• Deuteronomy 5:29- “29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! 30 Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.”
• God expects obedience to His law, which comes by accepting the merits of Jesus on our behalf.
• We need to stand up for God no matter what.
• Ellen White says that we are now forming characters for eternity.  There is no comfort in sin, no comfort in disobeying God’s Law. Sin is the most costly thing in the world.  This can cost us heaven. It cost the Son of God His life on our behalf.
• The Bible defines sin as the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4).
• No matter how hard we try, we cannot equal our Pattern (Jesus).  But God accepts our best efforts to keep the Law.
• Ellen White says that righteousness is holiness and likeness to God, who is love. We receive righteousness by accepting Christ as our own Personal Saviour.
• Ellen White says in Faith and Works, p. 101 that a sinner can keep the Law by bringing the merits of Christ to God and God credits those merits to the sinner’s account. This is the only way we can obtain obedience to the Ten Commandments.
• We are responsible for all the light God has sent us, not what He could send us.