Nathaniel Gamble 2026 Camp Meeting - Friday Morning Plenary

[00:01:28]Good morning everybody.

[00:01:34]I think the weather has made up for the how mean it was being the days before right with with r br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br brutal hot and then now or then cold and today is just absolutely gorgeous. So, um I don't know if I need to introduce Nathaniel Gamble again. Um he you've probably already been hearing him uh for a couple of days now. Um we actually interviewed him for a while, tried to to steal him away from Rocky Mountain Conference, but didn't succeed. So, um it was it's it's good to have him here and um enjoying um hearing what he has.

[00:02:14]There's a few announcements before we get started. uh some of it is repeated, but you know, they say that it it requires hearing something about seven times before people actually start to register. Okay. So, if you're looking for more information on camp meeting, the the brochure is fairly limited. Um there's more at campmeing.mnsda.com.

[00:02:35]So, you can always find more speaker information and things like that there.

[00:02:39]Um 6 am uh I'm this is I I think this is really the most important thing that's happening during camp meeting every year is the 6 am prayer time. Uh and this morning I was there again with the group and uh they uh we we prayed for for probably uh 45 or 50 minutes. Uh and it's just wonderful thing feeling the spirit fill the room like that. And uh uh we need we need more and more and more prayer. So, if you're able to come out to the girlsdorm chapel at 6:00 a.m., would love to see you there tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to pack out the place um tomorrow for our last one.

[00:03:17]Again, we're asking if you have any ideas about a lifeguard, where we can find a lifeguard. We've been praying for that, too. Uh please let us know. Uh and we'll we'll see what we can do on that.

[00:03:26]If you have any ideas and the trivia, we're not I don't think that's for now.

[00:03:30]I think that's for later, right? Unless you um yeah, you can visit the tables in the back for for the trivia stuff. All right, that is our our those are our announcements for today. Let me pray and then we'll we'll begin. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity that you've given us at camp meeting to be able to worship you, to learn of you, to um explore different things that that need exploring. I pray for a special blessing on Nathaniel today as he is uh presenting. Please give him the words that you want him to have for us today.

[00:04:07]In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay, Nathaniel, the time is yours. Thank you.

[00:04:17]Good morning once again. It's good to be with you. I would like to congratulate you on making it through Christian nationalism.

[00:04:27]If this was a degree, I really don't know what we'd get. Maybe a certificate, maybe a a bachelor's or a master, something like that. Um, but today is probably going to be one of the more exciting or more frustrating aspects of what we've been discussing.

[00:04:46]For those of you who are just joining us, either in person or online, for uh the last two days, we have been looking at the temptation of Christian nationalism.

[00:04:57]the temptation of Christian nationalism.

[00:04:59]And in terms of that, we've seen that it has three different aspects. On Wednesday, we looked at what the temptation of Christian nationalism is for the state. The state often thinks that if it goes the route of Christian nationalism, then it will uh be able to co-opt the religion. In this case, Christianity. Church history has demonstrated that various states at times have tried to do that. uh they think they'll make the world a better place. What generally happens is that the church eventually takes over the state. Uh it becomes just a combination of church and state. Christian nationalism always starts out as we're simply trying to make the world a better place. And then it ends up making it into some sort of hellscape where morality is turned into a nightmare. And then suddenly you're wondering how is this any different from any kind of repressive oppressive political regime.

[00:05:56]And so the temptation of Christian nationalism for the state is always between two Jesuses. Are you going to choose Jesus Barabbus and that was it was likely Barabus's real name because Jesus was a very common and popular name in first century Israel. Or are you going to choose Jesus the Messiah? And then yesterday we looked at the temptation that Christian nationalism poses for the church as 7th day Adventists. We are uh currently in a conversation with ourselves about the virtues and values of Christian nationalism. Uh many of us seem to be kind of on the fence. We want to uh be patriotic to whatever country we belong to. We want to advocate for social morality, those kinds of things. But we also recognize, hey, we have a tradition of warning against the combination of church and state. Some of us very much are opposed to it and some of us surprisingly very much like it. And we almost kind of like the state think maybe we can co-opt it. We can turn Christian nationalistic influences and instincts and perspectives to a good use.

[00:07:08]Maybe we can, you know, veer the car away from driving off the cliff edge into the brink. But that generally doesn't work because according to Bible prophecy, what the church when it apostasizes contributes to end time events is actually providing this antichrist figure. Because as we saw yesterday, Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 calls this Antichrist figure the son of predition. And he's picking that up from Jesus's practice in his high priestly prayer in John 17 where he refers to Judas's scariot, the one who is betraying him as the son of predition.

[00:07:46]Which makes sense because as we saw in Matthew 26, Judas admired Jesus at least enough to at some point identify himself as a disciple of Jesus, but he was simply his rabbi. He was not his Lord.

[00:07:59]He definitely wasn't his God. And that can become problematic when the church admires the teachings of Jesus but not his authority.

[00:08:09]Today however we are going to look at a third aspect of the temptation of Christian nationalism. And we're going to be looking at this once again through the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew helpfully uh provides us with tools to navigate how to assess and address and respond to this kind of temptation.

[00:08:30]And as the slide shows, we're going to be looking at the the temptation that Christian nationalism poses or at least posed to Jesus. That may seem kind of weird at first. Well, I mean, I'm not really sure, Pastor Nathaniel, if that's the way to think about any kind of temptation that Jesus endured. But I think as we follow some of the instincts 7th Day Adventists have used to understand some of the temptations recorded in the Gospels that Jesus experienced and endured on our behalf, you will come to see, oh, hey, wait, there's a lot going on in the temptations that Jesus encountered while on earth. But one of the themes that seems to accompany the temptations Jesus experiences is a temptation to Christian nationalism. And really when we look at this, we're going to have to confront the question, what kind of Seventh Day Adventist do you want to be? What kind of Seventh Day Adventist do you want to be?

[00:09:35]This is going to be important because if you think about it, almost every Christian in the world is an Adventist.

[00:09:42]They at least give lip service to the first coming or advent of Jesus. And they claim they look forward to the hope of the second coming or second advent of Jesus. For seventh day Adventists though, we are particular kinds of first and second comingings, if you will.

[00:10:00]uh certain kinds of Christians that are looking forward to the second coming of Jesus. And yet we also are always confronted with the opportunity to become whatever kind of 7th day Adventist we want to be. And we can do it according to what Jesus wants us to be or we can do it according to what we want to be. And so looking at this, we're going to think about what is Christian nationalism on a personal level. So, we've looked at kind of a state aspect. It's a political ideology um filled with lots of nuance and subtlety, but it generally looks toward the goal of a combination of church and state. And for the church, the definition of Christian nationalism would be the temptation to follow Judas's Scariot's example. But at a personal level, and this will apply to Jesus's experience, Christian nationalism is the belief that a nation should be governed by Christian principles and forced through law and policy. That may seem a little either abstract or too judicial at first. Well, isn't that kind of what we talked about on Wednesday? Not really. Because if you're thinking about it from a personal standpoint, you are basically trying to think about how do I do I make the society and the culture in which I live a better place to be. I'm not going to ask you this question. I'm only going to ask you to reflect on it.

[00:11:29]Do you think that society needs Jesus?

[00:11:33]Like I said, don't answer that question.

[00:11:35]You probably already know the answer, but I want you to reflect on how do you personally feel about it because I think a lot of people, we're just going to pick on the United States of America for a moment. I think those in Canada, those in Mexico, those in Western Europe, those throughout the world probably kind of feel this way. But do you feel like things are not going in a good way? Most Americans in lots of different polls taken by lots of different political affiliations and anywhere along the political spectrum and cultural perspective uh perspect spectrum have indicated that a lot of Americans feel uneasy about the direction of this country about its present state morally, culturally, socially, economically, its uh power, influence, reputation in the world, all kinds of things. A lot of which are very hard to measure. If you think about it from a sociological standpoint, you're basically asking people, can you take your feelings and then quantify them?

[00:12:34]Feelings are going to be hard to quantify anyway. But we at least can kind of get a pulse of the American populace that whatever we feel might be wrong, we do often wrestle nowadays with this sense that maybe things are not as they should be.

[00:12:52]The reason why that is important is because of the personal nature of it.

[00:12:56]The belief that a nation should be governed by Christian principles enforced through law and policy. Whose belief is it? It's the individual's belief.

[00:13:06]And individual belief can really allow us to do a lot of different things.

[00:13:11]maybe uh run havoc with what we imagine the world should be like and the tools the resources we use in order to achieve those kinds of things. There are two problems as you can see up on the screen with this idea. The first problem is that this notion and and you don't even have to define what the belief is. Just having a belief that this nation should be governed by Christian principles that are enforced through law and policy. That belief absolutizes my nation as the most important element in human reality. It's basically the idea that if my nation turns against God or against Christian principles, sometimes those are distinct. Sometimes those are simply synonyms. They're the same thing, but especially when you don't define them.

[00:13:58]If my nation turns against God or Christian principles or whatever I think is morally good and upright and beneficial for us, whatever will the world do? It really simply states, "My nation is the most important thing in human existence right now." Which is why it absolutely needs to be protected. But we haven't actually defined the nation.

[00:14:19]We've simply articulated what my view on it is. And like I just said, that has to deal with a lot of feeling.

[00:14:28]And feelings often go undefined. We're trying to process our feelings. Feelings can be messy and tricky and very subjective.

[00:14:37]The second problem with holding this kind of belief, especially if it goes undefined or it is equated with whatever I feel is important and whatever I feel is supposed to be godly, divine, Christian principles, whatever the good thing is, is that it absolutizes my role in seeing my nation as the most important element in human reality, which is just a fancy way of saying, what will my nation or the world do without me since God has called me to do this?

[00:15:06]This is really slippery because what is this? Other than a a demonstrative pronoun, this doesn't really define anything. We use it as a placeholder.

[00:15:18]This means whatever I want this to mean.

[00:15:23]And so from a personal standpoint, Christian nationalism really becomes a very intricate way, maybe a a set of subjective gymnastics and personal beliefs to say whatever I feel is most important is in fact the most important. In fact, it's the way in which this most important thing needs to be pursued.

[00:15:46]So we are going to look at some of the temptations that Jesus experienced. So we can figure out not only how did Jesus encounter this temptation, but also how does he want us to think about our personalism as it is contained or encountered or confronted or addressed by the temptation of Christian nationalism. So, we're going to look at the wilderness temptations of Jesus. But there's going to be a surprise for us because sometimes we cut the wilderness temptation short. To set the scene for you, we have to go to the very end of Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4 are the gospel accounts of Jesus's wilderness temptation. Uh in Mark chapter 1, we do have one verse, I think it's like verse 15 or so, uh where it simply says that Jesus was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights, driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, but he was uh tempted by the devil. He was with the wild beasts and angels came to minister to him. It's a very apocalyptic vision. We'll kind of touch on it a little bit, but we're going to be in Matthew chapter 4. And at the end of Matthew chapter 3, we have the account of Jesus's baptism.

[00:16:59]Jesus has just been baptized as he is going out into the wilderness, probably around Jericho. We're not exactly sure, but the spirit of God has descended on Jesus like a dove. The father has declared from heaven, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

[00:17:16]This is stuff you already know. Um, and that's going to be important because there will be some things that maybe we haven't encountered before. So, it's always good to familiarize ourselves with things that we are comfortable with. But the baptism of Jesus is about identity. And we even find this in his uh in Jesus's conversation with John the Baptist. Uh Lord, uh why do you come to me to be baptized? Um I need to be baptized by you. Jesus says, "Let it be so now. It's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." We won't go deeply into that. But there John has this idea of who Jesus needs to be. And Jesus tries to gently correct him. actually I'm going to be identified the way that I really am, not the way you want me to be. The baptism of Jesus is about identity. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is identified as the son of God by the father. And on the slide, I make a few references because if you look in Matthew chapter 3 at what the father says, you will find that these are actually references to various other Old Testament passages. You'll find this in Luke as well. Uh Psalm 2:7 uh you are my son today I have begotten you. Isaiah 42:1 behold my servant in whom my soul delights in whom I am well pleased. The father seems to combine those. The spirit also indicates who Jesus is that he is the son of God. And some of those references there you have Genesis 1:2 which is the creation account. The spirit's hovering over the waters as you almost like a dove in Genesis 1. You don't have the Holy Spirit said to be a dove and yet he hovers like a dove is supposed to. You have Isaiah 11:es 1 and 2. This is a prophecy about the Messiah and he will be endowed with the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of truth, the spirit of goodness, the spirit of of uh prudence, all kinds of names for the Holy Spirit. You probably can pick up a reference to Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37. The dry bones and the spirit of God comes into them. He causes them to live and stand upright and get uh sineu and muscle and flesh, but they're an inanimate army of people and the only thing that causes them to live is the Holy Spirit in them. You also have Deuteronomy 32 which is a reference to the Holy Spirit leading the Messiah.

[00:19:39]You have Genesis 8, the Holy Spirit is the one who indicates, you know, you have this dove im imagery and you have the breath of God moving over the waters to abate the flood as well as to indicate God's judgment is over. God's redemption of Noah and his family. It has succeeded.

[00:19:58]The reason why I I take pains to emphasize those things is because Matthew wants us to go into chapter 4 not with any questions about the divine identity of Jesus.

[00:20:12]Okay. The baptismal scene ends without any contradiction or dispute to Jesus's divine identity. John the Baptist doesn't say, "Well, I mean, you know, Jesus, you seem really important, but I'm not quite sure that you are the son of God. There's no one on the banks of the Jordan River who says,"Well, you know, I don't know if Jesus is actually the son of God." Jesus doesn't say, "Well, okay." But when you heard this voice from heaven, you are my beloved son. It's really just a metaphor. Nobody contradicts what is said. No one disputes it. Jesus leaves the Jordan River having been baptized and fully aware that he is the son of God. And at least theoretically, so does everyone else. If they have doubts, it's private doubts. But Matthew's contention here is Jesus really is the son of God. And he has been definitively demonstrated to be the son of God. The reason why we need to know this is because every wilderness temptation by Satan will strike at Jesus's identity as the son of God. And to begin looking at these temptations, in order to understand that, I do want to touch on one thing. Historically, 7th Day Adventists have looked at Jesus's wilderness temptations as an indication of how to conquer temptation ourselves.

[00:21:35]We have often stressed that the first temptation is about food. The second temptation is about uh putting God to the test, trying to make him perform a circus spectacle. Uh the third temptation is about who you're actually going to worship. And that has been very good. That's very important because most of us have usually faced temptations that amount to those three issues.

[00:21:59]In fact, probably you can trace any sin that we wrestle with, we struggle with, or maybe that we encounter and becomes a new bad habit to one of those three issues. Who's your real God? Are you actually going to trust him or you going to try to put him to the test? And are you going to put material or even personal necessity before anything else?

[00:22:19]And usually we confuse needs and wants.

[00:22:22]A want is not a need. And often we say we need this, but we really want it.

[00:22:27]Maybe we don't actually need it in reality. But for Jesus's temptations, I I don't want to take anything away from that. But for Jesus's temptations, those things are not the primary focus. The primary focus is who is Jesus? Which seems like a really good question for us to ask, but it's not a really sensible question for Jesus to ask or even to be asked of him because he already knows who he is. He is the son of God. And so the first temptation is a temptation to exert control by your own creative power. This is actually my literal translation. These are going to be my literal translations uh from the Gospel of Matthew about what temptations are actually posed to Jesus. And in Matthew 4:3, the tempter or the tester, it's actually what he's called in Matthew chapter 4, he says this, "If you are the son of God, speak in order that these stones may become bread."

[00:23:29]This might be new for us to consider, but sometimes we often think that Jesus responds to Satan's temptations in the wilderness with scripture and the devil is a little baffled. Maybe even in the second temptation when he quotes scripture, he's trying to, you know, catch up to Jesus. Jesus is using the word of God to speak to Satan. But actually we can detect echoes of scripture in what the devil says to Jesus when he says speak. You know we often translate this as if you are the son of God command that these stones become bread. Well actually what he uses is the word speak. But he uses the word speak in the formula we find in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, you especially find it in Greek, the Septuagent, the Greek translation of the Hebrew, but you'll even find it in Hebrew, you know, and God said, well, it's actually kind of in this imperative. It's in this command.

[00:24:28]So that he's not simply saying, well, I think I'll just use a bunch of words and everything will come into existence.

[00:24:34]According to Genesis 1, God doesn't simply speak creation into existence. He commands it into existence. By speaking, he is actually using the imperative. He speaks it.

[00:24:46]Okay? So, it's actually a command. It's not a suggestion. It's not a hint. And Satan is using the exact same formula we find for every day of the creation account.

[00:24:58]And he's hoping, well, we don't really know what he's hoping. Maybe he's hoping Jesus picks up on that. Maybe he's hoping Jesus won't pick up on that because he's been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and he's hungry. So, sure, he's probably trying to use Jesus's humanity against him. Well, you're hungry. Maybe you'll be distracted by food. But the tester quotes the Genesis 1 formula of God speaking creation into existence. The point here is if Jesus is the son of God, prove it by showing himself to be the creator.

[00:25:29]There's just one problem.

[00:25:32]The tester assumes that Jesus is the creator. By appealing to Genesis 1, he's basically telling Jesus, "Well, you did it once. Do it again.

[00:25:43]sit up, Bobo. Do a trick.

[00:25:46]If you really are the creator, be the creator on my terms and not on yours.

[00:25:51]Which if any of you have ever made something, you know, whether you're a professional artist or perhaps maybe you just like woodworking or anything in between.

[00:26:01]It seems kind of ridiculous for someone to tell you, "Okay, now I want you to make something, but on my terms. You're going to make it exactly how I tell you to, in exactly the kind of way I tell you to, with the exact kind of tools I tell you to. You might be thinking, uh, no, I'm going to make this the way I make it. If you don't want me to make it, then I won't make it for you. But I'm going to make it, and I'm going to make it my way, cuz it's my thing that I'm creating and I'm putting together.

[00:26:26]We don't know why Satan thinks that he can pull one over on Jesus, but he's appealing to scripture to make the case, if you really are the son of God, prove it. I know you proved it before by creating everything, but prove it again.

[00:26:41]Do it exactly the way I want you to do it. Jesus responds by quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. We know this passage.

[00:26:48]Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

[00:26:54]It's in the next verse, Matthew 4, Matthew 4:4, because it is Jesus's response. Jesus's rebuttal to what Satan is saying is that God uses creative power to care for his people, not to wow or dominate.

[00:27:11]The reason why we have Genesis 1 is not to say, well, this is how things happened. Yes, it does tell us how things happened, how things came into being. But really, Genesis chapter 1 is meant to tell us this is the kind of God who creates. He is a God of love. He is a God who says the world is better with you in it and all this extra stuff. He creates because he really wants us around. and he wants us around so he can take care of us, not in order to show off or even subject everything to his will.

[00:27:47]That's the first temptation. Jesus's divine identity is called into question so that Satan can tell him what kind of creator he's supposed to be. The second temptation is meant to exert control by appealing to the father's power. And this can get kind of tricky. In fact, this is this is meant to be tricky by Satan. He says in Matthew 4:6, "If you are the son of God, cast yourself down.

[00:28:16]For it is written, he will direct to his angels concerning you. And they will lift you up upon their hands, lest you might dash your foot against the stone."

[00:28:28]The Hebrew is a is slightly more straightforward than this.

[00:28:33]But it's interesting what Satan is doing here. So before he echoed scripture, now he's going to appeal to scripture. But he does two weird things. The first thing he does is he quotes from Psalm 91, which in the first century world was considered an exorcism psalm.

[00:28:51]This is what Jewish exorcists would often use when they were exorcising or casting out evil spirits.

[00:28:59]And so this is the devil's way of saying, "Ah, you got me. All right. I'm not just the tester. I'm not just the tempter. You kind of have guessed what my identity is because you called me on it.

[00:29:14]But I want you to know, Jesus, you can't cast me out. I am so powerful. I will quote to you a psalm used by other exorcists to cast out other evil spirits.

[00:29:28]That's the first odd thing he does, trying to show off to the one who gave us Psalm 91 in the first place. Hey, I actually have mastery over this psalm.

[00:29:37]The second thing is something we we have known for a long time. He doesn't quite quote Psalm 91. He quotes pieces of it.

[00:29:47]He will direct to his angels concerning you. We usually know this as uh he will direct his angels concerning you. And then he skips over to keep you in all your ways. And in the context of Psalm 91, all your ways are actually the ways God has decreed for you. So it is your way as you submit yourself to God. It's not just any old way. But he leaves that out so that he can go on to say the other portion from Psalm 91 that he wishes to use. They will lift you up upon their hands lest you might dash your foot against a stone. In his reading of Psalm 91, he's claiming Jesus, you can do anything you want. The Bible says so. God has said, "Use my power however you want. If you if you claim me as your God, if if I get to claim you as one of my followers, well then in that case, hey, you can use my power any way you want."

[00:30:42]The devil's point here is that if Jesus really is the son of God, he should use God's power in whatever way he wants because the Bible says so.

[00:30:53]Consider this for a moment, friends.

[00:30:56]Does the Bible really say so?

[00:30:59]I suppose it says so if you want to butcher the Bible.

[00:31:04]The great thing about the Bible is that anyone can read it and understand that God loves them and wants to save them.

[00:31:12]The unfortunate thing about access to the Bible is that anyone can go ahead and manipulate it and twist it and misrepresent it and misinterpret it any way they want. And apparently God is secure enough in himself that he doesn't strike any of us for misinterpreting the Bible with lightning. you know, we're allowed to go ahead and read it poorly or well. Well, Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. He does this in Matthew 4:7. He says, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

[00:31:46]It's interesting because the devil is trying to say you can use God's power however you want. And Jesus is saying, "Well, actually, we're not talking about God's power. We're talking about who God is. And God is not a circus animal. I'm not going to put God to the test. I'm not going to try to make him prove that he is worthy of my love and trust since he's already done that. Jesus's rebuttal is that we should not be like Masa and Meerbah. Now, you might be wondering, [music] Pastor Nathaniel, where in the world did you get that? Well, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, in the context of verse 16, Moses makes reference to Masa and Mebbah. You'll find the story in Exodus 17:es 1-7. It's when the people asked for water. Well, they didn't ask for water. They demanded water. And then they accused God and Moses of leading them out into the wilderness to die. And that event in the life of Israel actually got repeated in songs and prayers. There are several occasions in the Old Testament and New Testament where the Bible writer will appeal to that event and say, "Don't be like Israel at Masaha and Meabbah."

[00:33:00]Testing and bitterness or resentment.

[00:33:07]God, Moses is telling us in Deuteronomy and Jesus is reminding us in Matthew chapter 4, is not bitter, but we can be. And bitterness can cause us to twist our understanding of God's power. Don't try to put God to the test. He is the one who actually understands what he wants to do with his power.

[00:33:31]Is Is there a question? Okay. Could you briefly explain the difference between test me and this and this instruction don't put God to the test.

[00:33:42]>> Yes. Uh so I I don't quite So the question was can I briefly explain the difference between test me in this because God tells us test me in this and see if I will not pour out blessings for you from the storehouse versus this kind of testing. I can't remember uh the Hebrew but I believe they are two different words. And so one of them is uh one of them is taking God at his word. If he says I promise to do this, go ahead and put his promise in the bank. Don't say, "Well, you know, maybe he'll do it, maybe he won't." Instead, take him at his word. The other one is having experienced God's word, God promises, and then he fulfills. And then you get to see it maybe even over and over again. And you're actually testing his trustworthiness. You're not testing whether or not he will respond. He's already demonstrated he will respond.

[00:34:33]It's more of a contention word. It's kind of like saying, "I'm going to poke the bear." If you've ever had a a family member at a family reunion or even a neighbor and you're like, you know, I think I know what can set them off and I know the Holy Spirit's convicting me that I shouldn't set them off, but I really want to. So, I'm going to say this thing that's just going to eat away at them. I'm going to press the button one more time. They've told me don't. I don't want to talk about this anymore.

[00:35:00]Yeah, I'm gonna talk about this one more time.

[00:35:04]That's kind of what what is going on.

[00:35:06]Which is why in the book of Numbers, God says, "Israel has tested me 10 times."

[00:35:11]He's not saying, "Israel has asked me to demonstrate that I am a God worthy of trust." He is saying, "I've already demonstrated it, and each time I demonstrate it, they say, well, thanks, Lord. Now, what have you done for me in the last five minutes?"

[00:35:26]>> Does that kind of answer the question, Jim?

[00:35:29]Excellent. Very good. No. Very good. And so, um, in Jesus's rebuttal, he's basically saying, don't become bitter by trying to test God's faithfulness that has already been given to you. You already have it. So, why are you saying, "Yeah, but I don't want it. I want something else. I want something better."

[00:35:48]In the third temptation, this is a temptation to exert control by using another deity.

[00:35:55]It almost seems a little strange. Why does Satan uh kind of pull out all the stops here? Because in the third temptation, he says, "Okay, well, if you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all these kingdoms that that's what I'll do." That seems dumb, doesn't it? I mean, if you've lost the first two temptations or the first two tests, which in Greek it's the same word. A test and a temptation, it's the same thing. If you've lost the first two, I suppose go for broke. You know, it's it's not going to hurt anything. you've already lost. So, you're going to get an F on this test. But, I mean, wouldn't you think of something a little a little more clever than that?

[00:36:34]Because I don't know. I'm not Jesus, but I know the answer to that question. Bow down and worship me. Yeah, but you're not God. So, why do it?

[00:36:45]Well, this is especially where we get to see Christian nationalism coming into play.

[00:36:51]This is the devil's way of saying if God's plan is too arduous, I have a shortcut. And we find it in what he's actually appealing to. He appeals in this third temptation to another set of scriptures. He says, "All these things to you I will give if falling you might worship me."

[00:37:12]This is a really ambiguous statement to make because he uses the word falling which could refer to falling down and worshiping and that's usually how we translate it to try to make better sense of what the tester is testing Jesus with.

[00:37:32]But it can also refer to falling down as if tripping or maybe falling backwards.

[00:37:39]He kind of leaves it up to Jesus to figure out what exactly he's posing to him, what exactly he's asking of Jesus.

[00:37:46]But he says, "All these things to you I will give." Now, I translate it this way because this is the more literal way of understanding this passage from Genesis 17.

[00:38:00]The tester is quoting here from Genesis 17. In Genesis 17, we find an encounter between God and Abraham. Abraham has been with God for a long time. God has promised to make him the father of of a mighty people and many nations and all that kind of stuff. Well, they have um they have a coming together once again.

[00:38:20]God reminds Abraham of all this. Abraham falls on his face worshiping God and God says to him, "I will give to you this land." He also says, "I will make nations of you." The specific grammar there is to you, to you, for you. All these things to you I will give. And it doesn't seem like the devil is saying, well, maybe I can trick Jesus into thinking I'm God. Actually, what he's saying is, well, you know, Jesus, you remember that story with Abraham? God said, I am able to give you these things. Well, Jesus, I want you to know I'm also able to give things. You know, I I do have some mighty power. I may not be as powerful as God, but I'm I'm also kind of like a God. And you know, you and I both know the path of salvation that the father has set before you is quite strenuous.

[00:39:21]In fact, I wouldn't want to do it. Would you really want to do it?

[00:39:27]I have a shortcut. I can give you these things as well. In fact, you know what?

[00:39:32]I'll just give them to you right now.

[00:39:33]How about you go ahead and do what Abraham did in order to get the things that God promised him. I'm not asking anything the Bible isn't asking.

[00:39:43]God says, "I will give to Abraham these things." And so Abraham falls down and worships and he gets these things. I'll give these things to you as well. All you have to do is do the same thing. Who wouldn't want to be like father Abraham?

[00:39:55]We only know those are the kinds of implications and suggestions the tempter and the tester is leaving with Jesus because of the echoes we find in here with Genesis 17. He's twisting the story. Abraham doesn't fall down on his face and worship God in order to get things. He falls down on his face and worships God because he already has them.

[00:40:20]Once again, the devil is a most glorious and frustrating Bible student. He knows the Bible well enough to be able to twist it to try to convince anyone who will listen to him. I know the Bible better than you. And in fact, I know it so well, you haven't even properly been reading the Bible.

[00:40:40]You see, Jesus and the devil have a Bible study together.

[00:40:44]And the devil is the one who says, "Jesus, I want to have a Bible study with you." He tries to tell the author of his word what his word actually says.

[00:40:54]This is both a bold move and a nefarious move. Well, Jesus responds, okay? Because the devil's point is you can skip the cross. You can skip the cross. You don't have to do this. Who wants to do this anyway? Jesus responds with this rebuttal. He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13. Away with you, Satan.

[00:41:15]Which, by the way, in first century Israel was exorcism language. So Jesus is like, well, you know, you can quote Psalm 91, but whether or not it's an exorcism psalm, I can cast you out. Away with you, Satan. You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. In Matthew 4:10, the enemy, Jesus is saying, is a very poor substitute for God. Jesus already knows that the devil is not God. But the devil apparently thinks he's at least comparable to God. And so Jesus is saying, "You know what? I'm not going to substitute God for you." In each one of these, the devil strikes at Jesus being the son of God. In at least two of these wilderness temptations, he begins by saying, "If you are the son of God, is it a question? It might be. If tends to function as a conditional way of uh introducing a question. It could simply be a statement. Here's my assessment of you. If you are the son of God, you might be, you might not be. The jury's out, but the jury isn't out. Jesus really is the son of God.

[00:42:26]And so Jesus is saying, "You are not comparable to God." Because the devil is offering him all the same things that we find in Christian nationalism.

[00:42:38]Well, if you're the creator, you can create things the way they should be. If you are God's chosen one, if you are the son of God, you can use God's power to do whatever needs to be done according to what you feel needs to be done. You want to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. Will the kingdoms of the world be in better hands if they're in your hands, Jesus? Fine. I'll give it to you.

[00:43:01]I'll go ahead and merge church and state. Who better to have as our president than Jesus Christ?

[00:43:08]Who better to be emperor of the world than Jesus, the son of God? Fine. If you really are the son of God, go ahead and take it. Go ahead and do what the Bible tells us we all have to do in order to receive God's blessings.

[00:43:21]When of course, the Bible says it is right and proper to worship God because he has already blessed you, not in order to be blessed by God.

[00:43:32]What Satan was really offering was this. In temptation one, I will acknowledge Jesus as the son of God if he acts like my idea of the creator. In temptation two, I will acknowledge Jesus as the son of God if he uses God's power my way because the devil always wants us to use it our way so that he can corrupt us and our way is actually his way. In temptation three, he says, "I will acknowledge Jesus as the son of God if he agrees to my idea of deity."

[00:44:05]The devil would prefer that you worship him. We know this. He will settle for you worshiping anything else as long as it's not God. Even if you say, "Well, okay, but I don't want to be a Satanist." He's like, "Okay, fine. Just so long as you don't worship God."

[00:44:22]Because his idea of deity is anything but the true deity.

[00:44:28]In each temptation, a shortcut is offered.

[00:44:33]In each temptation, a shortcut is offered. Achieve God's purposes through Satan's methods. And that's the thing.

[00:44:40]You can't say, "Well, okay, this is exactly what Satan wants you to do."

[00:44:43]Because what he wants you to do is simply stop doing what God wants you to do. He wants to derail you. And so for Jesus, he doesn't care what Jesus does, just so long as it isn't what God wants him to do.

[00:44:55]As long as he isn't doing what God wants him to do, he's fine. And that's why every temptation in the wilderness temptation Jesus experienced is Christian nationalism.

[00:45:09]That is a bold claim to make. And I'm not trying to say anyone who subscribes to Christian nationalism is some sort of Satanist. But what I am saying is that in the wilderness, Satan offers to Jesus Christian nationalism. You can have all the nations. You can have all the cultures. You can have all the societies. I'll give it to you as if they are his to give.

[00:45:32]I'll even acknowledge that you're the son of God. If you do things my way, if you do exactly what I want you to do, then you can have it all, Jesus. You can save everybody.

[00:45:46]You can merge everything into a a society of redemption. You can do all of that. Satan offered Jesus political rule over every nation without the cross.

[00:45:58]And friends, Christian nationalism always makes the same offer. You can use political power to advance God's kingdom on earth, which as it turns out always is my kingdom.

[00:46:11]Because usually in Christian nationalism, what we are talking about is our idea about how society should work as a Christian society. Very seldomly do we to do we appeal in Christian nationalism to Jesus's idea about how society should work.

[00:46:27]goodness, kindness, compassion, respect.

[00:46:31]Those are nice things after we've won the culture war. Well, for Jesus, those are first priorities, not second or even last priorities.

[00:46:42]It sounds righteous, Satan's offer, because it is attractive.

[00:46:48]Hey, what if we could get everything in one fell swoop? But it's the same temptation Jesus rejected in the wilderness and which he rejected on the cross. We fast forward now from the wilderness to the cross. Matthew chapter 4 to Matthew chapter 27. The reason why I include this is because of the kind of book ends they are. The question that frames everything is if you are the son of God. What is interesting in the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus's public ministry is framed start to finish by the question, by the statement, by the doubt, [music] if you are the son of God. Satan is the first one to begin this in Matthew 4:3. The last time this is posed to Jesus is Matthew 27:40, if you are the son of God. And this ends Jesus's public earthly ministry.

[00:47:46]And so we come to what I call the fourth temptation of Jesus. Now I understand there are lots of different temptations.

[00:47:53]We can kind of find echoes between Matthew 4, Matthew 27 in the Gospel of Matthew about what Jesus encounters.

[00:48:00]Some of them seem to come from Satan.

[00:48:01]Some of them come from his disciples.

[00:48:03]Some of them come from crowds. I am not trying to say that there were only four temptations that Jesus experiences. But what I am trying to indicate is that as far as the theology and themes Matthew presents to us in his gospel, there are not three temptations but four. Three happen in a wilderness. And the fourth one happens on a cross in Matthew chapter 20. Jim, >> this was when he says for a more opportune time. More opportune time.

[00:48:36]>> Yes. In in Matthew chapter 4, the wilderness temptation uh it ends by saying the devil left him and angels came and ministered to him. In Luke 4, the wilderness temptation ends by saying and the devil left him for a more opportune time. The opportune time has come, brothers and sisters.

[00:48:57]And so in Matthew chapter 27, this is the account of the crucifixion. And in verse 40, what is literally posed to Jesus is this. If you are the son of God, come down or step down from the cross. What's interesting is that so the reason why I translate this as either come or from come slashf from is because this echoes the second temptation in the wilderness that the devil poses when he says cast yourself down. That can also be translated as come down or even step down. This is coronation language. It's when a king is enthroned.

[00:49:35]Well, he has to walk up the steps to the throne. And then when he's done, he is crowned king and he comes down. He descends. He steps down from the throne to administer justice to all of his citizens.

[00:49:48]If you are the son of God, step down from the cross. It's a really twisted way of the devil to tempt Jesus because he's calling into question Jesus's identity as the son of God. But he's also saying, "Tell you what, I'm totally fine recognizing you as King Jesus. I'll call you King Jesus. I mean, the sign above your head on your cross tells us that you are King Jesus.

[00:50:15]But how about you come down from there?

[00:50:17]Call it a throne. Call it an instrument of torture. I don't really care what you want to call it, but why don't you come down there and then I will go ahead and acknowledge you as the son of God, the true king of Israel.

[00:50:29]It's the exact same formula Satan uses in Matthew chapter 4. If you are the son of God, this is not just an insult to a dying man. Friends, it is a continuation of the wilderness temptation. And that is why I call it the fourth temptation.

[00:50:46]And I think Matthew wants us to identify that. I think he wants us to hear the echoes of the wilderness temptation in what is said to Jesus while he is nailed to the tree. So we hear Satan's voice through the crowd. In Matthew chapter 4, Satan spoke directly to Jesus and he said and he said and he said. In Matthew chapter 27, Satan's words come through people Jesus is trying to save.

[00:51:16]Have you ever tried to help someone who maybe was stranded on the side of the road and all they did was heckle you?

[00:51:24]Have you ever tried to save someone drowning and maybe you were able to rescue them from the water and while you're swimming with them, getting them to shore, they're able to use some of the breath they've caught to mock you.

[00:51:38]That may seem like a ridiculous situation, but this is Jesus's situation. The very people he is on the cross to die and save are ridiculing him and they are using probably they don't realize this but they are using satanic words. If you are the son of God they're going well this just came to me. Jesus is saying I've heard this before.

[00:52:04]So the passers by they say in verse 40 if you are the son of God come down. The chief priests in verse 42 add to that.

[00:52:11]In fact, in some ways, it's simply an echo with different synonyms. If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down or step down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

[00:52:24]What's interesting is that in Psalm 2, son of God is a synonymous title for King of Israel and the nations. So, you could simply replace this with son of God if he is the son of God, because if he's the king of Israel, he's the son of God. if he is the son of God or if he is the king of Israel, let him now come down or step down from the cross and we will believe in him once again. Hey Jesus, I'll believe in you. You just got to do this thing for me. You got to be the kind of son of God I want you to be.

[00:53:00]And for the robbers, even those crucified with him reviled him the same way in verse 44, which doesn't mean they simply mocked him. They picked up on the mockery. This is how they made fun of Jesus's divine identity. And they probably made similar bargains. Sure, man. You take us down from the cross, then we'll believe that you're the king of Israel, the son of God. But not until that time.

[00:53:23]This is the same challenge only bookended. In Matthew chapter 4, Satan is saying, "If you are the son of God, you should prove it with creative power.

[00:53:33]You should prove it with spectacle. You should prove it with inappropriate worship for political domination. You want all these things. You want all the people and all the kingdoms and all the stuff they've made. I'll give it to you, but what are you going to do for me? In Matthew chapter 27, the same thing is kind of posed to Jesus. If you are the son of God, prove it by coming down. Use power to escape suffering. We will believe you if you become the kind of king we want you to be.

[00:54:04]And Jesus's response is an interesting departure from how he responded in the wilderness.

[00:54:13]Jesus's answer to the fourth temptation is [snorts] silence.

[00:54:19]Yes, Jesus will say various things later on during his crucifixion experience.

[00:54:25]But his immediate response to all of that is silence. He doesn't come down from the cross. He doesn't seize power.

[00:54:33]He doesn't destroy those who revile him.

[00:54:35]He doesn't say, 'You know what? I'm done with this. I've had enough.

[00:54:39]Neither do we have an account that says, "And Jesus answered and said to them, dot dot dot."

[00:54:47]Probably many hours pass between the time they posed this question to him.

[00:54:52]And then he quotes from Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

[00:54:57]Jesus stayed on the cross and he saved the world through his suffering, not through satanic sovereignty.

[00:55:06]Because the devil offered him sovereignty, but if it's the devil offering it to you, it's going to be satanic.

[00:55:15]The cross is always different from the crown.

[00:55:20]Satan always offers the crown without the cross. In Eden, he said, "You will be like God." This seems to be a theme that Satan loves. God isn't the only God. Anybody else can be God. You will be like God. I'm like God. In the wilderness, he told Jesus, "All the kingdoms will be yours." At Calvary, through the chief priests and elders and other religious leaders, he said, "Come down and save yourself."

[00:55:46]Jesus shows his identity as the son of God by means of the cross. How does Jesus show that he is the son of God? By not coming down from the cross, which usually means it's exactly the opposite of what we would prefer. We want a king who looks like he's winning.

[00:56:08]And even though we theologically know Jesus won and is winning by his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection, we also recognize, hey man, someone being nailed to a tree doesn't look like they are winning. It looks like they're losing really badly.

[00:56:26]Jesus is the king and God who is willing to be crucified.

[00:56:31]And so in Satan's fourth temptation, we find two different ways of responding to political power. In Satan's way, he conditionalizes Jesus's identity as the son of God. Maybe you're the son of God.

[00:56:44]If you are the son of God, you might be the son of God. I might be inclined to recognize you as the son of God. He makes a deal to recognize Jesus's divine identity. I'll recognize it if you do this thing for me. He requires that belief in Jesus, the son of God, be on my terms. Whoever the my is, by the way, you, me, Satan, all of us, a nation, belief in Jesus is only on my terms. And it patronizes Jesus. Come down and I'll believe. Oh, you can't come down. You're nailed to a tree. Well, tough luck then.

[00:57:23]Jesus's way, however, is to cling to Jesus's identity as the son of God.

[00:57:29]Not simply to say, "Well, maybe he is the son of God." But to say, "Well, he says he's the son of God, and really I can trust him or I don't."

[00:57:40]It is to refuse the deal for recognition. No, I'm not going to say that Jesus is the son of God if he does this or that for me. He is the son of God or he isn't.

[00:57:50]Jesus's way is to be Jesus, the son of God, on Jesus's terms, which turns out to be God's terms because Jesus is God.

[00:58:00]And Jesus's way is to serve those who are patronizing him. He doesn't come down from the cross because they don't realize it, but this is the way they are served.

[00:58:12]So, as we end our time together, it begs the question, what am I supposed to do with this?

[00:58:18]Well, what I'm supposed to do with this is to understand that how Jesus personally responded to the temptation of Christian nationalism poses the question to us, what kind of Adventist, what kind of Adventist do you want to be? And I would suggest we should be the kind of Adventist that reclaimed the historic Adventist stance on the separation of church and state. Here are a bunch of dates. And if you're not really into dates, you don't have to really pay attention to it. I won't read all of it. But there is something interesting. If you trace 20th century general conference responses to church state issues, especially the threat of combining church and state at any level, subtle, direct, small, large, nuanced.

[00:59:08]Maybe this will take 50 years to blossom and bloom into a horrific nightmare. It doesn't matter. At the start of the 20th century, Adventists started including religious liberty reports as part of their official general conference minutes which put into writing what they had discussed and preached in the 19th century. They decided once they left the 19th century, you know, we might be here longer than we'd like to be. But in that case, we should probably write down all the things that we actually believe about church state issues. And so you'll find in 1902 the general conference formally creates the religious liberty department. in 1926 and most of these are uh autumn council decisions. In 1926 they opposed legislative enforcement of religion and defended liberty of conscience and civil law. 36 uh the general conference said in their autumn council they oppose coercive religious legislation and church the church cannot rely on state enforcement of religion which is interesting because the Adventist church didn't rely on state enforcement of religion but other denominations did and they said we're going to publicly say we don't agree with this in 1941 the general conference uh on their religious liberty committee they said the church must not rely on state coercion Once again, we see this theme repeated. 46 church state union is inherently dangerous.

[01:00:30]And then in the middle of the 20th century, Adventists began to feel it was necessary to actually vote statements or reaffirmations on the separation of church and state. In 1948, the Autumn Council of the General Conference Executive Committee explicitly rejected church state union. And this one I will read for you. It voted, "All legislation which unites church and state is subversive of human rights." Human rights. Oh, that's interesting. Not just American rights, but human rights.

[01:01:01]Potentially persecuting in character and opposed to the best interests of the church and of the state. In 1966, they repeated this kind of thing. In 1980, at the general conference session, it was voted that religious liberty is grounded in the gospel and coercion in religion is incompatible with the Christian faith. And so they voted to reaffirm previous GC statements on religious liberty. In 1995, a general conference adcom made a statement at the GC session. It was, you know, it wasn't discussed, but it was pretty much voted as part of the session. Government must not impose on or privilege religion and explicit support for equal rights of all faiths. Meaning, hey, this the government really can't impose on religion. It also can't favor religion.

[01:01:47]and all religions should really have uh access to equal rights and treatment.

[01:01:55]So how should Adventists respond to Christian nationalism today? These are not revolutionary ideas. They are simply reclaiming uh old principles that are still around but perhaps maybe need to be dusted off, maybe even polished up to make them shine and sparkle. One, defend religious liberty for all people, not just ourselves. There are many times I I hear Adventists say we need to defend Sabbath workplace issues, but the other Christians, well, they're on their own.

[01:02:27]That has not been the traditional stance of the Adventist Church. We should defend religious liberty for all people and not just ourselves. The second is to resist the merging of national and Christian identity at every level possible. Because if you let something slide, it just gets easier to let it slide even more. Number three, witness through service and love, not political coercion. Notice I didn't say don't get involved in politics. Don't vote. If you want to vote, cool. If you don't want to vote, fine. That's okay. But we need to be witnessing through service and love, not by trying to join the culture wars.

[01:03:05]Because sooner or later, we're going to get kicked in the teeth cuz we have never been the majority. And the minority usually gets taken over by majority. When you join the bandwagon, you follow someone else's rules. And he who makes the rules wins the game.

[01:03:21]Jesus needs to be the one who makes our rules. Number four, we need to reclaim Adventist involvement in legislation.

[01:03:27]Shape it to be non-coercive.

[01:03:30]Hey, we need to be standing up for the rights of everybody, not just our own.

[01:03:35]So sure, get involved in your local, you know, town council, things like that at at any level. There's nothing wrong with being politically involved. There is something wrong with using political involvement to subjugate other people, even if you're not entirely aware that you're doing it. And five, remember, Christian nationalism is a temptation.

[01:03:58]It isn't the truth about God.

[01:04:01]Because of that, as I send you forth to eat and be plentiful, I want to remind you of what Richard Neber tells everybody. A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.

[01:04:24]Satan doesn't want sin to be talked about, righteousness to be talked about.

[01:04:29]He doesn't want God's judgment to be fully known as a demonstration of his love by arresting sin. He wants his kingdom to be prioritized, not the kingdom of Jesus. And he doesn't want Jesus to be connected to the cross because the cross undoes Satan's kingdom.

[01:04:47]Friends, as we pray, I hope that you are encouraged by how Jesus resisted the personal temptation toward Christian nationalism and it can spur you on to resist that temptation as well. Let us pray.

[01:05:02]Lord Jesus, thank you for resisting all forms of Christian nationalism, even when they manifested themselves before we really had terminology to call them Christian nationalism.

[01:05:13]We ask that you would give us the boldness and the courage and the grace to follow you. We ask Lord Jesus that you would help us enact the principles of your kingdom which are not like the principles of the kingdoms of this world.

[01:05:28]We thank you that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

[01:05:38]But we thank you that that promise from the book of Revelation also reminds us you don't need our help. What you want us to do is follow you closely. And so we thank you that you continue to invite us to follow you closely. And so because of this, we ask that you would keep us close to your heart and close to your cross. And in your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.

[01:06:01]Thank you. [applause]