*TEACH TRANSGRESSORS YOUR WAY* After the Lord had appeared to Isaiah in the throne room scene (Isa. 6:1-8), and after Isaiah had been told that his "iniquity is taken away" and his "sin purged," he then answered God's call saying, "Here am i! Send me." This is, once he knew that he was right with God, and despite knowing his faults, he was ready to work for the Lord. Is it not the same with us? How can we proclaim salvation to other people if we don't have it ourselves? And we can have it, by faith in Jesus and what He has done for us. *Read: Ps. 51:7-15. What does David promise to do after he has been pardoned and purged from his sin?* To be called into God's presence is, ultimately, to be sent back out. In His wisdom, God has commissioned the redeemed to serve as His primary voice to a fallen world. At some point, the impact of His people on earth is going to be powerfully felt. Revelation 18:1 tells us that His final plea with the fallen planet will illuminate the whole world. "No sooner does one come to Christ than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and are filled with the joy of His indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good we shall have something to tell. Like Philip when he found the Saviour, we shall invite others into His presence." - Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 78. In Revelation 14:6-9, the three angels' messages are founded on the "everlasting gospel." That is, even before the proclamations go out about worshipping the one "who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water" or about the fall of Babylon or about worshipping the "beast and his image," the foundation of the gospel, of salvation in Jesus, is proclaimed. And that is because the warnings and messages of the three angels means nothing apart from the hope and promise that those who proclaim these messages have in Jesus and what He has done for them. Apart from the "everlasting gospel," we really have nothing of any value to say to the world. *Dwell more on the fact that, even before the proclamation of the three angels' messages begins, we are pointed to the "everlasting gospel." What should this tell us about how foundational this truth is to all that we believe?* The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God. His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God's love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God. "I have sworn unto David My servant with whom My hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him: and in My name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Also I will make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forever more, and My covenant shall stand fast with him" (Ps. 89:3-28). - Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 754, 755. *What has been your own experience with how God has lifted your "repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God" after the "shame and woe" of sin?* * *The human race has been a miserable failure in keeping up our end of God's covenants with us. David, the "man after God's own heart" despite some big mistakes, was still used powerfully to communicate the terms of our salvation to us. In what sense does David foreshadow Jesus, who did keep God's covenant perfectly in our behalf? And why is what Jesus did in our behalf our only hope?* * *Why do the Psalms make such frequent reference to the temple? What can we learn from David's love for the sanctuary? How can this help us appreciate what we have in Jesus, as our heavenly High Priest "who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" (Rom. 8:34)? Why do we, even as redeemed people, need Christ interceding for us in heaven?*