God’s love is infinite, so great that I cannot understand it, but it is wonderful to meditate about it.  Have you meditated recently about why God made this world?  What did He want to do?  Ellen White penned an interesting statement about why God created this world.  It says, “Infinite love—how great it is!  God made the world to enlarge heaven.  He desires a larger family of created intelligences.”  Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1081.  Isn’t that interesting!  Why did God make this world?  He wanted to enlarge it.  He wanted a larger family of created intelligences.

 We know from that statement that in heaven they have a family.  We, if we are God’s children, are destined to become a part of that family.  In this great family of heaven, each one has his own individual personality.  Each angel has freedom, but no angel today misuses that freedom to act independently.

As I have been thinking about this, I realized that there are some topics I preached about over and over again ten or fifteen years ago.  After I have preached about a subject many times, I assume other people know it as well as I think I know it.  But sometimes we can forget some fundamental principles that are responsible for us being here today.  I want to study with you a subject that we have published articles about; my brother used to preach about it; I have preached about it; we have studied about it many times in camp meetings—the subject of independence, sinful independence and our need for fellowship.

In the family of heaven, each person has individual responsibility; each person has freedom, but no one in heaven misuses that freedom to act independently, because all are held together.  How are they held together?  They are held together by cords of humility towards self and love toward one another.

Do you remember that Jesus says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”?  Then He says, “ I am Gentle”—the Greek word praos means gentle or lowly or humble.  [Matthew 11:28, 29.]  That is the way Jesus is.  He is not proud; He is gentle, lowly, and humble.

There is perfect harmony in heaven, with each one maintaining his own identity uniqueness and function but with nobody acting independently.  Are you aware of the fact, friend, that even God does not act independently?  In fact, especially is it the case that God does not act independently.

I’ll just give a few examples.  We couldn’t create the world.  Only God could do that; He created the world.  But when He created Adam, God left it up to Adam to give the names to all the animals.  Have you read that in your Bible?  He wanted Adam to cooperate with Him in His work of creation.  Not only that, but God created the minimum number of people to populate the earth.  Then He told them to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth they were to populate.  God wouldn’t have had to do that.  God could have created several million perfect people, but He didn’t do it. 

I suppose all of us who are parents can look back and think of many failures that we have made, but in spite of that, God has never taken that responsibility away from the human family. 

As it was on the earth when Adam and Eve were created, so it was in heaven with the angels.  God did not create a hierarchy nor a dictatorship.  He created a family.  In Revelation 12:7 we are told that there was war in heaven.  There never could have been a war in heaven if it had been a dictatorship or a hierarchy with an absolute totalitarian government, such as some that we have in this world.  It never could have happened.  The reason war happened was because the angels had total freedom.

When war broke out in heaven, as you read in Revelation 12:7, God could simply have banished Satan from heaven on the spot, and he would have had to go.  But God did not do that.  What did He do?  God allowed the angels, as far as possible, to decide the issue.  Every angel in heaven had to choose what side he was going to be on, and then he had to be willing to fight.

We do not know how angels fight.  All we know is that it says war occurred in heaven, and Michael and His angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought with his angels.  In other words, there was no neutral ground, and there is still no neutral ground.  Jesus said, in Matthew 12:30, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad.”  There is no neutral ground in this world; you are on one side or the other.  The angels had to choose; every angel had to choose.  And we are on one side or on the other side.  We are going to have to get on one side or the other; every angel had to get on one side or the other.  God allowed the angels to make up their minds and to decide the issue for themselves. 

Even after this war, when Satan was cast out of heaven, he was allowed to return to heaven to represent the earth at the councils in heaven.  You can read about that in chapters one and two of Job.  Now, in those chapters, God presented Job’s fidelity and challenged Satan’s claim to represent the earth.  Satan did not represent all the inhabitants of the earth, for God said, “Have you considered my servant Job?  He is a perfect man; you are not representing him.”

Evidently the angels allowed the devil to remain in heaven; that is, he was allowed to come to heaven whenever they had a meeting with the representatives of the different worlds.  He came as a representative of this world.  But that time of tolerance ended at the time of the cross.

About that Ellen White wrote, “All the angels that are commissioned to visit the earth hold a golden card, which they present to the angels at the gates of the city [the Holy City] as they pass in and out.”  Early Writings, 39. Have you ever thought about that?  Why do the angels have to present a golden card when they go out of heaven and when they come back in?

Let us read from The Desire of Ages, page 761.  It says (this is when Jesus was crucified), “Satan saw that his disguise was torn away.  His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe.  He had revealed himself as a murderer.  By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings.  Henceforth his work was restricted.  Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin.  The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.”  So after Jesus was crucified on the cross, the devil was not allowed to return to the heavenly courts and stand outside and await the angels as they went to and fro.

How did that happen?  The angels decided that Satan could no longer visit heaven as the representative of this earth, because after the cross, only Jesus was allowed to be the representative of this planet.  Are you happy about that?  After they decided that only Jesus was to represent this planet and that the devil was not allowed as a representative of this planet or to come to any meeting, how were they going to keep him out?  Have you ever though about that?  Now we do not know all the particulars, but according to Early Writings, page 39, the angels decided they were going to do something, and they evidently had issued to each other identification cards!  They all have golden cards, and when they leave and are commissioned to go to this earth, they have to present their card before they go.  And then when they return, they have to present their card before they go in. 

So, they decided on that method; they were not going to allow anybody in heaven any more whom was not to be allowed.  Of course, the devil has many, many angels; we do not know how many.  And they all can appear as angels of light, but they do not have the right card.  They do not have the gold identification card.

Today, there is a judgment going on in heaven, and we are studying about independence, sinful independence.  We have seen that God does not act independently.  The angels of heaven do not act independently.  Does God need a judgment?  God does not need a judgment.  Did you know that the Bible says—now I will try to state this very delicately because some people are very troubled about this—that God knew who would be saved and who would be lost from the foundation of the world?  Read it in your own Bible in Ephesians 1:4 or in Isaiah 46:10.

But even though God knew that, and He could make a correct judgement and just say it is all over—He could say this is who is going to be saved and this is who is going to be lost,—the angels do not know all that and the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds do not know all that. They do not have all the knowledge that God has, so they have to keep records, and they have to review them.  God could do it in a moment, but angels need more time, and God is willing to spend the extra time and effort, so all the angels and all the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds can see that the right decision was made.

Heaven is built on the principle of cooperation and unity.  That has always been the way it is.  By the way, if you want to study into that, that is one of the fundamental reasons that, in the inspired writings of Ellen White, competitive sports are condemned, because they are based on a wrong fundamental principle.  They do not play football in heaven.  Are you aware of that?  They do not play baseball either.  They do not play those kinds of things, because those games are based on a different principle than they operate on in heaven.  Heaven is built on the principle of cooperation and unity.  It has always been this way, and it will always be this way in the future through all ceaseless ages of eternity.

But you know, from reading the story in Revelation 12, that there came a time when one of the angels decided that he was going to be independent.  It describes it in Isaiah 14, also in Ezekiel 28, and it describes it briefly in Revelation 1.  He began what has been called an independent ministry.  Have you ever heard of independent ministries?  Well he began an independent ministry.  Lucifer began an independent organization, and this was sinful.

I want you to understand why it was sinful.  It was sinful independence because it worked apart from God and His plans and organization.  Are you aware of the fact, friend, that independent ministry and self-supporting work were never part of God’s original plan?  Are you aware of the fact that if Seventh-day Adventists had always followed the writings of the messenger that God sent to the remnant church that we never would have had such a thing as self-supporting work?  We never would have had it.  These arose as the result of rebellion and sinful independence.

There was one who came along in a perfect environment and a perfect government, and he began his own ministry in competition and opposition to the regular, established government and ministry of heaven, which had been in operation for ages.  And when that spirit of independence came into earth, this world entered into the darkness and misery of sin.  Do you understand that the first great temptation to Adam and Eve was the temptation to be independent?

Genesis 3:4 says, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.”  Because, the serpent continued, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  Can God do anything He wants?  Yes, God can do anything He wants; He is above law.  The angels are not above law; Adam and Eve were not above law; you and I are not above law.  The first temptation was one of independence, claiming that Eve would be able to do whatever she please.  She would be just like God. 

The temptation was that Eve would be wise enough, if she ate of this fruit, to act independently, knowing good and evil herself without having to depend on God for guidance.

Now, friend, isn’t it true that there are still millions of people today who believe that lie?  And let’s look at the result.  The result was that this earth became a part of the independent government, the independent ministry of Satan, which made things rather confusing on this planet.  Nearly the whole earth became loyal to Satan’s independent ministry.  Those who remain loyal to God became themselves independent of the rebellion that existed on the earth.  On the earth, the great mass of the population were independent from God and were loyal to Satan’s independent ministry, so those that were loyal to God became independent to this rebellion, but because they were so few in number they looked like the offshoot.  Do you follow?

The people that were loyal to God were few in number.  Noah, for example, apparently was all alone.  The rest of the world was independent of God and was following the philosophy of Satan and his leading and guiding.  

Who was really independent?  Who was really sinfully independent?  Was Noah sinfully independent?   The whole world was sinfully independent.  They were following the leading of the devil.  The whole world was sinfully independent.  Noah was the only one that was not independent—just the opposite of the way it looked.  At a casual look, Noah was the only one that was not independent; he was dependent on God.  But because there were such a few people that were loyal to God, it looked like they were the ones that were independent.  The others looked like they were all united; they were the establishment.

It has been that way over and over again—that the appearance was the exact opposite of the reality.  God is in the business in this sinful world of training people and getting them ready for heaven.  How is God going to get you ready for heaven?  How is God going to get me ready for heaven?

How do the heavenly beings operate up there?  They love each other, and they have humble cooperation with each other.  There is no competition or independence up there.  God’s plan has always been for humble cooperation.  That is why Jesus selected the disciples that He selected.  He had to select disciples that were teachable, that were humble.  God is trying to teach each one of us the character traits of humility and submission.  Let me tell you something friends, those character traits do not seem to be easy for us to learn.  Have you noticed?  It does not seem easy for human beings to learn the character traits of humility and submission, but we all have to learn them, or we cannot be saved, because this is the character of heaven.

Every experience of life is to instill within us these precious traits of character, so we can fit into the society that Satan forfeited because of pride and independence.  You see, pride is the opposite of humility, and independence is the opposite of submission.  The Bible has a lot to say about submission, but we do not like to read it.  Have you read Romans 13 lately?  What does Romans 13 have to say about submission?  It says that we are to submit to the civil government. 

I am going to get myself in trouble for stating this, but it has to be stated some time.  Friends when we decide that we are not going to obey the law of the land, that we are not going to pay taxes, that we are not going to get liability insurance on our car, or whatever the government requires, that is a violation of Romans 13.  Are you aware of that?  There are Adventists who seem to be proud that they are independent of the civil government, but that is not what the Bible teaches.  People say, Oh, but the government is wicked.  Let me tell you, our government is no more wicked than the government of Nero, and that is who Paul was referring to when He wrote Romans 13.  He told the very people living in probably the most wicked city in the whole world that they were to obey the civil government.  We are to submit.  Why?  Oh, friend, if we do not learn the lesson of submission, we can never be saved.  We can never be saved with a proud, independent spirit, never.

Ephesians 6 talks about being submissive to employers.  The kind of employers Paul is talking about is not the kind of employers we are talking about.  They actually had lords and servants in those days.  Two-thirds of the Roman Empire was in slavery and not free; about one-third was free.  Yet in Ephesians 6:5, he talks about being submissive to these people.

People say, Oh, you mean I have to be submissive to them?  Well, yes; if we are going to develop the spirit of heaven, we have to learn the lesson of submission.  How am I going to learn the lesson of submission if I do not ever submit to anybody?  Somebody says, Yes, but I am a Christian; I am free; I am a sovereign; I am not going to submit to anybody.  Friend, that is not the spirit of heaven. 

Husbands like to remind us that the Bible says that the wife is to submit to the husband.  (Ephesians 5:22.)  But have you ever noticed that the previous verse talks about both husbands and wives submitting to each other?  Have you ever noticed that?  It talks about all of us submitting to each other.  In both Peter and Hebrews, it talks about submitting and being in submission to the leaders in the church. 

In 1 Peter 5:5 we are told even that the younger are to be in submission to those that are older.  Why is that?  For the simple reason that the older people have more experience and therefore younger people should submit to their judgment.  Now the older people will make mistakes in judgment; sometimes they did in Bible times, but they will make mistakes less times than people that do not have that experience.  So, the Bible says submit to those that are older, and then it says all of you be in submission to each other.  That is what Peter says.

None of us can go to heaven if we have a proud, independent spirit.  We will never be admitted.  We have to learn the lessons of submission given in the Bible—submission to the leaders in the church, submission to leaders in the family, submission to civil government, submission to employers.  All of that is taught in the New Testament.

Revelation 14 talks about the 144,000.  The last part of verse 4 tells us that the 144,000 are people that have learned the lesson of submission.  It says, “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.  These were redeemed from among men, [being] the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”  Notice these are followers; they follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  They are in submission to His authority, period.  And they will follow Him—they do not just submit until they go so far and then say they are not going any further.

Have you ever met somebody like that?  Have you ever studied the Bible with someone, and they accept everything until you get to some doctrine that cuts so hard across their practice that they say, “I have accepted everything so far, but I can’t go that far”?  I have seen it happen with tithing, with the Sabbath, with the state of the dead, with jewelry, and all different kinds of things.  Different people will go to a certain point, and then it cuts so hard across their belief or their thinking or their practices, that they say, No, I can’t go any further.

But the 144,000 are people that wherever the Lord leads, they go.  They do not say they are just going so far; they follow wherever He goes.  Do you want to be a person like that?  If you do, then you have to learn the lesson of submission.  The 144,000 are the people that follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

However, if you look at the first part of verse 4 of Revelation 14, you will see that the 144,000 appear to be independent, just like it was in the days of Noah.  “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.”  Now what is that talking about?  There are people who are totally confused about Bible prophecy, and they say that the 144,000 must be little Jewish boys.  They are just confused about who Israel is; they are confused about all sorts of things.

Women in Bible prophecy represent churches.  The 144,000 are those who have not been defiled by women.  They have not been defiled with Babylon, who is the great harlot defiling the whole world, as you can read in Revelation 14, 17, and 18.  These people are not defiled with Babylon; they are not defiled with false religion.  They are not defiled with false religious philosophy that is predominate throughout the world, because they are independent from manmade tradition.  They will be thought to be a crazy and fanatical offshoot that is independent from the whole rest of the world.  But the reason they are independent of the rest of the world is because the world is on the wrong side.  They are loyal and faithful to God, and they are in the minority.

The Bible says these people are followers.  In this world, very often the reality is exactly the opposite from appearance.  From the beginning of sin, those who have remained submissive and dependent upon God by following the Lamb wherever He goes have found themselves out of step and independent from the world.  Like Noah, when the rest of the world remained independent of God, can you imagine what people said?  They said, “That man Noah is so aloof from counsel; he is so independent.”  But actually Noah and his cohorts were the only ones in the world that were not independent.  They were dependent on God.  They were loyal and faithful to Him.

In the Book of Numbers, the experience of the organized church in the days of Moses is recorded.  When the unfaithful spies returned from spying out the Promised Land, they got together and said, “Let’s select another leader, and lets go back to Egypt.”  (See Numbers 14:2–4.)  Remember that?  It was probably the first great nominating committee in the organized church.  They decided to select another leader instead of the one that God had chosen for them.  Remember that Caleb and Joshua remonstrated with them and tried to talk some sense into them, because they were making the wrong decision (Verses 9 and 10), and it got really hot.

Caleb and Joshua, in this instance,—now think this through—became independent from the organized church.  That sounds awful; but isn’t that what happened?  Caleb and Joshua became independent of the organized church, and the people in the organized church said, “This Caleb and Joshua are not accepting the leader that we are choosing, and they are not accepting the decisions that we are making, so we are just going to disfellowship them.”  Do you know how they were going to disfellowship them?  They said, “We are going to stone you.”  That is the ultimate in disfellowshiping.  That would be permanent.

Here is the question.  Who was right?  Think this through.  It is easy, when you look back at the Bible records and see everything, all figured out, because it is all recorded there.  Let me tell you it is not nearly so easy when you are going through it yourself.  Who was right?  Was it those who remained loyal to the church and the church organization?  Or was it those who appeared to be independent and were, therefore, going to be disfellowshiped?

It is easy to give the answer when looking back at the Bible account, but it is not so easy when you are in the very identical situation yourself.  And this situation was not solved at that time, in Numbers 14, even though the Lord Himself intervened so that Caleb and Joshua did not get stoned. 

This feeling in the church (remember this is the church—they are called the church in the wilderness by Stephen in Acts 7:38, and they were organized) kept going on.  You know feelings are some of the most difficult things for any teacher or pastor to deal with.  Feelings get very deep-rooted in individuals, and very often the only way they can get changed is by Divine intervention.  Sometimes God has to send some terrible, terrible experiences for people to get their feelings changed.

As I have studied these things, I have said, “Lord help me to get submissive so I do not have to go through judgments to get my feelings changed.”  Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?

A couple of chapters later, in Numbers 16:1 and 2, Moses himself is accused of being independent and Aaron also.  You see, they had at that time a representative form of government.  A representative church government is when you have a whole bunch of churches and they each select delegates and they go together from all the churches.  We call that a conference.  It is where representatives from the different churches come together in a meeting and make decisions for the sisterhood of churches.  And actually that is all a conference is ever supposed to be.

If you have ever been to a constituency meeting, you know that a vote is taken at the end of the meeting.  You see, the constituency meeting is the only group that has the authority to act for the sisterhood of churches.  A resolution is made at the end of every constituency meeting authorizing the conference committee to act on behalf of the constituents until the next constituency meeting.  That is one reason why Ellen White said a constituency meeting should be held at least every 12 months.

The children of Israel had a representative government, and when the representatives of the church come together, we call it a conference.  They got together in this conference with 250 of the leaders.  These were leaders or representatives of the people.  It says in the Hebrew Bible that they were men of renown.  They were people who were famous in the congregation.

Have you ever heard that when the leadership gets together it is just like the voice of God?  That is what the children of Israel thought, too.  They had the leaders, and these leaders accused Moses and Aaron of being independent from the church and taking too much upon themselves without the approval of the church.  They said, “God has chosen this church, and surely, when the entire church through its appointed representatives decides on something, it is as the voice of God to the people.”  And they questioned, “How can it be that Moses and Aaron do not submit to the authority of the church and the leaders of the church?  How can Moses and Aaron justify their independent ways?”  Actually they were not independent; they were the only ones that were really dependent on God.  The whole church had become independent of God.  The appearance again was deceptive; the church body had become independent.  The ones who were accused of being independent were the only ones who remained loyal and true to the God of heaven.  That could never happen again, could it?  Think!

The whole church was united against Moses.  It says, in Numbers 16:19, that they all came together against Moses at the door of the tabernacle.  Obviously God would accept their decision since the whole church decided it, right?  You know there are some people today still like that.  They think that if the whole church decides something, obviously it has to be right; obviously God is speaking, and you must be in harmony with it.  So, God accepted it, and they had new leadership, right?  Is that what happened?  That is not at all what happened.  God did not choose other leaders, and God did not submit to the pressure of the whole church.  He said no; He said that since these people were in rebellion, they would die.  

Have you ever thought of the fact, friend, that there is no committee, no conference, no general conference, no human authority or power on earth that has the authority to change one principle of truth?  Not one!  The antichrist power, that is the beast power, thinks that something God has said and done they can change.  But God said no.  God would not change it for the devil; He would not change it for Cain; He would not change it for Cora; He would not change it for Judas; and He is not going to change it for us.

God is seeking for cooperation of His fellow workers on earth, but He has not abdicated the throne.  Nor will He allow any church, any conference, any general conference, or anybody or anything to develop an assumed kingly power over His heritage, which is His purchased possession.

When we follow down through the Old Testament, we see this principle demonstrated over and over again.  We could look at Elijah.  We could look at David and Saul.  We could look at Jeremiah.  We could look at Hosea.  We could look at Amos.

But let’s go to the New Testament.  In Matthew 3, it talks about the ministry of John the Baptist.  In The Desire of Ages, page 132, Ellen White says, “John had not recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin by seeking their sanction for his work.”  “Oh, how awful!” somebody says.  John did not recognize the authority of the Sanhedrin.  He did not seek their sanction for his work.  Not only that, he reproved the rulers of the people, both the Pharisees and Sadducees.

 The Sanhedrin was the highest earthly authority in the church.  Why hadn’t he sought their sanction for his work, if he wanted to be successful?  Because the Sanhedrin had tried to assume prerogatives and authority that belonged to God alone, thus making  themselves independent of God, and John the Baptist did not join in their independence by submitting to them.  “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”  Matthew 3:7–9.

They thought, because they were descendents of Abraham, that they were a part of the true church, no matter what.  John said, don’t even think that.  He said, in verse 10, “And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”  John says the fact that you are the literal dependents of Abraham and the fact that you have the right name and you can call yourselves Jews does not insure that you are going to stay to the end.  The tree is not saved, because it has the right name.  It is only saved if it has the right fruit.  When the man that has an orchard goes out to inspect the fruit, he does not look at the name of the tree to decide which one to save; he looks at which ones bear fruit to decide which ones to save.

Let’s think this thing through.  What does this mean to you and to me?  It means simply that every church, every conference, every ministry, every institution, every person, and every family that becomes independent from God will be cut down.

God does have a church.  He has always had a church.  He had a church in the days of Adam and Eve.  Ellen White said that God had a church in the days of Adam and Eve and He has had a church ever since. [See Upward Look, 228.]  God still has a church.  “God has a church.  It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments.  ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matthew 18:20).  Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.”  Upward Look, 315.

The church is the people that are not independent.  They are not independent from God.  They love Him, and they keep His commandments.  Love and obedience, humility and dependence, not pride and independence—that is the criteria.  “ ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matthew 18:20).  Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.”

God’s church—His people—are those who are dependent on Him, not those who are independent upon Him.  It is those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  This church will go through as the body of Christ.  We have to understand that the movement is not at all the same as systems or buildings or organizations.

There was a time when the organization in Battle Creek, the headquarters of the church, became independent from God.  And you know what God did?  He burned it down.  [See Testimonies, vol. 8, 97, 218.]  The church survived. 

The church will ultimately triumph.  We want to triumph with it.  God is not going to start some new movement, but the movement is going to be purified.  The movement is being purified right now.  The question is, Where are you going to land when the movement is purified?  Are you going to be part of the purified movement, or are you going to be on the outside, separated from the movement because you are independent?

The movement is in the process of being purified right now.  The Desire of Ages, page 107, says, “If the fruit is worthless, the name cannot save the tree from destruction.”  That is true of the Seventh-day Adventist name just as much as it was for the Jews.  John declared to the Jews that their standing before God was to be decided by their life.  Profession was worthless.  If their life and character were not in harmony with God’s Law, they were not His people.

Now when John warned the church that God could work without them, as we just read, in their eyes he committed the unpardonable sin, and they tried to silence him.  They didn’t accept him, because to them the church was the structure and the buildings and the human leadership in Jerusalem.  The system, in their eyes, was as secure as the throne in heaven.  Do people still think like that?  Some people do.  But actually the fact is that from the beginning “faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” The Acts of the Apostles, ­11.  Are you one of those faithful souls?

Never has God made His work dependent on physical structure—anciently or today.  Study the life of David, Jeremiah, Daniel, John the Baptist, and especially Jesus.  “In this fearful time, just before Christ is to come the second time, God’s faithful preachers will have to bear a still more pointed testimony than was borne by John the Baptist.  A responsible, important work is before them; and those who speak smooth things, God will not acknowledge as His shepherds.  A fearful woe is upon them.”  Testimonies, vol. 1, 321.

Let me ask you this question: How are we going to speak more plainly than John the Baptist if we don’t even speak as plainly as he spoke now?  Ever asked yourself that question?  Let me tell you, friends, we have to learn the lesson that John the Baptist was teaching, and he taught that the ax is laid at the foot of the tree.  He said, Don’t even think that you are a member of the church just because you’re a child of Abraham, because God can raise up from these stones (that’s the Gentiles) children from Abraham.

Who can He raise up?  Anyone, friend, that is willing to become humble, obedient, and loving.  Humble, loving obedience is all that’s required; it’s not complicated.  At the end, as we have already studied, it is as it has been before.  The people who are really humble and obedient are going to look like the offshoots, and the people that are sinfully independent from God and His government are going to look like they are the establishment, that they are the people God is leading.  That is the way it is going to look.

You are going to have to get this subject straight in your mind.  You are going to have to be one of those who lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, one who doesn’t just look to see what somebody else is doing.

My friend, as I have studied these things, in my heart I cried out and said, Lord, I don’t want to be found independent from You and Your government in the end.  How about you?  It may look like you are independent to the rest of the world.  That is the way it has been with God’s children for thousands of years.  The important thing is not whether you are loyal to something human, to some human organization that may be totally independent from God.  The important thing is that you are submissive and dependent on God’s Word and are living by every word in this Book.  That is the important thing.  And when you do that, the Bible says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”  1 John 1:7.