Bible

The Burnt Offering

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The whole burnt offering had its origin at the gate of the garden of Eden (Genesis 4:4; 8:20) and extended to the cross; and it will never lose its significance as long as mankind is subject to temptation and sin. The entire sacrifice was laid upon the altar and burned (Leviticus 1:2–9) typifying not only a surrender of sin, but a consecration of the entire life to the service of God.

Wherever the people of God sojourned during the patriarchal age, rude altars of stone were erected, upon which to offer their whole burnt offerings (Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 35:3). After the long period of Egyptian bondage, Israel was so prone to idolatry that the Lord had the brazen altar built in the court of the tabernacle, and instead of burnt-offerings being offered anywhere by the father of the household, they were brought to the sanctuary and offered by the priests of divine appointment (Deuteronomy 12:5, 6). There were special occasions when burnt offerings were offered in other places than the sanctuary, as the sacrifice offered by David on the threshing-floor of Ornan (2 Samuel 24:18–25) and the memorable sacrifice offered by Elijah upon Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:31–38).

The accounts of the burnt-offerings in the Bible are a history of wonderful victories when individuals drew near to God by putting away their sins and surrendering their lives and all they possessed to the service of the Lord. Abraham’s great test of faith was a burnt-offering upon Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2–13). Gideon’s wonderful victories dated from the whole burnt offerings offered before the Lord when he, by those offerings, showed he surrendered all to the Lord to be consumed on the altar as the Lord directed (Judges 6:21–28).

The whole burnt offering was a type of the full consecration that must come into every life that God can use to His glory. Paul urged the fulfilling of the antitype in the following words: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). The offering of the most costly animal was only an abomination to the Lord unless it was accompanied by the surrender of the heart and life of the one who offered it (Isaiah 1:10, 11; Amos 5:22).

This principle was beautifully illustrated in the Saviour’s passing by as of little value the large gifts of the rich who offered only for display, and stating that in the valuation of heaven the two mites which the poor widow gave with a heart full of love, were of more value than all the wealth given for vain display (Mark 12:41–44). The Lord regards the gifts and offerings made by His people to carry forward His work on the earth as “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God,” and He pledges to supply all their needs (Philippians 4:16–19). “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).

The whole burnt offering was offered as an atonement for sin (Leviticus 9:7). The individual making the offering laid his hands on the head of the animal, confessing his sins (Leviticus 1:4; Numbers 8:12); and then, if it was from the flock or the herd, with his own hands he took its life. If the burnt offering was a bird, the priest killed the offering. The blood was sprinkled round about upon the brazen altar, in type of the cleansing blood of Christ, and then the offering was burned upon the altar.

Every morning and evening a lamb was offered at the sanctuary as a whole burnt offering (Exodus 29:38–42). Each Sabbath day four lambs were offered, two in the morning and two in the evening (Numbers 28:9,10). These sacrifices typified a re-consecration of the whole congregation each morning and evening to the service of God.

Since the shadow has met the substance, it would be hollow mockery to offer burnt offerings morning and evening now; but the type had lost none of its significance, and contains lessons for us; for “to love Him [God] with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).

The heart filled with love to God and our fellow-men is an offering always acceptable to God. In order to keep the heart in this condition, it must be filled with the life-giving word of God. The Lord regards a “knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).The individual who will sacrifice selfish interests and pleasures sufficiently to take time morning and evening to study God’s word, will experience that love in the heart which always has been and ever will be far more acceptable to God than “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

The Cross and Its Shadow, 132–134, Stephen N. Haskell, The Bible Training School, 1914.

The Sure Word of Prophecy

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“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1–6

Although the birth of Jesus was not an obvious fulfillment of prophecy to the Jews (and still isn’t), those walking in the Light that streamed so brilliantly from heaven indeed recognized it as fulfillment of prophecy. Strangely, though, even His faithful disciples did not realize that His crucifixion was also prophecy fulfilled. After the resurrection, however, there was no doubt in the minds of Christ’s followers that His birth, crucifixion, and resurrection had been clearly foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

When the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, did the Jewish leaders recognize what was happening? Clearly not, for we are told, “The priests and rulers were greatly enraged at this wonderful manifestation.” The Acts of the Apostles, 40.

So clearly, they did not recognize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a fulfillment of prophecy.

“In answer to the accusation of the priests Peter showed that this demonstration was in direct fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, wherein he foretold that such power would come upon men to fit them for a special work.” Ibid., 41.

Are there prophecies being fulfilled in our day, this very day, that are not being acknowledged as fulfillment of prophecy? Certainly there are—most not recognized by the world and some not recognized even by Adventists.

“There are in the world today many who close their eyes to the evidences that Christ has given to warn men of His coming. They seek to quiet all apprehension, while at the same time the signs of the end are rapidly fulfilling, and the world is hastening to the time when the Son of man shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven. Paul teaches that it is sinful to be indifferent to the signs which are to precede the second coming of Christ. Those guilty of this neglect he calls children of the night and of darkness. He encourages the vigilant and watchful with these words: ‘But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.’ ” Ibid., 260. [Emphasis supplied.]

Let’s look briefly at some of the events that are occurring around the world right now that perhaps only the children of light recognize as fulfillment of prophecy.

Wars and rumors of war…

What is sometimes termed “saber rattling” is occurring with greater and greater frequency. Think of the situations in Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the tension between India and Pakistan, between Turkey and Syria, or between the US and China or between the US and Iran. The list goes on.

Famines…

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 815 million people of the 7.6 billion people in the world, or more than 10%, are suffering from chronic undernourishment.

The FAO estimates that as many as 25,000 people lose their lives every day as a result of hunger. That adds up to roughly 9.1 million people who die of starvation each year.

Pestilences…

The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The current 2018-2019 outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is highly complex, with insecurity adversely affecting public health response activities.

AIDS, MRSA, Legionnaire’s disease, and other pestilences are so common today that we no longer grow alarmed when we hear of occurrences.

Fifty years ago, entire city school systems had at most one medical professional on staff, since chronic illness was relatively unknown among school-age children. Today, it is not uncommon to have a registered health-care professional at every elementary educational facility because of the general degeneration in the health of humankind and the pervasiveness of chronic illnesses among the youth.

Earthquakes in various places

“Scientists analyzed the historical record of earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude and concluded that the global frequency of large earthquakes is no higher today than it has been in the past. Results of the study were published on January 17, 2012, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

https://earthsky.org/earth/are-large-earthquakes-increasing-in-frequency

Further reading reveals that the frequency has increased from 1.0 to 1.2 per year, which is noted in the cited article as not statistically significant. It should be noted, however, that a 20% increase is indeed significant. Just ask the folks in Alpine, Texas, Hutchinson, Kansas, or Perry, Oklahoma, where earthquakes have recently occurred, with no precedents.

“Magnitude 2 and smaller earthquakes occur several hundred times a day worldwide.

Major earthquakes, greater than magnitude 7, happen more than once per month.

‘Great earthquakes,’ magnitude 8 and higher, occur about once a year.” Ibid.

What are some other prophetic signs of the times that Scripture mentions, some that even those who might claim to be children of light fail to recognize as fulfillment of prophecy?

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner; but My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished” (Isaiah 51:6).

Psalm 102:25, 26 states, “Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed.”

These texts provide a rather reassuring declaration of the current state of things: “They will perish … they will grow old like a garment”; and a declaration also of the hope we maintain in an earth made new: “You will change them, and they will be changed.”

Paul quotes this passage from Psalm 102 in Hebrews 1:10–12—approximately seven centuries after Isaiah wrote them. So clearly, he understood the prophetic implications of this passage.

Most people who are in their sixth or seventh decade of life and who might be feeling what Inspiration terms “the infirmities of age” can attest to the fact that “growing old” does not happen overnight. The evidences of aging creep up little by little until one finds that aches, pains, and stiffness are not just infrequent visitors but have become permanent residents. But as to the earth’s growing old like a garment, we query: Is there evidence of that terrestrial aging now? Most would assert that there definitely is.

Before we look at some of these, however, let’s make sure that we understand the difference between a theory and a fact.

According to the dictionary, a theory is “a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation.” One example given is “Darwin’s theory of evolution.” Unfortunately, this theory has been accepted as fact by much of the scientific community. Synonyms for “theory” include hypothesis, conjecture, supposition, speculation.

A fact, on the other hand, is “a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true.” Examples: Fire is hot; water is wet; ice is cold.

Let’s look at some actual, empirical facts that indicate that the earth is indeed growing old. These are not theories that cannot be proven, such as evolution. These are empirically determined facts. Unfortunately, many of these facts are clouded by the theory that the earth is billions of years old. We need to be careful not to let that erroneous and unprovable theory cause us to disregard provable scientific findings.

  1. Increase in carbon dioxide in atmosphere

Ancient air bubbles trapped in ice enable us to step back in time and see what Earth’s atmosphere and climate were like in the distant past. They tell us that levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere today are higher than they have been at any time in the past. [The author’s give the time estimate at 400,000 years, based on the unproven theory of uniformitarianism.] During ice ages, CO2 levels were around 200 parts per million (ppm), and during the warmer interglacial periods, they hovered around 280 ppm. In 2013, CO2 levels surpassed 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history. This recent relentless rise in CO2 shows a remarkably constant relationship with fossil-fuel burning, and can be well accounted for based on the simple premise that about 60 percent of fossil-fuel emissions stay in the air. (See https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/.) Different studies quote vastly different time periods, a fact which clouds the empirical findings of these studies.

  1. The effects that changes in the nature of the ocean have on aquatic life

Warming oceans are losing oxygen. Oxygen levels in some tropical regions have dropped by a startling 40 percent in the last 50 years, some recent studies reveal. Levels have dropped more subtly elsewhere, with an average loss of 2 percent globally. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ocean-is-running-out-of-breath-scientists-warn/

  1. Sea level rise

Since at least the start of the 20th century, the average global sea level has been rising. Between 1900 and 2016, the sea level rose by more than 6 inches. More precise data gathered from satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating rise of 3.0 inches from 1993 to 2017, which is a trend of roughly 12 inches per century. This acceleration is due mostly to global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers. www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/global-sea-level-rise

  1. Ecosystems are changing drastically due to invasive plant and animal species

An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy, or human health.

Notable examples of invasive plant species include the kudzu vine, Andean pampas grass, and yellow starthistle. Animal examples include the New Zealand mud snail, feral pigs, European rabbits, grey squirrels, domestic cats, carp, zebra mussels, Japanese beetles, boa constrictors in Florida, iguanas throughout the southeast and into Arizona, and ferrets.

Invasion of long-established ecosystems by organisms from distant bio-regions has accelerated massively in recent decades, hastened by international trade. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species.)

The beautifully balanced ecosystems that Divine wisdom established when the earth was created have been royally imbalanced as a result of the sinful nature of man, inherited from our fallen forebears.

When we see these signs of the time, there is no need to be despondent and discouraged that earth’s ecosystems are getting out of kilter and signs of an aging planet are becoming more and more prevalent. After all, that’s what the Bible predicts. Instead, let us rejoice and recognize that the return of our Lord and Saviour is drawing ever closer.

May it be said of us, as it was said of Paul, “The foundation of his faith was the sure word of prophecy.” May God enlighten us so that we can recognize prophecy being fulfilled on a daily basis.

John R. Pearson is the office manager and a board member of Steps to Life. He may be contacted by email at: johnpearson@stepstolife.org.

Beware of Ungodly Men

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The epistle of Jude was written to “them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and [to them that are] called.” Jude 1. For what main purpose was this epistle written? To ” . . . exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Verse 3.

With what are we to contend? Well, Jude said, there are ungodly men who creep in unawares, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 4.

Jude continues in verses 11 and 12: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah].” (Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against the authority of Moses and caused rebellion in the Israelite camp. See SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 707.)

Jude describes ungodly men further in verse 12 as, “spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.” James talks about them as people who are unstable, double-minded. (See James 1:8.)

Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25 talk about such ungodly men: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 21:2 states, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” And in Proverbs 30:12 it describes not merely a person or an individual who thinks this way, but it even talks about a generation: “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.” We are part of the final generation for whom the warning in I Corinthians 10:12 was given: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Let us consider the examples given in Jude 11 of ungodly men.

Who was Cain? What was the way of Cain? He was one who acknowledged no need of God’s mercy. Do we need God’s mercy today, friends? Oh, we do!

God’s Two Hands

Somebody once said that God has two hands, a long hand of mercy and a short hand of justice. Cain was one who acknowledged no need of God’s mercy. He thought he did not need, nor did he ask for, forgiveness. He was unthankful, and he was not penitent. With his sacrificial offering he expressed no faith in Christ. (See The Desire of Ages, 165.) Unlike his brother, Abel, whose gift was the very choicest that he could bring from the flock as God had directed, Cain brought only of the fruit of the ground. His offering was not accepted by the Lord. He brought a bloodless sacrifice to secure the divine favor. It did not express faith in God. “In every offering to God we are to acknowledge the one great Gift; that alone can make our service acceptable. . . . All our offerings must be sprinkled with the blood of the atonement. As the purchased possession of the Son of God, we are to give the Lord our own individual lives.” Review and Herald, November 24, 1896.

Cain was a man who expressed no penitence for sin. “Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 72. When we give our offerings, should they be accompanied with penitence?

“He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an acknowledgment of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God, of trusting his salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose the course of self-dependence. He would come in his own merits. He would not bring the lamb, and mingle its blood with his offering, but would present his fruits, the products of his labor. He presented his offering as a favor done to God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval.” Ibid.

Partial Obedience

Cain offered partial obedience. He obeyed in building the altar. He obeyed in bringing in a sacrifice. “But he rendered only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out.” Ibid.

Cain thought himself righteous. Now, let us be honest, has there been any time in our walk with Christ that we did not entertain thoughts of being righteous? Did we? There is a great danger that those thoughts can creep into our midst, into our hearts, into our homes.

If we ever want to get to heaven, we cannot be like Cain. That is what the message in the book of Jude is all about. Cain thought himself righteous, and he came to God with a thank offering of fruit only. He would not mingle it with the blood that pointed to the Lamb of God.

Attempting the Impossible

The sense of need, the recognition of our poverty and sin, is the very first condition of coming to God. Cain is like men who make their own efforts to try to save themselves. “He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. Man cannot be saved without obedience, but his works should not be of himself; Christ should work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13). If a man could save himself by his own works, he might have something in himself in which to rejoice. The effort that man makes in his own strength to obtain salvation, is represented by the offering of Cain. All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin; but that which is wrought through faith is acceptable to God. When we seek to gain heaven with the merits of Christ, the soul makes progress.” Review and Herald, July 1, 1890.

The ungodly race of Cain had no respect for God or for His commandments. Cain’s descendants chose their own time for work or for rest. (See Spiritual Gifts, Book 1, 60.) “Before the Fall our first parents had kept the Sabbath, which was instituted in Eden; and after their expulsion from Paradise they continued its observance. They had tasted the bitter fruits of disobedience, and had learned what every one that tramples upon God’s commandments [both natural and moral] will sooner or later learn—that the divine precepts are sacred and immutable, and that the penalty of transgression will surely be inflicted. The Sabbath was honored by all the children of Adam that remained loyal to God. But Cain and his descendents did not respect the day upon which God had rested.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 80, 81.

The Mark of Cain

What is the mark of Cain? Did you ever think about that? “God has given to every man his work; and if any one turns from the work that God has given him, to do the work of Satan, to defile his own body or lead another into sin, that man’s work is cursed, and the brand of Cain is placed upon him.” Review and Herald, March 6, 1894. “Satan is the parent of unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion. He filled Cain with doubt and with madness against his innocent brother and against God, because his sacrifice was refused and Abel’s accepted. And he slew his brother in insane madness.” Review and Herald, March 3, 1874.

“Any man, be he minister or layman, who seeks to compel or control the reason of any other man, becomes an agent to Satan, to do his work, and in the sight of the heavenly universe, he bears the mark of Cain.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1087. So there is more to the book of Jude than we thought! Let us summarize the characteristics of Cain which may be found in ungodly men today.

They acknowledge no need of God’s mercy.

They do not express any faith in Christ but depend on their own works.

They present their own fruits, their own works.

They render partial obedience.

They bring a bloodless sacrifice; they do not believe in the blood of atonement or in the work of Christ as their High Priest.

They have no respect for God’s commandments.

They are self-righteous.

They choose their own Sabbath.

Submitting to God

What is the safeguard against Cain worship and against receiving the mark or the brand of Cain? “Had man co-operated with God, there would have been no Cain worshipers. Abel’s example of obedience would have been followed. Man might have worked out the will of God. They might have obeyed His law, and in obedience they would have found salvation. God and the heavenly universe would have helped them to retain the divine likeness. Longevity would have had been preserved; and God would have delighted in the work of His hands.” Review and Herald, December 27, 1898.

So what is the secret, dear friends, of the safeguard against Cain worship? Co-operation with God. The word co-operation comprehends complete submission to the will of God.

Another characteristic of Cain is envy. One of the prominent sins of Cain was that he was envious of his brother. We should remember that, “God dispenses His gifts as it pleases Him. He bestows one gift upon one, and another gift upon another, but all for the good of the whole body. It is in God’s order that some shall be of service in one line of work, and others in other lines—all working under the selfsame Spirit. The recognition of this plan will be a safeguard against emulation, pride, envy, or contempt of one another. It will strengthen unity and mutual love.” Counsels to Teachers, 314, 315.

We should recognize the gifts. God gives them severally as He desires, for He knows what to do with us. It has been said that envy is but the smoke of low estate ascending still against the fortunate. What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes. Now it is important that we go through trials, because we learn little from success but much from failure.

The Balaam Mentality

Now let us consider “the error of Balaam.” Who was Balaam? He was a false prophet, but he was not always a false prophet. Let us identify traits of ungodly men with a Balaam mentality.

  1. They dally with temptation. “Balaam was once a good man and a prophet of God; but he had apostatized, and had given himself up to covetousness; yet he still professed to be a servant of the Most High. He was not ignorant of God’s work in behalf of Israel; and when the messengers announced their errand, he well knew that it was his duty to refuse the rewards of Balak and to dismiss the ambassadors. But he ventured to dally with temptation, and urged the messengers to tarry with him that night.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 439.

Sometimes we tempt Satan to tempt us. We go to places where we should not go. Here is a story that helps to illustrate this. Once upon a time the driver for a very rich man died. The rich man did not trust the interviewing or the selecting of a new driver to anyone but himself, so he put an ad in the newspaper that read, “The sky is the limit but only the qualified need apply.” Many drivers applied. After screening the applicants, there were, finally, only three individuals left from which to choose. The employer decided to ask each finalist one last question: “How fast could you drive me from point A to point B? Now point A to point B takes me on a very narrow road across the mountains.”

When asked this question, the first applicant said, “Well, first, you should see my record, Sir. I can take you safely across the mountain on that narrow road three inches away from the edge, and you will not have anything to worry about.” The man said, “That is impressive.”

The next interviewee comes in, and he is asked the same question. The second man replied, “You should see my record, Sir. I can take you from point A to point B as fast as you think you can go, only two inches away from the edge.”

Then he called in the third applicant, and he asked him the same question. In a small voice the third applicant said, “You know, Sir, I believe I can take you safely across that dangerous mountain road by driving you as slowly as possible and as far away from the edge as I can possibly get.” The millionaire exclaimed, “You are hired today!”

  1. They hope to make God’s service a steppingstone to riches. They mingle the sacred with the profane or with the ordinary. “The fate of Balaam was similar to that of Judas, and their characters bear a marked resemblance to each other. Both these men tried to unite the service of God and mammon, and met with signal failure. Balaam acknowledged the true God, and professed to serve Him; Judas believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and united with His followers. But Balaam hoped to make the service of Jehovah the steppingstone to the acquirement of riches and worldly honor; and failing in this he stumbled and fell and was broken.” Ibid., 452.

It is so dangerous to use the church, even a home church, as a steppingstone for some personal agenda.

  1. They presume upon God’s mercy. “If Balaam had had a disposition to accept the light that God had given, he would now have made true his words; he would at once have severed all connection with Moab. He would no longer have presumed upon the mercy of God.” Ibid., 448.
  2. They confuse confession of sin and true repentance from sin. “There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense.” Steps to Christ, 23.

They lament the suffering rather than the sin. Balaam, terrified by the angel standing in his path with a drawn sword, acknowledged his guilt lest he lose his life. That is all he was concerned about. He was not repentant of his sin. He was afraid to lose his life. You can repent for the wrong reason, friends.

  1. They are double-minded. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8. “At the time Balak sent his messengers for him [Balaam], he was double-minded, pursuing a course to gain and retain the favor and honor of the enemies of the Lord.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1116. Some people are doing this today. They are trying to gain favor and honor at the hands of the enemies of the Lord for the sake of rewards that they have received from them.
  2. They are covetous and time-servers. “Here is a solemn warning for the people of God today, to allow no unchristian trait to live in their hearts. A sin which is fostered becomes habitual; and strengthened by repetition, it soon exerts a controlling influence, bringing into subjection all the nobler powers [of the mind]. Balaam loved the reward of unrighteousness. The sin of covetousness, which God ranks with idolatry, he did not resist and overcome. Satan obtained entire control of him through this one fault, which deteriorated his character, and made him a time-server. He called God his Master; but he did not serve Him; he did not work the works of God.” Ibid.

No Solution for Genuine Rebellion

That is who Balaam was. That describes traits of ungodly men today. God’s servant says she doubts if there is any solution for genuine rebellion. (See Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 21.) And we need to understand, friends, that rebellion is an open sin against God. That is what happened to the angels. That is what happened to Israel. That is what happened to the Jews, and it could happen to anyone today.

Even though our own feelings, ideas and plans may appear good to us, having the best of intentions does not necessarily guarantee that we are in harmony with God’s expressed will. Mrs. White said, “Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving the message of mercy to the world, Christ would have come to the earth, and the saints would ere this have received their welcome into the city of God.” Australasian Union Conference Record, October 15, 1898.

Oftentimes, because we do not know the true condition of our own hearts, we may actually be doing things that are displeasing to God. That is why “It is written” was Christ’s never–failing weapon. “Our only safety is in following the example of Christ.” Review and Herald, October 9, 1894. A clear “thus saith the Lord” and “unto the law and the testimony” should form the foundation of all our decisions. If you follow this counsel, dear friend, you will be safe from the ungodly men who bear the characteristics of Cain or the traits of Balaam.

The Gideon Story

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1 Corinthians 10:11 talks about the experiences of the Children of Israel, and Paul says, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” We are going through the same experiences they went through, so let us look at one of these experiences.

Judges 6, tells about a man who felt forsaken and discouraged. The Lord came to encourage him, and told him he was a mighty man.

Why so Many Problems?

Gideon felt like replying, Lord, I am not. He said, if the Lord is with us, why have all these calamities happened to us? “‘. . . Where are all His miracles which our Fathers told us about, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’” Judges 6:13.

Gideon did not hold any prominent position, and he did not belong to one of the strong tribes like Judah or Ephraim. In addition to that, Gideon said, I am the least of my father’s house, so why are you calling me a mighty man? “Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’” And Gideon replied, “‘O My Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’” Ibid., 14, 15.

The Lord said, Go!

Then Gideon asked for a sign. If I have found grace in Your sight, if I have found favor in Your sight, please show me a sign that it is You who talked with me. Please do not go away until I can fix you something to eat.

The Lord said, I will wait until you come back.

Gideon “went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour.…He put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them.”

“The Angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And he did so. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.” Ibid., 17–21.

Then Gideon was scared. He said, I have been talking with God. Alas!

The Lord said, Do not be afraid. Do not fear.

Keep that in mind, because dealing with fear is a big part of the Gideon story.

I Am Going to Work Through You

Notice the first part of the instruction God gave Gideon. He already told him He was going to work through him to defeat the Midianites, a war-like people who were the enemies of God’s people. But before Gideon could go deal with the Midianites, he had some work to do at home.

Here are some questions for the men to think about. How are things in your family? If you are a pastor or an elder, how are things in your church? God holds you responsible for what is going on in your families. In the Day of Judgment, God is going to ask us a question that He is not going to ask our wives. You can read that in the Law of Moses.

If a woman made a vow, and her husband contradicted it, she was free from that vow. But let me tell you, if a man makes a vow, he had better fulfill it, because he is responsible to the Lord. He is responsible for what happens in his home. And, if he is a pastor or an elder, he is responsible for what happens in his church.

We are living in a generation where anything goes, and many fathers, pastors, and elders have let their responsibility slip. We have things going on in our homes and churches for which we are not going to want to give account in the Day of Judgment.

1 Samuel 2, tells of a man who did this very thing. It says Eli advised his sons not to do evil, but he did not enforce what he said. He and his sons lost their souls over it, and many thousands of people also lost their souls.

How Are Things in Your Home?

Before God can use any man to win a victory over his enemies, things have to be right in that man’s house, and things were not right in Gideon’s family. The Lord told him, “‘Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.’ So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.” Judges 6:25–27.

Are there idols in your family? Are you allowing it to happen? If you are, God is going to hold you responsible. A father has responsibilities. Ellen White wrote to fathers that they should not allow their son to curse, use tobacco or alcoholic beverages in the home.

But what if they say, Dad, I have the power of choice and I am going to do it anyway?

Then you have a responsibility to say, You can do it if you want, but you cannot do it in my home, you will have to leave, because I want the angels of God to dwell upon my family, and I cannot allow that in my home.

People, today, are mixed up about love. They think love means that you just let anything happen. God is love, but there are certain things God would not allow to take place in heaven, and when some angel said, We are going to do it anyway, the Lord said, Then you are going to have to get out.

God cannot work miracles for His church through a man whose family is not in order. Of course, we must pray and ask the Lord to help us to not be harsh, overbearing, severe, and unchristlike in our words and behavior. People have to understand that, in our homes, there is a law—not our law, but the law of God. We are His children, therefore we abide by those laws, and disobedience is not allowed.

This principle is all through the Bible. Jacob said, we need to have a revival in our family. I am the father, you have idols and I want you to get rid of all your foreign gods. And they gave them to Jacob, and he buried them. Jacob recognized that he could not have the blessing of God on his family while some of them were worshipping idols. (See Genesis 35:1–4.)

What Are Your Idols?

If there are idols in your house, the Lord is not going to be able to bless you and your family. If you are a father, you need to rid your house of idols.

God made a covenant with Abraham. “‘This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.’” Genesis 17:10–11. This was between God and all of Abraham’s descendants.

One of Abraham’s most famous descendants was Moses. God called Moses to deliver Israel, but God could not allow him to deliver Israel until Moses had straightened out some things in his own house.

On his way to deliver Israel, Exodus 4:24–26 tells us that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. Why? You see, Zipporah had a horror of blood and suffering, so she had not allowed Moses to circumcise their son. [Because Moses had allowed this to continue, God could not let him go deliver the Children of Israel until the problem in his house was corrected.] Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet. So God let him go.

Are You Following Divine Instructions?

Is your family in order? Is the Lord going to be able to use you to defeat His enemies and bring victory to His people? Not if your house is not in order.

Is your church in order? Paul gives the necessary qualifications for a Bishop: “One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?).”
1 Timothy 3:4, 5.

There are Seventh-day Adventist Churches and homes all over the world that are not in order, and we need to do something about it! A deacon is a servant of the church. That is what the Greek word diakonos means, and these are the qualifications of servants of the church: “Their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.” 1 Timothy 3:11, 12.

God is going to have an orderly people, because they see it is the way God operates. If you really love God, you will obey His commandments.

I recognize that, no matter how humble, no matter how gentle, no matter how tactful you attempt to be, occasions will arise when people in the family will rebel.

Walking Alone

Ellen White says if you decide to do what is right and walk with the Lord, you might have to walk alone, like Enoch. (See the Youth’s Instructor, April 28, 1898.) I have often pondered that statement, because Enoch was a married man who had children, yet, she said he had to walk alone. I would rather be like Enoch and walk alone than be like Eli!

When you attempt to follow the instruction God has given to help your family come into order, you get in big trouble, and so did Gideon.

When the men of the city arose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was torn down; the wooden image had been cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. When they found out Gideon had done it, they told Joash to bring Gideon out to them so they could kill him. (See Judges 6:28–30.) He knew he was going to have trouble, so he did it secretly, at night.

When you attempt to follow the Lord’s instructions, by getting the idols out of your house and bringing your family into harmony with what God has said, you will be accused of being a fanatic; an overbearing father; an unenlightened person, a hard taskmaster, and all sorts of things.

And if you are an elder and try to help your church come to order, you will be accused of all those things, and more. People will accuse you of being unchristlike. When you attempt to follow the instructions needed to get your family or church in order, you will get in trouble, just like Gideon did.

Accusations Hurled Against the Reprover

People will say the same things about you that they said about Gideon. “You have wronged us. You are guilty. You have destroyed our property. You have destroyed our religion. You are a blasphemer. Since you have wronged us, you ought to be punished.” They will say, “You are too severe. The least you could have done is let us have the idols and let us get the market value out of them. You did not even allow us to recover our investment.”

And here is a real common one: “You took away our power of choice. You did not even let us choose; you have taken away our freedom.”

Let us just examine that for a minute. Did Gideon take away their power of choice? Gideon did not ask them if he could tear their idols down; the Lord told him to do it, and he did it. So did he take away their power of choice? It might seem like he did when you first look at it, but there is something you may have forgotten.

We all make agreements. When we get married, we make a holy, sacred and binding agreement, and it involves contractual relations, covenant promises. These people, who were so angry with Gideon, they and their forefathers had entered into covenant promises with the Lord. (See Judges 6.)

Gideon was not taking away their power of choice when he destroyed the idols. They had already promised not to worship idols! The choice had already been made. Those men had free choice, too. They could have decided to go back and live in Egypt, where they could have worshipped all the idols they wanted. They were free to separate from Israel and go back, but they had not. They wanted to be part of Israel, and being part of Israel meant no idol worship.

I appeal to the men who are reading this article to pray and ask the Lord if you are fulfilling your obligations. It may seem like your family is rebellious now, but the very people who seem rebellious now, can rise up in the Day of Judgment, your wife and your children, and say, Why did you not enforce the law of God in our home?

Where Are the Leaders?

We need leadership today. We need men who will say, “In my house, we are going to serve the Lord. We are going to live according to the Bible and the writings of the Testimonies of God’s Spirit. That is the way we are going to live here, because we have made a covenant to do that.” If you married a woman who was a Seventh-day Adventist, she has already made that decision. You are not asking anything unreasonable to say, “I want everybody in my family to obey God’s Word and to obey the Spirit of Prophecy.” Let me tell you young men, you better not marry somebody who has not made that decision, or you are in trouble.

Gideon was scared. I do not know if you have ever been in that state of mind. I have been, many times. Lord, I am so perplexed. You say do this, and I do not even know how to get started. So Gideon asked the Lord for a sign, and the Lord gave him a sign, but Gideon was still struggling to develop faith.

Lord, please do not be angry with me, he said. Let me ask you for one more sign. (See Judges 6:36–40.) Friends, with the situation in the world today and what we are soon going to go through, if we do not develop faith like Gideon had, we are not going to make it. You develop faith by proving His promises, and you are not going to make it through the Time of Trouble without it.

Gideon decided to do what the Lord told him to do. He issued a summons. He made some enthusiastic, zealous, impassioned appeals, and his countrymen flocked to him—all except the people from Ephraim. 32,000 men came. Even with 32,000 men the enemy outnumbered them about four to one!

God Will be Victorious!

The Lord said, You have too many people. (See Judges 7:2.) If this army goes out and they gain the victory, they will decide they did it themselves.

Friends, God’s work is soon going to be finished, and Gideon’s 300 are going to chase the enemies out of the world. The victory is going to be won in a way so you and I will know that we did not do it.

Gideon was astonished! Lord, you know whom I am up against! God said, I want you to do what Moses told you to do. Before you go to war, tell any man who is afraid to go home.

So Gideon did what the Lord told him to do, and with a heavy heart he watched 22,000 men go home. The majority of his army left. (See Judges 7:3.) They went home because of fear. Fear is a universal part of the human experience. Gideon had been struggling with fear, that is why he asked for those signs. He had received three signs so far, but he was going to receive more. God knew he needed something to bolster his faith and courage.

One of these days, we will find out what it is like to have the majority leave us. If you think that we have been forsaken now, read Testimonies, vol. 5, 80, 81. When the National Sunday Law is enforced, we are going to find out what it means to have the great majority of those who call themselves Seventh-day Adventists leave us. Why? Because of fear! If you are afraid, you are not going to make it.

So You Want to be One of the 144,000?

I have been aghast over the years when I have heard people say they hope that Jesus will come soon so that they will not have to die. They have no idea at all what they are talking about.

In the time of trouble, the 144,000, if they could have the assurance that their sins were forgiven, would not shrink from torture or death. If you are going to be part of the 144,000, you are not going to be afraid of death or torture.

During the Dark Ages they had many forms of torture, and some of the most awful were some of the most simple. In Inter-America, South America and in Europe they took men and women and tied an iron strap around their waist so that they were anchored to a big pillar. Another iron strap would be tied around their neck so that their head was anchored, and another around their ankles so they could not move. From above, they would drip a drop of water on their head.

They would let drop after drop of water fall. It was called The Drip, one of the most terrible forms of torture there is. Each hour they would turn the hourglass, and by the time four or five hours had gone by, the nerves were so irritated that every drop of water hitting their head felt like being pounded with a hammer. By the time five or six hours had passed, they could literally go insane, losing all their mental and physical functions.

When a prisoner was tied to one of those pillars, they, and their tormentors, knew exactly what was going to happen, and they knew what the consequence would be.

Those being tortured would say, Lord, unless You help me and deliver me, I am sunk. And unless the Lord helped them, the time would come when they would say anything and do anything to be free from that bang, bang, bang on their head. The 144,000 are going to be people who will not shrink from something like that.

Overcoming Fear

How are you going to overcome the problem of fear? As I read through the Bible, I find that fear is the universal experience of a man who is alone. There is only one Biblical solution to the problem of fear, and that is to have Jesus with you. If Jesus is not with you, you are going to be afraid. If He is with you, you will not be afraid. There is no human solution for fear. Isaiah 41:10 has the solution. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’” You do not need to be afraid, because God says He is going to be with you.

There were several times during Jesus’ life on earth when the disciples were afraid, until Jesus came. For instance, the disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee and they saw Jesus coming. They thought He was a spirit, and they were terrified. “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer. It is I; do not be afraid.’” Matthew 14:27. “Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, and do not be afraid.’” Matthew 17:7.

The Presence of Jesus Removes Fear

You see, it is the presence of Jesus that will take away your fear. There is nothing else that will do it. When we are faced with the kind of experiences that we will be going through, there is no psychology, no human rationalization that can deliver us from fear.

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Hebrews 13:5, 6.

Gideon only had 10,000 men left. The enemy outnumbered him twelve to one. The Lord comes to tell him that he still has too many. The Lord said, We are going to put the people to a test, and we are going to separate them into two groups.

Meeting the Test

You and I are being tested day by day. Most often, we do not even know it! These people did not know that they were being tested. Very often we are tested in every phase of life. One of the things that amazes me about God is how He works through such simple things.

This was a simple test. He said, Take your soldiers and bring them down to the water. I am going to test them. The people who get down on their knees and drink the water, put them all to one side. The people who walk down to the water, bring it up with their hand and lap like a dog, you put them in another group. So Gideon did that. (See Judges 7:4, 5.)

9,700 soldiers knelt down, leaving only 300 who did not. The Lord said, Take the 300. (See Verse 6.) This was such a great test of Gideon’s faith that the Lord knew he needed some more special help. So the Lord told him, Go down to the camp of the Midianites tonight and you will hear something.

When Gideon got down there, he heard these soldiers talking about a dream one of them had. In his dream a loaf of bread rolled down the mountain, hit a tent and destroyed it. The other soldier said, That is the sword of the Lord and Gideon. The Lord has given the Midianites into the hand of Gideon. When Gideon and his servant heard that, Gideon said, the voice of God is speaking through those Midianites. I know it. The Lord has delivered them into my hand, and I am going to do what the Lord said to do, and we are going to do it now! (See Verses 10–14.)

It is not enough to be without fear. 10,000 were without fear. If you are going to go through to the end, it is not enough to be fearless. What did those 300 men have that the others did not have?

Character Revealed

The simplest event of life reveals character. One of the differences was that the 300 had a sense of urgency. They said, God’s business has to be done now. It has to be our number one priority!

Do you have a sense of urgency? Would you be willing to go into the Time of Trouble right now, or do you want to wait for another generation? What is really top priority in your life? Do you think it is time to finish the work?

People write me, I believe in The Great Controversy, but I do not believe it is time yet to do what you are doing with it. I think we need to distribute The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ all over the world first. Well, when do you think it will be time?

Others call, or write, “I am opposed to these newspaper ads because I do not think we should do it now.” Let me ask you, friend, when would you like the Loud Cry to occur? Some future generation? Is that what you are waiting for?

You see, the difference between the 300 and the others was the others were going to take their time to get a big drink of water, but the 300 said, This is urgent. We will get a little water on the way, but we are going now!

How Long Must God Wait

How long is God going to have to wait before there is a group of people who are willing to go into battle now? Concerning this battle recorded in Judges 7 and 8, Ellen White wrote, “The most complete system that men have ever devised, apart from the power and wisdom of God, will prove a failure, while the most unpromising methods will succeed when divinely appointed and entered upon with humility and faith.…He [God] is just as willing to work with the efforts of His people now and to accomplish great things through weak instrumentalities.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 554.

I am so happy for that statement. We are all weak, but the Lord said He is willing to work through weak instrumentalities and to do mighty things. “If they would cherish true humility, the Lord could do much more for His people.” Ibid., 553. Although that is a comment on Gideon, it also includes us.

If I would be humble and manifest faith, how much more would the Lord do? Mrs. White says that most of the time, the Lord cannot do for us what He wants to do. (See That I May Know Him, 227.)

Do You Not Want to Go Home?

Do you want your family, your local church, the other churches in your sisterhood of churches, to be in a condition where God can finish the work? I propose that we fast and pray and ask the Lord to help us come into a spiritual condition so He can do for us what He wants to do. What happened after this battle is going to happen again.

“No words can describe the terror of the surrounding nations when they learned what simple means had prevailed against the power of a bold, warlike people.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 553.

If God had done this through 30,000 people, they would not have felt such terror, but when those surrounding nations heard that 300 people had defeated and destroyed an army of 120,000, they knew that it was of God.

Character is What Counts!

What we are up against is not humanly possible either. But that does not matter because of the God we serve. You see, it is God’s work, and success does not depend on numbers. It never has! God can deliver by few as well as by many. It is the character that counts.

Sometimes when people have decided to keep the Sabbath for the first time, it seems like they are all alone; their family is against them; their employer is against them; their friends are against them; everybody they know seems to be against them. Many times I have told such people, “If you were the only person in the whole world who was keeping the Sabbath, it would still be right, and you would still be victorious. Study the story of Noah!”

We know from the story of Gideon, that success does not depend on numbers, and we know that God is going to finish His work in a way that is going to bring glory to Him, and not to us. I want to have the character of the 300. I know that I am not worthy, but it is not a matter of worth.

If you want to be part of this little group, say, “Lord, help me to follow directions. Help me to get my family and my church in order so You can work through us. Help us to have faith and just follow directions so we can have this character experience.”

Be Ye Holy in all Manner of Conversation

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“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13–16.

“The apostle Peter here gives instruction for believers to gird up the loins of their minds. We are to have special care over the thoughts of the mind. We are not to allow our minds to be diverted and allured by different things, because there is something more important for us. If we would allow the mind to take its natural turn, it might dwell upon unimportant things and we receive no benefit thereby.

“Here is presented before us the one great event—the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when the graves are to be opened and the dead be raised, and we are to be changed. This event should fill our mind and crowd out everything else. We want to make the most of the privileges and opportunities we have to prepare for the future immortal life.

“The truth of God has taken us out of the quarry of the world to fit us up for the heavenly temple of God. We may look upon one another and think, ‘There is a great work to be done for that brother and for that sister,’ but we may not take into consideration the work that is to be done for ourselves. And if Satan can get in among the people [and produce] a spirit of criticism, then he is satisfied, for a root of bitterness springs up in these [members] wherewith he will be satisfied. We are not all of the same character, but we are brought together in church capacity and we count ourselves as children of God, and we talk of having a home in the city of God.

“Our faith is that if we perfect a Christian character we shall be numbered as the family of God in the mansions that He has gone to prepare for us. Now, our heavenly father brings us together in church capacity that we may gain in knowledge and be fitting up for the community of heaven. ‘Well,’ some may say, ‘All I want is that everyone should see eye to eye.’ But there are those who want everyone to see just as they do. They do not consider that they have traits of character that must be changed. Then, what is the work before us in order to be ready to be among those who are waiting for their Lord to come in the clouds of heaven? It is for us to be in a position of humility before God. ‘Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

“The Lord has not placed before one individual the trade of becoming a church tinker, but we want individually to feel that we have a responsibility before God to be a blessing to everyone with whom we associate. And we are to consider that every brother and sister is the purchase of the blood of Christ. Here we are, living stones out of the quarry, and we are to be chiseled and fitted for the new Jerusalem. Do not let any of us think that we are all right. As soon as we are taken out of the quarry, we have a work to do for ourselves. ‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,’ and we want to be considering those things that will give us solidity of character. We do not want to have a high estimate of ourselves, but we want to esteem others better than ourselves. We want that our souls shall be uplifted to God every moment for help, for fear we shall fall. And while some are so diligent to look after others, they will forget the work there is for their own soul.

“We are to heed the exhortation of the apostle, that we are to be holy in all manner of conversation. And as we separate those things from us which will be a hindrance to our advancement, the Holy Spirit will come in. We want to be filled with the spirit of Jesus, and if you are not closely connected with Christ, then the thoughts of your mind will be upon unimportant things; but if you are connected with Jesus, you will just as surely be a channel of light as Jesus is light, for Jesus has said to His followers, ‘Ye are the light of the world.’

“Now, we are by living faith to keep our eyes fixed upon the Author and Finisher of our faith. ‘As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.’

“Before we become acquainted with Jesus, the conversation is upon the dress, and what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and what shall we wear? And we find fault with one another. But as soon as we become acquainted with Christ, our conversation changes.

“Here we are, objects of His love. Has the change taken place in us? Namely, have we passed from death unto life? Have we died indeed to self? Have we fastened our hearts and affections upon the great God? He is all light and power.

“Every provision has been made for us that can be made by our precious Saviour, that we may have that abundant grace so that we may overcome every defect in our character. And we cannot afford to satisfy ourselves in this life, but we want the fullness that is in Jesus, and we must train ourselves to talk of those things which will bring to us peace and light. As we have our conversation upon heaven and heavenly things, the angels of God are all around us; and when we are, in our thoughts and with our hearts, drawing near to God, then He is drawing nigh to us. His love is in our hearts, and then we speak it from our lips.

“It is not only our duty to train our minds upon heavenly things, but we are to talk of these things, for it is our duty to bind about our mind, to gird up the loins of our mind, and say, ‘I will not think of these things.’ Then it is our duty to guard our conversation.

“We would think, from the shadow that many walk in, that they had no Saviour. But I want to speak to those, and say ‘Christ is risen! He is not in Joseph’s new tomb, but He has arisen and has ascended up on high to make intercession for us!’ We have a risen Saviour interceding for us, and we must walk in harmony with God. He is seeking to ‘purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ If we seek with all our hearts to be obedient children, conforming our will to the will of God, then the work can go forward in us without interruption. Let us not forget for one moment that we are living for the future immortal life, and let us put away from us everything like complaint and faultfinding. Let our words, our conversation, reveal to the world that we have a hope that is big with immortality.

“We want that His will shall be our will. We do not want that our will shall be such that it will control all that around us.…

“God wants us to go through the mill. Here this man’s sharp character must be burnished off, and here is one who has taken hold of the truth who has always been coarse in his conversation, and he must overcome that. This is the very thing the apostle means when he says, ‘You must overcome in order to have a home in heaven.’ Jesus must be in my whole work to transform my character. We must accept the truth as it is in Jesus, and then how kind will we be to one another, how courteous, for this was the work of my Master. We shall see the precious mold of Jesus upon the character, and when we learn the precious lessons He has for us to learn, we will be like Jesus. ‘Come unto Me,’ says He, ‘all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’

“Here you are with your variances and differences. Now, ‘Come to Me,’ says He, ‘and learn of Me.’…”

Sermons and Talks, Book 1, 40–43.

Blessed is the Man

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“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” Revelation 3:21.

The other evening as I was working at my computer, I became aware of something gently flickering in the darkness outside my window. When I turned the lights off, what I saw held me in wonder for quite some minutes. There is a laurel hedge at the bottom of our garden and each glossy leaf, as it was stirred in the breeze, was catching the light of the full moon. The effect was of hundreds of little silver lights flickering in the darkness. Suddenly I realized that this full moon was the Passover moon, and it was under this same moon that Christ knelt in Gethsemane. In His anguish, His face showed no beauty that we should desire Him, and His body knelt clutching the cold ground with no form or comeliness that would appeal to us. From His face there fell great drops of sweat consisting of blood.

Alone

For so much of His life Christ had thought of others, but on this night He prayed for Himself. “‘Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.’” Luke 22:42. At this point, His life was almost crushed from Him. He had asked for human company to support Him as He had supported them, but they slept. He bore this anguish alone. They had noted nothing more than that He had become “sorrowful and very heavy.” Matthew 26:37. “Not My will, but Thine, be done” was the cry of His heart. Three times He prayed this prayer, but each was preceded by the greatest struggle of His life; His own will in opposition to that of His father.

Above Him, did the olive leaves flicker with the same little silver lights in the moonlight? Was there beauty in nature even while our Saviour, on the ground beneath, fought the greatest of battles? “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame.…”

Do you even begin to understand this experience in your own life? It is not an experience that can be quietly and calmly undertaken, something to be ticked off as another victory over temptation—a clinical step on the Christian road. There may be times when we have overcome and we can look back on our lives with praise to God for victories won, but in each life there is the big problem, the one that keeps returning time and again. What about victory over this? The habits of a lifetime have wrapped their silken threads around us and to break free requires a different experience.

We Must Also Face Our Gethsemane

The Holy Spirit is working with each one of us and leading us to this point. This means we have to face our Gethsemane too. We have to face squarely our temptations, also.

What held Christ in submission to His Father’s will? He knew the purpose for His life; He knew the time on the clock of the Great Controversy—the prophecies that were to be fulfilled in Him, the salvation of the world that lay in those decisions. Is it any different for us? Do we know the time in which our struggles take place? Do we know the prophecies that are to be fulfilled in us? This last generation, us, today, who could be alive to see Jesus come, is the generation that the angels and the prophets have awaited through the years. The three great powers of heaven, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, have worked for this moment in time, a time when all the strands of all ages of prophecy and salvation history will be gathered together and an end can be made of sin.

The character of God has been maligned through many centuries. All heaven is looking to us. Will we do it? Or will the challenge have to pass to another generation to reveal the character of God before the universe and demonstrate the miracle of God’s power in the weakest of human lives? Does God ask the impossible? In this, potentially the greatest of earth’s history, where are we? Do we know what it means to call ourselves a follower of Christ? Are we overcomers with Christ?

What is Your Purpose?

Unless we see the greatness of our purpose and the time in which we live, all our thought patterns will not be strong enough or focused enough to see the temptation and the sin to which it leads, with all its consequences for God and for ourselves. We have the records of Bible characters to show us how they responded to God’s will. Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” Daniel 1:8. The three Hebrew young men “trusted in Him…and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” Daniel 3:28. Ezra, who knew what it was to have the good hand of his God upon him, had “prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it.” Ezra 7:10. These men knew what rested on their lives, in their time.

One of the laws of life is that we have to yield our wishes, our desires, our lusts, and our toys, now, for the greater good of a godly character and an eternal outcome. We cannot live in both spheres at the same time. This is what it means to be a hypocrite, and the world recognizes this state very quickly. Jesus says to us, in these grand and awful times, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24. This involves the initial struggle and yielding to God, to be followed by a life of cross bearing.

Victory Today—More Battles Tomorrow

The devil does not leave us after the first great victory. He returns again and again, and we have to choose and choose and choose again—on rainy days, on sick days, on bad, hormonal days, and on pressurized days.

When our lives are still bound around with those threads of habit, and yet another fine thread continues to attach us to the world, our consciences can be confused. We argue in our hearts and the whole situation is unclear. Justifications for our actions come very readily to our minds, and often we act on those without another thought. Through the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to convict of sin, the day comes for each of us when we long to be clean and have done with the wrongdoing. As we take our courage and go before the Lord to ask for freedom from these shackles of confusion, the power and pleading of the Holy Spirit fills our hearts.

The big choice to be made cannot now be mistaken. There are many smaller choices each day, but when the crucial one comes, we recognize it. The Holy Spirit has shown us clearly what it is that must be denied. What will be our response? It is so easy to say what we will do when we are not in the struggle, but we must prepare our hearts to say a clear and strong NO. During the temptation there is just a little gap, enough to allow us to gather our thoughts and find the perspective we need to be able to say NO. God will not allow us to be overcome and swept away without the ability to choose. Even during this time the devil will try to send confusion of thought. It is at this time that we need to talk to the Lord earnestly and ask, is this the situation you want me to overcome; is this the time you want me to say NO; is this plan of action the one that will keep me out of sin; please make it clear for me, and please give me the power that you have promised. This is not a crisis to cope with alone in human will power, but the occasion to talk to the Lord, second by second, and follow His guidance. His power will not say that NO for you, but it will make it possible for you to walk away without a backward thought, or to throw it away, when you have made the firm and purposeful decision to say NO.

Cutting the Threads that Bind

This process is a cutting of one of the threads that binds us. It hurts. There may be clenched fists, tight shoulders, quickened shallow breathing, sweat breaking out into clammy hands. All of us, deep inside, want it just one more time, and we know we should say NO. But to say NO, talking to God all the time, and claiming verses of Scripture—”make not provision for the lusts of the flesh,” “whatsoever He saith unto you do it.” “let a man deny himself,” “he that overcometh shall inherit all things,” “blessed is the man that endureth temptation.” (See Romans 13:14; John 2:5; Luke 9:23; Revelation 21:7; James 1:12.) We may have only split seconds to think like this, but it is a time of intense mental activity between heaven and earth, between the will of God and our desires, between the Holy Spirit and our decision. “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” At these times the three great powers of heaven, and ministering angels are on our side, but we must make the decision for ourselves. That is the dignity of humankind. We have a choice.

When the choice is made and our heart rests, after the activity, on the side of the Lord, what a peace is ours—and quietness, humility, and exhaustion, too. As we look back on the past few seconds, we know how easily we could have chosen the other way, the way that would have brought dishonor to God. But we have faced the “big one,” and we have overcome. Can you imagine the singing and the rejoicing in heaven? We forget that! Heaven and earth are very close at such times. We may experience tears, but heaven sings!

That gap, for thinking time, is very small, but this is one of the reasons that God shows us a healthier lifestyle, with more fresh fruit and vegetables, clear water to drink, exercise in the sunshine and fresh air. Good sleep is essential too. Can you respond quickly in times of drowsiness and lethargy? A clear mind, the health gifts of God’s creation and a will that we have given to God in advance and asked Him to strengthen, will divinely lengthen that split second gap and make our NO more firm. Every victory is one cord broken, and another habit pattern begun. We are one step nearer the Second Coming of Jesus and the vindication of His character, as the miracle of grace is seen by men and angels, and additional power is given to the Gospel words we speak.

When Jesus Comes—The Tempter’s Power is Broken

For now, the victory is won, but it is easy to relax too far. The devil will soon be back, and he will come again and again. This is the reason we must carry the cross of self-denial as long as we live in this world. But when Jesus comes, the power of the devil will be gone forever. The burden will be lifted from us, and we will not have to make those constant choices. It is then that we shall be able to sing of deliverance, the song of Moses and the Lamb. It will be a song that the angels cannot sing; it will be uniquely ours. Will you make that decision today? The decision that you will meet the “big one” when the next temptation comes, and that you will take up your cross and follow the Saviour until He comes?

“‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.’” James 1:12.

I See

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David the Psalmist says, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalm 139:14. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, created by a God who is infinite in goodness.

One of the most wonderful gifts we have received is the ability to see. The eyes are a marvelous mystery to man. We cannot fully understand how they work.

Medical journals tell us about the eye: The photographic camera is patterned after it, but it is only a feeble approach to the eye itself. The sensitivity of the retina is adjusted to the intensity of the light, and the eye adjusts itself automatically to the varying amounts of light and to the distances near and far. It creates its own transparent skin to separate it from the outer world but to shut out no light. This covering will allow oxygen to pass through it and into the eye, but will not let it escape. It will allow carbon dioxide to escape, but will not allow it to enter. The eye imparts to the brain a perfect picture of everything in front of it with all of the vivid colors and teeming activities, and does it continuously so that the least motion is detected. These pictures are impressed upon the brain so vividly that the record of them remains as long as life lasts. The eye is an amazing thing!

The eye gives us the ability to see in color. God could have given us eyesight to see only in black and white. That would have been all right, but, oh, how much more wonderful is color! Color only comes by way of light. In other words, light produces color.

The Sight of Light

Is it necessary to have physical eyesight in this life to have physical life? Is eyesight necessary for spiritual life? The answer to both questions, interestingly enough, is that everyone who is blind is dependent upon those who see. This is true in the physical world as well as in the spiritual world.

What does God say is needful for us to have sight—physical sight or spiritual sight? “For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9. Light is necessary for sight.

What is God’s light that gives us sight? Psalm 119:105 tells us, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” God’s Word, if we choose to believe it, is a light that gives us sight.

There is no sight in unbelief. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world.” John 8:12. In John 1:14 we are told that “The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.…Jesus, the Light of the world, came to give sight to those who know they are blind and who desire to see. “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” John 9:39.

There are some people who believe they can see when, in fact, they cannot. Jesus came to open the eyes of those who know that they are blind. Is it not wonderful that as you read through God’s Word, a picture builds before you of what is necessary for our salvation? God’s Word, indeed, is light to those who believe it.

What actually brings condemnation to mankind? “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” John 3:19, 20.

Choosing Darkness

If we, and every human being in the world, are condemned at last, we will not be condemned because we chose darkness. We will be condemned because we did not choose the light. To reject light is to reject Him who is the light of the world. It does not get any simpler than that. The gospel is good news, because it is so simple that even the little ones can understand it, if it is rightly told to them.

Isaiah 59 gives us a tremendous description of how heaven looks at this world and what it sees. It is a description of our world in the dark. “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.” Verses 9, 10.

That is a description of this world, spiritually speaking. It is a description of the world that lies in darkness; that is what sin brings. Sin shuts the light away. “We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us.…” Verses 11, 12.

Sin brings darkness. Darkness brings blindness. Blindness brings transgression. It is a cycle that continues from generation to generation to those who choose to love darkness rather than light.

When we combine Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” with John 17:17, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth,” what we see is simply that God’s Word is light, that light equals truth, and that truth gives us sight into the reality of the eternal world.

Ah, to See!

This, too, is a cycle. It can be a cycle as much as sin, darkness, blindness are a cycle. We can choose to have light and truth and sight and reality. We can choose that because the gospel is an alternative to sin.

God has allowed the light of His grace to cover this world through the life and death of His Son, that He might bring the light to a darkened world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is light; it is salvation, and it is reality.

Psalm 34:8 tells us another truth about light. “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Spiritual sight is not a profession, it is an experience. You can have a profession and be blind. You can have an experience and see.

Tasting is trusting, believing the Word. When we believe the Word, the Word becomes light to us. Then we can see where God wants us to walk.

To be satisfied with a profession or a form of godliness is to choose blindness. Let us look at what the blindness of the leaders in Israel, in Jesus’ day, caused them to do.

Out of Focus

What did they do in their blindness? “Howbeit,” Jesus said, “in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” “Making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”
Mark 7:7, 13.

They put men’s laws in the place of God’s laws. Only blindness will do that! Only darkness would attempt to do such a thing. They put tradition above God’s Word. Spiritual blindness distorts our priorities and puts things totally out of focus.

“Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?” Matthew 23:16–19.

Did they have distortion in regard to their priorities? Oh, yes, they were totally out of focus, and yet they proclaimed themselves to be the children of God, the chosen of God, the light of the world, but their priorities were all upside down. Is it any different in our day?

What Possesses You?

In our day, among professed Christians, men are satisfied with a profession of truth rather than a possession of truth. You and I will never walk through one of those tall gates into the city of God without allowing the truth to possess us. You can hold this truth and walk around with the Bible that has all this light in it; you can put it in your mind; you can memorize it, but if it never gets to your heart, if it never possesses you, you are in the darkness. Possessing truth will take you from darkness into light.

Men today are satisfied with merely professing the truth, not allowing the truth to possess them. Men are satisfied with hearing God’s Word rather than doing it. They are satisfied with following religious leaders more than with following Jesus. That is a sad thing.

I do not care who the man is, he is not Jesus. One of the great distortions of our day is that we find Christians who profess the truth, who are defending a name and a church more than the truth. Is that a distortion of priority? Yes, it is. When we start compromising the truth, while defending an organization or a church, we are in darkness.

The Invitation

The message to Laodicea brings us up to date, as it were, because we are in the midst of the period of Laodicea. Laodicea has some serious priority problems. Laodicea has some serious eyesight problems. Jesus says to Laodicea, “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:17.

Laodicea says, I can see. God says, You are blind. Whom are we to believe, our leaders or God, our own understanding or God’s understanding? Do we have needs? Yes, we have tremendous needs. The description says we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Those are not complimentary statements. Yet, we are patting ourselves on the back for all the wonderful progress we think we have made in regard to the Three Angels’ Messages. Something is wrong with this picture.

Jesus gives a solution, because Jesus always has a solution. He has a solution for every problem that you and I have, no matter what sin it is. In verse 18 He says, “‘I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. And white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.’” You notice that He never forces us—He invites us. The gospel is an invitation from God in heaven who loves us supremely and who is looking out for only our best, our highest good. He will not force our choice, but He will counsel us. He will woo us because He loves us. The “gold tried in the fire” is faith that works by love in the midst of the fire, the fire of temptation, the fire of trial. The white raiment is the wonderful righteousness of Jesus. Truly, to receive Jesus is to receive His righteousness, and it is in receiving His righteousness, imputed and imparted, that we become like Him. His name alone will not save us. His name alone will not transform us, but His righteousness will. Jesus wants us to see—not in black and white, but in color, in reality—the things, that without faith, we cannot see.

Working In Harmony

What is the eyesalve that He wants to give us to help us see? It is His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to see. “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.…” John 16:13. We have learned that truth is God’s Word, and God’s Word is light. This truth is reality, reality from the heavens of light. So He leads us into all truth, “for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” Ibid.

One–Two–Three

The Holy Spirit always works in harmony with God’s Word, with God’s truth. They always go together, always! John 16:8 tells us that God wants us, through His Holy Spirit, to see three things clearly. “And when He is come, He will reprove [convince] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

First God wants us to clearly see what is sin. We have already seen that sin brings darkness, darkness brings blindness, and blindness brings sin. God wants the Holy Spirit to show us sin so we can understand what sin is, because He does not want us to be blind. Does that mean that He is going to show us sin in everybody else? No. He wants to help each of us to see our own sin so we will not be blind.

The second thing the Holy Spirit is to help us see clearly is righteousness. How is God going to show that to us? By His Holy Spirit, by His Word, and by His truth.

If we are separating ourselves from those, we cannot expect to see clearly. Even if we pray for the Holy Spirit, if we are not bringing our minds into contact with God’s will, we will not see clearly. There is always balance in salvation.

The third thing God wants us to see clearly is the judgment. He wants us to see that we will have to give a personal account to Him of what we have done in this earth. He wants everybody to understand that it is a personal account. We are not saved in groups. We are not saved in families. We are saved as individuals, and we will be judged as individuals. He wants us to understand our personal responsibility to Him.

Receiving Sight

How can a person, who recognizes that they are spiritually blind, receive their sight? We have alluded to it in some degree, but I want you to notice a few things. Let us look at a man who was physically blind, and then healed, and see what we can learn in regard to spiritual healing of our blindness.

“And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto Him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. [I want to see. I want to see the color. I want to see what You made.] And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.” Mark 10:46–52.

Immediately he began to see! Immediately! What did he do after he could see? He “followed Jesus in the way.” Verse 52.

Are You Blind?

What can we learn about spiritual blindness in the physical healing of Bartimaeus? One thing about Bartimaeus, he knew that he was blind. That is number one. We have to recognize that we are blind. We have to know we are sick before we seek a physician. We must know and recognize that we are spiritually blind, that we need help.

Number two, as he cried out to Jesus, he believed that Jesus could heal him. When he cried out, the people said, Shhhh, shhhh. Shhhh, keep it quiet; do you not understand this is a man of God? What did Bartimaeus do? He cried out all the more!

Bartimaeus was determined. He wanted to see, and he knew and believed in his heart that Jesus could heal him. Nothing anybody said could change that faith. He was determined, and we must be determined if we want to see, spiritually. We must show God that we do want to see and that when we receive our spiritual sight, we will follow Him.

Taking Responsibility

I want you to notice, also, that Bartimaeus was being personally responsible. He did not ask anybody else to go to Jesus for him. His faith was laying hold of the Great Healer, personally. It must be personal; there is no proxy salvation! My wife cannot stand in for me, and I cannot stand in for her. It is personal. If we are going to see, then we must address Him personally.

Jesus said unto him, “Go thy way.” I know that he obeyed that command. How do I know? Because he was healed. He obeyed the command because he believed the word spoken to him.

Do we, when we confess our sins before God and in our heart forsake those sins, believe God when He says, I forgive you? We can, because He does. He is a God who is faithful, a God of His Word.

Notice in verse 51, Bartimaeus comes to Jesus. Is it evident that this man is blind? Yes. What does Jesus ask him when he comes over to Him? “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Why does Jesus ask such a question? Because He wants us to personally bring our needs to Him. He wants us to verbally tell Him what are our needs. Does He know what you need right now? Does He know your sickness? Yes, physical or spiritual, He knows all about you, but we are to come to Him by faith and let Him know our needs. That is the way that we regain our spiritual eyesight—just like Bartimaeus regained his physical eyesight.

Compromising the Light

Bartimaeus had spiritual eyesight before he regained his physical eyesight. We can have the same spiritual eyesight. God’s program does not change. He is not dealing with dispensational salvation. He does not do one thing one time and then say, this is how we are going to do it next time. It is always the same. He says, I never change. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. (See Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8.) How He saved Abraham is how He is going to save you and me—if we believe and allow Him to give us sight to see, because no one is walking through the gates into the Holy City without spiritual eyesight.

The light, we have already seen, is the most important factor to give us sight. Light and sight go together. A warning is given about compromising the light. This warning deals with losing our sight and how that could happen. “Yielding to temptation begins in permitting the mind to waver, to be inconstant in your trust in God. If we do not choose to give ourselves fully to God then we are in darkness. When we make any reserve we are leaving open a door through which Satan can enter to lead us astray by his temptations. He knows that if he can obscure our vision, so that the eye of faith cannot see God, there will be no barrier against sin.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 92. So we can lose our spiritual eyesight by compromising the light.

Mark 8:22–25 shows us that God wants us to see clearly, not dimly. “And He cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”

Through the Eyes of Jesus

That is what Jesus wants us to see. He wants us to see men clearly. He does not want us to see men as trees, as just objects to pass by. He wants us to see men in their needs, so we can be used of God to help them. It takes spiritual eyes to see men like that.

What will God’s people eventually see? “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.” Isaiah 33:20.

The New Jerusalem is a city that shall never pass away, never come to an end. It is a city that the redeemed shall some day see on the horizon as they approach it with Jesus. Can you see it on the horizon? We are told that there is One waiting in the city. When Jesus comes the second time, He comes with every angel from that city. There is only One person left there. It is God the Father, all alone, waiting, waiting, waiting for you. Only spiritual eyes will see that wonderful city some day. I want to have those eyes, because someday I want to see that city, and I do not want to see it from the outside in the second resurrection. I want to see the city on the inside, nevermore to leave.

I Shall See the King

Paul says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9. But there is more to see! “Thine eyes shall see the king in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.”

Some day Jesus will be a reality to these human eyes. Some day, with our spiritual sight and His righteousness, we will be able not only to see the city but also to see the King. We are told in the inspired writings that some day Jesus is going to put a crown, personally, upon the head of every redeemed soul. (See The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 464.) That means you and me, if we choose to make our calling and election sure by allowing God to help us to see and to maintain our sight.

God would have us see clearly sin, righteousness, and judgment. May we each recognize our spiritual blindness and seek God’s healing hand.

Reaction and the Promises of God

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Jesus is going to come, and He will take the true and faithful home. As we watched the new millenium, as it has developed with all of the articles that were printed, the televised programs, and the debates that went on of the complex situations that could occur, it made us stop and think, did it not? Some of you did more than think. You began to react. Some of you put some water back. Some of you stored a little bit of food. Some of you stored a whole lot of food.

Preparing for the Worst

Something could have happened, and we were trying to make necessary preparations for this event that could change the whole world, as we know it. Some said such action showed a lack of faith. Oh, they said, we are not going to put anything back, we are just going to go for it. Then, when nothing happened, they probably strutted around and said, See, I told you so.

But I am telling you, it gave us food for thought. More than food for thought, it drove some of us into starting to do something about the time in which we live. We began to react. Let us consider reaction and the promises that God gives us.

Hebrews 9:28 says, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Here is a promise that is sure. This is positive. This is better than any savings and loan bank. This is better than anything the world has to offer.

Are You Preparing for Jesus?

What is the key? For those who are looking for Him, He is going to appear the second time. Now that is a promise! The Bible is strong! There are promises about Jesus coming back, but we have to do more than just say an event is about to take place. Many of us made more preparation for the millennium than we are making for the coming of Jesus. As time counted down to the year 2000, we made great preparation. Means, time, and energy were spent in preparing. How much more important it is to prepare for Jesus’ soon coming!

He said, I am going to come back again, if you are looking for Me you will see Me. Oh, it is sad to say that the majority of the world really is not looking for Him to come. They are talking about it, but who will make the necessary preparation? There is preparation needed, by the way.

I love these promises in God’s Word. I cannot think of any subject that should be more appealing to Christians around the world today than the coming of Jesus. People should be getting excited when they think about how near it is. There are things happening all over the world that tell us Jesus is coming soon.

Promises! We live in a world of promises. Every individual has had people make promises to them. They promised you that they would do this. They promised you that they would do that. And you have made promises, have you not?

How Binding is a Promise?

Let us make this personal. You have made promises to family; you have made promises to friends; your friends have made promises to you. Practically total strangers have made promises to you. We promise to pay back money we are loaned, or we borrow something, and we promise to return it. When those kinds of promises are made, what does that do in your heart and in your life?

Jesus promises, “I will come again.” (See John 14:3.) What does that do for you? It has to be more than just reading that He is coming. What does it do in your life? What effect does it have on you?

There are people who have made promises to me that, if I was judging, I would say, because of past experience, they probably would not honor. But do you know what? It gave me a little bit of hope, even if they had failed me times before, that they would follow through with their promise.

So promises then, whether we give them or receive them, somehow lend a little glimmer of hope inside of us. We live in an hour when we need that hope, because there is no hope outside of Christ. There is nothing sure outside of Jesus Christ. (See That I May Know Him, 80.) If we have not made that choice, that decision to follow Jesus all the way, let me tell you dear friends, fence riding will not get it done.

Riding the Fence

The best fence riders, in my opinion, are in Adventism. Yet we are the ones who should not be fence riders. We know that we have to quit straddling the fence and get on one side or the other. We have to begin to make choices and decisions.

We are at a time of year when you hear people say that they made their New Year’s resolutions. They talk about it.—I think they really mean it right then.—I promise you that I am going to do better in school. I am going to watch my diet. I promise you, things are going to be different. I am going to quit drinking. I am going to quit smoking. I am going to quit doing this. I am going to change things around. I promise it is going to happen.

Hope Springs Forth

When you hear those words, hope automatically springs forth inside of you. It does! So when Jesus says, I am going to come back, we say, Man, there is some hope here.

What do we really understand about a promise? I do not claim to know about everything that is involved in a promise. I do know this ( it may not make any sense to you, but it makes sense to me, and believe it or not, I learned it from my mother). She defined a promise this way: A promise is a promise.

A promise is a promise! When it is said like that, it is a must that you do whatever it is you said you would do! Now it is not a Webster’s definition of what a promise is, but it was my mother’s. Sometimes that far outweighs old Webster, does it not? Do we really understand what is involved in promises and the possibilities and the circumstances and the things that could change to prevent your keeping a promise?

There once was a young lady who lay in a coma, in a hospital. She was in the Emergency Room; she had swallowed a large number of pills. If her stomach was not pumped quickly, and the medications put into her system, she would die.

She meant to take her own life. She wanted to die. But after she took the pills and she began to feel her body changing, she became afraid. She picked up the phone, before she became unconscious, and dialed 9-1-1. She said, I took some pills; I need help, then she passed out. The first thing they wanted to do at the hospital was to get rid of the pills that were causing the problem. Having your stomach pumped is not a pleasant experience. But it is a lot better than leaving that poison in the system and dying with it. She thought that taking pills would be the answer to her problems, the answer for a broken promise.

When she recovered, she was asked, Why did you do this thing? She looked up from the hospital bed and said, Because my boyfriend and I broke up. He promised that he would never leave me. He promised that we would be together. He promised me engagement. He promised me marriage, and now he is gone. That is why I did it!

Promises are important. Commitment is important. But you know, I have come to this conclusion, and I think you will also come to this conclusion,—I need more than just promises of family and friends and people that I know and love. It is nice to have those. But in our society today, with the world like it is, I need something stronger than that, because I have seen so many promises that have not been kept. I have seen so many broken commitments.

Everyone is Looking for a Cure

We have to look beyond the situations of life right now, and God is calling us to do that. Did you ever wonder why God gave us so many promises in His Word? Many people have tried to count them. Some say 2,500, and others say over 3,500. Why, in God’s Word, do we have all these promises? Do we really need them?

You will very seldom if ever, find an individual attempting suicide whose life is full of promise. It is when there is nothing there, nothing to live for, no hope anymore, that some individuals want to die.

Do you realize you are here to give hope to the world? This message of hope is to go unto the whole world. You are to give the message of righteousness by faith. You are to give the Third Angel’s Message to give people hope and encouragement, something for which to live. We need hope today.

Depression is a real thing. Someone who is depressed cannot see through the darkness of despair to a future of hope. They think there are no answers to a lot of the questions they have, that there is no place for them to go. They do not know what to do, so they get into a bigger dilemma. Why does God have so many promises? He gives us all of those Bible promises to lift us up.

The Hardness of the World

He knew that we would need encouragement. He knew that things would beset us if we walk in His footsteps. He said things are going to be tough. (See Matthew 5:11; John 15:20, 21.) He knew that we would need to be encouraged, because the world, as we read in inspiration, is going to rub hard against us. If you have not yet experienced that rubbing, that hardness of the world against you, you will. (See In Heavenly Places, 151.)

You should be sensing it right now. The world is getting ready to rub hard against those who love Jesus with all their hearts. You sense it; you see it; you know it. God’s Word has said it. I believe that God put the promises there to encourage me, and I know that He put them there to encourage you.

Some of the most precious promises I have ever read in God’s Word have to do with His Second Coming. He says He is going to come and restore us. I am going to put things back right, He says. That is what you want, is it not? You want things to be right; you want them to be like they are supposed to be.

Isaiah knew about this, and he wrote about these precious promises some 700 years before Christ. He wrote one of the most familiar passages that we, as Seventh-day Adventists, quote: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.…” Isaiah 65:17. That means something is wrong with this earth.

Former Things Forgotten

Why would He re-create it if it was fine, if everything was all right? That sure slows the speculation and the theories that men are putting out nowadays that everything is all right. I am so thankful that He tells me that “the former [things] shall not be remembered, nor [even] come into mind.” Ibid.

Who would want them to come to mind? In the bliss of heaven, do you want to have to think about all the things that used to be? Absolutely not! Everything is joy and peace forever more in the presence of Jesus. Why a new heaven? Why a new earth? the Bible tells us in
2 Peter 3:9–13. It says this old world is going to be burned up, it is soon to dissolve. It is contaminated. It is diseased. There is something dreadfully wrong with it. And Jesus says He is going to create all things new. (See Revelation 21:5.) How wonderful that is!

Well, you ask, what is so good about the earth burning up? It is wonderful, because when the earth burns up, the enemy will be gone. Sin is going to be gone. There is not going to be a reminder of sin anymore. The old things are passed away, and everything has become new! (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.) Does that give hope? Yes, it does!

A New Earth

I know you do not like growing old. Do you know how I know that? Because I do not like it! We do not want to grow old, but it happens to everyone. We may adjust to it, because we cannot do anything else about it now, but I like the promise that I am going to have a new body. It gives me hope. It gives me encouragement. These Scriptures are specifically for God’s last day people. God is saying to us, and He is promising us, that these things are going to soon pass away. They are all going to be gone, and He is going to make all things new again, and when He does, He is doing it just for us. Thank you, Lord! Six-hundred years before Jesus came, the prophet Daniel received a dream, about the events that would take place. Recorded in Daniel 2 are the events in history all the way from Nebuchadnezzar to the end of the world. It says in verse 44, “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” In the days of these kings, the God of heaven is going to take charge again. He is going to set up His kingdom. You will not be in the minority anymore; you are going to be in the majority. Is that good news? His kingdom is never going to be destroyed. It is going to last forever. There will be no enemy, no group that can overthrow it.

We live in a society today where we have to be careful about what is happening. All nations are getting ready to turn on each other. The Bible says there will be wars and rumors of wars before Jesus comes. (See Matthew 24:6.) We need encouragement right now when we realize these things are before us. We have to catch a vision of these things that are before us that enable us to maintain, by the Spirit of God, our walk with Him day by day. I am glad that these words were penned. How do you see this passage of Scripture? How do you see what Isaiah had to say about the earth burning up and all the sins and everything all gone? How do you see the vision of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar down to the end of the world? Do you see it as good news, or do you see it as bad news? I see it as good news.

The Lord is King

We see the events unfolding now, and they tell me one thing beyond a doubt, things cannot continue the way that they are. That means some changes will take place. How or what does that have to do with you? What does it have to do with me? It is going to have a lot to do with us. I am thankful that the Bible gives encouragement to me to say that God is going to sit on the throne. (See Revelation 4.)

Everything is going to be wonderful then. Zechariah 14:9 tells us simply that the Lord will be King over all the earth. We are talking about the universe here. The Lord is going to be in charge. “In that day shall there be one Lord.” There are too many false lords around today, too many false prophets, too many mixed messages that are going out, too many people who are confused, too many people who do not know what is truth and what is right, too many people trying to run things and rule things.

When God is back on the throne, no one is going to remove Him. I am thankful that God wanted us to know about His plan for the universe. He wants us to know these things, because it gives us hope today.

In fact, He gave us good instructions. There is a passage of Scripture I am sure you have put to memory. It says, “She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. Does that not encourage you? We know that Jesus has come! The world may not know it, but we know that He has come. We did not see it; we were not there, but by faith we know it. We know that He has come because of the promises of God’s Word! We have got to hold on to those promises; then we will know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He came and that He lived a victorious life.

Saving His People

Do you know where Jesus is right now? Do you know what He is doing right now? John 14:1–3 tells us He has gone to His Father’s place to prepare a home for us, and He will return to take us there.

There are several things that He said were going to take place. As we read the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, He simply says the meek “shall inherit the earth.” (Verse 5.) The meek! It does not say the powerful. It does not say the rich. It does not say the educated. It does not say those with all the advantages. The meek are going to inherit something that has been made new and clean and right again. That is the inheritance that God wants for us. I am thankful for that.

Can You Hear Me, God?

Heaven seems a long way off at times. Sometimes it seems like our faith wanes a little bit, and we ask, is heaven a reality? Is it too far? Is God not big enough? Why does He not hear when I cry for help? Does He not understand what I am going through?

These are legitimate questions, especially for the non-believer. But even as a believer many of us go through times of doubt. When does heaven really begin? It begins, the people say, when Jesus comes. I am telling you it can begin right now, but, dear friends, instead of heaven, there seems to be a lot of hell going on in this earth.

That is what life seems to be like today. Many people, who do not know the Scriptures, who do not understand what happens when you die or what hell fire is, see the world getting worse, and they look around and say, This must be hell.

Christians, if you know your Bible, you understand better, but when is heaven to begin? Testimonies, vol. 7, 131, says it like this: “He will plane and polish the material for His temple, preparing each piece to fit closely to the other, that the building may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Heaven is to begin on this earth.”

Are you “material”? You can be if you want to be. It says that the material that inherits eternity has to have a little bit of planing. He is going to do a little polishing. When you talk about cleaning and polishing, dear friends, you are talking about things changing. You are going to fit somewhere in heaven, but you are not going to be there all by yourself. You would not want to be. He is taking every piece, that is you and me, and He is shaping us so that we fit closely together. That is His desire for us even now so that we might experience heaven here on this earth. Oh, what a challenge. That means we may have to make some changes. Have you acted today like you are in heaven?

Heaven Begins Right Here on Earth

If heaven begins here on this earth today, do we find that we have the peace that passeth all understanding? (See Philippians 4:7.) Do we find the faith and the love of Jesus, and all of the fruits of the Spirit, manifested in our lives today, as we deal with others? Here is the key! “When the Lord’s people are filled with meekness and tenderness, they will realize that His banner over them is love.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 131.

He is looking for a people who are meek, because the meek shall inherit the earth. Oh, how hardhearted we have become, because we live in a hard world. We are letting the world mold us, rather than us molding the world. That is why we become hardhearted. That is why we do not care about our brothers or sisters, or about the needs of others.

Jesus says that the meek are going to inherit the earth when the Lord’s people are filled with meekness and tenderness. Then they are going to realize that His banner over them, that which protects them, that which builds them up, that which finishes them off, is love. How wonderful that is! Do you sense it? Do you realize that His banner of love is over you? His protection is over you. He is taking care of you. He is meeting your needs every day of your life. What hope and encouragement that should give us.

There are people who think that one day Jesus is going to come, and they are going to say, I am ready. Really, without any kind of effort at all? You are going to have to do your part, and you must understand that. Testimonies, vol. 5, 345, says, “Character will be tested.…Each one has a personal battle to fight. Each must win his own way through struggles and discouragements. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory. No one, not even God, can carry us to heaven unless we make the necessary effort on our part.”

Is that not amazing? Every one of you has a character. The only way you can win a battle, the only way you can be a child of God, the only way you can enter into the kingdom, it says here, is to struggle through your own discouragements. We usually give up before it ever begins. We say, Well, if that is the way it is, I am out of here.

Struggle Through

When the discouragement comes, you must struggle through with God’s help. That is how you are going to win your place in heaven. That is how you are going to shine. That is how you are going to be tested to see whether you are good material for the kingdom. God is not taking any bad material. He is not taking any cracked material. He is not taking any kind of material that is not perfected. If we give ourselves totally to Him, He is going to finish that job.

If, by the grace of God, you get into the kingdom, you do not want some sin to come out there. It is not going to happen again, but you would not want it to, would you? You want forever peace and joy, do you not? Do you have some fight in you? Spiritual fight? When the battle rages and all around you seems to be lost, can you stand and fight? Can you go right to your knees and know that God is going to hear you? Then, when you get up off your knees, do you march forward like everything is done already? Is that not what God wants you to do? Yes, it is! That is why He gives you these promises. That is why He makes these promises to you.

You pray, and you believe, and you claim His promises, and you move on. If you do not have any fight left in you, if you decline the struggle, you are going to lose strength and the joy of victory.

Have you seen your family change, your own life change, and circumstances change that you thought were unchangeable? That is victory! You tasted that victory, and oh, it is good. It is wonderful! You love that victory. But Mrs. White says that if you lose that struggle, if you lose that spiritual fight, if you do not want to fight anymore and you are backing away from it, she says that you “lose the strength and [you lose] the joy of victory.” She goes on to say, “No one, not even God can carry us to heaven unless we make the necessary effort on our part.…Christ is our model; imitate Him, plant your feet in His steps.” Ibid. Is there victory? Put your feet by faith in the steps of the Master. Oh, dear friends, victory is going to be sweet.

Satan Uses the Indolent

There are going to be some people who are not safe to take to heaven. They can claim they belong to this group and that group and say they followed this one and they have done this, and they have gone to church, and they paid their tithe
and on and on.

“By withholding that which God has given us to use in His service, be it time or means or any other of His entrusted gifts, we work against Him. Satan uses the listless, the sleepy indolence of professed Christians to strengthen his forces and to win souls to his side.…We can never be saved in indolence and inactivity. There is no such thing as a truly converted person living a helpless, useless life. It is not possible for us to drift into heaven.…Those who refuse to co-operate with God on earth would not co-operate with Him in heaven. It would not be safe to take them to heaven.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 280.

Do we work against God? You know what you are doing. The Bible tells us that is a losing cause. (See Joshua 23:16; Deuteronomy 8:19.) Withholding anything which God has given us, whether it is time, means or any other entrusted gift or talent we have is working against God. (See Matthew 25:14–30.) Satan likes nothing better than to use professed Christians. The devil wants to enlist you into his service. Why? So he can laugh in the face of the Master, pointing out our failures as His failure.

Let me tell you, dear friend, we are a pathetic mess without Jesus. The sleepy, indolent, professed Christian, Satan puts on his side. We can never be saved in indolence and inactivity. We need to be active in the service of God, according to our age and ability. You can be active. Perhaps you cannot do anything physically, dear friends, but you can pray up a storm. I do not know anything more valuable. Prayer is the key. As long as we have our mind, we can pray. We may not be able to get out of the house. We may not be able to pass out books. We may not be able to give Bible studies, but we can be a prayer warrior. God says inactive people will not make it to the kingdom of God. (See My Life Today, 276.)

Cooperating with God

Dear friends, are you cooperating with God now? If you are fully cooperating with God right now, you are safe to take to heaven. If you are not, and you are rebelling against God, then you are not safe to take, and He will not take you into heaven.

Some of us have gone into the listless, lazy state, because we have passed the year 2000, and we just wonder how long it is going to be. Dear friends, do not worry about it! Just make sure that you are ready! Are you ready to meet Jesus right now? Have you really given Him your all? Have you really grasped His promises and know that they are sure and as steadfast as God Himself?

He said, “I will come again.” He says, I want to receive you unto Myself, so where I am ye may be also. (See John 14:3.) That sounds like He is almost pleading, does it not? What is there in this life that is holding you back? What is taking your time and your talents? What has lulled you into a sleepy state? Is it a brother? Is it a sister? Has something happened in your life? Now is the time to give it to God, get past it, and rededicate your life to Jesus.

If there are changes that need to be made, and we are not really grasping those pure promises of God, we do not realize that things are soon to pass away and everything, as we know it, has changed. The world is a different place today. These are very trying times in which we live, and evil will magnify, the closer we get to Jesus. Jesus says, He is coming. He will come again, and I cannot miss that. I do not want anything in my way that might cause me to miss that.

He knows your heart and your life. There is nothing this world can offer worth missing out on heaven. We cannot afford to miss the calling that God has on our lives. God has a calling on you, do not disappoint Him in that calling. He has people that only you can reach. He is trusting you to do it. He is trusting you and me to rightly represent Him. When we say, I am a Christian, I am a child of God; He is trusting us to represent Jesus to the world. Do they see Jesus in you? If not, let us make sure to grab hold of those promises today. This can be the most beautiful spiritual time of your life.

The Prodigal Son

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Do you need to know that God loves you? It is good to know that Sunday laws will very soon be passed in the United States. It is nice to have foreknowledge of what is coming, but what we really need to know is that God still loves us.

The impending conflict is right upon us, but not one of us are ever going to get through it unless we know the Father’s love. It is the only way that we can survive the prison cell. It is the only way that we can face the stake.

Letting Go

Luke 15:11, 12 states, “And He [Jesus] said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.”

Can you imagine the struggle this father went through? That was the most humiliating thing that a son could ask of his father—Give me what is mine, my inheritance, now.

The father knew what the consequences would be if he gave his son his inheritance. He knew what he was going to do with it. He knew the choices the son would make, but the father gave the son his inheritance.

In the book Christ’s Object Lessons, 198, Ellen White wrote: “The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son, bring out in distinct lines God’s pitying love for those who are straying from Him. Although they have turned away from God, He does not leave them in their misery. He is full of kindness and tender pity toward all who are exposed to the temptations of the artful foe. In the parable of the prodigal son is presented the Lord’s dealing with those who have once known the Father’s love, but who have allowed the tempter to lead them captive at his will.”

Intrusions

Have you, as an historic Seventh-day Adventist, once known the Father’s love but now find yourself being led captive at the tempter’s will? Are you feeling miserable, wondering if God is going to allow you to remain in that misery? This parable is for you. It is for me. It is for those who have once known the Father’s love but who have allowed other things to get in the way.

You see, the young man allowed awful things to get in the way. That could be our temptation, but it could also be our temptation to allow good things to get in our way. We do good things thinking that will appease and bring our acceptance before God, but it will not. It only separates us from God. Good things are a result of the fruits of knowing the Father’s love; they are not the roots.

So the father, with an aching heart, gave to the boy his living, his inheritance. Verse 13 says, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” The young man went out and thought, “Boy, I am going to live it up now. This is the way to life, joy, happiness, and satisfaction.” No longer in the father’s house, he was rough and tough, thinking he would get away and have a good time.

The Rat Race Begins

For a while he did enjoy himself, or so he thought. The devil was tricking his mind. The devil was leading him along with a rope saying, Hey, if you just make this amount of money, or if you just get this or that, you are really going to be happy then. But he was not happy. He “wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.” Verses 13, 14.

Somehow the wages of sin, the pleasures, did not satisfy. Somehow the things that were supposed to fulfill and bring joy and happiness only wrapped him in cords from which he could not be set free. All that the devil had held out to give such contentment and satisfaction, only made him miserable, guilty, and despondent.

“What a picture here of the sinner’s state! Although surrounded with the blessings of his love, there is nothing that the sinner, bent on self-indulgence and sinful pleasure, desires so much as separation from God. Like the ungrateful son, he claims the good things of God as his right. He takes them as a matter of course, and makes no return of gratitude, renders no service of love.…Whatever the appearance may be, every life centered in self is squandered. Whoever attempts to live apart from God is wasting his substance. He is squandering the precious years, squandering the powers of mind and heart and soul, and working to make himself bankrupt for eternity. The man who separates from God that he may serve himself, is the slave of mammon. The mind that God created for the companionship of angels has become degraded to the service of that which is earthly and bestial.…If you have chosen such a life, you know that you are spending money for that which is not bread, and labor for that which satisfieth not. There come to you hours when you realize your degradation. Alone, in the far country, you feel your misery, and in despair you cry, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24.” Ibid., 200, 201.

Destined to Misery

That is how this young man felt. Who could set him free from this body of death? Who could help him escape the thralldom of sin in which he had gotten himself? How could he be set free? Was it possible, or was he destined to a life of wretched misery? Was there hope for him? The young man did not see any hope for himself. He was a slave to the old man of sin.

Who could set him free from the body of that death? He did not know of anybody who could. But he kept trying to find somebody, something, that could set him free, somebody, somewhere that could provide the peace of mind for which he longed.

A Broken Heart

Several years ago, before my dad passed away of cancer, my older brother was involved with drugs. He was ruining his life with various pills, because he was trying to find peace of mind. He could not find it. He came into my parent’s home and threatened their lives. It was a horrible situation. Dad was coming to the end of his rope. He did not know how to be set free. He did not know how to deal with his son who wanted to kill him.

I thank God that I had the opportunity to talk with my parents in their home. My dad was almost in tears. This 65 year-old man, whom I have looked up to all of my life, said, “Bill, I do not know what to do. I do not know how to be set free from this. I am miserable. I do not know what to do with your brother. I do not know how to handle it.”

I looked at my dad and said, “Dad, three years ago I was in the same situation, but, Dad, I found that through the power of Jesus Christ, I could handle anything. And you can be set free! You can have peace in this situation.”

Three days later my dad, with this heavy weight upon his shoulders, went to his bedroom and kneeled down at his bedside, for what I believe to be the first time in 65 years. He said, “Jesus Christ, if You are there, as my son says You are, please set me free. Please deliver me from this burden.”

He told my sister that when he went to his knees, he felt like a huge sack of potatoes was on his back. And he said that, as he prayed, it fell off. The Father’s love had been following Dad for 65 years. The Father’s love is so intense!

Straight-Laced and Old-Fashioned

The prodigal in the Bible looked upon his dad as rigid. Dad was hard! Dad demanded of him certain things, and the young prodigal ran away, because he thought he wanted a happier life. But it was not happier!

Verse 15 says, “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.” That is just the way we are, is it not? He tried to find every possible place to find peace and satisfaction, except going back home.

He had a lot of time to think of what a miserable existence he now had and what a mess he had made of his life. “And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.” Verse 16. The world is a cruel place.

Unutterable Longing

All the while, as the son is far away from his father’s house, trying to find contentment in the things of this world, somebody has an aching heart. Every morning that the son has been gone, someone is seen walking down the long lane to the main road. Every day he goes out to the main road and looks down that road, because he longs to see his son come home. He longs to see his boy.

Every day he returns to his house with an aching heart, to begin that day’s toil. He works with an aching heart; he eats with an aching heart; he lays down in bed at night with an aching heart and with a prayer, “Please, son, come home! Please come home!”

“The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him [us] back to the Father’s house. The prodigal son in his wretchedness ‘came to himself.’ The deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was broken. He saw that his suffering was the result of his own folly.” Ibid., 202. It was not someone else’s folly.

Placing Blame

How often, when we find ourselves in a bad situation, do we blame everybody else but ourselves? Well, if so-and-so had not done that, then I would not be in…As long as we are saying, somebody else made me do it, or it is her fault, or it is his fault, we will never go back to the Father’s house.

In Luke 15:17 it says, “And when he came to himself.…” The prodigal son finally realized that it was his own fault, he had done the action; it was his problem, and he had to resolve it with his father.

The psychology of today says, Well, your mom and dad allowed you to do such and such when you were a child, and now that you are grown up, your situation is their fault. No, it is not your parents’ fault! It is your fault! Until we are willing to acknowledge that it is our fault, we will never go back. The prodigal son came to himself. He realized that it was his problem, and then it was that he could head home.

“He saw that his suffering was the result of his own folly, and he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.’ Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his father’s love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance of God’s love that constrains the sinner to return to God. ‘The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.’ Romans 2:4. A golden chain, the mercy and compassion of divine love, is passed around every imperiled soul.…The son determines to confess his guilt. He will go to his father…The young man turns from the swine herds and the husks, and sets his face toward home. Trembling with weakness and faint from hunger, he presses eagerly on his way. He has no covering to conceal his rags; but his misery has conquered pride, and he hurries on to beg a servant’s place where he was once a child.” Ibid., 202, 203.

Drop the Hammer

A lot of people, who were raised Seventh-day Adventists, view the writings of Ellen G. White as a hammer. She says do not do this and do not do that, but do you know what? The Spirit of Prophecy was given to help us come to ourselves, to show us where we have come short, so we will go to the Father’s house. Over and over again I marvel at the stories I have read of the gift of prophecy and how Ellen White dealt with people. She did not hammer them over the head.

  1. D. Faulkhead was a gentleman in Australia who worked for the publishing house. He was a high-ranking, thirty-second degree Mason, involved in the secret societies, and he was spending much time in these societies. Shortly after Ellen White arrived in Australia, in 1891, she was shown the experience of Mr. Faulkhead. She wrote it all out on paper and was about ready to send it to him when the Lord said, “Put it away.” A few months later she was shown another vision of Mr. Faulkhead and how he put very little money into the offering plate at church, but he put a lot of money into the Masons.

Mrs. White wrote it all down, and she was about to send it to Mr. Faulkhead, when a voice said, “Put it away and do not send it.” This went on for an entire year. Then toward the end of that year, a gentleman came to the publishing house, as Mr. Faulkhead was about to leave Adventism all together, and asked, “What would you do if Ellen White were given a vision about your life?”

Mr. Faulkhead said, “It had better be a strong one. It had better be a powerful vision or I will not accept it.”

The Secret Sign

Shortly after that Mr. Faulkhead and Ellen White got together and visited. And Mrs. White said, “You know, for the last year I have seen ten visions about your life, and now I will read some of them to you.” She began to read everything about his life, about how he was putting less money into the offering plate and putting more into the Masons, about how, in the Mason meetings, people were calling him Worshipful Master.

In the course of the conversation, Ellen White made a sign. N. D. Faulkhead was shocked. He looked at her and said, “Where did you learn that sign? Where did you see that sign?”

She said, “What are you talking about?

Mr. Faulkhead said, “That sign that you just gave was something that only the highest-ranking Masons know.”

Mrs. White continued her testimony, and after a short while, she made the sign again.

Mr. Faulkhead stopped her and again inquired where she had learned the sign.

“That was the sign that the angel showed me,” she replied.

As a result of Ellen White knowing that sign, which only the angel of God could have shown her because no woman was allowed to have that high of a rank in Masonry, and because of her testimony, N. D. Faulkhead became a follower of Christ again, and he remained a Seventh-day Adventist for the rest of his life. (See Ellen G. White Volume 4, The Australian Years1891–1900, by Arthur L. White, 1983, 49–54.)

So what was the purpose of the Spirit of Prophecy? It was to bring Mr. Faulkhead to himself, to help him recognize where he was going and where God wanted him to be.

A Rebuke From God

Another gentleman, a rather famous evangelist named M. E. Cornell, worked with J. N. Loughborough in San Francisco, California, holding evangelistic meetings. While they were holding the meetings, they were separated from their families.

Mr. Cornell began to be a bit too familiar with some of the women at the meetings. J. N. Loughborough said, “You know what you are doing is not right. You have a great influence here. If you do not stop being so familiar with the ladies, you are going to destroy your influence.”

Mr. Cornell said, “Leave me alone, Loughborough. I am going to do what I want to do.”

The situation got so bad that the church in San Francisco was going to have a business meeting to get rid of Mr. Cornell. Just before the business meeting, Mr. Cornell received a letter in the mail from Ellen White in which she told him that he was being too familiar with the ladies, that the Holy Spirit had revealed to her that his activities had to stop or he would go deep into sin and walk no more with the people of God.

As J. N. Loughborough went to the meeting that night, he was met by a man by the name of M. E. Cornell, but this was not the same man that he had known before. This man was broken, because Ellen White, with the power of the Holy Spirit, had spoken to him. He came to himself, and he was saved for the Advent message and for the gospel. (See Ellen G. White Volume 2,The Progressive Years 1862–1876, by Arthur L. White, 1986, 363–366.)

A Verbal Death

A young watchmaker in Switzerland become a Seventh-day Adventist, but one day he did something inadvertently and some of the older folks in the church in Switzerland chastised him verbally. They were pretty tough on him, and as a result, he left the church. He did not want to have anything to do with the old folks who were so rough on him.

He became an apprentice to a watchmaker with a flourishing business. In one year he was going to have his own shop and make a lot of money. But he was doing things that he knew he should not be doing. He was working on the Sabbath and getting involved in other things that he knew were wrong.

It just so happened that one day Ellen White’s watch broke. It was sent to this young watchmaker to be fixed. The night before Ellen White was to pick up her watch, she had a vision of this young watchmaker. She saw how he had been unkindly treated by the older people in the church in Switzerland. She saw the path that his life had taken, and she saw how he had walked away from Seventh-day Adventism.

The next morning, when she went into the watchmaker’s shop, she picked up her watch from the young man, and then she looked at him and said, “You know, I have seen you before.”

The young man looked astonished and said, “I have never seen you. Where did you see me?”

Ellen White said, “I saw you in vision last night. I saw how those older folks had treated you so rudely in that church, and I saw how you left keeping the Sabbath. I saw how you left off from following Christ. I saw it all,” and she continued, “Now, I am not going to leave this shop until we kneel together on this floor and you rededicate your life to Christ.”

Why did Ellen White give that message to that young man? So he could come to himself, rededicate himself to Christ and become a Seventh-day Adventist again. (See Ellen G. White in Europe 1885–1887, by D. A. Delafield, 1975, 233.)

The purpose of the Spirit of Prophecy is to bring us to ourselves, to realize our need to return to the Father’s house.

A Heart of Compassion

So the young prodigal heads for home. “Little did the gay, thoughtless youth, as he went out from his father’s gate, dream of the ache and longing left in that father’s heart. When he danced and feasted with his wild companions, little did he think of the shadow that had fallen on his home. And now as with weary and painful steps he pursues the homeward way, he knows not that one is watching for his return. But while he is yet ‘a great way off’ the father discerns his form. Love is of quick sight. Not even the degradation of the years of sin can conceal the son from the father’s eyes. He ‘had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck’ in a long, clinging, tender embrace.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 203.

I am thankful it did not say that when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him coming and turned and went back to his house. It says that his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. “And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” Luke 15:21.

I do not think the father heard a word his son said. We are told, “But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.” Verses 22, 23.

When we start taking steps toward the Father’s house, He comes yearning, running to us. “The father will permit no contemptuous eye to mock at his son’s misery and tatters. He takes from his own shoulders the broad, rich mantle, and wraps it around the son’s wasted form, and the youth sobs out his repentance, saying, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight.…’” Ibid., 203, 204.

Come Home

Have you been running from the Father’s house and right now feel pretty miserable? Do you feel that you have to get yourself a little bit better before you can return? You just have to clean up a few more things and then you will be ready to go back to the Father’s house, is that how you feel? If you wait until you get everything in order, you will never get there. You will never get back to the Father’s house.

“Do not listen to the enemy’s suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come.” Ibid., 205, 206. The fact that we feel miserable, hopeless, discouraged, or guilty is the very reason why we need to run in haste to the Father’s house. “When Satan points to your filthy garments repeat the promise of Jesus, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6:37. Tell the enemy that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. Make the prayer of David your own, ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ Psalm 51:7.

“Arise and; go to your Father. He will meet you a great way off. If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love. His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him. Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the prayer is uttered or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.

“Your heavenly Father will take from you the garments defiled by sin. In the beautiful parabolic prophecy of Zechariah, the high priest Joshua, standing clothed in filthy garments before the angel of the Lord, represents the sinner. And the word is spoken by the Lord, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.…[and as they did, He said] Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.…’” Ibid., 206.

So, brothers and sisters, if we would take one step toward the Father’s house today in repentance, He will come running to us today. He loves us today. Our case is not hopeless. If you are being drawn to Him, you have not committed the unpardonable sin, and you can find joy. You can find peace today, if you choose to return to the Father’s house.

The Consecrated Way, Part I – Peter’s Ladder

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The Christian life is never on an even plain. If you are a Christian and you are walking on the level, there is something wrong with you. You must always be climbing in the development of Christian character. If you are not climbing, you are automatically going downhill. This article is designed to afford us the opportunity to do some climbing—a ladder, Peter’s ladder.

“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:1-4.

The Path to the Foot of Peter’s Ladder

I believe the Lord expects each and every one of us to climb that ladder in our development of Christian character. If there is any hope of us developing a character like that of our Lord Jesus Christ, such as Peter talks about, this is the process. Apparently there were some who had obtained that precious faith.

It is necessary for us to apply that which the Lord has given us in His Word so that we can become more and more like Him. Why do we go to church Sabbath after Sabbath? It is not to fellowship; it is not to be entertained; it is to learn the prescription that God has for us that moves us out of a sinful nature into a divine nature. There is a process that is necessary for us to go through so that we can indeed reflect the image of Jesus in our lives. That is why we go, so we might be able to glean some word, some help along that pathway to the kingdom of heaven.

There are several things that come to our attention in this passage. Notice verse three says, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”

Divine Power

Divine power, from which we may partake, is there. It is ready, and available for us. The Lord does not expect us to accomplish something that is impossible for us to do. He only asks us to accomplish that which is possible. If it is possible to accomplish divine principles, then He is going to give us the power to accomplish divine principles.

Our problem is that, much of the time, we try to accomplish divine principles in our own human strength. We cannot do it. It does not work. It takes divine power to accomplish divine principles. And so, He has given us that power. How do we grab hold of that divine power? It is through faith; faith that will allow us to do what God says to do.

All too often we find ourselves listening to the voice of the deceiver, paying attention to what he says and do nothing about the things that pertain to life and godliness that have been outlined for us. That divine power is ours, and it is backed by divine promises. Verse four tells us that divine promises allow us to come into the presence of God and to become a partaker of the divine nature.

That holds quite a challenge, coupled with the incentive that there is the possibility, through divine power, that we can become a partaker of the divine nature. I do not know how many of us can grasp that kind of challenge, that we do not just have divine power to live a natural life, but we have divine power that helps us to become partakers of the divine nature. That is what Peter is trying to convey to us.

If, somehow, that could just sink into our consciousness, I believe it would make a tremendous difference in the lives of Christians today. We can indeed become partakers of the divine nature. All of this, of course, is for the purpose of helping us climb the ladder, step by step, round by round, to lead us into an experience with our God and allow us to, as Peter says, escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust,” through desire.

“Giving All Diligence”

That is what is before us in this work. Verse 5 says: “And beside this,” or in addition to this, (in addition to the divine power that is given to us so that we can become a partaker of these precious promises, and then the divine nature,) “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.…”

We need to have faith in order to step up on the ladder. The first round is virtue, but we need to have faith to get there, for “without faith it is impossible,” the Bible says, “to please Him.” Verse 6.

What is diligence? I want to share with you what I found in Webster’s Dictionary. It has two definitions. The first definition is “persevering application,” and the second is “the attention and care legally expected or required of a person.”

“And beside this, giving all diligence [persevering application and attention and care legally expected or required of a person], add to your faith virtue.” In Christianity at large, we hear a lot of talk about love, grace, and believing today, but we hear too little of what God actually expects of us. According to what Peter is conveying, there is a legal responsibility resting upon each one of us as Christians.

A Binding Legal Agreement

When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, it places us in a legal agreement with God. Do you know what the theological word for that legal agreement is called? It is called a covenant. God has made a new covenant with His people, a new legal agreement, if you please. He expects something of us and it does not take us too long, as we begin to read the Bible, to discover that God not only expects, but requires something of us.

In the book of Genesis, chapter three, you discover the fact that God has requirements upon His people that are based upon legal aspects. The Lord made, if you please, a legal agreement with Adam and Eve concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was a covenant. The cost of breaking that covenant, or that legal agreement, was death.

In reality, that same agreement is given to each one of us—obey and live. The Ten Commandments are the basis of obedience that God requires of us; they are the covenant. The covenant was ratified or sealed, with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to keep them.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, Are we really taking God seriously? Are we making a persevering application into our lives of these requirements, or do we make excuses instead? The apostle admonishes us to make persevering application to the “things that pertain unto life and godliness,…giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.…” 2 Peter 1:3-5.

A Measure of Faith

Here again is a word that we have heard, that we are familiar with to a degree, but what does it really mean? What is virtue? Going again to Daniel Webster we read, “Virtue, conformity to a standard of right, morality; a particular moral excellence.” So what is Peter telling us? He is saying that the first thing that is necessary is faith, but you do not stop there. You add to it. Without faith, we cannot go any further. Without faith, we cannot climb any higher on the ladder of Christian character perfection.

Faith is essential. Faith grows. How much blood did you have when you were first born? All the blood you have now? No. I do not know the pint capacity of an infant, but I know as an adult it is normally about 13 pints. But you do not have 13 pints of blood as an infant.

When a person is born of the Spirit, a measure of faith is present. At first this measure is a small amount. When faith is exercised, it will grow. Just as the physical body grows. Faith grows as we exercise it and as we come more and more into conformity with what is right.

Of course, the standard of right is the Ten Commandments, the divine principles of God. Divine principles, accomplished by divine power, through divine promises. Do not let anybody ever tell you that you do not need to, or that you cannot, keep the Ten Commandments. Only Christianity in a state of apostasy would ever make such a statement, and it is for sure that the Bible does not teach such a thing.

Everywhere we look in the Bible, we find that we are to give diligence to the Words of God. As Verse 5 said, we are to “add to your [our] faith” a conformity to a standard of right. There are many examples we could look at in the writings of Inspiration to gather some direction concerning this matter of conformity to a standard of right.

Moral Excellence

One example is the life of Daniel. Certainly his was a supreme example of moral excellence, and because of his consecration to the God of heaven, he served as the Prime Minister of Babylon through several changes of government. That only happened to Daniel because of his conformity to the standard of right.

Then, of course, there was Joseph. Kidnapped, sold as a slave into Egypt, being made to do things that were strange to him, he was willing to do what he could to please God. Rather than taking the attitude that it was all God’s fault, Joseph had virtue. A lot of times we excuse ourselves by saying, Well, God put me there; God caused all of this, so why should I worry about it? Why do I not just go with the flow?

You were never called to go with the flow. You were called of faith to virtue. We so often hear of Joseph and Daniel, but there have been men all through the ages who have added virtue to their faith. We can read about them in Hebrews 11.

One we do not hear too much about is King Asa. This man’s life was nearly as exemplary as Daniel’s or Joseph’s, but the Bible does say in 1 Kings 15:11, 14, that “Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father.… [And] Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.” What was it that prompted such a testimony to be written about Asa?

Would you not like Inspiration to record that about your life, that your life was perfect all the days of your life? I believe, in Asa’s life, that it was basically the result of climbing Peter’s ladder.

Prompted to do Right

2 Chronicles gives us an insight into what prompted Asa to do right.

“And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you. Now, for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, or to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.” 2 Chronicles 15:1-7.

These words had a great impact upon Asa’s life. He began to see that the Lord had great plans for him and for His people. “And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord.” Ibid., Verse 8.

There were many areas around him that he influenced by the change. There are some people, who are in administrative positions, who can make change possible through their administration. There are others who can make change by their influence. Asa made change by seeing that all the idols were taken away.

As Asa followed the Words of Inspiration, change began to take place. The question we need to ask ourselves today is, Does that apply to us individually? Of course, it does. But, you may say, I may not be able to make such a large impact as Asa did in removing all the idols of the land of Judah and Benjamin, so why should I try? You have been given divine promises, coupled with divine power, so that you can become a partaker of the divine nature. That rests with us individually.

Learning From Someone Else’s Experience

Asa made a change. 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Does that apply to us, then? Can what took place in Asa’s life happen in my life, if I follow the same direction that Asa did? Of course! God, in His great mercy, has left lessons for us who are living right down in the end of time.

Lessons were given by the lives of these people who lived in distant times, and the Lord expects us to study those lives and make application to our own life. He expects us to study them and learn. Paul evidently had anticipated the fact that some would make various forms of excuses to justify not following the counsel. So he goes on to say, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Verses 12, 13.

The Lord is not playing games with us. There are some very serious issues at stake. Those issues become more and more serious as we near the end of time, because the deception level raises significantly as well.

2 Chronicles 15:8 tells us that one of the important aspects of Asa’s reform, apart from tearing down the groves and the idols, was the re-establishment of the altar of the Lord. Although he renewed, or rebuilt, that altar, as reform was taking place, they did not drive out the Canaanites. They were content to live in those conditions.

Ephraim became as corrupted as the Canaanites, and later, in the days of Hosea, things were so bad that even the Lord could not move them away from their apostasy. Finally the Lord said, Leave Ephraim alone, let him be joined to his idols. (See Hosea 4:17.) Sadly, as a result, in Revelation 7, the tribe of Ephraim is not listed, they are eternally lost.

Before this time, they were in a state of decline, but there were still many who were faithful within the boundaries of Ephraim. The testimony is that “they fell to him out of Israel in abundance.” Verse 9. Just like falling out of a tree, we might say. When we make a commitment like that of Asa—to put the idols of the land away that have been influencing our lives and renew the altar of the Lord, not only in family worship but also in private personal worship—the Lord is going to move for us.

Look again at verse 8. “And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord.” Again, this is very important information for us, because I believe we are living in a time that parallels this stage of Israel very closely.

Scripture says, “…Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.”

2 Chronicles 20:20. If we do not care about the Bible and about the Spirit of Prophecy, that special counsel the Lord has been pleased to give us in these last days; if we are content to ignore what this counsel says, we are going to slide back further, and further, and further, just like Israel did when they did not pay attention to the words of Inspiration that had been given to them.

The testimony of the Bible and of the Spirit of Prophecy is what we need to stand in the strength, the might, and the power of the Lord. If we allow anyone to influence us away from what we know is right, we are going to lose out on eternal life. It is just that simple, regardless of whether or not we believe in the Lord. Jesus says, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do the things that I ask you to do?” (See Luke 6:46.)

Breaking the Shackles of Sin

Do you claim to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are there things that you are doing that you know are not in harmony with His will for you? Are you willing to change? Are you letting your husband or your wife hold you back from doing what you know you should? Are you letting your work or your friends hold you back? If you are, it is serious business. You are bound by the shackles of sin, and you need to break free.

That is just where the devil would hope that you would stay, but you do not have to remain there. Take that measure of faith that has been given to you. Step up to Peter’s ladder and place your foot on the first round of virtue—giving all diligence, step up on that round.

“The Lord demands uprightness in the smallest [matters] as well as the largest matters. Those who are accepted at last as members of the heavenly court will be men and women who here on earth have sought to carry out the Lord’s will in every particular, who have sought to put the impress of heaven upon their earthly labors.” Review and Herald, January 11, 1912. That should be the goal of every one of us in our walk.

“Ample provision has been made that the people of God may attain perfection of character.…Let every individual draw for himself from the inexhaustible source [divine power] “of all moral and intellectual power, in order that he may work the works of righteousness.…The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection of Christian character.” Ibid., November 30, 1897.

If you want perfection of Christian character, mark it down, the Holy Spirit is given so that it can become a reality. This is a promise given in Peter’s instruction to us in 2 Peter 1 . “The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection of Christian character.”

Are we looking for a greater abundance of the Holy Spirit, not just an abiding, but an outpouring? We all need to be looking for that outpouring. But we will never receive it until we are seeking for Christian perfection of character. The Holy Spirit will be falling, perhaps all around us. We can be right there in the pew, and it will miss us, and we will be as dry as the hills of Gilboa when we go out the door, while everybody else is soaking wet. That is sad!

Great and Precious Promises

“According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:3, 4.

This is God’s plan. We have stepped on the first round. We are going to climb the ladder as we deal with other issues that move us toward Christian perfection.