Bible

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.

A Different Spirit

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The most terrible thing that could happen to us today, is if the blood of Christ on the cross was poured out in vain for us. It does not need to happen, but for the majority of the people in this world, the cross will have been in vain.

The apostle John reduces the teaching of the gospel to one Greek word, Pistos. In our English translations of the Bible, it is most commonly translated faith; in the gospel of John, it is very often translated believe.

Wonderful Things

Hebrews 11 is sometimes called the faith chapter. No one is going to the kingdom of heaven without faith. Verse 6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” It is impossible to please God without faith, and nobody is going to the kingdom of heaven without faith. If you have faith, wonderful things can happen to you, things that most people cannot even believe.

What are some of the wonderful things that can happen if you have faith? Verse 33 talks about people in the Old Testament: “Who through faith subdued kingdoms.” Do you know anybody in the Old Testament who, through faith, subdued a whole kingdom? How about Jonathan and his armour bearer? Two people subdued the whole kingdom of the Philistines! (See 1 Samuel 14.)

Hebrews 11:33 says, they “worked righteousness,” they “obtained promises.” The Bible is full of promises, but the promises do not do any good unless you believe them. When people who were blind, maimed, lame, or diseased came to Jesus to be healed, Jesus would often say, “According to your faith be it on you.” (See Matthew 9:29.) The Bible promises will not do you any good without faith, but if you have faith, you are going to receive the promise. If you do not have faith, you will not receive the promise. That is why the Bible is a dead book to so many people. They do not have faith, so they do not receive anything. They do not think that God is real or that religion is real.

Faith in Action

Verse 33 continues, “Obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions.” Do you know any place in the Old Testament where, because of faith, the mouths of lions were stopped? Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, and by faith the mouths of those lions were stopped. (See Daniel 6.) More examples of things that can happen if you have faith are given in verse 34: “quenched the violence of fire.” Did anyone in the Old Testament escape being burned to death because they had faith? The three Hebrew worthies certainly did! (See Daniel 3.)

There are many, many stories in the Old Testament about people who, by faith, “escaped the edge of the sword.” Just one would be Ehud, the second judge. (See Judges 3.)

Then it says in Hebrews 11:34, “…out of weakness were made strong.” Are you afraid, because you know that you are weak? Did you know that the more you are aware of your weakness, the stronger you can become? People who are weak, and who realize they are weak, will become strong when they look to the Lord. The Lord told Paul, “‘My strength is made perfect in weakness.’” 11 Corinthians 12:9. When you choose to put your trust in the Lord, the weaker you know you are, the stronger you are going to become.

The people of the world find that hard to believe. They cannot understand it, but that is what the Bible teaches. It says, they “became valiant in battle.” Hebrews 11:34. Oh, there are so many stories in the Bible about that, including the three mighty worthies or King David himself. Remember the story that King Saul told David? He said, “If you kill 100 Philistines, I will give you my daughter for a wife.” David said, “All right,” and he went out and killed 200. (See 1 Samuel 18.)

Hosts of Darkness will Flee

There are many stories in the Bible of people who turned to flight the armies of the aliens. When David met Goliath, he turned the entire army to flight. They started to run. (See I Samuel 17:38–52.) I want to tell you, if you have faith, the day is coming when all the hosts of darkness are going to be running from you, too, no matter how many there are. That is what faith is going to produce.

In this world, people become afraid; they say the forces against them are too many. But if you have faith, that does not matter. In fact, if you have faith, the less numbers you have, and the greater the number of enemies you have, the bigger the victory is going to be, because God never loses! Jesus is not only a Saviour, He is a General who has never lost a battle.

If you have faith in Him, you are on the winning side, and you can know that right now. They “became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” Ibid. The trouble is, God cannot do very much for His children who do not have faith.

Claiming In Faith

Matthew 13:53–58 tells the story of Jesus being rejected in Nazareth. It says, in verse 58, “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Could they have seen wonderful things happen? They could have, but they did not have enough faith, so they did not see much.

That is the way with a lot of people’s religious experience. They say, Well, I do not see God doing very much in my life—and they do not. God is not doing much in their life, because they do not have much faith; they do not trust Him. Now, faith is not complicated. Faith is just trusting that if God says something, and if you believe it and follow the conditions, it will happen. You do not need to know how you are going to receive it. Mrs. White makes the statement that God has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing! (See The Ministry of Healing, 481.)

A Christian man I knew was in financial difficulty. We prayed together. He said, “Lord, it looks to me that this would be a way that my financial difficulties could be solved. You have told me that You have 1,000 ways to provide for me of which I know nothing. If this is not the way You have in mind, any other one of the 999 will be fine!”

When people put their trust in the Word, and start fulfilling the conditions, becoming obedient and trusting God, God starts working miracles in their lives.

A True Man of God

One of the great stories in Scripture is about a man called Caleb, who had this kind of faith. He was one of the twelve who were sent from the leaders of the tribes of the Children of Israel to search out the land of Canaan. They came back, it says, with a bunch of grapes so big that it took two men to carry it. (See Numbers 13.)

It was a wonderful place! In fact, today, they still dig the soil by the Red Sea and ship it all over the world, fertile soil that drained off from the land of Canaan. In ancient times it must have been one of the most fertile of all the countries in the world. It had a sub-tropical climate; you could grow most everything there. The climate was so health- giving that the descendants in that land had not degenerated as much as the rest of the people in the world. The men of Canaan must have been more than 12 feet tall.

The Israelite men saw these giants in Canaan, and they were afraid, because they did not have faith. They said, “Oh, there are giants there! We looked like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we cannot overcome them.” (See Numbers 13:33.)

A Different Report

The men were saying that the cities were strong and fortified and there were giants. Numbers 13:30 says, “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.’”

Now how did he know that? Nobody else knew it. Had he seen the giants? Yes, he had seen the giants, just as the others had. Had he seen the fortified cities? He had seen them. Did he know about all the difficulties that they were going to have? He knew just as much about it as the rest of them.

Well, then, why did he bring back such a different report? Because he had faith. He knew what everybody should have known. God had promised them this land. He had made that promise to Abraham, and He had renewed it to Isaac and to Jacob. He had worked miracles through Moses to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They had seen God desolate the land of Egypt. They had seen Him dry up the Red Sea so that they could walk through. They had seen all of those things. In fact, they had been living on miracle food and miracle water. They had experienced one miracle after another that God had worked to bring them to this land, and they should have known He was not going to leave them now.

Have you ever met somebody who said to you, “I have committed so many sins, I am not sure whether I can be saved or not”? That was exactly the situation with the ten spies! The Bible says, in Philippians 1:6, that the One who has begun a good work in you is going to finish it. I sometimes ask these people, who often are baptized members of the church, “Has God done anything good in your life?”

“Oh, yes,” they reply, and they start to tell me some good things that God has done for them.

I remind them that if God has done some good things in their life, that He who began a good work in their life is going to finish it. Do you believe that?

The Undefeated

Caleb knew that God would not work all those miracles to bring the people out of the land of Egypt and then just leave them in the wilderness. He knew that God was going to give them the land. Since he knew that, he said, “Let us go take it.”

This is a type of the last days. This earthly Canaan was an earthly type called the Promised Land. Has God promised us some land? Yes, the Bible says that the righteous, the meek, are going to inherit the earth. The whole thing!

Caleb said, “Let us go take it! The Lord has promised it to us.”

But the others said, “No, we are not ready. We cannot make it. We are too weak. They are stronger than we are.”

Remember, if you have faith, you are in the service of a General who has never lost a battle. Never! The fewer your numbers are, and the bigger the hosts of the enemy are, the bigger and the more dramatic the victory is going to be!

Let me also state the negative part of it. You cannot be part of the victory, or even part of the battle, unless you have faith, unless you trust in God.

Faith, the Bible says, comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (See Romans 10:17.) Are you studying your Bible every day so that your faith is growing? Do you have more faith now than you had at the end of last year? Is your faith growing, or are you one of the ten spies who say, “Life is so terrible, I just cannot make it”?

Caleb said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” Numbers 14:34 tells us what the people decided to do. They decided to accept the report of the majority and to reject the report of the minority. This is just one of the times in Holy Scripture where you find that the majority is not always right. In fact, in spiritual things, even in the church of God, the majority has been wrong more often than right.

Because they accepted the report of the majority, instead of the report of the minority, the Children of Israel had to stay in the wilderness for forty more years. “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 40 days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection [breach of promise].” Ibid.

A Terrible Disappointment

That was a terrible disappointment. In fact, they were so disappointed that when God told them that they could not go in to the Promised Land, they decided to go in anyway. Moses told them not to do it, but they tried anyway and were beaten back. (See Numbers 14:39–45.) Do you know, friend, that we are not going to go into the heavenly Canaan until God says it is time?

In God’s Time

This world is getting so bad; people wonder how long we are going to be here. We are going to be here, friends, until the Lord says it is time to go home. When will the Lord say that? He will say it when He has a people who have a spirit like Caleb.

What was Caleb’s spirit? “‘Because all these men [the ten spies] who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.’” Numbers 14:22–24.

Caleb had a spirit of faith. The Lord said he would go in to the land, and of that generation, there were only two who went in to the land. Caleb was one of them, and Joshua was the other. Why? Because they brought back a good report, and they said, We are able to go in.

Heaven is a Good Place

“But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: ‘The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land.’” Numbers 14:6–8. Friends, heaven is an exceedingly good place!

As you study your Bible, you will see that the land to which we are going, Heaven, is an exceedingly good land. If you or your loved ones are sick, when you get to that place, the Bible says, there will be no sickness. In Revelation 21:4, the Bible says there is no pain in that place. I have never yet visited a person in the hospital who has not enjoyed hearing that text. We are living in a world where there is all kinds of pain, all kinds of sickness, all kinds of trouble and weakness, but the Bible says there is coming a time when there will be no more pain.

The Bible also says, “There shall be no more death.” Ibid. You will never go to a funeral again, ever! There are no funeral parlors, no undertakers, no mortuaries, no cemeteries and no hospitals, because they do not need them! It is a good place, not just because of the negative things that will not be there, but the Bible says the redeemed of the Lord are going to return to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They will obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing will flee away. (See Isaiah 35:10.)

If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Do you want to go now, or do you want to wait 40 years?

Caleb and Joshua did not figure that they were strong enough, in their humanity, to conquer the people in the land of Canaan. They said, If the Lord delights in us, He will give it to us. It was not the Lord’s will for them to have to gain that land by force of arms. He had a much better plan in mind. He has a much better plan in mind for us, too.

Trials and Tribulations

As I travel around the world, I find that many of God’s people are exceedingly concerned about what we are going to do in the future.

The Bible says that there is coming a time of great tribulation on this world. It says that there is coming a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation, and many people are alarmed about this. (See Matthew 24:21.) A gentleman told me he could help me get some property in a country where nobody would know where I was. There are lots of people who want to go someplace where nobody will know where they are, so when the New World Order, or the great tribulation, or whatever, comes, they do not need to worry about it, because nobody will even know where they are.

Seeking Safety

You can never go to a place in this world where you are perfectly safe. Crime and criminals are everywhere.

In the early eighties, a couple from Australia was getting ready to retire. They looked over a map of the whole world, and they said, We are going to find a place to live where it is safe. They chose a little island that was unknown to most people. This island, at that time, had never been involved in a major war, and it was a peaceful island. “We are going to retire there, and we will be safe,” they said, and they did. The island, that they thought would be the safest place in the world, was in a group called the Falkland Islands. Argentina and Great Britain got into an argument over those islands within a few months after they moved there. There were bombers, fighters, ships, and troops all over that island within a few months after they arrived. They found out that the place that they thought would be the safest place in the world was not safe at all.

My dear friends, if you are looking for some cave, for some mountain hideaway, for someplace nobody else knows about, what you need, more than that place, is faith in God and trust in Jesus. You are a lot safer and better off in prison, if Jesus is with you, than in some cave without Him.

Hiding in Thee

Friends, you are never going to be able to find a perfectly safe place in this world. Perfect safety, in this world, is found only in Jesus. If you do not want to have a nervous breakdown, a heart attack, high blood pressure, or something else, because of all the uncertainties and of all the terrible things going on in this world, what you need more than anything else is faith and trust in Jesus.

God’s people are going to get through the times of trouble that are coming. The Bible says, “Come, My people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And will no more cover her slain.” Isaiah 26:20-21.

Are there times of trouble coming? Yes, there are. The Bible tells us there is coming a time when God Himself is going to come to punish this world for the lawlessness down here, and it is going to be so bad that “The earth will no more cover her slain.” Ibid. It has never before been that bad.

I have seen pictures from World War II showing where they took bulldozers and dug huge mass graves. They did not even know who the skeletons and the people were. They just put thousands of people in these mass graves and buried them. It was terrible!

A time is coming, according to this prophecy, when God is going to come to punish the inhabitants
of this world for their lawlessness. It is going to be so bad, there will be so many people dying, that they will not be able to bury them. Psalm 91:7 says that “a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand.” That is not a figure of speech; that is what the Bible says. How are we going to be ready for it? The only way to be ready is to be protected by Christ and by His angels.

Oh, friend, do you and I have the different spirit that Caleb had? Notice what happened to Caleb and Joshua. They had faith, and the rest of God’s professed people did not. The people wanted to stone them. In fact, within a few minutes, they already had the stones in their hands. They were not just talking; they were ready to take action. They said, We are going to get rid of Caleb and Joshua, because they are going to lead us into a battle where we will all be killed, so it is better that we kill them first.

The Stoning System of Today

So they decided to stone them. Now that was just in the long ago, was it not? We would never ever stone somebody and take their life today. We do not believe in that do we? As I have studied the stoning system, I have realized that, from the divine point of view, you are actually better off if you are being stoned than if you are doing the stoning.

Look at Matthew 23:34, 35: “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”

A lot of people are like that still today. They are afraid that if you proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages openly, you are going to be killed, so you better not do it.

Jesus said to the Jews, Which of the prophets have ye not stoned? (See Acts 7:52.) It is very dangerous to be a spokesperson for God, to God’s professed people, because history indicates that you are likely to be killed. You are likely to be stoned. But we are living in a different age; we would not do something like that. We are a little more refined. Listen, we do the same thing; we just do it differently!

A long time ago Ellen White had a dream about the stoning system. The people involved in the stoning were Seventh-day Adventist ministers. This is the dream she had:

“I had a dream. I saw A [Dr. Kellogg] in close conversation with men and with ministers. He adroitly would make statements born of suspicion and imagination to draw them out, and then would gain expression from them. I saw him clap his hands over something very eagerly. I felt a pang of anguish at heart as I saw this going on. I saw in my dream yourself [probably Haskell] and B [Elder Butler] in conversation with him. You made statements to him which he seemed to grasp with avidity, and close his hand over something. I then saw him go to his room, and there upon the floor was a pile of stones systematically laid up, stone upon stone. He placed the additional stones on the pile and counted them up. Every stone had a name—some report gathered up—and every stone was numbered.

“The young man who often instructs me came and looked upon the pile of stones with grief and indignation, and inquired [of A] what he had and what he proposed to do with them. A [Dr. Kellogg] looked up with a sharp, gratified laugh. ‘These are mistakes of C [Elder White]. I am going to stone him with them, stone him to death.’ The young man said, ‘You are bringing back the stoning system, are you? You are worse than the ancient Pharisees. Who gave you this work to do? The Lord raised you up, the Lord entrusted you with a special work. The Lord has sustained you in a most remarkable manner, but it was not for you to degrade your powers for this kind of work. Satan is an accuser of the brethren.”

“I thought A seemed very defiant and determined. Said he, ‘C is trying to tear us to pieces. He is working against us, and to save our reputation and life, we must work against him. I shall use every stone to the last pebble here upon this floor to kill him. This is only self-defense, a disagreeable necessity.’

“And then said the young man solemnly, ‘What have you gained? Have you in the act righted your wrongs? Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ, and does He sit there enthroned? Who occupies the citadel of the soul under this administration of the stoning system?

“‘You have a higher calling, a more important work. Leave all such work of gathering stones for the enemies of God’s law. You brethren must love one another, or you are not children of the day, but of darkness.’

“I then saw C engaged in a similar work, gathering stones, making a pile and ready to begin the stoning system. [They were going to stone each other, evidently.] Similar words were repeated to him with additional injunctions and I awoke.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 12,10, 11. (See also Ellen G. White, The Lonely Years, by Arthur L. White, 161, 162.)

Whose Child Are You?

You see, the stoning system is still here, we just do it differently. We find out the mistakes that somebody has made and then we use those mistakes to try to destroy them. Jesus said, You do not love each other. You are not My children. You are the children of the prince of darkness.

We profess to be His people; people in Numbers 14 professed to be God’s people, too. They wanted to stone Caleb for bringing a good report, for telling the truth. How is it? Are we really God’s children? If we are really God’s children we will demonstrate it by loving each other, by protecting each other, by taking care of each other, by having a regard for each other, by watching out for each other, by trying to help each other, by trying to help somebody get up when they make a mistake, instead of knocking them down farther.

Let us look at it again. It is too strong for me to say in my own words: “You brethren must love one another, or you are not children of the day, but of darkness.” Ibid.

Oh, my friend, as Jesus looks into your family, into your church, into the lives of His professed people all over the world, whose child does He see? Whose child are you? Are you one of the children of the day, or are you one of the children of darkness?

You demonstrate who you are by whether or not you love your brothers and sisters and by what spirit you have. What spirit do you have toward the Calebs in the church, the people who have faith and who want to go into the kingdom now? Are you stoning each other with your mistakes? You demonstrate whose child you are by your spirit, by whether or not you love your brothers or sisters or whether or not you want to stone them to death because of their mistakes.

Do You have the Right Spirit?

This is very important. It has everything to do with whether or not we are really going to go to the Promised Land or whether we are going to perish in the wilderness. There are a lot of professed Christians who are going to perish in the wilderness of this world and never go to heaven, because they do not have faith, and they do not have the right spirit. They do not love their brothers and sisters. They are ready to stone the people with whom they do not agree.

Can You Pass the Test?

I hope, when you read the story of Caleb, you will think it through and apply it to yourself. Do you have a spirit like Caleb, or not? Do you love your brothers and sisters, as well as your enemies? That is the test. Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, If you love your own brethren, that does not count. Even the tax collectors, even the harlots, the ones considered the lowest people in their society, love their own friends. (See Matthew 5.) That is not the test.

The test is, do you love your brothers and sisters when they see something totally different than you do? When you know that they are wrong and you are right, do you still love them, or are you ready to stone them to death for their mistakes?

God cannot take people to heaven who do not have faith. You cannot please Him without faith. There are going to be some who are going to go in like Caleb. The Lord lengthened his life, after all the rest had died, he not only went in, he went in to some of those giants and he destroyed them and took over their land, just like the Lord promised he would be able to do. He was over 80 years old when that happened.

There are going to be some Calebs again. Of the great mass of professed Christians, Jesus made it very clear, not only in the gospels but also in the book of Revelation, that the great mass of the Christian world is not going to make it—not because they cannot be saved, but because they will not be saved in God’s appointed way, trusting and obeying Jesus.

Caleb was the kind of a person who said, Lord, if that is where we are going, I am going with You. If you are willing to go with the Lord, the Lord will go with you and take you to the Promised Land. It does not matter how many people oppose you; it does not even matter how many people are trying to stone you.

The fewer there are, the more enemies there are, the greater will be the victory! But you are going to have to have a spirit like Caleb. The Lord will work that miracle in your life. He will take out all the bitterness, the hatred, and all those negative emotions that have kept you enslaved. You can have it all! Just trust and obey, as did Caleb.

The Consecrated Way – Knowledge – Part II

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We are continuing on in our series entitled, “The Consecrated Way,” which is really a climb up Peter’s ladder. 2 Peter 1:3–5 says, “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. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”

Gaining Knowledge

The second rung of Peter’s ladder, as we begin to reach toward heaven in our consecrated way, is knowledge. Last month we looked at the first rung of virtue, having been reinforced by faith. In the process of sanctified living there needs to be a continual process. One of the greatest dangers that Christians face is to reach a point in life where there is a sense of self-satisfaction—a sense of having arrived.

We see this even manifested in certain church doctrines, such as once saved always saved. Some churches teach that once you accept Jesus as your Saviour, that is all you need to do. But that is not correct, as far as the Bible is concerned. There is the walk. Indeed, there is the climb that takes place. Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount when He said that there is the narrow path. There is the uphill walk. He did not say that it was a broad road; He said it was a narrow, uphill path. (See Matthew 7:13, 14.)

That means that some effort needs to be put forth as we walk with Christ day by day, making those decisions that will establish us in the faith more than ever before. We need to walk in that respect and never come to a point where we are self-satisfied in our process of Christian living.

Having All the Answers

It is not like the world in terms of achievements and education. In the world of education, we think when you have received your Ph.D. that you have arrived; there is no higher level of education that you can reach.

I met a man one time who had five doctorate degrees. I was studying with some people who felt they had to call in some reinforcements, and this was the man they called.

My Bible students felt that, because of his level of education, he could answer all the questions. He told me he had decided that maybe he would go for an M. D., because he did not have one of those. He was attending Loma Linda University at that time. He said, “Some people collect stamps; I collect sheepskins [degrees].”

Never Stop

When you reach that level, do you think you have finally arrived?

Dear people, as far as the Christian process is concerned, we never stop learning. It is a continual process, learning more and more all the time. Indeed, throughout all eternity we will learn. A lot of people have the idea that when we arrive in heaven there will be a cloud, a harp, and a halo, and we will just sit around all day eating from the Tree of Life.

No! God has a better plan than that. We will continue to research and to learn the intricacies and to probe the wonders that God has created for us. And each one of those will share something more about the great God that we serve. We will be learning throughout all eternity.

“Having received the faith of the gospel, the next work of the believer is to add to his character virtue, and thus cleanse the heart and prepare the mind for the reception of the knowledge of God. This knowledge is the foundation of all true education and of all true service. It is the only real safeguard against temptation; and it is this alone that can make one like God in character.” Acts of the Apostles, 530, 531.

Learning to Know Him

We have discovered, in the past, that it has been helpful for us to define our terms so we are able to see the intent of what Peter is saying to us in this passage of Scripture. We have an idea of what the word knowledge means, but let us define it a little more carefully.

The Dictionary of New Testament Words says that this word, used by Peter, has a greater meaning than to just know something. It means exact or full knowledge, discernment, recognition; a greater participation by the knower in the object known, thus more powerfully influencing him. Knowing that definition, it is not surprising that Peter used this word in illustrating the growth of the Christian in character perfection. To be satisfied with anything less than exact or full knowledge about spiritual things is a sin.

There are too many who are satisfied with only a superficial knowledge, either as it comes from the preacher or as it comes from some other person. They will depend upon someone like that for their knowledge about the truths of God, and they make that the foundation of their faith. Indeed, if that is the case, they have already gotten off the track.

The Bible says, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” John 17:17. That leaves no room for human speculation, as we find going around today. The devil is a deceiver. If you do not know that, I am telling you that he is a deceiver, and he has been trying, for years, to undermine those truths that have been established by God in His Word.

At this late date in earth’s history, we cannot afford to listen to what false knowledge is proclaiming—a knowledge that, when examined in the light of the Word of God and of the Spirit of Prophecy, only leaves us chaff and no grain.

The Attack of Evolution

One of the attacks, one of the inroads that is being made against the Bible today is evolution. It has been sounding for a long, long time, but it is reaching a crescendo.

Evolutionists say man has been on this earth three million years plus, and that the universe is the result of a big bang. We find that these concepts of evolution are designed, by the deceiver of our souls, for only one reason: to strike right at the very heart of the Ten Commandment moral law—the Sabbath. Because if the earth took long eons of time to be created and to come into being, then what need is there of the Sabbath as the memorial of the rest that God took when it was all finished at the end of six days? We need to be very careful that we are not listening to the serpent, as did Eve, when we hear something that does not match up with the Word of God.

God’s Word is True

We can know that God’s Word is true, through prophecy, which establishes it without question. We can depend upon it. When we hear something strange that does not match up, we need to flee from it. The highest and supreme end of all knowledge, of course, is the knowledge of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, in John 17:3, “This is life eternal.” Evolution does not promise that. God’s Word does.

“This is life eternal,” Jesus said, “that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” The prophet Jeremiah declares, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23, 24. It appears to me that these are the things that we need to know.

In the book Ministry of Healing, 409, we are told, “Like our Saviour, we are in this world to do service for God. We are here to become like God in character, and by a life of service to reveal Him to the world. In order to be co-workers with God, in order to become like Him and to reveal His character, we must know Him aright. We must know Him as He reveals Himself.”

God’s Character Attributes

Going back to what we just read from Jeremiah, if we are to glory in anything, we should glory in the fact that knowing God is knowing His character attributes and those which He outlines are very specific here. Knowledge, the second rung of this ladder, is to lead us to know these character attributes of God: loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness.

I believe if there is anyone whom we could trust to tell us about the loving kindness of God, it would be the apostle John. John was called the beloved disciple, and he tells us in 1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” If you do not love, you do not know God, but if you love, then you know God. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” Verses 8–11.

That is pretty good counsel, don’t you think? This is the process of character development—learning about God, and then putting that knowledge into operation as we live day by day. You see, knowledge cannot be all theoretical. It also has to be practical. There is a great difference between the two.

Learning is not Knowing

A person who has theoretical knowledge has only heard or read or studied, but that is as far as it goes. We call them “armchair theologians.” To give a little clearer illustration of the theoretical, we could consider learning how to bake a loaf of bread, perhaps in a cooking class.

We can learn about all the different measurements of ingredients, about what a teaspoon is, a tablespoon, and a cup. We can learn about all the ingredients, whether the flour is bleached or whether it is whole grain. We can learn about the stove, about the manufacturer, and about the temperature settings. We can learn how to use the stove, and yet never bake a loaf of bread.

What profit is there in all of this? Absolutely nothing! Knowledge only becomes useful as it is put into operation, into practical use. You need to take the ingredients down off the shelf. You need to turn the stove to the proper temperature; you need to mix those ingredients together in the proper amounts; put it into the oven, and then you have results that are beneficial, not only to you, but to others as well.

All too often those who call themselves Christians today do not put their knowledge into practice. They still have the ingredients on the shelf. It does absolutely no good for them, or for others, to know that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16), unless we are taking that knowledge, utilizing it in our own life, and sharing it with others, sharing the loving kindness of God with those who do not know it. That is where real value is found.

Use It or Lose It

Knowledge becomes like manna that fell in the wilderness. If it was laid up, not used, it began to stink and to breed worms. Kind of an awesome thought when you think about knowledge that is not put into practice; it is totally useless! What am I saying in all of this? Just this, God expects something from you. He expects you to learn; He expects you to develop a knowledge of Him—that He is a God of love. And then He expects you to share that love with other people, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was on this earth.

“Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity, and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings. He who had been in the presence of the Father from the beginning, He who was the express image of the invisible God, was alone able to reveal the character of the Deity to mankind. He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh even as we are. . . . He shared the lot of men; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was a stranger and sojourner on the earth—in the world, but not of the world; tempted and tried as men and women today are tempted and tried, yet living a life free from sin. Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man.” The Ministry of Healing, 422, 423. To engage in service is really to put into practical operation the knowledge that we learn.

A True Court of Justice

Another aspect, concerning the knowledge of God that Jeremiah talks about, is judgment. Psalm 9:16 says that “The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth.” Revelation 16:7 says that the judgments of God are true and righteous.

Do you not wish that could be said of the courts of the land today? Part of the process of knowledge, concerning the great God of heaven, is that we know that He is the God who judges with equality. He is no respecter of persons, and we see this in the life of Jesus when He was here on this earth. He was not impressed with one person over another, like we are, so often, today.

He dealt fairly with everybody, Jew and Gentile. If we add to our faith virtue, and to our virtue knowledge, it is going to lead us to judge fairly among our fellow human beings, just as Jesus did, because we are learning of Him. If we are learning of Him, we are going to become like Him, for by beholding we will indeed become changed. (See 2 Corinthians 3:18.)

People will be blessed by our lives, because they will know that we have been with God. One of the great tragedies of Christianity is that there are those who say one thing, they have all the theory, but they do something different. There are probably more people who will be shut out of heaven because of this one factor than anything else.

Self-deceived Christians

I am sure you have all heard someone say, “Oh, I know about Christians. Do not get involved with them; they will rip you off every time.” I suppose we all have known people who have represented that kind of life. Then you could multiply that by the hundreds of people whom they have driven away from Christ because of it. What a terrible tragedy that is!

It is a double tragedy! Do you know why it is a double tragedy? There is a tragedy on both sides, not only for the perpetrator but for the one who has been perpetrated upon. The one who is the perpetrator is self-deceived. He does not have knowledge. He has an armchair knowledge; he does not understand what it means to be honest and true in all his dealings. And for the person who has suffered at his hands, it is a tragedy, because it becomes even more difficult for God to reach his heart again. It is like putting a steel band around the heart so that it cannot be penetrated. What a sad thing that is.

Are Christians perfect? No, they have their failings, but when people purport one thing while stabbing you in the back, that is quite another thing. I think we need to realize that we all are subject to failing. We need to behold Jesus, because by beholding Jesus we become changed, and we do not get involved in situations where judgment is perverted; where situations are taken advantage of; where discrimination is taking place and oppression is being exercised.

We are still faced with these problems today, and we need to get beyond that. God never perverts judgment. He does not say one thing and do another. His theory and His practice are always the same, and He expects that of every one of us. If we are learning of Him, if we are adding the only knowledge that is worthwhile, then our theory and our practice are going to match His.

The Righteousness of Christ

The last area to consider is our understanding of the knowledge of Christ’s righteousness. No knowledge of God would ever be complete without that part which reveals the righteousness of Jesus Christ, for it is the righteousness of Christ which is able to save man. It is the righteousness of Christ which can give power to stem the tide of evil that wants to flood over the life. It is the righteousness of Christ which can make a sinner acceptable to God, and it is the righteousness of Christ which fits us for a place at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

It is only the righteousness of Christ which, when properly understood, brings us to understand the law and the gospel. How thankful I am for the Spirit of Prophecy which has been given to us to convey the proper concept of the righteousness of Christ. These words of inspiration help us define those special areas of potential problems that we will be facing in the last days of this earth’s history.

There are those who, again, are trying to tear down this gift, trying to get it out of the church, supposing that somehow the philosophy of man can replace the words of inspiration with something better. But woe to the one who falls for such deceitful flatteries as this. You see, without the knowledge of the righteousness of Christ, in its full meaning, as it has been given through the words of inspiration, we are in trouble.

There is no such thing as once saved, always saved. There is no such thing as accepting Jesus and that is all you have to do. “The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character.” The Ministry of Healing, 425. How important is knowledge? Knowledge is tremendously important, because it is the grease on the wheel that transforms our character, as it were.

Ignorance is Not Bliss

If you do not know, you are not going to do. It is just as simple as that. There are people who have the philosophy that ignorance is bliss, but the time is coming when bliss is going to burn awfully hot. Ignorance is not bliss! Ignorance will lead you straight to hell fire, because you will have a character that will not be fit for heaven.

The knowledge of God received, will recreate the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine. Does this sound something like what Peter wrote? It gets awfully close, does it not? That is what righteousness is; it is spiritual power that is divine. We need it; we desire it; we seek for it, and indeed, the promise is, we shall find it.

“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. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.” 2 Peter 1:4, 5.

This, dear people, is the ladder that God has called us to climb. It is a ladder where each rung, as we place our foot upon it, has transforming divine power to take the character that we possess and change it, modify it more and more and more, until we reflect the character of Christ in our lives.

May the Lord challenge us. May the Lord continue to bless us, as we climb that ladder.

To be continued . . .

The Seed – Part I

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Jesus talked a lot about seeds, and in this article, we will look at seeds, especially The Seed.

Jesus tells all humanity what their priority in this life should be. Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” Matthew 6:33. That should be the priority of every human being on the face of this earth, an earth that has been in turmoil and trouble for 6,000 years, because of sin.

Setting Priorities

Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” We must have both. We must have His righteousness in order to some day enter into His kingdom.

God says, Put that at the top of the list every day, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” It is the priority that God wants for us. We make out lists all the time. My wife is well known for lists. She will make lists, and the first thing on a list is the priority. She works herself down the list, and if the last things do not happen, it is all right.

I want to look with you at the first thing, the top of the list. That is what Jesus is saying: I want you to put this on the top of the list, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. It is a wonderful thing to be able to study the Word of God and see harmony coming through. That harmony is the result of divine Providence guiding in producing the Holy Bible. It is a tremendous work of God. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were seeking the kingdom of God. “And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo, here! Or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20, 21.

Seeking the Kingdom of God

The Children of Israel in Jesus’ day, even in the midst of their apostasy, were seeking the kingdom of God, but they were looking in a direction other than God would have them look. They wanted something they could see, something they could feel, something with substance. They were looking for a physical kingdom on this earth. Jesus told them the kingdom of God was within them, and they did not want to hear that. It was totally opposite of the theology of the day.

Have you ever heard theology that is totally contrary to the Word of God? It is all around us in Christendom today. It was all around them in Jesus’ day also. God was revealing His kingdom in their midst, but they did not see it.

In John, we find an interview that Jesus had with one of the leaders of Israel. His name, we are told, was Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night, because he did not want his peers to see him with Jesus. Jesus was not a popular figure, and interestingly enough, Jesus has never been a popular figure, even though it appears that He is, because He makes known the truth to people. Jesus spoke these words to Nicodemus, words that reveal what is necessary in regard to the kingdom of God.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.

Jesus now said, Unless you are born again, you cannot even see the kingdom of God, let alone be in it. What did Jesus mean when He said be “born again?” What is the inference? Here is a mature man standing before Him, a man who was already born.

Putting on a New Nature

What is He telling Nicodemus? He is saying, You must have a whole new nature, before you are able to see the kingdom of God. Why is that necessary? God makes it very clear.

God uses Paul the apostle to tell us why it is necessary, and He is not just talking to the Jews. He is telling the Jews and the Gentiles—all humanity—why it is necessary to be born again.

“You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Ephesians 2:1–3.

You and I come into this world as every human being has since the fall of Adam, with a fallen nature, a nature that is not in harmony with God’s kingdom. It is totally out of harmony with His righteousness, and if we choose to retain that nature, God has left on record the consequence: “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. That is not merely physical death; it is not being physically laid out in a cemetery because you died.

No, God is making it clear that there is a second death, a total extinction of life where you will never again be, and you will be as though you never were. So God says, in His mercy and in His compassion to all of us, You need to be born again. You need to have a new nature before you are able to even see My kingdom.

God says it even more clearly in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10. He tells us why this nature, that is based on the flesh and not on the Spirit of God, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He uses Paul again to make the issues clear to us. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?”

What does it mean to be unrighteous? Paul defines unrighteousness: “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” It is just not going to happen. God does not want us in that context, but He does want us in His kingdom. For God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

Being Born Again

Let us go back to Nicodemus’ response. He said, Wait a minute! How can a man that is old, be born again? And that is the question that we need to ask. How is it that we can be born again?

There is a lot of theology in Christendom today that will give you an answer, but it is not in harmony with God’s Word. They are dealing with being born again on an outward basis—what they can see, what they can feel, what they can do. What did Jesus tell the Pharisees when they demanded to know when the kingdom of God should come?

He pointed them to within themselves. If it happens at all, it is going to happen within you. To understand what it means to be born again, look at the first parable regarding seeds. When Jesus was growing up, before He left home to begin His ministry at the age of 30, He spent time in a garden. He planted seeds just like we do. He learned lessons from His experience in the garden, and that is why He shares with us these parables.

The Seed—The Power

“He said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?” He looked around in the society of men, in the nations, and in the kingdoms of men and He could find no comparison whatsoever. He could only find a comparison in the garden. “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.” Mark 4:30–32. How small God’s kingdom has appeared to men in 6,000 years.

God tells us, in His Word, there will only be one kingdom. (See Daniel 2.) So this small beginning is going to eventually encompass the whole world with people who have been born again. With what does He compare the kingdom of God? A little seed that looks like nothing could ever grow from it.

“There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless an infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no returns. The showers of rain must be sent to give moisture to the thirsty fields, the sun must impart heat, the electricity must be conveyed to the buried seed. The life, which the Creator has implanted, He alone can call forth. Every seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 63.

This does not happen apart from God in the physical world. When you plant that cucumber seed and the plant eventually emerges out of the ground and produces cucumbers, it is the direct result of God’s work.

Directly From God

Let us look at the parable in verses 26, 27 of Mark 4: “And He said, ‘So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’” So what power produces the germination of that seed? It is God’s power.

Notice: “The germ in the seed grows by the unfolding of the life-principle which God has implanted. Its development depends upon no human power.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 77. If it grows, it grows as a result of God and of His power and of His intercession. It is His sun that shines warmth down. It is His water or rain that waters that plant. It is His air, that He has created for life, that gives life to that seed. All the three essentials are directly from God.

Are we talking about growing seeds in the garden, or are we talking about being born again? Are they synonymous?

“So it is with the kingdom of Christ. It is a new creation.” Ibid. This was not something hidden, before the days of Christ, from the Children of Israel. This was known to Nicodemus; it was not anything new. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6.

It is My Spirit, My power that gives life, God says. It is only His power that can bring a new nature out of a fallen nature.

The Blessing of the Seed

Jesus tells us clearly that the seed is able to produce a new creation, acceptable in the kingdom of God. “Now the parable is this: [Jesus says] The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11. We hold the seed each time we hold our Bibles. God’s seed catalog describes the seed, describes what it will do, and also contains the seeds! The whole package is there. No mail order is necessary. He sent it to us. It was not even C.O.D.!

I want you to notice something very interesting. The seed that God has given to us, in this natural world, is most powerful. It has various abilities:

  1. A seed can produce a living thing. That little, dormant seed looks dead, but it can produce a living thing. It can produce a new creation. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
  2. Every seed that germinates, eventually grows up, and it also grows down. There is a balance in everything that God does. Working the kingdom of God in us, He works a balance. It will be inside first, within us, but it will eventually be seen outside in what we do, in the kind of person we are. Some drunk, in the gutter, who found a piece of the Word of God, or was invited to a mission to hear the Word of God, was changed completely. Were you to see that man a month later, you would not recognize that he was the same man. Why? Because he had allowed God to do something on the inside that eventually was revealed on the outside. Do you see that? The seed germinates down, puts its roots down, and the plant goes up. It is an inside/outside work that God wants to do, a balanced work.
  3. This seed can reproduce its own kind. It can produce a new life, but more than that, it can reproduce itself. A cucumber seed will reproduce itself. And interestingly enough, it will not reproduce anything else but its own kind.
  4. It can grow thousands of times its size in its lifetime. It is going to germinate. It is going to bear; it is going to bring up a blade, then the ear and then the full corn in the ear. It continues to grow and develop. Have you ever heard of indeterminate plants, especially among tomatoes? They just keep growing. This seed can actually reproduce itself thousands of times its size. A redwood tree seed is small, yet it produces a tree hundreds of feet in the air and many times around in diameter. Tremendous growth! God tells us our potential character development is limitless in regard to becoming more and more like Him. If we choose to receive the kingdom of God within us, by receiving the seed, which is the Word of God, our potential character development is limitless. We can grow and grow and never stop.
  5. The seed can produce roots that are actually powerful enough to break through rock, granite, anything. In the natural world, it is true. Brothers and sisters, it is also true in the spiritual world. This Word, allowed to have good ground, can make us more powerful than sin. It can give us power over sin, power over the great deceiver, and power over everything that is contrary to God. This seed has the power to do that!

I want you to notice that as it is in the physical, so it is in the spiritual. The three essential ingredients for a physical seed to grow, and which come only from God, are sunlight, water, and air.

You have sunshine—the righteousness of Christ, in the spiritual. You have water—the Spirit of God. Water is the latter rain, the former rain, the Spirit of God. And you have air—the grace of God. In Steps to Christ, 68, we are told that His grace encircles this earth just as much as the air we breathe.

What Can I Contribute?

They all come from God, in regards to the physical and to the spiritual. Those are necessary items for the growth of the seed. There is one more thing that is necessary however, if the seed is going to germinate, grow, and develop into a plant that bears fruit. God has not yet told us about this, and it has to do with you and me.

Jesus talks about seeds again in another parable. (See Matthew 13.) It is about a sower who went out and cast seed here and there. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the wayside. The wayside was a path that was trampled upon; people walked on it all the time. Seed fell there, and the birds came and took it away before it had time to do anything.

The second place the seed fell was on stony ground, on the rocks. The seed had enough soil to be able to germinate, to root down, to pop up, but when it got hot, the roots were not deep enough; the plant fell over and withered. It needed water, and it needed removal of stones to get the heat away from it.

The third place that the seed fell was into a bunch of thorns. You never want to plant a garden where there is a bunch of weeds. You want to take the weeds out and then plant the garden. But here you have seed falling in the midst of thorns, or weeds, and eventually being choked out. Even though two or three seeds germinated and grew, none of them lived. That should alarm us.

Another thing that should alarm us is where this is taking place. Where do people go to hear the Word of God spoken? In the church. This is not being spoken of in the world. Jesus is referring to those who would hear the Word of God, as His professed people, in His house. That should alarm us, because if it is true, if you took this literally, the percentage of those who respond correctly to the Word of God and have the kingdom of God growing within them is only 25 percent. That means that 75 percent reject it.

Should that alarm me sitting in a church? Oh, yes, it should cause me to examine myself, whether I am receiving the Word of God or whether I am just hearing it.

There is one thing the seed needs, which God does not give. If it does not have this, the seed will not germinate; it will not grow. “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” Luke 8:15. Jesus does not speak, in this parable, about the sunshine, the water, and the air. Why? Because He knows that His heavenly Father will supply that to the seed. But for us to grow, it is necessary to have good ground. Having good ground is up to us. God has nothing to do with producing good ground or bad ground, thorny ground or stony ground. We have everything to do with the kind of ground into which God’s Word falls.

Jesus Gives the Answer

God wants to be practical. God wants us to understand what good ground is so we can produce good ground for the seed to grow and develop. Jesus gives us a clear representation of what it means to have good ground.

Revelation 3:20, helps us see what good ground means and what God is asking of us in regard to having good ground. “Behold,” Jesus says, “I stand at the door, and knock.” Where is He in regard to the door? When you are standing at a door and knocking, you are on the outside.

He is on the outside, but He is knocking, knocking that He might come inside. Remember, the kingdom of God begins within you, and the heavenly Gardener needs to be where the seed is, to allow that seed to develop and grow. So He is knocking, and He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Jesus is saying, the good ground is the person who hears His voice and responds to the point of opening their heart to Him.

Faith Opens the Door

Here is where we get real practical. How do we open our hearts to God? If we ever have that experience, we should know that we have to exercise faith to open our heart to God, and faith is something that God gives as a gift to every man who comes into this world. (See Romans 12:3.)

Jesus said, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. So faith opens the door! If we are going to be a consistent good-ground hearer, the door must remain open.

To be continued . . .

The First Lie, Part I

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Some time ago, when we had some visitors from Europe, we had a special weekend. We visited and studied God’s word together and we studied some of the pillars of our faith. After that weekend, I received many questions; the one most frequently asked was, Are there other pillars of the Adventist faith that we need to know?

There are many people going to Seventh-day Adventist churches who do not know the pillars, the foundations of our message.

Rooted and Grounded

If you really want to get rooted and grounded in the Adventist message, ask the Lord to help you find somebody with whom you can study the Bible. I personally believe that my own ministry would not amount to very much if I were not out studying the Bible with people. It keeps you in contact with reality.

What are the questions on people’s minds? If you are studying the Bible with people, it is easy for you to think that the pillars of the Seventh-day Adventist faith are fundamental things. We have studied these doctrines, and we have studied them over and over with other people, so we do not study them in the church. We assume that people in the church know them, but Ellen White has told us that many people in our churches want to understand the way of salvation (see Evangelism, 350), but they do not. They need to know the fundamental doctrines.

Facing the Hard Texts

We need to know the objections that people have to our faith, so we are going to look at some hard texts that, if you live until Jesus comes, I can guarantee people are going to use to try to overthrow your faith.

We will start with the sixth commandment. In John 8:44, Jesus is talking to the Jewish people. It is one of the strongest rebukes that He gave to them. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

I do not believe the devil understood that he was a murderer. When he began walking down this path, he did not see where it was going to lead him. Thousands of years ago if you had said to the devil, You are getting ready to break the sixth commandment, he would have said, Oh, no, I am not; I am just trying to make things better. But he was starting down a path that was going to lead him to attempt to destroy God.

If you were told straight out, You can be part of the kingdom of light and life, or you can be part of the kingdom of death and darkness, which would you choose? That would not be a hard choice to make, would it? Everybody would choose life. Well, if that is the case, how did the devil get any followers? The answer is found in John 8:44. He is the father of lies. In order to get people to follow him, he had to tell a lie, because no one would intentionally choose death over life.

His kingdom is literally the kingdom of death and darkness, and it is filled with murderers. He is called the Prince of Darkness. To get any followers he had to use deceit, and he used deceit first of all on the angels. Then he used deceit on Eve. What was the first lie that the devil told Eve in the Garden of Eden? You will not die. (See Genesis 3:4.)

The Father of Lies

God said, If you eat of this fruit, you are going to die. The devil said, No, you will not. He was trying to get Eve to do something that would cause her death. He was trying to do something that would bring death to every single descendant that she had. He was breaking the sixth commandment. I have come to the conclusion that all murderers are liars. Jesus linked murdering and lying in John 8:44.

The devil, in the Garden of Eden, murdered Adam and Eve. He caused their death. In order to get them to take the hook, he had to put some bait on it, and that was a lie. The lie was that they would not really die. After Adam and Eve sinned, the devil had murdered them. He had brought about their death and the death of every living thing. Trees died; plants died; animals died, and all men and women died.

So the devil was proved to be a liar. God told the truth. But the devil has told this same lie over and over again, right up to the present time, and has gained repeated victories. Ellen White says the lie that you will not really die is one of the two lies by which the devil will gain control over the whole world in the last days. (See The Great Controversy, 588.)

Obviously the devil is a liar, because everybody does die. So what the devil did then, was to create this fiction that there is something in you that does not die. Now in the English language it is called the soul or the spirit. This apparently is a belief of almost all heathen religions also.

Chasing Fables

I have a book at home on Tutankhamun. Some time ago, when my wife and I were in Cairo, we went to the Cairo Museum, and we actually saw some of the things that are pictured in this book. We saw a gold plated box with four women on each of the four sides. They were goddesses in the Egyptian religion.

At the top there were the hooded heads of cobras, probably 25 or 30 on each side. On the top of each one of these hooded heads of the cobras, was a sun disc. We saw carved snakes everywhere in the Museum. The snake is a symbol of Satan worship as far back as we can go. It is interesting that Satan worship and sun worship are that closely related. There must have been 100 snakes around the box.

We read that when Tutankhamun died, they made a mummy of him, but they cut out his internal organs—heart, liver, kidneys and those kinds of things, and they put them in this box. The carved goddesses were placed around the box to guard these organs.

When these people were buried, a food supply and a chariot with lots of clothes and money were buried with them. They still do this today in heathen countries. That is why, over the centuries, the graves have been robbed.

Why did they bury all of these things with these Egyptian kings? They did it because the devil had convinced them that there was an afterlife.

The Spirit of “Ka”

They had been taught, and they believed, that there was what they call the “ka.” They had different words for it in the Egyptian language. It was something within you that went on living when you died. They thought that, as long as you could keep the body intact, then, at some future time, this spirit “Ka,” whatever it is, could come back and enter the body again.

You find this, incidentally, in all the heathen religions. You find it in the Greeks. Where did the church in the Middle Ages develop that idea of the immortality of the soul? Did they get it from the Bible? No, they did not. They got it from Plato, who was a Greek philosopher, who got it from the Egyptians, who got it from the high priests of their heathen religion, which was actually demon or devil worship.

This is the lie that the devil started telling at the beginning of time. He told it to Eve, he convinced the ancient nations, and this lie has come into the Christian Church. It has come clear up to our time.

If you believe this deception, what further deception are you ready to accept? Let us put it a different way. Suppose you have a relative who dies. Suppose the form of one of these dead relatives should appear to you at some time.

I have gone through this scenario in my mind many times. What would I do? Well, I would immediately have to ask the Lord to deliver me from this demon. I understand what happens to a person when they die, and therefore if a form of one of my dead loved ones or relatives comes to me, I know immediately that somebody is trying to trick me. I am not going to go and put my arms around them, because it is not who it looks like. Are you clear on that point?

Misunderstanding the State of the Dead

Interestingly enough, most of the people who translated the Bible, and this includes the Old King James Bible from 1611, did not understand the truth about the state of the dead. They were coming out of the Dark Ages. Martin Luther, in the beginning of his career, was trained to be a priest, and he studied Aristotle and Greek philosophy. If you are mixed up on the state of the dead, is there a possibility that your own thinking could color your translation of the Bible? There most certainly is. That is exactly what happened. In fact, the most serious errors in the Old King James Bible have to do with the state of the dead.

We need to know what these errors are. They remain uncorrected in most of the English translations, so we need to understand these things. We will go over some of the “hard” texts. I believe that this is so serious, and the devil is deceiving so many millions of people today, that we should know every text in the Bible that can be thrown at us on this subject, and we should know how to answer.

Some of the texts say, unequivocally, what happens to a person when they die. In the book of Genesis there is a hard text. Let us see if we can understand this.

Collecting Objections

When a person becomes a professional salesman, the professional salesman collects objections. He knows what all the objections are to his product. Not only does he know what all the objections are, the professional salesman has written down the best answers to every objection. When you are talking to him, and you bring up an objection, he will casually give you the answer word for word—the very best answer there is to your objection. If you still object, he will give you, word for word, the second-best answer to your objection. And if you still object, he can just as casually give you the third-best answer to your objection.

Do you think that the children of light should be as wise and as intelligent as the people of this world? I believe we should. As Christians who expect that Jesus is coming soon, who want to help others get ready, we should know what the objections are to what we believe, and we should be able to look in the Bible and explain them. Let us see if we can.

Genesis 35 talks about the death of Rachel. “And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.” Genesis 35:18. What do you do with that text? Someone says, Well, a person has a soul, and when they die their soul departs. It says so right here in this text. What is your answer?

The word soul comes from a very common Hebrew word. It is translated as soul over 400 times in the Bible, but it has another translation. It is translated as the English word life over 100 times in the Bible. If you put the other translation in this text, it would read, “And so it was, as her life was leaving (or departing) for she died, that she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin.”

If you have ever talked with somebody who is dying, or who has come very close to death and has been revived, they will tell you that life departs from the feet first, and they can feel the life leaving their body. The feeling comes right up, and when it gets up to the heart, that is the end, life departs. But that does not mean that there is some conscious entity that goes up in the clouds somewhere. Life just departed.

What Really Happens When We Die?

Let us consider some texts in the book of Job that prove exactly what happens to a person when they die. We will also look at some hard texts that people think we cannot answer. You might think the book of Job would be a depressing book to read, yet this book has been one of the favorites for people who are in trouble, for thousands of years.

The book of Job was one of the favorite books among the Waldenses, those who were being persecuted and martyred for their faith. There were Waldenses who could quote the entire book of Job, word for word. In Job 3, he is bemoaning the day of his birth and then in verses 11–19 he says, “‘Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves, Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver; Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.’”

So the dead do not hear anything; they are not doing anything; they are resting. They are asleep. “As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore.” Job 7:9, 10.

Visited by Demons

The dead are not going to come back home. If somebody comes to your house in the form of your dead loved one, it is a fraud. The devil is trying to deceive you by impersonating your loved one. Ellen White says that the devil can impersonate, and that the impersonation is perfect. (See Signs of the Times, September 3, 1894.) That is quite a statement. The form, the features of the face, the sound of the voice, are a perfect impersonation.

That spirit might tell you something that only you and the dead person knew, but it is still a fraud. It is more deceptive; that is all, because Job says that the real person who dies is never going to come to his house again.

Now let us look at a hard text and see if we can figure it out. “‘But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last And where is he? As water disappears from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dries up, So man lies down and does not rise, Till the heavens are no more.’” Job 14:10–12.

He tells us how long he is going to lie down. When will he rise again? When the heavens are no more. Now you can find out when that is if you look in the last chapters in the book of Revelation. They will not awake nor be roused from their sleep until the heavens are no more. (See Job 14:12.)

Let us look at a few texts that will give us Job’s understanding of death.

“If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, ‘Til my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.’ ” Job 14:14, 15.

A Proof Text?

I was taught to use Job 14:21 as a proof text to explain the state of the dead. I never use it however, and you will see why if you read verse 22.

When a person dies, “His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; They are brought low, and he does not perceive it. But his flesh will be in pain over it, and his soul will mourn over it.” Now what are you going to do with that? I do not need to bring up all the objections that a person might have.

Job 14:21 is very clear, but what are you going to do with verse 22? Let us investigate verse 22 a little bit. Look, first of all, at Isaiah 58:7. “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and hide not yourself from your own flesh?” Whose flesh is it talking about?

This is a Biblical expression, and it is talking about your family, your loved ones. We still use that terminology today concerning our family—we say they are our own flesh and blood.

In Job 14:22 he says, “His flesh will be in pain over it.” He is talking about his relatives. His loved ones are in pain. Are you in pain if you have a loved one die? Yes, you are in a lot of pain. His flesh, his kinfolks, his relatives, are going to be in pain. That makes sense, does it not?

However, we are only half way through. What do you do with the last part of the verse? “His soul will mourn over it.” That is just about as much trouble as the first part of verse 22.

Next month we will look at the word mourn, and see what the Bible is trying to tell us.

To be continued. . . .

The Consecrated Way, Part III

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In this series, we have been studying The Consecrated Way, which is the sanctified way, as outlined in 2 Peter 1. It is found in climbing Peter’s ladder, working our way up round by round. Each time we take a step up, we find ourselves being called to a grander, nobler purpose in the plan of God.

Called to a Higher Calling

If those of us who are Christians had been climbing this ladder all along in our experience, long ago we would have reached a point when Jesus could have come, and we would be in glory. (See Evangelism, 695.) But we are still here, which tells me that there is still need for us to be exhorted, through the Scriptures, to the higher calling that God has given to us.

“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. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance . . . .” 11 Peter 1:4–6.

What is temperance? Normally when we think about this word, the first thing that comes to our mind is the counsel to stay free and clear of the consumption of alcohol and of tobacco. But the concept of temperance goes much farther than just these two things.

It covers the full gamut of lifestyle; it calls for us to exercise the choice of our will for right or for wrong. Looking at Vines’ New Testament Dictionary for the meaning of the word temperance, we find that it comes from a Greek root word that means strength, and that makes good sense. Those of us of the older generation, who have kind of reached the pinnacle and are going down the other side, know that we suffer from a loss of strength. We are not as strong as we used to be. My mind tells me that I am sixteen. My body tells me something entirely different. The problem is trying to reconcile those two things together to where we live a balanced life. God has the answer for a balanced life. It is found in the word temperance, meaning strength. How are you going to expend your strength?

Exercising Self-Control

The development of the word beyond the root meaning is that of self-control. In the conflict between the forces of good and evil, it is extremely necessary that we, possessing the sinful nature that we do, exercise self-control, by God’s grace. The various powers that God has given to us in the area of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual are capable of abuse.

The right use of these powers demands the controlling of the will under the operation of the Spirit of God. Temperance, when it is rightly exercised, allows the development of character to take place and allows us to become, through the precious promises that God has given, partakers of the divine nature.

Putting this all into the context of our text, we see that temperance follows knowledge. This suggests to us that what is learned, and temperance is learned, should be put into practice. The Bible is filled with narratives which portray both the positive and the negative aspect of being temperate.

We will look at two individual examples in Scripture—Samson on the one hand, Daniel on the other. Samson was a man for whom God had great plans. He was called to serve God at a time when the spiritual level of Israel was dragging in the dust. The Philistines had overrun their nation; they were sniping them from every corner, harassing, causing them problems in every way, and Israel was weak.

Of themselves, Israel had little temperance. They had little strength. They had no power to overcome the Philistines. God called a man to be the example of self-control and strength, but he became a total wreck of humanity. So that which God intended should achieve grand and noble purposes and prepare the way for the Messiah to come, never really came to fruition.

God, the Pediatrician

During this time of apostasy, when there was wide-spread, national declension, there were a faithful few who were pleading with God for deliverance from oppression. In the course of time, God responded to their needs with this great man of strength. The Lord very carefully instructed his parents on how they were to prepare themselves, as well as the child, in habits of temperance.

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman [Samson’s mother], and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing.” Judges 13:3, 4.

This is the instruction that God gave to the parents in preparation for the child that would come. This woman was barren, and in Israel, that was a shame. I have discovered that every time God has a plan for something marvelous to take place in the way a child is going to come into being, He closes the womb so that there can be no question in the mind but that God has His hand in the matter and that the instruction given should be carefully followed.

He tells this woman, Prepare yourself; you are going to have a child. Leave the wine bottle alone, and stay away from barbecues. It is still good instruction today. The baby was born and grew up, and the mother instructed the child to follow the ways of the Lord. Unfortunately, as happens too much of the time, the child did not continue in the habits of temperance.

But I Want Her!

Instead, we find that he went down into the town called Timnath, and there he fell where he should not fall. “And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.” Judges 14:1, 2.

Where did it really start? When he went to Timnath? No. He fell when he failed to follow the counsel that his parents had received at the hand of God. “Now therefore get her for me to wife.” Ibid. I do not care what your counsel is; I want this woman! How much self-control is being displayed here? None!

There was no respecting his parents’ wishes. They took the instruction that was given, but they decided to take their own course. They did not want to offend this child, apparently their only child, a spoiled child, an indulged child, a child who, from an early age, had no self-control. “Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all thy people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” Verse 3.

Did Samson say, I really need to think this thing through; I do believe there is probably someone who would fit the bill? No! He had no temperance, no self-control, no strength. “And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.” Ibid.

Timnath was a city located in the territory of Dan, a tribe that lost out totally in the kingdom. Dan did not follow the instruction of the Lord, or they would be numbered among the faithful tribes. Timnath was inhabited by Philistines. What were the Israelites to do as far as the Philistines were concerned when, coming out of Egypt, out of the wilderness experience, they moved into the land of Canaan? They were to destroy them. (See Deuteronomy 4:37, 38; 7.) They were to move in and take total possession and dispossess the heathen. But they settled down instead, so when little Samson grew up, he found this Philistine girl. They began to eat and drink and make merry together and Samson’s self-control was no where to be found.

Led Into Total Darkness

Eventually a point was reached in which Samson lost every bit of his strength. His eyes were put out, and he was left in bondage to the enemy of God. Do you know why such a story as this is in the Bible? That story applies to us right now, and it tells us our end, if we have no greater self-control than did Samson. The devil led him down an alley where it was total darkness.

If you think that happened only in the days of Samson, you had better think again, because if you give the devil an opportunity, he is going to lead you down an alley into total darkness too. Your eyes will also be put out, in bondage to the enemy of God. The story goes that, while Samson was in darkness, he had time to reflect. He began to review his life, and he said, I need to make some changes; I need to repent of my sin. I need to confess to God.

He repented, and God restored his strength long enough for him to make an attack against the Philistines and to destroy the temple in the process. But it cost him his life. If you have ever had a hesitation about whether there is a God in heaven Who cares about you, Who is working on your behalf, then you need to read the story of Samson as found in Judges 13 and 14 and then read Hebrews 11.

Samson is listed in the victors’ hall of fame. A man who went into total darkness and yet, through repentance, confession, and restoration, was honored by God. He destroyed the temple, but the grand and noble future that the Lord had planned for him never happened, because he could not control himself. He failed to practice temperance.

God’s Health Laws

No doubt Samson lost his keen sense of right and of wrong when he first began to dabble with that which was forbidden to him. God made every provision, instructed his parents before his birth: “The angel’s prohibition included ‘every unclean thing.’ The distinction between articles of food as clean and unclean was not a merely ceremonial and arbitrary regulation.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 562.

Today, there are those who try to tell us that this health business is just arbitrary and ceremonial, but it has its authority in the Bible! It was “based upon sanitary principles. To the observance of this distinction may be traced, in a great degree, the marvelous vitality which for thousands of years has distinguished the Jewish people.” Ibid.

The Jews are still benefiting today from those health laws that God gave a long time ago. “The principles of temperance must be carried further than the mere use of spirituous liquors. The use of stimulating and indigestible food is often equally injurious to health, and in many cases sows the seeds of drunkenness. True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as they should how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny.” Ibid.

That is a powerful statement! The apostle Paul, speaking of these instances that took place in the Old Testament, stated, “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.”

1 Corinthians 10:11. Do you believe that we are in the time of the end in the world? Then these things apply.

On the other side, those of you who realize how much your habits of diet have to do with health, character, and usefulness in this world, can be found applying the knowledge of the Scripture to bring about positive development.

Daniel’s Temperance

A Bible character, who exemplifies all the attributes of temperance in his life, is Daniel. Before we look at the chapter where we find this story, let us look at Daniel 12. Daniel, of course, is the only book that has been sealed, and it tells us so. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Verse 4.

On Peter’s ladder, add to knowledge temperance. “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Verse 9. The book of Daniel is not just a historical book about the life of Daniel. It is a book that has special meaning for us in these last days, particularly down near the end of time.

This book was to be sealed until the time of the end. Its meaning and its most profound application did not come into play until the time of the end, but when the time of the end arrived, the meaning exploded, literally around the world.

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.” Daniel 1:1. Do you have the feeling that Israel constantly repeats history? There is a reason for it. “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.” Verses 2–4.

Daniel Purposed

Already diligent habits had been brought to the surface by certain captive individuals who were gifted in many areas. They had health; they had character development, and they had usefulness in the world. And the king said, When you find these youth, bring them to me. Out of all of this class, at least four individuals came to the top.

Verse 6 says, “Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.” And we find that early in their experience in the court of Babylon they began to undergo a change: “Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.” Verse 7.

But new names were not all that the Babylonians wanted to impress upon these young men. They wanted to change them entirely, to give them not only new names, but also new food. Verse 5 says, “And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.”

I wonder what those who ate the provisions looked like at the end of three years. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” Verses 8, 9.

Daniel purposed in his heart; he won the favor of the eunuchs’ supervisor, and he came out on top. “There are many among professed Christians today who would decide that Daniel was too particular, and would pronounce him narrow and bigoted. They consider the matter of eating and drinking of too little consequence to require such a decided stand,—one involving the probable sacrifice of every earthly advantage. But those who reason thus will find in the day of judgment that they turned from God’s express requirements, and set up their own opinion as a standard of right and wrong. They will find that what seemed to them unimportant was not so regarded of God.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 30.

A Peculiar People

“Our habits of eating and drinking show whether we are of the world or among the number whom the Lord by His mighty cleaver of truth has separated from the world. These are His peculiar people, zealous of good works. God has spoken in His word. In the case of Daniel and his three companions there are sermons upon health reform.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 372.

There are only two ways put forth in the Bible as far as life is concerned—there is the right way and there is the wrong way. The Bible knows no other way. It is either all right, or it is all wrong. There is no gray area in Christianity. We like to believe that there are gray areas. This is why we are where we are right now. We convince ourselves that it does not really matter.

The prince of the eunuchs tried to tell Daniel that there was a gray area. Daniel said, No, as far as I am concerned, there is no gray area. I have had people tell me, Well, you know, I am not a bad person; I do not do this, and I do not do that, naming sins that are obviously wrong. It may well be true that they do not do those things, but if they are not surrendered completely to the Lord Jesus Christ, they can be just as lost as is someone who does all the things they have not done.

If we are doing what we know is wrong, there is no neutral point. That is just where the devil wants us to be. He will keep moving us farther and farther away from the Lord, just like he did Samson. He did not take Samson down to Timnath when he was five years old. The seduction of Samson took a long period of time. Perhaps Samson climbed the hill and stood looking down at the city for a while, every day moving just a little bit closer to temptation, until he was in the city. And he found a woman who pleased him, and he said to his parents, Get her for me; she pleases me well.

Satan Plays to Win!

You do not just pick up and go home when you decide that the game is over. Not in the devil’s court. He does not play the game that way. He plays for keeps, and once you have come into his court and started to play his game, he immediately claims you as his own, and you do not just get up and go home. He has played with a lot of people like you before. When the game was over, he had them bound up so much in his way of fun that they wanted to go back for a repeat performance. Finally they lost their perspective as to where home really is, and they are just as happy in the devil’s house as they were in their own home.

“As the Lord co-operated with Daniel and his fellows, so He will co-operate with all who strive to do His will. And by the impartation of His Spirit He will strengthen every true purpose, every noble resolution. Those who walk in the path of obedience will encounter many hindrances. Strong, subtle influences may bind them to the world; but the Lord is able to render futile every agency that works for the defeat of His chosen ones; in His strength they may overcome every temptation, conquer every difficulty.” Prophets and Kings, 487.

There is no area so big that we cannot get a handle on it—if we allow the Lord to work.

There is a real key in the Scripture concerning the area of temperance in proper eating and drinking. It is found in Matthew 24:37, 38, where Jesus talks about what it is going to be like in the last days: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.”

They were eating and drinking in apparent abandonment. Self-control was forgotten. We all need to eat and drink every day in order to maintain health, strength, life, and happiness, but self-control is the problem for many of us. That is the reason why the Lord mentions the days of Noah.

Character Development

Do we need to be reminded that God has a plan? He has given us, as Seventh-day Adventists, a health message. He has given us Scripture that rehearses for us the positive and the negative influences of our eating habits. The most important aspect of the health message is character development—having strength of mind to make right choices, so we have power in the brain to understand where God would have us be.

That is the reason for the health message. It is to produce healthy bodies, which have healthy minds, which are able to comprehend the truth for this hour of earth’s history. Otherwise the mind will be so clouded that truth will fly right by and never be realized.

One of the great thrusts the devil is making in the last throes of this earth is against our minds, and it comes through eating and drinking the wrong things. That is why God’s end-time prophet, Ellen White, wrote about the health message. We must read and study her books, so the message of temperance can be realized in our lives.

Enlightened Conscience

Drive down any street. Notice the billboards. They have very seductive, welcoming commercials of abandonment to fleshly appetites. Think of the television commercials. Probably 90 percent of the commercials make an appeal to the appetite.

Do you know why they do that? Because the advertising is successful. They get people to go out and buy the product that they are advertising, and it dumbs them down. The brain goes. The Spirit of Prophecy says that all of this prepares the way for drunkenness. I believe that means more than just the consumption of alcohol. (See The Ministry of Healing, 334; Testimonies, vol. 4, 578.)

Daniel took his stand for God, conscientious and righteous even in little matters of his food and drink, and this laid a ground work for developing a character which would pass untarnished and unscathed through 70 years of political life.

Daniel went through 70 years without one blemish or one tarnished spot in his career or in his personal life. Daniel’s decision was not a mere whim or strange notion of an extremist. His conscience was enlightened by the Word of God, which is the only safe guide for us to have.

Our minds are the only link that we have between ourselves and heaven. Do not think for a moment that the devil does not know that also. He is going to do everything that he can to ruin the plan of God. What we eat either builds the mind or tears it down. If it tears it down, it gives Satan free access, and we do not even realize it.

“I’m Okay—You’re Okay”

Satan comes in on the sly and begins to control, and all the while we are satisfied that we are all right and that everything is under control, never realizing that he is pulling the strings. Can we afford to allow such a thing to happen this late in life, this late in earth’s history? Are there areas in which we need to reform?

We can never use as an excuse that we did what we did because of what someone else did. We need to think for ourselves. We need to be moved by the spirit of God, not by what others think of us. This is what Daniel did. This is why he had such a noble record.

A Crisis is Coming

In these last days we are going to be faced with a crisis called the Mark of the Beast. Do you think it is possible that temperance can play a part in the issue of the Mark of the Beast? I would suggest that it will. Think about it for a minute. A crisis is coming. We have been warned about it. Eating and drinking the way that God has commanded is part of that preparation.

“And beside this . . . add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance . . . .” 2 Peter 1:5, 6.

To be continued . . .

The Seed, Part II

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What constitutes having our heart’s door stay open? Faith opens the door; obedience, or a positive response to what God says, keeps the door open. Obedience always follows true faith. They never walk apart from each other. If they do, it is because faith is not genuine but is presumption. There will always be obedience, a positive response to God’s Word, if there is true faith.

That is what is meant by a good-ground hearer, and that is the only thing we can offer God in our Christian experience. We have no power within ourselves to make ourselves new. There are many professed Christians relying upon something other than the power of God in their lives to make them Christians.

Eventually, the tempest is going to come; trouble is going to come; the storm is going to rage. What is going to happen to those people who are relying upon a supposed hope, leaning on a prop like a tomato plant leaning on a rotten stake? What is going to happen when the tempest breaks? They are going to fall!

Tremendous Exodus from Adventism

We are told, and we cannot be told too often, that in the times in which we find ourselves there is going to be a tremendous exodus from Adventism. Now the question is, Are we going to be prepared to stay within the truth, within this message—this tremendous light that we have? Are we going to allow Jesus to stay within our hearts and to work in us the kingdom of God, whereby when trouble comes, we are able to stand, no matter what?

The Psalmist says,

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Psalm 46:1–3.

Receive God’s Word

In regard to this matter of opening the door by faith and having the door remain open by obedience, Christ’s Object Lessons, 61, says, “Our part is to receive God’s Word and to hold it fast, yielding ourselves fully to its control, and its purpose in us will be accomplished.”

Our part is to receive the Word of God. We do that by faith, and we retain it by obedience. Do you want to know what those two are theologically? They are justification and sanctification. However, you can pick up books that have been written by Seventh-day Adventists today, that totally contradict what this says. May I say, it is very startling to read contradictions to the truth in Adventism today. It is unbelievable! I believe it is indeed the omega of apostasy that we see in our very midst.

Born Again Do Not Sin

If you want to be aroused out of your sleepiness or sluggishness, this will do it. It will startle you and cause you to awake. 1 John 3 gives us a tremendous statement. I do not know what New Theology does with this statement. It must sit there with an eraser trying to get it out of the way. They have to cut that out, because they do not know what to do with it! 1 John 3:9 says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” So if the seed is allowed to remain in me, by faith and by obedience, allowing Jesus to do upon my heart that which only He can do, that seed is going to develop, and I am going to have a character that is perfect before God. Perfect in an imperfect world. A character that is righteous in an unrighteous world. Do you see that God has called us higher than merely sitting in pews? He has called us to something much higher than that, much higher than church membership, much higher than any position one can hold in the church.

God has called us to have a character like His. His seed is able to produce that. Tremendous statement—whosoever is born of God, whoever has that new nature, does not commit sin!

I think the New Theologians need to go back and study the simplicity of the Word of God. They may need to get a hoe and a rake and go out into the garden and learn the simple lesson of salvation as Jesus did. You and I need to learn the same. “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Mark 4:28.

Is that an echo of 1 John 3:9? “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Do you see any disease there? Do you see any sin there in the growth of that plant? No! God says, let Me put My hand on it.

“The germination of the seed represents the beginning of spiritual life, and the development of the plant is a beautiful figure of Christian growth. . . . At every stage of development our life may be perfect; yet if God’s purpose for us is fulfilled, there will be continual advancement.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 65.

Perfect at Every Stage

We continually move onward as we grow. At each stage we can be perfect in our character before God. Righteousness in an unrighteous world. Perfection in a world of imperfection. Kindness in a world that is not kind. Love where the world knows only hatred. God’s people are to stand out. As true Christians, with God’s Word in our hearts, we reveal a nature that is contrary to our original nature.

God uses Paul again. Galatians 3:16: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He [God] saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to Thy seed, which is Christ.” Christ is the seed, the incorruptible seed of God, whereby He is able to produce a new Creation in us.

Jesus Wants to Reproduce Himself in Us

The ultimate goal of every seed is to produce seed of its own kind. Who is the incorruptible Seed? Christ. He has put His seeds in the catalog book, the Holy Bible. He says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. Whose spirit and whose life do you think that they are? They are Christ’s, the incorruptible Seed.

Jesus wants to reproduce His Seed in us. If that is true and if that happens, we will reflect in character the character of Jesus, because a seed only reproduces itself and its own kind. “Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Sow the seed under right conditions. . . .” Christ’s Object Lessons, 38.

When planting seeds, there are really, basically only four conditions. Three of them only God can deal with, we have no part, and one condition is ours. So we get 25 percent of the obligation. The conditions are sun, water, air, and good ground.

“Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Sow the seed under right conditions, and it will develop its own life in the plant. Receive into the soul by faith the incorruptible seed of the Word, and it will bring forth a character and a life after the similitude of the character and the life of God.” Ibid.

An amazing truth! Should we not be determined to make our calling and election sure by opening the door and keeping it open, allowing Jesus to do the work, through His Word, on our hearts whereby we become new creations?

I am more determined to become what He wants me to be and to do it in the manner which meets the conditions He has given. We are not to be satisfied with just being a professed Christian, not satisfied with just being baptized or having our membership in a church. The kingdom of God begins within us, and it works out from there!

It does not happen by observation. Jesus wants to reproduce us, and He can only do that through His Seed, the Word of God. Notice this promise that God made in the Garden after Adam and Eve chose to lay aside the incorruptible for the corruptible: “And I [God] will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15. It was going to cost God something. His heel was going to be bruised, and we know what that meant—Calvary. But I want you to notice that God was going to put enmity between Satan and the woman.

The woman, representing the spiritual church, would carry the incorruptible seed. Who is the incorruptible seed? Christ and His Word. Enmity or hatred towards sin and Satan only comes by our reception and our response to the Word of God. It does not come any other way. We can be on our knees all day, but if we get up and walk contrary to what God has told us and to what we know, we will never be at enmity with Satan or sin.

Where is the Power?

Genesis 3:15 is a tremendous promise God has given to us. The seed is spiritual; the woman is spiritual. It is in regard to the body of the believers. God has always had a body of believers who have chosen to be good-ground hearers, to open by faith and to keep open by obedience, the door to their heart, and He has them today. The question is, Are you one of them, or are you a membership Christian, or just a baptized Christian, or a pew-sitting Christian? Are you satisfied with a form that denies the power? Where is the power? It is in the Word of God. It is in the Seed, and God has promised to put it in our hearts, if we are willing to open them.

Let us link it up right with our time. “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.

Is God revealing a physical remnant here, in regard to the physical structure or physical church, or is He revealing a body of believers and a spiritual church? It is the spiritual. Why? Because it is the seed of the woman. God deals with a spiritual church in Revelation 12:17. You may say, Wait a minute, the Seventh-day Adventists have been given the testimony of Jesus Christ, which we are told in Revelation 19:10 is the Spirit of Prophecy.

Yes, I agree totally. The vessel into which God has put His truth in the last days, interestingly enough, has been a physical organization. But God reveals His true church as a spiritual church in Revelation 12:17. He does not want us to be deceived into thinking like the Jews in Jesus’ day were thinking.

What did they say? They demanded “. . . when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” Luke 17:20. It is not something you are going to be able to see.

It is not something you are going to be able to point out and to feel physical substance. He even clarifies it in verse 21: “Neither shall they say, Lo here [right over there, that church on the corner]! or, lo there [no, it is not that one over there; it is this one over here]! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” It is a spiritual seed; it is a spiritual church; it is a spiritual kingdom. God wants no one to be deceived in the last days in regard to this issue.

We have been given, with the Spirit of Prophecy, more light than the Jewish nation had in Jesus’ day, and to turn away from that light into darkness is a startling act. We do not have to walk in darkness; we do not have to walk in apostasy, if we open our hearts by faith and allow the Seed to have its way upon our hearts and, by obedience, continue to walk with Him.

Revelation 12:17 speaks about the testimony of Jesus, as pertaining to the Spirit of Prophecy, physically speaking. Spiritually speaking, it means the witness of Jesus Christ.

In the original Greek, the word testimony means witness. So we are seeing the Seed reproduced in His people. They have the witness of Jesus Christ in their lives. When other people listen to His people, when they watch them, they hear and see Jesus.

Growing in Jesus

When Jesus was on earth, He cleansed leprosy immediately. Leprosy is represented in the Word of God as sin. When we have sin in our lives, all we need to do is confess our sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. (See 1 John 1:9.) How long do we have to wait? We do not have to wait. It is immediate. But sanctification, this growing in grace, this growing into His likeness and having His likeness reproduced in us, is a lifetime experience.

We must do our part by keeping the door of our heart open by faith and letting it stay open by obedience, allowing God to do His work, because it is not going to happen, apart from Him. He is the one Who has the power over the seed. So let us determine to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and never forget that the kingdom of God begins in us.

The First Lie, Part II

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Last month we began looking at some of the texts in the Bible dealing with the state of the dead, which we might find hard to explain. We learned that we are going to have to give an answer for each of our beliefs, and we need to be prepared to do that. Let us look at a few other texts in the Bible and see how we can explain them. These texts all contain the same word, mourn. I want you to see how this word is used in the Bible.

Mis-Translated Words

In Amos 1:2 it says, “And he said: ‘The Lord roars from Zion, And utters His voice from Jerusalem; The pastures of the shepherds mourn, And the top of Carmel withers.’” Have you ever seen a pasture mourn? No, pastures cannot mourn.

Isaiah 24:4 uses this same word: “The earth mourns and fades away, The world languishes and fades away; The haughty people of the earth languish.”

In verse 7, you will see this same word used again, although some versions of the Bible have translated the word as fails in this text. The Greek word translated as fails is the same word that is translated as mourn. “The new wine fails [mourns], the vine languishes, All the merry-hearted sigh.”

Isaiah 33:9 says, “The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and shriveled; Sharon is like a wilderness, And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.” That word, mourns, is also used in Job 14:22.

So what are these texts saying? In each one of the verses it said that something which is inanimate, like grass, or the earth, or a vine, mourned. The word that means to mourn was used. What does that mean? It means, literally, that it is languishing, languid, falling, failing, or dried up.

With this knowledge, let us look at Job 14:22, and put that same definition in there. “His relatives or his kinfolk will be in pain over it [that is over his death], And his soul will be languishing [dried up, failing, or falling—any one of those].” You see, when a flower gets droopy and falls, that is a sign that the life has gone out of it. The same word is used here. This word is also used concerning people—they mourn. But it is used, very often, in regard to inanimate things that have no life in them at all; they are languished or dried up or falling or failing. Dried up is a good translation there. So Job 14:22 is not a hard text to explain, if you have an understanding of the words.

Check the Context

There are a few texts in Ecclesiastes with which some people have trouble, such as Ecclesiastes 3:21. Remember, verse 21 is a question, not a statement: “Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?” Somebody could object and say that the spirit of man goes up, but the spirit of the beast goes down.

We ought to look at the whole context. Let us see what it says in verses 19 and 20: “For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.”

So what is the answer to verse 21? The answer is to say, Let us read verses 19 and 20. Verses 19 and 20 say that man has no advantage over the beast; they all go to one place. They are all dust. When a man dies, he is in the same condition as a beast. The only hope is the resurrection, the future.

Ecclesiastes 9; 12; Psalm 6:5 and 115:17 are texts where the wise man talks about the state of the dead, that they do not know anything. But some of the most troublesome texts in the Bible, concerning the state of the dead, are in the New Misplaced Commas

Probably the easiest one of all to explain is what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. (See Luke 23:43.) Jesus said, “Truly I say to you today . . . .” Say it right, and it will help the person understand. After you say “today” just pause for a long time.

“Truly, I say to you today [right now, when we are both on the cross], you will be with Me in paradise.” Jesus did not say, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” How do we know that Jesus did not mean to say, “Today you will be with Me in paradise”? Can you prove it from the Bible? The answer is simple. He did not go there that day! How do we know that? Because, three days later, on the first day of the week, He said to Mary Magdalene, “I have not yet ascended to My Father . . . .” John 20:17.

According to Revelation 2:7, God’s throne is in paradise. Since, three days later, Jesus said, I have not gone yet, He was not intending to say to that man that he would be in paradise with Him that day, because He did not go there that day.

Incorrect Translations

Let us examine a text that is a little harder. “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Philippians 1:21–23.

Now when you just read this text the way it is stated in the English Bible, you are in deep trouble. You can read it over and over again, and you only have two choices: you live here in the flesh, or you depart to be with Christ. But there is a problem here, and the problem again is with the translation. Because in verse 23, the word between is an incorrect translation.

It was translated that way by translators who were trying to make it agree with what their preconceived opinion was, but that is not right at all. The Greek word that is translated between here, is the word that means out of. If you look in a Greek Lexicon, you will not find this word ever translated as between, except in this one text. It is not translated that way any place else in the Bible or in any other Greek literature, to my knowledge. Now if you put the words out of in this text, you will find that this text says something completely different. Look at verse 23 again. “For I am hard-pressed out of the two.” What does he mean hard-pressed out of the two? Paul did not want to stay here in the flesh, and he did not want to die either.

He said, Really, I am hard-pressed. I have a different desire, either staying with you or dying. What did he want to do? He wanted to be translated as was Enoch and go live with Christ. That would be far better than staying here, and it would be far better than death. Nevertheless, he says, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. So that is a little bit harder to explain than Luke 23:43, because here you have the problem with a bad translation.

I worked with an evangelist one time who used to have many Bible translations, and he would take the one that had the right translation of the text to show the person. I found that was a very convincing technique. I have never found an English Bible that has this right, so I do not ever bring it up to people, because most people cannot read Greek. They would be taking my word for it, unless they got a Strong’s Concordance and an Interlinear Bible and checked it out, which they could do. However, we need to know the facts. If it comes up, we ought to know what the truth is, so we can explain it any time.

Difficult Texts

Another text that is difficult to understand is 11 Corinthians 5. In 11 Corinthians 5:1–8, Paul is talking about the very same concept that he was talking about in Philippians 1—how we can remain here in this body of flesh or we can die and be unclothed, but he really does not want to do either of those things. He would rather go and be with the Lord.

It will take you several minutes to go through these verses. You have to go through them phrase by phrase by phrase, then analyze, what is he saying? Being clothed, being naked as in the state of death, being clothed in this temple, or to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. He is talking about three things, not two. If you keep that in mind, you will

Let us go now to the hardest one of all. The hardest text (passage) in the whole Bible about the state of the dead, for me, is Luke 16.

Now, this could happen to anybody—suppose you come up to a passage of Scripture that you cannot explain; it seems to teach contrary to what all the rest of the Bible teaches. What are you going to do? Are you going to throw out 100 Scriptures because there is a Scripture that you cannot explain?

That would be dangerous, would it not? So even if you could not explain this passage (Luke 16) at all, you would not want to throw out all the rest of what the Bible says on this subject. To really understand this passage, I recommend you read Christ’s Object Lessons, 260–271. The title of the chapter is “A Great Gulf Fixed.”

Luke 16:19–31 is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Ellen White says, “In this parable Christ was meeting the people on their own ground.” Ibid., 263. The next question is, What was their own ground? Did the people, in Christ’s day, understand the truth about the state of the dead? They did not. You can look in the writings of Josephus and the Jews. The Jews had developed a theory about how, after you died, you went down to a hot place. They even had described what kind of a place it was.

Jesus Meets Us Where We Are

Mrs. White says, “The doctrine of a conscious state of existence between death and the resurrection was held by many of those who were listening to Christ’s words.” Ibid. So did they believe that after you died you were in a conscious state? Yes, they did. They were confused. Now, friends, we are going to get into something that I cannot fully explain. Why did the Lord not choose to correct them?

We know what Jesus believed about death, because when we read John 11, the story of Lazarus, Jesus said when he was dead that he was asleep. Nevertheless, notice what Ellen White said Jesus did: “The Saviour knew of their ideas.” He knew these people believed that you were conscious after death. He knew what they were thinking, and what did He do? “And He framed His parable so as to inculcate present important truths through these preconceived opinions.” Ibid.

He took their preconceived opinions, which were all mixed up, and He said, I am going to teach you something. I am not even going to straighten you out on that, I am just going to teach you something. Now before you and I get to arguing too much with the Lord about why He did this, let me ask you this question. Has God ever taught you something when you were all mixed up, but He did not teach it all to you at once; He just taught you a little bit? Has that ever happened to you?

That has happened to me. God does not wait until our thinking is all straightened out on everything before He starts to teach us. Sometimes He starts to teach us right where we are. We may be all mixed up, and He just comes to us on our own ground. He says, Well, I am going to tell you a story. And what a story!

Teaching by Parables

What do we learn from this story? There are several things. First, the Jews thought that they were the favorites of heaven. Who went to heaven, and who went to hell in this story? The Gentile went to heaven, and the Jew went to hell! (See Ibid., 262, 268.) That was just the beginning. They also thought that if you were rich, that proved you were honored and blessed by God. If you were poor, that meant that the curse of God was upon you. Who went to heaven, and who went to hell in this story? The rich man went to hell, and the poor man went to heaven.

I am telling you, Jesus was turning their heads pretty hard in this story. But that is not all. There is something even more important. It taught that we are judged in the future by the life that we live in this world. Our eternal destiny is determined by the life that we live, and after we die, it cannot be changed.

After you die, your eternal destiny is fixed! Ellen White says, “He held up before His hearers a mirror wherein they might see themselves in their true relation to God. . . . Christ desires His hearers to understand that it is impossible for men to secure the salvation of the soul after death. . . . The rich man had spent his life in self-pleasing, and too late he saw that he had made no provision for eternity.” Ibid., 263, 264. Then she talks about the fact that everyone has a certain amount of light, and if they do not make use of the light that they have, they will be lost.

Remember what Abraham said to the rich man who begged, “Please, if somebody went to them from the dead, if a miracle were worked, then they would believe.” Abraham said, “No, they have Moses and the prophets. If they do not believe them, they will not believe even somebody who rose from the dead.” (See Ibid., 264.) Did that turn out to be true in the case of the Jewish nation? It did.

“The conversation between Abraham and the once-rich man is figurative.” Ibid., 265. Jesus is not describing something that ever happened or that ever will happen in reality. It is a parable to illustrate certain things to the Jewish nation. Now if you study this chapter in Christ’s Object Lessons, you will find that this parable is a special teaching device of Jesus, not just for the Jewish nation. There is a whole section in this chapter to show that this parable has a special application to people who are living in the time of the end of the world. That is you and me. Now we have not exhausted the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We have barely scratched the surface. This parable is one of the most instructive and comprehensive parables that Jesus told.

Preparing to Give an Answer

Do I have the right, on the basis of this story that Jesus told, using their preconceived opinions and giving it in figurative language, to say that you are conscious after death? No, I do not at all. Jesus has told us plainly in John 11 what He believes about the state of the dead and so have the prophets and so have the apostles.

There is a gulf, an uncertain time, and when a person dies, that gulf is fixed. That is why death is so serious and so solemn, because once a person dies their eternal destiny is fixed.

As long as you are alive, if you are on the wrong side—you can still change your destiny. You can change it either way, according to Ezekiel 18. Do you want to be headed toward the right place? Do not wait and think that you will do it just before death. That is not so easily done, and besides that, very often death comes suddenly, without time to change.

This parable about the rich man and Lazarus helps us to look at death in a completely different way. Death is not something to be afraid of or about which to worry. It is simply something for which to be prepared. We need to always be prepared.

The only way to live, and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us this, is to be ready all the time, to have your life committed to the Lord Jesus all the time, because then you are ready to live for Him. But if you die, you are ready for that, too. You do not need to worry about it, because if you are in Christ, the moment you close your eyes in death, in what will just seem a second to you, you will open them up again and have a new body.

You will have eternal life. According to the parable, you will be in Abraham’s bosom. That is figurative language, too, of course, for Heaven.

Friend, every one of you is going to be tested on this pillar of our faith. I hope that you are all ready for that test. I hope that you are ready to give an answer for your faith, with meekness and fear, to everyone that asks you. Show them what the Bible teaches, so when they hear about an apparition, and when they hear about Peter, or James, or John, or Mary, the Mother of Jesus, appearing, they will know who it is and will not be deceived. [Bible texts given in literal translation.]

The Consecrated Way, Part IV

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We have been making our way through the passage of Scripture found in 2 Peter 1—Peter’s ladder. Centuries before, Jacob, when fleeing from Esau, laid his head on a rock, weary from the flight. There, in visions of the night, God gave Jacob a dream of a ladder that extended from the earth to heaven. The ladder was meaningful to Jacob. It assured him that God was with him; it encouraged him that there is indeed a ladder extending from earth to heaven. Peter picks up where this dream left off by presenting the idea that Jesus is coming again and that we need to get ready for that wonderful and great event by climbing the ladder. Sister White makes it very clear that each rung of that ladder is important to us in reaching the kingdom of heaven.

“The apostle Peter presents before us the ladder of progress that we must climb round by round in order to meet the approval of God. [2 Peter 1:5–7 quoted.] Those who would make men of honor, men of trust, men of fidelity, must begin to be faithful in the smallest matters, and they must begin at home. Everyone who would be perfect must mount this ladder of progress. Many have neglected to put their feet upon the first rounds of the ladder. They want to mount to the topmost rounds without the trouble of climbing, but the only sure way is to take the painstaking way of going up by gradual advance, round after round.” Signs of the Times, May 25, 1891.

“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. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience ….”
2 Peter 1:3–6.

The Climb Gets Harder

When we arrive at patience, we find that we are half way up the ladder in the goal that leads to Christian perfection of character. The climb does not seem to be getting any easier. As a matter of fact, it is getting somewhat more difficult. There are some folks who are afraid of heights. They do not like to climb very far for fear of falling.

The rung of this ladder, called patience, is one that speaks to every one of us—so elusive and yet so desirable. Webster defines patience: “The state, quality, power or fact of being patient.” It does not say a whole lot to us, does it? What is patience? Further research results in three meanings that come to bear on our climb:

  1. bearing pains or trials calmly without complaint,
  2. manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain, and
  3. being steadfast, despite opposition, difficulty or adversity.

I would like to suggest that each one of these meanings has an application to the Christian today, as he is looking for the soon return of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of glory. Revelation 14:12 serves as a hallmark for Seventh-day Adventists. After having outlined the events that will surround the last generation just before Jesus comes, the proclamation of the Three Angels’ Messages, John wrote, under inspiration, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Beautiful Harmony

It is marvelous to see the harmony of the words of inspiration. Peter must have known that patience was a necessary part of character development for the last generation. He gave direction through the Spirit of God that patience was a part of that development. Then, through the same Spirit while John sees the culmination of all the events of earth’s history, he writes, “Here is the patience of the saints.”

Someone once said that, “Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherished of love, the teacher of humility. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, and subdues pride. Patience bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples on temptations, endures persecutions, and consummates martyrdom. Patience produces unity in the church, loyalty in the state, harmony in families and societies. She comforts the poor and moderates the rich. She makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, and is unmoved by reproach. She teaches us to forgive those who have injured us and to be first in asking forgiveness of those whom we have injured. She delights the faithful and invites the unbelieving. She adorns the woman and approves the man. Patience is beautiful in either sex and every age.” The Royal Path of Life, © 1997 Bud and Debbie Neptune, R. R. 1 Box 131a, Dawn MO 64638 <http://www.royalpath.com/pat.htm> (cited March 26, 2002).

It is a little better than Webster’s definition, is it not? This is what Peter is telling us that we need to add to temperance. I believe there is significance to the order in which these Christian graces were given. Add to temperance, patience. Did you know that we cannot have patience without temperance? What affects the body affects the mind.

Continuing the Climb

What we fail to provide for physically we cannot expect to reap spiritually. On the other hand, it is also apparent that we can climb on to the rung of temperance and not climb any higher. We might be exercising all sorts of temperance in our lives; we may be eating all the right kinds of foods; we may have never violated any of the rules of health; we may be exercising, getting proper sleep; our temperance may be impeccable, yet we may lose eternal life, because we have not climbed any higher in the development of our Christian character.

This is what happened to the Pharisees. They were perfectionists in all their physical aspects—those things that could be seen, felt, and heard—but they were lost because they did not develop spiritually. They did not climb, as they should have. We have many Christians today who are classed in the same group as were the Pharisees. They are doing everything right as far as temperance and health reform is concerned, but they have not continued to climb higher.

Peter says that God’s plan for us is to climb that ladder, round by round, ultimately stepping off into the Promised Land. I hope that you have not stopped in your climb.

Bearing Pains or Trials

Have you added to your temperance, patience—the ability to bear pains or trials calmly without complaint? If things do not go just the way you want them to go, do you lose your patience? It is quite a trial. When you are crossed, do you fly off the handle? Do you lose control of yourself and perhaps rant or rave just a little bit? What would a non-Christian think if he were to come upon you then? What is the angel writing down? Sometimes our lack of patience causes us to say things that will condemn us in the judgment, because every word is recorded.

Have you been able to manifest forbearance under provocation or strain? I remember a neighbor of ours who, when I was just a boy, had an old Packard car. The old Packard engines were straight eights, and they had a long hood on them. It was in the wintertime, and he had run the battery down trying to get the car started, so he tried starting the engine by using a crank. He cranked and cranked, but it still did not start. So, in his lack of patience, he pulled the crank out of its place and began to beat it across the hood, the fenders, and the headlights. When that did not produce the amount of satisfaction he wanted, he shattered the windshield with the crank. But that did not start the car either.

He was not a Christian, but surprisingly there are Christians who display similar behavior. Patience. Oh, golden patience. Have you been able to be steadfast despite opposition, difficulty or adversity? If you have not developed patience, what do you suppose it is going to be like when you find yourself in the throes of the events that are going to transpire just before Jesus comes?

Steadfast Despite Adversity?

I do not know whether you sense it or not, but it seems to me, at least in these last few years, that the intensity of everything is growing. How are we going to fare? Are we going to be steadfast despite opposition and difficulty or adversity? As we have heard, we have not yet seen anything compared to what is coming. Do you have the patience of the saints that will see you through those times?

The apostle Peter is not the only one who understands the need for patience as a Christian virtue. Paul, writing to the Romans, tells them something similar. “Let love be without dissimulation [hypocrisy]. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.” Romans 12:9–12.

As a matter of fact, Paul mentions patience in his writings more than all the other Bible writers put together. “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:36, 37.

Paul tells us here that the kingdom of God comes with patience. We cannot rush ahead of God; we need to have patience. We might consider ourselves ready, but while He is working for the salvation of others, we need to have patience. If we are not ready to meet the Lord with peace in our hearts, we need to commit ourselves to Christ today.

Not the Only One

You are not the only one with whom Jesus is working. You are not the only one with whom the Holy Spirit is striving to bring to a knowledge of salvation. While we may be ready, there are others who are not, and it calls upon us for patience to wait for God’s timing.

Patience calls for us to wait upon the Lord to do His will. Deliverance will come; Paul says it will come with patience. In the meantime, there are things in our lives on which we need to work.

Moses Makes a Mess of Things

The Bible tells of a man who thought that he knew more than he did about the situation in which he found himself, and he did not exercise patience when he should have. It did not prove to be very healthful for some people. The children of Israel went into Egypt to keep from starving to death during a famine. Joseph made provision for them under the guidance of God, but finally Joseph died, and they were still in Egypt.

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.” Exodus 1:8–12.

God’s plan did not provide for them to remain in bondage. So a deliverer was born—born with a destiny to free God’s children from their bondage. “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian . . . .” Exodus 2:11–15.

Moses, because of a lack of patience, made a mess of the whole plan of God. We should each ask ourselves: Am I working in the plan of God, or am I working in a frustrating, impatient way against the plan of God? Moses had every advantage, but the thing that he lacked was patience.

There is no question in my mind that Moses knew that God had something special in mind for him to help his people. There was too much connected with his life, too many providential leadings, for him not to know. But Moses was not a man who was a patient man. According to Acts 7:22, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” Interestingly, all that wisdom, all that might in words and in deeds, all that he could do was not enough to undo what he had done through lack of patience.

Angel Ministry

“The elders of Israel were taught by angels that the time for their deliverance was near, and that Moses was the man whom God would employ to accomplish this work. Angels instructed Moses also that Jehovah had chosen him to break the bondage of His people. . . . In slaying the Egyptian, Moses had fallen into the same error so often committed by his fathers, of taking into their own hands the work that God had promised to do. It was not God’s will to deliver His people by warfare, as Moses thought . . . .” Patriarchs and Prophets, 245, 247.

Are there times when you think that God has a plan of which you are to be a part, and you are determined to do it your way? Your way may have been the way you were taught and trained and the way that you have always done it, so you think that is the way it always has to be. You might be surprised. Moses was. Moses was trained; he had all the skill and wisdom of the Egyptians. He thought he would do things his way! Lo and behold, it was not God’s way at all. Why? Because God was patient; Moses was not.

Unlearning

“It was not God’s will to deliver His people by warfare, as Moses thought, but by His own mighty power, that the glory might be ascribed to Him alone. Yet, even this rash act was overruled by God to accomplish His purposes. Moses was not prepared for his great work. He had yet to learn the same lesson of faith that Abraham and Jacob had been taught—not to rely upon human strength or wisdom, but upon the power of God for the fulfillment of His promises. And there were other lessons that, amid the solitude of the mountains, Moses was to receive. In the school of self-denial and hardship he was to learn patience, to temper his passions.” Ibid., 247.

Moses, at 45, was a young man in his prime. He was in the first one-third of his life. It took him almost the same amount of time, another 40 years, to unlearn what he had learned in the courts of Pharaoh.

What have you learned in the first one-third of your life? Have you been adding those virtuous graces to your character, or will you need to unlearn what you learned before? Do you wonder why things are going so slow, why things are not progressing as rapidly as they should?

Sometimes it is much more difficult to use a used ball of string than a ball of string that is new, because a used ball of string can snarl easier. If you have ever tried to unsnarl a ball of string, you know what it is like. That is your life. That is what God is trying to work through now. For Moses, who had all the skills, all the background, all the wonders of education and experience, God had to take his life and unsnarl it. God said, “Now, I will give you some sheep to herd; let that unsnarl your mind.”

Learning Patience

If there is anything that can teach a person how to be patient, it is herding sheep. Reflect back upon what God did with David and Moses and other sheepherders. What a marvelous lesson in the school of self-denial and hardship—you will learn patience, control of your temper.

During the next 40 years Moses learned patience. He learned meekness, and finally, when he had gone through a transition and change, God called him back to deliver Israel. Exodus tells the story: “And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” Exodus 4:10.

Moses did the job that the Lord had called him to do, and he was able to do the job because he had learned patience. How many of us have felt a calling to do a job for the Lord, but we find that many times we have run ahead of the Lord, that the timing just was not quite right? Do we stand back and learn the lesson that we failed to learn, to do it in God’s time? Or do we just shove ahead? This is a question we need to ask ourselves. Moses stood back and learned God’s lessons.

Is God calling you to do a great work? How is your patience with your wife? How is your patience with your husband? How is your patience with your children? Do you say mean and passionate words to them? Are you in the Lord’s will? Are you in a position that will provide avenues for the Lord to use you?

If not, the Lord may have to deal with you in a way that may not at all be pleasant. The Bible says that the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (See 2 Peter 3:9.) If you are impatient, there is no way that the Lord can take you to heaven. God forbid that we should ever reach a point, like the children of Israel of old, who, seeing they see not; hearing they hear not. (See Matthew 13:13.)

A Last Day People

The word patience is used more in the book of Revelation than in any other book of the Bible. Paul used it more, totally, but as far as books are concerned, it is used the most in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the book of last things, the special book that has been given to guide God’s people through the last days.

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. I get the distinct impression that unless we are able to have patience—patience that is developed through association with family, church members, jobs, business associates, the trials that come day by day—we are not keeping the commandments of God nor are we able to have the faith of Jesus.

That becomes pretty serious, does it not? The question that we need to ask ourselves then, is this: Can we afford to give vent to our impatience and to forfeit our growth in this area and lose out in the end because we have not been able to climb any higher in the ladder of character development?

God has made every provision for us to go higher. We will never be able to stand before the Lord and say, “Well, you know, it was not possible, Lord, for me to obtain patience.” Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. “I overcame impatience,” He says, “and you can, too.”

He was tempted in all points just like we are tempted, yet without sin. (See Hebrews 4:15.) He had no advantage over us—we are starting at the same place Jesus started, but He has walked the road before us, and He says, I am by your side, My grace is sufficient, you can add to your temperance, patience.