Salvation

Heart Obedience

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Have you ever known someone who is always questioning things? Surely we have all been around an inquisitive youngster whose every other word, it seems, is “Why?” Asking questions is how we learn.

Perhaps you have wondered what makes a Christian a Christian or contemplated about the experience into which the true gospel would lead you. Perhaps you have pondered sanctification and what comprises it, or mused about the experience you must have that will allow God to redeem you. Have you wanted to know what makes God’s people on this earth distinct and separate from the world?

An Alternative to Sin

Interestingly, each of these queries are answered with the same three-word phrase: Obedience to God.

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19. That statement tells us that there is an alternative to sin. It also tells us what sin is—it is disobedience. God is going to redeem us through obedience, by the experience of obedience. Do you notice it says, “So by the obedience of one . . . .” Who was that One? Jesus! Jesus’ obedience was perfect. Jesus’ obedience took Him to the cross, where He paid the penalty for our disobedience!

God Prepared the Way

Could we say that righteousness is obedience? Yes, and we are not taking anything away from it. God has made a way through His Son, Jesus Christ, to make us obedient to His will, to His law.

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. So, God said, I am going to make you righteous, obedient to My law. It is a wonderful thing that God has given us an alternative to disobedience. That alternative is obedience. God says, “I am going to make you righteous through My Son, through His sacrifice for you. I want to bring you back into harmony with My will, My law; I want you to be an obedient child.”

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Romans 6:16. That text tells us that obedience is our choice. Another thing that text reveals is that everybody in this wide world of ours is obeying someone.

Learning Obedience

As we look at these statements, inspired by God through the apostle Paul, we are looking at how encompassing is obedience to the plan of salvation. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Hebrews 5:8. This text tells us that Jesus himself, coming into this world as a human being, learned obedience.

We just saw in Romans 6 that we learn obedience by first choosing it. So Jesus chose to obey, and He learned it through the things which He suffered. Sometimes, when we obey God, we may suffer, but if we continue to choose to obey God, we are going to grow up in that suffering; we are going to truly learn what it means to obey God.

Now notice, “And being made perfect, he [Jesus] became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Verse 9. Do you see how encompassing the word and the action of obedience is in regard to the plan of redemption? You cannot get around it. It is there. Obedience is the issue of salvation.

Our Saviour was obedient, and He says that He is able to save every one who will obey Him. Now if we hear of a gospel that eliminates obedience from the plan of salvation, do you think that that is the true gospel? No, and we have not even looked at the whole of the subject yet.

Making a Choice

God clarifies even more fully what obedience means and what the end will be to those who choose not to obey. “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” Romans 2:8, 9. This is not an arbitrary decree on the part of God, because we are making the choice. God is just confirming our decision and saying, this is where your decision is leading you; do you want to continue in that direction?

We are told in Galatians 6 that God will not be mocked. What a man soweth, that is what he is going to reap. And that is all we are seeing here in Romans 2. Do you see how God reiterates things to us in various ways? I was told early on in my life that a good teacher is a teacher who always reiterates.

There is a difference between redundancy and repetition. God is not redundant, but He is repetitious. Repetition is telling us over and over again what is necessary for us to know. Being redundant is telling us over and over again that which is not necessary. God is very repetitious with us, because He loves us.

Notice what the people are who choose not to obey: “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth . . . .” Verse 8. The truth is what God wants us to obey.

Rejecting Truth Rejects Jesus

The truth goes far beyond mere doctrine. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life . . . .” John 14:6. Did you know that all truth that we read about in God’s word has its origin in a Person? Every truth.

Every truth has its origin in Jesus! All the light we have comes from Him. Should we respond with warmer hearts? Oh, yes! He wants us to obey not merely the letter of the doctrine, He wants us to obey Him. He is able to give eternal life to all those who obey Him. (See Hebrews 5:9.)

Even though it is truth, if we try to obey it to the letter, not sensing it has come from Jesus, we will never obey in the manner in which God wants us to obey.

True obedience is where the true gospel leads us—into an experience in order that God can save us some day. Out there in the universe where there are innumerable worlds that have never fallen into sin—they obey God. It is interesting to learn, as we study Scripture, that everything which God created obeys Him, except man.

Even the demons and unclean spirits obey God. (See Mark 1:23–26.) Inanimate nature obeys Him; the wind and the sea obey Him. (See Mark 4:37, 39.) The angels in heaven obey Him. (See Testimonies, vol. 2, 271.) So if you and I are planning to go to heaven, where everybody is in obedience to God because they love Him for the kind of God that He is, then we are going to have to have that kind of experience. “All true obedience comes from the heart. [Where you see the word “true,” you can always know that there is a counterfeit.] It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience.” The Desire of Ages, 668.

Did you notice that obedience is linked up with knowing God? That is why, if we obey Him, we obey all the truth as it is in Him, as He gives it to us. But we are going to have true obedience only if we are motivated by a knowledge of Him, not just merely a knowledge of doctrine. A popular message from pulpits today is one of a relationship gospel. There is a lot of truth in that, because if we know God, we are going to love Him, and when we love Him, we are going to obey Him and keep all of His commandments. It is going to be our highest delight to please Him, and part of that pleasing Him is obeying.

Faith

Hebrews 11 is known as the faith chapter. You may wonder why this is not called the obedience chapter, but faith precedes all true obedience.

Notice verse 4: “By faith Abel offered . . . .” Verse 7: “By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark . . . .” Verse 8: “By faith Abraham . . . obeyed . . . .” Verse 28: “Through faith he [Moses] kept the passover . . . .” Verse 30: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down . . . .” What followed faith in every instance? Obedience! Genuine obedience will always be preceded by genuine faith.

Is Justification Enough?

We hear a lot today in Christianity about justification by faith. There are those who believe that justification in and of itself is enough. That is the theology that accepts that Calvary is sufficient. When we take that concept, we negate the work in the sanctuary by Jesus after He left this earth and went back to heaven.

Is Calvary enough? Is justification enough? Is it enough just to be forgiven? No, we already read in Romans 5:19 that God has made a way through the death of His Son, through His obedience, to make us a righteous or obedient people. That deals with sanctification. Peter says, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience . . . .” 1 Peter 1:2.

God wants to justify us through the obedience of His Son and His sacrifice in our behalf for our past, and now He wants to bestow upon us His Spirit by which He will sanctify us unto obedience. So the whole plan of redemption focuses on bringing us back into an attitude of complete obedience to God’s will. If we are hearing any other gospel, and sad to say, many are, it is not the true gospel.

Sanctification

God, by His Spirit, sanctifies us, and that sanctification is unto obedience. The messenger of God tells us that obedience, true sanctification, maintains our justification experience for us: “As the sinner looks to the law, his guilt is made plain to him, and pressed home to his conscience, and he is condemned. His only comfort and hope is found in looking to the cross of Calvary. As he ventures upon the promises, taking God at His word, relief and peace come to his soul. He cries, ‘Lord, Thou hast promised to save all who come unto Thee in the name of Thy Son. I am a lost, helpless, hopeless soul. Lord, save, or I perish.’ His faith lays hold on Christ, and he is justified before God.

“But while God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul with the garments of Christ’s righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties. God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 366.

Grace is the Way

God says, through the apostle Paul, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9. We have said this before—our total salvation comes by way of God. Every step we make in progress is from Him as we choose to respond.

Do you see that it is by grace only that we are saved? We are not saved by what we do for ourselves. It is by allowing God’s grace to work in us through His Spirit unto sanctification (see 1 Peter 1:2), unto obedience, that we are saved.

Grace is the only way that we can be brought back into harmony with God. God is trying to tell us what He wants to do for us. Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works . . . .” Ephesians 2:10. Good works is just another way of saying obedience. The end of grace is obedience.

“What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” Romans 6:1, 2. You do not continue to disobey because you have grace. Notice verse 17: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”

That is a “from the heart” experience. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under [condemned by] the law, but under grace.” Verse 14. If we are receiving the grace of God, then we have been pardoned—forgiven. That is why we are not under the condemnation of the law. “What then? shall we sin [continue to disobey], because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Verse 15.

Means to the End

Put that thought [that we can be saved in our sins] far from you, Paul says, yet that thought is the theology of the day! What the theologians are preaching in the churches of Christianity today is a twisting and a perversion of Scripture. When preachers say, “Justification is all;” when they say, “Calvary is enough;” when they say, “Just to be forgiven is sufficient;” when they say, “Grace is all there is,” they are wrong. Grace is not the end. It is the means to the end, which is obedience.

The New Covenant is not new; it is the original covenant. Abraham and Moses were saved in the same manner as we are saved—by grace, through faith, unto obedience.

But God gives a wonderful promise, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Hebrews 8:10. If you and I are going to be the people of God, His law will be in our minds and in our hearts. Who puts it there? God does. Who chooses to have Him put it there? You and I do.

Jesus gives another wonderful promise to the Laodicean church (us) in Revelation 3:21: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

The question is, What did Jesus overcome? He overcame the temptation to sin! He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15. What is sin? It is the transgression of God’s law, or disobedience.

If Jesus was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin, what does that tell us? He never disobeyed! Then how did He overcome sin? By obedience. “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my heart.” Psalm 40:7, 8. God’s law was in His heart and He continually chose to obey His Father. This is the experience He wants us to have, the experience of overcoming sin by being obedient to God’s Word.

Obedience Brings Victory

Jesus says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10. Keeping the commandments will give us victory over sin. Obedience is the means by which God gives us victory over sin. He writes His law upon our hearts and we are brought into harmony with His law by our choice.

“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. . . . 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.” 1 John 3:6, 9. The experience that Jesus had in regard to obedience to His Father’s will, His law, is the experience that He has called us to have. Any experience other than that will not allow us to some day be a part of His kingdom. That is the only experience that will give us victory over sin.

“Christ came to this world and lived the law of God, that man might have perfect mastery over the natural inclinations which corrupt the soul. . . . Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse.” The Ministry of Healing, 130, 131.

“When one surrenders to Christ, the mind is brought under the control of the law; but it is the royal law, which proclaims liberty to every captive,” if we choose to obey it. Ibid., 131.

It is very obvious that obedience is not an optional experience in the Christian life. It is required. If we are going to be brought back into harmony with God’s will, we must be obedient.

Two Forms of Obedience

There are two forms of obedience between which all professed Christians can choose. There are only two, so it is not a hard decision. We know that if there is a true obedience, there is also a counterfeit or false obedience. It appears to be genuine, but it does not lead to heaven.

In an encounter Jesus had with a young man, both forms of obedience are shown. One is inferred; the other is directly brought to view. “And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Matthew 19:16.

This young man was sincere and earnest, but these qualities were not enough to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded: “Why callest thou me good? [There is] none good but one, [that is,] God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Verse 17.

Obedience! That is what Jesus told him. The young man wanted to know for certain which commandments Jesus meant. So Jesus made it very clear to him, as He always does for anyone who is sincere. He repeated to him what we recognize as the last six of the ten commandments. (See verses 18, 19.) Jesus said, “If you keep these commandments, you shall have life eternal.”

But the young man responded: “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” Verse 20. Did he have obedience? Yes, he had a form of obedience. However, he was not satisfied with the obedience that he was offering to God, because he was not gaining complete victory in his life. Complete victory over sin comes by way of true, perfect obedience to God.

The next verse tells us what constitutes true obedience: “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.” “Follow me” means to obey. Jesus got right to the heart of the issue. He pointed out to this young man that true obedience is heart obedience; it is spiritual obedience. Physical obedience is necessary, but God’s law goes beyond physical obedience—it goes right to the heart, and the heart of the issue with this rich, young man was selfishness—covetousness.

Jesus presented him the opportunity of true obedience. “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” Verse 22. He was a sorrowful Christian when he left Jesus, because he chose to retain a form of obedience that would not lead to complete victory over sin. He chose compromising obedience.

Head or Heart Obedience

Where are we in our personal experience with God in regard to obedience? Do we have merely a head obedience like that rich, young man, or do we have the heart obedience that Jesus had?

True obedience does not compromise. Jesus did not compromise a bit with this young man. He did not tell him to go and give 80 percent of what he had to the poor. It was all! He did not say, “Come and follow Me one day a week.” He said, “Sell all that you have, and come follow Me all the time.”

Do you know what the joy of Jesus is? It is overcoming. He overcame the temptation to sin through complete obedience to His Father’s law. Heart obedience is what we need. True obedience will always express God’s love in our life to others.

Paul said, in Romans 13:10, “Love [is] the fulfilling of the law.” We could say it this way: Love is the fulfilling of all true obedience to God. If we are someday going to reach our final destination—heaven—obedience is necessary. No matter what any man may say, obedience is not an option!

Power, Righteousness, Certainty, and Eternity

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We are living in a troubled world. Every time we listen to the news on the radio, pick up a newspaper, or look at the television, there is trouble somewhere, and the trouble seems to continually worsen, just as God said it would.

God tells us the reason we live in perilous times: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” 2 Timothy 3:1–4. That is quite a list! Living in the last days, we could expect that godless people, professing nothing of God, would be acting this way. But verse 5 tells us about whom God is talking: “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

Perilous times will come as a result of those professing to be God’s people acting like the world. These people have a form of godliness, a profession of godliness, but they are lacking the power of godliness in their lives.

Jesus tells us more about these people in Revelation. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked . . . .” Revelation 3:17.

Jesus is saying that these people who have a form of godliness but deny the power, believe they have the power. They are totally deceived. They say that they are increased with goods and have need of nothing. Yet Jesus says, You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, without power. If they believe they have the power with the form of godliness, they must be sensing something that gives them an idea that they have the power.

What are some things that would make them believe that they have the power, when in reality they have no power? We hear about such things in Christianity today. Professed Christianity is boasting of its increased number of members, and when we see those numbers, and the increase of wealth, and the larger-sized church buildings being constructed, what might we think? We might think they have the power of God. What about their influence, the influence they seem to have on the world? Could this lead them to believe that their influence means they have the power of God? What about their good works? There are many good works being done by professed Christian institutions today. Can we rely upon works as evidence that they have the power of God? What about the unity that we see coming into the midst of professed Christendom, do they call that the power of God?

Power of the Word

All, or any one, of these things might lead them to believe that they have the power of God working in their lives. But God says, They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power. What is this power that God says is lacking among His professed people in the last days? Paul describes it: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3. The power that is lacking is the power of the Word of God in the lives of His professed people! Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God—God speaks and something happens! The things that we see are not made of things that appear.

“In the creation of the earth, God was not indebted to preexisting matter. ‘He spake, and it was; . . . He commanded, and it stood fast.’ Psalm 33:9. All things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things therein, came into existence by the breath of His mouth.” The Ministry of Healing, 414, 415.

There are many things that we have seen that are very powerful, but there is nothing as powerful as the Word of the living God. God can take nothing and make something out of it! Nothing else that we can think of is that powerful. God says, I brought all things into existence by a word that I spoke. Even though you think you are nothing, God can make you something, if you are willing to receive His Word. God’s Word is the most powerful thing in the entire universe.

How powerful is it? Peter says God’s Word is so powerful it can separate a sinner from his sins: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23. Not only does God’s Word bring inanimate nature into being, it can change animate nature, your nature, my nature, back into the original intention of His mind for our creation.

How powerful does Paul say God’s Word is? “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. The Word of God makes things happen instantaneously. We do not have to wait and wonder, if we choose to receive God’s Word. We can believe that whatever He has promised is happening.

How is God able to separate a sinner from his sins? God says, through the apostle Paul, “All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16, 17. If the sinner receives God’s Word, it will correct him. Most of the time we do not like to be corrected, because we think that we are right. But we have been proven wrong. God’s Word is able to help us see the difference between what is right and what is wrong. If we are willing to receive God’s Word, He is able to correct us.

God’s Words are Righteous

Besides being the most powerful thing in the entire universe, there is another quality to God’s Word. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Isaiah 45:22, 23. All of God’s words are righteousness. He says they shall not return. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11.

God’s words are not empty words. God never speaks empty words—He speaks words of righteousness, and He said His words will accomplish what He intends for them to do. And they will accomplish what He wants today. God wants us to not only hear the words He has spoken but to receive them. He has something in mind to accomplish in us.

All of God’s words are righteousness. He does everything right; He says everything right, and when He says we need Him, He means what He says, and all we have to do is believe and respond in simple faith, taking Him at His Word. Remember, His Word is the most powerful thing in the whole universe. His Word brought this universe into existence. His Word can help separate you from sin and make you fully His. He wants to see His Word prosper in us!

What makes God’s words righteousness? “Thy righteousness also, O God, [is] very high, who hast done great things: O God, who [is] like unto Thee!” Psalm 71:19. Why does God speak words that are righteousness? Because He is righteous, so the words that He speaks are righteous. We have all at some time spoken words of unrighteousness, because our character is unrighteous, but He wants us to be like Him.

“The righteousness of God is absolute. [You can depend on it.] This righteousness characterizes all His works, all His Laws.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 198. Those ten brief commandments, by which God is going to judge the entire world, have been given in righteousness. It means that the Ten Commandment Laws which God has created are for our benefit. They are laws that are right for you and me, if we will receive them.

John says it well, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. They are not grievous, because they are right for us. His words are all powerful; His words are all righteous!

Words of Certainty

There is another quality, revealed in Proverbs 22:20 and 21, which God’s Word possesses. Solomon says, under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, “Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?” The only words of truth in this world today, the pure truth, are the words of the living God that come to us from His Holy Book.

There is certainty in God’s Word. We just saw that God’s righteousness is absolute; we see now that God’s Word is certain. We can trust what it says about us; we can trust what it promises to us, because the God of righteousness stands behind it. The reception of God’s Word is the most powerful thing that can happen to us in our lives. It can change us! That is the expected end that God has in mind for His Word. That is what He wants it to accomplish in us. It can do what God intended for it to do, if we are willing to receive it. It is certain! Its warnings are certain, and its promises are just as certain. We can rely fully upon God’s Word. It can correct us; it can reprove us; it can instruct us in righteousness; it can make us perfect in character, like Him.

God’s Word Eternal

There is one more quality to consider in regards to God’s Word: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8. The Word of God is not only powerful, not only filled with righteousness, not only certain, but it will last through eternity!

Word Became Flesh

Man’s condition in this world, without God’s Word, is one of hopelessness. The Word of God is the only hope for man, but God saw that man was going to need more than the written Word, so He devised a plan: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1–3. Who is the Word? The Word is Jesus Christ. He proclaims Himself to be the Word. Now notice what the Word became: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Verse 14. The Word became flesh! God became man! Why? to reach man where he is with the Word, the most powerful thing in God’s entire universe.

“Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour’s life on earth, we see ‘God with us.’ ” The Desire of Ages, 24.

Jesus not only came into this world to be our substitute, to pay the penalty for our transgressing God’s Law, which penalty is death (see Romans 6:23), but He came to be something more. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.” 1 Peter 2:21. Jesus is not only our substitute, but He is our example. This is where nominal Christianity parts ways with true Christianity. The majority of the professed Christian world wants nothing to do with following the steps of Jesus. They are satisfied with speaking His name; they are satisfied with singing His songs; they are satisfied with praying to Him, but they do not want to go further.

Christ our Example

“By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey.” The Desire of Ages, 24. How did Jesus, in the flesh, realize the power of His own Word? How did He recognize the righteousness of His own Word in His life? How did He recognize the certainty of His own Word? “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. Jesus met every temptation with the Word of God—the Words that He had spoken. His own Words were the power of His life. He not only listened to His Word, but He received it; He acted upon it; He met every temptation with “It is written.” (See Matthew 4:4.)

How is it with us? Are we following the example that He has left us? Do we believe that His Word has power in it to separate us from our sins, to make us like He was regarding every temptation? There is only one thing that can produce such an experience as that of Jesus, an experience that we have been called to receive. Only one thing can produce such a life. As Christians, we are called to be like Him. The secret to becoming like Jesus is found in Psalm 119:11: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

You see, God’s Word was hidden in the heart of Jesus. He met every temptation with a “Thus saith the Lord.” He recognized where temptation would lead, and He said, No! He did not go beyond the temptation, and He wants to give us that kind of power, that kind of righteousness, that kind of certainty in our lives. We can have it, if we are willing to receive His Word, not merely believe it.

His Law in our Hearts

The only thing that can produce such a life is having the Word of God in our hearts. What else is going to be in the heart of such a life? “The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God [is] in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.” Psalm 37:30, 31.

God wants to help us make progress in the Christian life. We do not have to be backslidden, and if we recognize that we are, then God is calling us to the power of His Word, because God wants us to experience eternity with Him. If we are to receive God’s Word in our hearts, His Law will be in our hearts.

“The word of God must be interwoven with the living character of those who believe it. The only vital faith is that faith which receives and assimilates the truth till it is a part of the being and the motive power of the life and action.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 576.

Until the Word of God is received, we are left destitute of the very power of that Word.

Believing and Receiving

You may ask, How can I know if I am believing and receiving, or just believing? I would ask you, How did you meet the temptations of yesterday? Do you sense and see that you were defeated? Then you are merely a believer, not a receiver. If you sense victory, you are a believer and a receiver; you are allowing the Word of God to do what God intended it to do in your life. You are becoming like Him.

There are four essential areas in which we need to cooperate with God’s Spirit to allow Him to produce a believing, receiving experience. The first three are found in one text of Scripture: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

The motivating factor of a believing, receiving Christian is found in the last phrase of that text. Paul recognized that Jesus loved him enough to die for him, to become his substitute. This was the motivating factor in the apostle’s life. Our love to God can never be the motivating factor in our Christian experience. It must always be His love for us—never, our love for Him. We are not to estimate our experience by what we are doing for God. We are to estimate our experience by what God has done, and is doing, for us.

This realization led the apostle Paul to declare the second essential: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” He further states: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14. When we recognize the tremendous love that God has for us personally, and that He was willing to demonstrate that love by becoming our substitute and dying in our place, we are going to be willing to die, to our sins, for Him.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” Is that not a paradox? We die, but we live? The Word of God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think. It may look like we are going to lose our lives if we give ourselves over to Him, but in fact, we gain everything—we have won.

Paul recognized the love God had for him, personally, and he was willing to, with the help of God’s Spirit and His Word, to separate from his sins. But then he makes plain the third essential: “the life which I now live in the flesh [this fallen, sinful flesh] I live by the faith of the Son of God.” He was living the faith; he was exercising the faith that Jesus exercised. What kind of faith did Jesus have that Paul said he was also exercising?

We can get a glimpse of Jesus’ faith: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:1–3.

Jesus had the faith of a child—the faith of a child who knew that His parent loved Him, and He chose to love that parent. That is the kind of faith we must have.

The fourth and final essential that we need if we are going to have a believing, receiving experience is found in Luke 11:28: “He said, Yea rather, blessed [are] they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you are Spirit and life. And to those who hear them and keep them, they will have the power of God, the righteousness of God, the certainty of God, and they will have an eternity with God.

Such an experience that we have studied is answered by the good ground hearer in Matthew 13; it is answered by the wise virgins in Matthew 25; it is answered by the man who built his house on a rock versus the man who built his house on the sand in Luke 6. What we have just studied from the Word of God, is the truth of God to our hearts if we are willing to receive it.

Are we allowing God’s Word to do its work? If we are, we shall have the power that we need; we will have the righteousness, the certainty, and we will have an eternity with God.

Craig Meeker directs the Bible correspondence school for Steps to Life Ministry.

The Ups and Downs of the Christian Experience

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There are many examples in the Bible of the ups and downs of the Christian experience. No disciple had more ups and downs than Peter. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus told Peter, “You are Petros [Peter], and upon this petra [large rock] I will build My church.” Then He said, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Verse 19.

Follow Me

In these verses, we see Peter on a mountaintop experience with the Lord. The Lord is giving him wonderful promises, promises that the gates of Hades will not prevail against this church. A few verses later, Jesus turns to Peter and says, “Get behind me, Satan.” Verse 23. Jesus called Peter Satan himself, because the devil was using him at that point in time. Peter is the only apostle to whom Jesus referred directly in this manner.

Another experience with Peter is given in John 21. In this chapter, several of the disciples were out in the sea fishing overnight but had no success catching fish. As it grew daylight, a person on the shore called to them, asking if they had any fish. When they responded that they did not, the man told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. When they did this, the net was so full of fish and so heavy that they could not pull it into the boat. The disciple John then told Peter that it was the Lord standing on the beach, about 300 feet away. Peter became so excited that he put his outer garment on, jumped into the sea, and swam to see the Lord. He could not wait for the boat to get there with the fish. After they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
” ‘Simon of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He saith to Him, ‘Yes, Lord: You know that I love You.’ He said, ‘Feed My sheep.’ ” Verse 15. That single question test is repeated three times.

Then Jesus added, ” ‘Most assuredly I say to you, that when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands [Jesus is talking about Peter being crucified—he would stretch forth his hands and be crucified just as Christ was crucified], and another will gird you [when you are nailed to a cross you cannot do anything for yourself] and lead you where you do not wish.’ And this He said, giving a sign by what death he [Peter] would glorify God. And this saying, He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ ” Verses 18, 19.

Ellen White, commenting on this experience with Peter, says, “Jesus walked alone with Peter, for there was something which He wished to communicate to him only. Before His death, Jesus had said to him, ‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.’ To this Peter had replied, ‘Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.’ John 13:36, 37.” The Desire of Ages, 815. What did Jesus mean, you cannot follow Me now? Peter did not then have the courage to go to the cross with Christ. What did he do that night? He denied Christ three times. (See Mark 14:66–72.) But he did follow Christ to the cross later.

Ellen White continues, “When he said this, he little knew to what heights and depths Christ’s feet would lead the way. Peter had failed when the test came, but again he was to have opportunity to prove his love for Christ. That he might be strengthened for the final test of his faith, the Saviour opened to him his future.” Ibid.

Not Singing Now

Peter did not have any idea of the heights and depths he would encounter as he followed Christ. Just as Peter had that experience, the early church had that experience; the children of Israel had that experience; the remnant church has that experience. God’s people, over and over again, have gone over heights that were so high they did not imagine they could be so wonderful. But then they have gone to depths that they could not imagine could be so awful. One of the things I want to concentrate on in this study is why God allows these kinds of things to happen. There are some people who wish that we could just smooth off the high places and fill in the low places and have everything level, but that is not the way the experience of God’s people will be. It goes high, and it goes low.

For example, when the armies of Pharaoh all drowned in the Red Sea, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Jehovah, and they spoke saying, ‘I will sing to Jehovah.’ ” Exodus 15:1. That is the time that Miriam took the timbrel (see verse 20), and they had a wonderful, exciting experience. They were so happy they could express it only by song, and they composed a song right on the spot. Miriam was the musician, and they sang the song recorded in this chapter. If we are faithful, we are going to sing the song of Moses some day.

But notice what happens just a few days later. They are not singing now! They are out in the desert. There is not enough water to drink, and the children of Israel come to Moses and Aaron to ask if they had brought the whole congregation out there to the desert to let them die of thirst. (See verses 22–24.) They said it would have been better if Jehovah had just killed them back in Egypt. They were not on a high experience now; they were in the depths of discouragement, depression, trouble, and worry. They got so upset that they lost all their faith in God.

Friends, when things happen that you thought could not happen, do you still trust in the Lord, or do you lose your trust? They lost their trust.

Keep Trusting

We see this same experience repeated in the lives of Daniel and his three companions, when they were taken captive to Babylon. They went up and down, up and down. They were afraid that they might lose their lives if they insisted on a different diet than the king provided. They chose to request it anyway, and the Lord blessed them. Not only did they have better health and appearance, but they excelled in school so that they were smarter than all the others, and the king decided to make them part of his special advisors. (See Daniel 1:11–20.) Life seemed wonderful!

A little while later, though, they were threatened with being put to death. The king had a dream; nobody could explain it, so the “wise” men were all to be killed. Daniel pleaded for 24 hours leniency. He and his three friends had a prayer meeting, asking the Lord for help. The Lord gave them the answer! He showed Daniel what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed. When this information was relayed to the king, Daniel and his three friends were immediately exalted to places of honor. (See Daniel 2:1–19, 48, 49.) All the wise men in the whole kingdom thought well of them, because they had saved their lives.

But a little while later, as the four worthies became more exalted, the other wise men became jealous. Soon they gathered in the Plain of Dura, and the king became furious when these Jewish captives would not bow down to the golden image he had made. Now they were down in discouraging circumstances again. They were thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing to the image. The Lord delivered them from the fire, and then they were exalted again. (See Daniel 3.)

Read the first six chapters of the book of Daniel, and see how many times they go up and down. The exciting thing about this story is that these young men had faith, and when they hit the bottom, they did not lose their faith and trust in God; they kept praying. They did not do like the children of Israel and say, “It would have been better for us if we had just died rather than be taken captive and go through this.”

The True Church

Their experience, from a human point of view, was totally unexplainable. People said to them, “Oh, you belong to the true church, do you? Well, where is your church? Where is your temple? We burned it down! Our gods are better than your God. Oh, you have the true religious service? You do not have a religious service anymore; there are no priests functioning. We do not observe any of the ceremonial law, it is all over.”

I asked some students one time, When Daniel and his three companions were in Egypt, where was the true church? Some people got angry that I even asked that question. Where was it? It seemed like it had ceased to exist, and we little comprehend how their faith was tested. There was nobody to explain how and why all these things were. If God really does have a people in the world, why are we in this mess? Daniel had to study this out, and his prayer in Daniel 9 shows that he figured out how and why all of this had happened. But he did not lose faith and trust in God even then. In fact, Daniel 9 is a chapter where Daniel is interceding to the Lord for His people—a people that it appeared did not exist anymore, but Daniel knew God had a people.

History Repeated

Those kinds of things are going to happen again. God’s people are not always going to be up on a high; they are sometimes going to be down low, when it looks like everything is going to ruin. Ellen White wrote: “Times that will try men’s souls are just before us, and those who are weak in the faith will not stand the test of those days of peril.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 273. Are you weak in faith, or are you strong in faith? To get through the low times, you will have to have a faith that will not quit when everything is unexplainable.

Ellen White says that the people are going to mock us in the last days. They will say, “Oh, you think that you are the true church? You think that you are God’s special people and that this handful of motley people are the only people in the world who have the truth?” She says, “The time that will try men’s souls are just before us. We shall then have no advocate to rebuke the devil and plead in our behalf.” Review and Herald, September 22, 1896. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for the time when you have no attorney, no advocate to make a plea in your behalf?

Are You a Deserter?

Not just Peter, but all of the disciples had these same types of experiences. In the first 13 verses of John 6, we read about the feeding of the 5,000. It is such an important story that it is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You can be sure that any story found in all four of the gospels has special significance and needs careful study. Notice what happens, and how exciting it gets. “Therefore, the men seeing this miracle which Jesus did, said, ‘Truly this is the prophet. The one coming into the world.’ Therefore, Jesus, knowing that they were about to come and seize Him in order that they might make Him king, separated again into a mountain alone.” John 6:14, 15.

Were they excited? Jesus had just taken five barley loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 men besides women and children. They were so excited; they said, “If we have this man, when we go to fight and take over the Romans, there will be no problem. He can feed the whole army, and if anybody gets injured, He will be able to heal them. Victory will be assured. We will be the masters of the world.” That was their fondest hope—to conquer the Roman Empire and rule the world, and now they knew how to do it. The disciples had this same hope.

After wanting to make Him king, when Jesus tried to explain the true meaning of the loaves the next day, the Bible says, “Many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard saying, who is able to hear it?’ And Jesus knowing in Himself that they grumbled concerning this said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of man going up where He was before? . . . But there are some of you which do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones they were which should not believe and who it was that should betray Him. And He said, ‘On account of this, I have said to you that no one is able to come to Me except it be given him from My Father.’ After this, many of His disciples went away, and did not follow Him or walk with Him anymore. Therefore, Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Are you also going to go away?’ ” John 6:60–62, 64–67.

Many followers forsook Jesus. Ellen White says, “Praise and flattery would be pleasing to their ears; but the truth is unwelcome; they cannot hear it. When the crowds follow, and the multitudes are fed [that was the previous day when they were way up high, but today they hear something that brings them way down low], and the shouts of triumph are heard, their voices are loud in praise; but when the searching of God’s Spirit reveals their sin, and bids them leave it, they turn their backs upon the truth, and walk no more with Jesus.” The Desire of Ages, 392.

A Different Spirit

“As those disaffected disciples turned away from Christ, a different spirit took control of them.” Ibid. Have you ever seen that happen in Adventism? Have you seen people who are fired up, and the Holy Spirit is working on their hearts? They are convicted, and they say they want to be with the revival and reformation movement within Adventism; they want to be ready for the Latter Rain; they want to be ready for Jesus to come; they want to be with the people who are going to go through to the end. Crowds follow, and the multitudes are fed with spiritual food, and it is exciting. But as time goes on, the Holy Spirit puts His finger on their problems. If we are really going to follow Christ all the way, we need to give up the sin in our lives; we need to change our lives.

With different people it is different things. There are many who come so far in their Christian experience, but they reach a point of decision, perhaps on a seemingly small issue, and they cannot go beyond it. Ellen White writes about this: “At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: ‘God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.’ Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge: ‘They are joined to their idols, let them alone,’ and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels. Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 187.

So, you see, someone who has gone a certain distance in the revival and reformation movement, saying they want their life to come into perfect harmony with the Bible and with the Spirit of Prophecy, may come up to a certain point where finally the Holy Spirit puts a finger right on some cherished sin, and they cannot give it up.

The Bible says that, as the disaffected disciples turned away from Christ, a different spirit took control of them. Have you ever seen that happen? A person, or a whole group of people, goes a certain distance, but they finally reach a point where they say, No, I can’t go any further. I can’t go along with that; that is too much. And they turn, and they do not even know what has happened, but those watching can see that a different spirit has taken hold of them. I have seen it happen so many times, and usually the person to whom it is happening does not realize what is occurring. An observer, from the outside, can clearly see what is happening, and they can see that the person is not even the same person that they were two months before. In the Scriptures it happened in one day—a different spirit took control.

What happened when this different spirit took control? “As those disaffected disciples turned away from Christ, a different spirit took control of them. They could see nothing attractive in Him whom they had once found so interesting.” The Desire of Ages, 392.

Someone may say, “I used to belong to such and such a home church, but I don’t even want to belong to a home church anymore. I’m going to go somewhere else to worship.” In fact, they often fight what they once supported and promoted. This is not a game, where you just go here or don’t go there. When you are not supporting the revival and reformation movement, eventually you are fighting it.

To be concluded . . .

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas.

The Ups and Downs of the Christian Experience, Part II

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A person may go a certain distance in their walk with Christ, in their Christian growth, but then they reach a point where they say, No, I can’t go any further.  I can’t go along with that point of doctrine; that is too much.  They do not even know what has happened, but those watching can see that a different spirit has taken hold of them.  In the Scriptures it happened in one day—a different spirit took control.  (See John 6:60, 66.)

What happened when this different spirit took control?  “As those disaffected disciples turned away from Christ, a different spirit took control of them.  They could see nothing attractive in Him whom they had once found so interesting.”  The Desire of Ages, 392.

Notice what they did next:  “They sought out His enemies, for they were in harmony with their spirit and work. They misinterpreted His words, falsified His statements, and impugned His motives.”  Ibid.

Let’s just get this straight.  Who were Christ’s enemies?  Were they the Romans?  No!  Christ’s enemies were the professed, faithful, and true church!  They were the people who professed to be God’s people in the world.  They, not the Romans, were the enemies of Christ.  Christ was never in trouble with the Romans; the Romans only crucified Christ at the insistence of the Jews.  So when the disaffected disciples sought out His enemies, whom did they seek?  They went down to the big church; they went down to mainline Adventism in those days.  They went there because they were more in harmony with them.  This happened about 30 A.D., one year before the crucifixion.  One year before that time, around Passover of 29 A.D., the mainline church had taken an official position rejecting Christ (see The Desire of Ages, 200) at the time He healed a man at the pool of Bethesda (See John 5).  At that time, messengers had been sent all over the country to say that Jesus was an imposter.  So when these people left Christ, they went to the very ones who opposed what Christ was doing, because they were more in harmony with them.

False Reports

There is a spiritual war taking place in the world and in Adventism today, and you cannot just sit and watch.  You are going to be on one side or the other!  God is arranging things so that what is really in our hearts is going to be revealed.  When these followers went back to the mainline church, the church that had been opposing Christ for over a year, they misinterpreted His words.  It should be comforting to us to know that Jesus, Who was perfect, went through such misunderstandings.  Our words are not perfect; we are frail, mortal, defective human beings.  But Jesus was perfect, and even His motives and words were impugned and misinterpreted; His statements were falsified.

Why did they do that?  Ellen White explains:  “They sustained their course by gathering up every item that could be turned against Him; and such indignation was stirred up by these false reports that His life was in danger.”  The Desire of Ages, 392, 393.  The disciples who had left Christ had to justify what they were doing.  Have you ever noticed that when human beings are doing something, especially when they know it is wrong, they have to have a good reason for doing it?  Whether there is one or not, they have to think one up; otherwise they could not live with themselves.  The former followers had to sustain that what they were doing was the right thing to do, so they had to conjure up all of these false statements.

Were there some items that could be turned against Christ?  Yes, there were.  Did Christ have some followers who were making mistakes in those days?  You know that He did, because their mistakes are recorded in the Scriptures.  Were there people who had a pretty checkered past following Jesus?  Oh, yes.  People who were looked down upon as the most evil people in society had decided to follow Jesus, because He gave hope to the chief of sinners.  No matter how bad their past was, they could come to Him.  He promised that He would forgive their sins, take away their guilt, and give them the power to live a new life.  There were cheating tax collectors and prostitutes who were interested in a better life, and even though their past had been very checkered, they found the idea of having their guilt taken away and living a better life very, very attractive.

Jesus allowed all of these people to follow Him, so there were a lot of things that could be used against Jesus—all of these defective, low-life people who were following Him.  All of that information was gathered up, and some Bible studies were written for this occasion.  The purpose of the Bible studies was to prove, from the Old Testament, that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah.

Counter Bible Study

Have you ever had someone give you a Bible study in an effort to prove that the seventh day is not the Sabbath?  Have you ever had someone give you a Bible study to prove that when somebody dies they don’t really die?  That is the type of Bible study that was developed.  I have actually trembled to think that if I had lived in that day and time, I may have been buffaloed by their misinterpreted Scriptures.  They were very convincing and effective.  They were so effective that Jesus questioned the twelve remaining disciples to see if they, too, would leave Him.  It appears that most of the 70 disciples that Jesus had sent out turned against Him.  Ellen White says that Christ winnowed His followers again and again until at one time there were only eleven men and a few faithful women for the beginning of the Christian church.  (See Testimonies, vol. 5, 130.)

Christ actually took His followers through more low experiences than He took them into high experiences.  They did have high experiences: there was Peter’s confession of faith; the time when they saw Him feed the 5,000; the times when they saw Him raise the dead—they saw it!  Wouldn’t that make shivers run up and down your skin to see that happen?  They saw that it only took a look, a touch, or a word and the most grievous physical disease would instantly disappear.  They had some high times.  They saw that if He said to someone, I am not going to condemn you, go and sin no more, that person’s life was turned around; they saw them set free from the spiritual disease which had held them in bondage all of their life.  It was exciting, but Jesus also took them through some low experiences, so deep, that when they started following Him they could not even have imagined what they would have to go through.

Highs and Lows

“The news spread swiftly that by His own confession Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah.”  The Desire of Ages, 393.  The disaffected disciples twisted His words.  He never said that He was not the Messiah, but since He did not do what they thought the Messiah had to do, they decided He could not be the Messiah.  Have you ever had anyone twist your words?

Mrs. White continues, “And thus in Galilee the current of popular feeling was turned against Him, as, the year before, it had been in Judea.”  Ibid.  The year before had been the experience at the pool of Bethesda when the popular feeling of Judea turned against Him.  Now the popular feeling in Galilee turned against Him.  When the mainline church had turned against Jesus, the disciples were not too worried, because there was a grass-roots revival and reformation movement among the common people that was centered in Galilee, and they thought it would overturn everything that the church leaders in Jerusalem could do.  So, as long as this popular feeling in Jesus’ favor continued in Galilee, there were thousands of people who came to see Jesus.

They were on a high then.  When you see 5,000 men plus women and children who have come to see the Lord all fed, you have to follow Him.  You have a church!  And the disciples were not worried right at that moment what the priests and leaders said.  So what?  Look at all the people!  They had a big group with which to work.  But those 5,000 people all disappeared.  The popular feeling turned against Jesus, and there were very few who followed Him.  Can you imagine it?—the Saviour of the world, the One who came to redeem the world, had lost most of His followers.  Would you have hung on?  That was a low experience, down in the very depths.

To Whom Shall We Go?

Jesus turned and said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to depart?”  John 6:67.  That is an interesting question.  You would think that by the time you only had twelve followers left you would do something to start a campaign to get more.  But instead, Jesus asked, “Are you going to go, too?”  But Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”  John 6:68.  You ask us if we want to leave You, but if we leave You, where are we going to go?

I remember a few years ago when my brother was fired as a pastor from the Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.  When he was fired, they cut off his salary.  They thought that would be the end of him.  That has been the end of a lot of preachers.  We will never know until the Day of Judgment how many preachers the Seventh-day Adventist Church has ruined by just cutting them off.  They may now be pumping gas, fixing cars, or doing whatever they can to support their families.  People used to say that things like that were an isolated instance, but that is not true.  It has happened all over the world.  When I travel, I meet people from many different countries that have had this happen to them.  When my brother kept preaching, after he had been cut off, people were amazed.  They would ask, Where are you going to go?  Who are you going to join?  A lot of people think that you have to be with some organization or you cannot keep going.  They have not read about John the Baptist.

When people would ask these questions, Marshall would reply just as did Peter, To whom are we supposed to go?  What we have been doing we have been doing because we have been convicted by the Word of God that we have to do this.  Are we going to turn back on our convictions now, because it is unpopular, because we have been financially cut off, because everybody is trying to destroy us?  Should we have decided that our convictions were wrong because of the pressure, or were we going to stand for that which we had been standing?  There was no place to go.  We still had to stand for what we believed.

The remaining disciples could have gone back to mainline Adventism in those days.  Jesus told them they could, if they wanted to do so.  There were only twelve—and they were not on the mountain anymore; they were way down deep in the pit of despair.  “To whom shall we go?”

Ellen White says, “ ‘To whom shall we go?’  The teachers of Israel were slaves to formalism.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were in constant contention.  To leave Jesus was to fall among sticklers for rites and ceremonies, and ambitious men who sought their own glory.”  The Desire of Ages, 393.  To leave Jesus is to fall into human control.   The Spirit of Prophecy says that when a preacher goes to any of our large convocations, tell the people for their own soul’s sake, and for Christ’s sake, to not make flesh their arm.  The church of Christ is not to come under human control.   (See Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 375.)

Why did Jesus allow all of these awful things to happen?  Why does He allow His people to go through these low periods?  Why did He allow it with the children of Israel, with Daniel and the three worthies, or with the disciples?  Ellen White says: “When Jesus presented the testing truth that caused so many of His disciples to turn back, He knew what would be the result of His words; but He had a purpose of mercy to fulfill.”  The Desire of Ages, 394.

Mercy of God

Did you know that what Adventism is going through right now is because of the mercy of God?  People question, What is happening?  There are people who were with the home church movement, that were with the revival and reformation movement, who have left and gone other places.   Many people think that we should all be discouraged because of this.  We should not be discouraged at all!  We should be praising the Lord for His mercy!  Do you know how much more difficult it would be for God’s people if what has happened in the last five years would happen after the national Sunday law is passed?  It would be so much more difficult that a number of us would probably lose our souls.  You see, the Lord could not take those 5,000 men plus the women and children, 15,000 or 20,000 people, with Him and let them follow Him all the way to the cross, because when He came to His trial, they would have rejected Him.

Let us think this through.  What if the disciples, who saw these 15,000 or 20,000 followers, said, We do not have to worry about the priests and elders in Jerusalem; we have all of these people.  We have a strong movement here in Judaism.  But then when the whole group comes all the way up to the cross . . . they leave.  What do you think would have happened to the disciples then?  It was hard the year before, but if they had stayed on that high,—with all of those people, with all of that human support, and they had all left at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus,—the disappointment would have been so overwhelming that they could not have stood it.  It was overwhelming enough as it was.

Are you aware that we are approaching another time that is going to test and try men’s souls?  God is getting His people ready for that time.  Are you thankful that God does not just allow you to stay on a mountain high and then all of a sudden allow the biggest test of all time to hit you?  Are you thankful that He takes you through some low places first so that you can get some experience in faith?   If Jesus had not brought this test beforehand, some of His disciples may not have made it; some of the twelve might have been lost.  The Lord knew it all beforehand, and He said, I am going to do you a favor.  I am going to bring the test a year beforehand, while I am still with you, so that you will not fail.

What is happening today in Adventism is by the mercy of God, and we should be praising the Lord every day.  God is allowing people to reveal what is really inside.  If He let it go on and they all revealed their true characters after the national Sunday law is passed, it would be too much.  We could not take it.

Mrs. White wrote, “He foresaw that in the hour of temptation every one of His beloved disciples would be severely tested. . . .  Had no previous test been given, many who were actuated by merely selfish motives would have been connected with them. . . .  These self-seeking ones would, by renouncing their allegiance to Jesus, have brought upon the disciples a bitter, heart-burdening sorrow, in addition to their grief and disappointment in the ruin of their fondest hopes.  In that hour of darkness, the example of those who turned from Him might have carried others with them.  But Jesus brought about this crisis while by His personal presence He could still strengthen the faith of His true followers.”  The Desire of Ages, 394.

Does your faith hang on, not just at the high time, but when God’s people go down through a dark valley?  That is the kind of faith we are going to have to have, because we are coming to a period of time when it could easily look to each one of us that we are the only believers left.  It could look that way.

Cleansing

These same experiences happened in the beginning of the Second Advent Movement.  From the beginning of 1844 to the beginning of 1846, the number of believers went from between 50,000 and 100,000 down to 200 or 300.  They went from a high to a low, but there were some people that hung on.  There was a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and there was a cleansing of the temple at the close.  Ellen White says, “He will purify His church even as He purified the temple at the beginning and close of His ministry on earth.”  Testimonies, vol. 9, 228.

Did God cleanse the Advent movement at its beginning?  Yes, He did.  Is He going to cleanse it at the close?  Yes, He is.   He cleanses it by bringing people down from a high and bringing them into the depths of a testing, trying experience.  When that happens to you, are you going to hang on?

I met a man who told me that a few years ago he was going to a home church where there were 60–70 members. Then they all left except four or five.  Praise the Lord for the four or five that are left, and get on with the work!  I am not saying that we should not pray for the people who left; some of them might come back, and that would be good.  Probation has not yet closed, and people can still decide that they are going to follow the Lord all the way.  But friends, God is preparing a people who are going to receive the Latter Rain.  It is not just any or every Adventist who is going to receive the Latter Rain.  Oh no, it will be just a little handful compared with all who profess the faith.  If we are going to be part of that group, we are going to have to hang on—not just when it is easy, when everyone is shouting and the multitudes are fed, when it is popular, when there are 15,000 or 20,000 saying, Let’s do it; Let’s have the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry, finish the work, and go to heaven!

The Lord reads the hearts of those doing all that shouting, and He says, It is time to do a little purging here, and He takes that group of people into a valley, and when that happens, suddenly you discover, as did Gideon, that the great majority are not really with you.  Are you going to hang on then?

We have been promised that there is going to be an army that will remain solid as a rock right through to the close.  Do you want to be part of that army?  I pray that you do.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas.

Homesick

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I’m so homesick now for heaven.

This place is not my home.

My heart’s no longer in this world,

No matter where I roam.

I’m sick and tired of this old realm

Its riches have lost their glitter.

The things that once attracted me,

For me are only bitter.

For I have seen a better place,

No longer wracked with pain.

Where those we love who’re sleeping now,

We will see again.

Love and beauty reigneth there,

For it’s indeed a glorious land.

There our Savior will greet each one

With His precious hand.

Hang on, my fellow warrior.

The battle’s almost won.

Our Captain says the victory’s sure.

Soon He’ll say, “It’s done.”

Then we’ll hear the mighty trumpet blow

Until the clouds will burst.

We’ll see Him sitting on His throne,

For whom our souls did thirst.

Oh, sing a song of happiness,

O boundless jubilation.

For tears give way to ecstasy

In glorious transformation.

-Vern Shafer

Rain

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I trudged through the desert and took in the scene

Of the barren hills and the dry ravine.

Some men think this is all rocks and sand,

But let me inform you that there is rich, fertile land.

The thing that is lacking out there in the hills

Is not some more humus nor minerals and pills.

Oh, if only they’d receive more showers of rain;

Then they could raise the fruit and the grain.

I returned to the country where the fruit tree yields,

And the cattle graze on rich green fields.

I ate of the bountiful food supply,

And I thanked the Lord, for rain from the sky.

Then my mind wandered to the scene at the well,

To the woman whom Jesus her life history did tell.

I could know of the yearning in that dear lady’s heart,

For the water that Jesus promised to impart.

Could there be such a difference between the lives of men,

As the dry barren desert and the watered glen?

Could it be that those who have the Spirit of God

Are as fruitful and green as the watered sod?

In awed suspense I bowed my head.

Oh Lord, send us rain, my poor heart said.

Send us Thy Spirit, the rain from above;

And keep us rich in the water of Thy love.

— Ruth Grosboll

Time To Decide

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In this life, many decisions have to be made. Sometimes we do not have a long time to make the decision. Often we have already made preliminary decisions, before the time comes to make a final decision.

Before a pilot or captain in an airliner takes off, many preliminary decisions are made. You have perhaps seen printouts being made so a pilot can study the weather along his or her flight route. And, of course, there are checklists to go through and instruments to check. Each step requires that preliminary decisions be made. But after a while, when the plane is on the runway rolling towards take off, the time comes when a final decision has to be made.

When that final decision is made, it is a go or no-go decision. As the end of the runway approaches, the decision must be made to take off or to abort the take off. So in all affairs of life; there come times when we have to make final decisions.

Last Chance

The Bible recognizes this fact and has a lot to say about it. One of the things that the Bible says about these final decisions is that very often when a person is making his final decision, he does not know it. God has arranged things this way so that people will make a decision based on what is really in their hearts and not on some external circumstance.

We see a number of stories in the Bible where something like this took place. For example, in Acts 24:25, we see the apostle Paul talking to a heathen ruler by the name of Felix. Felix actually was a very wicked man, but he was offered, like all other wicked people, salvation. The Lord was willing, if he was willing to repent and turn around, to forgive his sins and give him another chance so that he could have eternal life through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Paul preached to Felix about this, but notice his response. In Acts 24:25, it says, “Now as he [Paul] reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, ‘Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.’ ”

Felix was impressed that he was a wicked man and that he needed to repent of his sins and follow the Lord. But he loved his sins so much that he thought he wanted to enjoy them a while more. You know, there are many people in this world that have one or more darling sins, and they love those sins. They know they cannot go to heaven when they are committing those sins. But they say, I will enjoy them for a little while more, and then I will turn around; I will forsake sin at some future time. This is evidently what Felix was feeling. He said, It is not convenient for me right now to get ready for the judgment. There are some things in my life that I want to do first.

Do you know, that was Felix’s last opportunity for salvation. He made his final choice right then. He deliberately passed up his last chance for eternal life, because there were some darling sins in his life, and he wanted to hold on to them for a while longer. He did not want to get ready for the judgment right then.

Another story in the Bible tells about one of the most wicked men who had ever lived, yet the apostle Paul made an appeal to him. He was given the opportunity for salvation, but he too passed it up, and that was his last chance. He never had another opportunity. Paul talks about this meeting that he had with Nero, the Caesar. He says, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and [that] all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” 11 Timothy 4:16, 17.

Nero was afraid to kill the apostle Paul right at that time. When he listened to the message, his heart was so under conviction that he could not condemn him, although he did condemn him to death later. But Nero, on that occasion, passed up his last chance for salvation.

The Bible talks about many people that passed up their last chance for salvation. Jesus told a story one time about the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16:19–31. This rich man was a person who believed that he belonged to the true church and that he would have salvation in the end. In the story Jesus told, the man not only did not have salvation but he had passed up his last chance for salvation. Never again would he have another opportunity to be saved.

A fact that every person needs to think about seriously is that every one of us at some time has our last chance to accept salvation. If we do not accept it at that point, we will never accept it. It will not be offered to us again, because we read, in Proverbs 1:24–33, “Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel [And] despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.” The Lord says, You turned away. You would not listen. The result is that you are going to reap the consequences of your own ways.

Time is Limited

The prophet Isaiah makes an appeal to people to not turn away. In Isaiah 55:6, 7, he says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

There is a time when you may find salvation, but that time does not last forever. It is time limited, and at some point, if you turn your back on the Lord and you keep turning your back on the Lord, you will do it for the last time.

We are living in that age of the world when this is true, not just for individuals but for the entire world. Every one in the world will make a decision; they will make a final decision to go one way or the other. The whole world will be divided into two classes. Each class will be identified by a special mark.

Special Messages

Because of the seriousness of the time in which we live, a time when people would make a final decision that would result in eternal life or eternal death, God in the Bible gave special messages just for people that live in the last generation.

These special messages are recorded in symbolic language in Revelation 14:6–12. These symbolic messages are likened to angels whom fly in the midst of heaven, to take these messages to every single person in the world.

What is involved in accepting or rejecting the Three Angels’ Messages? A person’s acceptance or rejection of these messages will determine his or her eternal destiny.

Message of Judgment

Notice what it says in the first angel’s message, Revelation 14:6, 7. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

There are several vital points in the first angel’s message. First of all, it says that this angel has “the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth.” Nothing can save you, friend, except the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

What is the gospel? The gospel has two parts. You can read about it in Romans or Galatians, or you can read about it in the stories of Jesus. The first part is the blood of Christ, which cleanses a person from the guilt of sin and offers a pardon. But it is not enough to be pardoned. It is not enough to be forgiven. It is not enough to drink the blood. It is also necessary to eat the bread, to receive the life of Christ into our lives.

Jesus talked about this in John 6. We receive His life by receiving the Holy Spirit and putting to death the carnal or sinful nature, as Paul said in Romans 6:2. We are to die to sin. Paul told the Galatians that as many as are Christ’s, they have crucified the flesh with the passions and affections. (Galatians 5:24.)

Oh, friend, have you had this experience? Have you experienced the gospel? No matter what else you have; no matter how much you know; no matter what you do; unless you have died to self, unless you have received the Holy Spirit and you are dead to sin and are following in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, your religion will end up being in vain.

The gospel is not just a belief system; it is a way of life whereby a person receives the Holy Spirit and lives and walks in newness of life, in harmony with God’s Law. As you can read in 1 John 3 or John 8 or Romans 8, you must receive the whole gospel, if you are going to survive the last generation.

Most of the world’s population will not survive. The vast majority will be deceived and lost, because they believe in what they see more than they believe in God’s Holy Word. But this message of the first angel is not just about the gospel. It is also an announcement that while the gospel is being preached, the hour of God’s judgment is come. God is judging the world!

Law of Liberty

Friend, we are living in the time when that is happening. One of the most important things to understand about the judgment is how you are going to be judged. It says in James 2 that we are to be judged from the law of liberty. What this law is, is made very clear and plain in the very same passage. The sixth and the seventh commandments are quoted, and it is that law, called the law of liberty, by which we will be judged.

It is not hard to understand that the Ten Commandments are called the law of liberty. For instance, if everyone kept just the eighth commandment that says, “You shall not steal,” everybody would be free. You would not have to lock your house, your car, or anything else—if there were no thieves in the world. God’s Law brings liberty.

The judgment is on the basis of God’s law. That is, God’s Law is the standard for the judgment. Your life in the judgment will be compared with the Law of God. If your life is in harmony with God’s Law, you will receive the gift of salvation. But if it is not in harmony with God’s Law, as you read in Revelation 22:15, then you will not be saved at all.

We are living in that most stupendous, serious time in earth’s history when people’s lives are being compared with the Law of God.

A Second Angel

The first angel’s message is followed by another angel, a second angel. God knew in advance that the great majority of the people in this world would not harmonize their lives with His Law, and He predicted what will happen. Remember this was written almost 2,000 years ago, but it is happening in our time.

In Revelation 14:8, we read: “And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ ”

Who is that? Well, it refers to her as a woman. A woman in Bible prophecy represents a church, as you can see in 11 Corinthians 11 or Jeremiah 6, or the Song of Solomon, or Ephesians 5 or many other Scriptures. A woman represents a church. But this is not a pure church. This is a harlot, a fallen church. This is also called a city, a city that rules over the kings of the earth.

In addition, this city, this church, this woman, this harlot is referred to as a power that rules over the nations and makes all nations drink of her wine, of her teachings. It is talking about spiritual wine, but what is spiritual wine? The Bible tells us in Isaiah 29:9, 13, 14: “Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.” “Therefore the Lord said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise [men] shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent [men] shall be hidden.’ ”

We see here that spiritual wine involves teaching people to worship God, to serve God according to the commandments of men. That is the wine of Babylon. If you drink this wine and follow it, you will receive the wrath of God, because as Jesus said, in Matthew 15, people through the traditions of men make the commandments of God of none effect. They say they are keeping it, but if you look at what the commandment says, by the time they have kept the commandments of men, the traditions of men, they have broken the commandments of God. You see, you cannot keep both.

Come Out of Her

So what is the result? The result is recorded in Revelation 18:1–4. “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’ ”

A terrible condition of the religious world is here described. As a result of drinking this wine—the traditions, the commandments of men—the world has sinned against the Lord. Concerning Babylon, it says, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”

Sin, 1 John 3:4 tells us, is breaking God’s Law. By the commandments of men the commandments of God are made of none effect. If you associate with a group of people who are deliberately breaking any one of the Ten Commandments, eventually you are going to participate with them. If you participate with them in sin, you will participate with them also in receiving the plagues of God which are going to be poured out on Babylon, as you can read in Revelation 15 and 16.

One Final Warning

If the warning of the second angel is not enough to wake a person up, there is one final warning. This final warning will separate the wheat from the tares. It will separate the whole religious world into two classes. This final warning is the warning of the third angel given in Revelation 14:9–12. “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives [his] mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’ Here is the patience of the saints; here [are] those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Notice that the third angel warns people against worshiping the antichrist power. That is the beast power described in Revelation 13:1–10, the same as the little horn power described in Daniel 7 or the man of sin described in 11 Thessalonians 2. Also, men are prohibited, forbidden in this message to worship the image of the antichrist or to receive the mark of the antichrist.

The identifying mark of the antichrist power is spelled out very explicitly in Daniel 7:25. It (the antichrist power) will attempt to change times and laws. The one who receives this mark will end up, it says, receiving the wrath of God. God does not pour out His wrath on anybody without due cause. But the mark of the antichrist involves a deliberate breaking of the Law of God.

Obey Unrighteousness

In Romans 2:8, it is made very plain that the people that receive the wrath of God are those that obey unrighteousness—not those that do what is right or follow God’s Word. To receive the wrath of God, a person must first obey unrighteous-ness. But what is unrighteousness? “All unrighteousness is sin.” 1 John 5:17.

So obeying unrighteousness means sinning, and sinning is transgressing God’s Law. (See 1 John 3:4.) If you put these three texts together, you can see very clearly that receiving the mark of the beast involves sinning against God, breaking His Law—breaking His Law as mentioned in Daniel 7:25, a deliberate attempt to change times and law. Read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:3–17. See what it says about time, and examine and see how the religious world today has changed the times that God has given.

You cannot change something that God has given. You cannot adjust something that God has given. The Bible says do not change or add or take anything away from what God has done lest ye be found to be a liar. (See Deuteronomy 12:32; Proverbs 30:6.)

In contrast to the people that receive the mark of the beast, right at the end of the third angel’s message there is revealed the people that listen to the message and are saved. Who they are and how they are described is seen in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints; here [are] those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

There you have it, friends; it is spelled out in Revelation over and over again. The ones that lose out at the end are those that break God’s Law. The ones that are accepted and receive the gift of eternal life and get to go through the gates into the city are those that keep God’s Law.

The question is, What are you going to do with that information? Are you going to accept it, repent of your sins and say, Lord, create in me a new heart? Are you going to miss your last chance? The choice is yours.

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastor of the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Robe of Christ’s Righteousness

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In 11 Timothy 3:12, we find an absolute. It says, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” It has always been the case, since Abel, and it will continue to be the case. We have before us, before the world comes to an end, a time of persecution such as never was.

“Because we are now settled here, we seem to think that we shall never be moved. But there will come a time when there will be a great scattering, a scattering that we do not now dream of, and it will be brought about in unexpected ways. Some of you will be taken away to remote regions, but God will have a work for you there.” Publishing Ministry, 92, 93.

“The time is coming when we shall be separated and scattered, and each one of us will have to stand without the privilege of communion with those of like precious faith; and how can you stand unless God is by your side, and you know that He is leading and guiding you?” This Day With God, 93.

Preparing for the Inevitable

What will prepare us for the inevitable? It will come. We can see it on the horizon today. That, which we have been told will come, is coming. It is coming, and it will take this world and everyone who is walking in harmony with the world by overwhelming surprise. But God does not want to have His children surprised.

Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:31–33.

Jesus admonishes us in this life to first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness all the time! We should be seeking first His righteousness, because His kingdom is involved in His righteousness. If we expect to someday walk into God’s kingdom, it will be through His righteousness. That is why Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

What is righteousness? Righteousness is doing what is right. Can a child understand what righteousness is, based on that definition? Yes, a child can understand that righteousness is right doing, as opposed to wrongdoing.

Righteousness Revealed

Two verses tell us where God’s righteousness is revealed: “Thy righteousness [is] an everlasting righteousness, and thy law [is] the truth.” “My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments [are] righteousness.” Psalm 119:142, 172. So we can find God’s righteousness, if we are seeking for it, in God’s Law or His Word. In the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, we are going to find God’s righteousness; it is going to be fully distinct from what the world calls righteous.

To what will the man or woman who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, finds it, and lays hold on it be likened? “Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight [is] in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Why is this person so taken up with the Law of God that he meditates upon it day and night? It is simply this: he has found in that law the righteousness of God. “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Psalm 1:1–3.

Are we like that? Are we fresh, alive Christians? Do we have fresh fruit to offer people? If we do not, then we have not found the righteousness of Christ. We are told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. His righteousness is what we need.

There is another place that we can find the righteousness of God revealed. The law ends somewhere. Did you know that? There are many Protestant churches today that would say, Yes, we are in perfect agreement; the law ended at Calvary. That is not what I am saying, and that is not what God’s Word says. It says, “Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 10:4. Did Jesus, in His life, honor God’s Law? Yes, He did. The Law of God was written upon the heart of Jesus. (See Psalm 40:8.) Jesus was the perfect embodiment of God’s Law in humankind. For 33 years on this earth, He lived out the law. Did He ever sin against God’s Law? No, we are told that He had no sin. Could He have sinned? Yes, He could have transgressed God’s Law, but He did not; He chose not to sin. Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Does that mean the law ends? No, it means that Jesus is the embodiment of the Law of God, and when we choose to accept Jesus into our lives, we are accepting the fullness of God’s Law and its righteousness.

What then is the genuine quality of all righteousness? What is the essence of all righteousness? The answer is found in Christ’s Object Lessons, 97, 98: “The essence of
all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer. This will lead us to do right because it is right—because right doing is pleasing to God.”

Faith an Attribute

That leads us to Hebrews 11:6. Paul said, under the inspiration of God, “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” That means that a part of righteousness is faith. You see, that is a quality of righteousness, His righteousness. Does He give that to us? Yes, He does. He gives a measure of faith to every person that comes into this world, but what you do with that faith is up to you. Faith is an attribute of righteousness.

Garment We Choose

Unto what is His righteousness likened? What is this righteousness that is found in God’s Law and is found in the life of Jesus likened unto? “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” Revelation 19:7, 8. God’s righteousness is likened unto a garment that we wear, a robe—His robe of righteousness.

There is only one other garment that we can wear. We are wearing one of two garments. “But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6. We are either clothed in filthy rags that represent our own righteousness, or we are clothed in the robe of Christ that represents His righteousness. Let us verify, from Scripture, whose righteousness is the righteousness of the saints. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Corin-thians 1:30. Christ is made our righteousness if we have chosen to follow Jesus Christ. That means that we have done something with the filthy rags. Can we be wearing both at the same time? No, we cannot.

Righteousness Received

When will the saints, spoken of in Revelation 19:7, 8, be clothed with this righteousness? The message to Laodicea, the last church, the last remnant of God’s people upon the face of the earth before Jesus comes, tells us. Unbelievably, these people are naked—that is the same thing as being clothed in filthy garments. “I [Jesus, the end of the Law for righteousness] counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.” Revelation 3:18. Based on this text, the saints receive the righteousness of Christ before Jesus comes.

Why do they have to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ before He comes? “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Revelation 3:5. When does Jesus do the blotting out of the names? In the judgment—the judgment that takes place before Jesus comes. That is shown in Revelation 14:7: “The hour of his judgment is come.” It happens before the Second Advent that is revealed in Revelation 14:14. So the judgment takes place before the blotting out of names.

Revelation 3:5 shows that God’s people have received the righteousness of Christ before He comes the second time. In fact, that righteousness, which is His righteousness that clothes them, allows Jesus to blot out their sins and retain their names in the heavenly books.

A Gift

Notice one thing more in Revelation 3:5: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.” The process of sanctification brings us to the point where we are overcomers so we can receive clean, white robes of righteousness. Justification and sanctification are a combined process that produces righteousness. Righteousness is right doing by faith. The whole plan of redemption revolves around God seeking to get humanity back to doing what is right.

Here is a people who have the robe of Christ’s righteousness on them, they are overcoming sin in their lives as a result, and this is their testimony: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.” What are these garments of salvation? They are the robe of His righteousness. Salvation does not come apart from this robe. There are people today who say it really does not matter if you do right or wrong, as long as you have good desires toward God. That is wrong! That is not what God says. “He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh [himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth [herself] with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10. Notice who imparts this righteousness to us. It says, He, the One who is righteous, has covered us with His robe of righteousness. Jesus Christ does everything right and at the right time for us. It is a gift to us. “The wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ.” Romans 6:23. What is that gift? It is His robe of righteousness.

Working For or With

No doubt this robe is a gift, but our next text reveals that we must choose to put it on. Job says, “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [was] as a robe and a diadem.” Job 29:14. What is Job saying? He is saying, I put on Christ’s righteousness. Isaiah just said that Jesus puts the robe on us, but this points out the fact that we must cooperate with God in receiving this robe of righteousness. We must put it on; we must receive it. How do we do that? How do we put the robe of Christ’s righteousness on and yet receive it as a gift from Him?

Remember 1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are laborers together with God.” It does not say for God, it says with God, and there is a difference in those prepositions. There is a difference between working for God or working with God. Jesus points out the distinct difference in Matthew 7:22, 23. He there addresses a people who were working for Him. They stand in the day of His coming clothed in their own righteousness. Jesus says that many will come to Him in that day and say, “Lord, Lord, were we not working for you?” And in essence Jesus says, yes, you were working for Me for your own glory, but you were not working with me for your salvation.

Putting On; Putting Off

“But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. . . . Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.” Colossians 3:8–10, 12, 13 (first part). Paul says that if you are going to put on, you are going to have to put off.

Is this not practical admonition? He names things that are part of the robe of man’s righteousness, that are, in the sight of God, as filthy rags. Man can justify himself, even in anger, and believe he is right. That is man’s righteousness, and it amounts to self-justification, but self-justification in God’s eyes amounts to nothing. Man has no reason to justify himself in his own filthy rags and be satisfied with his righteousness when God has revealed so clearly His righteousness, which we so badly need.

This putting on and putting off is learning to say yes to righteousness and to say no to sin.

Practicalities

“God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. . . . Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 187. These testing points are defects of character. That is what this robe of righteousness is all about. God is going to reveal to us where we are deformed so that we can reform.

God leads each one of us, step by step. All transgression of God’s Law and of His righteousness comes right back to selfishness. If there was ever a time for God’s people to have revival and reformation in their midst, it is now! Do you know where it begins? It begins with each one of us individually. God will point out things in our lives, things with which we have become comfortable; things with which we have been satisfied. We think we are all right, but God is going to point out things, and we will discover that we are not all right. How do we make it right? Paul says we make it right by putting off that which is wrong and putting on that which is right. I like the thought that God is willing to spend enough time with me to show me where I am wrong, because I am coming to a determination that I want to be right with Him; I want to have on that robe of righteousness. I want to experience the full intention of His mind for me in my creation. We can do that, if we are willing to accept the life that He gives us, even if it points out something that we need to put off.

The Wedding Garment

How important is the subject about which we are studying? The Bible answers that question in the parable of the guests who came to the wedding supper. The invitation first went to the nation of Israel, and they treated it with indifference. Eventually, when Jesus sent another message to Israel, they killed him, and judgment fell upon Israel. At that time, He told His disciples to go into the highways and the byways and call any who would listen, because He wanted someone to come to His supper. Jesus wants as many as will to come to Him and have supper with Him. The disciples went out and gathered in people of all different kinds—bad and good, sincere and insincere. This represents His church! Jesus is going to make a distinction some day; it has not been made yet.

The Bible says, “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.” What is this wedding garment? It is the robe of Christ’s righteousness, but this man did not think it mattered whether he had on the robe or not. He thought that if he praised God and said he believed in Jesus, that would be enough, but when Jesus came in to investigate the guests, he found this man empty; he was naked; he was clothed in his own filthy garments of self-righteousness.

“And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.” He was speechless, because he knew better. The light that had shined upon this man’s pathway was the same light that shines upon our pathways, and we will be inexcusable in that day, if we have on our own robe of righteousness and not the robe of Jesus’ righteousness.

This man said nothing. He could not say, Well, let me tell you why; have a seat, it is a long story. He had nothing to say—not a long story or a short story but no story. We will be condemned of ourselves on that day, because we sit and listen to God’s Word, and if we are going away and not doing, we will be found as speechless as was this man.

“Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast [him] into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few [are] chosen.” Matthew 22:11–14.

Brothers and sisters, our righteousness will not cut it. This is the strongest language that Jesus could portray regarding what is going to happen to the lost. Jesus does not want us to be lost. Can we be among the few who are chosen? Yes, we can. But can we be among the many? Yes. It does not matter whether or not you call yourself a Christian, because many who call themselves Christians are going to find themselves in the same situation in which this man found himself when Jesus comes again.

Charity

Paul finishes his admonition about putting on and putting off by telling what is the highest quality—the ultimate quality—of God’s righteousness. Remember, you will have to take off something before you can put this on. He says, “And above all these things, [put on] charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Colossians 3:14. What is charity? It is love. It is a principle of righteousness, and the highest quality of righteousness is love—to be robed in God’s love.

If righteousness is right doing, and the essence, or the greatest quality of God’s righteousness is love, is it right, then, to love God? Yes. Would it be right to love our neighbor as ourselves? Yes. Paul says, in Romans 13:10, “Love [is] the fulfilling of the law.” He is saying the same thing that John says in 1 John 5:3, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” Do you know why they are not grievous? Because they are right. Nothing that is right is wrong, and nothing that is right is grievous.

God is righteous, and He wants us to be righteous. The cost of being what He intends for us to be is only the putting off of all the filthy rags. Some of those rags will be engulfed with cherished idols, and we are going to have to sacrifice everything. When we sacrifice everything for Jesus, we eventually get everything, but when we sacrifice for sin—and there is a sacrifice involved when we sin—we get nothing. Always remember that—we get nothing. We are going to be lost.

A sobering text, of which we need to ask God to make us mindful, is Revelation 22:11. We are living in the hour of judgment. (See Revelation 14:7.) That is the first angel’s message. Within the context of that hour, the curtain will come down—probation will close. The door will close; mercy will no longer plead for the sinner. We are living in that hour. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”

There is coming a time when we will no longer have an opportunity to remedy anything in our experience. We shall stand where we are. If we are lost, we are lost; if we are saved, we are saved. It is a sobering time in which we find ourselves living.

Motivation of Love

What is the only thing that can motivate us to do what is right for the right reason? The right reason is to be loyal to Jesus. In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Ellen White echoes the same sentiments: “The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer.” That is the only thing that will motivate us to put off and to put on, to be determined to shed our filthy rags and have on the robe of His righteousness. The only motivation is His love.

Do you know how to get His love? There is only one way. “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. Until we come to the recognition that Jesus Christ has loved us personally, individually, with an everlasting love, apart from every soul in this world, until we recognize and accept that reality in our lives, we will never love Him as we should. Once we recognize that He has given everything for us—when we lay hold of the reality of Calvary, when we see what He did for us and the love that He has for us—we are going to be moved to a higher calling. God is ready to lift us up to that higher calling.

Ellen White wrote: “The days of our probation are fast closing. The end is near. To us the warning is given, ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.’ Luke 21:34. Beware lest it find you unready. Take heed lest you be found at the King’s feast without a wedding garment.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 319.

Craig Meeker is Director of the Bible Correspondence School at Steps to Life. He may be contacted by e-mail at: craigmeeker@stepstolife.org or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Intercession Connection

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Verily, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give [it] you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:23, 24.

Do we really understand the meaning of what Jesus is communicating to us in these texts? He says, “Ask the Father in my name.” By faith, we must grasp His intercession as the connection to our Father. By faith, we must comprehend His pleading for us, because it is through His name that we have access to God—just as in the Old Covenant the people said, “Moses, you talk to God and you talk to us, but do not allow us to talk to Him directly. We will die.” (Exodus 20:19.) We could not approach the Father, we could not come to the throne, without Jesus’ intercession and without going through the name of our Saviour. We are not just to say His name as a mindless repetition—“In Jesus’ name.” As we pray, we are to realize that Jesus, at that very moment, is pleading on our behalf, and it is through His pleading, through His name, that we can come to God.

Prayers as Sweet Incense

In Revelation 8:3, 4, we read: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” By faith, we must see our prayers ascending to our Father, made fragrant by the righteousness of our Saviour. Without Jesus’ righteousness, without His intercession, our prayers could not even ascend to the Father. Jesus is our connection, the connecting link between God and man.

Ellen White wrote, “The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 353. Christ’s perfect righteousness alone can make our worship acceptable.

Intercession of the Son

The story is told of a son, who, while serving in the Civil War, had sent a letter to his father. He explained that he had been found sleeping at his post of duty. He explained in the letter as to why it had happened—he had fulfilled his hours of duty and then had taken another comrade’s shift. As a result of serving a double shift, he had fallen asleep at his post, and the sentence was death. The father received the letter a day or two before the execution day. To save his son, he boarded a train to Washington, D.C., arriving there the very morning that his son was to be executed.

Hurriedly, he made his way to the White House. (At that time, there was no fence or security surrounding the White House.) Rushing to the front door of that majestic building, he approached a guard and said, “I must see the President. It is an emergency.”

The guard asked, “Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” the father responded.

“Then I cannot let you in,” replied the guard.

Although the father pled and pled at the door, there was no admission. Finally, he staggered out onto the lawn, and slumping beneath a tree, cried. Seeing the President was his only hope. As he sat there, a little boy came up to him and said, “Mister, what is wrong?”

Through his tears, he told the boy his story. When he had finished, the boy said, “Come on.”

The father hesitated, saying, “You cannot do anything. You are just a boy. You cannot let me in.” But the boy insisted.

When the father and the boy came up to the guard, the boy said, “This man wants to see the President.”

The guard replied, “He cannot. He does not have an appointment.”

The young lad began to cry, “Father, father.” Soon President [Abraham] Lincoln appeared at the door.

“Tad,” the President asked, “what do you need?” The father’s son was saved, through the intercession of the son of the President.

Intercession of Praise

As we think about that story in relation to Jesus’ ministry, it is through His intercession that we are connected to the throne of God. Through His intercession, we can even praise the Lord.

Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips, giving thanks to his name.” Notice this verse says, “Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” How is the sacrifice of praise to God offered continually? The first two words of the verse give us the answer—“By him.” We cannot even acceptably offer the sacrifice of praise except through Jesus.

Just as the Israelites could not offer thank offerings in the Old Covenant without the intercession of the priests, we cannot offer praise offerings without the intercession of Christ. His intercession makes our prayers and our praise acceptable. Just as the priests gave guidance in the Old Covenant, so Jesus gives guidance in His intercession.

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25. Our sins cannot be forgiven without the intercession of our Saviour. The Bible says, in Isaiah 53:12, that He “made intercession for the transgressors”—not just intercession for the righteous but intercession for the transgressors as well. Just as, in the Old Covenant, the priest had to officiate in the offering of the lamb, so the intercession of Christ is essential in saving us from sin.

Redeeming Blood

Jesus’ intercession is as necessary to us as is His redeeming blood. Both are essential to the plan of salvation. Notice Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:17: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.” How do we explain that? Through the intercession of our Saviour. Without Christ’s intercession, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. Do not let anyone say that salvation was completed on the cross. Do not let anyone say that that was all there was to the plan of salvation.

We are not trying to lessen the importance of the cross, but simply showing that Jesus’ work right now is equally as essential as was His death upon the cross. If He is not interceding today, our faith is vain. If He is not interceding today, we are still in our sins. Our sins could never be forgiven without Christ’s intercession, because we could not approach the Father without Christ’s intercession. We could not repent and confess without Christ’s intercession. Christ’s intercession, as was the priest’s in the Old Covenant, is essential, but there is more to Christ’s intercession.

Most Holy Place

All of what we have looked at has referred to Christ’s administration in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. There is more to His administration in the second apartment as well. In the ministration of the priest in the Most Holy Place, the blood was taken into the Most Holy Place, and we are told that it was sprinkled before and upon the Mercy Seat. (See Leviticus 16.) Once each year, that actually happened twice. One time, Aaron entered the Most Holy Place with the blood of a bullock for his sins. The next time, he entered in with the blood of a goat for the sins of the congregation. The focus was the sprinkling of the blood upon and before the Mercy Seat. That was not all. There were, of course, the scapegoat that was sent away, and then, at the very end, the burnt offerings of one ram for the congregation and one ram for Aaron. But let us look further at the importance of the sprinkling of the blood.

In the New Testament, we read, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” 1 Peter 1:2. Notice with what the sprinkling of the blood is associated—“the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood . . . .” The sprinkling of the blood was representing, according to this verse, the necessity of complete, full sanctification and obedience.

Refiner and Purifier

In another passage, we read, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he [is] like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3:1–3.

Verse 1 sets the stage and gives us the time frame to which these texts refer. It tells us about the Lord coming to His temple. It refers to 1844, when Jesus entered the Most Holy Place. “The coming of the Lord to His temple was sudden, unexpected, to His people. They wew not looking for Him there.” The Great Controversy, 424. It says His work there, in the Most Holy Place, is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap and that He sits as a refiner and a purifier to purify and to purge. In the Most Holy Place, Christ is administrating His blood to purge away our sins. “Thise who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people upon earth.” Ibid., 425.

It tells us also, in verse 1, that this is to prepare the way before the Lord. This is the final step of preparation for the Second Coming—the sprinkling of the blood, the sanctification of the Spirit, the obedience, the final purifying from the stain of sin. It is the final purifying from selfishness, from pride, from covetousness, that we might be that vessel unto honor.

Filthy Garments Removed

The sprinkling of the blood is essential for the time when there is no more intercession for us. Zechariah 3:3–5 describes the process that takes place on the Day of Atonement as the blood is sprinkled. It says, “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.”

The picture here depicted is of the filthy garments being removed. “When Satan seeks to cover the people of God with blackness, and ruin them, Christ interposes. Although they have sinned, Christ has taken the guilt of their sins upon His own soul…By His human nature He is linked with man, while through His divine nature He is one with the infinite God. Help is brought within the reach of perishing souls. The adversary is rebuked.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 169.

“All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life.” The Great Controversy, 483.

Pardon is possible through Jesus’ death and His intercession—His work of sprinkling the blood in the Most Holy Place. As we think about that work that has been going on for 160 years, we know that very soon it is going to conclude. Very soon the sins of those that have been repentant and have looked by faith to the intercession of Jesus are going to be blotted out. As we think of Jesus lingering over our names, is the blood being sprinkled on our lives? Are we experiencing that complete sanctification, that complete refiner’s fire, to purge not only the open sins but to purge the motives, to purge the feelings so we might be prepared to stand when there is no intercessor? We must want to choose to allow the Lord to burn the fire as hot as it takes, that our lives might be cleansed and prepared for the coming of the Lord, that our sins might be blotted out forever from remembrance. It is a daily acceptance of His intercession and ministration, not just in the Holy Place but also in the Most Holy Place. I pray that daily we each make that choice.

Cody Francis is currently engaged in public evangelism for Mission Projects International. He also pastors the Remnant Church of Seventh-day Adventist Believers in Renton, Washington. He may be contacted by e-mail at: cody@missionspro.org.

Are You Serious about Being Saved? Part II

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We have seen how important a perfect character is—we cannot go to heaven without it. We have also reviewed some aspects of the perfect character. Most important of all, though, is what we need to do so that we can become perfect.

Obviously, we cannot become perfect unless God works a miracle in our lives, and the miracle God wants to work in your life and in my life is available to every single person in the world. However, not every single person in the world is serious about being saved.

In most cities of the United States, there are some very large Christian churches. Thousands of people attend these churches every week, but many of these Christians want an easy religion. They want a religion where the Lord will do it all, so they do not have to do anything. These people may reason that we are all going to the same place. I am sorry; we are not all going to the same place. People who believe this lie must not read very much of the Bible. Revelation 19:20, 21 states very plainly: “Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.” We are not all going to the same place; we are going to two different places.

If we want to go to heaven, we have to become serious about being saved. We do not have any time to lose. I know that I do not have any time to lose, because I have so much that needs to be changed. I am praying to the Lord about it day and night. I want you to pray for me, because I need a lot of help, and I will be glad to pray for you too. I have decided that no matter how impossible it might seem from a human standpoint, what God says to do, He will give the power to do.

What Must We Do?

It is through Christ and through Him alone that anyone can remedy the defects in his or her character and become perfect. We cannot do it unless we have divine help. You see, every person actually lives alone. We may live with lots of other people, but each of us lives alone, because nobody knows what is going on in our minds except God and us. Other people cannot read our minds. It is what is in our minds—our thoughts and our feelings—more than anything else that determines the condition of our characters.

Many people think that an individual’s character involves his or her words and actions, and that is true. But your words and your actions are just the result of what is already in your mind—your thoughts and your feelings. If you study the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus spoke about this subject, you will notice that He put the emphasis on what was going on in the mind, not on what was being done or said.

Although it is only through Jesus that we can have perfection of character, there are some things that we must do. God would not give us instruction if it was not important, and God’s prophet gives each of these points to us.

Number 1: We are not going to come to perfection of character except through certain spiritual gifts that God has put in the church, especially the gifts of the prophets and apostles. In Ephesians 4:1–16, Paul makes it very clear that it is through these spiritual gifts that the church is going to come into harmony and unity and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. That is perfection. There are some things that you and I have to do.

Number 2: We have to receive Jesus into our hearts as the Lord of our lives; then we have to believe. We have to believe that Jesus can take a person like me and, by His grace, make me into a perfect character. If we do not believe this, it will not happen.

Number 3: This one is very comforting to me, because I used to get discouraged about this subject, until I started reading statements in the Spirit of Prophecy concerning it. Mrs. White says that we are not going to come to perfection of character suddenly; it is going to happen step by step. (See Selected Messages, Book 1, 240.) God knows how long you are going to live, and He knows how many steps you need to take. Just ask Him to help you take the next step.

Number 4: If we want to reach perfection of character, we need to be learning daily about Jesus. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 11 Corin-thians 3:18. Incidentally, that means being changed from one stage of perfection to the next. Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy clearly teach that there are stages of perfection.

Number 5: Having a connection with God’s work is one of the means by which God purposes to bring you and me to perfection. God has a work that He is doing in the world today. Are you a part of it, or are you a spectator? If you want to reach perfection of character, you must get involved in what God is doing in the world. There are many different ways to be involved, and it is between you and the Lord as to exactly how you get involved. But you cannot just be a spectator, watching other people be involved in God’s work, and expect that in some way you are going to come to character perfection.

Number 6: Perfection of character comes only by conflict and battle. “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22. If you are not willing to fight the battle against whatever defects of character you are experiencing, God will not give you the victory. Only God can give you the victory, but He gives the victory only to those who are willing to be in the battle.

Number 7: In God’s plan, Ellen White wrote, every disappointment becomes a means to help a person come to perfection of character. (See Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, 149.) None of us like disappointments, but we all have them. We have to be willing to go through these disappointments, because this is part of God’s plan to bring us to perfection of character.

Number 8: No one will arrive at perfection of character without striving for it. There are many texts in the Bible about this, but read Philippians 3:8–14 or 1 Corinthians 9:24–27. The expressions the apostle uses in these passages are so strong that some of the most popular Bible translations have watered them down a little bit. But whatever version of the Bible you have, read the texts where Paul talks about struggling and striving and fighting for perfection of character.

Number 9: If we are going to reach perfection of character, it must happen in both our thoughts and our actions. (See Testimonies, vol. 4, 568.) We must be studying the Word of God and praying. We must be meditating, and we must be facing our defects of character and praying, “Lord, help me to overcome these.” But in addition to our thoughts, there must also be action. Mrs. White says, “Being good and doing good are indispensable to the perfection of character.” The Youth’s Instructor, October 25, 1900. Do not think that you can reach perfection of character just by having a good devotional life. That is not enough.

Number 10: “Those who expect one day to stand before the throne of the God of gods and Lord of kings, should live each day in such a way that the approval of God can rest upon them. They should seek daily to remove the blemishes in character that lead to sin, and bring into their lives the perfection of character that all must reveal who have a part in the kingdom of heaven.” Ibid., October 29, 1907. God does not work unless you and I cooperate. What are blemishes of character? You probably got a good idea when we looked at a few descriptions of the aspects of character perfection. Impatience, for instance, would be a blemish of character. If you have a problem with your tongue or your mind, or if you are not keeping perfectly one of the Ten Commandments, those are blemishes in your character. If in your thoughts, words, actions, or feelings you are unchristlike, there is a blemish in your character.

Number 11: One of the most effective means for obtaining perfection of character is the exercise of mercy toward our fellow men. “What a change would be wrought in our world if men would keep the way of the Lord, giving supreme love and loyalty to God, and manifesting love and respect for their neighbors. Those who would do this would manifest the character of Christ, and would continually exercise justice and mercy toward their fellow-men.” Review and Herald, October 1, 1895. The only people that you need to exercise mercy toward are people who are not perfect.

Number 12: “It is your own efforts, through the grace of Christ, that will bring you perfection of character.” The Signs of the Times, May 5, 1887. Only through Christ can this happen. Only Christ can do it, but He only does it for people who are putting forth effort in that direction.

Number 13: We are to depend completely on God to bring about perfection of our characters. We are to strive for it, but we are to depend on God to bring it about. Once you begin to depend completely on Him to make it happen, then you are not going to be nervous or scared or frightened or anxious.

Number 14: Ellen White wrote, “Perfection of character cannot be attained when the laws of nature are disregarded; for this is transgression of the law of God.” Review and Herald, November 12, 1901. This is something to think through. When the laws of nature are disregarded, we cannot reach perfection of character.

Number 15: Perfection of character is attainable by everyone who will strive for it. God has promised that if you will do your part, He will make it happen.

Number 16: Perfection of character is the result of willing obedience to the truth.

Number 17: There are eight steps, sometimes called Peter’s ladder, that will lead you to perfection. (See 11 Peter 1:5-11.) Writing of this, Ellen White said, “This [knowledge] is the third step in the path toward perfection of character.” Review and Herald, February 21, 1888.

The rungs on this ladder are faith, moral excellence, knowledge, temperance or self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. If you work your way up this ladder, when you get to the top, you will be perfect. This is something for you to study out—the ladder that will lead you to perfection of character.

Number 18: If you want to reach perfection of character, you must repent and forsake sin.

Number 19: If you want to reach perfection of character, you must practice self-denial and self-sacrifice. This is not talking about torturing the body. Self-denial or self-sacrifice is to deny yourself anything that you know would be displeasing to the Lord.

Number 20: Ellen White wrote, “Perfection of character is a lifelong work, unattainable by those who are not willing to strive for it in God’s appointed way, by slow and toilsome steps.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 500. In other words, it is something on which you daily have to be willing to work. This is the means that God has ordained, and this is the only way it can happen.

Number 21: Character perfection can only happen to a person who has become familiar with God’s Word. I hope you are on a Bible study program. If you are not on one, decide right now that you are going to spend some time every day studying your Bible. Each day, study the life of Christ, so you will know what perfection is, and you will know what to imitate.

Number 22: Character perfection can only happen when every thought is in subjection to Christ. “For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” 11 Corinthi-ans 10:4, 5.

Number 23: This point is something about which we really need to pray, because it is not very evident today. Unity in the church would result in perfection of character. “Jesus says . . ., ‘I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one [this unity brings perfection of character]; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.’ The Lord has made every provision whereby man may have full and free salvation, and be complete in him.” Review and Herald, November 1, 1892. Unity in the church will result in perfection of character.

Number 24: Perfection of character is the result of a life of constant resistance to evil and cooperation with divinity. You have to be willing to fight. The apostle Paul once wrote to the Hebrews, “You have not yet resisted unto bloodshed, fighting against sin.” Hebrews 12:4.

Number 25: “Perfection of character is attained through exercise of the faculties of the mind, in times of supreme test, by obedience to every requirement of God’s law.” Medical Ministry, 168. This is a statement which you need to read a few times and study carefully. It is a very powerful statement.

Number 26: If we want to obtain perfection of character, we must cease—that is, stop—criticism. This is a huge problem in Adventism, but we must stop it, if we wish to go to heaven.

Number 27: Part of being perfect is beholding Jesus and talking of His love.

Number 28: Character perfection comes as the result of stern battles with self.

Summary

“None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ’s character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through co-operation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to perfection of character. This is God’s assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory.

“Before the believer is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ, obedient to all the principles of the law. But of himself man is utterly unable to reach this condition. The holiness that God’s word declares he must have before he can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and restraining influences of the Spirit of truth. Man’s obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ’s righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of his sin-sick soul. He has not the wisdom or the strength to overcome; these belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help.” The Acts of the Apostles, 531, 532.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.